Lucas Browne Outpoints James Toney, Kevin Johnson Stops Solomon Haumono

Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (16-0, 14 KOs) outpointed American legend James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-8-3, 45 KOs) over 12 rounds to capture the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre this afternoon in Melbourne, Australia.

The first half of the fight saw an interesting contest with the shorter Toney starting positively looking to attack Browne with Browne using his range to set up power shot opportunities. Toney caught Browne with some good right hands in round five while Browne used his jab to great effect to keep Toney at bay for the most part of each round, to rack up points with the judges. Browne’s heavy hands always seemed to look threatening but the Australian respected Toney’s defensive nous and opted against being overly aggressive.

The second half of the fight saw Browne continue to use his size to control the smaller Toney whilst Toney reduced his offensive output which saw Browne take the later rounds to record a 117-111, 119-109 and 120-108 victory on the three judge’s scorecards.

continue

It Doesn’t Matter

Every fighter wants to be their own man in and out of the ring. They develop a fighting style honed by an amateur career that is the foundation or pedigree if you will for professional fighting. 140lb contender Amir Khan a silver medal Olympic boxer, first trained in the US by Freddie Roach and now trained by Virgil Hunter is struggling to synchronize his amateur pedigree with his professional fight style and is suffering mightily for it.

continue

Bermane Stiverne bests Chris Arreola

arreola43 A rowdy crowd rocked the house at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California tonight; as local heavyweight Chris Arreola faced Haitian born Canadian Bermane Stiverne in front of a partisan crowd. Things started quickly and developed into one of the best heavyweight scraps we’ve seen in a while.

Neither man wasted time as both men threw big shots in the first round. The difference was Arreola’s pressure; he never stopped coming forward and backed his opponent into the ropes several times. Stiverne attempted to counter and was moderately successful, but let himself get trapped in the corner and ate a few combos. Arreola continued the pressure in the second and worked both downstairs and upstairs. However, Stiverne showed better movement and landed some nice counters. Things appeared to be evening out.

continue

Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

35-year-old Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) gave it a good shot tonight but in the end he was beaten by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) in a 12 round unanimous decision loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Judah was in command of the fight in the last three rounds of the fight, but unfortunately for him he ran out of time and ended losing. The scores were 115-112, 114-112, 116-111.

Garcia fought well in the first 8 rounds in using his right hand to do most of the damage. Judah did a good job of neutralizing Garcia’s left hook and jab. Garcia’s right hand proved to be enough for him to control the rounds and build up a big lead. However, the crowd seemed to motivate Judah to another level starting in the 9th round when he was able to land some really big shots that stopped Garcia in his tracks.

Judah continued to land the far bigger punches in rounds 10, 11 and 12 to dominate the rounds. Garcia kept firing back, but his punches weren’t nearly as significant as Judah’s.

continue

Fight Preview: Lucas Browne v James Toney, Solomon Haumono v Kevin Johnson

Tomorrow afternoon Melbourne, Australia time, one of the biggest fight cards seen in Melbourne in recent years takes place at the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre. Headlining the action is unbeaten Australian heavyweight Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) who takes on current IBU heavyweight and former multiple division world champion James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-7-5, 45 KOs) for the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title.

continue

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: “Simply Red”

canelo111 Most of us are learning to drive at fifteen years of age. We’re more concerned about our social lives, gals and guys and whose parents will be out of town next weekend so the killer party can go down. There’s only a handful of professions that would permit one still south of legal voting age to log hours upon hours of tedious work and still evade the scrutiny of the department of labor. Different countries have different rules. Such is the case in Mexico and the newly and truly confirmed prodigal son from Jalisco state, Santos Saul Alvarez Barragan.

We don’t often refer to him by this. Rather, we prefer his trade name, which is simply Canelo. Whether or not we may agree with his unanimous decision win over Austin “No Doubt” Trout this past weekend in San Antonio, Texas, there’s no denying that the kid has serious talent and more importantly in a global sense the potential for crossover appeal.

continue

Audley Harrison vs Deontay Wilder on Saturday

YouTube video
An intriguing encounter awaits on the “Return of the King” undercard when Audley Harrison [31-6 -& 23 KOs] meets Deontay Wilder [27-0 & 27 KOs] in a fight which, in some circles, has generated just as much discussion as the main event. For Wilder, Harrison represents a big step-up in competition, as well as the opportunity to collect the first ‘name’ on his record. In contrast, last chance saloon has been a statement thrown around for various fights of Harrison’s over the years, but at 41, it’s difficult to see how he could come back again if he loses this.

Anyone with an interest in the heavyweight division will be curious enough to tune in and have a look at Wilder, a Bronze medalist at Beijing 2008, in his biggest test to date as a professional. Not only does Wilder find himself up against an opponent with a KO record of some significance, but he also finally meets a technical fighter, as well as his first southpaw opponent since turning professional. It will be interesting to see how comfortable Wilder is with open southpaw angles and how he approaches the fight.

continue

James Toney and John Arthur: Discussing All Things Boxing

IMG_4792Current IBU heavyweight champion and future hall of famer James Toney (74-7-3, 45 KOs) and his father, trainer and manager John Arthur took time out to exclusively speak to ESB today ahead of Toney’s heavyweight showdown with unbeaten Australian Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) in Melbourne, Australia this Sunday.

Toney and Arthur discussed all subjects, including his time in Melbourne and fight preparation, recent ring inactivity, managing of weight, time in the UFC and future plans.

Arthur explains the bout with Browne came after the proposed bout with Tomasz Adamek fell through, that was scheduled for last September. “We were supposed to fight Adamek in September” where after that “I started to reach out to everybody and it seemed like every door that got called in the United States was closed. I reached out to some people and they put me in touch with some promoters in Australia and they said they wanted to make this happen and this is where we have ended up at… This kid (Browne) has wanted to fight James and James has never ducked and dodged anybody his whole career so I said let’s take it.”

continue

Pontillas gets Filipino support in Accra

Pontillas get Filipino welcome in AccraFilipino boxer, Ronald Pontillas has arrived in the Ghana capital ahead of Friday night’s boxing cracker at the Accra Sports Stadium vowing to stop local favourite, Emmanuel Tagoe in their clash for the WBA International and WBO Africa Junior Lightweight titles in the headliner of BabyJet Promotions’ second ever bill.

And the 23 year old Pontillas who will face an opponent from Africa for the first time ever, has been buoyed by the huge patronage he has received on arrival from the Filipino community in Ghana who were at the Kotoko International Airport to welcome him and have pledged to be at the national stadium in their numbers to cheer the boxer unto victory.

continue

Left-Hook Lounge: Is ‘Canleo’ Ready For Mayweather, and Could Cotto Be Next?

IMG_2071Reggie B. (Dallas, TX): I’m still not sold on Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. I don’t think Trout fought his best fight. Do you think Canelo is ready for a Mayweather fight?

Vivek W. (ESB): I have to be honest and very direct in saying that I simply feel people just aren’t ready to give Saul Alvarez credit. Coming into this fight I knew that Trout would have to be at his best and that he would need to execute somewhat flawlessly to even have a shot. Despite his activity rate, he didn’t do any damage, and furthermore, he didn’t do enough to truly seize the victory from Canelo. I think we have to be honest in saying that the deck was already stacked against him – in the sense that Canelo was the house fighter. It was Mexican “Fiesta” weekend in San Antonio, Canelo is the bigger name and the international name, and despite Trout’s victory over Cotto, Canelo was the one who carried the promotion.

continue