We’ve seen IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) talk about retirement if he were to lose, and now WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) is saying he’ll retire if he loses to Froch in their fight this month on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
I don’t know that I believe that Kessler will retire no matter how bad he looks in getting beat by Froch, but I do think it’s a smart way to market the fight. When you make the retirement threat, boxing fans seem to pick up interest in the fight thinking that it could be the last time they see a particular fighter making the threat.
Light welterweight Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) squares off against Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night in a Showtime televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, won’t bother giving injured challenger Jose Gonzalez a chance for a rematch after he injured his left wrist and was halted in the 9th round last Saturday night.
Still not willing to end his long 20-year pro career, 41-year-old Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO’s) will be back in this ring this Saturday night against the young 23-year-old powerful but deeply flawed Pablo Cesar Cano (26-2-1, 20 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico.
Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) expects to make former 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) sorry for picking him to fight in their upcoming November 24th in the tax friendly [at least for Pacquiao] Macau, China.
Despite being an underdog in his fight next month against unbeaten Adrien Broner (26-0, 23 KO’s), WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) sees his fight with Broner as being one of his more easier ones he’d had in his 12-year-old career when the two meet up on June 22nd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
In what appears to be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) making a partial excuse for his poor performance last Saturday night in beating Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) by a 9th round stoppage, Burns complained after the fight that he hadn’t been able to study Gonzalez going into the fight because of the lack of video out there on the 29-year-old fighter from Puerto Rico.
Showtime Vice President of Sports Stephen Espinoza feels confident that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight will take place on September 14th in Las Vegas, Nevada, as he says the negotiations between Mayweather and Canelo’s team are underway.
Unbeaten heavyweight Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) showed his class in apologizing to his UK boxing fans for his possible problems with traveling to the UK right now to face Dereck Chisora (16-4, 10 KO’s) next month on June 15th.
Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) smashed his over-matched opponent Javier Gallow (18-7-1, 10 KO’s) in a 4th round TKO on Saturday night at the Uni-Trade Stadium, in Laredo, Texas, USA.