Brook stops Gavin; Joshua beats Johnson; Selby wins; Linares defeats Mitchell

Brook stops Gavin; Joshua beats Johnson; Selby wins; Linares defeats Mitchell

IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) did what he had to do in destroying his opponent Frankie Gavin (22-2, 13 KOs) in six rounds on Saturday night in retaining his IBF 147lb title at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Brook landed a nice right hand that hurt Gavin. Brook then unloaded his artillery on Gavin until he slumped into the ropes.

Referee Steve Gray stopped the bout at that point without a count. The fight, if you want to call it that, was stopped at 2:51 of the 6th. Gavin was too hurt to continue. The referee would have done him a huge favor if he’d stopped the bout a couple of rounds earlier because this was never a fight to begin with.

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Khan and Algieri quotes

Khan and Algieri quotes

(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) BROOKLYN (May 30, 2015) – Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Spike returned to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Friday night with another explosive night of bouts for fight fans. In the main event, Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) scored a crafty and hard fought unanimous decision over Chris Algieri (20-2, 8 KOs) and Javier Fortuna (28-0-1, 20 KOs) won a crowd-pleasing unanimous decision victory over Bryan Vasquez (34-2, 18 KOs) in the televised opener.

Below are comments made by the televised fighters after their performances tonight:

AMIR KHAN

“I thought I worked well inside. I’ve never done a lot of work in the pocket like that and I plan to do more of that in the future.

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Khan defeats Algieri

Khan defeats Algieri

(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) needed a great performance tonight to potentially earn a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but I’m not sure that we saw that with Khan’s 12 round unanimous decision victory against Chris Algieri (20-2, 8 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Khan won most of the first six rounds, but Algieri came on strong in the second half of the fight in nailing the British fighter with bone-jarring shots to the head and body. Khan did a good job of holding any chance he could get, and this seemed to slow Algieri down, especially in the 11th and 12th rounds.

Khan was near helpless to Algieri’s lead right hands. The American was able to land that punch frequently, and Khan was powerless to stop it for some reason. In between rounds, Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter constantly scolded him, showing his unhappiness with the way that Khan was fighting.

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Rule Britannia! – DeGale Turns Road Warrior & Makes History

Rule Britannia! - DeGale Turns Road Warrior & Makes History

Those of us in the UK, who started out frustrated at the fact that the live televised broadcast of tonight’s fight card was delayed by a sh***y lower tier English football play off final, actually had our spirits lifted come the end of the in-ring action, when Harlesden’s James DeGale, became the first British fighter in history to lift a professional world title following an Olympic gold medal.

One hell of an achievement.

The likable Londoner is the sole British name on an elite list of fighters that includes both Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard in accomplishing this history making feat, in a fight that was nothing short of an emotional rollercoaster for both sides – UK AND US – as the early action saw 2 stunning knockdowns in the 2nd round that left many thinking it would be an early night’s work for the Brit.

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DeGale, Dirrell Post Fight Quotes

DeGale, Dirrell Post Fight Quotes

James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) narrowly defeated Andre Dirrell (24-2, 16 KOs) Saturday afternoon on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC from Agganis Arena in Boston to earn the super middleweight world title.

Degale had Dirrell in trouble early knocking him down twice in the second round to open up a lead on the scorecards. Dirrell fought back strongly throughout the rest of the fight by using his jab and a series of combinations to occasionally stun DeGale, but was unable to make up the gap on the scorecards. The judges’ scores were 114-112 twice and 117-109.

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Alexander Povetkin Revives Career with a 1st Round TKO Over Mike Perez

Alexander Povetkin Revives Career with a 1st Round TKO Over Mike Perez

The main event of the action-packed card at the Luzhniki arena in Moscow last night was the shortest fight of the night. Alexander Povetkin (29-1) sandbagged highly regarded Mike Perez (21-2-1) for half a round and cemented his mandatory WBC spot by winning the WBC Silver heavyweight title. He was already number 1 in the rankings prior to the fight.

Both competitors had notable amateur background. Alexander Povetkin won Olympic gold in Athens and Perez was a successful amateur for the Cuban national team winning the World Junior Championship in 2004. He later grew up to cruiser weight but failed to secure a spot in the national team having mixed success against the top dogs. Irish boxing promoter Gary Hyde spotted him at a tournament and lured Perez into defecting from Cuba. He arranged the prospect’s escape from the Island of Freedom using the services of a Mexican cartel. Perez was required to swim offshore from Cuba and board a cartel vessel in neutral waters and he ended up being hostage for 9 days until Hyde was able to pay what the cartel demanded for Perez’s release.

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Gennady Golovkin: Business As Usual

Gennady Golovkin: Business As Usual

The 20th consecutive KO (TKO) win for Golovkin was less eventful than “the big drama show’ catch phrase suggested. The fight took place on May 16 and the venue was the Forum in Inglewood, Cal. The challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs), a US southpaw with Cuban roots, was known for his speed but not his power and he was not expected to rock and test the Kazakh with concussive leather. Monroe comes from a boxing family – his uncle Willie “The Worm” Monroe once outpointed Marvin Hagler of all middleweights handing him his 2nd pro loss – and when you add the Cuban connection the bar goes up a notch as well. Willie was a Boxino tournament champ and his only loss had been a UD to Darnell Boone, an under-appreciated but notoriously awkward customer who KOed Adonis Stevenson and has scored knock downs over Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward. The undefeated Golovkin looked forward to fighting a slick southpaw and they were of equal size with a reach advantage in favor of the American. Here is a round by round recap of the bout:

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