Photos: Lara easily beats Rodriguez; Beterbiev defeats Johnson

06/13/201506/12/2015 Premier Boxing

Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Spike returned to Chicago’s UIC Pavilion on Friday night with another installment of spectacular fights. The opening televised bout saw Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KOs) manage a seventh round knockout against Alexander Johnson (16-3, 7 KOs). The second televised bout featured Erislandy Lara (21-2-2, 12 KOs) as he secured a unanimous decision victory over Delvin Rodriguez (28-8-4, 16 KOs).

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

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The WBC Middleweight Title Hostage Situation

06/08/201506/07/2015 Ivan Ivanov

Miguel Cotto stopped Daniel Geale in the 4th round to defend his WBC middleweight title last night at the Barclays center in Brooklyn, NY. This was the first defense of the belt Cotto won with an excellent performance against veteran Sergio Martinez last year. The winner grabbed the trophy and ran for a whole year before he made a “prudent” choice of bypassing the real challenges in favor of fighting a no-threat opponent. His reluctance to face his mandatory GGG has transpired unequivocally and it seems he would rather be stripped than face a middleweight proper. Apparently he and his team will sit on the title and negotiate its release rather than make a a stand for it – those “middies” hit too hard anyway.

Cotto commented: “My weight yesterday was 153.6 pounds; you think I’m a middleweight? I’m not.”

That’s as clear as it gets regarding a GGG showdown. The Puerto Rican champ stated that if people want his fight with Saul Alvarez to happen, it will happen. He must have noticed that more people appear to want him to step up to his obligation and face his WBC mandatory challenger.

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Caparello Arrives At Super Middleweight

07/21/201906/06/2015 Brendan George

Former light heavyweight World title challenger Blake “il capo” Caparello announced his arrival at 168lbs by putting on an educated boxing display to dominate game Frenchman Affif Belghecham.

Caparello in his first fight at super middleweight lifted the WBO Oriental and the PABA titles and improves to
21 – 1 – 6 ko’s.

Caparello stated; “I felt good at my new weight and I’m happy to know I can go 10 rounds against a pressure fighter. I’m looking forward to some big fights at super middleweight.”

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Anthony Joshua looks sensational in stopping Kevin Johnson

09/22/202005/31/2015 Alex Harding

By Alex Harding: I’ve followed British boxing for some twenty years now, so there are few things … continue

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

06/02/201505/30/2015 Rob Smith

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

05/30/201505/30/2015 Premier Boxing

(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

05/30/201505/29/2015 Jeff Sorby

(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

05/23/2015 Olly Campbell

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

05/23/2015 Premier Boxing

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

05/23/2015 Ivan Ivanov

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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