Mayweather decisions Maidana; Khan beats Collazo; Broner defeats Molina

05/04/201405/03/2014 Jeff Sorby

WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) won a disputed 12 round majority decision over WBA 147lb belt holder Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fans disagreed with the decision from the three judges, as they loudly booed the decision. The judges scored 116-112, 117-111 for Mayweather and 114-114 even.

Many of the rounds were very close due to the constant heat that Maidana was putting on Mayweather while pressuring him against the ropes. Mayweather was nearly helpless when Maidana had him on the ropes, and he had to hold in order to slow the tough Argentinian down. In the first three rounds, Mayweather tried to fight Maidana off the ropes, but he was not in Maidana’s league on the inside and he took a lot of punishment.

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Abraham defeats Sjekloca with one arm

05/04/201405/03/2014 Vladimir S

Fighting with just his left hand, WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (40-4, 28 KO’s) successfully defended his WBO 168lb title with a 12 round unanimous decision win tonight against an over-matched and terribly limited 35-year-old #12 WBO Nikola Sjekloca (26-2, 8 KO’s) at The Velodrom, Prenzlauer Berg, in Berlin, Germany.

The final judges’ scores were 116-113, 116-112, and 119-110 for Abraham. Sjekloca fought well enough to lose by a 116-113 score, but definitely not 119-110. That was way too wide of a score for the fight that took place tonight.

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ESPN Thursday Night Fights: A Ringside Report

05/02/201405/02/2014 Bill Barner

On May 1, Hialeah Park and Casino hosted ESPN Thursday Night Fights. Those in attendance included both current and former world champions such as Guillermo Rigondeaux, Riddick Bowe, Joel Casamayor, and Sergio Martinez.

NON TELEVISED BOUTS

The fighter who left the biggest impression in the opening bouts was Ahmed Elbiale, fighting out of Miami, FL by way of Cairo Egypt. He faced Steven Chadwick Jr. in a light heavyweight bout scheduled for four rounds. Neither the judges nor the ring card girls would be needed in this short, brutal bout.

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Keith Thurman Scores Third-Round TKO Over Julio Diaz

04/27/201404/27/2014 Showtime Boxing

In the main event of the Golden Boy Promotions-promoted event at StubHub Center, Thurman (23-0, 21 KOs), of Clearwater, Fla., dropped Diaz in the second round. Diaz (40-10-1, 29 KOs), of Coachella, Calif., rebounded with a strong showing in the third but got hit with a body shot that ended the fight. Diaz, upon the suggestion of his corner between rounds, did not come out for the fourth.

Said Thurman, “I felt the body shot (to Diaz). I felt he was going to go down. I wondered if I hadn’t landed it clean enough. He’s a tough guy. He showed up to fight. You saw what he was doing in the ring. His rib… he had eight more rounds to go so he did what he had to do.

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Matthysse Beats Molina In Fight Of Year

04/27/201404/27/2014 Showtime Boxing

On an exciting night when unbeaten WBA Interim Welterweight Champion Keith “One Time” Thurman retained his title with a third-round TKO over former world champion Julio “The Kidd” Diaz and undefeated Omar “Panterita” Figueroa successfully defended his WBC lightweight crown with a 12-round split decision over Jerry Belmontes, Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse stole the show with a spectacular, brutal 11th-round knockout over John Molina in the leading Fight of the Year candidate Saturday on SHOWTIME®.

The Argentine, ranked No. 1 in the world at 140 pounds, was hurt in the first and dropped in the second and fifth rounds. But the former interim WBC 140-pound world champion came back with knockdowns in the eighth, 10th and 11th to turn back a determined bid by Molina and capture the WBC Continental Americas Super Lightweight Championship.

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Omar Figueroa Retains WBC Lightweight Title With Split Decision Over Jerry Belmontes

04/27/201404/27/2014 Showtime Boxing

After losing all five of his amateur fights against Belmontes, Figueroa (23-0-1, 17 KOs), of Weslaco, Texas, got his revenge in his first world title defense, outpointing Belmontes (19-4, 5 KOs), of Corpus Christi, Texas, by the scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 113-115.

“He gave me more than trouble,’’ Figueroa said. “He wouldn’t make a fight out of it. I’m sorry to the fans. It was more of a sparring match than a fight. I prepared so much and this was the outcome.

“He almost made me cry again but of laughter saying he was going to beat me. I prepared well. I came 100 percent. I knew he was going to run. My hands are a little sore but nothing bad, nothing crazy. Now take my time off. I have been training since January. But it is up to Al Haymon.”

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Lucas Browne beats Eric Martel Bahoeli

04/27/201404/27/2014 Hatton Promotions

LUCAS “BIG DADDY” BROWNE became the first Australian to win the Commonwealth heavyweight title in 122 years when he scored a fifth round knockout of Canada’s Eric Martel Bahoeli at the Ponds Forge Arena in Sheffield, England on Saturday night.

After flooring Bahoeli heavily with solid right in the second, Browne sustained a severe cut above this left eye from a head clash in the third, but still battled on to record his 20th pro victory and 18th stoppage.

If anything the laceration seemed to bring out the best in the 35-year-old from Sydney.

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Thurman beats Diaz; Matthysse stops Molina; Figueroa defeats Belmontes

04/27/201404/26/2014 Jeff Sorby

Julio Diaz (40-10-1, 29 KO’s) suffered a rib injury in the 3rd round tonight against interim WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (23-0, 21 KO’s) that caused the fight to be stopped at the end of the 3rd round a the StubHub Center in Carson, California. We didn’t learn anything from the fight other than the fact Thurman fights a lot better when he’s coming forward than he does when he’s being backed up and pressured.

It was clearly a huge mistake to make Thurman-Diaz the main event, because the fight was one-sided and not nearly as interesting to watch as the Lucas Matthysse vs. John Molina bout.

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Before You Complain About Klitschko-Leapai…

04/27/201404/26/2014 Jason Peck

Wladimir Klitschko has triumphed again in commanding fashion, an action which typically raises complaints that the long-time champ fights “bums” rather than “real” challenges.

Of course, this raises an interesting question. Who are the bums and who are the real challenges? If Klitschko avoids a challenge, then name the challenge. And be careful with your answer.

I remember little more than a two years ago when Klitcshko easily KO’d Tony Thompson in six. Critics immediately excoriated him for fighting a geriatric, rather than an unstoppable machine like David Price. Yet Thompson’s name is now mysteriously removed from the retrospective list of “bums” that Klitschko fought and – just as mysteriously – David Price is no longer a “real” challenge.

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Wladimir Klitschko destroys Leapai

09/15/201604/26/2014 James Slater

Heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko did as was widely expected and stopped overmatched title challenger Alex Leapai tonight in Germany. Dominating the action throughout, Wladimir scored two knockdowns in the 5th-round, the final one ending the fight. The time was 2-minutes and 5-seconds and Klitschko, unbeaten in ten years, is now 62-3(52). Leapai, who gave it his best, falls to 30-5-3(24).

Klitschko boxed his usual fight, dominating behind his punishing left jab with his even more punishing right hand behind it. Credited with a knockdown in the 1st-round – when Leapai appeared to have slipped and was unhurt – Wladimir never lost a single minute of a single round. Showing a stubborn chin that might have surprised some, Leapai ate a ton of left jabs and telephone pole right hands, for which he deserves credit, yet the Samoan was not throwing anywhere near enough leather himself.

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