Charr destroys Airich in 1st round knockout

12/22/201212/21/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: Former heavyweight title challenger Manuel Charr (22-1, 12 KO’s) got back to his winning ways with a 1st round blowout victory over Russian Konstantin Airich (24-9-2, 18 KO’s) on Friday night in winning the vacant WBC Baltic and WBC Mediterranean heavyweight titles at the Maritim Hotel, in Cologne Germany.

Charr, 28, never gave Airich a chance, as he opened up with everything in his arsenal, hitting him at will with shots until knocking him to the canvas with a left hook to the body. Airich stayed down and the fight was halted by referee Daniel Van De Wiele at 0:44 of the round.

Charr threw everything but the kitchen sink at him until knocking him down with a left to the body.

Charr, #8 WBC, lost previous fight to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko by a 4th round cut stoppage. Charr was over-matched in that fight and he looked like he didn’t belong in there with him. However, if Charr can keep beating journeyman opposition like Airich he should get another world title shot in a year or two.

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Video: Lebedev stops Silgado in highlight reel KO; Calls out Eddie Chambers

12/17/201212/17/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: WBA World cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (25-1, 19 KO’s) showed tonight why he’s one of the most dangerous fighters in the cruiserweight division by knocking out #8 WBA Santander Silgado (23-1, 18 KO’s) in the 4th round with a devastating left uppercut to the head that put him down face first on the canvas at the Crocus City Hall, in Myakinino, Russia.

There really wasn’t any point in counting because Silgado was knocked out. The fight was stopped at 2:16 of the round.

Silgado showed really nice power during the first three rounds if the fight, as both fighters traded some monster shots. However, Silgado didn’t have quite as much power as Lebedev and he wasn’t as quick as him either. Lebedev was landing some tremendous punches that told you that the fight wasn’t going to last too long. You’ve got to give credit to Silgado for giving it a game effort but he simply was out of his class in this fight.

It would be nice to see Lebedev and WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck get back in the ring for a rematch because those two fighters are at the top of this division and there’s still a lot of controversy about Huck’s 12 round split decision win over Lebedev back in 2010.

After the fight, Team Lebedev called out Eddie Chambers, who in return said he is ready for the fight.

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Amir Khan successful in first fight with new trainer Virgil Hunter

09/15/201612/16/2012 Geoffrey Ciani

by Geoffrey Ciani, photos by Tom Casino / Showtime – Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KOs) ended a two fight losing streak when he impressively defeated an overmatched Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KOs) last night in Los Angeles. This marked the first time Khan was paired up with new head trainer Virgil Hunter, who is best known for his long term working relationship with rising pound-for-pound superstar Andre Ward. The new team made a good impression in their first effort together, with Khan in complete control of the action that ultimately came to an end when Molina’s corner stopped the contest after the tenth.

Even though Khan and Hunter have only worked together eight weeks, Hunter already seemed to have a visible impact on Khan’s performance. Amir was very patient in the early going and was measured in his approach, especially when it came to attacking. Everything for Khan started with his jab, and this helped create openings where he could unleash short three and four punch combinations that possessed a nice blend of speed and precision. He would throw a short series of shots, reposition himself, throw another combination, and then calmly take a stroll to establish new perspective, resetting the action where he could resume controlling the range to his liking. As Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi noted, “There he goes again, Khan is taking a walk”. Amir was composed.

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Leo Santa Cruz Impresses In Boxing’s Return To Network Television

12/16/2012 ESB

Photos by Tom Casino/SHOWTIME and Esther Lin/SHOWTIME — Professional boxing returned to the CBS Television Network on Saturday afternoon for the first time in 15 years. In SHOWTIME Sports presentation of “SHOWTIME BOXING on CBS,” unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz capped a spectacular year by retaining his International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Bantamweight Championship with an exciting and closely contested 12-round unanimous decision win over previously unbeaten Alberto Guevara, live on CBS from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KO’s), of Los Angeles, won the lone bout on the CBS broadcast, the network’s first since Bernard Hopkins knocked out Glen Johnson on Jan. 20, 1997, by the scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112. Making his initial start in the United States, Guevara (16-1, 6 KO’s) of San Diego, Calif., made it close for six rounds but couldn’t sustain his momentum as Santa Cruz came on strongly to close the show.

Santa Cruz was making the third defense of the IBF 118-pound title he won with a 12-round decision over Vusi Malinga last June 2 on SHOWTIME®. In his two defenses, both also on SHOWTIME, he knocked out Eric Morel and Victor Zaleta in September and November, respectively.

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Donaire destroys Arce in 3rd round TKO!

12/16/201212/16/2012 ESB

By Bill Phanco, Photo: Chris Farina – Top Tank — In a dreadful mismatch, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) totally annihilated a smaller and older Jorge Arce (61-7-2, 46 KO’s) in stopping him in the 3rd round in front of a large crowd at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Arce was down three times in the fight and put out of his misery with a hard left hook in the 3rd round that knocked him out.

Arce, 33, was down once in the 1st round and another two times in the 3rd round.In an interview after the fight. Arce said he was retiring. He made a reported $800,000 for the fight.

The first knockdown occurred in the 1st round when Donaire bumped into Arce, sending him to the canvas. The referee blew the call and scored it as a knockdown. Arce did very little in the round and just looked like he was afraid to get hit.

In the 2nd, Arce came out a lot more aggressive and was immediately dropped by a right hand from Donaire. After the knockdown, Arce was a little more aggressive as the took the fight to Donaire, but the action was still largely controlled by Donaire with his left hook, jabs and occasional rights.

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Abraham, Culcay and Sprott Score Wins In Germany

12/17/201212/16/2012 ESB

Pictures: Photo Wende — WBO Super-Middleweight Champion Arthur Abraham ends the year with a bang. Abraham proved that he is back at the top after defeating Mehdi Bouadla by TKO in round eight in Nuremberg, Germany on Saturday night. The 7.000 fans in attendance witnessed a great performance by the titlist, who presented them with an early Christmas gift.

Abraham began the fight forceful. The prodigy of coach Ulli Wegner pressurized Bouadla right from the get go, just like he did in his fight against Robert Stieglitz on August 25. Powerful jabs found their way through the defense of the French challenger. Right towards the end of round one the champion let loose a salvage of heavy blows, which got Bouadla into trouble and the crowd rising from their seats and chanting Abraham’s name.

But the hard hitting titleholder did not only rely on his power and high volume of punches. By constantly switching his target from head to body, he was eager to keep the challenger guessing as to where he would attempt to hit him next.

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Groves defeats Johnson in one-sided fight

12/16/201212/16/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Sometimes you have to wonder why fights like this get put together in the first place. Tonight, unbeaten #2 WBO, #4 WBC, #7 WBA, #8 IBF Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (16-0, 12 KO’s) successfully defended his domestic level title against a way his best his prime 43-year-old Glen Johnson (51-18-2, 35 KO’s) in winning a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 120-107, 120-107 and 119-109 at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, United Kingdom.

This fight had mismatch written all over it before the fight was even made, because Johnson had been retired and lost four out of his last five fights coming into the bout. Groves had predicted that he would knock Johnson out, but he never came close to doing that despite trying hard to stop Johnson in every round.

Groves unloaded everything but the kitchen sink on Johnson in rounds 1, 6, 7 and 12, but he didn’t go anywhere. But what Groves did show in going all out was a lack of discipline because he didn’t seem to have a clue that all that he was doing was hitting gloves for the most part, and leaving himself open for huge shots from Johnson. I lost track of all the times that Johnson tagged Groves with shots that would have knocked him cold if Johnson was a little younger.

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Khan beats Molina, calls out Danny Garcia after fight

12/16/201212/16/2012 ESB

By Steve Mabbot,Photos: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME – Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) picked up the WBC Silver light welterweight strap tonight with a nice 10th round stoppage win over Carlos Molina (17-1, 7 KO’s) on Showtime television. After the fight an excited Khan said “I’m ready to fight Danny Garcia anytime, anyplace.”

It was Garcia that knocked Khan out last July in the 4th round. Khan hasn’t enjoyed the sting of the loss, as he said tonight “He [Garcia] got lucky. He caught me with a good shot.”

Khan doesn’t look ready to be fighting Garcia right now, because Molina was able to hit him frequently in the early rounds with left hooks and right hands. If Molina was three inches taller and had the power of Garcia, I have no doubts that Khan would have been knocked out again because Khan was leaving himself open a lot when throwing his flurries.

Khan did box more in the fight, but he was still throwing a lot of flurries in each round that would give someone like Garcia plenty of opportunities to knock him out again if Khan were to fight like that in a rematch with him.

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Abraham stops Bouadla in 8th!

12/16/201212/15/2012 ESB

By Marcus Richardson, photo by Wende — In his first defense of his WBO super middleweight title Arthur Abraham (36-3, 28 KO’s) put in an impressive performance in stopping #14 WBO Mehdi Bouadla (26-5, 11 KOs) in the 8th round on Saturday night at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany. Bouadla was cut on the right eyelid in the 7th, and it was giving him major problems in the 8th round at the time the fight was halted. Bouadla was just taking one-way punishment in that round when the referee wisely stepped in and halted the fight.

In rounds one through four, Abraham attacked Bouadla with punches in bunches and then would tire out and then let Bouadla have an opportunity to land his own shots. Surprisingly, Bouadla turned out to be a very respectable puncher and it was an eye opener to see him unloading on Abraham. The last time I had seen Bouadla fight against Mikkel Kessler last year, Bouadla wasn’t able to lay a glove on Kessler and was quickly taken out in a 6th round stoppage. But against Abraham, Bouadla landed a lot of heavy shots. Part of the reason for that is the 5’9″ Abraham’s lack of size, but the other reason was that Abraham kept allowing Bouadla to have chances to land his shots by backing up to the ropes.

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Khan defeats Molina; Wilder, Angulo, Santa Cruz win

12/16/201212/15/2012 ESB

khan56 By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) stopped a badly overmatched, undersized, and underpowered 5’6′ Carlos Molina (17-1, 7 KO’s) in the 10th round on Saturday night to win the vacant WBC Silver light welterweight title at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. The fight was halted after the 10th by Molina’s corner.

Khan really dominated this fight with his size and speed, as he rarely gave the much shorter and weaker Molina opportunities to land his shots.

Khan’s promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions seemed to stumble over his words when interviewed after the fight and asked if he’d be interested in matching Khan with WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia. Schaefer said that Garcia has a fight in February and that he plans on getting Khan back in the ring in April.

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