A Measured Storm: Fury vs. Johnson

09/15/201612/04/2012 ESB

A Measured Storm: Fury vs. Johnson By Phenyo Molefe: Given Tyson Fury’s previous bouts, recent outbursts and the clear articulation of his goals; one would not be at fault to believe that we were about to witness Tyson unleash punishment on an ‘ill-prepared’ but proven Kevin Johnson. Tyson had to make a statement.

In the opening round, Fury jumped on Johnson with some jabs to the body not giving him sufficient time to find his footing. It looked like we were about to see a new and revised Fury as he presented movement and a variation of punches from all angles. He moved with improved fluidity, comfortably establishing his range and following through with some meaningful combinations.

The second round, begun with the near feverish pace with which Fury had ended the last round. Fuming with a blizzard, setting the jab on a stinger as he pelted Johnson’s body with little restraint. Johnson did have a little success when he pinned Tyson in the corner for a moment or two; however Fury replied with a pivot setting pressure back on Johnson with some telling hooks. He was definitely boxing well and grew in confidence, taking firm control of the bout.

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Austin Trout Shows His Mettle In The Garden As Cotto Falls Victim To The “Canelo Curse”

09/15/201612/02/2012 ESB

by Bradley Pearson, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime: A subdued wave of anti-climactic reality clouded the historic Madison Square Garden Arena Saturday night, as the hostile pro-Cotto crowd witnessed what just might have been the sun setting on the career of their favourite son.

Three weight world champion Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) suffered his second consecutive defeat in the hands of spirited underdog Austin Trout, who retained his WBA light middleweight crown- along with his unblemished record. An ageing performance from the proud Puerto Rican gladiator, in which Trout’s (26-0, 14 KO’s) physical advantages appeared too big a task to overcome, punishing Cotto down the stretch of the fight. With the alias “No Doubt”, the American didn’t fold under the lights, repeatedly tagging Cotto with the straight left hand at will, while bullying his smaller opponent on the inside- earning what in the end was, a comfortable points decision. Despite having some early success, Cotto ultimately couldn’t find that extra gear we’ve become so accustomed to seeing; that saw him excel in previous bouts. As the fight matured, the defending champion was able to use his range well, keeping Miguel on the outside, even backing him up at times. Whilst surprisingly wide, the verdict was certainly a fair one- and one that was met with the expected rafters of boo’s from the army of Cotto fans.

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Trout defeats Cotto; Jacobs tops Fitzpatrick; Velez destroys Sanchez II

09/15/201612/01/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith, photo by Tom Casino/Showtime WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) may have ruined Miguel Cotto’s big chance of fighting a huge money mega fight against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by beating Cotto by a decisive 12 round unanimous decision tonight at Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York, USA. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 117-111, 119-109.

Trout might have lost out on a knockout in the 9th round when he hit Cotto with a perfectly legal body shot that had Cotto turning his backing away as if he was quitting. The referee gave Cotto a HUGE break by ruling it was a low blow when in fact it was right on the belt and perfectly legal. Cotto was clearly hurt by the shot and really should have knocked out.

Cotto couldn’t land his big shots during the fight, as he missed over and over again. It just looked like he was too small for the 5’10” Trout. When Cotto did land a nice shot, the crowd would roar with applause. However, this actually worked against Cotto because Trout would turn up the pressure on Cotto. It was this way the entire fight with Cotto landing a rare shot and then having to take 10 shots in return from Trout. Cotto was getting nailed with a lot of jabs, and he didn’t seem to have any way of getting out of the shots other than move around the ring. That’s what Cotto did in the second half of the fight. He was moving constantly and not fighting with the aggression that a challenger should be fighting with.

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Tyson Fury Wins Wide Decision Over Kevin Johnson In Dull Encounter

09/14/201612/01/2012 ESB

By James Slater: A penny for the thoughts of David Price!

Tonight in Belfast, Tyson Fury retained his unbeaten record in winning a wide yet dull points win over a safety-minded Kevin Johnson. Winning by scores of 119-110, 119-108, 119-108, 24-year-old Fury advanced to 20-0(14) and also moved a step closer to a shot at the WBC heavyweight crown currently held by Vitali Klitschko.

33-year-old Johnson, who promised so much beforehand but failed miserably in the delivery department, is now 28-3-1(13).

There was little action to speak of and tonight’s fight had no standout round. Fury boxed well at times, remaining focused and refusing to go wild at any point. Occasionally switching to southpaw, Fury jabbed well when he used his best weapon. Johnson, appearing to have no real ambition other than to hear the final bell, did get home with the odd jab of his own, as well as the even less frequent right hand.

Soon growing tired of the lack of action (and to be fair, Fury has never been in a stinker before tonight, and the lack of action has to be put firmly on Johnson’s wide shoulders), the crowd began booing in the middle rounds and by the 8th the boos were deafening.

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Joan Guzman: Fractured in his right hand and left knee

12/02/201212/01/2012 ESB

Joan Guzman lost yesterday on November 30th at The BB&T Center his unconquered record against the Russian Khabib Allakhverdiev and fall defeated in the judge’s cards by Technical Decision after 8 rounds. At the moment of the detention of the fight for injuries of the Dominican, the judges had his cards in this way; Michael Pernick 75-76: Nelson Vázquez 76-75: Mark Streisand 75-76.

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Freddie Flintoff Wins – Where Does He Go Next?

09/15/201612/01/2012 ESB

by Phil Marshall: No doubt where Flintoff the cricketer would be – in the pub for some time. But exactly what he does next will tell us a lot. If it’s the pub he’s in trouble with his boxing. He’s no Ricky Hatton who in his prime could handle binge drinking and boxing.

If instead this is a new Freddie with a different mindset, and everything about his training says it is, let’s just go with him for the ride.

First, let’s get the negatives out of the way. He was like a booth fighter at the fair many years ago. Except he was the punter up from the audience who fancied his chance. Swinging away while the pro let him have a go. The right hand that first impressed McGuigan needs work. Then more work, Roundhouse, sloppy, nowhere near dangerous enough. But he got in a couple of left jabs that raised hopes especially when he followed up with the right.

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Price destroys 45-year-old Skelton in 2nd round TKO

09/15/201611/30/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: David Price (15-0, 13 KO’s) successfully defended his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles tonight with a nice 2nd round TKO victory over Mat Skelton (28-7, 23 KO’s) at the Aintree Equestrian Centre, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom. Price took his time with the 45-year-old Skelton, but then turned up the heat on the aging fighter in 2nd round after hitting him with a nice body shot that sent Skelton retreating to the ropes.

Price then unleashed an 8-punch flurry that ended with two solid lefts to the body that put Skelton down on his hands and knees on the canvas. Skelton’s corner threw in the towel before the knockdown but the referee failed to see it.

Skelton landed several decent right hands in the opening round after rushing Price in the opening seconds of the round. However, Skelton didn’t have the power or the handspeed to worry the 6’8″ Price, and by the end of the round Skelton was already starting to look tired.

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Flintoff defeats Dawson, fails to impress

09/15/201611/30/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Making his debut tonight was 6’4″ heavyweight prospect Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff (1-0) who defeated American Richard Dawson (2-1, 1 KO’s) by a sloppy 4 round points decision on Friday night at the Manchester Arena, in Manchester, United Kingdom. Referee Richard James Davies scored the fight 39-38 for Flintoff in a close fight. Flintoff, a former English cricketer, didn’t show much in the way of power and he looked awful for the most part. I’m being kind. He looked worse than awful. Flintoff’s form looked wild amateurish to say the least. He also looked a little flabby despite being tall and slender.

In the 2nd round, Flintoff overextended himself after missing a shot and was knocked to the canvas by a straight left hand from Dawson. Instead of looking to finish off Flintoff after he got back to his feet, Dawson failed to throw any punches for the remainder of the round. It was very strange because all Dawson had to do was hit Flintoff one or two more times and he would have been down in out, but he did zero.

In round three and four, a tired Flintoff continued to rush Dawson while throwing wild punches in every direction seemingly without any sense. Many of the shots missed by a mile and Dawson just looked he wanted to survive. He probably could have knocked Flintoff out with one punch if he had the wherewithal to let his hands go, but he mostly just keep stepping back looking to avoid Flintoff’s wild shots.

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Guerrero batters Berto to win a brilliant 12 round UD

09/15/201611/25/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron – Last night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, four division World Champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero successfully defended his WBC Welterweight crown by defeating former world titlist Andre Berto by way of twelve round unanimous decision.

All three judges at ringside were identical, scoring the bout 116-110 in favor of the underdog and incumbent champion.

The primary reason why Berto was a 2 to 1 favorite going into last night’s contest was because of Guerrero’s lack of experience against top level opposition. Although “The Ghost” was indeed a four division world champion going into the contest and the reigning title holder, it was largely believed that he would crumble under the pressure and skill-set of a high level fighter in his respective prime.

Guerrero proved to his detractors that he belongs among boxing’s best by negating the speed and power of Andre Berto and imposing his will on the faster and harder puncher last night.

In the outset of the contest, Andre Berto used the questionable tactic of implementing the shoulder roll defensive stance against a very crafty and intelligent fighter like Robert Guerrero. The fighting pride of Gilroy, California took advantage of Berto’s inexperience and feinted with the straight right hand while pounding the leaning challenger with the left hook.

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Senchenko ends Hatton’s comeback; Guerrero defeats Berto; Thurman beats Quintana

09/15/201611/25/2012 ESB

Great night of boxing for both HBO and Showtime; Minutes away from a great comeback win, Hatton has liver failure

Thurman continues to look impressive in stopping Quintana

Two knockdowns too hard for Berto to overcome – Guerrero gets UD

By Paul Strauss: Don’t worry, Ricky’s condition was temporary. It was due to a beautifully placed body shot that snuck in under “The Hitman’s” outstretched right arm. There isn’t a more debilitating shot in boxing. It doesn’t matter how many sit-ups you’ve done. If the shot lands on target, forget it. A few years back, Ricky landed a similar shot to the liver of Luis Castillo with the same results. You just don’t recovering quickly from one of those, regardless of whether you have a six- pack, eight-pack or full case of abdominal muscles.

Up until that time, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton was fighting a good fight at the Manchester Arena, Manchester, Lancashire UK on Showtime Boxing.

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