The latest boxing top stories and breaking news
A short while back, news broke – to the disdain of many boxing fans – how MMA phenomenon Ronda Rousey would grace the front cover of “The Bible of Boxing” itself, Ring Magazine. Can Rousey take over female boxing, the feature asked. Well, it seems we got a resounding answer last night in Melbourne, Australia, as Holly Holm, a former lightweight champion in female boxing, absolutely destroyed Rousey with a 2nd-round head-kick KO.
Depending on which way you look at it, Golden Boy CEO and former 6 division titlist, Oscar De La Hoya has played what can be seen as a pair of publicity masterstrokes of late – firstly with his controversial inclusion of female MMA fighter, Ronda Rousey appearing on the [GB owned] Ring magazine cover, and now, with an ‘open letter’ to Floyd Mayweather that has created a similar storm and diverted ‘attention’ back to boxing.
Whether that attention has been for the good of the sport, or to the detriment of it, is for the individual to decide, yet in his 1148-word-long written diatribe at Mayweather – which is published in Playboy magazine – there is no doubting De La Hoya asserts some cold, hard facts laced with a caustic wit that, assuming Mayweather has had someone read it to him [sorry, couldn’t resist] can’t not have bruised the inflated ego of the self professed ‘TBE’ – even just a little bit.
Adrien Broner has publicly responded to Floyd Mayweather’s recent comments to fighthype.com about him, saying, ‘There a lotta hate coming from your way, man….and I don’t like it.’
Broner, who was recently upgraded to WBA (sup) 140 lb champion after winning his 4th world title against Khabib Allakhverdiev, released an online video in which he claimed calls to his ‘big bro’ and former mentor have gone unanswered, meaning he had no choice but to go public with his response.
WBC heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder, set for a reprieve from his showdown with mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin until April or May 2016, believes if he were to face Wladimir Klitschko tomorrow, he would emerge the victor.
Long dominant WBA/WBO/IBF champion, Klitschko, first defends his titles against Britain’s Tyson Fury on the 28th in Germany, yet if he emerges victorious from that fight as many expect, then it will inevitably mean he’ll go looking to capture the green belt once owned by older brother Vitali, in order to become undisputed heavyweight champion before he retires.
Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) was totally outclassed tonight in losing to WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) by a 9th round knockout in a one-sided mismatch between these two Top Rank promoted fighters at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rios was stopped for the first time in his 11-year pro career after getting knocked down twice in the 9th from body shots.
WBC middleweight champion, Miguel Cotto’s trainer, Freddie Roach, believes his fighter is the smarter and more technically proficient going into his Nov. 21 clash with ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, and that those smarts, as well as body shots, will be key to a victory Roach sees coming within ‘seven or eight rounds.’
The 155 lb catch-weight clash for the WBC title is one of the biggest fights of the year, and while Cotto will be both the older, and smaller man on the night, Roach believes his smarts and experience will be a crucial difference maker against the enormously popular Mexican challenger, who Roach claims ‘isn’t that great a fighter.’
World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is scheduled to defend his titles against Tyson Fury on November 28, in a bout that will be televised live on HBO. For Klitschko, the long reigning king of boxing’s marquee division, Fury represents one of the more interesting challenges he has faced in years. Fury still possesses the hunger of an undefeated fighter to go along with decent skills, deceptive quickness, imposing size, and unrelenting determination and self-belief. On the other hand, Klitschko is a seasoned veteran with impeccable skills and an amazing control of both range and pacing. So who will emerge victorious? Will it be the experience and pedigree of Wladimir Klitschko? Or will it be the youth and determination of Tyson Fury?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chKkXKZlRxg
On today’s big Russian bill in Kazan, little-known Olanrewaju Durodola of Nigeria scored a huge upset and made a name for himself by taking away Russian power puncher Dmitry Kudryashov’s unbeaten record with a stunning second-round stoppage win after 2-minutes and 29 seconds of the 2nd-round of a short but thrilling cruiserweight battle. Indeed, this little classic had plenty of bombs away!
Poor old Jeff Powell at England’s ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper. The notoriously ‘creative’ boxing scribe is being hammered online by American press in particular, for what is his latest misleading story, published Tuesday, that said Britain’s Amir Khan had signed to face Manny Pacquiao for the Filipino’s final hurrah on April 9th.
Numerous notable writers, perhaps spearheaded by Yahoo! Sports, Kevin Iole, have taken to slamming Powell’s ‘exclusive,’ that follows on from previous journalistic gems as Khan having signed a Mayweather fight, as well as another story from a couple of years ago that at 48, former great Lennox Lewis, was returning to face the Klitschko’s in a ‘super-fight.’
The wait for UK fans is at last over as it’s been officially announced that super-bantamweight rivals, Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg are set to meet in a huge IBF/WBA unification early next year.
After much to-ing and fro-ing between the two camps over recent weeks and months, a February 27th date for the fight at the Manchester Arena was announced live on Sky Sports News in the UK this afternoon.