The latest boxing top stories and breaking news
A remarkable 6-year journey will reach its crescendo when Bryant Jennings, 19-0 (10KO’s), faces the long reigning heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko, 63-3 (53KO’s), in Madison Square Garden on 25th April.
For it has been in that short space of time, that the 30-year old Philadelphian has managed to travel from first lacing them up to having the opportunity to claim the most prestigious prize in the sport.
Regardless of era, such a remarkable feat is deserving of respect.
https://youtu.be/esY5WwPdyZs
Saturday March 14th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the best light heavyweight in the world puts his titles on the line against Canada’s finest, Jean Pascal. And while Adonis Stevenson, the linear champion at 175 pounds, has his own upcoming defense against the shop-worn Sakio Bika, make no mistake – Saturday’s match in Montreal is for the real light heavyweight championship of the world.
http://youtu.be/vDSJdNgBuVE
Photos by Tiffany Lam – Today at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao held the kickoff presser for what many are calling the fight of the century. Team Pacquiao arrived and hit the red carpet around 11:00am. Mayweather was scheduled to arrive at noon, but showed up a fashionable 40 minutes late. The official press conference started around 1:45pm pacific time and was aired live on ESPN SportsCenter; with HBO announcer Michael Buffer introducing Pacquiao, followed by Showtime announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr introducing Mayweather.
Selan B. (Phoenix, AZ): You made a point on FaceBook the other day about the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight that I’d like you to revisit. Could you elaborate on your thoughts regarding the magnitude of this fight and the legacy of the fighters?
Vivek W. (ESB): In a nutshell, when we look at this fight, this is an event on the scale of nothing we’ve ever seen before, and arguably, nothing we will ever see again in this lifetime. Some have noted that the fight is “a few years too late”. My response is that the fight has reached this apex as a result of the fact that it did come this late. When this bout was initially proposed, the fighters were looking at proposed purses in the $30M dollar range. Floyd Mayweather found a way to land a deal that nets that every night out. When he said he wanted $100M for this bout, we said he was “talking stupid”. He now stands in place to earn a hair below that mark ($180M approx).
Tonight professional boxing ended its prime time network television drought with the inaugural installment of the so called “Premier Boxing Champions” series. The return of boxing to network television seems to have taken center stage, even to the point of eclipsing the fights and the fighters themselves. While I am not one of those who believe that the future of boxing hinges on the success or failure of this foray into primetime, it’s clear that a lot was riding on tonight’s fight card. To that end we have to thank Robert Guerrero, who took what was shaping up to be a pair of mismatches, and gave the crowd someone to cheer for. In the lead in bout on the telecast, Adrien Broner used a snappy punishing jab to keep an inactive John Molina at bay, cruising to an uneventful 12 round decision. The crowd did not appreciate the lack of action, and at first blush it is easy to cast the blame in the direction of Adrien “The Problem” Broner. However, in light of the punishment that he sustained against Marcos Maidana, it would have been unrealistic to expect Adrien to take any greater risks than he had to in order to secure the victory. He even said as much in his post-fight interview, which was cut short when he started into his racially insensitive “Can Man” routine (which I personally find amusing).
WBA 147lb champion Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) gave Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-3-1, 18 KOs) a methodical beating in winning a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in their fight on NBC in the Premier Boxing Champion series at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored the fight 120-107, 118-109 and 118-108. Guerrero was cut over his left eye and knocked down in the 9th round after getting tagged hard by a left hand from Thurman.
In the 3rd, Thurman and Guerrero rammed heads with each other, leaving Thurman was a big goose egg on the left side of his forehead.
Since their arrival to the sport, both Adrien “The Problem” Broner (29-1, 22KO’s) and Keith “One Time” Thurman (24-0, 21KO’s) have lived in the proverbial ‘under the radar but above the rim’ echelon of the sport. Heavy with the hands, yet light with sympathy for anyone standing across from them with plans to prevent their rise to the top. While very different in presentation, there is a lone common thread between these two talents. Both seem to embody that patented “it” factor, making them easy to love, yet equally easy to hate.
Fans sold out the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angles for tonight’s inaugural “LA Fight Club” card from Golden Boy Promotions. Many of the prospects featured in this series will be LA based fighters and they bring their friends and family with them. It all makes for a great “club” type atmosphere at the venue, with passionate fans cheering for the representatives of their neighborhoods. Although there were eight total bouts on tonight’s card, three were nationally televised on Fox Sports 1, with a swing bout just missing the broadcast.
Parker was the boss from the start pushing the visitor from West Virginian back with jarring jabs and right hands.
In the second round, Parker hurt Pettaway with a straight right to the body and was cracking him late in the round.
Pettaway came forward trying to make a fight of it in the third but was down from body shots with thirty seconds left in the round and was in trouble at the bell.
A hypothetical ranking of boxing’s elite, regardless of weight…
Floyd Mayweather (Previous Position: 1)
Record: 47-0 (26 KOs)
Current Belts: WBC/WBA ‘Super’ World Welterweight (147lbs); WBC World Light–Middleweight (154lbs)
Surely, this is still the only position in the rankings not up for debate. There’s no doubt that at 38 years old Mayweather appears to have lost half a step, but until he surrenders that incredible undefeated record or else looks truly atrocious in the ring, he will remain in the top spot on pretty much any list you can find. With the Pacquiao fight FINALLY being set for May 2nd of this year, Mr. Money faces the man with a higher chance than anyone of finally knocking him off of his pound-for-pound perch. In doing so, he has also managed to silence some of the “Ducker” jibes levelled against him over the previous few years (at least temporarily). Realistically, then, there are only two people with even a faint hope of achieving the feat of dethroning Mayweather: it’s either Manny Pacquiao or Father Time.