British Boxing News
Double Olympic champion Nicola Adams is out to emulate her hero Muhammad Ali when she makes her debut this Saturday night.
The British star enters the professional ranks as part of a stacked card live on BoxNation headlined by world champion Terry Flanagan defending his lightweight world title against Petr Petrov, plus a thrilling clash between Liam Smith and the undefeated Liam Williams.
Former Heavyweight Champion of the World Tyson Fury came out to support his fellow Mancunian Terry Flanagan at Frank Warren’s open workouts at The Printworks earlier this evening. Flanagan makes the fifth defence of his WBO Lightweight World Title against dangerous Russian Petr Petrov at the Manchester Arena this Saturday, live on BT Sport and BoxNation.
Fury, the former linear, WBA Super, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine World Heavyweight Champion, watched on as local hero Flanagan was put through his paces by trainer Steve Maylett in front of hundreds of Manchester fight fans.
As fans may have read, news broke earlier this week that Danish great Mikkel Kessler, one of the best super-middleweights of the past decade or so, is coming out of retirement after almost four years out. Now aged 38 and last seen losing a great rematch battle with British great Carl Froch, Kessler is coming back at 168 pounds.
This news caused quite a stir all by itself, but Froch could be about to make even bigger news: by agreeing to a third fight with the warrior he is currently 1-1 with. Writing in his column for Sky Sports, “The Cobra” said Kessler’s comeback has “really got me thinking!”
Arguably, and very possibly, the last great American heavyweight champion (begging Deontay Wilder’s pardon) Lamon Brewster will be a very interested viewer when heavyweight giants Anthony Joshua, the IBF king, and Wladimir Klitschko, the former world ruler, clash in London next month.
Brewster, the former WBO king who retired with a fine 35-6(30) record in 2010 (when eye trouble contributed greatly to the Indianapolis warrior’s decision to call it a great career) is the last man to have stopped Wladimir; sensationally – and somewhat disturbingly – scoring a TKO over “Dr. Steel Hammer” in April of 2004 in a wild and shocking slugfest. But Brewster is not worried about losing the distinction of being the last man to have sent Klitschko to the canvas, far from it – Lamon, in kindly giving some of his time to this writer, predicts that AJ will do what he did, and stop Klitschko on April 29.
Amir Khan just cannot seem to get himself a fight. Idle since last May – when he was taken out by the much bigger Canelo Alvarez in a fight that has recently been branded a “foolish” move by Khan’s own trainer, Virgil Hunter – the former 140 pound king has seen both a Manny Pacquiao fight and a Kell Brook fight fail to come off (blame who you want for the latter fight failing to materialise).
Maybe due to his frustrations at not yet being able to test his “new,” surgically repaired right hand, Khan is now even talking about the possibility of fighting Conor McGregor, under either boxing or MMA rules! Speaking with ESNEWS, Khan said he’d “give it a go” if the fight was offered to him.
Unbeaten, talented and hugely confident star of the future (most likely, as in reality there is no such thing as a “sure-thing”) Ohara Davies believes Floyd Mayweather Junior is avoiding him; at least the boss man of The Money Team is keeping his fighters away from him.
The brash 25 year-old super-lightweight – last seen crushing a shop-worn Derry Matthews into retirement on the Tony Bellew-David Haye card – got into a social media beef with superstar Mayweather recently, and Davies has again called on Floyd to let him face one of his fighters – Ashley Theophane in particular. Speaking with Sky Sports, Davies, 15-0(12) said no way does Mayweather risk one of his fighters against his talents.
IBF super-middleweight champ James DeGale, a fighter used to fighting on the road, is set for a massive June fight in London. Last seen going to war with Badou Jack in a WBC/IBF unification clash, which ended as a draw after 12 thrilling rounds, DeGale now has a list of four big names to mull over, as he will reportedly face either: Gennady Golovkin, George Groves, Andre Ward or Callum Smith.
One of the oldest, most often repeated sayings in the sport of boxing is, it’s tough becoming a world champion, but it’s even harder remaining as one. Everyone from Mike Tyson to Muhammad Ali has said these words and right now, one man who knows first hand how incredibly hard it can be to stay at the top of the mountain once you’ve got there , is training for a comeback.
We’ve seen some shocking, unlikely match-ups get made just recently in boxing; where two men from different weight classes, sometimes with more than one weight class between them, got it on in a catch-weight bout. Recently, no-one saw Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan coming, or Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook; while going back a few years, the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya fight was widely ridiculed when it was first announced.
Might a Tony Bellew-Chris Eubank Junior clash be the next catch-weight contest that will get shot down initially but then just might catch on with the fans? Due to a highly entertaining and amusing twitter battle between the two British stars, Eubank – the former British middleweight champ who recently moved up to 168 pounds and won the lightly regarded IBO belt at the weight -called Bellew out.
The World Boxing Organisation today sanctioned the bout between Liverpool’s Liam Smith and Clydach Vale’s Liam Williams for the WBO Interim Super-Welterweight World Title.
Smith and Williams’ mouth-watering showdown will take place at the Manchester Arena on Saturday 8th April, broadcast live on BT Sport and BoxNation.