British Boxing News
It was officially confirmed midweek that Tommy Langford will be challenging for the British Middleweight Title against the defending champion Chris Eubank Jr in Cardiff on October 22nd at the Motorpoint Arena.
It is by far Tommy’s toughest fight to date as he takes on a guy who continues to prove he is worthy of his Legendary name with explosive victories in recent times, and not forgetting it could of easily been Chris Eubank Jr vs Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin not so long ago.
A Dereck Chisora-Dillian Whyte clash has been bubbling under for quite a while now, and the grudge-match, crossroads fight could happen this year. These two do not like each other and when Sam Sexton reportedly pulled out of a planned British heavyweight title fight with Whyte, Chisora immediately called Whyte out again.
Whyte, beaten only by IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua, is the heavyweight on the rise in this particular match-up, while Chisora, who is coming off a loss to Kubrat Pulev, is seen by many as being on the way down. Still, Chisora has great experience and he seems convinced he has the beating of the man four years his junior.
Unbeaten Welsh 154-pounder Liam Williams may not be a fighter the majority of fans are overly familiar with (at least not overseas), but the reigning British and Commonwealth champion is currently the man of the moment, getting Kell Brook ready for his big fight with Gennady Golovkin. Brook’s team brought Williams, 15-0-1(10) in as he has a style and similar physical dimensions to GGG.
Frank Warren yesterday announced a blockbuster double main event bill for Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on Saturday October 22nd, featuring the mandated British Title showdowns between Chris Eubank Jr and Tommy Langford; and Liam Williams and Ahmet Patterson.
The purse bid for the Eubank and Langford’s British Middleweight title bout was won by Frank Warren earlier this month and will mark a huge opportunity for ‘The Baggies Bomber’ Langford who has sparred Eubank Jr in the past.
WBA Lightweight World Champion Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla (31-4-3, 13 KOs), and WBC Lightweight World Champion Jorge “El Niño de Oro” Linares (40-3, 27 KOs), hosted a press conference today at Hotel Football in Old Trafford, to formally announce the blockbuster world championship unification fight for the WBA and WBC Diamond World and Ring Magazine Lightweight Championships at the Manchester Arena on September 24, 2016, live on Sky Sports.
It’s still not clear who IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua will be defending his belt against on November 26, but it will definitely not be David Price. Promoter Eddie Hearn had some air time on Sky Sports today, and he repeated the three “most likely” names for Joshua’s next bout: Kubrat Pulev, Bermane Stiverne and Joseph Parker, who is of course Joshua’s mandatory challenger.
Amir Khan in 2017 – Retired? Forgotten? Still relevant? Still exciting?
Khan, the former 140-pound king who was last seen paying the price for taking a quite audacious, but also brave, challenge up at 155-pounds, insists he if far from finished. The 29-year-old who stated a few years back how he planned to retire from boxing by the age of 30 (a milestone the Olympic silver medallist will reach this coming December) has taken to social media to outline his plans for 2017 – and retirement is the least of it.
Kell Brook is leaving no stone unturned in his training for his fast approaching September 10 challenge of middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin. In fact, Brook is using some techniques that are of a secretive nature as he pushes his body to the max for the biggest fight of his entire career. Speaking with The Sheffield Star, the IBF welterweight champ’s head trainer Dominic Ingle revealed how the science dept of their local university in Sheffield has been brought in, with the aim being to get Brook added advantages regarding his cardio and his overall body performance.
Anthony Joshua, who was a pumped up analyst at the Rio Olympics, giving his expert opinion on many of the boxing bouts, is now pumped up for his own upcoming fight. Eddie Hearn has announced how the IBF heavyweight champ will fight on November 26th; the venue and opponent will be announced in the coming days. But for the first time in quite a while, Joshua will not be fighting at The O2 in London.
The upcoming venue is interesting, maybe it will be Manchester, maybe Liverpool (“We are changing city,” Joshua said), but the main thing that interests fans is who the challenger will be.
All fight fans agree it will be a huge upset, definitely The Upset of The Year, if Sheffield’s Kell Brook defeats feared middleweight king Gennady Golovkin next month. But one man, in speaking for the entire gym at which IBF welterweight champion Brook trains, insists a Brook victory will NOT be an upset – to him or to the fellow occupants of the Sheffield gym.
Atif Sadiq, who has sparred with Brook on countless occasions, told The Sheffield Star that Brook’s sheer physical strength will prove the difference on September 10. Sadiq says Brook also has incredible mental strength and that this too will prove to be a factor three weeks today.