British Boxing News
Ricky Burns entered the world seen when a hardnosed body punching Roman Martinez from Puerto Rico was denied a win by the Scot who after a shaky start managed to dust himself off to earn a victory.
Having faced Martinez and Katsidis, Ricky has show he can deal with pressure fighters. In this fight it will be the first time he faces a guy like Terence Crawford who can box and come forward with a deeper layer of skill than say a past opponent such as Kevin Mitchell or Paulus Moses.
The polysemic name of Matchroom’s Saturday bill in Glasgow, ‘Man of Steel’, refers to the titanium plate inserted into the jaw of Ricky Burns and, by extension, to the sheer toughness of his character exhibited through his perseverance to hear the final bell as he battled through ten rounds with a broken jaw, courtesy of Raymundo Beltran during their last September bout, and followed by the absolute determination to get back in the ring after the mending operation and healing.
Nobody need once again to point out the obvious that Burns was extremely fortunate to have retained his title against Beltran with the decision of a draw, but it is worth noting that the WBO appointed judges for Saturday’s defence against Crawford will have this in mind and are likely to score many of the potentially close rounds to the American in order to prevent any further stigma of controversy and/or accusations of ‘hometown favouritism’;
BOLTON (Feb. 25) – Official statement from Amir Khan following the official announcement confirming that Marcos Maidana will fight Floyd Mayweather on Saturday 3rd May.
“Following the announcement by Floyd Mayweather that he will be facing Marcos Maidana on May 3rd I would like to clarify my situation for my fans and members of the media.
“Despite having signed my part of the agreement to fight Floyd in early December, I’ve been preparing myself for some time that the match up with him wasn’t going to happen, as I announced on Twitter a few days ago. Therefore, this announcement did not come as a surprise.
On paper the evening looked promising with a few intriguing match-ups but nobody could possibly have been expecting the drama and excitement that ran through pretty much the whole of the four hour broadcast.
There is one fighter who featured on the bill whom I want to pay particular attention to but first I will briefly run through the evening’s action.
The first bout was a contest for the British super-bantamweight title, vacated by Kid Galahad as he seeks European honours, between Gavin McDonnell and Leigh Wood. Alongside such boxers as Kell Brook and Kid Galahad, real name Abdul Barry Awad, Wood fights out of the Ingle Gym and exhibits the slippery and awkward style that the gym is famed for.
It would be nice to think that the line has been drawn through the whole Mayweather and Khan chronicles, at least for the time being anyway, but it is difficult to imagine that Khan has seriously discarded any ambition of being handed the May 3rd slot against the number one pound-for-pound king.
Yesterday Khan sent out a stream of tweets suggesting that the fight was dead; whether he actually knows anything official or not can only be speculated but it appears that he has had enough of Mayweather’s lack of communication and is moving on to a plan B. There is however a hint of suggestion that Khan may not be revealing all, given how he wishes luck to Maidana in the Mayweather fight, against the probable scenario where he is just regarding the fight’s other front-runner.
HATTON PROMOTIONS has taken the decision to allow Martin Murray’s contract to expire.
This means the company will no longer financially invest further in Martin’s career following the St Helens boxer’s unwillingness to commit to opportunities negotiated on his behalf.
Offers for world title fights with Gennady Golovkin and Felix Sturm have been on the table for a number of weeks, but Murray has decided to hold off signing any agreements.
Neither of these offers will be available indefinitely, with Sturm now looking at alternative opponents and Golovkin only likely to appear in Europe once more before pressing forwards with his career in the United States.
Over the following three Saturdays five of Britain’s leading top prospects will be live in action up and down the country. All five, three of which gained medals at the London 2012 Olympics, have not only the talent to become world champion but could potentially go on to one day be great, legendary even.
Britain is currently a melting pot rich with young, brilliant talent but what can this recent sprout of success be credited to? Surely the funding now available to young amateur boxers plays a significant part, which has vigorously developed since Audley Harrison became the first British fighter to win an Olympic gold medal in the super-heavyweight division in the 2000 Sydney Games and, four years later in Athens, Amir Khan taking home a silver medal in the light-weight division. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics Britain had another gold medallist in James DeGale, further strengthening the position of our young amateur fighters.
Heavyweight Tyson Fury (22-0, 16 KO’s) isn’t worried in the least about the new and improved Dereck Chisora (20-4, 13 KO’s) now that he’s shed 15-20 lbs of fat and is fighting at a leaner and meaner weight for him. Chisora and Fury are heading towards a Summer clash in the UK, which will likely be a WBO heavyweight eliminator bout. Fury feels that he’s going to dominate Chisora just like he did three years ago when they fought in 2011. Fury won the fight by a lopsided 12 round decision over a much fatter 260 lb. Chisora.
Chisora and Fury fought on the same card last night at the Copper Box Arena in London, UK. A heavy-looking Fury dispatched Joey Abell in the 4th round, whereas Chisora battled to a 12 round unanimous over Kevin Johnson. Neither of them looked anywhere near the class of IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in the skills department.
The weights are in for tomorrow’s heavyweight doubleheader in London, and the biggest shock/newsworthy item is the poundage Tyson Fury came in at.
Fury tipped-in at 274-pounds, some twenty pounds heavier than for his last fight, while his opponent Joey Abell came in at 241-pounds. Fury did not remove his shirt while weighing in.
In the chief support, Dereck Chisora, who has battled weight problems himself in the past, came in at a solid 238-pounds. His rival, Kevin Johnson, who is aiming to score the upset and ruin plans for a Chisora-Fury rematch in the summer, tipped-in at 240-pounds.
So, the Fury fight will attract most headlines and unbeaten Tyson’s weight has already done so. For those fans who like to bet on the underdog, maybe Abell is a fighter worth betting on.
This Saturday night from the Copper Box Arena in London Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury will be featured in stay busy fights on Box Nation.
Ok so maybe that’s not how long time U.K. promoter Frank Warren would want it phrased but that’s exactly what this card is and for those who are hardcore enough (or just bored) it will be televised here in the states by Intergrated Sports with an asking price starting at 24.99.
I can hardly blame any boxing fan for not wanting to put his or hers hard earned duckets down for this PPV.
It’s worth mentioning that in the past Intergrated Sports have at least tried to put on entertaining undercard fights to make up for a non pay per view worthy main event or co-features in this case.