DeGale defeats Khatchikian in a surprisingly competitive fight

03/03/201403/02/2014 Bill Phanco

WBC Siler super middleweight champion James DeGale (18-1, 12 KO’s) stayed in line for a world title shot against WBC 168 lb champion Sakio Bika by defeated Gevorg Khatchikian (20-1, 8 KO’s) by an 11th round TKO last Saturday night at the City Academy Sports Centre, Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom.

DeGale knocked Khatchikian down a couple of times in the 11th round with body shots. Referee Mark Green then decided that Khatchikian had taken enough punishment so he stopped the bout at 2:58 of the round.

DeGale boxed beautifully through most of the fight. However, his habit of keeping his hands down by his sides led to DeGale getting nailed with a lot of hard right hands from Khatchikian. In the 5th round, DeGale got caught with a tremendous right hand from Khatchikian. DeGale backed up like he was hurt, and he took punishment for the remainder of the round.

Amir Khan still wants shot at Mayweather, says he’ll KO Broner!

02/28/201402/28/2014 James Slater

While former 140-pound king Amir Khan is still getting used to the frustrating fact that superstar Floyd Mayweather Junior will not be giving him a shot at his titles in his next fight (and in fact just jerked Khan around wasting his time, this despite the fact that Khan actually won the Twitter poll: ‘who should I fight: Khan or Maidana,’ that Mayweather set up so as to “let the fans decide,”) the 27-year-old has not given up complete hope of one day challenging the unbeaten master.

Taking to his Twitter account to address a number of issues, Khan today also spoke about who he may fight next. Khan first refuted the fact that British rival Kell Brook and his team have not offered him the $5 million that has been widely reported:

Weigh-In Video – Burns vs. Crawford: Is the Rickster ripe for the pickings?

02/28/201402/28/2014 Chris Carlson

The reeling Rickster hopes to rebound from the run of fights in which he’s struggled to look right. After passing the eye test Terence Crawford gets his first title opportunity versus two weight champion Ricky Burns.

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.

Ricky Burns – Man of Steel

02/26/2014 Ronan Smith

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’;

Amir Khan statement

02/25/2014 Amir Rashid

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.

Cinderella Man displays tenacious Fighting Pride

02/23/201402/23/2014 Ronan Smith

Anybody who watched Matchroom’s ‘Fighting Pride’ show live on Sky Sports last night had witnessed something special; the fight fans that were present at Hull’s Ice Arena are truly the lucky ones for the event was one that will not be forgotten anytime soon.

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.

Khan’s contingency plan

02/22/201402/22/2014 Ronan Smith

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 Statement On Martin Murray

02/22/201402/22/2014 Hatton Promotions

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.

The promise of Britain’s tomorrow’s stars

02/21/2014 Ronan Smith

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.

Fury sees himself easily beat Chisora this Summer

07/31/201402/16/2014 Jeff Sorby

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.