Kell Brook-Hector Saldivia: Brook’s final step to World title

10/20/201210/19/2012 ESB

By Peter Wells: It’s taken 8 years for the Sheffield prospect to get to the edge of a world title fight. Tommorow night Kell Brook fights in a final eliminator for the IBF Welterweight title. Brook has gone as far as stating that he will retire if he loses to Hector Saldivia at the Motorpoint arena in his hometown of Sheffield. This is likely a comment to build up his fight and over dramatise how important this bout is for his career. For some fighters chances at a world title don’t come terribly often so Brook wants to make sure he doesn’t miss his chance to book a shot at the IBF title.

Brook may have waited a while for his shot at a world title, but Saldivia has had just as long to wait. Final eliminators also haven’t gone well for the Argentinian in the past. On the 1st May 2010 he faced off against Said Ouali in an eliminator for the WBA Welterweight title. Saldivia came out strong scoring an early knockdown, but got too caught up in the moment and went down twice before the referee stepped in to end the fight. Said never got his WBA title shot, instead looking at the IBF route, before losing in 7 rounds last year to Carson Jones.

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Haye thinks Vitali will want to fight him next year

10/18/201210/17/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye gave an interview on Wednesday where said that an agreement has already been made with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2013. Whether Haye is on the level with this is still unknown because we’re only hearing Haye say it and not Vitali.

Haye said to Sky Sports News “”The fight has already been agreed, the contract’s done – the money, the split, everything. We don’t need a new contract…In my opinion next year he will want to fight again at some stage and he will want a big fight. I’m the biggest fight out there and he knows that, he’s not stupid.”

Vitali is running for office in Ukraine and he could retire from boxing if elected. As for a fight against Haye, Vitali hasn’t been acting all that interested in fighting him despite having said in the past that he wanted to knock Haye out and improve upon the performance his younger brother IBF/IBO/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko made a year ago when he easily beat Haye by a 12 round unanimous decision in a one-sided fight.

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Kell Brook putting pressure on himself to beat Salidivia on Saturday

10/18/201210/17/2012 ESB

By Marcus Richardson: Undefeated welterweight contender Kell Brook (28-0, 18 KO’s) recently chose not to take an important fight against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley in order to fight Argentinian Hector Saldivia (41-2, 32 KO’s) in an IBF welterweight eliminator bout on October 20th at the Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Brook unbelievably chose not to fight Bradley for his WBO title just so that Brook could fight in risky IBF eliminator with the winner of that fight getting a shot against the winner of this Saturday’s fight between Randall Bailey and Devon Alexander.

Brook is talking about wanting to retire if he doesn’t win this fight on Saturday night against Saldivia. Of course, Brook obviously wouldn’t retire if he were to get beaten by Saldivia and even if he did retire, it would likely be one of those boxing retirements that mean absolutely nothing because the fighter or fighters often come back months later out of boredom or a need for money.

Brook said to thesun.co.uk “People keep saying I have talent, so if I can’t get rid of guys like Saldivia then I don’t deserve to be at this level.”

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DeGale struggles to beat Mohoumadi in a war

09/14/201610/13/2012 ESB

DeGale struggles to beat Mohoumadi in a war By Michael Collins: In another poor performance from EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (13-1, 9 KO’s), he went life and death tonight in defeating little known Frenchman Hadillah Mohoumadi (13-3-1, 9 kO’s) by 12 round unanimous decision at the Glow, Bluewater, Greenhithe, Kent, United Kingdom. DeGale took an awful lot of punishment in this fight and spent most of the fight against the ropes soaking up punishment.

The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112. The scores were something of a joke because the fight was a lot closer than the scores would have you believe. 116-112 is a lot closer to reality, but even that was far off the mark. The judge that scored it 119-109 for DeGale appeared to be watching a different fight altogether because DeGale took a real beating in this fight and no way did he deserve to win the fight by that kind of score.

DeGale’s face was badly swollen on the left side of around his eyes from Mohoumadi’s hard right hands.

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Price destroys Harrison in 1st round KO; Skelton stops Gospic

09/14/201610/13/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Unbeaten British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (14-0, 12 KO’s) not surprisingly destroyed a well past his prime 40-year-old Audley Harrison (28-6, 21 KOs’) in the 1st round tonight at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom. Price hurt Harrison with a straight right hand that didn’t look like it was thrown with a lot of power or speed.

It was more like a jab than anything. However, Harrison had his head turned sideways for some reason and the shot hurt him. Harrison then foolishly backed up to the ropes and just stood there while Price unloaded on him with everything but the kitchen sink. After getting hit with one especially hard right hand, Harrison fell down just as the referee jumped in to stop the slaughter.

After the fight the British media seemed to be making a big fuss out of Price’s victory, pouring the compliments over his head endlessly without thinking about who Price just beat. This was Audley Harrison who had already been exposed by the likes of David Haye and Martin Rogan among many others, and it wasn’t much of a victory. The question is why is a 29-year-old former Olympic bronze medalist like Price still being matched the likes of Harrison? Does Price’s promoter know something about his chin that other fans don’t? If his chin is okay then Price should have been WAY past guys like Harrison years ago. Price is wasting too much time in his career facing fodder opposition instead of quality.

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David Price vs. Audley Harrison: Battle of the Olympians

09/14/201610/13/2012 ESB

By Peter Wells: What does a Gold medal really mean? How can it be enjoyed when all it brings with it is expectation and pressure? It has taken Audley Harrison 12 years to finally be able to enjoy the feeling of being a Gold medallist. The ridiculous pressure that Audley has faced since winning the Heavyweight Gold medal at the Sydney Games in 2000, have at last been removed from his shoulders and he can look back at his memorable moment with joy, rather than stressing over a future that will never glisten as bright as that medal around his neck. Anthony Joshua has now taken the load from Audley’s 40 year old shoulders as he will now be under the microscope throughout his career after capturing the Heavyweight Gold for Great Britain at this years Olympics.

This means for once all eyes aren’t sternly staring down at Harrison, when he meets the up-and-coming British and Commonwealth Champion, David Price. The giant Liverpudlian is hot property right now, coming off the back of 3 big early knockout victories.

In 2008, David Price tried to replicate what his opponent did 8 years prior, but was stopped in the semi-finals by Italian Roberto Cammeralle. Price did come home from Beijing with a bronze medal, and was quickly swooped up by Frank Maloney.

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Froch vs. Mack: Carl hopes this will be an easy fight

09/14/201610/11/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (29-2, 21 KO’s) will be taking a rare tune-up fight the next time he steps inside the ring to fight light heavyweight Yusaf Mack (31-4-2, 17 KO’s) on November 17th at the Capital FM Arena, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK. It’s been ages since Froch took on a guy that was clearly out of his league and didn’t deserve to be in the same ring with him. Mack, 32, is a decent fighter but it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t stand much of a chance in this fight unless he can score a knockout.

Mack does have good power, but he’s had problems with his stamina in the past for fights that go past four rounds. Also, he’s going to be coming down in weight from 175 for this fight and it’s likely he’ll be weaker than he usually is.

It’s unclear who’s idea it was for Froch to fight a soft touch for his next fight – his or his promoter Eddie Hearn. Froch had a ton of options available for him for the November 17th fight.

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Khan vs. Molina: Amir can’t afford to lose

09/14/201610/10/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) is in a dire situation going into his December 15th Showtime televised bout against unbeaten American Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) at the Sports Arena, in Los Angeles, California. Khan, 26, is coming into the fight with losses in his last two fights and he’s now in a situation where he really can’t afford a third straight loss if he wants to remain relevant.

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Khan vs. Molina: Amir in the rebuilding stage of his career – and Showtime will be televising

09/14/201610/08/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan is being matched against a lightweight in his next fight when he takes on unbeaten Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) on Showtime on December 15th at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. This is a rebuilding fight for Khan, as he’s lost his last two fights against light welterweights and has looked terrible in both fights.

His former trainer Freddie Roach has been let go, and Khan is now being trained by Virgil Hunter, the same guy that trains WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward. The idea here is that Hunter will rebuild Khan and hopefully slow him down to where he’s not running around the ring in a senseless manner like he’s been doing his entire career. Hunter will then try also to fix Khan’s defense, which isn’t that bad. His defense isn’t the problem. It’s his chin and his tendency to trade too much.

Hunter will need to get cooperation from Khan in order for him to make the needed changes for Khan. Hunter may have problems getting Khan to follow his instructions, especially once Khan starts finding a little success with the soft matchmaking that’s likely going to continue even past the Molina mismatch.

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Hatton to likely fight Malignaggi for WBA 147 lb title if he can get past Senchenko on November 24th

09/14/201610/08/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: 33-year-old Ricky Hatton’s comeback course is predictable at this point. Hatton has a fight against former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) next month on November 24th in Manchester, England. If Hatton wins that fight then he’ll likely be fighting WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) for his title in early 2013. This is the belief a lot of boxing fans, and Hatton hasn’t said anything recently to give the impression that he’ll do anything else.

Hatton already easily beat Malignaggi four years ago by an 11th round TKO in an easy fight for Hatton. It’s no wonder that Hatton wants to fight this guy again given how badly he dominated him in 2008.

Before Hatton can get the Malignaggi rematch, Malignaggi, 31, has to win his next fight against 22-year-old Pablo Cesar Cano this month on October 20th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York. Malignaggi should be able to win this, because his promoters at Golden Boy has been good enough to select Cano from the light welterweight division to face Malignaggi instead of choosing a welterweight for him to fight.

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