Tyson: Ricky Hatton should take the slow approach back to the top

09/14/201610/07/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson feels that former two division world champion Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) should take his time getting back to the top of the sport rather than rushing headlong into a fight that could lead to Hatton getting knocked out once again. Hatton is coming off of a three year retirement to face former WBA World welterweight champion Vyachslav Senchenko next month on November 24th in Manchester, England.

Tyson said the the Telegraph.co.uk “My main advice for Ricky would b to take it very easy, you don’t go in over your head to prove you’re tough…Take comfortable fights and build your confidence back up.”

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Hatton can’t decide who he’d do better against – Khan or Kell Brook

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

Hatton can't decide who he'd do better against - Khan or Kell Brook By Michael Collins: Former two division world champion Ricky Hatton returns to the ring next month against former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko on November 24th in Manchester, England. If Hatton looks really good in blowing out Senchenko, he could find the pressure mounting for him to fight Amir Khan or Kell Brook in fights that would be positively huge in the UK. Hatton, 33, still wants to prove himself worthy of facing both of those guys by getting past Senchenko in style and perhaps some other fighters.

In an interview by Kugan Cassius of IFilm London, Hatton said “It’s really hard to say [who Hatton would do better against]. I’d have to sit on the fence and go right down the middle. If Amir Khan gets drawn into a fight, it goes to the blue corner. But if Amir sticks to his boxing ability and moves and uses his hand speed, then obviously you’d have to side with Amir by a slight edge. I really can’t split between the two of them.”

Hatton goes onto say that he has to prove himself against Senchenko before he’s mentioned with Khan and Brook. However, I just wonder how much Hatton will have proven even if he does blow out Senchenko.

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Broner vs. Burns in early 2013, says Warren

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Promoter Frank Warren is interested in matching his guy WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) and American star Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KO’s) if the two fighters can win their next upcoming fights this year. Burns will be fighting on December 15th, presumably against a top 10 lightweight contender, and Broner will be challenging WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco on November 17th in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Both Burns and Broner are expected to win their next fights, which could set up a mouthwatering fight between them in early 2013 in February or March.

Warren said to Frankwarren.com “Provided Rickster prevails, I have an understanding with Golden Boy [Promotions] for him [Burns] to lock horns with white hot U.S hope Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner in late February or early March…I’m more than happy for my man to meet, and beat, Broner in a little unifier on either side of the Atlantic.”

Golden Boy will snatch this fight up in a second because this would give Broner a great chance of picking up another world title and putting himself in the position where he’ll have half of the lightweight titles. The only lightweight titles that will be out of Broner’s clutches are the IBF and WBA titles, but Broner can capture those belts as well if he really wants to put the time in going after them.

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Audley Harrison: Deontay Wilder punches like a mule, he could beat David Price

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former 2000 super heavyweight Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison (28-5, 21 KO’s) figures he’s had the best preparation available for his fight next Saturday night on October 13th against British heavyweight champion David Price (13-0, 11 KO’s) at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom.

Harrison, 40, just spent four weeks with unbeaten former 2008 heavyweight Olympic bronze medalist Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s) taking him through some tough sparring sessions and Harrison sees himself ready to take anything that Price can give after surviving those four weeks with the big 6’7″ Wilder.

Harrison told Sky Sports News “I’ve found people that can match David Price and possibly beat David Price. Deontay Wilder. That’s the best sparring I can get for David Price…Deontay Wilder punches like a mule, and he’s fast. And I had four weeks of him, and some days he was catching me with clean shots. I know I’m going to be able to take [Price’s punches].”

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Khan vs Molina on Showtime on December 15th

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) now has a venue, a U.S cable network carrier and a date for his next fight against lightweight Carlos Molina (17-0, 17 KO’s). Khan, 25, will be fighting Molina on December 15th on Showtime on in the U.S. a the Sports Arena, in Los Angeles, California. It’s a date the conflicts with a Top Rank card headlined by WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley possibly against light welterweight Lamont Peterson on HBO. As such, the audience for both fights will be much less than could be, not either of the main events are all that interesting.

One question you have to wonder about is whether Khan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions attempted to sell the Khan vs. Molina fight to HBO first and were turned down? HBO is where Khan’s fights have been televised recently in the U.S, and there have been rumors that they previously turned offers of Khan vs. Joan Guzman and Khan vs. Humberto Soto. If so, then it’s not surprising that they might have turned down Khan-Molina because this fight would seem a much bigger mismatch than those fight.

I’d pick Guzman and Soto to beat Molina every day of the week. I rate them as much better fighters than Molina. Not even close. The only thing that I can see that Molina has going for him is an unbeaten record but those wins have come against weak opposition, so it’s really not surprising that he still has an unbeaten record.

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Khan to unveil his new defense against Carlos Molina in December

09/14/201610/04/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) will unveil his new defensive skills learned from his new trainer Virgil Hunter when Khan faces 5’6″ lightweight Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) in December in a still to be determined date. December 15th is the most likely date for the Khan-Molina fight, and it’s still not official that the fight will be aired on Showtime in the United States, although that’s what’s being said.

Khan said to Sky Sports News “I’m going to work on a new defense, new tactics for the next fight…I think Virgil Hunter will bring out the best in me…I was winning the fight against Danny Garcia quite easily and then I started to getting into a fight with him which is not my stye.”

Hunter is a trainer that is known for his ability teach defensive techniques. He did a great job on building WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward from a young fighter to a champion. However, Hunter can teach things but Khan has to be willing to learn what he’s being told and apply in the ring. Teaching skills like defense takes a long time because a lot of fighters tend to fall back into their old habits when the going gets tough and they start getting hit.

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Bellew to fight Bolonti on Froch vs. Mack card on November 17th

09/14/201610/04/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Making his first defense of his WBC International Silver light heavyweight strap, Tony Bellew (18-1, 12 KO’s) has a fight coming up against Argentinian Roberto Bolonti (30-1, 19 KO’s) on November 17th on the undercard of the Carl Froch – Yusaf Mack fight at the Capital FM Arena, in Nottingham, England. According to the 29-year-old Bellew this was the highest ranking contender that was willing to face him on short notice like this. The fact that Bolonti so readily agreed to take the fight suggests that he sees something in Bellew’s fighting style that makes him believe he can win this fight.

In an interview at IFilm London, Bellew said “I think his [Bolonti] weakness is his defense, and the way to get to him is to pressure him. It’s another step up the ladder.”

Bellew is coming off of two good victories over Danny McIntosh and Edison Miranda in his last two fights with both victories coming by knockout. Before that, Bellew lost a controversial 12 round majority decision against WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly last year in October in a fight that appeared to be a draw at the least, if not a victory for Bellew. However, Bellew needed to put in an especially strong effort if he wanted to get a win because he was after all the challenger.

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Can Virgil Hunter help Khan’s return?

09/14/201610/03/2012 ESB

by Robert Jackson: News Flash – Amir Khan has left the Freddie Roach camp and now trains under Andre Wards’ trainer Virgil Hunter. Also part of the Hunter camp are fighters Mike Dallas Jr, and Alfredo Angulo – both of whom turned to Hunter after ‘falling hard’ under their previous trainers. Last time we saw Khan in the ring he was getting KO’d by WBC 140lb Champion Danny Garcia. During that fight Khan abandoned his boxing pedigree showing a lot of heart to engage in an exciting street fight, to his own disadvantage.

Also during that fight Freddie Roach was unable to get Khan to follow the game plan and was unable to tell Khan anything in the corner that Khan would obey. Instead Khan threw caution to the wind and engaged in the type of battle that gave Garcia the advantage. After that loss Khan’s team approached Roach with new terms which included making Khan his TOP priority demoting other Roach fighters including Manny Pacquiao to lower priority to make Khan the TOP dog. To this Roach refused.

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Khan vs. Molina fight to be televised on Showtime

09/14/201610/01/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Showtime reportedly has bought the Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina fight to televise on their network on December, according to Steve Kim of Maxboxing.com. The Khan-Molina fight could also have unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder fighting on the undercard against an unknown opponent. Molina, 5’6″, is a lightweight contender and would be moving up in weight to face the bigger, faster and stronger Khan. Presumably, the Khan-Molina fight was offered to HBO first but it doesn’t appear there was much interest from them.

A Khan vs. Molina would have been an okay fight for Khan to take earlier in his career but it does seem a tad out of place to be taking place now that he’s a former two-time world champion. There’s also the question about whether a Khan-Molina fight is worthy of being a main event for Showtime. I think it would be an okay ESPN2 level main event but not for Showtime. You’d expect a lot better than this given the size, power and talent differences between Khan and his smaller opponent Molina.

It’s been two years since Molina scored a knockout, which tells you a lot about his power or lack thereof. Molina has been facing little more than B and C level opposition and yet he’s not able to even knock them out.

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Khan: I could have chosen an easy opponent for December 15th

09/14/201609/30/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Amir Khan considers his next opponent the light hitting #10 WBO lightweight contender Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) a tough opponent rather than just a soft touch which is what the 26-year-old Molina surely appears to be. No one would blame Khan for taking a light touch at this point in his career because he’s beaten in his last two fights against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia, although Khan feels he deserved the win in the Peterson fight. The judges obviously felt different after watching Khan shove Peterson around the ring for 12 rounds.

Khan said to the Dailystar.co.uk “I could have picked an easy fight but I’m going to have a tough one next because I want to bring the world titles back to Britain.”

A tough one? As far as I can tell, Molina has never fought contender before and is woefully inexperienced against high caliber opposition. Besides that, he’s a lightweight, not a light welterweight. Khan is really a big light welterweight, more of a welterweight fighting against light welterweights. So in choosing a lightweight to fight, Khan is facing a guy is much smaller than him in weigh, height, reach and body frame.

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