Khan vs Molina on Showtime on December 15th

09/14/201610/06/2012 ESB

Khan vs Molina on Showtime on December 15th 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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Khan: I know I can get back to the top with Virgil Hunter as my trainer

09/14/201609/29/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan is convinced that his new trainer Virgil Hunter can turn his sinking career around and bring it back to where it briefly was while Khan was being trained by the well respected Freddie Roach from 2009 to 2012. Khan started out well with Roach, winning his first six fights before things started to turn rotten for him with two losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia.

Khan said “With Virgil in my corner, I know that I can get back to the very top of the light welterweight division.”

I somehow remember Khan saying pretty much the same thing when he hired Freddie Roach as his trainer not long after Khan was starched by Breidis Prescott. Roach was seen as his savior and indeed he helped Khan’s career by getting him through some decent opponents and through his toughest fight of his career against Marcos Maidana. However, Khan remained pretty much the same fighter he had been with other trainers.

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Ricky Burns will be back in the ring in December, but not against Scott Harrison

10/01/201209/29/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) will be returning to the ring by December, according to his promoter Frank Warren. However, it won’t be against former WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison, because the World Boxing Organization president Paco Valcarcel is saying that Burns has to fight his mandatory challenger.

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Hatton looking to take on the top world champions

10/01/201209/29/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Ricky Hatton’s first fight in his comeback will be against former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko on November 24th in Manchester, England. This fight is only the beginning for the 33-year-old Hatton, however, because he intends on going after the top world champions to pick up their titles if possible. WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi will likely be Hatton’s first stop after he beats #5 WBA Senchenko on November 24th.

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Ricky Hatton: Chasing the Past

09/14/201609/28/2012 ESB

By Padraig Ivory: I once saw a black and white photo of Ricky Hatton as he lay unconscious after his last bout in 2009. His ripped abdominal muscles almost gave a cobblestone appearance to the Las Vegas canvas. It was a devastating knockout of the raucously supported English favourite. Now three years later ‘The Hitman’ is preparing both physically and mentally to re-enter the boxing ring.

Envision the early runs. The dew unevenly evaporating from the terrain as the nights shadows slowly recede. The footpaths appear two toned, the white frost fading towards the kerbs edge. His warm breath vaporising as it meets the cooler morning air. The thoughts and dreams of the former champion oscillating to and fro as he paces the city streets.

Turning by Victoria Station he automatically decelerates to a slow jog. Nostalgia weighs heavy. The blurring figure of a younger Ricky Hatton running that same street overtakes the now 33 year old. Inspired by the vivid memory he speeds up, chasing his younger image.

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