British Boxing

British Boxing News

Price gasses out and gets stopped by Thompson

price78American heavyweight Tony Thompson (38-3, 26 KO’s) destroyed David Price (15-2, 13 KO’s) tonight by a 5th round TKO in Liverpool, England and he may have badly crippled his career in the process. Thompson said he wasn’t surprised that Price was lured into a slugfest with him, because he didn’t think Price’s new trainer Lennox Lewis would be able to make enough changes to his fighting style in one camp to beat him.

Thompson said to Sky after the fight “Lewis is probably going to be a great trainer and teacher, but he only had one training camp with the guy. He’s not going to get that style with one training camp. Lewis didn’t get it one time when he was working with Emmanuel. I knew he wasn’t going to get it using a second hand Emmanuel like Lennox Lewis.”

Lennox predicting victory for David Price over Thompson

price5Lennox Lewis thinks heavyweight David Price (15-1, 13 KO’s) will avenge his loss to Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) tomorrow night and do it in style by knocking the 41-year-old American out in the process at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom.

Price, 6’8”, was taken out by Thompson in two rounds last February in a knockout that halted Price’s progress towards a title shot. Before the fight there had been talk of the 29-year-old Thompson soon getting a world title shot against one of the Kitschko brothers.

Carl Froch vs. George Groves possible for late 2013

froch305On Monday, the International Boxing Federation ordered IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (31-2, 22 KO’s) to start negotiations to defend his IBF title against mandatory challenger George Groves (19-0, 15 KO’s). The IBF gave a firm deadline by July 12th for Froch and Groves to come to an agreement for the fight unless he wants to lose his title by having it stripped from him.

Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn appears to be open to the idea of Froch facing Groves this year. After all, Hearn promotes both fighters so it’s an easy fight to make, and it’s one that he’s very interested in putting together. It could be the passing of the baton between the 35-year-old Froch and the 25-year-old Groves.

Crolla beats Rees by a controversial decision

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In a highly controversial decision, Anthony Crolla (26-4-1,9 KO’s) labored to a 12 round majority over Gavin (37-3-1, 18 KO’s) to grab the vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title at the Bolton Arena, Bolton, Lancashire, United Kingdom. The judges scores were 115-113 and 116-113 for Crolla, and 115-115 even. This was a really strange fight, because I’ve never seen a fighter get out-landed and outworked as much as I saw Crolla, and yet still win the fight. Talk about your controversial decisions.

It was a very questionable decision in that Rees landed more shots in every round of the fight, was the much busier guy in every round, and landed the cleaner shots. I saw Rees winning almost the rounds. The only rounds I could give Crolla were the 3rd and 11th, and even in those rounds, Rees outlanded him.

Crolla had the crowd in his favor big time in this fight, and the outcome was not surprising. Crolla was getting cheered even when he missing shots; whereas the crowd was deathly silent each time Rees landed, which quite often.

Gennady Golovkin vs. Matthew Macklin – Preview

738On the 29th of June, Matthew Macklin will be handed his third attempt at the professional fighter’s ultimate prize in challenging WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Although there are considerably more avenues to take than days gone by, even consideration for a shot at a World Title lets you know you’re on the right path.

Macklin has the experience of the big occasion, few come bigger than the opportunity for an ‘Irishman’ to face lb for lb great Sergio Martinez on St Patricks day at Madison Square Garden.

A fight Macklin lost, but maintained stock after a good showing even forcing the champion to touch down in the 8th round. Preceding the Martinez fight, Macklin dropped a hugely controversial decision to hometown champion Felix Sturm. A faded Sturm, a solid champion in his own right seemed a little gun shy and overwhelmed by the pace set by Macklin. Although he came on strong late on, I scored the fight in Macklin’s favour as did the majority of media members at ringside. Macklin’ had every right to feel aggrieved and who knows? Maybe third time will be a ‘charm’ for the ‘Irishman’.

Ricky Burns vs. Raymundo Beltran a done deal for September 7th in Glasgow, Scotland

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Raymundo Beltran (28-6, 17 KO’s) will be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ next challenger and the two will be fighting on September 7th at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Beltran is promoted by Top Rank, and if Burns beats him, Burns could then be facing undefeated Top Rank promoted lightweight Terrence Crawford in 2014, if Burns agrees to take the fight.

That’s a big IF because Burns had chances to fight Adrien Broner two occasions and he chose not to. Crawford is at least as dangerous as Broner, if not more, and the way that Burns looked in his last fight against Jose Gonzalez last month, it would be a really tough fight for Burns against Crawford.

Beltran’s a good fighter, but he’s also been beat twice in the last couple of years in defeats against Luis Ramos Jr. and Sharif Bogere. Let’s not get it twisted about what this fight is all about. Burn’s promoter is clearly putting him in with a guy that they feel he can beat and won’t be much of a threat to beat him.

Haye vs. Fury: The Curse of the Purse

haye54David Haye took to twitter this afternoon to quash the exciting rumour that a fight between himself and undefeated heavyweight Tyson Fury was close to being finalised.

“I did everything in my power to get Fury in the ring. Even gifting him a 50/50 split. But big chump won’t sign contract 4 the fans #AllTalk”, was the message the former WBA heavyweight champion delivered to his twitter follower population of almost 1 million fans.

“Can’t believe team haye outed me on twitter not very professional of you guys now where do I go from hear! I can’t blah any more”, replied Fury.