Month: September 2012

Tim Bradley could wind up out in the cold if Pacquiao chooses Marquez to fight next

Tim Bradley could wind up out in the cold if Pacquiao chooses Marquez to fight nextBy Rob Smith: With Manny Pacquiao possibly ready to make his pick this weekend for his December 8th fight, it’s expected that 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez will selected by Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum for his next fight. However, this leaves Pacquiao’s recent conqueror WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) out in the cold with no opponent for his next fight. Bradley intentionally waited all this time to see if Pacquiao would want to fight him and he’s now on the verge of having nothing to show for it.

Miguel Cotto won’t be around to fight Bradley, and if he was he wouldn’t waste time fighting this guy. Bradley is going to have to look to defend his World Boxing Organization strap against the best possible contender, unless he’s interested in milking his title agaisnt the lowest rank WBO contender in order to have a better chance of holding onto the WBO strap long enough to get another shot at fighting Pacquiao.

There only a limited amount of options in Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable, meaning that Bradley is almost guaranteed a shot against Pacquiao at some point in the future as long as Bradley remains with Top Rank. Arum likes to put together in house fights with he matches Pacquiao, so Bradley should be getting a crack at the Filipino fighter at some point next year.

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Pacquiao could make decision on next opponent today, says Arum

Pacquiao could make decision on next opponent today, says ArumBy Rob Smith: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that Manny Pacquiao could make decision about his December 8th fight as early as today, according to the LA Times. The field has been reduced to two fighters – Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez – after Miguel Cotto dropped out of the race to take a December 1st fight against WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout.

It’s unclear if Cotto was really ever a serious option because Arum and Pacquiao both wanted a catchweight of 150 lbs, and Cotto had already been the receiving end of one catchweight fight with Pacquiao in 2009. That one didn’t go too well with Cotto. You can’t blame him for not wanting to boil down a second time to accommodate Pacquiao on the weight requirement, especially after Floyd Mayweather Jr. agreed to fight Cotto at the full weight for the division last May.

Arum has all the important pay per view figures at hand and he’s discovered that “60 percent of the pay per view households are Hispanic” in the United States, according to the LA Times. This obviously is going to help shape his decision to likely go with Marquez as the one to face Pacquiao on December 8th. In reading a lot of the comments that Arum has made in the past month, it seems that he’s been dialed in towards a Pacquiao-Marquez rematch from the very start.

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Geale to have it tough against Sturm in Germany

Geale to have it tough against Sturm in GermanyBy Dwight Chittenden: IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) has really got a tough task on his hands on Saturday night against the longstanding WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) when they face off in their unification bout at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Geale, 31, has never really fought anyone with the kind of boxing skills that the 33-yer-old Sturm has going for him, and it’s going to tough for him to try and beat Sturm at his own game.

Geale has battled his way to the top more because of of his boxing skills than his limited power. He doesn’t have the kind of strength that can give him an edge against if he’s unable to box his way to a decision. It’s going to be hard enough as it is trying to win a decision in Sturm’s home country of Germany, because the fans will be cheering everything that Sturm does in the fight. Getting a decision is going to be hard for Geale unless he can knock Sturm down two or three times to cement the victory.

It’s not good that Geale struggled to beat Sebastian Sylvester in the past in 2011. Against the same fighter, Sturm easily beat Sylvester without any problems in a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision victory in November 2008. Sturm picked Sylvester apart with his jab and never let him get into the fight.

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Hearn doesn’t see Golovkin-Proksa fight going the distance

Hearn doesn't see Golovkin-Proksa fight going the distance(Photo credit Ed Keenan/K2 Promotions) By Marcus Richarson: Matchroom Sport promoter Barry Hearn, the promoter for Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KO’s), doesn’t see tomorrow night’s fight between IBO/WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and the 27-year-old Proksa going the full 12 rounds when they meet in this HBO televised fight at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, New York, United States.

Hearn said to RingTV “Both have huge knockout percentage. Both have the ability to take men out with single shots, and I think HBO is in for an exciting fight. If it goes the distance, I’ll be surprised.”

It probably won’t go the distance, and Hearn is right about both guys having a ton of power. Both guys can legitimately end the fight with a single shot. However, it’s going to be a little tougher for Proksa because he really only has power in his left hand, and he can’t fight on the inside at all because of his style of fighting. He fights a lot like former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, and like him, Proksa can’t fight well on the inside. He’s kind of lost when in close and mostly just looks to hold. Golovkin has already said that he plans on taking the fight to Proksa on Saturday, to get real close and force him to fight an inside game.

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