Left-Hook Lounge: Wilder vs Wladi-K, Mayweather/Canelo, & Pacqiuao/Rios

floyd#19Curtis M. (Orlando, FL): Deontay Wilder seems to be catching steam, and lately there’s been talk of him facing Wladimir Klitschko. Do you give him a shot at winning if the fight were to happen within the next year or so?

Vivek W. (ESB): Wilder is one of the hottest rising prospects in the heavyweight landscape today. He has power, decent speed, and a little personality to sell himself. That being said, I have very mixed emotions on his chances if he were to face Wladimir Klitschko. I’m always very skeptical about fighters who enter the ring with so much knockout success in the past. Particularly young fighters on the rise. There’s always an untold story. In this case, I have the same questions. What happens when he faces someone who he can’t hurt, that also possess the power to hurt, and potentially even stop him?

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Kessler vowing to retire if he loses to Froch on May 25th

kessler#11We’ve seen IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) talk about retirement if he were to lose, and now WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) is saying he’ll retire if he loses to Froch in their fight this month on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

I don’t know that I believe that Kessler will retire no matter how bad he looks in getting beat by Froch, but I do think it’s a smart way to market the fight. When you make the retirement threat, boxing fans seem to pick up interest in the fight thinking that it could be the last time they see a particular fighter making the threat.

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Matthysse-Peterson this Saturday, May 18th in Atlantic City, New Jersey

peterson4Light welterweight Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) squares off against Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night in a Showtime televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Neither fighter will have their titles on the line, as the fight will take place at a catchweight of 141 lbs. It seems that neither guy wanted to put up their strap for the fight. Matthysse only had his WBC interim light welterweight title, and that wasn’t worth anything to Peterson. He wants the full title, not an interim strap.

However, the winner of this fight will be getting a lot more than if there was a title on the line. The winner gets to move onto face WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in an important bout that leads to Amir Khan waiting at the end of the line later on this year. That’s how Golden Boy Promotions set it up.

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Hearn: Burns won’t be fighting Gonzalez again

gonzalez54Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, won’t bother giving injured challenger Jose Gonzalez a chance for a rematch after he injured his left wrist and was halted in the 9th round last Saturday night.

Hearn wants to match Burns against IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez this September if he can put the fight together. That’s a big question mark because Burns and Vazquez were scheduled to fight each other not too long ago and the fight failed to come off.

It’s hard to imagine what Burns could gain from going back to this fight because it’s not as if Vazquez has a huge worldwide fan base. However, if Burns can capture another belt it might give him more respect from boxing fans.

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Mosley-Cano this Saturday, May 18th: Sugar Shane on comeback trail

cano54Still not willing to end his long 20-year pro career, 41-year-old Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO’s) will be back in this ring this Saturday night against the young 23-year-old powerful but deeply flawed Pablo Cesar Cano (26-2-1, 20 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Surely if Mosley can’t win this fight he should retire, right? Probably not. Mosley will likely keep trucking along with his career win or lose against Cano, and you have to wonder what’ll take for him to finally retire. Cano has losses to Paulie Malignaggi and a way past his best Erik Morales. Cano took a real beating by Morales I getting stopped in the 10th round in September 2011.

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Rios: Pacquiao made a mistake in picking me to fight

rios434Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) expects to make former 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) sorry for picking him to fight in their upcoming November 24th in the tax friendly [at least for Pacquiao] Macau, China.

Rios thinks he was selected because Pacquiao and his team see him as an easy mark, a guy that Pacquiao can beat without too much trouble. Rios doesn’t like that and he wants to make them sorry for selecting him.

Rios said this as quoted by the Bostonherald.com “He picked me because I lost. They probably think ‘Brandon is easy to hit. Brandon gets hit all the time.’ It’s a very different story when you get in the ring with me. They made a mistake in picking me.”

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Malignaggi: Broner is easy work for me

malignaggi231Despite being an underdog in his fight next month against unbeaten Adrien Broner (26-0, 23 KO’s), WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) sees his fight with Broner as being one of his more easier ones he’d had in his 12-year-old career when the two meet up on June 22nd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Broner said on his social media site yesterday: “Can’t sleep a lot on my mind.”

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Burns complains he couldn’t get video of Gonzalez before fight

burns43In what appears to be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) making a partial excuse for his poor performance last Saturday night in beating Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) by a 9th round stoppage, Burns complained after the fight that he hadn’t been able to study Gonzalez going into the fight because of the lack of video out there on the 29-year-old fighter from Puerto Rico.

Gonzalez had been flying under the radar for so long in fighting less than world class opposition during his 5-year pro career that there just wasn’t much for Burns to see of him on video.

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Espinoza optimistic Mayweather vs. Canelo fight will happen in September

alvarez1Showtime Vice President of Sports Stephen Espinoza feels confident that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight will take place on September 14th in Las Vegas, Nevada, as he says the negotiations between Mayweather and Canelo’s team are underway.

Espinoza said to AP “I think the biggest fight out there is Mayweather vs. Canelo. So far the negotiations are going well and I think everyone involved is working to make it happen.”

There’s no word about what weight the fight will take place at.

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Deontay Wilder apologizes to UK fans for travel problems for Chisora fight

wilder364Unbeaten heavyweight Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) showed his class in apologizing to his UK boxing fans for his possible problems with traveling to the UK right now to face Dereck Chisora (16-4, 10 KO’s) next month on June 15th.

The Chisora-Deontay fight was announced last week, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen next month unless Deontay can take care of his legal problems from his arrest on May 4th for domestic battery.

Deontay said on his twitter: “To my UK fans I am super sorry guys may have some travel issues I didn’t know about. I may not be able to go to England right now.”

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