Gamboa added to list of possible opponents for Pacquiao’s April 12th fight

01/14/201401/14/2014 Rob Smith

In a not so surprising move, Top Rank is adding lightweight Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) into the mix for April 12th fight of their star Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the Manila Bulletin. At this point Top Rank really needs a body for Pacquiao that has a good record, and who won’t price himself out.

Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz will be meeting with Bob Arum of Top Rank on Tuesday to discuss Pacquiao’s next fight, and decide on which of the three will be a good option.

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Ricky Burns: Crawford fight will be difficult for me

07/31/201401/14/2014 Rob Smith

After two years as the WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) may be reaching the end of the line as the champion after four title defenses. He dodged a bullet against Raymundo Beltran last September in being given a 12 round draw, and he lucked out in halting Jose Gonzalez last year in May in a fight that he was losing. However, Burns’ luck might be at an end when he faces the unbeaten Terence Crawford on March 1st at the Scottish Exhibition Center in Glasgow, Scotland.

Burns is a very good fighter and he’ll try every trick in the book in an effort to beat Crawford, but it might not be good enough. Burns appears to be overmatched in this fight, and he’s going to need to come up with the perfect fight strategy for him to come out ahead on March 1st.

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Hopkins sees Kovalev as easy fight for him

07/31/201401/13/2014 Jeff Sorby

IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) may never get a chance to fight WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KO’s) due to them fighting on different cable networks, but that’s not stopping Hopkins from giving his opinion about how he’d do against the Russian fighter if he ever did fight him. Hopkins, who turned 49 this Wednesday, thinks Kovalev would be an even easier fight for him than his fight with Kelly Pavlik.

Hopkins believes that Kovalev is a fighter with only one dimension, and be figures he’d soundly beat him if the two ever fought. The fact that they probably never will fight gives Hopkins the chance to talk as much as he’d like without having to actually prove himself against Kovalev in the ring.

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Chavez Jr-Vera set for March 1st in San Antonio, Texas

01/13/2014 Kevin Chittenden

Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) has signed his contract for a rematch against Brian Vera (23-7, 14 KO’s) on March 1st on HBO at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This time there will be a $250,000 weight penalty for Chavez Jr. if he can’t make the weight for the fight. As of now, it’ll be at 168 lbs., but it’ll be interesting to see if this weight will be nudged forward to the 170s like in his fight with Vera last September.

That weight ended up taking place at 173 lbs., and even then Chavez Jr. looked incredibly emaciated when weighing in. During the fight, Chavez Jr. looked as big as a cruiserweight, and one can only guess how heavy he was. Vera ended outworking Chavez Jr. and getting robbed in the eyes of many fans. Chavez Jr. looked good enough to win 3-4 rounds at best, and it was hard to understand what the three judges saw in his performance that made them score the fight for him.

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Canelo-Angulo undercard looking kind of thin

01/13/2014 Bill Phanco

For Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s first pay-per-view head-lining fight against Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) on March 8th, Golden Boy Promotions is in the process of stacking the undercard with generally smaller fighters that the casual boxing fans will have a hard time recognizing. This is probably not the wisest move for Golden Boy and Canelo do because the Canelo vs. Angulo fight is hardly a PPV quality fight, and Golden Boy could be making things worse by stacking the undercard with generally smaller guys.

What this card needs is the Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana II rematch and/or Canelo facing Erislandy Lara instead of Angulo, a fighter who was just knocked out. Golden Boy and Canelo need to re-think the idea of making this fight card a PPV bout because it’s doubtful that fans are going to want to pay to see a mismatch in the main event and then 2 mismatches in the undercard.

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Eddie Hearn says Froch-Groves II could sell out an 80,000 arena in UK! (but will it happen?)

01/13/2014 James Slater

Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn spoke with Sky Sports today, on the subject of whether or not we will see a return bout between bitter British rivals Carl Froch and George Groves. Fans everywhere have craved a sequel ever since the November clash between the two super-middleweights thrilled and then ended controversially, with Froch retaining his super-middleweight titles via what was widely viewed as a premature 9th-round TKO.

Hearn says he feels a return will take place:

“I think there’s a great chance,” Hearn told Sky Sports on the possibility of a Froch-Groves II. “I think it comes down to pride and ego at the end of the day, and of course a lot of money. As a fan and a promoter it’s the biggest fight out there. I know we could have this at a huge stadium and have 60, 70, 80,000 people. It was a tremendous fight last time and taking away the controversy, it was one of the best fights I’ve ever seen. A rematch could be even bigger. If I was a betting man I think we are going to get there. I hope we do.”

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Left-Hook Lounge: Broner/Maidana II, Mayweather/Pacquiao, Top Rank (Cold War)

01/13/2014 Vivek Wallace

Kelvin Y. (Atlanta, GA): It was recently reported that Adrien Broner secured his option to take an immediate rematch against Marcos Maidana. What are your thoughts about his chances of winning the rematch and what a win or loss would do for him in the aftermath?

Vivek W. (ESB): A few weeks ago when Broner was humbled by Maidana, I felt at the time that his best move would be to go down to 140lbs and allow himself to slowly develop into the welterweight division. There’s a huge misconception that just because a fighter walks around at a weight, he can fight at that weight. Broner learned the reality behind this flawed train of thought quickly in the first round when he realized he was standing across from a man who could hurt him that he didn’t have as much ability to hurt in return. I expect the rematch to be very interesting, but unlike many, I don’t know that I really see a different outcome in the end. The biggest issues I saw with Broner in the fight were his inability to adapt, his limited head movement, and what I also perceived to be a conditioning issue.

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Pacquiao doubts Mayweather wants to fight him

08/01/201401/13/2014 Bill Phanco

Manny Pacquiao has reached the point where he now suspects that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not serious about ever fighting him. Pacquiao notes that Mayweather Jr. has been asking him to agree to an ever increasing amount of things before he’ll agree to fight him. It was originally drug testing, but now Mayweather wants him to leave his promoter Bob Arum before he’ll think about fighting him.

The thing is there’s no guarantee that Mayweather will actually fight Pacquiao even if he does leave Arum. That would put Pacquiao in a situation where he could wind up leaving Arum for no reason if Mayweather decides he still doesn’t want to fight him.

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Mayweather Sr: Amir Khan’s got a glass jaw

08/01/201401/13/2014 Rob Smith

Floyd Mayweather Sr. has zero worries about whether his son Floyd Jr. can successfully defeat Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana if he faces either one of them next on May 3rd. It’s widely thought that Mayweather will be fighting one of these two fighters next at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, but Mayweather Sr. doesn’t see either of them as giving Floyd Jr. a competitive fight.

“Both of them easy. Two easy fights; both of them is easy. Maidana might have punching power, but you still can’t hit what you can’t see,” Mayweather Sr. said to Hustleboss. So that’s going to put Maidana under a tree. Amir Khan’s got a glass jaw. And if you look at it too hard, it’ll shatter.”

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Stafford thinks Broner will beat Maidana in the rematch if he starts fast

07/31/201401/13/2014 Jeff Sorby

Mike Stafford, the trainer for former WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner, thinks he can beat Marcos Maidana in the rematch if Broner comes out quickly fighting at the pace he was at in the last half of his loss to Maidana last month on December 14th in San Antonio, Texas. Broner lost the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but you can put most of the responsibility for Broner’s loss on him starting off too slowly in the first 6 rounds.

Broner fought like he was half asleep during the first part of the fight, as he threw few punches and he let Maidana have control over the action. It was like Broner gave the fight to Maidana, at least that part of the fight. When Broner did rally in the 2nd half, he so far behind that he needed a knockout to win, and that wasn’t going to happen.

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