A former amateur and pro boxer, the one-time Central Area lightweight boss has subsequently served the game with honour as a trainer-second, manager and matchmaker.
Quiet, understated but hugely respected by his fellow licence holders, Mike was unanimously saluted when Darlington’s Stuey Hall – a lad he’d coached and managed since Hall’s formative pro years – annexed the IBF bantamweight title following an epic battle with South Africa’s Vusi Malinga in Marsden’s home city last December.
Photo by Rich Graessle/Main Events – This Saturday night’s HBO Doubleheader marks the return of knockout artist Sergey Kovalev, who crushed his way to the top of the light heavyweight division in 2013. His opponent is Cedric Agnew, a fighter who is both undefeated and untested.
The co-feature pits a fighter who recently reached contender status, Karim Mayfield against Thomas Dulorme, a former prospect to be reckoned with now trying to find his way back to the big leagues after his T.K.O. loss to Carlos Abregu.
Cedric Agnew and his sterling record of 26-0 with 13 KO’s, certainly looks the part to a person who just happens to be at home, channel surfing right around the time the ring announcer is giving introductions.
Hearn doesn’t have an opponent picked out for Cleverly yet, but suffice it to say that it won’t be anyone good enough to worry the 27-year-old fighter any. This is Cleverly’s cruiserweight debut, so Hearn will make sure that he matches him softly so there’s no chance of a mishap. Hearn almost blew it with his matching of Bellew against 37-year-old Valery Brudov this month in a fight that Bellew took a beating and was staggered at one point in the fight in the 7th round.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has some concerns about whether his aging money fighter 35-year-old Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) can get by his next opponent WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) on April 12th next month. Pacquiao didn’t look so great the last time he fought Bradley two years ago, and there’s no way of knowing if Pacquiao will be any better in the remain.
A loss for Pacquiao would likely be a huge blow for Arum, because it could become much more difficult to sell Pacquiao’s fights on pay-per-view. Pacquiao’s last fight against Brandon Rios drew only 475,000 last November, and you’ve got to figure that a defeat at the hands of Bradley won’t help matters for the Filipino star. That would be his third defeat in his last four fights.
We won’t have to wait too long before we witness the rematch between Carl Froch and George Groves, May 31st to be exact, which is being staged at a sold-out 80,000 capacity Wembley Stadium. So I thought I’d provide my own view of the controversial ending of their first encounter and also express an opinion on the likely outcome of the rematch itself.
Just to be clear, when reviewing the first fight, I believe that George Groves had a comfortable lead on the scorecards, despite whatever the official scorecards claimed, and also thought that the ref’s stoppage was premature. However, I’m convinced that this was a classic case of one punch too soon or one punch too late. I feel that Groves put the referee in a difficult situation by not defending himself effectively when he was on the receiving end of Froch’s relentless onslaught.
Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBA World Light Heavyweight Title against Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30 KOs) on April 5 in Rostock, Germany.
The reigning champion returns to Rostock for the first time since an ill-fated challenge for the WBA crown in 2008. With this defeat still fresh in his mind, Braehmer is adamant that history will not repeat itself when he faces Maccarinelli.
Q: Mr. Braehmer, what comes to your mind when you think of boxing in Rostock?
JB: That you should only step into the ring when you are fit to fight.
Q: Is this answer related to your missed world title opportunity in 2008?
This Friday night sees action return to the Malvern Town Hall, Victoria, Australia for the first time in 2014 in what is set to be an exciting night of action.
The six fight card will see leading Victorian stars, undefeated middleweight Michael Zerafa (14-0, 7 KOs) and light welterweight Terry Tzouramanis (11-1-3, 2 KOs) in action along with the comeback of Manny Vlamis (11-3, 8 KOs), returning after almost two years out of the ring.
It has recently been revealed that Carl Froch and George Groves will face each other in a rematch that is expected to take place on 31st May 2014. This is after of course the controversial ending of the Froch-Groves I, in which George Groves alleged that he was stopped too soon in the 9th round. News of this rematch started rumours that this match will be the biggest bout in Britain of 2014. I expect that above rumour will be proven, but with little possibility of a controversial ending like the first Froch-Groves bout ended.
During Wednesday’s conference call for Amir Khan and Luis Collazo, I had a chance to ask Collazo how he felt about being back on the big stage after he disappeared from the boxing spotlight. He responded by telling me that just talking about it made him emotional. Collazo says “I’m just grateful for this opportunity to be back on top of the boxing world”. He has given his life to god and said that he is no longer on his own time but ” Right now I’m on God’s time”.
Collazo hasn’t lost a fight since 2011 to Freddy Hernandez. Since then he has won four straight with his most recent fight being his most important. His victory over Victor Ortiz put him in the position to challenge Amir Khan as the co-main event to Mayweather-Maidana on Showtime PPV.
Former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) wants to not only beat 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) in their fight on May 17th, but also send Marquez into retirement. For Alvarado, it’s about redeeming himself from his recent 10th round stoppage loss at the hands of Ruslan Provodnikov and also doing it in a fashion where he sends Marquez into a permanent retirement. I guess it’s one of those two for the price of one deals.
“Redeeming myself and retiring the legend is even better,” Alvarado said to Radio Raheem. “I’m destined to be great. I’m good but I’m not better than good.”