Evander Holyfield retires at age 51 – “The Real Deal” goes down in history as a true great

06/28/201406/27/2014 James Slater

Living legend and huge overachiever Evander Holyfield has officially retired from boxing at the age of 51. “The Real Deal” said that he has been unable to get fights and that he “don’t want to get hit.” The announcement will no doubt come as a relief to Holyfield’s fans and friends, as it looked until quite recently that the former four-time heavyweight ruler would stick around for what he hoped would be one last big fight.

Now that he has realised he has done more than enough in boxing, Evander can sit back and let the historians decide where they will rank him amongst the other boxing greats that lit up the sport. It’s almost a gimme that Holyfield – who retires with an overall record of 44-10-2 – 1 no-contest (29 KO’s) but a spotless 18-0 (14) as a cruiserweight – will go down as THE greatest cruiserweight of all-time. As to where he will be placed amongst the heavyweight immortals, the 1984 Olympic bronze medallist will probably be placed somewhere in the top-10, or at the very least just below the top-10.

Lara will use some of what Mayweather did against Canelo, says Shields

06/27/2014 Jeff Sorby

Ronnie Shields, the trainer for WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s), says they’ve studied Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr from last year and noticed some things that the 23-year-old Canelo did wrong in that fight. They plan on using some of the things that Mayweather did to the flat-footed Canelo to out-box him next month in their fight on July 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

“Lara is the master of making you adapt to his style,” Shields said to esnewsreporting.com. “Canelo is going to say ‘Ah oh, maybe I messed up; maybe I should have listened to my manager and not went to that fight. I should have gone to another fight.’ We’re going to take some of the things that Mayweather did and add it to our game plan for Canelo,” Shields said.

Is Gamboa’s fight against Crawford a last-gasp opportunity for him?

06/27/2014 Jeff Sorby

Former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) will be making one of his rare appearances this Saturday night in challenging WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) on HBO at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Like an aging celebrity entertainer, Gamboa’s appearances in the ring have become infrequent despite the fact that he’s not tasted the big money that many fighters of his talent level have. Gamboa hasn’t fought since last year when he struggled to defeat Darleys Perez by a less than impressive 12 round unanimous decision in June of 2013.

Crawford vs. Gamboa: The Guantánamo cyclone headed straight down tornado alley

06/28/201406/27/2014 Chris Carlson

Omaha gets its first title fight in over 40 years this Saturday on HBO with a matchup of speed, wits, and power that may not create explosive action. It will however bring us clarity at the division raising the winners profile at lightweight and beyond.

Yuriorkis Gamboa lived up to his nickname “The Guantánamo Cyclone”, when he stormed on to the American boxing landscape via Espn2 Friday Night Fights. After a few highlight reel knockouts HBO came knocking and Gamboa kicked the door down with his blistering hand speed, mixed with heavy hands and vulnerability.

The fans began to call for a lower weight super fight of sorts with Puerto Rican Juanma Lopez, who at the time was making waves with his volume punching and a 1st round knockout over Ponce De Leon. If it wasn’t one punch power, it was rapid fire combinations breaking punch stat records and his opponents will in the process.

Provodnikov willing to fight Bradley again on Timothy’s Terms

06/28/201406/26/2014 Vitali Shaposhnikov

Both Timothy Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov have suffered losses in their last fights.

Bradley wasn’t able to solidify his first victory against Manny Pacquiao which he claimed in June of 2012, and lost the rematch in April of this year via UD.

Provodnikov, who was considered a possible next opponent for Manny Pacquiao, lost that opportunity by losing his last fight to Chris Algieri via SD.

Now that both Bradley and Provodnikov are looking to reclaim their momentum, what could possibly be a better way than to offer the boxing fans a rematch between the two of them? After all, their first fight, which Bradley had won, was impressive and highly entertaining; with part of the boxing community still suggesting that Provodnikov should have been announced the winner that night.

Erislandy Lara Las Vegas Media Workout Quotes

06/26/2014 Mario Serrano

Photo: Ray Spencer – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions — Before he steps into the ring to face Mexican-superstar Canelo Alvarez, WBA Super Welterweight World Champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara worked out for the media and talked about his upcoming PPV main event on “Honor & Glory”.

Lara on if he was surprised that Canelo took the fight…

“Originally I thought he would never take the fight because I confronted him in person and he said, ‘No this is not how you make fights.’ Then after the fans saw that he was ducking me on Twitter, he had no choice but to be a man and take the challenge.”

Chisora Ready To Smash Fury´s Body

06/26/201406/26/2014 Queensberry Promotions

Dereck Chisora roared “There’s no place for Fury to hide” at his media work-out today as he builds towards the big showdown with rival Tyson Fury at Manchester’s Phones 4 U Arena on Saturday 26th July.

European Heavyweight Champion Chisora opened the doors to the media at his new Mill Hill gym and gave a glimpse of how he intends to make the first defeat on unbeaten Fury’s record.

The Finchley puncher was in a fiery mood with the fight just over a month away and says he’ll chop 6ft 9in Fury down to size with body shots.

Chisora and Fury clash in The Fight For The Right with the winner getting the number one spot to challenge reigning WBO king Wladimir Klitschko.

Crawford & Gamboa Interview Transcript

06/26/201406/26/2014 Top Rank

World Championship Boxing returns to Omaha for the first time in 42 years! Undefeated world champions TERENCE CRAWFORD, the Pride of Omaha, and Cuban sensation YURIORKIS GAMBOA, who boast identical 23-0 (16 KOs) professional ring records, will be battling for Crawford’s newly-won World Boxing Organization (WBO) lightweight title This Saturday! June 28, at the the CenturyLink Center in Omaha (455 North 10th St., Omaha, Neb. 68102). This will be the first world championship fight Omaha has hosted since Joe Frazier successfully defended his heavyweight title against Nebraska’s-own Ron Stander on May 25, 1972. It will also be a professional homecoming for Crawford, who has not fought in his home state since 2011. The fight will be televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark®, in its first-ever visit to Omaha, beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. The telecast will open with undefeated Top-Five contenders MATT KOROBOV and JOSE UZCATEGUI battling in a 10-round rumble for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title.

This exciting all-action doubleheader features four undefeated gladiators with a combined record of 91-0, 63 KOs.

Ruslan Chagaev “sparring” with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov

06/26/201406/26/2014 ESB

Former world heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev is wrapping up training camp for his July 6th WBA world championship bout against Puerto Rican veteran Fres Oquendo on Grozny, Russia. The “White Tyson” has done most of his preparation in the Chechen capital training not only with head coach Artur Grigorian and his manager Timur Dugazaev but also with a “political heavyweight”: Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov who is a huge boxing fan and used to be a decent amateur fighter himself.

Kadyrov is one of the main factors of the world title fight landing in Chechnya. The President and his government support the promotion and are turning Grozny into a huge boxing ring for the event

Burns faces Zlaticanin tonight in Glasgow

06/28/201406/26/2014 Bill Phanco

Former two weight world champ Ricky Burns (36-3-1, 11 KO’s) will be looking to convince his many doubters that he’s not an over-the-hill fighter when he faces the much smaller 5’6” Dejan Zlaticanin (18-0, 13 KO’s) tonight in a fight for the vacant WBC International lightweight title at the Braehead Arena, in Glasgow, Scotland.

At best, Burns could get a title shot against WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa if he wins tonight. At worse, Burns could face someone like #2 WBC Jorge Linares in a WBC eliminator with a win over Zlaticanin.