http://youtu.be/f4XJKZPbVAw
If you fancy yourself a heavyweight boxing fan, especially American heavyweights with an exciting style, then undefeated prospect Gerald Washington (14-0, 10KO) is someone you need to keep an eye on. The 6’6” 250 pound physical specimen turned pro two summers ago at the advanced age of 30. And it’s been quite a journey that has led the California native to the ring.
Floyd Mayweather claimed his 47th win against Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
“Mayhem” was a massive event just like all Floyd Mayweather’s fights have become. It’s not just a fight but an event, and a global event at that.
Stars from the world of sports, film, music and fashion fly into Las Vegas just to watch Floyd fight.
Fight week started with fighter arrivals on Tuesday, Floyd had his final press conference on Wednesday. Thursday was the undercard press conference, with fan workouts and autograph signing, and a screening at Bleacher’s madhouse for the fans in the evening. Friday was the weigh in, where Rick Ross took the stage to entertain the 10,000 strong crowd before Floyd and Marcos Maidana took centre stage.
Canada`s Bermane “B. Ware” Stiverne became the World Boxing Council (“WBC”) Heavyweight Champion after he defeated Chris Arreola on May 10, 2014 when he landed two crushing knockdowns in the sixth round that prompted the referee to quickly halt the bout. This victory enabled him to become the first Haitian-born heavyweight world title holder. Stiverne possesses an outstanding record of 24-1-1 with 21 victories coming by way of knockout.
He`s unbeaten in his last thirteen bouts and among those wins have come against Arreola in their first bout, Ray Austin, Franklin Lawrence and Demetrice King. Over the past couple of years, Stiverne collected the WBC Silver World Champion, WBC International Champion, World Boxing Association Fedelain Champion and the WBC USNBC Champion. The hard hitting orthodox boxer who has knocked out 81% of his opponents, will be making his first title defense against the undefeated yet untested, mandatory challenger, Deontay Wilder, 32-0, 32KOs. Stiverne and Wilder matchup should be an outstanding all action slugfest between two top ten heavyweight boxers, which fight fans will be sure to enjoy.
Layton F. (Brooklyn, NY): I never thought I’d see the day, but to me, Floyd Mayweather looked old and out of sorts. I just didn’t think he looked the same. Is it safe to say that he’s no longer the guy he was?
Vivek W. (ESB): The old adage has it that “time waits for no man”! Oddly, we’ve seen Floyd Mayweather dominate for so long that we’ve grown accustomed to the notion that he’s some blind exception to the rule, and unfortunately, this is not the case. While there were some points that just didn’t quite seem normal for him, statistically, we see the same level of success. From day one, Mayweather’s statistics have been mid to high 50 percentile (or greater) in offensive connection rates; all while holding the opponent down to a very low 20 percentile connection rate in exchange. Has he been touched a bit more lately? Certainly seems that way, but again, all percentages remain intact, so is he truly “slippin” (as Steven A. Smith of ESPN went on record to say)?
Boxing is at it’s most exciting when it’s highly skilled, competitive, back and forth fighting with plenty of drama. It peaks when a fighter is hurt and the crowd screams as killer instincts and the will to survive are on full display.
It’s rare to get life changing fights, both for the fighters and fans, such as the grueling Castillo vs. Corrales, but once in a while, a fight has all the right elements to captivate the public. A shaken Froch, climbing off the canvas to slowly dominate Groves and score a controversial stoppage, brought in an 80,000 plus crowd to Wembley stadium for the rematch.
What’s next? Who’s next? Video or no video, spank or don’t spank. There doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the finger pointing, the accusations, and disbelief in the sporting world. Football, baseball, cycling, track and field, politicians and on and on with offenses and misdeeds that bombard the public.
Boxing is no exception. Left and right our kids’ heroes tumble, leaving responsible parents outraged, and squirming when forced to explain away disturbing and embarrassing news. They, above all, know Innocent children need help in understanding why their hero is no longer worthy of their admiration.
The Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora card just got a whole lot better with the news that middleweight contenders Chris Eubank Jr (17-0, 12 KOs) and Billy Joe Saunders (20-0, 11 KOs) will be facing each other on the undercard on November 29th at the Excel Arena in London, England.
Saunders and Eubank Jr have been taking verbal shots at each other for the past few months and now they get the chance to prove themselves.
Saunders, 25, missed out on fighting for the vacant WBO middleweight crown when the WBO opted to let WBO 154lb champion Demetrius Andrade move up in weight to fight for the vacant WBO middleweight title against #1 WBO Matt Korobov (24-0, 14 KOs) instead of letting Saunders, #2 WBO, get the shot. The logical choice would have been to have Saunders fighting Korobov for the WBO title, because Saunders was the next highest ranked contender for the vacant belt. But Andrade applied for the spot and was given the shot ahead of Saunders.
In the past week, former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) has ratcheted up the pressure on WBA/WBC 147lb champion Floyd Mayweather Jr in his efforts to try and get a fight against the superstar fighter.
Khan has been quite interested in getting a fight against Mayweather for years now, but he’s now highly interested after seeing his recent fight against Marcos Maidana last Saturday night.
Khan says Mayweather has slowed and no longer looks like the fighter he once was earlier in his career. Khan feels that he’s now beatable for him if he can only get Mayweather to say yes to a fight with him.
ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas feels that WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) did just enough to win last Saturday night in his 12 round unanimous decision victory over Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Atlas thinks Mayweather played it safe too much by holding, running and throwing pot shots instead of standing and trading with the hard hitting Maidana. Atlas thinks that if a prime Sugar Ray Leonard was in the ring with Maidana last Saturday night, he would have knocked him out with his combinations and power punching.
On Saturday night Floyd Mayweather did what he was supposed to do earlier this May – dominate Marcos Maidana. The rematch billed “Mayhem” turned out to be anything but, as boxing’s pound for pound king pitched a near shutout in front of 16,144 fans at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.
Mayweather, clearly more focused this time around, kept the match in the center of the ring and moved or held to avoid taking punishment from his slower, plodding opponent. Other than a flush right hand Maidana landed at the very end of the third round and a bizarre hand biting incident in the eighth, this was pretty much a glorified sparring session. Punch stats tell the story, as the Argentinian slugger threw more, but landed at less than half the rate than Floyd did. Marcos landed just 17% of his jabs (41-237) and 26% of his power punches (87-335), while “Money” landed 43% of his jabs (64-149) and an astonishing 58% of his power shots (102-177). It was target practice, and Floyd’s holding and mauling tactics quelled “Chino’s” attack. Compare that to the first bout, where Maidana threw almost as many power punches (540) as he did total punches (572) in the rematch.