After Dieli got back to his feet, Warrington unloaded on him with a flurry of shots that resulted in Dieli’s corner tossing in the towel to have the fight stopped. The official time of the stoppage was 1:42. Warrington doesn’t usually score knockouts, but he had the right opponent in front of him tonight for him to make that happen.
Unbeaten #1 WBO Matt Korobov (24-0, 14 KOs) and #3 WBO Andy Lee (33-2, 23 KOs) will be tangling for the vacant WBO middleweight title in early December in the UK, according to promoter Frank Warren. The fight has been agreed on.
The winner of the Korobov-Lee fight will then possibly face #2 WBO Billy Joe Saunders (20-0, 11 KOs) if Saunders defeats #9 WBO Chris Eubank Jr (17-0, 12 KOs) in their November 29th domestic level match-up at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, United Kingdom.
It’s a tough ask for Saunders to defeat Eubank Jr in order to get to the Korobov-Lee winner, because that’s a really tough test for the 25-year-old Saunders to have to pass for him to face the likes of Korovbov or Lee.
Perhaps Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn knew what he was doing by making the November 22nd rematch between Tony Bellew (22-2-1, 14 KOs) and Nathan Cleverly 28-1, 14 KOs) a pay-per-view fight on Sky Box Office from the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom. The fight card, which includes the likes of James DeGale, Anthony Joshua, Callum Smith, Stephen Smith, Scott Quigg, and Jamie McDonnell, sold out in just 48 hours after the tickets went on sale.
That’s pretty impressive. The Bellew-Cleverly 2 fight is a decent one, but hardly what you’d call a great one. Neither of these guys have the talent to win a world title at cruiserweight in my view, but that still didn’t stop their fans from quickly buying out the tickets in just 2 days.
Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions has high hopes for the proposed pay-per-view fight next year between Golden Boy’s flagship fighter former WBA/WBC junior middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) and WBC 160lb champ Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) on HBO. De La Hoya is projecting that this fight will bring in close to 2 million pay-per-view buys.
This is a huge number when you look at the fact that the recent pay-per-view fights for both guys have been around 300,000. De La Hoya is assuming that when you get Cotto and Canelo together, it’ll bring a much bigger number than when they’re facing other opposition.
When Eddie Hearn described Josh Warrington as “The biggest ticket seller in the country right now” he wasn’t kidding. Alone, Warrington has shifted 1500+ tickets, for what is the first fight in a bumper 5 fight deal with Matchroom, that’s no joke, in fact it’s a following that would embarrass many World Champions.
WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) says he has no specific game plan for his fight next month against the more experienced and much older 49-year-old IBF/WBA 175 pound champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) on November 8th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
Kovalev’s style of fighting is one oriented around him going all-out in an attack mode to try and score a quick knockout. He’s throws a lot of heavy combinations, putting a massive of pressure on his opponents. His opposition generally fold pretty quickly even with them fighting 100% a defensive fight. They’re unable to stand up to Kovalev’s power for long with him throwing combinations with huge power.
The Kovalevs are expecting their son any day now, with the official due date scheduled for October 17. Despite the stress and distractions that come with expectant-parenthood, the 31-year-old Kovalev assured everyone at his media day at Wolf Total Fitness in Big Bear City, Calif. yesterday that his focus is still fixated 100 percent on Hopkins, “I’m living for this fight. Only for this fight. I’m leaving for Florida when my [first] baby is due. I’ll be in training camp in Florida because this is the most important thing in my life right now.”
Light Welterweight prospect fights Juan Montiel in his Top Rank debut
By Paul “Paparazzi” Jones & Justin Jones | Photo © Daniel Kucin, Jr.
Undefeated Junior Welterweight Mike “Yes Indeed” Reed, 10-0 with 6 KOs, takes an important step in his pro career when he faces Juan Montiel (7-6-3, 2 KOs) this Saturday in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The six-round bout, featured on the undercard of the Junior Middleweight matchup between Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia (21-1, 13 KOs) and Donatas Bondorovas (18-5-1, 6 KOs), marks the first contest for Reed as a Top Rank fighter. While there is pressure to validate his signing, the 21-year-old Reed is not concerned about succumbing to it.
Eddie Hearn and Matchroom have taken the opportunity of what promises to be a raucous occasion to assemble a deep card, packed with notable names from their growing stable.
Returning to action in the chief supporting bout, this time at Light Welterweight is former two-weight World Champion Ricky Burns. The Scotsman contests what appears to be a routine 8-rounder against Frenchman Alexandre Lepelly (17-1-1 3KO’s). Burns (36-4-1 11KO’s) now under the tutelage of Tony Sims, comes into the fight on the back of 3 straight defeats (If you correctly count the Raymundo Beltran debacle as a defeat) and will take the opportunity to feel his way into a new weight class, against a fighter not renowned for his punching ability.
In a rather dull fight, Former WBO 160 pound title holder Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (31-1, 18 KOs) beat Curtis Stevens (27-5, 20 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight to earn himself a shot at the winner of the fight this month between IBF middleweight champ Sam Soliman and former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor.
As expected, N’Dam did an awful lot of moving to keep out of the way of the harder punching Stevens in their fight at the Barker Hangar, in Santa Monica, California, USA. Stevens walked into a right hand in the 8th round and was knocked down. N’Dam foolishly tried to finish Stevens off, and got caught with a couple of big right hands from Stevens. Those shots from Stevens changed N’Dam’s mind about trying to score a knockout.