American heavyweight Kevin Johnson claims time spent in the company of Tyson Fury will serve him well ahead of a proposed April 25 collision with Anthony Joshua – because Fury is considerably better than the former Olympic champion.
Twenty-six-year-old Fury fights Christian Hammer this Saturday (February 28) at the O2 Arena, live on BoxNation, and Johnson was one of his main sparring partners in camp.
The Atlanta-native couldn’t have asked for a better kickstart to his own preparations.
In a top quality contest, Johannesburg’s Hekkie Budler (28-1, 9 kos) retained his WBA and IBO minimumweight titles with a unanimous twelve round decision over WBA number 2 contender Jesus Silvestre (30-6, 22 kos) in the main support to Gennady Golovkin – Martin Murray in Monte Carlo on Saturday night. The official scores were 117-110, 115-112, 115-112.
“The Hexecutioner” rated number one by Ring magazine was a clear victor (my score 116-111) but was made to work hard, especially in the opening few rounds when the former WBA interim titlist from Mexico came out attacking from the go.
Today is a day where there is life in the heavyweight scene and we have more than a handful of great fighters currently active. Many of the top guys around have already recorded a loss on their records though. This is mainly thanks to the Klitschko brothers who in the past had a habit of smashing undefeated heavyweights to bits once they stepped up. Today we can see guys like Povetkin, Pulev, Tarver, Solis, Cunningham, Mansour, Hammer, Stiverne, Perez, Szpilka, Chisora and Arreola all being rated as amongst the best heavyweights between them, despite having a lot of losses between them. But if we removed them from the equation that would be the best heavyweights out there, purely including the undefeated fighters only?
What I have come to learn from boxing fans over the years is that they are fickle, and hard to please. I certainly remember the days when I would tell myself, after Mayweather does this people will respect him, or, after Mayweather beats so and so people will respect him. What I have learnt now is that those who belittle Mayweather’s accomplishments today, are the people who will continue to do so until he retires. Some people simply refuse to accept that this man is by far the greatest boxer of this generation and anyone who refuses to put him inside the top 15 boxers pound for pound of all time is simply blind.
Ric Flair once said, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” Apparently, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez never adopted this philosophy.
Alvarez, whose audacity burns as bright as his fiery red hair, challenged American Floyd Mayweather Jr. to a twelve-round, 154lbs bout in 2013. The bout broke records, becoming the highest grossing boxing PPV of all time. The match also obliterated Canelo’s then-undefeated professional record. Boxing media and fans alike widely held that Mayweather’s victory over Alvarez that evening was significantly more lopsided than its split decision outcome reflected.1
“I just couldn’t find him,” said an exhausted and frustrated Alvarez following the loss.
The top two middleweights in the world squared it off at the Salle des Étoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco last night with the WBA/IBO regular and WBC interim titles at stake and it seemed only fair for this fight to take place in Europe. Both combatants grew up on opposite ends of this continent but one of them may have inadvertently wandered off it on a regular basis. Murray is strictly branded as a European although as an islander he might have second thoughts about continental bondage. Golovkin’s continental status is a little more complicated as he comes from Kazakhstan and this vast land stretches through parts of Europe and Central Asia. Golovkin could have walked at times with one leg in Europe and the other in Asia. His father is Russian and his mother is Korean, so GGG is the proverbial Eurasian by birth and by country.
David Price beat Irineu Beato Costa Junior via a sixth round TKO. Like Price, he had 2 losses on his record and was a decent fighter, but at the end of the day this is part of the rebuilding for Price and was a fight he was supposed to win. In 2012, Price was in a great place. He had just stopped domestic heavyweights Audley Harrison and Matt Skelton in a combined 3 rounds to defend his British and Commonwealth straps and was looking for an entry into the top of the world scene. Two back to back KO losses to Tony Thompson and he was back at the bottom and seemed to have nowhere to go. He decided to go through the slow process of rebuilding his reputation and in 2014 banked away three decent wins to start this process.
The impressive thing about Murrays performance was that he found a way to avoid enough of Golovkins work to survive and what he couldn’t avoid he took well. He was knocked down two times in the fourth round mainly due to body work from Golovkin, but would then rally and get it together through the later rounds. Before a third knockdown which came in the tenth. By the time the eleventh round began Murray was visibly fatigued and did not look as though he was going to be able to keep up the fight for another six minutes.
In an interview with ThaBoxingVoice, trainer for middleweight KO machine Gennady Golovkin – Abel Sanchez discussed a potential matchup between triple G and the former king of the 168lb division Andre Ward.
Ward was rated by many fans and media sources as the number 2 pound for pound fighter after Mayweather in the sport for a good amount of time. Legal troubles have kept him out of the ring with just one appearance since 2012 against an undefeated, but limited Edwin Rodriguez. That was an easy decision for Ward, but now with a new contract, fans are looking for Ward to get back in the mix against the best fighters out there.
![Malik Scott: “Antonio Tarver is a Prostitute in the Heavyweight Division” [Explicit Language]](https://www.boxing247.com/wp-content/uploads/Malik-Scott-Pic12.jpg "Boxing photo: Malik Scott image")
It’s been a while Malik, how’s it going?
M.S. I’m good bro, just training and getting ready to fight asap.
In your last fight, you got a big win over former title challenger Alex Leapai. How does it feel to get back in the win column and what has this victory done for your career?
M.S. Yeah the Leapai fight was good especially since I defeated him in his own country, but it felt good man. On to the next.