Floyd Mayweather’s first retirement from boxing came after his knockout win against Ricky Hatton in December 2007, when Floyd famously nailed Hatton with a picture perfect check hook. There weren’t many boxing people who believed the retirement was permanent, but it was an official retirement nonetheless. Mayweather would ultimately return to the ring in 2009, and would go on to have 10 fights. He won all 10 of them. How good were these wins, and how did they impact his legacy?
A couple of days ago, reigning IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua put out a Tweet telling would-be challengers to leave him alone as far as asking for a shot at him unless they are “serious” and not mere hype jobs. Well, fellow Brit and former British champion David Price saw the Tweet and responded to it by stating he wants to fight A.J for his IBF belt. But that’s not all: with his challenge, Price told of a story regarding how he knocked Joshua out in sparring a few years back.
Irish hero and recently crowned WBA featherweight champion Carl Frampton returned home to, well, a hero’s welcome yesterday evening in his native Belfast. Greeted by thousands of fans, who lined up on the lawn of the Belfast City Hall, two-weight ruler Frampton looked to be genuinely moved by the affection his fans gave him. Already being called the greatest Irish fighter in history, Frampton, 29-years-old and currently 23-0(14) wants to put a seal on this by becoming a three-weight king.
Miguel Flores (21-0, 9 KOs) defeated Ryan Kielczweski (25-2, 7 KOs) by unanimous decision (97-93, 96-94, 96-94) in the 10-round main event of Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN and ESPN Deportes from Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
In an action-packed fight during which both fighters threw over 750 punches, the Houston native Flores was slightly more fluid and able to do enough work on the inside to keep his unblemished record intact.
On Sunday, August 21, undefeated rising star Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. (20-0, 17 KOs) is set to take on once-beaten contender Leonard “The Lion” Bundu (33-1-2, 12 KOs) in a 12-round welterweight world title eliminator that headlines Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on NBC Sunday, August 21 from Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk in Brooklyn.
The action on NBC begins at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT following coverage of the Olympic Men’s Basketball Gold Medal game. While much of the focus and buildup to the event has been on the 2012 US Olympian Spence Jr., there is another fight on the card that has the boxing world buzzing with anticipation and that is the WBC International Women’s featherweight championship between Brooklyn’s Heather “The Heat” Hardy and her longtime rival Shelly “Shelito’s Way” Vincent, of Providence, RI.
This evening, at Verona’s Turning Stone Casino, a promising featherweight named Miguel Flores (20-0,9KO’s) will face against another prospect with some talent, “The Polish Prince” Ryan Kielczweski (25-1,7 KO’s), in the main event of Premier Boxing Champion’s latest card. Based on what I’ve seen of these two, this seems like a good, even match-up between two similarly talented boxers. Of equal importance, it’s got the potential to be fun to watch given their respective styles. Flores appears to be the superior technician, but Kielcweski seems to have the edge in terms of speed and mobility. Neither of them possesses world ending power, but they’ve both proved themselves to be willing to engage in the trenches when required, and capable of returning fire after getting tagged.
Former world champion Lucian Bute learned late yesterday afternoon that the test of his “B” sample was positive, as was his “A” sample, which was no surprise and these findings were welcomed by Lucian and his team.
When the initial announcement of the positive result revealed Ostarine, Lucian didn’t understand what could have happened, hence his disbelief of the situation yet hope regarding test results of his sample “B”. At that time it was announced extensive research would be conducted to find out what really happened. Today, more than ever, Lucian says he never knowingly used illegal products during his illustrious career in professional boxing.
Despite what transpired back in May of this year, or perhaps because of what happened – with Deontay Wilder’s big-money and important fight with Alexander Povetkin falling apart due to well documented reasons, leaving Wilder, who had trained hard with nothing to show for it, feeling very frustrated – Wilder says he still desperately wants to fight Povetkin. Speaking with RingTV.com, the reigning WBC heavyweight champ says he cannot stop thinking about the fight.
It looked like WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders would appear on the big September 17th card in Las Vegas topped by Canelo Alvarez against Britain’s defending WBO 154-pound champion Liam Smith, but now, with Saunders turning down a fight with tough and experienced warrior Gabriel Rosado, it seems unlikely the southpaw will be making his U.S debut next month.
And Rosado, who says he signed a contract to fight Saunders “a week ago,” has torn into the unbeaten Brit on Twitter, calling Saunders “a coward.”
When they met in May of 2011, James DeGale and George Groves were fresh, young and unbeaten super-middleweight prospects. A whole lot has happened since the majority decision win picked up by Groves. Of the two, DeGale has managed to become a world champion, currently holding the IBF crown he won by defeating Anthony Dirrell last year, while Groves has thrice fallen short: losing two massive fights with Carl Froch and, more recently, being out-pointed by Badou Jack.