Even after ascending to the position of #1 contender in 1977, Marvin Hagler’s title shot was not forthcoming. His wait as the division’s top challenger – lasting over 2 years – became the longest in middleweight history.
Early on in Hagler’s career, heavyweight royalty, Joe Frazier, warned the young middleweight why promoters and their showpiece fighters would want nothing to do with him:
“You have three strikes against you: you’re black, you’re a southpaw and you’re good.”
Big Bear Lake, California/Sheffield, England (September 2, 2016) Boxing Superstar and Unified Middleweight World Champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, (35-0, 32 KO’s) and Undefeated British Boxing Star and Welterweight World Champion “The Special One” Kell Brook, (36-0, 25KO’s) have both weighed in within the World Boxing Council’s (‘WBC’) required 7-day limits heading into their highly anticipated international showdown at The O2 on Saturday, September 10 in London, England.
If the plans top British promoter Frank Warren has come to fruition, there will be a huge night for British heavyweight boxing taking place on October 29th. It will also be a huge night for the two Fury’s, Tyson and Hughie. As fans know, Oct. 29 is the working date (still, despite all that has happened) for the eagerly awaited Fury-Klitschko II, and Warren has written in his column in The Star how this mega-fight will indeed happen – “I expect an announcement to confirm everything is going ahead as planned soon” – and that Hughie Fury will face unbeaten Mexican/American Andy Ruiz Jr on the under-card.
Say what you want about the Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook fight, but don’t forget that everyone is talking about it! Everyone, and I mean everyone, has an opinion on this fight – a marvellous promotion that has brought a genuine buzz, not only to British boxing, but to world boxing – and the September 10 showdown has to be looked at as one of the biggest fights of the year.
Sugar Ray Leonard has thought about this fight and how it will play out, so too have the likes of Carl Froch, Tony Bellew, Naseem Hamed, Martin Murray, Carson Jones, David Haye and Amir Khan. But one man whose opinion has not perhaps been sought out as much as it should have been is Sheffield’s Clinton Woods, the former long-reigning IBF light-heavyweight champion. Now running his own gym in The Steel City, Woods – who fought his own super fights against the likes of Roy Jones Junior, Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver – says he has “a feeling” about the upcoming fight.
Heavyweight great Lennox Lewis, who today celebrates his 51st birthday, really did win everything there was worth winning during his amateur and pro career. Born in London in 1965 and relocating to Canada at the age of 12, Lewis achieved the following:
He boxed in two Olympics, 1984 in Los Angeles and 1988 in Seoul, capturing gold in his second Olympic adventure.
Lewis, upon turning pro with Frank Maloney (now Kellie Maloney) soon captured the Commonwealth, the British and the European titles.
BoxNation subscribers are set to enjoy a blockbuster next few weeks starting with pound-for-pound king Roman Gonzalez who moves up in weight to take on undefeated knockout artist and WBC super-flyweight world champion Carlos Cuadras.
The unbeaten three-time world champion Gonzalez, with a record of 45-0 with 38 KOs, is regarded by many as the finest boxer around and will test himself by going up to 115-pounds for the first time to challenge Cuadras, 35-0-1 with 27 KOs, for his WBC strap.
Just recently, Canelo Alvarez said that a fight between he and the man he gave his belt to, Gennady Golovkin, will happen “when I want it to.” The fight the whole world wants to see certainly won’t happen before next September (as per that reported verbal agreement between the respective camps) but many people – including GGG himself – are doubtful it will even happen then.
Canelo insists he does want the fight, that he will take it when he feels his body “is ready” to compete with the best at 160-pounds (which GGG so obviously is, with no other top middleweight failing to see this and wanting no part of him, hence welterweight Kell Brook’s brvae move up to face Triple-G) but GGG has come out and said what quite a few people think: that Canelo, and his promoter Golden Boy are scared of taking this fight as a loss is so likely and they know it.
ERIC GOMEZ, Senior Vice President of Golden Boy Promotions:
We’re very excited to be on this call. We’re just two weeks away from the show. This is the official international media conference call with WBO Junior Middleweight World Champion, Undefeated champion, Liam “Beefy” Smith. On September 17 over Mexican Independence weekend, Canelo returns to Texas for a big challenge, a dangerous challenge in WBO World Champion, Liam “Beefy” Smith.
New England boxers dominated last night’s Broadway Boxing, presented by DiBella Entertainment and sponsored by Nissan of Queens, Optyx, Azad Watches and Christos Steak House, held in the Fox Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
Rhode Island lightweight “Nice” Nick DeLomba (11-1, 2 KOs) outboxed and outpunched former Florida State Golden Gloves champion Amos “2 Smooth” Cowart (11-2-1, 9 KOs) for an upset victory by way of an eight-round unanimous decision.
Though the fight is not getting as much hype and publicity as the Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook showdown that will precede it by a week, the Liam Smith-Saul Canelo Alvarez light-middleweight title fight is arguably a much tougher fight to pick. Smith, the defending WBO champ, is a considerable underdog, as is his countryman Brook, but some good judges are predicting a hard night for Canelo on September 17.
And Smith, unbeaten and trained by the excellent Joe Gallagher, is certainly as confident as Brook appears to be heading into his massive fight – if not more so.