BoxNation will be the only place to watch boxing legend Manny Pacquiao’s ring return as he takes on WBO welterweight world champion Jessie Vargas on November 5th from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
The bout will be broadcast exclusively live on ‘The Channel of Champions’ BoxNation as eight-division world champion Pacquiao takes a break from his political commitments in the Philippines in a bid to become the only sitting Congressman and Senator to win a world title.
Shannon “Let’s go, champ” Briggs is still talking about David Haye, although the 44-year-old appears to have lost hope of meeting him in the ring. For any fans that are still interested, Haye verbally agreed to fight Briggs if the former champ was able to get a license to box in the UK and then take a fight and win it on his May under-card. Briggs passed both tests, yet the fight never materialized.
Fans are looking forward to seeing a big welterweight unification showdown next March, thanks to the WBA/WBC unification between Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia being made official for March 4 (venue still to be determined but Barclays in New York a strong possibility) – and we could be in store for a Fight of The Year candidate. You know, the kind WBA welter champ Keith Thurman has already given us.
Thurman, 27-0(22) boxed just once this year, but he sure gave us an epic when he did fight; he and Shawn Porter giving us a thriller in June. Now, against Garcia – also unbeaten, at 32-0(18) – Thurman can be relied upon to thrill us all again. “One Time” will not have a tune-up ahead of the March clash, unlike like Garcia (who will face huge underdog Samuel Vargas in a Philly “homecoming” next month) but most people see the upcoming fight as a 50-50 affair.
The Kovalev vs. Ward “Pound for Pound” HBO Pay-Per-View telecast on November 19 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. will now include the 10-round middleweight showdown between Curtis “The Cerebral Assassin” Stevens (28-5, 21 KOs) and James “The King” De La Rosa (23-4, 13 KOs).
Stevens fought earlier this year on the Canelo-Khan HBO Pay-Per-View telecast and scored a spectacular second-round upset knockout of then-undefeated Brazilian Patrick Teixeira. When asked about the upgrade to the televised card Curtis replied, “I know it is Kovalev-Ward but now it is Kovalev-Ward-Stevens. Time to show out!”
Wladimir Klitschko wants it to be known that he is not finished yet, not by a long shot. Though the former heavyweight king is currently injured (a minor injury forcing his planned Dec 10 challenge of IBF ruler Anthony Joshua to be delayed until next spring some time) and has already been idle for a longer period of time than ever before in his career, Klitschko says there are “big spectacular fights left in me yet.”
The quest by African boxing legend, Azumah Nelson to return Ghanaian boxing back to its glory days and make Accra the capital of African boxing continues this weekend when the VIP Fight Night round 2 returns with exciting match-ups at the luxurious Adlon Ballroom of the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in the Ghana capital.
With boxers selected and fights made by Azumah himself, fight fans are set to be thrilled to five exciting bouts headlined by the National Super Featherweight clash between Ghana’s Michael ‘One Bullet’ Ansah and Ghana based Nigerian, Oluwaseum ‘Seunzy’ Wahab this Saturday, October 29.
Former two-time IBF Bantamweight champion, Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbeko (30-5-0, 23KO) is scheduled to return to the ring this Friday (October 28th) in his second fight since Guillermo Rigondeaux shut him out in December 2013. Agbeko dispatched of Filipino fighter Juanito Rubillar (then 50-23-7, 24KO) in May of last year, knocking out the over-matched journeyman before the end of the fourth round.
SHOWTIME Sports will present seven marquee boxing matches pitting top-10 rated champions in the prime of their careers against fellow top-10 rated challengers over four consecutive months beginning in December. The schedule, which is the second robust boxing programming announcement from SHOWTIME in 2016, was announced today by Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports. The lineup includes two long-awaited championship matchups, Jesus Cuellar vs. Abner Mares and Jermall Charlo vs. Julian Williams; the can’t-miss featherweight rematch between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz, and a welterweight unification blockbuster between undefeated champions Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia. All four of these anticipated bouts will be presented in association with Premier Boxing Champions.
There is no doubt two-time heavyweight king George Foreman has a lofty place amongst the greatest heavyweights, indeed all fighters, regardless of weight class, in boxing history. Yet today, the ever-modest 67 year-old says he does not feel he deserves to go in his OWN list of the greatest big men in history.
Speaking with Yahoo! Sports ahead of a meet-and-greet evening in London this Saturday, “Big” George was asked to break down his choices for the best heavyweights in history.
FREDDIE ROACH: It was a pretty tough schedule in this camp but he held up really well. The sparring days were really good and it’s the best I’ve seen Manny in a long time – he is a lot more aggressive than I have seen him in the past and there was a lot of the old Manny Pacquiao coming out and he really, really looked good. We trained right up until Saturday morning before our flight out to Los Angeles and he boxed 10 rounds and he looked great and he’s in great shape, I know it’s been a very difficult camp with the Senate and so forth. Manny has always been a busy person but because of the Senate he seems to be a lot more serious than anything else he has done. He is in Senate sessions on some nights until 7:30 or 8:00 at night and when he is done we go right to the gym.