Year: 2016

Tagoe to now fight South Africa’s Fana for IBO title

Tagoe to now fight South Africa’s Fana for IBO title

Ghana’s Emmanuel ‘Game Boy’ Tagoe will now have to beat former world champion, Mzonge Fana to win the IBO Lightweight world title this Friday, December 2 at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra following the withdrawal of hitherto opponent, Fernando David Saucedo of Argentina.

Initially billed for November 25, Saucedo had requested and got the fight postponed by a week in order to recover from a reported broken hand in training. But with barely 4 days to fight night, the Argentine has now completely pulled out of the fight, necessitating a change in opponent for Tagoe.

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Tyson Fury – what a difference a year makes

Tyson Fury – what a difference a year makes

This time last year, British heavyweight Tyson Fury was on top of the world. Today he is pretty close to rock bottom. It was exactly 12 months ago today when heavy underdog (4-1 against) Fury travelled to Düsseldorf, Germany to challenge the world champ Wladimir Klitschko – a heavyweight great who had dominated for over a decade, last losing a fight way, way back in 2004.

Despite the huge odds against him, Fury feinted, boxed, taunted, tricked and at times punched his way to an upset decision victory. Klitschko, who may or may not have had a rare off-night (we may never know if Klitschko can perform better against Fury as now, a rematch looks unlikely) couldn’t figure out the taller, quicker man. The win ranks as one of the finest in British boxing history and Fury returned home a hero. For a while.

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HBO Embarrassed by Walters’ No Mas!

HBO Embarrassed by Walters' No Mas!

Poor HBO. Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman started the night off by spending many minutes trying to justify the controversial decision in the Andre SOG Ward over Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev fight. The explanation went this way. Max explained that after reviewing the tapes, he came up with the same score as the judges. They scored it 114-113 for Ward. Max said he had it in favor of Kovalev, but he quickly whitewashed his own opinion by saying, I understand why the judges voted for Ward! Hence, there really wasn’t an explanation, only an excuse. The fact is HBO’s hopes for a classic match-up ended up looking more like an MMA bout with Ward trying to garner points for a “take down”.

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Lomachenko Stakes His Claim for Fighter of the Year with Walters Stoppage

Lomachenko Stakes His Claim for Fighter of the Year with Walters Stoppage

He came, He saw, He annihilated. Two-time Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist and two-division world champion VASYL LOMACHENKO (7-1, 5 KOs), successfully defended his World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior lightweight title by stopping undefeated former World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight champion NICHOLAS “Axe Man” WALTERS (26-1-1, 21 KOs), of Montego Bay, Jamaica, on Saturday at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Walters told referee Tony Weeks he did not want to continue after the seventh round. The fight was televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®.

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Video: Vasyl Lomachenko vs Nicholas Walters – Post Fight Recap

YouTube video

Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) successfully defended his WBO junior lightweight championship belt when he dominated Nicholas Walters (26-1-1, 21 KOs) en route to a 7th round stoppage victory. Many boxing observers expected this to be a competitive contest between two elite boxers from this weight range. What transpired, however, was something completely different. Lomachenko made things look easy in there. Between the 7th and 8th rounds, Walters had informed referee Tony Weeks that he did not wish to continue. This ending left many fans disappointed, but the end result is that Lomachenko dominated and he looked sensational doing so.

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Dominant Lomachenko wants unification fight with Francisco Vargas next

Dominant Lomachenko wants unification fight with Francisco Vargas next

Vasyl Lomachenko is looking close to unbeatable right now; which may seem a strange statement as the reigning WBO 130 pound champion has lost a fight, and all that many fights ago at that. But the Lomachenko who lost a close decision to an over-the-weight and very crafty and tough Orlando Salido – in what was just Lomachenko’s second pro outing– was not on display last night in Las Vegas.

Lomachenko, expected by some to have some problems, maybe, with the power of Nicholas Walters, instead put on a dazzling boxing clinic that made “The Axe Man” say No Mas after seven rounds (this one day after the 36th anniversary of the most infamous quit job in boxing history, when Duran threw up his hands against Sugar Ray Leonard in their return bout). But there was no mystery over why Walters quit: he was getting schooled and he knew it. Lomachenko made a good fighter look very ordinary.

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Terry Flanagan far too good for Orlando Cruz, scores 8th-round stoppage win – Lomachenko fight next?

Terry Flanagan far too good for Orlando Cruz, scores 8th-round stoppage win – Lomachenko fight next?

History was denied last night in Cardiff, as Puerto Rico’s Orlando Cruz’ attempts at becoming the first openly gay pro boxer to win a world title were thwarted by defending WBO lightweight ruler Terry Flanagan. Flanagan, one of the best yet seemingly underrated fighters in the sport today, crushed Cruz in the 8th-round, scoring two knockdowns that prompted the referee to call a halt.

Flanagan, who retained his title for the fourth time, is now 32-0(13). Cruz, who had moved up to lightweight, falls to 25-5-1(13).

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Lomachenko defeats Walters – Results

Lomachenko defeats Walters - Results

In a real surprising outcome, WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (7-1, 5 KOs) got former featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (26-1-1, 21 KOs) to quit after seven rounds on Saturday night at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Walters looked befuddled all night long, but especially in rounds 4 thru 7.

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Fights we want to see in 2017

Fights we want to see in 2017

2016’s boxing year was okay, if not great. We saw some excellent fights – see Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter, Orlando Salido-Francisco Vargas, Jamie Conlan-Anthony Nelson – and there is still a little over a month to go before the end of the year. But some experts, Oscar De La Hoya for example, has not been happy with how the sport played out this year, even calling 2016 “one of the worst years in boxing history.”

Those fans who agree that 2016 was a disappointment can look ahead to a potentially great 2017 for the sport. Already we have confirmed fights to get excited about, including Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia, David Haye-Tony Bellew and more, and also a strongly pencilled in Wladimir Klitschko-Anthony Joshua fight. And with the continued rise of future stars such as Vasyl Lomachenko, Artur Beterbiev, Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk and others set to feature in further big fights, 2017 could really be a big fistic year.

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