In the 2000s, they engaged in one of the most fierce, genuinely hate-filled rivalries in lower weight boxing history. Super-bantamweights/ featherweights /super-featherweights Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales went to war three times – the first battle, from February of 2000 being recognised as one of the greatest fights in modern day boxing history – and they came to blows outside of the ring also. Simply put, these two did not like each other.
Year: 2016
Jamie Cox out-points Martin Fidel Rios in the wildest, dirtiest fight you’ll see all year!
Last night in Bolton, super-middleweight Jamie Cox retained his unbeaten record with a wide ten-round points win over Argentine Martin Fidel Rios. The official score of referee and sole scorer Phil Edwards was a huge 97-86 (mistakenly announced as 97-76 by the MC) for the 30-year-old southpaw from Swindon. Cox is now 21-0(12). Rios falls to 20-10-3(11).
Mikey Garcia vs. Dejan Zlaticanin on 1/28
On Saturday night, January 28, 2017, twenty-eight year old professional boxer Mikey Garcia (Moreno Valley, CA by way of Oxnard, CA/pro record: 35-0-0, with 29 KOs) returns to the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, against WBC Lightweight Champion, Dejan Zlaticanin (Podgorica, Montenegro/pro record: 22-0-0, with 15 KOs). Garcia-Zlaticanin is scheduled for twelve rounds in the lightweight division as the co-main event on the Showtime televised fight card. In the main event, Carl Frampton will defend his WBA Super World Featherweight Title in a rematch with Leo Santa Cruz.
Results: Sam Eggington stops Frankie Gavin
Welterweight Sam Eggington (19-3, 11 KOs) handed former 147lb world title challenger Frankie Gavin (23-3, 14 KOs) his third loss of his career in stopping him in the 8th round on Saturday night at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham. The 23-year-old Eggington unloaded on Gavin with body shots in the 8th round to hurt him.
Jamie Cox: Give me James DeGale
Is unbeaten puncher Jamie Cox the most avoided fighter in British boxing today? Maybe. The dangerous southpaw who is 20-0(12) returns to action tonight in what could be called a stay-busy fight if Cox had been busy to begin with, but the Swindon southpaw has had trouble finding himself fights (he has also had legal issues that were well-publicized).
Red-Hot prospect Josh Taylor becomes a champion, wins vacant Commonwealth 140-pound title with 5th-round stoppage of Dave Ryan
Last night in Edinburgh, Scotland, red-hot super-lightweight prospect Josh Taylor advanced to championship level as he won the vacant Commonwealth title with a hugely impressive 5th-round stoppage over the tough and experienced Dave “Rocky” Ryan. Taylor, who had never previously gone beyond the 2nd-round in his 6-0 pro career, downed Ryan with a sickening right to the body. Ryan, showing his usual courage, beat the count but he was immediately under more fire, the referee having no choice but to stop the fight.
Khan Vs. Brook: should it happen at 147 or at 154?
Both Amir Khan and Kell Brook are coming off heavy stoppage defeats: Khan to Canelo Alvarez in a 155-pound meeting, Brook up at full middleweight against Gennady Golovkin. Now, with the two arch-rivals having no immediate fight coming up, the logical thing is for the two to fight one another. As fans know, these two have been going at it verbally for some months/years now, and 2017 seems perfect for the two world champions (Khan a former 140-pound ruler, Brook still, for the time being, the IBF 147-pound champ).
Scotland’s Josh Taylor is a special talent
Every Scottish fighter operating in the lighter divisions who shows the first hint of potential is immediately burdened by comparison to Ken Buchanan, the greatest fighter this small nation of five million has ever produced. It is a burden they are forced to carry as they try to live up to the great lightweight world champion’s tremendous legacy, one of the greatest ever cultivated by a lightweight anywhere in any era. In every case up to now it has proved a curse, damning the unfortunate recipient of such high expectations with unrealistic promise.
Artur Beterbiev to face Isidro Ranoni Prieto Dec 23 in Quebec
Unbeaten light-heavyweight banger Artur Beterbiev, one of the hardest punchers fighting today, will fight a couple of days before Christmas Day, when he will meet never-stopped Isidro Ranoni Prieto of Paraguay (now based in Argentina) in his adopted Quebec, Canada on December 23. In line to fight the winner of the November clash between Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward, the 10-0(10) Beterbiev will be having just his second fight of this year.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr to face Dominik Britsch in December; can “The Son of a Legend” make up for lost time?
Backed by his new promoters Zanfer, Mexican star Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr is set to return in December against Germany’s Dominik Britsch. Zanfer Tweeted the fight is confirmed for December, but there is no official word yet on either the venue for the fight (expected to be in Mexico) or the weight the fight will be fought at.