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.
Promoter Eddie Hearn fully expects, as do plenty of other people, Anthony Joshua to become a boxing superstar in the near future, and there are big plans in store for the reigning IBF heavyweight champion. First up, Joshua, 17-0(17) will make the second defence of his belt in either November or December, then there will be defence number three in March and then, next summer at Wembley, Joshua will possibly fight a massive fight against either Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder or David Haye.
Hearn spoke of these plans with Sky Sports:
Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) and Nathan Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) came face-to-face today at a press conference in Hamburg ahead of their WBA World Light Heavyweight title fight on October 1 at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany.
The fighters appeared in a confident mood as they discussed their upcoming World title tussle, and having twice come close to sharing a ring, both Champion and Challenger are eager to prove who is the better man.
Former WBA heavyweight champ David Haye could be in line for a shot at regaining his old belt, at least the “regular” version of it, and it could come against the winner of a WBA-agreed match-up between Lucas Browne and Fres Oquendo. President Gilberto Mendoza spoke with Sky Sports and he said that Haye – now ranked the number-five contender with the WBA – is a fighter he and his organisation would “love to have back as our champion.”
“Browne’s title shot came out of a legal settlement we had to do after we got sued by Browne’s people for stripping him,” Mendoza said.
Former two-division world champion Canelo Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) today hosted a media workout at the House of Boxing in San Diego ahead of his clash with WBO Junior Middleweight World Champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) on Mexican Independence Day Weekend on September 17 at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas.
Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions
Unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will face welterweight Kell Brook on Sept 10 in what is being billed as a middleweight championship bout. This upcoming fight has a lot of boxing fans talking, many of them passionately. The debate largely centers around whether or not Brook – a largely unproven welterweight trinket holder – is worthy of facing the middleweight powerhouse better known to most as “Triple G”.
Jeremy “J Flash” Nichols (5-0, 2 KOs) looks to keep his undefeated record in tact when he steps into the ring on September 9th against unbeaten Steve Belmontes (2-0) in a four round bout at the downtown Las Vegas Event Center. This will be Nichols’ sixth fight within a year and his second consecutive bout against an undefeated fighter, as he looks to make a name for himself in the welterweight division.
“I am excited for my upcoming fight against Belmontes,” said Nichols. “I have had a really good training camp and I expect to end this bout via a knockout.”
The top two ranked heavyweights by the World Boxing Council (WBC), No. 1 Alexander Povetkin and No. 2 Bermane Stiverne, have recently been ordered to fight for the interim WBC heavyweight title. The winner will become the interim champion and will defend the title until champion Deontay Wilder, is ready to come back from the injuries sustained in July.
“I would like to thank Don King and the honorable Mauricio Sulaiman of the WBC for giving me this opportunity to fight for the heavyweight title once again,” said Stiverne. “For the betterment of boxing in general, and the heavyweight division in particular, I plan to knock Povetkin out and bring this title to America. Then I will get my revenge against Wilder, when he is ready.”
HBO Sports, widely acclaimed for its innovative boxing programming, takes an in-depth look at one of boxing’s brightest superstars as he prepares to challenge a 154-pound champion from the UK at one of the world’s most spectacular arenas when ROAD TO CANELO/SMITH debuts SATURDAY, SEPT. 10 (12:45-1:00 a.m. ET/PT).
Other HBO playdates: Sept. 11 (11:30 a.m., 3:15 a.m.), 12 (1:25 p.m., 1:45 a.m.), 13 (6:00 p.m., 11:30 p.m.), 14 (10:00 a.m., 10:30 p.m.), 15 (4:00 p.m.), 16 (1:10 a.m.) and 17 (5:45 p.m.)