Ward says he’d strongly look at fighting Bellew if the WBC cruiser belt is on the line
Fans await the respective next move of Andre Ward and Tony Bellew. Pound-for-pound king Ward is still weighing up his weight options, as far as whether or not he will jump up to cruiserweight, to heavyweight, or both. While Bellew, who scored a heavyweight upset over David Haye in March, is also looking at options in the sport’s glamour division.
We don’t yet know who the third man in the ring will be on August 26, to work the heavily hyped “Super Fight” between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, but McGregor has brought in a retired boxing ref to teach him the rules he must fight under in his boxing debut.
Reigning WBA lightweight ruler Jorge Linares’ next fight has been ordered by the boxing organisation he represents as 135 pound champion; Linares, 42-3(27) must face Britain’s Luke Campbell.
The fight must now be worked out between the two fighters and their respective teams, the deadline being 30 days from yesterday, July 21. Campbell, 17-1(14) became Linares’ mandatory challenger with his impressive stoppage win over Darleys Perez in April, this fight on the massive Joshua-Klitschko card. Southpaw Campbell, a 2012 Olympic gold medal winner, has been beaten just once as a pro, by the tricky Yvan Mendy who decisioned him back in December of 2015. Since then he has reeled off five straight wins.
Ghana’s Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe (16-0, 10 KOs) and Javier Nicholas Chacon of Argentina (25-3-1, 7 KOs) both made a similar weight of 121.1 lbs on Friday morning in Accra ahead of their clash for the WBO International Super Bantamweight title on Saturday night.
Dubbed ‘Road to Las Vegas,’ the fight will be officiated by renowned American boxing referee, Tony Weeks who has been in Ghana for nearly a week now and on Wednesday conducted a one-day ring officiating course for Ghanaian boxing officials, trainers, boxers, media and enthusiasts.
Lou DiBella
Thanks, everybody, for joining us for what’s going to be a terrific card with Adrien Broner versus Mikey Garcia in the main event at a 12-round junior welterweight fight on SHOWTIME on July 29th, 9:00 pm, Eastern Time, 6:00 pm, Pacific Time, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, the home of Brooklyn boxing and presented by Premier Boxing Champions.
Jeff Horn is one of the hottest and most talked about fighters in boxing right now, courtesy of his big, big upset win over ageing superstar Manny Pacquiao. While we fans await “The Hornet’s” next move – will it be a return meeting with Pac Man, a Horn Dream Fight with “Money” Mayweather – British fight fans also await the ring return of Amir Khan.
Mexican bad boy Antonio Margarito will continue his comeback on September 2 in Chihuahua, Mexico, the former welterweight ruler set to face teak-tough fringe contender Carson Jones. Jones, the owner of one very hard-earned 40-11-3(30) pro record, announced the fight on his FaceBook page, vowing to his fans that he will beat Margarito up (the bout is also up on BoxRec).
Former two-time claimant of a heavyweight title Shannon Briggs has been hit with a six month ban by the WBA, for failing a drugs test back in June; this event putting to bed his scheduled title fight with Fres Oquendo (a fight that might have seen Briggs make history, on paper at least, and seen him become a “three-time” champ).
As the boxing world takes a deep breath for a week, before resuming the tremendous high-quality action that 2017 has provided so far, a certain Mexican legend quietly continues his attempt to arrive back at the top level. Jhonny Gonzalez, 63(53)-10(4)-0, has belonged in upper echelon of fighters for a significant portion of his storied career, and a victory on Saturday would inch him closer again to those heights.
There are quite a few ironies attached to this potential (if not all that probable) heavyweight match-up, and for this reason alone, along with the fact that at this stage in their respective careers a Tyson Fury-Charles Martin fight would be an evenly matched shoot-out, it would be a whole lot of fun to see this one get done.