World rated Commonwealth middleweight king Tommy Langford walks the tightrope at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena next weekend when he gambles his WBO number two ranking in a quest to add the Lonsdale Belt to his burgeoning collection.
The Devon-born Brummie meets shifty Sheffield southpaw Sam ‘Speedy’ Sheedy in a salivating showdown for the vacant British title. BoxNation screen live.
On Thursday Glynn Evans caught up with the unbeaten 6ft Baggie bomber to contemplate risk versus reward.
The sport of boxing has seen an evolution that few welcome, and most hate. Out went the warriors of yesterday, in came a group of talents that prefer to talk heavy and swing light. The good ole days when the best fought the best seem to be a thing of the past. This unspoken truth makes Saturday nights showdown between Russian Sergey Kovalev (30-0, 26KO’s) and American Andre Ward (30-0, 15KO’s) literally a fight for the ages! What was once a spoken possibility is now a reality. With only 4 days until fight night, we take a closer look at these two talents ahead of Saturday’s Keys to Victory, Four to Explore, and Official Prediction.
The much awaited IBO Lightweight championship of the world fight between Ghana’s Emmanuel ‘Game Boy’ Tagoe and Argentina’s Fernando David Saucedo will now take place on Friday December 2, a week further than the original November 25, its official.
This has become necessary due to a request by the Argentine’s camp for the fight to be re-scheduled after suffering a shoulder injury in training, which has been agreed to by the Ghana based BabyJet Promotions who are staging the fight billed for the newly opened Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra.
On Saturday night, live on HBO Pay-Per-View the new pound-for-pound king will be crowned when WBO, WBA and IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev 30-0-1 (26 KOs) and Two-Time World Champion Andre “S.O.G.” Ward 30-0 (15 KOs) square off in their much-anticipated showdown at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Below is the scouting report for this highly anticipated fight:
With Carl Froch out of the running for a fight with middleweight king Gennady Golovkin (if he was ever in the running in the first place), two other British super-middleweights have said they would relish the opportunity of facing GGG up at 168 pounds. James DeGale recently said a fight with Golovkin would be his “dream fight,” and George Groves – the only man to have beaten DeGale as a pro – tells The Star that he would take a fight with the feared puncher.
Andre SOG Ward (30-0-0 18KOs) and Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 25KOs) are set to do battle on Nov 19th, at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV. Krusher is expected to throw bombs starting with the opening bell. Undoubtedly, he will experience more than a little difficulty landing on Ward, a moving target and one that strikes back in a blur.
Ward is admired for his ring generalship. Carl Froch explained it best when he described it this way……Ward controlled the distance. He was either too close or too far away….. He might have added “too low” too.
Curtis Stevens
“Training camp was excellent. I did the first half in Boca [Raton], Florida and the second half we did up in Oxnard. It was great. I brought in Cicilio Flores for strength and conditioning. Everything was great.
“I need to go in there and let my hands go like I did in the Teixeira fight. I don’t look at this fight as another step towards the big fight. A fight is a fight. He is coming to win and so am I.
Could 2017 see two big heavyweight comebacks? While nobody knows if and when Tyson Fury might box again, fans hope his return will happen, and next year. But one man who says he will definitely take over where he left off with a return next year is WBC champ Deontay Wilder, who of course is aching to get it on with Fury.
While a Wilder-Fury fight might not take place next year (we all hope it will happen, naturally) Wilder says he fully expects he will fight again before too many months have passed in 2017. Speaking with Sky Sports, the unbeaten champ said the injuries he picked up in his last fight, a July stoppage win over the tough (and hard-headed) Chris Arreola, have “fully healed,” and that he is back “punching with both hands.”
It seems Manny Pacquiao’s recently donned jacket was and is a nifty fashion accessory and nothing more; even if Pac-Man knew this to be the case or not. Pacquiao’s jacket had, sewn into the lining, pictures of himself and Floyd Mayweather in fighting pose, and the Tweet Pac-Man wrote accompanying the picture asked “Like my jacket!”
Many people felt the jacket, the Tweet and the short message meant a rematch between the two superstars was on the cards, or at least Manny felt one was on the cards. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Mayweather was a ringside guest at Pacquiao’s November 5 fight with Jessie Vargas. But it seems none of this matters at all, because Manyweather, who calls all the shots, has insisted, again, that he has zero interest in fighting again – against anyone.
In sad and shocking news it has been reported how 1980’s and ’90’s heavyweight contender Alex Stewart has died at the far too premature age of just 52. Reports are sketchy at this point and Stewart’s cause of death has not been confirmed. A pure puncher and a genuinely exciting fighter, Stewart was also a softly-spoken, even shy person who some felt was too much of a gentle soul to be a prize fighter.