Earlier today in New Zealand unbeaten heavyweight prospect Joseph Parker kept his perfect record and made the transition to genuine contender with a hard-fought 12-round unanimous decision over experienced Cameroonian Carlos Takam. Parker triumphed by scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113. Now 19-0(16) the man from Auckland earned a shot at IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua. Takam, who came to fight but was just not busy enough, falls to 33-3-1(25).
Ringside, Vofafone, Vector Arena, Manukau, Auckland City. Pro Joseph Parker (18-0-0) crowd in unanimity. There maybe the odd Frenchman or Cameroonian out there supporting Carlos Takam (33-2-1) but not evident. A sea of Parker supporters from end to end. People out in droves to watch the home town hero, Parker having grown up a 10 minutes down the road.
Takam ring walk – he looks pumped both emotionally and physically. Compact man with a set of biceps like bowling balls.
This week’s schedule is packed so tight with cruiserweight bouts that some good ones will probably be overlooked. Tonight’s card in Moscow which was supposed to be headlined by the heavyweight showdown between Deontay Wilder and Alexander Povetkin will go on with three cruiserweight bouts now headlined by Denis Lebedev. Beibut Shumenov will fight Junior Wright in Las Vegas with the WBA title at stake. There were two other interesting fights in the same weight class preceding the mainstream shows that deserve to be mentioned and were well worth watching.
Unbeaten middleweight and pound-for-pound star Gennady Golovkin, now the holder off all major belts at 160-pounds barring the WBO belt currently held by Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders, needs a fight. Having been disappointed over the way Mexican star Saul Alvarez opted to hand him his WBC title instead of signing to fight him in September (we can hope the mega-fight will still happen but nobody is holding their breath), GGG now searches anew for his next opponent.
GGG took to his Twitter account yesterday, asking fans who they would like to see him fight. With Alvarez seemingly out of the picture for now at least, there seems to be pretty slim pickings at middleweight. British son of a great fighter, Chris Eubank Junior has thrown his hat into the ring, insisting he is serious about wanting to face Triple-G in September.
Former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price will face Jakov Gospic on the May 29th card in Liverpool that will be headlined by Tony Bellew-Ilunga Makabu for the vacant WBC cruiserweight title. This will, of course, be Price’s first fight back since being stopped inside two-rounds by Erkan Teper last July. Teper, like the only other man to have beaten Price, Tony Thompson, later failed a drugs test. Price is now convinced he can make it to the very top and that he was beaten only due to cheating on the part of Thompson and Teper.
Gospic, 17-14(12) was linked to Shannon Briggs at one point, with various reports suggesting the journeyman would face Briggs on tonight’s card at The O2 in London. Now Price gets the chance to ease himself back into action against the 33-year-old Croatian, with new trainer Dave Coldwell taking over as his head trainer. Price, a powerful puncher who looked for all the world like at least a world title challenger if not a world title winner before his three setbacks, told Sky Sports that he has no interest in going back over old ground at British level, instead aiming to show what he can do at the highest level.
One of the best known quotes in A.J. Liebling’s immortal “The Sweet Science” concerned a tough, tricky welterweight contender from the 1950’s named Billy Graham, whom he famously described as being “as good a fighter as one possibly can be without being a hell of a fighter.”
These words have resonated with me ever since I first read them, for they serve as the perfect way to characterize those boxers who lack any one outstanding attribute yet are still capable of achieving success in the ring. For me, those are the fighters who are most compelling. It always intrigues me to watch fighters who rely upon their intangibles like grit, guile, and ring generalship to win fights; and it always captures my attention when these types of boxers are pitted against those who are talented enough to be considered “a hell of a fighter”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3keJuuC_tI
It’s not the most obvious “Dream Fight” that springs to mind when daydreaming on who would win out of today’s best middleweight, unified king Gennady Golovkin and great 160-pound fighters of yesteryear, but a GGG-Chris Eubank fight and how you think it would have gone is a pretty interesting notion all the same. Fans have thought about how Golovkin and his particular blend of skills would have done against the likes of a Marvin Hagler, a Carlos Monzon, a Bernard Hopkins (a fight that wasn’t too far from reality a while back!) and, dare we say it, a Sugar Ray Robinson (for the record, and for what it’s worth, I think GGG beats one of these guys, but only one) – but yesterday, Eubank, a former champ at 160 and 168, spoke about how he would have beaten Golovkin.
Erislandy Lara – 153 ½ Pounds
Vanes Martirosyan – 153 ¾ Pounds
Jermall Charlo – 153 ¼ Pounds
Austin Trout – 154 Pounds
Jermell Charlo – 153 ¾ Pounds
John Jackson – 153 ½ Pounds
First it was Alexander Dimitrenko, then it was Jakov Gospic, but now, finally, Shannon Briggs has a confirmed opponent for tomorrow night: Briggs, 59-6-1(52) will face Argentine heavyweight Emilio Ezequiel Zarate, 29-16-3(11) in his chief supporting role on David Haye’s second comeback fight at The O2 in London.
UKTV has today announced its presenting team for the live and exclusive broadcast of Haye Day this Saturday at the O2, as David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye takes on Arnold ‘The Cobra’ Gjerjaj.