Fans are currently enjoying the exciting, the-best-fight-the-best, World Boxing Super Series tournament; or to be fully accurate, we are enjoying two ongoing WBSS tournaments; the one at cruiserweight as well as the one at super-middleweight.
So far, both eight-man elimination tourneys have gone smoothly and we have seen some great action fights along with some crunching knockouts – and the thrilling finals are still to come, in the first quarter of 2018.
WBA Super World Super Middleweight champion George Groves (26-3, 19 KOs) and Jamie Cox (24-0,13 KOs) went head-to-head at the last pre fight press conference before their Ali Trophy quarter-final on Saturday at The SSE Arena Wembley in London.
“I feel I’m in the form of my career,” said Groves.
Exactly twenty years ago today in Sheffield, England, a great fight saw a great fighter crowned as world champion for the first time. It was on October 11 in 1997 when Welsh legend Joe Calzaghe met Chris Eubank in a battle to decide the vacant WBO super-middleweight title (Steve Collins, who had dethroned Eubank to take the belt had retired, thus vacating the strap).
Eubank, a love him or hate him figure of British boxing, was coming towards the end of his own superb career, while the unbeaten “Pride of Wales,” at age 25 the younger man by seven years, was approaching his prime. What’s more, Calzaghe was approaching an absolutely stupendous run as a truly dominant word champion – one who would never, ever taste a single defeat.
IBF Cruiserweight World Champion Murat “Iron” Gassiev shared his thoughts from training camp in Big Bear, Calif., as fight week nears for his World Boxing Super Series quarter-final showdown Saturday, October 21 against Krzysztof Wlodarczyk from Prudential Center in Newark, N.J and on AUDIENCE Network.
Gassiev first arrived to train in the U.S. in 2014 and has worked with the renowned Abel Sanchez, eventually capturing his title with a victory over Denis Lebedev in December 2016.
As fight night nears, six of the top 154-pound world champions and contenders shared their thoughts and analysis of the high stakes matchups taking place Saturday, October 14 in a SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING tripleheader from Barclays Center, the home of BROOKLYN BOXING®.
Top-rated pound-for-pound fighters and Olympic legends VASILY “Hi-Tech” LOMACHENKO.and GUILLERMO “El Chacal” RIGONDEAUX will go mano a mano in a collision of world champions, Saturday, December 9, at the The Theater at Madison Square Garden. This historic battle will mark the first time two-time Olympic gold medalists have fought each other professionally at the highest level. Lomachenko will be defending his World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior lightweight world title against the reigning World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight champion Rigondeaux. The fight, which will headline a spectacular all-action card, will be will be televised live and exclusively at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT on ESPN and ESPN Deportes and stream live on the ESPN App.
Amir Khan-Kell Brook; or should that be the other way around? Just who is the A-side in this all-British clash, one that seemingly will not go away? Both fighters, if they’re not quite drinking at The Last Chance Saloon, are both close to entering the tavern.
Neither former champ has won a fight in a long, long time – Khan last registering a win in May of 2015, Brook last emerging victorious in March of 2016. But despite this recent run of defeat (against nothing but elite fighters it must be pointed out; with Khan losing to Canelo Alvarez and Brook coming unstuck against Gennady Golovkin and Errol Spence) neither man is ready to call it quits quite yet.
The word from the gym is George Groves has turned the clock back ahead of his World Boxing Super Series clash with Jamie Cox at Wembley Arena on Saturday night.
Groves also puts his WBA Super world super-middleweight title on the line in a fight screened on ITV Box Office and to prepare for his first defence, the 29 year old has been sparring unbeaten southpaw Lerrone Richards.
Richards first sparred Groves a couple of years ago – and says much has changed since then.
It’s time for WBA/IBF heavyweight ruler Anthony Joshua to take his show on the road. So far in his exciting 19-fight pro career, AJ has boxed in the UK only, but Eddie Hearn has laid out plans for the immediate future – and after Joshua has come through okay against his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev who he will face in Cardiff on October 28, the next fight will take place abroad.
When you think about the top featherweight boxers in the world the likes of Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton and Gary Russell Jr spring to mind. But there is another man that the top fighters in the division should be very worried about.
The stadium is still filling up at the Mandalay Bay Hotel Events Center and neither Ward nor Kovalev have yet arrived for their much hyped rematch. The Sky Sports and HBO broadcasts have started and whilst the stadium is nearly empty, a large TV audience has tuned in to watch the up and coming fighters on the undercard. Tramaine Williams walks to the ring. The 5’4’’ featherweight contender has a spring in his step. His opponent, Christopher Martin, is older and far more experienced than Williams. Martin’s ring resume is a who’s who of the featherweight division featuring the likes of Garry Russell Jr.