Things may well change, and perceptions will definitely change, if Anthony Joshua can beat ex-champ Wladimir Klitschko on the 29th of this month; but right now, rival heavyweight ruler Deontay Wilder has plenty of people on his side when he says he is “on a whole other level” to the reigning IBF champ.
Wilder, in speaking with FightHype, made this claim and he says he has more experience and has faced more styles of fighters than has AJ. Just who is the better fighter of the two right now?
Nicaraguan bad boy/wild man Ricardo Mayorga fought a comeback fight over the weekend, in his homeland, against a 12-17-1 Jaudiel Zepeda. The former welterweight king, fighting at the light-heavyweight limit, stopped his Mexican opponent (who is listed by BoxRec as a cruiserweight) in the third round, as Zepeda turned his back upon being hurt, the ref calling a halt to the proceedings.
43 year-old Mayorga improved to 32-9-1(26) in fighting for the first time since losing his rematch to Sugar Shane Mosley in August of 2015. Of course we all know the fantastically entertaining, beer guzzling, cigarette puffing former champ will never again get himself into title contention, much less actually challenge for another major belt, but he seems set on causing at least a little more mayhem before he finally calls it a career and retires.
Vinnie “American Nightmare” Carita punished Gilberto Matheus “El Magico” Domingos as he landed one powerful punch after another on a defenseless Domingos throughout the first round of this cruiserweight bout. Then, just before the round end, Carita landed a devastating right hook to the body that dropped Domingos, who beat the ten-count. Domingos was in an immense amount of pain as he struggled to his corner, which caused his team to stop the fight.
Antonio “Relentless” Orozco (26-0, 17 KOs) wasn’t up to any tricks this April Fool’s Day as he proudly pronounced his return to the ring with a dominating knockout over KeAndre “The Truth” Gibson (16-1-1, 7 KOs) in the fourth round of the main event live from The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and televised on ESPN Deportes and ESPN2. Both fighters entered the ring undefeated, yet it was Orozco who walked away as the new WBC USNBC Super Lightweight Champion.
Mairis Briedis (22-0, 18 KOs) took the game but limited Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs) to school tonight in pounding out a dominating 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacant World Boxing Council cruiserweight title in front of a large crowd of Huck supporters at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany.
Back in 2015, when Floyd Mayweather tied beloved heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record, the late ex-champ’s brother, Peter Marciano, was less than moved. It would have been better, more newsworthy, more impressive, he said, if another heavyweight champion had equalled his brother’s astonishing numbers, not a welterweight.
Just recently, little star Roman Gonzalez was getting a ton of press as he closed in on “The Rock’s” record, but as we know, “Chocolatito” lost in a big upset and fell to 46-1 in the process. Now publications and boxing sites are talking about Thailand’s Wanheng Menayothin, the reigning WBC minimumweight champ who yesterday improved to 46-0 with a non-title six-rounder victory. Can he break Marciano’s record they are asking (or, in a sacrilegious move, some have asked if Menayothin can break Floyd’s 49-0 record!)
As fans may have read, news broke earlier this week that Danish great Mikkel Kessler, one of the best super-middleweights of the past decade or so, is coming out of retirement after almost four years out. Now aged 38 and last seen losing a great rematch battle with British great Carl Froch, Kessler is coming back at 168 pounds.
This news caused quite a stir all by itself, but Froch could be about to make even bigger news: by agreeing to a third fight with the warrior he is currently 1-1 with. Writing in his column for Sky Sports, “The Cobra” said Kessler’s comeback has “really got me thinking!”
Former two-time heavyweight champ “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon was a guest of honour in a pub in York, UK last night, promoting his excellent and revealing biography “Terrible Times.”
The Philly legend spent around four hours chatting with a surprisingly small number of fans (making the experience all the more intimate and special); telling us so many stories from his great career: like the time he was thrown out of Gerry Cooney’s gym for being too rough and tough a sparring partner, how he was so massively inspired by sparring and training with the great Muhammad Ali (even though, as Tim said, he knew Ali “was sick” at the time; in the early ’80s), about how he would have loved to have fought Mike Tyson in the 1990s, about how great his era of heavyweights was in comparison to today’s.
It took place on Monday, April 6, 1987 at Caesars Palace and it was promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank®. The SuperFight: Hagler vs. Leonard, with Marvin Hagler defending his middleweight title against Sugar Ray Leonard, making a return after a three-year absence from the ring and a big question mark about his surgically-repaired eye. It was one the biggest and most successful sporting events of that era. Caesars Palace was sold out with 15,000 spectators and an estimated 400 million more watching worldwide via closed-circuit or on pay-tv. The media credentialed for fight week was close to 1,1000. It was the quintessential promotion of that time and the foundation on which mega fights are now promoted. And the result? It is as hotly debated today as it was 30 years ago when the judges’ scores were read that night. Dave Moretti scored it 115-113 for Leonard. Lou Fillippo scored it 115-113 for Hagler. Jo Jo Guerra scored it 118-110 for Leonard, making him the new middleweight champion, and completing one of the greatest career comebacks in boxing .
Former 200-pound limit champion Marco Huck meets the new kid on the block Mairis Briedis, for a WBC cruiserweight title fight. The fight being upgraded due to Tony Bellew’s absents is a nice boost for the fighters. More importantly, Huck’s career is on the line against what some have branded one of the next generation cruisers.