He has been chasing the Mayweather fight for two long years – and now – given Floyd’s final fight in September, Amir Khan knows that the sand is running out of the timer and the fight he so longs for could be slipping out of his grasp for good.
Khan returns on Friday against Chris Algieri – the man floored 6 times by Manny Pacquiao in his last fight – and the belief is that he took this bout against the light-hitting American with Floyd still in the back of his mind.
Unbeaten IBF 147lb champion Kell Brook (34-0, 23ko) today worked out for the media ahead of Saturday’s clash with Frankie Gavin that features on the big Matchroom Sport triple world title PPV card from London’s O2.
The confident Sheffield man, who destroyed mandatory challenger Jo Jo Dan back in February has predicted an early finish to the fight, tweeting recently that he doesn’t expect things to go beyond the first 9 minutes.
Eddie Hearn is indeed building up Anthony Joshua (12-0, 12ko) as the next British heavyweight boxing hero and it’s true that his hopes for the London 2012 Olympic medalist are extremely high.
The unbeaten knock out artist is arguably the future “face” of the Matchroom Boxing brand and Hearn is praying Joshua will capture the public imagination in much the same way fellow Brit Frank Bruno once did in terms of his enormous popularity – and he believes the Watford man can emulate what Hall Of Famer Lennox Lewis did in terms of his extraordinary 3x world title winning career.
It’s a debate that never seems to get old among the fans. Had 2014 Hall of Fame inductee Joe Calzaghe and Carl Froch ended up fighting back in the day, who would have won?
Most – me included – feel that Joe would have had too much for a solid – yet basic – fighter like Froch.
Too smart, too fast and too busy – he would have run rings around Carl for 12 hard rounds – yet the Nottingham man would have stood a punchers chance.
This Saturday sees the Matchroom Sport ‘Rule Britannia’ show from London’s O2, which will be co-headlined by IBF 147lb champion Kell Brook, defending his title against countryman Frankie Gavin.
Ahead of the bout, the former world amateur champion spoke to fighthype.com to say he plans on grabbing his opportunity with both hands, insisting he will get to Brook, who – just a couple of days ago – tweeted he would end Gavin inside 3 rounds.
Following last night’s history making victory for James DeGale against Andre Dirrell, his trainer – former world title challenger Jim Mc Donnell -has spoken out to say it’s the consistent work ethic of the Harlesden fighter that won him the fight in the end.
“He has worked so hard, not just for this camp but since day one. I said to him, when he first turned professional that this is the plan.”
Those of us in the UK, who started out frustrated at the fact that the live televised broadcast of tonight’s fight card was delayed by a sh***y lower tier English football play off final, actually had our spirits lifted come the end of the in-ring action, when Harlesden’s James DeGale, became the first British fighter in history to lift a professional world title following an Olympic gold medal.
One hell of an achievement.
The likable Londoner is the sole British name on an elite list of fighters that includes both Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard in accomplishing this history making feat, in a fight that was nothing short of an emotional rollercoaster for both sides – UK AND US – as the early action saw 2 stunning knockdowns in the 2nd round that left many thinking it would be an early night’s work for the Brit.
James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) narrowly defeated Andre Dirrell (24-2, 16 KOs) Saturday afternoon on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC from Agganis Arena in Boston to earn the super middleweight world title.
Degale had Dirrell in trouble early knocking him down twice in the second round to open up a lead on the scorecards. Dirrell fought back strongly throughout the rest of the fight by using his jab and a series of combinations to occasionally stun DeGale, but was unable to make up the gap on the scorecards. The judges’ scores were 114-112 twice and 117-109.
Andre Dirrell (24-2, 16 KOs) put in a game effort this afternoon in losing a 12 round unanimous decision to James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) in their fight for the vacant IBF super middleweight title Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Dirrell, 31, lost the fight despite appearing to win most of the round. His problem was he was knocked down twice by DeGale in the 2nd round.
The Russian invasion of the cruiserweight division continued on Friday night at the Luzhniki arena in Moscow. All three Russian cruiser weights, Grigory Drozd, Rakhim Chakhkiev and Dmitri Kudryashov who fought on the under-card of Povetkin/Perez stopped their opponents and established Russian as the official language of the division. Oleksandr Usyk of the Ukraine must be mentioned as a potential game-changer in the division and he speaks fluent Russian as well. Marco Huck (Muamer Hukic) has studied Russian at school in his native Serbia as a boy but it will hardly help him come to terms with the advancing troops. Huck had an extremely hard time with Dennis Lebedev and the new guard seems tougher.