In a spectacular slugfest performance and strong Fight of the Year candidate, the evening’s co-feature had Takashi Miura (31-3-2, 24 KOs) defeat Mexican warrior, and number two WBC rated Miguel “Mikey” Roman (56-12, 43 KOs) with a 12th round stoppage in their super featherweight battle.
“My hands feel great despite it being a war in there,” said Takashi Miura. “These are the types of fights that I want. I want the winner of the next fight [Vargas vs. Berchelt] next.”
Sandwiched between many of the more eye-grabbing fights in the coming days, one of Germany’s rising heavyweight stars, Agit Kabayel, finds himself as one half of an intriguing and significant vacant European title fight next Saturday, February 4th. In the opposite corner will stand the seemingly solid, but largely untested Herve ‘Double Hache’ Hubeaux of Belgium, who is taking the opportunity at a month’s notice, in place of Poland’s Mariusz Wach.
Heavyweight legend George Foreman is a fan of unbeaten IBF heavyweight ruler Anthony Joshua, feeling he is a good athlete and a good boxer. But, going into his huge fight with Wladimir Klitschko – a fight that will play out in front of a record 90,000 fans at Wembley on April 29 – Joshua has been warned by Foreman.
Foreman’s warning is simple: beware of veterans. “Big George” says Klitschko (who will have turned 41 a few weeks before the Joshua clash) must not be counted out, that the former champion may produce a surprise in the big fight.
Though superstar Manny Pacquiao has expressed interest in having another fight, a fifth battle, with Juan Manuel Marquez, Marquez has quite unequivocally put an end to such a notion. Marquez, now aged 43 but still interested in fighting again before his retirement, told ESPN Deports how he will not fight Pac-Man again – not even for the incredible sum of $100 million!
With fight fans braced for a second terrific instalment of featherweight action tonight in Las Vegas, one half of the rivalry is already talking about a third fight. The July battle between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz was excellent and there is absolutely no reason to think the return bout will be any different.
However, Mexican warrior Santa Cruz fully believes the result will be different in the sequel. Santa Cruz, who lost his unbeaten record and featherweight belt to Irish superstar Frampton, who became a two-weight ruler with the biggest win of his career, puts the defeat down to a bad night. The defending champ was affected by the fact that his father was battling cancer last summer and Santa Cruz insists that with no such distractions he will be at his best.
Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz square-off for the second time this Saturday from Las Vegas, Nevada at the MGM Grand Garden Arena live on Showtime. Can Leo make the necessary adjustments in the rematch or will Frampton’s overall skill be too much again? The co-feature matches former two-weight champion, former pound for pound fighter Mikey Garcia against WBC lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin.
Carl Frampton’s career skyrocketed in 2016 on the strength of two legit fights enough so he won the majority of ‘Fighter of the year’ awards giving out by the press. Just under a year ago Carl defeated previously unbeaten 122-pound champion Scott Quigg in a unification bout in Manchester, England. ‘The Jackal’ moved up to featherweight to face yet another undefeated boxer in Leo Santa Cruz.
Throughout his great, Hall of Fame-worthy ring career, Carl Froch met just one man he could not defeat: Andre Ward. Meeting in the long awaited final to “The Super Six” super-middleweight tournament back in December of 2011, Ward and Froch battled for 12 less than thrilling rounds with Ward winning via clear decision.
One may feel the reason Froch – in speaking with FightHype.com – is so unkind to Ward is the defeat. But “The Cobra,” who works as a pundit for Sky Sports these days, insists he finds it “difficult” giving praise and credit to the unbeaten Ward even though he was defeated by him. Froch says Ward is “ugly” in fights and uses illegal tactics.
As fight fans have probably ready, WBC heavyweight ruler Deontay Wilder is currently in the search for a new opponent for his scheduled February 25 return bout. Original foe Andrej Wawrzyk failed a pre-fight drugs test and now, with just under a month to go, a new challenger is needed.
According to a piece on RingTV.com, the short-list of possible Wilder opponents is down to three; with unbeaten Gerald Washington currently the frontrunner to get the big fight opportunity. No deal has been reached at time of writing, so it could be either fighter 2 or fighter 3 on the short-list that gets the big fight.
Although former featherweight champ Leo Santa Cruz has other more impending matters on his mind right now – namely regaining his belt from the man who took it from him last July, Carl Frampton – the prospect of new US President Donald Trump going ahead with his threat of deporting “all illegal immigrants” from America alarms the Mexican warrior.
Mikey Garcia 134.5 vs. Dejan Zlaticanin 134.5
Josh Taylor 142 vs. Alfonso Olvera 140
Ivan Redkach 137 vs. Desmond Brock 137.5
David Benavidez 166 vs. Sherali Mamajov 167
Herbert Acevedo 141 vs. Chris Singleton 140
Laduan Barthelemy 126 vs. Jesus Aguinaga 126
Antonio Santa Cruz 117 vs. Victor Torres 116
Gerardo Perez 126 vs. Javier Cepeda 125