Joseph Parker may have made history by becoming the very first heavyweight champion (WBO version) to come out of New Zealand, but the unbeaten star wants more – lots more. According to David Higgins of Duco Events, Parker is likely to be in attendance at Wembley in April when IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua meets former undisputed king Wladimir Klitschko in a fight that will also contest the WBA belt.
Why? Because Parker aims to call out the winner for a massive unification fight.
Rather than fight each other, Amir Khan and Kell Brook have been fighting over who can face the most outrageous opponents instead, but signs are that a meeting between the two is at least on the radar for 2017.
Amir Khan is back in training following hand surgery and talking of a British ring return in April against an opponent yet to be determined, although Kell Brook won’t be his pugnacious homecoming first date.
Undefeated heavyweight world champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) will defend his title in his home state for the fourth time, as he faces once-beaten challenger Andrzej Wawrzyk (33-1, 19 KOs) in the main event of Premier Boxing Champions on FOX and FOX Deportes Saturday, February 25, from Legacy Arena at the BJCC in Birmingham, Alabama.
Televised coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and will feature the only American heavyweight world champion headlining his third primetime show on network television, after Wilder most recently stopped Chris Arreola after eight-rounds of action on FOX in July. The champion suffered hand and bicep injuries during the fight, but returns on February 25 fully healthy.
Much disputed, debated and demeaned too, boxing’s pound-for-pound list remains the definitive way to single out the best boxers in the world.
Making the selection for 2016 requires serious deliberation, as changes must be made. 2016 is only the second year in approximately 11 years of boxing that Floyd Mayweather is not at the top of boxing’s pound-for-pound list.
It’s that time again, and the various publications and boxing websites are listing their respective picks for Fighter of The Year. Far from an easy choice to make this year, there are a few great fighters who enjoyed a stellar 12 months and are arguably deserving of the honour.
Let’s break it down:
It’s one of the most intriguing rematches in boxing and it could happen in March. Vasyl Lomachenko, for many The Fighter of The Year, has been beaten by just two fighters in his entire career, amateur and pro – and the pro defeat, to tough Mexican Orlando Salido, remains the sole unavenged blemish on the super-featherweight champ’s C.V.
But, according to “Hi-Tech” himself, the rematch is very likely for March, in either Las Vegas or Los Angeles.
By Mauricio Sulaiman – 2016 comes to an end – welcome 2017!
As we all try to slow down to enjoy a few quiet moments in the company of our loved ones, thinking about what happened this year and planning on what we wish to do for 2017, it is a great opportunity to simply meditate and reflect on our own actions and what can we personally do to make the difference in our lives and the lives of others. It is so common that we get lost in the day-to-day pressures, deadlines, worries, excessive work, travel, and eternal use of the cell phone. We often forget to look at today, to realize what we have, who is next to us, how fortunate we are to have health, to be alive, to have our loved ones close. We forget to appreciate and cherish what is there.
K2 Promotions, guided by Managing Director Tom Loeffler, continued their 12-year legacy of promoting boxing’s biggest international events in 2016 featuring a number of the sports’ most popular and exciting fighters.
Below are the K2 Promotions nominees for the 2016 Year-End Boxing Awards.
Boxing fans will remember 2016 for a year of exciting fights, if not all of the ones we wanted to see.
The two boxers that came out of 2015 with the biggest wins – Floyd Mayweather and Tyson Fury – did not fight in 2016 at all. Gennady Golovkin continued his devastating reign as middleweight king without fighting any of the division’s top names (at no fault of his own), whilst great champions like Manny Pacquaio and Roman Gonzalez continued to rule, if not in the same manner they once did. Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev did clash in a true battle of modern greats, but who is the better of the two is even less settled than it was before they fought. All in all, although a lot happened in boxing in 2016, not a lot changed.
Fight fans are hoping 2017 will provide them with a good, exciting year of heavyweight action. This year, largely dominated by reigning IBF champ Anthony Joshua (who was, with three title fights fought, the most active heavyweight champion) was no great year, but there are signs that 2017 could be a fine one for the big men of the sport.
The year will be kick-started by the ring return of Deontay Wilder, who will in February fight for the first time since injuring his hand and his biceps whilst throwing bombs at the rock of a head owned by Chris Arreola. Anxious to get back in there having endured just over seven months of enforced inactivity, Wilder, 37-0(36) will face a perceived soft touch in Poland’s Andrzej Wawrzyk on February 25 in Birmingham, Alabama.