The World Boxing Council completed the third day of its 54th annual convention today at the Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Florida.
Opening the morning session, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman said, “The WBC has seen a decline in interest in amateur boxing around the world and the current practice by AIBA to threaten the integrity of amateur boxing. We have many persons in this room who have, one way or another, participated in making efforts to provide a platform for amateur boxers.
Like him or not and whether you find his fighting style boring or entertaining, fans everywhere have to admit Bernard Hopkins has had some incredible career – and some eventful life. Hopkins, at almost 52, will see out his long and incredibly successful career this Saturday, against young, ambitious and dangerous punching Joe Smith Junior.
Hopkins promises this will be “The Final 1,” and that he will then exit the sport satisfied – “I’m about to be 52 with more than 60 fights and I can still hold a sentence. I’m most proud of that,” B-Hop, AKA The Alien, AKA The Executioner told The Las Vegas Review Journal this week. Hopkins hopes a movie will be devoted to his life, and let’s face it, there’s plenty of material there.
The first period of ticket sales for the World Heavyweight unification blockbuster between Anthony Joshua MBE and Wladmir Klitschko on April 29 at Wembley Stadium Connected by EE will commence at midday on Friday December 16.
There will be two periods of ticket sales for the event and coach packages are available in order to maximise the available capacity at Wembley.
The first batch of tickets on sale from Friday December 16 as follows:
Super welterweight world champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs) will take on former world champion Yuri Foreman (34-2, 10 KOs) in a world title showdown that headlines Premier Boxing Champions on Spike on Friday, January 13 from Hialeah Park Racing and Casino in Miami.
Televised coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT with former super middleweight world champion Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell (29-1-1, 23 KOs) battling Hungary’s Norbert Nemesapati (24-4, 17 KOs) in a 10-round bout.
Slightly older British fight fans will remember “The Big Fight Live.” Back in the day, in the 1980s and ’90s, with the great Reg Gutteridge doing the commentary, the show, going out on terrestrial channel ITV, was THE place to watch the big fights. Now, according to an interesting piece on the ITV website, the boxing show will return to TV screens next year – on pay-per-view.
Ghana’s Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe will take at least two more ‘warm-up’ fights before considering a possible shot at the world title, father and trainer of the Ghanaian boxer, Paul Dogboe has revealed.
The undefeated Dogboe (16-0, 10 KOs) scored a round seven knockout victory over Julian Evaristo Aristule of Argentina to win the hitherto vacant WBO International and Aristule’s WBO Latino super bantamweight titles at the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand last Saturday. It was a fight between two boxers rated number 8 and 9 respectively to the WBO super bantamweight belt held by Jesse Magdaleno of the US, setting the potential of the winner rising up to take a shot at the world title next.
World middleweight king Gennady Golovkin picked up three awards at the annual WBC convention in Hollywood, the most prestigious possibly being the distinction of being recognised by The Guinness Book of Records as having THE highest KO percentage in the history of middleweight world championship boxing.
GGG, who fought just twice this year, also picked up two WBC awards – one for Event of The Year, for his dominant stoppage victory over Kell Brook in September, the other, a special award, for being Most Dominant Boxer. The place he now occupies in the prestigious Guinness Book of Records arguably made GGG feel most proud though.
New WBO heavyweight champ Joseph Parker seems to have plenty of options now that he has made his mark as the first New Zealander to have won heavyweight gold. Parker may have to face Hughie Fury in a mandatory first defence next spring, but the 24-year-old’s promotional outfit Duco Events are looking at all options – some of them massive.
David Higgins of Duco spoke with Sky Sports yesterday and he discussed everything from a Parker-Fury fight, to a Parker-Wilder unification fight, to a Joshua-Parker doubleheader on April 29, when AJ will fight former champ Wladimir Klitschko.
Group Yvon Michel (GYM) and Gestev are very happy to confirm the Clash of Titans mega-event as former International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight world champion Lucian Bute (32-3-1, 25 KOs) will face World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver light heavyweight champion Eleider “Storm” Alvarez (20-0, 10 KOs), Friday, February 24, in a 12-round light heavyweight bout at Vidéotron Centre of Québec City.
This event is a presentation of Vidéotron, in association with Mise-O-Jeu.
Amazingly, and proof positive that boxing is flourishing on these shores, the UK can now boast more reigning world champion boxers than any other country in the world. With 13 world rulers – from heavyweight all the way down to super-flyweight – the UK currently has more champs than America (12) and Mexico (8).
The current impressive list of world champions consists of: