Ghana’s Emmanuel ‘Game Boy’ Tagoe is the new IBO Lightweight champion of the world following a dominant victory over former world champion, Mzonke Fana at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra in the early hours of Saturday.
Determined to realize the childhood dream of wearing a world championship belt, Tagoe wasted no time in taking the fight to his opponent, amid flooring Fana twice in the very first round to underline his intentions straight from the sound of the bell.
Top rated contender RICHARD COMMEY, (24-2-0, 22 KO’s) of Accra, Ghana, is leaving Moscow and heading home after suffering a hotly contested battle and controversial split decision loss to Russia’s DENIS SHAFIKOV, (38-2-1, 20 KO’s) today in their 12-round IBF Lightweight World Title Eliminator. Scores were 116-112 for Commey and 116-112, 115-113 for Shafikov.
Mandatory challenger Murat Gassiev battles unified cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev in bout that has explosive written all over it. The cruiserweight division is for the most part off the radar away from mainstream attention. Many of the sports long list of legends in the past reigned at middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight. Never a glamour division however in recent years it’s consistently produced great fights and top-ten matchups.
It’s been a nice alternative to many of the heavyweights nowadays, who are too large to keep an active punch rate and often end up gassing out midway thru a fight. The cruisers tend to be in better physical shape but still pack a punch which is the case in this unification dust-up. Take the two-belt champion in Denis Lebedev as example. He comes to fight, doesn’t lack power, and has a helluva chin. Murat Gassiev prefers to stalk his opponent and poses real one-punch knockout power which is evident by a nasty left hook ‘KO of the year’ candidate landed in his last fight in May.
Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez spoke with RingTV.com today, the subject of conversation being the plans for Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez’s next move. As Alvarez continues to heal – he fractured his right hand during his September win over Liam Smith – he also looks forward to his next fight. Gomez says Alvarez will not vacate the WBO 154-pound belt he won from Smith, as his next fight could be a defence of the strap.
That’s if Canelo is fit and ready to fight in the first quarter of next year; if not then Alvarez will return to action in May – at middleweight. Gomez also said that the ultimate plan remains the same: for Canelo to fight middleweight ruler Gennady Golovkin in September of 2017.
It’s proven far longer than initially expected for the middleweight title fight between world ruler Gennady Golovkin and secondary WBA middleweight champ Danny Jacobs to get done, but it looks like the new working date of March 18 will see the fight take place. As Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reports, the WBA sent a letter to both teams this week, informing them that they now have seven days in which to come together with a deal – if no deal is reached the fight will go to purse bids.
Weights from Moscow:
Edward Trojanowski 139.75 vs. Julius Indogo 138.25
Dmitry Kudryashov 199 vs. Santander Silgado 200
Rakhim Chakhkiev 196.25 vs. Maxim Vlasov 197
Kubrat Pulev (23-1, 12 KOs) and Samuel Peter (36-5, 29 KOs) both weighed in today ahead of their WBA Intercontinental Heavyweight title clash tomorrow night at the Arena Armeec in Sofia, Bulgaria. In front of 15,000 fans, Pulev, the current European Champion, will make his long awaited homecoming fight against Peter, the former WBC World Champion, as both men target a World title opportunity in 2017.
Leonard Ellerbe on McGregor getting a boxing license: “It’s all a game,” says McGregor “not allowed” to fight Mayweather
Floyd Mayweather’s right-hand man Leonard Ellerbe has responded to the news that UFC champ Conor McGregor has successfully obtained a license to box in the state of California. And, as expected, Ellerbe says the Super-Fight McGregor wants with Floyd Mayweather is no closer to coming to fruition simply because the MMA star can now box professionally.
Good news and bad news for Conor McGregor …
GOOD NEWS: Northern Irish boxing superstar Carl Frampton — the reigning WBA featherweight champ — says he loves Conor and would be down to train with the guy if he’s serious about boxing.
BAD NEWS: Frampton doesn’t think Conor’s got a shot in hell at taking down Floyd Mayweather.
Featherweight world champion Carl Frampton and former three-division world champion Leo Santa Cruz went face-to-face in Los Angeles Thursday along with lightweight world champion Dejan Zlaticanin and undefeated former two-division world champion Mikey Garcia in advance of their respective showdowns Saturday, January 28 in a Premier Boxing Champions event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and live on SHOWTIME.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME)
The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING doubleheader begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Zlaticanin vs. Garcia. For Frampton and Santa Cruz, Thursday’s event was the second press conference promoting their highly anticipated rematch as the featherweights spoke to media in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Tuesday at the Europa Hotel.