Nathan Cleverly (29-3, 15 KOs) believes it is his ‘destiny’ to beat Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) and be crowned WBA World Light Heavyweight Champion on Saturday night at the Jahnsportforum in Neubrandenburg, Germany.
Cleverly was scheduled to meet Braehmer for the WBO title in 2011, but with only days to go before the Welshman’s first World title challenge, Braehmer withdrew, leaving Cleverly to fight Aleksy Kuziemski for the vacant belt.
Neither fans of the heavyweight division, nor most of the fighting big men themselves, have had too much to get excited about this year. With world ruler Tyson Fury’s well documented problems having seen to it that he has not boxed at all in 2016 (and will not do so until 2017 at the earliest, if even then) it has fallen on the other heavyweight belt holders to entertain the fans.
But between them, WBC champ Deontay Wilder, “interim” WBA ruler Luis Ortiz and Lucas Browne, a brief holder of yet another version of the WBA belt, have had a less than great year themselves.
Sports commentating stars STEPHEN A. SMITH, BRIAN KENNY and CHARISSA THOMPSON will join former two-division and five-time world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY as the ringside broadcast team for the MANNY “Pacman” PACQUIAO vs.. JESSIE VARGAS world welterweight championship fight which will take place Saturday, November 5 at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The broadcast team will also feature TopRank.com’s CRYSTINA PONCHER who will be the telecast’s roving reporter.
The boxing schedule is pretty thin for the month of October, especially now that the world heavyweight title fight rematch between the troubled Tyson Fury and the incredibly frustrated Wladimir Klitschko is off – possibly for good. One former champion who once lit up the lower weight divisions with some truly incredible action will make what could be called a surprising return next month, as Puerto Rican warrior Juan Manuel Lopez will return after a two year layoff.
There are currently nothing but questions surrounding world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury: will he be stripped of his title(s)? How bad is his mental, and physical, condition? Will he attend the scheduled drugs test hearing that is looming? Will Fury even box again?
One man who is convinced we have seen the last of Fury inside a boxing ring is Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, promoter, of course, of rival heavyweight, IBF champ Anthony Joshua. Hearn, in speaking with BBC Sport, said he feels Fury will be stripped and that as a result the unbeaten 28-year-old will have a ‘That’s it, I’m done’ attitude.
Vasyl Lomachenko, one of the hottest, most supremely talented fighters on the scene today – one of the best fighters he has ever worked with according to Top Rank boss Bob Arum – is set to return to action in Las Vegas on November 26. According to a piece by The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Arum said on Saturday that the reigning WBO 130-pound ruler will fight at The Cosmopolitan with his opponent still to be officially confirmed.
But there are two likely contenders for the shot: Nicholas Walters and Jezreel Corrales. Either of these two, both good, capable fighters, would be decent enough for Lomachenko – who at 6-1(4) has to be THE finest 6-1 fighter in boxing history – but neither guy figures to defeat the Ukrainian sensation. Last time out, in June, Lomachenko scored an absolutely devastating KO over Roman Martinez, in many peoples’ pick for KO of The Year.
The newly crowned WBC Diamond, WBA, Ring Magazine and Lineal Lightweight World Champion Jorge “El Niño de Oro” Linares (41-3, 27 KOs) defeated Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla (31-4-3, 13 KOs) in a huge unification blockbuster at the Manchester Arena on September 24, 2016, live on Sky Sports. After a bout going all twelve rounds with both Linares and Crolla fighting resiliently until the end, the judges announced their scores of 115-114, 117-111, 115-113 all awarding Jorge Linares the unanimous decision victory.
One of the immediate reactions many people had yesterday when they heard the news that heavyweight champion Tyson Fury had pulled out of his rematch with Wladimir Klitschko for a second time, was to demand that Fury be stripped of his heavyweight titles. This November 18th will of course mark a full 12 months since Fury became world champion, and due to inactivity and of not granting Klitschko his rematch clause-enforced rematch, Fury should, many people say, be stripped.
But there is more to the story. In fact, from what Peter Fury says, a whole lot more.
Fight fans have almost certainly heard by now how the scheduled October 29 rematch between Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko is off, due to the heavyweight champion being “medically unfit to fight.” There is talk of Fury suffering from mental issues, but nothing has been confirmed and Fury is of course entitled to his privacy. We wish him well.
But the boxing world moves on and now that Fury-Klitschko II is off for the time being at least (it’s almost a full year now since Fury upset Klitschko to take the titles in Germany) there have been moves to try and make another huge fight involving Wladimir. Promoter Eddie Hearn, who of course looks after reigning IBF champ Anthony Joshua, has conformed that he “reached out” to Berndt Boente, Klitschko’s manager, with the idea of making a Klitschko-Joshua fight.
On a night when undefeated heavyweight Trey Lippe Morrison won his television debut and Ivan “The Beast” Baranchyk and Ivan “The Volk” Golub remained unbeaten, light heavyweight Radivoje “Hot Rod” Kalajdzic regained his winning ways by registering a fifth-round knockout over previously unbeaten Travis Peterkin in the main event of a ShoBox: The New Generation quadrupleheader live on SHOWTIME Friday from Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla.
Making his ShoBox debut and first start since suffering his lone defeat on a disputed decision to Marcus Browne, a motivated Kalajdzic (22-1, 15 KOs) of St. Petersburg, Fla., dropped Peterkin (16-1-1, 7 KOs), of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, N.Y., two times in the fifth before the fight was stopped at 1:32.