Unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will face welterweight Kell Brook on Sept 10 in what is being billed as a middleweight championship bout. This upcoming fight has a lot of boxing fans talking, many of them passionately. The debate largely centers around whether or not Brook – a largely unproven welterweight trinket holder – is worthy of facing the middleweight powerhouse better known to most as “Triple G”.
Jeremy “J Flash” Nichols (5-0, 2 KOs) looks to keep his undefeated record in tact when he steps into the ring on September 9th against unbeaten Steve Belmontes (2-0) in a four round bout at the downtown Las Vegas Event Center. This will be Nichols’ sixth fight within a year and his second consecutive bout against an undefeated fighter, as he looks to make a name for himself in the welterweight division.
“I am excited for my upcoming fight against Belmontes,” said Nichols. “I have had a really good training camp and I expect to end this bout via a knockout.”
The top two ranked heavyweights by the World Boxing Council (WBC), No. 1 Alexander Povetkin and No. 2 Bermane Stiverne, have recently been ordered to fight for the interim WBC heavyweight title. The winner will become the interim champion and will defend the title until champion Deontay Wilder, is ready to come back from the injuries sustained in July.
“I would like to thank Don King and the honorable Mauricio Sulaiman of the WBC for giving me this opportunity to fight for the heavyweight title once again,” said Stiverne. “For the betterment of boxing in general, and the heavyweight division in particular, I plan to knock Povetkin out and bring this title to America. Then I will get my revenge against Wilder, when he is ready.”
HBO Sports, widely acclaimed for its innovative boxing programming, takes an in-depth look at one of boxing’s brightest superstars as he prepares to challenge a 154-pound champion from the UK at one of the world’s most spectacular arenas when ROAD TO CANELO/SMITH debuts SATURDAY, SEPT. 10 (12:45-1:00 a.m. ET/PT).
Other HBO playdates: Sept. 11 (11:30 a.m., 3:15 a.m.), 12 (1:25 p.m., 1:45 a.m.), 13 (6:00 p.m., 11:30 p.m.), 14 (10:00 a.m., 10:30 p.m.), 15 (4:00 p.m.), 16 (1:10 a.m.) and 17 (5:45 p.m.)
Amir Khan has already laid out his plans for 2017: fight three times, beginning in January, and hopefully win two big, big fights after the tune-up. Now, in speaking with UK tabloid The Sun, Khan has targeted his number-one rival: WBC welterweight king Danny Garcia. Fans are aware of two things – Garcia KO’d Khan in an exciting fight back in July of 2012, Khan is the current WBC mandatory contender for “Swift’s” green belt.
Khan now says he wants the rematch and he wants it next May. Before that, though, the British superstar aims to re-sharpen his considerable tools with a fight at home.
If Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn pulls this off he will be a guaranteed Promoter of The Year award winner in Britain this year. The big plans that are currently underway are for THREE big heavyweight fights to take place on the same night in Cardiff, Wales in either November or December of this year.
According to a news piece in The Mail, Hearn is working, along with others, on staging Anthony Joshua’s second title defence, Joseph Parker against David Price and Dereck Chisora against Dillian Whyte, all at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. The word now is Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev, the current European heavyweight champion, is the frontrunner to land the shot at IBF boss Joshua. This fight, a solid match-up that could well provide A.J with his stiffest pro test thus far in his career, would be supported in fine style if the other two in-the-works match-ups get made.
Once again, Marvellous Marvin Hagler and Thomas “Hitman” Hearns would box under the bright lights of Las Vegas, this time together, on the same night, against dangerous opposition. It was almost a full year after these two warriors had gone to hell and back against one other, and the grand plan for promoter Bob Arum was to set up a Hagler-Hearns II. Fans got two thrilling fights for their money this night in 1986 – one ending via violently quick KO, the other being an absolute war of attrition – as a rematch of the greatest fight in history was in the works.
Though he claims he is not too interested in the fast approaching fight between Gennady Golovkin and Kell Brook, Saul Canelo Alvarez has given the media his pre-fight prediction: Brook, who he says is “being sacrificed,” will definitely get knocked out. Canelo has launched a scathing attack on middleweight king Golovkin, stating how “he has to worry about his legacy, I don’t have to worry about mine.”
Well, in the opinion of most – around the same number of people who agree with Canelo on his Brook will get KO’d pick – Alvarez does indeed have to worry about his legacy; if he wants to go down as a great Mexican legend, anyway. Canelo must face GGG (something he claims he will do, next year) and he must defeat him if he’s to go down alongside the absolute cream of Mexican warriors. Yet the way he is talking, Canelo feels he has already achieved enough; more than GGG has achieved anyway.
ERIC GOMEZ, Senior Vice President of Golden Boy Promotions:
Thank you all for joining us on the call today. This is the official media conference call for the televised pay-per-view undercard. The fighters that will be fighting on the Canelo-Smith mega fight. On September 17th over Mexican Independence weekend, we are set to have one of the most entertaining boxers in sports today, “King” Gabriel Rosado with a record of 23-9, 13 knockouts from Philadelphia, and he’ll be facing world title challenger, Willie Monroe, with a great record of 20-2 out of Rochester, New York, in a 12-round middleweight bout, and that will be the co-feature of Canelo and Smith.
What does Canelo have to do for the Mexican fans to embrace him as one of their best? How does he become one of the best in the rich history of Mexican boxing?
“Mexican fighters have long been known for their toughness, their ability to walk through fire, their willingness to take three punches to land a solid shot.
“That is Canelo Alvarez.