Mikey Garcia battles Elio Rojas on July 30

BROOKLYN (June 28, 2016)—Undefeated former two-division world champion Mikey Garcia will return to the ring after a two-and-a-half-year layoff on Saturday, July 30 on an exciting night of boxing on SHOWTIME and SHOWTIME EXTREME that is one of the strongest cards ever assembled at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Garcia, who won world titles at featherweight and super featherweight, will fight former world champion Elio Rojas in a 10-round bout in the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING co-feature of the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton event presented by Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).

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Andre Ward takes on Alexander Brand on 8/6

NEW YORK, NY (June 28, 2016) – Roc Nation Sports is pleased to announce that Two-Time World Champion and top-rated pound-for-pound fighter Andre Ward (29-0, 15 KOs) will return to the ring on Saturday, August 6, to continue his conquest of the light heavyweight division when he takes on power-punching Colombian Alexander Brand (25-1, 19 KOs) at Oracle Arena in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, California. The event will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.

Ward and Brand were slated to face each other last November on the pay-per-view undercard of Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Alvarez, but a leg injury forced Ward to withdraw from participation in the event.

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Haye speaks on Fury’s injury, is disappointed Klitschko return got delayed

As fight fans will likely recall, heavyweight contender and former WBA champ David Haye twice pulled out of fighting Tyson Fury due to suffering an injury – a cut eye and then a shoulder injury that needed surgery – and Fury really put the boot in, claiming Haye was scared to face him. Now, in light of Fury’s ankle injury postponing his big rematch with Wladimir Klitschko, Haye could perhaps be forgiven for putting the boot firmly back in.

Instead, Haye said to Sky Sports that he is as disappointed as everyone else who wanted to see the July 9 encounter, and Haye said he feels Fury will be able to recover fast and “get back on it,” (Haye meant back on it with regards to training, not boozing!)

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Golovkin and Gonzalez top the 2016 “Best Fighter” category for the ESPY AWARDS

Boxing Superstar and Unified Middleweight World Champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, (35-0, 32 KOs) and Consensus #1 Pound-for-Pound Fighter in the World, WBC Flyweight World Champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, (45-0, 38 KOs) top the 2016 “Best Fighter” category for this year’s prestigious ESPY AWARDS.

Fans can vote for Golovkin or Gonzalez HERE. Presented by ESPN, the 2016 ESPY’s will be telecast on July 13th, LIVE on ABC (8pm ET, 5pm PT) from the Microsoft Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles.

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Floyd Mayweather is oh, so glad he was a defensive fighter; looks at Ali, his uncle as a reminder of boxing’s dangers

“Retired” boxing master Floyd Mayweather Junior might well go down in history as the finest defensive fighter of all time, and while such a distinction would certainly please Mayweather, he is already very happy – relieved, even – to have been a defensive fighter throughout his long career. Mayweather might not get the love a classic slugger gets (think Arturo Gatti or Matthew Saad Muhammad) and he has often been called “boring” and a “safety-first” ring operator, but Floyd doesn’t seem to care – he is happy he was the way he was (hard to hit) and today in full possession of his faculties as a result.

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Keith Thurman-Kell Brook: who wins?

WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman may need a substantial rest after the quite breathtaking battle he and Shawn Porter (who will also need to recharge his batteries) put on this past Saturday, but Thurman has no shortage of future big fights. One man who says he “needs” to fight Thurman is IBF welterweight ruler Kell Brook. Speaking with Sky Sports shortly after Thurman’s thrilling, FOTY candidate of a win, Brook said he feels that if he and Thurman clash, the excitement would even top the Porter war.

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Daniel Jacobs infected with virulent “Canelo’s Syndrome”

Shortly after the completion of the Canelo-Khan fight, Gilberto Mendoza, (president of the WBA) said he was waiting for his counterpart WBC Mauricio Sulaiman, to make the most expected fight between Saul Alvarez and his “mandatory” Gennady Golovkin.

Unfortunately, we all know what happened, the Mexican fighter gave up his middleweight title days after his famous post interview (after knocking out Amir Khan in 5 rounds) in where he challenged Triple G and went too far stating that it was time to stop “F around” and that he was ready to put his gloves on and get it on that same night.

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Kudos to Keith Thurman

I must applaud Mr. Keith Thurman for two things. For one, for him and Shawn Porter the fight the fans want to see at the right time. Secondly, for wanting to fight on free TV. To bring boxing back to mainstream we need more of that.

In his post-fight interview he states,” I don’t want pay-per view. I don’t want you to pay for this entertainment. I don’t want you to pay for this entertainment. There’s too much world-class athletic entertainment for free. I want all of America to see…I didn’t have HBO growing up. I didn’t have Showtime growing up. And if you have HBO and you have Showtime, and they make it a pay-per-view, now you’ve got to come out of your pocket some more. I’m not trying to gouge the American people and the American public. I want to get everybody on my side. I want everybody to have an opportunity to witness One Time. And I want boxing to come back to the forefront of network television.”

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Sergiy Derevyanchenko takes on Sam Soliman on 7/21

MASHANTUCKET, CT (June 27, 2016) – Rising middleweight contender Sergiy “The Technician” Derevyanchenko (8-0, 6 KOs) will take on former world champion Sam “King” Soliman (44-13, 18 KOs) in the 10-round main event of Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN & ESPN Deportes on Thursday, July 21 from Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, CT.

Televised coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and features a middleweight showdown between hard-hitting Ievgen Khytrov (13-0, 11 KOs) and California’s Paul Mendez (19-2-2, 9 KOs) in 10-rounds of action.

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David Haye: “I don’t get hit. I could see every Joshua shot coming”

Former WBA heavyweight champ David Haye served as a pundit for Sky Sports this past Saturday, to commentate on and analyse IBF heavyweight ruler Anthony Joshua’s KO win over a tough and game Dominic Breazeale. And though AJ got the job done in style, winning via 7th-round stoppage, Haye says he saw nothing to change his belief, his conviction, that he will defeat Joshua if and when the two fight.

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