https://youtube.com/watch?v=a2bPFp4Ln00
By: Bill Dwyre* – Saturday night, in a familiar boxing ring at a trendy bright-lights casino here, superstar MANNY PACQUIAO will do, in 36 minutes or less, what superstar Kobe Bryant has spent an entire NBA season doing.
Carl Frampton, the unbeaten Irish star who added the WBA super-bantamweight title to his IBF crown with his recent points win over Scott Quigg, has been stripped of the title. The WBA, seeing how Frampton has no intention of facing his mandatory challenger, Guillermo Rigondeaux – the WBA’s champion in recess – stripped him. Frampton has made no secret of the fact that he intends to move up in weight and challenge Leo Santa Cruz in an expected summer blockbuster.
Is today’s bout against Timothy Bradley the last one for Manny Pacquiao? Will the conclusion to his career be celebrated tonight? Or will the boxing community be left with another default answer, suggesting nothing at all?
While his retirement is probably just around the corner, it is hard to say when that moment will actually arrive. Despite the fact that Pacquiao had admitted that his jetlag and training have become more difficult for him to adjust to, he did mention that come fight night, he always feels like his old self. Freddie Roach has also mentioned on numerous occasions that Manny has a few more fight left.
Arthur Abraham (44-4, 29 KOs) defends his WBO World Super Middleweight title against Gilberto Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs) tonight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
‘King Arthur’ fights away from home for the first time since 2011 and will face a difficult task to overcome the undefeated Mexican Ramirez.
It looks as though Shannon Briggs has finally talked, harassed and pestered his way into a big fight and the big pay day that will go along with it. After spending months irritating then-heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko in an unsuccessful attempt at getting a title shot – with Briggs entertaining some and irritating others with his war cry of “Let’s go Champ!” – Briggs shifted his attention to the UK scene.
When Tyson Fury upset long – reigning champion, Wladimir Klitschko last November to win the lineal heavyweight championship, it immediately injected new life into a division in need of life. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly George Foreman taking Joe Frazier’s lunch money or Larry Holmes and Ken Norton beating each other up with the rusted links of the evolutionary chain.
It was more like the first microbes that crawled from the primordial ooze of the earth’s beginnings. Nothing exciting, I’d assume but it was a start and that always leads to somewhere, even if it takes the craziest route, which is exactly what happened.
Over three decades ago, May 11th 1984, former unified welterweight king Sugar Ray Leonard, boxing as a light-middleweight, fought for the first time since a near two year layoff. Going in with the little-known Kevin Howard, Leonard was returning to the ring having announced his retirement in November of 1982 due to suffering a detached retina in his left eye.
Coming back with an idea of perhaps making a bold challenge for Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s middleweight crown (Hagler acted as co-commentator for HBO), Leonard was thoroughly dissatisfied with his performance against Howard. Not only did Sugar Ray feel rusty, he was also knocked down in the bout, the 4th-round knockdown from a Howard right hand to the head being the 27-year-old’s first-ever trip to the canvas during a largely glorious career.
LONDON (April 8) – Boxing ace Amir Khan has hailed Manny Pacquiao as one of the greatest ever.
The Filipino superstar is set to call time on his illustrious career when he takes on Timothy Bradley live and exclusive on Premier Sports this Saturday night from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
How did it get so late so soon?
It seems like it was just yesterday, when a young Filipino boxer was crossing the ropes, diving into an ocean full of unknowns, to face an elite rival in Juan Manuel Marquez for the first time. That was 2004, twelve years ago.
Now, after an astonishing record-breaking career, Manny Pacquiao is on his way out of boxing, hoping to transition into a full time political career, and be able to dedicate more time to his family.
