(Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing) Unbeaten Irishman Carl Frampton is already looking towards his next fight and, disappointingly for avoided Cuban master Guillermo Rigondeaux, it doesn’t look at this early stage as though it will be against “Rigo.”
Frampton, who broke Scott Quigg’s jaw during the 12-round split decision win in Manchester, spoke with Sky Sports after his victory and “The Jackal” had plenty of things to say:
Unbeaten star Terence Crawford really does like as though he is on the way to the top of the pound-for-pound charts and to possible greatness. After wiping out the capable if not great Hank Lundy via impressive 5th-round stoppage last night, the options are plentiful for the reigning WBO super-lightweight king who has already claimed world titles at two weight divisions in his 28-0(20) pro career.
And promoter Bob Arum, in speaking with Ring.TV.com, spoke about these possible options; one of which is, quite amazingly, a fight against the Al Haymon-promoted Adrien Broner. Arum, of course filed a whopping great lawsuit against Haymon last summer, but now the Top Rank boss says he’d “love to” make a Crawford-Broner fight, even if it means working with Haymon.
Last night, in Manchester England, and in Halle, Germany, two heavyweights sat at ringside as a big fight unfolded, yet neither Tyson Fury nor Wladimir Klitschko was in a position to announce their own next fight. Heavyweight ruler Fury is (or was?) widely expected to face the man he dethroned last November in a summer rematch, as per the written contract. But, as he made clear last night when speaking with Sky Sports, Fury has “no idea” what his next move will or will not be:
“I have no idea when the next fight is, who it is going to be, no idea,” Fury, sporting a shaven head and a full beard, stated. “So that is a bit of an update for everybody. I don’t know who it is going to be, to be honest. I have no confirmation on if it is going to be Klitschko, Fred Flinstone or Batman, I have no idea.”
It was a solid night of boxing at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center Saturday night. A crowd of several hundred, which included champs Lamont Peterson and Adrien Broner, were treated to a roster of up-and-comers looking to make a statement. Even Virginia’s governor, Terri McAuliffe, seemed to be having a good time as the fights progressed.
(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) ANAHEIM, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2016) – Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz defended his WBA Featherweight World Championship in convincing fashion on Saturday night, knocking down Kiko “Sensación” Martinez twice in the first round, then ending it on a barrage of punches as the fight was called at 2:09 in the fifth round in the main event of a SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING doubleheader at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
In the co-feature on SHOWTIME, 29-year-old Hugo Ruiz (36-3, 31 KOs), Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, regained his WBC Super Bantamweight World Title with a devastating early knockdown with just 51 seconds into the 12-round fight against 23-year-old Julio Ceja (30-2, 27 KOs) of Atizapan De Zaragoza, Mexico, in a highly anticipated rematch of their August fight won by Ceja.
(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) In easily the most exciting fight of this weekend’s fights, WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) stood in the trenches and slugged it out with the hard hitting Kiko Martinez (35-7, 26 KOs) in mowing him down in five thrilling rounds on Showtime Boxing on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Santa Cruz put Martinez down on two separate occasions in the 2nd round of the 12 round fight. The end of the fight came in the 5th, when the 27-year-old Santa Cruz unloaded on Martinez with a nonstop storm of shots that resulted in referee Raul Caiz Jr. pulling the plug on the fight. Martinez, 29, was still on his feet, but he was near helpless if not for the referee stopping it. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:09 of the round.
NEW YORK (Feb. 27th, 2016) – Hank Lundy’s bid for a world title in the 140-pound division came up short Saturday as undefeated Terence Crawford retained his World Boxing Organization (WBO) Junior Welterweight Championship via fifth-round stoppage at the 2-minute, 9-second mark in the main event of HBO’s World Championship Boxing doubleheader at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, co-promoted by Top Rank and CES Boxing.
“He caught me with a good shot on the top of my head and threw my equilibrium off. I just couldn’t recover,” Lundy said.
(Photo credit Matchroom Boxing) NEW YORK (Feb. 27, 2016) – IBF 122-pound world champion Carl Frampton unified the super bantamweight division with a split decision victory over WBA titlist Scott Quigg Saturday on SHOWTIME BOXING INTERNATIONAL from Manchester, England.
An encore presentation of Saturday’s telecast will re-air later this evening immediately following the live SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® telecast headlined by three-division world champion Leo Santa Cruz and former titlist Kiko Martinez. The SHOWTIME telecast begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
(Photo credit Matchroom Boxing) IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) showed a lot of heart and determination in gutting out a 12 round split decision on Saturday night in beating WBA champ Scott Quigg (31-1-2, 23 KOs) by a narrow 12 round split decision win in their 122lb unifcation fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The judges gave the fight to Frampton, but Quigg easily could have won that fight. If not winning, it could and perhaps should have been scored a draw. Quigg landed the far better punches in each round, and he came on strong in the second half of the fight to do the better work. I had Quigg winning two of the first six rounds and four of the last half to deserve a draw. The scores were 115-113 for Quigg, 116-112 and 116-112 for Quigg. Frampton was fighting on fumes in the last three to four rounds, and his punches had nothing on them.
Coming off of a bad knockout loss, 31-year-old former WBO cruiserweight world champion Marco Huck (39-3-1, 27 KOs) was able to score a 10th round TKO win tonight over IBO cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (22-5-4, 11 KOs) at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany. The fight was stopped by referee Jack Reiss after the 10th round had ended.
He halted it because of Afolabi’s left eye being swollen shut. Huck had been hammering Afolabi with right hands to the eye from the very start of the fight. In the 1st round, Huck rammed his head accidentally into the face of Afolabi, and that obviously didn’t help Afolabi’s eye any.