Its Sunday midday in Auckland at the Pullman hotel and the brassiere/bar is going crazy, well at least moderately crazy as heavyweight contenders Izu Ugonoh and Joseph Parker have just watched underdog Tyson Fury dethrone Wladimir Klitschko to end his decade long reign atop the heavyweight mountain.
At this moment Izu is just a regular fight fan as he turns to me in excitement and remarks, ‘see that’s what I love about boxing, as I tell you anything can happen!’
Former WBO super welterweight champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade returned to the ring in October for the first time in 16 months and scored a second round technical knockout against the former South American champion Dario Fabian Pucheta. Andrade kept his undefeated record intact (22-0, 15 KOs) with a dominating performance and with the victory, claimed the vacant WBO and WBA International super welterweight titles.
by Jim Dorney: I used to write fairly regularly for this site, prior to the birth of my children. Since then, I’ve still kept up with boxing but haven’t found the time to write about it.
However – I’ve observed some negativity and xenophobia on this site of late which compelled me to make a writing comeback of sorts. Hopefully (assuming it’s published) this article might present a balanced perspective into the division and one of the fighters who often tends to be the subject of the articles and forum debates that tends to veer off into trash-talking – Deontay Wilder.
In an excellent matchup between fighters in the prime of their careers, middleweight world champion Daniel “The Miracle Man” Jacobs (30-1, 27 KOs) will take on undefeated former 160-pound world champion Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin (32-0-1, 23 KOs) this Saturday, Dec, 5 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn live on SHOWTIME® (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
So who will win the can’t miss, sure to be intense 12-round argument no one expects to be a blowout?
Just four short months before his untimely death in October 2012, legendary Kronk gym and Hall of Fame trainer, Emanuel Steward, made some very prophetic statements from the Klitschko training base in Austria, as evidenced in a social media video shared by new lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on his twitter account this afternoon.
In the edited two minute clip, from June 2012 and originally published by fightnews.com, Steward – less than a month shy of his 68th birthday and still training Wladimir- sits in an armchair discussing the impact current prospects he has worked with are going to have upon the future scene, referring to Fury as ‘the next big dominant heavyweight’ after the Ukrainian’s time has ended.
Chris Algieri, Former WBO Super Lightweight World Champion, (Quillin): “Tough fight to call. I believe whoever can assert their fight will ultimately take the victory. Danny needs to set a fast pace and box smart. Quillin will look to be explosive and bring the pressure. Too close to predict for me but will go with the more experienced man in Quillin to take it.”
WBC heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder, has claimed he is prepared to travel to the UK to fight new WBO/WBA/IBF champion, Tyson Fury, in an attempt to unify the division.
The American is set to box a 3rd optional defense of his title in January, by virtue of the fact mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin will not be ready for their due-date until April/May 2016, although the Beijing ’08 bronze medalist has claimed he has one eye on Fury, who will likely first fight Wladimir Klitschko in a summer ’16 rematch.
WBA (reg) middleweight champion, Daniel Jacobs (30-1, 27ko) believes that he will have a decisive edge over Brooklyn rival Peter Quillin on Saturday night at New York’s Barclays Center, saying he is the fighter with the greater speed and skill set.
The winner of the fight will [still] be in the unenviable position of being mandatory challenger to Kazakh wrecking machine, Gennady Golovkin, who holds the top tier WBA strap as well as the IBF 160 lb title he ripped away from David Lemieux in October.
Tyson Fury has again confirmed that he will not fight returning countryman, David Haye, under any circumstances, claiming he would rather vacate any titles on principle should the ‘Hayemaker’ work his way into a mandatory position to fight for them.
Fury remains adamant that former WBA champ, Haye, will never get a shot at any of the IBF/WBO/WBA heavyweight titles as long as he owns them, given that he pulled out of fighting Fury twice shortly before he retired in 2013, costing the 6’9″ Brit his ranking at the time and delaying his eventual shot at Klitschko.
Although the fight is still two months away, there was already tension between unified light heavyweight title holder Sergey Kovalev and former world champion Jean Pascal at Monday’s press conference held at Bell Centre’s La Cage – Brasserie Sportive. Main Events and InterBox formally announce the rematch for the Unified WBO, WBA and IBF Light Heavyweight World Championship set to take place on Saturday, January 30 at Bell Centre. The event will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.