Mexican former welterweight champion, Antonio Margarito – set for a comeback at the age of 37 – has publicly slated bitter rival, Miguel Cotto, calling the Puerto Rican WBC middleweight champion ‘a girl’ as he chases a 3rd fight between them.
Margarito was famously embroiled in the loaded wraps saga before his 2009 fight with ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley, thus causing his destructive TKO win over Miguel Cotto in his previous outing to be called severely into question.
British former super-middleweight world champion, Carl Froch sparked intrigue earlier this week with comments suggesting he was considering a comeback at 38, 18 months after his career swansong rematch against George Groves in May 2014.
Yet the ‘Cobra’, writing in his column for Sky Sports, has decided to now scotch the speculation, by saying he remains retired, and his desire to fight is gone….for the moment.
WBO 154 lb champion, Liam Smith (21-0-1, 11ko), has been granted something of an early Christmas present by promoter, Frank Warren, when he faces off against Manchester-based, WBO #8 Jimmy Kelly (16-0, 7ko) on Dec. 19.
The 23 year old Kelly, ranked #86 in the world by Boxrec’s computerized ranking system, has yet to box a 12 rounder in his fledgling professional career, and will enter the fight with Smith a monumental underdog, having last boxed beneath the champion in October, on the same bill Smith claimed the vacant title by stopping American, John Thompson.
CECILIA ZUNIGA: I want to welcome all the media that joined us today for Canelo’s final media conference call. As you all already know, we have an exciting event planned for all of you on November 21st. Now to introduce the call and Team Canelo, I would like to introduce our host for this call, the Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar De La Hoya.
OSCAR DE LA HOYA: Thank you very much. Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining today’s international media conference call with Team Canelo Alvarez. I’m pleased to be on the call this afternoon to talk about the highly anticipated clash of two Titans, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez, in a classic Puerto Rico versus Mexico battle that will be for the WBC and Ring Magazine Middleweight World Championship on November 21st live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center, which will be produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View.
WBC heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder, set for a reprieve from his showdown with mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin until April or May 2016, believes if he were to face Wladimir Klitschko tomorrow, he would emerge the victor.
Long dominant WBA/WBO/IBF champion, Klitschko, first defends his titles against Britain’s Tyson Fury on the 28th in Germany, yet if he emerges victorious from that fight as many expect, then it will inevitably mean he’ll go looking to capture the green belt once owned by older brother Vitali, in order to become undisputed heavyweight champion before he retires.
Newly retired former P4P boss, Floyd Mayweather, has publicly shredded ‘lil bro’, Adrien Broner, for derogatory comments the WBA (sup) 140 lb champion made about Mayweather’s promotional arm.
Broner, who has bizarrely been upgraded to super champion status with the WBA after his one sided win over Khabib Allakhverdiev recently, was once considered by many to be heir apparent to Mayweather, with Floyd himself having been extremely vocal in his support of the Ohio native over the years.
British super-middleweight contender, Martin Murray (32-2-1,15ko), is looking to become world champion at the 4th time of asking when he challenges WBO 168 lb champion, Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29ko) later this month, going so far as to say he will consider retirement if he is unsuccessful.
Murray has moved up to 168 from middleweight, where 3 previous world title tilts have gone against him, the last one being at the hands of destructive Kazakh, Gennady Golovkin, in February, when he extended ‘GGG’ 11 rounds before succumbing – farther than any previous Golovkin opponent.
In a little over two weeks time, Britain’s Tyson Fury, will attempt to dethrone longtime world heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko, in Dusselfdorf, Germany, claiming ahead of the fight that the champion will not only be easy to hit, but that he is clearly feeling the heat in the build up.
Fury, at 6’9″, believes his height, reach and youth advantage (he is almost 12 years younger) will be instrumental in overcoming what is arguably Klitschko’s greatest asset – experience, and says he has definitely unsettled the champion in the build up, something he feels helped bring about the minor Klitschko calf-strain that put the fight back a month.
Timothy Bradley (33-1-1 13KO) was understandably jubilant with his ninth round TKO of Brandon Rios (33-3-1 24KO)at the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV. Everything went according to plan, one that his new trainer Teddy Atlas laid out for him. For much of the fight, Bradley was just too fast for Rios. He ripped off multi-punch combinations so fast that Teddy had to caution him a bit between rounds, telling him that it was okay to once in a while just throw a two or three punch combo and then move. When he wasn’t firing off combo’s, he was moving, side to side, in and out or up and down. Rios just couldn’t time him enough to land a good shot.
Undefeated former World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight world champion NICHOLAS “Axe Man” WALTERS returns to the ring to take on granite-fisted Top-10 contender JASON “El Canito” SOSA in a 10-round junior lightweight rumble. Walters vs. Sosa will take place on Saturday, December 19, at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, NY. Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Peltz Boxing Promotions and Warriors Boxing Promotions, Walters vs. Sosa will be televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark, beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. ET.