Iran Barkley speaks about his epic fight with Roberto Duran, over 25-years on

On this day 26 years ago, inside a packed Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey, two bitter middleweight rivals went to war over 12 absolutely thrilling rounds.

Outside, snow covered the ground thanks to a blizzard, yet inside the arena the heat was scorching. WBC middleweight ruler Iran Barkley fought a thought to be faded legend in Roberto Duran and the fans in attendance witnessed both a modern day classic and a renaissance.

For all 12 ‘don’t-blink’ rounds, the 28-year-old and the 37-year-old went to war, with a number of unforgettable highlights and a ton of terrific action on display through the 36-minutes. In the end, old “Hands of Stone” prevailed via a somewhat controversial upset split decision, relieving “The Blade” of his green belt.

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Ryan Farrag ready for live opponents

Hot bantamweight prospect and reigning English champion Ryan Farrag 13-1 (2KO’s) intends to crash the 8st 6lbs division in 2015 with his apprenticeship well and truly served.

Farrag returns to action on 14th March in Widnes with intentions of laying down a marker in the wake of confident weekend wins for future foes, British and European champion Lee Haskins, 31-3 (13KO’s) and WBO European and Commonwealth champion Ross Burkinshaw, 14-5-2 (8KO’s).

For once the British boxing spotlight is firmly fixed between 8st to 9st divisions, due to the World title success of Paul Butler, Stuart Hall, Jamie McDonnell, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton. Add to this the burgeoning talents of Lee Selby, Josh Warrington, Kal Yafai, James ‘Jazza’ Dickens and Kid Galahad, there has never been a better time for Farrag to showcase his considerable talents.

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Kevin Johnson: “Tyson Fury is an 8/10, Anthony Joshua is a 3/10.”

American heavyweight Kevin Johnson claims time spent in the company of Tyson Fury will serve him well ahead of a proposed April 25 collision with Anthony Joshua – because Fury is considerably better than the former Olympic champion.

Twenty-six-year-old Fury fights Christian Hammer this Saturday (February 28) at the O2 Arena, live on BoxNation, and Johnson was one of his main sparring partners in camp.

The Atlanta-native couldn’t have asked for a better kickstart to his own preparations.

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Budler Out Points Silvestre: Retains WBA/IBO 105 Lb Titles

In a top quality contest, Johannesburg’s Hekkie Budler (28-1, 9 kos) retained his WBA and IBO minimumweight titles with a unanimous twelve round decision over WBA number 2 contender Jesus Silvestre (30-6, 22 kos) in the main support to Gennady Golovkin – Martin Murray in Monte Carlo on Saturday night. The official scores were 117-110, 115-112, 115-112.

“The Hexecutioner” rated number one by Ring magazine was a clear victor (my score 116-111) but was made to work hard, especially in the opening few rounds when the former WBA interim titlist from Mexico came out attacking from the go.

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Who are the top undefeated heavyweights today?

Today is a day where there is life in the heavyweight scene and we have more than a handful of great fighters currently active. Many of the top guys around have already recorded a loss on their records though. This is mainly thanks to the Klitschko brothers who in the past had a habit of smashing undefeated heavyweights to bits once they stepped up. Today we can see guys like Povetkin, Pulev, Tarver, Solis, Cunningham, Mansour, Hammer, Stiverne, Perez, Szpilka, Chisora and Arreola all being rated as amongst the best heavyweights between them, despite having a lot of losses between them. But if we removed them from the equation that would be the best heavyweights out there, purely including the undefeated fighters only?

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Floyd Mayweather detractors already making excuses for Pacquiao’s impending loss

What I have come to learn from boxing fans over the years is that they are fickle, and hard to please. I certainly remember the days when I would tell myself, after Mayweather does this people will respect him, or, after Mayweather beats so and so people will respect him. What I have learnt now is that those who belittle Mayweather’s accomplishments today, are the people who will continue to do so until he retires. Some people simply refuse to accept that this man is by far the greatest boxer of this generation and anyone who refuses to put him inside the top 15 boxers pound for pound of all time is simply blind.

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Canelo Eats Crow in the Wake of Mayweather v. Pacquiao

Ric Flair once said, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man.” Apparently, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez never adopted this philosophy.

Alvarez, whose audacity burns as bright as his fiery red hair, challenged American Floyd Mayweather Jr. to a twelve-round, 154lbs bout in 2013. The bout broke records, becoming the highest grossing boxing PPV of all time. The match also obliterated Canelo’s then-undefeated professional record. Boxing media and fans alike widely held that Mayweather’s victory over Alvarez that evening was significantly more lopsided than its split decision outcome reflected.1

“I just couldn’t find him,” said an exhausted and frustrated Alvarez following the loss.

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Photo Gallery: Golovkin TKOs Murray

The top two middleweights in the world squared it off at the Salle des Étoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco last night with the WBA/IBO regular and WBC interim titles at stake and it seemed only fair for this fight to take place in Europe. Both combatants grew up on opposite ends of this continent but one of them may have inadvertently wandered off it on a regular basis. Murray is strictly branded as a European although as an islander he might have second thoughts about continental bondage. Golovkin’s continental status is a little more complicated as he comes from Kazakhstan and this vast land stretches through parts of Europe and Central Asia. Golovkin could have walked at times with one leg in Europe and the other in Asia. His father is Russian and his mother is Korean, so GGG is the proverbial Eurasian by birth and by country.

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Price and Fury move closer to title contention with solid wins

Last night British heavyweights David Price and Hughie Fury put in some great work in winning their bouts to inch closer to the coveted title contention locations.

David Price beat Irineu Beato Costa Junior via a sixth round TKO. Like Price, he had 2 losses on his record and was a decent fighter, but at the end of the day this is part of the rebuilding for Price and was a fight he was supposed to win. In 2012, Price was in a great place. He had just stopped domestic heavyweights Audley Harrison and Matt Skelton in a combined 3 rounds to defend his British and Commonwealth straps and was looking for an entry into the top of the world scene. Two back to back KO losses to Tony Thompson and he was back at the bottom and seemed to have nowhere to go. He decided to go through the slow process of rebuilding his reputation and in 2014 banked away three decent wins to start this process.

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Martin Murray should have been the first man to take Golovkin the full twelve

Last night, Britains brave Martin Murray put in a terrific performance in surviving a Gennady Golovkin masterclass for a full ten rounds before ultimately being stopped at the start of the eleventh. Murray was falling to a bad habit of languishing on the ropes and allowing Golovkin to tee off on him with power shots. Whilst the two fighters were in the centre of the ring we saw Murray landing rights to the head and shots to the body but never enough to deter Golovkin.

The impressive thing about Murrays performance was that he found a way to avoid enough of Golovkins work to survive and what he couldn’t avoid he took well. He was knocked down two times in the fourth round mainly due to body work from Golovkin, but would then rally and get it together through the later rounds. Before a third knockdown which came in the tenth. By the time the eleventh round began Murray was visibly fatigued and did not look as though he was going to be able to keep up the fight for another six minutes.

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