Any doubts about Martin Murray’s mental state ahead of this weekend’s middleweight championship fight against Gennady Golovkin, boxing’s biggest puncher, can be laid to rest.
“This is going to be a war and I’m willing to do anything it takes,” the WBC number one contender has told promoter Rodney Berman.
The pair square off for Golovkin’s WBA Super World middleweight, interim WBC World middleweight and IBO middleweight titles at the Salle des Étoiles concert hall in Monte-Carlo on Saturday.
It’s July 16th 2005 in a stiflingly airless MGM Grand arena. After a scrappy, evenly contested encounter a landmark juncture in modern boxing history has been reached. A dumbfounded crowd of 12,000 have bore witness to the end of Bernard Hopkins’ historic reign of twenty straight defences as Middleweight Champion; the man to upend him is a young buck from Little Rock with a jarring jab, a follow-up right and a porous defence. These tactical observations matter little, as the new Middleweight kingpin holds aloft his hard-earned belt in one hand and his adorable kid in the other. Speaking to Larry Merchant after the bout he is respectful of Hopkins, exudes gratitude to HBO for the opportunity and initiates every answer with a deferential “Yes, Sir.” Every inch the modest all-American hero, right? The scene elapses, the audience spills into the Las Vegas night and life moves on.
Nigeria’s reigning Commonwealth Super Middleweight champion, Isaac Ekpo has called the bluff of George Groves, Carl Froch, Callum Smith, Steven Smith and other highly rated Super Middleweights in world boxing.
Ghana-based Ekpo (25-2, 18 KOs) who fought for the WBO Super Middleweight world title in a decision loss to Robert Stieglitz in Germany in October 2013, has targeted another crack at the world championship but first he wants to beat some top boxers in his weight division and he is talking tough.
“I am ready for the top Super Middleweights in the UK like Steven Smith, brother of Callum who is fighting for the WBO Super Middleweight title on February 28 in Germany, that’s the perfect fight I am looking for,” Ekpo told Boxing247.com exclusively in Accra.
The picture at middleweight is largely dominated by four-weight world champion Miguel Cotto and long time WBA/IBO champion Gennady Golovkin. The third man in the division has to be seen as Andy Lee after his thrilling KO of previously undefeated Matt Korobov to win the vacant WBO share of the title. Therefore the IBF title, even if it was held by someone, wouldn’t hold much weight in the middleweight picture right now as that individual would be the fourth place champion on the list, and until a unification takes place it is not likely that they would have the opportunity to move up.
James DeGale has been waiting for his chance for a long while now. The one setback on his resume was a close and controversial mixed decision to George Groves back in 2011 and since then has won European and WBC Silver titles. DeGale has really been making an impact recently since joining with Matchroom sports. In his last three bouts he has three knockouts. Two over undefeated fighters and the third over highly rated Marco Antonio Periban. His record now stands at 20 – 1 – 0 with fourteen knockouts, and he is ready for the world stage.
Andre Dirrell is certainly going to be a tough test for DeGale and whilst I would put my money on him, I can understand this is a 50-50 fight for a lot of people.
Over the years there has been much speculation as to what extent Floyd Mayweather’s reputation and legacy will be tarnished should he retire without facing Manny Pacquiao. The fans are split between two opinions, the Mayweather fans claim it will have no meaning and what he has already accomplished is enough to support his claim as a true all time great.
The critics respond by saying it will leave doubt and at the end of the day he will be remembered more for missing this fight than he will be for what he has done in the ring. Similarly some say a similar effect will take place when trying to establish Pacman’s place in history once he hangs up the gloves.
In an interview with FightHype trainer Buddy McGirt discussed progress with this heavyweight prospect 7 foot heavyweight Taishan Dong. McGirt discussed the separation between the awesome physical tools and the lacking fundamental skills with the massive heavyweight.
McGirt said that Taishan was a good listener and was eager to learn. He also mentioned that Taishan’s hunger for knowledge within the sport led him to stay after training and continue to practise the things they had gone over during the day.
Taishan has said before that he is only in his second year of training as a boxer.
A lot of people seem to think James Kirkland’s chances in his scheduled May 2nd fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez are dramatically altered on whether or not Ann Wolfe is going to be in his corner on the night of the fight. The single loss on Kirkland’s career was a TKO in the first round and on that night he did not have Ann Wolfe as his trainer. Since reuniting with her he has gone on a five win streak against decent opposition which has lead to this fight.
He has employed the services of Gerald Tucker, and this has rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, but this should not come as surprising news to most, as Kirkland has made a reputation for himself over the years as an inconsistent character.
Amir Khan tweeted recently saying he would take the fight vs Miguel Cotto ‘in a heartbeat.’ Amir Khan is obviously after the biggest names in the sport for the huge paydays and has been calling out every big name under the sun.
He went through a real ordeal of calling out Floyd Mayweather consistently dating back even before the first Maidana fight. That situation left him with no opponent, finally opting to face Devon Alexander rather than wait it out anymore.
Boxing has produced some real characters over the years, but Victor Ortiz is developing into one of the most enigmatic men currently active. Ortiz and Rios did grow up together through boxing and this would be a fight with a true emotionally charged back story, but other than that it does not seem to have a lot going for it. The Marcos Maidana, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Josesito Lopez and Luis Collazo debacles do not seem to have phased Ortiz.