Lee Selby looks set to be granted home advantage in his mandatory challenge for the IBF World featherweight title held by Evgeny Gradovich, at a date yet to be set.
This was confirmed this week by Egis Klimas, the US based Russian’s manager, who also manages the affairs of Sergey Kovalev and the sensational Vasyl Lomachenko.
Presented by K2 Promotions and Klitschko Management Group in association with Gary Shaw Productions, tickets priced at $1000, $600, $300, $200 and $100 can be purchased through the Madison Square Garden Box Office, www.TheGarden.com and www.Ticketmaster.com.
This past weekend, as boxing fans focused their attention yet again upon the question of whether Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao would finally meet inside the ring, former super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler took to Facebook to address a question of a different sort. This question concerned Kessler’s future as a competitor, and within the space of a few short paragraphs, “The Viking Warrior” provided his answer:
“I have thought long and hard over the options, which have been made available, but none of these options are enough to get me motivated” stated Kessler. The Danish boxer then added “I am always in training, it is part of my life, but I consider myself in a state of retirement.”
Undisputed Heavyweight World Champion WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO will defend his 10-year title reign against top rated challenger BRYANT JENNINGS on Sat., April 25 emanating from the “The World’s Most Famous Arena”, Madison Square Garden and televised Live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Said Klitschko about the highly anticipated battle, “I do have great respect for Bryant Jennings and his achievements. He has good movement in the ring and good technique. I know this will be a tough challenge.”
The title shot for number 1 ranked IBF 168lb fighter James DeGale is confirmed and is likely going to occur on April 25th in the 02Arena in London. The last point which has to be confirmed is the opponent for DeGale.
Negotiations for a meeting between number 2 ranked Andre Dirrell are underway although it would seem the American is sceptical of fighting in the UK after losing a close and controversial decision to home fighter Carl Froch back in 2009. Eddie Hearn, the promoter for DeGale has said that he wants the fight on home soil for DeGales first world title attempt. Likely this fight will get made and it will go to purse bids to get the agreement.
Many of the sports most dominant fighters throughout history have taken losses and this is the same today with many of the top rated fighters such as Wladimir Klitschko, Manny Pacquiao, Saul Alvarez, Adrien Broner, Juan Manuel Marquez, Carl Froch, Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto and literally hundreds of others having tasted defeat before in their campaigns to the ring. Despite what many casual fans seem to think today in the Mayweather Era, a loss does not mean anything if a fighter can come back from it and rise again to the top of the sport. Fighters are generally more remembered for the quality of opposition rather than the raw figures.
Nevertheless there is something exciting about watching a fighter who has never tasted defeat. A man who has had his hand raised each and every time he has stepped through the ropes. Here is my personal opinion on the top batch of currently undefeated fighters in the sport today.
Despite the cancellation of that fight being a crushing blow to his career, it is apparent that Crolla has not lost focus and even with the short amount of time since the incident, he is already back in the ring preparing for his world title opportunity. His team have been pleased with the work he is doing and all indicators suggest he is in the process of a full and speedy recovery.
Double Olympic champion Zou Shiming is looking to become IBF World Flyweight champion this March when he takes on unbeaten Amnat Ruenroeng for that title. To become a champion at world level in just your seventh fight is an unbelievable accomplishment, although we have seen fellow Olympic greats Guillermo Rigondeaux and Vasyl Lomachenko also collecting titles very early on.
Zou is fighting for more than his legacy in this fight however, he is looking to put China on the map at world championship level in a star making performance in March. This is a two part ambition with both interest in boxing in China looking to increase as well as interest in Chinese boxing from the rest of the world also looking to go up.
On March 7th 2015 Adrien Broner will meet his toughest test since his upset loss to Marcos Maidana at the end of 2013 in John Molina Jr. Broner has had two fights since that Maidana fight in decision wins over Carlos Molina and Emmanuel Taylor. Broner has not looked the same since he left the lightweight division after beating Gavin Rees in Februrary of 2013. At this point it is not clear whether the step up in competition or the additional weight are causing him issues but it is clear that he was a different fighter back then.
It has to be seen as a dangerous move to put Broner in with John Molina at this point in his career because Molina has a similar aggressive, come forward style that Maidana employed to hurt and nearly stop Broner in their bout. Molina does have five losses to his name, but he also has twenty-seven wins and twenty-two of those have been stoppages. These figures demonstrate the knockout capability of the fighter.
Oscar De La Hoya president of Golden Boy Promotions has come out and said that unification bout in the 122 pound decision have to happen as those are the bouts that the fans want to see. Both Santa Cruz and Rigondeaux have been in a few fights as of late with very underwhelming opponents. They have beaten some good fighters, but it’s the best vs. the best that gets the reaction from fans and that simply has not been happening.
Guillermo Rigondeaux was also mentioned at the post fight press conference of Santa Cruz last fight against Jesus Ruiz and it was said that if the fans did indeed want that fight, then that is the one that they would pursue. Now that Oscar De La Hoya has also mentioned something similar those comments may actually hold some weight.