As widely expected Floyd Mayweather has now been stripped of the WBO welterweight title he won against Manny Pacquiao back in May after the Puerto-Rico based organisation’s championship committee meeting on Monday afternoon.
Immediately following the fight on May 2nd, Floyd hinted he would likely give up the belt, among others he owns, in order to let the next generation of fighters coming through fight for a shot at them.
It’s a fair question to ask, can Luis Collazo (36-6 19Kos) overcome his perceived deficiencies against Keith Thurman (25-0 21Kos) on July 11th in Tampa Florida? Bookies aren’t in favor of him (he’s sitting as a 14-1 dog), he’s 8 years his opponent’s senior, has boxed more than double the rounds of Thurman, and has been in some very entertaining WARS throughout his career.
Now I’m a betting man (admittedly not a very good one), and this fight intrigues me. Keith has been vocal about fighting Floyd Mayweather, and showcasing his talents for all to see; could he possibly be overlooking Luis Collazo? This statement is purely conjecture, but if true, he wouldn’t be the first guy to do so. Ricky Hatton and Andre Berto both had aims of a fight with Mayweather when they clashed with Collazo, and both men were very fortunate to be awarded wins in those respective bouts.
As fight fans ave surely read by now, it has been announced by a number of sources how heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko will defend his belts against unbeaten Tyson Fury, the WBO heavyweight mandatory challenger, on October 24th in Germany. The two sides today came together and, at the last minute avoiding the need for purse bids, the fight was made.
Dusseldorf will host the big fight and both giants are confident of victory. Britain’s Fury, who has been calling for a shot at Klitschko for some time, took to his oft-used Twitter account just minutes ago:
“Viva Deutschland, I’m coming to rock your country in October be there or miss the best fight in heavyweight history, #letsgetthispartystarted,” Fury wrote.
After Jim Braddock demystified the frightening power of Max Baer on June 13, 1935, it drove the heavyweight division into an unexpected state of flux. Braddock’s inspired 15-round upset decision over the long-armed 6-foot-4 Baer lifted the crown and also created a sense of anticipation that hadn’t existed before.
Prior to the upset by Braddock, the general thought was that the destructive Baer would reign as champ for many years to come. Baer was seen as head and shoulders above the rest of the contenders and pretenders.
Braddock’s shocking victory changed people’s perspectives.
On September the 19th, WBO middleweight champion, “Irish” Andy Lee, will make the 2nd defence of the strap he won against Russian Matty Korobov in December of last year when he squares off against mandatory challenger Billy Joe Saunders at Thomond Park Stadium, Limerick, Ireland.
The history making fight will be the first time two men of traveller origins have contested a version of a world championship, and in a chat with Boxing News magazine, Lee not only asserts he will end the Hatfield fighter within 5 rounds when they do meet, after hand he wishes to correct a 2012 KO loss to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
When he returns to the US in the next fortnight to meet with surgeon Dr ElAttrache and to begin rehab on “that” rotator cuff injury, Manny Pacquiao will no doubt be meeting with trainer and Wild Card gym boss Freddie Roach to discuss exactly “what’s next?”
In what can perhaps be perceived as a thinly veiled dig at Floyd Mayweather’s recent “Berto talk” regarding his September 12 opponent, Roach has spoken out to USA Today in a recent interview, to insist that when the Filipino star does indeed return to the ring, he wants him matched “tough.”
If you happen to follow the twitter of ESPN writer Dan Rafael, then you may have seen the rather humorous exchange that took place yesterday regarding Carl Froch and his Golovkin assertions, that began when he posted a selfie on social media alongside the caption, ‘Too big & too strong for GGG’ – this in the same week that respected publication Boxing News ran a Q & A feature on Froch, carrying the headline quote; “I’ll likely retire.”
It’s pretty well known that when Golovkin’s manager Tom Loeffler seemingly went looking for Froch, he was met with a wall of silence after having opened initial talks with Carl’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
Dublin super-flyweight Jamie Conlan, nicknamed “The Mexican”, last night came up against a real and very tough one in Junior Granados (now 13-3-1) at The National Stadium in the City – the world’s only purpose built boxing arena – and survived numerous scares – including 2 hurtful knockdowns – to battle back from the brink and take the fight on scores of 96-92, 95-92 and 95-93.
After everything seemed to be on course for IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook to be defending his title against Brandon Rios in London later this year in London, Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia has spoken to fighthype.com to suggest that the fight could now be off.
As recently as a fortnight ago, Garcia told the channel he was confident the fight was a “go” and that earlier contractual obstacles over the type of gloves to be used and the money on the table had been ironed out, after Rios’ manager Cameron Dunkin had held talks with Brook’s team, including promoter Eddie Hearn.
After the two sides failed to reach an agreement to stage their heavyweight title contest by last night’s deadline, the purse bid for Tyson Fury’s challenge to dominant lineal champion Wladimir Klitschko will today take place in Panama at 11 am, circa 5pm (BST).
Fury has this morning taken to twitter to express his dissatisfaction at the situation, insisting a deal HAD been reached, that Klitschko and his team K2 have now reneged on.
Tyson wrote firstly;