Ever good natured and enthusiastic in his interviews, Deontay is the kind of guy you can’t help but like – OUT of the ring – yet he is pretty far off the mark with his statements here regarding what will happen – if and when he eventually gets the call to fight Wladimir IN it.
The first live Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN (PBC on ESPN) telecast will feature a star-studded 12-round welterweight matchup between undefeated Keith “One Time” Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) and Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs) when the series debuts on ESPN on Saturday, July 11, at 9 p.m. ET. The opening fight will showcase a 10-round junior middleweight matchup between undefeated Tony Harrison (21-0, 18 KOs) and Willie Nelson (23-2-1, 13 KOs). ESPN3 will also carry live the preliminary bouts at a time to be determined. The card will be held in Tampa, Fla., at a site to be named.
Ten years ago today, a U.S heavyweight who is best remembered these days for being the last man to defeat the mighty Wladimir Klitschko, scored one of his most ruthless and impressive wins. In Chicago, “Relentless” Lamon Brewster, defending his WBO heavyweight strap, annihilated troubled Pole Andrew Golota inside a single minute of action.
Some interesting facts about the fight:
31-year-old Brewster was sporting a 31-2 record and he was making the second defence of the WBO title he had won by stopping Klitschko in shocking fashion the previous April. Golota was 37-years-old and his record read 38-5-1. The shot at Brewster was generally seen as Golota’s last chance at winning a title and of him living up to his earlier potential.
Matchroom Sports promoter Eddie Hearn has this afternoon announced a 5 year extension to their current exclusive Sky Sports broadcasting contract (which ends next year), meaning that the present Saturday night formula for British fans is set to continue until 2021.
This is sure to elicit a mixed response from fans who, as of late, have grown tired of what they perceive as mis-matches on many of the domestic cards, taking to calling the firm “mis-Matchroom” boxing in jest on social media.
For example, a £5 7-fold bet on the favourites for the last domestic show in Birmingham, that included Matthew Macklin and Anthony Joshua, would have returned you the princely sum of £5.31.
DeGale insists he is in better shape than ever ahead of the history making fight for the vacant 168lb IBF strap, which, should he win, means he will become the first British gold medal winning Olympian to go on and win a world title in the paid ranks.
He said;
So just a day or two after saying that he would be ‘flipping a coin’ over whether or not he will fight again – Carl Froch appears to be flirting with the idea of another huge Wembley UK show – a la George Groves – yet this time against the murderous punching middleweight Gennady Golovkin, who we saw break apart Willie Monroe Jr on HBO last weekend.
The Daily Mail, as well as multiple other sources online, are reporting that talks for the fight are underway, although I’m incredibly wary of how much of this is ego-satisfying bluster for “The Cobra” and how much of it is credible, thoughtful and ultimately SERIOUS consideration.
Making history has become a common occurrence in modern day sport. Right across the board ‘records’ are broken with alarming regularity, records which have principally been created to serve the increasing demand for content from competitive media outlets.
Subsequently, the significance of such a statement has lost the gravity it once possessed, wheeled out on almost every sporting occasion to provide impetus where it doesn’t belong. We can’t help but become desensitised to the context of these achievements, what has passed before and whether or not they’re indeed worthy of our reverence.
The latest attempt at boxing history takes place within the Agganis Arena, Boston, this Saturday night when British super-middleweight James DeGale takes on American Andre Dirrell for the IBF World super-middleweight title – vacated by Carl Froch earlier in the year.
It would appear that the future is looking bright for British heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (15-0, 8ko) – cousin of Tyson, if a series of late night tweets from his father and trainer Peter are anything to go by.
The young 20 year old heavyweight took a significant step up in class last time out, turning in a confident and mature performance against the more experienced Ukrainian Andriy Rudenko (24-2, 16ko) on the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin/Martin Murray fight in February.
Clearly looking for credible tests for his son, which is always a refreshing thing to hear regarding a young fighter, Peter tweeted the following with regards to the next outing;
The two will be contesting the lightly regarded WBC Silver title, yet the real prize is that this is a final eliminator to face newly crowned champion Deontay Wilder – who will make the maiden defence of his own title against the unfancied and unheralded Eric Molina on June 20th.
WBC 168lb mandatory challenger and long time James DeGale rival George Groves, has tipped his old foe to do the business against Andre Dirrell in Boston on Saturday night, saying;
“He’s in with a chance, a real good chance.”
Groves, who holds victories over the Harlesden fighter in both the amateur and paid ranks, told Sky Sports that while he doesn’t think DeGale can get a stoppage “a points win wouldn’t surprise me.”
DeGale is chasing history when he fights Dirrell by attempting to become the first Brit gold medal winning Olympian to go on and win a world title in the paid ranks. The two men will be contesting the IBF strap recently vacated by Carl Froch.