Ward is one of America’s best in my opinion, and despite a 19 month lay-off will walk into this non-title bout a heavy betting favourite against the Liverpool fighter, who has been cruelly referred to by fans as “not even the best super middleweight in the Smith family” in reference to younger brother, undefeated 168lb contender Callum Smith (15-0, 11ko).
Humble. Quiet. Polite. Contemplative, even. These aren’t the words one would have normally used to describe Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past. These aren’t the words this author, nor the soldiers assigned to Task Force Duke at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Afghanistan, used to describe Mayweather following an overseas Skype session in 2011.
The date was Sept. 2 of that year, and Mayweather was just weeks from squaring off against Victor Ortiz, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion at the time.
Maloney left the fight game following then charge David Price’s crushing losses to American Tony Thompson, ostensibly because she “had fallen out of love with boxing”.
The reality was that the promoter had finally decided to face a life-long gender identity crisis away from the unforgiving glare of the boxing public.
“As long as I have the motivation and health, I’ll do it. I don’t feel old, or bad, or slow.” said the confident champion. At the last press conference prior to his fight with Jennings, Wladimir acted out of character and did some brash talking giving the media and fans a little more food for comments. Ever the gentleman, he never talks trash and he found some balance in dismissing the up comers but paying his respect to the legends form the past, saying: “I am still looking up to those guys.
It appears that the rich and powerful can finally sleep a little easier tonight, as Mayweather-Pacquiao tickets appear to finally be going on sale later today.
Well around a thousand rich people can sleep easy anyway, as of the 16,500 seats inside the venue come fight night, that’s the amount that will be available to the public.
Tuesday in Mexico City, the WBC unveiled the million dollar belt that will be presented to the winner of Mayweather-Pacquiao on May 2nd.
Current WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson and legendary former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes were on hand to help with the unveiling, alongside WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman.
It’s always good to see the Easton Assassin, who won his own WBC strap in a gruelling fight with Ken Norton in 1978, out and about and looking so well.
American 168lb king Andre Ward (27-0, 14ko) has shown a self-deprecating sense of humour in a chat with fighthype.com, jokingly referring to his much talked about comeback as “the comeback 2.0”.
This obviously in reference to the agonising time out of the ring he has had since his last fight way back in November of 2013, and the mooted returns that have previously failed to materialise.
With a smile on his face, S.O.G said of his pencilled in June 20th date, “It’s the comeback 2.0. Let’s just clarify! You gotta laugh at yourself sometimes, man. It (the inactivity) is what it is..”
They have arrived with a bang. A knock out bang that is resonating through the cruiser weight … continue
The panic among those rich enough to secure one, must be rising steadily as tickets for the “Fight Of The Century” are STILL not on sale to the public as at time of writing (Weds am)
A little over 24 hours ago Golden Boy Promotions boss, Oscar De La Hoya issued a day-long offer to anybody with a genuine ticket, that could they take a photo and tweet it to him, he would send them to the May 9th Canelo-Kirkland fight in Texas for nothing.
Earlier this week on twitter and numerous other sites a picture of Sergey Kovalev gathered real steam when it showed him pointing to the t-shirt of a small child in his arms (presumably his son) that featured an image of a chimpanzee wearing boxing gloves.
Beneath the image, Kovalev (27-0,24ko) included a caption, referring to rival and Haitian national (WBC 175lb king) Adonis Stevenson (26-1,21ko) that simply read;
“Adonis is looking great”
The picture quickly provoked a storm on social media with twitter users referring to the dominant Russian champion as “ignorant”, “racist” and “naïve”.