Price and Fury move closer to title contention with solid wins

Last night British heavyweights David Price and Hughie Fury put in some great work in winning their bouts to inch closer to the coveted title contention locations.

David Price beat Irineu Beato Costa Junior via a sixth round TKO. Like Price, he had 2 losses on his record and was a decent fighter, but at the end of the day this is part of the rebuilding for Price and was a fight he was supposed to win. In 2012, Price was in a great place. He had just stopped domestic heavyweights Audley Harrison and Matt Skelton in a combined 3 rounds to defend his British and Commonwealth straps and was looking for an entry into the top of the world scene. Two back to back KO losses to Tony Thompson and he was back at the bottom and seemed to have nowhere to go. He decided to go through the slow process of rebuilding his reputation and in 2014 banked away three decent wins to start this process.

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Martin Murray should have been the first man to take Golovkin the full twelve

Last night, Britains brave Martin Murray put in a terrific performance in surviving a Gennady Golovkin masterclass for a full ten rounds before ultimately being stopped at the start of the eleventh. Murray was falling to a bad habit of languishing on the ropes and allowing Golovkin to tee off on him with power shots. Whilst the two fighters were in the centre of the ring we saw Murray landing rights to the head and shots to the body but never enough to deter Golovkin.

The impressive thing about Murrays performance was that he found a way to avoid enough of Golovkins work to survive and what he couldn’t avoid he took well. He was knocked down two times in the fourth round mainly due to body work from Golovkin, but would then rally and get it together through the later rounds. Before a third knockdown which came in the tenth. By the time the eleventh round began Murray was visibly fatigued and did not look as though he was going to be able to keep up the fight for another six minutes.

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Sanchez – Ward ‘two or three fights away’

In an interview with ThaBoxingVoice, trainer for middleweight KO machine Gennady Golovkin – Abel Sanchez discussed a potential matchup between triple G and the former king of the 168lb division Andre Ward.

Ward was rated by many fans and media sources as the number 2 pound for pound fighter after Mayweather in the sport for a good amount of time. Legal troubles have kept him out of the ring with just one appearance since 2012 against an undefeated, but limited Edwin Rodriguez. That was an easy decision for Ward, but now with a new contract, fans are looking for Ward to get back in the mix against the best fighters out there.

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Malik Scott: “Antonio Tarver is a Prostitute in the Heavyweight Division” [Explicit Language]

It’s been a while Malik, how’s it going?

M.S. I’m good bro, just training and getting ready to fight asap.

In your last fight, you got a big win over former title challenger Alex Leapai. How does it feel to get back in the win column and what has this victory done for your career?

M.S. Yeah the Leapai fight was good especially since I defeated him in his own country, but it felt good man. On to the next.

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David Price – ‘I wanted to stay patient’

In an interview with IFL TV, former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price defended his performance in stopping Costa Jr in the sixth round in Berlin.

He was asked if he felt that he was too cautious in the first part of the fight. Many felt that Price was getting in rounds against a guy who was there for the taking and when given a big chance to shine like this Price should have shown himself to be a better fighter than he was on the night. Price replied to this by saying that he couldn’t listen to the people who would have him going in and taking risks from the first round. He wanted to box behind the jab, he wanted to build his confidence and get some rounds in, he wanted to wait for an opportunity before opening up the offence and turning up the pace, and to his credit when he found that opportunity he was brutally efficient.

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Martin Murray reacts to stoppage defeat at the hands of Gennady Golovkin

‘First time I have been properly beat, and first time I have been stopped.’

In an interview with IFL TV after his fight with triple G it was obvious the disapointment that Martin Murray was feeling. He put in a spirited effort and did a lot more than many thought he was capable, but eventually was beaten by the king of the Middleweight division.

Murray showed good sportsmanship in saying it was a pleasure to share the ring with such a good fighter, but felt as though there was nothing more he could do in the ring to pull off the upset. Murray discussed the fact that in his career he had never been put down by any head or bodyshot and dealing with that for the first time in his career, three times in the fight was tough.

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Does anyone really want to watch Mayweather vs Pacquaio?

The recently officially announced Mayweather vs Pacquaio fight has already, like a well-used pick up line on Tinder, started receiving mixed feelings. Some folks are calling it the fight for a generation – two of the best non-British fighters finally going at it to see which one is the greatest in boxing – whilst others have looked on, gazing up to the snowy British skies and wondering if they really want to watch two old men well past their sell by dates fight each other. Undoubtedly this fight would have been relevant in boxing and worldwide events a few years ago (try six) but now it is clearly overshadowed by much more current fighters and topics of interest such as Tyson Fury, UKIP and Richard Blackwood starring in Eastenders.

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Abel Sanchez – Canelo doesn’t last 8, Cotto won’t go 5 with GGG

Abel Sanchez, the trainer for rising star and long time champ Gennady Golovkin has a lot of words for his fighter when discussing the biggest fights in the sport. This interview took place just prior to the Murray fight and Sanchez was saying it would be good for Golovkin to go the full 12 in preparation for these super fights. That fight ended up going 11 rounds, which is the longest of Golovkins career and if Sanchez is correct in his estimates then Murray lasted longer than either Cotto or Alvarez would.

I do see where Sanchez is coming from with these statements.

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Abraham defeats Smith; Price defeats Costa Junior

WBO 168 pound champion Arthur Abraham (42-4, 28 KOs) closed the book on the Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KOs) in handing him his fifth career loss in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany. Smith fought Abraham to a standstill in the first three rounds of the fight, but in the 4th, Abraham hurt Smith a right hand that caused him to lose his legs for a second.

Smith came back later and had a good round in the 6th after hurting Abraham with a beautiful left to the body. But instead of continuing to go to the body in the remainder of the fight, Smith wasted his efforts in throwing shots into the high guard of Abraham. Those shots were blocked, and this enabled Abraham to dominate from the 7th round. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 117-111.

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Golovkin destroys Murray; Fury defeats Rudenko

Britain’s Martin Murray (29-2-1, 12 KOs) gave it a good try tonight in battling WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) hard for 10 rounds, but in the 11th round, Golovkin battered a bruised and bleeding Murray until the fight was stopped by referee Luis Pabon at the Salle des Étoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Murray looked a lot bigger than Golovkin tonight, and that might be one of the reasons why he was able to survive for so long. Murray looked at least 180 pounds, and he appeared to have a significant weight advantage over Golovkin. The fight was like watching a talented middleweight take on a light heavyweight or a small cruiserweight without power.

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