Heavyweight Watch: Izuagbe Ugonoh

Kevin Barry is currently coaching Las Vegas based (by way of New Zealand) heavyweight prospect Joseph Parker. However Joseph Parker isn’t the only talented heavyweight Barry is training, he also has 28 year old Polish heavyweight Izuagbe Ugonoh (10-0-0) on his training books, and he thinks Ugonoh like Parker has the potential to be a world class heavyweight.

Ugonoh has been refining his skills sparring the likes of Bermane Stiverne, and later this year he will accompany Parker and Barry to spar with heavyweight King pin Vladimir Klitschko as Klitschko’s prepares for his April bout with challenger Bryant Jennings. Kevin Barry talks about how he came across Ugonoh and his development as a fighter.

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ESPN Boxcino Tournament Preview

This Friday the 13th at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, ESPN presents the Quarterfinal rounds of its 2015 Super Welterweight Boxcino Tournament. In the main event Cleotis “Mookie” Pendarvis (17-4-2, 6 KO’s) of Los Angeles faces Ricardo Pinell (10-1-1, 6 KO’s) of San Francisco in a Northern vs. Southern California showdown. Brandon “The Cannon” Adams (15-1, 10 KO’s) also of Los Angeles goes toe to toe against New Jersey’s Alex “The Brick City Bullet” Perez (18-1, 10 KO’s).The Ukraine’s Stanyslav Skorokhod (8-0, 6 KO’s) takes on Cleveland, Ohio’s Michael Moore (13-0, 6 KO’s), and Vito “Casper” Gasparyan (14-3-5, 8 KO’s) squares off against Simeon “Candyman” Hardy (13-0, 10 KO’s).

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Chinese Heavyweight Sensation Taishan And Rising Stars Manuel Roman And Nick Arce Quotes

LOS ANGELES (Feb 13.) – Chinese heavyweight sensation Taishan and rising stars Manuel “Suavecito” Roman and Nick Arce hosted a Los Angeles media workout at Westside Boxing Gym before their respective bouts at that will take place on Feb. 27 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino and live on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Deportes.

Taishan(2-0, 2 KOs) will fight against Roy McCary(3-2, 3 KOs) in the opening four-round televised bout and Manuel Roman (17-3-3, 6 KOs) will be facing the exciting rising star Diego De La Hoya(8-0, 6 KOs) in the co-main super bantamweight eight-round event. Nick Arce (1-0, 1 KOs) will fight in his second professional match against Lyonell Kelly (1-4-1) of Los Angeles, Calif. in a four-round lightweight swing bout hoping to make air time.

Here are what the fighters had to say about their preparation and their hopes for fight night on Friday, Feb. 27.

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Where will Taishan Dong be in two years

7 foot heavyweight Taishan Dong (2-0-0 2KO) from China has received quite a bit of coverage in the media not usually enjoyed by fighters with just one or two professional fights. He has said in the past that he has only been fighting for a few years and to pick up boxing in your early twenties is not usually followed by a successful career, but in this case the physical tools are so rare that he could defiantly make it. In recent years we have seen Valuev take up boxing a little later than most and go on to become a title holder at heavyweight, and this could become a similar story.

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The waiting game with boxings top stars

Several of the biggest names in the business have no scheduled fights in place. Over the past few weeks there has been tons of talk and chatter about potential matchups and especially between the never-ending lists of May-Pac ‘news.’

When you consider that Mayweather, Pacquiao, Froch, Khan, Bradley, Cotto, Ward, Marquez, Stevenson and Maidana are all without an opponent lined up, you have to believe that some awesome fights are going to be announced in the coming weeks. It is almost guaranteed that some fights will be made within this list, mainly in and around the welterweight region where there is a lot of talent.

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Oscar De La Hoya: Kirkland is a beast

Oscar De La Hoya, in a recent interview with FightHype, had a ton of compliments for the next man to be going up against Canelo Alvarez. He referenced James Kirklands victory over Alfredo Angulo as a highlight of Kirklands career and went on to say that the come forward style Kirkland brings will generate fireworks in this fight.
There have been a lot of questions about Saul Alvarez recently and he is receiving some very mixed opinions from the public and media at this point. In my opinion I can see both sides of the argument. On the positive side Alvarez has 44 wins in 46 fights with just one loss and one draw. At 24 years of age he has the time to amass a huge amount of fights by the time he retires and the fact that he has already fought with some of the best at such a young age is impressive. He has victories over notable names such as Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout and on top of this he has a pretty enjoyable style to watch and enjoys huge popularity which means he can nab the big fights.

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Pacquiao: “Floyd is essentially a good person, a nice person”

In the midst of the Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao tornado, there seems to be calm area, a mutual understanding and respect of true character from both ends.

In the recent past, for the first time ever, it was Mayweather Jr. who got up and approached Pacquiao during a basketball game. Floyd’s ego is world renowned, yet he took it out of the equation and made first step in personal, face-to-face communication with Manny.

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Keith Thurman expects quick KO of Robert Guerrero

WBA welterweight champion Keith Thuman (24-0, 21 KOs) is looking to maintain his high KO percentage when he takes on former two division world champion Robert Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KOs) in their upcoming bout on March 7th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Currently Thurman has won in all of his 24 outings and has taken 21 opponents out within the scheduled distance. In his last fight Thurman went up against long time European champion Leonard Bundu who had not had a loss in 33 fights, but failed to get the stoppage that has come to be expected of him. If he does not stop Guerrero people will start to say that he cannot maintain the same level of offense when he is against world level competition.

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Matthysse vs. Provodnikov fight looking good for March 28th

In a recent interview Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions, promised fans that the much anticipated bout between former world title challenger Lucas Matthysse and former WBC light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov would be taking place for March 28th at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. In the sport where a lot of fights get missed it is good to hear a guarantee of the fight taking place from the promoter.

This is a fight many in boxing are looking forward to due to the fact that each of the combatants mentioned are amongst the best in the business at what they do. Each man has the skill set to cut off the ring and land on their opponents, although this is the type of fight where neither man will have to look far to find each other.

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Andre Dirrell: Carl Froch is my number one target!

American Andre Dirrell is still hopeful of a rematch with current WBA super-middleweight champion Carl Froch. At this point it has to be seen as an unlikely prospect because if Froch is turning down fights with guys he has not faced in the past like James DeGale and Bernard Hopkins, it is unlikely that he would face a fighter he has already beaten in Dirrell.

Carl Froch has had a long career with a very long undefeated span for British and Commonwealth titles before going 10 – 2 – 0 (5KO) in world title fights. In his twelve world title fights he has held the WBC, IBF and WBA titles at one point or another.

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