Roc Nation Sports Invades Boxing

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports put their stamp on Madison Square Garden Friday night with an adrenaline fueled boxing event featuring a mini-concert by rapper Fabolous. The eight-bout card showcased the Roc Nation’s boxing stable, with especially strong performances from 20-year old welterweight Dusty Hernandez-Harrison, Freddie Roach trained welterweight Chris Van Heerden and Bahamian middleweight Tureano Johnson. The music mogul Jay-Z recently added #2 pound-4-pound ranked middleweight Andre Ward to his list of 20+ fighters that he acquired in a takeover of Gary Shaw Productions.

The Garden was flush with celebrities in most directions when the third bout of the evening sounded off between welterweights Chris Van Heerden and Cecil McCalla for the vacant I.B.F. international welterweight title. Despite a title being at stake, the bout was only scheduled for 10-rounds and McCalla, 149.6 Lbs. was almost three pounds over the welterweight limit of 147 Lbs.

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Khan interested in Adrien Broner fight

Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan says he still hasn’t given up hopes to land a big money fight against one of the huge stars Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao in 2015. He’s still thinking that one or both of them may decide to face him this year so that he can prove to the world that he’s better than him.

Khan says he’d like nothing more than to get a guy like former three division world champion Adrien Broner in the ring so that he could show his skills off against the American star. There’s probably little chance that Khan can get a fight against Broner even though both guys are managed by Al Haymon.

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Arum agrees to Mayweather-Pacquiao fight taking place on May 2nd

After initially giving Floyd Mayweather Jr grieve about staging a fight between him and Manny Pacquiao on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo on May 2nd, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has given the green light for the fight to take place on this date. However, Arum pretty much had no other choice after Pacquiao told him that he was fine with facing Mayweather on that date.

Arum didn’t want to have the fight take place on May 2nd because he felt that this was a Mexican date and saw Mayweather as poaching the date from Mexican fighters like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Some boxing fans felt that Arum’s reasons for not wanting the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to take place on that date was self-serving.

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Arum to stick it out with Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations until the bitter end

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s going to stick it out with the negotiations between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr and not nail like he did in 2009 when he attempted to negotiate a fight between the two stars for the first time. For boxing fans who may have forgotten what happened in that situation, Arum quickly pulled Pacquiao out of the negotiations when the two fighters reached a stalemate over the blood testing that Mayweather wanted.

Instead of sticking it out and finishing the negotiations, Arum moved Pacquiao into a fight with one of his stable fighters Joshua Clottey and the fight failed to do impressive numbers like some of Pacquiao’s other fights.

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Deontay Wilder: Stiverne has never fought anyone with my athletic skills

6’7” American heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs) figures that his athletic skills will be too much for the 36-year-old Bermane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) in their fight this Saturday on 1/17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wilder intends on showing an athletic side to his game that he feels that the short, and slightly pudgy looking Stiverne has never seen before in his 10-year pro career.

Deontay wants to get in quickly, nail Stiverne with a big right hand to knock him out, and then get out of there so that he can move on to bigger and better things in his career like a fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. That’s where Wilder will begin to start making the big money.

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Arum waiting for Mayweather’s signature on contract for Pacquiao fight

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that WBA/WBC 147 pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr hasn’t come forth to sign his part of the contract for a mega-fight against Arum’s money guy Manny Pacquiao for a fight on May 2nd. According to Arum, Pacquiao has signed off on everything that Mayweather wants in the negotiations but the fight still hasn’t signed by Floyd.

Arum is starting to think that it’ll be like the first negotiations that took place between the two superstars in 2009 in which Mayweather chose not to sign for the fight after Pacquiao didn’t agree to the full random blood testing that he wanted in order to fight the Filipino fighter.

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Robert Garcia picks Mayweather Jr., but skeptical on fight happening

Despite the fact that the rumors of a Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao fight being signed by the end of the month are at their highest, Robert Garcia believes that the fight is not going to come to fruition.

“I don’t see that happening. There’s too much pride between both camps, promoters, TV networks. Mayweather wants the bigger chink and I think well-deserved. I just don’t see it happening,” stated Garcia in a recent interview with Hustle Boss.

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Brandon Rios: The Alvarado fight is a do-or-die match for me

Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (32-2-1, 23 KOs) sees his fight against Mike Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) this month as a do-or-die fight for him when the two meet up on HBO on January 24th at the 1stBank Center, Bloomfield, Colorado, USA. Rios has recent losses to Manny Pacquiao and Alvarado, and what should have been a loss to Diego Chaves.

It’s safe to say that Rios hasn’t fought well since his 7th round knockout win over Alvarado nearly three years ago in October of 2012. It’s unclear if the punishment that Rios took in the first fight deteriorated his physical skills or if he’s simply faced better opposition since the first fight. Whatever the case, Rios is no longer shining like he once did, and there’s major questions about how much he had left in the tank.

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Mayweather-Pacquiao fight likely to have rematch clause, Khan frozen out

Amir Khan could very well find himself frozen out completely in his dream to face either Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao in 2015. The Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations, which are rumored to be going smoothly, are said to likely have a rematch clause in the contract so that the loser of the fight can get an immediate rematch in 2015.

This means that Khan’s chances of fighting one of the two huge stars are very, very poor. As it was, Khan didn’t have a good chance of fighting Mayweather in the second half of the year unless Mayweather was willing to move off the September fight date that he usually fights on.

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Groves with tough task in facing Anthony Dirrell, says Froch

IBF/WBA super middleweight champ Carl Froch sees a tough road for his recent knockout victim George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) if and when he faces WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell (27-0-1, 22 KOs) in the United States. Froch thinks that the 26-year-old Groves could have problems if he fights Dirrell in the U.S, although it’s hard to see why it would be any different than it would be if the fight were to take place elsewhere.

Groves doesn’t have to fight Dirrell in order to get a title shot. He can wait until Froch gives up his IBF title, and then face James DeGale for the vacant strap or look to fight the winner of DeGale vs. Andre Dirrell for the title.

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