Martin J Ward D10 Maxi Hughes – (10 x 3 – Super Featherweight British Title Eliminator)
It wasn’t just the gallant Prizefighter lightweights that York Hall was treated to this Saturday night in the hallowed ballroom in the heart of Bethnal Green. Essex based traveller and lightweight prospect Martin J Ward 10-0-1 (5KO’s) was thrust into his first bona fide test against the once beaten and very capable Yorkshireman Maxi Hughes 13-1-1 (2KO’s) a man with his own designs on progression.
It may not be for the purists and Matchroom and Sky Sports might have bigger fish to fry going forward, but when Prizefighter delivers, it delivers in spades. Tonight was one such occasion when 8 men with nothing to lose and everything to gain stepped through the ropes to provide passion-drenched non-stop action, which brought the historic York Hall to its feet. In the process providing a timely reminder of what made Prizefighter great, knockouts, all out wars, controversial decisions aplenty, not to mention the emergence of a potential star.
A crowd of 6,532 at Barclays Center were treated to a special performance from two warriors Saturday night as David Lemieux (33-2, 31 KOs)stopped “King” Gabriel Rosado (21-9, 13 KOs)in the 10th round of a very competitive main event on HBO Boxing After Dark.
The Montreal-native Lemieux retained his NABF Middleweight title while displaying the incredible power that has put the entire middleweight division on notice. Lemieux scored a knockdown in round three when he delivered a flurry that knocked the Philadelphia-born Rosado off-balance and put him on the canvas.
Anchored by a knockdown in the opening round Saturday, Thomas Dulorme retained his North American Boxing Federation (NABF) light welterweight title and captured the vacant North American Boxing Association (NABA) crown with a 96-93, 93-96, 97-92 split decision win over Hank Lundy at the Barclays Center.
The 10-round bout, promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Gary Shaw Productions and CES Boxing, aired live on HBO’s Boxing After Dark.
CARL MORETTI: December 13 will be Tim Bradley’s return to the ring against Diego Chaves who we expect to be 100%. No Visa drama for Diego like the last time for the Brandon Rios fight. Diego has been training for three months and arrives in Las Vegas this weekend. I know Tim is extremely focused on this fight – it’s the most important fight of his career because it’s the next fight in his career. This, along with two other fights that are really intriguing – the WBO middleweight championship fight between Matt Korobov and Andy Lee and the WBA interim super lightweight title battle between defending champion Mauricio Herrera and undefeated Jesse Benavidez Jr. – are both 50/50 fights. So without further ado, the great Tim Bradley, who after this call will be watching his favorite team as well as mine, the Dallas Cowboys, who also need a big win tonight.
It’s Ghana versus Tanzania in the boxing ring tonight at the Accra Sports Stadium when George Ashie and Allan Kamote clash for the WBO Africa Interim Lightweight championship over twelve rounds.
Both boxers successfully made the weight at the pre-fight weigh-in on Thursday at the same Accra Sports Stadium, 132 lbs Ashie clocked as he stepped on the scale whilst Kamote weighed 134 lbs, setting the stage for the two boxers to slug it out on Friday night.
And confident in his own ability to outlast his opponent come this evening is former Commonwealth Lightweight champion, Ashie (24-4-1, 17 KOs in 29 professional fights) despite confessing to the strengths of the 32 year old Kamote (25-7-4, 14 KOs), the current Universal Boxing Organisation (UBO) Lightweight world champion.
Prizefighter returns to home on Saturday as the York Hall, Bethnal Green plays host to the 34th edition of a format showing signs of decline and in its 7th year in desperate need of a big night. The event will mark only the 2nd Prizefighter show of the year; a promotion that has averaged 5 shows a year since its inception in 2008.
Hoping to provide the fireworks will be our third installment of lightweights, hoping to lay their hands on the prizefighter trophy, ugly though it is, and more importantly the £32,000 prize money. Previously, there was a time when the winner would move onto the next level with a British title fight a very real possibility. Unfortunately for those on show this is a carrot that has been withdrawn as the Matchroom stable has grown over the past three years in particular, especially in the saturated domestic lightweight scene.
Former light heavyweight champion and current North America Boxing Federation Champion, Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) takes on Argentina’s Roberto “The Beast” Bolonti (35-3, 24 KOs) in a ten round main event bout at the Belle Centre in Montreal, Canada on Saturday, December 6th.
The thirty-two year old Canadian orthodox pugilist has won three in a row since his loss to Bernard Hopkins. Pascal defeated Lucian Bute by way of a unanimous decision in his last outing in January of this year. If he defeats Bolonti, he`s tentatively scheduled to fight World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation (“IBF”) and World Boxing Organization (“WBO”) Champion, Sergey Kovalev on March 14, 2015 in either Montreal or Quebec City. Pascal`s ranked number one by the World Boxing Council (“WBC”) and WBO, number three by Ring Magazine and number four by the IBF.
Yoko Gushiken, Rafael Mendoza, Steve Smoger, Nigel Collins and Jim Lampley also enter Hall of Fame
The International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum announced today the newest class of inductees to enter the Hall. Living inductees include heavyweight champion Riddick “Big Daddy” Bowe, featherweight champion “Prince” Naseem Hamed and lightweight champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini in the Modern category; light flyweight champion Yoko Gushiken in the Old-Timer category; booking agent / manager Rafael Mendoza and referee Steve Smoger in the Non-Participant category; and editor / journalist Nigel Collins and broadcaster Jim Lampley in the Observer category.
FURY ON TARGET FOR KLITSCHKO AND WORLD TITLE — Promoter Frank Warren has said that media reports today of plans to make a fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are both inaccurate and wide of the mark.
Fury defeated Chisora, for the second time, last Saturday night at the ExCeL London to win the British, European and WBO International Heavyweight titles, whilst securing the mandatory challenger position to Wladimir Klitschko’s WBO World title.