Joseph Parker: Going back to the future

New Zealand, made up of two small islands, the shaky isles as it is sometimes referred to, isolated and diminutive in population, can be both a forward thinking yet deeply conservative country. Paradoxically everyone loves a winner in New Zealand so long as the winner in question remains both humble and unassuming.

When placing its winning bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup, a foundation of the countries’ successful tender was a pledge that the tournament would be played in ‘a stadium of 4 million’ and so it proved to be. The comparatively small size of New Zealand, where almost everyone knows someone, means that when their sports stars excel they often do so carrying the weight of a nation on their shoulders.

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Bernard Hopkins vs. Sergey Kovalev quotes from New York press conference

Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins and Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev held a press conference in New York City and a media roundtable in Philadelphia Tuesday to officially announce their light heavyweight unification bout on Saturday, Nov. 8 taking place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City live on HBO World Championship Boxing®. Check out what the fighters and promoters had to say below:

BERNARD HOPKINS, WBA & IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion

“When fighters want to fight, this is what happens. When we really want to do it and our promoters do as well, we get it done.

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Pacquiao: I know how to fight Mayweather

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) says he knows how to fight WBA/WBC Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs), and how to force him into brawling with him if he were to agree to fight him. Pacquiao says Mayweather is too concerned with protecting his unbeaten record and that’s why he’s not interested in fighting him.

Mayweather is at a point where he really doesn’t need to fight Pacquiao in order to make big money. With him getting the big money for each of his fights on Showtime, it’s almost pointless to fight Pacquiao right now.

The money Mayweather is getting to fight other guys is just too good, and he’s already said that he won’t fight Pacquiao until he leaves Top Rank, which it doesn’t seem like Pacquiao is inclined to do. Pacquiao just re-signed a new 2-year extension that will take him until the end of 2016.

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Roach: Danny Garcia is my No.1 choice to face Pacquiao

If trainer Freddie Roach gets his way, Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) will be fighting WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) in the near future. Roach says Garcia is someone that he really would like to see fighting Pacquiao, because he thinks his fighting style would be perfect for him. Lately, Roach has been talking more about other fighters facing Pacquiao than the guy he’s facing next in Chris Algieri on 11/22 and that has me wondering what his game is.

Roach notes that Garcia likes to come straight at his opponents swinging for the fences with big shots. This is someone Roach believes Pacquiao would be quite comfortable with in the ring.

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Adrien Broner faces Emmanuel Taylor this Saturday on Showtime

This Saturday night on September 6th, former three division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (28-1, 22 KOs) will be in the ring facing #13 WBC Emmanuel Taylor (18-2, 12 KOs) in a Showtime triple-header from the U.S Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Broner, #3 WBA, #3 WBC, is working his way into position to fight for a world title against one of the belt holders. With his ranking by the WBA and WBC, it looks like Broner is being positioned to go after the one of those titles if the current WBA/WBC 140 pound champion Danny Garcia vacates to move up in weight to go after bigger fighters.

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Ashley Theophane talks 36th victory and Mayweather Promotions

I turned professional back in the autumn of 2002, but I didn’t make my professional debut until the following summer of 2003. I had to wait 8 long months for the opportunity. The four big promoters in the UK at the time were not interested in taking a chance on me; Mick Hennessey, Frank Warren, Frank Maloney and Barry Hearn all passed on me.

Years later it would make me feel good when it was pointed out to me that I had surpassed all the British fighters in my weight category that they had signed.

Serendipity would strike again when they would all offer me a promotional deal after I had climbed the world ladder, getting ranked fourth in the world and becoming British champion.

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Roach: We’re [Pacquiao] doing everything we can to fight Mayweather

Trainer Freddie Roach says that Manny Pacquiao is doing all he can to try and get a fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pacquiao has won 2 out of his last 4 fights in beating fellow Top Rank fighters Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley.

Pacquiao is now set to fight light welterweight Chris Algieri on November 22nd. If it wasn’t him, Pacquiao was going to fight Ruslan Provodnikov.

Roach recently said that Pacquiao would take the smaller money and would agree to the blood testing for the fight, which is what caused their initial Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations to fall apart when they attempted to put a fight together in 2010. Mayweather agreed to a 50-50 deal at that time, but then the negotiations died after he asked for random blood testing to check for performance enhancing drugs.

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Countdown to Mayweather vs Maidana II: Why Maidana’s Mission Could Be Mayweather’s Downfall

(Note: Countdown to Mayweather vs Maidana II is an EastSideBoxing exclusive by resident scribe Vivek “Vito” Wallace who will take provide a glimpse into the epic showdown each week on Sunday, with a final prediction/analysis piece to be published on the day of the fight)

Floyd Mayweather’s resume boast a laundry list of formidable talent, yet each of those men carried one very flawed trait; one which Maidana has never owned or known. That one trait? Fear. The UK’s, Ricky Hatton also lacked fear, yet inadequate size blunted his best chance at achieving an upset. Oscar De la Hoya and Miguel Cotto were arguably the only fighters in Mayweather’s recent history with adequate size who didn’t enter the ring afraid, yet both made the mistake of trying to box, failing to realize that you can’t try to beat a master at his own game. Going into their initial showdown, fans and media alike viewed the Maidana matchup as a “classic case of Mayweather targeting a tailor-made opponent”, who had “no shot”. Less than a minute into the bout, that perception was far from the reality.

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Mayweather: Nobody’s going to knock me off this throne

WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) says he’s not ready to be knocked off his throne by challenger Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) in their fight on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Indeed, Mayweather doesn’t see anyone knocking him off his throne, be it Manny Pacquiao or anyone else.

Mayweather is fighting at a too high of a level and he doesn’t see anyone out there that can pose any problems for him.

“Nobody’s going to knock me off this throne. I’m going to stay at the top and do what I want to, how I want and when I want to,” Mayweather said on All Access: Mayweather vs. Maidana 2. “They think they good. I know I’m great.”

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Rogelio Medina Scores Shocking Third-Round Knockout Over J’Leon Love On ShoBox:The New Generation

Hard-hitting super middleweight Rogelio “Porky” Medina (33-6, 27 KOs), of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, registered one of the upsets of the year, knocking out previously unbeaten, world-ranked J’Leon Love (18-1, 10 KOs), of Inkster, Mich., in the third round of a Special Saturday presentation of ShoBox: The New Generation live on SHOWTIME.

After Love missed with a left land, the unheralded Medina countered with a vicious combination of punches to the chin and head that dropped Love face-first to the canvas. Love attempted to get up but referee Tony Weeks stepped in and stopped the fight at 39 seconds into the third round. It was the 123rd time since the series began 13 years ago that an unbeaten fighter suffered his first loss on ShoBox.

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