49-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) is in the last legacy-building portion of his career as he heads into his April 19th fight against WBA World light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. Hopkins wants to not only defeat the little known Shumenov to capture his WBA title, but then he plans on facing WBC 175lb champ Adonis Stevenson to try and capture his title as well.
Broner will have a lot of eyes on him for Molina fight, says Bernstein
Boxing analyst Al Bernstein thinks Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) will be under the microscope in his next fight against Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KO’s) on May 3rd on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana next month. Bernstein feels that it doesn’t matter that Broner is facing a less than dangerous opponent in Carlos Molina, fans will still be watching Broner closely to see if he can rebound mentally from his devastating beat down he suffered last December at the hands of Maidana. Fans and the boxing media will want to see if Broner is the same fighter he was before the loss.
“How he comes back from the Maidana fight can define him more as a fighter than anything leading up to and including the Maidana fight, because everyone will be looking to see how mentally tough Broner is,” Bernstein said to the Boxing Channel.
Roach: Pacquiao won’t let up on Bradley until he surrenders
As usual, trainer Freddie Roach expects Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) to score a knockout when he gets in the ring with WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) for their rematch on April 12th. Roach thinks Pacquiao is new and improved after he rebuilt his fighting style following his loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.
We saw some of the improvements in Pacquiao’s game in his win over Brandon Rios last November in Macao, China. And now we’re going to see some new changes in Pacquiao’s game against Bradley in their rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach says that Pacquiao is going to go after the 5’6” Bradley and not let up until he either quits or is knocked out in this fight.
Hatton: Khan deserves the Mayweather fight if he beats Collazo
While some boxing fans feel that a win over 32-year-old Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) isn’t a big enough win to catapult Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) into a big fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ricky Hatton thinks Khan should be given the Mayweather fight off of a victory over Collazo. Hatton admires Collazo’s ability after having beaten him by a 12 round decision 7 years ago when Collazo was much younger and in possession of the WBA 147lb title.
Collazo has been hanging around the sport ever since, but he stopped fighting well known opposition after a loss to Andre Berto in 2009. Collazo went through a 5 year period where he fought largely C level opposition until his win over Victor Ortiz earlier this year. Ortiz is arguably a low B level fighter, if not a C level guy at this point in his career.
Adrien Broner targeting a 4th division world title at 140
Former three division world champion Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) will be in action on May 3rd against former Amir Khan victim Carlos Molina in a scheduled 10 round bout on Showtime pay per view. Broner says he’s got his mind focused on that fight, but he apparently is also targeting a 4th division world title in the light welterweight division.
Broner is interested in going after the WBC or WBA titles that will likely be vacated soon when Danny Garcia moves up in weight to the 147lb division.
“At the end of the day I’m going to do what will make Adrien Broner happy,” Broner said. “I’ll showcase my talents, speed and power on May 3. It’s not a problem at all for me [moving down to 140]. It is my natural weight class. We know that a world title at 140lbs is on the way, but I’ve got to take it one step at a time.”
The Road to Wembley: Froch vs Groves 2, Who wins?
Tickets sold out in the space on an hour. It will break the post-war attendance record of 55,000 (Ricky Hatton vs Juan Lazcano, City of Manchester Stadium in 2008. Venue, Wembley with an 80,000 seat capacity, and Michael Buffer , the most famous ring announcer on the planet, will be there to welcome both warriors to the 60,000, and more, jam-packed stadium.
Promoters have a habit of exaggerating the significance of a fight but who can argue with Eddie Hearn’s just yet when he claims this could be the biggest fight in British boxing history ? I can’t! The stats say it all!
The build up to the fight confirms what we expect from both fighters on the night. The tension at the press conference was enough to make anyway in the room feel nervous.
Felix Sturm vs. Sam Soliman 2 on May 31st in Germany
A rematch between IBF middleweight champion Felix Sturm (39-3-2, 18 KO’s) and #1 IBF Sam Soliman (43-11, 18 KO’s) will be taking place next month on May 31st at the König Palast, Krefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Soliman and Sturm previously fought back in February of last year with Soliman winning a 12 round unanimous decision that was later overturned and changed to a no contest after Soliman tested positive for a banned substance.
Soliman, 40, has fought once since then in beating Les Sherrington by a 9th round TKO last December in Australia. For his part, Sturm has had two easy stoppage wins over Predrag Radosevic and Darren Barker. The fight against Barker might have turned into a tough one for Sturm if not for Barker suffering a hip injury in the 2nd round that it impossible for him to fight.
OPEN MIC: Curtis “Showtime” Stevens Discusses Johnson, Quillin, Kirkland, Mayweather Jr., and More!
By Paul “Paparazzi” Jones, Photo © Paul “Paparazzi” Jones
Atlantic City, NJ — This Friday, NBCSN’s Fight Night series travels to the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia (PA) and features a heavyweight clash between Steve “USS” Cunningham (26-6, 12 KOs) and Amir “Hardcore” Mansour (20-0, 15 KOs) for the USBA Heavyweight Championship. However, the co-feature of this Main Events promoted card, pitting Curtis “Showtime” Stevens (26-4, 19 KOs) against undefeated prospect Tureano Johnson (14-0, 10 KOs), has “Fight of the Night” written all over it.
A product of Brownsville, Brooklyn, the 29-year-old Stevens has experienced his share of ups and downs since turning pro in 2004. From his early success as one-half of the “Chin Checkers,” to lackluster performances against Andre Dirrell (21-1, 14 KOs) and Jesse Brinkley (35-7, 22 KOs), Stevens has shown two qualities that often endear a fighter to his or her fan base: (1) resilience and (2) a desire to compete against boxing’s elite.
Curtis Stevens thinks Adonis Stevenson ducked Kovalev fight
Middleweight contender Curtis Stevens thinks that WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson ducked the fight against WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev with his move to Showtime this past week.
When asked if Stevenson took the easy way out of what could have been a very tough fight against Kovalev, Stevens said to thaboxingvoice “Yeah, the little [expletive]. Now who’s he [Stevenson] fighting? Bunch of queens…He don’t want it. Kovalev’s dangerous, boy. He hits hard.”
Stevens went onto say that Andrzej Fonfara, Bernard Hopkins and Sakio Bika aren’t in the same class as Kovalev is.
Bradley thinks he can get a decision against Pacquiao
WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) thinks he can get a decision against Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) when they meet up next month on April 12th. The conventional wisdom is that Bradley will need to score a KO over Pacquiao to get a decision this time, due to the controversy that surrounds their previous bout in 2012. Fans think that there’s no way that the judges will want to give Bradley a second decision and have to face the heat from the boxing community.
Bradley feels that he’ll be able to do better in the rematch against Pacquiao because he’ll have two healthy feet for the bout, and this will enable him to move quickly to get out of the way of Pacquiao’s swinging shots.