This Friday night sees action return to the Malvern Town Hall, Victoria, Australia for the first time in 2014 in what is set to be an exciting night of action.
The six fight card will see leading Victorian stars, undefeated middleweight Michael Zerafa (14-0, 7 KOs) and light welterweight Terry Tzouramanis (11-1-3, 2 KOs) in action along with the comeback of Manny Vlamis (11-3, 8 KOs), returning after almost two years out of the ring.
It has recently been revealed that Carl Froch and George Groves will face each other in a rematch that is expected to take place on 31st May 2014. This is after of course the controversial ending of the Froch-Groves I, in which George Groves alleged that he was stopped too soon in the 9th round. News of this rematch started rumours that this match will be the biggest bout in Britain of 2014. I expect that above rumour will be proven, but with little possibility of a controversial ending like the first Froch-Groves bout ended.
During Wednesday’s conference call for Amir Khan and Luis Collazo, I had a chance to ask Collazo how he felt about being back on the big stage after he disappeared from the boxing spotlight. He responded by telling me that just talking about it made him emotional. Collazo says “I’m just grateful for this opportunity to be back on top of the boxing world”. He has given his life to god and said that he is no longer on his own time but ” Right now I’m on God’s time”.
Collazo hasn’t lost a fight since 2011 to Freddy Hernandez. Since then he has won four straight with his most recent fight being his most important. His victory over Victor Ortiz put him in the position to challenge Amir Khan as the co-main event to Mayweather-Maidana on Showtime PPV.
Former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) wants to not only beat 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) in their fight on May 17th, but also send Marquez into retirement. For Alvarado, it’s about redeeming himself from his recent 10th round stoppage loss at the hands of Ruslan Provodnikov and also doing it in a fashion where he sends Marquez into a permanent retirement. I guess it’s one of those two for the price of one deals.
“Redeeming myself and retiring the legend is even better,” Alvarado said to Radio Raheem. “I’m destined to be great. I’m good but I’m not better than good.”
Trainer Freddie Roach is playing Nostradamus once again in predicting one of Manny Pacquiao’s knockout wins. In this case, Roach sees Pacquiao scoring a knockout over WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) by the 6th round on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
What’s different from this time compared to the last time Pacquiao fought Bradley? Well, Roach says that Pacquiao will be fighting for the full 3 minutes of every round and that he’s going to keep the pressure on the 5’6” Bradley the whole time without giving him any space whatsoever. In other words, he’s going to stay on top of the 30-year-old Bradley the entire time without giving him rest breaks like he did in their fight in 2012.
LOS ANGELES (March 26, 2014) – StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., has rapidly become known amongst boxing aficionados as the place to be to see world-class fights and fighters. On Saturday, April 26, that reputation continues to grow as Golden Boy Promotions and SHOWTIME Sports® team up for an all-action tripleheader featuring some of the top fighters in the sport today. In the 12-round main event, Florida power-puncher Keith “One Time” Thurman defends his interim WBA World Welterweight Championship against former World Lightweight titleholder Julio “The Kidd” Diaz.
Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) says his performance against Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) on May 3d will “steal the show” on the Floyd Mayweather – Marcos Maidana card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan expects to steal the thunder from the headline fight between Mayweather and Maidana by really shining against the 32-year-old Collazo. That may be.
Khan has a guy that he can certainly do that against, as long as he’s careful and doesn’t run into any of Collazo’s right hooks the way that Victor Ortiz did in his 2nd round knockout loss to him last January.
BOB ARUM: Good morning everyone, this fight has been eagerly anticipated, a lot has been written about it. The two fighters are extraordinarily dedicated to their profession. From everything I hear I think this is going to be a monumental fight and from talking to Freddie and Manny and from watching at the Wild Card that many will be 100% prepared and will give a vintage Manny Pacquiao performance on April 12.
FREDDIE ROACH: Training is going really well. The training in the Philippines went real well. Manny sparred quite a few rounds and just getting the work in. We have five different sparring partners and whatever Bradley brings to the table we will be ready for.
Unbeaten heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KO’s) says he can’t wait to get a shot at whipping the winner of the May 10th fight between Chris Arreola (36-3, 31 KO’s) and Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) for the WBC heavyweight title. Stiverne and Arreola will be fighting for the vacant WBC title in their bout, but then the winner has to face Deontay next until they choose to go for a unification bout against Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF/WBA/WBO/WBA heavyweight champion.
Deontay, 6’7”, wants to break Arreola’s nose in the same way that Stiverene did last April when he beat Arreola by a 12 round unanimous decision after shattering his nose in the 3rd round with a hard right hand. Deontay feels that he’ll do the same thing if he gets a shot at facing Arreola for the WBC title. Deontay likes that match-up a lot.
Stephen Espinoza, the vice president in charge of sport for Showtime, says that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) had a hard time trying to decide on who he should fight next for his May 3rd fight card. He was stuck between Marcos Maidana and Amir Khan for his next fight, and he finally decided to go with the smart pick in selecting the more accomplished Maidana instead of the struggling Khan.
Mayweather made the only choice he could make in selecting Maidana, because to select Khan would be a case of Mayweather selecting a guy who Golden Boy Promotions had to put the training wheels back on him after his back to back losses to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia.