James DeGale to become first ever British Olympian to win a world title

James DeGale has been waiting for his chance for a long while now. The one setback on his resume was a close and controversial mixed decision to George Groves back in 2011 and since then has won European and WBC Silver titles. DeGale has really been making an impact recently since joining with Matchroom sports. In his last three bouts he has three knockouts. Two over undefeated fighters and the third over highly rated Marco Antonio Periban. His record now stands at 20 – 1 – 0 with fourteen knockouts, and he is ready for the world stage.

Andre Dirrell is certainly going to be a tough test for DeGale and whilst I would put my money on him, I can understand this is a 50-50 fight for a lot of people.

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Can a fighter damage their legacy if they miss one fight?

Over the years there has been much speculation as to what extent Floyd Mayweather’s reputation and legacy will be tarnished should he retire without facing Manny Pacquiao. The fans are split between two opinions, the Mayweather fans claim it will have no meaning and what he has already accomplished is enough to support his claim as a true all time great.

The critics respond by saying it will leave doubt and at the end of the day he will be remembered more for missing this fight than he will be for what he has done in the ring. Similarly some say a similar effect will take place when trying to establish Pacman’s place in history once he hangs up the gloves.

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Buddy McGirt – We are in no rush with Taishan Dong

In an interview with FightHype trainer Buddy McGirt discussed progress with this heavyweight prospect 7 foot heavyweight Taishan Dong. McGirt discussed the separation between the awesome physical tools and the lacking fundamental skills with the massive heavyweight.

McGirt said that Taishan was a good listener and was eager to learn. He also mentioned that Taishan’s hunger for knowledge within the sport led him to stay after training and continue to practise the things they had gone over during the day.

Taishan has said before that he is only in his second year of training as a boxer.

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James Kirkland fighting without Ann Wolfe against Canelo

A lot of people seem to think James Kirkland’s chances in his scheduled May 2nd fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez are dramatically altered on whether or not Ann Wolfe is going to be in his corner on the night of the fight. The single loss on Kirkland’s career was a TKO in the first round and on that night he did not have Ann Wolfe as his trainer. Since reuniting with her he has gone on a five win streak against decent opposition which has lead to this fight.

He has employed the services of Gerald Tucker, and this has rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, but this should not come as surprising news to most, as Kirkland has made a reputation for himself over the years as an inconsistent character.

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Amir Khan vs. Gennady Golovkin?

Amir Khan tweeted recently saying he would take the fight vs Miguel Cotto ‘in a heartbeat.’ Amir Khan is obviously after the biggest names in the sport for the huge paydays and has been calling out every big name under the sun.

He went through a real ordeal of calling out Floyd Mayweather consistently dating back even before the first Maidana fight. That situation left him with no opponent, finally opting to face Devon Alexander rather than wait it out anymore.

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Brandon Rios vs. Victor Ortiz. Who wins?

Boxing has produced some real characters over the years, but Victor Ortiz is developing into one of the most enigmatic men currently active. Ortiz and Rios did grow up together through boxing and this would be a fight with a true emotionally charged back story, but other than that it does not seem to have a lot going for it. The Marcos Maidana, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Josesito Lopez and Luis Collazo debacles do not seem to have phased Ortiz.

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Eddie Hearn: DeGale announcement coming next week

In an interview with IFL TV Eddie Hearn said that he was looking to have the DeGale- Andre Dirrell fight in the UK on April 25th and was confident that he could make that happen. He said regardless of whether they can make that date happen, he is looking to finalize the deal and would make an announcement in a weeks time. This announcement should lay out most of the details of that show and what the card will be made of and detail what the situation is between DeGale and Dirrell.

This is a great fight between two once beaten fighters, which will provide a new IBF champion regardless of who wins. Certainly this is a tough fight for the pair of them due to their styles, but an impressive win could set up a string of super fights against the other talents in the division such as George Groves, Anthony Dirrell, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and even Andre Ward.

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Adams, Gasparyan, Thompson & Skorokhod Progress In ESPN Boxcino 154 lb Tournament

Brandon Adams, Vito Gasparyan, John Thompson and Stanyslav Skorokhod progressed to the ESPN Boxcino junior middleweight semi with wins in Friday Nights Quarter Finals at the Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Connecticut.

In Quarter number 1, 25 year old Ukrainian Skorokhod (9-0, 7 kos) dominated southpaw Michael Moore (13-1, 6 kos) from Cleveland, Ohio, scoring a four round TKO.

Right hands did the trick. Moore was dropped 29 seconds into the third but survived as Skorkhod went for one big punch. It came in the fourth, a right hand around Moore’s high guard, with referee Mike Ortega stopping it at 1.03.

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Prizefighter – The Middleweights III – Ringside Review

Unbeaten middleweight Tom Doran 14-0 (4KO’s) collected the 34th Prizefighter trophy tonight and more importantly a £34,000 cash injection that at this stage of his career is massive.

The 27-year-old started superbly dropping Craig Cunningham with a powerful straight right hand in his first round of his quarter final, to progress to the semi finals.

Doran proceeded to dispose of pre-tournament favourite with a controlled performance behind a strong jab that saw him win out 29-28 on all judges’ scorecards to set up a meeting with previous Prizefighter finalist Cello Renda.

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Brian Rose catastrophically stopped in one

Disaster struck for Blackpool’s Brian Rose tonight when Carson Jones, 37-10-3 (27KO’s) dramatically stopped him inside the first round.

Rose, 26-3-1 (8KO’s) was stepping in the ring for only the second time since his unsuccessful WBC World light middleweight title tilt against Demetrius Andrade, when he was stopped in 7. The first of which was an encouraging first round stoppage over Ignacio Lucero Fraga in Leeds in October.

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