Martinez vs. Chavez Jr: “Nature versus Nurture”

Martinez vs. Chavez Jr: “Nature versus Nurture” by Marc Livitz: Provided the Mayan prophecy doesn’t turn us all inside out and upside down, we may find anywhere from a glimmer to a thermal radiation flash’s worth of excitement in the time left for boxing in 2012. There’s always hope for a sport which although is somewhat in the periphery of many continues to refresh itself in so many different ways.

The gym ghosts of years past are not exactly smiling, but they are at least maintaining a healthy smirk. Outside of the consistent barrage of “the big one”, various promoters have managed to see the light and throw together some interesting contests for the fall. As most of us know by now, the middleweight title (most of it) will be on the line in two weeks’ time.

A matchup between Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. and Sergio Martinez should satiate even the most discriminating pugilistic palate. So many in and around the fight game swore to the gills that little Julio was struck with terror in regards to a night in the ring with “Maravilla”.

Austin Trout: “Cotto is a future Hall of Famer, but this is my time now”

By Joseph Herron: It’s Official! On December 1st, three division world champion and future Hall of Famer Miguel Angel Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs) will take on current WBA Junior Middleweight Champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout (25-0, 14 KOs) at the world renowned Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.

When most boxing insiders didn’t believe Austin would ever get the opportunity to showcase his skills on the biggest stage of boxing, the Las Cruces, New Mexico resident always had faith that his time would eventually come.

“I’ve definitely paid my dues,” claims the 26 year old southpaw fighter. “But I really have to thank Al Haymon for this big fight. He told me that he was working on something big, and he really delivered.”

The big 154 pound title fight will easily be Austin’s toughest test to date. Not only will the young chameleon be facing a three division warrior who can box and punch proficiently, but the reigning title holder will also be fighting in the hostile confines of Cotto’s venue of choice; Madison Square Garden.

Austin believes the pro-Cotto crowd won’t be a problem.

Golovkin with a lot of options for big fights after blasting out Proksa in five

By Rob Smith: WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KO’s) is now in a great position to get some big fights whether it be at junior middleweight, middleweight or super middleweight, after Golovkin made easy work in beating #3 WBA Grzegorz Proksa (28-2, 21 KO’s) by a beautiful 5th round knockout on Saturday night at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. Before the fight, which was televised on HBO, a lot of casual boxing fans in the U.S didn’t have a clue who Golovkin was, but they can’t say that now after witnessing his impressive three knockdown performance in stopping Proksa.

Golovkin says he’s willing to fight the top names at 154, 160 and 168. This means that Golovkin isn’t limited to just waiting on guys like Sergio Martinez or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to finally face him. He can go after the top guys at 154 like Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez, or go after the big names at super middleweight such as Carl Froch, Lucian Bute, Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler.

It definitely helps that Golovkin has the ability to fight in three divisions at any given time to get the biggest fights available because in this boxing climate today with promoters protecting their fighters from dangerous opposition, it could prove near impossible for Golovkin to get any really important fights if he stays strictly in one division. Golovkin needs to be able to chase down fights in at least three divisions at a time if he wants to become a star in a short period of time.

Golovkin destroys Proksa in easy win; Dzinziruk-Gonzalez fight to 12 rd draw

By Dwight Chittenden: WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KO’s) made it look easy tonight in halting Poland’s Grzegorz Proksa (28-2, 21 KO’s) in a a 5th round knockout at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Verona, New York. Golovkin knocked the badly overmatched Proksa down three times before the brutal slaughter was ended in the 5th round with Proksa knocked face down on the canvas.

Golovkin put Proksa down in the 1st, 4th and the last time in the 5th. You could tell that the end was near in the 4th round when Golovkin knocked Proksa down with a powerful right hand to the head. Although Proksa was also knocked down in the 1st, but this time he was really hurt and he took punishment for the remainder of the round.

In the 5th round, Golovkin came out like a shark smelling blood in the water, ignoring Proksa’s futile attempts to fight him off with wild shots, Golovkin got Proksa near the ropes and badly hurt him with a big right hand. Proksa, now staggering, was helpless as Golovkin added the finishing shots to the head to put him down face first on the canvas. Proksa gamely got to his feet but he was badly dazed and the referee did the right thing by calling a halt to the fight at 1:11 of the round.

Pacquiao still not saying who his December 8th opponent will be

By Rob Smith: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had said that there was a chance that Manny Pacquiao would be naming his next opponent today for his fight on December 8th. Although today isn’t it over yet, it looks like Pacquiao will continue to keep quiet about who he’ll be fighting in his next fight. It’s down to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez now that Miguel Cotto announced that he’ll be fighting on December 1st against WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout.

Pacquiao and Arum are trying to get the best deal financially between what’s left to pick from but it’s got to really hurt that Cotto, who arguably was the biggest moneymaker of the three potential opponents, dropped out of the race. Now it’s Marquez and Bradley, and the two fighters have different things asking for in terms of money. It’s not all that cut dried with Marquez being the better option because of his past big money fights on pay per view against Pacquiao last November and against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2009.

Marquez wants to be paid well, and he’s not going to be gotten for cheap. But Bradley reportedly wants a lot of money as well for the fight. According to philstar, Bradley is looking for eight figure payday for this fight. That’s a ton of money, and twice the amount that he got last time. Arum is an expert at negotiating and he’ll likely do a good job of getting both Bradley and Marquez to come down in their asking price for a Pacquiao fight.

Geale won’t last long against Golovkin

By Michael Collins: I hope IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale savors his victory tonight over WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm because he’s not likely going to hold onto his title for very long once he ends up facing WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Let’s be real about this. You might as well register that as a knockout loss for Geale unless he ducks Golovkin entirely. I wouldn’t be surprised nor would I blame Geale for dodging a fight against the hard hitting Golovkin, because he doesn’t have a prayer or winning that fight.

Once that fight is scheduled, Geale might as well see it as an appointment to get knocked out.

I give Geale plenty of credit for beating Sturm tonight. He did an excellent job of coming on in the second hafl of the fight to get the better of Sturm with his pressure and high work rate. Sturm played the usual possum game and tried to steal rounds like he usually does by fighting in spurts, but Geale was having none of it. He knew what he had to do to beat the German fighter by keeping him under constant pressure.

Daniel Geale: New Unified WBA & IBF World Middleweight Champion

By Srithar Visuasam: Daniel ‘The Real Deal’ Geale (28-1, 15 KOs) has performed the unthinkable in world boxing and has won his second world title in Germany by defeating WBA middleweight super champion Felix Sturm (37-3-2, 16 KOs) via split decision in becoming the first Australian born fighter to unify world titles within a weight division.

Sturm could vacate WBA title if he beats IBF champ Geale tonight

By Dwight Chittenden: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) will meet up with IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) in a unification bout tonight at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. According to the German news publication bild.de, Sturm is expected to vacate his WBA 160 pound title if he wins the IBF title off of Geale tonight. Sturm would then keep the IBF strap and defend that title rather than the WBA belt he’s held for the past five years.

That move kind of makes a lot of sense for Sturm after the World Boxing Association came out yesterday ordering the winners of the Sturm-Geale and the Gennady Golokin vs. Grzegorz Proksa fights to face each other by December 31st of this year. This could potentially mean that Sturm would have to face the dangerous puncher Golovkin in a fight that Sturm would likely lose and lose badly. If Sturm vacates his WBA title, boxing fans are going to cry that he’s ducking a fight against WBA champ Gennady Golovkin.

Golovkin has the power to not only beat Sturm but knock him out. At any rate, it would be a very tough fight for Sturm to take at this juncture of his career. He’s not really had too many tough bouts since winning the WBA title back in a rematch with Javier Castillejo in April of 2007.

Weight one of the factors for Cotto choosing not to fight Pacquiao

By Rob Smith: The negotiations between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto for a rematch in December were sunk when Cotto couldn’t agree to the weight that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum wanted for the fight, according to ESPN. Arum had mentioned wanting a catchweight of 150 lbs for the fight, but it looks like the 31-year-old Cotto wasn’t feeling that and instead he opted to fight WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout on December 1st.

Cotto’s attorney, Gabriel Penagaricano said to ESPN “We explored the Pacquiao fight. We discussed it for several days but there was no agreement. The weight was an issue and we didn’t agree on all relevant aspects of the deal, so at the end, there was no agreement.”

It’s too bad that the Pacquiao-Cotto fight couldn’t be made, but it’s hard to say that the rematch would have gone ahead even if the weight was agreed upon for the fight because there were some other things that got in the way of Cotto agreeing with the rematch.

Foreman Vs. Tyson: The Heavyweight Explosion Of Heavyweight Explosions!

By James Slater:

“Boxing is the theatre of the unexpected,” Larry Merchant

“Fighting Tyson Would be Like Bird hunting for me; a bird’s nest on the ground,” George Foreman

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard Mike Tyson talk about potential 1990’s rival and fellow former heavyweight king George Foreman. Never once. Maybe, just maybe, this is because at no time did “Iron Mike” want anything to do with the old warrior he is famously alleged to have referred to as “that animal” when telling Don King what he could do with his lucrative idea of fighting Foreman. Maybe not.

Still, to me, and millions of other fight fans, Foreman-Tyson, Tyson-Foreman is the ultimate Dream Fight; one that was tantalizingly close in 1990. The two greats fought on the same bill in June of 1990 – Foreman taking out Adilson Rodrigues in quick time, Tyson rubbing out Henry Tillman ever faster – and the idea being floated around then was for the two to engage in another double-header that September (Tyson Vs. Alex Stewart, Foreman Vs. Francesco Damiani) and then meet in a blockbuster in December.