By Dwight Chittenden: WBC heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko will be making a decision about whether he’ll retire or not by mid-December according to his manager Bernd Boente. Vitali’s political career is what could be the factor for him retiring if he chooses to step away from the boxing game.
Broner to go after Ricky Burns after the DeMarco fight
By Michael Collins: Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KO’s) will be targeting WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) after the 23-year-old Broner takes care of business next month against WBC lightweight boxing champion Antonio DeMarco (28-2-1, 21 KO’s) on HBO boxing at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
Broner’s trainer Mike Stafford said to Bleacherreport.com “We’ll go to Ricky Burns and get that other title. He’ll [Broner] be too fast, too smart and he’s (Burns) not strong enough, these guys are too slow for Adrien. He’s a special guy, a special guy.”
I agree with Stafford 100 percent. I think Burns would be like Jason Litzau, a fighter that Broner took out in a 1st round TKO last year in June. It would be too easy beating Burns. The only advantage thing that Burns has going for him is his height and his weight, but against Broner the weight would be the same for both fighters, so Burns wouldn’t have his customary size advantage. He’d be taller, to be sure, but the reach and the weight would be the same. The height wouldn’t help at all and Burns would just get knocked out quick by Broner.
Deontay Wilder takes a step up in competition against Kelvin Price on 12/15
By Marcus Richardson: Unbeaten heavyweight boxing prospected Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s) takes a slight step up in competition against the 6’7″ Kelvin Price (13-0, 6 KO’s) on December 15th at the Sports Arena, in Los Angeles, California, USA. This is the 26-year-old Wilder’s big opportunity to unveil his talent in front of the wide U.S boxing public, because the fight will be televised by Showtime and Wilder be fighting on the undercard of the Carlos Molina vs. Amir Khan fight. This will surely lead to a lot of boxing fans tuning into this card if only to get a glimpse of Khan. Wilder will be the undercard fight and it should be interesting for while it lasts.
Mayweather Sr: Floyd Jr. would dominate at 140
By Rob Smith: Floyd Mayweather Sr. believes that his son Floyd Mayweather Jr. would completely dominate if he were to move down to 140 lbs instead of trying to fight at 154lbs, which he’s not really suited for. Mayweather Jr. recently defeated a heavier former WBA Super World junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto last May in a fight that was shockingly closer than what many boxing fans expected it to be. Mayweather Jr. claimed that he purposely stood and trained with Cotto to make it a more exciting fight, but a lot of fans think the 35-year-old Mayweather Jr. simply has lost his ability to move around the ring due to his age.
Floyd Sr. told Fighthype.com “You know Floyd can still fight at 140 if he wanted to. He would be untouchable there.”
Floyd Sr. is right. Mayweather Jr. would dominate at 140 lbs and his competition at that would be Danny Garcia, Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse, Brandon Rios and Lamont Peterson. Those guys would probably get picked completely apart by Mayweather, and it would be a lot easier on Floyd for him to be fighting at that weight than it would for him to be taking on welterweights and junior middleweights.
Garcia might be the most trouble, because he’s more like a middleweight than an actual welterweight. By the time Garcia steps inside the ring for his fights, he looks to be well over 160 and that’s pretty heavy. Mayweather would still be able to deal with him by taking away his left hook. That’s Garcia’s main weapon, as his right hand is nothing special at all. Mayweather would the left away and give Garcia a real beating.
Ruslan Chagaev vs. Mike Perez on December 1st in Dusseldorf, Germany
By Rob Smith: Former WBA World heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (30-2-1, 19 KO’s) will be taking a risky bout against unbeaten Cuban prospect Mike Perez (18-0, 12 KO’s) on December 1st in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Germany. Chagaev, 34, wants to get another title shot and for that to happen he needs impressive wins over the likes of Perez and other quality heavyweights. Perez, 27, is an interesting fighter with a lot of potential if he would only fight often enough.
Only 500 tickets left for Froch vs. Mack fight
By Michael Collins: There are reportedly only 500 tickets left for the November 17th clash between IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and his light heavyweight opponent Yusaf Mack for the Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. Over 9000 tickets have already been sold and the 35-year-old Froch is counting on the last 500 getting scooped up well before the fight next month. Froch wants it to be extra loud for the visiting American Mack just like it was for Froch’s last opponent former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, who seemed unnerved by the crowd noise and ended up losing badly to Froch.
Froch said to Sy Sports News “The atmosphere against Bute was absolutely electric – the best I’ve ever boxed in front of. Mack will not have seen anything like it in his life…the fans will raise the roof for me.”
Froch hadn’t fought in Nottingham since beating Andre Dirrell there by a controversial decision in October 2009 in the Super Six tournament. The crowd was plenty loud during that fight but Froch fought poorly, missing punching all night, and doing quite a bit of ugly fouling that he got away with. The crowd didn’t help Froch in that respect, and his victory was viewed different depending on what part of the world you came from.
Khan’s trainer wants him to control his speed in Molina fight
By Michael Collins: Virgil Hunter has been given the new task of trying to resurrect Amir Khan’s career after the blazing fast fighter suffered back to back defeats to Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. Hunter is now in the hot seat and has produce the results or he’ll very likely be sent packing just like Khan’s last two trainers have following knockout defeats by Khan.
Klitschko vs Wach: Wladimir has to avoid Wach’s big right hand
By Dwight Chittenden: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 50 KO’s) defends against one of the harder punchers in the heavyweight division in 32-year-old Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KO’s) on November 10th at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Wach’s KO percentage isn’t all that high, but you have to remember that he didn’t really learn to punch properly until three years ago. Before that, Wach was more of a diamond in the rough and was throwing wild looping right hands that were more like wallops than punches.
Senchenko can send Hatton into retirement with a KO on 11/24
By Michael Collins: Former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) is potentially in a position of power on November 24th in his fight against a rusty and short Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) at the Manchester Arena (formerly M.E.N Arena), in Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom. The 35-year-old Senchenko is in the position where he could put Hatton out of his misery by sending him into a permanent retirement by knocking him cold in this fight.
Trainer Ronnie Shields: “Emanuel Steward was unbelievable”
By Joseph Herron – On Thursday afternoon, October 27 th , the boxing world learned the tragic news of the untimely passing of boxing legend Emanuel Steward.
While every boxing pundit felt the loss of the all time great fight trainer, maybe none more profoundly than expert trainer Ronnie Shields. The lifelong boxing proponent initially met Emanuel when he was competing as an amateur boxer at age 13.
After their early encounter, the mutual friendship grew over several decades and was based on a genuine fondness and deep rooted respect for each other.
Ronnie shared his personal feelings on the air during Sunday night’s episode of “The Pugilist KOrner’s: Weekend Wrap”.
“Thursday was probably one of the worst days I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” admits expert trainer Ronnie Shields.