Andre Dirrell in action this Friday in Shelton, WA

Super middleweight Andre Dirrell (21-1, 14 KOs) has left his promoter 50 Cent and is now ready to resume his career in the ring with adviser Al Haymon guiding his career. The 30-year-old Dirrell, who hasn’t seen action since last year in February, will be fighting on August 1st on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights at Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton, Washington.

The opponent is not known at this time, but they’re looking for someone that can step in on short notice to take the fight with the speedy Dirrell. Renan St. Juste was the guy that Dirrell supposed to be fighting on the card, but he went down with a foot injury and won’t be able to take the fight.

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Antoine Douglas & Michel Soro Fight To Majority Draw In Main Event Of ShoBox 200

Antoine Douglas and Michel Soro fought to a majority draw (96-94 Soro, 95-95 twice) in a bout that was a tale of two halves in the main event of Friday’s ShoBox: The New Generation, live on SHOWTIME® from Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, Calif.

The undefeated Douglas (14-0-1, 9 KOs) dominated the first half of the fight, controlling the action with a plethora of jabs against the vastly experienced former world title challenger. A rip in Soro’s gloves caused a halt in the bout midway through the fourth, but it was more of the same once the bout restarted with Douglas controlling the action.

Soro (23-1-1, 13 KOs) had a solid sixth that gave him a bit more confidence, but as he took more risks it allowed Douglas to land his power shots. A right hand followed by an onslaught of punches from Soro had Douglas dazed in the seventh, but the Frenchman stepped off the gas and allowed Douglas to escape the round. Douglas was still struggling as he entered the ninth for the first time in his career and stayed in survival mode for the remainder of the fight.

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Golovkin vs. Geale & Perez vs. Jennings weights

(Photo credit: HBO/Will Hart) At today’s weigh-in, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) scaled in at 159.8 pounds for his fight against former IBF/WBA middleweight champ Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KO’s) for Saturday night. Geale, who looked pale and not particularly defined, weighed in at 159.2. Golovkin looked ripped up in comparison, and showed a lot more definition than the Australian fighter.

The fight card will be taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York, and Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions expects a crowd of around 7,000 for the 18,200 seat arena. If this was a fight involving New York favorite Miguel Cotto, MSG would no doubt sellout, but Golovkin is from Kazakhstan and he lives in Germany. You can’t expect him or the Australian Geale to sellout the Garden.

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Tyson Fury 18st five pounds Alexander Ustinov 20st five oz

Tyson Fury and Alexander Ustinov faced off during their weigh in for tomorrow nights eagerly awaited heavyweight clash this afternoon. Ustinov took to the scales tipping in at 20st 5oz while Fury came in almost two stone lighter at 18st 5 pounds

Ustinov, a cerebral looking individual, looked considerably slimmer than has been seen in previous bouts, still packing those immensely powerful arms and upper body. Fury, as promised, looked svelte, trim and athletic. His physique was a far cry from that which we saw against Joey Abell in his most recent bout. The crowd were fired up as the Manchester showman arrived, and in contrast to his press conference appearances Tyson seemed to really have his game face on as the two went head to head. Tyson announced he’s ‘going to inflict pain on you.’ Ustinov simply smiled off the trash talk.

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Robert Stieglitz vs. Sergey Khomitsky tonight in Germany

Tonight former WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (46-4, 26 KOs) has a very tough test on his hands in facing #7 WBO Sergey Khomitsky (29-10-2, 12 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Anhalt Arena, Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

Stieglitz is still reeling from having lost his WBO strap in his last fight against Arthur Abraham four months ago in July in losing a 12 round split decision. Stieglitz wants another chance against Abraham to try and regain his WBO strap, but for that fight to happen, Stieglitz needs to beat Khomitsky tonight and possibly Gilberto Ramirez if the WBO forces him to fight in a WBO eliminator bout before he can fight Abraham again.

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Golovkin vs. Geale: Will Daniel thrive or try to survive?

Gennady Golovkin was built on HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” and has become just that, bad. Golovkin has already passed the eye test now he will encounter a new style test versus Daniel Geale from historic Madison Square Garden in New York City broadcasted live on HBO Championship Boxing.

Majority of talk inside the boxing world leading up to this matchup has been more about what’s next for “Triple G”. The round in which Golovkin stops Geale seems to be the only item up for debate. Does Geale have enough skill and sturdy enough chin to end the string of knockouts which currently stands at 16 in a row? To find out what these fighters are capable of let’s look back at what got them here.

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How much will Saturday night tell us about the future of Tyson Fury?

In a bout no one could have foreseen or predicted, this Saturday night boxing fans shall witness Tyson Fury attempt to maintain his lofty world ranking against the dangerous fringe contender Alexander Ustinov. The collapse of the Dereck Chisora rematch renders any discussion of him, or Fury’s attitude to him a moot point. What fight fans need to consider is what this bout has the potential to tell us about Fury’s current standing in the division, and whether or not it shall serve as a good indicator of Fury’s ability to mentally reign himself in after massive disappointment.

Whether loved or loathed the Mancunian giant inspires opinion among all those who watch him fight, or even just hear him speak. Many including this author see massive potential on a world level in Tyson Fury; however, large bastions of boxing’s faithful will be very quick to arrogantly dismiss him as an overblown hype job. The polarizing views fans have about Tyson Fury are not quite as easy to understand as one might think.

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The Good And The Bad Guys

In boxing, fighters often take the role of a good guy or a bad guy character in order to gain fan base. Fighters like Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Arturo Gatti and Roy Jones Jr. were known for the good guy roles and their fans loved them, tuned to watch them fight and hoped for them to never to lose. On the other hand we have fighters such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Prince Naseem Hamed and Ricardo Mayorga gained fans because of their flamboyancy, arrogance and disrespect to other fighters. These fans tuned to their fights, some actually like them and hoping for them to win, others despise them and hoping that they will get knocked out.

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Danny Garcia needs to make a statement against Rod Salka

It was not long ago when I started hearing about an up-and-coming 140-pound boxer from Philadelphia named Danny “Swift” García. I first saw him against veteran Kendall Holt in a PPV undercard I can’t remember. That day I thought he was not the most gifted boxer but he had the right attitude, a winning attitude.continue

Tyson Fury IS still hoping to fight on Saturday, Peter Fury says he has a short list of names

Tyson Fury, understandably angry and frustrated over his fight with Dereck Chisora, set for this Saturday, falling through, still wants to box on July 26th. After having whipped himself into obviously good fighting shape, Fury – who has, amazingly, seen three of his last four bouts fall apart due to injuries suffered by his opponent – is looking for a short notice replacement.

It’s not clear yet whether he will actually fight, but Team-Fury obviously want to see action. Speaking exclusively to The Morecambe Visitor, Peter Fury said there is a short list of possible opponents who could be brought in with just four days to go.

But one man who will not be getting the call is 42-year-old American southpaw Tony Thompson, who Tweeted how he would take the fight.

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