According to Eddie Hearn, former heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko does not wish to return to the UK for a rematch with Anthony Joshua. Klitschko, still to make up his mind on the rematch, officially at least, Wladimir wants the fight to take place “abroad,” Hearn told The Mirror; not in London or Cardiff.
Klitschko, Hearn says, wants the return fight to be “a big event,” and Las Vegas and Nigeria are the two frontrunners to land the sequel to the April 29 classic – if it goes ahead at all.
The hype surrounding next month’s Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor “Super-Fight” is considerable, huge even, and seemingly everyone has an opinion on what will happen when the two superstars of their respective sports swap punches, not kicks or chokes, on August 26 in Las Vegas.
Mayweather, aged 40 and inactive for almost two full years, will face the much younger McGregor in what will be Floyd’s 50th pro fight; McGregor will be boxing his debut! But, quite astonishingly, McGregor has a great deal of support, from fans who have bet serious money on him winning, and from some experts. It’s largely MMA experts who are backing the Irishman to pull off the monster upset, so that tells you something.
I have been training professional and amateur boxers for many years. In totality my fighters have competed in thousands of fights at nearly every level in the sport at one time or another. My athletes have competed for professional world titles, have been in the Olympics and have appeared at countless club and amateur level shows and tournaments.
A few years back, I was part of the organizing team for a national amateur tournament being held in Michigan. One of my roles that week was to be a liaison between the organizing committee and any coaches who had questions or wanted to dispute a decision. If you have ever been to any boxing tournaments you know there are always disputes… and many times bad decisions, as well.
Once-beaten British world heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte, who absolutely craves a shot at WBC ruler Deontay Wilder, will box his US debut in August, on the big Terence Crawford-Julius Indongo 140 pound unification clash.
Whyte, beaten only by current WBA/IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua in a terrific action battle, has won four in a row since losing his unbeaten record and he will face TBA on August 19. But the man “The Body Snatcher” has his eyes firmly fixed on is unbeaten KO King Wilder.
Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao got robbed in the worst decision-of-the-year as he somehow, inexplicably lost a twelve-round unanimous decision to Jeff “The Hornet” Horn, as judges Waleska Roldan, Chris Flores, and Ramon Cerdan, all rendered terrible scorecards, 117-111 and two score of 115-113 for Horn, despite the fact that Pacquiao out landed Horn in eleven of the twelve rounds, dominated every punch statistic, and almost stopped him in the ninth-round, while Horn connected on a mere seven punches per round.
If anyone should be screaming robbery right now, it is Manny Pacquiao’s long-time promoter Bob Arum. Yet despite the fact that people such as Lennox Lewis, Teddy Atlas and Samuel L. Jackson (!) are saying this past Saturday night’s upset decision win scored by Jeff Horn over Pacquiao was a disgrace, the Top Rank boss does not agree.
Speaking with RingTV.com, Arum – who, we all know full well, comes out and says what he is thinking – said the decision that went against his fighter was fair:
The anger, the shock and the bewilderment caused by Saturday night’s monstrous upset decision win scored by Jeff Horn over Manny Pacquiao is still being felt, and it doesn’t look like going away any time soon. Amid the cries of robbery, corruption and incompetence, is the tired old, “boxing is finished” claim.
It isn’t of course, and the July 2 result was far from the first perceived bad decision in boxing; nor will it be the last. So, where does Horn WU12 Pacquiao rank amongst the worst ever?
Though many fans attributed new WBO welterweight champ Jeff Horn’s calling out of Floyd Mayweather to overexcitement, the controversial conqueror of Manny Pacquaio insists he really does want the fight. What’s more, Horn is convinced he can defeat Mayweather the way he did Pac Man.
With time to reflect and look back on his brilliant if controversial win over Pacquiao, Horn said to Australian media as he was mobbed in Brisbane how he thinks Mayweather’s age will prove a major factor in the fight with him if it happens.