Felix Sturm vs. Sam Soliman 2 on May 31st in Germany

A rematch between IBF middleweight champion Felix Sturm (39-3-2, 18 KO’s) and #1 IBF Sam Soliman (43-11, 18 KO’s) will be taking place next month on May 31st at the König Palast, Krefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Soliman and Sturm previously fought back in February of last year with Soliman winning a 12 round unanimous decision that was later overturned and changed to a no contest after Soliman tested positive for a banned substance.

Soliman, 40, has fought once since then in beating Les Sherrington by a 9th round TKO last December in Australia. For his part, Sturm has had two easy stoppage wins over Predrag Radosevic and Darren Barker. The fight against Barker might have turned into a tough one for Sturm if not for Barker suffering a hip injury in the 2nd round that it impossible for him to fight.

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OPEN MIC: Curtis “Showtime” Stevens Discusses Johnson, Quillin, Kirkland, Mayweather Jr., and More!

By Paul “Paparazzi” Jones, Photo © Paul “Paparazzi” Jones

Atlantic City, NJ — This Friday, NBCSN’s Fight Night series travels to the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia (PA) and features a heavyweight clash between Steve “USS” Cunningham (26-6, 12 KOs) and Amir “Hardcore” Mansour (20-0, 15 KOs) for the USBA Heavyweight Championship. However, the co-feature of this Main Events promoted card, pitting Curtis “Showtime” Stevens (26-4, 19 KOs) against undefeated prospect Tureano Johnson (14-0, 10 KOs), has “Fight of the Night” written all over it.

A product of Brownsville, Brooklyn, the 29-year-old Stevens has experienced his share of ups and downs since turning pro in 2004. From his early success as one-half of the “Chin Checkers,” to lackluster performances against Andre Dirrell (21-1, 14 KOs) and Jesse Brinkley (35-7, 22 KOs), Stevens has shown two qualities that often endear a fighter to his or her fan base: (1) resilience and (2) a desire to compete against boxing’s elite.

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Curtis Stevens thinks Adonis Stevenson ducked Kovalev fight

Middleweight contender Curtis Stevens thinks that WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson ducked the fight against WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev with his move to Showtime this past week.

When asked if Stevenson took the easy way out of what could have been a very tough fight against Kovalev, Stevens said to thaboxingvoice “Yeah, the little [expletive]. Now who’s he [Stevenson] fighting? Bunch of queens…He don’t want it. Kovalev’s dangerous, boy. He hits hard.”

Stevens went onto say that Andrzej Fonfara, Bernard Hopkins and Sakio Bika aren’t in the same class as Kovalev is.

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Bradley thinks he can get a decision against Pacquiao

WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) thinks he can get a decision against Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) when they meet up next month on April 12th. The conventional wisdom is that Bradley will need to score a KO over Pacquiao to get a decision this time, due to the controversy that surrounds their previous bout in 2012. Fans think that there’s no way that the judges will want to give Bradley a second decision and have to face the heat from the boxing community.

Bradley feels that he’ll be able to do better in the rematch against Pacquiao because he’ll have two healthy feet for the bout, and this will enable him to move quickly to get out of the way of Pacquiao’s swinging shots.

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Khan might still be undefeated if he were trained by Oliver Harrison, says Charles

Don Charles, the trainer for heavyweight Dereck Chisora, thinks the three times beaten Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) would still be an unbeaten fighter if he had stuck it out with his original trainer Oliver Harrison. Khan left Harrison early on with his pro career and was trained by a Cuban trainer Jorge Rubio for his loss to Breidis Prescott in 2008.

Khan then moved on after that to trainer Los Angeles, California based trainer Freddie Roach, and after a run of good luck with him, Khan was then beaten in back to back fights by Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. Khan then replaced Roach with the Oakland, California based Virgil Hunter, and Khan has since gone 2-0, albeit against weaker opposition than what he had faced with Roach.

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Sauerland: Kubrat Pulev will not face Elijah McCall; Replacement Announced

IBF heavyweight mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev (19-0, 10 KO’s) will be fighting in an 8-round tune-up fight against little known fighter Elijah McCall (12-3-1, 11 KO’s) on the undercard of the WBA light heavyweight title clash between champion Juergen Braehmer and Enzo Maccarinelli. Pulev, at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany according to Sauerland Events.

Pulev, 32, is already locked in for a world title shot against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko for later this year, so he just needs to stay active, get a little rust out, and avoid injuries in winning this fight against McCall.

McCall, 26, is the son of former heavyweight champ Oliver McCall. He played college football at James Madison University as a defensive end. He turned pro in 2009 without any amateur experience at all. In looking at some of his past fights, McCall seems to be a very good body puncher, but not much hand speed or power in throwing to the head. McCall looks like he’s a better puncher than Pulev, who is more of a slapper and jabber.

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Fury Looking To Make History And Become First World Champion Traveller

Tyson Fury says it’s case of who gets to the world title first between him and Billy Joe Saunders as to who becomes the first world champion from the travelling community.

The Wilmslow heavyweight was in Newcastle on Saturday to watch fellow traveller Martin Ward challenge for Stuart Hall’s IBF World Bantamweight title and if he would achieve the feat, but the fight ended in a technical draw after a clash of heads in the first round resulting in Ward receiving a bad cut under his right eye and the referee calling a halt in the second round.

Now Fury has his eye on creating history and is only one fight away from a shot at WBO World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko if he can get past big-hitting rival Dereck Chisora on Saturday 26th July at the Phone 4 U Arena in Manchester in their Final Eliminator showdown.

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Chatman Defeats Brewer

Photo courtesy of Chris Chatman — Chris Chatman dedicated his middleweight fight against Grady “Bad Boy” Brewer to his grandmother and late manager, Mark Dion, who both died this week and he did them both proud as he beat Brewer in a nonstop action packed bout, as he took over the fight after the fourth round, en route to a eight round unanimous decision victory with three scorecards, 79-73, 80-72 and 79- 73.

“My last fight against Jarrett Hurd was a robbery, so I wanted to come out and dominate this bout, which I did and to make sure that I didn`t have another bad loss, especially in my Classic Entertainment and Sports (CES) debut,” said Chatman. “Brewer is an extremely tricky fighter, so I didn`t press for a knockout, which I wanted, because he has couple of victories with late knockouts.”

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Methodical Kovalev stops Agnew; Dulorme outpoints Mayfield

Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev 24-0-1 (22KOs) was single minded in his attack on Cedric Agnew 26-1-0 (13KOs) Saturday night at the Ballroom Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, N.J. There was no feeling out period for him. At the opening bell he quickly closed in on his foe, and with the first punch of the fight he threw a right hand to the body. Agnew knew he was in for a hard night.

Early on in the fight, Agnew had opportunities to fold up. He was tagged with some very hard shots, but he refused to go out easily. He kept a tight defense, and when possible, he threw counter shots. His pre-fight plan was to keep moving just enough to stay as problem free as he could. He was very selective with his counter punches, throwing enough to keep Kovalev thinking twice about just rushing in for the kill.

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Maidana likes being the underdog for Mayweather fight

WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) isn’t being given much of a chance to defeat Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) in their May 3rd fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, but this is the way that Maidana likes it. He says he likes it when fans doubt him, and when he’s being brought in to a fight where he’s expected to lose, as he is with the one against Mayweather at the MGM Grand.

“He [Maidana] likes to be the underdog. He likes when he’s being brought to get beat. To prove them wrong.” His trainer Robert Garcia said to esnewsreporting. “And he plans on doing it one more time.”

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