Juan Manuel Lopez – The Addicted Boxer

Juan Manuel Lopez is a shopworn fighter that’s going through the motions. Like a hopeless gambler, day in and day out he boxes without a plan to win and seems to be there because he has no choice. When the chips are down, he throws caution to the wind and goes for broke.

This was no more evident then in his latest fight against Francisco Vargas.

He was tentative, especially in round 2, always backing up and trying to counter or throwing obvious and lacklustre straight lefts against a faster fighter with more reach. When Vargas backed him up against the ropes and tagged him a few times, Juan Ma first exchanged, then started moving and punching along the ropes with little success.

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Tyson Fury cannot get a break! Third fight in a row off

As fight fans have most probably read by now, this Saturday’s WBO heavyweight title eliminator between British heavyweights Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora is off, as Chisora suffered a fractured hand in his final day of sparring. This is bad news for all concerned, but it is especially unimaginably frustrating news for Fury and his whole team.

As Fury himself or the fans didn’t need reminding, this fight being off marks the THIRD time in a row the unbeaten giant has worked his ass off in training camp only with absolutely nothing to show for it. Twice Fury set up camp for a clash with David Haye, only for Haye to get himself injured ahead of both dates. Now, with a long training camp under his belt and a number of press conferences and other media duties fulfilled, Fury is sure to be, well, furious at his rematch with Chisora falling apart. What must be so annoying for Fury is the fact that all three of his scheduled bouts fell apart so close to the actual day of the fight.

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Daughter of two-time world champion Steve Cunningham continues to fight and is put on Heart Transplant List

Fundraiser set up to help offset mounting medical costs and accommodations to be close to hospital in Pittsburgh

Philadelphia (July 21, 2014)– America was introduced to Kennedy Cunningham when her father first fought on NBC back in December of 2012 when he faced Tomasz Adamek in that epic battle, we learned that she suffered from a severed heart condition called HLHS. In April when Steve fought Amir Mansour on NBC Sports, the family had just received heart breaking news when they we told that Kennedy was not a candidate for heart transplant as they had hoped.

She had her first open heart surgery at 2 days old and the second six months later. She was hospitalized for the first year of her life and suffered many set backs along the way, including a stroke, many blood infections and also required a trach and vent for several years when she was younger. The doctors that cared for her back then all say that she is a miracle, they saw everything she went through and never thought she would live to be 8 years old! Now, almost 9 years later she continues to show us how tough she is!

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Left-Hook Lounge Mailbag: Floyd Mayweather’s “Questionable” Past?, Maidana Glove Controversy, & Rigondeaux’s

(Photo credit: Idris Erba) Kaleb G. (Boston, MA): I noticed that you’ve been pretty quiet on the topic of Floyd Mayweather and the way the media overlooks his past, as it relates to domestic violence and so forth. What are your thoughts on the recent article in “Deadspin”?

Vivek W. (ESB): I’ve received several emails from fight fans asking for my thoughts on this topic. I initially chose not to comment, for the simple fact that I prefer not to talk on topics in which I don’t have a complete education on. And furthermore, I’m not familiar with Deadspin, and have never seen them represented in a Boxing media room; so that’s a dead giveaway that their sources probably have limited facts, as well.

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Canelo should do the right thing and give Lara a rematch like Mayweather gave Maidana a rematch

It’s been a little over a week since former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) won a controversial 12 round split decision win over Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KO’s) in their fight at middleweight at 155, and it’s clear that boxing fans are even more undecided now than they were back then.

Last night’s replay of the Canelo-Lara fight, including the ALL ACCESS epilogue showing, showed that Canelo’s win over Lara was far from convincing. The judges gave the more popular Canelo the victory by the scores of 115-113 and 117-111 for Canelo, and 115-113, but boxing fans are still largely split down the middle about who really won the fight.

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Golovkin vs. Geale this Saturday at Madison Square Garden, New York

WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs) will be facing the biggest name of his career this Saturday night in defending his WBA title against former world champion Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Golovkin has been interested in getting the big names to fight him for many years, but this is the best that he’s been able to get after 7 years as a pro. Golovkin hopes that a big win over Geale will be a springboard for him to get bigger fights against the other middleweight champions or possibly against one of the big junior middleweight names such as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez Decides to Continue Boxing Career

After lengthy discussions with members of his team, now-former WBC Middleweight Champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez has decided to continue his boxing career.

Determined to return and erase the terrible memory of what happened against fellow-great Miguel Cotto in June, 39-year-old Martinez will next face a top-10 contender with the goal of recapturing his world title.

“Miguel De Pablos (Business Manager) and I met with Sergio at his home in Madrid and he says he is 100% healthy and ready to do what it takes to return to the very top of boxing,” said Martinez advisor Sampson Lewkowicz.

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Guillermo Rigondeaux destroys Sod Kokietgym inside a round (with a little controversy thrown in!)

Today in Macao, WBA and WBO super-bantamweight king Guillermo Rigondeaux scored a devastating 1st-round KO over the experienced and usually very durable Sod Kokietgym of Thailand. The incredibly gifted 33-year-old Cuban southpaw improved to 14-0(9) with the quick, 1-minute 44-seconds win. 37-year-old Sod, also a southpaw, fell to 63-3-1(28).

Expected by just about everyone to win either late on or via somewhat dull decision (the knock on Rigondeaux is that he is defensive minded and boring to watch), the former two-time Olympic gold medallist instead put on a show of power punching. Before today’s fight – perhaps angry at having been rejected by a certain cable T.V giant who refused to take his most recent fight – Rigondeaux promised he’d be more explosive against Sod. The Cuban delivered.

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The case against the Boxing Purists

Boxing purists are a group of fans that like nothing better than to fawn over the defensive skills and ‘tactical mastery’ of fighters who most normal fans would simply describe as boring. Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with appreciating the defensive aspects of the sport, boxing purists often look down on aggressive, come forward fighters who try to force the action as being one dimensional and lacking in genuine boxing skills.

Like a bunch of snooty College Professors they usually regard ‘lefty’ Southpaws to be inherently superior to Orthodox fighters, a belief which is as baseless as it is predictable. Purists are also some of the most vocal whiners and complainers when a close decision does not go their way and it is time their charges were rebuked.

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Golovkin-Geale conference call transcript

TOM LOEFFLER: We are definitely excited about this event. I would like to thank some of the partners that we have for this event. Gary Shaw was very instrumental as Daniel Geale’s promoter for which we have a great-co-feature for this card at Madison Square Garden, the World’s Most Famous Arena, the Mecca of Boxing. We are very excited to be going into the big room for this fight. Without HBO and their financial support, we wouldn’t be able to put an event like this together. This is clearly the biggest test, the biggest name and the most experienced person that has been willing to get in the ring with Gennady, so far in his career. Geale is a two-time world champion – he won two world championship titles over in Germany, which is not the easiest thing to do. He beat two great fighters in Sturm and Stieglitz and the credentials he brings to the ring are impressive. We want to thank Gary and Team Geale for accepting the challenge. Gennady has been labeled as the fastest rising star in boxing and brings excitement every time he gets into the ring.

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