Monte Barrett hangs ’em up – wishing “Two Gunz” a happy retirement

Heavyweight warrior Monte Barrett was stopped in the 4th-round by unbeaten Cuban Luis Ortiz last night, and after having once again taken a fight knowing he had with him the disadvantages that come when entering the ring having had precious little time to get ready, Barrett announced his retirement after the bout.

Now 42, “Two Gunz,” as Barrett was known throughout his up and down but always exciting career, took to social media to make his exit official.

A genuine warrior and also a genuine good guy in a sport that is often short of fighters possessing the Queen’s man’s sheer class, Barrett always fought the best while attempting to give the same.

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Peter Fury: “Tyson Is Ready Now”

Tyson Fury could beat Dereck Chisora right now according to his trainer and uncle Peter even though the fight is still 16 weeks away.

The bitter rivals collide in the biggest domestic heavyweight rematch in recent years at the Phones 4 U Arena in Manchester on Saturday 26th July, with the winner getting a shot at WBO World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko and the European and Vacant British titles are also on the line.

But Peter insists he’d have no problem letting Tyson loose on Chisora right now.

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Cunningham vs. Mansour: Will the U.S.S. Cunningham prove to be too hardcore for Amir?

There’s a time when even the most protected fighters get the first true test of their careers. There is no comparing Steve Cunningham’s resume, which is deep and full of recognizable names, to Amir Mansour resume. Will Cunningham’s experience and reach advantage be too “hardcore” for Mansour to overcome? We will find out this Friday night from Philly on the NBC Sports Network.

Amir Mansour’s first fight was in 1997, and at age 41 his career is really just getting started after taking over 9 years off from 2001 to 2010. Mansour comes into this matchup sporting an unblemished record of 20 wins with no losses and 15 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

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Bernard Hopkins: ” I want to unify the titles, that’s good for boxing”

The 49 year old boxing legend Bernard Hopkins has no plans on retiring anytime soon. He wants to unify the light heavyweight division and he plans on starting April 19th against Beibut Shumenov. Beibut is the current WBA champion and Bernard holds the IBF championship.

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Bradley: My fight with Pacquiao won’t go the distance

WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) isn’t known for his punching power, but he feels that his April 12th rematch with former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) is going to end with one of them getting knocked out in front of a large pay-per-view crowd on HBO, and live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bradley’s only way of getting a knockout of Pacquiao is if he can catch him with something while he’s running in. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach practically has him brainwashed with the belief that he’s got to fight for a full 3 minutes of every round. That’s a good plan to follow when you’ve got a younger fighter with a strong chin and not a lot of mileage on him. But Pacquiao is 35, and he’s been in countless difficult fights during his career. He also was knocked out badly by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, and not had a hard fight since then.

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Adrien “The Problem” Broner, Carlos Molina, J’leon Love and Marco Antonio Periban media conference call transcript

Kelly Swanson

Thanks, everybody, for joining us we appreciate you being here with us today. Unfortunately, we are going to have to reschedule this call because the fighters have not shown up. April Fools!

We’re joined by a great group of fighters today. They are part of the SHOWTIME PPV undercard for “THE MOMENT: Mayweather vs. Maidana,” Adrien Broner vs Carlos Molina and also J’Leon Love vs. Marco Antonio Periban.

Today’s host of the call is none other than Leonard Ellerbe, Chief Executive Office of Mayweather Promotions. Leonard, I’m going to turn it over to you and just so everybody knows, the translator for Mr. Periban today will be Rolando Arellano.

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Hopkins targeting Stevenson after Shumenov fight

49-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) is in the last legacy-building portion of his career as he heads into his April 19th fight against WBA World light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. Hopkins wants to not only defeat the little known Shumenov to capture his WBA title, but then he plans on facing WBC 175lb champ Adonis Stevenson to try and capture his title as well.

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Broner will have a lot of eyes on him for Molina fight, says Bernstein

Boxing analyst Al Bernstein thinks Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) will be under the microscope in his next fight against Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KO’s) on May 3rd on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana next month. Bernstein feels that it doesn’t matter that Broner is facing a less than dangerous opponent in Carlos Molina, fans will still be watching Broner closely to see if he can rebound mentally from his devastating beat down he suffered last December at the hands of Maidana. Fans and the boxing media will want to see if Broner is the same fighter he was before the loss.

“How he comes back from the Maidana fight can define him more as a fighter than anything leading up to and including the Maidana fight, because everyone will be looking to see how mentally tough Broner is,” Bernstein said to the Boxing Channel.

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Roach: Pacquiao won’t let up on Bradley until he surrenders

As usual, trainer Freddie Roach expects Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) to score a knockout when he gets in the ring with WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) for their rematch on April 12th. Roach thinks Pacquiao is new and improved after he rebuilt his fighting style following his loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.

We saw some of the improvements in Pacquiao’s game in his win over Brandon Rios last November in Macao, China. And now we’re going to see some new changes in Pacquiao’s game against Bradley in their rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach says that Pacquiao is going to go after the 5’6” Bradley and not let up until he either quits or is knocked out in this fight.

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Hatton: Khan deserves the Mayweather fight if he beats Collazo

While some boxing fans feel that a win over 32-year-old Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) isn’t a big enough win to catapult Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) into a big fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ricky Hatton thinks Khan should be given the Mayweather fight off of a victory over Collazo. Hatton admires Collazo’s ability after having beaten him by a 12 round decision 7 years ago when Collazo was much younger and in possession of the WBA 147lb title.

Collazo has been hanging around the sport ever since, but he stopped fighting well known opposition after a loss to Andre Berto in 2009. Collazo went through a 5 year period where he fought largely C level opposition until his win over Victor Ortiz earlier this year. Ortiz is arguably a low B level fighter, if not a C level guy at this point in his career.

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