Talks are currently ongoing for Manchester lightweights Anthony Crolla and John Murray to meet in a mouth-watering clash in April. The Manchester Evening News reports how the fight could take place on April 19th on the under-card of Scott Quigg’s WBA super-bantamweight title defence against Nehomar Cermeno at The Manchester Arena.
Khan-Broner: The saga continues
One could be forgiven for mistaking the headline as the title of a new Star Wars film but actually it is the heading of an entirely different lengthy series that concerns Mayweather and Khan. The thing that needs to happen pronto is for the latter to announce his next fight so, at least for the time being, we can forget about the whole Mayweather and Khan narrative that is being increasingly drawn out.
An interesting clash that Mayweather is endorsing to be featured on his May undercard is between Khan and Broner. Khan tweeted last week that he would KO Broner and for Mayweather to fight him afterwards, and Broner was a name that Khan had mentioned as his next potential opponent on Sky Sports’ ‘Ringside’ program.
Khan-Broner on the May 3rd Mayweather Card?
By Brandi Miller: Floyd “Money” Mayweather has challenged Amir Khan to face Adrien Broner on his May 3rd undercard for a chance to face Mayweather himself, that being if Khan is able to beat Broner of course. Those who follow boxing know that recently Khan was in the running to face Floyd this May but instead Floyd chose Marcos Maidana. Khan was begging for the fight in the weeks leading up to the fight announcement only to be embarrassed by Mayweather when he was not the chosen one.
The question now is will Khan accept the challenge from Floyd to face Broner. Khan made it publicly known that he needed to fight a big name in order to land the Floyd fight and Broner would definitely be the name that could get people talking. Khan even went as far as calling Broner out on twitter and saying her would win by knockout. Broner has not responded but he did mention the possibility of fighting on “big bros” undercard so maybe he is willing to accept the Khan fight. In my opinion the Khan-Broner fight is an interesting fight but I don’t think it does much for Khan beating a guy who just came off a loss like the one Broner took.
Acourtier ‘Warzone’ Event Review
Although the event was less high profile than the shows in Glasgow, Germany and the US which all had world title fights, the evening was packed with all the boxing related drama you could wish for.
Seasoned pro Mark Prince was the headline act and he showed real class when he took centre stage. The Londoner, who has called his comeback the ‘Return Of The Prince’, was actually taking part in his second bout after being absent from the ring for 14 years.
Lomachenko doesn’t take the bait; Chavez, Jr. battles more than one opponent
Top Rank’s grand poobah Bob Arum called for the head of referee Laurence Cole. It’s no secret Arum wanted Vasyl Lomachenko to set a record by capturing a world title in only his second professional fight. What a promotional gem that would have been. Concerning Cole, Arum had an ally in HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley. Secure in his 26 year history of anchoring or co-hosting boxing, he threw his own low blow, but this time at Cole by describing him as dreadful. He then reminded viewers that Laurence’s father sits on the commission. Ouch!
So what’s all the fuss about? Well, Arum’s camp (and plenty of others) claim Orlando Salido didn’t fight fair, and referee Cole allowed him to get away with it. Heavens to mergatroyd! That’s a first. A fighter goes into his opponent’s backyard and gets jobbed. In this case, it’s a foreigner in a strange country. Sure, he will be taken care of. Boy, was he ever taken care of!
Khan trying to work a deal to fight Broner on Mayweather’s undercard
@FloydMayweather, tell @AdrienBroner to fight me on your card and when I beat him, you fight me next!
— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) March 2, 2014
Having been turned down by Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a fight on May 3rd, Amir Khan is now trying to work a deal to fight former three division world champion Adrien Broner on Mayweather’s undercard in exchange for Mayweather agreeing to fight him. So in other words, Khan will do Mayweather a big favor by helping make his May 3rd Showtime pay-per-view card a successful one by agreeing to fight Broner in exchange for Mayweather signing him up for his next fight after that.
What’s next for Jean Pascal?
So what’s happening with former WBC light heavyweight champion and former Olympian Jean Pascal? He’s coming of a pretty impressive win against fellow Canadian fighter Lucian Bute back in January and at the age of 31 years old; he’s still in his prime. Of course, Bute is considered to now be a shot fighter after his disastrous performance against reigning IBF and WBA super-middleweight champ Carl ¨The Cobra¨ Froch, but it’s still a win against a well known, former champion of the world. I mean, you can say all you want about Bute, but guys like Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev are prime example of guys that have not fought this caliber of opponent in their career and are both considered top fighters in the business.
Lomachenko suffers a rude awakening in his WBO featherweight title bid against Salido
The Ukranian showed up in excellent condition and started the fight with confidence trying to work from long range. He used a lot of movement and footwork but found out his sharp shots had little effect on his rough and tough Mexican opponent. Salido kept his head low and walked through his rival’s pot shots to close in and rough him up at close range using his weight advantage.
DeGale defeats Khatchikian in a surprisingly competitive fight
DeGale knocked Khatchikian down a couple of times in the 11th round with body shots. Referee Mark Green then decided that Khatchikian had taken enough punishment so he stopped the bout at 2:58 of the round.
DeGale boxed beautifully through most of the fight. However, his habit of keeping his hands down by his sides led to DeGale getting nailed with a lot of hard right hands from Khatchikian. In the 5th round, DeGale got caught with a tremendous right hand from Khatchikian. DeGale backed up like he was hurt, and he took punishment for the remainder of the round.
Chavez Jr. decisions Vera II; Salido beats Lomachenko
Just by hanging around, Vera was able to punish Chavez Jr. with less powerful shots and he had his face looking like he was the loser tonight instead of the winner.
The final judges scores were 114-113, 117-110, 117-110. There’s no question that Chavez Jr. deserved the decision this time around, but it’s too bad that he was given what many boxing fans saw as a gift decision over Vera last September in their previous fight. But Vera got a rematch out of that fight anyway, so it worked out about the same as him getting a win.