World Boxing Organization (WBO), by president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel, announced today the referees and judges who will work this Saturday, October 12, in the title bouts between Timothy Bradley against Juan Manuel Marquez and Orlando Salido versus Orlando Cruz, to be held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a Top Rank presentation.
Gone In Sixty Seconds! – Marianne Marston Stops Lazar In One
On Friday night at York Hall in London, TRAD TKO Gym’s Marianne Marston made very short work of her fight with Katalina Lazar, stopping the Romanian late replacement in just sixty seven seconds of the first round.
In front of a highly partisan crowd, that included a large contingent of fans from her favourite football team, Arsenal, Marianne put on yet another sensational performance.
From the off Marianne and Katalina exchanged stiff jabs, then around the twenty second mark Marianne switched focus to the body, letting rip with a vicious hook to the body, with the wind knocked out of her Katalina had no option but to take to one knee.
Katalina managed to make it to her feet just as referee Ken Curtis reached the nine count.
Left-Hook Lounge: Miguel Cotto, Wladimir Klitschko, Felix Verdejo, & More!!!
Jesus Q. (Brooklyn, NYC): Last Saturday night was a great night of action for Puerto Rico in the world of Boxing. How did you rate the performances of Miguel Cotto and Felix Verdejo?
Vivek W. (ESB): I watched Cotto’s domination with a very strong enthusiasm for what I felt was a solid performance. I thought he showed aggression on a level some didn’t know still existed, and I thought his dedication to the double jab and body work were a thing of beauty. That being said, I’d quickly caution anyone out there who even thinks for a second that this was even a remote indication of what we can expect from him on a higher level. If you want to rate his opponent with any accuracy, ask yourself how many “benchmark” fights take place on the elite level with men who enter the ring with more than 3 career losses? It happens, but very rarely at the elite level, and practically none in fighters under the age of 33.
Fight Report: York Hall, London October 4th – Retzke Crowned Champ, Impressive Victories For Prince, Weaver, Marston
Over the years I’ve been to some of the biggest and most extravagant World Championship events both in America and Europe, I’ve also attended hundreds of small hall shows and can’t deny that I get a buzz from them all, even those with dubious over matching, but I’ve never been emotionally blown away like I was on Friday night.
Why, well for a start Mark Prince’s return was a major factor for my emotional state and I’m sure it was for many others in attendance.
Mark had returned to the fray to raise awareness of, and funds for, the Kiyan Prince foundation – www.kiyan.org – which is a charitable trust that Mark had created in memory of his murdered son Kiyan, a talented footballer.
Another factor was former Big Brother star, Angel McKenzie, finally getting to challenge for a World title here in the UK, after various attempts abroad.
Arum wants Miguel Cotto vs. Sergio Martinez next year in June at Giants Stadium
Cotto hasn’t decided yet, and he’s going to think it over and look at all the options has available to him. Whether Martinez is the best fight he can get is unclear.
If Cotto can get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez then that would be by far the better fight than to face the arguably much less popular Martinez.
A rematch with Mayweather is something that Cotto has already said he wants, and he should be looking to stay in the running for that fight instead of moving up to middleweight to fight a bigger fighter like Sergio.
Sanchez thinks Golovkin can face Mayweather or Cotto
Once Stevens is out of the way, Sanchez wants Golovkin to face Mayweather or Cotto. He believes that Golovkin can down to 154 to face either of them as long as he has a full 8 week training camp to trim down.
Sanchez said to RingTV “Gennedy came into camp weighing 167 before training, so it would be just a matter of getting enough time to get down to 154…we would start losing some of the weight that we have to earlier…it’s just a matter of having the time to do it.”
Kovalev vs. Sillakh possible for November 30th on HBO
WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1, 20 KO’s) could be facing fringe contender Ismayl Sillakh (21-1, 17 KO’s) for his first title defense on HBO on November 30th, according to Dan Rafael. It’s still definite but it’s of the names being mentioned for the 30-year-old Kovalev.
The light heavyweight division has less than impressive contenders, so this might be about as good as it gets unless Kovalev faces Nathan Cleverly again. We already saw how much of a mismatch that fight was with Kovalev stopping Cleverly in 4 rounds last August.
Sillakh’s stock has really dropped since he was stopped by Denis Grachev in the 8th round last year in April. Sillakh was winning the fight handily when he got nailed by a big right hand from Grachev in the 8th round, and then taken out with a flurry of punches.
Should Wladimir Klitschko been disqualified for holding against Povetkin?
IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO’s) showed very little interest in mixing it up with WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (26-1, 18 KO’s) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night by the scores 119-104, 119-104 and 119-104 in Moscow, Russia.
For those who thought they were going to see an actual fight it must have been disappointing to the extreme because Wladimir immediately started clinching after every punch in the 1st round of the fight. I lost track of how many times Wladimir opted to clinch Povetkin, but I counted close to 30 after 3 rounds and it was shocking that he been allowed to get away with it by the referee Luis Pabon.
The fight reminded me of the 1976 match between Muhammad Ali and wrestler Antonio Inoki in Tokyo, Japan. It was billed as a boxer vs. wrestler match, but it turned out to be something of a joke with Inoki lying on the canvas kicking at Ali’s legs for 14 long rounds. There wasn’t any wrestling due to the rules and Ali threw only 6 punches in the entire fight. The Klitschko-Povetkin fight reminded me a lot of that bout because there had been a great deal of hype about it, and it was thought that the two fighters would get into some good exchanges.
Miguel Cotto: Back with a bang and ready, willing and able for some more sizzling super-fights!
Puerto Rican legend and future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto put two successive points losses behind him last night in blitzing a usually sturdy Delvin Rodriguez, in the process setting himself up for further massive fights. Cotto, now working with the great Freddie Roach, looked like a beast last night: strong, fast, powerful and full of energy, Cotto absolutely ruined a good fighter.
Okay, some critics have commented how Rodriguez is and never has been on Cotto’s level and that Cotto’s win was expected. But that is doing both fighters a disservice. Cotto showed he still has the stuff to intimidate and overwhelm a fighter who has hung tough in a number of wars in the past and not too many experts were predicting as quick a victory as the one Cotto emerged with.
Ashley Theophane reminisces about “The One” in Las Vegas
by Ashley Theophane — The dust has started to settle after my appearance on the biggest boxing event the world has seen in a generation.
There was a record 22 million Mexicans tuned into ‘The One’ boxing event featuring Floyd Mayweather, Saul Alvarez, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Ishe Smith, Carlos Molina, Pablo Cesar Cano and of course, yours truly. The American PPV audience was over 2 million viewers, and that’s not counting the people watching in movie theaters and on closed circuit in hotels across Las Vegas.
The significant worldwide audience in Europe, Africa, South America, Oceania and Asia is yet to be totaled.