An Aging Fighter

We’ve all seen our aging hero lose one they shouldn’t have lost or wouldn’t have lost 2 or 3 years earlier. We’ve seen that same guy taking punches that he would’ve eluded 5 or 6 years ago. And we’ve heard all of the pundits comment on whether our guy might’ve gotten old over night, and today is not the fighter he was since his last fight.

But I’m here to tell you no fighter gets old overnight, the signs were there but were ignored. As a man over 40 I’m here to tell all of you young pipsqueaks, that age creeps in between 35 and 40. At 35 you can still do pretty much 75% – 85% of what you could do at age 20 if you try real hard (maybe even 90% if you’ve really taken care of yourself). At age 40 you wonder where your youth went, those tired legs, sore muscles and aching back never seem to get better, it’s like you’re always tired for no explainable reason especially when it comes to sports and activity.

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Old Money? Floyd Mayweather Junior turns 37 today

Boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Junior celebrates his 37th birthday today. While fight fans the world over await “Money’s” belated announcement on just who he will fight on May 3rd, Mayweather has been enjoying his birthday by taking in a game and betting some big bucks as he loves to do.

Whoever Floyd winds up fighting next, and in subsequent fights post May 3rd, most if not all people fully expect him to be able to keep his perfect unbeaten record; partly because of his boxing brilliance, partly because of Mayweather’s unwillingness to take any risks (by fighting Manny Pacquiao, or making a historic move up to middleweight and a potentially rough fight with Gennady Golovkin – these two fights being those most fans bring up as the ones they’d most like to see Mayweather take).

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Left-Hook Lounge: Mayweather (Decision and Legacy), Khan’s Rant, and Bradley/Pacquiao Testing Fiasco!

Melvin A. (Cincinnati, OH): It appears Mayweather will take the Maidana fight. We haven’t seen Mayweather against a really fast fighter since Judah, so I liked Khan as the option. Why Maidana? And how can you explain your Facebook comment that this fight will be “epic”?

Vivek W. (ESB): How can I support Maidana as the option? Pretty easily, actually! In only three words I can lay out a case far stronger than any most would use to combat it: “HE EARNED IT”! I can understand questions relative to how Guerrero, or even Ortiz landed a shot; but with Maidana, there’s no such question. The guy earned it! When we look at Maidana’s past, what I like is the fact that this is a fighter who has been through all the elements of the sport. He has celebrated victory and dealt with the torment relative to defeat. Through it all, he’s still standing, and making great improvement every time he enters the ring. Robert Garcia has done a very admirable job with him, and the victory over Broner was proof of this.

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Shumenov realizes he needs to raise his game to beat Hopkins

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) realizes that he’s got to be a lot better than he’s ever been before if he’s go escape with his WBA title in his unification match against the wily old fox IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) in their fight on April 19th at the DC Armory, Washington, District of Columbia, USA. The fight will the be televised by Showtime, and it’s going to give the 30-year-old Shumenov a lot of publicity to either shine or look bad against the 49-year-old Hopkins.

Shumenov is getting Hopkins at the right time in his career, as Hopkins didn’t look so great in his last fight against his mandatory challenger Karo Murat last October. Hopkins won that fight by a fairly lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, but Hopkins was hit more in that fight than he had in many years. Murat was able to get in close and nail Hopkins with a lot of shots to the head.

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Ricky Burns defends against Terence Crawford this Saturday, March 1st in Glasgow

We could be seeing the end of WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ time as a world champion when he defends his WBO 135 lb strap against his No.1 challenger American Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. While Burns has talked about having come up what he feels is the perfect plan to beat the 26-year-old Crawford, it just doesn’t seem all that likely that those plans will pan out for the 30-year-old Scotland born Burns.

Crawford has every advantage that you can think of in this fight against Burns, and the only thing that Burns has going for him is hometown advantage. Fighting at home seemed to save Burns from losing his last fight against Raymundo Beltran last September, as Burns was dominated thoroughly from start to finish in that fight but was still given a 12 round draw for his efforts. However, it’s highly unlikely that this fight will result in another controversial decision.

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Cinderella Man displays tenacious Fighting Pride

Anybody who watched Matchroom’s ‘Fighting Pride’ show live on Sky Sports last night had witnessed something special; the fight fans that were present at Hull’s Ice Arena are truly the lucky ones for the event was one that will not be forgotten anytime soon.

On paper the evening looked promising with a few intriguing match-ups but nobody could possibly have been expecting the drama and excitement that ran through pretty much the whole of the four hour broadcast.

There is one fighter who featured on the bill whom I want to pay particular attention to but first I will briefly run through the evening’s action.

The first bout was a contest for the British super-bantamweight title, vacated by Kid Galahad as he seeks European honours, between Gavin McDonnell and Leigh Wood. Alongside such boxers as Kell Brook and Kid Galahad, real name Abdul Barry Awad, Wood fights out of the Ingle Gym and exhibits the slippery and awkward style that the gym is famed for.

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Ali’s gloves from historic Liston fight fetch $836,000 at auction

The unforgettable first fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston is 50-years old on Tuesday and yesterday, the gloves the then Cassius Clay wore when he shook up the world sold at auction for just under $900,00. An anonymous bidder now owns this piece of fistic history and the bounty he or she paid goes to show how big and important and just plain special Ali was, is and always will be.

Back a half century ago, nobody thought the brash, somewhat annoying loudmouth would really amount to too much; certainly nobody from the fight fraternity thought Clay stood any chance against the fearsome “unbeatable” Liston. Even today, with Ali’s legend secure, there are many people who refuse to accept Clay’s 7th round retirement victory as legit. Liston took a dive they claimed then and they claim today; and as for the massive controversy the second fight and its “Phantom Punch” caused – forget it!

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Khan’s contingency plan

It would be nice to think that the line has been drawn through the whole Mayweather and Khan chronicles, at least for the time being anyway, but it is difficult to imagine that Khan has seriously discarded any ambition of being handed the May 3rd slot against the number one pound-for-pound king.

Yesterday Khan sent out a stream of tweets suggesting that the fight was dead; whether he actually knows anything official or not can only be speculated but it appears that he has had enough of Mayweather’s lack of communication and is moving on to a plan B. There is however a hint of suggestion that Khan may not be revealing all, given how he wishes luck to Maidana in the Mayweather fight, against the probable scenario where he is just regarding the fight’s other front-runner.

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Hatton Promotions Statement On Martin Murray

HATTON PROMOTIONS has taken the decision to allow Martin Murray’s contract to expire.

This means the company will no longer financially invest further in Martin’s career following the St Helens boxer’s unwillingness to commit to opportunities negotiated on his behalf.

Offers for world title fights with Gennady Golovkin and Felix Sturm have been on the table for a number of weeks, but Murray has decided to hold off signing any agreements.

Neither of these offers will be available indefinitely, with Sturm now looking at alternative opponents and Golovkin only likely to appear in Europe once more before pressing forwards with his career in the United States.

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Hank Lundy Impresses With Unanimous Decision But Amir Imam Steals The Show Friday on ShoBox: The New Generation

Hank Lundy may now finally get his shot at a world title.

Lundy once again traveled on the road and scored an impressive unanimous decision over previously once-beaten Angelo Santana in Friday’s main event of ShoBox: The New Generation at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio

Santana (14-2, 11 KOs), once considered a can’t-miss prospect, was coming off a surprising knockout loss in his last bout and was taking what many considered to be a risky move in facing a veteran opponent. Lundy (23-3-1, 11 KOs) proved to be too much for the Cuban-born lightweight. He established himself as the aggressor and exposed his opponent as a limited fighter as Santana faded in the middle rounds.

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