Stafford thinks Broner will beat Maidana in the rematch if he starts fast

Mike Stafford, the trainer for former WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner, thinks he can beat Marcos Maidana in the rematch if Broner comes out quickly fighting at the pace he was at in the last half of his loss to Maidana last month on December 14th in San Antonio, Texas. Broner lost the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but you can put most of the responsibility for Broner’s loss on him starting off too slowly in the first 6 rounds.

Broner fought like he was half asleep during the first part of the fight, as he threw few punches and he let Maidana have control over the action. It was like Broner gave the fight to Maidana, at least that part of the fight. When Broner did rally in the 2nd half, he so far behind that he needed a knockout to win, and that wasn’t going to happen.

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Lucian Bute vs. Jean Pascal this Saturday on HBO in Montreal

This Saturday night Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) and Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) will be facing each other in an HBO televised fight from the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. Pascal, 31, has fought only rarely since his loss to Bernard Hopkins in 2011. Pascal fought once in 2012 in beating Aleksy Kuziemski and once in 2013 in stopping 39-year-old George Blades. It’s been three years since Pascal had his last serious fight, and anything is possible when you have a fighter as rusty as Pascal is.

Pascal is getting Bute at the right time of his career with Bute having been stopped in the 5th round by Carl Froch in May of 2012, and having problems beating Denis Grachev in November of 2012. Bute didn’t look good in the Grachev fight, as he made what should have been an easy fight into a very tough one by fighting so timidly.

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Angulo: I’m the first true 154 lb. fighter Canelo will have faced

One of the knocks on former WBA/WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) is that he’s been matched up with mostly welterweights or former welterweights by Golden Boy Promotions since he moved up to the 154 lb. division in 2010. In Canelo’s 11 fights at junior middleweight, he’s only fought 3 actual junior middleweights who had been fighting at that weight for most of their careers.

The other 8 fighters that Canelo has faced have been welterweights that either moved up to fight him for a payday or simply moved up because they weren’t competitive at 147 against the better fighters.

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Marquez not interested in Provodnikov or Alvarado; wants Bradley only

If Bob Arum of Top Rank is interested in having Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) fight one of his stable fighters Mike Alvarado or Ruslan Provodnikov next then he’s going to need to really work hard to try and sell those fights to Marquez because he has no interest in fighting either of those guys. Marquez only wants a rematch against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley, who beat him by a 12 round split decision last October in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Marquez is clearly bothered by the loss to Bradley, because he feels he should have got the decision. But Marquez also believes that he can do a better job in a rematch if he works on his power.

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Khan will give Mayweather problems, says Jones Jr.

Roy Jones Jr. believes that the tall 5’10” Amir Khan will give Floyd Mayweather Jr. a lot of problems if he’s the one that ends up facing him in his next fight on My 3rd. Jones Jr. thinks that Khan has the boxing skills and the speed to trouble Mayweather if he avoids trying to slug it out. Jones Jr. thinks Khan is a very good fighter when he’s focusing just on boxing his opponents.

Where he gets into trouble is when he goes out looking to punch. Jones Jr. thinks if Khan comes out with the right game plan to just box with Mayweather then the fight will be a tough one for Mayweather.

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Maidana may not fight Broner next

It looks like Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer may have spoke too soon by assuming that WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) would follow along in march step by willingly agree to give Golden Boy’s highly popular Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) a rematch next April just because Broner exercised his rematch clause.

Maidana’s not willing to just give up his chance of getting a much better fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. – or someone else – just because Schaefer said that the Broner-Maidana fight will happen in April. Maidana doesn’t want to narrow his possibilities by saying yes to that fight and missing out on something much bigger like Mayweather.

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Schaefer not worried about Canelo-Angulo doing poorly on PPV

While many boxing fans are openly grumbling about the March 8th Showtime card headlined by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) vs. Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) being on Showtime pay-per-view given that both guys are coming off of losses, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer isn’t worried at all that the fight will bring in poor PPV numbers.

Schaefer thinks it’ll do okay because of the 23-year-old Canelo’s huge popularity in the United States following his one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September in a fight that really well at the gate and on PPV.

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Erik Morales vs. Jorge Paez Jr. on March 22nd in Mexico

37-year-old former three division world champion Erik “El Terrible” Morales (52-9, 36 KO’s) returns to the ring in two months to face Jorge Paez Jr. (37-4-1, 22 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Arena Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. For Morales, this will be his first fight since he was stopped in the 4th round by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in October of 2012 in their rematch.

Morales has been sitting idle all this time and rusting away. For a fighter Morales’ age it’s not good for him to be out of the ring for as long as he’s been because there’s too much rust that can set in for the aging star.

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Wladimir Klitschko vs. Alex Leapai bout to take place in Germany in April

IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO’s) and his WBO mandatory challenger Alex Leapai (30-4, 24 KO’s) have reportedly agreed to face each other in April in Germany, according to Fightnews. The actual date they’re looking at for the fight is April 26th, but they still need to sign off on the contracts. There had been speculation that the two fighters management wouldn’t come to an agreement, which would force it into a purse bid. But looks like they’ve agreed to having the fight take place in Germany.

Leapai, 34, defeated Denis Boytsov by a 10 round unanimous decision last November to become he mandatory challenger for Wladimir. It’s interesting that Leapai and Boytsov were the ones that ended up fighting for the mandatory spot, because there are arguably a number of better contenders in the WBO’s top 15 than these two.

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Broner: Nobody is talking about Maidana’s win; just my loss

Former WBA 147 lb. champion Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) is poised to get a rematch against Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) on April 19th or April 26th, provided that Maidana doesn’t choose to ignore the rematch clause that the 24-year-old Broner exercised on Friday and fight someone else instead for better money. The only other fighter that Maidana could fight that would give him a bigger payday than the Broner rematch is a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. That doesn’t seem too likely given that Amir Khan is being talked about as Mayweather’s next opponent for his Mayweather 3rd bout.

Broner is already vowing to get revenge against Maidana by turning into a type of fighter that he’s never seen before. Of course, if Broner couldn’t fight any better than he did last time then it’s hard to imagine him showing a hidden gear in a rematch.

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