While the proposed June 7th fight between Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) and WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) still hasn’t been negotiated, Roy Jones Jr. chimed in on his thoughts about the fight anyway. He sees the fight coming down to a couple of things.
If Sergio boxes Cotto, then his chances of success increase dramatically. But if Cotto is able to turn the fight into an inside war like he did in his last fight against fringe junior middleweight contender Delvin Rodriguez then that gives Cotto an excellent chance of beating the soon to be 39-year-old Sergio.
I have been receiving a lot of messages and reading a lot of posts about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao finally setting a day to fight in the fall of 2014. The primary source for much of the Mayweather vs Pacquiao hype is the Youtube Boxing channel, 78Sports TV. The Youtube channel garnered reliability based on it’s announcement of Floyd fighting Guerrero and Canelo before these matches became official in 2013. Well, just this week, both Floyd and Pacquiao’s camp have issued statements saying these are all lies. Who are we to believe?
The night started out at the Target Center from chilly Minneapolis with a rematch from a spirited first fight featuring Milwaukee prospect Adrian Martinez fighting Duluth native Trevor Marmon.
Something unusual occurred in the season premier of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. It occurred in the main event at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN. It was almost musical. The end came with a thud. Watch the replay, and see if you can keep time with the two punches and bells that ended round two of the fight. First, watch undefeated Rances Barthelemy;s land a hard right to the head of 130 pound champ Argenis Mendez.
WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KO’s) is expected back in the ring on March 15th in a fight in Moscow, Russia, according to RingTV. Kovalev’s manager Egis Klimas says they want WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson for that date, but it’s not looking like he’s going to accept that fight.
“Experts” are in unison declaring the pound-for-pound “number one” as the best. Cheers! Their consensus on the matter mirrors a lot of odd things in contemporary boxing. And it sends the people a serious message.
On New Years day former WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) surprised many fans by saying that he’ll win another world title belt at 147. This is kind of a shock, because Broner looked so bad in losing to Marcos Maidana last month by a 12 round unanimous decision on Showtime. So bad was the loss that many fans recommended that Broner move down in weight.
While WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) still hasn’t even proven that he’s the best fighter in the 130 lb. division, that’s not keeping his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank planning on matching the skinny Mikey up against his cash cow fighter Manny Pacquiao in the near future. Arum hasn’t given a date for when he wants to match the 26-year-old Mikey with Pacquiao, but don’t be surprised if it happens really soon if Pacquiao decides to leave Top Rank. His contract is up with the company this year, and anything is possible if this is his final year with them.
On January 25th, WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (36-2-1, 25 KO’s) will be facing Firat Arslan (33-6-2, 21 KO’s) in a rematch at the Hanns-Martin Schleyer Halle, in Stuttgart, Germany. Arslan gave Huck a beating less than 2 years ago in losing a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight that most people felt that Arslan had done enough to deserve a victory.
Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum hasn’t changed his mind about his desire to have Pacquiao fight either Tim Bradley or Ruslan Provodnikov in his next fight on April 12th. The only change that Arum has made is he’s stopped mentioning 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez as one of three candidates for the fight because of Marquez repeatedly saying that he doesn’t have any interest in ever facing Pacquiao again after having fought him 4 times.