Floyd Mayweather Jr. said this past week that he won’t bother fighting Manny Pacquiao as long as he’s still being promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank. Mayweather simply doesn’t want to work with Arum for some reason. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is coming out saying that there won’t be a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight until Pacquiao is no longer with Top Rank.
This is a pity because if you listen to some of Pacquiao’s interviews, he seems like he’s committed to stay with Top Rank. His contract with them expires next years, but many boxing fans see him saying with them until the end of his contract. However, Pacquiao surprised people earlier this year in letting his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza go, so it’s possible that Pacquiao might do something unexpected like move on when his contract with Top Rank expires in 2014.
I believe that most of us had expected to hear Vitali Klitschko announcing his retirement from boxing sometime soon. And exactly this happened, as Vitali’s political agenda and involvement in Ukraine swiftly took a turn, and required an entirety of his time and attention. Not only is Vitali dealing with a vicious wave of protests, but is also trying to win over the people and the majority vote that would land him in the presidential office.
As fans know, Vitali Klitschko recently vacated his WBC heavyweight title and declared how he “cannot imagine” a ring return “as things stand now.” So, it seems there is a good chance that at age 42, the elder Klitschko brother has fought his last fight in the ring and can now retire from boxing, his contributions to the sport in the history books.
It’s no secret, many fans had their Christmas Wish come early when Adrien “Problem” Broner got his clock cleaned by Marcus Maidana in San Antonio, TX. Maidana fans licked their chops. They saw the cocky little clone of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. getting his comeuppance by finally facing a big puncher.
Trainer Naazim Richardson isn’t giving Amir Khan much of any chance of beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he’s the one that ends up fighting Mayweather in his next fight on May 3rd in Las Vegas. To Richardson, he feels that Khan will come out ahead just by giving Mayweather problems in the fight.
An interesting match-up between WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (28-0, 25 KO’s) and the junior middleweight slugger James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KO’s) is being talked about for next April on HBO, says HBO President of Sports Ken Hershman via ESPN. Golovkin has a stay busy fight against fringe contender Osumanu Adama (22-3, 16 KO’s) on February 1st in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is going to need to look in another direction for his fighter Manny Pacquiao for his April 12th fight in Las Vegas, because Juan Manuel Marquez has his mind made up about not wanting to fight Pacquiao again.
British heavyweight Tyson Fury (21-0, 15 KO’s) hasn’t had much luck in getting a heavyweight title shot against the Klitschko brothers. Fury is asking Wladimir to give him a heavyweight title shot straightaway without him having to fight for the shot in an eliminator.