IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (29-1, 14 KOs) successfully defended his title tonight in defeating 43-year-old former WBA cruiserweight champion Firat Arslan (34-8-2, 21 KOs) by a 12 round split decision at the Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 116-113 for Hernandez and 115-113 for Arslan.
Floyd Mayweather Jr’s trainer/uncle Roger Mayweather is hoping that he’ll fight former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) next year sometime. Roger says he sees it as a good fight between them.
“I hope so,” Roger M said when asked by Hustleboss.com if a fight between Mayweather and Khan will be taking place next year. “It’s a good fight.”
Mayweather hasn’t said whether he’ll be facing Khan in the future. Mayweather appeared to be kicking around the idea of a fight against Khan before his last fight in May. He asked fans to pick between Khan and Marcos Maidana on his Mayweather Promotions website.
Later tonight, IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (28-1, 14 KOs) will be defending his title against 43-year-old fringe contender Firat Arslan (34-7-2, 21 KOs) at the Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Ken Porter, the trainer/father of IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15 KOs), has absolutely zero interest in having Shawn go over to Mexican to fight 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (57-7-1, 40 KOs) later this year if Porter defeats Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KOs) tonight in their fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Marquez’s promoter Fernando Beltran told ESPN last week that Marquez would like to face the winner of the Brook-Porter fight in Mexico in order for him to try and capture a 5th division world title. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen if Porter successfully defends his title tonight against Brook.
In news which will surprise some, and seems standard to others, former WBC heavyweight champion of the world Samuel Peter has signed to fight recent title challenger, and popular contender, Alex Leapai. The 10 round bout is scheduled for October 24 of this year, given the former champion barely two months to prepare, and is set for Leapai’s home country of Australia. The news has been confirmed by several media outlets and the bout is listed on the usually reliable boxrec.com.
Rumours have been circulating since December of last year that Peter was planning a ring return. The always popular Nigerian powerhouse was reportedly said to be struggling with the idea of retiring off of two back to back losses, the last being a particularly shocking, and painful to watch, knockout at the hands of Robert Helenius three years ago. The nature of that loss and the fact that Peter has not boxed in three years will give his former fans a rather ominous sense of foreboding ahead of this fight. Does Peter really want another crack at the big time? Or is it simply another sad case of a former star and champion secretly battling financial losses and succumbing to acceptance of the role as the ‘opponent’ on another fighter’s card. As with the Helenius fight, this bout is going to be an Alex Leapai show in front of his fans. Peter has been chosen by team Leapai as a big name to build upon after a hopelessly one sided title defeat to Wladimir Klitschko.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Amir Khan sees a victory by Britain’s Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KOs) tonight against IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15 KOs) as opening the door for a big fight between the two of them in the UK in the near future.
Khan isn’t saying precisely when he wants to face Brook, but you’ve got to figure that it would need to happen fairly soon. Brook doesn’t have the kind of talent to hold down the WBA title for long if he were to face the likes of Keith Thurman, Floyd Mayweather Jr or Manny Pacquiao. You’d have to favor all three of those fighters to beat Brook if a fight were made.
Tonight, Dirrell is going to need to stay 100% focused on hitting and getting out of the way of Bika’s fierce assaults. Dirrell cannot fight the same way by standing in front of Bika hoping he can get the better of him.
Bika showed last time that he’s the better slugger of the two, and more capable of winning those kinds of brawling fight. Dirrell had Bika hurt and on the canvas in the 5th, but he wasn’t able to repeat that in any of the remaining rounds
Fans, media, fighters and their teams gathered at the StubHub Center in Carson, California this afternoon, as the official weigh-ins for tomorrow’s Showtime Boxing tripleheader took place.
Omar Figueroa 23-0-1 (17KO) vs. Daniel Estrada 32-2-1(24KO)
Lightweight title bout
Figueroa returns to the StubHub Center, where he narrowly escaped with a controversial split decision victory over Jerry Belmontes in April. For Estrada, this is his first bout outside of his native Mexico, and easily the biggest stage he’s ever fought on. Estrada hit the scales first, weighing in at 134.5 pounds; while Figueroa came in right at the lightweight limit of 135 pounds.
Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan says he made an offer to WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s team to face him in November. Khan says his team never heard back from Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum.
Khan was later stunned to learn that Pacquiao would be fighting little known light welterweight Chris Algieri next on November 22nd in Macao, China. Khan doesn’t understand the choice of opponent, because Algieri isn’t a big name and he felt that he would have been a much better choice than Algieri.