Audley Harrison vs Deontay Wilder on Saturday

An intriguing encounter awaits on the “Return of the King” undercard when Audley Harrison [31-6 -& 23 KOs] meets Deontay Wilder [27-0 & 27 KOs] in a fight which, in some circles, has generated just as much discussion as the main event. For Wilder, Harrison represents a big step-up in competition, as well as the opportunity to collect the first ‘name’ on his record. In contrast, last chance saloon has been a statement thrown around for various fights of Harrison’s over the years, but at 41, it’s difficult to see how he could come back again if he loses this.

Anyone with an interest in the heavyweight division will be curious enough to tune in and have a look at Wilder, a Bronze medalist at Beijing 2008, in his biggest test to date as a professional. Not only does Wilder find himself up against an opponent with a KO record of some significance, but he also finally meets a technical fighter, as well as his first southpaw opponent since turning professional. It will be interesting to see how comfortable Wilder is with open southpaw angles and how he approaches the fight.

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James Toney and John Arthur: Discussing All Things Boxing

Current IBU heavyweight champion and future hall of famer James Toney (74-7-3, 45 KOs) and his father, trainer and manager John Arthur took time out to exclusively speak to ESB today ahead of Toney’s heavyweight showdown with unbeaten Australian Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) in Melbourne, Australia this Sunday.

Toney and Arthur discussed all subjects, including his time in Melbourne and fight preparation, recent ring inactivity, managing of weight, time in the UFC and future plans.

Arthur explains the bout with Browne came after the proposed bout with Tomasz Adamek fell through, that was scheduled for last September. “We were supposed to fight Adamek in September” where after that “I started to reach out to everybody and it seemed like every door that got called in the United States was closed. I reached out to some people and they put me in touch with some promoters in Australia and they said they wanted to make this happen and this is where we have ended up at… This kid (Browne) has wanted to fight James and James has never ducked and dodged anybody his whole career so I said let’s take it.”

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Pontillas gets Filipino support in Accra

Filipino boxer, Ronald Pontillas has arrived in the Ghana capital ahead of Friday night’s boxing cracker at the Accra Sports Stadium vowing to stop local favourite, Emmanuel Tagoe in their clash for the WBA International and WBO Africa Junior Lightweight titles in the headliner of BabyJet Promotions’ second ever bill.

And the 23 year old Pontillas who will face an opponent from Africa for the first time ever, has been buoyed by the huge patronage he has received on arrival from the Filipino community in Ghana who were at the Kotoko International Airport to welcome him and have pledged to be at the national stadium in their numbers to cheer the boxer unto victory.

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Sergio Perales Wants To KO Darlington’s Hall On Huge Doncaster Bill

Photos by Adrian Hernandez / ESB – Sergio ‘Time to Shine’ Perales is expecting a tough assignment when he meets Darlington’s Stuart Hall for the IBF Inter-Continental bantamweight crown at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium on May 11.

The pair will go head-to-head on the undercard of Jamie McDonnell’s world title fight with Julio Ceja, and the American world-ranked number five is excited at his first European venture.

“I’ve been able to watch a few videos of him on the Internet,” explained the 25-year-old, via e-mail, “and I think he is a good strong fighter with a good right cross. He’s an all-round tough guy so I’m sure he’s not going to just give me the title. I’m going to have to take it from him and it’s going to make for a great fight.

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Chris Goodwin Pumped Up For Oisin Fagan Title Clash This Saturday

Its third time lucky for Chesters Chris Goodwin and Dublins Oisin Gael Force Fagan, as their long awaited clash for the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Inter-Continental Lightweight crown is finally set to take place at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London this coming Saturday. The pair were originally due to fight each other, in Cork, on December 15th last year, but the fight was cancelled following Goodwins sister being involved in a near fatal car crash.

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Left-Hook Lounge: Is ‘Canleo’ Ready For Mayweather, and Could Cotto Be Next?

Reggie B. (Dallas, TX): I’m still not sold on Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. I don’t think Trout fought his best fight. Do you think Canelo is ready for a Mayweather fight?

Vivek W. (ESB): I have to be honest and very direct in saying that I simply feel people just aren’t ready to give Saul Alvarez credit. Coming into this fight I knew that Trout would have to be at his best and that he would need to execute somewhat flawlessly to even have a shot. Despite his activity rate, he didn’t do any damage, and furthermore, he didn’t do enough to truly seize the victory from Canelo. I think we have to be honest in saying that the deck was already stacked against him – in the sense that Canelo was the house fighter. It was Mexican “Fiesta” weekend in San Antonio, Canelo is the bigger name and the international name, and despite Trout’s victory over Cotto, Canelo was the one who carried the promotion.

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Canelo-Trout Post-Fight Press Conference Interviews and Photos

San Antonio, TX finished its eventful boxing week on 04/20/13 Saturday night in front of nearly 40,000 fans at the Alamodome. The televised bouts of the Showtime Championship Boxing telecast included two fights that showed the reason why the fans came out to pack the venue.

The co-main event included a 1st round domination by Omar “Panterita” Figueroa, Jr. over Puerto Rican Abner Cotto. The thrilling first round included a knockdown of Abner Cotto halfway through the round. That exciting moment led to a culmination of the fight with “Panterita’s” vicious left hand body shot that sent Cotto to the ground towards the end of the round. Cotto was unable to survive the body shot as the referee completed a full ten count. This was definitely Figueroa’s coming out party as one of the rising stars in the lighter weights.

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2013 New Jersey Golden Glove Finals Results

This past Saturday night for the second year in a row The New Jersey Golden Gloves Finals were held at Newark’s Prudential Center Arena. The winners in these contests move up to representing New Jersey in the National Golden Gloves Tournament. The evening’s program consisted of 14 bouts. These bouts as per amateur boxing standards are three rounds of 2 minutes per round. The enthusiasm and heart of these young athletes provided rousing entertainment. There were numerous boxing celebrities in attendance.

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Tyson Fury: Entertaining but Vulnerable

To a large extent, it must be emphasised that the recent fight between Fury and Cunningham, was highly enjoyable; a fight that showed Tyson’s potential future world title challenge as most likely being an engaging fight but more likely than not, one that he will not win.

The brash Fury is quickly emerging as one of the more colourful characters of boxing, with trash talking, boasts of greatness and some might say bizarre antics, i.e. the singing at the end of the fight. Additionally some argue that this route is not working for the fans, I have to say that these statements are largely untrue. Although Fury perhaps looked like a clown and foolish in these instances, I feel it will only make him more memorable and will enable him to get the bigger paydays. This route has been utilized ever since Ali who became an icon with it, to the more recent and possibly offensive David Haye who managed to shortcut his way to a heavyweight title and fight with Wladmir, without having to take unnecessary punches in normal mandatory matches. Ultimately boxing fans want to be engaged and it is through making yourself distinguishable from the pack that this is possible. It is overwhelmingly obvious for this writer, that it is not just Fury’s name that makes him stand out but it is also these antics, his in ring bravado, his monstrous height and his vulnerabilities.

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Canelo Alvarez – Austin Trout Recap

The best way to score a boxing match would probably be to have each fighter begin the event by punching all three judges (jabs, uppercuts, straights, hooks, etc.) to aid the judges in answering the mythical question hanging over every fight of punch valuation—how many of fighter A’s jabs equal an uppercut of fighter B, etc.. Now, there are many practical concerns with enacting such a policy—for example, who will judge the fight should the judges get knocked out? So, absent that, the next most logical way seems to be to simply watch how each fighter responds to other’s punches—thereby sorting out not only when a punch is thrown, but whether it lands in a clean, effective manner. Fortunately, the human body reacts in predictable ways when struck with clean, effective punches—knees buckle, the head gets snapped back, the body is staggered, or in some cases knocked down.

The Canelo Alvarez—Austin Trout tilt from Saturday night bears, according to some, the “controversial” label, but it shouldn’t. Though Alvarez found his target less frequently than Trout (124 versus 154 in total punches landed), he clearly landed more of the clean, effective punches described in the above paragraph—and if you didn’t see that then you either didn’t watch the whole fight, are one of the two judges who somehow thought Chavez swung-and-missed his way to a draw with Whitaker a decade ago, or got distracted trying to figure out if Trout has a Mohawk or just a receding hairline that looks like a Mohawk—while Trout held a decisive edge in insignificant punches landed (the kind where the guy getting hit doesn’t react or seem to care).

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