Hearn: Froch doesn’t need a catchweight fight against Hopkins

Froch#9Eddie Hearn has ruled out what would be a lucrative fight between his fighter IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and 48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins this year in September. Hearn doesn’t want Froch to be fighting guys that are slightly bigger than him like Hopkins because he sees it as putting Froch in a difficult position.

Hearn said this to Sky Sports News “It’s flattering [that Hopkins wants to fight Froch]. Hopkins understands the value of a fight with Froch, but I don’t think Carl needs a fight at a catchweight…he’d be at a big disadvantage.”

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Pacquiao vs. Rios: Brandon could give Manny more than he bargained for

pac89Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) hasn’t had an easy fight since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over a completely shot Shane Mosley two years ago in May, 2011. Since that fight, Pacquiao has gone downhill himself and looked bad in his two fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and his fight with Tim Bradley.

Pacquiao lost two of those fights, but you can make strong argument that he deserved to lose three of them because his win over Marquez in November 2011 was a controversial one. Pacquiao now will be fighting Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) on November 24th in Macau, China.

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Bradley vs. Marquez on September 14th unless Mayweather fights on that date, says Arum

marquez44Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is holding September 14th for an HBO pay per view fight between WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) and Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) unless Floyd Mayweather Jr. decides to fight on that date, in which case Arum will move the Bradley-Marquez fight to another day, according to Steve Kim.

The Bradley-Marquez fight will take place at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the fight isn’t nearly big enough to compete against a Mayweather fight. Arum has no other choice but to move off the September 14th date if Mayweather fights unless he wants to have low numbers for the Bradley-Marquez fight in terms of buys.

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Canelo needs Mayweather more than the other way around

floyd#121WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez hasn’t fought at 147 in the 11 fights dating back to his win over a tiny Jose Miguel Cotto back in May of 2010, but if Canelo wants a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. then he’s going to have to find a way back down to that weight because that’s what he’s going to have to do in order to get the big payday fight he’s been harping about for ages.

Let’s be honest about this; Canelo needs Mayweather much more than Mayweather needs Canelo. Mayweather is going to get his $30 million each fight no matter who faces him in his next five fights. Mayweather’s got that guaranteed cash, and besides that he’s already a huge, huge draw. He’s the #1 money fighter in all of sports.

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Left-Hook Lounge: Wilder vs Wladi-K, Mayweather/Canelo, & Pacqiuao/Rios

floyd#19Curtis M. (Orlando, FL): Deontay Wilder seems to be catching steam, and lately there’s been talk of him facing Wladimir Klitschko. Do you give him a shot at winning if the fight were to happen within the next year or so?

Vivek W. (ESB): Wilder is one of the hottest rising prospects in the heavyweight landscape today. He has power, decent speed, and a little personality to sell himself. That being said, I have very mixed emotions on his chances if he were to face Wladimir Klitschko. I’m always very skeptical about fighters who enter the ring with so much knockout success in the past. Particularly young fighters on the rise. There’s always an untold story. In this case, I have the same questions. What happens when he faces someone who he can’t hurt, that also possess the power to hurt, and potentially even stop him?

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Kessler vowing to retire if he loses to Froch on May 25th

kessler#11We’ve seen IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) talk about retirement if he were to lose, and now WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) is saying he’ll retire if he loses to Froch in their fight this month on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

I don’t know that I believe that Kessler will retire no matter how bad he looks in getting beat by Froch, but I do think it’s a smart way to market the fight. When you make the retirement threat, boxing fans seem to pick up interest in the fight thinking that it could be the last time they see a particular fighter making the threat.

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Matthysse-Peterson this Saturday, May 18th in Atlantic City, New Jersey

peterson4Light welterweight Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) squares off against Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night in a Showtime televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Neither fighter will have their titles on the line, as the fight will take place at a catchweight of 141 lbs. It seems that neither guy wanted to put up their strap for the fight. Matthysse only had his WBC interim light welterweight title, and that wasn’t worth anything to Peterson. He wants the full title, not an interim strap.

However, the winner of this fight will be getting a lot more than if there was a title on the line. The winner gets to move onto face WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in an important bout that leads to Amir Khan waiting at the end of the line later on this year. That’s how Golden Boy Promotions set it up.

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Hearn: Burns won’t be fighting Gonzalez again

gonzalez54Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, won’t bother giving injured challenger Jose Gonzalez a chance for a rematch after he injured his left wrist and was halted in the 9th round last Saturday night.

Hearn wants to match Burns against IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez this September if he can put the fight together. That’s a big question mark because Burns and Vazquez were scheduled to fight each other not too long ago and the fight failed to come off.

It’s hard to imagine what Burns could gain from going back to this fight because it’s not as if Vazquez has a huge worldwide fan base. However, if Burns can capture another belt it might give him more respect from boxing fans.

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Mosley-Cano this Saturday, May 18th: Sugar Shane on comeback trail

cano54Still not willing to end his long 20-year pro career, 41-year-old Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO’s) will be back in this ring this Saturday night against the young 23-year-old powerful but deeply flawed Pablo Cesar Cano (26-2-1, 20 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Surely if Mosley can’t win this fight he should retire, right? Probably not. Mosley will likely keep trucking along with his career win or lose against Cano, and you have to wonder what’ll take for him to finally retire. Cano has losses to Paulie Malignaggi and a way past his best Erik Morales. Cano took a real beating by Morales I getting stopped in the 10th round in September 2011.

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Rios: Pacquiao made a mistake in picking me to fight

rios434Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) expects to make former 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) sorry for picking him to fight in their upcoming November 24th in the tax friendly [at least for Pacquiao] Macau, China.

Rios thinks he was selected because Pacquiao and his team see him as an easy mark, a guy that Pacquiao can beat without too much trouble. Rios doesn’t like that and he wants to make them sorry for selecting him.

Rios said this as quoted by the Bostonherald.com “He picked me because I lost. They probably think ‘Brandon is easy to hit. Brandon gets hit all the time.’ It’s a very different story when you get in the ring with me. They made a mistake in picking me.”

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