For the second time in his last three fights, the Brooklyn middleweight scored a first-round knockout on the NBC Sports Network’s Fight Night Series at Mohegan Sun – the first of three nationally-televised bouts – this time flattening Mexican challenger Saul Roman at the two-minute, 26-second mark of the opening round to capture the vacant North American Boxing Federation (NABF) title in the main event of Saturday’s “Three To See” card, co-promoted by Main Events and Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports.
You’ve got to hand it to former football player Seth Mitchell. The once-beaten 31-year-old had limited amateur experience and “Mayhem,” as the Brandywine slugger is known, has not found the transition from the field to the ring to be a natural one. But whatever shortcomings Mitchell has as a fighter – and his critics maintain they are plenty – the 26-1-1(19) contender makes up for them, or almost makes up for them, with sheer heart.
David Tua (52-4-2) is in training to fight the gigantic Russian Alexander Ustinov (28-1). The IBF has Ustinov ranked at seven the WBA ten. Tua’s career is on last chance lane a decade removed from fighting a world class opponent in Hasim Rahman. Tua’s much storied litigation against former manager Kevin Barry put his career on hold and he has only managed to pull the pig skins on twelve times in the last decade and that intermittency – it goes without saying – has not served his career well.
It’s been thought that WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s) will give up his newly won World Boxing Association 147 lb. title without defending it rather than facing the likes of Marcos Maidana and Keith Thurman. Broner, however, is now saying he wants to fight Maidana and then Lucas Matthysse after that. There’s no word from Broner about whether he’ll bother defending his title against WBA interim welterweight champion Keith Thurman, who has already said he wants to fight Broner next.
DEERFIELD, Fla. (August 2, 2013) – Two-division world champion John David “Action” Jackson, one of the most respected trainers in boxing today, has joined Iron Mike Productions as co-head coach of the promotional company’s stable of world-class fighters.
HBO is working to finalize a deal to show the October 5th fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (60-3, 51 KO’s) and WBA champion Alexander Povetkin (26-0, 18 KO’s) live in the United States, according to Dan Rafael. If HBO can swing this, it will be a big deal for American boxing fans, because they don’t get to see too many fights of the Klitschkos anymore. 
In something of a slight step up in competition, highly hyped heavyweight Hughie Fury (8-0, 5 KO’s) will be fighting cruiserweight Shane McPhilbin (8-7-1, 5 KO’s) next month on September 14th at the Magna Centre, Rotherhan, Yorkshire.