ADAM LITTLE isn’t letting a niggling injury distract him from his goal of winning his first professional title before the end of the year.
The Ricky Hatton-trained welterweight prospect was due to box in Blackpool this evening (June 7) but decided to pull out so that he can spent some more time getting his hand right after surgery.
From the opening bell in this highly anticipated matchup between Josesito Lopez and Marcos Maidana one thing will be clear, both fighters will dig deep for a victory and have a win by any means necessary attitude. In what is yet another main event being billed as a possible fight of the year for 2013, a boxing year that has exploded from March to May it’s hard not to assume that this fight will live up to the lofty expectations placed on it by hardcore fans. These fighters managed to pull off upsets versus Victor Oritz, making him quit without a 10 count. The winner puts himself in great position to land a title fight at welterweight. Style and the mentalities of these fighters should make for an instant classic, something the Home Depot Center (now named StubHub) has become accustom to in recent years.
Golden Boy has been burnt twice by these guys in their quest to turn a popular young prospect into a full fledge star. In case you haven’t been paying attention I will break it down iller, see Oscar De La Hoya was a businessman and “El Chino” was the killer(note: 50 cent song explains that sentence). Although most people were calling him Madonna leading up the fight, Maidana went down early and often but returned the favor shocking the pro Ortiz crowd that night in June 2009 at the Staples Center.
#1 WBC Tony Bellew is picking WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KO’s) to defeat the hard hitting but still largely unproven Adonis Stevenson (20-1, 17 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
With the hand injury to former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye postponing their fight, #8 WBC heavyweight contender Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s) has decided to take a stay busy fight against 330 lb. Russian journeyman Evgeny Orlov (13-1-1, 9 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout on June 15th this month at the Karl Eckel Halle, Hattersheim am Main, Hessen, Germany.
Oscar De La Hoya thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the same fighter now that he was when they fought in 2007. De La Hoya believes Mayweather is still essentially as good as he was back then, but the difference now is he’s fighting who De La Hoya feels is a better fighter than himself in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 14th.
De La Hoya doesn’t know how Mayweather will deal with someone hitting him with six-punch combinations with the kind of power that Canelo throws his punches with.
De La Hoya said to RingTV “When I fought him in 2007, he might be the same Floyd. Fresh, better shape, young, strong, I don’t see any difference. I still see the same movement.”
Matthew Macklin (29-4, 20 KO’s) has done an admirable job in losses to Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez when he’s stepped it up a level but he’s failed to get the win. He fought both of them very tough but he came up short because he didn’t have quite enough talent to beat them.
BERNARD HOPKINS, IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion
“I just found out a month ago, the doctor will be here before the [fight week] press conference hopefully to explain this, but I must confess that I am not human. I am an alien. No, seriously. I realize that Pluto is no longer a planet now, so I’m from Mars. I’ve definitely retired the ‘Executioner.’ You will not hear me mention the Executioner.
“Now, I’m in this world but I’m not of this world. There is no aging process for me.
“The breaking news is that I am an alien.
“I reflect a little bit in my mind about not only defending my title, but also defending my historic career.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is saying that he’s got an agreement from both Amir Khan and IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander for a fight on December 7th in Dubai. Schaefer is still working out the details of the fight and he still needs to iron out the venue, but he’s got the hardest part out of the way in getting both guys to agree to the fight.
Schaefer’s grand plan is to have Khan fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year if he gets past Alexander. That’s a big if. Khan looks almost like he’s on his last legs in losing two out of his last four fights and barely beat Julio Diaz in his last fight.
That would have been three losses in Khan’s last four fights. I actually had Khan losing that fight but it shows you how vulnerable Khan is that he couldn’t even beat a fighter like Diaz without controversy.
Strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza is picking Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) to beat WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) in their fight on September 14th on the Mexican Independence Day holiday. Ariza sees Mayweather’s experience being too much for the 22-year-old Canelo.
Ariza said on his twitter “I think Floyd’s skill and experience will be the difference.”
Ariza is probably right. Mayweather is much more skilled than Canelo is and ever will be.
48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) says he’s going to go right after his opponent Karo Murat’s nose right off the bat on July 13th in their fight at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. This will be Hopkins’ first defense of his title after beating Tavoris Cloud by a 12 round unanimous decision last March to take his title.
Hopkins was hoping to get a bigger fight against the likes of Carl Froch but he had no other choice but to face Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s), as he was his mandatory challenger and it was either fight him or risk losing the title by having it stripped from him.
Hopkins said to fightnews.com “He eats jabs. He doesn’t move his head…I will be working on the beak.”