Recently, IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch said he would only be willing to fight 48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins at a catchweight rather than moving up 7 pounds to face the nearly 50-year-old Hopkins at the full weight for the division.
Froch felt that he needed a catchweight before he could face Hopkins. Well, Hopkins says he’s agreeable to fighting Froch at a catchweight and he’s even willing to let the fight take place in the UK.
Super middleweight contender James DeGale (15-1, 10 KO’s) defeated Sebastien Demers (31-6, 11 KO’s) by a 2nd round TKO last night in Quebec, Canada. It wasn’t surprising that DeGale defeated Demers so easily. After all, Demers came into the fight with three straight losses and two of them were early stoppage losses to Renan St. Juste and Brian Vera.
One of the defeats was to Allan Green, a fighter that was taken apart over and over again in the Super Six tournament. What was surprising is DeGale saying he’ll be a world champion by the end of this year.
DeGale said “I will be a world champion by the end of this year.”
(Photo credit: Casino/Showtime) IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) faces Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) in a catchweight fight at 141 lbs. at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Peterson’s title won’t be on the line because the fight will take place one pound over the 140 lb. limit at 141.
Peterson has been saying all week long that he doesn’t have any fear of Matthysse’s power, and that he’s not going to let Matthysse’s reputation for being a huge puncher stop him from fighting his normal fight.
In other words, Peterson plans on walking Mattysse down and standing in front of him all night long to slug it out.
Dan Rafael of ESPN is still standing behind his source for the final pay per view numbers for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Robert Guerrero fight despite Showtime saying that the fight will bring in over 1 million buys when the final tally is in.
Rafael says his source is telling him that the Mayweather-Guerrero final PPV numbers will be only 870,000 PPV buys, a much lower number than what Showtime is saying.
Rafael said on his chat this week: “I have good industry sources who swear on their children that this fight will not reach 1 million buys, much less be ‘in excess’ if 1 million and I believe them. These are people with no dog in the fight who I respect and have known for many years and trust. I am told that the number right now is about 870,000 buys.”
Bottom line, boxing is entertainment. That is why fans in their droves pay big money: to be entertained. But yesterday in Moscow, Russia, cruiserweights Guillermo Jones and Denis Lebedev gave way, way, way too much in the name of entertainment; the beaten and savagely beaten up Lebedev in particular. Looking like the Elephant man or actor Eric Stoltz in the film ‘Mask’, Lebedev, the entire right side of his face swollen, his eye perhaps permanently damaged, should have been pulled out long before he was counted out in the 11th-round of an absolute slugfest.
Forget the fact that veteran Jones – who showed an amazing chin, taking flush bombs to the head again and again – regained the WBA 200-pound belt and became the first man to halt southpaw Lebedev, the talking point of this fight was and will continue to be the sickening eye injury Lebedev sustained.
Super middleweight contender James DeGale (15-1, 10 KO’s) totally annihilated Canadian fighter Sebastien Demers (31-6, 11 KO’s) in the 2nd round in a fight that arguably should have never been made in the first place on Friday night at the Hilton Lac Leamy, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The ending of the fight was a simple one; DeGale hit Demers with a left uppercut and Demers reacted to the shot by turning his back on DeGale and walking several feet and then taking a knee.
(Photo credit: Casino/Showtime) By John G. Thompson: While March’s clash between Timothy Bradley and Ruslan Provodnikov stands as the clear favorite for Fight of the Year (with honorable mention to Alvarado vs. Rios), this Saturday’s bout between IBF light welterweight champion Lamont “Havoc” Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) and “interim” WBC light welterweight champ Lucas Martin Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) seems bound to produce the kind of fireworks which might put it in contention.
The match will be fought at a catch-weight of 141 lbs. meaning that Peterson cannot lose his title regardless of the outcome, though Matthysse loses the interim title should he fail to win. The bout will be televised live on Showtime from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
ESPN writer Dan Rafael says that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer e-mailed him saying that the reports about Floyd Mayweather Jr. wanting a fight with WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to take place at 147 lbs. isn’t true.
It’s interesting that Schaefer is saying that because Mayweather’s father Floyd Sr. said in an interview today that Canelo has to come down to 147 for the fight to happen in September, and that he won’t let Floyd Jr. fight the 172 pound Canelo due to the huge weight difference between the two fighters.
Floyd Mayweather Sr. doesn’t want his son Floyd Jr. fighting the 172 lb. WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) at 154 lbs. because he sees the potential of Canelo filling up on water weight in the 24 hours after the weigh-in and coming into the fight weighing well over 170 pounds in their proposed fight on September 14th.
As such, Floyd Sr. is saying that if Canelo wants to fight Mayweather Jr. it’s going to have to be at 147. Canelo will have to prove that he can make that weight before he can get the fight with Floyd Jr.
This Saturday night, Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO’s) will be attempting to capture the vacant WBC International welterweight title in a fight against Pablo Cesar Cano (26-2-1, 20 KO’s) at the Grand Oasis Resort in Cancun, Mexico.