Klitschko vs. Pianeta: Wladimir faces his former sparring partner this Saturday, May 4th

wladimir65When you ask you will receive. In this case, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) asked the World Boxing Association for permission to fight his former sparring partner Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) and was given permission to take the fight instead of a fight with WBA champion Alexander Povetkin.

It’s unclear whether Wladimir is doing this as a favor to Pianeta or if he just what it was like to spar him and figured it would be a nice safe fight for him. Whatever the reason, Wladimir will be fighting Pianeta this Saturday night at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

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Vitali: The Stiverne fight will take place

vitali9WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) has acknowledged that he will indeed be facing his mandatory challenger 34-year-old Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s), who earned the title shot against the 41-year-old Vitali by defeating Chris Arreola by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.

Vitali said to Fightnews.com: “There is an official challenger, Bermane Stiverne. The fight will take place. Now it’s necessary to determine the date.”

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Left-Hook Lounge: Garcia/Judah, Martinez, & Amir Khan

03(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Vivek Wallace:

Jaron H. (Queens, NYC): Would you say that Garcia’s performance cleared him as the best 140lb’er in the world? I thought he weathered the storm nicely and proved so. Would you agree?

Vivek W. (ESB): I think Garcia did a very good job and earned the victory, but I would also say lets keep things in perspective. Judah is a solid veteran and one who knows the boxing game as well as most. Sadly for him, execution is another story. The biggest subplot coming into the night for Judah was whether or not he would stay on course after getting touched up a little. What we learned is he would try a bit harder, but in the end it wouldn’t be enough, as again, his effort fell short on the big stage.

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Questions and Answers with Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero

guerrero53by Chip Mitchell:

Chip Mitchell: Okay, Robert, now you are a very spiritual person. How has your spirituality played a part in your boxing career?

Robert Guerrero: You know, it plays a big part. Not just in boxing, it plays a big part in my life. You know, outside of the ring, with my family, raising my kids in church, believing in Jesus Christ, it’s a big part of my life and that’s what guides my whole life. That goes through my training camp, boxing, being in the ring. It really is the number one thing in my life.

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Same Problems for Martinez and Judah but Sergio Overcame His

martinez44Sergio Martinez came away with a UD win, and Zab Judah lost a UD, but they both had similar problems. Neither southpaw dealt properly with their orthodox opponents’ right hands, but for different reasons. The difference in victory versus defeat for Murray and Garcia was Murray got started too late. He had to do too much catching up.

Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez also had an excuse. He suffered a broken left hand early in the fight, which hampered him greatly in defending against Muray’s right. Zab had no such excuse. Zab allowed Garcia to throw wild, looping powerful right hands without consequences. Everyone watching knew the punch was coming, yet Zab did nothing to stop them. Zab could have and should have beat Garcia to the punch, as the shots to his body were telegraphed.

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Khan: I want the Danny Garcia fight

khan111It’s no secret that Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) looked pretty bad last Saturday night in beating Julio Diaz (40-8-1, 29 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision. Khan was knocked down in that fight in the 4th and hurt to the point where he needed to hold onto Diaz in the 11th.

Khan was also hurt in the 9th and 10th rounds from shots from Diaz. The judges gave him a close decision by the scores of 114-113, 115-113 and 115-113. Khan now will be off until December at which point he’ll be likely facing Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia or Lamont Peterson.

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David Haye to fight Manuel Charr on June 29th; press conference this Wednesday

charr435Heavyweight contender Manuel Charr’s campaigning for a fight against former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) has paid off, as the two fighters will be facing each other on June 29th in the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. There will be a press conference to announce the fight this Wednesday. The fight will be shown Sky Sports.

Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s) has only been beaten once in his career in losing to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last year by a 4th round TKO. However, Charr also has had it pretty easy in terms of opposition. There’s his one fight against Vitali, and the rest of Charr’s opponents have been mediocre at best. Is it an accident that Charr has been brought along so carefully by his promoters? No, I think it’s the norm in the heavyweight division nowadays.

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Lucas Browne Outpoints James Toney, Kevin Johnson Stops Solomon Haumono

Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (16-0, 14 KOs) outpointed American legend James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-8-3, 45 KOs) over 12 rounds to capture the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre this afternoon in Melbourne, Australia.

The first half of the fight saw an interesting contest with the shorter Toney starting positively looking to attack Browne with Browne using his range to set up power shot opportunities. Toney caught Browne with some good right hands in round five while Browne used his jab to great effect to keep Toney at bay for the most part of each round, to rack up points with the judges. Browne’s heavy hands always seemed to look threatening but the Australian respected Toney’s defensive nous and opted against being overly aggressive.

The second half of the fight saw Browne continue to use his size to control the smaller Toney whilst Toney reduced his offensive output which saw Browne take the later rounds to record a 117-111, 119-109 and 120-108 victory on the three judge’s scorecards.

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It Doesn’t Matter

Every fighter wants to be their own man in and out of the ring. They develop a fighting style honed by an amateur career that is the foundation or pedigree if you will for professional fighting. 140lb contender Amir Khan a silver medal Olympic boxer, first trained in the US by Freddie Roach and now trained by Virgil Hunter is struggling to synchronize his amateur pedigree with his professional fight style and is suffering mightily for it.

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