Despite being an underdog in his fight next month against unbeaten Adrien Broner (26-0, 23 KO’s), WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) sees his fight with Broner as being one of his more easier ones he’d had in his 12-year-old career when the two meet up on June 22nd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Broner said on his social media site yesterday: “Can’t sleep a lot on my mind.”
In what appears to be WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) making a partial excuse for his poor performance last Saturday night in beating Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) by a 9th round stoppage, Burns complained after the fight that he hadn’t been able to study Gonzalez going into the fight because of the lack of video out there on the 29-year-old fighter from Puerto Rico.
Gonzalez had been flying under the radar for so long in fighting less than world class opposition during his 5-year pro career that there just wasn’t much for Burns to see of him on video.
Showtime Vice President of Sports Stephen Espinoza feels confident that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight will take place on September 14th in Las Vegas, Nevada, as he says the negotiations between Mayweather and Canelo’s team are underway.
Espinoza said to AP “I think the biggest fight out there is Mayweather vs. Canelo. So far the negotiations are going well and I think everyone involved is working to make it happen.”
There’s no word about what weight the fight will take place at.
Unbeaten heavyweight Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) showed his class in apologizing to his UK boxing fans for his possible problems with traveling to the UK right now to face Dereck Chisora (16-4, 10 KO’s) next month on June 15th.
The Chisora-Deontay fight was announced last week, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen next month unless Deontay can take care of his legal problems from his arrest on May 4th for domestic battery.
Deontay said on his twitter: “To my UK fans I am super sorry guys may have some travel issues I didn’t know about. I may not be able to go to England right now.”
Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) smashed his over-matched opponent Javier Gallow (18-7-1, 10 KO’s) in a 4th round TKO on Saturday night at the Uni-Trade Stadium, in Laredo, Texas, USA.
Darchinyan finished Gallow off with a left to the head that sent Gallo hitting the deck and sliding on his backside. Gallo, who had already been knocked down three other times in the fight, didn’t even try to get up after the fourth knockdown.
Gallo hurt Darchinyan twice in the fight with big right hands. The first time occurred late in the 1st round when he timed Darchinyan as he was coming in and nailed him with a right hand. Darchinyan was staggered by the shot but he wasn’t hurt enough to go down from it.
Using movement, a nice jab and some skillful roughhouse tactics, bantamweight contender Jaime McDonnell (21-2-1, 9 KO’s) defeated Julio Ceja (24-1, 22 KO) tonight by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight ttile at the Keepmoat Stadium, in Doncaster, United Kingdom.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has little more than weeks to select his next opponent for his pay per view bout on September 14th if he wants Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime/CBS to be able to market the fight for it to be successful. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says he’s in talks with WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Showtime boss Stephen Espinosa told ESPN “I’m cautiously optimistic. There’s a lot of negotiating left to do, but often the biggest hurdle is convincing one fighter or the other to take the fight. That hurdle has been cleared. I truly believe Mayweather wants Caneo and that Canelo wants Mayweather, and that’s half the battle.”
Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) has set a goal for himself in his fight against #8 WBC Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s) next month on June 29th at the Manchester Arena (formerly M.E.N Arena), Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom.
Haye, 32, wants to improve upon the job WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko did last September when he tore Charr’s face to ribbons in stopping him in the 4th round.
WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez wants and needs a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) in order for Canelo to transition from being just a regular Showtime fighter to a pay per view fighter. However, Canelo expects Mayweather to go back up to 154 to fight him if he says yes to a fight in September instead of Canelo dropping a little weight and fighting Mayweather at 147.
Robert Garcia, the well-known trainer of Brandon Rios and many other fighters, doesn’t think Mayweather should up in weight to fight Canelo because he sees the 22-year-old Mexican as being too heavy for Mayweather.