Sergio Martinez decisions Martin Murray

martinez66 Fighting with an injured left hand from the 8th round, WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) had to battle a lot harder than many boxing fans expected him to in beating Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in front of a huge crowd of 50,000 at the Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Murray might have won the fight if he had come out of his defensive shell more often in the fight, as he seemed to adopt the same approach that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez used in his recent fight with Austin Trout in not throwing many punches but counting on his cleaner landing shots to make up the difference for him getting hit a lot more.

Murray could have won but he wasn’t throwing enough and he kept getting nailed by jabs and straight left hands over and over again. Murray was able to block a lot of the shots because he was keeping his gloves high protecting his head, but when one fighter is seen hitting the other all night long on the gloves, it doesn’t matter that a lot of the shots were blocked. Martinez was the busier guy and he deserved the victory. The judges scored it 115-112, 115-112 and 115-112.

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Bermane Stiverne bests Chris Arreola

A rowdy crowd rocked the house at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California tonight; as local heavyweight Chris Arreola faced Haitian born Canadian Bermane Stiverne in front of a partisan crowd. Things started quickly and developed into one of the best heavyweight scraps we’ve seen in a while.

Neither man wasted time as both men threw big shots in the first round. The difference was Arreola’s pressure; he never stopped coming forward and backed his opponent into the ropes several times. Stiverne attempted to counter and was moderately successful, but let himself get trapped in the corner and ate a few combos. Arreola continued the pressure in the second and worked both downstairs and upstairs. However, Stiverne showed better movement and landed some nice counters. Things appeared to be evening out.

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Khan defeats Diaz; Wilder KOs Harrison in 1!

Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) had to get up off the deck to defeat former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-8-1, 29 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, UK. Khan was hurt five times in the fight, and knocked down in the 4th by a left hook. In rounds 8 though 11, Khan was badly staggered by heard shots from Diaz. It was only through the use of Khan’s holding and pulling down on the back of Diaz’s head that he was able to survive those rounds. The final judges’ scores were 114-113, 115-113, 115-112. I had Diaz winning rounds 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11. In other words, I had Diaz winning the fight.>

Khan controlled the action in rounds one and two. Diaz fought well in rounds three and four in landing heavy shots. After Khan was knocked down in the 4th, he came back to fight well in the 5th through 7th rounds, albeit using a lot of questionable tactics like pulling down on Diaz’s head and holding his left arm out far in front of him so that Diaz couldn’t get close. From the 8th round to 11th, Diaz had Khan hurt in each of these rounds, but Khan did a good job of holding on and running.

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Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

35-year-old Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) gave it a good shot tonight but in the end he was beaten by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) in a 12 round unanimous decision loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Judah was in command of the fight in the last three rounds of the fight, but unfortunately for him he ran out of time and ended losing. The scores were 115-112, 114-112, 116-111.

Garcia fought well in the first 8 rounds in using his right hand to do most of the damage. Judah did a good job of neutralizing Garcia’s left hook and jab. Garcia’s right hand proved to be enough for him to control the rounds and build up a big lead. However, the crowd seemed to motivate Judah to another level starting in the 9th round when he was able to land some really big shots that stopped Garcia in his tracks.

Judah continued to land the far bigger punches in rounds 10, 11 and 12 to dominate the rounds. Garcia kept firing back, but his punches weren’t nearly as significant as Judah’s.

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Fight Preview: Lucas Browne v James Toney, Solomon Haumono v Kevin Johnson

Tomorrow afternoon Melbourne, Australia time, one of the biggest fight cards seen in Melbourne in recent years takes place at the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre. Headlining the action is unbeaten Australian heavyweight Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) who takes on current IBU heavyweight and former multiple division world champion James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-7-5, 45 KOs) for the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title.

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: “Simply Red”

Most of us are learning to drive at fifteen years of age. We’re more concerned about our social lives, gals and guys and whose parents will be out of town next weekend so the killer party can go down. There’s only a handful of professions that would permit one still south of legal voting age to log hours upon hours of tedious work and still evade the scrutiny of the department of labor. Different countries have different rules. Such is the case in Mexico and the newly and truly confirmed prodigal son from Jalisco state, Santos Saul Alvarez Barragan.

We don’t often refer to him by this. Rather, we prefer his trade name, which is simply Canelo. Whether or not we may agree with his unanimous decision win over Austin “No Doubt” Trout this past weekend in San Antonio, Texas, there’s no denying that the kid has serious talent and more importantly in a global sense the potential for crossover appeal.

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Audley Harrison vs Deontay Wilder on Saturday

An intriguing encounter awaits on the “Return of the King” undercard when Audley Harrison [31-6 -& 23 KOs] meets Deontay Wilder [27-0 & 27 KOs] in a fight which, in some circles, has generated just as much discussion as the main event. For Wilder, Harrison represents a big step-up in competition, as well as the opportunity to collect the first ‘name’ on his record. In contrast, last chance saloon has been a statement thrown around for various fights of Harrison’s over the years, but at 41, it’s difficult to see how he could come back again if he loses this.

Anyone with an interest in the heavyweight division will be curious enough to tune in and have a look at Wilder, a Bronze medalist at Beijing 2008, in his biggest test to date as a professional. Not only does Wilder find himself up against an opponent with a KO record of some significance, but he also finally meets a technical fighter, as well as his first southpaw opponent since turning professional. It will be interesting to see how comfortable Wilder is with open southpaw angles and how he approaches the fight.

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James Toney and John Arthur: Discussing All Things Boxing

Current IBU heavyweight champion and future hall of famer James Toney (74-7-3, 45 KOs) and his father, trainer and manager John Arthur took time out to exclusively speak to ESB today ahead of Toney’s heavyweight showdown with unbeaten Australian Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) in Melbourne, Australia this Sunday.

Toney and Arthur discussed all subjects, including his time in Melbourne and fight preparation, recent ring inactivity, managing of weight, time in the UFC and future plans.

Arthur explains the bout with Browne came after the proposed bout with Tomasz Adamek fell through, that was scheduled for last September. “We were supposed to fight Adamek in September” where after that “I started to reach out to everybody and it seemed like every door that got called in the United States was closed. I reached out to some people and they put me in touch with some promoters in Australia and they said they wanted to make this happen and this is where we have ended up at… This kid (Browne) has wanted to fight James and James has never ducked and dodged anybody his whole career so I said let’s take it.”

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Pontillas gets Filipino support in Accra

Filipino boxer, Ronald Pontillas has arrived in the Ghana capital ahead of Friday night’s boxing cracker at the Accra Sports Stadium vowing to stop local favourite, Emmanuel Tagoe in their clash for the WBA International and WBO Africa Junior Lightweight titles in the headliner of BabyJet Promotions’ second ever bill.

And the 23 year old Pontillas who will face an opponent from Africa for the first time ever, has been buoyed by the huge patronage he has received on arrival from the Filipino community in Ghana who were at the Kotoko International Airport to welcome him and have pledged to be at the national stadium in their numbers to cheer the boxer unto victory.

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Sergio Perales Wants To KO Darlington’s Hall On Huge Doncaster Bill

Photos by Adrian Hernandez / ESB – Sergio ‘Time to Shine’ Perales is expecting a tough assignment when he meets Darlington’s Stuart Hall for the IBF Inter-Continental bantamweight crown at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium on May 11.

The pair will go head-to-head on the undercard of Jamie McDonnell’s world title fight with Julio Ceja, and the American world-ranked number five is excited at his first European venture.

“I’ve been able to watch a few videos of him on the Internet,” explained the 25-year-old, via e-mail, “and I think he is a good strong fighter with a good right cross. He’s an all-round tough guy so I’m sure he’s not going to just give me the title. I’m going to have to take it from him and it’s going to make for a great fight.

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