Solis decisions Larsen; Chagaev & Aydin both victorious

solis33By Vladimir S: IBF Inter-Continental heavyweight champion Odlanier Solis (19-1, 12 KO’s) successfully defended his title on Friday night in defeating previously unbeaten Leif Larsen (17-1, 14 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Universal Hall in Berlin, Germany.

The action between the two fighters seemed to resemble more of a sparring session than an actual fight, as both guys looked slow and lazy from start to finish. Solis won the fight by the judges’ score of 116-112, 115-114, 117-111, but he looked unimpressive.

Larsen was just slow, and focused most of his shots upstairs to the head rather than to Solis’ soft looking body.

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Don “Da Bomb” George and Kermit Cintron on ESPN FNF

By John G. Thompson – Tonight on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights series, power punching prospect Don “Da Bomb” George (24-3-1, 21 KO’s) faces fifty-four fight veteran David “The Destroyer” Lopez (41-13, 23 KO’s) in George’s hometown at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. Also in action, former champion Kermit Cintron (33-5-1, 28 KO’s) looks to keep his career alive against Adrian “Tigre” Granados (11-2-1, 7 KO’s), a fighter ten years younger than Cintron.

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Solis vs Larsen, Chagaev vs Sheppard, Aydin vs Lauri tonight in Berlin – Universal Hall

By Vladimir S: A lean looking heavyweight Odlanier Solis (18-1, 12 KO’s) will be in action tonight against the raw but powerful unbeaten Leif Larsen (17-0, 14 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Universal Hall in Berlin, Germany. Solis, 32, will be defending his IBF Inter-Continental heavyweight title that he won in his previous fight against Konstantin Airich.

Solis has fought only once in the past two years after been stopped in the 1st round by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in March 2011. That fight was a costly one for Solis, as he tore up his right knee in the fight and had to have surgery.

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Saunders easily defeats Hall

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By Kevin Chittenden: British/Commonwealth middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (17-0, 10 KO’s) proved tonight that he’s good enough to beat a domestic level junior middleweight fighting out of his weight class in beating Matthew Hall (25-7, 17 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom.

The judges scored it 120-108, 120-109, 119-110. After the fight, Hall said he’s retiring from the sport. He doesn’t want to take punishment needlessly. Someone should have told Hall ahead of time that it’s not a good idea for him to be fighting at middleweight, and definitely not against a fighter like Saunders. The fight was one-sided in every round with Saunders working Hall like he was a punching bag.

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Why Vitali Klitschko needs to fight David Haye

vitali4By Anthony Jeffrey: It’s been almost 2 years since David Haye’s fuse was snuffed out by Wladimir Klitschko. However, after muting the trash-talking Londoner it’s pretty much been business as usual for the Klitschkos – back to beating down unknown, out-of-shape bums.

But even though his self-proclaimed prophecy didn’t quite manifest against Wlad, Haye still has a good enough case for taking on Vitali Klitschko. True, the brash Brit got soundly beaten and was unable to land anything meaningful on Wlad, but it was more a failure to live up to expectation than an actual bad performance. He spent most of the fight on the outside looking for that one big shot because he just couldn’t get by Wlad’s jab. He basically talked himself into his own grave.

After everything was said and done, I wouldn’t blame Wlad for not giving Haye a re-match, but a Vitali vs Haye fight would possibly create even more interest. Let’s face it; David Haye is still the most exciting fighter in the division.

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Donaire’s trainer predicting quick KO of Rigondeaux

By Jeff Sorby: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia doesn’t see WBA super bantamweight champion Rigondeaux as doing any better than Fernando Montiel did against Donaire. Donaire destroyed Montiel in two rounds a couple a years ago in a fight that many boxing fans thought it would be a competitive match-up going into the fight.

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Canelo vs. Trout: 26,000 tickets already sold

Web-P3142506By Rob Smith: The demand for the cheap tickets for the April 20th fight between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) and WBA champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) has been overwhelming for their fight that will take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

According to Oscar De La Hoya, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, over 26,000 tickets have already been sold for the fight. The 72,000 seat Alamodome stadium was restructured to fit 30,000 fans. That’s going to need to be bumped up at least by 10,000 to 40,000 in order to accommodate the potential fans that will purchase tickets from now until the fight on April 20th.

The tickets went on sale on March 11th, and they’ve been selling at an alarming rate ever since. Canelo helped the process along by requesting that the lowest cost tickets sell for $10 so that the fans from around the area can have their entire families come to see him fight.

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Manfredo Defeats Wright

By James Stillerman at Ringside – Former IBO super middleweight title holder, Peter “The Pride of Providence” Manfredo Jr. kept his latest comeback alive, as he outwork and out landed the Seattle, WA native, Walter “2 Guns” Wright in front of a sold out hometown crowd at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island en route to an ten round unanimous decision victory by scores of 98-93, 100-90 and 97-93. “Unfinished Business” was sponsored by Jimmy Burchfield`s Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc.

“I`d give myself a B- tonight. I`m glad I won, however, I wanted to fight better tonight and get a knockout in front of all my fans, but it just didn`t happen” said Manfredo Jr. the runner up on season of the Contender. “It was difficult fight for me because I trained for Joey Spina who is a strong powerful puncher and then three weeks before the fight, Spina got hurt and I had to train for a totally different fighter with a very different fighting style in Wright who is a slick counter puncher. I`m professional and I made the best of the situation.”

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Adrien Broner Arrested for Battery

broner4By John G. Thompson: Another black eye for boxing comes not in the ring but in the antics of one of the sport’s most promising young champions. Adrien “The Problem” Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) spent a little time in jail on Monday after being arrested in Miami Beach, Florida on battery charges. Broner posted his mug shot on Instagram briefly, before removing it. The mug shot showed his booking time (10:13 am) and his bond amount was set at $1,500. So far details of the “battery” have not surfaced. As of now, it appears that Broner posted the bond and was released.

Broner tweeted at about 7:30 EST that evening, “They tried to keep a nigga locked down in MIA.”

At just twenty-three years of age, Broner is the current WBC lightweight champion having moved up from the super featherweight division, where he briefly ruled as the WBO champ. Broner won the WBC belt from Antonio DeMarco in December of 2012 in a dominant performance some view as his “coming out party,” and defended it in his most recent bout this past February, again dominating his opponent en route to a victory by stoppage.

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