By Jeff Sorby: Unbeaten Evgeny Gradovich (16-0, 8 KO’s) unseated IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib (35-2, 21 KO’s) on Friday night in beating him by a 12 round split decision on Friday Night Fights at the Foxwoods Resort, in Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA.
The judges had it scored 114-112 and 114-112 for Gradovich, and 114-112 for Dib. Gradovich took the action to Dib, backing him up constantly throughout the fight, and hitting him nonstop. The fight likely would have been a lot more one-sided than it already was had the referee not broken up the action quite so often.
It was like watching a replay of the Marcos Maidana vs. Amir Khan fight where the referee kept pulling Maidana off Khan while he was trying to finish off Khan on the inside.
By Paul Strauss: Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.’s fans are crying foul. They feel their hero is being unfairly singled out and picked on for doing something as simple as smoking a joint(s). What’s the big deal they say? It’s not like he is engaging in blood doping, or using some other performance enhancing drug. After all, marijuana just makes you mellow, right?
By Joseph Herron: As the time tested axiom states, “all good things come to those who wait”. Unfortunately, the waiting period is often the most difficult part of being a prizefighter.
by Matthew Rhodes
By Jeff Sorby: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) has decided to pull out of the May 4th card on Showtime/CBS pay per view after failing to get Floyd Mayweather Jr. to agree to fight him on September 14th. That was the condition that the 22-year-old Canelo set for Mayweather Jr. in order to fight on his undercard and help pump up the PPV numbers.