Mayweather vs Guerrero: May 4th and Why People Still Love Boxing

mayweather500 By Julius Stecker: Boxing has always been the one sport that has separated itself from all others. There is a reason why you will have a boxing movie every 4 or 5 up for an Academy Award. Why do people still love Rocky? Why did people care about Micky Ward? Why do people still talk about Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson? The reasons are not because of jabs, left hooks, hand speed, and or defense. The explanations for this are boxing provides us with the ultimate life metaphor.

It grants us with the underdog and the survival stories, it gives us the drama of one of one combat, and it provides for the individual who participates in it a legacy to remember and possible great financial reward. May 4th will give us all of this and more. We will have a prohibitive underdog in Robert the Ghost Guerrero. Guerrero’s personal family struggle with the scourge of cancer will not leave a dry eye in the building, once the world finds out what they had to go through to get this opportunity.

It will have perhaps the greatest prize fighter (Floyd Mayweather Jr.) of the last 25 years involved. He will be attempting to continue on his stellar legacy and once again send another challenger back to where he came, while keeping his undefeated record. The event could have the best undercard match-up of the last decade. Canelo Alvarez, perhaps boxing’s brightest young budding star, will possibly be taking on boxing’s most underrated champion Austin Trout in a Jr. Middleweight unification bout.

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Andrew Golota returns to face Przemyslaw Saleta

by Geoffrey Ciani – Andrew Golota is a poster boy for unfulfilled potential in boxing. His unique adventures through the heavyweight rankings were interesting, unpredictable, and sometimes downright bizarre—and apparently his journey is not yet finished. This Saturday, 45 year old Golota (41-8-1, 33 KOs) will step inside the squared circle for the first time in more than three years when he is pitted against fellow Pole, Przemyslaw Saleta (43-7, 21 KOs). Saleta himself turns 45 this March and has not seen action in over seven years, effectively rendering this into a pick’em fight between two old war horses both absent from the battlefield for quite some time.

The boxing history books will show that Golota was unsuccessful in four bids for portions of the heavyweight crown, one against each of the four major sanctioning alphabet organizations. These were bookended by devastating first round knockout losses at the hands of Lennox Lewis (WBC) in October 1997 and Lamon Brewster (WBO) in May 2005. In between he had a solid showing in a twelve round draw against Christ Byrd (IBF) in April 2004, and followed that up with a good account of himself in a somewhat controversial loss against John Ruiz (WBA) that November. Even though he failed to secure a title belt in ‘04, many observers felt that Golota did well enough to deserve a victory in both contests.

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Ricky Burns vs. Miguel Vazquez WILL take place on March 16th

la foto Photo: Vazquez with manager and trainer Javier Capetillo holding a signed bout agreement

By Jeff Sorby: Contrary to the news that came out yesterday about IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez saying a fight between him and WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns isn’t a done deal for March 16th, Frank Warren Promotions, the promoter for Burns, is saying the fight is going to take place on that date.

East Side Boxing has obtained an a signed letter of acceptance from Vazquez’s promoter Juan Carlos Torres of Zanfer Promotions that confirms the agreement for the Burns-Vazquez fight on March 16th. The acceptance was signed on January 10th, 2013.

East Side Boxing also obtained an e-mail from Torres to Frank Warren Promotions matchmaker Dean Powell on January 10th that confirms the fight four days prior to Mr. Warren announcement of the fight in a press conference in London.

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Tyson Fury vs Steve Cunningham on April 20 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden

fury544 Explosive 6’9″ heavyweight contender and former unbeaten, Irish, Commonwealth and British Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury, 20-0, 14 KO’s, will make his New York debut on Saturday afternoon, April 20th when he takes on former cruiserweight World Champion Steve USS Cunningham, 25-5, 12 KO’s, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

This fight is an official IBF Heavyweight Voluntary Eliminator fight for the #2 position between #9, Tyson Fury and #12, Steve Cunningham. The winner will become #2 and must meet #1 or the leading available contender to establish the mandatory challenger for Heavyweight King Wladimir Klitschko. The fight will be broadcast at 4PM ET on NBC as a special 2 hour afternoon presentation of NBC Sports Fight Night.

“Cunningham’s got all the tools; a former World Champion, good fighter, he’s got a lot of skill. I’m looking to put on a devastating performance; the best of my career to date.” said Fury. “I’m absolutely ecstatic to be fighting at Madison Square Garden; it goes back in history and I can’t wait to put my name with a long list of Champions who have fought there – I’m a historian of boxing myself so this is definitely the pinnacle of my career so far.”

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Malik Scott: “I’m in awesome shape and I’m ready to go put my hands on Glazkov this week”

Exclusive Interview by Charles C. White

How’s it going Malik?

What’s up bro? Everything is great. I’m in awesome shape and I’m ready to go put my hands on Glazkov this week.

So you’re scheduled to fight Vyacheslav Glazkov on February 23rd. How are your preparations going ahead of this bout?

My preparation for this fight was very intensely simple if you understand what I mean by that. But if you don’t, what it mean is whatever hurt the most I did the most. Everything that is considered a so-called weakness of mine I did it repetitiously until all the jagged edges was smoothed out. The product is done and now I cannot wait for the world to see “King” Scott this upcoming Saturday.

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Redemption: Peterson vs. Holt Or… We Shall Overcome

by Chip Mitchell: On Friday February 22, 2013, Lamont “Havoc” Peterson defends his IBF Light Welterweight title against Kendall “Rated R” Holt. The fight will be the main event on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. Co-promoted by Gary Shaw Productions and Headbanger Promotions, this showcase represents redemption in a way for both fighters, as they each have had taut moments over the past few years. Boxing wouldn’t be the sport that it is today without some form of turbulence.

Lamont Peterson
For Lamont Peterson, it never seems to come easy. He was homeless on the streets of Washington, DC with his brother Anthony for a few years. While some of Lamont’s 12 siblings moved in with friends, Lamont and Anthony moved on to survive alone. They were forced to sleep in bus stations, abandoned cars, or anywhere they could find. Lamont wasn’t even 11 years old during this time. He took the leadership role, as he often fought to protect his younger brother.

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Mayweather faces Guerrero on 5/4; Floyd signs with Showtime/CBS

By Jeff Sorby: Floyd Mayweather Jr. has signed a six-fight deal Showtime/CBS to televise his pay per view fights. HBO attempted to keep Mayweather by making “an aggressive offer” according to Dan Rafael, but it wasn’t enough. The six-fight deal is for 30 months, which means Mayweather is going to have to be a little more active than he’s been lately.

Fighting once a year isn’t going to get the job done if Mayweather is to get all six fights done in just 30 months.

Mayweather’s adviser Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN “HBO, they made a great offer, but Showtime PPV/CBS was substantially greater in every facet. So bottom line, HBO was outgunned. They came to a gun fight with a knife.”

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A Period of Transition in the Heavyweight Division

547 By Michael Montero – This Saturday will be an important one in the heavyweight landscape, featuring big step up bouts for prospects from three different parts of the world. In Huntington, New York, American Malik Scott (35-0) faces Ukrainian Vyacheslav Glazkov (14-0), while on the other side of the pond; Englishman David Price (15-0) squares off against American veteran Tony Thompson (36-3) in Liverpool. For Scott, a pro since 2000 who’s been ridiculed for never stepping up, it’s the moment of truth. For Glazkov, a bronze medalist in the 2008 Beijing games, this is his second straight bout on American airwaves and easily the biggest test in his short pro career. And for Price, the 6’8” giant (himself a former bronze medalist), an empathic win over Thompson puts him on the fast track for an eventual title shot.

This is a microcosm of things to come. Things are changing in the heavyweight division. New history is being written, yet old history is being repeated. It’s all part of a cycle: weak, average and strong eras – with the occasional golden era sprinkled in every few generations – only to collapse and repeat again. One could argue that the years following Lennox Lewis’ retirement were an average era, with quality fighters like Chris Byrd, Lamon Brewster, Hasim Rahman, Andrew Golota, both Klitschkos and several others, but no clear owner of the division. In recent years we’ve suffered through a weak era, with the Klitschko brothers having cleaned out the entire division and seemingly no willing, proven, legitimate challenge for the alpha dogs. Yet things are shaping up to start getting pretty damn interesting over the next few years, and fans all over the world are getting excited.

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Bute-Pascal to fight, possibly on May 25th

bute2 By Jeff Sorby: Jean Pascal (27-2-1, 16 KO’s) and former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) have agreed for a fight that could take place in May, possibly on May 25th or at a later date. The fight will take place at 175, so Bute will have to move up in weight to make this happen.

It makes a lot of sense for Bute to be moving up, and staying up that weight because his chances of finding success in the weak light heavyweight division is a lot better than it is if he stays at 168.

Bute was stopped last May in the 5th round by Carl Froch, and the way that Bute was beaten suggests that the results would be the same if he fought Froch again. If Bute can’t hang with Froch, then it’s highly likely he won’t be able to hang with the likes of Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler and Arthur Abraham.

The Bute-Pascal fight will be absolutely huge because both of these fighters typically sell out each time they fight in Montreal, and this is going to be much bigger given that they’re facing each other. They’re talking about possibly staging the fight at the Bell Centre, Olympic Stadium, or an outdoor football stadium in Quebec.

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Broner is too good for Burns, says Hearn

By Michael Collins: Promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s seen the light after watching WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) obliterate his fighter Gavin Rees (37-2-1, 18 KO’s) in a methodical fashion last Saturday night. Hearn had doubts about Broner beforehand, but afterwards he realized what huge talent Broner is.

Hearn doesn’t see anyone in the lightweight division that has the talent to beat Broner right now, not even WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns.

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