Bryan Vera: “I want Gennady Golovkin on March 30th after I’m victorious on FNF”

vera2 By Joseph Herron – After WBA Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin’s methodical and impressive seven round destruction of customary Junior Middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado on January 19th, the Kazakhstani’s promoter, Tom Loeffler and K2, issued a statement announcing that the stone-fisted title holder would follow up his TKO performance on March 30, 2013.

While a challenger for the upcoming event has not yet been determined, perennial Middleweight contender and Texas native Bryan Vera (21-6, 12 KOs) has declared a genuine interest in facing the most avoided fighter in the packed 160 pound weight class.

“That’s the fight we originally wanted,” claims the 31 year old fighter. “We were being considered for the January 19th slot but ultimately didn’t land the fight. Team Golovkin and HBO decided to go with Gabriel Rosado instead. But we’re still hopeful that a championship opportunity against Gennady will happen in the near future. I would really love that fight.”

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Lying In Weight

By Alden “The Kid” Chodash – You might’ve noticed that the last time the recognized heavyweight champion of the world was not a giant (with the exception of Hasim Rahman’s short reign in 2001) was in 1994 when Michael Moorer briefly carried the title. And that’s unfortunate, because in a division where a weight limit does not exist, smart managers are more than encouraged to seek bigger as a viable alternative to better. For example, if the question of whether Wladimir Klitschko or Rocky Marciano was the better fighter was raised in a room full of boxing aficionados, it would be quite obvious that Marciano would unanimously get the nod. However, if the question was who would win a hypothetical match-up between those two fighters, they might not be so certain. And this indicates simply that the best heavyweights in the world today aren’t the best fighters in the division anymore, but rather, the hardest to beat.

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Ghana’s Lartei Lartey eyes world glory after winning first US title

By Prince Dornu-Leiku: After beating Michael “Slick” Anderson in front of Anderson’s hometown fans in Newark, New Jersey, USA on Saturday night, January 19, 2013, Ghanaian Emmanuel ‘Ice Cold’ Lartei Lartey has expressed his willingness to take on the best welterweights in the world following his annexation of the WCB USCB Welterweight belt.

Undefeated Lartey who now resides in The Co-Op City section of the Bronx, New York was so dominant over Anderson at the Robert Treat Hotel, Newark, New Jersey that the three judges had no choice than to dole out the unanimous decision, 97-92, 97-93 and 97-93 which ringside observers hinted wasn’t even that close.

“I knew Michael Anderson would be tough, but we watched video of him and knew our best chance was to take him into the later rounds,” said Lartei Lartey, who raised the USCB belt and showed his happiness.

He added: “This is what I came for (referring to the belt). When I saw the bout I knew I was going to give my all and win it. You were going to have to kill me in the ring to get me out of there.”
His opponent concurred that the Ghanaian was one cut for more success in the ring.

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Mark de Mori: “I wanted to focus on weight training and build my body into a heavyweight wrecking machine.”

By Dan Emicus

Having previously been an Australian football player, what made you want to switch to boxing?

I really enjoyed Australian rules football and it is the most popular sport by far in Australia, so I was surrounded with it. However, when I first saw some tapes of Muhammed Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, I became obsessed with boxing. While I was a natural at most sports, boxing was not something that came easily, but I was determined to do it.

It’s been said that you idolised Mike Tyson. Was it the explosive KOs, or did you also come to admire him stylistically?

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Montana Boxing Legend Marvin Camel – First Cruiserweight Champion of the World

By Brian D’Ambrosio – Marvin Camel started off the bout on 3/31/1980 for the WBC Cruiserweight title picking up where he left off in their first encounter – a brutally unfair draw on his opponent’s home territory of Yugoslavia. He flicked out a stiff right jab and scored hard body shots. Mate Parlov retreated and lost the first pair of rounds. After a sluggish, indecisive third round, Parlov stepped up the aggression in the next three, countering effectively.

In the sixth, Parlov cut Camel’s left cheek near the sideburn. Despite the chants and flag-waving of a small contingent of his countrymen, Parlov could not sustain his advantage. After an even seventh, the rest was controlled by Camel except for the fifteenth when an ugly gash below Camel’s eyebrow caused him to lose that round.

Pleasing to the Las Vegas crowd crammed with many of his home state Montana fans, Camel re-established his right jab in the eighth round and dictated the rest of the fight with his most dependable asset. As the fight progressed, Camel discovered that he could deliver this punch to its target from a crouch, and that Parlov could not counter effectively when Camel was in this stance.

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Salido suffers broken orbital bone in loss to Garcia

By Bill Phanco: Orlando Salido may have been fighting with right broken orbital bone from the 1st round in his 8th round technical decision loss to Mikey Garcia last Saturday night. Salido’s manager Sean Gibbons has confirmed with espn that Salido broke his orbital bone in the fight. The fight was stopped after the 8th round because Garcia broke his nose from an accidental head-clash with Salido during the 8th. The judges gave Garcia the victory by the scores 79-70, 79-69 and 79-69.

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Pacquiao offered $10 mil to fight in Dubai, says Roach

pac562 By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao has apparently been offered $10 million to fight in Dubai in April, according to his trainer Freddie Roach. The offer was made by an unknown caller that contacted Roach and attempted to make a deal with him instead of Pacquiao’s management.

Roach said to Sport360 “I got a phone call from someone in Dubai on Monday, who offered $10 million for Manny to fight there in April, but I told him to call Bob Arum because I don’t make his [Pacquiao] fights; I just get him ready. A place like Dubai for a fight would be great. It’s a great location for pay per view TV networks.”

Dubai is pretty nice, and I bet Arum liking the idea of getting the tax situation there compared to the United States. However, there’s no telling if this is real offer. It could have just been a crank phone call to Roach to mess with him, Pacquiao and Arum by getting their hopes up for nothing. If it is a real offer, though, you can bet that Arum will seriously consider it because I doubt he’s going to find anything comparable for Pacquiao’s April fight.

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Rios-Alvarado negotiations moving slowly

By Kevin Chittenden: Negotiations between WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado are reportedly moving slowly for their March 30th rematch that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants. According to RingTV, the two haven’t agreed on the money split for the fight and that’s causing the negotiations to slow. Rios says he’d like to face one of the following fighters instead: Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia, Tim Bradley or Amir Khan.

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Mayweather’s next opponent to be finalized this week, Guerrero possible

floyd By Rob Smith: Lance Pugmire from the LA Times is reporting that Golden Boy Promotions CEO is expected to be finalizing Floyd Mayweather Jr’s May 4th opponent by the end of this week. Schaefer’s not saying who it is. Some fans think it’s Robert Guerrero, while others see Saul “Canelo” Alvarez getting the fight.

Mayweather said the talk of him fighting Guerrero is merely a rumor, but Mayweather isn’t about to say anything right now to mess up negotiations. It probably works in his favor if he plays innocent about the Guerrero because it could make him more desperate to agree to the terms Mayweather and his team wants for the fight.

The options for Mayweather’s May 4th fight are these guys: Saul Alvarez, Guerrero and Tim Bradley. Each one brings Mayweather a certain advantage if he were to fight them. Alvarez brings the most money of the three by far, but he also is the most dangerous of the bunch. Guerrero brings less money but he’s more beatable due to his lack of power and his wide open brawling style of fighting that will no doubt give Mayweather tons of opportunities for him to counter him.

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Mayweather claims his fight with Guerrero is just a rumor

By Rob Smith: Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t ready to admit that he’s fighting Robert Guerrero on May 4th despite almost entire boxing world already suspecting that he will be. On his twitter today, Mayweather said “As of right now I don’t know who I’m fighting on May 4th. Me fighting Robert Guerrero is just a rumor.”

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