ShoBox Results & Photos: Rios, Arnett Triumphant

001RamosvsRiosIMG_7186 Photos: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME – Ronny Rios (20-0, 9 KO’s), of Santa Ana, Calif., remained undefeated and captured the vacant NABF Featherweight Championship with a unanimous 10-round decision over former WBA Super Bantamweight World Champion Rico Ramos (21-2, 11 KO’s), of Los Angeles, in Friday’s main event on ShoBox: The New Generation from Fantasy Springs Resort Casino live on SHOWTIME®.

In a clash of unbeaten junior middleweights in the co-feature, Daquan Arnett (10-0, 6 KO’s), of Orlando, Fla., won an eight-round decision over hard-trying Brandon Quarles (10-1-1, 2 KO’s) of Alexandria, Va.

The doubleheader was featured on the first night of a Free Preview Weekend on SHOWTIME, which continues through tomorrow/Sunday, Jan. 13.

Rios, who turns 23 on Jan. 22, won his ShoBox debut and the biggest fight of his career by the scores of 100-90, 97-93 and 96-94. Arnett, 20, a Junior Olympic national champion, got the nod over Quarles by the scores of 78-73, 77-74 and 76-75. There were no knockdowns in either bout.

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Roach excited about Pacquiao vs. Marquez 5, thinks it’ll break all-time PPV mark

By Rob Smith: Freddie Roach doesn’t see the need for Manny Pacquiao to take any tune-up fights, and he just wants him back in the ring and ready to take on Juan Manuel Marquez for a fifth fight. Roach is excited about the fight because he thinks it’ll break the 2.4 million pay per view totals from the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. mark back in 2007. Those totals are the highest PPV mark ever in the sport, and Roach thinks Pacquiao-Marquez 5 will bust that record.

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Ronny Rios defeats Rico Ramos

by Charles R. Dorner, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime — Rico Ramos(21-1-0 11KO) vs Ronny Rios(19-0-9 9KO)

(INDIO, CALIFORNIA), 11 January 2012

Rd 1: both fighters open the round to cautiously. Rios is throwing a bunch of jabs. Ramos lands a nice hook-straight combo. Give the first to Rios based off of higher work rate.

10-9 Rios

Rd 2: both fighters still fighting cautiously, and not landing anything significant. Ramos is sitting back trying to counter punch as the round ends without either doing much damage. Hard round to score, but I will give it to Rios due to higher work rate.

10-9 Rios

Rd 3: Rios is throwing a bunch of punches, and Ramos is sitting back. Ramos seems to be feeling the effect by a combination landed by Rios as he shakes his head. Ramos is still sitting back trying to counter punch, but Rios is keeping too much distance.

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Brandon Gonzales vs Don Mouton: round by round

by Charles R. Dorner: Brandon Gonzales(17-0-1) vs Don Mouton(11-5-1)

Rd 1: Gonzales keeping Mouton at bay with the jab. mouton trying to find his way in unsuccessfully. Gonzales doubling the jab up and landing it frequently. Mouton having a hard time finding his way in. Mouton Finally gets in throws a few punch combo, but misses. Gonzales’ hand and foot speed seems to be the difference in the opening round. Mouton finishes then rd up on the ropes as Gonzales finishes up strong , as Gonzales lands a right hand at the bell.

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Pacquiao to fight in April; Singapore, Dubai or Macau possible locations

pac342 By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao’s next fight on April 20th likely won’t be in the United States. His team is looking at having his next fight take place in one of following sites in Asia: Singapore, Dubai or Macau. The reason for this is the lower tax burden that Pacquiao would have by having his fight staged there rather than in the U.S, where he’s been fighting for the past 11 years.

Juan Manuel Marquez had been mentioned as possibly being a part of Pacquiao’s April 20th card in a separate tune-up fight. However, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Konz told the Manila Bulletin at mb.com.ph, it would be “Extra expenses” if they put Marquez on the card, and that’s not likely to happen now.

They have someone they’re looking at to put Pacquiao in with Koncz says. On Thursday, there were reports that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is considering having Pacquiao fight either Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley. Whether Pacquaio will in fact face one of them is highly doubtful because those aren’t tune-up fights and it would be a huge risk for him to take on fighters of this talent level with a big money rematch with Marquez just over the horizon in September.

Arum can certainly make any fight he wants to, of course, because Top Rank is his promotional company, but it would be a dangerous move to put Pacquiao in with anyone that would have a chance of beating him at this point in his career with the Marquez rematch coming later this year. If this was a younger Pacquiao then it would be understandable because a prime Manny would easily take care of guys like Rios and Bradley. However, Pacquiao is starting to slow down now and he’s lost his last two fights.

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Bute could face Bika-Sjekloca winner for WBC 168 lb strap in the spring

bute54 By Michael Collins: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) could be facing the winner of the February 16th clash between Sakio Bika and Nikola Sjekloca. Those two fighters will be fighting for the interim WBC super middleweight title at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

There’s talk that the World Boxing Council will elevate the current WBC 168 pound champion Andre Ward to the WBC Emeritus status and then free up his WBC World super middleweight title for the Bika-Sjekloca winner to claim it. Bute then reportedly could be fighting the winner of that fight by spring this year, according to RDS.ca.

It would be really helpful for the 32-year-old Bute to pick up the WBC title because it would put him in a better position during negotiations for a rematch with IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch later on this year. Bute’s bargaining position would be a lot better if he’s a title holder than just a challenger without a belt.

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Golovkin-Rosado: Gennady with chance to prove he’s not just hype

By Jeff Sorby: Right now a lot of boxing fans believe that WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KO’s) isn’t as good as all the hype built up about him by his trainer Abel Sanchez and a number of boxing writers who think he walk on water.

To be sure, Golovkin does appear to hit hard, but he’s wide open defensively, he’s easy to hit, and he’s not very big for the weight class in comparison to the other top middleweights. Golovkin looks more like a junior middleweight than a legit middleweight. He’s able to make up for his lack of size by having good – not great – power.

Golovkin doesn’t look like he’s in the same class as Sergio Martinez or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and those are the guys that he badly wants to fight so that he can prove that he belongs in the same class as them.

Golovkin will be facing junior middleweight Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 KO’s) on January 19th at Madison Square Garden in New York. While most boxing fans see Rosado as having next to no chance in this fight, he still has a reasonably good chance of winning the fight if he can take Golovkin’s occasional bomb and land enough shots of his own to get the win. Golovkin took a lot of punishment in his fight with Kassim Ouma two years ago in stopping him in the 10th round, and Rosado is at least as good as Ouma is, if not better. Ouma was fighting Golovkin to a standstill at the time that Golovkin finally starched him in the 10th.

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Salido: I’m going to pressure Mikey Garcia until I KO him

By Kevin Chittenden: WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-11-2, 27 KO’s) thinks unbeaten #1 WBO Mikey Garcia (30-0, 26 KO’s) has never been in with anyone like him before and that he’ll fold under the constant pressure from him when they meet up on January 19th at Madison Square Garden in New York.

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Who will Arum match Pacquiao and Marquez up with on April 20th?

arum45 By Rob Smith: Bob Arum of Top Rank is interested in putting together a doubleheader on April 20th with Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez each fight separate tune-up fights on a pay per view card. Arum wants to get the boxing public interested in a September fifth fight between the two fighters.

A tune-up really isn’t needed for the 39-year-old Marquez because he looked really sharp on December 8th last month in stopping Pacquiao in the 6th round. But Pacquiao definitely needs a tune-up bout or two because he was badly knocked out and the Arum probably needs to make sure he’s okay by having him fight a safe opponent without any power to speak of.

With this being a tune-up fight I would figure that Arum would look to match Pacquiao against a weak punching 2nd tier fighter so there’s no risk of Pacquiao getting knocked out again, but I think Arum will want to keep the fight an in house Top Rank affair by matching him against one of his own fighters.

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Adonis Stevenson ready to fight for vacant IBF strap if Froch gives it up

By Michael Collins: #1 IBF mandatory challenger Adonis Stevenson (19-1, 16 KO’s) is still waiting to see what IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch will do next. Froch wants to fight WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler next, but the two fighters are still wrapped up in a tough negotiation. Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he expects this to be concluded this week. He’s going to have to make a decision at this time whether to fight Kessler and give up the IBF strap or face the dangerous Stevenson.

If Froch chooses to fight Kessler, then the IBF strap will be vacated by him and Stevenson will then fight one of three contenders for the vacant title. According to Steve Kim the options for Stevenson are as follows:

1. Edwin Rodriguez

2. Lucian Bute

3. Thomas Oosthuizen

Rodriguez is ranked #3, Bute #4 and Oosthuizen #5 by the International Boxing Federation. So it’ll be up to Rodriguez first if he wants to fight Stevenson for the vacant IBF 168 pound title. If he declines the fight, which I doubt he will, then Bute will be the next fighter to get a shot. It’s doubtful he’ll take the fight because it’s a high risk fight and he’ll likely wait to get his big money rematch against Carl Froch at some point in 2013.

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