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

bute54By 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

golovkinmedia-1By 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?

arum45By 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

stevenson323By 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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Pacquiao and Marquez in possible tune-up doubleheader on April 20th

marquez34By Rob Smith: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly interested in putting together separate tune-up bouts for his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in a pay per view doubleheader on April 20th, according to the Manila Bulletin. Pacquiao’s anxious to get back in the ring and his 90-day medical suspension will have expired by that point. The tune-up bouts would get Pacquiao and Marquez ready for a huge mega fight later on in the year in September if the two fighters agree to it.

Marquez still needs to say ‘yes’ to the idea of the April 20th doubleheader. Arum spoke with Marquez’s promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions and he’s going to be speaking with Marquez to see if he’s on board with this idea.

Arum likes the idea of the Pacquiao and Marquez doubleheader because it’ll get boxing fans interested in a fight between the two stars in September in what would be a fifth fight between them. It’s likely that their September fight will take place on the Mexican Independence day on September 14th or around the same time.

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Saul Alvarez looking to get Mayweather bout on September 14th

alvarez4534By Bill Phanco: Whether WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) fights on Golden Boy Promotion’s May 4th fight card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, may come down to whether Golden Boy can get him a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. later on in the year on September 14th.

According to fightnews.com, a source has reported that Alvarez hasn’t agreed yet to fight on the Mayweather pay per view undercard on May 4th against possibly WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout.

Apparently, the deal that Alvarez is looking for is a guaranteed fight against Mayweather Jr. on September 14th before he’ll agree to fight on the May 4th card. If Alvarez can’t get that deal then he’ll fight on another date. He could even fight in Mexico.

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Rees: I’m going to beat Broner; he can’t knock me out

rees45By Michael Collins: Former WBA light welterweight champion Gavin Rees (37-1, 18 KO’s) doesn’t see himself as an incredible underdog in his February 16th fight against WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s). Rees thinks he’ll beat him and then use the win to get a big unification bout against WBO champion Ricky Burns in 2013.

Rees said to livefight.com “I will win…this will put me on the map everywhere…It will open doors for a unification fight for me against Ricky Burns.”

You almost feel sorry for Rees because he’s going to be crushed in this fight. Here he is already looking at fights beyond the Broner fight as if the win is in the bag. It’s going to be tough on Rees to taste defeat and find out that he just doesn’t measure up.

Rees has been stopped once in his career in his loss to Andriy Kotelnik in 2008, but I think he’s going to be stopped again in this fight against Broner.

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Haye: I can give Vitali the mega-fight his resume is missing

haye324By Michael Collins: David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) still isn’t giving up in his seemingly hopeless pursuit of a big money fight against 41-year-old WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) despite the apparent lack of interest coming from the 6’7” Ukrainian. It seems like the more Vitali ignores Haye, the more Haye continues to talk up a fight between him and Vitali.

Haye said to the telegraph.co.uk “There’s nobody else in heavyweight division that can give RTL the viewing figures…But the bottom line is that he’s a fighter and hopefully he wants the fight the fans want. He’s never had that flagship fight, that one mega-fight that people will always remember him for.”

I don’t think Haye would be a fight that would make much of a serious impact on Vitali’s resume to tell you the truth. Having Haye on his resume would be pretty much about the same as having other guys like Shannon Briggs, Samuel Peter and Corrie Sanders.

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