Maskaev impressive in beating Beck

maskaev3 By Rob Smith: Former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev (37-7, 28 KO’s) didn’t look half bad in defeating Owen Beck (29-12, 20 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO on Sunday night at the Sports Palace in Moscow, Russia. Maskaev put Beck down three times in the fight in stopping him in the 3rd round at 2:59.

Beck was knocked down once in the 1st and twice more in the 2nd round from big shots from Maskaev. The finisher came from a short right hand from Maskaev that put Beck down. To Beck’s credit, he did make it back to his feet but he was unable to stand without swaying from side to side and then caused the referee Viktor Panin to stop the fight.

Maskaev hadn’t fought since being stopped in the 1st round by Nagy Aguilera in December 2009. That’s a long time to go in between fighting for someone Maskaev’s age, but he looked good.

It’s unclear how far Maskaev can go in the division. He’ll have to be matched carefully for him to be able to get a title shot, because I have a feeling if they put Maskaev in with someone of decent quality, he’ll get stopped again.

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Saul Alvarez could fight on Mayweather undercard on May 4th

By Brad Cronick: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) is rumored to be fighting on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight on May 4th next year but nothing is confirmed on that end as of yet. Alvarez is hoping that he’ll get the fight with Mayweather on that date but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen. It’s possible but not probable because Robert Guerrero’s name has been the one mentioned as the likely opponent for Mayweather.

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If Burns doesn’t face Adrien Broner in 2013 then A.B should forget about him

By Michael Collins: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) has had two opportunities to face unbeaten Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) and on both occasions he chose not to face him. The first time was last year when Burns held the WBO super featherweight title and Broner was in line to face him as his mandatory challenger.

Burns then complained about having difficulties making weight and then moved up to 140 and was given the WBO lightweight title. Next, Burns, after beating Kevin Mitchell and Paulus Moses, he was given another chance to fight Broner on February 16th. Burns instead decided not to take the fight and instead he’ll likely be defending his WBO 135 lb strap in late January.

In the meantime, Broner will be facing British contender Gavin Rees on February 16th in what pretty much amounts to being a sick mismatch at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. If Broner comes through that fight without a scratch, he could be fighting on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. undercard on May 4th. Right now, he’s still penciled in due to his February 16th fight being so close to that date. Unless he massacres Rees like many boxing fans think he will, it’ll be kind of risky to have him fighting only three months later.

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Adrien Broner fighting on Mayweather undercard on 5/4 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada

By Bill Phanco: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) will be on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fight on May 4th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Broner has a fight scheduled on February 16th next year against Gavin Rees, and he’s going to have to get through that fight without getting cut if he wants to fight three months later on the Mayweather Jr. card.

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Arum confirms Pacquiao-Marquez fight for 2013

By Rob Smith: In an interview, Bob Arum confirmed what pretty much everyone already knew that he’s going to look to put his fighter Manny Pacquiao back in the ring with Juan Manuel Marquez in 2013 if he can put the fight together.

Arum said in an interview with TMZ.com “We’re gonna, I think, do another fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. That was a great fight. He [Pacquiao] ran into a really good right hand, and we’ll see what happens next time.”

What happens next time could be bad for Pacquiao. Arum is making a mistake by putting his fighter back in the ring directly with Marquez without some kind of test against a lower level fighter to see if Pacquiao can handle getting hit.

Marquez is going to be looking to KO Pacquiao with every shot he throws and he already knows he can hurt him because he proved it twice last time. I think Arum is under the impression that this is the same Marquez that Pacquiao was controversial decisions in two of the three fights prior to their last one.

Marquez is a much different fighter now because he’s put on a lot of muscle and he’s hitting much harder. Pacquiao may have been giving Marquez some problems in the 5th and 6th rounds in their last fight, but Marquez was going to get to Pacquiao sooner or later.

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Gavin Rees Will Challenge Adrien Broner In Feb: Can “The Rock” Stop “The Problem?”

By James Slater – Welsh warrior Gavin Rees was understandably disappointed when his scheduled December rumble with John Murray fell apart due to the Manchester man failing a pre-fight medical, and the only thing that kept his spirits up was his promoter Eddie Hearn’s vow to get him a major title fight in early 2013. Well, Hearn (for my money 2012’s boxing promoter of the year) has delivered: getting “The Rock” a February 16th shot at reigning WBC lightweight king and current hotshot Adrien Broner.

Rees, the former WBA light-welterweight champ, wrote on Twitter: “Time for me to become a two-weight world champ.”

Hearn told BBC Sport that “terms have been agreed with the American’s camp, Golden Boy Promotions.”

As fans know, there was a chance undefeated Broner would face Scottish hero and current WBO lightweight boss Ricky Burns next, but that particularly intriguing match-up must go on the backburner, for now at least. Broner Vs. Rees is almost as exciting-looking a match-up though.

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Broner faces Rees in mismatch on February 16th

By Michael Collins: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) has an easy fight for his first defense of his WBC belt against Britain’s Gavin Rees (37-1-1, 18 KO’s) on February 16th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There’s really nothing interesting about this fight unless you like watching a guy that doesn’t belong in the same ring with Broner getting beaten up and knocked out.

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Pavlik-Bute in talks for a fight

By Jeff Sorby: Former WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik isn’t too happy about losing out on his fight with WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward, who had to pull out of his scheduled February 23rd fight after hurting his right shoulder in training.

Pavlik could be in the process of getting a much more winnable fight against former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in March or April next year. Pavlik’s manager has been in talks with Bute’s promoter Jean Bedard and thus far it’s looking good.

Both Pavlik and Bute are badly in need of a big win right now. Pavlik has done little with his career since losing to Sergio Martinez in 2010 by a 12 round decision in 2010. Pavlik has fought sparingly since then, mostly against C level opposition. Pavlik passed up the chance to fight Bute last year and instead chose Antonio Lopez, who almost beat him. Since then, Pavlik has really downgraded his opposition and has done a lot better.

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Krasniqi-Cleverly: Another easy fight for Nathan?

By Brad Cronick: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (25-0, 12 KO’s) will be facing his mandatory challenger Robin Krasniqi (39-2, 15 KO’s) on March 16th in the UK. This isn’t a fight that is attracting much interest as Krasniqi isn’t a big name and hasn’t faced anyone on the world stage yet like Cleverly.

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Brook: I’m bringing Devon Alexander’s title back to Britain

By Michael Collins: Unbeaten challenger Kell Brook (29-0, 19 KO’s) feels really confident and eager to get inside the ring to challenge IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) next year on February 23rd in their clash at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Brook said on his twitter “I’m going to be so ready. Get ready! I’m bringing a world title back to Britain!”

It’s not realistic that Brook will be bringing anything back to Britain other than a wounded ego after getting out-pointed or even possibly stopped by Alexander. You have to remember that Brook has faced such poor opposition his entire career and he finally was put in a little tough against Carson Jones last July, and he had major problems in that fight.

Jones gave Brook a real beating in the last seven rounds of that fight, and had him hurt in the 12th.

Brook thinks the reason why he struggled was because of his conditioning, but it looked more like the fact that Brook couldn’t handle meeting resistance.

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