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

broner34By 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

bute454341By 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

brook251By 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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First Annual “Gogue Awards” for the boxing year 2012 – Part III

alvarez922By Joseph Herron: After somewhat of an historic year in the world of boxing, expert fight strategist and prolific trainer James Gogue gives Eastsideboxing.com his exclusive insight into the best and worst of the sweet science during the year 2012.

Here’s a recap of the categories and winners that were published in Part I and II of the first annual “Gogue Awards”:

Fighter of the Year 2012 – Juan Manuel Marquez

Fight of the Year 2012 – Marquez KO6 Pacquiao, Dec 8th

Round of the Year 2012 – Rios vs. Alvarado, Round 5, Oct 13th

Upset of the Year 2012 – Lopez TKO9 Ortiz, June 23rd

KO of the Year 2012 – Marquez KO6 Pacquiao, Dec 8th

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Andre Ward will need shoulder surgery, fight with Kelly Pavlik off

ward3343By Bill Phanco: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) will reportedly require shoulder surgery on his right shoulder to fix a problem that occurred in late November while sparring to get ready for his fight with Kelly Pavlik.

It was originally thought that Ward’s injured shoulder would heal with rest, but unfortunately it’s not healing the way they thought it would and he’ll need surgery. Ward’s scheduled fight with Pavlik on February 23rd has been cancelled, and Pavlik’s manager Cameron Dunkin is reportedly looking in another direction. Steve Kim is reporting that Pavlik could face former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in March, although nothing was said about that from ESPN.

Pavlik should consider this a good thing that his fight with Ward is off, because he really didn’t have much of a chance to win the fight. It would have been bad for him unless he were to come up with a knockout to somehow negate Ward’s superior skills.

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Cameron Hammond: A rising talent from a land down-under

Interview by Chris Errington — Cameron ‘The Hammer’ Hammond is a huge emerging prospect in the junior-middleweight division. Only twenty three years of age, he’s already won a plethora of titles at both state and national level. He’s represented Australia at both the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (2010) and the Olympics in London (2012). On December 11th he won his first professional bout, a crushing TKO over China’s Zhi Xiang Jiang. Now fighting under the banner of Hatton Promotions Asia-Pacific, the future looks bright for the young man from Moree, New South Wales. Cameron has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to discuss his life and career so far.

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Haye: Vitali needs to fight me for his legacy

haye343434By Michael Collins: David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) thinks that WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko’s legacy won’t be impressive as it could be unless he faces his before he retires from boxing in the near future. Haye doesn’t think Vitali has had a true legacy-building fight during his 16-year-old career that boxing fans will remember.

Haye told Sky Sports News “He [Vitali] needs a fight people will actually remember, and the only recognized heavyweight out there is myself. He’s had 50 fights against nobodies. The only fight of his that people remember is the one against Lennox Lewis, which he lost.”

I’m all for Vitali building his legacy but there’s really no one in the top 15 right now that will help Vitali in that respect. Haye has already been easily beaten Wladimir Klitschko, so his scalp wouldn’t be worth much for Vitali at this point. It might have been before Wladimir beat Haye, but not now.

Fighters like Tyson Fury and David Price aren’t worth much for Vitali, because those fighters have been facing generally weak opposition.

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