Leo Santa Cruz Impresses In Boxing’s Return To Network Television

Alberto Guevara vs Leo Santa Cruz Photos by Tom Casino/SHOWTIME and Esther Lin/SHOWTIME — Professional boxing returned to the CBS Television Network on Saturday afternoon for the first time in 15 years. In SHOWTIME Sports presentation of “SHOWTIME BOXING on CBS,” unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz capped a spectacular year by retaining his International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Bantamweight Championship with an exciting and closely contested 12-round unanimous decision win over previously unbeaten Alberto Guevara, live on CBS from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KO’s), of Los Angeles, won the lone bout on the CBS broadcast, the network’s first since Bernard Hopkins knocked out Glen Johnson on Jan. 20, 1997, by the scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112. Making his initial start in the United States, Guevara (16-1, 6 KO’s) of San Diego, Calif., made it close for six rounds but couldn’t sustain his momentum as Santa Cruz came on strongly to close the show.

Santa Cruz was making the third defense of the IBF 118-pound title he won with a 12-round decision over Vusi Malinga last June 2 on SHOWTIME®. In his two defenses, both also on SHOWTIME, he knocked out Eric Morel and Victor Zaleta in September and November, respectively.

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Can Amir Khan reclimb to the summit?

By Frank Walsh: Amir Khan’s career hung in the balance as he made his way to trade leather with fellow pugilist Carlos Molina. In truth this was set up as a winnable fight for Khan, against an undefeated fighter with flaws that played to Khan’s strengths.

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Donaire destroys Arce in 3rd round TKO!

Donaire_Arce_121215_001aBy Bill Phanco, Photo: Chris Farina – Top Tank — In a dreadful mismatch, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) totally annihilated a smaller and older Jorge Arce (61-7-2, 46 KO’s) in stopping him in the 3rd round in front of a large crowd at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Arce was down three times in the fight and put out of his misery with a hard left hook in the 3rd round that knocked him out.

Arce, 33, was down once in the 1st round and another two times in the 3rd round.In an interview after the fight. Arce said he was retiring. He made a reported $800,000 for the fight.

The first knockdown occurred in the 1st round when Donaire bumped into Arce, sending him to the canvas. The referee blew the call and scored it as a knockdown. Arce did very little in the round and just looked like he was afraid to get hit.

In the 2nd, Arce came out a lot more aggressive and was immediately dropped by a right hand from Donaire. After the knockdown, Arce was a little more aggressive as the took the fight to Donaire, but the action was still largely controlled by Donaire with his left hook, jabs and occasional rights.

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Pacquiao vs. Marquez 5 possible for Cowboy Stadium in 2013

By Rob Smith: It’s being reported that the Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) vs. Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) 5th fight for 2013 may be headed to the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas rather than Las Vegas, Nevada, where it’s taken place in four of the previous bouts between the two fighters.

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Abraham, Culcay and Sprott Score Wins In Germany

Abraham_BouadlaPictures: Photo Wende — WBO Super-Middleweight Champion Arthur Abraham ends the year with a bang. Abraham proved that he is back at the top after defeating Mehdi Bouadla by TKO in round eight in Nuremberg, Germany on Saturday night. The 7.000 fans in attendance witnessed a great performance by the titlist, who presented them with an early Christmas gift.

Abraham began the fight forceful. The prodigy of coach Ulli Wegner pressurized Bouadla right from the get go, just like he did in his fight against Robert Stieglitz on August 25. Powerful jabs found their way through the defense of the French challenger. Right towards the end of round one the champion let loose a salvage of heavy blows, which got Bouadla into trouble and the crowd rising from their seats and chanting Abraham’s name.

But the hard hitting titleholder did not only rely on his power and high volume of punches. By constantly switching his target from head to body, he was eager to keep the challenger guessing as to where he would attempt to hit him next.

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Groves defeats Johnson in one-sided fight

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By Michael Collins: Sometimes you have to wonder why fights like this get put together in the first place. Tonight, unbeaten #2 WBO, #4 WBC, #7 WBA, #8 IBF Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (16-0, 12 KO’s) successfully defended his domestic level title against a way his best his prime 43-year-old Glen Johnson (51-18-2, 35 KO’s) in winning a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 120-107, 120-107 and 119-109 at the ExCel Arena, Dockland, in London, United Kingdom.

This fight had mismatch written all over it before the fight was even made, because Johnson had been retired and lost four out of his last five fights coming into the bout. Groves had predicted that he would knock Johnson out, but he never came close to doing that despite trying hard to stop Johnson in every round.

Groves unloaded everything but the kitchen sink on Johnson in rounds 1, 6, 7 and 12, but he didn’t go anywhere. But what Groves did show in going all out was a lack of discipline because he didn’t seem to have a clue that all that he was doing was hitting gloves for the most part, and leaving himself open for huge shots from Johnson. I lost track of all the times that Johnson tagged Groves with shots that would have knocked him cold if Johnson was a little younger.

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Pacquiao turns 34 today

By Rob Smith: Former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) turns 34 today, Monday, December 17th, and his career seems to be floundering despite not being all that old. Pacquiao has lost his last two fights and was viciously knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez recently.

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Khan beats Molina, calls out Danny Garcia after fight

003KhanvictoryIMG_5867By Steve Mabbot,Photos: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME – Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) picked up the WBC Silver light welterweight strap tonight with a nice 10th round stoppage win over Carlos Molina (17-1, 7 KO’s) on Showtime television. After the fight an excited Khan said “I’m ready to fight Danny Garcia anytime, anyplace.”

It was Garcia that knocked Khan out last July in the 4th round. Khan hasn’t enjoyed the sting of the loss, as he said tonight “He [Garcia] got lucky. He caught me with a good shot.”

Khan doesn’t look ready to be fighting Garcia right now, because Molina was able to hit him frequently in the early rounds with left hooks and right hands. If Molina was three inches taller and had the power of Garcia, I have no doubts that Khan would have been knocked out again because Khan was leaving himself open a lot when throwing his flurries.

Khan did box more in the fight, but he was still throwing a lot of flurries in each round that would give someone like Garcia plenty of opportunities to knock him out again if Khan were to fight like that in a rematch with him.

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Hopkins to challenge Cloud for IBF 175 lb title on 3/9 in Brooklyn

By Bill Phanco: 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) faces IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KO’s) on March 9th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hopkins wants to win another world title, and he’ll be 48 by the time this fight takes place, making him one of the oldest world champions.

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