Khan beats Molina, calls out Danny Garcia after fight

003KhanvictoryIMG_5867 By 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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Abraham stops Bouadla in 8th!

By Marcus Richardson, photo by Wende — In his first defense of his WBO super middleweight title Arthur Abraham (36-3, 28 KO’s) put in an impressive performance in stopping #14 WBO Mehdi Bouadla (26-5, 11 KOs) in the 8th round on Saturday night at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany. Bouadla was cut on the right eyelid in the 7th, and it was giving him major problems in the 8th round at the time the fight was halted. Bouadla was just taking one-way punishment in that round when the referee wisely stepped in and halted the fight.

In rounds one through four, Abraham attacked Bouadla with punches in bunches and then would tire out and then let Bouadla have an opportunity to land his own shots. Surprisingly, Bouadla turned out to be a very respectable puncher and it was an eye opener to see him unloading on Abraham. The last time I had seen Bouadla fight against Mikkel Kessler last year, Bouadla wasn’t able to lay a glove on Kessler and was quickly taken out in a 6th round stoppage. But against Abraham, Bouadla landed a lot of heavy shots. Part of the reason for that is the 5’9″ Abraham’s lack of size, but the other reason was that Abraham kept allowing Bouadla to have chances to land his shots by backing up to the ropes.

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Khan defeats Molina; Wilder, Angulo, Santa Cruz win

khan56 By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) stopped a badly overmatched, undersized, and underpowered 5’6′ Carlos Molina (17-1, 7 KO’s) in the 10th round on Saturday night to win the vacant WBC Silver light welterweight title at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. The fight was halted after the 10th by Molina’s corner.

Khan really dominated this fight with his size and speed, as he rarely gave the much shorter and weaker Molina opportunities to land his shots.

Khan’s promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions seemed to stumble over his words when interviewed after the fight and asked if he’d be interested in matching Khan with WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia. Schaefer said that Garcia has a fight in February and that he plans on getting Khan back in the ring in April.

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Pascal defeats Kuziemski; Lemieux stops Ayrapetyan

By Rob Smith: Fighting with only one hand from the 4th round after injuring his left shoulder in the 4th, Jean Pascal (27-2-1, 16 KO’s) was able to defeat Aleksy Kuziemski (23-5, 7 KO’s) by a pretty one-sided 10 round unanimous decision tonight at the at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. The victory will now set Pascal up with a rematch against WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson next March if Pascal’s injured left shoulder heals. The judges scored the fight 100-88, 98-90 and 98-90. Pascal knocked Kuziemski down in the 6th and the 10th round rounds from hard right hand.

Pascal hurt his left hand when he attempted to throw a left hook in the 4th and his arm got caught on one of the ring straps that support the ropes. Luckily for Pascal, Kuziemski was far away from him when he got his arm caught because arm was caught on the strap and he had to untangle it. From that point on, Pascal was forced to fight with only his right hand. Had he been fighting someone with good power and boxing ability, Pascal would have lost the fight because he telegraphed everything he threw and almost defenseless because he couldn’t block shots with his left arm. When he would attempt to raise his arm you could see that it was causing him pain. Fortunately for him, Kuziemski didn’t have the offensive weapons to take full advantage of Pascal’s injury.

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Marquez tests negative for PEDS; he beat Pacquiao fair and square

By Rob Smith: For those fans who were hoping that Juan Manuel Marquez would test positive for performance enhancing drugs so that it would help deflate the impact of his impressive knockout performance against Manny Pacquiao, they got bad news today with the Nevada State Athletic Commission revealing that Marquez – and Pacquiao’s – tests came up negative for PEDs. The only thing you can say now is that Marquez beat Pacquiao fair and square on his talent alone. He did get help with his training with his excellent trainer Nacho Beristain and other team members such as strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia, but there’s nothing illegal with what Marquez did.

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Deontay Wilder battles Kelvin Price tonight

By Michael Collins: Two giant 6’7” heavyweights Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s) and Kelvin Price (13-0, 6 KO’s) battle it out tonight in a fight for the vacant WBC Continental Americas heavyweight title at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. The two of them have vastly different fighting style, however, with Wilder throwing pure power shots, and Price more of a pure boxer with limited power.

Price does have decent power, but it’s nothing like the kind that Wilder. There’s no comparison in that regard. Wilder is one of those rare heavyweights with classic one-punch knockout power in either hand, and if he connect on Price’s chin he’s going to put him on the canvas. That’s a given for this fight. Price will do down.

The only question is whether Price can get up and resume his safety first boxing style. He’s someone that will be looking to jab his way to a decision, because he’s not going to be looking to throw too many actual punches at Wilder because it’s just not safe to that. If Price starts throwing power shots, he’s going to leave himself open for Wilder’s monster shots.

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Arce: I’m going to KO Donaire like the way Marquez did Pacquiao

By Ed Patrick: Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) is predicting a knockout win on Saturday night in his fight against WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Arce, 5’4”, is a huge underdog in this fight and few boxing fans believe him capable of beating the faster, stronger, taller and younger Donaire. If Arce is going to win it’s going to be a huge upset because he doesn’t look capable of pulling it off.

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Abraham faces Bouadla tonight in Germany

By Jeff Sorby: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (35-3, 27 KO’s) makes a defense of his title tonight against Mehdi Bouadla (26-4, 11 KO’s) at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany. This shouldn’t be too tough of a fight for the 32-year-old Abraham because Bouadla, 5’8”, doesn’t have the size, speed, power or the boxing ability to do what other fighters did one after to Abraham in the Super Six tournament in his embarrassing attempt at competing against the best at 168.

Bouadla has very limited size, and he’s about as tall as the average welterweight, but he’s fighting at super middleweight. For Abraham, 5’9”, Bouadla is perhaps the only fighter he’s faced at 168 that he’s got a height advantage over. Not being big is going to create a lot of problems for Bouadla because It’s going to mean that he’ll have to stand and trade with Abraham, and that’s probably not going to go well for Bouadla.

Bouadla got apart last year when he stepped it up a couple levels in terms of competition in his fight with Mikkel Kessler. Bouadla was destroyed in only six rounds by Kessler, who looked like he was toying with him the entire time. It was effortless for Kessler because Bouadla was short and didn’t have the speed or power to make a fight of it.

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Khan in make or break fight against Molina

By Marcus Richardson: Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) is limping into his fight tomorrow night against Carlos Molina still licking his wounds from his last two fights against Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia. Khan lost both of those fights and looked like a fighter that didn’t have the talent to fight at the top level. Khan has now dumped his trainer Freddie Roach and replaced him with Virgil Hunter. Khan thinks that Hunter can turn his career around, and lead him to another world title.

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