Froch hoping nothing bad happens to Hatton tonight

Froch hoping nothing bad happens to Hatton tonight By Michael Collins: Ricky Hatton is taking a considerable risk in making a comeback tonight against Vyacheslav Senchenko after a long period of time out of the ring. IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch is just hoping that Hatton can come out of this fight in one piece and doesn’t get hurt like he was in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2009.

Speaking to the standard.co.uk, Froch said “If Ricky wants to come back that’s his decision. Good luck to him. But let’s just hope he is in as good shape as he looks and that he doesn’t get hurt.”

Hatton does look to be in outstanding condition judging by how good he looked during Friday’s weigh-in. However, there’s a big difference from being in good shape and being in fighting shape. Hatton looks like he’s taken off a lot of weight, but we don’t know how he’ll react when he starts taking head shots and how he’ll look once the fight goes past the 3rd round.

When you’ve got an older fighter that is making a comeback after years out of the ring like Hatton, they tend to look decent for about three rounds.

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Kwahu Tyson beats Okai to win Ghana Light Heavyweight title

By Prince Dornu-Leiku – Emmanuel Omari Danso, the Ghana-based boxer known by the nickname Kwahu Tyson has realized the first of many ambitions after claiming the vacant Ghana Light Heavyweight championship with victory over David Okai.

Unbeaten Kwahu Tyson (16-0, 16 KOs) has vowed to live by his American namesake, Iron Mike Tyson and destroy opponents on his way to achieving the much craved dream of becoming boxing world champion.

Boasting a 100% knockout record from the 16 fights of his career thus far, Danso was at his destructive best even as Okai took him the furthest in his career before eventually succumbing in the penultimate round. Danso claimed the national Light Heavyweight belt via the 11th round technical knockout win against Okai at the Will Power Boxing Complex in Accra.

It also improved perfect record holder, Omari Danso to a number 2 in the African Light Heavyweight rankings but his team are patient to let him develop before thinking of taking on the best in the world.
“Locally there is no opponent again for him because he has beaten them all so maybe we shall look for opponents around the neighbouring countries like Nigeria, Benin, then go for the Africa title next year

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Weigh-in: Berto vs. Guerrero, Thurman vs. Quintana

By Bill Phanco: Andre Berto (28-1, 22 KO’s) and WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero (30-1-1, 18 KO’s) came in under the welterweight 147 lb limit today during their weigh-in.

Guerrero weighed 146.4 lbs and Berto came in at 146.8. The card also has highly hyped unbeaten junior middleweight Keith Thurman (18-0, 17 KO’s) fighting WBO NABO light middleweight champion Carlos Quintana (29-3, 23 KO’s) for his strap. Thurman weighed in at 151.25 lbs, and Quintana at 152.

The official weighs for the HBO televised card:

Robert Guerrero 146.4 vs. Andre Berto 146.8
Keith Thurman 151.25 vs. Carlos Quintana 152
Randy Caballero 119.2 vs. Rigoberto Casillas 118.8

Guerrero can become a star with a win over Berto in this fight. He could pick up a big money fight and then get the backing of the considerable Mexican population in the U.S. It would make for an interesting fight if Guerrero could get past Berto and then get Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao in the ring somehow. The pay per view numbers would likely be very good. For that to happen Guerrero is going to have to find a way to get past Berto.

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Malignaggi turns 32 today; anxious to see if Hatton beats Senchenko

By Jeff Sorby: WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) turns 32-years-old today, and he’s really interested to see what the outcome will be for this Saturday’s fight between Ricky Hatton and Vyacheslav Senchenko in Manchester, England.

Malignaggi has already given Hatton the green lightweight for a world title shot provided that Hatton beats Senchenko and the World Boxing Association responds by giving Hatton a top 15 ranking. That pretty much goes without saying because Senchenko already has a very generous #7 ranking by the WBA, and they’ll no doubt push Hatton up to somewhere in the top 15 if he beats Senchenko tomorrow night.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hatton get a top 10 ranking by the WBA if he wins tomorrow night. The sanctioning fees would be good with Hatton as the WBA champion if he were interested in holding onto the strap if he gets past Malignaggi.

Just to show you how eager Malignaggi is to get the Hatton fight, he’s already in England right now and attended the Hatton-Senchenko final press conference this week when Senchenko failed to show up. Malignaggi will obviously be at the fight, and likely hoping Hatton looks sensational in winning. Malignaggi has no interest in fighting Senchenko again, because he already gave him a bad thrashing last April in stopping him in the 9th round in Ukraine.

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A win for Guerrero over Berto makes him an appealing option for Mayweather or Pacquiao

By Steve Mabbotts: WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero (30-1-1, 18 KO’s) has been talking for a long time about wanting to fight the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Now all Guerrero has to do to make himself an appealing option for those fighters is to beat Andre Berto (28-1, 22 KO’s) tomorrow night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.

That’s easier said than done, because Berto is a 2-1 favorite to win this fight, and Guerrero didn’t show the kind of power or speed in his last fight against Selcuk Aydin that would enable him to beat Berto.

Berto is beatable, and saw how he’s vulnerable against an opponent that puts a lot of pressure on him and throws a ton punches in Berto’s loss to Victor Ortiz last year. However, Guerrero will have to stand directly in front of Berto to accomplish that task he’s going to have to take a lot of hard shots in the process. Ortiz was able to get his way because he had power and speed pretty equal to Berto’s.

Guerrero doesn’t have that kind of speed and power going for him. Guerrero is more like a pumped up lightweight that left his power hind him at 135. Even at that weight, Guerrero wasn’t a big puncher, and he mainly got his victories by throwing a lot of shots. He’s going to have to do that with Berto on Saturday, and hope that the judges are more impressed with his higher punch volume compared to the harder, faster and more flashier shots that Berto is answering him back with.

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Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4: Will the crowd turn against Manny if he gets another controversial win?

By Rob Smith: If remember watching the last fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez last year in November at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, you’ll note that the Vegas crowd, which had been heavily in Pacquiao’s favorite all fight long, suddenly turned against him when the judges’ results were announced after the fight giving him the ring.

The crowd was unhappy with the decision and felt that Marquez should have won. There was a lot of booing, and it made it hard to hear Pacquiao speak when he was being interviewed after the fight. The question is will the crowd erupt into even louder booing if Pacquiao wins another controversial decision when he meets up with Marquez on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas?

Pacquiao has had incredible luck to be able to go though the three fights with Marquez without a loss because many boxing fans believe that Pacquiao deserved to win none of the fight, including the first one. While there is considerable controversy where there isn’t controversy is in looking at who won the majority of the rounds in their three fights. In watching all three fights back to back it’s irrefutable that Marquez won the vast majority of the rounds, or at least he should have. He controlled the action, landed the cleaner shots, and had the superior ring generalship. But still Pacquiao was given two wins and a draw in those three fights.

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Adrien Broner fans want to see him fight Rios or Garcia next, not Burns

By Ed Patrick: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) may wind up fighting a unification bout against WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) next, but that’s not the guy that boxing fans want to see Broner fight. Burns is down in the pecking order in terms of who boxing fans want to see Broner fight, although they do have some interest in seeing that fight. In a poll conducted by RingTV, fans want Broner to fight Brandon Rios or Danny Garcia next followed by Burns.

Here’s the results of the poll thus far:

Brandon Rios 28.4%
Danny Garcia 24.2%
Ricky Burns 13.3%
Lucas Mattysse 11.9%
Juan Manuel Marquez 11.1%
Amir Khan 9.3%
Miguel Vazquez 1.8%

No doubt the boxing fans who want to see Broner fight Burns are largely from the UK, because the casual fans in the U.S have little idea of who Burns is. That’s not likely going to keep Broner’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions from making a Broner vs. Burns fight if possible, but it should. If boxing fans as a whole don’t have a clue who Burns is then Golden Boy shouldn’t waste one of Broner’s valuable fights by putting him in with a little known fighter.

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Haye to Hatton: Don’t listen to the haters

By Michael Collins: Former two division world champion David Haye gave a bit of encouragement to Ricky Hatton for his fight on Saturday night against Vyacheslav Senchenko, telling him not to listen to the criticism from fans and the media about his comeback fight.

Haye said on his site at hayemaker.com “Wishing you good luck tomorrow. Don’t listen to the haters. Just go out and do your thing. I know you wouldn’t be coming back if it wasn’t for a reason. I think you have a little something left. You have a little something up your sleeve. I wouldn’t be surprised to see. Go out and do your thing. Stay healthy.”

I never really saw Hatton’s problems in the past stemming from confidence or lack thereof. That to me seemed to be the last of Hatton’s problems. I think Hatton’s problems were more of a case of his lack of defense, his wild fighting style, and his inability to take hard head shots. It was a combination of things that was ultimately Hatton’s undoing when he got to the upper levels of the welterweight division. It wasn’t just one thing.

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Froch awaits Ward after he beats Pavlik on 1/26

By Michael Collins: A well paying rematch with IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch is what WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) has to look forward to after he takes care of business against former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (40-2, 34 KO’s) on January 26th at the Galen Center, in Los Angeles, California, USA.

There’s little doubt that Ward will take care of the slow moving, slow punching Pavlik without any problems just as Bernard Hopkins and Sergio Martinez did. Ward wants to fight Froch again to shut him up, and prove that his win over him last December in the Super Six tournament finals wasn’t just a fluke thing. Oddly enough, two of the judges scored it a close fight by the scores of 115-113, and this has given Froch the belief that he almost beat Ward.

Froch says he knows how to beat Ward now, and wants to get him over to Europe to face him in his home city of Nottingham. Ward is amused by this, and he hasn’t said no to the idea.

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Hatton talking retirement if he loses to Senchenko

By Michael Collins: Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) could be putting his career on the line in his comeback fight against Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena. Hatton doesn’t believe in sticking around and wasting his time if he doesn’t have it anymore, and Senchenko, if nothing else, will be a good gauge for the 34-year-old Hatton if he has enough left to compete and capture a world title.

Hatton said this as quoted by thesun.co.uk “I’ll quit if I lose. If the worse happens so be it.”

Hatton’s putting a lot of pressure on himself by coming back and taking on a reasonably good world class fighter in Senchenko. This guy may not be in the same class as fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Berto, Manny Pacquiao – or even Paulie Malignaggi – but he’s definitely a fringe world class contender. Hatton hasn’t seen action in a long time and it’s going to be tough for him to be able to perform at the level that he’s been accustomed to fighting in the distant past.

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