Trainer Ronnie Shields: “Emanuel Steward was unbelievable”

By Joseph Herron Trainer Ronnie Shields: “Emanuel Steward was unbelievable” – On Thursday afternoon, October 27 th , the boxing world learned the tragic news of the untimely passing of boxing legend Emanuel Steward.

While every boxing pundit felt the loss of the all time great fight trainer, maybe none more profoundly than expert trainer Ronnie Shields. The lifelong boxing proponent initially met Emanuel when he was competing as an amateur boxer at age 13.

After their early encounter, the mutual friendship grew over several decades and was based on a genuine fondness and deep rooted respect for each other.

Ronnie shared his personal feelings on the air during Sunday night’s episode of “The Pugilist KOrner’s: Weekend Wrap”.

“Thursday was probably one of the worst days I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” admits expert trainer Ronnie Shields.

continue

Dulorme to move down to 140 lbs in 2013 – News

By Marcus Richardson: #3 WBA welterweight contender Thomas Dulorme (16-1, 12 KO’s) plans on moving down to … continue

Nonito Donaire vs. Jorge Arce, December 15 th in Houston, Texas

By Joseph Herron– On Tuesday, October 30 th , Top Rank plans to announce their next big event for the remaining 2012 boxing calendar.

At the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, four division world champion and current WBO/Ring Super Bantamweight Champion Nonito Donaire will defend his titles against one of the Lone Star State’s favorite fighters, “El Travieso” Jorge Arce on December 15 th .

Although most fight fans and boxing scribes would prefer to see the Filipino fighter enter the ring pitted against current 122 pound WBA title holder Guillermo Rigondeaux, they should expect to see the two time Olympic Gold Medalist make an appearance on the fight card, if not in the co-main event of the evening.

But why would the boxing world be treated to Arce vs. Donaire before the critically acclaimed unification bout between Nonito and Rigo?

The relentless aggression of “El Travieso” paired with the athletic counter punching style of “The Filipino Flash” will more than likely be a very entertaining style match up and an overall more enticing event to the casual fight fan.

continue

Exclusive Interview with WBO Middleweight Champion Peter ‘Kid Chocolate’ Quillin

“With Gennady Golovkin I can say he’s a very strong fighter, very determined, but he doesn’t put any fear in my heart at all”—Peter Quillin

Exclusive Interview by Geoffrey Ciani – I was recently afforded the opportunity to speak with the new WBO middleweight world champion Peter ‘Kid Chocolate’ Quillin (28-0, 20 KOs) following his title-winning victory against Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (27-1, 17 KOs) last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Quillin spoke about his performance, talked about his future, and gave his views on the current middleweight landscape and where he would like to go next. Here is a complete transcript from that interview.

Audio:

GEOFFREY CIANI: Hello boxing fans. This is Geoff Ciani from East Side Boxing, and I am joined here today by the newly crowned WBO middleweight champion of the world, Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin. Pete, how does it feel to win your first world championship?

PETER QUILLIN: It feels great. It feels good to come a long way to have some kind of achievement to what my hard work has given me. But most importantly I got to know that there’s going to be some more fights in the future that’s going to allow me to show what my class is really about.

CIANI: Now Pete, during the fight, it appeared to me during the first three rounds that you had a little trouble with his rhythm and that you weren’t able to time him maybe as well as you would have liked to. Reflecting back, what was going through your mind during those first three rounds?

continue

Q & A with Newark’s rising Light Middleweight prospect John Thompson

By Lou McLaughlin: Today I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Newark’s light middleweight prospect John “Apollo Kidd “Thompson IV. John who fights out of the Elite Heat Boxing Gym, Newark NJ is managed by Bill Mielnicki. Renowned ex-champion and now trainer Buddy McGirt is currently training Thompson with John’s Father John Thompson III as co-trainer. John carries himself and speaks as someone far mature then his 23 years. He is a young man who is introspective enough to consider the “Big Picture” of life. As to how what he does in his youth and how it will affect his future.

continue

Donaire vs. Arce a done deal for December 15th in Houston

By Rob Smith: A December 15th fight has been put together by Bob Arum of Top Rank for his fighter WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) to defend his title against Mexican veteran Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) in Houston, Texas. There had been talk of the fight not going through due to Arce asking for more money than Top Rank was willing to offer him, but Arum has somehow put the fight together.

continue

WBA showdown in Ghana Nov 10: Ashie, Tagoe in verbal war

By Prince Dornu-Leiku: George Ashie (23-3-1, 16 KOs) is calm and calculating, patiently waiting for Saturday November 10, 2012 when he mounts the ring than blab now of what he has up his fist for rival Emmanuel Tagoe, 18-1, 8 KOs. Ashie, nicknamed Red Tiger is promising to discipline Tagoe who goes by the alias Game Boy but will talk no further pointing out that the ring will determine who the true champion is.

“No problem at all. If he talks, it doesn’t mean he has fought already. Boxing is in the ring, not by talking so if the day is finally here, we shall all see what he can do. Let’s pray that the day of the fight does get here, that day has not come yet,” Ashie has told the Ghana-based website www.sportsinghana.com.

Former IBF Intercontinental and WBO Africa Junior Lightweight champ Emmanuel Tagoe on the other hand is so confident of beating Commonwealth Junior Lightweight titlist George Ashie when the duo face-off at the Accra Sports Stadium for the WBA International Lightweight title next weekend, so much he is setting the conditions Ashie has to abide by in order not to get completely humiliated.

continue

Emanuel Steward 1944-2012

By James Slater: The tributes have been coming in thick and fast ever since the tragic, sad news broke of boxing guru Emanuel Steward’s untimely passing at the premature age of 68. Having so much more to give his sport, with so much further wisdom ready to be shared with his star pupils, Emanuel, we all thought, would be around for years and years to come.

The top scribes of boxing have each composed heartfelt tributes to Emanuel – a man they have all correctly written was a genius who had such an easygoing way about him he was able to make everyone who interacted with him feel like a friend – and what more can be said of the man who lived and breathed boxing?

I was fortunate enough to have been able to speak with the great Emanuel Steward on a couple of occasions, and here are some of the hugely interesting things he was kind enough to share with me: –

Emanuel on the best fighters he ever worked with:

continue

Marco Huck: “The fans will witness one hell of a fight!

WBO Champion Marco Huck is looking forward to the action in Halle/Westphalia. His fight against former WBA Cruiserweight Champion Firat Arslan promises to be a real highlight. Ahead of the big fight, the 27-year-old spent some time in Mallorca, Spain as well as in Neuruppin, Germany and will present himself in great shape come November 3. And the team surrounding the prodigy of coach Ulli Wegner is convinced, that they did all they could to enable Huck to defend his title for the tenth time. Huck took some time out of his preparations for Arslan for a Q&A.

Marco Huck, your last fight was back in May. After the bout, it was announced that you would take a longer break, which you did. Was that the right move?

Marco Huck: It definitely was. I didn’t really have a lot of time off ahead of the May 5 fight in Erfurt, which showed during the bout. Now my batteries are fully charged and I cannot wait to get back into the ring. I can feel the itch in my fists. The fight against Afolabi wasn’t easy for me. In my opinion that was due to the fact that I fought for the heavyweight championship just a few months earlier which also was a tough fight. But at the end, I got through it and kept my cruiserweight title. Now my whole focus is on the tenth defence of the WBO Championship.

continue

Rocky Juarez KOs Antonio Escalante in the 8th

By Joseph Herron – On Saturday night at the historic Joe & Harry Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas, fight veteran Rocky Juarez (29-10-1, 21 KOs) exorcised the boxing demons and proved that he could still compete at the world class level. After losing his last six fights, the eleven year fight veteran dazzled the crowd in attendance by closing the show in style with an eighth round KO against a very strong and hungry Antonio Escalante (27-5, 19 KOs).

Going into the fight, both fighters appeared to be traveling in different directions professionally. While Juarez hadn’t gained a victory since 2008, the fast rising Escalante had knocked out his last four opponents.

The opening round was a surprise to most at ringside, which saw the fearless Rocky Juarez uncharacteristically use lateral movement to set traps for the younger and stronger Escalante.

continue