Sturm could vacate WBA title if he beats IBF champ Geale tonight

Sturm could vacate WBA title if he beats IBF champ Geale tonight By Dwight Chittenden: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) will meet up with IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) in a unification bout tonight at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. According to the German news publication bild.de, Sturm is expected to vacate his WBA 160 pound title if he wins the IBF title off of Geale tonight. Sturm would then keep the IBF strap and defend that title rather than the WBA belt he’s held for the past five years.

That move kind of makes a lot of sense for Sturm after the World Boxing Association came out yesterday ordering the winners of the Sturm-Geale and the Gennady Golokin vs. Grzegorz Proksa fights to face each other by December 31st of this year. This could potentially mean that Sturm would have to face the dangerous puncher Golovkin in a fight that Sturm would likely lose and lose badly. If Sturm vacates his WBA title, boxing fans are going to cry that he’s ducking a fight against WBA champ Gennady Golovkin.

Golovkin has the power to not only beat Sturm but knock him out. At any rate, it would be a very tough fight for Sturm to take at this juncture of his career. He’s not really had too many tough bouts since winning the WBA title back in a rematch with Javier Castillejo in April of 2007.

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Weight one of the factors for Cotto choosing not to fight Pacquiao

By Rob Smith: The negotiations between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto for a rematch in December were sunk when Cotto couldn’t agree to the weight that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum wanted for the fight, according to ESPN. Arum had mentioned wanting a catchweight of 150 lbs for the fight, but it looks like the 31-year-old Cotto wasn’t feeling that and instead he opted to fight WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout on December 1st.

Cotto’s attorney, Gabriel Penagaricano said to ESPN “We explored the Pacquiao fight. We discussed it for several days but there was no agreement. The weight was an issue and we didn’t agree on all relevant aspects of the deal, so at the end, there was no agreement.”

It’s too bad that the Pacquiao-Cotto fight couldn’t be made, but it’s hard to say that the rematch would have gone ahead even if the weight was agreed upon for the fight because there were some other things that got in the way of Cotto agreeing with the rematch.

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Foreman Vs. Tyson: The Heavyweight Explosion Of Heavyweight Explosions!

By James Slater:

“Boxing is the theatre of the unexpected,” Larry Merchant

“Fighting Tyson Would be Like Bird hunting for me; a bird’s nest on the ground,” George Foreman

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard Mike Tyson talk about potential 1990’s rival and fellow former heavyweight king George Foreman. Never once. Maybe, just maybe, this is because at no time did “Iron Mike” want anything to do with the old warrior he is famously alleged to have referred to as “that animal” when telling Don King what he could do with his lucrative idea of fighting Foreman. Maybe not.

Still, to me, and millions of other fight fans, Foreman-Tyson, Tyson-Foreman is the ultimate Dream Fight; one that was tantalizingly close in 1990. The two greats fought on the same bill in June of 1990 – Foreman taking out Adilson Rodrigues in quick time, Tyson rubbing out Henry Tillman ever faster – and the idea being floated around then was for the two to engage in another double-header that September (Tyson Vs. Alex Stewart, Foreman Vs. Francesco Damiani) and then meet in a blockbuster in December.

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Tim Bradley could wind up out in the cold if Pacquiao chooses Marquez to fight next

By Rob Smith: With Manny Pacquiao possibly ready to make his pick this weekend for his December 8th fight, it’s expected that 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez will selected by Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum for his next fight. However, this leaves Pacquiao’s recent conqueror WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) out in the cold with no opponent for his next fight. Bradley intentionally waited all this time to see if Pacquiao would want to fight him and he’s now on the verge of having nothing to show for it.

Miguel Cotto won’t be around to fight Bradley, and if he was he wouldn’t waste time fighting this guy. Bradley is going to have to look to defend his World Boxing Organization strap against the best possible contender, unless he’s interested in milking his title agaisnt the lowest rank WBO contender in order to have a better chance of holding onto the WBO strap long enough to get another shot at fighting Pacquiao.

There only a limited amount of options in Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable, meaning that Bradley is almost guaranteed a shot against Pacquiao at some point in the future as long as Bradley remains with Top Rank. Arum likes to put together in house fights with he matches Pacquiao, so Bradley should be getting a crack at the Filipino fighter at some point next year.

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Pacquiao could make decision on next opponent today, says Arum

By Rob Smith: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that Manny Pacquiao could make decision about his December 8th fight as early as today, according to the LA Times. The field has been reduced to two fighters – Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez – after Miguel Cotto dropped out of the race to take a December 1st fight against WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout.

It’s unclear if Cotto was really ever a serious option because Arum and Pacquiao both wanted a catchweight of 150 lbs, and Cotto had already been the receiving end of one catchweight fight with Pacquiao in 2009. That one didn’t go too well with Cotto. You can’t blame him for not wanting to boil down a second time to accommodate Pacquiao on the weight requirement, especially after Floyd Mayweather Jr. agreed to fight Cotto at the full weight for the division last May.

Arum has all the important pay per view figures at hand and he’s discovered that “60 percent of the pay per view households are Hispanic” in the United States, according to the LA Times. This obviously is going to help shape his decision to likely go with Marquez as the one to face Pacquiao on December 8th. In reading a lot of the comments that Arum has made in the past month, it seems that he’s been dialed in towards a Pacquiao-Marquez rematch from the very start.

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Geale to have it tough against Sturm in Germany

By Dwight Chittenden: IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale (27-1, 15 KO’s) has really got a tough task on his hands on Saturday night against the longstanding WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-2-2, 16 KO’s) when they face off in their unification bout at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Geale, 31, has never really fought anyone with the kind of boxing skills that the 33-yer-old Sturm has going for him, and it’s going to tough for him to try and beat Sturm at his own game.

Geale has battled his way to the top more because of of his boxing skills than his limited power. He doesn’t have the kind of strength that can give him an edge against if he’s unable to box his way to a decision. It’s going to be hard enough as it is trying to win a decision in Sturm’s home country of Germany, because the fans will be cheering everything that Sturm does in the fight. Getting a decision is going to be hard for Geale unless he can knock Sturm down two or three times to cement the victory.

It’s not good that Geale struggled to beat Sebastian Sylvester in the past in 2011. Against the same fighter, Sturm easily beat Sylvester without any problems in a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision victory in November 2008. Sturm picked Sylvester apart with his jab and never let him get into the fight.

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Hearn doesn’t see Golovkin-Proksa fight going the distance

(Photo credit Ed Keenan/K2 Promotions) By Marcus Richarson: Matchroom Sport promoter Barry Hearn, the promoter for Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KO’s), doesn’t see tomorrow night’s fight between IBO/WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and the 27-year-old Proksa going the full 12 rounds when they meet in this HBO televised fight at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, New York, United States.

Hearn said to RingTV “Both have huge knockout percentage. Both have the ability to take men out with single shots, and I think HBO is in for an exciting fight. If it goes the distance, I’ll be surprised.”

It probably won’t go the distance, and Hearn is right about both guys having a ton of power. Both guys can legitimately end the fight with a single shot. However, it’s going to be a little tougher for Proksa because he really only has power in his left hand, and he can’t fight on the inside at all because of his style of fighting. He fights a lot like former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, and like him, Proksa can’t fight well on the inside. He’s kind of lost when in close and mostly just looks to hold. Golovkin has already said that he plans on taking the fight to Proksa on Saturday, to get real close and force him to fight an inside game.

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Pacquiao’s options down to Marquez and Bradley after Cotto chooses to fight Trout

By Marcus Richardson: Manny Pacquiao’s options are now greatly limited after Miguel Cotto announced that he’ll be fighting WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum now much choose from Tim Bradley (29-0, 12 KO’s) and Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) for Pacquiao’s upcoming fight in December. It’s not even a choice, is it? Arum wants to maximize his fighter Pacquiao’s payday and it seems pretty clear that the only option they have if they want to do that is to fight 39-year-old Marquez next.

Who knows how many more fights Pacquiao has in him, so it kind of makes sense for Arum to be looking to squeeze every last cent out of the remaining fights of his Filipino star’s career because the Pacquiao train seems to be slowing down now that he’s showing signs of aging.

Marquez would be smart to jump on the Cotto news and demand a bigger slice of the revenue for a Pacquiao fight, because there’s really not many options for Pacquiao now. To be sure, Pacquiao can take the Bradley rematch, make less money for himself and Arum, and possibly get beaten again if Bradley uses movement and a more consistent attack. With Pacquiao limited to fighting hard in the last 20 seconds of every round, Bradley would have a good chance of beating him again.

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Miguel Cotto to fight Austin Trout on December 1st at Madison Square Garden

By Rob Smith: In a shocking move, Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) is saying that he’ll be fighting WBA World light middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) on December 1st at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is kind of a strange move by Cotto, because he could have gotten a much bigger and better paying fight against Manny Pacquiao rather than this. It’s not that Trout isn’t a good fighter, it’s just that he doesn’t have a large fan base at this time.

Speaking on his twitter account earlier today, Cotto said “I officially announce that my fight on December 1st at Madison Square Garden will be with undefeated WBA Super Welterweight Austin Trout.”

Who’d have thought that Cotto would choose Trout. You’d think that Cotto would have been better off waiting on the Saul Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez results from September 15th and then looking to take on the winner of that fight. A fight between Cotto and Alvarez would be a huge in New York, Texas, Las Vegas or California. It would definitely be a much bigger fight than Cotto-Trout. Is Cotto looking for the safer fight by choosing Trout? You have to wonder, because he could have so much more if he chose Pacquiao or Alvarez or even waiting on a possible rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Khan likely to have problems whether Roach stays or goes

By Michael Collins: Right now there’s a lot of speculation about whether former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) will be keeping his training Freddie Roach or giving him the boot and finding a new trainer for a fresh start. Khan has lost his last two fights and he can’t afford to lose another bout when he gets back in the ring in December if he wants to remain a television attraction.

Khan has said recently that he wants his trainer Roach to be available to spend more time working with him instead of him having to wait to get Roach in between all the time he spends with his number #1 fighter Manny Pacquiao. It doesn’t look good for Khan in terms of getting his request. If he continues to schedule fights around the same time as Pacquiao, Khan is going to have to accept that he comes second. But nothing likely changes if Khan does decide to dump Roach because he’s not available when he wants him.

Khan’s problems with his chin will continue on whether Roach is the guy or someone else is dug up to train Khan. The issue at hand is Khan’s ability to take hard shots. Roach can’t fix that problem and nor can another trainer. That’s just Khan’s build in limitations. Khan might be a little better if he dumps Roach and finds someone that can teach him to run, hold and use his jab without taking risks. Khan would have to find someone that can teach those skills while at the same time not pushing Khan to mix it up.

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