By James Slater: No stranger to having to do things the hard way, honest, hardworking pro Travis Walker of Houston, Texas has had big opportunities come his way before, only for the 33-year-old, 6’4,” approx 250-pound banger to either fall short or go home feeling as though he was hard done by.
In compiling his 39-7-1(31) ledger, the powerful but sometimes shaky-chinned “Freight Train” has been stopped by Chris Arreola (after scoring a knockdown of his own in a tasty three-round slugfest), he has been blown away inside a round by Manuel Quezda (“a shot I never saw coming.”) and he has dropped a close, debatable decision to Ruslan Chagaev (“I know I won that one.”)
The softly spoken Walker has also been stopped by T.J Wilson (a premature stoppage, later avenged), Johnathon Banks and, in a fight that received far less acclaim than it should have done, Alex Leapai, in what was another premature stoppage, this time to a great up-and-down battle.
But throughout it all, Walker has never given up. After losing an exhausting 12-rounder with Kubrat Pulev last October, Walker finally bagged a big victory: an upset 6th-round TKO over Kali Meehan in Australia this March (“My biggest win to date, but my best win will come September 8th!”) and now he has a massive opportunity against Tomasz Adamek on September 8th.
By Sevak Sarkisian: Former undisputed flyweight and super flyweight world champion Vic Darchinyan is slated to face the young unbeaten super bantamweight prospect Luis Orlando Del Valle on September 29th at the famous Foxwoods resort in Connecticut.
By Marcus Richardson: EBU middleweight champion Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KO’s) is going to find out the hard way the difference between the world level and the European level next month against WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (23-0, 20 KO’s) on September 1st at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Proksa, 27, has done well at the European level during his seven year pro career apart from the one blip on his resume when he was roughed up and beaten by Kerry Hope last March in a 12 round majority decision loss.
By Michael Collins: September 15th’s pay-per-view card headed by WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez, has a lot of notable fighters on the card but pretty much is nothing but mismatches aside from the main event. Normally when you pay good money to see a PPV event you’d like to have a decent undercard of at least one good undercard fight. Sadly, the Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez undercard is a pretty disappointing one.