An offer was made to Tyson Fury guaranteeing him a £650,000 purse to challenge David Price for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles.
Tyson’s promoter Mick Hennessy turned down the offer, describing it as a “joke” and added that David would have to “step up to the plate on our terms”.
By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao has a perfect explanation for why he’s not looked good since his win over Miguel Cotto in 2009. He says it’s because all of his opponents have been literally running from him in the ring instead of standing stationary and slugging it out in an old fashioned style of fighting that Pacquiao favors.
Pacquiao thinks that his opponent for Saturday night Juan Manuel Marquez will look to slug it out the entire time so that they can giving boxing fans a show that will please them, and at the same time finally prove who the better fighter is between them.
Pacquiao said to Sky Sports News “It just happens that in the last three fights I’ve fought people who run around, who won’t fight me toe-to-toe. I expect more action…I’m expecting him [Marquez] to try to prove something and fight toe-to-toe with me.”
By Steve Mabbott: Juan Manuel Marquez had looked huge during his training video on the HBO Pacquiao-Marquez 24/7 episodes, but during today’s weigh-in for Saturday’s Las Vegas based fight, Marquez weighed in at only 143 lbs, a whole four pounds lighter than the 147 pound Manny Pacquiao.
This is interesting because unless Marquez rehydrates to a much higher weight, we’re likely to see Pacquiao as the bigger guy tomorrow night. It sort of makes a lot of sense because Marquez walks around at 145 lbs in between fights, and he has to eat like crazy just to stay up in weight. He’s a light welterweight, and Pacquiao is now a natural welterweight.
The last time Pacquiao fought Marquez in November of last year, Pacquiao had a one pound advantage in weight at 143 to 142 for Marquez. In their 2008 fight, Marquez had a one pound weight advantage at 130 to 129 for Pacquiao. And in their first fight in 2004, both fighters came in at 125 lbs.
By Bill Phanco: Leonard Ellerbe, one of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s advisers, has reported that Mayweather will be fighting on May 4th [Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo] and September 14th in 2013. Mayweather has two dates but no opponents to fill those dates. The chances of a Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight for the first date on May 4th isn’t going to happen.
By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) made weight today for his bout tomorrow night against Juan Manuel Marquez (54-6-1, 39 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Surprisingly, Pacquiao weighed in 4 more than Marquez. Pacquiao weighed in at 147 pounds, while Marquez weighed 143 lbs. Marquez looked bigger than Pacquiao despite being four pounds lighter, but much of Marquez’s weight was in his upper body.
Pacquiao is the favorite in this fight with the oddsmakers, you have to ignore them and focus on who has been looking like the better fighter of late. That would have to be Marquez. He arguably beat Pacquiao last year in November, and then followed it up with a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over a very defensive minded Serhiy Fedchenko last April.
Marquez may not have looked as good he normally does, but he was facing someone that was running away each time he would even hint at throwing a punch in Fedchenko. Pacquiao looked poor against Marquez and then looked even worse in his loss last June to Tim Bradley. Boxing fans as whole saw Pacquiao as the winner of that fight, but he still looked bad in that fight, and nothing like what he once did in his prime.
By Steve Mabbott: A fight between WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (32-2, 30 KO’s) and the struggling lightweight contender Hank Lundy (22-2-1, 11 KO’s) is being negotiated for January 19th, according to RingTV. The Matthysse-Lundy fight will be on the Devon Alexander vs. Kell Brook card at the Nokia Theater, in Los Angeles, California, USA.
By Joseph Herron – On the eve of the monumental fourth meeting between two future Hall of Fame fighters, Manny Pacquaio and Juan Manuel Marquez, HBO’s unofficial ringside scorer Harold Lederman chimed in on what fight fans should expect to see when these ring legends collide at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“One variable that’s worth noting when you look at the fourth installment of the Pacquiao/Marquez saga is that two of the three ringside judges will be from outside of Nevada,” observes Harold Lederman. “I screamed and yelled that Juan Manuel Marquez is entitled to have all three judges flown in from other locations, but they’re using Adalaide Byrd as the lone Nevada state judge.”
“But one of the judges will be from Great Britain, and the other will be flown in from New Jersey, so we’ll see what happens. But at least we don’t have three Nevada state judges this time for a fight of this magnitude. Maybe they’ll see it differently, because my gut tells me that it’s going twelve rounds once again.”
By Joseph Herron: It’s been just a little over two months since “King” Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 KOs) earned the opportunity to fight for championship gold by defeating Charles Whitaker in an IBF Junior Middleweight title eliminator on NBC Sports Network.
But to the surprise of most, the 26 year old puncher won’t be standing across the ring from IBF Champ K9 Bundrage when the opening bell sounds to begin his subsequent outing. The courageous Philly fighter will be taking on current WBA Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KOs) instead.
On January 19th, at the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden, Rosado will face one of the more avoided fighters and hardest pound for pound punchers in the entire sport. The title fight will be broadcast on HBO, as one part of an outstanding World Championship triple-header.
When Hall of Fame promoter Russell Peltz contacted his fighter concerning the prospect of facing the undefeated WBA Middleweight Champion, it didn’t take long for Gabriel to answer with a resounding, “Where do I sign?”