Just read this on a BBC SPORT article about Joshua "In Ali's 17th pro fight, he knocked out a 30-year-old former American footballer from California called Charlie Powell. Breazeale is also 30, also a former American footballer and also from California. Powell fell in three, just as Ali predicted, and not many expect Breazeale to last longer." Current odds of 10/3 Also fancy Groves to beat Murray on points at evens
Looks like a long wait. They're now talking October 8 or 29 at the O2 for the Fury - Klitschko clash. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez after appearing to dodge the mandated fight with IBF, IBO, WBA & WBC Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin, has sign on to fight Liverpool's WBO Junior Middleweight Champion Liam "Beefy" Smith on September 17 in Vegas. With all due respect to Liam Smith, this fight looks pretty much like a very soft option for Alvarez. This is a fight that probably won't pull in too many ppv scalps as Smith is not much of a name in the USA or Mexico. Personal opinion, but I don't think Smith can quite cut it against the other Junior Middleweight Champions, Erislandy Lara, Jermell Charlo and his brother Jermall Charlo. I think Alvarez comes out of this looking a bit suss. What happened to his claims of wanting to fight decent Middleweights as a prep for the Golovkin fight?
Big Ant bowls over the former footballer in 7 to retain his IBF belt. He looked a bit more polished than in the past, but still has a way to go though before he's the finished product. Commentators were in raptures of his speed ... he must have been blindly fast, because I missed it. Breazeale really wasn't up to the challenge, but at least it gave Joshua the chance to get in a few rounds. I don't quite know what to think about Anthony Joshua at the moment. I was surprised at his poise and patience, he look much better that any other time in his short career, but for mine he still looked cumbersome. I can't wait for him to fight someone half decent. There's talk that Joe Parker might become the mandatory, if so, we'll get to see what the Champ is all about. Not that Parker looked all that impressive in his points victory against Carlos Takam last time out. Takam though is a much better fighter than Breazeale. But Parker, like Joseph, will take a lot from each bout, and I think the New Zealander will be much stiffer opposition than Breazeale. For all of that, Ant gets a big pass in my book.
No mate, I'll probably get around to it in the next two days. People are saying it's an early candidate for fight of the year. Would you give Khan a chance against Thurman Smoke?
Yeah he's definetly have a chance but the problem is that Thurman can box AND has power which is what has always been Khan's downfall. I think Thurman does have defensive frailties and can get caught a bit too easily but so far it's not caused him too many problems. Khan is a much better boxer than Thurman, in fact Khan is a much better boxer than most welterweights if not all of them, it's the other things he does (or doesn't do) that in my opinion let him down and keep him from been 'world' class. The problem I have with Khan is. Well firstly as a man he's a prick, plain and simple so let's talk about his boxing. As a boxing fan I find him extremely frustrating to watch. He's very very quick and has some real boxing ability but apart from his poor chin (which there's not a lot he can do about) I find he seriously lacks discipline in the ring. To his detriment he tries to go in and please the crowd rather than win the fight at times so when he gets hit or is in trouble he doesn't hold, run or cover up, in fact he doesn't even seem to try defend himself and thinks he can go to war every time which is just silly. And for someone who is trained by one of the best defensive trainers in the world you'd think he'd have more to that side of his game. So chin aside if he was more disciplined and a bit more concious of his defence he could be much better and I think I'd actually rate him more than I do. I'd like to see Brook/Thurman that would be a very very good fight. Brook is due to fight Vargas in September in a unification fight so hopefully Thurman will be after that or even Garcia.
Im so hoping Hearn can make the GGG v Eubank jr fight. Hes such a disrepspectful ****ebag like his old man. Poor little fecker has been brainwashed so much by his dad that he actually thinks he can dominate GGG. Ffs he couldnt even beat BJS!!
Called it When's AJ going to fight someone decent then? Still looks like Whytes the best he's faced? And another thing is Eubank JR seriously looking GGG
If we can't bash out a result in the ring, then let's do it in the courts. First, Deontay Wilder and DiBella file a $5,000,000 suit against Alexander Povetkin and the promotion company World of Boxing, saying the Russian positive test caused the fight to be canceled after Povetkin registered 0.07 micrograms per milliliter of meldonium. After banning the drug on January 1, WADA stated that athletes testing less that 1 microgram per milliliter of meldonium are allowed to compete. It seems that before the the fight could officially called off, Wilder's crew pulled the plug. The counter suit is looking at $34,500,000 for damages, saying Wilder opted out before the WBC ruled. Both suits have been filed with the US District Court in Manhattan.
Obviously it's never good testing positive for drugs no matter how little of an amount there was but in my opinion Wilder will have been glad of the excuse to cancel the fight. I'm not convinced he really wanted to fight Povetkin in the first place
A battle of the big, little men took place today when WBA Strawweight Champion Byron Rojas of Nicaragua took to the ring for the first defence of the belt newly won from the South African great Hekkie Budler. Rojas had some fighter to meet this time out though. The man with the best name in world class boxing, Knockout CP Freshmart (not his birth name) entered the ring with a wonderful pedigree. From just 13 unbeaten fights, he'd won and held the WBC World Youth Mimimumweight Title 8 times before taking the WBA Interim Mimimweight Belt in his ninth bout. He defended that Title three times before today's challenge for the full WBA honours. Rojas flew out in the first round and took it to Knockout, but the challenger soon stepped up his pace. Both let their hand fly in a fast, electric start. Knockout maybe took the round. It wasn't too long though before both fighters began to feel the pressure, and the action slowed. Rojas seemed the better with his hands, but Knockout was the stronger. As the fight wore on the challenger began to assert himself. By mid fight, Rojas found himself under severe pressure as Knockout stayed on the front foot. Rojas' belt looked gone a fair way out, and so it proved when the final bell was rung. A new WBA Minimumweight champion was crowned. In just his thirteenth bout, the five foot, one inch Knockout CP Freshmart became the latest Thai fighter to sit atop a division. Final scores. 113-115, 113-115, 113-115.
I wanted to check out Frampton's next opponent, so looked up some of Leo Santa Cruz' bouts. Two starts ago, he fought Abner Mares in August of last year. Between them, they'd only lost two title fights on 20 bouts. Abner came after Leo's WBA Featherweight belt, and he meant business. I wish all bouts were like this. They threw 2000 odd punches.Brilliant.
It's not often that we get a couple of lefties fighting for a world title, but today at the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, WBC Light Flyweight Champion Ganigan Lopez defends his newly won belt for the first time. Across the ring will be the number one ranked and mandatory challenger, Jonathan Taconing of Paranaque City in the Philippines. There is so much about this fight that could swing the result either way. The champ Lopez has the massive advantage of fighting in his own back yard which is at altitude. He is also considered to be slightly the better boxer, which might just get him home if it goes the full 12 rounds. On the down side though, he manages to get beaten a little more often than you'd think a champion should. From his 33 fights to date, he's tasted defeat on 6 occasions. And he's not the biggest puncher in the division. He only puts them away at just over 50% of the time. Taconing on the other hand can bang. From his 25 fights, of which he's won 22, lost 2 and drawn one, he's stopped 18 at 72%. But he comes in at a big disadvantage when it comes to reach and lack of altitude adjustment. Lopez stands 5' 5", while Taconing is only 5' 2". The challenger, known as "Lightning" has only been in Mexico City a matter of days, but he's stated that he only needed a day or two to adjust. I think somebody has been pulling his chain. The big danger for him will be whether his body throws on the air brakes after 4 or 5 rounds. Betting has this thing wide open, both are in the red. Ganigan Lopez, according to Oddschecker, is 9-10, while Jonathan Taconing is quoted at 5-6. I wouldn't be backing either fighter, but I wouldn't mind a ring side seat.
Everyone with a big punch looks awesome against bums but I assume some of those were decent fighters. Can you imagine how any of today's fighters would have fared against him. Looked a bit like Ali facially.
So Kell Brook finally takes that step up in class that everyone has been calling for! And what a step up it is because on 10th September at the o2 in London he takes on Middleweight King Gennady Golovkin
