By Manuel Perez: After watching #7th ranked WBC heavyweight champion Chris Arreola (24-0, 21 KOs) make easy work of unbeaten heavyweight prospect Chazz Witherspoon, stopping him in the 3rd round after the referee disqualified him due to his corner help entering the ring while Witherspoon was being given the standing eight count after being knocked down, Arreola moves on towards a possible fight with former heavyweight title challenger for later on this year. Tua, 35, has a fight against a yet to be determined opponent on July 12th, but if he comes out the winner of that fight, which most fully expect him to, this will set up a huge potential fight between the up and coming Arreola and Tua.

Arreola, only 27, has quickly proven himself as one of the best up and coming heavyweights in American, and perhaps in the entire world. He’s got everything you would want from a fighter - good size at 6′4″ 240 lbs, enormous power and a non-stop punching style of fighting, which he uses to batter his opponents into submission. While he doesn’t have true one-punch power or anything resembling that, the fact that he hits hard and constant, evens things out and makes him just as dangerous a puncher than he would be if he did have enormous power. He’s like a big hammer in the ring, one that pounds away at his opponents over and over again without stop. Read more…

By Tony Krebs: Undefeated middleweight contender John Duddy (24-0, 17 KOs) will be hoping for a change of luck this Saturday night when he goes up against Charles Howe (17-4-2, 9 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round bout at the The Castle, in Boston, Massachusetts. Duddy, now 29, is coming off a poor performance against Walid Smichet in February, a bloody and grueling bout which Duddy won by a 10-round majority decision. In the process of winning, however, Duddy was hurt on several occasions in the first three rounds by Smichet, and cut badly over his left eye. The cut would later need 33 stitches to close the huge gaping wound.

Though Duddy, ranked #3 in the WBO and #5 in the WBA middleweight division, eventually got the decision, he paid a severe price by losing out on a big money fight with WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in June. The cut, combined with how badly Duddy looked, getting battered around the ring by the C-level Smichet in the early rounds of the fight, made Duddy a non-appealing opponent for Pavlik, who wanted to fight Duddy because of his brawling style, his unbeaten record, his Hollywood looks, and most importantly because of his huge appeal with boxing fans on the East coast. It seemed that Duddy was hell bent on trying to look good against Smichet, and forgetting all about defense altogether, Duddy went right after Smichet in the early rounds. Read more…

By Jim Dower: For the third time since winning the WBA heavyweight title by controversial fashion with a 12-round split decision over Nikolay Valuev last April, undefeated heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (24-0, 17 KOs) has been forced to cancel one of his title defenses, this time to former champion Valuev (48-1, 24 KOs), who Chagaev had been scheduled to fight next month on July 5th. Earlier today, while conducting sparring in preparation for his bout in July, Chagaev tore his Achilles tendon in his left foot. The injury will require surgery for it to be healed, which will put Chagaev out of action for another extended amount of time, likely until the end of the year.

Valuev, the number # 1 challenger in the WBA, has no other choice but to wait for Chagaev’s injury to heal. This was the second time that Valuev has been forced to wait on Chagaev, who canceled an earlier title defense to Valuev set for May 31st due to a viral infection that Chagaev suffered. Last year, in October, Chagaev had been scheduled to fight a unification bout with then WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov, but Chagaev had to back out due to another viral infection. One has to feel a little sorry for Valuev, 34, who lost his title to Chagaev last April despite out-landing him in the fight by a sizable margin. Since losing his title, he’s beaten two fighters, Jean Francois Bergeron and most recently former WBO heavyweight champion Serguei Lyakhovich in February. Read more…

By Sean McDaniel: In watching newly crowned WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (22-0, 19 KOs) defeat Miguel Angel Rodriguez (29-3, 23 KOs) by a 7th round TKO last Saturday night, a fight in which Berto struggled at times, I couldn’t help but wonder how Berto, 24, would do against the other top welterweights in the division like Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Kermit Cintron, Paul Williams, Carlos Quintana and Shane Mosley. I think Berto showed some good skills late in the fight against Rodriguez, especially in terms of speed and boxing skills, but he also - like in many of his fights - seemed vulnerable to right hands, which he seemed to get hit with far too many of by the limited Rodriguez.

What seemed to worry, besides Berto’s limited reach and height, was how average he looked against Rodriguez. This was a fighter that someone like Cotto, Margarito or Williams would have taken to school, beating him like a child all around the ring, never giving him a chance to get into the fight and very likely stopping him within a few brutally one-sided rounds. However, in Berto’s case, he was forced to fight hard against Rodriguez, and absorbed more than a few big right hands and left hooks from him. More importantly, Berto had big problems with Rodriguez’s bigger reach advantage which enabled him to land effectively from the outside. Read more…

By Chris Williams: If you can’t beat someone during your youth, bring them back in their old age and make it happen. This indeed is what a middle aged 44 year-old featherweight/super featherweight champion Jeff Fenech (29-3-1, 21 KOs) did with former WBC super featherweight champion Azumah Nelson (39-6-2, 28 KOs) on Tuesday night, beating him by a controversial 10-round majority decision. Forget for a second about Nelson’s age, 49 years-old, Fenech at least accomplished what he couldn’t do in his prime, even if it meant pulling Nelson out of his 10 year retirement, put him in front of a hostile Australian audience, and then rough him up by pushing him against the ropes for the entire fight, to make it happen. The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 96-94 and 95-95.

Even with all that going for Fenech, he still didn’t appear to win the fight, even though he got what appeared to be a home town decision. The two fighters had fought previously, with the first bout being a 12-round draw in 1991 and the second fight seeing Nelson stop Fenech in the 8th round a year later in 1992. I saw both fights, and there was no way the first fight was a draw, as Nelson appeared to win that fight by a comfortable margin of at least two to three rounds. I’m not precisely sure why Fenech suddenly decided after 16 years to try and avenge his one defeat to Nelson. Read more…

By Chris Williams: In a battle of age vs. youth, up and coming undefeated Australian lightweight prospect William Kickett (11-0, 5 KOs) defeated former IBF super featherweight champion Gairy St. Clair (40-7-2, 17 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision at the Vodafone Arena, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on Tuesday night. Kickett, only 21, was making a huge step up in class, going from C level fighters to a good B class fighter in facing the 33 year-old former champion St. Clair. After a rough start in which St. Clair appeared to cause Kickett a lot of problems, winning two of the first three rounds, Kickett took over the fight in the 4th and controlled the bout the rest of the way with a combination of movement, a good jab and big power. The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 98-92, all for Kickett.

Kickett, who slightly resembles fellow Australian Anthony Mundine in looks and a little in fighting style, was moved up in a big way in having to face St. Clair on Tuesday night. Perhaps Kickett’s Management felt that due to the fact that St. Clair had lost three out of his last five fights, including a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Amir Khan in February, it meant that he was soft enough for Kickett to beat him. If that was their thinking, then yes, St. Clair wasn’t in the same class as Kickett, for after the 3rd round, the fight belonged totally to Kickett. Read more…

By Eric Thomas: In yesterday’s boxing news about super middleweight/light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe’s (45-0, 32 KOs) ending his relationship with his famous promoter Frank Warren, we see that Calzaghe is also not interested in fighting Kelly Pavlik at all, ever. Instead, Calzaghe, 36, said that he plans on moving forward and will be his own boxing promoter and will be likely fighting Roy Jones Jr. in the coming months, a fight which would be Calzaghe’s final bout of his career. The news about Pavlik, however, is like a dagger to the heart of most boxing fans because many of them much rather wanted to see this fight than the likely dull fight against the faded 39 year-old Jones, who is well past it at this point in his diminishing career.

Calzaghe, for whatever reason, appears to want no part of Pavlik, and seems to want things to be much easier by facing the much less powerful Jones. Who can blame Calzaghe, though, since Pavlik with his huge power would be a very tough fight for Calzaghe to win and might very well beat him. Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: As a German with a little bit of Danish blood in me (1/8th on my Mother’s side), I was frankly sadly disappointed by Mikkel Kessler’s (40-1, 30 KOs) performance on Saturday night against Dimitri Sartison (22-1, 14 KOs) in their fight for the vacant WBA super middleweight title. Kessler looked old and much slower than I’d ever seen him before any of his fights, looking nothing like the same fighter that had beaten quality opponents like Markus Beyer, Anthony Mundine, Eric Lucas and Librado Andrade. For that matter, he didn’t even looking half as good as he did in his losing fight against Joe Calzaghe in November, and I thought he was beginning to show signs of slipping even back then.

But, Kessler’s fight against Sartison was a new low for him in terms of quality performance. First of all, he looked terrified of Sartison from the earliest moments of the fight, giving him way too much respect than he should have given him. Certainly Sartison had a fine record going into the fight, but he had never fought any quality fighters during his career, hence you could pretty much totally throw out his entire unbeaten record. Kessler stayed on the outside, jabbing on his back foot, for almost the entire fight up until the 11th and 12th rounds, when it was painfully obvious that Sartison was totally exhausted and was ready for the taking. Read more…

By Manuel Perez: 36 year-old middleweight Raul Marquez defied time on Saturday night with an impressive 12-round over unanimous decision over Giovanni Lorenzo (26-1, 18 KOs) in an IBF Middleweight Title Eliminator at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113. Never mind the close scores, the fight wasn’t close at all as Marquez completely took over the fight in round four and never looked back. Lorenzo, 27, ranked #4 in the IBF, fought in a timid manner for most of the bout, fighting on the outside and treating Marquez as if he were some dangerous knockout threat to be avoided.

Lorenzo fought well in the first three rounds, hitting Marquez with powerful fight hands and left hooks to the body. At the same time, Lorenzo showed good athletic ability, moving around the ring well and keeping Marquez from catching up to him with his own shots. When Marquez would occasionally cut off the ring on him, Lorenzo would catch him with some big shots as he was coming. Lorenzo especially fought well going backwards, which as it turns out, was something that he was forced to do for most of the fight due to the heavy pressure that Marquez was putting on him all fight long. Again and again, Lorenzo would tag Marquez with big right hands as he would plod after him, catching him square in the face, causing it to redden and swell as early as the 3rd round. Read more…

By Jim Dower: After watching #12th ranked WBA/WBC light middleweight contender Ronald Hearns (19-0, 15 KOs) struggle in defeating Jose Luis Gonzalez (12-4-1, 10 KOs) on Friday night at the Royal Watler Cruise Terminal, in Georgetown, Cayman Islands, I’m frankly shocked at how Hearns can be ranked so highly. To be sure, he got the knockout win, a 7th round TKO, which is a good thing, yet he looked completely average, lacking any kind of power or any semblance of defensive boxing skills either for that matter. Given his lack of bouts, this was only his 19th right, I just don’t see how he can be ranked as high as he is.

Perhaps I’m missing something, I guess, but I didn’t see any real ability from Hearns the other night, nothing like his famous father Tommy Hearns nor anything like what one would expect from a 12th rated light middleweight. Whatever the case, Hearns had what people refer to as soft opponent on Friday night, someone for Hearns to look good in the process of winning. That was mostly true, since he did look good at times against Gonzalez, but he also looked plain awful at other times as he got tagged far too much for me. Read more…

By Jim Dower: Undefeated super middleweight prospect Andre Ward (16-0, 11 KOs) completely outclassed his opponent Jerson Ravelo (18-3, 12 KOs) stopping him in the 8th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at the Royal Watler Cruise Terminal, in Georgetown, Cayman Islands. Ward, 24, the former 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist in the light heavyweight division, pretty much toyed with Ravelo for the entire fight before finally putting him away for good in the 8th round with a sweeping left hook, right hand combination to the head that sent Ravelo to the canvas.

Ravelo barely got to his feet and after receiving a standing eight count, the action was resumed. Ward, not wasting any time, landing six consecutive uninterrupted shots to the head at which time Ravelo’s corner threw in the towel and the fight was subsequently stopped by referee Steve Smoger at 2:27 of the 8th round.

Ward looked good for the most part in the 1st round, although a little dry and somewhat slow as far as his hand speed goes. Unlike some of the better super middleweights like Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler, Ward doesn’t look nearly as polished as either of them and seems to get by more on his basic boxing skills and a lot of ability. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: In a fight that I feel was poorly scored, middleweight Steven Bendall (23-4, 13 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Paul Smith (23-1, 13 KOs) by a 10-round decision on Saturday night to win the BBBofC English middleweight title at the National Indoor Arena, in Birmingham, West Midlands. Using a punch and an immediate clinch technique, Bendall, 34, slowed the action to a crawl from the opening moments of the fight and turning the fight into a boring stalemate. The referee, however, never penalized Bendall for his constant clinching, although he should because it made the fight all but unwatchable and prevented Smith, 25, from really ever establishing his offense in the fight. Still, even with all the clenching after every punch, I had Smith winning the fight by six rounds to five, although it could have been a little worse than that because he was landing by far the harder shots in every round of the fight.

Bendall, 34, a tall 6′0″ middleweight known more for his losses to Wayne Elcock, Darren Barker, Sebastian Sylvester and Scott Dann, than for anything else he’d achieved in his career, appeared to have studied Smith well. He appeared to know that he was susceptible to a constant punch and grab technique, which is exactly what Bendall set forth doing from the early moments of the fight. Smith, 25, looked totally frustrated and unable to come up with a strategy to counteract all of Bendall’s clinching. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight prospect Alonzo Butler (26-1, 19 KOs) lost a 10-round unanimous decision to veteran Friday Ahunanya (24-5-3, 13 KOs) on Friday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. After dominating the first three rounds of the fight, Butler, 28, got careless and was nailed by a big right hand from the Nigerian Ahunanya, who quickly followed up with a flurry of big shots, knocking Butler to the canvas.

When he got up, his left eye, the eye that had been previously operated on for a detached retinue, began to swell up and would eventually close completely. From that point on, the fight mostly belonged to Ahunanya, as he landed the far bigger shots and would cause Butler problems in the subsequent rounds. The final judges scores - 95-94, 96-93 and 95-94 - were much closer than what the actual fight looked to be because Ahunanya appeared to win by a significant margin, much more so than the close scores that were eventually given by the judges. Read more…

By Michael Lieberman: I hate to say I told you so, because it pains me to gloat when I’m right but I predicted this outcome, although I was off by two rounds in my prediction. Instead of Edison Miranda (30-3, 26 KOs) being knocked out in the 6th round, as I previously predicted, he only lasted four rounds against Arthur Abraham (27-0, 22 KOs), in a fight that was mostly going Miranda’s way up until the 4th round, when Abraham suddenly dropped Miranda with a right hand. Abraham would later drop Miranda two more times, at which point referee Telis Assimenios stopped the bout at 1:13 of the 4th round.

It’s hard to say what happened to the 27 year-old Miranda. He was fighting well in the first three rounds, keeping Abraham, 28, under constant pressure, hitting him with big shots and mostly not getting hit with anything significant. In a way, it was a like the first three rounds of their first fight in September 2006, in which Abraham covered up continuously on along the ropes, and fighting a kind of primitive rope-a-dope. In this case, however, Abraham was blocking little and getting hit with a lot of shots from Miranda full force to the head and body. In the first round, Miranda was warned for throwing a low blow, and thankfully the referee didn’t penalize Miranda. In the second round, Miranda landed another low blow, a hard right hand that landed well low, causing Abraham to crouch down and wince in pain. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: BBBofC British middleweight champion Wayne Elcock (19-3, 9 KOs) defeated challenger Darren McDermott (14-1-1, 9 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled 12-round bout at the Civic Centre, Wolverhampton, in West Midlands on Friday night. Elcock, 34, was mostly having his way with McDermott in the 1st round, hitting him with big shots and giving him problems with his power. However, early in the 2nd round, Elcock came rushing forward to get in punching range when he clashed heads with MdDermott, opening a nasty cut on his left cheek.

The cut, a particular nasty one, bled badly and McDermott’s cheek swelled up fast in the seconds after the clash. Referee Howard John Foster then stopped the action and had McDermott’s cut examined by the ringside doctor, who immediately had the fight stopped, giving Elcock the victory. Needless to say, the fight was disappointing for everyone - boxing fans, Elcock and most of all for McDermott, who had trained hard for the bout and was unable to prove himself before the fight quickly ended. Read more…

By Chris Williams: Undefeated lightweight contender Amir Khan proved one thing tonight, he proved that he’s not ready to take on either WBO lightweight champion Nate Campbell or the winner of Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz WBC title fight slated for next week. Khan 18-0, 14 KOs), looking almost invincible, dropped Gomez in the 1st round with a left hand to the head. However, Gomez took all Khan’s shots and began firing back with his own power shots and shortly thereafter in the 3rd round he knocked Khan down with a clubbing left hand to the head.

Khan got up off the canvas and took a lot more punishment in the round before coming on strong at the end. After getting hurt by a powerful left hand to the midsection, Khan came back in the 5th round and dropped Gomez with a hard left to the body. Later in the round, Khan staggered Gomez with a big right hand, which drove him backwards to the ropes, where Khan finished him off with a flurry of shots to the head causing referee John Keane to step in and stop the fight at 2:29 of the 5th round. Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: Former super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (40-1, 30 KOs) easily destroyed Dmitri Sartison (22-1, 14 KOs) in an impressive 12th round stoppage to win the vacant WBA super middleweight title tonight at the Brondby hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sartison, 28, was totally dominated all fight long, badly beaten in every round and knocked down both in the 11th and 12th round. The fight was stopped after the second knockdown, as Sartison was too badly hurt to continue fighting.

Immediately afterwards, a badly beaten Sartison was rushed to a nearby hospital to be examined for head injuries. In the 1st round, Sartison using powerful hooks and a straight right hand, appeared to stun Kessler with a big right hand. Sartison added a several more big shots in the round because Kessler could regain his composure and once again start jabbing at a distance. From that point, Kessler fought much more cautiously, using his jab and in and out movement to keep Sartison from tagging him like he had in the first round. Still, Sartison was able to catch Kessler with big shots every now and then, hitting him much more often than I’d ever seen him hit before. Read more…

By Michael Lieberman: I personally can’t stand either one of these guys. Neither of them are all that good, especially the annoying chatterbox Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs) who talks as if he’s the king crap of the super middleweight division, when in all probability, he may never rise above being one of the middle of the rode contenders. As for IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KOs), this guy seems to have been totally protected his entire career up until the point that his management finally let him take a risky opponent in Miranda.

Things didn’t go too well in their previous fight two years ago, as you can see, with Abraham getting his jaw broken badly, swallowing a ton of blood, taking a vicious beating and seeming to be saved by both the referee (who penalized Miranda early and often) and the judges, who in their good hears rewarded Abraham for staying in the fight with a broken jaw by giving him what appeared to be a very questionable unanimous decision victory. Read more…

By Jason Kim: HBO’s Boxing After Dark will show two of the best fights this year on Saturday evening with undefeated heavyweight prospects Chris Arreola (23-0, 21 KOs) and Chazz Witherspoon (23-0, 15 KOs) go head to head in an important heavyweight bout for the two young prospects. In the main event, the number #1 and #2 top challengers for the WBC welterweight title Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) and Miguel Angel Rodriguez (29-2, 23 KOs) fight for the now vacant title.

Witherspoon, 26, will be testing his boxing ability against the all out slugging style of Arreola, in a fight of complete opposites. Witherspoon, 6′4″ 226 lbs, is a fighter in the mold of Wladimir Klitschko, whom he sometimes spars with. Witherspoon has shown a tremendous amount of progress in his short four-year boxing career, especially recently with his training with Klitschko. His style of fighting is very technical, consisting of a lot of jabs, left hooks, uppercuts and straight right hands. He’s a rare type of fighter that can do everything well, whether that be fighting at a distance or on the inside. In fact, Witherspoon is even more dangerous on the inside, where he often nails his opponents with big uppercuts, although if you were to put the question to him I’m fairly certain that he’d say that he prefers fighting on the outside where he can utilize his long jab and left hook. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: Tomorrow night, we’ll be seeing arguably the second best super middleweight in boxing when the Danish Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) faces little known Dimiri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBA super middleweight title in Copenhagen. Kessler, known mostly for his technical boxing skills and well as his excellent power and elusiveness, originally wanted to fight WBA super middleweight champion Australian Anthony Mundine for the title.

However, Mundine gave up the title on May 28th, which left the title open for Kessler, the number #1 contender and Sartison, the #4 contender to battle it out for the vacant title. Kessler had hopes of fighting middleweight Kelly Pavlik sometime either late this year or early next year. However, it was learned today that the winner of tomorrow night’s fight between Kessler and Sartison will have only 120 days with which to defend the title against Danilo Haussler. For Kessler, should he win tomorrow night, that’s not the best of boxing news he could get because a bout with Pavlik would figure to be a much bigger and better paying bout than the virtually unknown Haussler would. Read more…