By Tony Krebs: Undefeated lightweight contender Amir Khan (17-0, 13 KOs) defends his Commonwealth (British Empire) lightweight title on Saturday night against Michael Gomez (35-8, 24 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout at the National Indoor Arena, in Birmingham, West Midlands. Khan, 21, is hoping to get by Gomez, who comes into the fight clearly way over-matched, and then possibly line up a fight with the winner of Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz for the WBC lightweight title next week. Khan is also interested in a possible - though much less so - fight with Nate Campbell for the WBO lightweight title.

However, first things first, Khan must defeat Gomez, a former WBU super featherweight and BBBofC British super featherweight champion, tomorrow night. Despite his status of a former champion, not many boxing experts give Gomez much of a chance against Khan tomorrow night, mainly because Gomez’s prime - 6 to 8 years ago - appears in the rear view mirror and he’s lost three out of his last six recent fights, with all three coming by knockout. Read more…

By Chris Williams: Heavyweight contender Eddie Chambers (30-1, 16 KOs) will be making his long awaited return to the boxing ring tonight when he takes on the hard-hitting Raphael Butler (31-4, 24 KOs) tonight in a scheduled 12-round bout for Chamber’s USBA heavyweight title at the Royal Watler Cruise Terminal, in Georgetown, Cayman Islands. For Chambers, currently ranked # 8 in the IBF, it’s been five months since he last fought, losing a 12-round unanimous decision to the Russian heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin as part of the IBF’s 4-man elimination tournament to face the current champion Wladimir Klitschko.

The loss derailed Chamber’s title hopes, and he’s now starting over again to try and work his way back into a title shot. Known mainly for his fast hands, his excellent defense which often draws comparisons to former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd, and superb boxing skills, Chambers has quickly emblazoned a trail through the heavyweight division in the past three years. During that time, he’s beaten good fighters like journeyman Ross Puritty, Derric Rossy, Dominick Guinn and Calvin Brock. Read more…

By Aaron Klein: Showing as much promise as he did flaws, once-beaten lightweight prospect Vicente Escobedo (18-1, 11 KOs) defeated 10-year veteran Cristian Favela (15-16-4, 9 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Arco Arena, in Sacramento, California. The final judges’ scores were 78-74, 80-72 and 80-72. Escobedo, a former amateur boxer on the 2004 United States Olympic Team, used his superior hand speed, work rate and movement to control much of the fight without too much trouble. However, Escobedo’s defense left a lot to be desired as he was periodically tagged with some really big shots from Favela. Read more…

By Aaron Klein: In an exceptional fight on Wednesday night, super featherweight fringe contender Cornelius Lock (18-3-1, 11 KOs) stopping Roger Gonzalez (27-2, 18 KOs) in the 10th round at the Arco Arena, in Sacramento, California. Both fighters were hurt in the bout, with Gonzalez going down once in the 1st round, and twice in the 10th, while Lock getting hurt with a big left hook in the 7th round. After dominating the first five rounds, Lock had problems in rounds six through eight as Gonzalez, perhaps motivated by the angry crowd that had begun booing loudly during those rounds, began to fight incredibly hard taking the fight to Lock and punishing him with hooks to the head and body.

Lock, however, came back in round nine and landed well, outnumbering Gonzalez’s shots by a significant number. In the 10th round, Lock landed a short right hook a minute into the round, which knocked Gonzalez to the canvas. He got up, badly hurt and received a standing eight count from the referee. As soon as the action resumed, Lock charged after Gonzalez and hit him with a big left hand to the body that toppled him backwards onto the canvas, at which point referee Jon Schorle moved in and called a halt to the bout at 1:27 of the 10th round. Read more…

By Manuel Perez: With only a week to go before super featherweight Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) faces off with WBC lightweight champion David Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs) for his lightweight crown at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s difficult for me to get too excited about this fight for a couple of reason. The most important reason is simple, Pacquiao is going into this fight having recently defeated Juan Manuel Marquez by a 12-round split decision in March, a fight that Pacquiao appeared to lose in every which way you can lose the fight except for the final scoring.

For most people, other than his legions of fans from his native country, Pacquiao appeared to lose the fight. Okay, it’s fine that Pacquiao is choosing to ignore the vast public opinion in the boxing world and choosing to move on and fight Diaz rather than giving Marquez an immediate rematch, but it doesn’t mean that I like it or accept it. For me, it’s like a person taking math class, say Algebra, for example, and they then fail the class with a D grade. Then, instead of returning to school to take the class, they then move on to pre-Calculus, even though they never proved that they could handle Algebra, much less Calculus. Read more…

By Jim Dower: While I was watching a couple old fights this week of Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs), I couldn’t help but notice the similarity of his style and that of the current IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KOs), both of whom have the same trainer Emanuel Steward. Like Lewis, Klitschko has an excellent jab, maybe the best in all of boxing when he remembers to throw it, is about as equally as tall as Lewis at 6′6″, has a weak chin, and often is lacking in aggression when going after his opponents. In a way, Klitschko is almost an exact copy of Lewis, although not quite as good as him in any one category other than hand speed, which is the one area that Wladimir Klitschko is clearly superior to Lewis in.

Both Lewis and Klitschko have an excellent right hand, and are capable (in the case of Lewis, he used to be capable of scoring knockouts but sadly is now long retired from boxing) of scoring one-punching knockouts. Lewis’ right hand was definitely a little better than Klitschko’s, and he also was much more confident about throwing it than Klitschko, as well. Read more…

By Manuel Perez: According to a recent interview on boxingtalk.com, IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi has this to say about former champion Ricky Hatton: “He cannot take a punch. To the head to the body, I’ve been saying this for years he cannot take a punch and that’s why he fights the way he does.” Malignaggi went on to say that the reason that Hatton tends to hold so much is that he is prevent his opponents from getting as much as power on their shots so as to avoid getting hurt.

To top it off, Malignaggi later on said that he wouldn’t be surprised that he knocks Hatton out, which seems somewhat odd considering that Malignaggi isn’t known for having much power to speak of. However, if there’s one thing that Hatton seems to have problems with is handling punches that he doesn’t see coming at him. For instance, in his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007, it was a lightning fast left hook that hurt Hatton in the 10th round, sending him bouncing off the corner protective padding and falling to the canvas. A short while later, Hatton was obliterated by a flurry of speedy shots from Mayweather, many of which were far too fast for Hatton to attempt block. With Malignaggi, his speed is almost as good as Mayweather, maybe a shade or two slower if that. Read more…

Photos: Courtesy Red Line Media Group - By Nate Anderson: In looking at the recent photos of super middleweight Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs), photos of him looking far more leaner and cutup than usual, I can’t help but think that he’s either over-trained himself for his rematch with IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KOs) this Saturday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida, or Miranda has depleted himself of water in order to make the catch-weight limit of 166 lbs. Whatever the case, I don’t think he looks good at all. He looks far too think for him, like he’s lost too much weight and it’s also had the effect of making him look older, as if he’s aged visibly in the matter of months.

I know that he’s said to walk around at 190+ pounds in between fights, with most of it in the way of muscle rather than fat. This would seem to indicate that Miranda likely had to strip off a considerable amount of muscle - or water - in order to make the weight limit of 166, which seems to have given him the lean, over-trained and muscle starved look in the recent photos of him. It certainly looks good for a person that would want to enter a bathing suit contest or perhaps an amateur bodybuilding contest, but as far as boxing goes, he looks much too thin for him. Read more…

By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) is reportedly on WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s short list of future opponents that he would like to fight. Apparently, Pavlik’s promoter Bob Arum recently said that Kessler is one of Pavlik’s potential opponents in the future, that he is one of the best fighters in the super middleweight division (other than Joe Calzaghe) and that Pavlik prefers to fight impressive opponents like Kessler. For his part, Kessler has also a lot of respect for Pavlik, having seen his fight with Jermain Taylor and likes his style of fighting and would be interested in fighting him in the future.

However, Kessler still has to get through this Saturday’s bout with Dimitri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs), whom he’s fighting for the vacant WBA super middleweight title at the Brondby hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kessler is coming off a loss to Joe Calzaghe on November 3rd. Read more…

By William MacKay: It’s been an incredible 21 months, almost two years since the two last fought, and it’s seemed more than a lifetime for super middleweight knockout artist Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs) who has been deeply bitter since that time when he lost a controversial 12-round unanimous decision to IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KOs) in Arthur’s adopted country Germany. The fight, which had high expectations going into the bout, turned into a confusing fight, stopped on four separate occasions with Miranda getting 5 points taken away from him for a mix of fouls - low blows and a head butt.

Abraham, fighting in his high energy style, had his jaw broken in the 4th round when he ran into a straight right hand from Miranda. From then on, Abraham was forced to fight with his mouth wide open, with blood constantly pouring out. The fight should have been stopped, but there didn’t seem to be anyone in charge willing to make that decision, certainly not the referee Randy Neumann, who looked like he was waiting for the ringside doctor to make the call. It didn’t, and Abraham was forced to fight the rest of the way with his jaw broken badly. As it turns out, even with the point deductions given back, Miranda would have lost regardless, as the judges had Abraham soundly defeating Miranda in the fight. Read more…

By Jason Kim: In what will likely be an exciting card with two huge unbeaten heavyweight prospects Chazz Witherspoon (23-0, 15 KOs) and the powerful Chris Arreola (23-0, 21 KOs) going at each other on the undercard, and top welterweight contenders Andre Berto (21-0, 18 KOs) and little known Miguel Angel Rodriguez (29-2, 23 KOs) facing off in the main event for the vacant WBC welterweight title.

The fight between the two heavyweights Arreola and Witherspoon may turn out to be the most exciting fight of the fight, for it matches two top heavyweights against each other, each with unbeaten records. Arreola, 27, ranked #10 in the WBO and IBF, is known for his knockout power and his heavy pressure. At 6′4″ 245 lbs, Arreola has the size to match up with the equally big 6′4″ 230 lbs Witherspoon. Arreola, however, is known more for his brawling style of fighting, which has allowed him to knockout 21 of his 23 opponents, rather than his boxing ability. Indeed, Arreola rarely ever attempts to box, use his jab or try and finesse his opponents in the ring. Instead, he makes no secret about what he’s going to try and do, namely take his opponents’ head off with every punch. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: Last week, undefeated super middleweight/light heavyweight Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) came out and said that he won’t be fighting Kelly Pavlik next, that “he’s not ready for me,” whatever that means. Calzaghe also said that he’s looking at possibly fighting former boxing great Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs), for his final fight, an idea that Calzaghe has been kicking around for some time. They’ve had discussions for a bout, but reportedly Jones was asking for too much money. However, it looks as if Calzaghe has had a change of tune and is interested in fighting Jones once again, preferring him to a fight against the tough Pavlik.

Previously, it was thought that if Calzaghe did go ahead and take the much easier bout against Jones, Calzaghe would then (if victorious) turn around and face Pavlik for what we assume would be the last fight of Calzaghe’s 15 year boxing career. Now, however, Calzaghe, 36, is saying about the possible Jones fight, “it will be a perfect way to finish off my career.” Come again? A perfect way to end his boxing career? Are you kidding me? That, to me, would be the worse way to complete Calzaghe’s boxing career. I mean, if his intention is to leave his many fans feeling unsatisfied by taking on a fighter like Jones, who at 39 is far removed from his boxing prime around a decade ago. Read more…

By Eric Thomas: As much as boxing fans and writers alike would like to see light welterweight Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) face pound-for-pound boxing great Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) in November, that idea was quashed yesterday when Hatton came out and said that he won’t be fighting Pacquiao in November, and had never said that he was going to be fighting him. Instead, Hatton will carry as usual with his plans to challenge IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi for his title in November, a bout that has so far has done little to interest most boxing fans.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, there was a report from the Manilla Bulletin, which stated that Malignaggi would be paid by the Hatton camp to step aside temporarily, and let Hatton take what will likely be the more appealing bout against Pacquiao in November. However, Hatton’s lawyer shot that idea down quickly yesterday, saying in effect that Hatton is under contract for a bout against Malignaggi in November and won’t be veering from that course to fight Pacquiao. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night, former WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (39-1, 29 KOs) makes his return to the ring in his first fight since losing his titles to Joe Calzaghe when he takes on the hard-punching Dimitri Sartison (22-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBA super middleweight title at the Brondby hallen, in Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s been seven months since Kessler, 29, experienced his disappointing unanimous decision loss to Calzaghe at the Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, Wales, and he’s been in the uncomfortable situation of having to pick a fight that would be best for his boxing career.

He had an opportunity to face Edison Miranda in what would have been a fight that would have paid Kessler a good payday and at the same time given him a lot of visibility in the U.S, as it was going to be shown on the sports cable network ESPN. However, after giving it a lot of thought, Kessler turned it down, instead choosing to go after the WBA super middleweight title held by Anthony Mundine, a fighter that Kessler previously beat three years ago in June 2005. Rather than face Kessler again, who beat him by 12-round unanimous decision, Mundine instead chose to vacate the title and go after a fight against fellow Australian Sam Soliman. Read more…

By Aaron Klein: Last time the two met two years ago, Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs) appeared to be the better fighter offensively, stalking and pounding away on IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KOs), breaking his jaw in the 4th round. However, due to a string of point deductions made against Miranda by referee Randy Neumann, totaling an incredible 5 points, Abraham was able to win the fight by a unanimous decision by the ridiculous scores of 114-109, 115-109 and 115-109. The scores, though, looked nothing like the actual fight that took place that night in which it was Miranda who did most of the punching, landing the high number of shots (mostly power punches) and pressing the action constantly during the fight.

For his part, Abraham generally moved around, covering up constantly on the ropes and trying to wade out Miranda’s attacks. When Abraham would punch, it would be in short flurries of shots near the end of the round as he tried to pull out the round. Obviously, Abraham has been trained to know that he can win rounds by fighting hard in the last half minute, while coasting during the first two and a half minutes of every round. This is what Abraham seemed to be doing against Miranda, which made it almost impossible for Abraham to win any of the rounds, even with his last second flurries. Read more…

By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, there is talk of former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton facing Manny Pacquiao in November in Las Vegas. According to the Manilla Bulletin website, Top Rank’s promoter Bob Arum is talks with Bob Schaefer of Golden Boy about the possibility of a November fight between Hatton and Pacquiao. Of course, for this to happen it would mean that Paulie Malignaggi, the IBF light welterweight champion and the one that Hatton is scheduled to fight in November for his title, would have to agree to step aside and let the Hatton-Pacquiao take place.

Even if Malignaggi would agree on such a thing, which is still debatable, it would likely take a substantial feel for him to do such a thing. After all, Hatton, who hasn’t looked good in quite some time with a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a poor showing in his most recent bout against Juan Lazcano, might very well lose to Pacquiao if they were to actually fight. That would leave Malignaggi with a greatly diminished bout since boxing fans would probably have less interest in seeing Hatton face Malignaggi if he were to lose to Pacquiao, and the cry would likely be for an immediate rematch between Hatton and Pacquiao, thus further causing Malignaggi to even more. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: In an extremely exciting and action packed bout, once-beaten middleweight prospect Sam Webb (11-1, 3 KOs) defeated 37 year-old Paul Dyer (18-9, 1 KOs) by a six-round decision on Saturday night at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth, in Hampshire. Webb, 27, dropped Dyer in two times in the fight -once each in the 2nd and 3rd rounds - but then tired out after the 4th round and had to fight hard as Dyer took control in the 5th and 6th rounds.

Webb fought well in the first round, immediately attacking Dyer with hard hooks to the body and head. Dyer, a tall rangy fighter with excellent boxing skills, used his height (or at least he tried to) and jab to try and keep Webb at bay. However, Webb wouldn’t be denied and kept coming forward pressing the action and looking like a bigger, slightly less powerful version of Ricky Hatton as he landed some terrific hooks in the round. Like Hatton, Webb thought little of his own defense and was caught often as he came diving in to deliver his huge left hooks. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: Undefeated welterweight Kell Brook (17-0, 10 KOs) was far too good for last minute replacement Barrie Jones (15-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night, stopping him in the 7th round to win the vacant BBBofC British welterweight title York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. Brook, 22, battered Jones from start to finish, hitting him with punches thrown from all kinds of angles and reminding me greatly of a slightly bigger version of Naseem Hamed. Indeed, Brook’s was almost impossible to predict what he’d do in the ring, where his punches would come from and what kind of direction he would go in. In the 7th round, a confused badly hurt Jones was taking severe punishment against the ropes when the referee Mickey Vann moved in to halt the one-sided slaughter.

In winning the fight, Brook showed the kind of skills that may someday make him not just a British champion but a world champion as well, for his skills were quite extraordinary, though he didn’t reveal even a small portion of them due to the low quality of his opponent Barrie Jones. Using mostly his jab, left hooks and straight right hands, Brook battered Jones around the ring for seven rounds without stop. Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated middleweight Maksim Bursak (15-0, 5 KOs) was too much for his Italian opponent Giovanni De Carolis (6-1, 2 KOs), stopping him in the 8th round of a scheduled 10-round bout to win the IBF Youth middleweight title on Saturday night at the Sports Palace, in Kiev, Ukraine. The bout, held by the Klitshko brother’s K2 East Promotions, pitted one of the best fighters in Ukraine, the 23 year-old Bursak against one of the rising stars from Italy, De Carolis, also 23. Bursak hurt De Carolis with a big left hook in the 8th round and then followed up with a flurry of shots as he lay trapped and helpless against the ropes. The referee Nikolay Puchkov then moved in and halted the bout with De Carolis still on his feet.

Bursak, from Ukraine, used a fierce body attack in the opening rounds of the fight to keep De Carolis busy on the defensive. Only 5′8″, Bursak, quite short for a middleweight, had to make sure the action was at close quarters where he could land with his shorter arms. De Carolis despite being the much taller fighter at 6′0” rarely used his height by trying to take advantage of it by jabbing Bursak. In hindsight, he should because Bursak was all over him landing powerful body shots and not giving him much room to land anything of his own. Read more…

By Jim Dower: In a fight card marred with controversial decisions, lightweight Chevelle Hallback (27-5-2, 11 KOs) defeated Jeannine Garside (7-1-1, 3 KOs) by a 10-round split decision to win the vacant IFBA International Female Boxing Association lightweight title on Friday night at the Isleta Casino & Resort, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 99-91 for Hallback and 94-96 for Garside. I personally had Garside winning the bout by seven rounds to three.

In another fight on the card, minimumweight Wendy Rodriguez (19-4, 3 KOs) defeated Hollie Dunaway (21-7, 10 KOs) by a 10-round split decision to win the vacant IFBA International Female Boxing Association minimumweight and vacant International Boxing Association Female minimumweight titles. The final judges’ scores were 96-94 and 98-92 for Rodriguez and 94-96 for Dunaway. I had Dunaway easily winning the fight by 8 rounds to 2.

In the lightweight title fight between Garside and Hallback, the action was controlled by Garside in the early rounds as she stayed mostly to the outside where she was able to throw combinations effectively. Read more…