Archive for December, 2008

By Erik Schmidt: Newly crowned WBO super middleweight champion Denis Inkin (34-0, 24 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title on January 10th against his number #1 contender Karoly Balzsay (19-0, 14 KOs) in a 12-round bout at the Bordelandhalle, Magdeburg, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Both fighters are unbeaten, transplants to Germany from [...]

By Jason Kim: With four losses out of his last eight fights, there’s major questions looming about the career of former light welterweight and welterweight champion Zab Judah (37-6, 25 KOs). While some people consider Judah, 31, to be totally shot, I see it differently. He’s clearly lost a step, that’s for sure, but mostly [...]

By Chris Williams: Since losing to Breidis Prescott (20-0, 18 KOs) by a 1st round TKO in September, lightweight contender Amir Khan (19-1, 15 KOs) has taken a tremendous amount of heat from boxing fans, a lot of whom have given up on him, seeing him as too fragile-chinned to become a champion in the [...]

By Dave Lahr: Undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (23-0, 19 KOs) will be facing his biggest test of his young, four year professional career against former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo (29-3, 14 KOs) on January 17th at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, in Biloxi, Mississippi. Berto, 25, has fought mostly limited opponents [...]

By Erik Schmidt: WBO light heavyweight champion Zsolt Erdei (29-0, 17 KOs) will be making his incredible 11th defense of his title on January 10th against Armenian Yuri Barashian (25-4, 17 KOs) in a 12-round bout at Bordelandhalle, Magdeburg, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Erdei, 34, from Hungary and now living in Hamburg, Germany, has held onto [...]

By Manuel Perez: Just what I thought, Oscar De La Hoya’s drastic diet for his December 6th fight with Manny Pacquiao, which included a lot of Kangaroo and Buffalo meat (both low in fat), may have ultimately played a major role in Oscar’s defeat to Pacquiao. De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) quit on his [...]

By Scott Gilfoid: Whether Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) ends up fighting both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2009, I think Hatton’s career will be forever tainted unless he steps it up and gives both Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) and Timothy Bradley (23-0, 11 KOs) at some point in time. Hatton, for [...]

By Jim Dower: Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson (48-12-2, 33 KOs) will return to the ring on February 27th against Daniel Judah (23-3-3, 10 KOs) in a 10-round non-title bout at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. Johnson, 39, ranked #2 in the WBC, #4 in [...]

By Dan Ambrose: Sporting nearly identical records, former WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) will be looking to redeem himself somewhat in a fight against Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) for the vacant WBO welterweight title on February 21st at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Few experts see Jennings, 31, [...]

By Matthew Thomas Potter: Writing in his online blog for The Ring Magazine website, columnist Michael Rosenthal gave his opinions on the ten best British fighters of all time. At number four on the list was Joe Calzaghe (46-0, KO 32). Naseem Hamed (36-1, KO 31) was only granted an honourable mention, essentially a footnote; [...]

By William Mackay: While watching former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield struggle last Saturday night in a losing effort to WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, I couldn’t help but compare the 46-year-old Holyfield to the 45year-old George Foreman, who on November 5th, 1994, he stopped IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Michael Moorer to recapture the heavyweight title 20 [...]

By Manuel Perez: I’m not sure what Shane Mosley (45-5, 38 KOs) was thinking when he decided on fighting WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) on January 24th, at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. Of all the potential opponents that Mosley could have chosen for a well-paying bout, he decided to [...]

By Jim Dower: In an interview on Sky Sports, Hatton hinted at retirement in 2009, saying that if he can beat both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in 2009, that he’d have to review his options and make a decision about his future direction. Unfortunately, the chances of Hatton beating both Pacquiao and Mayweather [...]

By Sean McDaniel: Though the fight between former cruiserweight champion David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) is months away, if not more, a lot of interest is already generating about his upcoming June 2009 bout with Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) which will likely take place in a football stadium in London. However, as much as [...]

By Dave Lahr: WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) will be defending his titles on February 21st against Marco Antonio Rubio (43-4-1, 37 KOs), his number #1 ranked WBC challenger, in Youngstown, Ohio. Pavlik, 26, will be making his first appearance since being defeated by 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins in a lopsided 12-round unanimous [...]

By Eric Thomas: In a potentially intriguing bout between two sluggers in the heavyweight division, the rumor is that there is a possibility of former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-2, 23 KOs) taking on top contender Chris Arreola (26-0, 23 KOs) in the near future. Although it’s still speculation at this point, this is [...]

By Chris Williams: A fight that has caused little commotion, though it should, is the WBC title eliminator bout between Jackson Osei (30-2, 23 KOs) and former WBC welterweight champion Carlos Manuel Baldomir (44-12-6, 13 KOs), which saw Bonsu winning the fight by a 12-round majority decision on Saturday, December 20th at Lotto Arena, Antwerpen, [...]

By Dan Ambrose: After recently suffering his second one-sided loss in the past two years, there are whispering in the boxing community that super middleweight contender Jeff Lacy (24-2, 17 KOs) is a shot fighter, that he doesn’t have it anymore due to his vicious beat down at the hands of Joe Calzaghe two years [...]

By Jim Dower: Heavyweight Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1, 17 KOs), the WBA champion in recess, will make a rare defense of his title on February 7th against number #9th ranked Carl Davis Drumond, 33, at Stadthalle, Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Chagaev, 30, has experienced both illness and injury in the past year, initially keeping him from [...]

By Michael Lieberman: For his two victories over the prehistoric fighters Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., I have to give Joe Calzaghe my vote for the number #1 fighter of the year. There were a couple of others that came close, but Calzaghe took the cake with his wins over the two 40ish fighters, [...]

By Matt Stein: With his total destruction by Breidis Prescott in September, lightweight Amir Khan (19-1, 15 KOs) appears to have his work cut out for him if he wants to someday win a major title in the lightweight division. His loss to Prescott, a 1st round TKO, dropped Khan from the top rungs of [...]

By Chris Williams: Light welterweight Ricky Hatton will be in for the fight of his life on May 2nd as he tries to defeat what many in the boxing world consider to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport in taking on Manny Pacquiao. Neither fighter is unblemished, having lost previously in the past [...]

By Jim Dower: Far and away one of my most favorite fighters in boxing, heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) is about to step it up against the better class in the heavyweight division in 2009, and we’ll finally find out if he has the tools to succeed in the division. Having jumped ahead of [...]

Team Sauerland will reconsider its plan to offer Evander Holyfield a rematch against WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev following Tommy Brooks´ outrageous remarks in the press. The coach of the 46-year-old boxing legend, who lost a close majority decision by the scores of 116-112, 115-114 and 114-114, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I think it was [...]

By Dave Lahr: Ever since his 9th round stoppage loss to Vitali Klitschko on October 11th, former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-2, 23 KOs) has been written off by the boxing community, a lot of whom are saying that he’s finished as a fighter, that he’ll never be a champion again and that he [...]

By Jason Kim: Making his fourth defense of his World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight title, champion Daisuke Naito (34-2-3, 22 KOs) turned back challenger Shingo Yamaguchi (23-6-2, 9 KOs), stopping him in the 11th round on Tuesday night at the Kokugikan, in Tokyo, Japan. Naito, 34, hurt Yamaguchi with a left-right combination in the 11th [...]

By Eric Thomas: For what it’s worth, heavyweight Evander Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KOs) has, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, asked the World Boxing Association (WBA) sanctioning body to look at his decision loss to Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KOs) last Saturday and change the outcome of the decision. However, the chances of Holyfield’s protest of [...]

Team McGirt has reevaluated middleweight prospect James McGirt, Jr. (19-1-1, 9 KOs) and, after considerable soul searching, has collectively decided that the 26-year-old southpaw will return to old-school training and incorporate a more aggressive attack in order to take better advantage of his hand speed, as well as to avoid his frustrating “fight to the [...]

By Scott Gilfoid: With two wins over less than impressive opponents in his last two fights, Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) will once again step into the fire, this time against Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) on May 2nd in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hatton, 30, is taking a huge risk in fighting Pacquiao, who looked [...]

By Matt Stein: It seems as if World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) is going to either have to fight Juan Carlos Gomez (44-1, 35 KOs), his number #1 mandatory challenger, or vacate the title in order to fight David Haye. Gomez, 35, is determined to fight Vitali next, based [...]