By Eric Thomas: WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (36-2, 21 KOs) lost a narrow 12-round split decision to undefeated American challenger Timothy Bradley (22-0, 11 KOs) at the Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England, on Saturday night. Witter, 34, was knocked down once in the fight after getting hit with a big sweeping right hand in the 6th round. Witter trailed in the first half of the fight, looking four of six rounds. He then rallied and appeared to win rounds seven though nine. After the 9th round, however, Witter faded badly and allowed Bradley to retake command of the fight.

In turn, Bradley would go on to win the remaining rounds 10 through 12. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 114-113 for Bradley and 112-115 for Witter. I personally scored it 115-113 for Bradley. I had hoped that Witter would win the fight because I wanted him to continue exerting pressure on former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton, who has been reluctant to fight Witter for some reason. With this loss, this now gives Hatton an even better excuse not to fight Witter. Though I highly doubt Hatton will get anywhere near the new champion Bradley, who like Witter, would box circles around Hatton and very likely knock him out like Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in their recent championship bout in December. Read more…

By Dave Lahr: In a stay busy fight, undefeated super middleweight contender Carl Froch (23-0, 19 KOs) destroyed his Polish opponent Albert Rybacki (15-1, 8 KOs) in the 4th round on Saturday night at the Nottingham Arena, in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. Froch, 30, the #1 ranked fighter in the WBC super middleweight division, controlled every round, hurting Rybacki with tremendous shots. The end came in the fourth after Froch landed a series of hard combinations, ending with a big uppercut that snapped the head back of Rybacki. The referee John Keane them moved in and stopped the fight at 2:35 of the 4th round. Froch looked good throughout, although he tended to load up a bit too much in the fight, making him seem kind of slow and mechanical in the process.

The fight was never expected to be a competitive bout, since Rybacki, 37, was nowhere near the same class as Froch. However, the win served a purpose in that it kept pressure on WBC champion Joe Calzaghe, who will either have to make a decision to fight Froch, the number one contender, or vacate the belt. Froch said afterwards about Calzaghe, “He has to give it to me (a fight) or vacate the belt.” Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation flyweight and WBA Female flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (21-0, 16 KOs) successfully defended her titles with a destructive 1st round TKO of American Mary Ortega (29-5-2, 8 KOs) of a scheduled 10-round title bout at the Brandberge Arena, Halle, an der Saale, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, on Saturday night. Kentikian, 20, making her second defense of her WIBF title, dropped Ortega twice in the 1st round and was pummeling her against the ropes afterwards causing the referee to come to Ortega’s rescue and stop the fight.

Ortega, 27, never had a chance in the bout, as she was stopped with a blistering 1-2 combination from Kentikian just seconds into the fight. I’m not quite sure whether Ortega ever recovered from the knockdown because it was a devastating combination, which Ortega seemed to never see coming. The reason for that, perhaps, is because Kentikian started slow in the round, mostly throwing weak combinations with very little power put on the shots. She seemed to just be trying to make contact with Ortega and wasn’t loading up with her shots like she usually does against her opponents. Ortega, though, should have had an idea that Kentikian can punch a little because she’d knocked out 15 of her 20 opponents going into the fight, which should have been evidence enough that Kentikian is a fighter that you have to be very careful with in the ring. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: #15 IBF ranked light welterweight contender Mike Arnaoutis (19-2, 9 KOs) easily defeated a badly overmatched and previously unbeaten Lanardo Tyner (19-1, 11 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Bally’s Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 118-110 and 116-112. Speaking of overmatched opponents, on the undercard undefeated heavyweight prospect Devin Vargas (16-0, 7 KOs) flattened Dave Brunelli (8-4, 2 KOs) in the 1st round.

Going into Friday’s bout, Tyner, 32, had done a lot of talking about how he was going to take Arnaoutis to school in the ring. However, it was immediately clear in the first round that Tyner didn’t have the skills with which to back up his claims and it would be he who would be getting a boxing lesson. The southpaw Arnaoutis, 28, used a lot of jabs and straight left hands in the 1st round to easily win the round. Tyner attempted to crowd him as much as possible, working his way in close where he was able to land some good shots. However, Tyner’s hand speed was lacking and so was his work rate, which wasn’t nearly as high as the busy Arnaoutis. Read more…

With the poise of a seasoned veteran, Palm Springs, California’s Timothy ‘Desert Storm’ Bradley made the most of his first world title shot Saturday at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham, England, decisioning highly regarded hometown hero Junior Witter over 12 rounds to win the WBC junior welterweight championship of the world.

Scores were 115-113, 114-113, and 112-115 for Bradley, who used a sixth round knockdown of Witter to help earn the victory. Read more…

By Jim Dower: In perhaps one of the best heavyweight fights in recent memory, the 6’5” Chris Burton (11-0, 6 KOs) defeated journeyman fighter Lee Swaby (22-20-2, 11 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Eston Sports Academy, in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire. Burton, 27, one of the top heavyweight prospects in the UK, traded bombs with the 31 year-old Swaby for the entire eight round fight, dropping Swaby once, in the 5th round. Burton, however, struggled much of the time with Swaby, who landed big shots frequently in the fight and hurt Burton on a couple of occasions.

However, Burton never backed off at one time in the fight, instead continuing to fire back with beautiful combinations and a big right hand that gave Swaby a lot of problems in the fight. When he was on offense, Burton looked remarkably well, showing more power and skill than most of the current top heavyweight contenders in the division, including Ruslan Chagaev, the WBA heavyweight champion. Read more…

By Chris Williams: Undefeated Polish middleweight prospect Patrick Majewski (8-0, 5 KOs) survived a 2nd round scare in which he was knocked down by a big right hand from his opponent Ariel Espinal (6-3-2, 2 KOs) to come back and win by a 4-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Bally’s Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The final judges’ scores were 38-37, 38-37 and 38-37, all for Majewski. Aside from the 2nd round where Majewski, 28, briefly visited the canvas after being surprised by a big sweeping right hand from Espinal, most of the other action was dominated by Majewski, who showed an excellent jab and good skills despite his momentary lapse in the 2nd. Read more…

By Manuel Perez: Undefeated light welterweight prospect Mike Alvarado (21-0, 14 KOs) stopped Michel Rosales (16-2, 14 KOs) in the 7th round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Isleta Casino & Resort, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday night. Alvarado, 27, considered one of the top prospects coming up in the light welterweight division, staggered Rosales, 25, with a big right hand at the end of the 6th round. Knowing that Rosales probably hadn’t recovered from the shot, Alvarado went right after Rosales in the 7th round and took him out with a flurry of big combinations, causing referee Rocky Burke to step in and halt the fight while Rosales was still standing at 1:28 of the 7th round.

Early on Alvarado looked mostly boring, somewhat like a smaller version of Winky Wright, except that Alvarado’s defense what rather porous to say the least. Though Rosales rarely threw any punches in the first round, he scored virtually every time he let his hands go. Alvarado, however, let his offense work as his defense as he continuously threw a steady rain of jabs over and over again. Occasionally, he’d throw a decent right hand, but mostly he’d miss with his power shots. Indeed, Alvarado’s accuracy was downright terrible despite the fact that Rosales wasn’t using any head movement or attempting to duck any of the shots. Read more…

By Aaron Klein: With the recent announcement of former WBC Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) and the current WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) to fight in October for the championship, one has to wonder how much Vitali will have left for the bout. If this fight were four years ago, the last time Vitali set foot in the ring, I and probably a lot of other people would assume that Vitali would win with relative ease. After all, his chin was one of the sturdiest in the heavyweight division at the time and he had one of the best right hands in the business. In addition, with Vitali’s size – 6’8” 250 lbs – and his ability to choose whether to box or slug, he was more than a match for perhaps any heavyweight in the division.

In his prime, Vitali rarely lost a round to any of his opponents, even against Lennox Lewis in their June 2003 bout. With the ability to use his long jab, left hook, and his powerful right hand, a prime Vitali would have been more than a match for Peter. Indeed, Peter would have been hard pressed to do much with Vitali at all except for to land an occasional shot or two. Read more…

Hennessy Sports in association with GoldenPalace.com can announce important news… Canada’s only national pay Television Network Super Channel will now be televising the WBC Super Lightweight Championship of the world between Junior Witter and Timothy Bradley Jr. at the Trent FM Arena Nottingham at a new revised time of 10.45pm ET/PT. Super Channel will also be showing the International Super Middleweight contents between the WBC # 1 Rated Super Middleweight and mandatory challenger Carl Froch versus Poland’s undefeated and tough Albert Rybacki. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: After months of negotiations former WBC/WBO heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) have come to an agreement for a bout in October, though no official date has been set as of this time. It will be the first bout for Klitschko, 37, since his defeat of Danny Williams in December 2004. Following that fight, Vitali was injured repeatedly while training for a title defense against his then number #1 challenger Hasim Rahman. After multiple cancellations, involving months of time wasted for both fighters, Vitali finally stepped away from the sport and officially retired from boxing. For whatever reason, Klitschko suddenly announced late last year that he had decided on making a comeback to regain the titles.

Rather than having to work his way back like most fighters, Vitali was given the status of champion emeritus by the WBC, thus immediately thrusting him to the top of the division to take on the champion. Most recently, the dust cleared between the two WBC champions Oleg Maskaev and the interim champion Samuel Peter, with Peter winning the fight by stoppage. This set up another potential Klitschko vs. Peter bout. The first bout, Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali’s younger brother, defeated Peter in 2005, in one of the most exciting fights of the year. Read more…

Sinan Samil Sam has to take a break in preparing for his European heavyweight championship bout against Matt Skelton due to a hand injury. The title fight that was originally scheduled for May 30th in Istanbul will be postponed for about for weeks.

“It’s a pity”, states Sam. “I’m fired up to fight Skelton and I know that all of Turkey wants to see this fight. But at the moment I can’t use my left hand and I cannot take any risk before this fight. I know that this is my last chance to make it to the top. And I definitely don’t want to blow it.” Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: I often wonder how would the great Rocky Marciano (49-0, 43 KOs) do against today’s heavyweights. It’s perhaps even more of a question now than ever due to the lack of talent and interest in the heavyweight division. It’s been a decade since the heavyweight division had a champion – Mike Tyson – that fans were interested in, and since that time the quality of the fighters has dropped off dramatically, along with naturally the interest in the division as a whole. Many people say that it’s impossible for fighters of different generations to fight each other due to the size differences, the more advanced training techniques, and the better nutrition available now compared to the 40s and the 50s, when Marciano was at the top of the sport.

However, I don’t buy into all that, mainly because I see a lot of really poor trainers and a lot of heavyweights with bad diets and poor conditioning, and if anything, the nutrition and training is worse today than it was before. The main difference now, however, is that there’s a larger pool of people to get fighters from due to many of the other countries now having fighters that have turned professional. Despite that, the division still is in the worst shape now than it has been in years. So for this reason, I think it’s important to throw out the belief that you can’t compare different eras. Read more…

By Eric Thomas: In a bit of bad news, former light welterweight and welterweight champion Zab Judah (36-5, 25 KOs) has reportedly suffered an injury to his right forearm, making it necessary to have 50 stitches applied to the wound, and because of that Judah’s May 31st bout with Shane Mosley (44-5, 37 KOs) has been cancelled for the time being. There’s no word at this time as to when the fight will be rescheduled, but there are already talks undergoing for plans for a future date for the fight to take place.

This is particularly bad news for both fighters, perhaps even more for the 30 year-old Judah, for he’s been going through a rough period in his career having lost three out of his last six fights to opponents Carlos Baldomir, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto. There’s nothing wrong with losing to those kinds of fights, but the fact remains that there’s been little to be happy about in Judah’s career since 2005 when he was the IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion of the world. Since that time, Judah has experienced three losses to the aforementioned fighters, including a non contest with Ruben Galvin in April 2007. In his last two fights, Judah has defeated two little known fighters, Edwin Vazquez and Ryan Davis, both fights interesting to watch but clearly a step down for Judah in terms of career bouts. Read more…

By Jim Dower: WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation and WBA Female flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (20-0, 15 KOs) will arguably be facing her stiffest test of her early career when she faces American Mary Ortega (29-4-2, 8 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round championship bout on Saturday night at the Brandberge Arena, Halle an der Saale, in Saschsen-Anhalt, Germany. Kentikian, now 20, originally from Armenia but has since moved to Germany, will be making her sixth defense of her Woman’s WBA title and her 2nd defense of the prestigious WIBF title against the 27 year-old Ortega.

Kentikian, though only 20, has already surged to the top of the Woman’s flyweight division where she has dominated her opposition thus far since winning the vacant WBA title with a 9th round TKO of Carolina Alvarez in February 2007. Since then, Kentikian has breezed through her opposition, beating Maria Jose Nunez, Nadia Hokmi, Shawnee Martin and Sarah Goodson. Of them, only Hokmi gave her a competitive fight. Their first fight, fought on March 25th, 2007, saw Kentikian win by a narrow split decision. However, Kentikian not one to leave things unfinished, gave Hokmi a rematch in December 2007, this time beating Hokmi by a 10-round unanimous decision, winning by the scores 97-95, 96-94 and 96-94. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: Previously unbeaten super bantamweight contender Mike Oliver (21-1, 7 KOs) was shockingly stopped in the 3rd round by Colombian Reynaldo Lopez (29-5-2, 20 KOs) on Wednesday night at The Roxy, in Boston, Massachusetts. Oliver, 28, ranked # 2 in the IBF super bantamweight division, was cruising along in the third round having won the first two rounds when he attempted to throw a right hand from too far away and was subsequently nailed with a big right hand from Lopez, 34, knocking Oliver down flat on the canvas.

Referee Dick Flaherty then almost immediately stopped the fight at 1:22 of the third round with Oliver flat on his face on the canvas. It was a huge upset because Lopez, a fighter not even ranked in the top 10, was thought not to be nearly in the same class as Oliver in terms of boxing skills. The loss wipes out basically any chance for Oliver to land a bout with IBF super bantamweight champion Steve Molitor, who Oliver had been seeking to land a fight with for some time. Read more…

By Bradley Tice: Undefeated junior middleweight prospect Alexander Abraham (20-0-1, 14 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a disappointing 6-round unanimous decision over Mehdi Azri (12-6, 2 KOs) on Tuesday night at the P arc des Sports et Loisirs, Pont-Audemer, Eure, France. Abraham, 26, the younger brother of undefeated IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, is clearly a work in progress at this point in his career. He has little of the boxing skills, power or the speed of his older brother, and is still learning how to develop the potential that he does have. Against Azri, who had come into the fight having lost five out of his last six fights, it would be putting it gently to say that the younger Abraham didn’t exactly impress. He did, however, when the fight, which is the most important part regardless of how sloppy he looked in doing so.

Abraham fought mostly flat-footed in the first round, tending to focus mainly on throwing body shots. It was a good idea because Azri was running all around the ring and making it hard to get a bead on him for a head shot. Obviously, Abraham had done his homework and realized what kind of style that Azri would be bringing into the ring. For his part, Azri landed next to nothing in the round, only a few wild shots in passing. It was ugly street boxing, the kind that you might see on the corner. Read more…

By Bradley Tice: In a fight that was supposed to be a stay-busy bout for French Light middleweight Hussein Bayram 27-3, 14 KOs), he was forced to struggle to defeat the tough Romanian Gheorghe Danut (7-10-6) by a six-round split decision on Tuesday night at the Parc des Sports et Loisirs, Pont-Audemer, Eure, France. Bayram, 32, was knocked down with 20 seconds late in the 1st round after walking into a powerful left hand from Danut. Bayram continued to have problems in the 2nd round as well, when he was nailed by a big left hand from Danut and momentarily stunned by the shot. However, Bayram, a fighter accustomed to fighting 10-12 rounds fights instead of six-rounds, began to warm in the 3rd round and then appeared to win the remaining rounds of the six-round bout as Danut badly tired out after the first two rounds.

Bayram looked bad in the first round, his reflexes slow, and his hand speed even slower, as he was hit often by the fast-punching Danut. Indeed, Bayram had a hard time landing his shots in the first round due to the quick movement from Danut, who would get inside and throw a flurry, then quickly dart away before Bayram could get his ponderous shots off. In fact, Bayram only connected with small amount of shots in the round and was already losing the round by a significant margin when he was clipped with a left hand from Danut with 20 seconds to go and knocked down. Read more…

By Bradley Tice: Unbeaten light welterweight prospect Ali Chebah (25-0, 19 KOs) was too much for Nicaraguan Nelson Lara (15-2-2, 8 KOs), finishing him in the 6th round of their WBC World Youth light welterweight title on Tuesday night at the Parc des Sports et Loisirs, Pont-Audemer, Eure, France. After a slow start in the 1st round, Chebah, 22, build up momentum and wore Lara down with big power shots, eventually stopping him in the 6th round with a short left hook to the head. Lara, 24, took a knee and then got up briefly, but then promptly took a knee again and was counted out by referee Massimo Barrovechhio.

In the first round, it looked as if the underdog Lara might pull off an upset as he landed effectively with jabs, combinations and hooks to the head of Chebah. Lara stayed in close to Chebah, smothering his power and preventing him from having room to get in his own shots. For the first two minutes of the round, it was all Lara as he tagged Chebah repeatedly with combinations to the body and head. Chebah, however, a notorious slow started, came on in the last minute of the round as he started to compose himself better, landing powerful right uppercuts and combinations. Read more…

By Dave Lahr: Welterweight prospect Antoine Smith (10-1-1, 6 KOs) stopped an over-matched Aaron Torres (16-7, 6 KOs) in the 3rd round on Wednesday night of a scheduled 10-round bout at The Roxy, in Boston, Massachusetts. Smith dropped Torres two times in the fight, once in the 2nd and another time in the 3rd, knocking him down with a big right hand. After the second knockdown, Torres elected to stay down and was promptly counted out by the referee Javier Colon at 2:25 of the 3rd round.

Torres, 29, who had lost five out of his last seven fights going into Wednesday’s bout with Smith, started off quick out the gates, throwing a steady series of jabs at Smith. It was apparent immediately that Torres for all his activity was going to have problems due to his unusually slow hand speed in comparison to the fast hands of Smith. However, Torres stayed busy in the round and gave Smith few chances to get his own offense started in the round. Indeed, Smith landed only a few shots in the round but he showed impressive power on those rare occasions that he chose to let his hands go. Read more…