Charr using Haye as a stepping stone to get to Vitali

charr2By Scott Gilfoid: It’s not personal with #8 WBC Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s). He’s using the rusty and small former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) as a stepping stone to get another shot at WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko next year.

Charr was beaten last September by Vitali after he suffered a cut that caused the fight to be stopped early. Charr’s plan for that fight was to take the aging 41-year-old Vitali deep and then drown him in the later rounds when Vitali fades.

Charr and Haye fight next month on June 29th at the Manchester Arena in the UK. While Haye thinks Charr is slow and easy to hit, Charr sees Haye as someone that is just too light in weight to do anything to him.

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Three most underrated fighters

wladimir#7By Bob Smith: Earlier I wrote that in my opinion the two most overrated fighters currently are heavyweight Tyson Fury and junior middleweight Canelo Alvarez. But what about the most underrated fighters? I name three: Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, and Gennady Golovkin.

Why are they are underrated? It is simple – boxing announcers, promoters and commentators are strikingly similar between the mid-80s and currently – if you watch the old Tyson fights or other 1980s fights of the era, there is Al Bernstein and Harold Lederman commenting, with Bob Arum as a promoter in the background. I don’t dispute that they are excellent commentators or promoters, but boxing commentary and promotion does have a lot of barriers to entry (otherwise they would have had some competition in the last 27 years or so). Basically, they still have a Cold War mentality and are biased against Russian/Ukrainian fighters. And this goes for the network heads as well.

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Vitali Klitschko vs. Bermane Stiverne in negotiations

vitali322By Allan Fox: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and #1 WBC mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) are in negotiations for a fight that could take place this year depending on how well the negotiations go.

The hard hitting Stiverne recently defeated Chris Arreola by a 12 round unanimous decision last month to earn the shot at Vitali.

Vitali’s manager Bernd Boente said this to Dan Rafael about the prospects for Vitali facing Stiverne: “Lets see how the negotiations go.”

Stiverne and Vitali have until next month on June 3rd to try and arrange the fight. If it’s not done by then they have a purse bid on it.

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The Klitschkos with no one to fight

wlad#4By Jamie Eskdale: I will try and examine other issues affecting boxing. Anyone who read my last article will know that I think boxing is currently in a precarious position, we have a situation where 4 governing bodies, promoters and television networks more or less run the sport.

Our Heavyweight division is in quite a dire state. Recently though on various boxing forums and websites(including this one) I have seen people talking it up. I think the general consensus is the Klitschko brothers are nearing the end, wait until their retired and it will breathe new life into the division.

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The Klitschko Brothers: The Truth

wlad#2By Tony Crooks: Let me start by saying that heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko are perfect gentlemen, as one person commented on this site, they have never been in prison, they never hurt anyone, and in fact, they have been true ambassadors of the sport of boxing.

So why have they never been embraced by the British or American public and only by their own Nation of Ukraine and also by the German public? After the Soviet Union dispended, many people found solitude in various European states. People need heroes, we have our own agendas as to who they are, but that never changes the agenda.

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Is the Heavyweight division starting to come back to life now that the Klitschkos are nearly gone?

wilder04By Daniel Mcglinchey: After a decade of control by the Ukrainian brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, the majority of boxing fans lost interest in the heavyweight division whether it was down to their boring fight style or lack of competition. Their reign seems to be coming to an end with Vitali looking to go into politics and Wladimir at 37 with not a lot left on the clock.

In my opinion a vast amount of talent and exciting fighters seem to becoming through the ranks, such as undefeated Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev (17-0, 9 KO’s), who currently holds the European title and seems to have the whole of his country rooting for him. He seems willing to step in the ring with anyone and there is no denying he is talented.

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Vitali says he’ll fight Stiverne

stiverne22By Eric Thomas: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) says he plans on defending his World Boxing Council title against his mandatory challenger #2 WBC, Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) this year. Stiverne, 34, defeated #1 WBC, Chris Arreola by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night by the scores of 117-110, 117-110 and 118-109.

Stiverne gave Arreola a beating, bloodying his nose and knocking him down in the 3rd round.

Vitali said this about the Stiverne fight as quoted by Fightnews.com: “There is an official challenger, Bermane Stiverne. The fight will take place. Now it’s necessary to determine the date.”

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1993 – 2013 Who was the best Heavyweight Champion?

lewis57By Tony Crooks: Firstly, let me point out that this is not an article; this is for all of you that make comments on this website. The rules are as follows, you can not name any fighter that has not been a champion and they have to have been a champion between 1993- 2013. I hear about the likes of Ali, Foreman, and Frazier all the time. They were the greats of their time, let’s talk about our time.

Here’s the twist, you can’t just spurt out names, and you will have to write why you believe your choice is the best. Let us see what you come up with. The best write up gets published on the website. Now is your chance to shine. Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe. Evander Holyfield. Michael Bent and Michael Moorer- all held a version of the heavyweight championship during 1993.

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Heavyweight Boxing after the Klitschko’s

wilder2By Lee Smith: I hear a lot of people saying that the Heavyweight division is dull, that there are no real contenders, that the Heavyweight Division is dominated by the Klitschko’s. Well the truth is, the heavyweight division IS dominated by the Klitschko’s and there aren’t really many contenders who can compete with them, but that’s not because of the dreadful opposition its because the Klitschko’s are that good that nobody can compete with them.

There aren’t rivalry’s in the division such as Ali-Fraser-Foreman or Lewis-Holyfield-Tyson anymore but in fairness between them the Klitschko’s have fought just about every contender the Heavyweight Division has to offer….and dominated each and everyone of them. The one person I believed would genuinely beat Wladimir Klitschko was David Haye. He could box, he could slug it out and he could KO people.

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Haye: I’ll be the mandatory for one of the Klitschkos in a couple of fights

haye24By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) believes he’s only a mere two fights away from becoming the mandatory challenger for one of the Klitschko brothers. Haye says he wants to fight WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko most of all because he said in the past that he wanted to knock Haye, #1 WBA, #4 IBF, #4 WBO, #5 WBC, out and improve upon the job that his brother Wladimir Klitschko did easily beating Haye by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision two years ago.

Haye said to Sky Sports “I want to regain the heavyweight champion of the world. I lost my heavyweight title to Wladimir Klitschko. I want the opportunity to win it back. I’m going to stay busy. I have a fight on June 29th. I’m going to do my thing, knocking people out as I always do and kind of force their hands and work my way up the heavyweight rankings. It won’t take too many fights before I’m the mandatory for one of the belts for one of the [Klitschko] brothers.

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