Corrie Sanders vs. Machimana On February 2nd

Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders (42-3, 31 KOs) returns to the ring after after a nine-month lay off when he goes up against South African Osborne Machimana (14-5-1, 10 KOs) on February 2nd at the Emperor’s Palace, in Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. Sanders, now 42, figures to take out Machina, 29, in the first couple of rounds.

Machimana has faced only limited competition in his career, and the few times that he’s stepped up against decent B-level fighters, such as Shane Cameron, Albert Sosnowski and Livin Castillo, he’s been beaten handily. Machimana would do well to try his best to stay away from Sanders as much as possible, because if he gets hit by him it’s all over.

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Wladimir Klitschko vs Sultan Ibragimov Update

wladimir46464.jpgThe training camp of WBO Heavyweight Champion Sultan Ibragimov is in full swing, and as the champ prepares for his February 23rd unification bout with Wladimir Klitschko in New York’s Madison Square Garden, the action at the South Florida gym affectionately referred to as “Sultan’s House” has been fast and furious, something trainer Jeff Mayweather has been very pleased with..

“Sultan came into this camp in the best shape I’ve ever seen him in, and he’s getting better and better by the day,” said Mayweather. “His speed for a heavyweight still amazes me, and I know Klitschko is not going to be able to handle it on fight night.”

With five weeks to go before the highly-anticipated clash, Ibragimov began sparring this week for the fight of his life, and he couldn’t be happier.

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Klitschko-Ibragimov: Does This Fight Appeal To The Fans?

I may may be in the minority here but I think International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs) is wasting his time by fighting a unification bout with World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov (22-0, 17 KOs), which is scheduled to take place next month on February 23rd at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York. I don’t see Wladimire gaining much be taking on Ibragimov, as most fans don’t really know much about Ibragimov, and the ones that do don’t particulaly care for him as a fighter.

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Joe Frazier: Could He Compete Against Today’s Heavyweights? Klitschko, Ibragimov, Chagaev & Maskaev

A fighter like Joe Frazier (32-4-1, 27 KOs) comes around on once in a great while. Though he was undersized as a heavyweight, standing 5’11” and weighing around 205 lbs, he always seemed to fight much bigger than his limited weight would indicate. With classic battles against Muhammed Ali, Jimmy Ellis and Jerry Quarry, to name just a few, he showed that he had incredible power that made up for his lack of size. He did, however, have problems with certain heavyweights, losing four of five matches to George Foreman and Muhammed Ali.

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Lennox Lewis vs. The World – Klitschko, Ibragimov, Chagaev & Peter

lewis446464646.jpgNow that a little time has gone by since Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) has been out of boxing, I thought it would be an interesting idea to speculate how “The Lion” would have done against today’s top heavyweight champions – Wladimir Klitschko, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev and Samuel Peter. Lewis was perhaps in his prime in 1997, around the time that he destroyed Andrew Golota in one vicious round at the Caesars Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. At that time in his career, the 6″5″ 250 lb Lewis was almost indestructible, with impressive wins over Ray Mercer, Oliver McCall and Tommy Morrison already on his resume.

Although he would later lose by 5th round KO to Hasim Rahman in 2001, that was more of a blip on his career radar screen. in 1997, however, Lewis had next to no competition to speak of, as Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield appeared to want none of him, and rightly so, they would have most likely been easily defeated by this giant of a boxing legend. So, how would today’s top heavyweights do against this version of Lewis? I’ve purposely left out World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev because I don’t see him beating Samuel Peter in their scheduled March 8th bout, hence he doesn’t apply to this list. Here below I’ll discuss my thoughts on a hypothetical match up:

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Ibragimov Klitschko: Is This Another Mismatch?

wladimir5757433.jpgWorld Boxing Organization Sultan Ibragimov (22-0, 17 KOs) recently started his training camp in preparations for his February 23rd unification match with International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs) at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Ibragimov, 32, is a long shot at winning the bout with the 6’7″ 244 lb Klitschko, with few boxing experts giving him hardly any chance of surviving the fight without being knocked out, much less of actually winning the bout.

Ibragimov, a southpaw, won his WBO title the easy way, beating an asthmatic Shannon Briggs by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision in June. Ibragimov followed it up with another easy win, this time over 44 year-old Evander Holyfield, a bout in which perhaps should have never been made in the first place due to Holyfield not having faced any top 10 opponents leading up to the fight. Obviously, it was a match made to capitalize on Holyfield’s popular name, enabling Ibragimov to get a good payday without much effort on his part. Despite being much younger than Holyfield, however, Ibragimov fought cautiously for much of the fight, coming inside rarely to throw punches, and treating Holyfield as if he was still a knockout threat.

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A Prime George Foreman Against The Current Heavyweight Champions: Klitschko, Ibragimov, Peter, Maskaev and Chagaev

I’ve always wondered how a young George Foreman would have done in this a day and age against the mostly Eastern European fighters. For the sake of this discussion, I’m pitting a prime 24 year-old George Foreman against the current heavyweight champions Wladimir Klitschko, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev. At 24, Foreman was perhaps at his peak physically, a period in which he destroyed Joe Frazier in two brutal rounds, knocking him down six times in the process.

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Ibragimov Klitschko Close To Signing For February 23rd Bout

International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and World Boxing Organization heavyweight title holder Sultan Ibragimov are reportedly close to signing for their February 23rd unification bout, according to a recent Sports Illustrated article. Klitschko’s PR representitive contacted Sports Illustrated and said that the signing is almost completed. Wladimir Klitschko, 31, has stated that he wants to unify all of the heavweight titles, and the WBO – Ibragimov’s title – is the first goal in the long journey ahead of Wladimir.

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Haye: “I want Wladimir Klitschko”

According to the latest boxing news, newly crowed WBC/WBA cruiserweight champion David Haye (20-1, 19 KOs) not only plans on moving up to the heavyweight division, effective immediately, but he also wants to fight IBF heavyweight champion as soon as possible, thus avoiding the need to work his way to the top like most heavyweight challengers. Certainly, Haye would appear to have the knockout power to stop Wladimir, given the Ukrainian’s weak chin, but for all that, Haye doesn’t have the size or the speed to match-up with Wladimir at this point.

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Is It Too Soon For Povetkin To Take On Wladimir Klitschko?

After watching last night’s IBF tournament eliminator bout between Alexander Povetkin (14-0, 11 KOs) and former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd, I have to admit that I have my doubts about whether Povetkin is ready to fight International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 45 Kos). Of course, Povetkin still has to beat the winner of Eddie Chambers vs. Calvin Brock in order to get to a match with Wladimir, I’m pretty sure that Povetkin will beat either of those two fighters, perhaps quite easily. Wladimir, however, is another matter altogether for Povetkin.

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