By Jim Dower: As much as six division champion Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) might like for boxing fans to be interested in his December 6th fight with former featherweight Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs), so far the perspective bout seems to draw out more ridicule and disgust aimed at Oscar more than anything in the way of praise.

That, of course, won’t get in the way of the fight being a huge PPV attraction, one that will likely come close to matching the $120 million PPV that Oscar attracted for his 1997 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Read more…

By Chris Thomas: With few other potentially interesting opponents left to fight in the middleweight division, World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization (WBC/WBO) middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 KOs) may be looking at a unification bout with IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (28-0, 23 KOs) in 2009.

According to the latest boxing gossip, Abraham’s promoter, Wilfried Sauerland, is looking to line up Abraham with a fight against Pavlik in 2009. Read more…

By Sean McDaniel: It was sad sight to see last Saturday night, Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) taking a vicious pounding at the hands of the much more youthful, energetic Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York.

Despite taking a terrible beating, absorbing a tremendous amount of punches from Calzaghe and having his left eyelid cut badly, Jones, to his credit, lasted the full 12 rounds, losing by a one-sided decision. Read more…

By Jim Dower: Former International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KO’s) will be stepping foot in the ring with his lightest puncher in ages when he takes on former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KOs) on November 22nd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Hatton, 30, is looking to make a good showing against Malignaggi, as well grab a nice paycheck, against the light-hitting, defensive-oriented Malignaggi. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: Former cruiserweight champion David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) will be making his first and most crucial step this Saturday against contender Monte Barrett (34-6, 20 KOs) in a 10-round bout at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), Greenwich, in London.

Haye, 28, has set out what may ultimately impossible goal of winning the International Boxing Federation/World Boxing Federation heavyweight title in 2009 in a fight against current champion Wladimir Klitschko. Read more…

Los Angeles, CA (November 11, 2008) – On December 13, 2008, a pair of prominent top heavyweight world title contenders will square off against each other with everything on the line, including their professional future at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa.

The winner of Toney vs. Thompson, ‘Now or Never,’ emerges as the next major challenger to the Klitschko brothers, the reigning Heavyweight Champions. Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: In a stay busy fight, undefeated heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko (28-0, 18 KOs) will go up against hard-hitting Luan Krasniqi (30-3-1, 14 KOs) in a 12-round bout at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Read more…

By Michael Lieberman: Immediately after his easy and predicted victory over Roy Jones Jr. last Saturday night, the question was put to Joe Calzaghe as to whether or not he’d be interested in fighting unbeaten International Boxing Federation (IBF) light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, the fighter considered by many to be far and away the best in the division, and instead of Joe agreeing that he needed to fight him, Calzaghe said “I just stepped out of the ring 15 minutes ago.

Let me enjoy the fight now before I think about another fight. What do you think I am, man, a sadist?” Since then, Calzaghe has called Dawson unproven, comparing him to previously unbeaten middleweight Kelly Pavlik, who was recently defeated by Bernard Hopkins in a one-sided decision loss. While there is a grain of truth in what Calzaghe says about Dawson being still somewhat unproven, as he’s only beaten a handful of big named opponents like Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, Tomasz Adamek and Eric Harding, but the same could have been said for Calzaghe up until 2006. Read more…

By Dan Ambrose: Nearing 40 years of age, Roy Jones Jr. was shown up badly by Joe Calzaghe last Saturday night, beaten every which way but Sunday, bloodied and beaten badly in a one-sided fight that reminded of watching the great Joe Louis being pounded into oblivion by the young Rocky Marciano. In this case, Calzaghe didn’t have the power - or possibly the inclination - to finish off the former eight-time champion.

However, Calzaghe still did Jones no favors, for he kept him in the fight for the full 12 rounds, embarrassing Jones with his speed, accuracy and high volume work rate and ultimately making a bloody mess of Jones’ face while at the same time boxing circles around the former champion. With his 40th birthday fast approaching in two months, one suspects that Jones won’t be getting any better, and wouldn’t stand a chance against other top light heavyweights like Chad Dawson, much less in a rematch with Calzaghe.

At this point, Jones’ options are rather limited. That is, if he’s concerned at all about winning the fights and not taking another beating like he did last Saturday night against Calzaghe. Read more…

By Jim Dower: The best super middleweight on the Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. card on Saturday night may have not been Joe Calzaghe, but rather the young, 21 year-old unbeaten Daniel Jacobs (12-0, 11 KOs) who destroyed Jimmy Campbell (11-3, 8 KOs) in the 3rd round of a scheduled six-round bout at the Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York. Jacobs, a former U.S amateur star, dropped Campbell with a hard right hand in the 3rd round.

He made it up badly hurt, and was met with a blistering flurry of shots from Jacobs, ending with the referee stepping in and halting the bout at 2:59 of the 3rd round. For Jacobs, it was his 11th knockout in 12 fights, with 10 of them coming in three rounds or less. Jacobs, a United States Amateur middleweight champion, is the real deal, with explosive power in either hand and who punches with as much power to the body as he does to the head.

At this point, he’s still working his way up against relatively soft opposition but his power is very real, and will make him an immediate threat to all of the top super middleweights once his management team is ready to put him in with better fighters. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: As expected, Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) defeated 39-year-old ring legend Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night, keeping Calzaghe’s unbeaten record intact, his legacy untarnished and proving that he’s good enough to beat a washed up version of Jones. There was little suspense going in, and the outcome came to no surprise as Jones took a beating, and looked old and over-the-hill.

What was surprising, was seeing Jones knock Calzaghe down in the first round with a hard right hand to the head. Instead of going after Calzaghe, who was badly hurt, Jones let him off the hook, and didn’t work hard in finishing him off. In hindsight, perhaps Jones felt that there would be more opportunities later and that he didn’t need to go after him. This in effect let Calzaghe survive the round, a round he probably would have been destroyed in if this were a 30 year-old Jones rather than a 39-year old. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: Polish heavyweight Albert Sosnowski (44-2, 27 KOs) shockingly stopped 35 year-old Danny Williams (40-7, 31 KOs) in the 8th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Saturday night at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. The ending came suddenly, when Sosnowski dropped Williams with a powerful left hook at the start of the 8th round. It was a perfect punch, thrown with a lot of power, almost guaranteeing that Williams would find it virtually impossible to make out of the remainder of the round given the amount of time left in the round.

Williams groggily got to his feet and was met with a storm of punches from Sosnowski, who staggered Williams with a big left-right combination, causing for referee Richard James Davies to step in between them and halt the fight at 1:17 of the 8th round.

Following the fight, Sosnowski said “When I fight with good boxers, my skills are good but when I fight with bad ones, I don’t do as well.” Read more…

By Erik Schmidt: Making his 8th defense of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight title, undefeated champion Arthur Abraham (28-0, 23 KOs) stopped 37 year-old challenger Raul Marquez (41-4-1, 29 KOs) in the 6th round on Saturday night at the Jako-Arena, Bamberg, in Bayern, Germany.

Abraham, 28, blasted an overwhelmed Marquez with a series of hard punches in the 6th round, leading to Marquez’s corner stopping the fight in between rounds due to a cut on the side of Marquez’s right eye. Abraham had fought cautiously for the first five rounds, but in the 6th he opened up with a flurry of hard punches to the head of Marquez, battering him throughout the round. It looked as if Abraham was just getting warmed up and was prepared to give Marquez more of the same if he had come out for the 7th round.

However, rather than continue fighting, Marquez’s corner stopped the fight after the 6th round, giving Abraham a relatively easy title defense. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: If you were in need of sleep on Saturday night, all you needed was to watch Dmitriy Salita (29-0-1, 16 KOs) defeat Derrick Campos (17-6, 10 KOs) by a dull 12-round unanimous decision and would you would have been fast asleep by the end of the painfully dull fight. Read more…

By Manuel Perez: In a truly terrible decision, light welterweight contender Francisco Figueroa (20-2, 13 KOs) defeated journeyman Emanuel Augustus (38-30-6, 20 KOs) by a controversial eight-round split decision on Saturday night on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York.

The final judges’ scores were 77-75 and 77-75 for Figueroa, whereas Augustus received the nod by the third judge 77-75. I personally had Augustus winning by six rounds to two, as Figueroa did very little in the fight and was out-worked, out-punched in virtually every round save for two.

Ranked an incredible #4 in the IBF and WBC, Figueroa, 30, looked poor in the early going against Augustus, more like a good C-class fighter than anything close to a top tier fighter from what I could see of him. Read more…

By Chris Thomas: Making his first fight against a light welterweight in years, Zab Judah (37-6, 25 KOs) defeated Ernest Johnson (18-3-1, 7 KOs) by a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92. Judah, 31, a former IBF/WBO light welterweight champion, was making his first bout at the weight since 2003.

Judah came into the fight over the 140 pound weight limit, coming in at 144. However, the new weight seemed to suit him much more so than the 147 pound welterweight class, where Judah has struggled in recent years, losing four out of his last seven fights.

Judah fought well in the early rounds, hitting Johnson with jabs, hooks and uppercuts to the head and easily controlling the fight. Read more…

By Nate Anderson: Former World Boxing Council (WBC) light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) easily defeated a badly over-matched Victor Hugo Castro (29-5, 12 KOs), stopping him in the 3rd round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Saturday night at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. Witter, 33, knocked Castro down twice - once in the 2nd with a big left hook to the body, and then a final a time in the 3rd with a hard left-right combination to the head that sent Castro to the canvas where he landed with both legs doing the splits. Referee Mark Green then moved in and halted the bout at 1:10 of the 3rd round.

For Witter, it was his first fight since losing his WBC light welterweight title to American Timothy Bradley in a 12-round split decision loss in May. In that fight, Witter was knocked down by Bradley in the 6th round and had trouble with his super hand speed and power all night long. Against Castro on Saturday night, however, Witter had it easy, as Castro had very little power or speed to speak of and was hopelessly outclassed before the fight even started. Read more…

By Simon Hirst: Joe Calzaghe vs Roy Jones Jr was the boxing highlight of the weekend and it proved to be a cracking fight to watch. Firstly, to all those who say it meant nothing significant, Joe beat a shot Roy Jones and that Jones lost no credibility, I do agree with that. What Calzaghe did prove that he’s still in his prime and whilst he shouldn’t retire, there aren’t many challenges out there for him.

Joe extended his unbeaten record to 46-0. Look at the names on his record. He became the first man to beat Jeff Lacy, a man whom all believed would eat Calzaghe up, and many believe that that was Joe Calzaghe’s best performance in a boxing ring. He took Jeff Lacy to school that night. Now to me, the Jones win was a much better victory than the one against Jeff Lacy. My first point is because look at Jones and look at Lacy. Read more…

By Daniel “stick” Ciminera: With just under two weeks to go until the 140lbs fight between two men at completely opposite ends of the boxing spectrum, the old slugger v the young technician. Yet, it would seem that nobody cares that this fight is taking place. I believe this is simply due to the fact that Hatton lost to Mayweather and then didn’t come back and knock out Lazcano as we thought he could/should in the UK.

I’m sure I’m not the only one excited about this fight, I can’t be?!!?! It’s got class written all over it. Hatton at a turning point in his career having lost to Mayweather and then a slower than usual, quiet affair against Lazcano, is needing a win and a big win at that to have any chance of a few more fights to end on a high as Joe Calzaghe has just done. Read more…

By Adam Laiolo: Let me start with the easy stuff before I get to what I really have to say. I am massive Joe Calzaghe fan and have been for years, followed him through a lot, even when it didn’t seem a seriously talented fighter like him would never make it to the top and was destined for boxing obscurity. I am also a fan of Roy Jones, loved watching him beat James Toney at Super-middle and dancing round ‘The Quiet Man’ John Ruiz. But last night was a nothing fight, it should have been an exhibition.

This adds nothing to Calzaghe’s record and takes nothing away from Jones’. Jones legacy is secure, he could lose another five fights and I’d still consider him one of the finest I’ve seen. Joe on the other hand has a great on his record, which is fair enough but it looks good on paper, not much substance behind it. Jones is shot, I firmly believe this was Calzaghe ticking all the boxes for his career. Beat a legend in Las Vegas? Check. Promote my own fights with my new company? Check. Fight another legend in Roy Jones Jr at Madison Sq. Garden? Read more…

By Adam Laiolo: Its always the same story, you are unproven until you’ve fought in America. America may be where the money is, but it is certainly not where the talent is. I’ve never believed the thought that American fighters are the best in the sport. They’re not even second. America’s supposed dominance comes from two things - PPV numbers and Population numbers.

Quite simply put - if you have more people in a country, then it’s more likely you’ll get talented people. It’s not like the US think, that they are all born with Uncle Sam’s raw nerve and determination like some sort of gift given to them from above for purely being American. I think not. See, talent comes from all over the world whether you’re from the US or Timbuktu, anyone from Beverly Hills to Buckingham Palace to a shanty town in New Mexico, it doesn’t matter, if you’ve got the talent to fight then you should. European fighters have had their names tainted by the likes of Sven Ottke and more recently Denis Inkin who almost refuse to fight outside of their own country, but you can’t tar every European fighter with that same brush. Read more…

By Scott Gilfoid: If this were a bodybuilding contest, former cruiserweight champion David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) would win hands down over heavyweight contender Monte Barrett (34-6, 20 KOs). However, this is going to be an actual heavyweight bout in which punches will be thrown with knockout intentions, and that’s where things get a lot more dicey for the soft-chinned Haye.

Ranked high already in the heavyweight division despite having fought only once previously against a C-class heavyweight, Haye has had a lofty ranked of number #3 in the WBO and #4 in the WBC bestowed upon him, all without having fought one good heavyweight. While it may seem wrong to most boxing purists who see it as unfair, it’s actually done all the time in the sport. However, it remains to be seen whether it will come back to haunt Haye on November 15th when he steps foot into the O2 Arena (Millennium Dome) arena against Barrett.

Haye, 28, has had major problems going up against big hitters in the cruiserweight division, getting stopped by Carl Thompson in a 5th round stoppage in 2004, and knocked down by Lolenga Mock and Jean Marc Mormeck. Read more…

By Dan Ambrose: Joe Calzaghe attempts to defeat a legend tonight in facing Roy Jones Jr., 40, who appears to have overstayed his career by five years. Whether Calzaghe gets the win or not, he’ll likely get little credit for it. Jones hasn’t been the same fighter he once during his pound for pound boxing form heyday of the 90s since as far back as 2003.

As such, any victories over Jones at this stage is going to be colored with the perception that he is well past his prime, which will likely rob Calzaghe from the fan adoration he would have normally have received if he had met up with Jones years ago rather than now. However, Calzaghe will be paid well and he’ll have that to console his hurt feelings into his promised retirement. Calzaghe has dominated the super middleweight division since turning professional in 1993, and has only rarely had an opponent that could hang with him.

That probably won’t change tonight with Jones, who no longer has the hand speed, foot movement or strength to fight in the center of the ring. Read more…

By Jason Kim: Former WBC/WBO super bantamweight and IBF/WBC super featherweight champion, now fighting as a lightweight, Marco Antonio Barrera (64-6, 43 KOs) stopped journeyman Sammy Ventura (25-20, 20 KOs) in the 4th round on Friday night at the Sichuan Gymnasium, in Chengdu, China. Barrera, 34, dropped Ventura with a flurry of hard body shots in the 4th. Referee Kenny Bayless then stepped in and halted the bout at 1:01 of the round. Read more…

By Jason Kim: In a terribly boring fight, former three-time title challenger Jameel McCline (39-9-3, 23 KOs) defeated undersized Mike Mollo (19-3, 12 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision in the World Boxing Council (WBC) title eliminator on Friday night at the Sichuan Gymnasium, in Chengdu, China. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 116-111 and 114-113. McCline, now 38, has previously failed three times in title challenges against Wladimir Klitschko, Nikolay Valuev and Samuel Peter. However, with his win over Mollo, McCline is set for future title shot against Vitali Klitschko, if the Ukrainian survives his likely next fight against Juan Carlos Gomez.

McCline and Mollo did little actual fighting in the early going, choosing to wrestle and throw weak shots on the inside. McCline hardly threw any punches in rounds one through five. During the first two rounds, McCline and Mollo fought cautiously, posing a lot and appearing afraid to let their hands go. Read more…