By Michael Lieberman: Just as I expected, undefeated WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (34-0, 30 KOs) wiped the deck with his Welsh challenger Gary Lockett (30-2, 21 KOs) dropping him three times and knocking him out in the 3rd round of their scheduled 12-round bout tonight at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Going into the fight, next to nobody gave Lockett much of any chance at pulling off the upset. As it turned out, most people were right as completely obliterated his over-matched opponent.

After a fairly close first round, Pavlik got serious in the 2nd round, serving Lockett up with a number of hard right hands to the head and body. One particular hard right hand to the midsection of Lockett caused him to take a step back, at which point Pavlik landed a finishing right hand that dropped Lockett to one knee. Read more

By Jim Dower: After taking part in two consectuve controversial bouts, one in which he appeared to lose to Randall Bailey and another where he seemed to get the business in a loss to Paulie Malignaggi, finally Herman Ngoudjo (17-2, 9 KOs) got it right with an impressive 12-round unanimous decision over former WBA light welterweight champion Souleymane M’baye (36-3-1, 21 KOs) on Friday night at the Uniprix Stadium, Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. The win was especially important for the 28 year-old Ngoudjo, originally from Cameroon and now living and fighting out of Montreal, Canada, for it was an IBF eliminator bout, which sets Ngoudjo up as the mandatory for the IBF light welterweight title currently held by Paulie Malignaggi.

Just five months ago, Ngoudjo fought Malignaggi and lost what was a very questionable 12-round decision. Most people, this writer included, thought that Ngoudjo had done more than enough to get the decision over Malignaggi. However, it wasn’t to be. With this win over M’baye, from France, Ngoudjo may will likely get an even better opportunity, especially if Ricky Hatton ends up defeating Malignaggi in their fight later on this year. Ngoudjo, with his fast hands, matches up well with the slower Hatton who typically has problems against fighters with fast hands like Ngoudjo. Read more

By Eric Thomas: In an impressive display of pure power-punching, former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams (34-1, 25 KOs) regained his title with a crushing 1st round TKO of champion Carlos Quintana (25-2, 19 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round bout at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. Williams, 26, stunned Quintana with a big left hand and then dropped him with a short left hand to the side of the head. Quintana got up, badly hurt, and was met with an avalanche of punches from Williams, which sent Quintana down for the second and final time in the round. In the process of falling down, Quintana tackled Williams around the legs causing both fighters to go down. The referee Eddie Claudio, however, has seen enough from Quintana and immediately stopped the bout at 2:15 of the 1st round.

Upon entering the ring in the 1st round, it was startling how much bigger Williams looked than last time they fought four months ago. Williams appeared much more muscular in the upper body, though his legs looked as skinny as before. At the start of the 1st round, Williams began jabbing frequently from the distance, hitting the shorter Quintana again and again with long jabs. This, too, was something different, because Williams had rarely used his jab in their first fight in February. Quintana, 31, fought pretty much like last time, landing fast counter left hands to the head of Williams whenever he got within punching range. Read more

By Michael Liberman: Recently, WBA/WBO cruiserweight champion David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) has come out and flatly turned down a potential fight against British heavyweight Matt Skelton that was offered up to him for his next fight at heavyweight, saying that he’s not interested in fighting a granddad, obviously a shot at the fact that Skelton, 41, is 14 years older than him. Instead, Haye, 27, is looking reportedly interested in taking on former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, who’s fighting James Toney next month on July 16th. Read more

By Nate Anderson: With today’s announcement that unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) is calling it quits and retiring permanently, I can’t help wondering whether this is for the better in boxing. Mayweather, 31, though a 5-division winner in his career, he’s often won his titles against the weaker champions in boxing, somehow avoiding the best champs for the sake of easier fights. I can’t say I blame him for doing that, because I suppose I would do the same thing if it were my choice.

But, then again, I wouldn’t consider myself the best fighter in boxing if I had done such a thing, and I’d feel less than happy with myself I avoided taking on the perceived best fighters in each division. This, unfortunately, has been a major problem that Mayweather has had for much of his career. Instead of fighting excellent champions like Kostya Tszyu, the former WBC/WBC/IBF light welterweight champion, WBA welterweight champion or WBA/WBC/IBF light middleweight champion Winky Wright, Mayweather chose instead to take on fighters like Arturo Gatti, Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah, as well as Oscar De La Hoya. Read more

By Scott Gilfoid: WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-1, 30 KOs) will be taking on the young 24 year-old Juan Manuel Lopez (21-0, 19 KOs) on Saturday night in what may end up being the best match-up of the fight, on the same card that WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik defends his title against Gary Lockett.

Lopez, 24, an impressive fighter from Puerto Rico where he was an amateur star for the country, will be taking a big step up in terms of competition when he faces the 27 year-old Ponce de Leon on Saturday. The general consensus is that Lopez will give de Leon a good fight but will end up coming short on the final scorecards, and will lose by a unanimous decision. I’m not so certain of that, however, and see this fight as more of a pick ‘em bout, in which both fighters have an almost equal chance at winning. Read more

By Jason Kim: In a showing of either incredible bravery or unbelievable folly, former undefeated WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams (33-1, 24 KOs) will be risking fate when he attempts to gain revenge for his earlier defeat on February 9th, at the hands of then challenger Carlos Quintana (25-1, 19 KOs) . Williams, 26, was beaten by a 12-round unanimous decision and made to look bad by the 31 year-old Quintana. Williams was quick to excuse away the defeat, pointing out that he wasn’t feeling at the top of his game and wasn’t able to get untracked for some reason.

Who knows? Perhaps Williams is right; Maybe he was just having an off night, but if that was the case you’d think that he would have had at least looked good in some of the rounds, wouldn’t you? That wasn’t the case, though, for Williams ended up being soundly out-boxed by the quicker, seemingly better skilled Quintana in almost every round of the fight. Having grown accustomed to wearing down his opponents with heavy pressure, Williams had no plan with what to do with Quintana when he failed to stand and trade with him like so many of Williams’ other opponents had done. Quintana wasn’t going to fall into that trap, and focused on circling the ring, and picking opportune times to rip into the gangly Williams with fast combinations. Read more

By Aaron Klein: For Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), today’s sudden retirement announcement by Floyd Mayweather Jr. couldn’t have come about at a worse time for him. De La Hoya, 35, had been a sheer three months away from his rematch with Mayweather in September, and it would have made a nice payday for the fading De La Hoya, who stated that he only wants to fight two more times. Light welterweight Ricky Hatton, 29, also had hoping to line up a rematch with Mayweather at some time in 2009, and had unfinished business with him due to Mayweather destroying in a 10th round blowout in December 2007.

Though Hatton has said that he was less concerned with money than getting revenge for the earlier defeat, the money that he would have likely made from a second bout with Mayweather had to be a substantial factor in his desire for a rematch. Now, however, both De La Hoya and Hatton find themselves out in the cold, without a big name fighter with the marquee value that Mayweather possess. That’s got to hurt, especially for De La Hoya, since he’s the one that had a fight set up for September. Read more

By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, undefeated WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (39-0, 25 KOs) has came out today and announced that he’s permanently retiring from boxing effective immediately. The 31 year-old Mayweather won’t be fighting one last fight against Oscar De La Hoya, which had been previously scheduled for September 20th, and one that was looked forward to by many fans of both fighters. It’s unclear whether or not Mayweather, a fighter that carries his emotions on his sleeves, intends on staying retired for long, however. Right now, Mayweather has made a huge bundle of money in his last two fights against De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, both of whom he defeated.

He also made another huge payday at the WrestleMania XXIX, which took place in March, 2008. With that kind of money, it’s not surprising that Mayweather wants to step away from the sport, especially now that he has a number of hard fights in the future staring down at him. Read more

By Sean McDaniel: With one day remaining until fight time, WBC light middleweight champion Vernon Forrest (40-2, 29 KOs) doesn’t appear lacking in confidence in regards to his bout with former star from The Contender Sergio Mora (20-0-1, 5 KOs), both of whom meet in a 12-round title bout at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. 10 years in age separates the two fighters and a huge gulf in boxing experience as well. At 37, a time when most fighters are showing signs of slowing down, Forrest still appears to be at the top of his game looking and fighting years younger than his age.

For all his age, he’s been a little hard on his younger opponent, saying repeatedly in the past week that Mora has no chance at winning, that “there won’t be an upset on Saturday.” Unlike many of Forrest’s other bouts, he’s been unusually boisterous saying uncomplimentary things about the lack of power or Mora and his fighting style, which is more finesse oriented in comparison to Forrest’s. In a way, though, despite winning the war of words almost by default, Forrest has come across slightly like he’s afraid of Mora somehow. Read more

By Scott Gilfoid: In perhaps a sign of wishful thinking on his part, former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO light middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) mentioned on Wednesday night’s ESPN boxing telecast that he’s interested in fighting only big fights, and has both Oscar De La Hoya and WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. The main problem with Wright’s dream fights, however, is that at age 36, he isn’t a media draw like De La Hoya or Pavlik, and isn’t someone that they’d likely be interested in fighting at this point.

Wright hasn’t helped himself, for that matter, by staying away from boxing for the past year after his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in July 2007. It was a close fight, but like many of Wright’s fights, it wasn’t particularly exciting to watch. Even before that, ignoring his win over a come backing Ike Quartey, Wright had fought to a 12-round draw with Jermain Taylor in June 2006. Many people felt that Wright was extremely fortunate to get a draw out of that fight, for he appeared to have lost by the fight by many accounts by at least a round or two. However, all of that could possibly be ignored by fighters like Pavlik and De La Hoya, if Wright had a history of being in exciting fights. Read more

By Manuel Perez: undefeated light middleweight Carlos Garcia (2-0-1, 2 KOs) fought to an exciting four-round draw on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia, 19, was knocked down twice in the 1st round after walking into right hands thrown by Prada. In the 2nd round, Garcia returned the favor, knocking Prada down with a powerful right hand. In the 4th and final round, Garcia knocked Prada down for the 2nd time in the fight after nailing him with a big right.

However, given the fact that Garcia was knocked down twice in the 1st and appeared to lose the 3rd round, the fight was eventually ruled a draw. The final judges’ scores were 36-36, 36-36 and 37-35 for Garcia. I personally thought Garcia won the fight by a narrow margin based on his strong finish in the 4th round. However, I’m also comfortable with the fight being scored as a draw, because it was a very close fight and difficult to pick a winner between the two of them. Read more

By Manuel Perez: Previously undefeated light middleweight prospect James Moore (15-1, 10 KOs) was shockingly upset by little known Gabriel Rosado (10-2, 6 KOs) by an 8-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. After losing the first three rounds and appearing on his way to losing the fight, Rosado stunned Moore with a right hand at the end of the 4th round. In the 5th round, Moore walked into a big right hand from Rosado was sent to the canvas. For the next three rounds, Rosado pretty much controlled action with his right hand, although it was close due to Moore - the much better skilled fighter - pressing the action most of the time. The final judges’ scores were 77-74, 78-73 and 76-74.

Going into the bout, Moore, 30, a former 2001 amateur World Champion for Ireland and a veteran of over 314 amateur fights, was thought to walk right though the 22 year-old Rosado, who had a decent right hand but little else in the way of boxing skills or ability. Read more

By William MacKay: The hard-punching light heavyweight Yusaf Mack (25-2-2, 15 KOs) defeated Daniel Judah (22-3-3, 10 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. The final judges’ scores were 97-92, 97-92 and 97-92, all for Mack. Judah, 30, the brother of former welterweight champion Zab Judah, was knocked down once in the 2nd round, and out-slugged and out-boxed for most of the remainder of the 10-round bout. Mack, 28, looked especially good in the early rounds, in which he was able to use his power shots to control the fight and punish the much weaker-punching Judah.

In the later rounds, however, Mach faded somewhat, fighting with his mouth wide open and taking an occasional left hand from Judah. Luckily for Mack, Judah had little in the way of offensive tools and barely pressed Mack in the latter half of the fight. Going into the bout, both fighters were badly flawed, with Mack having lost two out of his last four fights both by knockouts. His loss to Alejandro Berrio, a 6th round TKO in May 2006, was especially embarrassing because Berrio kissed him on the forehead moments before knocking him out. In Judah’s case, he also entered the bout having lost two out of his last four fights, and had been brutally stopped by Darnell Wilson in the 4th round in September 2006. Read more

By Michael Lieberman: As this Saturday’s bout between WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs) and his badly out-matched challenger Gary Lockett (30-1, 21 KOs), few fans are seeing this fight as being a competitive one. Indeed, Pavlik is currently a 10-1 favorite over the once-beaten Lockett and it’s getting hard for people to see this fight as being anything then what it is - a horrible mismatch of the grandest proportions.

It’s disappointing that of all the potential opponents that Pavlik could have chosen in the WBC & WBO, he selected from the bottom of the division, taking a fighter completely unproven against any top level opposition. It would seem that Pavlik, if he wanted an easy fight, he could have at least taken a fighter from the top 10 rather than a bottom feeder like Lockett. In the past few weeks, I’ve watched a number of Lockett’s fights, specifically bouts against Yuri Tsarenko, Lee Blundell and Kai Kauramaki. In each case, however, Lockett has proven to be unable to block a straight right hand thrown at him. For that matter, he’s not particularly good at blocking lefts or anything thrown his way, they all seem to get through his guard. Read more

By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated light middleweight prospect Alexander Abraham (21-0-1, 15 KOs) stopped a badly over-matched Mihai Macovei (6-3, 4 KOs) in the 5th round of a scheduled 8-round bout on Tuesday night at the Salle la Soucoupe, Saint-Nazaire, in Loire-Atlantique, France. Abraham, 26, the younger brother of IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, dropped Macovei twice in the 5th round, the second time a result of a huge left to the midsection which Macovei was unable to get up. The fight was immediately stopped when it was apparent that Macovei, 32, wasn’t going to be able to make it from the knockdown.

As in many of his other fights, Abraham looked rather pedestrian, fighting slowly without much interest and fouling often with rabbit punches and forearms to the head. His opponent, Macovei had only two years of professional boxing experience under his belt, and only eight fights. It astonishing that Abraham, a fighter with 22 fights under his belt and five years of professional boxing experience, would be matched against such a poor opponent. But, it was also very telling as Abraham has few of the skills of his older brother, and looks almost crude in comparison. The speed, combinations, power and ring intelligence are all missing from the younger Abraham, and it’s unlikely that at this stage of his career that he’ll ever attain them. Read more

By Jim Dower: In winning his fight on May 24th against the tough Mexican Juan Lazcano, former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) may have destroyed his shot at landing what would likely be a huge mega bout against Oscar De La Hoya in the future. Though Hatton, 29, did end up getting the win over Lazcano, it was a difficult bout for Ricky and one where he appeared to get help from the referee in the 10th round to avoid being knocked out by the Mexican fighter.

This obviously wasn’t missed by De La Hoya, who came out recently and said that he’s not interested in fighting Hatton, that their weight differences between them would be too much for the fight to be able to come off. De La Hoya said that he could probably make the 140 lb weight limit if he had to, but that he would prefer not to have do that. At the same time, De La Hoya had some advice for Hatton, telling him to not to move up to 147 - the welterweight division again - because the extra weight would make a big difference in his performance. Though De La Hoya was trying his hardest to be kind to Hatton, not to ruffle his feathers any, it still came across that Hatton was being rejected as an unsuitable opponent. De La Hoya was previously very interested in fighting Hatton before his recent fight with Lazcano. Read more

By Michael Liberman: If you’re like me, you’re hoping that this Saturday’s bout between WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs) and Gary Lockett (30-1, 21 KOs) is the last of its kind for Pavlik, because this fight isn’t bringing any kind of suspense or drama to the expectations of most boxing fans. Pavlik 26, was looking previously at a good payday against a John Duddy, an unbeaten Irish middleweight who’s popular on the East coast, but that fight fell through when Duddy took a brutal pounding in a tune-up fight and received multiple cuts over both eyes.

Without much time to seek a popular alternative fighter, Pavlik was left facing the Lockett, a 31 year-old fighter from Wales, who has drifted through a 12-year professional boxing career without having faced one credible opponent until now. Lockett’s record, a fine 30-1, would have you believe that he’s one of the top middleweights in the sport, perhaps good enough to defeat Pavlik even. However, as the saying goes, “all that glitters isn’t gold,” and in Lockett’s case he’s more of a case of fool’s gold than the real genuine article. Read more

By Eric Thomas: Let me start of by saying, I’ve never been much of a fan of former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs). I love the sport of boxing, but I never cared for either of the Klitschko brothers, especially Vitali, who never really impressed me much with the ordinary boxing skills that he showed in the ring, not to mention his tendency to experience injuries almost at the drop of the hat. I do like to think of myself as being fair, and not blinded by my dislike of a fighter when judging whether or not they have a chance at winning a particular fight. With that said, I really don’t have much faith in Vitali being able to defeat Peter, 27, the new WBC heavyweight champion, in their upcoming bout in October. I have even less faith that Vitali will even make it into the fight with suffering some kind of injury or another, likely another injury to his back or his knee, both of them chronic problems for the soon to be 37 year-old Vitali.

I’m also somewhat sickened by the fact that Klitschko was given the status of emeritus, a token title given because of him having retired as champion in early 2005, which vaulted him over more deserving top contenders in the WBC. Read more

By Scott Gilfoid: in the latest boxing news, former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (48-5-1, 32 KOs) is looking for one more big fight before, perhaps, getting out of boxing and wrapping up his excellent career. Richard Schaefer, an executive for Golden Boy Promotions, recently said that the ideal opponent for Hopkins, now 43, would be either Felix Trinidad or Roy Jones Jr., both of whom Hopkins has previously fought in the past. Of the two, Hopkins would no doubt be more interested in the 39 year-old Jones, who previously beat him by a narrow decision 15 years ago in May 1993.

Jones, though well beyond his best years in boxing, still retains much of his popularity with many fans, if not his once great ability. As for a fight with Trinidad, it’s a much less appealing option given the fact that he’s lost three out of his last five fights, and has been mostly inactive in the past six years. Additionally, Hopkins already stopped Trinidad in a 12th round TKO in September 2001, a fight that was never even remotely competitive. Other than a few die hard Trinidad fans, disparate perhaps to see him fight no matter what the circumstance, it would probably be a tough sell to get most of the public to buy into the fight. Read more