In the past week, International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) has publically called out Antonio Margarito (35-5, 25 KOs), saying that he wants to fight him as soon as possible, apparently a move made to attempt to erase the previous stain of defeat for Cintron. Two years earlier, in April 2005, Cintron, 28, was stopped in five brutal rounds by Margarito, a bout in which Cintron was knocked down four times before the fight was finally stopped at 2:12 of the 5th round.

I personally don’t see how the fight will be any different than the first time because Cintron doesn’t have an answer for Margarito’s high volume punch output. While Cintron is the harder puncher of the two, he tends to be much more selective of his punches, loading up for an occasional huge shot, whereas Margarito throws a steady volume of hard shots which make it difficult on his opponents. Cintron showed that he couldn’t deal with that kind of fire power from Margarito and quickly succumbed to Margarito’s constant raining punches. It didn’t matter that Cintron hit harder, because Margarito proved to be able to take his punches without much problem. Read more

Timo Hoffmann (36-6-1, 20 KOs), a German-based heavyweight, has reportedly tested positive for Steroids following his 12th round TKO loss to Alexander Dimitrenko on November 17th. Hoffmann, 33, faces a one year suspension from boxing. Worse, however, is that if the positive result stands up to further tests, Hoffmann’s manager, Christian Meyer, from Sauerland, said “If the ‘B’ sample is positive, his contract won’t be extended under any circumstances.”

At one time, Hoffmann was considered the top German heavyweight, one thought to possibly have enough talent to become a world champion. However, in 2000, Hoffmann was rushed into a bout with the undefeated Vitali Klitschko, who promptly gave Hoffmann a tremendous beating en route to winning an easy 12-round unanimous decision. Though Hoffmann didn’t go down in the fight, he took a significant about of head shots in the bout, something which caused him to have to get a brain scan afterwards to look for damage. Read more

Undefeated Irish middleweight John Duddy (23-0, 17 KOs) has reportedly changed the date for his bout with Matt Vanda (37-5, 21 KOs), moving it to February 23rd at Madison Square Garden, in New York Cit. Duddy, 28, had his bout with Vanda pushed back several weeks from the previous date, though no word was given as to why the move was made. Duddy, who recently defeated Howard Eastman by 10-round unanimous decision on December 8th, is hoping to stay unbeaten with hopes of landing a big money fight with World Boxing Council/World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, possibly as early June. Read more

World Boxing Association/World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion David Haye (20-1, 19 KOs) has had a change of mind, today announcing that he will indeed decide to take on World Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli (28-1, 21 KOs) for a unification bout on March 8th in the UK. Both Haye and Maccarinelli are knockout punchers, the type that often end their bouts in the first several rounds. Of the two, Maccarinelli has the better overall boxing skills, with the ability to box or punch depending on the circumstances in the bout. Whereas with Haye, he exclusively goes for quick knockouts every time out, ignoring important things like pacing himself and concentrating on defense.

He paid for his lack of defense and pacing in his bout with 40 year-old ex-cruiserweight champion Carl Thompson, who rallied to defeat Haye by 5th round TKO in September 2004. In that fight, Haye had pretty much had his way with Thompson, battering viciously around the ring for the first four rounds of the fight. However, when the 5th round came around, Thompson unloaded with a handful of punches to stop the physically exhausted Haye, who by that time could barely stand up. Not much has changed since then, as Haye continues to pour it on against all of his opponents, but lucky for him, the vast majority of them have been sub par fighters. Read more

Former heavyweight contender Dominick Guinn (28-5-1, 19 KO) will be returning to the ring tonight to take on Robert Hawkins in a 10-round bout a the River Rock Casino, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Guinn, now 32, was one of the top heavyweight challengers up until 2004, strange as it may seem now. However, starting in 2004, Guinn began to have big problems, losing first to Monte Barrett by split decision in March 2004, and then two fights later, losing another decision, this time to Serguei Lyakhovich. Read more

With Ricky Hatton’s recent defeat to Floyd Mayweather Jr., it essentially wiped out Oscar De La Hoya’s leading candidate for his next opponent, whom he has plans on fighting on May 3rd, whomever that may be. Hatton, however, due to his knockout loss to Mayweather, is no longer a viable opponent for De La Hoya, since the public wouldn’t likely enjoy watching a bout with two fighters coming off of losses, especially a one-sided knockout loss, like in Hatton’s case.

Of course, you never know, De La Hoya may still opt to fight Hatton, since he’s the less imposing fighter that De La Hoya could face without having to dip down into the lighter weight classes and try to line up a fight with someone, say, Manny Pacquaio, a super featherweight (130 lbs). Previously, De La Hoya has stated that he’s not interested in fighting Miguel Cotto, the Puerto Rican welterweight boxing star, because of Oscar’s promise to his wife that he would never fight a Puerto Rican fighter. However, there’s not too many big-named fighters for De La Hoya to pick over, at least ones that won’t beat him into coma, that is. Clearly, he’s looking for a fighter with a big name, but not the ability to beat the stuffing out of him, like Felix Sturm did, or stop him within the distance like Bernard Hopkins did with him. Read more

In the latest boxing news, World Boxing Association junior welterweight champion Gavin Rees (27-0, 13 KOs) wants to take on fellow Brit Ricky Hatton, who recently was destroyed by Floyd Mayweather Jr in a humiliating 10th round TKO at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rees, 27, is an almost mirror image of Hatton, fighting in the same high pressure manner, along with the same tendency for fouling his opponents. Rees, who is trained by Joe Calzaghe’ father, Enzo, had this to say to the Sun online internet site: Read more

World 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. Read more

International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi (23-1, 5 KOs) defends his title on January 5th against once beaten challenger Herman Ngoudjo (16-1, 9 KOs) at Bally’s Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Ngoudjo, 28, represented Cameroon in the 2000 Olympics, getting eliminated quickly in the first round, is coming off a very controversial split decision victory over Randall Bailey in June, a bout in which Ngoudjo trade knockdowns with Baily, and appeared to lose five the six final rounds of the fight. Read more

With the rematch fast approaching for former middleweight Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs) against undefeated knockout artist Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs) on February 16, at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, the big question is whether the 29 year-old Taylor will have a better game plan this time around to counteract Pavlik’s slugging style and knockout power. To be sure, last time around, Taylor played directly into Pavlik’s hands by going right at him, trying to match him punch for punch and attempting to out-slug a known slugger.

Even then, Taylor, a vastly talented fighter, came within an eyelash of knocking Pavlik out in the 2nd round when he dropped him with a series of huge, lightning fast shots. However, in doing so, Taylor got a little over anxious and punching himself out while trying to score the knockout. Read more

According to the latest boxing news, undefeated WBO/WBC/WBA super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe could be fighting for the last time when he takes on Bernard Hopkins in April 2008. Apparently, Calzaghe doesn’t see many other big names fighters to fight in the near future, besides the soon to be 43 year-old Hopkins, and figures that if he can’t land a big mega fight, he would be better off retiring from boxing. Read more

World Boxing Council super featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (48-3-1, 35 KOs) is getting ready for his March 15th rematch with Manny Pacquiao, whom he fought to a controversial 12-round draw with in May 2004. Marquez, 34, was knocked down three times in the first round of the fight, but from then on he rallied back, appearing to win most of the remaining rounds of the fight behind his sharp counter-punching style.

Despite the many knockdowns, it appeared that Marquez had done enough to earn the decision to many people that saw the bout. Afterwards, Marquez was eager for a rematch, but he was unable to reach agreement with Pacquiao and the fight never came off. Now, three years later, Marquez wants to prove that he is the better fighter once and for all, and is training hard to make that happen. Read more

In the latest boxing news, World Boxing Council welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has recently stated that he plans on competing in the MMA, and will perhaps be signing on with his billionaire friend, Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and HFNet Fights, a MMA promotional company. Read more

Once beaten International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (29-1, 27 KOs) made it public yesterday his desire to meet up with Antonio Margarito as soon as possible to get revenge for his previous defeat to him, a one-sided 5th round TKO loss in April 2005.

Apparently, Cintron, 28, feels that he wasn’t ready last time out against Margarito, saying “I was coming off a 9 month layoff, hand surgery, and had only 4 weeks to prepare. I’m not going to make any more excuses, but I know that fight was a fluke. When I fight Margarito again, the fight will once again end in a knockout. Only this time, it will be Margarito lying on the canvas.”

What Cintron fails to remember, however, is that he was out-gunned in virtually every second of the bout, lacking both the handspeed and the punching output to contend with Margarito. Read more

Super featherweight Sergey Gulyakevich (24-1, 12 KOs) defeated the power-punching Leva Kirakosyan (26-5, 17 KOs) by 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Datch Forum (Sala Gallery), in Assago, Milano, Lombardia, Italy, to win the European Boxing Union super featherweight title. Gulyakevich, 26, from Minsk, Belarus, easily won virtually every round of the fight, befuddling Kirakosyan the whole time. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 120-108 and 118-110, for Gulyakevich. Read more

Looking oddly similar to a fat Monte Barrett, undefeated heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis (6-0, 4 KOs) struggled in winning a 8-round unanimous decision over 7′ foot Julius Long (15-9, 13 KOs) at the Halle an der Saale, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Solis, 27, the 2004 Cuban Olympic Gold medallist in the heavyweight division, had a lot of problems dealing with Long’s 13 inch height advantage, and spent much of the fight either cautiously studying Long or making wild charges at him in an effort to hit him with a punch.

It was an especially unimpressive performance for Solis, since Long has previously been stopped by heavyweights such as Tye Fields, Samuel Peter and Audley Harrison. Solis, though, appeared just too small and lacking in the power department to have much of an effect on Long. The final judges’ scores were 80-71, 80-72 and 80-71, all for Solis. In the 5th round, Solis knocked Long down with a sweeping right hand that connected to the back of Long’s head, sending him down. The punch, and Solis’ fighting style, reminded me of Samuel Peter, albeit without his considerable power. Read more

Earlier tonight, former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Hernie Hide (41-4, 40 KOs) totally destroyed his previously unbeaten Russian opponent Mikhail Nasyrov (19-0, 13 KOs) in the sixth round, knocking him down five times in the process, at the Maritim Hotel in Halle/Saale. Nasyrov, 25, was knocked down four times in the 2nd round, causing many in the audience to began laughing. By the forth knockdown, Nasyrov’s right knee was red from having hit the canvas so many times. Read more

Perhaps in a sign of overreach on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s part, he is considering moving to compete in MMA fights, according to the latest boxing news from ESPN. Apparently, Mayweather, now 30, is in discussions with billionaire Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, among other things. Mayweather met up with Cuban while on the “Dancing with The Stars” show and the two became quick friends. Cuban also owns the HDNet Fights, a MMA promotional company, which has it’s fights shown on HDNet, owned by Cuban. By signing on Mayweather, Cuban would be getting a huge boost for his company, even if Mayweather never amounts to anything in the sport.

For Mayweather to take on such a venture, he would likely be looking to get paid in the tens of millions, as he is risking a lot by competing in a sport of this nature. Much of the fighting in MMA involves wrestling and submission holds, the type of skills that take a considerable amount of time to learn. Read more

Undefeated Mexican heavyweight prospect David Rodriguez (27-0, 25 KOs) struggled last night in the process of winning a eight-round unanimous decision over journeyman Marcus McGee (19-15, 9 KOs) at the Dickerson’s Event Center, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The 6′4 242 lb Rodriguez, 30, looked average despite winning seven of eight rounds of the fight. Though he was able to outwork McGee, a trial horse for up and coming fighters, over the course of the bout, Rodriguez looked badly tired after only the 3rd round, and took an abnormal amount of punishment from the light-hitting 36 year-old McGee. Read more

Lightweight prospect Urbano Antillon (21-0, 14 KOs) had an easy time tonight with Adrian Valdez (18-6-3, 9 KOs), stopping him in the first round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Dickerson’s Event Center, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Antillon, 25, ranked #8 in the World Boxing Council and #10 in the World Boxing Organization, knocked Valdez down twice before the fight was stopped at 1:16 of the 1st round by referee Rocky Burke, who stepped in when Valdez failed to get up right away after the 2nd knockdown.

Moments into the fight, Antillon dropped Valdez, 27, with a right-left combination. Valdez made it up without any problems, and fired off a right which had little on it. Antillon, a fighter with very heavy hands, responded with a left hand, followed by another big right hand, causing Valdez to retreat across the ring looking for safety. Antillon followed after him, landing two three-punch combinations and then two successive right hands, the first of which hurt Valdez who slid down on the ropes, defenseless. As Valdez lay suspended on the ropes, Antillon finished him off with one final right hand that sent Valdez down to the canvas. Read more