Cruiserweight challenger Vadim Tokarev (24-1-1, 17 KOs) stopped former middleweight Marlon Hayes (23-10, 11 KOs) in the 3rd round tonight at the Khodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia. Tokarev, 35, hurt Hayes with a right hand in the third round, staggering him and then landed a series of crushing blows that prompted the referee to move in and put a stop to the bout. This was the first bout for Tokarev since losing a controversial majority decision to German-based Marco Huck in May 2007. Tokarev was in fine form tonight, showing no ill effects of the bad decision that went against him in his last fight, as he punished Hayes badly in rounds two and three.

In the first round, Hayes, 36, showed an effective jab and good movement that kept Tokarev on the outside, unable to draw a bead on the elusive Hayes. Mixing in powerful body shots, Hayes was able to easily win the round over the slower Tokarev, who seemed somewhat confused. Read more…

Heavyweight Joe Mesi (36-0, 29 KOs) make short work of another C-level opponent tonight, stopping Shannon Miller (15-4, 9 KOs) in the 1st round at the Twin River Event Center, in Lincoln, Rhode Island. As often the case, Mesi, 33, looked superb offensively, opening up with huge salvos in the opening seconds of the bout, hurting Miller almost immediately. With little being thrown back at him, Mesi quickly dropped Miller with a scorching right hand that had him badly hurt as he slid to the canvas. The referee Joey Lopino moved in and called a stop to the bout at 2:51 of the round. For Mesi, it was his seventh consecutive win since making his return to boxing in 2006 following a two-year suspension by the Nevada boxing officials after he was diagnosed with a brain bleed.

To his credit, Mesi has shown great improvement since his first two bouts after his suspension, in which he looked pudgy, slow and poor defensively. However, Mesi has looked sharp in his last three bouts, and would seem to be ready for a better class of opposition than the likes of Miller. Read more…

According to the latest boxing news, World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (29-1, 22 KOs) has stated in an interview that he’s interested in fighting either Oleg Maskaev or Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs), and is hoping that he can get back in the ring within two months. From the looks of it, I’d say offhand that Peter is probably angry at himself for getting knocked down three times by the relative light-hitting Jameel McCline in their bout last weekend, a fight that Peter was on the verge of losing in the 3rd round.

Peter looked nothing short of horrible, like an unschooled amateur fighter going up against a seasoned professional. It doesn’t help his case any the fact that he threw a large number of fouls in the bout, enough for him to be disqualified if the referee had been interested in conducting his job in a proper manner. If it hadn’t been for the case of McCline tiring out - as usual - after the first three rounds, Peter would have likely been stopped early on. While Peter eventually was able to eek out the decision with a late surge, the damage to his reputation has been done already. Hence, Peter’s desire to take on Wladimir Klitschko, a fighter who already defeated Peter two years ago by a 12-round decision. Read more…

HBO’s late-night boxing series heats up with a spectacular matchup of two lightweight titleholders when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: JUAN DIAZ VS. JULIO DIAZ is presented SATURDAY, OCT. 13 at 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT), from the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., just outside Chicago, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team of Bob Papa, Larry Merchant and Lennox Lewis will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, as well as closed-captioned for the hearing impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.. Read more…

A few days ago Sultan visited Red Square wearing a USA track suit. Moments after entering he was confronted by Kremlin workers lugging bags of Russian clothing gear who insisted that he change into their nation’s colors . . . I guess none of them noticed the ticket checker at the Kremlin entrance who was wearing a New England Patriots baseball cap . . ..

Moscow traffic makes the LA Freeway at rush hour look like the Indy 500. There are between 10-12 million Muscovites-and 4 million cars. Drivers park everywhere and anywhere, including on the sidewalk. One individual parked in the right lane of a three-lane highway. . . . Amazingly enough horn blowing is rarely heard . . . Read more…

While boxing’s current longest-reigning world champion JOE CALZAGHE was feted today marking 10 years of superstardom and 20 consecutive successful title defenses, his opponent MIKKEL KESSLER tried to rain on Joe’s parade and issued a few choice word to The Sun’s Gavin Glicksman.

“Joe is a great champion but I’m going to beat him,” said Kessler. “I’m going to be 200 per cent better than my last fight and he’s going to get a big surprise. I’ve seen some of his fights and he’s never fought a guy like me before, that’s why he’s going to be in trouble. I hit straight, I hit hard, I hit directly. I’m going to show everyone I’m a bigger champion than he is.” Read more…

World welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, looking fit and trim, came in at 157 pounds today in San Juan for his 30-day pre-fight weigh-in. Cotto was far under the limit for this date and said he is anxious to take on Sugar Shane Mosley at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Nov. 10. “I am very satisfied with all of my training and work we have done so far,” Cotto said. “There is no doubt I will be in my best-ever condition on November 10..” Read more…

As four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (42-8-2, 27 KOs) approaches this Saturday’s heavyweight championship bout with WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov 21-0, 17 KOs) at the Khodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia, a big questions looms about how much Holyfield has left in the tank after twenty three years as a professional boxer. Holyfield, 44, though he’s not fought as many bouts as many younger fighters, such as Wladimir Klitschko, his bouts have been much tougher, the type in which he’s stood in front of his opponents and traded shots for round after round. Along with his many wars, you have to factor in his advanced age which makes him one of the oldest heavyweights to challenge for a title since George Foreman accomplished the feat in the 90s.

While much has been made about Holyfield’s recent success over journeyman fighters Jeremy Bates, Fres Oquendo, Vinny Maddalone, and Lou Savarese, the fact remains that these fighters are hardly world class, and certainly not the type of competition to get a good gauge about how much Holyfield has left in the tank. Read more…

In his toughest bout to date, unbeaten Ukranian heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitreneko (26-0, 16 KOs) will be defending his WBO-inter continental title against German Timo Hoffmann (36-5-1, 20 Kos) on November 17 in Bordelandhalle, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Both Dimitrenko and Hoffmann stand at 6’7” 250+ pounds, making this fight a bout in between two gargantuan. Beyond that, the skill level between the two of them are drastically different. The undefeated Dimitrenko, ranked #2 in the World Boxing Organization, is perhaps the best heavyweight prospect in the division, though he’s still largely unknown by many fans due to most of his fights taking place in Germany. His skills are second to none, resembling a younger Wladimir Klitschko at the start of his career. With impressive wins over journeyman fighters Ross Purity, Chris Koval, Vaughn Bean and Malcom Tann, Dimitrenko has proved to be a force in the heavyweight division.

However, his German management has been slow to bring him along, a common characteristic in the German boxing community. Hopefully, after this bout with Hoffmann, his management will start moving him forward against tougher opposition. If not, Dimitrenko needs to consider getting away from Germany, perhaps moving to America or England, where they don’t shelter their fighters nearly as much. Read more…

Fred Sternburg: We’ve got a bi-coastal conference call today. In Hollywood, California, I’m here with superstar Manny Pacquiao, boxing’s most exciting fighter, and trainer world-famous Freddie Roach.

And from Atlantic City, we have promoter Bob Arum who is there with Kelly Pavlik as he attempts to dethrone Jermain Taylor this weekend in their middleweight world championship. Read more…

Many thought that all Kelly Pavlik (32-0, 29 KOs), had was a ghost of a chance when he entered the ring at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, packed with over 10,000 fans, last night to challenge defending middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KOs), in a fight that was broadcast live on HBO. Apparently that’s all Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik needed as he came back from the brink of defeat after suffering a second-round knockdown to knockout Taylor in the seventh round of their battle of undefeated gladiators..

ZOWIE! DOUBLE ZOWIE!!

Already the early favorite for “Fight of the Year,” Pavlik staked his claim as “Fighter of the Year” as the boxing spotlight shone bright on his hometown of Youngstown, OH for the first time since Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini’s heyday as WBA lightweight champion during the early ’80s. Mancini was at ringside rooting on his heir apparent. Read more…

Previously unbeaten Canadian heavyweight Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-1, 19 KOs) is crowing for a rematch with former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev (47-1, 34 KOs) after losing a 12-round unanimous decision to him on Saturday night at the EWE-Arena, Oldenburg, in Niedersachsen, Germany. The scores, however, were lopsided with Valuev winning by 118-111, 118-111, 117-111. Despite this, Bergeron feels wronged, suggesting that he was given a bad decision by the judges. What encourages him even more, though, is the polite applause he received from the German crowd, who appeared to be clapping mostly because they thought he had performed well against Valuev. However, Bergeron didn’t actually look that good in the bout, certainly not good enough to win by the bout by any stretch of the imagination. Read more…

Former World Boxing Association champion Nikolay Valuev (47-1, 34 KOs) won a much harder than expected uanimous decision over previously undefeated Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-1, 19 KOs) tonight at the EWE-Arena, Oldenburg, in Niedersachsen, Germany. Valuev, 34, struggled often in the early rounds, as the 6″5′ southpaw Bergeron landed powerful left hands that rocked Valuev on a couple of occasions.

However, Bergeron appeared to fade badly in the latter part of the fight, in which Valuev took charge and was able to land his big right hand repeatedly to win the championship rounds. The final judges’ scores were 118-111, 117-111, 118-111, awarding the decision to Valuev. The win enable Valuev to keep moving forward towards another possible title shot in the future against Ruslan Chagaev, who Valuev lost a controversial split decision to in April 2007.

In the first half of the fight, Bergeron did well to keep the fight in the middle of the ring, keeping the bigger Valuev from forcing him to the ropes where he often mauls his smaller opponents. Bergeron used his faster hands to land excellent combinations to the head of Valuev as he came forward on the attack. Read more…

WBO super bantamweight Daniel Ponce De Leon (33-1, 30 KOs) destroyed a weaker Reynaldo Lopez (28-5-2, 19 KOs), stopping him in the 5th round on Friday night, at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. De Leon pounded away at the thirty-three year old Lopez for five rounds until knocking him out with two consecutive left hands in the fifth, which sent Lopez to the canvas. He gamely attempted to rise but was only able to lift his head up off the canvas, because his body wouldn’t respond. Up until then, Lopez was seldom able to mount much of an offense of his own, mostly because he was so preoccupied with dealing with the incoming fire from the hard-punching De Leon, who rarely left off the gas pedal for more than a few moments of each round.

In rounds one though three, De Leon landed well with his hooks and straight left hand, which he threw constantly at the wilting Lopez. Even when he wasn’t landing cleanly, the punches had the effect of knocking Lopez backwards and keeping him from setting up his own attacks. Lopez was able to land an occasional hard shot of his own, however, due to De Leon being more focused on his own attack, forgetting all about worrying about any semblance of defense. Read more…

Welterweight prospect Andre Berto (19-0, 16 KOs) will meet up with experienced fighter David Estrada (21-3, 12 KOs) for the NABF welterweight title on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Considered one of the top prospects in the welterweight division, Berto has breezed through his first 19 fights in an effortless fashion. showing brilliant handspeed and extraordinary power as he’s knocked out sixteen of his foes during that time.

Still only 24, and ranked # 5 in the WBC welterweight listings, Berto is coming off a 10-round unanimous decision effort against Cosme Rivera in July 2007, a bout in which Berto was knocked down in the 6th round of the fight. It appeared, however, that Berto had been off balance when hit by Rivera, but it was enough to cause doubt in Berto’s abilities by many in the boxing community, who feel that his chin and defense may have potential problems. Read more…

IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods (40-3-1, 24 KOs) makes his ring return tomorrow night against Julio Gonzalez at the Hallam FM Arena, in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Woods, 35, hasn’t see action in a year since winning a split decision over challenger Glen Johnson in September 2006. The England born Woods has had an operation to repair an injury to his left arm, which he now claims is as good as new, enabling him to punch without pain and allowing him to punch with authority like in his early years. Read more…

Heavyweight contender Tony Thompson (31-1, 19 KOs) destroyed journeyman fighter Cliff Courser (26-13-2, 14 KOs) in the 2nd round last night at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, in Lemoore, California. Thompson, 35, softened up Couser with jabs and hooks in the first round of the fight. In the 2nd round, Thompson began unloading with his powerful straight left hand, and soon after flattened him with a clean left hand to the head. The referee moved in and halted the bout at 1:49 of the second round. With this win, Thompson stays on course to meet the winner of the Evander Holyfield vs. Sultan Ibragimov bout October 13th in Moscow.

WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) has been heated all week long leading up to Saturday’s fight with #1 challenger Kelly Pavlik by the many fans and sports writers that have brushed off his career and given him slim chance at winning. Most of the criticism has been centered around Taylor’s lackluster performances against Cory Spinks, Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright and Kassim Ouma, who Taylor struggled against. Though Taylor defeated Spinks, Ouma and Hopkins, he looked almost uncoordinated as if he didn’t know how to box properly despite his quick reflexes.

Most of the fans and sports writers were expecting the 29-year old Taylor to continue to knockout his opponents like he did earlier in his career, before he became a champion. Unfortunately, since winning the title in 2005, Taylor has been on a dry spell in which he’s been forced to earn tough fought decisions or - even worse - being held to a draw, such as the case against Wright in June 2006. However, Taylor blames his poor performances on the styles of his opponents, most of which are defensive-minded fighters, the type that are difficult to land effectively against. Taylor says that he fights better against fighters like Pavlik, the type that come directly at him and try to take him out. Read more…

By Sasha “Kozlov” Baranov: With a little more than a week to go between World Boxing Council interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter’s (28-1, 22 KOs) bout with Jameel McCline, I thought it would be interesting to consider what Peter’s chances would be like in a rematch with IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs). In that bout, fought on September 24, 2005, Peter knocked Wladimir down on three separate occasions and had him on the verge of being stopped in the bout. However, two of the knockdowns were the result of illegal rabbit punches to the back of Wladimir’s head, and thus should have been negated by referee Randy Neumann. Wladimir was guilty of his own issues as well by continuously clinching Peter whenever the Nigerian fighter got in close.

In fact, Wladimir initiated over 90 clinches in the 12-round bout, averaging over seven clinches per round. The tactic worked to perfection, for the most part, as Peter was unable to land effectively once he got within punching range. When Wladimir wasn’t clinching, though, he easily boxed circles around Peter, hitting him at will with jabs, straight right hands and left hooks. Read more…

Former three division woman’s boxing champion Regina Halmich (53-1-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting for the last time on November 30th against Hagar Shmoulefeld Finer at the DM-Arena, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, in Germany. Halmich, the current WIBF woman’s flyweight champion, has been a major force in bringing woman’s boxing to the mainstream in recent years in Germany, while at the same time she’s taken advantage of her good looks to attack endorsements that have allowed her to step away from competition while still at the top of her game. Still only 30, Halmich has won IBF championships in the Jr. Flyweight, Flyweight and Featherweight. Apart from that, she’s defeated well known fighters such as Elena Reid, Maria Jesus Rosa and most recently, Wendy Rodriguez.

Halmich has never been one to shy away from publicity, having posted nude in the German Playboy magazine. Additionally, she has had two highly successful bouts with male against German TV host Stefan Raab, in which she defeated him twice, breaking his nose on the first occasion. Both bouts were a huge spectacle in Germany, helping her gain a large amount of publicity.

The manager of WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev (34-5, 26 KOs) is reportedly angry with the WBC for their vote by the council’s board of governors to appoint Samuel Peter as the interim heavyweight champion after Maskaev pulled out of their October 6h fight last week with a back and ankle injury. Maskaev’s manager, Fred Hesch, felt that Maskaev, 38, should have been allowed three months to recover from the herniated back injury, which is something that has been permitted with past heavyweight champions. Read more…

Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (46-1, 34 KOs) makes his first appearance since losing his heavyweight title to Ruslan Chagaev on April 14th when he takes on undefeated Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-0, 19 KOs) at the EWE-Arena, in Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany. Both fighters are 34, although Bergeron has faced exclusivly soft opposition in his native Canada. Valuev is in the rebuilding stage of his career after losing a controversial 12-round majority decision against Chagaev, a bout in which Valuev appeared to tire badly in the latter rounds of the fight.

Bergeron, ranked #13 in the WBA, has good sixe at 6′5″, though he is perhaps too slender, only weighing 216 lbs. This fact alone will likely be a substantial problem against the 320 lbs Valuev, who will have a 100 pound weight advantage going into the bout. This may not seem like a big deal, but for Bergeron to have to wrestle and trade shots with someone of that size all night long, it can add up to big problems. Read more…

According to the latest boxing news, WBC interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (28-1, 22 KOs) has a new opponent for his October 6th title defense at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The newest possiblity is Jameel McCline (38-7-3, 23 KOs), who is currently scheduled to fight DaVarryl Williamson on the undercard of the October 6th bout. Apparently, Showtime, the cable television company, aren’t enthralled with Peter’s other choice for an opponent, Andrew Golota, who they voted not to use his as an opponent for Peter, perhaps remembering the multiple times he frozen up when challenging for a title and lost badly.

McCline, however, has equal baggage of failure, having lost three times previously - Wladimir Klitschko, Chris Byrd and Nikolay Valuev - when challenging for a heavyweight title. McCline never quit, though; He just wasn’t good enough to overcome his limited talent, which makes him the perfect opponent for the 27-year old Peter, who isn’t exactly loaded with talent himself. Read more…

Former two-time WBO heavyweight champion Herbie Hide (40-4, 39 KOs) destroyed an unwilling Romanian Mircea Telecan (5-17-2, 3 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night at the Hansehalle, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Hide, 36, now fighting as a cruiserweight, dropped Telecan twice in the first round before the referee Arno Pokrandt stopped the horrible mismatch at 1:16 of the first round. The odd thing was, Telecan fell down twice in the first minute of the fight without ever really being hit. On the first occasion, As Hide threw a punch that missed by a mile, Telecan backed up and fell down as if he was hit.

After getting up, Hide came forward and missed a wild left hook, and then landed a right to the lower back of Telecan as he was already falling to the canvas. It looked painfully obvious that Telecan wasn’t particularly interested in fighting, as he looked terribly frightened and seemed to want to get out of the fight as soon as possible. Again, after getting up the fight was continued on for a few more seconds as Hide moved forward in attack mode. Read more…

Heavyweight prospect Odlanier Solis (4-0, 3 KOs) TKO’d the old trial horse journeyman Marcus McGee (19-14, 9 KOs) in the 2nd round on Friday night at the Hansehalle, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Solis, the 2004 Olympic heavyweight Gold medallist from Cuba, knocked McGee down with a combination followed by a short chopping right to the head in the 2nd round. McGee was able to make it to his feet but was badly hurt, causing the referee Arno Pokrandt to halt the fight at 2:14 of the 2nd round.

Solis, 27, showed excellent speed in the first round of the fight as he attacked McGee with blistering fast left hooks to the head and midsection. Solis fought mostly in short, explosive bursts in which he would suddenly spring a fast attack of two-three punches. McGee, 36, was content mostly to jab and slowly move around the ring. Towards the end of the round, Solis began opening up with powerful rights that had McGee backing up. Read more…