By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (29-0, 12 KOs) has decided not to defend his title on December 19th on the undercard of the Andy Lee vs. Billy Joe Saunders card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Flanagan, 26, says he wants to take a rest for the remainder of the year before returning in 2016 in February.
Flanagan is on a hot streak lately with him beating Diego Magdaleno by a 2nd round knockout earlier this month on October 10t, and before that stopping Jose Zepeda in the 2nd round in an injury stoppage last July.
Flanagan isn’t considered a knockout puncher, but he’s been able to use his big 5’9 ½” size to overpower his much smaller opponents both in height and weight.
“Need a rest,” Flanagan said to ESPN.com. “Been training hard with little rest for well over a year. [I’m] worried about burning out.”
The Magdaleno fight was a mandatory defense for Flanagan, so he can now take two easy voluntary defenses against one of the WBO’s top 15 contenders. There are a lot of soft opponents for Flanagan and his promoter to pick from.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Flanagan fight someone along the lines of #15 WBO Valentin Borg, #14 WBO Yoshitaka Kato, #13 WBO Reynaldo Ojeda, #12 WBO Fernando David Saucedo, #11 WBO Sharif Bogere or #10 WBO Josh King. I think it’s very likely that Flanagan will fight one of those guys for his next fight, and then his next fight after that.
No way do I see Flanagan taking any chances with his career by fighting the best contender the WBO has ranked in #6 WBO Felix Verdejo. He clearly deserves to be ranked at No.1 by the WBO, and if they had their rankings correct, they would have him at that spot instead of tiny 5’5” Magdaleno, because he doesn’t deserve to be in that spot in my view.
I think Verdejo would whip Flanagan with no problems, which is why I don’t see that fight happening until the WBO gets their weird rankings straightened out by putting Verdejo at the No.1 spot where he clearly belongs.
Amir Khan kidding himself thinking he’s the frontrunner for Pacquiao
It’s hard to believe that Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) really thinks he has a chance of getting the fight against Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) on April 9th, 2016. Instead of Khan realizing that he’s missed the boat in getting the Pacquiao fight, he still insists that he’s in the lead position to get the fight against him.
It’s too bad that Khan is still thinking he’s going to get that fight because he could be moving on and looking start making a name for himself in the United States. Goodness knows, Khan’s stock has already hit rock bottom from his loss to Danny Garcia in 2012 and his defeat to Lamont Peterson in 2011.
Khan hasn’t done a thing to help rebuild his name with the boxing public by fighting quality guys. At least by coming to terms with the fact that he’s not going to get a fight against Manny Pacquiao, Khan can do the right thing by looking to face Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Errol Spence or the winner of the Tim Bradley vs. Brandon Rios fight.
“I am the front-runner,” Khan told BBC Sport. “Manny Pacquiao makes a good story because we’ve been training partners and I’ve been with his coach Freddie Roach. There’s a big chance of the fight happening, it’s all about making sure my team is on point with the deal and they need to make sure they get the fight that I want. It would be Manny Pacquiao’s last fight and end his career in a big way, not like Floyd Mayweather where, no disrespect to Berto, but I think Floyd finished his career on a low note.”
If Khan doesn’t want to fight the likes of Porter, Thurman, Spence, Bradley or Rios, then he should finally get it over with and face Kell Brook for his IBF title. At least Khan will finally get a big money fight and he won’t need to keep wasting his time trying to get fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao. Those guys aren’t going to fight him in my view.
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