By Jesse James: Last Saturday Sergey Kovalev beat the great and legendary Bernard Hopkins. It was a complete shutout with Kovalev winning every round while also dropping Hopkins in the first round and hurting him a few other times. Credit to Hopkins for taking the fight and fighting the best in his division and showing good defense as well. In the process Kovalev added three of the four major world titles in his possession making him the unified WBA, IBF and WBO light heavyweight champion of the world. What’s missing is the lineal title which would make him #1 in the division and the prestigious WBC title.
BoxingNerd
Abel Sanchez: Canelo will fight Golvokin, Cotto will not
By Jesse James: Abel Sanchez, the head trainer of WBA “Super” and WBC interim Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, believes Canelo Alvarez will fight Golovkin if he beats Cotto. Sanchez believes Cotto will not fight Golovkin if he wins. Canelo has stated multiple times he will fight Golovkin and isn’t afraid, even Oscar De la Hoya stated that Canelo is indeed interested and that fight is a possibility next year.
As for Miguel Cotto the current WBC and lineal Middleweight champion, there hasn’t been much interest in fighting Golovkin next providing that he beats Canelo sometime next year. The only talk of a Golovkin bout came from his trainer Freddie Roach.
James Kirkland’s team opted for Rosado over Canelo & Lara
By Jesse James: American slugger James Kirkland was the front runner to being Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s next opponent on December 6th. Kirkland was also being considered for Erislandy Lara who recently lost to Canelo Alvarez via split decision. Though Kirkland was definitely Canelo’s first choice, Kirkland’s team was reportedly not interested in Canelo or Lara.
Instead they opted for journeymen Gabriel Rosado who is a tough costumer and has had the bad end of decisions in his last few fights before Bryan Vera. Kirkland is an American favorite and has a very good trainer in Anne Wolf.
De la Hoya interested in Pacquiao vs Garcia; Cold war nearly 100% over
By D.A: Well boxing fans our dreams of the cold war being fully over is about to become true. Of course we all know Golden boy promotions and HBO/ Top Rank have made peace and will work together in the future and guaranteed to in 2015.
All What’s left is Al Haymon to be thrown into the equation since there hasn’t been any reports of the mystery Manager and his team making peace with HBO.
Al Haymon of course is the rarely seen powerful adviser of many boxers today who are under the Golden Boy promotions banner. Why Al Haymon must be thrown into the equation of making peace with HBO is because Haymon manages guys who are promoted by Golden boy but not actually signed to the company.
Is Al Haymon looking to patch things up with HBO?
By D.A: Recently we’ve seen Golden boy promotions President and founder Oscar De la Hoya fix the broken relationship his company had with HBO under former Golden boy CEO Richard Schaefer. With Schaefer out of the boxing picture for a while- to possibly as long as 2018 (because of his non-compete clause that stretches to 2018), boxing’s cold war looks to be about 80-90% finished.
Canelo’s options for December: Andrade, Kirkland and Clottey
By D.A: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1 31 KOs) has revealed his other 2 options for December other than James Kirkland, according to Univision Deportes and Vanguardia.mx. The other two are WBO 154 champion Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (21-0 14 KOs) and Joshua Clottey (38-4-0-1 22 KOs).
There was rumors of Andrade squaring off against Clottey next but there hasn’t been any confirmation nor any other signs pointing to that fight getting made.
Andrade a former US Olympian is in his physical prime and is coming off a brutal stoppage win over England’s Brian Rose. Clottey is coming off a win over Australian Anthony Mundine. I’m sure fans would definitely be more interested in Canelo fighting Andrade rather than Clottey simply because Andrade seems like he’d pose more of a threat than an aging Clottey.
Should Showtime consider Canelo’s next fight to be non-PPV card?
By D.A: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1 31 KOs) is riding a 2 fight win streak with successful PPV numbers going higher and fighting tough opponents. Canelo will be targeting this upcoming week to meet with his promoters at Golden Boy promotions to discuss his next fight. While James Kirkland is the front runner, things won’t be clear until the meeting happens according to Canelo’s manager Jose “Chepo” Reynoso.
You have to wonder whether this fight will be PPV or not. While Canelo did say he was fighting 3 times in 2014 and all 3 were PPV, you wonder if Golden boy and Showtime will consider having the fight on regular Showtime rather than PPV. Recently PPV numbers have been lower than usual even with stacked undercards such as Mayweather and Maidana in May earlier this year. The fight was rumored to have done 850-900K buys but no numbers were released due to Showtime declining to release any PPV numbers unless they hit above 1.5 million according to Stephen Espinoza, who also noted the “masses” misunderstand everything and always come to conclusions that the PPV didn’t sell when the numbers aren’t released.
Cotto, Alvarez, Golovkin the 3 man collision course
By D.A: It’s no secret the most exciting weight divisions to the boxing world and family is the 140-160 range. Of course most of us can agree 147 is the most watched and exciting weight division. The 2nd in my opinion would be the 154/160 divisions in a draw. Recently we’ve seen the best 154 and 160 fighters all win their bouts and fans are calling for all 3 to fight at some point.
That would be Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Boxing fans have been wanting to see Miguel Cotto square off with GGG to see who is the best middleweight fighter in the world. While Golovkin is a title holder he is not the legitimate champion. Cotto captured the 160 crown after beating the former Middleweight king Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez.
Canelo vs. Lara rumored to have done 400K-425K; HBO says they can double
By D.A: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1 31 KOs) numbers are rumored to have went up by a little against southpaw Erislandy Lara. Canelo’s PPV numbers last time he fought against Angulo were 300-350K which were exceeding expectations according to former CEO of Golden Boy Promotions Richard Schaefer.
I know you guys are all gonna find this crazy but this actually came from HBO president Ken Hershman. Hershman stated if Canelo were to have a fight on HBO PPV, they could easily double those numbers and they aren’t afraid to release PPV numbers good or bad.
Erislandy Lara vs. Demetrius Andrade, who wins if this fight is made?
By DA: Weeks after Erislandy Lara (19-2-2 12 KOs) suffered his first legitimate defeat, he gets a tweet from another 154 strap holder Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (21-0 14 KOs) challenging him to a unification bout.
Lara holds the WBA “regular” 154 pound title while Andrade holds the WBO 154 pound title. If you ask me this fight is very intriguing because of the similarities this two share together.
One being they’re both southpaws and another would be their ability to potshot accurately. Differences come down to hand speed, power and defense. Andrade is a tall lengthy guy standing at 6’1 with decent hand speed and decent power.