September 13 Mayweather-Maidana 2 undercard fights rated: Could one steal the show

angulo554By Gav Duthie: Mayweather and Golden Boy promotions have decided not to opt for chief undercard support this Saturday like they did with Amir Khan v Collazo but the undercard is shaping up nicely. There are some fairly competitive fights and titles on the line. Here we rate the fights and speculate if any might outshine the main event. 

Humberto Soto 64-8-2 (35) v John Molina 27-4 (22)
Fight Rating: 9/10
Fight Type: All action

This has the potential to be the fight of the night. I love fighters like John Molina. Will he ever become a world champion, probably not but it doesn’t matter. He always entertains and always gives us good fights. He’s a Mickey Ward, Arturo Gatti type throwback who will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final bell. He might feel a little hard done by on Saturday as he watches  Mickey Bey fight for a world title after he amazingly stopped him in round 10 for his only loss to date.

Will Amir Khan ever learn

khan54By Gav Duthie: I understand this is a minority opinion but I think Amir Khan is one of the few boxers that has the potential to defeat Floyd Mayweather Jr. Make no mistake I think he is a talented fighter with incredible attributes but this is not an Amir Khan love piece its more about how he is wasting a promising career.

Amir keeps making the same mistakes both in and out of the ring which is greatly effecting his fighting potential. He may have the fastest hands in boxing but from a ring IQ and marketing point of view he is a complete disaster.

Matchroom and Top Rank to join forces

frampton4By Gav Duthie: When I caught a sneak peak at the headline Matchroom and Top Rank join forces I was excited. I thought maybe he has signed up Kell Brook for a three fight deal against Rios, Pacquaio and Bradley? Perhaps Chavez Jnr v Carl Froch is close to completion?

Unfortunately not, both wrong. Carl Moretti and Top Rank have joined forces with Matchroom to discuss opportunities for American Super Bantamweight Chris Avalos 24-2 (18) in the UK sector. Quite uninspiring news really but it did get me thinking. Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn said of the venture: (Courtesy of sky sports)

“There are lucrative opportunities for Chris Avalos within the division particularly on this side of the pond”. 

Who has Mayweather ducked really?

floydBy Gav Duthie: Everyone has an opinion on why Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao have not yet fought. It would be ignorant of me to try and convince anyone either way who is to blame as most are on one side or another and that won’t change.

If you blame Mayweather that’s fine, no problem, what I don’t like is the throw away comments about him ducking this or cherry picking that. With the exception of Pacquiao is there anyone else he should have fought in the past but didn’t? I thought I would have a proper look back at his career and assess the situation. 

1998

Top 5 P4P

1. Oscar De La Hoya

Is Broner the next Mayweather or Judah?

SHOSPORTS-Broner vs Taylor-0103(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) By Gav Duthie: After another average Adrien Broner performance on Saturday in winning a close decision against Emmanuel Taylor he continues to have question marks over his star quality as he claws his way back to the top after his loss to Marcos Maidana. With Broner’s relaxed, dismissive attitude towards Emmanuel Taylor it would be easy to forget that he actually lost a fight recently.

It brings me to question whether Broner will be the next Floyd Mayweather Jr or will he be more like a Zab Judah. Furthermore how does he fair against the current champions in the 140 lb division.

Who can take matchroom to the next level

brook8By Gav Duthie: Over the last few years Matchroom has undoubtedly taken over as boxing promotions leader in the UK. A lot of Queensbury’s (Warren) best boxers have jumped across and clever initiatives like Prizefighter and the deal with Sky Sports have placed them in a great position.

The victory from Kell Brook over Shawn Porter has dipped Matchrooms toes in the world level pool. Of their 26 listed boxers they only have 3 current World Champions and they will have to at least double this if they are to become a major player. 

Great week of boxing between 5-11 September

frampton633By Gav Duthie: We only have to wait until next saturday for the big rematch between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana but there is plenty going on in the meantime to keep us occupied. There are 7 intriguing fights over the next 7 days to keep a close eye on with plenty at stake and with all likelyhood a couple of titles changing hands. 

(Tokyo, Japan)
Fri 5 – Akira Yaegashi 20-3 (10) v Roman Gonzalez 39-0 (33) 
WBC flyweight

(Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Sat 6 – Kiko Martinez 31-4 (23) v Carl Frampton 18-0 (13)
 IBF Super Bantanweight 

Roy Jones Legacy

jones343By Gav Duthie: Roy Jones Jnr 58-8 (41) is possibly deluding himself into thinking he can win another world title as he prepares with another eastern European outing against Cruiserweight Hany Atiyo 14-2 (20) in Krasnodar, Russia on September 26th.

Roy is arguably the most talented fighter in history yet he sits behind 3 other currently active fighters in the top 50 boxers of all time. Floyd Mayweather Jr, Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao also feature in this group and still have the opportunity to improve their legacy whilst Jones is fighting on mediocre shows across the globe. 

Did that really just happen: Coming back from crushing defeats

By Gav Duthie: We often say things like “it’s boxing, anything can happen”, unfortunately 99% of the time it goes exactly like we thought it would. In the last couple of weeks however I have been quite surprised to see the return of Mike Jones end in a knockout defeat and top super middleweight prospect J’Leon Love lose the same way.

Top 10 titles most likely to change hands

brook87555By Gav Duthie: The three greatest words that every challenging boxer wants to hear “AND THE NEW”, signifying they have reached their ultimate goal and won a world title.

With 17 weight divisions, 4 main governing bodies and two titles distributed by the WBA (regular and super) we can have up to 85 world champions at any one time. This article looks at the 10 titles most likely to change hands over the next year. 

(1- most likely, 10- least likely)

(10) WBO Featherweight – Johnny Gonzalez