By Gav Duthie:
Ike ‘The President’ Ibeabuchi 20-0 (15)
At 41 years of age Ike still has time to make a comeback in boxing,’The President’ from Nigeria has been in jail since 1999 and denied parole no less than 5 times. His best victory came against former World Champion Chris Byrd in early 1999 where he destroyed the slick heavyweight in 5 rounds. Byrd didn’t really know where he was after the contest after being pummeled against the ropes.
By Gav Duthie: In a somewhat ironic turn the man who arguably came closest to beating new IBF champion Kell Brook has retired just shy of his 28th birthday. Carson Jones 35-10-3 (25) turns just 28 tommorow but has decided to call it a day in boxing.
Jones said on facebook
“Sad day for me, but today I am officially retiring from boxing. Had some ups and downs, but I’m done”.
Legacy
I have posted before about some of the unsung heroes in boxing and Jones is definitely one of those. He is tough, durable, hard hitting and despite his limitations in talent he never accepted defeat.
By Gav Duthie: Carl Froch is giving fans the chance to have their say on who his next opponent should be.
I implore anyone who loves boxing to vote on The Cobra’s facebook page. As fans we love to analyze, praise and criticize but its not often we get a real chance to do something productive. Carl’s entire legacy and reputation has been based on giving the fans the fights they want so he will listen to what we say.
Fight Options
(voting as of 10:30am UK time August 14)
Gennady Golovkin, 12,524 votes
Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr,11,786 votes
By Gav Duthie: This Saturday hosts one of the most intriguing fights of the year as Kell Brook looks to finally prove he is “The Special One” against Shawn “Showtime” Porter. Porter is a massive 2/5 favorite with the bookies with Brook the 2/1 outsider.
I feel that the fight is a much closer contest than that so decided to have an in-depth look at the fighters attributes to compare and contrast. The winner can look forward to huge fights against the likes of Keith Thurman, Amir Khan and even Floyd Mayweather Jr next year.
By Gav Duthie: Rod Salka looked a man well out of his depth on Saturday night as most of us expected but what did surprise me was that Paul Sadafora 49-1-1 (19) who is still an active fighter was training the “lightning rod”.
By Gav Duthie: Marcos Maidana claims having fought Floyd Mayweather Jr already he knows what to do to get the win he craves. Maidana told (The Ring Magazine) “First I’m going to give him a beating and then, I’m going to knock him out”.
If Maidana can pull this off it would be one of the best revenge stories in boxing history. Marcos knows he is going to have to throw everything at Mayweather because he is unlikely to beat him on points. Barring the final few rounds Maidana was hugely competitive at every stage and doing enough to secure this rematch is an achievement in itself. Floyd has only given one rematch previously in his entire career when many thought Jose Luis Castillo had done enough to beat him. The rematch was again extremely close but Maidana doesn’t want to let his second chance slip through the net.
By Gav Duthie: At 45 years of age Antonio Tarver 30-6 (21) is taking a massive gamble by attempting to break into the heavyweight ranks by fighting Jonathon Banks 29-2-1 (19) on September 29th.
Up to now Tarver’s most dangerous fight at HW was against Rocky Balboa when he played Mason ‘The Lion’ Dixon. He has fought two proper heavyweight fights one in 2010 and the latest in November last year knocking out journeyman Mike Sheppard in 4 rounds.
(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Gav Duthie: After successive 4th round stoppage victories over Mexican legend Erik Morales and Amir Khan it seemed like Danny Garcia was destined for pound for pound stardom. With a lovely left hook, sound boxing ability and a quirky father to add personality he looked a pay-per-view certainty. Now I am asking the question where is Danny Garcia going with his career. Despite still being undefeated he seems to be going backwards.
Fighting weight?
Pretty much everyone had Mauricio Herrera beating him in his last fight. He certainly dodged a bullet there. His excuse for not giving him a rematch was issues with making weight yet here is fighting average lightweight contender Rod Salka 19-3 (3) defending his two 140lb titles. If Danny had decided to relinquish his titles I can understand him fighting someone at this level if he moved up to 147 but at 140 this is probably the most pointless fight of the year.
By Gav Duthie: In what would be an entirely non unpredictable outcome Deontay Wilder looks yet again to be fighting a tomato can journeyman in Mike Sheppard 21-17-1 (9). 39 year old Sheppard boasts a proud record of being knocked out on a regular basis over 3 decades having made his boxing debut in 1997.
Of his 17 defeats 5 of them have been in the first round and even against the likes of journeyman Joey Abell and Jeremy Bates.
By Gav Duthie: This is my idea for a timeline leading to one of the biggest fights of all time Mayweather v Pacquaio to come off in September 2015. For this to happen we need lots of guarantees. We need Mayweather and Pacquaio not to lose which is not a certainty with Maidana and Algieri looking to destroy the party.
Furthermore we need for these promoters, managers and fighters to stop acting like children and agree to terms. The most important people here are of course Floyd Maywether and Bob Arum.