By Gav Duthie: The latest brain child of Sauerland Promotions gets underway next month bringing some of the finest boxing talent from two weight classes together to find a supreme champion. Sauerland has joined forces with Richard Schaefer to create The World Boxing Super Series tournament in both the Super Middleweight and Cruiserweight divisions.
By Gav Duthie: The sharp decline of the extremely talented Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa has been painful to watch. The former two weight world champion picked up a tight 10 round majority decision win against expected cannon fodder opponent Alexis Reyes on Saturday. Gamboa won the fight but labored to the finish line against someone who shouldn’t be fit to lace his boots.
By Gav Duthie: Someone needs to say it and I imagine I’d be waiting around forever if I didn’t do it myself, my post mortem of the career of Tim Bradley 33-2-1 (13) is that he is one of the most underrated and underappreciated fighter in recent memory. His achievements, accolades, skill, bravery, physical and mental toughness will be sorely missed and I just wanted to take the time to pay tribute to a boxing legend and hopefully future Hall of Famer.
By Gav Duthie: Boxing changed the night Tyson Fury outpointed Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, bagging 3 of the main 4 heavyweight titles available (WBA, WBO, IBF). Fury didn’t just break the heavyweight stranglehold of Wladimir Klitschko but he blew the division wide open. That result ended a dominant reign of not only Wladimir but also his brother Vitaly and even Lennox Lewis previously.
By Gav Duthie: The final part concentrates on the males in team GB. The UK has had a superb time in pro boxing recently boasting as much as 13 champions last year. The Olympic squad in 2012 has only contributed 1 so far with Anthony Joshua but there are certainly opportunities for others. The GB squad took home 2 gold medals, a silver and bronze and all 7 eventually turned professional at different stages. Their combined pro record reads 78-4-3 (55).
By Gav Duthie: Part 3 focuses on Team America and the amateur scene in 2012. Boxing in the Olympics used to be a straight shoot between America and Cuba but those days are long gone. There have been no gold medals for the men since Andre Ward in 2004. In fact there have barely been any medals at all. The talent hasn’t dropped in the United States but the priorities have changed.
By Gav Duthie: Women’s boxing has never been more popular. Whether your into it or not there is likely to be a female contest on most undercards around the world every weekend. American Clarissa Shields will even headline her own bill in Detroit next month after only 3 fights previously. The sport is on the up and a lot of this success can be attributed to the London Olympic games in 2012 for raising its profile. This was the first year that competitive female boxing appeared in the Olympics surprisingly as there was a demonstration women’s bout at the 1904 Olympics. There were only 3 categories in the competition and all have turned professional with big things expected.
By Gav Duthie: This summer marks the 5 year anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic games with some fantastic stories for the heroes. Of the 10 successful male gold medalists we have 4 world champions with the 7 boxers who turned pro boasting a combined record of 88-4-1 (67). Some have gained super stardom, others are already pound for pound contenders and 3 never turned professional at all. Here follows the mixed fortune of the 10 male Olympic gold medalists at the 2012 games. Following articles will discuss the successful women followed by team GB and team US.
By Gav Duthie: We are going round in circles in watching the career of the brilliant but stagnant Adonis Stevenson. The big punching Canadian destroyed Andrezj Fonfara in 2 rounds a few Saturdays ago in a senseless rematch that nobody needed to see. Stevenson is 39 years old and we are currently seeing him once a year against average opposition.
By Gav Duthie: When I was first getting into boxing I went round to my high street HMV and bought all the boxing history videotapes I could. Youtube is great these days but it was guys like Bert Sugar, Harry Carpenter, Teddy Atlas etc that set the scene in these historic video/DVD pieces conveying how eras were shaped rather than just watching individual fights. I was in awe of one chronology in particular named ‘The Fabulous Four’ referencing the rivalries between Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran.