By Scott Gilfoid: WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn is starting early with the excuses for why he won’t be trying to match Burns with WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner for September, saying that Broner is busy with a fighting WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi.
That has got to be the worst excuse for dodging an opponent I’ve ever seen because Broner is fighting Malignaggi next month on June 22nd, and Burns doesn’t have a fight until likely late September.
By Scott Gilfoid: It’s not personal with #8 WBC Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s). He’s using the rusty and small former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) as a stepping stone to get another shot at WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko next year.
Charr was beaten last September by Vitali after he suffered a cut that caused the fight to be stopped early. Charr’s plan for that fight was to take the aging 41-year-old Vitali deep and then drown him in the later rounds when Vitali fades.
Charr and Haye fight next month on June 29th at the Manchester Arena in the UK. While Haye thinks Charr is slow and easy to hit, Charr sees Haye as someone that is just too light in weight to do anything to him.
ESSINGTON, PA (MAY 8, 2013)—Former Olympic Gold Medal winner and two-time world champion Meldrick Taylor has been added to the Champions of Tomorrow Promotional team.
The inaugural event will take place on Thursday night June 20th at the Deck in Essington, PA.
By Hugh Janus: Congratulations to Ricky Burns for an outstanding performance in defence of his World Title. A true Celtic warrior, he came through fire for the most decisive win of his career against an evidently more talented boxer. His World Champion credentials are beyond question.
Gonzalez showed pure class from the first bell, dominating the first half of the fight with ease. Early signs suggested the fight would end in a very lop sided decision if Burns could even make it that far. I had certainly written him off going into the 7th.
However, as Burns beautifully illustrated on Saturday night, winning and successfully defending a title strap does not always mean being the most talented boxer in the fight. There are many other qualities that make a champion.
by Bob Smith: In scanning the boxing matches coming up next month, I will venture to make predictions of three KO victories. Will I be right? Only time will tell. For the (very recent) record, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez did better than I anticipated he would, though I had him losing a narrow decision; I also thought that Guerrero would have some more success in pressuring Floyd, though I did anticipate Floyd Mayweather Jr would win by unanimous decision.
The good news is that Gennady Golovkin should dismiss the highly talkative and disrespectful but very world class and skilled Matthew Macklin within roughly 8 rounds. I thought Macklin did very well against Sergio Martinez, but I don’t see him being able to cope effectively with the power and pressure tactics of Golovkin. I think that Martin Murray and his excellent defense would pose more problems for Golovkin though I think Golovkin would defeat Murray in a decision.
By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions wants to match their prize WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) against 32-year-old Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) on September 14th on the Mexican Independence holiday for Canelo’s first pay per view bout of his career, if Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn’t want to fight the light heavyweight-sized Canelo in September.
Cotto, who hasn’t fought since December in losing to Austin Trout, reportedly is interested in facing Canelo for the right price.
By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will either fight at 160 or 165 lbs. for his next fight on August 3rd against either Martin Murray or Brian Vera. The choice of opponent will depend on whether Chavez Jr. can get down to 160 lbs. or not.
If he can boil down to 160, then Martin Murray will be the choice. If not, then it’ll be Vera.
By Scott Gilfoid: If you were hoping to see a mouth-watering rematch between WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) and Puerto Rican fighter Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) you can forget it because Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn closed the door tight and locked it by saying “No,” when asked if he’d be willing to put Burns back in with the hard hitting Gonzalez.
By Tony Crooks: Something very strange just occurred to me; Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) are touting unbeaten heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) as the next heavyweight champion. They say his punching power is phenomenal. They say that as soon as he hits anyone with his right hand that they will be knocked out.
Now here is my point, GBP have invested a lot of money in Wilder, training camps, travel, accommodation, trainers and corner men, all have to be paid. This all comes to a lot of money.
By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night, IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KO’s) will be defending his title against replacement opponent #4 IBF Lee Purdy (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Purdy, 25, is replacing the unbeaten #1 IBF Kell Brook, who suffered one too many injuries to his lower extremities causing him to lose out on the opportunity to get the fight.
They finally had to replace Brook with Purdy in order to avoid Alexander using up an entire year of his career waiting for Brook to stop getting injured in training camp. Who honestly knows how long Alexander would have had to wait before he finally got Brook in the ring.