Leo Santa Cruz to fight on Mayweather vs. Pacquiao card

santa cruz677By Dan Ambrose: WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 KOs) will be added to the television portion of the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao fight card on May 2nd on HBO and Showtime at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The opponent for the 26-year-old Santa Cruz has yet to be determined. Santa Cruz has taken a lot of heat recently for his three consecutive mismatches against Jesus Ruiz, Manuel Roman and Cristian Mijares.

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Boxingnews Knock-Out Mailbag

floyd74By Sebastian Mora: First of all I would like to apologize, the mailbag was supposed to come out yesterday but for personal reasons I was not able to.

I will normally answer more questions, but since this is the first one I only answered five.

Jay: Hey, I’m Jay and I just read your article. Nice article but I have some things I must say. You said Manny whooped everyone like [Floyd] Mayweather did but he didn’t because he lost 5 times. He got knockout 3 times with two draws.

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Mayweather vs. Pacquiao – Attributes, Preparation and Chess

pacBy Jay McIntyre: Editing Note: This article is long-winded, so if you don’t have a lot of time, don’t waste your time. Enjoy your weekend, or, whatever day it is for you at the time of your reading (or not reading) this.

Stratagem is commonplace when it comes to winning fights. Indeed, it often gets a great deal of attention when we seek to understand a fight’s outcome. Muhammad Ali’s colossal upset win over the glowering George Foreman in 1974 was both unexpected and highly effective. After all, who would place themselves inertly along the ropes for half a dozen rounds while the bear-like Foreman mauled and punched and got his way?

In Norman Mailer’s book The Fight, we learn briefly about Muhammad Ali’s training camp as he prepared for “The Rumble in the Jungle”. Ali’s sparring in camp against fast, slick boxers like Larry Holmes was humbling for him to say the least. Standing in the centre of the ring Ali looked slow, and he knew it. Most observers wisely concluded that a brick-fisted brute like George wouldn’t have to look too hard to find Ali. There was no way that Ali could float like a butterfly forever, and when Foreman found him, he would knock him into the dirt like a railroad spike. Again, this was something of which Ali was painfully aware.

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Mayweather vs Pacquiao: Breaking Down the Numbers

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By Michael Montero – We’re less than a month away from the most anticipated prizefight in decades. And while many are discussing the expected record-breaking financial numbers, very few are analyzing the numbers that really matter in regards to the matchup itself. Let’s take a deep dive into the numbers behind Mayweather-Pacquiao.

Punch Stats:

While CompuBox numbers don’t tell the whole story, they often provide a great way to identify trends in a fighter. When analyzing Manny Pacquiao’s punch output throughout his welterweight campaign, a clear trend emerges. The Filipino icon threw an average of 952 total punches in his first four bouts at welterweight (Cotto, Clottey, Margarito, Mosley), yet has averaged a pace of only 670 punches per twelve rounds from 2012-0214.

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Kirkland: I know Canelo’s style, I feel like I can beat him!

KirklandSAWorkout_Hoganphotos6(Photo Credit: Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: American slugger James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) feels confident that he can beat the red-haired former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) in their fight next month on May 9th at the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.

Kirkland, 30, says he’s studied the fighting style of the 24-year-old Canelo, and he feels he can defeat his style of fighting. Kirkland is ready slug with Canelo if that’s the type of fight that he’ll be looking to bring on May 9th.

Kirkland is looking forward to this fight because he sees Canelo as someone that he can definitely beat.

“I want to fight Canelo because I know his style. You see something, you analyze it, and I feel like I can beat him,” Kirkland said. “I know Canelo is going to put in the work on fight night. I want to be a step ahead of him, so if he comes to box or comes for a slug fest, I will be ready.”

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Roach: I see Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight as good vs. evil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zJ__isrjcM
By Chris Williams: For the past couple of weeks trainer Freddie Roach has been trash talking Floyd Mayweather Jr. and giving him very little credit for him having been boxing’s No.1 fighter for most of his long career.

Roach even went so far as to say that Mayweather was taught wrong from the start of his career. But now Roach is characterizing Mayweather’s May 2nd mega-fight against Manny Pacquiao as a good vs. evil type of fight with Pacquiao being the good guy and Mayweather representing the evil side.

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Upcoming Big Fights For The Next 30 Days!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-N9e_gds4
By Wilmar Patino (Boxing’s Finest) Hello Boxing fans and enthusiasts and welcome to another edition of Upcoming fights for the next 30 days. As you already know Danny Garcia will be taking on Lamont Peterson this Saturday in a non title fight. I think there is enough coverage on this site of that fight so we’ll begin with the all out war between Lucas Matthysse and Ruslan Provodnikov.

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Khan: I have pressure to do a better job beating Algieri than Pacquiao did

khan343444By Scott Gilfoid: Britain’s Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) feels that he’s got a lot of heavy pressure on him for his May 30th fight against former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs). While it’s pretty much a given that Khan will win this fight due to his superior power, hand speed and experience at the pro level, he feels that his performance against the 31-year-old Algieri will be compared to that of Manny Paquiao’s performance.

Pacquiao defeated Aligeri by a 12 round unanimous decision last November in Macau, China. In that fight, Pacquiao knocked Algieri down six times and won every round. As such, for Khan to get anything from the Algieri fight, besides a boatload of money, he’s going to need to whip him like no tomorrow to show that he’s at the same level as Pacquiao.

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Roach: We [Pacquiao] have to win this fight

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By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach feels that Pacquiao is in a must-win situation with his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 2nd. Pacquiao has lost plenty of fights during his long 20-year pro career, and he’s had several fights against Juan Manuel Marquez that he arguably should have lost as well.

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30-day weights: Mayweather 150.5lbs

floyd555By Chris Williams: WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. weighed in at 150.5 pounds in his 30-day weigh-in for his fight against the Philippine’s Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was obviously Mayweather’s natural weight and not a case of him draining down to make the 30-day weight like some fighters clearly do.

Pacquiao is likely to come into the Mayweather fight weighing in the low 140s. It’s doubtful that Pacquiao will be close to 147 for the fight. But even if he does weigh close to the same amount as Mayweather, it’s still going to be very difficult for Pacquiao to be able to handle the speed, movement and reach that Mayweather has. That’s more important than weight for this fight.

Of course, if Pacquiao were to be fighting a 170+ pound fighter like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez rather than Mayweather, then the weight would be very important. But I don’t think Pacquiao would agree to fight Canelo without a handicap as far as a catch-weight goes, and possibly a rehydration limit.

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