Anthony Joshua vs. Michael Sprott on November 22nd at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, UK

joshua8By Scott Gilfoid: Newly crowned World Boxing Council (WBC) International heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (9-0, 9 KOs) will be back in the ring in a little over a month against 39-year-old journeyman Michael Sprott (42-22, 17 KOs) in a 10 round bout at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.

This is fight that will be on the Sky Box Office pay-per-view card headlined by Tony Bellew vs. Nathan Cleverly 2 rematch. The card is loaded with some of Matchroom Sport’s biggest names, but as far as I can tell, a lot of the fights are mismatches on paper, including the Joshua vs. Sprott fight.

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Heavyweight “Super” 8, or Heavyweight “Shot 8”?

By Bradley Dee: I often find myself browsing Boxrec for no reason other than wanting as much knowledge about boxing history as I can possibly absorb, and today I noticed that someone has organized a tournament they’re calling the Heavyweight “Super 8” tournament. Digging deeper, I started noticing some of the names in this tournament, and much to my surprise I see Sam Peter on the list as well as 4 other completely over the hill fighters.

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Sprott wants Anthony Joshua bout

joshua45By Scott Gilfoid: High level journeyman heavyweight Michael Sprott (40-21, 17 KO’s) is very interested in facing the young and totally untested heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua (5-0, 5 KO’s) if his promoter Eddie Hearn will let the 6’6″ Joshua fight him. Sprott, 39, already pulled off an upset Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Audley Harrison in 2007 in halting him in 3 rounds, and he’d like to add Joshua’s scalp to his resume as well.

Joshua captured a gold medal in the super heavyweight class in the 2012 London Olympics, although Joshua’s gold medal win was high controversial due to many boxing fans feeling like he’d lost most if not all of his contests in the Olympics.

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Tyson Fury sparring with Michael Sprott & Dillian Whyte to get ready for David Haye

fury54 (2)By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like unbeaten heavyweight Tyson Fury (21-0, 15 KO’s) could use some sparring partners to get ready for his September 28th fight against David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) in Manchester. Fury’s sparring partners to get ready for Haye are Michael Sprott and Dillian Whyte, according Fightnews.

Sprott is nothing like Haye, so he shouldn’t even be one of Fury’s sparring partners. Whyte, 25, has good right hand power, but he’s slower than heck, and he doesn’t use his left hand like Haye does.

It’s almost a waste of time to have him as a sparring partner as well. If I was the trainer for Fury, I’d give both of those guys the boot, and look for some quality sparring partners that can give Fury at least a little bit of good sparring instead of him just twiddling his thumbs sparring without getting helped.

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Helenius says his hand hurt against Sprott

Michael Sprott, Robert Helenius(Photo Wende) By Allan Fox: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (19-0 11 KO’s) put in his third consecutive lackluster performance in beating journeyman Michael Sprott (37-20, 17 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision last Saturday night in Magdeburg, Germany. The judges gave Helenius a wide points victory by the scores of 98-93, 97-93 and 98-93.

Helenius had excuses for his less than impressive performance afterwards, saying “My shoulder is completely fine now. The problem was that my right hand started to hurt a little bit…I didn’t use my right hand that often.”

Helenius looked sloppy, weak, and not the fighter that he was previous to his controversial win over Dereck Chisora in 2011.

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Abraham-Stieglitz, Groves-Barakat, Helenius-Sprott tonight in Germany

Georges_Groves(Photo Wende) By Scott Gilfoid: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (36-3, 28 KO’s) will be defending his title tonight against former WBO 168 lb. champion Robert Stieglitz (43-3, 28 KO’s) in a rematch at the GETEC Arena, in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

God, I hope this is the last time these guys fight because I want to see Abraham fight someone that actually has the chance to beat him, and Stieglitz proved clearly that he didn’t last year in August in losing by a 12 round unanimous decision.

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Helenius-Sprott on Saturday in Magdeburg, Germany

By Eric Thomas: 6’6 ½” heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (18-0, 11 KO’s) will be trying to make a case for himself that he deserves to get a crack at IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko when Helenius faces journeyman Michael Sprott (37-19, 17 KO’s) this Saturday night at the GETEC Arena, in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

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Robert Helenius vs. Michael Sprott in March in Germany

helenius223By Scott Gilfoid: Former British heavyweight champion 37-year-old Michael Sprott (37-19, 17 KO’s) says he’ll be fighting Finland’s Robert Helenius (18-0, 11 KO’s) in late March for the European heavyweight title in Germany.

Speaking with Sky Ringside, Sprott said “There talking about me fighting Robert Helenius in Germany in March for the European title, the end of March.”

Helenius, 28, was out of action for 11 months due to a shoulder injury he suffered in a close 12 round decision win over Derek Chisora in December 2011. The 6’6” Helenius had surgery on his right shoulder and it took a long time to heal.

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