By Jim Dower: Fresh off a 7th round stoppage over journeyman Walid Smichet last weekend, super middleweight Peter Manfredo Jr. (32-6, 17 KOs) is hoping to get a shot at unbeaten middleweight contender John Duddy (26-0, 17 KOs) in the near future. If possible, Manfredo, 28, would like to fight two or three more times before facing Duddy. A win over Duddy would push Manfredo up into the middleweight rankings, where he plans on fighting in the future.
Peter Manfredo Jr
Klitschko-Haye Tickets Moving Well; Manfredo Defeats Smichet – News
By Erik Schmidt: Tickets are moving fast for the June 20th bout between David Haye and IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, with an incredible thirty thousand tickets being sold on the first day along, says Bernd Bonte the head Manager for the Klitschko brothers. The German boxing fans stood in lines that Bonte says were close to a mile long, possibly exaggerating more than a little to help promote the fight a little.
Bika Stops Manfredo Jr. – Latest Boxing News
By Dan Ambrose: In a battle of former stars from the reality television series The Contender, super middleweight contender Sakio Bika (27-3-2, 17 KOs) took out Peter Manfredo Jr. (31-6, 16 KOs) in the 3rd round of a scheduled 12-round bout to win the vacant IBO super middleweight title and interim NABF super middleweight title on Thursday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center, in Providence, Rhode Island.
Bika, 29, staggered Manfredo Jr. with a right hand in the third round and then proceeded to nail him with an uninterrupted series of hard right hands, uppercuts and hooks as Manfredo leaned helplessly against the ropes trying to cover up.
Latest Boxing News – Toney-Thompson, Duddy, Manfredo-Bika, Taylor-Lacy
Los Angeles, CA (November 11, 2008) – On December 13, 2008, a pair of prominent top heavyweight world title contenders will square off against each other with everything on the line, including their professional future at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa.
The winner of Toney vs. Thompson, ‘Now or Never,’ emerges as the next major challenger to the Klitschko brothers, the reigning Heavyweight Champions.
Latest Boxing News: Conception, Marquez-Abraham, Bika-Manfredo, Bernstein
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA – 29th October 2008. It was announced today by Optimum Sports Agency that Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion will make his ring return November 26th in Panama. The bout will be promoted by Rogelio Espino of Promociones y Eventos Del Istmo and it will take place at the Centro de Convenciones Atlapa, Panama City, Panama.
Hopkins: “Calzaghe Will Change His Mind,” Bika-Manfredo, Haussler-Kessler – Latest Boxing News
Bernard Hopkins told Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour that he will not consider Chad Dawson as an opponent and believes the winner out of Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr will change their mind about not fighting him.
The Executioner produced the performance of his career last Saturday in Atlantic City to convincingly outpoint current middleweight king Kelly Pavlik.
Both Calzaghe and Jones, though paying respect to Hopkins’ performance, insist they have no interest in having second fights against the Philadelphia fighter.
Hopkins believes the media frenzy surrounding the aftermath of their fight, when he will be in attendance, will persuade the fighters that they have to take him on.
Manfredo Jr. vs. Lopez On Saturday
By Aaron Klein: Super middleweight contender Peter Manfredo Jr. (29-5, 14 KOs) goes up against Luis Lopez (14-12-1, 6 KOs) on Saturday night at the Coeur d’Alene Casino, in Worley, Idaho. Manfredo Jr., 27, a former star from The Contender reality television series, has taken his limited talent far beyond what more talented fighters have achieved in the super middleweight division in recent years.
Despite his seemingly club fighter style of fighting, Manfredo has beaten excellent fighters like Scott Pemberton, David Banks, Joe Spina, Miguel Angel Espino, Frankie Randall, among many others. Manfredo has been good at beating the B-class fighters that he’s been put in with, but when facing A-class fighters, like Joe Calzaghe, Jeff Lacy and Sergio Mora, Manfredo has shown his limitations, coming out on the losing end each time. He never got a chance to prove what he could do against Calzaghe, because the referee made a quick stoppage of the fight after a brief flurry from Calzaghe in the 3rd round. It was a disappointing stoppage, because Manfredo had looked good in the first couple of rounds and was just beginning to warm up in the fight.
Lacy Decisions Manfredo
Showing only brief glimpses of his former power, super middleweight Jeff Lacy (23-1, 17 KOs) struggled badly in the process of defeating reality TV start Peter Manfredo Jr. (28-5, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision on Saturday night. It was the first fight for Lacy in a year, after having major shoulder surgery to repair a tear of his left rotator cuff which occurred in his last bout against Vitali Tsypko. If there was any question as to whether Lacy still possessed his awesome left hook it was answered early in the first few rounds, when Lacy rarely used his left hand at all, much less his left hook. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 96-93 and 97-92, all for Lacy.
When he did throw his left hook, it had very little power, looking nothing like it once did a year ago. Whether Lacy will ever regain the power in his left hook is questionable, as rotator cuff injuries often cause permanent weakness in the side of the injury. In the first three rounds of the bout, Manfredo used his speed and combinations to easily out-box the plodding Lacy, who was fighting mainly one-handed using his right almost exclusively. In the fourth round, Lacy surprised Manfredo with a huge right hand, dropping him to the canvas.
Lacy vs. Manfredo on December 8th
Former International Boxing Federation Super middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (22-1, 17 Kos) returns to action on the undercard of Ricky Hatton vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Peter Manfredo Jr. (28-4, 13 Kos) on December 8th, at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. Lacy, 30, has been out of action since tearing his left rotator cuff in a bout with Vitali Tsypko on December 2, 2006. The injury to Lacy’s left shoulder involved a full thickness tear of the tendon, including a partial tear of the muscle as well. What made the injury even worse, however, is that it involves the side in which Lacy throws his left hook – his most dangerous weapon, in other words. Without his powerful left hook, Lacy becomes for all practical purposes and average fighter.
At the time the time of the injury, there was questions as to whether Lacy’s shoulder would ever heal sufficient enough for him to be as effective as he was earlier in his career. Apparently, the word is that the shoulder is as good as new. However, that remains to be seen.