Boxing News Thread

[heyzel]

Roach: I want Pacquiao to KO Bradley
April 8th, 2012

By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is going through a really dry spell of three years since his last knockout victory, and there are whispers around that Pacquiao is losing his power and is a fading fighter. Still, his ever faithful trainer Freddie Roach is still wishing for knockouts, and is hoping that Pacquiao KO’s his next opponent Tim Bradley (28-0, 12 KO’s) on June 9th.

Roach told the Manila Bulletin “I’d like to see Manny knock Bradley out.”

You notice how Roach is saying “I’d like” instead of ‘he’s going to knock Bradley out.’? What that shows you is that Roach is no longer coming up with his traditional knockout prediction for Pacquiao over one of his opponents.

Roach seems always predict a knockout for a Pacquiao and starts high in the 12th round, and then as the fight gets nearer, Roach makes the KO predictions earlier and earlier until he arrives at a 1st round knockout. But in this case Roach is saying “I’d like to see.” I guess I don’t blame the guy. Pacquiao hasn’t knocked anyone out since he stopped Cotto in November 2009. Looks like the power is gone. Oh, I know about Roach thinking Pacquiao is showing sympathy for his opponents and that’s why he’s not knocking anyone out, but I don’t buy it. That’s a convenient excuse. I’m just surprised that he came up with that one. I could see an excuse about Pacquiao’s leg cramps as being the reason why Pacquiao isn’t knocking anyone out anymore.

Roach can wish he wants, but Pacquiao isn’t going to be knocking Bradley out. If anyone is getting knocked out in this fight, it’s Pacquiao from a hard body shot. He has problems taking body shots at times and Bradley can definitely punch well to the body. If he drags Pacquiao into the deeper rounds when Pacquiao’s stamina typically fades, Bradley can go to the body and take him out when he’s exhausted. I wonder what Roach would say then?

 

[heyzel]

Koncz: Bradley doesn’t have to beat Pacquiao; If he’s competitive he’ll be a superstar
April 9th, 2012

By Chris Williams: Michael Koncz, the adviser for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, doesn’t expect Manny too have too many problems with challenger Tim Bradley on June 9th. Koncz expects Pacquiao to win the fight, but he thinks Bradley could give him some problems along the way.

Koncz feels that Bradley will become a start just by being competitive with Pacquiao. I’m not sure that I agree with him, but I can understand him saying that because Bradley is now part of the Top Rank Promotions team.

Koncz said to Examiner.com “Bradley doesn’t have to win this fight. As long as Bradley goes 12 competitive rounds with Manny his life will change forever. He will be at the next level and be the superstar and maybe take the torch from Manny when Manny retires.”

I think Koncz is dreaming. Even if Bradley fights competitive, if he still loses the fight, he’s not going to be a superstar. That’s BS. He’ll be popular if he wins, but it won’t do jack for him if he comes up empty.

Bradley will be more popular just on the basis that he’s fighting Pacquiao in a fight that will be seen all around the United States and the world. That’ll make Bradley a well known fighter, but it won’t do a whole heck of a lot of he loses. If you believe, just and see what this Saturday’s pay per view numbers will be for the Juan Manual Marquez vs. Sergiy Fedchenko and Brandon Rios vs. Richard Abril.

Marquez just finished fighting Pacquiao for the third time and he was more than competitive. He fought well enough to deserve the decision, but he didn’t get it and I’m not surprised. But that card isn’t going to do big numbers on PPV, so Koncz is dead wrong that Bradley will be a superstar in losing to Pacquiao. It doesn’t work like that in boxing. You become a superstar by winning and by beating someone like Pacquiao, if the judges will give you the decision that is.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Leonard: Me and Hearns would KO Pacquiao and Mayweather
April 8th, 2012

By Allan Fox: Boxing great “Sugar” Ray Leonard has a lot of respect for both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao as fighters. However, he thinks they both would have been in deep, deep water had they been around to face him in his prime as well as Tommy “Hitman” Hearns. Leonard thinks he and Hearns would KO both Mayweather and Pacquiao.

Speaking with RingTV, Leonard said “I don’t think he [Pacquiao] has ever fought anybody who is 6-foot-2. I don’t think he’s ever faced someone with that kind of height and that power with that type of speed…I think Tommy knocks both of those guys [Mayweather and Pacquiao] out.”

Leonard went on to say that he too would knockout both Mayweather and Pacquiao if he were in his prime still. He sees things in their fighting style that he feels would enable him to score a knockout. I’m not sure what it is but you can’t doubt the man because when Leonard was in his prime, he was next to unbeatable when he was fighting smart and not just looking to brawl.

Hearns would be a very tough opponent for both Mayweather and Pacquiao, especially with Pacquiao because he’s so easy to hit. Hearns had one punch knockout power at welterweight, and if he was facing an opponent with flawed defensive skills like Pacquiao, he would knock them out when he was at welterweight. Hearns had problems later on in his career when he moved up to middleweight and light heavyweight. His power was so good that he was still a huge puncher even in the higher weight classes. But at welterweight, Hearns was a monster and if put in with a fighter that was easy to hit like Pacquiao, Hearns would likely have destroye

this is like saying the sky is blue. hearns and leonard were fighting at a time of big welterweights they both would have been massive compared to floyd and especially Pacquiao. today's welterweights are pretty small in comparison to that era. if they did fight in the same time period both floyd and pac would only be fighting at 140. hell, with Aaron Pryor at 140 maybe neither move past 135.

 

[heyzel]

I would have to agree with sugar on this I think manny is the weakest fighter by far out of these four and would of easily have been beaten by hearns ,sugar or mayweather. Mayweather would of had a chance against both of them because of his defensive skills,but I think hearn would put a hurting on manny & floyd

 

[2-0-Sixx]

pac is just too small. he's 5'6. hearns 6'1 and leonard 5'11. both floyd and pac would get stopped by both of them. hearns is all bad for floyd's style and leonard to big and skilled.

duran vs floyd and pac at 135 is worth talking about though.

 

[MOREBASS]

Add to that the fact that Manny could probably still be fighting at 135 if he wanted to. Sure, he's acclimated to fighting 147lb opponents, but the fact that he doesn't even touch 147 after eating two meals before the weigh in, tells you all you need to know.

 

[heyzel]

Mayweather-Cotto sells for $59.95 on PPV, but a lot less in theaters
April 10th, 2012

By Chris Williams: If you want to get an opportunity to see Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) work his magic on May 5th in his fight for the World Boxing Association junior middleweight title against Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s), you can purchase this fight for a mere $59.95 on HBO pay-per-view.

This is practically a steal given how good this fight is. If you’re not into paying all that money to see it, you can also watch in the theaters for something along the lines of $18 to $20. According to Dan Rafael, the Mayweather-Cotto fight will be shown in theaters by Fathom Events. I checked their website at fathomevents.com to see if they had theaters where I live, but I couldn’t find any within 100 miles. But they seem to cover most of the major cities in the United States, but as you can see there are limitations.

For your money you get at least two good fights – Mayweather-Cotto and Saul Alvarez vs. Shane Mosley. I don’t particularly care for the throw in undercard fights between Jesse Vargas against Alfonso Gomez, and Deandre Latimore vs. Carlos Quintana. I don’t see those guys as PPV worthy fighters. To me, they’re more like EPSN2 undercard fighters at best. I don’t see them even as top of the card on ESPN2, because there are a lot of other interesting fighters coming up that I feel have a chance to win titles some day, and think Vargas or Latimore will ever pick up belts. Gomez and Quintana are obviously being brought in as opponents for those guys, and you can expect them to lose unless Vargas and Latimore are lesser fighters than I think they are.

But the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight is more than worthy of the full $59.95. It doesn’t really need an undercard for this fight to sell a lot of PPV buys. It obviously wouldn’t have hurt for Golden Boy Promotions to put on a good undercard for this fight, because the one they included won’t likely cause boxing fans sitting on the fence to want to pull out their wallets and purchase the fight. But hopefully they learn from this if the event doesn’t bring in over 1 million buys. Packing the undercard with guys without a fan base or with uncertain future opportunities is kind of a waste if you ask me. They would have been better geting one of Golden Boy’s good fighters like Andrien Broner for the card so it could at least give him some good visibility. It would be like boxing fans getting two Mayweather’s for the price of one.

 

[heyzel]

Cotto’s trainer: We will take away Mayweather’s unbeaten record
April 10th, 2012

By Chris Williams: Trainer Pedro Diaz figures that the combination of him and his fighter WBA World junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) will be enough to hand unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) his first defeat in his career on May 5th.

Diaz doesn’t say what plan he has for him to beat Mayweather, but it’s probably something that’s been tried in the past and proven not to work.

Diaz said to Primerhora.com “We will take his unbeaten record on May 5th.”

It’s interesting to watching Diaz on video mimicking Mayweather’s style – or at least trying to – and following Cotto all around the ring like a pressure fighter. That’s not how Mayweather fights, and it makes me wonder whether Diaz has watched enough of Mayweather’s bouts to get a true picture of what he does in the ring. Diaz looks out of place trying to adopt Mayweather’s stance and put Cotto under pressure that you would normally see from someone like Antonio Margarito, not Mayweather.

Cotto showed a lot of flaws in the video with his squaring up constantly to Diaz and lowering his head at all times while fighting. I thought Cotto’s former trainer Emanuel Steward had gotten that out of Cotto, but it looks like it’s still very much.

If anything, Cotto is leaning even more than he was in the past and just begging to be hit with an uppercut or whatever Mayweather wants to land. Cotto looks like he’s bowing when he fights and this should have fixed by his previous trainers. Diaz doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.

Another thing I noticed in watching Cotto train is he’s running with heavyweight Odlanier Solis on a track. Solis, who probably weighs over 250lbs, is far too heavy to be running with Cotto. Miguel needs a track athlete that can push him. Ideally, he needs a sprinter that can work on setting a faster pace to get that flab off of his midsection and get him in shape. Putting Cotto out on the track by himself or with Solis is pretty much useless because Cotto is just trotting around the track looking like an old man. They could at least get a track person out there once a day with Cotto and force him to step it up a several notches in speed.

I never like to see trainers trying to imitate professional fighters because they do such a poor job. Cotto is facing Mayweather, the best fighter on the planet on May 5th, not some slow old guy trying to mimic Mayweather.

 

[heyzel]

Mayweather: You can’t make no mistakes against me
April 10th, 2012

By Chris Williams: There’s no mistaking the fact that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) is an expert counter puncher and who makes his opponents pay dearly for almost everything they throw. It’s rare that Mayweather doesn’t come back immediately with a hard shot when his opponent attempts to land something.

I say “attempts” because they off miss badly because of Mayweather’s outstanding defensive ability. WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) will be the next fighter that tries his luck at besting Mayweather. Cotto is a slower, weaker, older and shorter fighter than Mayweather’s last opponent Victor Ortiz, who despite all of these positive attributes he still ended up getting taken out in the 4th round. Cotto may last longer than four rounds, because I don’t expect him to do anything crazy like dropping his guard to try and apologize and hug Mayweather after he accidentally fouls him.

That’s not Cotto’s style. When he fouls, such as throwing low blows, he merely stares at his opponent impassively like a big shark while they role around on the canvas in pain. He never apologizes and it’s back to business once the action resumes. For this reason, Cotto will last longer than Ortiz but he won’t be any more competitive because he doesn’t have Ortiz’s skills and he’s older.

Mayweather said to examiner.com “With Mayweather you can’t make no mistakes, because if you make a mistake you must pay. I am a true champion.”

That sounds like an ominous warning from Mayweather about bad things yet to come. Cotto is going to be trying to bring it offensively because that’s his style. He’ll jab for a while, but his main bread and butter is his big shots and combination punching. His new trainer Pedro Diaz has Cotto throw more combinations than Cotto’s last trainer Emanuel Steward. That’s a positive against most opponents, but against Mayweather it’s going to be a serious negative because he’s going to have multiple opportunities for him to land his big shots. Cotto will be looking to land, but he’s going to have to pay the piper each time he swings.

If Cotto had good skin that didn’t rip to shreds after a few rounds of him getting hit, I’d say he might have a decent chance of standing in there with Mayweather for a while. But Cotto’s skin rips like rice paper when it gets hit. It not only rips, but it swells up something nasty around the eyes and he’s just there looking like a blister bag ready to pop. That’s when he starts getting busted up. Mayweather’s counter shots are going to make a mess of Cotto in this fight and it’s going to be probably over by the 5th or 6th rounds at best.

 

[heyzel]

pac is just too small. he's 5'6. hearns 6'1 and leonard 5'11. both floyd and pac would get stopped by both of them. hearns is all bad for floyd's style and leonard to big and skilled.

duran vs floyd and pac at 135 is worth talking about though.

agreed but I love the debate about fantasy match up's and I think floyd picks apart duran @ 135 floyd has too much speed

 

[WYNO707X4]

59.95........how much for hd. Fucken thiefs. I still feel ript off from the sucker punch fight

 

[2-0-Sixx]

agreed but I love the debate about fantasy match up's and I think floyd picks apart duran @ 135 floyd has too much speed

I think floyd would probably win but I wouldn't say he would pick him apart, not at all. consider how Castillo gave floyd major problems at 135 and consider how much better Duran was than Castillo. hell, he was the first person to beat sugar ray leonard and that was at 147. Duran would be a very, very tough fight for floyd at 135 and even 147 since floyd isn't a big ww himself.

and Duran vs Pacquiao at 135 would be fireworks!

 

[naner12]

No one throughout history picks apart Duran at LW especially after the 1st fight with De Jesus. Mayweather could win but he have to go through some serious shit to get there.

 

[heyzel]

don't get me wrong duran is considered one the greatest LW of all time but he get's a little reckless at times and look at what sugar ray did to him in the 2nd fight, I can see duran being dominant in this era homie had a style that was enjoyable to watch who do y'all like in these fantasy fights

sweet pea vs mosley
duran vs sweet pea
floyd vs aron Pryor

 

[heyzel]

CEO Richard Schaefer Agrees to Long-Term Golden Boy Promotions and Golden Boy Enterprises Contract Extension

LOS ANGELES, CA (April 11). . . Golden Boy Promotions and Golden Boy Enterprises announced today their Chief Executive Officer Richard Schaefer has agreed to a long-term contract extension with the companies that will ensure the continued success of the thriving sports and entertainment enterprise. Schaefer, along with company President Oscar de la Hoya, has been greatly responsible for growing the business into the leading boxing promotional company in the world.

Archuleta"I am thrilled to have Richard commit to a long-term contract extension with Golden Boy, as he is not only my trusted Chief Executive Officer but he is one of my closest friends," said President Oscar de la Hoya. "This is a very important day for the company and another, and very exciting, chapter in our storied path. We have achieved so much already and I can't wait to announce the many endeavors Richard and I have been working on over the past months to ensure our continued growth and success."

Schaefer was hired in 2000 by De La Hoya to run Golden Boy Enterprises. In 2003 he and De La Hoya formed Golden Boy Promotions with Schaefer being named CEO. Over the past ten years, the Los Angeles-based business has become a premier promotions company increasing their revenue and events base yearly.

"I am excited to extend my contract and look forward to working with the company for many years to come," said Schaefer. "Oscar is a visionary leader who has inspired millions as a fighter in the ring and now he is doing the same thing outside of the ring with his "yes we can" attitude. I am proud of him, our Golden Boy staff, our partners and shareholders and most importantly our fighters, who make the company what it is."

Under Schaefer's leadership, Golden Boy has grown from an upstart West Coast promoter to the most dominant promoter in the world today. Golden Boy's stable currently includes over 50 fighters, including 20 current and former world champions and many others ranked in the top 10 of their respective weight divisions.The Company was involved in an amazing 103 boxing promotions in 2011, which translates into an average of nearly two fights per week. Golden Boy regularly schedules its fights on nearly every major boxing network in the United States and Mexico, including HBO, Showtime, Fox Sports Net, Televisa, and Telefutura. Schaefer's efforts have also resulted in Golden Boy promoting some of the largest grossing boxing events in history, including De La Hoya vs. Mayweather (2007), De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao (2008), Margarito vs. Mosley (2009), Mayweather vs. Mosley (2010), Mayweather vs Ortiz (2011) and the upcoming Mayweather vs. Cotto bout set for Saturday, May 5.

De La Hoya vs. Mayweather broke all pay-per-view and box office records with 2.5 million buys and over $17 million in gate proceeds. Both records still hold today. Golden Boy's track record of signing young talent is unsurpassed, having signed ESPN.com's Prospect of the Year winners from 2007 through 2011. The results of these efforts can be seen in the Company's regular receipt of industry awards, including the Boxing Writers Association of America 2010 and 2011 Fight of the Year Awards.

Schaefer concluded, "Our success speaks for itself. Together we have built the company into a global promotions powerhouse and we will continue to make history every day. We have a great team of young, energetic and creative people working for and with us. I am looking forward to breaking new records together with them."

 

[heyzel]

Mike Tyson Tells The Mirror, Today’s Heavyweight Scene Is “Pretty Good,” Says “It’s Not The Klitschko’s Fault There Isn’t Enough Competition”

By James Slater - Retired great and former two-time heavyweight king Mike Tyson is about to hit the stage for his “Undisputed Truth” one-man show in Las Vegas. The former “Iron” Mike, now at peace with himself at age 45, is said to be planning a show that will “make you laugh, cry - go through every emotion.”

The show will run for an initial week in The City of Entertainment, but already there is talk of the show being extended and taken on the road if it proves successful. And Tyson sure has some story to tell, doesn’t he!?

Speaking with Oliver Holt of The Mirror recently, Tyson spoke of having found peace and of being a different person today to the man he once was, back when he was terrorising the heavyweight division. Always an fascinating interview, Tyson had some interesting things to say and the article had some interesting revelations - for example, remember when Tyson acted up like a crazy, raving lunatic of a person whilst on the podium after the huge fight between he and Lennox Lewis had descended into chaos (with Tyson biting Lewis’ leg)? Well, the unidentified person Tyson then proceeded to yell every expletive under the sun at (I’ll f**k you until you love me, faggot” being one of Tyson’s more colourful outbursts) was sometime ESB contributor Scoop Malinowski; who had said “someone get a straight jacket. He’s an animal. He belongs in a zoo!”

Tyson really lost it, and today he is not afraid to admit he was so out of control back then.

“By the time I was fighting Lennox Lewis I was so miserable I just wish someone would have shot me,” Tyson told Holt. “I hated myself and everything around me.”

Tyson said that he doesn’t miss boxing, but that if he were a young kid again, he would definitely become a fighter all over again. Tyson lit up the division in a massive, massive way. But the ring excitement he provided was often overshadowed by the controversy he caused.

Tyson, who once bit an opponent’s ear off and who was no stranger to press conference brawls, gave his take on the recent Haye-Chisora fracas in Germany. This was kid’s stuff compared to some of his own antics, Tyson basically said.

“What David Haye did in Munich when he had that brawl with Chisora, that was not good,” he said. “That was the kind of stupid stuff I once did. I thought that when I was watching it. No-one did as much as me to bring boxing low. Haye and Chisora would have to go some to beat what I did. At least Haye didn’t bite anyone’s ear off. What they did was nothing.”

Tyson, as we know, was banned for a couple of years and fined $3 million for “The Bite,” while Haye has escaped punishment thus far, and Chisora has been banned “indefinitely.”

But what does Tyson think of the state of today’s Klitschko-dominated heavyweight division?

“I think the heavyweight scene is pretty good right now,” Tyson said. “The Klitschkos are doing great. It’s not their fault that there is not enough competition. But I don’t buy the idea that today’s fighters are not as good as the old fighters. If you had asked Joe Frazier if he could beat me when I was at my best, he would have said, ‘hell, yes,’ That’s the way boxing goes.

“I think I could beat the next generation of fighters but the reality of history is that the fighters get better and better, bigger and bigger and stronger and stronger. I was bigger than Rocky Marciano and I was not even one of the big guys in my generation.”

See what I mean when I say Tyson is always interesting? His opinion on who would have come out on top between the fighters of yesteryear against today’s best will likely cause a big debate in itself. Personally, I disagree with Tyson, as I think the 1988 version of the man himself would have torn through a Wladimir Klitschko. But, hey, Tyson knows more about boxing than I do!

Imagine a 1980’s or 1990’s version of “The Baddest Man on The Planet” being so humble as to admit that the fighters of the future would be able to beat him! Tyson has mellowed, no doubt.

That show in Vegas should be well worth catching.

 

[heyzel]

Wright-Quillin, Tarver-Kayode on 6/2 at the Home Depot Center; Devon Alexander signs with Haymon
April 11th, 2012

By Allan Fox: The June 2nd card headlined by International Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Antonio Tarver 29-6, 20 KO’s) facing unbeaten contender Lateef Kayode (18-0, 14 KO’s) in a Showtime televised card at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.

In the co-main event, undefeated middleweight contender Peter Quillin (26-0, 20 KO’s) will be taking on former junior middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s) in a 10 round bout.

Quillin, 28, has good power but he’s still never faced anyone that you could consider a really good fighter. He’s beaten Craig McEwan, Jason Lehouillier and Jesse Brinkley in his last three fights, but he’s looked flawed in each. The positive for Quillin is he’s got good power, but the negative is he doesn’t throw combination, has no left hand and can’t fight on the inside.

Wright hasn’t fought in three years and looked horrible in his last fight against Paul Williams in losing a 12 round decision. Quillin probably can’t do the things that Williams did in beating Wright because he’s more of a pot shot fighter in the Jermain Taylor mode. However, Wright might be old enough for Quillin to beat him.

***

The Tarver vs. Kayode fight will be interesting to see how good the 29-year-old Freddie Roach trained Kayode, #2 WBA, #5 WBO, #11 IBF, really is as a fighter. Kayode has looked good against guys like Felix Cora Jr., Matt Godfrey, Nicolas Uannuzzi and Epifanio Mendoza. However, there’s a big difference in facing these fighters than someone like 43-year-old Tarver.

To be sure, Tarver is getting up there in age, but he’s so highly skilled and he’s facing a mostly limited slugger in Kayode. Tarver has to be considered the favorite in this fight because of Kayode’s limited experience and skills. Kayode has a puncher’s chance at winning this fight but that’s about it.

Tarver does remarkably well against fighters that come looking to slug it out with him instead of boxing. The guys that Tarver has problems with are speedy fighters like Chad Dawson, who use their boxing skills to beat him rather than brute strength. Tarver lost twice to Dawson and once to Bernard Hopkins in the past six years.

In his last fight, Tarver defeated IBO cruiserweight champion Danny Green by a 9th round stoppage last year in July. That was a long time ago, but Tarver likely hasn’t slipped much since that fight. Green is another Kayode type slugger that looks to take fighters heads off, but Tarver was able to easily out-box him and then take him out.

***

Devon Alexander signs with Al Haymon

Adviser Al Haymon has reportedly signed with former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) to help guide his career at welterweight. Haymon works with a number of big named fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Adrien Broner, Andre Berto and many others. It can’t hurt Alexander to have Haymon as an adviser and hopefully opening the doors for Alexander at HBO to get some big fights. In the near future. Alexander badly needs a title fight against one of he big names like Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. I can’t see him getting a fight against Pacquiao, but Mayweather Jr. is an option.

 

[heyzel]

Andre Ward may have to give up WBC title if he fails to fight Anthony Dirrell
April 11th, 2012

By Scott Gilfoid: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward made it clear in an interview at Sports Illustrated that he has zero interested in taking on the talented brother of Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell (24-0, 21 KO’s) in his next fight. The problem is, Anthony is the 28-year-old Ward’s mandatory challenger and it’s time for Ward to make a defense against Anthony.

Ward said to Sports Illustrated that he doesn’t think the networks [Showtime or HBO] will be interested in seeing him fight Anthony Dirrell. I think Ward is wrong on that, because other Anthony and Andre, there’s really no one left in the division for Ward to fight. IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute is busy facing Carl Froch next month, George Groves is fighting WBO champ Robert Stieglitz, and the other contenders aren’t well known enough for Ward to waste time on. There are some interesting fighters in the division like Adonis Stevenson and James DeGale, but no one in the United States, aside from hardcore boxing fans, know who these guys are. It’s hardly worth it for Ward to face them, and besides, they’re not his mandatory.

Anthony Dirrell said to the Flint Journal at Mlive.com “I guess from Andre’s standpoint or view this is a business decision and I full understand it but maybe when I get a championship he will fight me then. I’m just focused on the WBC, that’s what I want and I’m going to get it no matter if he fights me or he vacates it.”

It’s looking now like Ward will choose to vacate the WBC title rather than face the dangerous Anthony. Ward mentioned vacating one or more of his titles if he can’t get the fight he wants. He figures he’ll be able to get the titles back if he wants them. Unlike in other divisions where fighters have to wait forever to get another crack at the title if they give up their belt (read: Sergio Martinez), Ward won’t have any problem because he’s considered the best fighter in the division and he’s someone that is in demand.

According to the Flint Journal, Anthony Dirrell has an opponent to fight he’s interested in facing if Ward ends up vacating his World Boxing Council title. Hopefully Anthony isn’t talking about #2 WBC Noe Gonzalez or #3 Nikola Sjekloca, because those fights would be too easy for Anthony. A perfect opponent for Dirrell would be undefeated #5 WBC Edwin Rodriguez or #9 WBC Adonis Stevenson. I’d like to see Dirrell face either one of those guys.

 

[HERESY]

Duran > Floyd.

 

[bigface]

Mayweather's defense, stamina, and precise punching will let him beat or hang with any fighter in any era. LOL.. At a prime Mayweather getting KO'ed by anyone in any era. Duran, Hearn, and Sugar Ray were all easy to hit, which mean they will all have big problems with Mayweather.