Bellew picks Chad Dawson to beat Adonis Stevenson on Saturday

06/07/201306/06/2013 Bill Phanco

#1 WBC Tony Bellew is picking WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KO’s) to defeat the hard hitting but still largely unproven Adonis Stevenson (20-1, 17 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

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Matthysse stops Peterson in 3rd; Alexander defeats Purdy

05/19/201305/18/2013 Bill Phanco

matthysse33 Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KO’s) totally destroyed Lamont Peterson (31-2-1, 16 KO’s) in a 3rd round knockout on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Matthysse dropped Peterson three times, once in the 2nd and twice more in the 3rd to get the stoppage. All three knockdowns came from left hooks to the head from Matthysse.

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Matthysse-Peterson this Saturday, May 18th in Atlantic City, New Jersey

05/12/2013 Bill Phanco

peterson4 Light welterweight Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) squares off against Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night in a Showtime televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Neither fighter will have their titles on the line, as the fight will take place at a catchweight of 141 lbs. It seems that neither guy wanted to put up their strap for the fight. Matthysse only had his WBC interim light welterweight title, and that wasn’t worth anything to Peterson. He wants the full title, not an interim strap.

However, the winner of this fight will be getting a lot more than if there was a title on the line. The winner gets to move onto face WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in an important bout that leads to Amir Khan waiting at the end of the line later on this year. That’s how Golden Boy Promotions set it up.

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Weigh-in: Mayweather vs. Guerrero

05/06/201305/02/2013 Bill Phanco

Floyd Mayweather 146 vs. Robert Guerrero
Daniel Ponce de Leon 126 vs. Abner Mares 126
Leo Santa Cruz 122 vs. Alexander Munoz 121
J’Leon Love 161.5 vs. Gabriel Rosado 160
Badou Jack 170 vs. Michael Gbenga 170

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Vitali: The Stiverne fight will take place

05/01/201304/30/2013 Bill Phanco

vitali9 vitali9 WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) has acknowledged that he will indeed be facing his mandatory challenger 34-year-old Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s), who earned the title shot against the 41-year-old Vitali by defeating Chris Arreola by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.

Vitali said to Fightnews.com: “There is an official challenger, Bermane Stiverne. The fight will take place. Now it’s necessary to determine the date.”

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Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

08/21/202404/27/2013 Bill Phanco

35-year-old Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) gave it a good shot tonight but in the end he was beaten by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) in a 12 round unanimous decision loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Judah was in command of the fight in the last three rounds of the fight, but unfortunately for him he ran out of time and ended losing. The scores were 115-112, 114-112, 116-111.

Garcia fought well in the first 8 rounds in using his right hand to do most of the damage. Judah did a good job of neutralizing Garcia’s left hook and jab. Garcia’s right hand proved to be enough for him to control the rounds and build up a big lead. However, the crowd seemed to motivate Judah to another level starting in the 9th round when he was able to land some really big shots that stopped Garcia in his tracks.

Judah continued to land the far bigger punches in rounds 10, 11 and 12 to dominate the rounds. Garcia kept firing back, but his punches weren’t nearly as significant as Judah’s.

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Rigondeaux dominates Donaire

04/14/201304/13/2013 Bill Phanco

donaire111 WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) proved to be too fast, too skilled and too talented for WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) tonight in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Radio City Music Hall, in New York, New York, USA.

The judges scored the fight 114-113, 115-112, 116-111. The fight wasn’t nearly as close as the two judges that nearly had Donaire winning. Those scores were pretty sad and scary because you have to wonder what fight where those judges watching. I only had Donaire winning 10th round and that was because he nailed Rigondeaux with a left hand when the two were in close in a clinch.

Donaire wrestled out of it and hit Rigondeaux when he wasn’t expecting a shot while he was standing straight up. Let’s be honest: that was the way Donaire could knock Rigondeaux down because he was too slow and missing all night long with his shots. Rigondeaux got up from the knockdown and immediately resumed schooling Donaire and making him look really, really bad.

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WBC positioning Khan for Mayweather mega-fight

04/06/2013 Bill Phanco

khan4353 The World Boxing Council updated their rankings this week and installed Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) as their number #2 contender at 147. This is a clear move to put Khan in line for a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. because there’s no other way of looking at it. The WBC has positioned Khan for Mayweather and it seems like that’s a fight that the WBC wants because why else would they rank a fighter whose career is sinking at the moment.

Khan has never fought at 147 before during his career and he’s lost two out of his last three fights since 2011. The WBC giving Khan – or any fighter – a #2 ranking after having lost two out of their last three fights is incredibly disappointing because it seems so transparent what the WBC is trying to do. I won’t be surprised if Khan is moved to the #1 position if he gets beaten by Julio Diaz this month on April 27th in Sheffield.

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Thurman vs. Chaves & Berto vs. Soto-Karass in late July on Showtime

04/03/2013 Bill Phanco

thurman32 - Copy In a couple of interesting fights that are being put together for late July, former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto (28-2, 22 KO’s) will be getting a chance to redeem himself in a fight against Jesus Soto-Karass (27-8-3, 17 KO’s), and unbeaten welterweight Keith Thurman (20-0, 18 KO’s) will face interim WBA welterweight champ Diego Chaves (22-0, 18 KO’s) in a fight that will be televised on Showtime. The date of the fight hasn’t been set but they’re looking at either July 20th or July 27th as of now.

Berto, 29, could find himself in deep, deep trouble if he gets outworked like he was in his last fight against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero last November in a 12 round unanimous decision loss. Guerrero didn’t do anything special to beat Berto other than pressuring him and throwing a lot of shots.

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Maidana-Lopez, Angulo-Lara & Bika-Periban on June 8th in Carson, California

04/03/2013 Bill Phanco

maidana32434 Golden Boy Promotions is putting on an excellent fight card on June 8th headlined by WBA Inter-Continental welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 KO’s) defending his title against Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) in this Showtime televised card at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California, USA.

In addition to this fight, the undercard has #1 WBC, #3 WBO, #5 IBF junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO’s) facing #9 WBC Alfredo Angulo (22-2, 18 KO’s) in a 12 round bout, and #1 WBC super middleweight contender Sakio Bika (31-5-2, 21 KO’s) battling unbeaten #14 WBC Marco Antonio Periban (20-0, 13 KO’s) in a 12 round bout.

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