Cleverly to melt down to light heavyweight to fight on 4/11, wants Braehmer

01/07/2015 Bill Phanco

Nathan Cleverly is going to need to drop a ton of weight to get down to 175 for his next fight on April 11th in Lees. He’s moving from cruiserweight back down to light heavyweight where he hopes to get a crack at WBA World light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer in the near future. That fight obviously won’t happen on April 11th, but that’s the direction Cleverly is being steered in.

First, however, he’s going to need to lose 25 pounds to get down to 175. This isn’t just 25 pounds of fat though. This is 25 pounds of muscle that Cleverly slowly put on in order to move up to cruiserweight. He won two out of his three fights in that weight class, but after his lethargic performance in losing to Tony Bellew last November, Cleverly decided he should move back down to light heavyweight.

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Malignaggi open to Kell Brook clash

01/05/2015 Bill Phanco

Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) hasn’t fought in nearly a year since being blown out badly by Shawn Porter last year in April, but it now looks like Malignaggi may be starting to show interest in returning to the ring. Malignaggi is saying that a fight against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs) is one that would be interested in.

Brook doesn’t have an opponent for his next fight in early 2015, and it’s quite possible he might be interested in someone like Malignaggi. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn needs someone who is good but obviously not that good because Brook is fighting or the first time since suffering a thigh wound in a knife attack.

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Khan confident he can get Pacquiao to UK for big fight

01/03/2015 Bill Phanco

Amir Khan didn’t have much luck in getting Floyd Mayweather Jr to agree to fight him, so he’s now he’s put his focus on trying to get the highly popular Manny Pacquiao to face him in 2015. Khan is hopeful that the 36-year-old Pacquiao will say yes to a fight with him, and then agree to fight him in the UK.

Khan would like to stage the Pacquiao fight in the huge 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London. Khan obviously believes that the two of them would be able to sell out the stadium in the same way that IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch sold out the stadium in 2015 in his rematch with George Groves in May.

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Froch ordered by IBF to start negotiations with DeGale

01/03/201501/03/2015 Bill Phanco

The International Boxing Federation (IBF) sent out a letter to IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) on December 31st, ordering him to start the negotiation process with his IBF mandatory challenger James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs). If Froch fails to do this then the IBF will strip the 37-year-old Froch of his IBF title and then order #7 IBF Andre Dirrell to face DeGale for the vacant IBF strap.

Froch has been holding out for a fight against former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, because Froch believes that he’s a fighter popular enough for him to fight on pay-per-view in the United States. Chavez Jr has promotional issues with Top Rank, and it doesn’t look as if Froch will be able to get that fight with him anytime soon.

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Khan giving Mayweather to mid-January to start negotiations

12/30/2014 Bill Phanco

Amir Khan is reportedly giving Floyd Mayweather Jr a deadline of mid-January to start the negotiation process or else he’ll start looking at other alternatives for his next fight. Khan has been waiting around for a fight with Mayweather since 2013, and he’s been largely ignored by the popular fighter.

That hasn’t stopped Khan from pursuing him for a fight, but it seems to have backfired because Mayweather has shown little interest in facing the 28-year-old Khan. Either Khan hasn’t been fighting the right guys that would make him a popular enough fighter to interest Mayweather, or there’s some other reason that Mayweather isn’t telling.

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Floyd Jr will KO Khan, says Jeff Mayweather

12/27/2014 Bill Phanco

If WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr winds up facing Amir Khan in early 2015 instead of Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather’s uncle Jeff Mayweather sees Floyd knocking Khan out. He sees Khan as being no problem for Khan because he believes the British fighter still has a chin problem that has followed him pretty much his entire pro career.

Khan’s adviser Al Haymon hasn’t matched him against a puncher since his 4th round knockout loss to Danny Garcia in 2012, so it’s really not surprising that Khan has been able to thrive since then in four fights against non-punchers.

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Khan adds Marquez and Bradley to his list of names he wants to fight

12/22/2014 Bill Phanco

Amir Khan says that besides Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao, he’d like to add Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez to the list of guys he wants to face in the near future. Khan has been after a fight against Mayweather for ages now, but he’s not been fighting the preliminary guys that would get him the Mayweather fight unfortunately.

Instead of fighting big punchers like Kell Brook, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter, Khan has been fighting the likes of Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander. This has led to Khan not picking up the name recognition in the United States that he needs for him to lure the likes of Mayweather to fight him.

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Khan rules out Kell Brook fight

12/22/2014 Bill Phanco

One fight that boxing fans likely won’t be seeing in 2015 is a clash between two of the top British fighters at 147. Amir Khan doesn’t have a world title belt in his possession, but he’s sure acting like he has one.

Khan says he won’t be fighting the highly popular and big punching IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook because he feels that he’s not shown him the type of respect that he wants. If that wasn’t enough of a reason for Khan, he also added that Brook isn’t on the same level as him.

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Mayweather will have an asterisk even if he beats Pacquiao now, says Jones Jr

12/20/2014 Bill Phanco

According to Roy Jones Jr, Floyd Mayweather Jr will have an asterisk next to his record when he leaves the game because of him having never fought Manny Pacquiao during his career. But even if Mayweather does choose to fight Pacquiao, he’ll still wind up with an asterisk on his record because Pacquiao being on the decline at this point in his career. In other words, Mayweather is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t as far as Pacquiao goes.

Jones Jr thinks Mayweather’s fighting style is boring, and he’s not impressed with what he saw of him in his two back to back fights against Marcos Maidana. Jones thinks the most exciting thing about those two fights is Mayweather getting bit by Maidana on the glove.

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Khan: If Mayweather wants to be a global star, he has to fight me

12/18/2014 Bill Phanco

Amir Khan bristled at the recent news that Floyd Mayweather Jr said that he’s not worth fighting because his name doesn’t hold value in the United States because the casual boxing fans have no clue who Khan is. Khan feels that he’s more popular than two of Mayweather’s past opponents Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero. Khan also says that he’s got a large following in India and Pakistan, and if Mayweather wants to be a global star then he needs to fight him.

I’m not sure that Mayweather cares if Khan has tons of fans in India and Pakistan though, because Mayweather is mainly looking for opponents that are big stars in the United States. That’s where the pay-per-view buys will be coming from, not India or Pakistan.

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