Bradley says Mayweather wouldn’t be the toughest opponent, but still wants to fight him

10/22/2014 Bill Phanco

Welterweight contender Tim Bradley (31-1, 12 KOs) says he’s going to be moving up in weight to 154 to target the top fighters in that weight class. He’s specifically interested in fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto. Besides those guys, Bradley says he’d like to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr, because he’s already fought Manny Pacquuiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in the past.

Interestingly enough, Bradley doesn’t see Mayweather as being the toughest opponent for him. He doesn’t say who’s tougher, but you’d have to assume he means Pacquiao, Cotto or Canelo. Bradley’s coming off of a 12 round decision loss to Pacquiao in his last fight in April of this year in a one-sided loss.

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Bradley targeting the winner of Cotto vs. Canelo

10/21/2014 Bill Phanco

Tim Bradley (31-1, 12 KOs) is targeting the winner of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight next year for who he’d like to have his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank set him up. Gennady Golovkin would like to fight the winner of the Canelo-Cotto fight, but the chances are very good that if Cotto gets past Canelo, boxing fans are going to see Cotto in against Bradley rather than Golovkin.

Cotto’s WBC middleweight title may or may not be on the line for a Bradley fight depending on if Cotto vacates or if the World Boxing Council strips him by then for not facing Golovkin. Last Saturday, Golovkin defeated Marco Antonio Rubio by a 2nd round knockout to become the WBC interim middleweight champion.

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Guerrero: The Khan fight was never offered to me

10/21/2014 Bill Phanco

British boxing star Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) will be fighting former two division world champion Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) on December 13th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Before the Alexander fight was agreed on, Khan had been saying that Alexander and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero were two of the names that they were looking at for his December fight. However, Guerrero says that the fight against Khan was never even offered to him.

“The [Khan] fight was never offered to me,” Guerrero said on his twitter.

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Amir Khan faces Devon Alexander on 12/13 on Showtime

10/20/2014 Bill Phanco

Showtime and HBO will have competing boxing shows on December 13th. On Showtime, Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) faces Devon Alexander (26-2, 14 KOs) in the main event at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. On the same night on HBO, former two division world champion Timothy Bradley will be in action against Diego Chaves.

The good news for boxing fans is neither of them will be on pay-per-view, but it’s still not a great thing unless you’ve got Tivo and can record one of the fight cards while viewing the other.

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Donaire: I’m not ready to give up my spot to Walters

10/19/201410/18/2014 Bill Phanco

WBA Super World featherweight champion Nonito Donaire (33-2, 21 KOs) says he’s not ready to give up his spot to the little known 28-year-old Nicholas Walters (24-0, 20 KOs) in their fight later on tonight on HBO Championship Boxing from the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

The 31-year-old Donaire thinks he’s still got enough in the tank to get past the likes of Walters. However, Donaire has not looked good in his last several bouts, and there are some boxing fans who think that he played injured in his last fight against Simpiwe Vetyeka in order to win a world title in 5 rounds instead of going the full distance.

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Rubio fails to make weight for Golovkin fight

10/18/201410/17/2014 Bill Phanco

Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) failed to make weight today at the weigh-in for his big fight on Saturday night against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs). Rubio tried to get down to the 160 pound limit, but he reached a sticking point at 161.8 pounds and he couldn’t get any lower than that.

Rubio stripped down in a vain attempt to make the weight, but it was clear he wasn’t going to be able to make the weight. By not making weight, Rubio will lose $100,000 of his $450,000 purse for the fight. This obviously was poor planning on Rubio’s part because the warning signs were there a month ago when Rubio weighed in at 174.5 pounds. In contrast, Golovkin weighed just 165 pounds at the time.

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Macklin hints at retirement if he loses to Heiland

10/15/2014 Bill Phanco

Matthew Macklin (31-5, 20 KOs), ranked #6 by the World Boxing Council, will be in action next month in fighting #4 WBC Jorge Sebastian Heiland (24-4-2, 12 KOs) in a WBC middleweight eliminator bout on 11/15 at the 3Arena, in Dublin, Ireland. Macklin, now 32, is hinting that if he can’t beat the 27-year-old Heiland then that might be it for him in terms of his career.

It’s not known if Macklin would retire, but a loss to Heiland would definitely be a clear sign that Macklin doesn’t have what it takes to be a world champion at 160. It would also make it difficult for him to continue to get world title shots the way he’s been getting over the last three years.

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David Price: I’ll be looking to take Anthony Joshua’s head off from the shoulders

10/12/201410/12/2014 Bill Phanco

Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in matching former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price (18-2, 15 KOs) against his unbeaten heavyweight Anthony Joshua (9-0, 9 KOs) next year in a fight that he believes the British boxing public will be interested in seeing. Judging by the boos from the British fans last Saturday night when Hearn floated that idea to them, it might not be a fight that the fans want to see.

Price was at ringside for Joshua’s 2nd round demolition of 34-year-old Russian journeyman Denis Bakhtov (38-10, 25 KOs) last night at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Price said that if he’s the guy that ends up facing the 6’6” Joshua next year, he’ll be looking to take his head off.

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Joshua obliterates Bakhtov; Selby defeats Brunker

10/12/201410/11/2014 Bill Phanco

2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Anthony Joshua (9-0, 9 KOs) took care of business on Saturday night in dismantling a shorter, older and far slower Denis Bakhtov (38-10, 25 KOs) in scoring a 2nd round stoppage to win the World Boxing Council International heavyweight title at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The win sets the soon to be 25-year-old Joshua up with a fight against Michael Sprott on November 22nd on the Bellew-Cleverly 2 card in Liverpool, UK.

Joshua, 6’6”, hurt the 5’11” Bakhtov with a right hand in the 2nd round. Bakhtov was against the ropes at the time and pretty much helpless with nowhere to go. Joshua then opened up with a storm of shots to the head resulting in the referee Ian John-Lewis separating the two fighters for some reason.

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DeGale faces Periban on 11/22 on Bellew-Cleverly 2 card in Liverpool

10/09/201410/09/2014 Bill Phanco

Boxing fans will be seeing #1 IBF, #4 WBO James DeGale (19-1, 13 KOs) stepping into the ring to fight #11 WBC Marco Antonio Periban (20-2-1, 13 KOs) on 11/22 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn made the announcement that DeGale-Periban has been added to the Tony Bellew – Nathan Cleverly 2 card as likely the chief support. Periban is a decent, but hardly great opponent.

It would be a lot more interesting to see DeGale fighting the guys that recently beat Periban in Sakio Bika or J’Leon Love. Hearn obviously doesn’t want to take any chances of DeGale getting beaten by matching him against someone with a decent chance of beating him like Bika and Love.

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