Kovalev defeats White; Jennings stops Fedosov

06/15/201306/14/2013 Jeff Sorby

656 Russian knockout artist Sergey Kovalev (21-0-1, 19 KO’s) obliterated Cornelius White (21-2, 16 KO’s) by a quick 3rd round TKO on Saturday night at the Sands Casino Resort, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Kovalev really went after White, battering him in the first two rounds with big power shots, and then knocking him to the canvas three times in the 3rd round.

Kovalev knocked White down with a left hand for the first knockdown of the 3rd. White got back up and was hit with some hard combinations from Kovalev and then knocked down a second time in the round.

White was really hurt after getting from this knockdown, but the referee allowed the action to continue. Kovalev then steamed forward and landed a brief flurry that ended with a nice left hook that knocked White down for the third and final time in the round. The referee then halted the fight.

Kovalev mentioned after the fight that he’d like to face IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins next if possible. He’s hoping Hopkins will want to fight him.

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Roach says he’ll tell Pacquiao to retire if he loses to Rios

09/14/201606/13/2013 Jeff Sorby

roach2 roach2 As far as trainer Freddie Roach is concerned, 34-year-old Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) is a do or die situation in his next fight against former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) on November 23rd at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

Roach says he’s going to tell Pacquiao to retire from boxing if he loses that fight because it’ll have been Pacquiao’s third straight loss and obviously a clear sign that he’s over-the-hill as a fighter.

Roach said in an interview with ESPN “Yeah, if he loses I will tell him to retire. If you lose three in a row it’s your time. He’s up there in age, I’ve got to keep a close eye on him. I will do the right thing. I don’t want him to be a stepping stone.”

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Schaefer wants Maidana to face Broner-Malignaggi winner

06/10/2013 Jeff Sorby

maidana66 Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is going to be looking to match #2 WBC, Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) up against the winner of the June 22nd fight between WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) and Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Maidana defeated Josesito Lopez by a 6th round TKO last Saturday night in Carson, California, in a tough, tough for Maidana.

That was not an easy win despite the early stoppage. Maidana was hurt in the 4th round by some big body shots from Lopez, and the referee Lou Moret appeared to miss a knockdown of Maidana in that round.

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Maidana stops Lopez; Lara defeats Angulo

06/10/201306/08/2013 Jeff Sorby

Welterweight Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) was simply too strong for Josesito Lopez (30-6, 18 KO’s) tonight in stopping him in the 6th round in a back and forth fight at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California, USA. Maidana unloaded on a hurt Lopez in the 6th with a blizzard of punches until referee Lou Moret called a halt to the fight at 1:18 of the round.

Maidana was hurt in the 4th round, but came back to knock Lopez down in the 6th round with a scorching right hand to the head. Lopez climbed off the canvas and continued to fight, but he was way too hurt to fend off Maidana’s powerful shots being thrown with both hands. Lopez backed up to the ropes and took some really mean looking shots. At that point the referee stopped the fight because Lopez wasn’t throwing anything back at Maidana.

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Huck decisions Afolabi; Woge, Gutknecht, Zeuge Win

07/22/201906/08/2013 Jeff Sorby

WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (36-2-1, 25 KO’s) held onto his WBO title tonight with a 12 round majority decision win over Ola Afolabi (19-3-4, 9 KO’s) at the Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany. If you’ve never seen Huck fight before you might have been alarmed at the rabbit punches and low blows that he threw – and got away with – in this fight, but it was actually a pretty tame performance from him in terms of his fouling.

Huck probably should have lost at least one or two points for the fouling. I saw way too many rabbit punches and low blows from Huck and it was surprising the referee failed to do anything about it.

The final judges’ scores were 114-114, 115-113, 117-111.

Afolabi had Huck hurt in the 10th round from some big, big shots. Huck returned the favor in the 12th after blasting Afolabi with a big right hand.

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Maidana-Lopez & Angulo-Lara tonight on Showtime

06/08/2013 Jeff Sorby

Marcos Maidana and Josesito Lopez Welterweight Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 KO’s) will be giving away nearly three inches in height tonight against 5’9 ½” Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) in their scheduled 12 round fight televised by Showtime at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Maidana, who turns 30 next month, will be defending his WBA Inter-Continental welterweight title.

Alfredo Angulo (22-2, 18 KO’s) will be facing Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO’s) in the co-feature in their fight for the interim WBA World light middleweight title. The winner of that fight will be in the position to fight for the full title against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Lara was beaten by Paul Williams by a controversial 12 round decision two years ago in a fight that few boxing fans thought Lara should have won. Lara’s two draws with Vanes Martirosyan and Carlos Molina where fights that fans thought Lara should have won as well.

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De La Hoya doesn’t see Mayweather as having changed from 2007

06/06/2013 Jeff Sorby

mayweather3423 Oscar De La Hoya thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the same fighter now that he was when they fought in 2007. De La Hoya believes Mayweather is still essentially as good as he was back then, but the difference now is he’s fighting who De La Hoya feels is a better fighter than himself in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 14th.

De La Hoya doesn’t know how Mayweather will deal with someone hitting him with six-punch combinations with the kind of power that Canelo throws his punches with.

De La Hoya said to RingTV “When I fought him in 2007, he might be the same Floyd. Fresh, better shape, young, strong, I don’t see any difference. I still see the same movement.”

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Hopkins plans on going for Murat’s nose with jabs

06/07/201306/05/2013 Jeff Sorby

001Espinoza-Hopkins-Murat IMG_6968 48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) says he’s going to go right after his opponent Karo Murat’s nose right off the bat on July 13th in their fight at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. This will be Hopkins’ first defense of his title after beating Tavoris Cloud by a 12 round unanimous decision last March to take his title.

Hopkins was hoping to get a bigger fight against the likes of Carl Froch but he had no other choice but to face Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s), as he was his mandatory challenger and it was either fight him or risk losing the title by having it stripped from him.

Hopkins said to fightnews.com “He eats jabs. He doesn’t move his head…I will be working on the beak.”

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Klitschko-Povetkin could fall apart over drug testing

06/03/201306/02/2013 Jeff Sorby

wlad53 wlad53 IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko may pull out of his October 5th fight with WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin unless the two can come together and agree on the drug testing for their fight at the Olimpiyskiy in Moscow, Russia.

Povetkin wants the drug testing for the fight to be done by a Russian drug testing agency; whereas Wladimir wants it to be conducted by National Anti-Doping Agency [NADA], which is a German drug testing agency.

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Mayweather vs. Canelo: Will Saul’s 20 lb. weight advantage help him beat Floyd?

06/01/2013 Jeff Sorby

canelo00 Golden Boy Promotions has done a good job of parking their fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30’s) in the junior middleweight division instead of at middleweight, which is where the 172 lb. Canelo should be fighting given his weight. But by parking Canelo at a weight that he’s barely making at 154, Canelo has big advantage over the welterweights that Golden Boy is matching against him.

I’m not talking junior middleweights because Golden Boy has been mainly matching Canelo up with pumped up welterweights. The exception to that was Canelo’s fights against Austin Trout and Ryan Rhodes, but the Trout fight was a very close one and probably should have been scored a draw, if not a victory for Trout in my view.

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