Mikey Garcia: Lara could out-box Canelo

07/09/201407/09/2014 Jeff Sorby

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia thinks that former WBA/WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) is going to have his hands full on Saturday night against the slick Cuban southpaw Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) in their catch-weight fight at 155 pounds.

Mikey sees Lara as going into this fight with a lot to prove to boxing fans, because he wasn’t given a shot by Canelo all these years. Lara is now getting his chance against the 23-year-old Canelo, so he’s going to want to perform well and show boxing fans what he’s all about.

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Mares to stay at 126 for a while before moving to 130

07/06/2014 Jeff Sorby

28-year-old former three division world champion Abner Mares (26-1-1, 14 KO’s) will temporarily be putting the brakes on his career and staying put at featherweight following his 1st round knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez from last year in August.

Mares had intended on moving up to super featherweight to challenge WBC champion Takashi Miura to try and win a 4th division world title, but Mares now has decided to stay put at featherweight to go after the big names in the division, such as Vasyl Lomachenko, Evgeny Gradovich, Nicholas Walters, Nonito Donaire, and a rematch against Gonzalez.

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Mayweather announces Maidana rematch on September 13th

07/01/2014 Jeff Sorby

Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KO’s) ended speculation about who he’ll be facing for his next fight by announcing on Monday that he will indeed be facing Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) in a rematch on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, and that he also has plans for a huge fight next May on Cinco de Mayo.

Mayweather didn’t say who his opponent will be for next May, but it’s got to be a big, big name in order to persuade Bob Arum of Top Rank in trying to compete with Mayweather by putting on Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto on the same night on HBO pay-per-view.

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Lara will use some of what Mayweather did against Canelo, says Shields

06/27/2014 Jeff Sorby

Ronnie Shields, the trainer for WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s), says they’ve studied Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr from last year and noticed some things that the 23-year-old Canelo did wrong in that fight. They plan on using some of the things that Mayweather did to the flat-footed Canelo to out-box him next month in their fight on July 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

“Lara is the master of making you adapt to his style,” Shields said to esnewsreporting.com. “Canelo is going to say ‘Ah oh, maybe I messed up; maybe I should have listened to my manager and not went to that fight. I should have gone to another fight.’ We’re going to take some of the things that Mayweather did and add it to our game plan for Canelo,” Shields said.

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Is Gamboa’s fight against Crawford a last-gasp opportunity for him?

06/27/2014 Jeff Sorby

Former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) will be making one of his rare appearances this Saturday night in challenging WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (23-0, 16 KO’s) on HBO at the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Like an aging celebrity entertainer, Gamboa’s appearances in the ring have become infrequent despite the fact that he’s not tasted the big money that many fighters of his talent level have. Gamboa hasn’t fought since last year when he struggled to defeat Darleys Perez by a less than impressive 12 round unanimous decision in June of 2013.

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Hearn wants Khan for Brook if he gets passed Shawn Porter

06/26/201406/25/2014 Jeff Sorby

Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KO’s) hasn’t yet passed his test against IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15 KO’s), but his promoter Eddie Hearn already has the first fight he wants for Brook’s initial title defense for the IBF belt and that’s against Amir Khan.

Hearn has been after Khan for a long time now in trying to get him to agree to a fight against Brook, and finally he’s on the verge of having the bait to get Khan to agree to a fight. With the IBF title, Brook may get the Khan fight, but winning that belt won’t be easy. Porter has an aggressive fighting style that Brook has never seen before, he’s considerably better than the best opponents – Vyacheslav Senchenko and Carson Jones – which Brook has fought before.

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Adrien Broner eager to fight Robert Guerrero next

06/23/2014 Jeff Sorby

Former three division world champion Adrien Broner was present for Robert Guerrero’s fight last Saturday night against Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-2-1, 21 KO’s), and Broner saw enough weakness in Guerrero’s game for him to want to fight him next.

Guerrero showed weakness in the Kamegai fight by absorbing a lot of punishment to the head and body, resulting in Guerrero suffering a swollen left eye that was nearly completely shut by the end of the fight. While Guerrero tried to make excuses afterwards about how he chose to go toe-to-toe with Kamegai, the fact remains that he didn’t and he ended up getting hit a lot.

“Hopefully, we can make that fight [with Guerrero] happen,” Broner said to Fighthype.com last Saturday night at the Guerrero-Kamegai fight.

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Will Top Rank let Lomachenko fight Rigondeaux and Mikey Garcia?

06/23/2014 Jeff Sorby

With Vasyl Lomachenko (2-1, 1 KO’s) beating one of the better featherweights in the division last Saturday night in Gary Russell Jr (24-1, 14 KO’s) in their fight for the vacant WBO featherweight title, Lomachenko has removed one of the bigger names in the division.

Easily the best options for Lomachenko to fight is super bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux and WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia. Rigondeaux is a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba with even better counter punching skills than Lomachenko and a far superior body puncher. However, Rigondeaux already took down one of Top Rank’s stars by beating Nonito Donaire with ease last year, and there’s been no attempt by Top Rank to let Donaire attempt to redeem himself.

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Martin Murray: I know I can definitely beat Miguel Cotto

06/22/201406/20/2014 Jeff Sorby

Martin Murray (27-1-1, 12 KO’s) is making no secret to the fact that he wants another world title shot after losing to former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in a fight that Murray feels he should have won.

Murray sees the WBC 160-pound title as belt that should rightfully belong to him, and that’s why he wants to fight the new owner of it Miguel Cotto. Murray believes that the smaller 5’7” Cotto would be vulnerable to his fists, and he wants to prove to the fans that he’s better than him so that he can take the WBC strap and bring it back to the UK.

“I know I could definitely beat Cotto. He didn’t dethrone the same Sergio Martinez that me or Julio Cesar Chavez [Jr] fought,” Murray said to Boxnation.com. “I’d also like Cotto because he’s got the WBC belt that I believe should already be mine. And never forget boxing is also business. That’s where the most money is.”

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Khan: I could be Mayweather’s next opponent after September

06/22/201406/19/2014 Jeff Sorby

Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KO’s) hasn’t given up on his desire to try and get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan sees himself having a good chance at getting a fight with Mayweather next year in May. Khan took himself out of the running for Mayweather’s September 13th fight due to Ramadan.

Khan plans on fighting in November or December against a still to be determined opponent. It’s going to need to be someone good for him to proclaim that he has earned the fight to fight Mayweather. With 2 losses in his last 5 fights, and no wins over anyone relevant, Khan doesn’t have a good case that he should get a fight against Mayweather. He still needs a live body and not someone pulled out of the graveyard to fight just so that he can get an old scalp with a name attached to it.

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