Michael Montero

Nicholas Walters stops Donaire in six

http://youtu.be/xutTOL52I0U

In the “Mexican Style” co-feature, Nonito Donaire squared off against Jamaica’s Nicholas Walters before a packed house at the StubHub Center. Both men put their WBA featherweight titles on the line. If you’re asking yourself “how can both fighters have titles from the same sanctioning body in the same weight class?” – well that’s because the WBA is atrocious. None the less, this was a terrific bout between two of the best featherweights in the world, and they didn’t disappoint.

Golovkin/Rubio: “Mexican Style” Weigh In Coverage

http://youtu.be/KEQTwNP0GCA

Records are going to be set tomorrow night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. In fact the promoters had to set up several sets of bleachers at the top of the bowl just to accommodate the expected over-capacity crowd. If the fan response at today’s weigh in was any indication, they may want to go ahead and set up a couple more.

ESPN Boxing Weigh-In Results

Tomorrow night on a special edition of ESPN Boxing, Michael King of King Sports presents another great night of fights from Santa Monica, California. Featherweights Miguel Marriago (18-0, 16KO) and Christopher Martin (28-3-3, 9KO) open the telecast, followed by welterweights Frederick Lawson (22-0, 20KO) and Ray Narh (26-5, 21KO). The main event features an IBF middleweight title eliminator between Hassan N’Dam (30-1, 18KO) and Curtis Stevens (27-4, 20KO). Earlier this evening the fighter camps and media gathered for a brief press conference and the official weigh-ins.

Hassan N’Dam vs. Curtis Stevens, middleweights

Gerald Washington, a big man looking to do big things

http://youtu.be/f4XJKZPbVAw

If you fancy yourself a heavyweight boxing fan, especially American heavyweights with an exciting style, then undefeated prospect Gerald Washington (14-0, 10KO) is someone you need to keep an eye on. The 6’6” 250 pound physical specimen turned pro two summers ago at the advanced age of 30. And it’s been quite a journey that has led the California native to the ring.

The Calm after the “Mayhem”

On Saturday night Floyd Mayweather did what he was supposed to do earlier this May – dominate Marcos Maidana. The rematch billed “Mayhem” turned out to be anything but, as boxing’s pound for pound king pitched a near shutout in front of 16,144 fans at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

Mayweather, clearly more focused this time around, kept the match in the center of the ring and moved or held to avoid taking punishment from his slower, plodding opponent. Other than a flush right hand Maidana landed at the very end of the third round and a bizarre hand biting incident in the eighth, this was pretty much a glorified sparring session. Punch stats tell the story, as the Argentinian slugger threw more, but landed at less than half the rate than Floyd did. Marcos landed just 17% of his jabs (41-237) and 26% of his power punches (87-335), while “Money” landed 43% of his jabs (64-149) and an astonishing 58% of his power shots (102-177). It was target practice, and Floyd’s holding and mauling tactics quelled “Chino’s” attack. Compare that to the first bout, where Maidana threw almost as many power punches (540) as he did total punches (572) in the rematch.

“The Great Wall” hits the heavyweight scene…HARD

They call Chinese heavyweight Taishan Dong “The Great Wall”, and it’s a nickname well deserved. At 6’11” and over 280 pounds of solid muscle, the 26 year old former kickboxer gives a whole new meaning to the term “super heavyweight”. It’s rare that a boxer with virtually no amateur experience fights on national television in their professional debut; but then again you don’t exactly see NBA center-sized Chinese heavyweights all too often either.

Taishan’s July 18th pro debut was a successful one, scoring a second round TKO over Alex Rozman (2-7 1KO) on a FOX Sports 1 card. Now manager George Gallegos and promoter Golden Boy Promotions are on the hunt for the next opponent. In the meantime, their fighter is soaking up all things boxing like a giant sponge. “He’s thinking about boxing 24 hours a day”, said Gallegos, “Whether it’s punching, footwork, or bag work, he’s going to go home and practice and you’ll see (the improvement) the next day”. The successful lawyer and longtime boxing fan met Taishan completely by random. “He walked into my office to ask a few legal questions”, said Gallegos, “when we were talking I asked him what he did and he said he was a fighter and he wanted to fight here but didn’t know how”. After that original meeting, Gallegos made some calls, got Taishan working in the gym and things took off from there.

Manny Pacquiao – Chris Algieri LA Presser Coverage

On November 22nd the new kid on the block Chris Algieri (20-0, 8KO) faces Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38KO) in Macau, China. For the past two weeks both fighters and their camps have travelled almost 25,000 miles on an epic worldwide media tour promoting the event. Today’s stop was in Los Angeles, as a sizeable crowd of press and fans gathered at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on the Avenue of the Stars.

For Huntington New York native Chris Algieri, 2014 has truly been the year of his life. Back in February he faced the more experienced Emmanuel Taylor on ESPN Friday Night Fights and pulled the mild upset, which earned him a spot on HBO against the feared brawler Ruslan Provodnikov in June. After a disastrous opening round in which he was dropped twice and suffered a gruesome injury to his eye, Algieri bravely fought on and scored a major upset via split decision. In a matter of months the former kickboxer with a master’s degree in nutrition has punched his way from obscurity into the opportunity of a lifetime against Pacquiao. But can he keep the upsets coming?