WBC featherweight champion, Gary Russell Jr, has pulled out of his Nov. 14 title defence against Oscar Escandon, due to a cut sustained in sparring.
Russell was due to main event the Showtime- televised card from Las Vegas, and in the wake of the injury, network execs are re-examining their options, which will include continuing to televise with the bill being in essence ‘down-graded’ to a ShoBox: The New Generation telecast, which places it’s focus on emerging talent.
Poor old Jeff Powell at England’s ‘Daily Mail’ newspaper. The notoriously ‘creative’ boxing scribe is being hammered online by American press in particular, for what is his latest misleading story, published Tuesday, that said Britain’s Amir Khan had signed to face Manny Pacquiao for the Filipino’s final hurrah on April 9th.
Numerous notable writers, perhaps spearheaded by Yahoo! Sports, Kevin Iole, have taken to slamming Powell’s ‘exclusive,’ that follows on from previous journalistic gems as Khan having signed a Mayweather fight, as well as another story from a couple of years ago that at 48, former great Lennox Lewis, was returning to face the Klitschko’s in a ‘super-fight.’
Matchroom Boxing boss, Eddie Hearn, says that his IBF welterweight champion, Kell Brook, is unlikely to be included on the Dec. 12 ‘Bad Intentions’ bill in London.
Brook recently pulled out of his scheduled defence against Argentina’s Diego Chaves, late-doors, citing a rib injury that caused many to question it’s legitimacy in the wake of numerous unforeseen events that began when the original Sheffield card he was to box on was no longer to be aired as a PPV split with Klitschko/Fury in the UK.
Spike O’Sullivan’s trainer, Paschal Collins, claims that mind games will be a big factor in his fighter’s clash with Chris Eubank Jr, as they were in his brother, Steve’s 1995 fight with Jr’s father, Chris, now wishing to be known simply as, ‘English.’
For that fight, the ‘Celtic Warrior,’ Collins, famously employed the services of a sports psychologist, though led English to believe he was under an intense hypnosis that would lead him to be unrelenting on the night, actions that led to unsettling English in the build up to such a degree that he had wanted to pull out.
Unbeaten British heavyweight prospects Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14ko) and Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13ko) met head-to-head for the first time ahead of their Dec. 12 ‘Bad Intentions’ fight today in London, with Whyte placing his hand on Joshua’s heart, saying ‘we’re gonna do this.’
The two will square of on an as-yet-unconfirmed, though what’s expected to be PPV, bill from the O2 Arena, in what promoter Eddie Hearn today called ‘the biggest UK fight of the year.’
Esteemed German trainer, Ulli Wegner, has once again hooked up with WBO 168 lb champion, Arthur Abraham ahead of ‘King’s’ fight with British challenger, Martin Murray on November 21.
The 73 year old, long-time Sauerland cornerman, has returned from an Achilles injury and is back in the gym with Abraham, who has been looking rejuvenated of late, ahead of what will be the fifth defence of his title against the Brit, at the TUI Arena in Hannover.
The wait for UK fans is at last over as it’s been officially announced that super-bantamweight rivals, Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg are set to meet in a huge IBF/WBA unification early next year.
After much to-ing and fro-ing between the two camps over recent weeks and months, a February 27th date for the fight at the Manchester Arena was announced live on Sky Sports News in the UK this afternoon.
WBO super featherweight champion, Roman Martinez (29-2-3, 17ko) and Mexico’s Orlando Salido (42-13-3, 29ko) have already waged two extremely entertaining, high-octane battles this year, and are now looking set to wage a third in the none too distant future.
The two fighters attended last week’s WBO convention in Orlando, Florida, with their respective teams, and saw the sanctioning body approve a sought after third meeting between them.
Tyson Fury isn’t short of belief going into his crunch heavyweight world title fight with dominant champion, Wladimir Klitschko, later this month in Germany, comparing both his outlandish character and desire to be at the very top of the sport, to the legendary Muhammad Ali.
Ali, then a brash, young Cassius Clay, pulled a stunning upset over Sonny Liston in 1964 to launch his own legendary star and win the world heavyweight crown, and the oft-vocal Fury claims to see more than a few comparisons with the “Louisville Lip,” especially given his own over-the-top antics at September’s London presser, as well as the underdog status he will carry into the ring against a Klitschko who is 11 1/2 years undefeated.
It’s looking like Amir Khan (31-3, 19ko) hasn’t given up on his dream of an eventual fight with Manny Pacquiao next Spring, insisting that talks between the two camps have restarted.
What is for certain is that the Filipino superstar is set to bring the curtain down on his long and illustrious career with a swansong outing next April, and rumour has been rife that talks have opened for a Mayweather rematch at what will then be the newly opened MGM Arena, although the self-professed “TBE” has allegedly scotched these rumours, insisting he stays retired.