Tuesday in Mexico City, the WBC unveiled the million dollar belt that will be presented to the winner of Mayweather-Pacquiao on May 2nd.
Current WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson and legendary former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes were on hand to help with the unveiling, alongside WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman.
It’s always good to see the Easton Assassin, who won his own WBC strap in a gruelling fight with Ken Norton in 1978, out and about and looking so well.
American 168lb king Andre Ward (27-0, 14ko) has shown a self-deprecating sense of humour in a chat with fighthype.com, jokingly referring to his much talked about comeback as “the comeback 2.0”.
This obviously in reference to the agonising time out of the ring he has had since his last fight way back in November of 2013, and the mooted returns that have previously failed to materialise.
With a smile on his face, S.O.G said of his pencilled in June 20th date, “It’s the comeback 2.0. Let’s just clarify! You gotta laugh at yourself sometimes, man. It (the inactivity) is what it is..”
The panic among those rich enough to secure one, must be rising steadily as tickets for the “Fight Of The Century” are STILL not on sale to the public as at time of writing (Weds am)
A little over 24 hours ago Golden Boy Promotions boss, Oscar De La Hoya issued a day-long offer to anybody with a genuine ticket, that could they take a photo and tweet it to him, he would send them to the May 9th Canelo-Kirkland fight in Texas for nothing.
Earlier this week on twitter and numerous other sites a picture of Sergey Kovalev gathered real steam when it showed him pointing to the t-shirt of a small child in his arms (presumably his son) that featured an image of a chimpanzee wearing boxing gloves.
Beneath the image, Kovalev (27-0,24ko) included a caption, referring to rival and Haitian national (WBC 175lb king) Adonis Stevenson (26-1,21ko) that simply read;
“Adonis is looking great”
The picture quickly provoked a storm on social media with twitter users referring to the dominant Russian champion as “ignorant”, “racist” and “naïve”.
British middleweight star and WBA 160lb interim champion Chris Eubank Jr (19-1, 14ko) has spoken to “nuffinlong.com” in the UK to promote his “routine” title defence on Frank Warren’s May 9th card in London against unheralded Australian Les Sherrington (35-7, 19ko)
At the same time he used the opportunity to take a pot shot at bitter rival and WBO mandatory Billy Joe Saunders (21-0, 11ko) and to convey his disappointment at being unable to join the Mayweather family out in Vegas for the big fight.
The May 9th fight that will come potentially a week late for Mexico’s biggest PPV star (as Floyd and Manny have already bagged the sought-after Mexican bank holiday weekend date, even though Cinco De Mayo is on the 5th) is being billed as “his toughest test yet” in many corners of the media, which is leaving many fight fans, especially neutrals, totally bemused.
British 140lb legend Ricky Hatton has spoken to Sky Sports ahead of May 2nd’s May-Pac super fight to potentially question the wisdom of Floyd Mayweather once again hooking up with his father in the corner, and of his own experiences of working with Floyd Snr.
Following his loss to Mayweather Jr in 2007 and split from long-time trainer Billy Graham, Hatton employed the services of Floyd Snr in the corner. The first time in 2008 when he battered Paulie Malignaggi until trainer Buddy McGirt threw in the towel in in the 11th.
Now we are just days out from May 2nd, the world and his wife have a prediction as to how the big fight is going to go.
The latest fight figure to wade in, is Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera, best remembered for his epic trilogy with Mexican rival Erik Morales. Many British fans will also remember him as the man who, for all intents and purposes, ENDED the career of British legend Prince Naseem Hamed, in what would end up being Naz’s penultimate fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfN-6LPG0Js
Now the dust has settled slightly on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s (48-2-1,32ko) comprehensive beating at the hands of Poland’s Andrzej Fonfara (27-3,16ko) at the weekend, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for the son of the Mexican legend. I’m not so sure it’s good.
There’s one more big fight to get excited about before May 2nd, and like last weeks Crawford and Matthysse fights, it’s in danger of being a little overshadowed by this generations “big one”
Dominant lineal heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53ko) returns to America to face relative novice Bryant Jennings (19-0, 10ko) at the world famous Madison Square Garden on Saturday, and in the opinion of this writer, “By-By” needs a miracle bigger than turning water into wine if he is to be victorious.