Santa Cruz feels pressure of fighting in co-feature on Mayweather-Maidana 2 card

08/21/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KOs) feels like he’s got to put in an especially impressive performance next month when he defends his title against fringe level bantamweight contender Manuel Roman (17-2-3, 6 KOs) in the co-feature on the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Marcos Maidana 2 card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Santa Cruz knows that millions of boxing fans will be watching the fight, and he wants to look good so that he doesn’t let anyone down.

continue

Golovkin with chance to become Cotto’s WBC mandatory if he beats Rubio

08/20/2014 Rob Smith

Since beating Sergio Martinez last June to capture his WBC middleweight title, Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) has shown little interest in fighting a unification match against WBA 160 pound champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs).

Well, Cotto may be soon forced to make a decision whether to fight Golovkin or vacate his WBC strap, because Golovkin’s will be fighting WBC interim middleweight champion Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) on October 18th, and if Golovkin beats him, he’ll become Cotto’s mandatory challenger, according to Steve Kim.

continue

Is Canelo capable of taking the baton from Mayweather to become boxing’s next PPV star?

08/20/2014 Rob Smith

Before former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s last two fights against Alfredo Angulo and Erislandy Lara, he was seen by many boxing fans as the guy who would take over for the aging Floyd Mayweather Jr to become the sport’s next huge money-making pay-per-view attraction.

It didn’t matter that Canelo couldn’t speak English and that he looked too heavy for the weight division he was fighting in; fans still saw him as the guy who would take the baton from Mayweather and bring in huge PPV numbers each time he fought. But now after the disappointing PPV stats that Canelo brought in for his last two fights against Angulo and Lara, it’s now looking like Canelo will be more of a replacement of Miguel Cotto in terms of PPV stats than Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao.

continue

Roach: Algieri isn’t in Pacquiao’s class

08/19/2014 Rob Smith

WBO 140 pound champion Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) came out of nowhere recently when he fought and defeated WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov by a 12 round decision last June.

The loss was a major blow for Provodnikov’s trainer Freddie Roach, because he’s the guy that got Provodnikov for Algieri fight. Roach now finds himself in a situation where he might have another one of his fighters beaten by Algieri when WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) faces him on November 22nd in Macao, China.

continue

Maidana doubts Mayweather can improve from previous fight

08/18/201408/18/2014 Rob Smith

Marcos Maidana (35-4, 32 KOs) isn’t buying what he’s hearing about WBA/WBC Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) improving for their next fight on September 13th by making changes in his game so that he’ll beat Maidana with ease in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Maidana thinks Mayweather can change, but he also expects to change and improve so anything Mayweather can do to improve will be cancelled out with what he’s doing. Maidana doubts that Mayweather will be able to box much better than what he did last time, because the pressure that he plans on putting on him will ultimately get to him.

continue

Porter: I want a rematch with Brook

08/17/2014 Rob Smith

Shawn Porter (24-1-1, 15 KOs) lost his IBF welterweight title last night in losing by a 12 round majority decision to visiting fighter Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Porter, 26, says he wants a rematch so that he can avenge his defeat and recapture his title. Porter doesn’t think Brook did enough to take his belt based on his performance last night. Porter thinks Brook did an awful a lot of holding during the fight to prevent him from getting his shots.

continue

Brook defeats Porter; Dirrell beats Bika; Wilder stops Gavern

08/18/201408/16/2014 Rob Smith

Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs) defeated IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-1-1, 15 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision to take his IBF 147 pound title at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The final judges scores were 114-114, 117-111, 116-112. In my view, I had Porter winning a comfortable decision.
I couldn’t more than 2-3 rounds to Brook because he just holding and missing shots all night long. Brook landed 1-3 good shots in each round, but Porter was landed 15-20 good punches each round while fighting through the constant clinching by Brook.

It looked like the judges gave Porter zero credit for his body punching in the fight, because he was nailing Brook with good body shots in the inside, as well as head shots while fighting through clinch after clinch.

continue

Garcia destroys Salka; Peterson halts Santana; Jacobs stops Fletcher

08/10/201408/09/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo Credit: Amanda Kwok / SHOWTIME) In a Showtime card filled with sickening mismatches in the televised portion of the card, the much bigger, stronger and more talented IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) showed how it’s done in crushing the little unranked 2nd tier lightweight that his adviser Al Haymon scheduled for him to fight in Rod Salka (19-4, 3 KOs) in the 2nd round tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The fight was over after Garcia hit an already badly hurt Salka with a tremendous left hook to the head in the 2nd round that bowled him over like a bowling pin. Salka’s corner had seen enough of the mismatch at that point and threw in the white towl to have he fight stopped. Garcia also knocked Salka down two other times in the 2nd round.

continue

Pacquiao-Algieri 6-city promo tour to start on August 25th

08/09/2014 Rob Smith

In an effort to drive some badly needed interest in his fighter Manny Pacquiao’s November 22nd fight against Chris Algieri, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will be having a 6-city promotional tour for them starting on August 25th in Macao, China. Pacquiao and Algieri will then travel to Shanghai, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York.

With this fight, Arum probably should have thought of making it an 11-city press tour because it’s going to need an awful lot of buildup in order to get boxing fans excited about it, especially if Arum fails to add a quality undercard.

continue

Arum says Cotto’s next fight likely won’t be HBO PPV

07/30/2014 Rob Smith

In a sign that WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto will be taking on a lesser fighter in his next fight in December, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says that Cotto’s next fight will likely not be on HBO pay-per-view.

Arum notes that the pay-per-view numbers are down across the board among all the top stars in boxing, and he feels that Cotto’s December fight shouldn’t be on PPV. What that means, of course, is that Arum likely has a good idea about who Cotto will be fighting next, because if Cotto were facing the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin, he would clearly be fighting on HBO pay-per-view.

continue