Cotto’s adviser to consider Golovkin fight among others

07/30/2014 Rob Smith

WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s adviser Gabriel Penagaricano says that a unification fight between Cotto and WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) is just one of the possible options available for Cotto’s next fight in December. However, they have other options that they’re going to explore as well and they’ll make a determination once they decide on which is the best opponent to take for the fight.

Penagaricano says they haven’t yet sat down to discuss which of the guys that Cotto will be facing yet, but they’ll be doing that soon.

If Cotto wants to have his next fight on HBO pay-per-view, he’s going to need to face someone along the lines of Golovkin, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr next, because Cotto’s pay-per-view numbers for his last fight against former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez were rumored to be less than spectacular.

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Algieri wants to take advantage of Pacquiao’s age

07/28/2014 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) will be nearly 36-years-old when he steps inside the ring to face the younger more mobile Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) on November 22nd in Macao, China.

Algieri realizes that he doesn’t have the power to be standing in the pocket to trade with the aging Pacquiao. But Algieri does feel that he can take advantage of Pacquiao’s age and his problems moving around the ring in order to wear him down.

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Golovkin vs. Geale & Perez vs. Jennings weights

07/25/201407/25/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: HBO/Will Hart) At today’s weigh-in, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) scaled in at 159.8 pounds for his fight against former IBF/WBA middleweight champ Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KO’s) for Saturday night. Geale, who looked pale and not particularly defined, weighed in at 159.2. Golovkin looked ripped up in comparison, and showed a lot more definition than the Australian fighter.

The fight card will be taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York, and Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions expects a crowd of around 7,000 for the 18,200 seat arena. If this was a fight involving New York favorite Miguel Cotto, MSG would no doubt sellout, but Golovkin is from Kazakhstan and he lives in Germany. You can’t expect him or the Australian Geale to sellout the Garden.

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Golovkin vs. Geale this Saturday at Madison Square Garden, New York

07/20/2014 Rob Smith

WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs) will be facing the biggest name of his career this Saturday night in defending his WBA title against former world champion Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Golovkin has been interested in getting the big names to fight him for many years, but this is the best that he’s been able to get after 7 years as a pro. Golovkin hopes that a big win over Geale will be a springboard for him to get bigger fights against the other middleweight champions or possibly against one of the big junior middleweight names such as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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Canelo decisions Lara; Mares defeats Oquendo

07/13/201407/12/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) In a fight that could have gone either way, the more popular Mexican fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KO’s) defeated Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KO’s) by a 12 round split decision tonight in a fight that failed to raise the stock for either fighter at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored it 117-111 and 115-113 for Canelo, and 115-113 for Lara. I personally had Lara winning the fight 116-112. The 117-111 score by judge Levi Martinez from New Mexico was baffling to say the least.

Canelo got the win, but he missed all night long with the vast majority of his power shots. Lara was able to hit Canelo with with clean left hands pretty much every time he wanted to in the fight. The problem that Lara had was he didn’t let his hands go enough in the last 6 rounds of the fight, and this obviously led to two of the judges giving Canelo the victory.

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Lara: After Canelo, I want Mayweather

07/09/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) says he’s not looking past Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KOs) for their pay-per-view fight this Saturday night on Showtime, but Lara is very clear about who he’s going to be going after this fight.

Lara wants WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr, and he plans on being at his press conference in September for his next title defense against Marcos Maidana on September 13th.

Lara expects to take care of business against Canelo, who he sees as slow of hand and foot. Lara says he’s going to beat the heavily hyped fighter and expose him in this fight.

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Arum makes offer to Algieri to face Pacquiao next on 11/22 in Macao

07/09/201407/08/2014 Rob Smith

WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) has been given an offer by Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank for a fight against Pacquiao on November 22nd in Macao, China.

The offer is a seven figure one, and it’s very likely to be accepted considering that it’s likely the biggest payday that the 30-year-old Algieri has ever received. Arum is interested in wrapping up the deal as quickly as possible.

It’s obviously not a great fight, and you have to wonder why Arum isn’t trying to pursue more appealing opponents for Pacquiao that might interest boxing fans such as Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia, Saul “Canelo”Alvarez or Amir Khan, for starters.

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Crawford stops Gamboa; Korobov decisions Uzcategui

06/29/201406/28/2014 Rob Smith

WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (24-0, 17 KO’s) got off to a slow start in the first 4 rounds, but then came on to knock 32-year-old Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-1, 16 KO’s) down 4 times en route to stopping him in the 9th round tonight in a fight televised by HBO from the CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Crawford was hurt in the 9th round after getting a little too overanxious trying to score a stoppage. But Crawford came back to knock Gamboa down twice with big punches to get the stoppage. Gamboa got back up after the second knockdown but the referee Genaro Rodriguez chose to stop the fight at 2:53 of the round.

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“ALL ACCESS: Canelo vs. Lara” Episode 1 Premieres Friday, June 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME

06/28/201406/25/2014 Rob Smith

The huge July 26th fight between Erislandy Lara and Saul Canelo Alvarez will be previewed this Friday, July 12th on Showtime ALL ACCESS at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

This is the first episode of the series which give fans a chance to see the two fighters before their big Showtime PPV fight on 7/26. For Canelo this is a must win if he’s to be the star of the future, because he was put in his place last year in his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

After years of hype about Canelo, we saw him finally in the ring with an excellent fighter in Mayweather, and he failed badly. It wasn’t just that Canelo lost the fight, it was how he lost it. He failed to make any adjustments, and he, along his corner, looked lost. Lara is considered to be the 4th best fighter in the junior middleweight division by many boxing fans, behind Mayweather, Miguel Cotto and Canelo.

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Arum in no hurry to pick Pacquiao’s next opponent for November 22nd

06/23/2014 Rob Smith

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly going to take his time and wait until possibly August before he selects the lucky candidate for his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s next fight on November 22nd at the Venetian Casino & Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

It’s possible that the longer Arum waits the better the chances are that he can get a big name some the likes of Golden Boy Promotions. But if not, then his options aren’t quite as good with Chris Algieri and Luis Carlos Abregu being two of the candidates to get the fight.

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