Khan: Mayweather has to fight me if he wants to be global star

03/25/2014 Rob Smith

It’s not enough that Golden Boy Promotions has set him up as the chief support on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s May 3rd fight card against Luis Collazo instead of the arguably much more dangerous Keith Thurman, but now Khan is trying to entice Mayweather into fighting him by telling him about all the fans that will be watching him fight from India and Pakistan if he chooses him to fight next.

Khan figures that there are over 1 billion people in India and over 300 million in Pakistan, with many of those people choosing to watch the fight.

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Khan says Mayweather told him he’d one of his last three fights

08/01/201403/25/2014 Rob Smith

Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) says he received a personal phone call from Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently and told by him that he’d be one of his last three fights of his career. Mayweather didn’t say at which point that Khan would get a fight against him, but it’s likely to be sooner rather than later depending on how things go with Khan’s fight against veteran Luis Collazo on the undercard of Mayweather’s unification bout against WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana on May 3rd.

The chances are high that if Khan destroys Collazo in impressive fashion, he’ll wind up facing Mayweather at the end of the year if Khan’s schedule permits.

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Khan: I’m going to be calling Mayweather out in the press conference

07/31/201403/24/2014 Rob Smith

In a sign that Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) sees his May 3rd fight against Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) as a prelude to him getting a big money/cash out fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September or early 2015, Khan says he’s going to be calling Mayweather out at the post press conference after the May 3rd Floyd Mayweather v. Marcos Maidana fight on Showtime pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Khan says he would like to face Mayweather. Oddly enough, Khan isn’t saying he’d like to fight Maidana if he beats Mayweather, but you would have to hope so because that would look like of funny if Khan kept pushing for a Mayweather fight even if he lost to Maidana.

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Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Mike Alvarado a done deal for May 17th

03/23/201403/22/2014 Rob Smith

The WBO welterweight eliminator bout between former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) and former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) is a done deal for May 17th in a Top Rank promoted fight that will be televised by HBO from the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA.

It’s kind of an unusual eliminator bout in that both fighters are coming off of losses. Normally, eliminator bouts involved two fighters who are coming into the fights with winning streaks and are fighting at a high level, but not in this case.

Marquez was beaten in his last fight by Bradley last October by a 12 round split decision, whereas Alvarado was stopped in the 10th round by Mike Alvarado last October.

Alvarado has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights. With that many losses in his last three fights, Alvarado really shouldn’t be considered for the fight.

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Bellew defeats Brudov; Brook stops Robles

03/16/201403/15/2014 Rob Smith

Making his first fight at cruiserweight, Tony Bellew (21-2, 13 KO’s) was able to stop former WBA interim cruiserweight champion Valery Brudov (41-5, 28 KO’s) in the 12th round tonight to win the vacant WBO International cruiserweight title at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, UK. Bellew showed good power in dropping Brudov three times in the fight.

In the 12th, Bellew caught the 37-year-old Brudov with a perfectly timed left hook to the head that dropped him on his backside. Brudov tried to get up, but he was far too hurt and the fight was immediately stopped. Bellew also knocked Brudov down once in the 2nd round and another time in the 6th.

Bellew will need to improve dramatically if he’s going to go anywhere in the division. Brudov was an old small guy without a ton of power, and there are much better contenders in the division than this guy and Bellew had major problems against him.

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Garcia decisions Herrera; Lopez halts De Leon; Wilder destroys Scott

03/16/201403/15/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) In a very close fight that was difficult to score, WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia 28-0, 16 KO’s) defeated the hard as nails challenger Mauricio Herrera (20-4, 7 KO’s) by a 12 round majority decision tonight at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. It was not a good performance from Garcia, because he failed to make adjustments to Herrera’s fighting style and he got picked apart in the last half of the fight.

I personally scored the fight for Herrera by four rounds, but Garcia getting the decision makes sense because of the venue. Herrera wasn’t going to win this fight without knocking Garcia out to doing something spectacular like knocking Garcia down 3-4 times. The judges scored it 114-114, 116-112, 116-112.

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Juan Manuel Marquez faces Mike Alvarado on May 17th at Inglewood forum

03/14/201403/14/2014 Rob Smith

Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) will be fighting former WBO light welterweight champion Mike Alvarado (34-2, 23 KO’s) on May 17th at the Forum, in Inglewood, California, USA. The winner of the fight will be facing the winner of the April 12th fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley.

Marquez, 41, wants a chance to win a 5th division world title; whereas Alvarado is just looking to get his career back in order after getting stopped in the 10th round last October by the tough as nails Ruslan Provodnikov.

It’s unknown why Marquez feels that he needs to win another world title in order to somehow validate his career, as he’s already shown he’s a Hall of Fame type of fighter. Winning another world title is pretty much a meaningless thing at this point, especially if it comes against Pacquiao, who he already beat in his last fight. You have to wonder whether Marquez will feel he needs to win a 6th world title if he accomplishes his goal of winning a 5th. It goes on and on, and it’s not really worth it.

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Chris Arreola vs. Bermane Stiverne II to be televised by ESPN on May 10th

03/13/2014 Rob Smith

ESPN has reportedly bought the rights to televised the rematch between heavyweights Chris Arreola (36-3, 31 KO’s) and Bermane Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO’s) on May 10th in their fight for the vacant WBC heavyweight title at a still to be determined venue. For boxing fans this is a big deal because they won’t need an expensive premium channel like HBO or Showtime to see the fight now that ESPN will televise it.

While it sounds nice that ESPN was able to purchase the fight to televise on their network, it gives you an idea of how much interest HBO and Showtime had in televising the fight. Believe me, if they had wanted to show the fight, they would have purchased it.

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Canelo stops Angulo in 10th; Santa Cruz defeats Mijares

03/09/201403/08/2014 Rob Smith

In an example of perfect match-making by Golden Boy Promotions, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) easily destroyed the weak and slow Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) by a 10th round TKO on Saturday night from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the perfect opponent for Canelo to beat up on, as Angulo had absolutely no power and no speed.

Whatever happened to his one decent power is unclear, but he definitely didn’t have it tonight. Canelo, looking like a light heavyweight rather than a junior middleweight, used his size and power to hit Angulo at will with power shots. After being warned in between the 9th and 10th rounds that the fight would be stopped, Angulo went out for the 10th and took a few huge shots from Canelo. At that point referee Tony Weeks stepped in and halted the fight at 0:47 of the 10th.

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Hunter confident Khan will get Mayweather fight in the near future

07/31/201403/07/2014 Rob Smith

Amir Khan may have struck out in trying to land a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. this time, but his trainer Virgil Hunter still sees Khan getting the fight with Mayweather in the near future. Hunter has been told by his contacts that Khan will be getting the fight against Mayweather at some point.

That’s probably true, especially if Khan faces Luis Collazo in his next fight on the undercard of Mayweather’s May 3rd fight against Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Collazo has been mentioned all week long as the guy Khan will be fighting next, and not Adrien Broner.

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