Arum wants Mikey Garcia in position to fight Pacquiao by end of 2014

08/01/201401/22/2014 Rob Smith

Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) may have run out of viable opposition in the 140-147 lb. class in his promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank stable, but the 82-year-old promoter is in the process of digging up a new opponent that he’s pooling from the super featherweight division in Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s), the WBO 130 lb. champion.

Arum wants to have the painfully thin Mikey move up in weight and get to the position where he can be a contender for Pacquiao by the end of 2014. In this way, Arum could scare up a new opponent for Pacquiao to fight.

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Why doesn’t Pacquiao offer to fight his April 12th opponent for free?

01/20/2014 Rob Smith

Manny Pacquiao got a lot of attention last week with his offer to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. for free in a fight where they would both give their entire fight pay to charity. This was Pacquiao’s way of showing Mayweather that he’s not desperate for the fight. My thoughts are this sounds good from Pacquiao, but why focus just on Mayweather for this charity offer?

If Pacquiao is willing to give his entire purse to charity, then he should be willing to give his money away for his next fight against Tim Bradley or Ruslan Provodnikov. If the idea is for Pacquiao to give to charity, why should there be a difference in which opponent he’s fighting for him to do this? Does it absolutely have to be Mayweather that Pacquaio is fighting for him to give money away?

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Vitali Klitschko gets nailed with fire extinguisher spray

01/20/201401/19/2014 Rob Smith

Former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is finding out the hard way how difficult it is to be a politician in Ukraine. While attempting to break up a large crowd of protesters on Sunday, Vitali, an opposition leader, was booed and sprayed with a fire extinguisher at point blank range by what appeared to be the police. Vitali had a bullhorn and seemed to have peaceful intent in breaking up the crowd but someone wasn’t feeling it because they quickly nailed Vitali with spray from the extinguisher. Once Vitali was out of range, he had to be held back because he wanted to go after the person that had sprayed him.

The protests came about reportedly due to after the parliament had passed some new laws that didn’t go over well with some of the public.

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Pascal defeats Bute; Perez -Takam fight to a draw

01/19/201401/18/2014 Rob Smith

Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KO’s) beat former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. The final judges scores were 116-112, 118-110, 117-111.

The fight was horrible to watch because Bute wouldn’t throw punches, and spent 3 minutes of every round just moving his head like a fighter who can no longer pull the trigger on his punches. Bute didn’t look like a physically shot fighter. He did throw some nice punches in the 12th round when he finally decided to start fighting. But Bute’s problem seemed to be more on the mental side. He looked like he was afraid to get countered by Pascal if he let his hands go, and he just wasn’t going to leave himself in a vulnerable position.

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Tim Bradley asking for $10 million for Pacquiao fight?

01/16/201401/15/2014 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) is reportedly asking for $10 million for his rematch against Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) on April 12th, according to Mydesert.com. If this really true then it makes a lot of sense why the Pacquiao-Bradley fight isn’t a done deal.

$10 million for a fighter like Bradley is an incredible amount given that he’s not proven himself to be a a huge star in the sport. That kind of money goes to guys like Saul “Canelo” Alavarez and Miguel Cotto. In other words, fighters who have proven that they can bring in massive amounts of fans for their fights. I don’t know that Bradley is capable of attracting huge audiences when not matched against guys like Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez. He’s someone that needs help to bring in fans.

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Mikey Garcia says he’s willing to fight Yuriorkis Gamboa

01/15/2014 Rob Smith

WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) says he’s willing to fight WBA interim lightweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) in the near future. Garcia wants Gamboa’s promoter 50 Cent to contact his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank to make the fight happen. HBO would definitely like to put that fight on their network, because they expressed interest in that fight in the past.

Instead of getting that fight, HBO will be televising Mikey vs. Juan Carlos Burgos (30-1-2, 20 KO’s) this month on January 25th at Madison Square Garden in New York. Burgos is coming off of two straight 12 round draws against recent Mikey victim Roman Martinez and Yakubu Amidu.

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Gamboa added to list of possible opponents for Pacquiao’s April 12th fight

01/14/201401/14/2014 Rob Smith

In a not so surprising move, Top Rank is adding lightweight Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO’s) into the mix for April 12th fight of their star Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the Manila Bulletin. At this point Top Rank really needs a body for Pacquiao that has a good record, and who won’t price himself out.

Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz will be meeting with Bob Arum of Top Rank on Tuesday to discuss Pacquiao’s next fight, and decide on which of the three will be a good option.

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Ricky Burns: Crawford fight will be difficult for me

07/31/201401/14/2014 Rob Smith

After two years as the WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) may be reaching the end of the line as the champion after four title defenses. He dodged a bullet against Raymundo Beltran last September in being given a 12 round draw, and he lucked out in halting Jose Gonzalez last year in May in a fight that he was losing. However, Burns’ luck might be at an end when he faces the unbeaten Terence Crawford on March 1st at the Scottish Exhibition Center in Glasgow, Scotland.

Burns is a very good fighter and he’ll try every trick in the book in an effort to beat Crawford, but it might not be good enough. Burns appears to be overmatched in this fight, and he’s going to need to come up with the perfect fight strategy for him to come out ahead on March 1st.

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Mayweather Sr: Amir Khan’s got a glass jaw

08/01/201401/13/2014 Rob Smith

Floyd Mayweather Sr. has zero worries about whether his son Floyd Jr. can successfully defeat Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana if he faces either one of them next on May 3rd. It’s widely thought that Mayweather will be fighting one of these two fighters next at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, but Mayweather Sr. doesn’t see either of them as giving Floyd Jr. a competitive fight.

“Both of them easy. Two easy fights; both of them is easy. Maidana might have punching power, but you still can’t hit what you can’t see,” Mayweather Sr. said to Hustleboss. So that’s going to put Maidana under a tree. Amir Khan’s got a glass jaw. And if you look at it too hard, it’ll shatter.”

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Marquez not interested in Provodnikov or Alvarado; wants Bradley only

01/12/2014 Rob Smith

If Bob Arum of Top Rank is interested in having Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) fight one of his stable fighters Mike Alvarado or Ruslan Provodnikov next then he’s going to need to really work hard to try and sell those fights to Marquez because he has no interest in fighting either of those guys. Marquez only wants a rematch against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley, who beat him by a 12 round split decision last October in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Marquez is clearly bothered by the loss to Bradley, because he feels he should have got the decision. But Marquez also believes that he can do a better job in a rematch if he works on his power.

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