Brian Rose gets his dream shot against Boo-Boo in the summer

03/20/201403/20/2014 Ronan Smith

Brian ‘the lion’ Rose will finally see his dream of challenging for a world title come true this summer when he travels to America to oppose reigning WBO light-middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, live on Sky Sports and HBO.

In his last outing Blackpool’s Rose defeated Javier Maciel in a thrilling contest that served as a final eliminator for Andrade’s strap. In December 2012 he won the Lonsdale belt outright by winning a unanimous decision over Sam Webb; four months later, in the same venue, he stepped up onto the world stage to face Joachim Alcine for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental title, stopping him in the final round.

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Froch-Groves II: Wembley Stadium to serve as Battleground

03/04/201403/04/2014 Ronan Smith

After weeks of speculation the battleground for the eagerly anticipated rematch between Carl Froch and George Groves on May 31st has finally been announced as the Wembley Stadium. Although Wembley had always been the favorite venue, other stadiums including Emirates and The Millennium Stadium were slated to play host on account of the logistical issues posed by Wembley’s accommodating the England and Peru friendly match on the prior evening.

However the fight’s promoter Eddie Hearn was said to be blown away after first walking through Wembley’s tunnels and has worked tirelessly with the stadium and the FA to see that the biggest fight since the Eubank and Benn rematch was staged there. Hearn heavily believes that the fight is the biggest that Britain will have yet seen and strongly felt that the new Wembley Stadium would do it the most justice, especially as it will be the first boxing match to be held at the new stadium since its reopening in 2007.

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Khan-Broner: The saga continues

03/04/201403/03/2014 Ronan Smith

One could be forgiven for mistaking the headline as the title of a new Star Wars film but actually it is the heading of an entirely different lengthy series that concerns Mayweather and Khan. The thing that needs to happen pronto is for the latter to announce his next fight so, at least for the time being, we can forget about the whole Mayweather and Khan narrative that is being increasingly drawn out.

An interesting clash that Mayweather is endorsing to be featured on his May undercard is between Khan and Broner. Khan tweeted last week that he would KO Broner and for Mayweather to fight him afterwards, and Broner was a name that Khan had mentioned as his next potential opponent on Sky Sports’ ‘Ringside’ program.

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Ricky Burns – Man of Steel

02/26/2014 Ronan Smith

The polysemic name of Matchroom’s Saturday bill in Glasgow, ‘Man of Steel’, refers to the titanium plate inserted into the jaw of Ricky Burns and, by extension, to the sheer toughness of his character exhibited through his perseverance to hear the final bell as he battled through ten rounds with a broken jaw, courtesy of Raymundo Beltran during their last September bout, and followed by the absolute determination to get back in the ring after the mending operation and healing.

Nobody need once again to point out the obvious that Burns was extremely fortunate to have retained his title against Beltran with the decision of a draw, but it is worth noting that the WBO appointed judges for Saturday’s defence against Crawford will have this in mind and are likely to score many of the potentially close rounds to the American in order to prevent any further stigma of controversy and/or accusations of ‘hometown favouritism’;

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Cinderella Man displays tenacious Fighting Pride

02/23/201402/23/2014 Ronan Smith

Anybody who watched Matchroom’s ‘Fighting Pride’ show live on Sky Sports last night had witnessed something special; the fight fans that were present at Hull’s Ice Arena are truly the lucky ones for the event was one that will not be forgotten anytime soon.

On paper the evening looked promising with a few intriguing match-ups but nobody could possibly have been expecting the drama and excitement that ran through pretty much the whole of the four hour broadcast.

There is one fighter who featured on the bill whom I want to pay particular attention to but first I will briefly run through the evening’s action.

The first bout was a contest for the British super-bantamweight title, vacated by Kid Galahad as he seeks European honours, between Gavin McDonnell and Leigh Wood. Alongside such boxers as Kell Brook and Kid Galahad, real name Abdul Barry Awad, Wood fights out of the Ingle Gym and exhibits the slippery and awkward style that the gym is famed for.

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Khan’s contingency plan

02/22/201402/22/2014 Ronan Smith

It would be nice to think that the line has been drawn through the whole Mayweather and Khan chronicles, at least for the time being anyway, but it is difficult to imagine that Khan has seriously discarded any ambition of being handed the May 3rd slot against the number one pound-for-pound king.

Yesterday Khan sent out a stream of tweets suggesting that the fight was dead; whether he actually knows anything official or not can only be speculated but it appears that he has had enough of Mayweather’s lack of communication and is moving on to a plan B. There is however a hint of suggestion that Khan may not be revealing all, given how he wishes luck to Maidana in the Mayweather fight, against the probable scenario where he is just regarding the fight’s other front-runner.

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The promise of Britain’s tomorrow’s stars

02/21/2014 Ronan Smith

Over the following three Saturdays five of Britain’s leading top prospects will be live in action up and down the country. All five, three of which gained medals at the London 2012 Olympics, have not only the talent to become world champion but could potentially go on to one day be great, legendary even.

Britain is currently a melting pot rich with young, brilliant talent but what can this recent sprout of success be credited to? Surely the funding now available to young amateur boxers plays a significant part, which has vigorously developed since Audley Harrison became the first British fighter to win an Olympic gold medal in the super-heavyweight division in the 2000 Sydney Games and, four years later in Athens, Amir Khan taking home a silver medal in the light-weight division. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics Britain had another gold medallist in James DeGale, further strengthening the position of our young amateur fighters.

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Del Boy en route for chance to avenge loss against Fury in summer showdown

02/17/201402/16/2014 Ronan Smith

The heavyweight division was the particular focal point of the ‘Rock the Box III’ event staged last night, Feb’ 15th, at the Copper Box Arena, London.

The card was stacked with boxers from differing career levels, with some names only known by a handful of loyal fans and others who will be recognised by the global boxing community, but the two main events were heavyweight bouts that could ultimately make an impact on the division.

To write up the recent state of affairs of the heavyweight division would be merely an attempt to reword the many texts to have been already produced on the matter. The bottom line is: it can only get better.

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Is Mayweather gambling with his legacy?

02/13/2014 Ronan Smith

We are all waiting, if hardly anticipating, the announcement of the Mayweather V Khan bout set to take place on May 3rd. Various articles have been written by different writers on the subject and the consensus is that Khan is simply not worthy of a shot against the planet’s number one pound-for-pound boxer. This is a notion that I cannot rid from my mind, and this comes from a hardcore British boxing fan who would love to see Mayweather dethroned by a British boxer, but certainly not from an unjust gifted opportunity.

That is exactly what Khan will be handed if indeed he is given the shot and the situation will prove to be another example of the modern dealings of boxing as a business where money talks instead of a fighter’s pride in striving to be the best, by fighting only the best, as earlier decades were defined by.

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Crolla to put on a ‘Million Dollar’ performance against Simpson

02/12/201402/10/2014 Ronan Smith

On a lengthy night of boxing from the SECC in Glasgow on March 1st, Anthony ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla will defend his WBO inter-continental lightweight title against John Simpson, live on Sky Sports.

The show’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, announced the bout shortly after the cancellation of the eagerly anticipated fight between Wadi Camacho and Stephen Simmons when a broken rib had forced the latter to withdraw. It was disappointing news as the boxers had each played their part in fueling the passion of the fight in the build-up with heated exchanges on Twitter and plenty of ill-attitude during face-to-face confrontation.

Crolla will enter hostile ground in front of a partisan crowd looking to put on a ‘Million Dollar’ performance against the rugged and relentless Scotsman and hoping to make a statement to WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns.

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