Sergio Martinez decisions Martin Murray

martinez66Fighting with an injured left hand from the 8th round, WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) had to battle a lot harder than many boxing fans expected him to in beating Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in front of a huge crowd of 50,000 at the Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Murray might have won the fight if he had come out of his defensive shell more often in the fight, as he seemed to adopt the same approach that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez used in his recent fight with Austin Trout in not throwing many punches but counting on his cleaner landing shots to make up the difference for him getting hit a lot more.

Murray could have won but he wasn’t throwing enough and he kept getting nailed by jabs and straight left hands over and over again. Murray was able to block a lot of the shots because he was keeping his gloves high protecting his head, but when one fighter is seen hitting the other all night long on the gloves, it doesn’t matter that a lot of the shots were blocked. Martinez was the busier guy and he deserved the victory. The judges scored it 115-112, 115-112 and 115-112.

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Bermane Stiverne bests Chris Arreola

arreola43 A rowdy crowd rocked the house at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California tonight; as local heavyweight Chris Arreola faced Haitian born Canadian Bermane Stiverne in front of a partisan crowd. Things started quickly and developed into one of the best heavyweight scraps we’ve seen in a while.

Neither man wasted time as both men threw big shots in the first round. The difference was Arreola’s pressure; he never stopped coming forward and backed his opponent into the ropes several times. Stiverne attempted to counter and was moderately successful, but let himself get trapped in the corner and ate a few combos. Arreola continued the pressure in the second and worked both downstairs and upstairs. However, Stiverne showed better movement and landed some nice counters. Things appeared to be evening out.

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Khan defeats Diaz; Wilder KOs Harrison in 1!

Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) had to get up off the deck to defeat former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-8-1, 29 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, UK. Khan was hurt five times in the fight, and knocked down in the 4th by a left hook. In rounds 8 though 11, Khan was badly staggered by heard shots from Diaz. It was only through the use of Khan’s holding and pulling down on the back of Diaz’s head that he was able to survive those rounds. The final judges’ scores were 114-113, 115-113, 115-112. I had Diaz winning rounds 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11. In other words, I had Diaz winning the fight.>

Khan controlled the action in rounds one and two. Diaz fought well in rounds three and four in landing heavy shots. After Khan was knocked down in the 4th, he came back to fight well in the 5th through 7th rounds, albeit using a lot of questionable tactics like pulling down on Diaz’s head and holding his left arm out far in front of him so that Diaz couldn’t get close. From the 8th round to 11th, Diaz had Khan hurt in each of these rounds, but Khan did a good job of holding on and running.

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Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

35-year-old Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) gave it a good shot tonight but in the end he was beaten by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) in a 12 round unanimous decision loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Judah was in command of the fight in the last three rounds of the fight, but unfortunately for him he ran out of time and ended losing. The scores were 115-112, 114-112, 116-111.

Garcia fought well in the first 8 rounds in using his right hand to do most of the damage. Judah did a good job of neutralizing Garcia’s left hook and jab. Garcia’s right hand proved to be enough for him to control the rounds and build up a big lead. However, the crowd seemed to motivate Judah to another level starting in the 9th round when he was able to land some really big shots that stopped Garcia in his tracks.

Judah continued to land the far bigger punches in rounds 10, 11 and 12 to dominate the rounds. Garcia kept firing back, but his punches weren’t nearly as significant as Judah’s.

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Canelo-Trout Post-Fight Press Conference Interviews and Photos

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San Antonio, TX finished its eventful boxing week on 04/20/13 Saturday night in front of nearly 40,000 fans at the Alamodome. The televised bouts of the Showtime Championship Boxing telecast included two fights that showed the reason why the fans came out to pack the venue.

The co-main event included a 1st round domination by Omar “Panterita” Figueroa, Jr. over Puerto Rican Abner Cotto. The thrilling first round included a knockdown of Abner Cotto halfway through the round. That exciting moment led to a culmination of the fight with “Panterita’s” vicious left hand body shot that sent Cotto to the ground towards the end of the round. Cotto was unable to survive the body shot as the referee completed a full ten count. This was definitely Figueroa’s coming out party as one of the rising stars in the lighter weights.

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2013 New Jersey Golden Glove Finals Results

This past Saturday night for the second year in a row The New Jersey Golden Gloves Finals were held at Newark’s Prudential Center Arena. The winners in these contests move up to representing New Jersey in the National Golden Gloves Tournament. The evening’s program consisted of 14 bouts. These bouts as per amateur boxing standards are three rounds of 2 minutes per round. The enthusiasm and heart of these young athletes provided rousing entertainment. There were numerous boxing celebrities in attendance.

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Tyson Fury Wins Over Cunningham But Not the Fans

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Tyson Fury will get annihlated by either of the Klitschko brothers. He demonstrated very little in the way of boxing skills against Cunningham. Instead, he used his tremendous 6′ 9″ size advantage to mug his much smaller foe. On a 0-10 talent scale, boxing fans would be hard pressed to give him a score that would crack mid point. His bellowing, and worse yet his post-fight singing, completely turned off fans at Madison Square Garden Theater. His actions failed to generate any great desire in fans to rush out and buy a ticket to see him fight Vitali or Wladimir. That’s because fans know any such matchup will result in a reverberating quake picked up on the Richter Scale that will result when his big body crashes to the canvas.

Saturday night fans couldn’t help but feel sorry for Steve Cunningham. He wasn’t on the losing end of the seventh round stoppage, so much as he was a victim of a back alley New York City mugging. Tyson did so much pushing, shoving, elbowing and leaning on his smaller foe that Referee Eddie Cotton couldn’t keep track of all of the offenses. He needed a “clicker” to keep count of all of the fouls.

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Result: Nathan Cleverly Outpoints Robin Krasniqi; Chisora defeats Avila

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In a fight that was supposed to be a competitive one, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO’s) totally dominated challenger Robin Krasniqi (39-3, 15 KO’s) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in front of a packed Wembley Arena in Wembley, London, UK. Cleverly took some monstrous shots from Krasniqi in rounds 6, 7 and the 8th rounds, but got the better of him with a high work rate.

The judges scored the fight 120-108, 119-109, and 120-108. Krasniqi showed excellent power throughout but he wasn’t able to keep up with the constant output from Cleverly. There was also a size difference between the two of them. Cleverly looked like a cruiserweight after rehydrating for the fight, while Krasniqi just looked like he was at the same weight he did for the weigh-in. Being much bigger than Krasniqi definitely gave Cleverly a huge advantage in the fight because he was able to absorb the big shots from Krasnqi without getting shock up.

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Canelo’s performance disappointing in “win” over Trout

08I must say I’m really disappointed in WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s performance tonight in his controversial 12 round unanimous decision over WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (26-1, 14 KO’s) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

I had expected a lot better from Canelo than what I saw tonight. His stamina was horrible, his defense good, but his work rate was very poor. Canelo fought in a very lazy manner with him reminding me a lot of former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham the way that he failed to be busy and would get rounds given to him based on a tiny handful of landed power shots.

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Result: Tyson Fury KOs Steve Cunningham

In a revealing fight, undefeated heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (21-0, 15 KO’s) had to really struggle tonight in stopping former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (25-6, 12 KO’s) in the 7th round in a fight televised by NBC from Madison Square Garden, New York. Fury is awfully lucky that he was fighting a guy 44 lbs. lighter than him because Fury got dropped in the 2nd round by a looping right hand from Cunningham.

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