Ricky Burns off Saturday’s card; will next fight on January 26th

09/14/201612/11/2012 ESB

Ricky Burns off Saturday’s card; will next fight on January 26th By Marcus Richardson: Alex Morrison, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s), was unable to find a replacement opponent for Jose Ocampo for this Saturday night for Burns’s previously scheduled fight at the ExCel Arena in London, England. Morrison attempted to find someone after Ocampo pulled out but the fighter they were looking at getting Derry Matthews didn’t agree to the fight.

Morrison said to STV “Ricky will not fight this weekend. We couldn’t find an opponent for him to fight. He was offered a 10 round fight but decided not to take it. We’re now looking at January 26 for the next title defense and hopefully that will take place in Glasgow.”

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer was hoping to get Burns to agree to fight WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner on February 16th, but with Morrison not mentioning that as option it doesn’t appear that there’s any interest in that fight on Burns’s team as of now. That’s too bad because Broner wanted to get a chance to grab Burns’ belt after failing to get a fight with Burns last year when Burns held the WBO super featherweight title and Broner was his mandatory challenger.

Thurman vs. Maidana possible for April, 2013

12/12/201212/11/2012 ESB

By Rob Smith: Golden Boy Promotions is looking to match former WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (32-3, 29 KO’s) up with junior middleweight Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) in April next year. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer wants to put the Maidana-Thurman fight with unbeaten featherweight Gary Russell Jr. (21-0, 13 KO’s) against a still to be determined opponent in a doubleheader card. They wanted Jhonny Gonzalez, but that was a no go after he showed no interest in the fight. Russell Jr. is a good fighter and if they can find a quality opponent to put him in with then they’ll have a decent card.

Pacquiao vs. Marquez IV: Mainstream Media, Get Off Our Mountain!

12/11/201212/11/2012 ESB

By Marc Livitz: Apologies are due and professional journalism has been thought through its proper course. The “Big Fights Only” crowd may provide the dollars to tip the financial scales, yet their input as innocent but uninformed bystanders has reached the point of torture akin to water boarding.

Most are able to quickly picture in their minds the ones who continue to bash the sport and its methods of business, yet they are the ones who cannot wait to come invade your couch to see the popular match ups. No different are the individuals who grace our respective TV screens, laptops, mobile devices and the like come Monday morning. They cannot wait to dissect the weekend’s big fights, which in itself means that they only can be counted upon to do as such about three times a year.

This is written from an American’s point of view. More to the point, the opinions and observations offered are based on American sports television.

And the biggest loser is….Floyd Mayweather Jr

07/20/201912/10/2012 ESB

By Robert Jackson: Shocking KO Saturday night that saw Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez take down Manny Pacquiao for the 10 count! Revenge is sweet but success is sweeter! The latest fight in this series evens things up if you consider the outcome. Marquez no longer needs to complain about being robbed or denied victories he felt he legitimately earned but was never given – this win erases all of that.

So where does this leave the superfight we are all waiting for? Mayweather/Pacquiao?

IMHO, a Mayweather/Pacquiao fight was never the ‘end all’ fight that ALL boxing pundits claimed it was. And to say that Floyd ‘waited out’ Pacquiao’s prime would be a ludicrous statement considering Floyd is about 2 years older than Pacquiao – so he’d be waiting out his own prime also. The biggest fight(s) out there for Floyd Mayweather Jr. involve Canelo Alvarez and Sergio Martinez. The Martinez fight is much more makeable now with Pacquiao out of the way. Id’ much rather see this fight than a Pacquiao fight anyway.

Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4 a huge moneymaker, generates $10 million live gate

12/11/201212/10/2012 ESB

By Bill Phanco: Last Saturday night’s mega fight on HBO pay per view between Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s0 and Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) reportedly generated a huge $10 million live gate at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada with 15,403 tickets sold and 908 comps. Needless to say this is very good money.

50 Cent asking for Broner-Gamboa

12/11/201212/10/2012 ESB

By Jeff Sorby: Promoter 50 Cent hasn’t given up the idea of wanting to match his fighter interim WBA World super featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0, 16 KO’s) with WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s) next year, as he plans on moving Gamboa up to lightweight to see if he can get him the bigger names like Broner and other top fighters.

Speaking at Gamboa’s press conference last Saturday night following his grueling 12 round decision win over Michael Farenas, 50 Cent said “We’re looking forward to moving up and fighting some more exciting fighters in the 135 pound weight class like Adrien Broner. We’re all a big fan of the new talent that’s emerging, so I won’t be shy to say that I’m a fan of Adrien Broner.”

This would be a great fight for Broner because there really isn’t much to choose from at lightweight to be honest. The only guys left at that weight class are Ricky Burns and Miguel Vazquez, and neither of them is well known among the casual boxing fans in the United States. Those aren’t big fights for Broner, and he’s much better off passing on those fights and looking to face Gamboa if 50 Cent is serious.

Arum interested in Rios-Alvarado 2 bout

12/11/201212/10/2012 ESB

By Steve Mabbott: Manny Pacquiao’s defeat to Juan Manuel Marquez wiped out Bob Arum’s big plans of putting together a pay per view bout between Pacquiao and former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios on April 20th next year. With Pacquiao’s 6th round knockout loss to Marquez last Saturday, there just isn’t any way that Pacquiao can move on from that defeat to fight Rios without boxing fans being turned off in the process. So what Arum wants to do is put Rios back in with light welterweight contender Mike Alvarado for a rematch in early 2013.

Donaire vs. Arce on Saturday at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas

12/11/201212/10/2012 ESB

By Bill Phanco: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) faces Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) in a fight on Saturday night on December 15th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The fight will be televised by HBO, and it’s bout that a lot of Donaire’s Filipino fans and Arce’s Mexican fans are really interested in seeing. Arce’s fans think he has a real chance of winning this fight, but neutral boxing fans aren’t giving Arce much of any chance at all.

They see him as a small fighter whose best weight was light flyweight now fighting well above his best weight in going after better paydays at super bantamweight. Arce is kind of like Vic Darchinyan in that respect. Both Darchinyan and Arce were dominant at flyweight but now aren’t the same fighters after moving up to super bantamweight.

Donaire has got the height, reach, youth, and speed and power advantage over Arce. The only thing that Arce has going for him is experience and heart. Can that get him past a fighter as good as Donaire on Saturday? I’d say probably not. Theirs is a chance but it’s probably very slight.

Hatton stunned at seeing Pacquiao obliterated by Marquez

12/11/201212/10/2012 ESB

By Steve Mabbott: The one fighter that may have been the most shocked at seeing Manny Pacquiao taken completely apart by Juan Manuel Marquez, besides Pacquiao himself, was Ricky Hatton. Pacquiao has destroyed Hatton in 2 rounds in 2009, and dominated him throughout the short fight. But Hatton didn’t expect Marquez to knock Pacquiao out cold in the 6th round last Saturday night with his hard right hand to the head.

Khan: I’m ready for Carlos Molina; I’m a better fighter now

12/11/201212/10/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s) thinks he’s improved since his 4th round knockout loss to WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia last July. Khan faces Carlos Molina (17-0, 7 KO’s) this Saturday night in a make for break fight for Khan at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. Khan can’t lose this fight, and he probably won’t because Molina has been picked out special by his promoters so that he doesn’t have another slip up like he’d had in his last two fights against Garcia and Lamont Peterson.

Khan has a new trainer Virgil Hunter and he believes that he’s really improving under his guidance.

Khan said to Sky Sports News “I’m a better fighter [now] by far because I would not fight Garcia the way I did. I’ve changed my fighting style a lot and it proves I’m doing something right.”

It’s a normal response for fighters or people in general to look back at mistakes and want to do it different the next time around. However, that still doesn’t mean that Khan would get past a Garcia in a rematch because Garcia would make adjustments to Khan fighting in a more conservative manner by taking the fight to him with pressure and forcing him to fight for his life. That’s the problem.