Dereck Chisora battles Andriy Rudenko on February 15th

chisora7445 Dereck Chisora says he’ll smash through big-hitting Klitschko clone Andriy Rudenko on Saturday 15th February at London’s Copper Box Arena to keep in line for a potential world title shot this year.

Chisora, 30, has his first fight of the year against the undefeated Ukrainian ace, live and exclusive on BoxNation (Sky Ch. 437/Virgin Ch. 546).

The Finchley puncher, who holds the European title, turned his career around last year and won all four fights by stoppage and aims to continue his KO run into 2014 as he targets a second shot at the world title.

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Hearn sees Crawford fight as toughest of Ricky Burns’ career

burns754 Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is looking at potentially the end of his fighter WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’s 3-year reign as the World Boxing Organization 135 lb. champion when he steps inside the ring to fight the unbeaten but still largely untested Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) on March 1st at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

This is a tougher fight than anything that Burns has faced before, and it’s coming at the wrong time with him after two tough fights against Jose Gonzalez and Raymundo Beltran. Burns had his jaw broken by Beltran last September in receiving a 12 round draw. It’s hard to see that fight and not think that Burns lucked out in getting a draw out of that. At best, Burns looked like he won 1 round of the fight. At worst, he appeared to be shutout completely by Beltran, who looked superior to him in every facet.

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Mayweather Sr: Pacquiao’s going to get his a** tore up if he faces Floyd Jr.

pac000 pac000 Floyd Mayweather Sr. thinks Manny Pacquiao has lost his one respected power in the past 4 years since the time he and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were in negotiations for a fight in 2010. Back then, Pacquiao was knocking guys out left and right, and blown out the likes of Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.

The knockout wins have dried up for Pacquiao with him failing to register a knockout since 2009, and this hasn’t been unobserved by the elder Mayweather Sr. He feels that Pacquiao has lost the only thing that he had going for him – his power – and without that he would have no chance whatsoever against Floyd Jr.

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Sanchez: Khan doesn’t deserve Mayweather fight, but he’s the biggest money bout for him

khan454 khan454 Trainer Abel Sanchez feels that WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia and WBA 147 lb. champion Marcos Maidana both deserve a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. more than Amir Khan does right now. However, Sanchez thinks that Khan will be the one that gets the fight against Floyd on May 3rd because he gives him the biggest money fight available compared to Maidana or Garcia.

Sanchez sees it ultimately business decision in Mayweather likely going with the better known Khan than the guys that have stayed busy with their careers and accomplished things recently like Maidana and Garcia have.

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Pacquiao-Provodnikov: Is this as good as it gets for Manny?

provodnikov673 With Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KO’s) talking himself up as a possible next opponent for Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) for his next fight on April 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada, it could be that this is as good it’ll get for Pacquiao for the remainder of his career if he stays with Top Rank until retirement.

A rematch with WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley promises to be a boring affair, because Bradley will no doubt choose to move around the ring for 12 rounds like he did with his recent win over 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez. We’re not going to see Bradley use the same fighting style that he did in barely beating Provodnikov last year. Bradley already said that he won’t make that mistake again.

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Jones Jr: Pascal has a strong plan B for Bute fight

bute343 bute343 By Matt Earnst: Roy Jones Jr. is mentoring former WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (28-2-1, 17 KO’s) for his upcoming bout against Lucian Bute (31-1, 24 KO’s) this month on January 18th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Jones Jr. says that Pascal will try to box Bute initially to see how that goes.

They don’t want to go out quickly and try and overpower the soon to be 34-year-old Bute immediately in the same way that Carl Froch did in stopping him in the 5th round two years ago in May of 2012. With Pascal’s hand speed and boxing ability, he has other options available to him that the slow-fisted, slow-moving Froch didn’t have to use in his fight against Bute. So what Jones Jr. wants Pascal to do is to try and box Bute, and if that doesn’t work then he wants him to switch to plan B to look to blast him out the way that Froch did.

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Hunter has no doubts Khan can beat Mayweather

khan#2 khan#2 Amir Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter is really beating the drum in hopes that Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t slip away and leave Khan with a much lesser fight. In trying to sell Khan as the perfect opponent for Mayweather’s next fight on May 3rd, Hunter is being vocal about his belief that the struggling Khan can pull off an upset and beat Mayweather in this fight. As for why Khan keeps getting knocked out, Hunter blames on Khan being at the wrong weight.

Hunter feels that now that Khan has moved up to welterweight the knockout defeats he’s been suffering will disappear. I’m not sure that I agree with him, but if that’s what he believes then I guess we’re going to find if he’s right sooner or later when Khan starts fighting again. Khan hasn’t fought since last April when he beat past his prime former lightweight champion Julio Diaz by a controversial 12 round decision in London.

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10 Fights to Make in 2014

canelo785 Boxing fans with realistic expectations cannot have been too disappointed with what 2013.
Long reigning and highly regarded champions fought some of the toughest opposition available to them, whilst we also saw much anticipated rematches and some fifty-fifty clashes between up-and-comers that created new stars.

And what for 2014? Roman Gonzalez, Floyd Mayweather, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Wladimir Klitschko need their reigns tested but most would agree no matter who they face (discounting Manny Pacquaio vs Mayweather), these champions will most likely reign throughout 2014 too.

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Team Mayweather hasn’t started negotiations with Maidana

maidana678 WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana says that he and his team hasn’t been contacted about a potential unification bout against WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 3rd. While there have been speculation that Mayweather might choose to fight the popular Maidana rather than Amir Khan, it’s not happened as of yet, according to Maidana. He’s clear that he wants the fight with Mayweather, but he’s not going to chase him and push for the fight like some other fighters have done recently.

It’s thought that Mayweather is making a decision about whether to fight Khan or Maidana. Khan was considered to be the guy that was going to get the fight next early on, but Maidana put himself in the forefront with his victory over little Mayweather, Adrien Broner, and that could be the thing that is causing Mayweather and his team to lag on making the decision about his next fight.

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Khan signs for Mayweather fight but is also willing to face Pacquiao – which match-up is most appealing?

khan#11 khan#11 As boxing fans may have read by now, Amir Khan, the former WBA/IBF 140-pound champion, has put pen to paper to face superstar Floyd Mayweather Junior next May and is awaiting Floyd’s signature on the contract. This match-up, though derided by many, has long been expected (at least for a number of months now) and not too many people would be shocked if the match-up went ahead.

But Khan, in speaking with The Mail, also said he would be more than willing to face former friend and spar-mate Manny Pacquiao if Mayweather instead opts to face the fighter seen as his other option for May in Marcos Maidana.

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