A bulked up 254 pound IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) insists his career high weight won’t impede his performance tonight against 36-year-old challenger Carlos Takam (35-3-1, 27 KOs) in their fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte (22-1, 16 KOs) won a dull pedestrian 12 round unanimous decision over 33-year-old Robert “Nordic Nightmare” Helenius (25-2, 16 KOs) to snatch the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
The judges’ scores were 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110. It was a clear win for the 29-year-old Whyte, but not a good one in terms of making a case for him beating or even challenging WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder next February. Boxing News 24 scored the fight for Whyte by a 119-109 score. In other words, Whyte won the fight by 11 rounds to 1 score.
Former light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) will be fighting Vyacheslav “Lion Heart’ Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) for the vacant World Boxing Organization 175lb. title in their fight next month on November 25 on HBO World Championship Boxing from Madison Square Garden in New York.
Former middleweight champion Danny Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) sees himself as having far too many advantages for his unbeaten opponent Luis Arias (18-0, 9 KOs) when these to face each other in a little over 2 weeks from now on November 11 on HBO Boxing at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
Arias, 27, looks like a pretty good fighter. He might surprise a lot of people on November 11 and pull off a major upset against Jacobs; although I tend to doubt that he’ll be able to beat a fighter like Jacobs. That’s a big ask for someone with so little experience against top level opposition at middleweight.
Heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce (1-0, 1 KOs) has been added to the undercard of the David Haye vs. Tony Bellew rematch on December 17 at the Indigo at The O2 in London, UK. Joyce doesn’t have an opponent yet, but there’s a possibility that British heavyweight champion Sam Sexton (24-3, 9 KOs) could be the guy that he faces on the card.
Former 2-time light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (49-4, 35 KOs) totally outclassed a badly over-matched previously unbeaten middleweight contender Rob “Rio” Brant (22-1, 15 KOs) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on Friday night in the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight tournament at the Sport and Congress Center in Schwerin, in Germany.
As of Thursday, Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) has vacated his WBO light welterweight title, and he’s now been made the mandatory challenger to WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs).
Horn, 29, will be allowed to take a voluntary defense against fringe contender Gary Corcoran on December 13 in Brisbane, Australia. After that fight, Horn, if he’s victorious against Corcoran, he’ll have 90 days to defend his title against Crawford, 30.
WBA World super flyweight champion Kal Yafai (22-0, 14 KOs) will be defending his title this Saturday night against his No.1 WBA mandatory challenger Sho Ishida (24-0, 13 KOs), and he’s hoping to get a fight against former 4 division world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) after that.
With WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt out with a hand injury, the World Boxing Council are planning to make a decision on a rematch between former WBC champion Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido (44-13-4, 31 KOs).
