It is said that the challenger must take the title off the Champion, but in their first meeting, the then defending light heavyweight WBA-IBF-WBO Champion Sergey Kovalev did more than enough to beat the challenger Andre Ward but still end up losing all of his belts. Maybe the reader can recall Ward face before the official scorecards were announced, Ward face expression told the story of a beaten boxer, but then when he heard himself as the winner his face changed to a surprised smiley face.

Andre Berto sees Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) potentially knocking out former light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) in their rematch this Saturday night. Berto says Ward has seen something from the first fight with Kovalev that he thinks he can expose to get a knockout. Ward isn’t known for being a knockout puncher, however.

Making a comeback after close to 2 years out of the ring, Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) stopped journeyman Aaron Herrera (32-7-1, 21 KOs) in the 7th round on Sunday night in a successful comeback at the Pioneer Event Center in Lancaster, California. The 31-year-old Rios wore down the younger, faster and more powerful 28-year-old Herrera until stopping him with a right hand to the body in the 7th.

Herrera went down to one knee and was counted out by referee Jack Reiss. It didn’t look like that big of a punch by Rios, but it was placed well and Herrera was already tired from the shots that he’d been absorbing.

Just over a year ago (April 25th, to be exact) I wrote an article exalting the contribution of Great Britain to the crop of recognised World Champions at the time. Britain boasted thirteen belt holders, the most of any country in the world. Anthony Joshua had just beaten Charles Martin to claim the IBF title.

This weekend in boxing was low on marquee names but still held plenty of action.  Ryan Burnett (17-0, 9 KOs) of Northern Ireland continued his ascent through the paid ranks, capturing the IBF Bantamweight title from England’s Lee Haskins. It was a dominating performance, with Burnett dropping Haskins in the 6th round and again in the 11th round.   Unfortunately there has been more talk about the absurdity of judge Clark Sammartino’s scorecard than about the fight itself.

Fighting for the first time at cruiserweight, former heavyweight contender Mike Perez (22-2-1, 14 KOs) obliterated a badly over-matched Viktor Biscak (10-1, 7 KOs) in the 1st round of a shceduled 6 round fight on Saturday night at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Unbeaten Ryan Burnett (17-0, 9 KOs) unseated International Boxing Federation World bantamweight champion Lee Haskins (34-4, 14 KOs) by a 12 round split decision on Saturday night at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Burnett dropped Haskins twice in the fight in knocking him down in the 6th and 11th rounds. Both fighters were cut from a clash of heads in the 2nd round.

Brandon Rios is picking Saul “Canelo” Alvarez o defeat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) on September 16 on HBO PPV. Rios says he likes Golovkin as a fighter, but he has to go with Canelo due to how good he looked in his last fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

The Marquis of Queensbury Rules for boxing were written long before Andre Ward’s parents were born. The  World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association were formed long before Andre Ward was born. The ideals of “clean punching”, “effective aggression”, “ring generalship”, and “defense” were placed into the verbiage of scoring a professional boxing match long before Andre Ward laced up his first glove.  Therefore the “blame” for his ability to win within the rules of the sport by which he has made his living cannot be placed on his shoulders.

The World Boxing Council has ordered a WBC middleweight title eliminator match between #1 Jorge Sebastian Heiland (29-4-2, 16 KOs) and #2 Jermall Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) with the winner of the fight to be the mandatory challenger to WBC 160 pound champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.

Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) will be fighting this Sunday against Aaron Herrera (32-6-1, 21 KOs) in a 10 round fight in what Rios hopes will take him back to the top of the welterweight division. Rios-Herrera will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 & Fox Deportes this Sunday on June 11 at The Pioneer Event Center in Lancaster, California. The start time for the Rios vs. Herrera is at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.

IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) says he’s hopeful that he can get Danny Garcia or Manny Pacquiao in his next fight. Spence says he wants to fight WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman at the start of 2018, as long as he’s healed up from his elbow surgery that he recently had to repair a problem.