Conor McGregor has decided that his best chances of beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. is to go after him early, and look to scalp him right away on August 26 in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
McGregor, 28, is already predicting an early knockout by the 4th round against the 40-year-old Mayweather in their scheduled 12 round boxing match. It’s easy to understand why. McGregor has been fighting 5 round fights in the UFC.
IBO super middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (24-1, 19 KOs) will be facing one of his toughest challenges of his career next Saturday night on July 15 in defending his IBO belt against Arthur Abraham (46-5, 30 KOs) at the Wembley Arena in London, England.
This is a fight that will be shown on pay-per-view for the boxing fans interested in seeing it badly enough. It’s a good fight, but as a PPV fight, it’s going to be a tough sell. The 37-year-old Abraham is only 2 fights removed from his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez last year in April 2016. That fight left a strong imprint in the minds of a lot of boxing fans with the way that Abraham was so badly dominated by Ramirez.
Due to the controversy surrounding Australian Jeff Horn’s controversial 12 round unanimous decision win over Manny Pacquiao on July 2, the World Boxing Organization will be re-scoring the fight. However, even if the WBO decides that the 3 judges that scored the fight were in error in giving the win to the 29-year-old Horn, it won’t lead to him losing the WBO welterweight title he won off of Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs).
IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. has eyes set on defending his title against former 2 division belt holder Danny “Swift” Garcia if he’s interested in fighting him for his belt. Spence (22-0, 19 KOs) doesn’t see why Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) wouldn’t take the fight. Spence, 27, notes that Keith Thurman isn’t available for the time being due to him having recent surgery on an elbow.
In only three weeks’ time we have what is sure to be a great match up between Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 Kos) and Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 Kos) on July 29 on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. What interests me is why is nobody talking about it? This is a fantastic matchup.
Garcia, 29, is one of the most exciting rising fighters around. His unfortunate inactivity has left him a little unappreciated for his talents. His last outing against Dejan Zlaticanin on January 28 was a devastating performance against an undefeated fighter. Garcia took Zlaticanin to school and KO’d him. It was a very good performance.
Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum denies giving him “cold treatment” following his loss to Jeff Horn last Saturday night in Brisbane, Australia. Arum says he’s friendly with Pacquiao, and he doesn’t know how the talk of him being cold got started.
Pacquiao lost his WBO welterweight title to Horn in losing a 12 round unanimous decision at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
According to the Manila Times, Aquiles Zonio, Pacquiao’s media relations head, said that Arum had given “cold treatment” during the fight with Jeff Horn.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has improved since Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez first met him 8 years ago when Canelo was only 19, but he’s still not good enough to beat GGG, says Sanchez. Canelo and Golovkin will be meeting up in a big fight in a little over 2 months from now on September 16 on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
As reported previously by Boxing News 24, WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders will be making his next defense against former world title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6 KOs) on September 16 at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.
Saunders vs. Monroe is still not official though. There was a press release sent out this past week saying Saunders’ next fight would be announced on July 4. That didn’t happen, so we’ll have to wait for the official word. Never the less, Monroe Jr. is the one that is being talked about as Saunders’ opponent.
PHILIPPINE boxing legend Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday urged the World Boxing Organization (WBO) to review the “unfair decision and officiating” after losing his welterweight title to Australia’s Jeff Horn.
Pacquiao endorsed a formal call by the Philippines’ Games and Amusement Board for the WBO to review the outcome of Sunday’s fight in Brisbane.
“I love boxing and I don’t wanna see it dying because of unfair decision and officiating,” Pacquiao, 38, said in a statement issued by his office.
Boxing is a fringe sport with a limited number of casual viewers and a much smaller cadre of dedicated fans—those who can name more than five or six current champions out of the sixty-eight possible slots. Other barriers to following the sport include constantly changing champions, worldwide nationalities (and with it, worldwide names), lack of cohesive schedules, and most importantly, lack of coverage by the general sports media.
Andre Berto is picking Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to defeat Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 16, and he sees him beating him by a knockout. That’s Berto’s prediction. Berto says that if the fight had taken place 2 years ago, he might have felt differently, but Golovkin is coming off of a performance against Danny Jacobs were he didn’t look so good in Berto’s mind.
Manny Pacquiao wasn’t making a big production about his loss to Jeff Horn in the immediate aftermath of the fight last Saturday night, but he sure is crying crocodile tears now, complaining that he was setup and going on about the officiating for the fight. Pacquiao is starting to sound REALLY bitter about his loss.
IT was a relatively short workday for Filipino champion Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas at the “Battle of Brisbane” last Sunday after stopping challenger Teiru Kinoshita of Japan by technical knockout in the seventh round of their scheduled 12-rounder.
But the still IBF junior bantamweight titleholder said that had it went the full distance he was nonetheless ready.
