Jennings: Im underdog against Cotto VIDEO
31.12.08
Chorley Welterweight Michael Jennings is relishing his opportunity to step into the Madison Square Garden next year to take on the former world champion Miguel Cotto.
Known by many as 'The Lurcher' he admits to the Chorley Guardian, that he is indeed a underdog in this proposed fight :-
"It is going to be difficult as I go over there as the massive underdog against Cotto as he is strong in every department."
"I am really buzzing about the fight and especially because it is being held at Madison Square Garden where all the top fighters have boxed.
"It would be great if I could write a little piece of history for myself by winning there.
The Top Rank show on February the 21st will be a double header, going out live across the states.
The second half of the show will be transmitted from Atlantic City as Kelly Pavlik looks to rebound from his loss at 170lb, by taking on strong challenger Marco Antonio Rubio for his middleweight WBC and WBO world titles.
Jennings discusses his band, fighting Miguel Cotto and his love of the Stone Roses :-
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Haye set to fight Vitali as Wlad faces Arreola
29.12.08
David 'the Hayemaker' Haye looks set to miss out on fighting his No1 target, the current WBO and IBF heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko.
Instead he will almost certainly face the arguably tougher, more seasoned and older brother of Wladimir... Vitali Klitschko.
Vitali, who retired from the sport for nearly 4 years following a long standing injury, last month returned with a bang by halting the tough 'Nigerian Nightmare' Samuel Peter and also relieved him of his old WBC title.
Prior to fighting Samuel Peter, Vitali's last fight in 2004 against another Londoner in Danny Williams. He was knocked out in 8 one sided rounds by the 6'7.5 fighter known as Dr Iron Fist.
Danny Williams is the same height as David Haye at 6'3 tall. However for the Vitali fight, Danny weighed in at a monstrous 270lb, compared to the Ukranian's usual weight of 250lb.
David Haye is svelte in comparison to Danny Williams. Haye weight just 226lb in his official heavyweight debut against Monte Barret last month. His lean muscled torso lacked none of it's strength against the bigger opponent and his fast hands have also travelled up from cruiser weight.
Aged 37 years, Vitali is almost 10 years older than Haye. But many regard the mid 30's as the prime for a heavyweight fighter and whilst some may argue that Vitali's 4 years of inactivity may hinder him, it could also be seen as a positive, in the fact that he is well rested and has not been in any intense wars for years.
Vitali has 2 defeats. The first defeat was when he had to withdraw from his fight with Chris Byrd after tearing the rotator cuff in his shoulder.
His second defeat was via stoppage in the 6th round of his fight with Lennox Lewis. Dr. Paul Wallace ended the fight after deciding the cuts to brave Vitali's face were to severe to allow the Ukranian to fight on.
Many claim that Lewis was losing the fight before Vitali was stopped. Vitali has often asked Lennox to return from retirement to afford him a rematch.
The venue for the David Haye vs Vitali Klitschko is still under review. Many of London's leading football stadiums have offered to stage the fight, which is believed to be going ahead in June 2009.
Meanwhile Wladimir Klitschko looks set to defend his titles against Chris Arreola. The unbeaten American has 26 wins with 23 KO's and is believed to be signing to fight the 1996 Olympic gold medallist in mid-May at a venue to be agreed.
Vitali Klitschko vs Lennox Lewis in 2003 :-
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Will Paul Williams punish Winky Wright
28.12.08
Paul 'The Punisher' Williams (36-1, 27ko) is understood to be the likely opponent for the long awaited return of Ronald Winky Wright (51-4, 25ko).
Winky has not fought since July 2007 in his points loss to the Executioner, Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas. That fight was fought at 170lb but the proposed Williams showdown will be set at Ronald's natural weight which is the 160lb Middleweight limit.
Originally Winky was looking for a rematch with former-middleweight and now super-middleweight Jermain Taylor (28-2-1, 17ko). HBO indicated that this would be the case but following a lack of interest from the public, plus negotiations not running as smoothly as hoped, it has now made way for Wright vs Williams early in 2009.
This potentially paves the way for the match up between Carl the Cobra Froch, the WBC super middleweight champion from Nottingham, England to face Taylor, who has been instilled as his immeadiate mandatory challenger.
Taylor was due to fight Froch for the vacant title, but Taylor's handlers took a fight with Jeff Lacy at HBO's insistence.
Negotiations between Hennessy Sports and Dibella entertainement are already believed in tentative stages, with Lou Dibella and Mick Hennessy exploring the details together.
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Hatton vs Pacquiao looks set for May 2nd 2009
26.12.08
Ricky Hatton, the fighting pride of Manchester, England looks set for another epic tilt at the current reigning 'pound for pound' king.
Manny Pacquiao now holds that fabled boxing 'title' after Hatton's conqueror Floyd Mayweather retired last year.
Team Pacquiao, promoted by Bob Arum's Top Rank organisation have been in talks to all concerned including the American promoters of Hatton, Goldenboy promotions.
The fight looks dead set to be bank-rolled by a big spending Vegas Casino and HBO sports, in a mouth watering fight between the two most popular active fighters in boxing today.
Neither have unblemished unbeaten records, which seem so in vogue these days to some purists, but they both possess the fighting heart of a lion.
Hatton has bulldozed and smashed his way through every conceivable threat at 140lbs including the future hall of famer and widely regarded 'best ever' light welterweight in Kostya Tszyu, who was pound for pound no3 when derailed by Ricky Hatton.
Ricky came up short last December against Floyd Mayweather and wasn't helped a great deal by the overly fussy referee, Joe Cortez who continually pulled Hatton away from Mayweather throughout the fight.
Manny, meanwhile known as the 'Mexicutioner' on account of defeating the likes of Barerra, Morales, Marquez and De La Hoya - has been defeated 3 times in total. He lost in 1996 to Rustico Torrecampo whilst campaigning at 110lbs before being defeated whilst challenging for the WBC Flyweight title in 1999 against Medgoen Singsurat.
Pacquiao went 6 years, wiping out Marco Antonio Barerra by 11th round TKO and managed a draw against Juan Manuel Marquez before suffering his third defeat (by points) against Erik Morales for the WBA and IBF Featherweight titles.
He avenged that loss by being the first opponent to stop Morales, which he did in the 11th round of their rematch. Manny then brushed aside seasoned veteran Oscar Larios before that same year, fighting Morales for a third time and knocking out the mexican inside 3 one-sided rounds.
Physically, they both stand at around 5'6 and have the same reach at 67". Hatton carries the muscular, stocky power as opposed to Manny who is more athletic and lean in appearance.
Both can be cut, but it is Hatton who has suffered serious cuts throughout his career and it will always be a factor whenever he fights. Pacquiao also carries that huge advantage over Ricky Hatton in the fact that he is a southpaw.
Hatton has always struggled badly against southpaw opponents. He was floored for the first time in his career against tough Irish puncher, Eamonn Magee in 2002. He was also very lucky to grind out a close win over tough southpaw Welterweight, Luis Collazo in Boston some 3 years ago whilst challenging for Collazo's WBA title.
They are both aged 30, with Manny perhaps having the fresher appearance despite having plenty of wars of his own.
The bookies will likely favour the skills and speed of Pacquiao, but this author feels that Hatton will be simply too big and strong at 140lb for Pacquiao to assert himself on. Ricky's boxing skills are vastly underated by many, but Mayweather Senior himself has been impressed by what he has found to date and hopefully will be employed to hone those skills further ahead of this mouthwatering match-up next summer.
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Brian Magee crowned British 168lb champion
13.12.08
Brian Magee (31-3, 21ko) stopped Scotsman Steve McGuire (14-1, 4ko) for the vacant British Super middleweight title with a classy body shot landed right at the end of the 8th round tonight on a Hennessy promoted show at the Brentwood centre in Brentwood.
Mcguire was dropped twice earlier in the fight with body shots and from then on was targeted to the mid section by the Belfast man.
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Calzaghe: Id stop Froch in 3 rounds
11.12.08
Joe Calzaghe has denied a fight with Carl Froch interests him and declared that if they should ever meet, that he would stop Froch in a handful of rounds.
"To be honest, he's like a boy. He's a limited fighter. He has no defence, he throws single shots and he would make me look great" said the undefeated Welshman.
"People keep saying 'just fight the guy' you'd knock him out in three rounds.' I probably would knock Froch in three rounds. But it doesn't mean anything.
"I need to fight guys who are going to improve my legacy. I need to fight guys I can be motivated to fight as a champion.
"He only won a belt that I'd given up and the guy he beat wasn't any good. I'm fed up with people just mouthing me off and saying disrespectful things"
I don't like the guy so why would I want to give him a payday?"
Calzaghe may just be playing the game, as he is aware that Froch's promoter, Mick Hennessy is preparing a bumper purse offer to the Cardiff champion for a catchweight fight with his steed.
Statistically Froch has knocked out 8 of his last 10 opponents, wheras Calzaghe has managed to stop 3 of his last 10 opponents, but has arguably fought a higher level of opposition.
In total Calzaghe has been floored 4 times in an unbeaten career spanning 46 fights.
Froch, also unbeaten as a professional has never been put down as an amateur or professional and demonstrated a granite chin in the previous weekend's WBC blockbuster with Canadian Jean Pascal.
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Demetrius Hopkins to stand in for Torres
09.12.08
The nephew of Bernard Hopkins has been announced as the replacement for the Light Welterweight 140lb WBO world title fight with Kendall Holt after the withdrawal of Ricardo Torres.
Hopkins was originally scheduled to fight Germaine Sanders on the undercard of Saturday's bout.
"Demetrius had been training hard for his fight with Germaine" said his manager Mr Dunkin
"He has redoubled his efforts," said Dunkin. "He knows he needs to lose three more pounds but he will be on weight by Wednesday. He has completely devoted himself to being ready for this fight
"This is a fight that he has wanted for a long time. His first world title fight; we have wanted this for a long time. I am excited and proud that he will get the chance on Saturday. "
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Froch wins thriller in 'possible Fight of the Year'
07.12.08
Last night Carl Froch won the WBC super middleweight title in epic style after outpointing the courageous Canadian Jean Pascal last night in front of a packed Nottingham Trent FM arena promoted by Hennessy Sports.
Both fighters threw away their game plans and had a toe to toe battle for the first half of the fight, with both warriors courageously landing bombs. In a fight reminiscent of Hagler vs Hearns, the opening round began with Froch unloading a quick hard combination which back up Pascal to the ropes, before the Canadian came roaring back to unleash his own power shots.
Pascal, who looked huge at the weight, attacked Froch to the body with leading left hooks before throwing the big rand hand over the top. Froch, renowned for his granite beard took every full blooded shot the Canadian could muster, before throwing his own trademark uppercuts and looping right hand leads.
Neither man took a backward step and an early finish looked inevitable. Yet after a raucous 5th round, which saw Pascal land some devastating shots after the bell, it seemed that Pascal needed to take a breather. At this point Froch finally began using his long reach and jabbed Pascal for long spells.
Right at the end of the round Froch was caught on the ropes by Pascal and a small cut was sustained on the left eye. The corner team controlled the blood and Froch began the next round as he finished the last, behind his rakish jab and spear-like right hand. Pascal's eyes were swelling.
Froch was now seemingly edging the fight but Pascal was still strong and dangerous - and continued to muster bursts of power shots, even if his movement and workrate had declined.
The final round began with both men touching gloves and nodding at each other with respect. Just when you thought both men were spent, the fight ignited into yet another war. McCracken's advice of 'box & move' fell on deaf ears as Froch traded bombs with Pascal right until the final bell.
The arena raised to it's feet with raucous cheering for both men who had put on a thrilling display. Both men poured it all out in the ring and the crowd in attendance knew it.
The final scorecards of 118-110, 117-111 and a more realistic 116-112 unanimously for Froch rung out over the MC's microphone and the Arena burst into applause.
Froch, graciously went straight to Pascal and his team and congratulated them on a tremendous performance and told Jean Pascal how he is a tremendous warrior who will definitely be champion himself one day soon.
But last night belonged to The Cobra and his loyal army of fans. See his post-fight interview below:-
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