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Ricky Hatton doesn't want anyone to blame David Haye for the lackluster fight with Audley Harrison. Hatton places the full blame on Harrison. It was hyped to be a war between two British rivals, but Haye crushed Harrison in three rounds to retain his WBA heavyweight title at the MEN Arena in Manchester on Saturday night.
Audley Harrison may walk away from boxing after a disappointing three round TKO loss to WBA heavyweight champion David Haye on Saturday in Manchester. Harrison barely got anything going and was overwhelmed by power punches from Haye in the third. Harrison did very little in the three rounds of the fight. He says the strategy was to make Haye throw his punches for the first few rounds and then turn up the heat in the second half of the fight.
At the Doubletree Hotel, Ontario, California, junior welterweight Josesito Lopez (28-3, 16KOs) stopped Sergio Rivera (25-6-2, 16KOs) in three rounds. Lopez began to pick up his punch count in the second round and then really let the punches go in the third. He dropped Rivera with hard right. Lopez went back on the attack to force Rivera to a knee. For whatever reason Rivera stayed on one knee, he did not get up and allowed the referee to issue a full ten count.
Former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has suffered a rib injury in training and notified the necessary parties that he is unable to move forward with his scheduled fight with Brian Vera on the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito card on November 13 in Cowboys Stadium in Texas. Pavlik was going to face Vera at a catch-weight of 164-pounds in what might have been a springboard to a March showdown with IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. Canadian scribe Angel Fernandez first reported the story on Pavlik's injury.
Lenny Zappavigna earned a world title shot by knocking out the dangerous Ji Hoon Kim in the first round of their IBF lightweight eliminator. Zappavigna (25-0, 17KOs) knocked Kim (21-7, 18KOs) down twice in the first 90 seconds of their fight at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.
With only thirty seconds remaining in the twelfth and final round, Australia's Daniel Geale secured a shot at the IBF middleweight by stopping former junior middleweight champion Roman Karmazin at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre. The bout was a final eliminator.
At the Palais des Sports Porte de Versailles, in Paris, France, WBA interim world cruiserweight champion, but fighting as a heavyweight, Steve Herelius (21-1, 12KOs) won a unanimous eight round decision over battle tested Roman Kracik (31-5, 17KOs). The fight took place five pounds above the cruiserweight division.
At the Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, heavyweight Eric Martel (5-0, 3KOs) won a close six round decision over Stephane Tessier (3-26-1). A score of 58-56 was tallied on all three cards. Martel struggled in the contest and got rocked several times during course of the fight.
The Houston Chronicle reports that former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Reggie "Sweet" Johnson was sentenced to twelve years in prison by a Houston court. Johnson, 44-years-old, was convicted of taking more than a $100,000 dollars for summer boxing camps in 2007 and 2008, but the camps never materialized. Johnson's last fight was in February 2008 where he won a twelve round split decision over Julio Cesar Gonzalez.
A few days ago on BoxingScene.com, undefeated junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan challenged former three division champion Shane Mosley to a fight. Vanes issued the challenge after reading a BoxingScene interview with Oscar De La Hoya, where the Golden Boy Promotions President stated that Mosley was ready to face anyone at any time. The challenge didn't end there. As noted below, a exchange broke out when Vanes challenged Mosley directly on his personal Twitter account.