3,425 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Cliff Rold byline.
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The big question heading to the circus last weekend was would we be entertained? The answer was yes. When the circus is done right, it’s meant to entertain. Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor wasn’t much of a fight; there was never really any doubt about who was going to win. But it was fun and they put on a good show. For those who followed the build including watching the initial press conferences
Whatever one thinks about it, we’ve arrived at the biggest boxing event of the year (Showtime PPV, 9 PM EST/6 PM PST). If you miss it, years of history says Showtime will replay the festivities in one week for the cost of a standard monthly subscription. It will be the biggest replay of the year by then. In boxing, biggest is a simple concept. The fight that makes the most money and has the most people watching is the biggest.
In an IBF final middleweight eliminator, Sergiy Derevyanchenko (11-0, 9 KOs) dropped, battered and stopped Tureano Johnson (20-2, 14 KOs) in the twelfth round. The contest was the headline bout of a special Friday night edition of Premier Boxing Champions TOE-TO-TOE TUESDAYS on FS1 from Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma.
Middleweight hopeful Hugo Centeno took a big step forward just two fights after losing his undefeated mark. In victory, he got to pass the lesson along to someone else. The 26-year old Centeno (26-1, 14 KO), 158 ¾, of Oxnard, California, needed only a single left hook to end the night for a no longer undefeated 23-year old Immanuwel Aleem (17-1-1, 10 KO), 158 ¾, of Richmond, Virginia. The referee was Gerald Ritter.
By Cliff Rold - Let there be only one request: No crying on Sunday. By now, everyone should know what they’re getting into this weekend. The circus is in town and the line to the geek show tent has formed. This is an event; a happening. It ain’t much of a sporting event. Floyd Mayweather, a great boxer, is going to...
There’s something about Terence Crawford. t’s not just how good he is in the ring. That much has been evident for quite some time. Perhaps it is best conveyed in the expression he wears in the ring. Crawford isn’t just serious. There is a sneer, a quality that once might have been called surly, as he goes about his work. Crawford can outbox almost anyone. He seems to enjoy doing more than that.
A fight to unify all four major sanctioning body titles in a weight class is so rare that it’s only happened once since the WBO was born in the 1980s. In 2004, the already undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins knocked out Oscar De La Hoya to become even more undisputed. He added the WBO strap to his WBC/WBA/IBF trifecta. He kept all four belts for one fight, losing to Jermain Taylor in 2005.
By Cliff Rold - Title unification was never easy. That was true well before the WBC broke away from the WBA in the 1960s. In the 1930s, the middleweight and flyweight titles had a slew of claimants to the world title. Everyone was making enough money that holding off on ultimate ‘unification’ took...
There is beauty in boxing that would be ugly anywhere else. On Tuesday in Japan, we saw one of those moments. Longtime bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka was under heavy fire. A younger, stronger man was putting all sorts of leather to him but he hadn’t fallen. He was still throwing.
History is close. With one more win, Shinsuke Yamanaka can tie for the most consecutive title defenses of any fighter, in any division, in Japanese history. Thirteen defenses would equal Hall of Famer Yoko Gushiken, a fantastic Jr. Flyweight in the 1970s. Looming even larger is another number: 16.