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At the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Gbenga Oloukun (17-1, 10KOs) won a razor-clsoe eight round decision over former heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster (35-5, 30KOs). The scores were 77-75, 77-75 and 79-76. Brewster allowed himself to get outworked in the early rounds and then couldn't pull out the knockout punch when he sensed the fight was on the table and Oloukun was starting to tire.
Trainer Teddy Atlas is back in the training game after hooking up with undefeated Alexander Povetkin, the 2004 Olympic gold medal winner and IBF mandatory challenger to Wladimir Klitschko. Atlas trained heavyweight champions Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer. One day he received a call from Sauerland Event to see if he was interested in training Povetkin, so Atlas flew out to Russia to meet with him.
Australian rivals Danny Green and Anthony Mundine are still going at it. Green is telling Mundine to stop being a disgrace by only taking safe opponents in the ring. Mundine is the IBO middleweight champion and Green has the IBO's cruiserweight title. Several years ago, in 2006, they met in the biggest fight in Australian history. Mundine won a dominating decision that night.
Welterweight prospect Dave Ryan (9-1, 2KOs) will get his biggest test to date when faces former British champion Young Mutley (26-3, 13KOs) on the undercard to Carl Froch's WBC super middleweight title defense against Andre Dirrell on October 17. The even takes place at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham.
Contrary to some of the online reports going around, WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has not been medically cleared to fight Paul Williams on December 5 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Pavlik's manager Cameron Dunkin spoke with Joe Scalzo of The Vindicator.
Trainer Freddie Roach, who handles Manny Pacquiao among others, says the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view will bomb on September 19. He says the recent announcement that Mayweather-Marquez will be shown in movie theaters across the United States is a sign that Golden Boy Promotions, and Mayweather Promotions, have given up on the pay-per-view audience.
If everything goes well on October 10 at the Theatre in Madison Square Garden, WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez and WBA "regular" featherweight champ Yuriorkis Gamboa will meet in 2010. The compete in co-feature bouts on the October 10 card to hype their collision next year.
It appears that former two division champion Zab Judah is refusing to fight on the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Juan Manuel Marquez pay-per-view undercard on September 19 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Judah does not appear pleased with the choice of opponent, Antonio Diaz. Judah was originally scheduled to fight Matthew Hatton, the younger brother of Ricky Hatton. Matthew walked away from the fight with claims that Judah was pushing him to fight at a catch-weight.
The mandatory title defense by WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel will land on either November 14 or December 5. Montiel was ordered by the WBO to make a defense against top challenger Eric Morel. He was given permission to make a voluntary on September 12 against Alex Valdez.
According to sources within the WBO, an order will be issued in the coming months for Rafael Marquez and Daniel Ponce De Leon, the two top contenders, to fight for the vacant WBO super bantamweight title. The order will be pursuant to Juan Manuel Lopez vacating the title for an expected move to the featherweight division.