6,750 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Mark Vester byline.
Every story follows our editorial policy. To report a mistake, use our corrections form; for anything else, contact us.
After suffering tough defeats over the weekend in Austin, Texas, two former champions, Carlos Hernandez and Jesus Chavez, are facing possible retirement. Both fighters had successful careers that were filled with big fights, good money, pay-per-view slots, numerous televised showcases and title belts. And both fighters plan to sit down to decide if retirement is the right option.
Top Rank's Bob Arum says the record needs to be set straight in the lightweight division. Last weekend in Austin, Texas, knockout king Edwin Valero (25-0, 25KOs) captured the WBC lightweight title by stopping Antonio Pitalua in two rounds. Now Valero has set his sights on the big names at the weight. One name in particular is WBO/WBA champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
How much trust is David Haye investing in Lennox Lewis? Well, five minutes after Haye signed a contract to fight WBO/IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on June 20, he called Lewis on the phone for advise. During a conversation with UK scribe Steve Bunce, Haye revealed that Lewis, the former undisputed heavyweight champ, has some great ideas on how to approach the fight.
A few weeks ago, the news broke that a proposed Bernard Hopkins vs. Tomasz Adamek bout had fallen apart. Adamek, the IBF cruiserweight champion, considered the offer of $500,000 dollars, from Hopkins and Golden Boy Promotions, to be a lowball offer that undervalued his drawing power in New Jersey, where the fight was likely going to land. Kathy Duva of Main Events went on the record and said her fighter made the same amount of money for opponents with much lesser names.
Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0, 19KOs) was not impressed by what he saw over the weekend. On Saturday night in Germany, Alexander Povetkin (17-0, 12KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over Jason Estrada. Dimitrenko and Povetkin are up and coming heavyweights for rival promotional companies in Germany. Dimitrenko with Universum and Povetkin with Sauerland Event.
Over in Puerto Rico, there was a historic boxing gathering. All eight of the current Puerto Rican world champions got together for a very publicized photo session. WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, WBO junior flyweight champion Ivan Calderon, WBO super featerweight champ Roman Martinez, WBO super flyweight champ Jose Lopez, WBO super bantamweight champ Juan Manuel Lopez, WBA junior middleweight champ Daniel Santos, IBA bantamweight champ Victor Fonseca and IBA featherweight champ Orlando Cruz.
At the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (24-0, 11KOs) decisioned WBO champion Kendall Holt (25-3, 13KOs) over twelve rounds to unify the titles. The scores were 114-112, 115-111 and 115-111.
On the undercard to Timothy Bradley-Kendall Holt at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Librado Andrade (28-2, 21KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Vitali Tsypko (22-3, 12KOs) in an IBF super middleweight eliminator. The scores were 117-109, 117-109 and 120-106.
At the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, Edwin Valero (25-0, 25KOs) stopped Antonio Pitalua (46-4, 40KOs) in two rounds to capture the vacant WBC lightweight title. The first time Pitalua was stopped since 1995.
On the undercard to Edwin Valero-Antonio Pitalua at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, Michael Katsidis (25-2, 21KOs) stopped Jesus Chavez (44-5, 30KOs) in seven rounds.