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IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (24-0, 19 KOs) was crushing when we stopped Fulgencio Zuniga (22-4-1, 19 KOs) in the fourth round of their championship bout at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
At the Kingsway Leisure Centre in Widnes, Cheshire, Paul McCloskey (19-0, 9KOs) retained his British junior welterweight title with a fourth-round stoppage of Dean Harrison (14-2, 4KOs).
On March 24, at the Centro de Convenciones Atlapa in Panama City, Panama, Hugo Cazares (27-5, 20KOs) will take on Roberto Vasquez for the WBA Fedelatin super flyweight title. A crossroads bout for both fighters as they look to springboard into a major title shot.
Marco Antonio Barrera and Amir Khan took to the scales for the lightweight clash tomorrow in Manchester at the MEN Arena. Khan made the weight with no issues, coming in at 134.5-pounds. Barrera may have had some trouble. He had to strip naked to make the limit, hitting 135 on the nose after taking off every piece of clothing. After stepping off the scales, Barrera began to quickly drink water.
Most boxing fans were throwing shoes at their computers when BoxingScene.com broke the news of Kelly Pavlik's probable summer opponent, Sergio Mora (21-1-1, 5 KOs). The last time we saw Mora, last September, he was getting his head knocked in for twelve rounds by junior middleweight champion Vernon Forrest. Mora's reward for that beating is a major title shot against a much bigger and stronger fighter. If the fight gets finalized next week, it would take place on June 20, July 18 or July 25 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
WBO interim-junior middleweight champion Paul Williams has fought above the welterweight limit for nearly a year. After knocking out Carlos Quintana last June at 147, he jump two weight classes in September to stop Andy Kolle at the middleweight limit of 160-pounds. Two months later he went down to 154 and stopped Verno Phillips for the interim title. On April 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Williams jumps back to 160 to face Winky Wright.
The event will be called "Champion vs. Champion." On April 25 at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa (54-6-2, 36 KOs) moves up in weight to challenge undefeated WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (24-0, 22 KOs). The fight will be televised by HBO.
According to writer Dave Meltzer, former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman is seriously being considered to replace Ken Shamrock on the pay-per-view undercard to Roy Jones Jr. vs. Omar Sheika on March 21.
Promoter Frank Warren has made a request to the WBO to sanction this Saturday's lightweight bout between Amir Khan and Marco Antonio Barrera as a mandatory eliminator for a title shot. The fight takes place at the MEN Arena in Manchester. Barrera is ranked at number 1 and Khan is ranked at 10. Because they are the two highest ranked available lightweights, Warren says the sanctioning body should make the fight a final eliminator.
WBO/IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has set a deadline date of March 21 to reach a deal with David Haye. Their fight would take place on June 20 in Germany. Over the last few months, the sides can't seem to reach an agreement and problems continue to come up. Klitschko's side will continue to negotiate until next weekend.