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At the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1, 8 KOs) got revenge by winning a wide twelve round unanimous decision over Oscar Larios (65-7-1, 41 KOs) to capture the WBC featherweight title. The scores were 119-107, 118-109 and 116-111. Aoh used his boxing skills to dominate early and knocked Larios down in the fourth. Larios tried to stage a rally in the late rounds but it was too late.
Undefeated Roman Martinez (21-0, 12KOs) has a knockout on his mind. He doesn't want his upcoming fight with WBO super featherweight champion Nicky Cook (29-1, 16KOs) to go to the judges. He wants to leaving a lasting impression by stopping Cook in front of his countrymen. The fight takes place on the Barrera-Khan undercard on March 14 at the MEN Arena in Manchester.
Following the lead of Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins, another veteran of the game, Winky Wright, wants to dominate his younger opponent. Hopkins dominated Kelly Pavlik last October. Mosley dominated Antonio Margarito in January, and Wright wants to put on a dominating, career-defining performance against Paul Williams on April 11 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
At The Cube in Campbelltown, Australia, Daniel Geale (25-11-3, 14KOs) stopped Ian MacKillop (25-11-3, 14KOs) in the first round of a middleweight contest. The fight was over before Geale was able to break a sweat. A combination of power punches put MacKillop out for the count. The win sets up a fight with Anthony Mundine on May 27. Mundine is currently ranked at number one by the WBA and getting closer to a potential fight with champion Felix Sturm.
Both camps are not denying that their respective fighters are placing their careers on the line in Manchester on Saturday. Marco Antonio Barrera returned last year after a brief retirement and sees Khan as a stepping stone to winning a fourth title in his fourth weight division. He admits that a loss may end his career. Khan, trying to rebuild himself after being knocked out last September by Breidis Prescott in 54-seconds, says that a loss to Barrera, who is no longer at his best, will cripple his stock as an upper-tier fighter.
The camp of Ali Funeka is irate after learning that the IBF has approved Yuri Romanov vs. Fernando Angulo for the vacant IBF lightweight title. As reported some time ago on BoxingScene.com, Joan Guzman was originally approved by the IBF to face Romanov for the vacant title, but Guzman was later pulled after the IBF learned that he was still under an administrative suspension by the state of Mississippi [for not making weight/moving forward with last year's bout against Nate Campbell].
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa is going to join Manny Pacquiao in camp at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California. According to a report by Philboxing.com, Penalosa will be training under Freddie Roach to prepare for his fight with WBO super bantamweight champ Juan Manuel Lopez on April 25 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Pacquiao is currently training for his May 2 bout with Ricky Hatton.
IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey plans to bring the fight to Miguel Cotto when the two boxers meet on June 13 at New York's Madison Square Garden. Clottey wants to become the first Ghanaian boxer to unify two major world titles by winning Cotto's WBO version on the welterweight title.
As I recently reported, negotiations for Wladimir Klitschko's defense of the WBO/IBF heavyweight titles against David Haye were once again falling apart. Speculation began to build over the weekend that Klitschko's camp had initiated talks to secure unbeaten Chris Arreola as Haye's replacement. The speculation exploded on Monday when a Tuesday media event to officially announce Arreola's April 11 bout with Jameel McCline was unexpectedly "postponed until further notice" by Goossen-Tutor [Arreola's promoters].
According to Alfredo Marchio, promoter of Fulgencio Zuniga, if Marlon Wright is selected as the referee for his fighter's bout with IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute - the fight will not go foward. Marchio does not trust the Montreal ref being involved and he also doesn't want three Canadian judges being selected. The fight takes place this coming Friday at Montreal's Bell Centre and Showtime plans to televise in the United States.