Interesting to see how many new promotional companies have arrived on the scene in four years.
We now have TMT (Mayweather) PBC (Al Haymon) Roc Nation, plus Holyfield, Mike Tyson, and Miguel Cotto have established smaller production/promotional entities. There are way more, with Dana White from UFC looking to make a move.
The other 175 lb champions are Beterbiev, Gvozdyk, and Bivol.
Bivol is with Eddie Hearn so you can probably forget about Kovalev fighting him.
But Beterbiev and Gvozdyk are with Top Rank. Who Kathy Duva is in essence a sham promoter for. So those fights should be easy to make.
If you check Kovalev is with Top Rank as is Gvozdyk.
Bivol is with Ryabinsky's 'World of boxing', and Beterbiev as of 2018 is with PBC, so it's a bit of a soup.
The only two I see fighting each other in the next year is Bivol and Kovalev. Bivol stays busy and is fighting Smith Jr on 9th March.
Beterbiev will most likely fight bums for the foreseeable future and hold the IBF belt for ransom unless he truly wants to challenge himself.
I can't see Gvozdyk risking his belt for a while.
Bivol v Kovalev late this year might happen, but that depends on Buddy McGirts advice to Kova.
One thing preventing certain belt holders sitting on them are the prospects and contenders coming through.
If this gifted but frustrating clown holds another Julio Chavez Jr weight drain catchweight fight early next year, then I'll be pretty much done following his fights, and all but see him as a sell-out.
I'll reserve that decision to wait and see what he does, because it may turn out differently, but his behaviour and lack of respect as the supposed No#1 fighter doesn't bode well. We'll wait and see.
This one belongs with WWF. Is Floyd that desperate he's willing to run around a ring for a second time embarrassing himself?
I've heard he's given himself a financial uppercut and desperate, but in that photo above he looks like he schat himself and is thinking 'what the hell am I doing?'.
Dang! Some salty fans in here. Dude Canelo takes the toughest fights and beats them at their ideal weight. Period.
IMO Canelo taking on these heavier opponents is a strategic move, to see how he takes their shots, extra wt etc., before taking on a solid opponent at 160. Great approach IMO. Honestly I'd like to see him face Charlo..i think Canelo beats both Charlos. Based on his opposition, how could there be any doubt Canelo will not face the best?
Might be salty, or just critical. Being critical is not always a negative thing, it's about cutting through the promotional spin and rhetoric to attempt to discover what's really going on.
Long time boxing fans have to put up with a lot and shell out a lot, so some of us feel we are entitled to question certain figures motives.
I respect Canelo's skills in the ring and he has an impressive resume for still such a young man.
But that resume also conceals some shifty moves, lacking in integrity and respect. Between Cotto and GGG, he fought Liam Smith, at 154, Amir Khan at 155 then a weight drained JCC jr at 164.5.
Overall this time he was indicating that he was ready to fight GGG when he had no intention of doing so.
He binned his 'Middleweight' WBC belt rather than fight a then prime and ready Golovkin.
Is he allowed to do that? Of course. Is it the behaviour of a champion? I'll leave that one open.
Cheers and respect.
Unfortunately, Pac, Gods guidance ain't gonna help at all because it's just a figment of your imagination. Just like winning a decision in Australia was a figment of your imagination.
Jeff Horn is the Devil, Beelzebub, and Baal. He's out to get you, Manny.
It's God's disciples that fvcked the country in the first place, Pac.
All that tax-free status, horde's of poor, uneducated plebians to exploit for cheap labour by multinationals, and a rampant culture of general ignorance equivalent to the 16th C Roman Empire.
Wilder is as ignorant as he is as much as a fraudster. Muah Muah all my opponents are drug cheats, and I knew it before anyone else did.
So why pick the softest touch out of all the cheats you friggin hypocrite?
The Romans put Britain on the map you philistine. Stick to sophisticated ducking and cease trying to comment on history you fool.
When you raise your hands after pounding Stiverne, nobody will be awake or care.
Same old tricks just different faces. It's all designed to try and force Joshua into doing what they want, as well as unsettle him.
As much as I can't attest to the emotional state of AJ, from what I've seen at how he handles himself, his philosophy on dealing with the theatrics outside of the ring, I doubt he gives a hoot.
His foundation for staying sane and grounded is that the only thing he takes seriously is his training and inside the ropes. The rest is not worth getting caught up in, because he said it himself - boxing is stressful enough without adding all the other nonsense.
He just lets the social media warriors and circus performers do their thing and leaves it at that.
Hyping a fight, trash-talk, psychological warfare and the rest of it are all necessary and mostly enjoyable parts of our sport- I'm not against it I actually see it as a fundamental part of selling tickets and building tension.
everyone has a role to play, and AJ's is the laid back, take it or leave it, let's wait till we get in the ring type of guy.
The only reason fans will take notice of a potential Joshua rematch is if he blasts Whyte out of the ring, then goes to the states and knocks out Wilder.
The only thing it should make you is into a serious defense fighter who explodes with combinations then goes into hedgehog whether on your feet or defensive style.
Why for ****s sake is it so hard for a fighter to admit to the press what he already knows himself?
You're not fooling a anyone.
BS.
Haymon, Finkel and the WBC have such a cosy relationship Wilder is waiting for some lesser fighter to fluke a win over A.J. - then see how quickly he makes the fight.
Second to that Wilder is playing the waiting game in the hope AJ and Fury battle, with Fury coming out with the belts. Kaching!
Wilder keeps telling us how easy it is to make a fight happen, yet he went super quiet when AJ landed in the U.S. and could have stepped in or at least offered when Miller blew his chance.
Thing is, time is on A.J’s side. Wilder has two years before it’s considered too late.
Wilder simply doesn’t want to fight A.J and this is the very typical play straight out of the Haymon textbook.
Those that claim the Fury fight disproves all this forget that Fury was considered to be jumping in waaay to early, and yet he still managed to totally outbox Wilder.
This fight is never going to happen until everything aligns for Haymon.
In other words, he has realised his career is over and is going to cash in before checking out. Rabchenko is an old Mundine victim and purely a tune-up. Khan- well that should be interesting - depending on what Kahan has achieved for the time being.
Threatening to ban the sport will do little to clean up amateur boxing, which has been so corrupt it is not funny. The Olympics really highlights the corruption to a wider audience, as I've seen blatantly biased scoring, overturned decisions and more.
If they're serious about cleaning up the sport then the law needs to get involved, people charged and jailed as well as an investigation into past practices and recommendations for new checks and balances.
Acrimony or not - the question still stands: Eubank Jr appears to have all a fighter needs in order to succeed at the highest level.
So is his Dad a bad influence on him, Is there relationship holding Jr back somehow, OR is Jr so arrogant that he listens to no one, believing he doesn't need help?
This is the second time Jr has been exposed by a better boxer. Saunders and Groves are not even close to the best boxers in the world, so Jr obviously either needs to improve his boxing skills or dedicate himself to becoming a pressure fighter. He supposedly trains all year round and is in great condition all the time, but I'm still bewildered by his move up to 168 that was sudden and inexplicable.
It will be very interesting to see what kind of AJ comes out against Pulev after his transformative experience if you like against Ruiz Jr, where he had to abandon his come forward power punching style and revert to stick and move on the toes boxing.
What style has Joshua now settled into if any? Some fighters, like Joe Parker, seem to vacillate between being a boxer puncher to a boxer, which doesn't typically work out well for those HW's who are known to have concussive power, and are convinced by certain trainers to take the safety first style similar to Wlad Klitschko who became a saftey first jab and grab HW.
I estimate A.J being smart enough to employ whatever style suits him to beat an opponent- and Pulev might be a tough old Bulgarian with a 50% KO percentage but he has fought some real quality opposition including Wlad, Samuel Peter, Chisora, Hugie fury and Kevin Johnson.
Only I KO loss to Wlad in the middle rounds which is no disgrace. Although 39, A.J needs to focus less on Fury and more on whats in front of him - it's that exact same attitude that seemingly bought him undone against Ruiz Jr,
Business as usual for the WBA, wait for the announcement of the bridge weight division - taking a tug on the heart-strings story to introduce a ridiculous additional division with another three belts.
The one time I'd love to see the IRS investigate these bottom feeders.
Possibly the shortest reign in history as a modern undisputed champion. Goddamn as you yanks say.
Bet Crawford gets ranked at least No 1, if not No 2 by all the alphabelts. Wonder what the most exciting fight for him a WW is? Thurman?
This is a great potential match-up on paper.
However, Saunders is a fleet-footed boxer, who has next to no chance of beating up Canelo who has yet to taste the canvas against far bigger and better opposition.
As long as Golden Boy promotions get the venue it wants, and the judges are agreeable then Alvarez will already be feeling confident he can get through 12 rounds and either KO saunders or get the decision.
BJS will have to either invoke the spirit of Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson or transform himself into a Mike Tyson, Earnie Shavers, Julian Jackson with a granite chin.
What is most likely to transpire?
Yeah the “race card” lol....it’s funny that the people playing the race card tell you you’re playing the race card for calling out their racism. The new racism is to deny there is any racism.....especially by those who operate out of racism and are deplorably racist. Racism in boxing is EASY to spot. But of course, those who operate out of that mindset HATE being called out......racists hate being called racist.
That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
If it did I could say you are applying a logical fallacy, but it's so incoherent it doesn't even qualify as coherent speech.
Obviously and finally the truth about Canelo is out.
He is a Floyd protegé and fighting Murata is hardly exciting.
So many options for him - Andrade, Charlo, GGG III, Smith, hell even Munguia would have shown that Canelo has some cajones - but no he is content in chasing down fights he is confident he will win and he's supposed to be within the top 2 P4P fighters.
I enjoy watching Canelo fight - he has an exciting style but has become so arrogant and dismissive of even his own promotional team his vapid personality rises above all else.
I sure hope this is a stay busy fight of sorts for Jacobs, not that Arias is a record padder, but there would have almost certainly been much bigger name fights out there for Jacobs, perhaps Lemmy, Charlo, BJS, Derevyachenko, Korobov even Martin Murray. Arias is not a well-known commodity, so I expect Danny to man up and show us his guts and balls if he gets through this fight and really give us a potential barn burner.
As long as 50-50 fights are being made at 175, I don't care that much about who fights who - I just want to see fights.
The LHW division has been quiet for a while now and given the amount of talent in the division, there ought to be a hell of a lot more.
I doubt Kovalev will do anything other than what most fighters do nowadays - take the fight that offers the lowest risk for the highest reward, which becomes more prominent as a fighter enters their mid to late thirties.
Beterbiev is no spring chicken and is probably trying to build up pressure and interest in a fight that would probably do decent numbers.
But Kovalev is the one holding the cards, despite being a little older, as he has better brand recognition, and at the moment he has options.
A fight with Yarde would likely do well, as it would be the first real test for the much hyped up and comer from the U.K along with the fact that Sergiy has been hot and cold in recent years, meaning it's very likely it could turn out to be a real barnburner.
He could also choose to cash out if the Canelo rumours are true; but GBP's way of doing business will likely mean they will want to see how Kovalev fairs against Yarde, although I could be wrong as Canelo will likely want a belt for his troubles.
I just want to see some quality fights darn it!
For GGG it's really quite simple and simply frustrating - similar to the lack of variety A.J displayed against Usyk: He needs to use feints, and work the body.
For both fighters, feinting and especially a lack of solid body punching appeared to be the crucial missing ingredient.
If GGG comes out headhunting, then one may as well raise Canelo's hand by round 4.
Similarly, we saw how effective A.J. was in Round 9 of their rematch when he attacked the body, though even then his lack of creative combination punching was glaring.
hes fighting same dudes Jermall charlo be fighting
Is that an attempt to justify Andrade's woeful level of opposition?
That Charlo has fought woeful opposition most of his career too, so it's acceptable?
And the closest you'll ever get to fighting Canelo is in your imagination Jermall.
Uncle Al won't allow such a risk, Canelo isn't interested and the WBC obliged by elevating him to 'Franchise Champion.'
You'll be fighting nobodies until Uncle Al decides it's time time to throw you to the lions to make way for new talent.
I don't understand why some are quick to dismiss Kelly.
Of course, he has a showy, bombastic, self-assured style that can irritate people, but I think if he can back it up with convincing wins, all power to him.
Ruiz is potentially dangerous regardless of his weight ( within reason ), but I couldn’t help but wonder had he come in at 240 if he might have been a bit sharper.
I’m not sure how much is attributable to the fight being mostly uneventful- was AJ just too mobile or was Ruiz not to press harder and throw more.
I admire Ruiz’s skills, but have heard different reports stating that he isn’t completely focused on boxing which is a
The answer is quite simple: He's become just like Floyd Mayweather.
Just like Mayweather, his skills are recognised, but the way he does business, the cynical method he employs in selecting opponents and the way he treats others leave a lot to be desired.
I enjoy watching Canelo fight. But I also believe he is carrying on a harmful, selfish, cynical, and ultimately damaging legacy refined by Mayweather.
I don’t quite understand this recent trend of bringing along prospects into the professional ranks post 30 years old.
It’s becoming more popular and seems especially fashionable in Eastern Europe.
I suppose if a fighter starts his career late then it’s understandable- but having your first pro fight at 30 is not ideal - even more so if you’re tied to PBC who produce roughly one fight a year for each of their charges.