The month of August is a tricky one in the boxing business – on the promotional side at least. Nowadays the month is the sport’s close season in this country, a much shorter hiatus than in the old days when the shutdown ran from the eve of the Derby in June through to September.
Frank Warren, promoter of WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12KOs), spoke to BoxingScene.com to explain the recent turn of events with respect to the negotiations to have Saunders appear on the HBO Pay-Per-View undercard to Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith, which takes place on September 17th at AT&T Stadium in Texas.
Red-hot New Malden Super-Middleweight Lerrone Richards is delighted to have signed a long-term promotional agreement with Queensberry Promotions. Undefeated Richards, 4-0 1 KO, will make his eagerly-anticipated debut under the Queensberry Promotions banner in a six round contest at the Nordoff Robins Charity Dinner Show on Monday 24th October.
My recent purse bid win could prove pivotal to the career of our unbeaten middleweight Tommy Langford. The 27-year-old holds the mandatory spot for the British title held by Chris Eubank jnr and after winning the right to stage the fight, Eubank will have to put up or shut up.
The BBBoC released this month’s Championship circular today to clarify the British title situation and announce some key eliminators. With the heavyweight title currently vacant, the Board dropped straight to cruiserweight to reveal that Ovil McKenzie (25-12-1, 13 KOs) will defend the his title against Craig Kennedy (15-0, 8 KOs) on a Frank Warren-promoted bill at the Manchester Arena on October 29
Birmingham’s undefeated Tommy Langford (17-0; 6KO’s) will challenge Chris Eubank Jr (23-1; 18KO’s) for the British Middleweight Championship after promoter Frank Warren today won the purse bid to stage the fight.
In my opinion, there are very few – if any – more naturally gifted boxers on the British scene than Paul Butler, who trades punches under the ring moniker of the ‘Baby Faced Assassin’.
The live action continues on BoxNation this weekend from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, the home patch of one of the pound-for-pound greats of the sport. Andre Ward calls himself ‘Son of God’ and, while that might be stretching it a bit, he is something special. He beat everyone who was there to be beaten at super middleweight, emerging unscathed from the Super Six tournament, defeating the likes of Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham – all well respected world champions in their own right – when they were in their pomp.
When Tyson Fury dislodged Wladimir Klitschko from his firmly rooted perch last November the heavyweight scene, for the first time in a long while, captured the imagination again.
Over the years there has always been the nagging worry when British boxers head Stateside that the scoring of fights can be somewhat haphazard, resulting in a long-held dread of trusting the judges to correctly deliver a verdict.