Unfinished Business - Post-Show Report

By Jack Sumner @Jack_Sumner_

Frampton celebrates with his European title.

They predicted a war and they got one.

Carl Frampton had to endure nine rounds of relentless pressure from the aggressive Kiko Martinez, before a hard right hand dropped the Spaniard for the first time in his career and relieved him of his EBU super bantamweight title.

Backed into a corner with fourteen seconds remaining in the ninth session of the bout at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, the ‘Jackal’ delivered the short right with Martinez walking in to transfigure his opponent’s legs into jelly. Kiko the warrior attempted to get up but was back on his feet a little too quickly and after staggering into the ropes, referee Anssi Perajoki called a halt to the contest.

A contest it certainly was though and early in the fight it became clear that Frampton was in deeper than he ever had been before. Martinez had given the cut-throat gestures at the fiery weigh-in and reminded the Northern Irishman of his power in the second round, landing with hurtful shots when Frampton infrequently fought in close. However, the unbeaten challenger kept his head above water by boxing on the back foot, retreating as Martinez bombed forward with menacing pressure.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr one step closer to becoming "great"...

Chavez Jr celebrates victory over Andy Lee.

Yesterday (June 16th), Mexican middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr made the third successful defence of his WBC world title. He did this by stopping top Irish contender Andy Lee in the seventh round.

Going into this fight, I think that Chavez had a hell of a lot of doubters. Many people just thought that he was living in the shadow of his dad and that was the only reason he actually made it in this sport. He was also constantly criticised for taking fights with relatively easy opponents. However, during this fight, he got rid of all doubts in anybodies mind. Lee was definitely a world level fighter and Chavez just looked a level above him from the second round on.

Lee started well and on most people's scorecards won the first two rounds. But, from that point on, Chavez just put constant pressure on the Irishman and began to wear him down. In my opinion, Lee fought the wrong fight. Everybody knew that if he was going to stand a chance of winning, he was going to have to stick out the jab and just attempt to out-box Chavez. However, his Irish fighting pride kicked in and he chose to stand toe-to-toe with Chavez. This was the wrong decision.

From the fourth round on, Chavez looked dominant and was landing a lot of clean body shots on Lee. It was  easy to see that Lee was tiring and when it got to the seventh round he just couldn't continue any more. Chavez pinned him against the ropes and unleashed his pressure on the inside. He caught Lee a number of times leaving him out on his feet. The referee chose to jump in and stop the fight.

Pound-for-pound contender Sergio Martinez.

This obviously wasn't the toughest fight that Team Chavez could have took but they proved to a lot of people that their fighter is a lot better than some people may think.

And, in the post-fight interview with Chavez and his Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, things got even better. Arum announced that on September 15th, the middleweight fight that everybody wants to see is going to happen. Julio Cesar Chavez  Jr against Sergio Martinez. People have been calling for this fight for a very long time. Many people, and I must say including myself, accused Chavez of ducking Martinez. The fans all call Martinez the true middleweight champion as Chavez was basically handed the WBC title.

On September 15th, we will find out who is the true middleweight champion of the world. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr or Sergio 'Maravilla' Martinez?

Chavez Jr Vs Lee: Controversy at weigh-in

Chavez and Lee face-to-face at the weigh-in.

Yesterday (June 15th), the weigh-in was held for the WBC middleweight title fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Andy Lee. Both fighters made the weight (Chavez 159lb, Lee 159.25lb) and everything seemed to be going smoothly. But then a problem occurred.

Lee's handlers weighed their fighters gloves to ensure to everybody that they were 10oz gloves to make sure that everything was fair and there were no silly advantages. However, Chavez and his team refused to weigh theirs. According to Lee's team, they made an official request to Texas Commission inspector Robert Tapia but he refused and said: "I'm the boss here. I say whether or not we are going to inspect the gloves and we're not going to."

Perry Mandera (Lee's manager) claimed that he then went over to Chavez's trainer Freddie Roach to reason with him and ask him to weigh his fighters gloves but once again they refused.

"He pushed past me and said 'we don't have to, so we're not going to," explained Mandera. "They brought their own gloves and we brought ours," said Mandera, "so we thought in the interest of full disclosure and a level playing field, we would weigh both pairs. We weighed ours out in the open in front of everyone. They would not put theirs on the scale."


Team Lee claimed that the only reason that they mad the request was to ensure that everything was fair so that there would be no excuses.


"We just want everything fair. I don't know why they wouldn't drop the gloves on a scale to remove any doubt about a pair of gloves they brought themselves," said Mandera. "Yes, it's a new pair, but you ever buy a pair of shoes that say size 10 and they're not? That's all we were trying to resolve. So why won't they weigh the gloves?"

This is certainly a strange decision from Chavez's team and the commission but I don't believe that there is any foul play involved. I think that Team Chavez may just be a little worried about the fight so they are playing mind games and trying to gain as many little advantages as they can.

Chavez Jr moving up to 168lb after Lee fight...

Chavez Jr after his fight with Rubio (the heaviest he ever weighed for a fight).

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's trainer Freddie Roach has made it clear and simple that after the Mexican's title defence against Andy Lee tonight (June 16th), he will likely be moving up to the super-middleweight division.

"After this fight, we'll probably goo to 168" said Roach.

It has been known for a long time that Chavez struggles to make the weight limit at middleweight. On the night of his fights, he sometimes weighs in at over 180lb. Which means who puts on around 20lb in one day. It's pretty obvious that this is not good for the body and explains why he sometimes looks a little slow and drowsy in the ring.

If he manages to beat his Irish opponent Andy Lee tonight then it is almost certain that the WBC champ will be moving up. Roach also claimed that his fighter's weight was less of a problem for this fight for one reason:

"We had the weight come down a lot earlier," explained Roach.

Roach also revealed that after this bout, he would like Chavez to face Kelly Pavlik, which would be a great fight. But, he also stated that if a fight with Sergio Martinez does come about, they will take it straight away. Chavez has been constantly criticised for ducking Martinez, who many believe is the true world middleweight champ, but Team Chavez claim that they are willing and ready to take the fight.

Chavez Jr visits children's hospital in El Paso...

Yesterday (June 12th), WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr made a special surprise visit to the Regional Children's Hospital in El Paso, where he will he defend his title against Andy Lee on Saturday night at the Sun Bowl.

This is a very tough fight that Chavez is in on Saturday (possibly the toughest of his career) and his training camp must leave little spare time to do this type of thing. The fact that he went out of his way to do something like this has helped his popularity and also the sport of boxing, which has faced so much controversy in recent times. The Mexican is a sporting hero in El Paso and I'm sure that all of the young children were very excited to see him.

Chavez claims that he is now making boxing his life. In the build-up to recent fights that Chavez has been in, he has been notoriously famous for not taking his training seriously and performing pretty badly in his fights. Maybe now we will see a new and dramatically improved Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The new fully-committed fighter has a chance to prove this on Saturday night.

BoxingOpinions Fight Preview for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr Vs Andy Lee

Chavez Jr Vs Andy Lee fight at Sun Bowl may get cancelled!

WBC middleweight champion of the world Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is set to fight highly rated middleweight Andy Lee on June 16th but there has been rumours that the fight may be cancelled. It was concerns over border violence that caused the University of Texas Board of Regents to cancel the fight in El Paso but after a lot of arguing and debating Bob Arum has claimed that the fight is still on.

The scheduled date is till around two months away so they should be able to find another arena by then unless, for some reason, they want to push the fight back a bit.

Yesterday's scheduled press conference went ahead in El Paso and everything was fine but the UOTBOR still want the fight to take place at a different site.

Chavez (45-0-1, 31 KO's) is a very popular fighter in El Paso so I'm sure he will be a little upset that the fight   will not happen there and I'm sure his team will have something to moan about. In Lee's (28-1, 20 KO's) case I think he is just happy that he is finally getting his chance that he feels he has deserved for a long time so he won't care where the fight takes place.

If the date of the fight was to change it would be a major blow for Top Rank and HBO as the scheduled date is a week after Manny Pacquiao takes on Timothy Bradley so the replay of that fight will be shown on the same night as Chavez Vs Lee, which should bump up the viewers a little bit.

Gennady Golovkin... The most avoided fighter in the world?

Gennady Golovkin.

Not many people have heard of the WBA (Regular) and IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and there is a reason for this.

Golovkin has been classed by many experts as one of the most avoided boxers in the world. The tricky Russian who was born in Kazakhstan had a fantastic record as an amateur. He has won many world championships including; Junior World Championships, Senior World Championships and a sliver medal at the 2004 Olympic games.

Not only did he reach tremendous success as an amateur, he also beat some of the best boxers that are now making their mark in the pro game. In 2003 he beat Irish middleweight Andy Lee who is boxing for the WBC middleweight title later this year. And, even more impressively he knocked IBF world super-middleweight champion Lucian Bute in just 4 rounds at the 2003 world championships. Bute is now considered to be one of the best fighters in the world so this just shows how good Golovkin really is.

In the semi-final of the Olympic games in 2004 he beat super-middleweight legend Andre Dirrell 23-18. He then went on to lose in the final against a very experienced amateur boxer in Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov.

As a pro he has a perfect record of 22 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws with 19 KO's. The prospect from Stuttgart has barely lost a round in his 22 fights and has never looked in trouble. He won the WBA vacant interim middleweight title on August 14th 2010 where he scored a first round knockout against Milton Nunez.

It is only recently that he has started to gain a little more of the recognition that he deserves. The main reason for this is that a few of his recent fights have been televised on the 'home of boxing' BoxNation.

We are on a mission to improve his popularity and start to gain him more fans which could lead to him landing a serious world title fight.

Spread the word of this fantastic fighter who has the talent that could take the middleweight division by storm.

Chavez Jr & Andy Lee event open to public!

WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

The first press conference for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr Vs Andy Lee will take place in El Paso on April 24th and it will be free to attend for all boxing fans. There will be lunch at 12:30pm and the news conference will begin at 1:00pm. Joining Chavez will be Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum and Fernando Beltran. Lee will be with Emanuel Steward and Ron Rizzo.

Andy Lee

This will be one of the first press conferences for a big fight that will be free to the public. Top Rank and Zanfer Promotions are most likely looking for a way to add more hype to a fight that most people are disappointed with. Tickets for the fight will go on sale on Saturday April 28th.

Lee and Chavez both have very good records and high knock out rate (73% together).

Chavez's record is 45-0-1 with 31 KOs and will be making his first appearance in El Paso since 2006. Since then he has become the WBC middleweight champion of the world so it will be a memorable night for the young Mexican.

Lee believes that he has deserved this fight for a long time and that Team Chavez have been avoiding him ever since he called Chavez Jr out a few years ago.

This will not be one of the best fights of the year as we would have much rather seen Chavez face P4P No.3 Sergio Martinez but that fight looks a long way away. If Andy Lee performs to the best of his ability then we could see a very close fight on June 16th.

Chavez Jr's next opponent confirmed...

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will defend his WBC middleweight title against 
tricky Irish southpaw Andy Lee on June 16th. The fight will be shown live on HBO. 

Lee's promoter is confident that the winner of the fight will face P4P 
No.3 Sergio Martinez later this year. 

Andy Lee

Martinez has been waiting for his mandated title shot for a very long 
time. His last fight was against Matthew Macklin where he scored an 11th round stoppage over the Irish warrior. 

"This is a great opportunity for Andy. And right now we're trying to 
get a deal done for the winner to fight Sergio Martinez. The major 
terms have been agreed on, between me and Bob Arum. We just have to 
work out some minor obstacles," said Lou Di Bella. 

Lee, who has a record of 28 wins from 29 fights with 20 KO's is a 
slight step up in class for Chavez Jr, who will be making his third 
defence of the belt. The Mexican won the title last year against Sebastian Zbik. 

The fight will take place at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. Chavez has 
proven that he can attract a big crowd in Texas although it is nowhere 
near as much as he can in his in his native Mexico. It will also come 
straight after the fantastic month of boxing that involves Mayweather 
Vs Cotto and Pacquiao Vs Bradley, so the fans will definitely be in the 
mood for more boxing. We could have another sell-out fight on our hands.

Andy Lee ready for fight night!

@IFILMLONDON

Irish middleweight Andy Lee discusses his return to the ring tomorrow night when he takes on Anthony Fitzgerald at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. He also talks about training with Adam booth and his fellow domestic middleweights. 

Andy Lee Vs Anthony Fitzgerald - Post-Fight Report

PriceysBoxinThoughts

Andy Lee returned to the ring last night looking to re-build his career in the UK under new trainer Adam Booth. An impressive victory would have launched him straight into the domestic middleweight mix with the likes of Macklin, Barker and Murray, but Anthony Fitzgerald was not going to allow this.