BoxingOpinions Interview Anthony Ogogo!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97 - @BoxingOpinions1

Jack Price of BoxingOpinions interviews British Olympian and professional middleweight prospect Anthony Ogogo.

You’re 3 fights into your professional career.. How have you found the transition from the amateurs to the pro game so far?

Its been great. I'm loving it. I feel in my last fight I'm now finally starting to adjust and can't wait to progress. 

Fighter Of The Week: Bernard Hopkins

This week we have chosen Bernard Hopkins as our 

fighter of the week...

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

Who else would it be? The easiest choice I've ever had to make. Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins should be considered as the fighter of this era, not just the fighter of the week. The Philadelphian tactician has made history once again by breaking his own record and becoming the oldest ever world champion at the age of 48. He did this by beating highly-rated 31-year old Tavoris Cloud in a more one-sided match-up than anyone was expecting.

Most fans know never to rule B-Hop out, but there were many people who were picking against him in this fight. His speed and reactions seemed to be slowing in recent outings and Cloud was a young hungry champion with something to prove. However, it was soon clear that this was going to be Hopkins's night. Cloud just didn't know what to do with the slippery old man that stood in front of him. Everything he tried had little or no effect on his much more experienced opponent.

Hopkins, who knows every trick in the book, frustrated Cloud by slowing the pace down and making him miss wildly over and over again. There were even times when Hopkins was using the famous Ali Rope-A-Dope tactics and it was working perfectly. This was the best performance from Hopkins in many years. He was fighting like a 40-year old in there, throwing more combinations than ever and picking apart his clearly-fazed younger opponent. The result at the end of the fight was clear. We didn't even need the scorecards. Hopkins, his team, and the fans were already celebrating. The actual scorecards were: 116-112, 116-112 & 117-111 all in favour of Hopkins. It was now official. He was once again a history-maker. His place is now even more cemented in the Hall Of Fame.

Continue reading...

Bernard Hopkins Vs Tavoris Cloud - Post-Fight Report

@PriceyJ97.

Bernard Hopkins Vs Tavoris Cloud - Fight Preview

By Jack Sumner @Jack_Sumner_

Bernard Hopkins stands on the brink of making history yet again this Saturday, when he challenges IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hopkins will bid to break his own record as boxing’s oldest ever world champion, after dethroning Jean Pascal in May 2011 at the tender age of 46 years, 4 months and 6 days.

When Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) enters the ring against Cloud he will be a sprightly 48, stepping through the ropes to face an unbeaten 31-year-old with a knockout percentage of 79%. Even as an ex-champion, at his age you’d be forgiven for watching world title fights from the sofa, allowing the middle-age paunch to take it’s course in your slippers and your dressing gown, thankful you no longer have to take the punishment.

But not old B-Hop, ‘The Executioner’, who with each year that passes defies father time with further accomplishments inside the squared circle. For over a decade, boxing’s Peter Pan has been converting non-believers to the point where fans and so-called experts of the sport have given up predicting his demise. You wouldn’t give any other 48-year-old a chance with Cloud, but you can’t write off Bernard Hopkins.

The Curious Case Of Bernard Hopkins

By Jack Sumner @Jack_Sumner_

http://southpawjacks.wordpress.com/

'The Executioner'

When Oscar De La Hoya returned to his corner following the third round of a certain 2004 middleweight unification bout, he had to be pretty content with how the opening stanzas of the fight had unfolded.

As he positioned himself onto his stool, his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr placed both his hands upon the Golden Boy’s shoulders and beamed a smile before delivering an assured assessment of the opponent’s chances in the fight.

“The man’s an old man. Look at me, he’s an old man. He’s looking the worst that I’ve ever seen him.”

The old man who sat across the ring was a 39-year-old Bernard Hopkins. Throughout those opening rounds, a 31-year-old De La Hoya had outworked the bigger and stronger fighter with greater activity and hand speed, with Hopkins looking as sluggish and as ‘old’ as Mayweather Sr suggested.

Cleverly targets Cardiff City stadium defence...

WBO light-heavyweight world champion Nathan Cleverly is hoping to make a defence of his title at the Cardiff City football stadium in the summer of next year. The Welshman will make the fourth defence of his title on October 27th against Vyacheslav Uzelkov at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff but has his sights set on an even bigger fight next year.

"I'm pretty sure we can get a great world title fight here this summer, that's the target," said Cleverly in an interview with BBC Wales. "I spoke with a few of the guys here at the stadium and they seem ready to go for it. It would be a great atmosphere, a brilliant stadium and I'm sure we'd have a great crowd. I think the chances are very likely, its a big possibility."

"I come down to Cardiff and support them on their home games in and around training, and they've shown me great support as well."

If Cleverly is impressive in his performance against Uzelkov in October, he may be able to land a fight with the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Carl Froch and Beibut Shumenov in the summer. And these are all fights that would easily sell out Cardiff City's stadium.

 

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

Pavlik batters Sigmon!

Super-middleweight contender Kelly Pavlik put on a dominant performance against Scott Sigmon on Friday night (June 8th). He battered the American from round-to-round until the fight was finally stopped by the ringside doctor at the start of the eighth round.

On the undercard, young super-bantamweight prospect Jesse Magdaleno demolished his opponent Carlos Valcarcel in just one round. Magdaleno now has an unblemished record of 10 wins from 10 fights with 7 KO's. He is looking to be a definite star of the future.

Other fights on the card included light-heavyweight prospect Mike Lee winning a six-round unanimous decision over Eliseo Durazo and Rudy Puga stopping Tommy Turner in just two rounds. Another great fight was between two great lightweights in Gerardo Robles and Roger Gonzalez. Robles upset the fan favourite Gonzalez winning by a majority decision.

All these fights were good, but the main focus of the night was Kelly Pavlik. The 30-year old is desperately trying to prove that he is still a top contender at world level in the super-middleweight division. Since his losses to Sergio Martinez and Bernard Hopkins he has tried to re-group but hasn't been able to land another big fight in the last two years.

It was a fantastic performance from 'The Ghost' and it may have just boosted his chances of getting another world title shot.

Cleverly Vs Hopkins could still happen...

Bernard Hopkins                                       Nathan Cleverly

According to Golden Boy CEO Robert Schaefer, a fight between WBO light-heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly and former world champion Bernard Hopkins could still happen. Schaefer believes that the 47-year old can still compete with the top fighters in the division.

"It's going to be totally up to him. I could see him, for example, challenging for the WBO world title against Nathan Cleverly... I think Bernard turned in a great performance (against Chad Dawson). He certainly still is one of the top light-heavyweights,no question about it - And I think he can give everybody a tough night."

Cleverly and his promoter Frank Warren have been talking about this fight for a very long time but Hopkins hasn't really had time to consider it as he has been focusing on his fight with Dawson. Now that the rematch with 'Bad' Chad is out of the way, he may start to consider a fight with the Welshman. However, there is one problem that could prevent this fight from happening... Cleverly and Warren want the fight to be in Wales (Cleverly's home country). I'm almost certain that Hopkins will not want to travel to Wales and risk dodgy scoring so the fight will most likely not happen there. If the fight does happen it will most likely take place somewhere in America or maybe London.

Most people believe that we will see Hopkins in the ring at least one more time. Whether it will be a farewell fight or a top level clash, I'm not sure. The most reasonable opponent is Cleverly as there really is no other top level opponents in the light-heavyweight division that the 'Executioner' hasn't fought.

If we find out any more news or updates about this possible fight, we will let you know straight away.

With age comes weakness...

New WBC champ Chad Dawson.

Last night 47-year old Bernard Hopkins lost his WBC light-heavyweight title to 'Bad' Chad Dawson. 


The 'Executioner' actually started to show signs of old age. In the years gone by he has just looked like any other world class boxer in their mid 30's when in reality he has been over 15 years older than most of his recent opponents, but in this fight you could see that his age was affecting him. He was lazy throughout the whole fight and did nowhere near enough to convince the judges although one judge somehow managed to score it as a draw.

Usually Hopkins waits to around the 7th or 8th round and then starts to put the pressure on and punish his opponents but this time he just looked like he physically couldn't. Dawson boxed very smartly, just keeping his shorter opponent at a distance. The official scorecards were; 114-114, 117-111, 117-111.

At one point during the fight we all thought we were going to see a repeat of the controversial first fight. Hopkins came back off the rope and made a rugby-like tackle on Dawson and just before that Hopkins almost went flying out the ring when Dawson pivoted round a charging Hopkins and gave him a little nudge on the way.

In the post-fight interview the new world champ Dawson called out pound-for-pound contender and No.1 super-middleweight Andre Ward. Dawson must have been overwhelmed by the experience as in reality he is not even on the same level as Ward.

Witherspoon stuns Mitchell with a hard right-hand.

Acting as chief-support on the card was Seth Mitchell Vs Chazz Witherspoon. We almost saw one of the biggest upsets of the year when Mitchell was wobbled by a hard right hand Witherspoon. Mitchell could barely stand and his slightly bigger opponent continued to club away at his head but the ex-american footballer managed to last out the round. When the bell rang for the second Mitchell still looked a little unsteady but he started to put the pressure on and ended up winning the round. Both fighters rose of their stools a little dazed but as soon as the third round started Mitchell landed a crashing left hook that sent Witherspoon to the canvas. Witherspoon beat the count but a few moments later the referee jumped in to stop the fight.

Whilst this fight proved that Mitchell needs a lot more experience before he is up there with one of the top fighters in the heavyweight division he also proved that he has the power that can trouble anybody out there.

Hopkins Vs Cleverly could happen sooner than we thought...

WBO Champ Nathan Cleverly.

Bernard Hopkins and his promoters have admitted that a summer fight 
with WBO light-heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly is a real 
possibility if they both manage to beat their opponents on April 28th. 

Injury from Hopkins-Dawson I

Cleverly will defend his title against Robin Krasniqi at the Royal 
Albert Hall on the same night that WBC world champion Bernard Hopkins attempts to defend his title against highly ranked Chad Dawson in a rematch. 

The first bout between Hopkins and Dawson was very controversial. 
Hopkins, 47, originally lost the title due to an injury in the second round but it was 
handed back to him when the result was changed to a no-contest. 

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer apparently held talks with 
Cleverly's promoter Frank Warren last week and he is confident that the 
fight will happen if both of their fighters can defend their world 
titles. 

"Hopkins-Cleverly is a real possibility," Schaefer told 
boxingscene.com. "We don't want to jinx anything but, if everything 
goes well, I would very much like to make that fight."

WBO refuse to sanction Cleverly fight!

Cleverly with Warren and WBO world title.

The World Boxing Organisation have announced that will not allow Nathan Cleverly to fight Robin Krasniqi in his 4th defence of the WBO light-heavyweight title. The fight was set to take place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 28th and it would have been the first world title fight there in over a decade, but now it could just be a non-title fight.

Dmitry Sukhotsky.

The WBO gave Cleverly permission to fight Tommy Karpency as long as his next defence was against their mandatory challenger Dmitry Sukhotsky. They also said the fight must take place within 120 days of his fight with Karpency who he beat on points on February 25th.

Cleverly's promoter Frank Warren announced the Krasniqi clash during a London press conference at lunchtime today but the WBO issued a statement on their website almost immediately after.

The could go ahead as just a non-title fight but Warren has said many times that he wanted it to be the first world title fight at the Royal Albert Hall in over a decade. To do this he must change the opponent to 30 year old Russian Sukhotsky.

Bernard Hopkins will fight Chad Dawson for the WBC world light-heavyweight title on the same day. If a world title fight Cleverly is organised then it will be likely that the winners of the two fights will meet in a big summer clash which will earn Cleverly and Warren megabucks!

Bernard Hopkins working mitts for fight with Cloud

www.esnewsreporting.com

Nathan Cleverly talks Krasniqi, Hopkins & Braehmer

@IFILMLONDON