Cuban Revolution

By Adam_Canavan

It was in 1962 where the Cuban leader Fidel Castro decided to outlaw professional sports for political reasons that are probably beyond my knowledge to comment on, I'll stick to the boxing, and this leads to the Cuban domination in the amateurs that we all know and love. and if a Cuban fighter did want to turn pro then they would have to defect from their country. Fighters such as Teófilo Stevenson and Felix Savon chose to stay put in the amateurs and stay with their country and the great Pro's Cuba have produced such as Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilán predated the ban on professional sports with the exception of the likes of Joel Casamayor, who is probably the most well known and successful Cuban defector in the pro ranks so far.

Winning Ugly - Abril Tops Bogere

By Bobby Hunter @thefightscore.

http://fightscorecollector.blogspot.co.uk/

Richard Abril vs Sharife Bogere - WBA Lightweight Title


Fighting for the first time in eleven months Richard Abril returned at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas to successfully defend his newly acquired WBA 135lb title toughing it out against Uganda's Sharife Bogere. Abril won an unanimous decision in what was an awkward fight not just for the fighters but the viewers at home watching on Showtime and Boxnation.

They say styles make fights?. Well this fight didn't mix well as Abril boxes with a stand up, lean back jabbing style that makes him so hard to fight against. Bogere is a walk forward type of guy that throws wild punches but also is dangerous with the head. In this fight Referee Russell Mora deducted a point of each fighter for continual fouling. Abril was the first to feel the Refs wrath for holding then in the last round Bogere lost a point for dangerous use of his head.

The first round started as expected. Abril boxing and Bogere rushing in trying to land his bombs, Early on it was getting ugly as Bogere threw Abril to the floor after an exchange. In the first Abril had landed the better punches by landing the odd jab and straight right hand. Bogere had a better second round as he was able to push the champion back landing crude hooks. There was not much quality in the round but Bogere certainly won on work rate as Abril did next to nothing. Timing became the key for Abril in the third as countered the challengers attack by landing his honey punch - the right hand which usually followed a jab.

Richard Abril Vs Sharif Bogere - Post-Fight Report

@PriceyJ97

Hearn looking to make Abril Vs Rees & Golovkin Vs Proksa!

Matchroom's forever-improving promoter Eddie Hearn.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has revealed that if things go well, we could get to see two really interesting fights later this year... The first being Gavin Rees Vs Richard Abril for the vacant WBA lightweight title.

Personally, I think this an amazing fight and if it does happen, a lot of people will be watching. Rees has been calling for a world title shot for a very long time and many people believe he deserves after his knock-out victory over domestic rival Derry Matthews on July 7th. Abril, technically is not coming off of a victory but almost everyone believes he should be.The Cuban world title contender put on a career-best performance against Brandon Rios on March 17th only to be clearly robbed. However, now he has a chance to get revenge and win the world title that he believes should rightfully be his.

"Abril is someone that we are talking to and we are looking to make that happen, but nothing will be announced this week," told Hearn.

The next brilliant fight that we could get to see is Grzrgorz Proksa Vs Gennady Golovkin. Personally, I don't think this fight is as good as Rees Vs Abril but it is still a very good fight. Proksa is coming off of a great performance in which he won back his European middleweight title. And I probably don't even need to stress to you how much of a good fighter Golovkin is. He is regarded by many as the most underrated fighter in the world and is no doubt a future world champion. Looking at it this early on, it seems like it will be a fairly one-sided fight in Golovkin's favour but if Proksa wants to prove that he is one of the best in the world he is going to have to take fights like this.

"Proksa was due to be fighting Barker on September 8th, but we're now in deep negotiations with Golovkin's camp to take that fight next month after we were approached by them," Hearn confirmed.

Donaire and Rios double-header set for June 30th!

Nonito Donaire                                                   Brandon Rios

WBO super-bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire will now be fighting on June 30th against IBF champion Jeffry Mathebula at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios will also be on the card against an opponent that has not yet been confirmed.

Donaire (28-1, 18 KO's) was originally set to fight against Cristian Mijares on July 14th on the same card as Juan Manuel Marquez but it looks very likely that the show will no longer be taking place. The pound-for-pound contender won the super-bantamweight title against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr back in February of last year. It was a tough fight for Donaire but it enabled him to show off his class and superior boxing skills.

Rios was very lucky to get the decision against Abril.

Rios (30-0-1) disappointed a lot of people in his last fight and as a result has lost a lot of value in the boxing world. He was easily out-boxed over 12 rounds against Cuban lightweight Richard Abril but shockingly he was announced as the winner by majority decision. There was no way you could even argue that Rios even came close to winning the fight and many people protested against the decision. Rios was lined up for a July 14th showdown with Marquez but after his poor performance it would be foolish even to put him in the ring with Marquez.

Donaire's opponent Jeffry Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KO's) is a big step down in class and it is a bit of a surprise that Bob Arum did not try and match him with a more known opponent. Many people think that Arum is just trying to prolong Donaire's run as champion for as long as possible and make as much money out of him as possible until he is forced to face one of the more dangerous fighters in the division.

This fight will most likely be 'Bam Bam' Rios' first fight at light-welterweight as it has been clear in his last two fights that he just simply cannot make the weight for the lightweight division anymore.

The Donaire-Mathebula fight will headline the show and Rios' fight will be chief support. Overall, it's another good show to look forward to in the next few months.

Abril remains interim champ!

Cuban lightweight Richard Abril will remain as the WBA interim champion as everybody involved in the WBA believe he was robbed in his fight with Brandon Rios.

There was a unanimous vote to keep Abril (17-3-1) as the interim champ with the main reasons being the dodgy scoring in Las Vegas and Rios' weight problems. 11 officials reviewed the fight and all of them came to the conclusion that Abril should have been announced as the winner in the world title fight on April 14th.

Everybody who saw the fight knew Rios had lost and you could see the shock on everyone's face (even some of Rios' entourage) when the decision was given to 'Bam Bam'. Even the commentators were lost for words. Everyone I have talked to since the fight are annoyed that this sort of thing keeps happening in the world of boxing. I have watched the fight over and over again and I cannot see how it can be scored to Rios. My initial scores were 117-111 to Abril. I was expecting it to maybe be a bit closer as Rios was the main attraction and the crowd was on his side, but I could could not believe it when they announced him as the winner.

Many people, including Abril himself think that he deserves a rematch with Rios and he has already said that he will move up in weight to fight him. However, he is going to be on a long waiting list as now every lightweight in the world will be wanting to fight him after seeing that performance.

Abril is willing to fight Rios again...

I guess you've all heard by now about the fight between Richard Abril and Brandon Rios. If you haven't, all you need to know is that Abril out-boxed Rios throughout the whole fight and won almost every round on most people's scorecards. But, Rios was the bigger name fighter and the home town favourite so two out of the three judges decided to give the decision to him. This caused uproar amongst the fans and the rest of the boxing world as they believed that Abril had been robbed of the WBA title.

The 29-year old Cuban is still very annoyed about the whole thing and has told  World Boxing News that he is still hoping to retain his interim WBA championship. He may then decide to move up to 140lb if an opportunity arises.

"We are still waiting for the rankings from the WBA, but I am confident I will be given a shot at the vacant title," said Abril.

"As soon as the first judge gave Rios the decision, I knew I had lost the fight and all the talk of holding after the bout was his team trying to justify the boxing clinic that I gave him... I am more than willing to move up to 140lb  and give Rios another schooling but I doubt Rios would accept the fight."

When he was asked whether he would like to fight the likes of Yuriorkis Gamboa or Sergio Thompson for the vacant belt, Abril answered: "I will fight King Kong if I have to. It doesn't matter who they offer me."

"If the opportunity came up to fight Juan Manuel Marquez,I would willingly move up to light-welterweight, not for any personal reasons against him.. Just as it would be an honour to share the ring with him," said  Abril.

A rematch between Abril and Rios is very unlikely to happen as I cannot see Rios and his team accepting that fight. The match that we have the most chance of seeing is probably Abril Vs Gamboa for the vacant belt. What a great fight that would be...

Rios to face Abril instead of Gamboa!

On April 14th Brandon Rios will now face Richard Abril. Rios was set to participate in a highly anticipated bout between himself and Yuriorkis Gamboa but Gamboa shockingly withdrew from the fight and is now likely to be sued by Top Rank.

Rios' opponent Richard Abril.

Gamboa is in serious danger of ending up in a tremendously bad financial spot seeing as he doesn't have a very big fan-base which means he won't get much support and the money Top Rank will try and claim will almost definitely be very big!

Going back to the fight... Abril (17-2-1) will in no way shape or form make up for the absence of Gamboa but he will likely make it an entertaining bout and he always 'comes to fight.'

 Despite his big decision win over Miguel Acosta, Abril is still not a Top 10 lightweight and Rios' fans have specifically said that after his 5 wins in a row they want to see their fighter in the ring with a 'next step' opponent.

Refunds are available but I doubt that they will be many people asking for one. After all a fight is a fight and it's not like it will be a walk-over win for Rios.

Well... Richard Abril definitely won't see it that way.

Omar Figueroa wants Richard Abril, says Figueora Sr

www.HustleBoss.com

Adrien Broner reacts to Richard Abril calling him out.

@IFILMLONDON