Fighter of The Week - Raymundo Beltran

This week we have chosen Raymundo Beltran as our 

fighter of the week...

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97 - @BoxingOpinions1

Well, boxing came back with a bang this weekend as the new season begun. We were given upsets, knockouts and more impressive performances. There are a few fighters that could have been given this award this week, and I'll give them a mention later, but for me, one man deserves it more than the rest. Especially after he didn't get what he deserved in the ring.

Continue reading...

Can Burns impress?

By Andrew Graves @andrewgravess

On the 7th of September Scotland's own Ricky 'Rickster' Burns will defend his WBO Lightweight title for the 4th time against mandatory challenger 32 year old Mexican Raymundo Beltran at the SECC Arena Glasgow. Can The champion send the hometown crowd home happy with a victory?

Captain Huck ends rivalry with trilogy victory!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97 - @BoxingOpinions1

It was one of the most highly-anticipated months. The build-up to this fight, especially in Germany, was terrific for a cruiserweight bout. The first two fights were action packed and most were expecting it to be even bigger and better this time as they believed it may be third time lucky for Afolabi and he may have finally worked the German out. Unfortunately the fight didn't quite live up to the hype and Afolabi didn't get the victory some were expecting.

Ricky Burns Vs Jose Gonzalez - Fight Preview

By James McKnight @JamesMcKnight83

BURNS AIMING TO EXTINGUISH GONZALEZ THREAT! 

Ricky Burns is aiming to make a third successive defense of the WBO lightweight title on May 11. The Coatbridge fighter comes up against Puerta Rican mandatory challenger, Jose Gonzalez, at the Emirates arena, Glasgow. 

Burns (35-2-0, 10 KO's), split from promoter, Frank Warren, in March and signed with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport. This was down to Burns' unification title bout with Mexican IBF 135lb titlist, Miguel Vazquez, being called off for a second time. Burns, 30, claimed the interim WBO belt in November 2011 when he defeated Australian, Michael Katsidis, at Wembley arena, London. 'Rickster' then defended the belt in March 2012 beating Namibian, Paulus Moses, in Glasgow. Both of those victories were won by unanimous decision after 12 rounds. Burns then returned to Glasgow in September. He put on one of his most impressive performances to date by stopping England's, Kevin Mitchell, in just four rounds. 

Arthur Abraham Vs Robert Stieglitz II - Fight Preview

By James McKnight @JamesMcKnight83.

'King Arthur' Abraham aims to defend the WBO super-middleweight title against Robert Stieglitz on Saturday, March 23. 

The pair are set to clash for a second time after their first meeting occurred last August in Berlin, Germany. This time around they meet at the GETEC arena in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

Abraham, 33, is Armenian-born, but is now a resident of Berlin, compared to Stieglitz, 31, who was born in Russia but now resides in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt. This, of course, now means that Stieglitz has home advantage, whereas before Abraham did. 

Timothy Bradley Vs Ruslan Provodnikov - Post-Fight Report

@PriceyJ97

Words can't even sum up the enthralling scenes that took place last night, but I tried my best! Two overlooked warriors laid it all on the line for the fans and will now finally get the credit and the big fights they deserve. Fight of the year!

Ricky Burns Vs Jose Ocampo - Fight Preview

By James McKnight (@mckjimbo).

WBO World lightweight champion Ricky Burns, was due to face commonwealth junior lightweight champion Liam Walsh on December 15 at the ExCel arena in London. Walsh though was involved in a car accident last month and consequently hurt his back forcing him to withdraw his challenge. Burns, 29, is now set to face late Filipino replacement, Jose Ocampo. 

Ocampo, 23, has a record of 17-5-1, 12 KO's and is rated at 14 in the World by the WBO. ''The bomber'' which is his alias, is relishing his meeting with Burns in the ring and believes he has what it takes to cause an upset. 

''I'll be coming to London with only one thing on my mind and that is to win the title.'' said the Filipino boxer. He added, "It's disrespectful that Burns is looking ahead of me next Saturday when i'll give him the hardest fight of his life,'' 

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.

Cleverly looking likely to defend against Simcic...

WBO light-heavyweight champ Nathan Cleverly.

Denis Simcic.

Prepare yourself for disappointment! Because once again Nathan Cleverly is looking set to defend against another 'nobody'. Many top boxing sites have reported that the Welshman's next defence of his WBO light-heavyweight world title will come against Denis Simcic of Germany.

As most of you probably won't know who Simcic is (because I didn't before this fight was announced), I'll just give a few background details on him: He is a German-based Slovenian that has a pretty decent record of 28-1, 14 KO's. He last fought in March of this year and won the WBO European light-heavyweight title. And although he hasn't really done much to earn it, he is ranked at No.3 by the WBO.
Now, looking at him like this (on paper) he looks like a pretty decent fight but unfortunately this isn't the case. The German-based Slovenian hasn't really fought anyone of much note and is looking like to be another Tommy Karpency style fight for Nathan Cleverly. Simcic isn't a journeyman so he will be coming to win but it is very unlikely that he will be victorious.

Nothing has been confirmed yet, but a lot of rumours have been circulating that the fight will take place at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena in October. A press conference is scheduled for Monday September 3rd and all details should be announced then.

Abraham becomes two-weight world champ!



Abraham (centre) with the WBO super-middlweight title. 



'Amazing!' That is the only word I can use to sum up this fight. Maybe the intensity and the excitement of the event was just increased because it had been so long since any of us boxing fans had seen a world class televised fight. But anyway, you're not here to hear me ramble on about how excited I am that the boxing season has started again. You're here to read about what actually happened in the highly anticipated super-middleweight fight between Arthur Abraham and Robert Stieglitz.

I think the reason that this fight was as good as it was, is because both men wanted it so bad. It was a crossroads fight and both of them had something to prove. I think it's fair to say that going into this fight we were thinking that if Abraham didn't win then his career as a world-class fighter was over. On the other hand, we all also knew that Stieglitz was desperate to be victorious because he had to prove that he belonged with the top-level fighters at super-middleweight.

It was clear from the beginning that Abraham was not fighting with the same game-plan that he usually does. For anyone who has seen the German-based Armenian fight before, you will know that he usually just lasts through the first half of the fight without really throwing any punches and then from around the 6th or 7th round onwards he tries to wear his opponent down until they give up. But this time things were different. The 32-year old came out strong and fast and clearly won the first round. This was a sign that he knew that this was potentially his last chance at proving he was a force to be reckoned with at super-middleweight. Howeveer, Stieglitz was not just going to lay down and let Abraham walk away with the opportunity. The German-based Russian came back strong and threw more punches in the next few rounds than Abraham probably did in the whole fight. He even hurt the usually iron-jawed Abraham on occasions. When it got to the eighth round, I had it scored even and there were just no clues as to who was going to win. Abraham had just won the last round but he was looking very tired, whereas Stieglitz had blood pouring from his right eye and a bruise above his left but was still looking fresh when he threw his punches. The next four rounds were once again very close, except for the last round which Stieglitz clearly won.

At the end of the fight I had it scored 115-114 to Abraham but I could have easily had it the other way round. The judges scorecards were 116-112, 116-112 & 115-113, all in favour of Abraham. There was no arguments about the winner, I just think the scorecards were slightly wide.

One thing I did notice on Twitter after the fight is how many people were now fans of Stieglitz even though he lost th fight. A lot of people had not really seen much of him before and even though he lost, he still showed a lot of heart and courage and also proved that he can compete with some top-class fighters at the weight.

Abraham is now in the best position he has been in since moving up to super-middleweight. He is now a two-weight world champion and back up there with the top-level fighters. Whilst I don't think there's much chance of him beating the likes of Andre Ward and Carl Froch, there's still a lot big fights out there for him.

Broner could face Mitchell-Burns winner!

Broner celebrates after his fifth round stoppage over Vincente Escobedo.

Former super-featherweight king Adrien Broner has revealed that he is now leaving the 130lb division and moving up to lightweight. The 22-year old American will no doubt become the No.1 contender for Ricky Burns' WBO lightweight title which means that things could get really interesting.

Burns (left), Mitchell  (right).

Burns takes on Kevin Mitchell on September 22nd in one of the most highly anticipated domestic fights of the year. However, the winner of the clash may not stay champion for long. If Broner is made the No.1 contender, the winner will likely be forced to defend the title against him at the end of the year.

The only way out for the Brit pair would be if 'The Problem' turned his attention to the WBA lightweight title which was vacated by Brandon Rios earlier this year. But, it is looking likely that Richard Abril and Gavin Rees will be fighting for that title.

It's not a certainty that Broner would beat either Burns or Mitchell but from what we've see from the three fighters so far, Broner has looked by far the best. He is regarded by many as the next superstar in boxing and he certainly lived up to his reputation last night (July 21st) against Vincente Escobedo. Broner put on a boxing masterclass and stopped Escobedo in just five rounds.

Ricky Burns, 29, was set to face Broner last year but instead chose to move up to lightweight, leading many people to believe that he was ducking the young superstar. It has always seemed like these two are destined to face each other. So later this year we could be seeing a fight that we have all wanted to see for a very long time.

De La Hoya discusses Bradley's future...

WBO champ Timothy 'Dessert Storm' Bradley.

Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya realises that WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley has what it takes to become a very big star of the future, and the 39-year old has revealed that there are a lot of potential opponents for him in the Golden Boy stable.

Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La  Hoya.

There's a lot of great fighters in the welterweight division and there's no doubt that 'Dessert Storm' will want to fight every single one of them. De La Hoya has a chequered past with Bradley's promoter Bob Arum but he hopes that this won't affect the chances of any big fights happening.

"There's a lot of options out there, a lot of great fights," said De La Hoya. "The only thing Bob Arum and Top Rank has to do is pick up the phone and call... We have all the fighters, we have all the opponents, we have all the big fights that people want to see. Pick up the phone. I'm sure Bradley wants to fight all of them."

The fighters that De La Hoya is talking about, are the likes of Amir Khan, Paulie Malignaggi and Devon Alexander. Seeing Bradley in the ring with any one of these would be a very interesting match-up for the fans and the fighters.

The 28-year old could continue to fight Top Rank promoted fighters but he would run out of options pretty fast. The only other big name welterweights in Bob Arum's stable are Manny Pacquiao, who Bradley has already fought and beat in a very controversial fight, and Juan Manuel Marquez who his almost reaching 40 and will likely not have many big fights left in him..

Rigondeaux looks fantastic yet again!

Rigondeaux just before landing a devastating blow on Kenndey.

Yesterday (June 9th) we all had the privilege to watch the young Cuban superstar Guillermo Rigondeaux in action on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao Vs Timothy Bradley.

The 31-year old has had just 10 professional fights and he is already good enough to compete with some of the top fighters in the world. He became super-bantamweight world champion after just 9 fights. He has looked untouchable so far in his career and his record as an amateur was one of the best you will ever see. 'The Jackal' won 243 out of 247 fights. Now that shows that the guy can box.

In his fight last night, he had a slight step up in class against Teon Kennedy (18-2). But it was the same old solid performance from Rigondeaux yet again. The WBA champ knocked Kennedy down five times and finally stopped him in the fifth round. If he would have gone in like a mad man he could have probably finished it much earlier but he showed his composure and did not make any mistakes. I don't think Kennedy landed a punch throughout the whole fight.

It's time now for Rigondeaux to step up his level of opposition. I know it's strange to say that for a guy who has only had 10 fights but I am already considering him as a top-class fighter in the world right now.

Personally, I think a great fight would be between him and Anselmo Moreno, if he decides to move up from bantamweight. Whilst Rigondeaux would provide a stern challenge for the pound-for-pound contender Nonito Donaire, he is not yet ready to fight somebody like him.

Whatever happens in the near future... We can no doubt expect a very bright future for Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Bradley shocks the world!

Timothy Bradley with the WBO welterweight title.

Timothy 'Dessert Storm' Bradley has shocked the world and become the new WBO welterweight champion of the world. He done this by beating the man that many believe is the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world today, Manny Pacquiao.

There was controversy right from the off. When the fight was scheduled to start, Bradley was bin his changing room, gloved up and ready to go. However, Pacquiao was nowhere to be found. After a quick search, he was found "stretching his calves" on a treadmill with trainer Freddie Roach. Many people believed that there could have been foul play involved but Pacquiao and Roach claim that he genuinely had to relieve some tension from his legs.

So... The ring walk began 15 minutes late and then we finally got to see the fight that we had all been waiting for. The question on everybody's mind was 'Can Bradley walk the walk as well as talk the talk?'

The first round was close and it looked as though both fighters were momentarily stunned at some points. However, from that round till around the seventh, Pacquiao dominated and Bradley looked very tired. But somehow, the man who prides himself on his 'fight to the death' boxing style brought himself back into the fight and clearly won some of the later rounds.

Seeing as the fight had gone to the scorecards, everybody fought that even if it was close, Pacquiao would be given the decision as he is the bigger star and worth a lot more money. How wrong were we?
Bradley was given the result by a split decision with two judges giving it to him by two rounds. We were witnessing the dethroning of the "P4P King" Manny Pacquiao.

A lot of people were shocked the result as they believed that Pacquiao did enough to win the fight. Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach was really shocked at the decision.

"I thought we won the fight," said Roach. "I thought that was one of the best fights he fought since Cotto. I thought we clearly, clearly won the fight. I think [the judges] had their eyes closed... I didn't see that many close rounds. I like knockouts and when he gave the eleventh round away, I said, "Manny go out there and finish this guy.".. I had it 10 rounds to 2."

Now, it wasn't as wide as the always animated Freddie Roach made out but the fight could have easily been awarded to Manny Pacquiao. But, you cannot take anything away from Mr Timothy Bradley. He fought the right fight and dominated the action towards the end.

Bradley's manager Cameron Dunkin believed that his man deserved to win the fight and he apparently scored it 115-113 to Bradley.

It is very likely now that we will see a rematch between these two men. It was announced before the fight, that if Bradley won then there will be an immediate rematch in November, and both men are more than willing to do it all again. Bradley said that he is fine with the rematch and he will come back even stronger for the next fight. Pacquiao claims that he feels that he "100% won the fight" and he has happy to have a rematch.

Could this be the end of Manny Pacquiao? In the post-fight interview, he looked calm and content. Maybe he is happy with what he has done in his career? Maybe he doesn't feel that he doesn't need to prove himself anymore?

The boxing world has been turned on it's head after this fight. Mayweather-Pacquiao is no longer the most valuable fight out there. Manny Pacquiao can no longer be acclaimed as the 'P4P King.' Timothy Bradley is one of the most valuable fighters in the world from this point on and Mayweather's career has received a boost as many people will now go from seeing Pacquiao as the best fighter in the world and see 'Money' as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

WBA & WBO sanction Haye Vs Chisora!

Haye and Chisora brawl at press conference.

Two of the world's biggest sanctioning bodies, the WBO and WBA, have sanctioned the controversial heavyweight fight between David Haye and Dereck Chisora. The fight will now be for the WBO International title and WBA Intercontinental title. 

The WBC however, have announced that they will not sanction the fight and threatened that anybody involved in the fight will be expelled from the World Boxing Council. This ruined Haye's hopes of challenging WBC world heavyweight champion later in the year but the 'Hayemaker' has said that the fight is 100% still on.

"We will expel Luxemborg from our organisation... As well as any person or institution that has relations with them," said WBC president Jose Sulaiman. "We will not condone such a disgraceful behaviour after seeing that this boxer has no idea of what good behaviour is. I am sure the European Boxing Union is on the verge of a strong position against Luxemborg. I am also furious with the promoter."

Chisora still has a disciplinary hearing pending with the WBC with $100,000 retained from his purse by the German Board after his fight in February against Vitali Klitschko.

The WBO's president Paco Valcarcel also commented on the situation and his views were completely different to Sulaiman's.

"The Luxemborg Boxing Federation is a member of the WBO and the problem is between the LBF and the British Boxing Board of Control, not the LBF and WBO," said Valcarcel.

The BBBofC recently threatened to revoke the license of anyone involved in the Haye-Chisora fight at Upton Park on July 14th but Chisora's promoter Frank Warren responded to the board's statement by issuing a letter of complaint. At this current time it is unclear where the British Board stands regarding the most controversial fight of the year.

Special ring made for Manny Pacquiao...

Manny Pacquiao with WBO title.

The World Boxing Organization (WBO) has paid tribute to Filipino boxing legend and current welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao by crafting an exclusive diamond ring that is designed specifically for him.

Pacquiao has won world titles in eight different weight divisions and he is considered by some as the greatest fighter in the world today. He is a fan favourite and has one of the most exciting boxing styles ever seen which is why the WBO feel that he deserves to be honoured for his great achievements and success.

WBO president Francisco Valcarcel announced that the ring also comes the "Superchampion" status which will be given to 'Pacman' just before his upcoming fight with Timothy Bradley on June 9th.

"This ring is one of only two in the world," said Valcarcel. "It's a ring specially designed for Pacquiao. This ring is for elite fighters."

The only other person that has been awarded with a diamond ring is boxing great Oscar De La Hoya who had the ring crafted for him in 1995. Many people will say that there are many other fighters in the world that should have also been awarded with a diamond ring (and I agree) but they will not deny that the 33-year old Filipino is deserving of this prestigious award.

Pacquiao won the WBO welterweight title back in 2009 against Miguel Cotto. Since then he has made three defences and will make his fourth against pound-for-pound contender Timothy Bradley on June 9th.