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Alvarado prepared to box and slug with Rios tonight
Tonight in a battle of Top Rank sluggers on HBO, light welterweight Mike Alvarado (33-1, 23 KO’s) and Brandon Rios (31-0-1, 23 KO’s) will be fighting in a rematch at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The fight has a lot riding on it for the 26-year-old Rios because his promoter Bob Arum wants to put him in bigger fights next against Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez or Tim Bradley.
There’s less of an upside for the 32-year-old Alvarado because Arum hasn’t been vocal about wanting to put Alvarado in with Pacquiao, Marquez or Bradley if he beats Rios. It’s likely he’ll put Alvarado back in with Rios in a third fight immediately to give his highly hyped Rios a chance to redeem himself so that Arum can move him in against his better known Top Rank stable fighters. Continue reading
Timur Akhundov WBF World Featherweight Champion
With a last minute pull-out from the original opponent, French Champion Bastien Rozeaux, it was nerve-wrecking to the end if a suitable substitute would be found to fight Timur Akhundov for the vacant World Boxing Federation World Featherweight title on Saturday (March 30) in Kiev, Ukraine. Continue reading
Bellew battles Chilemba tonight at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK
WBC Silver light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (19-1, 12 KO’s) will be looking to keep alive his hopes for a world title shot against WBC 175 lb. champ Chad Dawson by taking on Isaac “Golden Boy” Chilemba (20-1-1, 9 KO’s) in a fight in Bellew’s home city at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. Bellew, #1 WBC, needs the win to keep his ranking to get a possible shot at Dawson’s title either this year or next year depending on how long Dawson strings it out before facing him.
Bellew, 30, hasn’t faced any really quality light heavyweights other than WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly, who beat Bellew by a 12 round majority decision two years ago in Liverpool. Continue reading
Ukraine turns loss into a win in Azerbaijan (4-1)
Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 March 2013 – Despite a clear defeat conceded to Azerbaijan Baku Fires at the Olympic Sports Center ‘Serhedchi’, the Ukraine Otamans have reached the World Series of Boxing (WSB) semi-finals with just a one point difference. They can thank their star Vasyl Lomachenko, winner of his highly-anticipated battle against Albert Selimov. Continue reading
Weigh-in: Golovkin v. Ishida, Martinez vs. Maderna, Erdei vs. Grachev
(Photo: Sumio Yamada) Monte-Carlo (3/29/13) – WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, challenger Nobuhiro Ishida, and all four participants of the Monte-Carlo Million Dollar Super 4 Tournament, Edwin Rodriguez, Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna, Zsolt Erdei and Denis Grachev weighed in earlier today for their mega event tomorrow night in Monaco at the Salle d’Etoile. Golovkin tipped the scales at a ripped and ready 159¼lbs. (72.3 kg) while Ishida weighed 158½lbs. (71.9 kg). Rodriguez weighed in exactly at 168lbs. (76.2 kg) for his super middleweight contest against Maderna, who weighed in just below the super middleweight limit at 167½lbs. (76 kg). Former two-division champion Erdei weighed in well below the light heavyweight limit, tipping the scales at 171¼lbs (77.7 kg) while his opponent Grachev weighed in at 174¾lbs (79.3 kg). Continue reading
Italia confirms against Poland and fill semi-finals table (4-1)
Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 March 2013 – A week after its away 4-1 victory over Hussars Poland, Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder has offered the same performance to the audience of Campione d’Italia to reach the World Series of Boxing (WSB) semi-finals. Even without most of their stars, the defending Champions have once again proved that nothing will ever be easy for their opponents. Continue reading
Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado II – “The Boys are Back”
This coming Saturday evening, let us be collectively thankful that we as the boxing faithful can experience a headache to remember. Hopefully, such a careening of the cranium is felt more in the style of Cheech and Chong’s “Corsican Brothers” as we once more pull up to the TV (or some luckily enough in person) to witness either round one or maybe round eight in the memorable war that was Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios versus “Mile High” Mike Alvarado. The two battle hardened warriors met last October for a thundering clash in one of the sport’s gold standards of divisions, the junior welterweight class. They participated in a seven round, back and forth, see-saw type match-up which had just about everything for which dedicated fight fans clamor.
The two pugilists stood toe to toe during many points of the bout and two of the three ringside judges saw the bout even until “Bam Bam” Rios (31(23)-0-1, Oxnard, CA.) proved too much for “Mile High” Mike (33(23)-1, Denver, CO.) to handle, which resulted in a stoppage of the action at the 1:57 mark of the seventh round. Continue reading
Weights: Rios 140, Alvarado 140
Brandon Rios 140 – Mike Alvarado 140
Breidis Prescott 140 – Terence Crawford 139.5
Jose Ramirez 139.5 – Charle Dubray 138.5 Continue reading
Vera defeats Bondorovas on questionable stoppage
Middleweight Brian Vera (23-6, 13 KO’s) got a lucky break tonight when the referee Charlie Fitch stopped a fight that Vera was clearly losing to Donatas Bondorovas (17-4-1, 6 KO’s) after the 7th round because of two small cuts that Bondorovas in their fight at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, New York, USA.
After an especially strong round by Bondorovas in the 7th, referee Fitch asked Bondorovas if he could see out of his eyes, and he said “not so good.” Bondorovas then angrily got to his feet and told Fitch “I said I CAN see.” It was no use, Fitch had made up his mind and the fight, which was actually good one, was stopped prematurely. Continue reading
Hilongwa Wins Thriller, WBF Intercontinental Title!
In an outstanding fight and one of the best seen in Namibia in many years, Joseph “Smokey” Hilongwa produced a mercurial performance by outworking a never say die Sibusiso Twani of South Africa to win the vacant World Boxing Federation Intercontinental Super Flyweight title on Friday (March 29). Continue reading
Bobby Hitz encourages Bondorovas/Vera rematch
“Referee Charlie Fitch stopped the fight prematurely and many observers feel that Donatas was robbed. I concur. I am so proud of Donatas and effort he put forth tonight. I like Brian Vera and I respect him as a fighter, but I feel we were winning and according to my team it was the language barrier which caused the stoppage, which is unfortunate.
While the judges had Vera up when the fight was stopped, I disagree and I am confident that had they been allowed to continue Donatas would have been victorious.
Obviously we want a rematch. Donatas deserves a rematch and the fans, many of whom were impressed with his ‘Friday Night Fights’ debut, deserve a rematch. We need to make this happen. Continue reading
Maicello-Nugaev on 4/5 in Santa Ynez, California
March 29, 2013 – Lightweight contender Marvin Quintero (25-4, 21 KOs) is out of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight final eliminator against Ammeth Diaz (31-11, 22 KOs). Quintero was forced to pull out of the April 5th bout — which was scheduled to be the main event of ESPN Friday Night Fights — after breaking his nose in camp. Continue reading
Breidis Prescott vs. Terence Crawford tomorrow night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas
Photo: Chris Farina / Top Rank — March 29, 2013 – Breidis Prescott (26-4, 20KOs) will have to wait a little longer before he receives his title shot against WBA’s “regular” junior welterweight champion Khabib Allakhverdiev. Allakhverdiev injured his elbow last week in camp and was forced to pullout of his title defense in the televised co-feature of HBO Boxing After Dark: Rios-Alvarado.
Prescott remains in the co-feature but he will now be fighting in a 10 rounder against lightweight prospect Terence Crawford (19-0, 15KOs) who will be moving up to junior welterweight for the fight. Crawford was originally supposed to compete on the un-televised portion of the card against Robert Osiobe, but he jumped at the chance to step in for the injured Allakhverdiev and now he has the opportunity to step in the ring on an HBO broadcast in his most high profiled fight to date. Continue reading
Golovkin big favorite to defeat Ishida
Monte Carlo – According to the latest odds on Bet365.com, WBA and IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is a whopping -5000 pick to retain his title against Nobuhiro Ishida (+1200) in Monte Carlo on Saturday night. Continue reading
Statement by Kendall Holt
March 29, 2013 – First and foremost, I want everyone to know that I did not knowingly take any P.E.D., nor do I believe I unknowingly took any P.E.D.
The facts are as follows:
My camp, at my instruction, requested WADA level testing in connection with my bout with Lamont Peterson. Post bout urine samples were sent to the WADA accredited laboratory testing lab in Salt Lake City.
We repeatedly attempted to obtain the lab results from the D.C. Commission, with no success until yesterday. We did, however, receive an email from the Commission stating that both fighters had passed their test. Nonetheless we wanted the actual lab results.
Yesterday we received those lab results. The lab results were not identified by fighter but one of the results showed an elevated HCG level. It was labeled as an “”Atypical Finding.” Continue reading