Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder weighed in today for tomorrow night’s heavyweight showdown in Las Vegas. Stiverne holds the WBC heavyweight title and defends it against the much-smaller Wilder.
BERMANE STIVERNE (24-1, 21 KO’s) – 239 lbs
DEONTAY WILDER (32-0, 32 KO’s) – 219 lbs
The card also features Leo Santa Cruz defending his WBC super bantamweight belt against Jesus Ruiz and Fidel Maldonado Jr. facing Amir Inman in a junior welterweight bout. The Showtime telecast airs at 10PM ET.
Posted in The Latest
Tagged Bermane Stiverne, Deontay Wilder, Leo Santa Cruz, Showtime Boxing
It was a busy weekend for boxing with high-profile fights on Friday and Saturday nights. Erislandy Lara and Amir Khan easily won title bouts while Timothy Bradley Jr. and Diego Chaves fought to a controversial draw.
Lara (20-2-2, 12 KO’s) earned the WBA junior middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Ishe Smith (26-7, 12 KO’s) by scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 117-111. Lara had two much for Smith in both hand speed and movement as he kept Smith from mounting any serious attack.
Posted in Fight Reports, The Latest
Tagged Amir Khan, Devon Alexander, Diego Chaves, Erislandy Lara, Ishe Smith, Timothy Bradley
Terence Crawford retained his WBO lightweight title on Saturday night with a nearly flawless performance over 12 rounds to easily outpoint Ray Beltran. Crawford (25-0, 17 KO’s) controlled the fight, mostly from a southpaw stance, and gave his hometown Omaha, NE fans a virtuoso performance.
Official scores were 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109. InTheCorner.net scored the fight 119-109.
Beltran (29-6-1, 17 KO’s) challenged Crawford as the WBO’s #1 contender and most observers expected a close fight. But Crawford got out fast and proved to have an answer for Beltran’s attack, which mostly consisted of stalking and throwing isolated power punches.
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Tagged HBO Boxing, Ray Beltran, Terence Crawford
Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KO’s) easily retained his WBO welterweight title on Saturday night with a six-knockdown, unanimous decision victory over Chris Algieri. Pacquiao won by ridiculous scores of 120-102, 119-103 and 119-103.
Algieri (20-1, 8 KO’s) earned the shot at one of the top fighters in the world with a surprise win over Ruslan Provodnikov, but he was clearly overmatched against Pacquiao. The challenger was down once in the second, twice in the sixth, twice in the ninth and once in the 10th.
At age 35, Pacquiao still appears sharp and has tremendous hand speed. Algieri got hit from all angles and never had a shot to rattle his opponent.
As always with Pacquiao, talk of a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. followed the win. There are still plenty of political issues to deal with before that fight happens.
Manny Pacquaio and Chris Algieri both made weight for the WBO welterweight title fight that takes place Saturday night. Algieri initially missed the “catch-weight” by coming in at 144.4, but after one hour was able to make the fight official. Here are the weights for the significant fights on the card:
MANNY PACQUAIO – 143.8
CHRIS ALGIERI – 143.6
VASYL LOMACHENKO – 126
CHONLATARN PIRIYAPINYO – 126
(WBO Featherweight title)
JESSIE VARGAS -140
ANTONIO DeMARCO – 139.3
(WBA Super Lightweight title)
ZOU SHIMING – 112
KWANPICHIT ONESONGCHAIGYM – 112
(WBO Flyweight Eliminator)
Gennady Golovkin scored his 18th straight knockout on Saturday night with a second-round stoppage of Marco Antonio Rubio in Carson, CA. Golovkin (31-0, 28 KO’s) met almost no resistance from the veteran fighter who didn’t appear to want to be in the ring with the rising superstar.
Rubio (59-7-1, 51 KO’s) failed to make the 160 pound weight limit on Friday, then made no attempt to lose the extra 1.8 pounds in the two hours he was given. It was a telling sign as to how ready Rubio was to fight one of the sport’s great knockout punchers.
An uppercut in the second round changed the look on Rubio’s face and Golovkin swarmed the challenger, going for the finish. Moments later, a left hand put Rubio down and he timed the count to where he just barely, maybe, staggered to his feet as it hit 10. Rubio was instantly well enough to throw his arms up in protest, then, just moments later, was laughing and hugging everyone in the ring.
The joke was on the viewers and ticket buyers.
Golovkin is a force at middleweight and he carries a knockout percentage of 90.23, a stunning number after 31 fights. But he wasn’t tested on Saturday night. His opponent wasn’t there to try to win a fight.
Posted in Fight Reports, The Latest
by Steve Cummings
Marco Antonio Rubio lost his interim WBC middleweight title on the scales but will still face WBA Super Middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin in their schedule bout Saturday night. Golovkin tipped the scales at 159 but Rubio was more than a pound-and-a-half over the middleweight limit at 161.8.
Rubio was given two hours to lose the weight but never returned to the scales. He will be fined.
See the recap on BAD LEFT HOOK.
Posted in The Latest
Jermain Taylor became middleweight champion again on Wednesday night with a four-knockdown performance that lifted the IBF belt from Sam Soliman via a unanimous decision. Taylor (33-4-1, 20 KO’s) floored the defending champ in the seventh round and Soliman (44-12, 18 KO’s) injured his left leg, clearly impacting the rest of the fight. Taylor ultimately had his hand raised when the judges returned scores of 116-111, 115-109 and 116-109.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. entered his rematch with Marcos “Chino” Maidana tonight with something to prove. He left the ring a unanimous decision winner, exonerated, and still the king of the sport.
Mayweather improved his perfect record to 47-0 (26 KO’s) and retained various title belts with a masterful performance that left his challenger frustrated and without any hope of claiming a bad decision. Official scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112. InTheCorner.Net scored the fight 117-110 for Mayweather.
Saturday night we will finally see the rematch of the highly competitive first fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana. The much hyped event has built to a fever pitch, with today’s weigh-in generating more excitement than any of the press tour stops. All that’s left is fight night.
After all the talk and ALL ACCESS episodes leading up to MAYHEM, the two fighters stepped on the scales today:
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR. – 146 1/2
MARCOS MAIDANA – 146
With the weights official, the fight is on. The fighters will continue their epic battle from earlier this year. Because of that tense contest, many are questioning the outcome of an upcoming Mayweather fight for the first time in a very long time.
UCN