A big year awaits

Could 2012 be the year the heavyweight division is finally reignited. After a successful year featuring three consecutive knockout victories, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist David Price had started to get people talking. The second round stoppage of fellow unbeaten prospect Tom Dallas in June, was a display of Price’s evident power and accuracy and the 6 foot 8 Liverpudlian is in prime position to make a charge for major honours this year.

This Saturday, David takes his next step towards the elite of British boxing. He is scheduled to take on John McDermott for the English heavyweight title, however David knows it would be foolish to look past the three time British title challenger. The 31 year old has vast ring experience twice taking former lonsdale belt holder Danny Williams the championship distance. It is unlikely Big Bad John will cause an upset, but we all hope it shall provide a great nights entertainment.

Whilst watching many will have in their minds what this fight could lead to. This clash also serves as an eliminator for Tyson Fury’s British heavyweight title. Tyson may not be the most technically gifted boxer, but he has been doing wonders for British boxing. In being the star attraction for terrestrial televised fights, Tyson has created such a buzz thanks to his up and down fights consisting of knockdown after knockdown, be it his opponent or himself. He has been gaining the attention and appreciation of armchair fans for making boxing exciting. What Tyson has lacked is an opponent who can provide a real challenge, and in Price we may have a perfect match.

Fury and Price aren’t the only British Heavyweights who could steal the headlines this year, on 18th February Dereck Chisora travels to Germany for a shot at WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and we also have Sheffield’s Richard Towers. Towers who like Price stands 6 foot 8 and boasts an unbeaten 12-0 record with 9 knockout’s, he certainly has the credentials to be added to the domestic heavyweight mix.

It’s also worth mentioning this summer the eyes of the world will be fixed on London for the Olympics, and there is great expectation of super heavyweight Anthony Joshua. The amateur star can hopefully add to his silver at 2011’s world championship’s.

Appeal Withdrawn

last night it was revealed that former light welterweight champion Amir Khan, and his Golden Boy promotion team, decided to withdraw their appeal with the IBF for a rematch of Khan’s December 10th clash with Lamont Peterson.

The IBF was due to hear Khan’s appeal this afternoon (US time) however Golden Boy withdraw their request, mainly due to the fact that WBA supervisor Michael Welsh and referee Joe Cooper were not to attend. These two individuals were key people to be involved with the hearing. The original appeal was lodged because Team Khan felt the fight was poorly officiated and there were scorecard discrepancies.

Last night Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com “We’ve been reviewing everything, including the latest paperwork which we received from the IBF, and I sat down with Team Khan and we realized that based on the makeup of that hearing that it would have been a very one-sided story,”

“Since not everyone that was in Washington — the IBF officials and supervisor — would have been in attendance there would not have been a complete story told,” he said. “You don’t go to hear a partial side of the story, so we decided to withdraw the appeal and focus our time on Amir’s next fight. We will be meeting with HBO (on Wednesday) and have something to announce soon as it relates to a date and site.”

A rematch with Lamont Peterson is still at the top of their list, when it comes to Khan’s next fight, however it may be far more difficult without the IBF officially ordering it. Khan wants this rematch so bad, that he has ordered Schaefer to offer Peterson a 50-50 deal. This is seen as a very surprising decision as Khan is widely seen as the fighter generating the bulk of revenue from a rematch, due to his contracts with British broadcaster Sky Sports, and US broadcaster HBO. Peterson has already turned down an offer of $1million to fight Amir again, Peterson’s previous highest earnings was $650,000 from the December 10th fight.

“We hope we can begin the negotiation with Team Peterson right away,” Schaefer said. “We want these negotiations to be straightforward and respectful. In that regard, Amir really wants that rematch and would agree to split the worldwide revenue 50-50.”

“It would be a much-anticipated rematch and HBO is obviously interested in airing that rematch. We want to make sure it is financially and professionally satisfying to Lamont to get this rematch done.”

 

 

Sunday Sparring

With 12RoundsNews up and running for over a week now, i thought it was time to introduce a regular round up of the weeks events. Boxing is such a non-stop sport, that everyday you hear rumours, updates and fight news. With myself working a full-time job, sometimes it’s just not possible to get a full post on every juicy detail regarding the events of our beloved sport. Now of course i will be continuing my articles throughout the week, so Sunday Sparring will be dedicated to all those little bits that i am unable to write a full article for.

We start with the early events in the week. Twitter is a fantastic source for information these days, with many of the sports top performers, journalists and promoters all operating on the site every day, new information is always being announced regarding the sports goings on. So it was a very interesting move when Floyd Mayweather used the site to officially call out current pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao to fight him on May 5th. Floyd put it straight to the WBO welterweight champ “Manny Pacquiao I’m calling you out let’s fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see.” following with “My Jail Sentence was pushed back because the date was locked in. Step up Punk.” Now with these statements are we in fact now closer than ever to finally getting the Fight of the Century! I highly doubt it. Straight away Manny’s team knocked back the offer stating that May 5th is an “economically illogical date” for Mayweather-Pacquiao, as they are currently waiting for the completion of a 40,000 seated arena in Las Vegas. The current estimated date of completion is the end of May or early June. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer (currently in charge of negotiations with Mayweather’s opponents) finds this to be very convenient for Pacquiao and Top Rank. He believes that the Pacquaio camp are just supplying excuse after excuse to the media, firstly with the date and also claims that they are unsure of who they are to negotiate with. This has led Schaefer to believe that they simply do not want the fight. At this current time, both fighters have a long list of potential opponents. WBC light middleweight champ Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is believed to have started light training as a possible  opponent for Mayweather, with Timothy Bradley rumoured as Pacman’s opponent in the spring.

Pacquiao’s stablemate Amir Khan is finally getting some answers after having an action packed week of his own. With Mustafa Ameen being revealed as the mysterious “Man in the hat,” it prompted the WBA to issue a rematch of Khan’s December loss to Lamont Peterson. The fight has been marred by controversy every since the result was announced. Initially there was the points deductions, followed by rumours of scorecard tampering and then Ameen’s interference at ringside. It was only a matter of time before a rematch was ordered. However it’s not yet official, Peterson has ten days to appeal the decision and the IBF is yet to make a decision. Should the IBF choose to uphold the result, Peterson can opt to vacate the WBA title rather than fight a rematch.

On Wednesday the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted unanimously to grant Victor Ortiz a conditional one fight license for his February 11th rematch with Andre Berto. Ortiz was called before the commission regarding his online video, in which he states that he intended to break the nose of Floyd Mayweather when he infamously head butted him in their fight last year. Ortiz told the commission that his words were “taken out of context,” adding that he was “very embarrassed” by his actions. However Ortiz has been put on a tight leash by the commission. Should he do anything improper during the fight he may be once again called before the commission for discipline, and his license would automatically expire. It has also been announced that the proceeds from tickets sold for Ortiz-Berto 2 will benefit the victims of the earthquake that hit Berto’s native of Haiti two years ago.

Brandon Rios is to once again fight at lightweight. This despite his recent failure at two attempts to make weight in his eventual December destruction of Manchester’s John Murray. In failing to make weight Rios was stripped of his WBA title and many thought that he would decide to move up to light welterweight, being there obvious problems with fighting at 135 lbs. He is scheduled to fight in March with WBC champ Antonio DeMarco rumoured as the opponent for the undefeated fighter.

Undefeated American Mike Jones is to finally get his chance at a world title. According to Russell Peltz (Jones co-promoter) negotiations for the vacant IBF title bout between Jones and fellow American Randall Bailey are to be heading for a purse bid. Jones with an impressive 26-0 record with 19 knockouts earned the number one ranking with the IBF following his December points win over Argentinian Sebastian Lujan. “The purse bid deadline was at the close of business today, Jan. 12. If it wasn’t agreed to by 5 p.m. today, then the date of the purse bid is Jan. 24. So it’s officially going to purse bid,” said Peltz, “Top Rank is going to do the official bidding (for Jones,) and Randall Bailey is under contract to Lou DiBella. The winner of the purse bid has to put the fight on within 90 days. So the fight has to take place by April 24.” Peltz believes that the winner of the fight could eventually go into the mix for big money fights with pound for pound contenders Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquaio and Juan Manuel Marquez. In personal opinion i would love to see Jones as an eventual opponent for our own Kell Brook, should they both get through their upcoming bouts.

War of the Roses – The Special One’s biggest battle

Today the Sheffield Motorpoint arena played host to Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing’s latest unveiling. Matchroom Sports have been involved in boxing for many years. However it is in recent years, that they have been seen as a breath of fresh air in boxing promotion. By introducing the Prizefighter tournament, they gave a format that was thoroughly entertaining to not only boxing fans, but sports fans throughout the UK. Prizefighter has enabled to give young professionals a chance to shine on a major stage and some seasoned professionals that last chance at glory.

As well as the successful running of prizefighter, Matchroom moved to sign up some of the biggest names on the domestic scene. After adding WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and former British and European champion Darren Barker to their ranks, on April 8th 2011 Matchroom announced the signing of undefeated former British and WBO Intercontinental champion Kell Brook. The signing of Brook, who split from rival promoter Frank Warren, proved to be a big step for Matchroom as a promotional outfit. In signing Kell, Matchroom’s Managing Director Eddie Hearn stated that “Kell oozes class and has that something special about him – in short he is going to be a superstar.” Under Warren Kell was starting to get serious attention after stoppage wins of Krzysztof Bienias and Michael Jennings and the defence of his WBO title against Ghana’s Philip Kotey ensured he kept his number one ranking with the WBO.

His first fight under the Matchroom name showed how big their ambitions were for their future star. They lined him up against former IBF light welterweight world champion Lovemore N’dou, a boxer who had although been beaten had never been stopped. Kell went on to produce a stunning display of skill, power and precision to a unanimous points decision over the South African gatekeeper, frequently coming close to knocking out N’dou. After another dominant performance in stopping Rafal Jackiewicz, Brook went on to make his American debut on the undercard of Matchroom stablemate Carl Froch’s world title fight. Kell again went on to produce a stylish knockout of Luis Galarza, he successfully caught the attention of the US fans and journalists alike. Currently ranked sixth by Ring magazine in a weight that includes pound for pound Manny Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd Mayweather, Many consider Kell to be on the cusp of greatness.

So for his next match up Eddie Hearn had his work on his hands, to not only give Brook a chance to once again showcase his astounding ability but enough of a challenge that he doesn’t slack in his chase for world supremacy. Today at the Motorpoint Arena Sheffield boxing media packed in for the announcement that Kell’s next fight would be against domestic rival and former world title challenger Matthew Hatton. The fight on March 17th have got fight fans salivating more than pavlov’s dog, Hatton ranked number one at welterweight by boxrec.com is a seasoned fighter going into his 50th professional fight when he meets Kell, has the ability to give the prospect his toughest night to date in Brook’s hometown. When Hatton spoke to the media he insisted that the fight being in Brook’s backyard will not be a factor in the outcome “I’ve boxed class opposition in big arenas all over the world so experience will play a part in this fight. Fighting Kell in Sheffield isn’t something that’s going to keep me awake and it’s only an hour down the road so I’ll have good support there on the night.” he also announced his annoyance at many taking him out of the mix when it comes to domestic rankings, “It has irritated me a little bit that people regard Kell as the number one in Britain – I’ve been European champion and was undefeated at that level, it’s like being told you are not even the best at school even though you are the best in Europe!”

This fight is going to put an end to those thoughts as on March 17th we will find out who is the best welterweight in Britain. Will Kell continue his outstanding form and go on to progress to a world title fight or will Hatton show his magic and end Special K’s dream.

Cobra’s Comeback

The Super Six World Boxing Classic was considered to be a big risk by showtime, many were sceptical as to how successful the tournament would prove to be. Some simply couldn’t comprehend the idea of the two year event and how it would work. What this tournament did achieve was to get the promoters working together and enabled boxing fans around the globe finally watching the best fighting the best.

As many know the tournament provided great shocks with eventual winner Andre Ward beating Mikkel Kessler who was at the time considered the best super middleweight in the world, it had Carl Froch go from a split decision loss to Kessler and losing his title, to then producing what some may consider one of the performances of his career in dominating Arthur Abraham on foreign soil to regain his WBC strap. It all came about with the arguably the two best reaching the final in Atlantic City, NJ. On December 17th boxing fans witnessed the 2004 Olympic gold medallist Ward produce an outstanding tactical and technical display to a unanimous points decision over Froch. The skill that Ward showed in that final has catapulted him into the pound for pound rankings and has some thinking he is now untouchable at super middleweight.

So whats next for the Super Six finalist’s. The majority of people were instant to throw in the mix the one man who was absent from the tournament, some considered him to be the true super middleweight king, the unbeaten IBF champ Lucian Bute. Whilst fighters such as Ward, Kessler and Froch had the limelight, Bute continued to provide dominant performances against Jesse Brinkley, Brian Magee and Jean-Paul Mendy. Many felt that once the final had taken place, the winner would have to face Bute in order to cement their place as the best. Now whilst Ward has been making negotiations with current middleweight boss Sergio Martinez about a possible catchweight fight, Froch and his Matchroom Boxing promotional team made the offer to Bute for a two fight home and away deal.

So as of yesterday it’s been revealed that Eddie Hearn (Matchroom Boxing) has been in negotiations with Bute’s promoter, Jean Bedard (InterBox) to get the fight finalised. Hearn told ESPN.com that he is “having positive discussions with Jean and the team at InterBox,” and that he is “very happy with the idea of working with them.” So the dates pencilled in so far are April 4th in Montreal and August 14th back in Froch’s hometown of Nottingham.

Unlike some in the boxing world, Froch has long believed that Bute was never good enough to be a participant in the Super Six. During the week of his fight with Ward, Froch pointed out his controversial points win over Librado Andrade in 2009 as his reason. Bute who had two fights with Andrade, winning the second by fourth round knockout. But it was the first fight which created the controversy as he was knocked down in the last but benefited from a slow 10 count which allowed him to rise and avoid the count out. Carl believes that Bute has spent his career avoiding the big names, and going the easy way to keep his title and his unbeaten record. He points out the other than Andrade, there is only Brian Magee, who he knocked out six years previous and Glen Johnson, a fight that some see as simply a sparring session. After Froch’s statement it led to Bute being even more fired up for the fight stating the he would have fought Froch regardless of the Ward outcome. “If Froch wins, maybe it would be a two-fight deal, one in Nottingham, and then, one in Montreal,” said Bute. “For me, the fight with Froch is personal.”

It’s also been announced today that their is to be a big domestic super middleweight showdown. Lonsdale belt holder George Groves is to defend his title against Kenny Anderson, after the Scottish fighter was name the mandatory challenger by the British Boxing Board of Control. The fight will carry great interest, as it is a rematch of their 2010 brawl. ‘Saint’ George had previously come from a third round knockdown to stop Anderson three rounds later. Anderson gave Groves a massive scare in a fight where he was the favourite, this led many to doubt Groves potential as a future world beater and he received plenty of criticism for his performance. The man from Edinburgh always believed that Groves and his camp ran scared from a rematch and he has promised he will be better prepared to rip away the British and Commonwealth titles Groves won from domestic rival James DeGale. The fight has gone to purse bids and must be contested before the end of May.

Who dares wins

2011 ended disappointingly for british boxing at world title level. Carl Froch fought bravely but it was never enough against the far classier future star Andre Ward and Amir Khan lost a controversial split decision to Lamont Peterson. This left Britain with the lone world champion WBO light heavyweight king Nathan Cleverly. This leaves many wondering where our next champion will come from.

In 2010 Dereck Chisora was in the form of his life coming off destructive victories against Danny Williams and Sam Sexton, everything was then set in place for Dereck to fight Wladimir Klitschko for the unified heavyweight crown. 2 cancelled fights later and Chisora is left without his chance at glory and is in line to face fellow undefeated brit Tyson Fury in a mandatory defence of his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, Chisora was the keen favourite and few could have foreseen what was to unfold. He came into the fight far heavier than he ever had before, hoping this would add more power in order to knock out the naturally larger Fury. This backfired as ‘DelBoy’ was simply overweight and sluggish therefore he was outperformed by Fury who had the fight of his life that night.

7 months on from Chisora’s night of disappointment and off the back of a routine victory over unknown Remigijus Ziausys and a controversial loss to now European champ Robert Helenius he finds himself in a press conference promoting his upcoming world title challenge against Wladimir’s brother and WBC heavyweight champion Vitali. Few could have imagined Chisora even getting back towards domestic dominance after the loss to Fury, let alone challenging for a world title against the man many consider the better of the Klitschko brothers. So on February 18th Dereck once again gets his chance to fulfil his claim that he is up there with the best heavyweights in the world.

At today’s London press conference Dereck insisted that in 6 weeks we will see a very different athlete to how we’ve seen him before, that he is in the prime of his boxing career and is “physically and mentally” prepared to shock the world with a KO of Dr. Ironfist. Some have highlighted that Vitali (now 40 years of age) is over the hill in boxing terms and that Chisora may give him a fresh test that he may not be able handle, obviously Vitali was quick to rubbish these views stating “I’m 40 but I feel 25. I am in great condition, great form and have great experience.” In my personal opinion Vitali is far too skilled an opponent for Chisora to handle. You only need to look at his previous fight against Tomasz Adamek to understand that age has not affected his ability to perform at the highest level.

The key question is which ‘DelBoy’ will enter the ring February 18th, the powerful and skilled fighter who KO’d Mike Tyson’s conquerer Danny Williams in 2 rounds at Upton Park, will he back up his statements with a champions performance or will he again be unprepared, overconfident and simply flop under the pressure.

Money walks… For now

Friday 6th January was a date that many boxing fans had noted down in their minds. This was the date that WBC welterweight champion and considered by many the pound for pound best fighter in the world Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather was due to start his 90 day prison sentence for domestic violence. This meant that Floyd would be unable to fight in his scheduled defence on May 5th at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

In a strange turn of events Floyd has made a request to the judge to have his 90 day prison sentence delayed until the 1st June. Should the judge allow this it would mean he would be free to make the defence of the belt he won in his September 17th controversial knockout of Victor Ortiz. To the surprise of not only the boxing world but the legal world, the judge has granted his request for the delay.

This has led to not only complaints from many people in boxing, but people associated with sport in general. One key point of his sentencing was to send a message that even the biggest names were not above the law, in bowing to Floyd’s demands it leaves me baffled as what the judge aims to achieve. In spite of the controversy it does mean that the highly anticipated fight will go ahead. But who will be his opponent? ‘Money’ is still to agree a deal and the big names are once again all being thrown about. But there is one name on everybody’s lips who is also in the process of naming an opponent for his upcoming bout, Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao. Is it possible that the dream fight could be finally making some headway and that we could bring an end to the argument about who is the best boxer in the world today. This may be the reason as to why Floyd was so desperate to have his sentence delayed until later this year.

In other news there has been more developments in the Khan v Peterson aftermath. Yesterday news was breaking about a ‘Mystery Man’ and his involvements ringside during the fight. Today WBA president Gilberto Mendoza told Sky Sports News that “We don’t have any idea who this guy is,’ and that “We cannot identify him.” The controversy surrounding this man seems to develop hourly with pictures emerging of him celebrating with the Peterson camp after the scorecard announcements, some have claimed him to be an IBF official and another source for Ringtv.com has claimed him to be Mustafa Ameen a business manager for Heavyweight boxer Michael Hunter. All the developments have led to Mr Mendoza has called for a rematch citing poor officiating and scorecard discrepancies among his reasons.

Burns V ?

Yesterday Ricky Burns was named by Boxing News as their british fighter of 2011. He is a boxer who is currently in exceptional form, recently coming off wins against Michael Katsidis, Nicky Cook and Joseph Laryea. Currently considered one of the 10 best lightweights in the world, so when it was announced that he would make a voluntary defence of the WBO interim world title he won in defeating Katsidis, many were in anticipation of who the opponent would be. Many british fight fans were throwing big names around such as current WBO king Juan Manuel Marquez or even an all british clash against the reborn Kevin Mitchell. However reports today in the Scottish Evening Times have claimed that an agreement had been reached for Ricky to fight Lonsdale belt holder Anthony ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla on March 10th.

Unfortunately Crolla’s promoter Frank Warren was quick to put rumours to rest and announced to boxingscene.com that Crolla was a name touted as Ricky’s opponent but would not be fighting the man from Coatbridge on March 10th. So unfortunatlely we still don’t know who Burns opponent will be, but with him competing in what I believe to be possibly one of the best divisions in the world at this current time, Burns is not short of quality opponents. All I can say is 2012 is going to be a big year for the scot and hopefully he can pick up 2011’s form and put smiles back on british faces when it comes to world titles.

In other news Amir ‘King’ Khan came to the press with new controversy surrounding his recent split decision loss to Lamont Peterson. Video footage has come to light of a “mysterious” suited man interfering with proceedings ringside during the December clash. The footage shows this man constantly disturbing fight commissioner Michael Walsh, which as most know is against fight rules. Khan has now launched a “witch hunt” to find out who this man is. In my honest opinion its getting to be slightly embarrassing now for Khan as it seems he is coming out with excuse after excuse. When watching the fight I had Khan winning 114 – 112, despite Peterson’s exceptional performance. Most believe Khan won the fight and he should put this behind him, let the officials deal with everything and focus on his next fight.

Welcome

Welcome to 12RoundsNews. This is a brand new blog dedicated to everything in and out of the ring. Boxing is a great passion of mine and i love to talk about it. In future i will be providing everything from fight news and reports, to live fight coverage from our twitter account @12RoundsNews. So thank you for reading and enjoy.

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