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By William Holmes
The following is the Boxing Insider notebook for the week of June 10th to June 17th, covering the comings and goings in the sport of boxing that you might have missed.
Fox Sports to Broadcast Iron Mike Productions Event and Golden Boy Promotions on Same Week
Fox Sports will team with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson’s Iron Mike Productions on Thursday, July 10th on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes. On July 9th Oscar De La Hoya’s Golen Boy Live! will be broadcasting a pair of bouts on Wednesday, July 9th.
Golden Boy’s Wednesday Night Fights will take place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. It will feature a matchup between Alfonso Gomez (23-6-2) and Ed Paredes (35-3-1) in a ten round junior middleweight bout. Deigo De La Hoya (5-0) will also be competing against U.S. Olympian Joseph Diaz Jr. (10-0).
Iron Mike Productions will be broadcasting three bouts. The main event is an IBF Junior Lightweight Championship bout between Argenis Mendez (21-2-1) and Rances Barthelemy (19-0). The co-main event will be between Humberto Savigne (12-1) against a to be named opponent, and Erickson Lubin (5-0) will compete in the opening televised bout.
Sergey Kovalev Returns August 2nd
Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (24-0-1) will return to HBO Boxing After Dark and Atlantic City on August 2nd to defend his WBO Light Heavyweight World Title against Blake “Il Capo” Caparello (19-0-1) at the Revel Casino Hotel.
This will be the third time that Kovalev defends his WBO title and his second fight in Atlantic City.
“I am happy to be back in the ring on August 2nd and thank to HBO for offering us the date. Looking forward to face an unbeaten fighter, I know he will be coming to fight and to take my title away, but it belongs to me and I won’t let that happen,” said Kovalev. “I already started my preparation for this bout and will be ready in good condition when times comes to step into ring.”
Thomas Dulorme Comments on Chris Algieri’s Win
Thomas Dulorme offered the following comments after Chris Algieri’s win over Ruslan Provodnikov.
“From the beginning, I have always said that Ruslan Provodnikov is not ‘Superman’. Many people were selling him as something out of this world, and I really wanted to fight him on this same date, but they did not want it. We knew that the throne of Ruslan would not last long, and one of the reasons is his style. Lots of people said that I was crazy for wanting to fight him, but now I just have to congratulate Chris Algieri for his great performance”, said Thomas Dulorme, who currently at 140 pounds is ranked #2 by the World Boxing Association (WBA), #3 by the World Boxing Council (WBC), #4 by the International Boxing Federation (IBF), and #8 in the World Boxing Organization (WBO).
“I want to fight the best fighters available in my division, and Algieri is one of them” said Dulorme, who is trained by renowned trainer, Robert Garcia in Oxnard, California. “A fight with Algieri would be something I would welcome very much.”
HBO Presents a Summer of Acclaimed Boxing Documentaries
HBO Sports will present five of its acclaimed boxing documentaries on consecutive Thursday evenings this summer on HBO 2. It launches on June 26th with the powerful Ali-Frazier I: One Nation….Divisible and concludes with the celebrated 2013 presentation of Legendary Nights: The Tale of Gatti-Ward.
The second documentary to be broadcast by HBO is Sugary Ray Robinson: The Bright Lights and Dark Shadows of a Champion on July 3rd. On July 10th HBO will broadcast Joe Louis: America’s Hero… Betrayed. On Jul 17th HBO will broadcast Klitschko, which chronicles the brotherhood of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. The string of boxing documentaries will conclude on July 24th with Legendary Nights: The Tale of Gatti-Ward.
Alvarez vs. Lara to be Broadcast in Cinemas on July 12th
Fathom Events, Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime PPV are pleased to present the two best junior middleweights in the world, Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara, who will meet to decide 154-pound supremacyon Saturday, July 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET. “HONOR & GLORY: Canelo vs. Lara” will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to select theaters nationwide as Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez squares off against WBA Junior Middleweight World Champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara in a 12-round bout. The event will be produced and distributed live by Showtime PPV.
Tickets for “HONOR & GLORY: Canelo vs. Lara” are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change). The event will be broadcast to nearly 200 select movie theaters across the country through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network.
“I’m expecting one of the toughest fights of my career on July 12,” said Canelo Alvarez. “So knowing that I’ll have my fans cheering me on, not just in the arena but in movie theaters throughout the country, has me even more motivated to beat Erislandy Lara and give the fans a fight to remember.”
Bryant Jennings Training in Las Vegas Before Perez Fight
Bryant “By-By” Jennings (18-0, 10 KOs), has set up training camp in Las Vegas for two weeks before his upcoming WBC title elimination bout against Mike Perez (20-0-1, 12 KOs).
Jennings, who hails from Philadelphia, PA, left home for two weeks to avoid the distractions that go along with training near family and friends. In the biggest fight on his career, he chose Las Vegas, to train in high elevation for a couple of weeks, before returning home to finish out camp.
“I wanted to come out to Las Vegas for a couple of weeks and train in high elevation,” said Jennings. “I’ve been running up at Mt. Charleston in high elevation, training alongside Erislandy Lara. Leaving Philly for a couple of weeks is only going to help me focus on getting fully prepared for Perez. I’ll head back home to finish out camp after this week.”
“Jennings is taking this fight very seriously,” said promoter Gary Shaw. “I know he doesn’t want to leave any stone unturned. That is why he went out to Vegas to train with the best guys in the business. I know he’ll be in great shape for this fight. He’s a dedicated and amazing athlete.”
Gamboa Workout Quotes
Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0) held an open media workout to promote the June 28th world title fight against Terence Crawford (23-0). He offered some of the following quotes during his workout.
“Coming from Cuba, the guys were technical and had size, and I fought them a lot. Me, I’ve perfected my strategy to fighting these type of fighters.”
“I think this will be a counter-vs-counter match.”
“Objective is to get him to the middle range where I can use my speed.”
“Logic says to carry a little more weight as you get older, so I’m comfortable fighting at this weight.”
“The training camp is going perfect.”
How are you preparing in this training camp?
“General conditioning and working on specific objectives as we draw closer to the fight.”
Working with Floyd Sr?
“We worked on defense and counter punching. I know I tend to put my hands down and we worked on that.”
Strategy vs Crawford:
“The game plan is to attack from the start, be on the defensive, and develop the fight from there.”
Why did you go fight Crawford in his hometown?
“At this point, we have nothing to lose. We fight whenever, where ever.”
Prediction: “We will have a great fight and I’ll give you the best of me every time I fight. We will win.”
Working with 50? “It’s been two years up to this point it has been a great opportunity. I’m aware that other promoters have not made it easy for 50 to complete his two bout agreement.”
What’s next? “After this fight, sitting with SMS and looking for a fight with Garcia or someone of that stature.”
The objective for the fight: “The first objective is not only to win the championship, it’s to give SMS Promotions a better advantage. I feel they have left them [SMS Promotions] on the side and not given them fights because they don’t them to have a champion.”
Regarding his career: We have had a great career, of course, nothing is perfect. We have the right to make mistakes like humans but this is a great opportunity to show the people that Gamboa, ‘The Hurricane of Guantanamo’ is here.”
His state of fighting activity and inactivity: Are you worried about that going into the ring with Crawford? “I’m not worried about that one bit. I’m not only active when a fight presents itself. For me inactivity is when you are not training at all but I’m always training.”
Hovhannisyan vs. Maicelo Highlights July 11th Friday Night Fights
ESPN’s Friday Night Fights card on July 11th, 2014 will take place at the Little Creek Casino Resort in Shelton Washington. The Gary Shaw Productions card will feature a ten round main event between Art Hovhannisyan (17-1-2) and Jonathan Maicelo (20-1) for the WBC International Silver Title. The co-feature will be between Tureano Johnson (14-1) and Mike Gavronski (14-0-1) in a ten round middleweight bout.
Sullivan Barrera Highlights Undercard on 6/21 at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs
NBCSN Fight Night viewers at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs are treated to the IBF Light Heavyweight Title Eliminator between Anatoliy “The Gladiator” Dudchenko (19-2, 13 KOs) and Nadjib Mohammedi (34-3, 20 KOs) and the “Fight for Philadelphia Bragging Rights” between Karl “Dynamite” Dargan (15-0, 7 KOs) and Anthony Flores (11-4-1, 6 KOs), the live audience will also be treated to a stacked undercard filled with exciting fights and hot prospects. The doors at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs will open at 5:00 PM for this event.
Cuban light heavyweight prospect Sullivan Barrera (11-0) will face off against Lee Campbell (7-0) in an eight round bout. Campbell is replacing Jeff Lacy, who was originally scheduled to take on Barrera but had to pull out due to managerial complications.
Undefeated prospects Khalib Whitmore (5-0), Erik Spring (1-0), and Wellington Romero (3-0) are also set to fight on the undercard.
