Tag Archives: classes

Katie Taylor Moves Up in an Attempt to Become a Two Weight Champion

Posted on 09/18/2019

By: Hans Themistode

One of the very best women boxers in the world will return to the ring on November 2nd, at the O2 arena, in Manchester, England. She’ll be at the top of the billing on a card that will feature Joshua Buatsi, Anthony Crolla and a host of others.

The last time Taylor was seen in the ring, she was winning a hard fought but controversial decision against Delfine Persoon. It was a rougher than expected contest as Persoon had every reason to believe that she had done enough to win that contest.

Persoon successfully roughed Taylor up throughout the contest and made it as ugly as possible. Taylor seemed to have a difficult time adjusting to the physicality of Persoon. Still, Taylor managed to box her way to a decision.

The win for Taylor gave her the WBC Lightweight title which was the last belt at the weight class, making her an undisputed champion at the weight. Now that she has captured the last piece of the championship puzzle, she is looking for an even bigger challenge as she will be moving up in weight to take on WBO Super Lightweight champion Christina Linardatou.

“It’s a new challenge at a new weight and something I’m really excited about,” said Taylor. “I still feel like I have so much left to achieve in the sport and becoming a two-weight world champion is one of those goals.”

As for her opponent, Linardatou hasn’t lost a contest since 2016. Since then she has won four fights in a row and will be facing the biggest match of her career. Don’t expect the pressure of the moment to get to Linardatou.

“I plan on leaving England with my title,” said Taylor. “If I need to knock Katie Taylor out in order to retain the title, that’s what I’ll do.”

The move up in weight will have many fearing that a future contest against seven division champion Amanda Serrano is now unlikely. Taylor assured everyone that her plan isn’t to simply campaign at Super Lightweight.

“There are still so many huge fights out there for me like the Amanda Serrano fight, a rematch with Delfine Persoon and a fight with Cecilia Brækhus but the first goal is November 2 and winning another world title. I don’t have any issues making lightweight so I think I can move comfortably between the two weights. I always want to push myself and Christina is an excellent world champion, so it will be a big test for me.”

Taylor and Linardatou seem highly motivated to put on a show but it will be another fighter on the card who will receive most of the attention.

Former champion Anthony Crolla will step into the ring for one final time. It’s been a long and successful 13 year career for Crolla which first started in Manchester England. He has managed to win his fair of big fights including against Ismael Barroso, Ricky Burns and a championship winning effort against Darleys Perez. His career is now coming full circle as it will officially come to an end in the same place that it started 13 years ago.

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Crawford and Garcia Continue to Move Up in Weight

Posted on 10/31/2017

By: Ken Hissner

The latest is that Terrence “Bud” Crawford, 32-0 (23) who defended his WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO super lightweight titles in August knocking out Julius Indongo, 22-0, in Lincoln, NEB, in his 6th defense and as the WBO lightweight champion had two defenses will be moving up to welterweight.

The WBO is placing him as their No. 1 contender ahead of former champion Manny Pacquiao who lost a bad decision to WBO champion Jeff Horn in July. “He will relinquish his title and he wants the WBO to classify him at No. 1 at welterweight,” said President Valcarcel. This was voted on and passed.

Horn will be allowed to make a December 13th defense against the No. 10 contender Gary “Hellraiser” Corcoran, 23-1, of the UK, which radically shakes up the welterweight division and appears to shut out former champion Pacquiao of a Horn rematch. The December title fight winner will have 90 days to defend against Crawford.

As the WBO lightweight champion Crawford won the title from Ricky Burns in Glasgow in March of 2014. In June of that year he defeated Yuri Gamboa, 23-0 in June and Ray Beltran 29-6-1 in November. He then moved up to super lightweight winning the vacant WBO World title over Thomas Dulorme 22-1 in April of 2015. In October he defeated Dierry Jean 29-1, in February of 2016 Hank Lundy, in July defeated WBC champion Viktor Postol 28-0, in December John Molina Jr, 29-6, in May of 2017 Felix Diaz 19-1 and in August Indongo.

What will be interesting is that the other welterweight champions are Keith “One Time” Thurman, 28-0, the WBA & WBC champion, and Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr., 22-0, the IBF champion. There has been talk of the two of them unifying their titles.

While Crawford is moving up so is Mikey Garcia, 37-0 (30), the new WBC lightweight champion who defeated Dejan Zlaticanin, 22-0, for that title in Las Vegas in January. In July he won a non-title fight over the former WBA super lightweight champion Adrien Broner, 33-2, in Brooklyn who is now No. 8 in the WBC super lightweight rankings for Crawford’s title.

Garcia won the WBO World featherweight title in January of 2013 over Orlando Salido, 40-11-2, and in June made a defense over Juan Manuel Lopez, 33-2. He then moved up to take the WBO World super featherweight title in November defeating Roman Martinez, 27-1-2, and in January of 2014 over Juan Carlos Burgos, 30-1-2. He then took off over two years coming back in July of 2016 in order to get out of a managerial contract defeating Elio Rojas, 24-2, before winning the WBC lightweight title. His camp has talked about moving up to super lightweight and with Crawford vacating it wouldn’t take much for Garcia to fight for a title at that weight class.

The only dual champions at this time are Gennady “GGG” Golovkin who holds three of the middleweight titles, Thurman two of the welterweight titles, “A.J.” Anthony Joshua two of the heavyweight titles and Ryan Burnett two of the bantamweight titles.

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