Tag Archives: out

Posted on 09/23/2019

By: Shane Willoughby

The most active champion in the world may be hitting a bit of turbulence. Tevin Farmer has fought 5 times in the last 13 months but none of those fights were that big.

However, Eddie Hearn spoke about getting his fighter a big fight at the end of the year, but who? The top of the list was Gervonta Davis.

Both men have gone back and forth for years and it seemed as if they were desperate to settle their issues. However, that fight is practically dead in the water after failed negotiations and ‘Tank’ Davis moving up to lightweight.

Another fight on the cards was against Joseph Diaz. Now Diaz is far from a massive draw in the sport but him and Farmer have had many verbal exchanges that weren’t very pleasant. These guys are far from friends and the build-up would have been fantastic.

With Jo Jo Diaz signed to DAZN as well it seemed as if that fight was inevitable. But unfortunately not, because he has decided to ditch Tevin Farmer and face Jesus Cuadro at the end of the year. It’s not looking great for Farmer.

Eddie Hearn loves putting his fighters into unification, we’ve seen him do it with Hooker, Roman, Jacob’s and Joshua and that was the plan for Farmer. Both Hearn and Farmer spoke about unifying the belts and the most likely challenger was Miguel Berchelt.

Berchelt is currently the WBC Super featherweight welterweight champion and has held the title since 2017, making 6 title defences. With him being signed to Top Rank wouldn’t have been a problem either, in fact, it may have sped up the process.

We just saw Arum send one of his fighters in Ramirez to DAZN and pick up the belt from Hooker and that negotiation seemed to happen overnight. However, Berchelt is now set to fight Jason Sosa on November 2nd.

The most active fighter seems to be without a fight. With no big fights on the horizon it’s likely we see Farmer take another easy touch before the end of the year. But Hearn needs to get a big fight for his man soon because Farmer’s contract with DAZN is up very soon.

Posted on 08/27/2018

CANELO ALVAREZ, Lineal Middleweight World Champion:

Photo Credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

“We’re getting close to the fight, and I feel good. This fight is personal because of all that’s been said, and it will be difficult to regain the respect that we once had. The statements that have been made about me have given me more motivation to train harder. I have watched the first fight several times. The error that I made was that I had opportunities to counter that I needed to have taken advantage of. I need to do that in the rematch.

Like I’ve said many times, the first fight gave me the guideline for the second fight. I know that I can do many things in the ring against him. I know that I can hurt him. I hurt him in the first fight, and I’m going to hurt him even more in the second fight. My objective is the knockout and I’ll be looking for that from the opening round.”

Golovkin knows who I am. He knows who I’m about. Let me put it even better–he still doesn’t know how much more I have left to show. I’m looking forward to showing him that on September 15. I have to win convincingly. It has to be a knockout to erase any doubts. I’m very motivated for this win. I’m confident, but not overconfident about my opponent because I know who he is, but I’m confident in my preparation.

There is no such thing as a Mexican style. There have been many fighters from Mexico with different styles. My style is mine. I’m Mexican and that’s what is important. Maybe Golovkin uses ‘Mexican Style’ to get fans, but he’s a hypocrite. If something were to happen in Mexico, he wouldn’t be there to support them.

GENNADY “GGG” GOLOVKIN, WBC/WBA/IBO Middleweight World Champion:

Photo Credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

“Canelo, he is not a champion. He is a liar who has no respect for the sport of boxing or its fans. I want to stay world champion and bring all my belts home. I am ready to star in another Big Drama Show. I do not think about Canelo in training. I am not worried about him. I only worry about doing my job in training camp and doing my job in the ring against Canelo on September 15. In the last fight I did not feel any real power from Canelo. Just slaps. He is not the hardest puncher I have fought, but he is fast and quick. He is the most skilled fighter I have fought. He is a very good fighter.

I am happy to get at Canelo again. It is another big chance to beat him again. Of course I want to knock out Canelo. It would be nice if Canelo came to fight this time. I don’t believe what he says about how he will fight me this time. He said the same thing before our first fight. I will definitely be more aggressive in this fight.

Was I upset that Canelo failed two drug tests? Yes. But I was more upset at Canelo’s team. The excuses they gave, their attitude, and Canelo’s reaction, it showed that they have no respect for the sport or the fans. They showed their real faces. They are fakes. I do
not feel anger toward him because the rematch was canceled the first time.

But I did lose all respect for him. Canelo is not the biggest name in boxing, just the biggest scandal. I feel very comfortable. It has been a great training camp. Abel has had me working on new things which I find very exciting. The cancelation of the rematch in May was a good life experience but it was not a good experience for boxing. I believe new judges and a new referee could be better for boxing and the fans.”

JAIME MUNGUÍA, WBO Junior Middleweight World Champion:

“Fighting on this card is a great opportunity, especially on a date that is so important for Mexicans. I have the obligation to give a great fight to all the fans. I know Brandon Cook is a tough opponent. He is older than me and has a lot of experience. But I think I’m stronger than him and have a reach advantage. I’m confident I’ll walk away with my hand raised.

This fight is an obligation to come in even better than last time. I need to show that I’ve gotten a lot better. I never knew that I would get so far in my career so quickly, but things happen for a reason. The Liam Smith fight gave me a lot of experience. It showed me all the errors I made that I am now working on in the gym.

A lot of fighters would love to be fighting frequently. It’s an opportunity that any fighter would desire. So I have to take advantage of that. If my body allows, I will continue be an active fighter as a world champion.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions:

“This fight is something different. This fight is personal. I’ve never seen Canelo so angry. He really wants to knock Golovkin out. As a promoter, I want to see him knock Golovkin out. This fight is every important for Mexican people. This is a Mexican date, and I’m excited we can bring fans an exciting and memorable event during Mexican Independence Day Weekend.”

TOM LOEFFLER, Promoter of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin:

“This is the biggest fight, the biggest boxing event of the year. The two best middleweights going mano a mano for all the marbles. Gennady is going for the all-time consecutive title defense record to further burnish his place as the top pound for pound fighter of his era.

Posted on 09/29/2017

by B.A. Cass

A three-punch combination, ending with a left hook to the head, is what it took for Jesus M. Rojas to knock out Claudio Marrero. After Marrero hit the canvas, he sat up, shaking his head. He then put his arms over his knees. He seemed more shocked than wounded—as if the idea that a man could knock him out was something he had never considered. The referee started the count. Marrero got to his knees but after that did not attempt to stand. Yeah, you know, shit happens, he told his coach, German Caicedo, after the fight. This is boxing. Anyone can get knocked out. It was Marrero’s response to losing, rather than the loss itself, that first made Caicedo consider whether he wanted to continue training Marrero.

That night, Marrero texted Caicedo to see if they could talk. But Caicedo was at the airport, about to board a red-eye flight to Miami. He had to be back at his gym the next day to train Luis Ortiz for his now cancelled fight with Deontay Wilder. Caicedo and Marrero planned to speak when Marrero returned to Miami.

Marrero’s reaction to losing the fight was not the only reason Caicedo was frustrated. Although Marrero trained hard, he seemed to be letting his modicum of success go to his head; often, he could be heard talking about his “millions, ” and when people asked him about the fight he said it was “easy money.” Marrero also disregarded the entire fight plan. They had trained for a pressure fighter by “being first with your jab, counterpunch if he attacks, if he doesn’t attack, you’re first on your attack, and then you’re stepping around, stepping aside, holding your ground,” Caicedo explains. “Instead what he was doing was jumping around, running straight back into the ropes, surrendering and allowing Rojas to come in freely with no attack.” Marrero seemed more concerned with entertaining the crowd than winning. Multiple times, he dropped his hands and taunted Rojas.

Back in 2013, Marrero had lost in a similar fashion to Jesus Cuellar, who pressured him from start to finish. He handled that a little bit better, being a younger fighter, but he still lost by unanimous decision. After his loss to Cuellar, many people were saying that Marrero couldn’t handle pressure. But Caicedo stuck by his fighter, allowing him to maintain a residence in the Caicedo Sports facility. “He promised me he wouldn’t do that again,” Caicedo explains, “that he would better himself. He wouldn’t let his head get big. He would focus. But they were right all along. He couldn’t handle pressure. He can’t handle a little bit of success because his head gets big.”

After the fight with Rojas, Caciedo assumed Marrero would be back in Miami the next day, on Saturday afternoon. But Marrero didn’t return from Las Vegas until Tuesday. So you’re on vacation, Caicedo thought. Taking pictures in Las Vegas, partying with your friends. The loss didn’t affect you at all. Because of his training schedule with Ortiz, Caicedo wasn’t able to catch up Marrero until two days later. But he had already decided to let him go.

How did he break the news to Marrero? “Frankly,” Caicedo says. “I told him I don’t want to train you anymore and I don’t want you in the gym. I’ve got nothing personally against you other than this, but this is a big one. I can’t forgive this one.”

Caicedo realizes that anyone can lose. The loss isn’t what got to him. “He doesn’t have to be a world champion. I would have never kicked him out of the gym if he said to me, I’m so sorry, I screwed up, I fell apart, I was thinking about my son, I was thinking about losing, I didn’t want to lose. I completely screwed up. Then you say, shit happens, I get you. But that’s not what he answered when he answered me. What he answered was, you know, it’s no big deal, man. I just got knocked out, the same way I knock people out, they knock me out. It is what it is. We’ll try again.”

Not with Caicedo he won’t. Now Marrero will have to try again with someone else as his coach. He’s got to rebuild his reputation, which won’t be easy. He’ll be taken as an opponent and most likely won’t be treated as the A side.

Caicedo still thinks Marrero can become the undisputed. But he’s got to make that his goal and not lose focus when he gets a little bit of hype, a little bit of notoriety. “When he is completely ignored and not spoken about and is not the man, he’s the most humble, hardworking boxer—forget about in the gym, in boxing,” Caicedo says.

It’s important to remember Marrero is only twenty-eight. He has years ahead of him as a boxer—and potentially even good years if he takes Caicedo’s advice and goes back to being the humble, hard-working boxer that Caicedo first knew.

Follow B.A. Cass on Twitter @WiththePunch

Posted on 09/10/2017

By: William Holmes

The Stub Hub Center in Carson, California was the host site for tonight’s HBO Boxing After Dark telecast

The super flyweight division was featured as two world titles were on the line and one world title eliminator fight was shown.

Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/K2 Promotions

The opening bout was between Juan Francisco Estrada (35-2) and Carlos Cuadras (36-1-1) in an eliminator bout for the WBC Junior Bantamweight Title.

Both Estrada and Cuadras have previously lost to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and were fighting for a chance to have another crack at him.
Cuadras came out firing to start the first round and was able to land jabs and combinations to the body and head. Estrada was throwing punches of his own, but wasn’t landing at the rate of Cuadras. Cuadras ended the first round with a hard right cross.

Cuadras activity continued into the second round as he was throwing more combinations than the stalking Estrada. Cuadras was showing a good variety of punches in the third round, but Estrada ended the round strong with a hard-left hook to the chin.

Cuadras continued to outland Estrada in the fourth and fifth rounds while showboating at times, but Estrada was continuing to come forward and land some hard shots of his own.

Estrada picked up his pace in the sixth round and looked like he hurt Cuadras with a combination ending right cross. Estrada’s uppercut was also finding it’s home and the tide of the fight was turning in his favor.

The seventh round went back and forth and featured several heavy exchanges, but Cuadras was showing signs of tiring and his mouth was wide open.

Estrada’s left hook was landing in the eighth round. Cuadras may have stolen the ninth round with a heavy right uppercut that snapped the head of Estrada backwards, his best punch in several rounds.

Estrada sent Cuadras crashing to the mat in the tenth round with clean straight hand. Cuadras was able to get back to his feet and survive the round, but the knockdown solidified Estrada’s path to victory.

Estrada kept up the pressure in the final two rounds of an action-packed bout. At the end of the twelfth round he acted as if he was victorious.

Michael Buffer originally announced the final scores as 114-113 on all three score cards for Carlos Estrada, and Carlos Cuadras celebrated as if he won the fight.

But Buffer corrected himself and the correct score of 114-113 for Juan Francisco Estrada was read.

The next bout of the night was between Naoya “Monster” Inoue (13-0) and Antonio Nieves (17-1-2) for the WBO Junior Bantamweight Title.
Tonight, was Inoue’s American debut.

Inoue showed off his notorious jab in the opening round and was able to mix in a few uppercuts and left hooks. Nieves was able to block a lot of Inoue’s early punches, but wasn’t able to land anything significant in return.

Inoue’s jab was moving Nieves around the end of the ring in the second round and even had Nieves hurt in the final ten seconds of the second, but Inoue thought the ten second warning was the end of the round and laid off a visibly hurt Nieves.

Inoue started to land heavy shots to the body in the third round and it’s intensity and ferocity picked up in the fourth.

Inoue scored a knockdown with a thudding left hook to the body in the fifth round. Nieves was able to get back to his feet but took a large number of hard body shots in the remainder of the round.

Inoue continued his assault in the sixth round and was landing cracking body shots at will. Nieves was not throwing much in return and looked like he was just trying to survive.

Nieves corner stopped the fight before the start of the seventh round. Inoue wins by TKO at the end of the sixth round.

The main event was between Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1) and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-1) for the WBC Junior Bantamweight Title.
Rungvisai won a shocking upset in a fight of the year candidate in their first meeting.

Rungvisai, a southpaw, looked a lot more confident than the first time they met and came out aggressively and right at Gonzalez.
Rungvisai was able to land his right hands and kept Gonzalez uncomfortable with his pressure.

Rungvisai continued to be the aggressor in the second round but Gonzalez was able to land multi punch combinations even while he was complaining about head butts.

There were several good exchanges in the third round but Rungvisai looked like he was taking the shots of Gonzalez well but landing heavy shots of his own.

Gonzalez came at Rungvisai at the start of the fourth round but Rungvisai was able to land two hooks to the body followed by a right uppercut, and later followed that with a right hook to the chin of Gonzalez that sent him crashing to the mat. He was able to get back to his feet but still in a dazed state and momentarily exchanged with Rungvisai, but another left hook by Rungvisai sent Gonzalez to the mat for the last time.

Rungvisai wins by knockout at 1:18 of the fourth round.

Posted on 07/17/2017

Who knocked out Conor McGregor in training?
By: Matthew N. Becher

​The boxing and mixed martial arts worlds are clamoring to find out more information on an apparent rumor that has been going around in which former Jr. Welterweight and welterweight world champion, Jesse Vargas, stated that McGregor has been knocked out cold during a sparring session in training camp.
​As told over the weekend to Villainfy Media, Jesse Vargas (with Brandon Rios) stated,

“He got knocked out in sparring already, Man! The boxing world is small; its’ a small circle”

Rios then added, “If he got knocked out in sparring with 14oz gloves, Imagine with 8oz gloves, 10oz gloves. Different Story.

​Rumors then began to swirl that Rios was the actual fighter to have done the deed to McGregor in a sparring session. Those turned out to be completely untrue. Elie Seckbach called Rios personally and published their conversation. Rios said not only has he never even sparred McGregor, the two have never even met.

​So the question that is on everyone’s mind is, who actually did knock out McGregor?

​It could be that the story is just a rumor, but Jesse Vargas has really no reason to make up such a story, and it is true that news in the boxing world does travel fast. Videos are usually taken at big time sparring sessions like this, so some kind of evidence could exist.

​Also, how bad does this look for not just Conor, but for Mayweather. With people already knowing that Money May is the large favorite in the boxing match, it could hurt its ppv sales, knowing that Conor has already not made it out of a sparring session, where fighters not only use cushier gloves, but headgear.

​More news is sure to follow on this recent revelation as the media circus will continue for the next 5 weeks. Hopefully both fighters are preparing diligently and make it to the August 26th fight day unscathed.

Posted on 07/07/2017

Canelo-GGG Sell Out T-Mobile Arena
By: Sean Crose

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, the much anticipated fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin has sold out the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Still, the fact that the host location sold out in what was essentially a matter of days is impressive. As Lance Pugmire of the LA Times states: “The sellout comes even before promoters have announced their co-main event and undercard, with lightweight champion Jorge Linares a possible participant.” Such details are telling. One could only imagine the size of the live crowd had the fight taken place at AT@T Stadium near Dallas, as many had hoped it would.

No matter. The September 16th twelve round middleweight bout between the 37-0 Kazakh and the 49-1-1 Mexican superstar is set to go down in the “Mecca of Boxing” and nothing can change that now. Vegas is where the money is, and Canelo-GGG has already proven itself to be a big money affair, with ticket prices ranging into the thousands and many willing to pay into the better half of one hundred dollars to watch the festivities live on pay per view. “The boxing public fully understands that this is the biggest fight in many years,” gushed Oscar De La Hoya, who clearly had reason to be happy.

What makes today’s news positive for die hard fight fans is it shows the September 16th event is not going to be overwhelmed entirely by the Mayweather-McGregor circus a few weeks earlier – though that might well be something Mayweather himself wishes would happen. While the circus may indeed take a lot of air out of the room, it’s not going to take all of it. In fact, right now it’s looking like there’s two major happenings on the horizon: The Most Interesting Fight In Boxing and the Pop Culture Event Of The Summer.

The Pop Culture extravaganza will come first, absorbing tons of mainstream media, fan boy and general societal attention before the Interesting Fight arrives. This may mean the Interesting Fight won’t get the attention and energy it might have had two possible narcissists not decided to perform a surreal duet in the public spotlight. Yet things are looking good for Canelo-GGG, regardless. Those who prefer good boxing to oversize personalities – and the numbers of such people are legion – are clearly looking forward to a top level event after the headache of August 26th subsides.

Posted on 06/16/2017

STANLEY SCOTT: Knock Him Out or Be Knocked Out Was His Game!
By: Ken Hissner

“He was one of the most exciting kids I had at the Tropicana. He would walk in and knock his opponent out or get knocked out. He was a fan favorite,” said Don Elbaum.

Cleveland light heavyweight Stanley Scott, 11-16 with 11 knockout wins and 13 knockout losses is whom Elbaum is talking about. He was 8-2 when the losses starting mounting up. In January of 1982 Elbaum brought Scott into Atlantic City for his New Jersey debut since Elbaum was matchmaking regularly at the Tropicana Casino. He got a good start going 3-2 in A.C.

In April of 1982 Scott scored his career biggest win by knocking out Salvatore San Felippo, 17-2, of Jersey City in the third round in A.C. putting him into retirement. Scott’s last career win was over Tony Mesoraca, 10-2, of Philadelphia putting him into retirement in November of 1982 at the Tropicana in his last bout there. Scott seemed to have a way of “putting opponents into retirement” like in his third fight when he knocked out Greg Lamour, 8-2, of Chesapeake, VA, who hadn’t been knocked out before.

In 1980 Scott was put in 3 consecutive fights with Len Hutchins, 26-3-1, Murray Sutherland, 19-5 and Jeff Lampkin, 6-0, the last two being world champions before retiring.

Leave it to Don Elbaum to find a boxer like Stanley Scott!