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Jul 24, 2005
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Devon Alexander willing to fight Victor Ortiz if Berto can’t make the fight, but not in June
March 10th, 2012

By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (23-1, 13 KO’s) is willing to step in and face former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) in the Summer if Andre Berto’s ruptured left biceps still isn’t healed enough for him to be ready for their planned June 23rd fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to Steve Kim, Alexander will take the fight, but he won’t be able to make the June 23rd date due to a bad cut that Alexander received in his recent lopsided 10 round unanimous decision win over Marcos Maidana last month on February 25th. It’s unclear how much time Alexander will need before he can be ready for him to take the fight. If he needs to heal until July or August, it might not even be worth it, because Berto will probably be ready to go by then and a rematch between hi and Ortiz is a much bigger fight than Ortiz vs. Alexander. It’s unfortunate that Alexander received such a bad cut because he could be very useful for Ortiz if Berto’s left arm prevents him from competing on June 23. It was a risky situation anyway to choose to fight Berto after such a serious injury.

An injury like that is one of those things that could linger on and on, wiping out a lot of time with Ortiz waiting for Berto to finally heal. It’s a great fight no doubt, but it’s a big risk for Ortiz to count on Berto being healed in time for their June 23rd fight without some kind of setback occurring for Berto that will wipe out the fight. As of now, Berto is still expected to be able to make the June 23rd date, but that could change once he starts getting involved with some serious training involving sparring sessions
 
Aug 31, 2003
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Takashi Uchiyama Targets Adrien Broner Unification

By Ricardo Archibold Mendez, notifight.com

Japanese boxer Takashi Uchiyama (18-0, 15KOs), the current super featherweight (130 pounds) champion of the World Association, has no problem with a future clash against Panamanian Celestino Caballero, but he would rather secure a unification bout with WBO king Adrien Broner (23-0, 19KOs). Caballero, the WBA's champion at featherweight, would like to move up in weight to challenge Uchiyama.

"Caballero is a great champion, and I'm sure the day will come where I will face him. At the moment, I want to unify my title against American boxer Adrien Broner, the champion of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) at 130-pounds, and then in the future I would like to fight against Celestino Caballero," Uchiyama said.
People can talk about that division being thin all they want, those 2 guys fighting would establish the man at that weight. Without a doubt the best fight that could happen at 130.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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it's no way that broner vs Uchiyama gets made I can't see Uchiyama coming to america/ cincy and fighting broner and hbo & al haymon is not going to let this fight happen in japan this fight looks good on paper but I just can't see this fight going down
 
Aug 31, 2003
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If Uchiyama is talking unification then he has to be up to the idea of coming to the states. The JBC doesn't recognize and doesn't sanction IBF/WBO title fights so a unification would have to happen in the states, as would most of his defenses (or anywhere else not Japan).
 
Aug 31, 2003
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Haven't seen anything official just twitter one from Alfonso Gomez said he was struck by a drunk driver and died.

How come Japan doesn't recognize the ibf and wbo?
From what I understand they don't consider them real titles and only recognize WBA/WBC. They never have though and they're extremely strict about it as well. Yamaguchi was threatened of losing his license in Japan when he fought Salido for the WBO strap and had he won no promoter would touch a defense of his in Japan.

I did read a while ago that they were considering allowing special consideration for unification bouts although I don't know what ever came of it and as far as I know no IBF or WBO strap has been contested in Japan under a unification.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Kirkland vs. Molina on 3/24: James in a big test
March 11th, 2012

By Allan Fox: Junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KO’s) takes an important step towards an eventual world title on March 24th in a 10 round scheduled fight against contender Carlos Molina (19-4-2, 6 KO’s) in a fight on the undercard of the Erik Morales vs. Danny Garcia card at the Reliant Arena, in Houston, Texas.

In some ways, Kirland’s fight against the less than pulverizing punching Molina is a much tougher test for him than his last fight against Alfredo Angulo, because Molina is a much busier fighter with better conditioning than Angulo showed in his loss to Kirkland, and is good at fighting on the inside. Kirkland won’t be able to count on the 28-year-old Molina gassing out after the 1st round like he did in his last fight against Angulo.

In that bout, Kirkland was knocked down in the 1st round by Angulo but in the process of trying to finish Kirland off, Angulo completely wore himself out. Angulo never got his second wind and took punishment from Kirkland until the fight was eventually halted in the 6th. For a professional boxer ranked in the top 5, Angulo looked really poor. Molina won’t gas out like that and Kirkland is going to have to really pour it on if he wants to get a victory over him.

Kirkland, #2 WBC, #3 WBO, needs a win over Molina to keep in line for an eventual fight against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez in the future whenever that happens. Kirkland probably won’t get the chance in 2012, but if he’s really lucky he might get the opportunity to fight Alvarez in 2013 unless Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Alvarez, decide to steer Alvarez around Kirkland for two to three years waiting for the 21-year-old Alvarez to mature as a fighter. In that case, Kirkland will need to go after the WBO champ Zaurbek Baysangurov.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Juan Manuel Lopez apologizes to referee for post-fight comments
March 11th, 2012

By Dan Ambrose: It didn’t take long for ex-WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (31-2, 28 KO’s) to step up and give an apology for some of the ill-advised comments he made about referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. after the 28-year-old Lopez’s 10th round TKO stoppage loss against World Boxing Organization featherweight champion Orlando Salido (38-11-2, 26 KO’s) last Saturday night at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Lopez was unhappy with the referee Ramirez Sr. due to him pulling the plug on his fight against Salido after Lopez was dropped to the canvas in the 10th. He got back to his feet but couldn’t stand without swaying from one side to another while the referee Ramirez Sr. was looking him over to see if he should let him continue. Ramirez Sr. didn’t like what he saw and stopped the fight without letting Lopez attempt to come back from the knockdown. It was a wise decision because Lopez was badly hurt and Salido looked unstoppable, like he was just getting started. After the fight an upset Lopez said that Ramirez Sr. had stopped the fight due to gambling interests.

Lopez said this to fightnews.com in a written statement: “I want to apologize to Roberto for the comments I made after the fight with Salido. Roberto is one of the best referees in the world and did a great job. I appreciate him protecting me because I was definitely hurt.”

This is very true. Lopez was far too hurt to continue and would only have been dropped again by Salido had Ramirez Sr. allowed Lopez to continue fighting. He was too far gone by that point in the fight and had left all he had in the tank in the brutal 8th and 9th rounds when Lopez finally attempted to brawl with Salido after doing a lot of moving in the first seven rounds of the fight.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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Why all the sudden hype over Sergio Martinez, his record states he’s an average fighter at best
March 12th, 2012

By Frank Gaskins: Former WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 27 KO’s), has become one of the more popular figures in the sport since knocking Paul Williams COLD in November of 2010. Since then Martinez has faced a couple of lesser known undefeated (at the time) fighters in Serhiy Dzinziruk and Darren Barker, not to take anything away from Martinez but we all know that being undefeated doesn’t translate to being “elite”, it’s more than likely a testament to how well a fighter’s advisors and promoters have picked their opponents.

Martinez is indeed a good fighter, but I definitely wouldn’t put him in the category of a Mayweather, Paquiao or Ward. Those guys have earned their stripes with worthy, well known opposition and Martinez record doesn’t seem to have much of either. The only names on his record that are familiar to me are Antonio Margarito, whom he LOST to in 2000 (a fight which Martinez never attempted to avenge to this day), Kermit Cintron, whom he fought to a Draw with in 2009 (again never fighting Cintron again), Kelly Pavlik, he did defeat Pavlik in 2010 (but let’s be honest Pavlik, is of the same cloth, his only claim to fame is defeating Jermain Taylor twice).

Martinez lost a Decision to Paul Williams once and knocked Williams out once, the latter being the fight that propelled Martinez into the upper echelon of boxing’s biggest names. This is not me “Hating” on Martinez in any way, I actually like to see him fight, BUT had Mayweather, Pacquiao or Ward or any champion or well recognized fighter had taking a loss to a fighter of Margarito’s caliber and NOT fought a rematch or fought to a draw with a fighter of Cintron’s caliber and NOT fought a rematch we would have crucified them in the media and in boxing circles all over the world. Instead we treat Martinez as if he’s the man to beat. Shouldn’t he be held to the same criteria as any other fighter.
 
Jul 24, 2005
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David Haye vs. Vitali Klischko 'Show' Begins

By Vitali Shaposhnikov: David Haye has recently announced that Vitali Klitschko has finally agreed to fight in some time in the summer. "Vitali has just finally agreed to fight me in a live RTL interview!!! He told me I will be his next fight!! Let's Get Ready To Rumble!!!" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar/04/david-haye-vitali-klitschko)

"Yes I would be happy to fight David Haye. I understand David Haye had to defend himself. It's not just street fighting. It's very important to have respect," was what Vitali commented regarding the prospective bout and his challenger.

After his lackluster performance against Vitali’s brother Wladimir, most people are not too enthusiastic about seeing Haye back in the ring. At the same time, a whole lot of people believe that the older brother will achieve what the younger was unable to accomplish” knock David Haye out.

I assume that the fight build up will be impressive, and Haye will be his old self, talking like a pro. He will make promises and try to convince the public that he will do to the older brother what he promised to do to the younger one, a knockout. The fight, if ever comes to fruition, will undoubtedly be of interest just for its recent historical development, and financially it will be successful.

Of course as most fights go, claims of avoidance and unjust conduct will fly.

“I have offered Dave Haye the opportunity to fight for the world title. I need Haye to say ‘yes,’” said Vitali Klitschko in a recent interview.

Still, Haye believes that team Klitschko will do everything to prevent the fight from happening: “I think Vitali wants to fight me, because he has got a lot of pride. But I think he’s had a lot of money invested in him to become the mayor of Kiev, and potentially the president of Ukraine, and his advisers, and the people who do his negotiating aren’t going to let Vitali’s ego get in the way of something that could potentially cost him tens of millions of pounds. There is so much riding on his political career, he wants to fight guys like Dereck Chisora, who he can guarantee a victory over. Fighting me is not in his interests. The word in Ukraine is that his people cannot afford for him to lose against me, or not knock me out, as he has told the Ukrainian people he will do what his brother could not do and knock me out.”
(http://www.worldboxingnews.net/2012/03/haye-advisers-may-divert-vitali-from.html)

“I’ve already agreed the finances for the fight. But all of a sudden I am asking for too much money and supposedly making crazy demands. I have agreed to one of my lowest purses for a heavyweight title fight. I understand I’m not the champion now so I can’t demand the type of money I would as champion,” mentioned Haye.

Money talks, and money walks: there is no way Haye was perfectly fine with getting ripped off in any fight. He, just like most other athletes, is mostly interested in maximizing his payday. To do this, he has to create public interest in the fight, thus make emotional waves for the media. Slowly, this ‘show’ is picking up, and I assure you we will start seeing a ton of coverage on this fight.

While I don’t think that Haye will be more competitive against Vitali than he was against Wladimir, I still would like to see this fight happen. Who knows maybe Haye could perform better and provide his fans with an entertaining fight?