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Expect Mauricio Herrera and Karim Mayfield to Grab Spotlight

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1533Herrera and Mayfield could well steal the spotlight from HBO headliners Abregu (left) and Dulorme.

Whenever Mauricio “El Maestro” Herrera and Karim “Big Hitta” Mayfield enter the boxing ring, expect fireworks of major proportion.

Both guys can deal.

Riverside’s Herrera (18-2, 7 KOs) and San Francisco’s Mayfield (16-0-1, 10 KOs) are known for their eagerness to exchange and both bring their action-packed styles on Saturday, Oct. 27. The NABO junior welterweight title match takes place at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in New York. HBO will televise.

Mayfield has been on a tear and despite turning professional at age 25, he’s quickly climbed up the ladder and now faces another late bloomer in Herrera.

The San Francisco Bay area has produced a number of elite prizefighters recently such as Andre Ward, Nonito Donaire, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, Ava Knight and a few others. Mayfield is another one of those crack fighters and seeks a win against Herrera to establish his credentials.

The Riverside boxer has taken note of Mayfield and does not expect an easy fight.

“I've seen him fight on ESPN,” said Herrera who considers himself a student of the boxing game. “He's a pretty heavy handed guy. Pretty strong. He uses his body and size and kind of bulldozes people. He has a good right hand. I think its going to be one of his toughest fights.”

It's ironic that two pro boxers who each started in their late 20s are fighting each other. Both fought as amateurs but didn't enter the professional ranks at an early age as most do. Even during Herrera's first year he wasn't sure of his own talent.

“When I was sparring (Timothy) Bradley he said 'I think you can be the next world champ,” Herrera said recounting a conversation with the WBO welterweight titleholder Bradley after a spirited sparring session. “One of the last times we sparred he said we may have to fight each other one day.”

Though they do not spar each other any more Herrera says his sessions against Bradley and Julio Diaz were comparable to taking a physics class with Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi. Each taught him immeasurable lessons on boxing.

One more thing Herrera learned: he can fight professionally.

“Now it’s starting to hit me. It's still like a dream. I'm so glad I didn't let it go,” says Herrera thinking back on his days of not boxing. “I probably would have been a plumber, not that it's bad. But the dream to be a professional fighter and do what I really love has been great.”

Herrera’s last fight against Mike Alvarado was one of the best of this year. Few outside of Riverside expected the 10 rounds of back and forth explosions provided in Las Vegas that went to a decision. He was scheduled to fight Brandon Rios but an injury to the Oxnard fighter scuttled that fight. Then, a fight against Mayfield was set but an injury to Herrera put the fight on hold. Now, the fight is back on and the winner is guaranteed a shot at one of the junior welterweight world titles.

When you enter the professional ranks at age 27 a boxer has a lot of catching up to do. There are no easy fights and time won't allow a methodical pace.

“I took any fight they put in front of me,” says Herrera.

The same can be said of Mayfield.

“It got me this far that I took those fights. It was better than taking guys with losing records. I kind of took those risks so it worked out fine,” Herrera says.

Alberto Herrera

Mauricio Herrera's younger brother Alberto Herrera (8-7-1, 5 KOs) fights undefeated Puerto Rican welterweight Javier Flores (7-0, 7 KOs) on the same fight card at Turning Stone Resort and Casino. Others fighting on the card are IBF lightweight titleholder Miguel Vazquez (31-3, 13 KOs) defending against Marvin Quintero (25-3, 21 KOs), and Thomas Dulorme (16-0, 12 KOs) versus Luis Abregu (33-1, 27 KOs) in a welterweight clash. Check out video of the fighters taking part in the HBO tripleheader.

Fights on television

Sat. Telefutura, 8 p.m., Antonio Escalante (28-4) vs. Rocky Juarez (28-10-1).

Sat. Azteca, 8 p.m., Takalani Ndlovu (33-7) vs. Alejandro Lopez (23-2).

Sat. HBO, 10:15 p.m., Miguel Vazquez (31-3) vs. Marvin Quintero (25-3); Mauricio Herrera (18-2) vs. Karim Mayfield (16-0-1).

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

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The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

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This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

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On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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