Articles

HOLIDAY BRO-NUS Broner-Maidana Is OFF PPV, on Dec. 14

Published

10 years ago

October 26, 2013

Adrien Broner will fight Marcos Maidana on Dec. 14, but that fight will not be on PPV, as previously announced. Instead, Showtime boxing boss Stephen Espinoza and Golden Boy boss Richard Schaefer said, as a thank you to fans, the card will be on regular Showtime. The duo (pictured above in Jayson Colon/FightImages photo) spoke in AC, at Boardwalk Hall, before the Hopkins-Murat card kicked off.

That scrap will top the Dec. 14 card, which will unfold in San Antonio, and also feature bouts between welter champ Keith Thurman and Jesus Soto Karass; Leo Santa Cruz vs. Cesar Seda; light heavy titlist Beibut Shumenov vs. Tamas Kovas and Victor Ortiz coming back against Alfonso Gomez.

The Dec. 7 Barclays card got more packed, the duo announced. A Zab Judah-Paul Malignaggi faceoff still headlines, but that is now joined by a Devon Alexander title defense, against Shawn Porter. Erislandy Lara meets Austin trout as part of a stellar undercard, and Sakio Bika takes on Anthony Dirrell in the Brooklyn arena.

Espinoza said that Showtimes’ boxing rating are up almost 60% over the last two years, and he asked for and received financial concessions from Golden Boy to make these two packed cards happen. They all still see Broner as a PPV attraction int he near future, and said this tussle likely would have done 200-300,000 buys…but right now, it’s better for more eyaballs to be on Broner.

Here is the release which went out after the announcement:

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (Oct. 26, 2013) – To celebrate one of the strongest years of programming in boxing history, SHOWTIME Sports® and Golden Boy Promotions will deliver back-to-back blockbuster events airing live on SHOWTIME on Saturday, Dec. 7 and Saturday, Dec. 14. Both events will be quadrupleheaders featuring six world championship fights including the most exciting and dynamic champions and challengers in the welterweight, super welterweight and super bantamweight divisions.

Throughout this past year, month after month, week after week, SHOWTIME and Golden Boy Promotions have featured the sport’s biggest stars in the most significant and meaningful fights in every relevant division in boxing. They joined forces to produce the most lucrative pay-per-view event in television history with perennial pound-for-pound superstar Floyd “Money” Mayweather,grew the average audience for live boxing on SHOWTIME by more than 30 percent from 2012, and attracted record crowds at sold-out arenas from coast to coast.

Beginning Dec. 7, the first of consecutive quadrupleheaders takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn when former five-time, two-division World Champion Zab “Super” Judah(42-8, 29 KO’s) and former two-time, two-division World Champion Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi(32-5, 7 KO’s) clash in the main event, a 12-round showdown for Brooklyn bragging rights.

The co-feature will match IBF Welterweight World Champion Devon Alexander “The Great” (25-1, 14 KOs), of St. Louis, Mo., against unbeaten Shawn Porter (22-0-1, 14 KOs), of Akron, Ohio. Also on the card will be Erislandy Lara (18-1-2, 12 KO’s) of Houston, Texas against former world champion Austin Trout, of Las Cruces, N.M., for the vacantWBA Super Welterweight Championship. Rounding out the televised card, Sakio “The Scorpion” Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO’s) makes the first defense of his WBC Super Middleweight crown against unbeaten Anthony Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO’s), of Flint, Mich.

Then, on Dec. 14 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, the super-talented WBA Welterweight World Champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s), of Cincinnati, will make the first defense of his title when he meets the toughest opponent of his career, the dangerous, hard-hitting Marcos “El Chino” Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s), of Santa Fe, Argentina in the main event.

A ratings goliath, Broner will be making his first start since capturing the 147-pound belt with a hard-fought 12-round split decision over defending champion Malignaggi. He made history when he became the fourth fighter to jump two weight classes and win a welterweight world championship, joining Hall of Famers Henry “Homicide Hank” Armstrong, Roberto “Mano de Piedra” Duran and future candidate “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

Maidana has won three fights in a row, including a smashing sixth-round technical knockout over Josesito Lopez in scintillating slugfest and Fight of the Year candidate last June 8 on SHOWTIME.

In 12-rounders underneath Broner-Maidana, undefeated Keith “One Time” Thurman (21-0, 19 KO’s), of Clearwater, Fla., gets tested when he defends his WBA Interim Welterweight World title against tough-as-nails Jesus “Renuente” Soto Karass (32-12-4, 19 KO’s), of Mexico City, Mexico, who owns back-to-back impressive victories over world-ranked Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto. And recently crowned WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Leo “Terremoto” Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KO’s) of Los Angeles, Calif. will make his first defense against Cesar Seda (25-1, 17 KO’s) of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The card will also feature, in separate bouts, former WBC Welterweight Champion Victor Ortiz (29-4-2, 22 KO’s) against Alfonso Gomez (22-5-2, 11 KO’s) of Los Angeles and Light Heavyweight Champion Beibut Shumenov (13-1, 8 KO’s) against Tamas Kovacs (23-0, 14 KO’s) of Slovakia.

2013 SHOWTIME and Golden Boy Promotions Highlights

On April 27, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Danny Garcia faced Judah and Peter Quillin met Fernando Guerrero in two thrilling fights on SHOWTIME. The event set an attendance record for the largest crowd for a boxing event at that venue.

More than 40,000 fans, the largest paid crowd for a boxing event in the U.S. in nearly 15 years, filled the Alamodome in San Antonio for the Canelo Alvarez vs.Trout fight that headlined a card on April 20. The peak audience on the telecast was nearly 1.1 million viewers, making it the third most watched boxing event on record for SHOWTIME.

On June 8, the largest crowd in the history of the venue turned out at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., for an event highlighted by all-action brawls between Maidana and Josesito Lopez and Lara and Alfredo Angulo, both Fight of the Year candidates.

On June 22, undefeated rising superstar Broner and hometown favorite and defending world champion Malignaggi attracted more than 11,000 fans to Barclays Center and drew an audienceof more than 1.3 million viewers on SHOWTIME, the second-largest rating for a bout on the premium network on record.

The April 20 and the June 22 events, two of the top-3 most watched boxing events on record for SHOWTIME, anchored a viewership boon in 2013 whereby the network saw more than 30-percent increases in average viewership for the second consecutive year.

On Aug. 24, a crowd of 7,686 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. witnessed perhaps the Upset of the Year when Two-Division World Champion Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8, 47 KO’s) captured the WBC Featherweight Championship with a stunning knockout, 2:55 of the first-round over previously unbeaten Abner Mares.

Then, on Sept. 14, on SHOWTIME PPV®, Mayweather defeated Canelo in “THE ONE,” a record-setting mega-event that ranks as the highest-grossing pay-per-view of all time with more than $150 million in U.S. revenue alone, surpassing the previous record of $136 million generated by Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. “THE ONE” also set records for boxing gate receipts by selling out within 24 hours of going on sale and for live gate revenue at more than $20 million. With approximately 2.2 million buys, “THE ONE” ranks second all-time to the Mayweather vs. De La Hoya pay-per-view which sold over 2.5 million buys.

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Michael Woods

Articles

2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

8 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

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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Articles

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

Published

8 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

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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Articles

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

Published

8 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

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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