Articles

Peterson Says He’s Over KO Loss, Says Media Made Big Deal Of It

Published

10 years ago

January 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 23, 2014) — Just a couple of days away from the first night of the initial SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING event in 2014, below please find what for Peterson vs. Jean trainers, fighters and promoters had to say at the final press conference at Hamilton Live in Washington, D.C. on Thursday:

Lamont Peterson, IBF Junior Welterweight World Champion

“We’re going to give everyone a great show; make sure you come out and support. Once you’re inside you should be warm and kept plenty entertained by the fighters.

“It should be an entertaining fight, but at end of the day I’m going to come out victorious.

“I’ve seen Jean fight on film. He’s tough. He’s got good speed and power, basically everything that you look for in a fighter. It’s going to be a good challenge.

“I can show you how I come back from a knockout better than I can tell you; you’ll see Saturday night. You just have to forget it, it can happen to the best of us. Even basketball players shoot air ball free throws; sometimes that’s just what happens. I didn’t have a hard time dealing with it, just seemed like the media did.

“We train hard, we go into the fight and we are there to win, but of course there’s a chance you can lose. That’s what happened [with his fight against Lucas Matthysse], but you just have to pick yourself up and move on.

“I have always been someone who thinks you can only be distracted if you allow it. If you don’t allow distractions, then, they won’t happen. I could train every day in this room with all these people in it and I won’t have any distractions. But when you want distractions you’ll have them. I always like to say that I’m here, but I’m not here, my family knows I take this very seriously and they know not to bother me.

“I don’t feel like I have any pressure on me. I don’t feel like I have to prove anything. At the end of the day, I love boxing. That’s why I’m going to fight Saturday night. If I feel like I have to prove you wrong, I’ll stress myself out, so, I just don’t.

“If it was up to me, I would have fought three or four months after my last fight. Jean was the No. 1 contender and we had to negotiate and that stretched it out. Hopefully, next time it doesn’t take so long and I can get back in the ring as soon as possible.”

Dierry Jean, No. 1-Rated IBF Junior Welterweight Contender

“It’s a pleasure to share the ring with Lamont Peterson. He’s a good fighter.

“On Saturday, I’ll show everybody that I’m the best fighter pound-for-pound.”

Camille Estephan, Dierry Jean’s promoter

“I consider Dierry Jean the top pound-for-pound fighter in Canada, and there are some very good fighters in Canada.

“We are here, not as tourists, but for the show and for the belt, and we are going to get that belt.

“It is our turn to shine, it is Dierry Jean’s time to shine.

“People have said that Dierry has not fought the level of opposition that Lamont has, but he has fought very good opposition. Everyone needs a chance and this is ours.

We’re going to grab it, and run with it.”

Jermell Charlo, USBA Junior Middleweight Champion

“Saturday I’m coming here with the mentality of ‘lets get it,’ ‘got to get it,’ ‘lets go.’ I’m not playing games, I live like this and I was brought up for this.

“I started when I was eight-years-old and I’m extremely grateful I have a competitor as a twin brother. We struggled together, we worked hard together, we grew up together and now we’re at a stage in our lives and careers where we have to put up or shut up. We’ve got to stand strong for family.

“I have to win with a KO, it’s a must. The way I grind, I know I push myself to the limit. My standards are high right now, I want titles and I want to be recognized as one of the top 154-pounders.

“Saturday night, expect something crazy. If his face holds up, we’ll go 12 rounds. If not, we’re knocking him out early.”

Gabriel Rosado, Top Junior Middleweight Contender

“I’ve come up short and unfortunately the last fight was a title fight where I suffered a cut late in the fight. I felt that it was a premature stoppage, I felt like momentum was on my side. It was the game plan in the fight, to get Quillin late. He’s a strong fighter and you don’t want to make mistakes with him early. That’s why it’s a 12-round fight for a reason.

“I’m excited because this is a new year and I’m now going back down to super welterweight where I have unfinished business. Last time I fought at 154 was 2012, when I had a great year knocking out Soto Karass, knocking out Powell, and clinching the No. 1 spot in the IBF knocking out Whittaker.

“There’s no secret to my game plan, I’m going to go out and apply smart pressure. I’m not trying to let this go in the hands of the judges. I’m going for the knockout. I’ve already experienced that with J’Leon Love and Peter Quillin, so I want to put my destiny in my own hands. That doesn’t mean I’m going to be reckless, I’m a young veteran. I know how to set a guy up and that’s the plan.

“I think my experience will show against Charlo, I respect Charlo for taking this fight because it’s a really tough fight. I commend him for that. I think he believes in himself, but I believe in myself too. This is about experience and I’m only 28 and I’m reaching my prime. The fans haven’t seen the best of me yet.

“I just want to thank the fans, they spoke up for me. They booed when my last two fights went to decisions and they put their opinions on Twitter and Facebook and they backed me up. When you have that, the network sees that and responds to what the fans want. So I just personally want to thank the fans for supporting team Rosado.”

Bernard Hopkins, Future Hall of Famer and Golden Boy Promotions Partner

“I’m glad to be here in DC, where I have a personal history, but right now it’s about these guys up here. They’re trying to establish themselves as up and coming.

“We believe Gabe received the shot because of the effort that he put together in 2013 on the cuts with Quillin in New Jersey and the Love fight. We don’t know what the outcome would have been.

“I want to say to all of the fighters here today that even if you come up short, when you put that sincere effort forward to stand out amongst your peers, we are going to support you.

“Jermell is a former amateur star, making a name for himself in the junior middleweight division. He will be risking his undefeated record against Rosado this Saturday night. Charlo, I believe, is the next champion in boxing. I really believe he has what it takes to become a star in boxing.”

Chris DeBlasio, Vice President of Sports Communications, SHOWTIME Networks

“I’m proud to be up here and represent SHOWTIME and to be able to definitively say that our network is the No. 1 destination for sports programming in premium television. We have been able to do that over the last two years on the strength of shows like Inside the NFL and60 MINUTES SPORTS, but boxing for nearly 30 years has been the flagship of sports programming on the network and it will remain as such.

“In the last two years we have risen our SHOWTIME boxing back to prominence by televising the biggest events featuring the brightest stars in the sport and in the most significant fights of their careers. Over the last two years we have been able to exponentially increase our ratings and our viewership has risen a remarkable 60 percent over those two years.

“We intend to continue that success in 2014 and that all begins at the DC Armory this Saturday night, with our first SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING event of the year. The fighters on this card, especially Lamont Peterson and Gabriel Rosado, they have faced the toughest challenges in their divisions over the past two years and they’re doing so again Saturday night.

# # #

Peterson vs. Jean, a 12-round fight for Peterson’s IBF Junior Welterweight World Championship, will take place Saturday, Jan. 25, at the DC Armory in Washington, D.C. The event is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The live SHOWTIME telecast begins at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast) and will be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP). In the co-featured bout, Junior Middleweights Jermell Charlo and Gabriel Rosado square off in a 10-round fight for the WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight Title. Preliminary bouts will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME^® at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

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The Sweet Science

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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