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Tim Bradley-Diego Chaves Tops Dec. 13 HBO Card

Published

10 years ago

October 20, 2014

The Sweet Science

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING RETURNS TO THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS

TIMOTHY BRADLEY vs. DIEGO CHAVES and

MAURICIO HERRERA vs. JOSE BENAVIDEZ

Saturday, December 13, Live on HBO^®

The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Tickets On Sale Friday, October 24 at 10 A.M. PDT

LAS VEGAS, NV (October 20, 2014) — Former two-division world champion TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY JR. returns to the ring where he will battle one-time interim welterweight world champion DIEGO “La Joya” CHAVES in a 12-round welterweight rumble, Saturday, December 13, inside The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (3708 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV 89109). The fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing^®, beginning at 10:00 p.m. EST/PST. The telecast will open with World Boxing Association (WBA) Interim Super Lightweight World Champion MAURICIO “El Maestro” HERRERA defending his title against undefeated contender JOSE BENAVIDEZ, JR.

These four gladiators boast a combined record of 96-7 (53 KOs) — a winning ratio of 93% with over half of those victories coming by way knockout.

Promoted by Top Rank^®, in association with Golden Boy Promotions and Tecate, tickets to the Bradley-Chaves/Herrera-Benavidez world championship event go on sale Friday, October 24 at 10:00 a.m. PDT. Priced at $40, $60, $100, $125 and $150, tickets will be available for purchase at www.cosmopolitan.com or through Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 and www.tickermaster.com. Room/ticket packages will also be available.

“I’m excited to get back into the ring and showcase myself,” Bradley told ESPN.com. “Chaves is not that well known but the boxing fans know him. The boxing fans know that this guy can fight and that it won’t be a walk in the park for me. I think it’s going to be a great fight. I can’t wait.”

“I give Timothy Bradley all the credit in the world for coming back after his first loss to face me, especially after seeing how I hurt Brandon Rios in my last fight,” said Chaves. “We both have a lot to prove on December 13. If Bradley thought he had it rough against Ruslan Provodnikov, wait until he collides with me.”

“I’m so happy that this fight was made and I get to showcase my skills once again on a huge stage,” said Herrera. “I’m coming off of one of the most important wins of my career and I plan on using that momentum to defend my title and convincingly defeat Benavidez on December 13.”

I’m obviously excited and grateful for the opportunity to fight for the title. It’s something I’ve worked for since I was a kid,” said Benavidez. “I know I’ll be bringing the title back to Phoenix with me. I have heard Herrera is looking past me and talking about moving up in weight when he wins, and I’m sorry that I’ll be disrupting those plans on December 13th.”

“Tim Bradley’s return to the ring may be taking place at the end of the year but it’s the beginning of a new and exciting phase of the boxing career of one of the sport’s elite fighters, a man who has held a world title every year dating back to 2008,” said Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank. “Diego Chaves came so close when he faced Brandon Rios in his last fight and I anticipate seeing that same intensity and aggressiveness when he faces Tim. This will be a war. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will once again be hosting boxing at the highest level on December 13 and the world will be able to watch it on HBO.”

“So much hangs in the balance for both of these fighters – Herrera’s WBA Super Lightweight World Title, Benavidez’ undefeated record and much more,” said Golden Boy Founder and President Oscar De La Hoya. “With Herrera’s straight-ahead style against Benavidez’ Olympic pedigree, we have all the makings of a fantastic fight for fans.”

“There is no better way to present boxing fans with a pre-holiday gift than to feature the return of Timothy Bradley Jr. headlining an attractive card on World Championship Boxing, Live on HBO,” said Peter Nelson, Vice President of Programming, HBO Sports. “Bradley squares off against Diego Chaves, whose in-your-face style of fighting will keep Tim on his toes the entire night. And we anticipate fireworks from the rest of the telecast action.”

Bradley (31-1, 12 KOs), from Palm Springs, Calif., a former two-division world champion who unified the junior welterweight titles twice during his previous four-year reign, returns to the ring after suffering his first professional loss, in his welterweight championship rematch against Fighter of the Decade Manny Pacquiao last April. Before the Pacquiao rematch, Bradley posted three consecutive career-best victories. After moving up in weight and beating Pacquiao in 2012 to capture the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight crown, Bradley co-starred in the Fight of the Year on March16, 2013, winning a brutal 12-round decision over future world champion Ruslan Provodnikov though Bradley was suffering from a concussion throughout most of the fight. In his most recent fight, on October 12, 2013, Bradley gave a virtuoso performance in defeating three-division world champion and Mexican icon Juan Manuel Márquez proving that Bradley is indeed one of boxing’s elite pound for pound fighters.

Chaves (23-2, 19 KOs), from Buenos Aires, is a power puncher who stalks his opponent with only one goal — THE KNOCKOUT! His victory by knockout ratio of 83% proves it is usually “mission accomplished” for him. Chaves made his Las Vegas debut on August 2 when he fought former world champion Brandon Rios at The Cosmopolitan. The fight was all blood and guts as both warriors tore into each other in a foul-filled bout that ended in the ninth round with Chaves being disqualified by referee Vic Drakulich. At the time of the stoppage, Chaves was ahead by one point on one scorecard and down one point on the other two cards. Chaves captured the WBA interim welterweight title in 2012, knocking out defending champion Ismael El Massoudi in the second round. Chaves’ one-year title reign included a successful title defense against José Miranda, where he scored another second-round stoppage. He lost the title to Keith Thurman July 23, 2013. Chaves began 2014 with a third-round TKO of Juan Godoy on February 15. He is currently world-rated No. 7 by the WBA and No. 10 by the International Boxing Federation (IBF).

Herrera (21-4, 7 KOs), from Riverside, Calif. and promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, will be making the first defense of his interim world title. He won the championship in his last fight, on July 12, dethroning Johan Perez via a majority decision in a fight that was as close as it was competitive. It was a victory made sweeter by the fact Herrera had lost his previous title shot, against undefeated unified super lightweight world champion Danny Garcia on March 15, via a controversial majority decision that many thought Herrera had won. Herrera’s professional resume includes impressive victories over former WBO Junior Welterweight World Champion Ruslan Provodnikov and former amateur standout Mike Dallas, who had a combined record of 34-1-1 when he faced them.

Benavidez (21-0, 15 KOs), from Phoenix, AZ, was a sensational amateur prospect, winning a Gold Medal at the 2009 National Golden Gloves Championships at the age of 16, the youngest fighter to ever win the National Golden Gloves Championships. He turned professional one year later, at age 17, where he became the youngest professional boxer to be licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. He was granted an exception (the minimum age requirement was 18) because of his exceptional talent. After spending most of 2013 sidelined with a broken hand he has come back to win all three of his 2014 fights decisively, including a first-round TKO of Henry Auraad on July 26.

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

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

Published

9 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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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 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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