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Devon Alexander-Aron Martinez on ESPN WEDNESDAY
Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN Presented by Corona Extra
Features Former World Champion Devon Alexander vs. Aron Martínez
In 10-Round Welterweight Bout
Plus Featherweight World Champion Lee Selby Makes U.S. Debut vs. Three-Division World Champion Fernando Montiel in Co-Main Event
Telecast Live from Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona
Wednesday, October 14, 9 p.m. ET
Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN (PBC on ESPN) presented by Corona Extra will feature live coverage on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and WatchESPN on Wednesday, Oct. 14 of former two-division world champion Devon Alexander “The Great” (26-3, 14 KOs) against Mexican Aron Martínez (19-4-1, 4 KOs) in a 10-round welterweight bout, from Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
The live PBC on ESPN telecast begins at 9 p.m. ET with the co-main event: featherweight world champion Lee Selby (21-1, 8 KOs), making his U.S. debut, vs. Fernando “Cochulito” Montiel (54-4-2, 39 KOs), a former three-division world champion. ESPN Deportes will present Spanish-language coverage of the event as part of its Noche de Combates series.
Live streaming on WatchESPN will be available on computers, smartphones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One via an affiliated video provider. It will also air on ESPN International networks in Latin America, Brazil, the Caribbean and the Pacific Rim.
Host Marysol Castro, blow-by-blow commentator Joe Tessitore, Teddy Atlas and reporters Todd Grisham and Bernardo Osuna comprise ESPN’s commentary team. In addition, Hall of Fame boxing writer and ESPN boxing contributor Nigel Collins will provide social media content, insight and analysis.
On ESPN Deportes, Pablo Viruega and Delvin Rodríguez will call the fights, while Leopoldo González, Claudia Trejos and Hall of Fame referee Joe Cortez, will host.
Additional Highlights:
· Nigel Collins narrates a special segment on how champions are made and takes a historical look at the top faces of boxing past.
· Atlas’ Fight Plan: Atlas will demonstrate what each fighter needs to do to win in his “Fight Plan.”
· ESPN.comwill provide comprehensive coverage, including pre- and post-fight features, videos and blogs from ESPN’s Dan Rafael, Brian Campbell, and Nigel Collins and ESPN.com’s boxing program “Making the Rounds.”
Fighter backgrounds:
A world champion at 140 and 147-pounds, the 28-year-old Alexander is making his 2015 debut looking for a performance that will vault him back into title contention. Alexander owns victories over Marcos Maidana, Lucas Matthysse, Randall Bailey and Lee Purdy. The St. Louis-native is 4-2 in world title fights with his most recent victory coming via a decision over Jesus Soto Karass.
The 33-year-old Martinez is coming off of a decision loss to Robert Guerrero, in a fight where Martinez dropped Guerrero for the second time in his career and appeared within seconds of being awarded a stoppage victory. Born in Mexico, but fighting out of Los Angeles, Martinez has fought professionally since 2004 and racked up 10 straight victories between 2009 and 2012.
Born in Barry, Wales, Selby picked up his world title with a technical decision over previously undefeated Evgeny Gradovich in May. The 28-year-old has victories over previously unblemished fighters including Joel Brunker, Ryan Walsh, Viorel Simon, Corey McConnell and Stephen Smith. Selby will be making his first start in the United States on October 14.
The Mexican veteran Montiel has won world titles across three weight classes throughout his career that began as a 17-year-old in 1996. He won his first world title in 2000 over Isidro Garcia and went on to have title winning performances over Pedro Alzacar, Ivan Hernandez, Z Gorres, Ciso Morales and Hozumi Hasegawa. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico, Montiel has an eight-fight win streak heading into this match and returns to fight in the U.S. for the first time since 2011.
The PBC series was created for television by Haymon Boxing and features top-level fights between many of boxing’s biggest names. This is the fourth PBC on ESPN event which debuted on ESPN July 11. The last event on Aug. 19 headlined by Leo Santa Cruz’s majority decision win over Abner Mares delivered the largest boxing audience on ESPN since 1998, reaching an average of 1.2 million viewers (P2
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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura
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
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
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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