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Ward Trainer Hunter Rates Froch Ahead Of Ward, Says Ward Will Stop Froch

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This fight was set to take place Oct. 29, but a cut forced Ward to postpone. He says he’s healed and ready to rock. (photo by Howard Schatz)

It’s been a marathon, this Super Six tournament put on by Showtime, and we are now into the sprint stage. The final is Dec. 17 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, and the finalists, Andre Ward and Carl Froch, took part in a conference call to hype the scrap, which will run on Showtime (9 PM ET).

It was Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter who offered the money quotes, as he said he slots Froch above Ward at this time, and reiterated a September prediction that Ward will stop Froch.

“I rate Froch ahead of Ward right,” the trainer said, for having been a champion before Ward and for having fought more A class boxers. Perhaps this implants a seed in the mind of Ward or perhaps the 27 year-old tunes such mental chess out, as he has known Hunter since he was 9 and is used to such tactics to motivate.

I put Hunter a bit on the spot when he deftly danced around his earlier stoppage prediction. He then said, after a filibuster, “I believe Ward is going to stop Carl Froch. I’m not afraid to stand by it if he does or doesn’t. I don’t mean any disrespect,   if he doesn’t it won’t disappoint me.

Froch’s promoter the last couple fights, Eddie Hearn, drew some laughs when he called the Brit a “horrible, stubborn kind of sportsman.” He meant that in a good way, referring to his never say die attitude.

Ward’s trainer, Hunter, is one of the better interviews among trainers today, and he perked up my ears when he said that he cannot state that Ward’s camp was perfect. He cited obstacles, but didn’t specify. I asked him for specifics, and he said he wasn’t referring to any injuries, but just regular speedbumps. He said he prefers that, he likes problems to arise so Ward (24-0 with 13 KOs; from Oakland) can solve them, and thus the trainer can sleep well knowing the fighter is in a mode where he can adjust to fightnight difficulties. “I like a struggling camp,” said this master of contrarian logic.

For the record, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler, and Andre and Anthony Dirrell will be present at the finale.

Froch (28-1 with 20 KOs; age 34; from Nottingham, England; sole loss to Mikkel Kessler) wasn’t in a cantankerous mood, as he sometimes can be,  though we might have heard him get a bit cocky or fiery after Hunter said that he foresees Ward stopping Froch. But his line dropped off the call and then the session ended.

Ward sounded like he expects the stiffest test of his career. “I feel fast, strong and explosive. You don’t win these championships, you take it. I’m prepared to do that.”

Hunter sounds like he thinks Ward is going to fight a more fan friendly fight than we’ve seen in the past, because he thinks Froch won’t go into a defensive mode like other Ward foes have, to avoid a beating.

“Andre is a ‘money fighter’ he said. “I’m excited about this fight, Carl Froch is to be respected. I don’t think he’s going to do like the rest of the fighters we fought  after three or four rounds start protecting themselves. After four or five rounds they know if they continue a beating is way worse than a knockout, it could be career ending.”

Hunter said he brought in some killer sparring partners but didn’t want to name names. Meanwhile, I know Froch has been sparring young gun Peter Quillin, among others, in NYC.

Hunter also said that his man’s KO percentage would be better if he’d taken longer getting himself seasoned. He’d have 18 or 19 stops if he kept in the “pancake league,” the trainer said.

“Carl turned pro at 25 I believe and Andre was a champion at 25. Carl hasn’t hurt anybody since Jermain Taylor. I’m not taking away from him, we do realize he’s a heck of a puncher but you have to speak the truth, he’s had nobody in trouble since Taylor, who has a tendency to gas out.”

TSS Universe, please let us know who you think will prevail in the finale, in our Forum.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel.

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.

It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.

Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.

Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.

Bustillo Wins Rematch

Applerose2

In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.

Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.

Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.

After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.

Other Bouts

In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.

A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

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Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.

SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other.  There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.

It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.

Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.

Other Bouts of Note

The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.

The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.

In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing

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Zhilei Zhang KOs Joe Joyce; Calls Out Tyson Fury

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Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause after being stopped in the sixth frame by Zhilei Zhang in their first meeting. In hindsight, he may wish that he hadn’t. Tonight at London’s Wembley Stadium, Zhang stopped him again and far more conclusively than in their first encounter.

In the first meeting, Zhang, a southpaw, found a steady home for his stiff left jab. Targeting Joyce’s right eye, he eventually damaged the optic to where the ring doctor wouldn’t let Joyce continue. At the end, the fight was close on the cards and Joyce was confident that he would have pulled away if not for the issue with his eye.

In the rematch tonight, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) closed the curtain with his right hand. A thunderous right hook on the heels of a straight left pitched Joyce to the canvas where he landed face first. He appeared to beat the count by a whisker, but was seriously dazed and referee Steve Gray properly waived it off. The official time was 3:07 of round three.

Zhang, who lived up to his nickname, “Big Bang,” was credited with landing 29 power punches compared with only six for Joyce (15-2) who came in 25 pounds heavier than in their first meeting while still looking properly conditioned. One would be inclined to say that age finally caught with the “Juggernaut” who turned 38 since their last encounter, but Zhang, 40, is actually the older man. In his post-fight interview in the ring, the New Jersey resident, a two-time Olympian for China, when asked who he wanted to fight next, turned to the audience and said, “Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”

He meant it as a rhetorical question.

Semi-Windup

Light heavyweight Anthony Yarde was matched soft against late sub Jorge Silva, a 40-year-old Portuguese journeyman, and barely broke a sweat while scoring a second-round stoppage. Yarde backed Silva against a corner post and put him on the deck with a short right hand. Silva’s body language indicated that he had no interest in continuing and the referee accommodated him. The official time was 2:07 of round two.

A 30-year-old Londoner, Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs) was making his first start since being stopped in eight rounds by Artur Beterbiev in a bout that Yarde was winning on two of the scorecards. Silva, a late replacement for 19-3-1 Ricky Summers, falls to 22-9.

Also

Former leading super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) returned to the ring in a “shake-off-the-rust” fight against 40-year-old Frenchman Khalid Graidia and performed as expected. Graidia’s corner pulled him out after seven one-sided rounds.

In his previous fight, Parker was matched against John Ryder who he was favored to beat. The carrot for the winner was a lucrative date with Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately for Parker, he suffered a broken hand and was unable to continue after four frames. Tonight, he carried 174 pounds, a hint that he plans to compete as a light heavyweight going forward. Indeed, he has expressed an interest in fighting Anthony Yarde. Graidia declined to 10-13-4.

The Zhang-Joyce and Yarde-Silva fights were live-streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.

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