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Golovkin Talks P4P Throne, And A Mayweather Return
A vaucum is there to be filled, with Floyd Mayweather making a global trek to stave off boredom, or maybe, go on a smell the roses retirement tour.
Who will plop their tush onto that throne Mayweather has called his for so many moons, and the sports’ top player?
Gennady Golovkin is first to audition; he gets his chance to show his wares–his A grade punching power, mainly–on Saturday evening, in NYC, and has been showing us his personality this week, leading up to fight night.
He took queries from some fight writers before the Wednesday presser to thump the tub for the Saturday K2/Golden Boy PPV program, and I took an opportunity to mention Mayweather.
Yeah, his shadow still somewhat looms over the sport…
What do you think of Mayweather leaving and the fact that he didn’t step up and prove something by going to 160 and challenging you, 3G?
“Floyd, he’s not finished, he’s good businessman. He’s very smart guy. He still has plans in the future,” Golovkin told me.
Does he still think maybe he can get in with Floyd? “I hope, I hope absolutely, yes. This is boxing, very short life, sport life, why not this is big chance for us!”
Yep, shadow still there. Floyd’s still “the money man.” It will take a while for some dust to swirl, and then settle, before we get clarity on who is the best man standing.
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Here is the release sent out with quotes from the presser:
GOLOVKIN VS. LEMIEUX
MIDDLEWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE UNIFICATION
FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE PHOTOS/QUOTES
Photo Credit: Hogan Photos – Goldenboy Promotions
New York City (October 14, 2015) In front of a huge collection of New York sports media, Boxing superstar and WBA/IBO and WBC “Interim” World Champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, (33-0, 30KO’s) and IBF Middleweight World Champion David Lemieux, (34-2, 31KO’s) held court for the final time just three days prior to their Middleweight World Title Unification battle at the Mecca of Boxing, Madison Square Garden and produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View set for this Saturday, Oct. 17.
Fighting out of Los Angeles, California, Golovkin is returning to Madison Square Garden for the fourth time where an expected sold-out audience will await him in his first world title unification bout and headlining his first HBO Pay-Per-View event. Lauded from fans and media worldwide as one of the sports premier boxers, Golovkin has stopped his last 20 opponents in a row and has compiled a 91% knockout ratio, the highest in middleweight division history.
Lemieux burst onto the US boxing scene with a thunderous tenth round stoppage of Gabriel Rosado on December 6, 2014 in Brooklyn, New York also his HBO debut. On June 20th, the Montreal, Canada native was victorious over Hassan N’Dam earning the IBF Middleweight World Championship.
Gennady Golovkin, WBA, IBO, and WBC Interim Middleweight Champion:
“Good afternoon, I am happy to be here again. Madison Square Garden is like my second home.
“I want to thank my team and my family for this opportunity.
“Thanks to HBO for all of the support and bringing the biggest stage to us.
“Thanks to K2 Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions for making this amazing deal for us for this great unification fight.
David Lemieux, IBF Middleweight Champion:
“Wow! Hello New York! I can’t be more proud to be here today. I know I came a long way to get here.
“I am not going to stand up here and talk about training camp, I am sure Golovkin and I know that at our level we are going to be at our best selves.
“I have faced victories, defeats, but nothing is more exciting and more gratifying than victory such as I am planning on Saturday.
“I have made a lot of changes in my life. All of I what I have done has lead me here and I am extremely excited and proud to be here. I am here to make history and I promise that I have done everything it takes to make sure that I don’t leave empty handed I will leave with the belts.”
Tom Loeffler, Managing Director of K2 Promotions:
“The event is international event, the main event is international, the co-main and undercard represent countries from around the world, plus we have over 120 countries broadcasting the fight.
“We also have the best co-feature possible, Gonzalez vs. Viloria is going to be a tremendous compliment to these two gentlemen [Golovkin and Lemieux]. Both fights are going to be exciting and are the types of fights that can’t be missed, they can end at any second.
“I want to thank everyone from K2, HBO and Golden Boy for all their hard work promoting this fight. I also want to thank all of the staff behind the scenes their perfect dance partners to this fighting game.
“Goldenboy Promotions has been a perfect partner for this fight, everyone one has been great to work with.
“We are building a global star with GGG, and our goal is to keep promoting him on a global level.
“Abel Sanchez has taken a terrific amateur fighter and made him one of the most efficient and most aggressive professional boxers in the world. He deserves the credit for Gennady’s Mexican Style boxing and had 20 KO’s in a row.”
Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions:
“What a beautiful country! Only in the USA can you have a fighter from Canada, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Bahamas sell-out the Madison Square Garden, God Bless the USA!
“I have been involved in some of the biggest boxing events in history and have promoted most of them. This feels like a mega event not only because the Madison Square Garden is selling out but you can feel the electricity you can feel the energy.
“This fight is the type that will keep you at the edge of your seat. It’s been a while since we have seen one of these events and we are proud to bring a card from top to bottom that is full of great fights that feature the next generation of great boxers.”
Bernard Hopkins, Future Hall of Famer and Golden Boy Promotions Partner:
“We made a commitment to boxing fans, to work with any promoter who share the same vision to put on the best fights for fans. I don’t want to pat ourselves on our back just yet, but I want you to judge us as times go by. We want to put on the big fights we want to give you the best fights and want to work with people with the same mentality.
“Let me tell you about the chills that I get being at here at Madison Square Garden presenting the next middleweight unification fight. Unification is very rare, 14 plus years ago we had that. You get a chance to see a that now. We need more of this. We need to work together to out-do the competition.
“Madison Square Garden is where some strange things that happen and I know that personally. In David, we have a guy who can win, but he understands that he needs to be near if not perfect to win.”
Abel Sanchez, Head Trainer to Gennady Golovkin:
“I look forward to matching boxing smarts with Marc, he is an excellent trainer. And I look forward to an explosive fight where no one will be disappointed.”
Camille Estephan, President of Eye of the Tiger Management:
“This is a fantastic show on the 17th. This is a great week for boxing and this fight will be talked about for ages to come. It will be a war.
“I want to echo the thanks for everyone involved. All the staff who have worked hard on this event; HBO, Mark, and Peter; and the promoters K2 Promotions, GGG Promotions and a special thanking you for Golden Boy Promotions.
“I also want to thank David for being who he is. We are here for a conquest we will go back home with these belts, David is ready.”
“This is a special moment that we have been preparing for over the years. Don’t underestimate us, the proof is in the pudding. We are very confident in David and congratulate Marc Ramsay who has engineered these conquests.”
Marc Ramsay, Head Trainer to David Lemieux:
“We have had a tough but very successful training camp. It was brutal but we reached every goal.
“David raised his boxing to a different level. Everything was perfect, there were no problems and we have no excuses we only have promises of victory.”
Mark Taffet, Senior Vice-President/HBO Sports:
“We have been talking about a pay-per-view fight for Golovkin for a number of years. When we first met that was one of the first questions we were asked when Golovkin came on to the network. Finally, you can say that Golovkin is on Pay-Per-View, you have GGG on PPV.
“David Lemieux is a champion in his own right and I want to make sure we have everything covered so we can see David on PPV as well.
“Who will stand on the mountain to carry the sport on his shoulders? Who will be recognized as the best pound-for-pound fighter? Golovkin vs. Lemieux is not only a battle of champions, where each fighter carries a devastating record of 90% knock-out ration each, but it’s the first step to determining the next era of boxing.
Joel Fisher, Executive Vice-President at Madison Square Garden:
“Madison Square Garden is “The Mecca of Boxing,” it has hosted greats like Tyson, Frazier, Sugar Ray, Hagler, Joe Lewis, Gorge Foreman and two greats sitting here today, Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins.
“Bernard Hopkins specifically fought here 14 years ago and beat “Tito” Trinidad to become the unified middleweight world champion, and now we have Golovkin and Lemieux continuing that tradition.
“Golovkin and Lemieux may walk in the footsteps of these greats.
“This fight is a can’t miss event. Don’t look away, don’t blink, because you may miss all the action.
“We have had a tremendous sale. A historic pre-sale which has broken records at the Garden. We are almost sold out; we only have a handful of scattered seats that were freed up from production so at this point the show is technically sold out. And on Saturday I will be happy to announce a sell out crowd.
“To commemorate the tremendous sale I would like to congratulate Golovkin and Lemieux with a silver ticket on behalf of Madison Square Garden.”
David Berlin, Executive Director of the New York State Athletic Commission:
“It is a common knowledge that there is no venue with richer boxing history than Madison Square Garden. The event is elevated because of the venue, and the quality of the fights and fighters on this card. It will add to boxing’s rich history here at Madison Square Garden.
“We have the top two pound-for-pound fighters fighting on this card – Roman Gonzalez, who leads the co-main event is remarkable for a flyweight. I know he has his press conference tomorrow, but I will say now we are thrilled to welcome him to NYC where he will be facing his toughest opponent in Brian Viloria.
“In the main event we have the making of a classic, two power punchers. Golovkin who is 33-0 with 30 KO’s and Lemieux, who is 34-2 with 31 KO’s are in a sport where a single punch can change the outcome of the whole a fight. This is the kind of fight fans want to see.
“Both fighters have the ability to deliver and also to take a punch. I want to assure you that the New York State Athletic Commission is going to be here to play its role and make sure that the fighter who earns the victory has his hand raised at the end with confidence.”
Golovkin vs. Lemieux is presented by K2 Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions in association with GGG Promotions and Eye of the Tiger Management and is sponsored by Corona Extra, BI Group and Tsesnabank. The event will take place Saturday, October 17 from Madison Square Garden and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. Doors will open at 7:00 p.m. ET and the first fight begins at 7:05 p.m. ET.
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Cardoso, Nunez, and Akitsugi Bring Home the Bacon in Plant City
Cardoso, Nunez, and Akitsugi Bring Home the Bacon in Plant City
The final ShoBox event of 2025 played out tonight at the company’s regular staging ground in Plant City, Florida. When the smoke cleared, the “A-side” fighters in the featured bouts were 3-0 in step-up fights vs. battle-tested veterans, two of whom were former world title challengers. However, the victors in none of the three fights, with the arguable exception of lanky bantamweight Katsuma Akitsugi, made any great gain in public esteem.
In the main event, a lightweight affair, Jonhatan Cardoso, a 25-year-old Brazilian, earned a hard-fought, 10-round unanimous decision over Los Mochis, Mexico southpaw Eduardo Ramirez. The decision would have been acceptable to most neutral observers if it had been deemed a draw, but the Brazilian won by scores of 97-93 and 96-94 twice.
Cardoso, now 18-1 (15), had the crowd in his corner., This was his fourth straight appearance in Plant City. Ramirez, disadvantaged by being the smaller man with a shorter reach, declined to 28-5-3.
Co-Feature
In a 10-round featherweight fight that had no indelible moments, Luis Reynaldo Nunez advanced to 20-0 (13) with a workmanlike 10-round unanimous decision over Mexico’s Leonardo Baez. The judges had it 99-91 and 98-92 twice.
Nunez, from the Dominican Republic, is an economical fighter who fights behind a tight guard. Reputedly 85-5 as an amateur, he is managed by Sampson Lewkowicz who handles David Benavidez among others and trained by Bob Santos. Baez (22-5) was returning to the ring after a two-year hiatus.
Also
In a contest slated for “10,” ever-improving bantamweight Katsuma Akitsugi improved to 12-0 (3 KOs) with a sixth-round stoppage of Filipino import Aston Palicte (28-7-1). Akitsugi caught Palicte against the ropes and unleashed a flurry of punches climaxed by a right hook. Palicte went down and was unable to beat the count. The official time was 1:07 of round six.
This was the third straight win by stoppage for Akitsugi, a 27-year-old southpaw who trains at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym in LA under Roach’s assistant Eddie Hernandez. Palicte, who had been out of the ring for 16 months, is a former two-time world title challenger at superflyweight (115).
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Introducing Jaylan Phillips, Boxing’s Palindrome Man
On Thursday, Nov. 28, as Americans hunkered down at the dinner table with family and friends for our annual Thanksgiving Day feast, junior welterweight Jaylan Phillips and his trainer Kevin Henry were up in the sky flying from Las Vegas to Rochester, New York. For their Thanksgiving repast, they were offered a tiny bag of peanuts.
Phillips would not have eaten too much had the opportunity presented itself. The next day was the weigh-in. On Saturday, the 30th, he would compete in the 6-round main event of a small club show.
Phillips wasn’t brought to Rochester to win. His opponent, Wilfredo Flores, had a checkered career but he had once held a regional title and he lived in the general area. In boxing parlance, Jaylan Phillips was the “B” side. His role, from the promoter’s standpoint, was to fatten the record of the house fighter.
Jaylan didn’t follow the script. He won a unanimous decision over his 11-3-1 opponent, advancing his record to 4-3-4, and returned to Las Vegas with a new nickname, albeit not one of his own choosing or intended as a permanent accessory. This reporter dubbed him The Palindrome Man.
A palindrome is a word that spells the same backward and forward. Phillips’ current record is palindrome-ish.
It’s an odd record. One would be hard-pressed to find other active boxers with a slew of draws inside a small window of fights. It harks to the days, circa 1900, when some journeymen boxers accumulated as many draws as wins and losses combined.
A boxer with a 4-3-4 record would seem to be an unlikely candidate for a feature story, but the affable Jaylan Phillips is not your run-of-the-mill prizefighter.
Boxers, as we know, tend to be city folk, drawn from the black belts and the barrios of America’s urban places. Phillips grew up in Ebro, Florida, population 237 per the 2020 U.S. census. Ebro is in the Florida panhandle in the northwestern part of the state in a county that was dry until 2022. It is 23 miles due north of Panama City Beach but a world apart from the seaside Florida resort town and its pricey beachfront condos.
Of those 237 people, only five identified as African-American or black, or so it would be written, but the census-taker was obviously slothful. “That’s a crazy number,” says Phillips. “There has to be at least 40 or 50. And the reason I know that is that we are all related.”
“What does one do for excitement in Ebro?” we asked him. “Hunting, fishing, trapping, that sort of thing,” he said. And what does one trap? “Mostly raccoons,” he said, while adding that some of the elders in his extended family consider it a delicacy.
Phillips fought in Rochester, New York, on Saturday and was back in the gym in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He lives alone and does not own a car. His apartment, near UNLV, is three-and-a-half miles from the Top Rank Gym where he does most of his training. He jogs there and then jogs home again, this in a city where the temperature routinely exceeds 100 degrees for much of the year.
During his high school years, Phillips, now 25, concedes that he smoked a lot of weed and it impacted his grades. His interest in boxing was fueled by the exploits of Roy Jones Jr, another fighter with roots in the Florida panhandle. In his spare time, he enjoys watching tapes of old Sugar Ray Robinson fights which can be found on youtube. “He was the best,” says Phillips of Robinson who has been dead for 35 years, echoing an opinion that hasn’t diminished with the passage of time.
In his second pro fight, Phillips was thrust against a baby-faced novice from Cleveland, Abdullah Mason. Although Mason was only 17 years old, the Top Rank matchmaker did Jaylan no favors. He was still standing when the referee waived the fight off in the second round.
About the heavily-hyped Mason, Phillips says, “He’s a beast, like they say, but I would love to fight him again. I took that fight on two weeks’ notice. I’m confident the outcome would have been different if I had had a full camp.”
This observation will undoubtedly strike some as a delusion. Pound for pound, the precocious Mason just may be the top pro fighter in the world in his age group. But Jaylan isn’t lacking confidence which spills over when he talks about what lies ahead for him. “I will be a world champion,” he says matter-of-factly. And after boxing? “I see myself back home in Ebro living a humble life, hunting and fishing, but with a million dollars in the bank.”
If unswerving dedication and self-confidence are the keys to a successful boxing career, then Jaylan Phillips, notwithstanding his 4-3-4 record, is destined for big things. But here’s the rub:
“In boxing, it isn’t what you earn, but what you negotiate,” says the esteemed British boxing pundit Steve Bunce alluding to the importance of a well-connected manager. In a perfect world, each win would be stepping-stone to a bigger fight with a commensurately larger purse. But in this chaotic sport, a “B side” fighter who scores an upset in a low-level fight may actually be penalized for his “impertinence.” Promoters may be wary of using him again (the old “risk/reward” encumbrance) and, in a sport where it’s important for an up-and-comer to stay busy, his progress may be stalled.
Phillips doesn’t know when his next assignment will materialize, but regardless he will keep plugging along while setting an example that others who aspire to greatness would be wise to emulate.
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Emanuel Navarrete and Rafael Espinoza Shine in Phoenix
Emanuel Navarrete and Rafael Espinoza Shine in Phoenix
PHOENIX – Saturday was a busy night on the global boxing scene, and it’s quite likely that the howling attendees in Phoenix’s Footprint Center witnessed the finest overall card of the international schedule. The many Mexican flags on display in the packed, scaled down arena signaled the event’s theme.
Co-main events featured rematches that arose from a pair of prior crowd-pleasing slugfests. Each of tonight’s headlining bouts ended at the halfway point, but that was their only similarity.
Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete, now 39-2-1 (32), defended his WBO Junior Lightweight belt with a dramatic stoppage of more-than-willing Oscar Valdez, 32-3 (24). The 29-year-old champion spoke of retirement wishes, but after dominating a blazing battle in which he scored three knockdowns, his only focus was relaxing during the holidays then getting back to what sounded like long-term business.
“Valdez was extremely tough in this fight,” said Navarrete. “I knew I had to push him back and I did. You are now witnessing the second phase of my career and you can expect great things from me in 2025.”
“I don’t really know about the future,” said the crestfallen, 33-year-old Valdez. “No excuses. He did what he wanted to and I couldn’t.”
Navarrete, a three-division titlist, came up one scorecard short of a fourth belt in his previous fight last May, a split decision loss to Denys Berinchyk. This was Navarrete’s fourth Arizona appearance so he was cheered like a homeboy, but Valdez was definitely the crowd favorite, evident from the cheers that erupted as both fighters were shown arriving in glistening, low rider automobiles.
Both men came out throwing huge shots, but it was Navarrete who scored a flash knockdown in the first round, setting the tone for the rest of the fight. There was fierce action in every frame, with Navarrete getting the best of most of it, but even when he was in trouble Valdez roared back and brought the crowd to their feet. He got dropped again at the very end of round four, and Navarrete sent his mouthpiece into orbit the round after that.
When Navarrette drove Valdez into the ropes during round six it looked like referee Raul Caiz, Jr was about to intervene, but before he could decide, Navarrete finished matters himself with a perfect left to the ribs that crumpled Valdez into a KO at 2:42.
“He talked about getting ready to retire soon so I told him we had to fight again right now,” said Valdez prior to the rematch. There were numerous “be careful what you wish for” type predictions of doom and he entered the ring at around a two to one underdog, understanding the contest’s make or break stakes. “Boxing penalizes you if you have a lot of losses,” observed Valdez. “It’s not like other sports where you can lose and do better next season. In boxing, most people don’t want to see you again after a couple of losses.”
What Valdez might decide remains to be seen, but even in defeat he proved to be a warrior worth watching.
Co-Feature
After their epic, razor-close encounter almost exactly a year ago, it was obvious Rafael Espinoza, and fellow 30-year-old Robeisy Ramirez should meet again for the WBO featherweight title belt Espinoza earned by an upset majority decision. Espinoza turned the trick again this time around, inside the distance, but it was more anti-climactic than anything like toe-to-toe.
The 6’1” Espinoza, now 26-0 (22), was the aggressor from the opening frame, but 5’6” Ramirez, 14-3 (9) employed his short stature well to stay out of immediate danger and countered to the body for a slight edge. The Cuban challenger avoided much of their previous firefight and initially controlled the tempo. The crowd jeered him for staying away but it was an effective strategy, at least at first.
Espinoza connected much better in the fifth round and looked fresher as Ramirez’s face rapidly reddened. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere in round six, Ramirez took a punch then raised a glove in surrender. Whatever the reason, even looking at Ramirez’s swollen right eye, it looked like a “No Mas” moment. Replays showed a straight right to the eye socket, but that didn’t stop the crowd from hooting their disgust after ref Chris Flores signaled the end at 0:12.
***
Richard Torrez, Jr, now 12-0 (11), displayed his Olympic silver medal pedigree in a heavyweight bout against Issac Munoz, 18-2-1 (15). Torrez, 236.6, found his punching range quickly with southpaw leads as Munoz, 252, tried to stand his ground but looked hurt by early body work that forced him into the ropes. He was gasping for breath as Torrez peppered him in the second, and Munoz went back to his corner on unsteady legs.
Munoz’s team should have thought about saving him for another day in the third as he ate big shots. Luckily, referee Raul Caiz, Jr. was wiser and had seen enough, waving it off for a TKO at 0:59.
“I don’t train for the opponent,” reflected Torrez, who isn’t far from true contender status. “Every time I train, I train for a world championship fight.”
***
Super-lightweight Lindolfo Delgado, 139.9, improved to 22-0 (16), and took another step into the world title picture against Jackson Marinez, now 22-4 (10), 139.2.
On paper this junior welterweight matchup appeared fairly even, and Marinez managed to keep it that way for almost half the scheduled ten rounds against a solid prospect but Delgado kept upping the ante until Marinez was out of chips. The assembled swarm was whistling for more action after three tentative opening frames, as Delgado loaded up but couldn’t put much offense together.
That changed in the 4th when Delgado connected with solid crosses. In the fifth, a fine combination dropped Marinez into a delayed knockdown and a wicked follow-up right to the guts finished the wobbly Marinez, who had nothing to be ashamed of, off in the arms of ref Wes Melton. Official TKO time was 2:13.
In a matter of concurrent programming, Saturday also held a lot of highly publicized college football and basketball games which likely detracted from the larger mainstream audience and media coverage this fight card deserved. That’s a shame but you can’t fault boxing, Top Rank, or any of the fighters for that because, once again, they all came through big time in Phoenix.
Photos credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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