Akira Yaegashi-Roman Gonzalez: Fight Preview

 By: Almir Teslic

On Friday, September 5^th, boxing fans worldwide get a major treat as former two-division champion Roman Gonzalez fights for his first Flyweight title against WBC Flyweight king Akira Yaegashi. This is the first of two fascinating matches featuring two top Flyweights this weekend, the other being Juan Francisco Estrada and Giovani Segura on Saturday in Mexico. The Flyweight division is among the strongest in boxing and the pairing of four top Flyweight’s battling it out in one weekend is sure to produce one of the best boxing weekends of the year.

The champion Yaegashi comes into this fight just a year in a half removed from his fantastic victory over Toshiyuki Igarashi and has since scored victories over Edgar Sosa and Odilon Zaleta. Yaegashi has quick feet and his movement will be a key for him to retain his title in this fight against the relentless challenger. Yaegashi will look to capitalize on his superior movement and hand speed by disrupting Gonzalez’s rhythm, and making him uncomfortable. An important aspect of this bout is that Yaegashi possesses the strongest combination of size and skill that Gonzalez has faced thus far.

Yaegashi’s speed and movement was too much for the veteran Edgar Sosa and most recently, Odilon Zaleta. But against a young and vicious puncher like Gonzalez, it’ll be important for the champion to stay disciplined and remain intelligent about his work. Engaging in a firefight against Gonzalez would not suit Yaegashi and his tendency to lunge forward and reach for some punches could be very costly against the Nicaraguan. Yaegashi will have to utilize his jab early and often and take full advantage of his foot and hand speed. Keeping his hands up at all times while he moves around the ring will be a necessity as the slightest opening could be all Gonzalez needs to unload his wide variety of punches and potentially hurt the champion. Yaegashi’s counterpunching ability will have to be as sharp as it's ever been to be successful tomorrow night.

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez comes into this fight with a phenomenal record of 39-0; the undefeated Nicaraguan has knocked out 33 of his 39 opponents. Gonzalez is a ferocious puncher with a relentless style and an absolute bull of a fighter for a man his size. Gonzalez is coming off back-to-back knockout performances, although against much lesser fighters. Gonzalez is looking to win a title in his third division and a victory for the Nicaraguan superstar would further cement his pound for pound status. The 27 year old already has a fantastic resume and a potential victory over Yaegashi puts him at the very top of the division.

With two-handed power, brutal combinations and the ability to puzzle opponents by coming in at various angles, he has a similar skillset to champions Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev. His come forward; aggressive style is backed up by good boxing skills and tremendous technicality. His fight against Estrada is a great example of how he possesses the ability to mix it up and utilize a wide variety of punches. His quick and smooth transition of body to head punches will be some of the toughest Yaegashi has ever had to deal with. It will be important for Gonzalez to apply smart pressure and to avoid the potential devastating counter-punches that Yaegashi will be looking to land. His head movement while coming forward and the angles he creates could be the difference between a new WBC Flyweight champion, and a boxing clinic by the current champ.

A fantastic weekend of boxing kicks off with an absolute barn burner of a fight tomorrow in Japan. The top of the Flyweight division will certainly be shaken up within the coming days and it starts tomorrow night in Tokyo.

 

Quillin vacates WBO title: Quick notes

 By: Almir Teslic

Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin officially vacated his WBO Middleweight title after choosing not to go through with his mandatory title fight against Matvey Korobov. Two weeks ago, Roc Nation won the purse bid to promote the potential mandatory fight and Quillin was set to make a career high pay day of $1.4 million. After releasing a statement on his official twitter account thanking the WBO, Roc Nation President and Chief of Branding & strategy released this statement to Boxingscene.com:



"Roc Nation Sports wishes Peter Quillin good luck. I'm sure he has a bigger pay day to have given up his title and 1.4 million. We will move on to the next fight to promote"

- Michael R. Yormack.




Quick notes:

• The big question that remains is who will fight Korobov for the vacant WBO title? Billy Joe Saunders and Andy Lee are the two next in line in the WBO rankings for the Middleweight division
• What's next for Quillin? An interesting fight for Quillin would be WBA "regular" champion, Danny Jacobs. 
• The roadblock with Quillin potentially fighting Jacobs for the "regular WBA title is that Dmitry Chudinov is the WBA Middleweight "interim" Champion and it was reported last month that Vladimir Hryunov was interested in matching Jacobs-Chudnov. Although those negotiations appear to have stalled. 
• If the WBA mandates that Jacobs defends his regular WBA title against the interim champion, Chudinov, it may leave Quillin without a chance to fight Danny Jacobs, for the time being.
• One potential option for Quillin would be to take a stay-busy fight and wait for Sam Soliman-Jermain Taylor to play out and possibly attempt to challenge the winner of that fight for their IBF title

Billy Joe Saunders is an undefeated young prospect who is coming off a knockout victory against Emanuele Blandamura in late July. He expressed interest instantly after the news of Quillin vacating his title and it seems he would be the one who gets the first call.

Andy Lee has also already expressed interest in fighting Korobov for the vacant title, after a recent posting on twitter. Lee was mentioned as a possible opponent for WBA Superchampion Gennady Golovkin in April earlier this year, but the untimely and unfortunate death of Golovkin's father caused the scheduled April date to be cancelled. Lee fought former WBC Middleweight Champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in a competitive fight back in June of 2012 and has plenty of experience being in against top fighters.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out and within the next few days and coming weeks, we should have a clearer picture of whats next for the vacant WBO Middleweight title.

Is Al Haymon attempting to block Peter Quillin from defending his WBO Middleweight Title?

By: Henry Martin


According to ESPN's Dan Rafael, Peter Quillin has still not signed his end of the deal for his mandatory defense against Matvey Korobov. Originally the contracts from both fighters were due on August 28th, but Quillin requested an extension, which was granted by the WBO, to take care of personal matters. With the due date fast approaching (Wednesday September 3rd) another extension was requested and granted. According to the WBO president, the second extension would only be a day and Quillin would risk losing his title if he didn't send in a signed contract by 4 P.M Thursday afternoon.

Peter @KIDCHOCOLATE Quillin must sign agreement to face Korobov by 4PM Thurs. or stands to be stripped of belt. @GoldenBoyBoxing @RocNation
— Paco Valcárcel, Esq. (@PacoValcarcel) September 3, 2014

Needles to say, neither Top Rank or Roc Nation were in favor of Quillin and his team prolonging the fight with the fight date steadily approaching and no promotional work being done.

Both @trboxing & @RocNation have objected to Quillin request to WBO for an extension to sign for the Korobov fight. No decision yet. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) September 2, 2014

The proposed date for the mandatory defense was set to be November 1st. Coincidentally, it happened to be on the same date as a Showtime quadruple header that has been in the works for some time now. This is problematic because although Quillin doesn't have an exclusive contract with Showtime, he's an Al Haymon fighter. Al Haymon fighters almost exclusively fought on Showtime with the occasional Fox Sports 1 and ESPN dates. Edwin Rodriguez was the last Haymon fighter to have fought on HBO since the bitter breakup between the network and the adviser.

With a Showtime date already set for November 1st and with Roc Nation looking more and more likely they won't move the date, it looks as if Quillin's WBO reign may possibly be coming to an end. If Showtime can't and HBO won't, where does that leave us? ESPN is a possibility, but with the beginning of the College Football season, that seems like a long shot as well.

Over the past few hours, rumors have now sprung up that Quillin may be fighting WBA regular champion, Danny Jacobs, for his title instead. The WBA "regular" title.

Source says we might see a Peter Quillin-Danny Jacobs fight, rather than that Quillin/Korobov scrap
— Michael Woods (@Woodsy1069) September 3, 2014

Jacobs and his team were in discussions with Chudinov to possibly fight sometime in the fall, but if Quillin were to be stripped, then there is a good possibility that this overdue fight could happen. A potential Quillin vs Jacobs fight was targeted for February of this year, but instead both men went their separate ways. The only thing standing in the way of this possible fight is the possibility of the WBA ordering a fight between Chudinov, the interim champion, and Jacobs, the regular champion.

All eyes are on Quillin and Al Haymon to see what actions they take later on today. Do they sign the contract, going through with Roc Nation's first promotional show? Or does Quillin go past his deadline and stand to be stripped of his title? Whatever happens next, expect boxing fans to be critical of his choices, whether it be refusing to sign the dotted lines or taking two extensions to sign for the fight.

If Quillin does decide not to sign on for the fight, hopefully Al Haymon is looking out for his best interests as this is a career payday he may not see again. If he signs? Well, we have a great Middleweight championship fight in the works between Peter Quillin and former amateur star Matvey Korobov.

Emmanuel Taylor ready to seize the moment

 By: Almir Teslic


This Saturday in Cincinnati, Ohio, Adrien "The Problem" Broner returns back in action after his ten round decision victory over Carlos Molina in May. Broner suffered the first major setback of his professional career against Marcos Maidana in December of last year, where he ultimately lost his WBA Welterweight title. Now fighting in the 140lb division, Broner's options are endless as he looks to get back on top and potentially become a four division champion.


Standing in his way is Emmanuel Taylor, a boxer many fans are familiar with after back-to-back national television performances on ESPN Friday Night Fight's against Chris Algieri and Karim Mayfield. Taylor will look to capitalize on his recent momentum and spoil the homecoming of Adrien Broner and possibly launch himself into the title picture in the Light Welterweight division.

Taylor's manager, Dave Price shared a few words about the upcoming opportunity for his fighter and briefly spoke about the future of rising Super Middleweight prospect, Jesse Hart.


 

First and foremost, your fighter Emmanuel Taylor is fighting on the biggest stage of his career this Saturday night against former three-division champion Adrien Broner. Did you have any reservations about matching such a young fighter in his opponents backyard or was this simply an opportunity you/he could not pass up? 

When the offer was originally presented the risk didn't match the rewards but after further negotiations we reached an amount that we felt was more in line with the risk.

Emmanuel Taylor showed tremendous heart in his last fight on ESPN Friday Night Fights against Karim Mayfield in July, do you think jumping straight back into the ring less then two months after a ten round fight could actually benefit Emmanuel in a way? He was in against a tough opponent, but I imagine he’s going to be in great shape come Saturday night.

Emanuel is in great shape since he fought in July but i really don't think that the last fight was a tough fight. There were a lot of circumstances that made the fight closer than it should have been.  Emanuel was at the hospital all night with the birth of his first born child and i think he was really concerned about pushing on the pedal and not having any gas in the tank. Conditions being normal i believe he would have stopped Mayfield in 8.

Taylor fought current WBO Welterweight Champion Chris Algieri back in February and gave him a competitive fight. How important do you feel that fight was for Emmanuel’s growth as a fighter, considering the fact that he’s only 23 years old and had the biggest win of his career during his next fight?

 Algieri showed Emanuel where he could have been had he beat Algieri. Even in the loss this showed Manny that he, was one or two wins away from being in the big leagues.

Taylor is a huge underdog going into his fight against Adrien Broner this weekend, and in recent months we've seen anything can happen in boxing. Not to overlook the task he has ahead of him on Saturday night, but with a potential victory over Broner, any particular guys you would like to see Taylor fight next?

 A win over Broner would be huge and would mean a rematch with Broner but guys on the horizon? Anyone at 140lbs.  Danny Garcia is probably going to move up to 147 so Matthysse will have to do.

 

Speaking of Chris Algieri, as I’m sure you already know, he is scheduled to defend his title against Manny Pacquiao on November 22^nd, in Macao, China. What are your thoughts on that fight? Do you have a prediction of the outcome of that fight, by any chance? 

 

Well i think Chris has a chance against Pacquiao. He has fought a harder puncher in Provodnikov but of course Pacquiao is an all around better and busier fighter. But i think it's possible for Chris to come out victorious.

 

One of your rising prospects, Jesse Hart has fought twice this year and is scheduled to return again next month in Atlantic City, can you tell me a little bit about the future plans for your young prospect? Will we see him in a big fight as early as 2015?

 Jesse Hart is ready to take steps to become a world champion right now. He is with Top Rank and Bob Arum said by the end of 2015 he, would make him a world champion. I know what Jesse does to fighters in the gym and what he has done to fighters that appear to be ducks because he gets them out early but these are he same guys who beat other undefeated prospects and take supposed contenders the distance. I think 2015 he moves from contender to champion. D and D Management and Top Rank have invested a lot of time and money in Jesse so there is no reason to rush him but he is so advanced we can't hold him back.

Thank you for your time Dave.

Hopkins-Kovalev: Quick notes

Bernard Hopkins and Sergey Kovalev officially went face-to-face today for the first time since finalizing their unification bout for November 8th.  Some quick notes and thoughts for the upcoming super-fight:

·        Kovalev has started his training camp just a few days after his August 2^nd fight with Blake Caparrello, according to manager Egis Klimas.

·       The quick work of Caparello could pay huge dividends for Kovalev as he has thrown over one-hundred punches per round many times throughout his destruction of the division since the start of 2013. The one big question mark left about Kovalev is how his stamina will carry over into the later rounds, if necessary.

·        Kovalev has never had to make it past the 8^th round and with his high volume and variety of punches per round, it will be interesting to see how he trains for this bout and if John David Jackson is mentally preparing him to go the distance (or surpass the 8^th round)

·        Hopkins is riding a three fight win streak and in his last two fights against Karo Murat and Beibut Shumenov, he has shown a willingness to press the action and fight with a very fan-friendly style. It will be interesting to see what type of approach he takes against a such a devastating puncher like Kovalev

·        Hopkins knocked down Shumenov in the 11^th round of their unification bout in April. Shumenov has only been down one other time in his career against Vyacheslav Uzelkov. Hopkins "sneaky power” continues to be on full display and both boxers chins will be tested early and often.

·       The combination of possible styles and tactics for this fight are endless and fascinating. Will Hopkins look to spoil Kovalev’s first attempt at a unification bout with rough tactics? Or will the crafty veteran take him on the same way he took on Murat and Shumenov? Will Kovalev continue to throw one hundred punches per round or will he pace himself to potentially go into the later rounds? Could the criminally underrated boxing skills of Kovalev be the equalizer to Hopkins career long experience and success of negating the power of big punchers?

In two months time, the answers to these questions are likely to be answered. As for now, boxing fans can unite and praise the brilliant matchmaking of Golden Boy Promotions, Main Events, Egis Klimas, Bernard Hopkins, Sergey Kovalev and anybody else involved in finalizing this fantastic unification bout.

Ievgen Khytrov's September date cancelled- November ShoBox apperance confirmed

By: Almir Teslic

Ievgen Khytrov was scheduled to return September 26th, in Dallas, but the September return for the former amateur star has officially been cancelled. The young boxer is currently in his homeland of Ukraine and will not return to The United States until early September and the lack of a full and proper training camp has ultimately eliminated a September bout.



Ievgen Khytrov's next televised appearance has been confirmed, however, and Khytrov will be fighting on ShoBox against a fellow prospect to be announced shortly. The first ShoBox appearance of Khytrov's young career is being set for November 7th or November 21st.


The date, venue and official opponent of Ievgen Khytrov's November bout will be announced within the coming week.

Ievgen Khytrov: Return Date Announced

 By: Almir Teslic

According to my sources, Ievgen Khytrov, the fierce hitting former World Amateur Boxing Championships Gold Medalist, known as “The Ukrainian Lion” is set to return September 26th in Dallas, with an opponent to be announced shortly.

The young Ukrainian isn’t taking any breaks as another fight is in the process of being finalized on November 7^th or November 21^st against a fellow prospect. The November fight could have major implications for both prospects as it is being reported that the fight could possibly be shown live on ShoBox. Fox Sports One is another possibility and it would mark Ievgen Khytrov’s second straight appearance on the network.

Ievgen Khytrov is coming off a devastating knockout performance against Willie Fortune, a boxer whose only professional loss prior to August 8^th was against highly regarded Middleweight Tureano Johnson. The quality of opposition for Khytrov has been outstanding thus far for a boxer with only five professional fights. He seems to be on the fast track and a large part of that is due to his promoter- Iron Mike Productions, who’ve made it clear they want their fighters to be challenged, early and often.

Over the years ShoBox has been a wonderful platform for rising young prospects to showcase and develop their skills. The experience gained on the network by young fighters has proven many times to successfully transfer over to higher-profile fights on bigger stages. Fox Sports One has been putting on tremendous cards themselves in recent times, most recently the August 8^th card put on by Iron Mike Productions. The August card left fans craving more and the great Mike Tyson himself has made it clear he is ready to continuously put on fantastic cards and matchmaking equivalent to what we saw earlier this month.

I will be able to officially announce the opponent, venue and network of Ievgen Khytrov’s possible fight in November within the following week. Stay tuned.