BoxingBB News

SANDS CASINO RESORT BETHLEHEM
 
Bryant Jennings vs. Andrey Fedosov
Sergey Kovalev vs. Cornelius White
Ronald Cruz vs. Ray Narh
 
BETHLEHEM, PA – When NBC Sports Network Fight Night returns to the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA, Friday, June 14, it will feature a competitive triple header that promises more of the great action the series has become known for. The three hour telecast will begin at 8 PM ET. In addition, all three headliners will find themselves in “must win” fights, critical for their career advancement. The pressure will be great for them to collect a win and remain on track for the big fights that lie ahead for each of them.

Russian knockout artist Sergey Kovalev, 20-0-1, 18 KOs, has built tremendous momentum in the last year. His showy and brutal knockouts over Gabriel Campillo, Lionell Thompson and Darnell Boone, all in the past 12 months, have made him a feared man in the light heavyweight division. He’s won fans, polished his record, and climbed the ratings. A slip up now, would derail his momentum and force him backward.

Further, the fight on June 14, is a 12-round IBF Elimination Bout that could vault the winner into a title shot. Talk about “must win”. Kovalev must defeat Cornelius “Da Beast” White, 21-1, 16 KOs, of Houston, TX, on June 14th to keep moving forward. Another big KO would certainly help his cause, but White will be looking to play the spoiler and leapfrog over the better known light heavyweight.

Like Kovalev, Philadelphian Bryant Jennings, 16-0, 8 KOs, needs to win in Bethlehem. “By By” is coming off his breakthrough year when he went from unknown heavyweight prospect to bona fide contender. Jennings fought and won five times in 2012, but June 14th will be his first start of this year.

Currently Jennings is ranked #3 in the IBF, which means he is on the brink of a world championship opportunity. To stay on track for that, he cannot afford a loss. Jennings will face Andrey Fedosov, 24-2, 19 KOs, a Russian heavyweight now living and fighting out of Hollywood, CA, in a 10-round co-feature bout. He’s won three in a row and is aching to breakthrough, much like Jennings did last year. If he can topple the Philadelphian next month, he certainly will get the attention he desires.

Welterweight Ronald Cruz, 17-1, 12 KOs, will also have his back against the wall on June 14. However, Cruz must win for a very different reason than Kovalev and Jennings. Cruz, of Bethlehem, PA, returns to the ring for the first time since suffering his first professional loss. Last September, Cruz dropped a close split decision to Antwone Smith in the same Bethlehem ring.

To complicate things, Cruz’ return was delayed due to surgery to repair a hernia last winter. Now 100% healthy, Ronald will be raring to go on fight night. However, he may have his hands full on June 14th.

Facing Cruz will be the hard-hitting, Bronx-based Ray Narh, 25-2, 21 KOs, of Ghana. Narh is a battle-tested pro who brings more experience, a higher knockout percentage, and a height advantage into the bout. However as usual, hometown hero Cruz is expected to bring out his loyal Bethlehem fan base, who will support their man 100% and help to level the playing field in this pick ‘em fight.

This jam-packed triple header will be the 4th edition of NBC Sports Network Fight Night in 2013 and will begin at 8PM ET. By the looks of the stakes in each bout, it might be the best so far.
 
ABOUT FRIDAY, JUNE 14
 
The Jennnings-Fedosov, Kovalev-White and Cruz-Narh fights top a seven-bout card at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem. Doors open at 6:15pm ET. Tickets priced at $50 and $75 and $130 (luxury suites) can be purchased through the offices of Peltz Boxing (215-765-0922) and at all Ticketmaster outlets (800-745-3000). Tickets also are on sale at www.peltzboxing.com, www.SandsEventCenter.com, and www.Ticketmaster.com. In Bethlehem, tickets are available at Deja Brew, Inc., 101 West 4th Street (610-865-2739) and at Pronto Insurance Notary, 232 East 3rd Street (610-419-6790). NBC Sports Network will televise the Jennings-Fedosov, Kovalev-White and Cruz-Narh fights, beginning at 8 pm ET, Friday, June 14th. The card is promoted by Main Events and Peltz Boxing Promotions, Inc., in association with Goossen Tutor Promotions, Hitz Entertainment and Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

STEVE CUNNINGHAM HOLDS MEDIA WORKOUT

IN PREPARATION FOR TYSON FURY

PHILADELPHIA - Steve “USS” Cunningham held an open media workout at the Rock Ministries Gym in Philadelphia. With a little more than two weeks remaining until the fight, Cunningham, 25-2, 12 KOs, appeared confident, conditioned, and ready to fight Irish import Tyson Fury, 20-0, 14 KOs, a 6′ 9″ rising star of the heavyweight division. Cunningham went through a light workout for the press before speaking about the upcoming nationally televised fight at The Theater at Madison Square Garden scheduled for Saturday afternoon, April 20th. The Fury – Cunningham battle will be the main event of the 4PM ET broadcast on NBC.

Steve Cunningham Photo credits: phillyboxinghistory.com

“He wants to get under my skin with his antics, imitating Ali, doing all these tricks,” Cunningham said of Fury’s trash talking press conference performance from last month. “He wants me to just come in and punch him in the mouth, but I will stick to the game plan and not get out of control. It’s all about the game plan.”

“I’m going to utilize my strengths, and we’ve worked on my weaknesses,” Cunningham said. “So you’re going to see some different things. You’re going to see some things that are the same. I feel great. I feel strong. I feel energetic. I’m excited about this fight.”

Cunningham’s trainer, Brother Naazim Richardson, said, “Steve Cunningham has been overlooked. He is an intelligent fighter and he’s getting smarter all the time. See that’s the thing, he’s getting smarter all the time if you look at all his fights. In boxing power has always won guys things, but you never see anybody maintain with just power. Never happens…the strongest muscle in your body is that brain and the guy that can use that can find a way to manipulate almost any other person in the ring.”

Also fighting on the April 20 card, Philly favorite, Karl “Dynamite” Dargan, 12-0, 6 KO’s, participated in the media workout as well. Dynamite is preparing for his 6 round lightweight contest against Sergi Ganjelashvili of Ft Lauderdale, FL, 4-5-1. 

Dynamite is ready to fight anyone, ” Everything is on point. I’m sure they have an opponent for me, but most of my fights they don’t tell me who the opponent is. For me it’s not really for the fighter to know who the opponent is. A lot of people say well why not, don’t you have to strategize, do this, do that? But that’s what your trainer is for. Your trainer has to find out who you’re fighting. Your trainer has to find your strategy to beat your opponent. That’s not the fighter’s job.”

Dynamite said, “The main thing for me right now is staying active. The more active I am the better. The better you guys see me. I don’t think you guys have even seen the best of me yet as a professional.”

APRIL 20TH FIGHT INFO

April 20th at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York features a 12-round heavyweight battle between Tyson Fury and Steve Cunningham in the main event. Curtis Stevens will take on Derrick Findley in the 8-round middleweight co-feature. Six additional bouts are planned for the undercard. Doors open at The Theater at Madison Square Garden doors open at 1:15PM ET. The main event and co-feature will be broadcast 4PM ET on NBC as a special 2 hour afternoon presentation of NBC Fight Night. The card is presented by Hennessy Sports and Main Events.

The main event is an official IBF Heavyweight Voluntary Eliminator fight for the #2 position. The winner must meet #1 or the leading available contender to establish the mandatory challenger for Heavyweight King Wladimir Klitschko.

Tickets are priced at $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500. Tickets are available at the Madison Square Garden box office, through Ticketmaster 866-858-0008 and at ticketmaster.com. Ticket prices include a $5 Facility Surcharge. Ticketmaster purchases are subject to a Ticketmaster Surcharge. Wheelchairs, companion seats, aisle seats and Assistive Listening Devices are available 212-465-6035.

Cunningham Press Conference

“A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words”

Fury and Cunningham Confrontation at Press Conference

Photo Credits: Wojtek Kubik Photography

During a press conference to officially announce the NBC broadcast of the Tyson Fury vs. Steve Cunningham fight, which is scheduled to take place the afternoon of April 20th at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, a heated exchange ensued between Fury and Cunningham. The photo above clearly captures the continued antagonism that took place during the customary post press conference face off photo session. There is no love lost between the two heavyweight contenders. The unplanned press conference exchange set the stage perfectly for the battle to come. They say a picture says a thousand words… 

Catch the whole press conference here: http://www.ustream.tv/mainevents 

During a press conference to officially announce the NBC broadcast of the Tyson Fury vs. Steve Cunningham fight, which is scheduled to take place the afternoon of April 20th at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, a heated exchange ensued between Fury and Cunningham. The photo above clearly captures the continued antagonism that took place during the customary post press conference face off photo session. There is no love lost between the two heavyweight contenders. The unplanned press conference exchange set the stage perfectly for the battle to come. They say a picture says a thousand words… 

Catch the whole press conference here: http://www.ustream.tv/mainevents

On April 20 card L to R: Adam Kownacki, Sevdail Sherifi, Tyson Fury, Curtis Stevens, Dynamite Dargan, and Steve Cunningham

Photo Credits Wojtek Kubik Photography

FIGHT INFO:

April 20th at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York features a 12-round heavyweight battle between Tyson Fury and Steve Cunningham in the main event. Curtis Stevens will take on Derrick Findley in the 8-round middleweight co-feature. Six additional bouts are planned for the undercard. The main event and co-feature will be broadcast 4PM ET on NBC as a special 2 hour afternoon presentation of NBC Sports Fight Night. The card is presented by Hennessy Sports and Main Events.  

The main event is an official IBF Heavyweight Voluntary Eliminator fight for the #2 position. The winner must meet #1 or the leading available contender to establish the mandatory challenger for Heavyweight King Wladimir Klitschko.  

Tickets are priced at $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500. Tickets are available at the Madison Square Garden box office, through Ticketmaster 866-858-0008 and at ticketmaster.com. Ticket prices include a $5 Facility Surcharge. Ticketmaster purchases are subject to a Ticketmaster Surcharge. Wheelchairs, companion seats, aisle seats and Assistive Listening Devices are available 212-465-6035

By Vicky Villa – Ringside

Photo by George Jimenez – GeoIMAGEZ

Photo by GeoIMAGEZ (geoimagez.com)

Emanuel “The Tranzforma” Taylor (16-0, 11KOs) scored his second consecutive stoppage in 2013 when he challenged former world title challenger Victor Cayo (31-3, 22 KOs) in the main event of ESPN Friday Night Fights from the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Taylor was coming off a stoppage win against Tito Serrano just six weeks ago and was considered the underdog going into his fight against Cayo.  On the other hand, Cayo had racked up four consecutive wins since his last defeat against former champion Nate Campbell in March, 2012.

Cayo found success in the early rounds applying pressure and forcing Taylor to fight defensively.  His continuous attack and evident power paid dividends in the fifth round when he dropped Taylor with a right hook to the head.  The fight was going as planned for Cayo and he continued to dominate while Taylor fought in spurts.

With the fight seemingly slipping from his hands, and after hearing pleads from his team, Taylor stalked Cayo and landed his right hand, dropping and hurting his opponent in the eighth round.  Cayo answered the count but Taylor pounced on him landing numerous punches which went unanswered.  Referee Benji Esteves had seen enough and stopped the bout at 1:11 of the aforementioned round.

Photo by GeoIMAGEZ (geoimagez.com)

In the co-feature Magomed Abdusalamov (16-0, 16 KOs) continued his perfect knockout streak by defeating Victor Bisbal (21-1, 15 KOs) via 5th round TKO at 1:12.  Bisbal found success behind the jab and gave Magomed trouble in the early rounds.  But as the fight progressed he began to take punishment and in the 5^th round Magomed landed a monstrous uppercut that dropped Bisbal.  The Puerto Rican beat the count of eight but was clearly still hurt and referee Randy Newman halted the bout.

Undercards

Middleweights – 6 Rounds

Thomas LaManna (10-0, 6KOS) remains undefeated with a UD win over Joshua Snyder  (9-8-1, 3 KOS).  LaManna scored 2 knockdowns in the first and fourth rounds. Judges’ scores 58-54, 58-54, 57-55

Junior Middleweights 6 Rounds

John Jackson (14-1, 13 KOs) did not waste time and knocked out Francisco Alexis Pena (7-1, 5KOs) in the 1st round at 56 seconds

Junior Middleweights 6 Rounds (swing bout1)

Samuel Rogers (12-0, 7 KOs) keeps his undefeated record with a UD win against Ivan Ziglar (7-2-1, 4KOs). Judges scores 59-55, 60-54, 58-56

Lightweights 6 rounds

Scott Burrell (6-1, 5 KOs) defeated Edgardo Torres (2-1, 2 KOs) via a unanimous decision scores of 60-53, 60-53, 60-54.

By Boxeo Estelar Radio

Cesar Hernandez, George Jimenez & Giancarlo Oquendo

Robert Diaz stopped by Boxeo Estelar Radio to talk about his career as a manager, advisor to three-time World Champion Marco Antonio Barrera, and now matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions.  He touched on the careers of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Paulie Malinaggi, Adrien Broner, and discussed in-depth what makes his job as a matchmaker with Golden Boy Promotions.  Diaz was interviewed by the Boxeo Estelar Team, Cesar Hernandez, George Jimenez and Giancarlo Oquendo.  Below is part of the interview:

Boxeo Estelar: Mr. Diaz, thank you for being on the show.  Tell us a little about your background, how did you start in boxing and what led you to eventually work with GBP?

Robert Diaz:  Well, like many people I started because of my passion for the sport.  I really liked boxing from a young age, thanks to my father who took me to the local events and whenever there was a big Pay per View event we watched it at home.  I also had the great fortune to work with Marco Antonio Barrera for some years and that’s where I began to develop a relationship with Golden Boy Promotions.  Eventually I received an offer to work for GBP and for me it was like a dream come true.

Boxeo Estelar: The fans never hear about the people behind the scenes who put together these fights, they always hear about the high profile promoters like Oscar De La Hoya and the fighters.  Tell us about some of the best fights you have made possible. 

Robert Diaz: Yes, there a lot of things that happen [behind the scenes] when trying to make the fights that the public wants to see and enjoy.  Sometimes the trainers or managers and even the fighters say “I don’t like that fight, get me someone else”.  One of the fights that I put together and gave me great satisfaction was the fight between Paulie Malinaggi and [Vyacheslav] Senchenko.  This was a fight where we had to travel to Ukraine and not many people gave Paulie a chance to win, yet I insisted in that this was a fight we could win.  Once in Ukraine a lot of unexpected things happened such as disagreements about the replacement gloves, because the original gloves we picked never arrived.  At the weigh in we noticed the Ukrainian looked much bigger and stronger and people said Paulie needed to knockout to win, yet he is not a puncher.  The whole team was inspired by this and Paulie came hungry for the win and did it via knockout.  After the fight, we were no longer the visitors and the attitude towards us changed.  We were viewed as the enemy so we postponed the celebrations until we arrived back in the US.

Boxeo Estelar:  That was a great win for Paulie and a surprise that he was able to win via KO.  It also revived a career that was thought to be over.  Since we are on this subject, there is talk that a certain Lightweight fighter wants to move up to challenge Paulie Malinaggi.  Any truth to this rumor? What can you tell the fans?

Robert Diaz: I’ve heard the same thing and to be honest I was surprised at first because it is a big jump, but at the same time this is what is beautiful about boxing.  There are fighters that are willing to take such challenges, and although I can’t confirm anything because I am in New York working, I need to find out if in fact its true but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is, and would love to see it.  Let’s not forget that this has happened before, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero did it, Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Duran did it, and it wouldn’t be the first time a fighter skips a division to fight in the Welterweight division.

To listen to the entire interview please click here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/boxeoestelar

Also on this episode of Boxeo Estelar, promoter Leon De La Garza and Junior Middleweight Contender Delvin Rodriguez,

Boxeo Estelar Radio is an all-Spanish Boxing Radio Show which airs live every Wednesday at 8pm EST, 5pm Pacific, 9pm Puerto Rico. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Ringside report/Photos by George Jimenez – GeoIMAGEZ

In an anticipated matchup between two undefeated Heavyweights, Malik “King” Scott (35-0, 12 KOs) and Vyacheslav “Czar” Glazkov (14-0, 10KOs) fought to a draw in the main event of the Fight Night on NBC Sports Network Series, which took place on February 23 at the Paramount Theatre in Huntington, NY.

Going into the fight we knew this would be a classical matchup between a slick boxer against a puncher, and both fighters played their roles.  The bout was a “must see” for boxing aficionados and featured two relatively young undefeated fighters, in their prime, with clashing styles.  For the most part, Glazkov, who is the harder puncher out of the two was the aggressor and was coming forward all night, working Scott’s body inside and setting up traps in order to land one his bombs.  On the other hand, Scott used his great defense and ring generalship to block his opponent’s punches and escape when he found himself against the ropes.

There were a few key questions boxing fans asked before the fight; could Scott outbox his opponent and avoid being Czar’s 11th KO victim? Or could Glazkov show that he is more than a great puncher and utilize his pressure to break through Scott’s defense? Well, according to the judges’ scorecards there was no clear winner and at the end of 10 rounds they scored the fight a draw.  Judge Poturaj scored the fight for Scott 98-92, Judge John Mckaie scored it for Glazkov 96-94, and Julie Lederman scored it a draw 95-95.

Although both fighters had their moments in the fight, neither guy was hurt at any point, and the fight turned out to be the old dog chases cat type of fight.  Malik Scott proved once again he has a very difficult slick style (although not fan-friendly) and Glazkov showed some kinks in his armor he needs to work on before going to the next level.

In the televised co-main event, “The Fighting Pride of Huntington, New York”, undefeated junior welterweight prospect Chris Algieri, 15-0-0 (7KO’s) got past his toughest opponent  yet when he defeated New Jersey’s Jose “Mangu” Peralta, 10-1-0 (6KO’s) in a very entertaining 10 round bout.  Algieri dominated most of the rounds but decided to slug it out with Peralta which produced some great exchanges to the delight of the crowd.  Although “Mangu” had his moments in the early rounds, he began to slow down in the second half of the fight and Algieri used his boxing skills to outhustle Peralta in route to a win via unanimous decision.  The scores were 97-93, 96-94, and 98-92 all in favor of Algieri.

All photos property of GeoIMAGEZ are available for purchase.  Please contact us at [email protected]