Official Boxing Thread
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Hot off the press!! Good to see Bud back in the ring after a good besting of Postol.
Terence Crawford vs. John Molina Jr. on December 10
By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) will reportedly be defending his titles against #3 WBC, #3 WBO contender John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs) on December 10 on HBO Championship Boxing from Crawford’s hometown at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The fight isn’t official yet, but that’s the fight that is being mentioned. Overall, I expect the fans to greet the news of the Crawford-Molina fight favorably. Molina sometimes makes things excited, but definitely not all the time. When Molina is bad, he’s REAL bad. He’s one of those fighters that you never know what you’re going to get from him effort-wise.
Molina, 33, isn’t the greatest of options for Crawford to fight. After all, Molina did lose easily to Adrien Broner las year in a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision defeat in March of 2015. Broner beat Molina by the scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 118-110.
Molina looked like he wasn’t mentally into the fight, because he never really attacked Broner in the way that he needed to for him to have a chance of winning. It just looked like Molina fought for survival rather than to win. Since then, Molina has won his last two fights against weaker opposition in Jorge Romero (24-9) and Ruslan Provodnikov (25-4).
The win over Provodnikov was a good one for Molina Jr., but you can argue that he got the fight against the Russian fighter at the right time. Provodnikov took a lot of punishment in his 12 round decision loss to Lucas Matthysse in April of last year. Provodnikov didn’t look like the same fighter when he fought Molina Jr. in their fight last June. Not surprisingly, Provodnikov hasn’t fought since then. I have doubts whether Molina would beat a motivated Provodnikov. I think it would have been a different story if Provodnikov fought Molina the way he fought Tim Bradley and Mike Alvarado.
It would have been nice to see Crawford move up to 147 and take on Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter. Crawford reportedly rehydrated to 157lbs for his last fight against Viktor Postol. With that kind of size, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for Crawford remaining at 140, other than to dominate a division that is barren of talented fighters.
At 140, Crawford can be a champion. At 147, there would be major question marks whether Crawford would be able to hang with guys like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. Those guys would test Crawford’s chin, and he would need to show something. He couldn’t just run around the ring for 12 rounds like he did against Postol and expect to beat them.
I don’t think the judges would give Crawford a win if that’s all he was going to do against those guys, because they’d put a lot more pressure on Crawford than Postol did. The only round where Postol fought smart and really pressured Crawford was in the 12th, which is the round where he clearly gave Crawford all kinds of problems. That’s the blueprint in how to beat Crawford. You’ve got to go after him and fight him like it’s the last round of the fight. If you do that for 12 rounds, Crawford would be vulnerable to lose, because he’s not made for pure slugging, which is why he was running away from Postol.
“I’m told likely Crawford foe Dec. 10 on HBO is John Molina Jr. Will mark first Top Rank/Al Haymon non-purse bid deal other than Mayweather-Pac quiao in years,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter.
The names that were in the running for Crawford’s December 10 fight were IBF light welterweight champion Eduard Troyanovsky, Antonio Orozco and Felix Diaz. Sadly, that’s the best the 140lb division has now when you remove guys like Adrien Broner, Viktor Postol, Ricky Burns, Kiryl Relikh, and Rances Barthlemy from the equation. The 140lb division doesn’t have a lot of big names.
Crawford beat Postol last July in a fight that was televised by HBO pay-per-view. It wasn’t much of a match-up to be honest. Crawford spent most of the fight moving in circles and throwing pot shots. It was pure boxing, and many of the boxing fans that saw the fight were disappointed in the lack of action. They wanted to see a knockout, but instead they saw 12 rounds of movement from Crawford. He won the fight, but he failed to impress a lot of the boxing fans that like to see action. The fans that like to see pure boxing and movement were pleased, but you can argue those are the minority. Fans like to see action, and the action in that fight was very limited.
Molina Jr. might be a disappointment for HBO and the fans if he chooses to box Crawford like he did Provodnikov. Molina is not going to beat Crawford at his own game. The only chance that anyone in the division has of beating Crawford is to fight him the way Yuriorkis Gamboa did in the first four rounds of their fight in 2014. Gamboa was getting the better of Crawford by throwing speedy combinations, and then moving to the outside. However, after Gamboa slipped on the canvas and was knocked down in the 5th, he seemed to lose control over his senses and started slugging. Once Gamboa did that, Crawford was able to pick him off with counter punches to get three more knockdowns en route to stopping him in the 9th.
Gamboa at least showed the blueprint in how to get the better of Crawford. You can’t just brawl with him, and you can’t try and box him either. It’s got to be short bursts of punches and then move to the outside. Crawford’s chin is clearly no better than any fighter in the division. Gamboa had him hurt. He might have won the fight if he didn’t lose his cool after he slipped. The referee clearly blew the call by scoring the slip a knockdown. The fight took place in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Molina is going to need to put in a better effort in this fight than he did against Broner, because he looked unmotivated and overmatched. Molina will obviously be over-matched against Crawford, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still win if he fights smart and doesn’t give up mentally.
That was just a terrible performance from Molina. His corner might as well have pulled him out after the 2nd round, because he looked like he wasn’t even trying to win. For the boxing fans that remember the Broner-Molina fight, they’ll know what I’m talking about. Molina fought the worst fight I’ve seen from a top fighter in many years, because he looked like he didn’t want to try and win.
Terence Crawford vs. John Molina Jr. on December 10
By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) will reportedly be defending his titles against #3 WBC, #3 WBO contender John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs) on December 10 on HBO Championship Boxing from Crawford’s hometown at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The fight isn’t official yet, but that’s the fight that is being mentioned. Overall, I expect the fans to greet the news of the Crawford-Molina fight favorably. Molina sometimes makes things excited, but definitely not all the time. When Molina is bad, he’s REAL bad. He’s one of those fighters that you never know what you’re going to get from him effort-wise.
Molina, 33, isn’t the greatest of options for Crawford to fight. After all, Molina did lose easily to Adrien Broner las year in a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision defeat in March of 2015. Broner beat Molina by the scores of 120-108, 120-108 and 118-110.
Molina looked like he wasn’t mentally into the fight, because he never really attacked Broner in the way that he needed to for him to have a chance of winning. It just looked like Molina fought for survival rather than to win. Since then, Molina has won his last two fights against weaker opposition in Jorge Romero (24-9) and Ruslan Provodnikov (25-4).
The win over Provodnikov was a good one for Molina Jr., but you can argue that he got the fight against the Russian fighter at the right time. Provodnikov took a lot of punishment in his 12 round decision loss to Lucas Matthysse in April of last year. Provodnikov didn’t look like the same fighter when he fought Molina Jr. in their fight last June. Not surprisingly, Provodnikov hasn’t fought since then. I have doubts whether Molina would beat a motivated Provodnikov. I think it would have been a different story if Provodnikov fought Molina the way he fought Tim Bradley and Mike Alvarado.
It would have been nice to see Crawford move up to 147 and take on Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter. Crawford reportedly rehydrated to 157lbs for his last fight against Viktor Postol. With that kind of size, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for Crawford remaining at 140, other than to dominate a division that is barren of talented fighters.
At 140, Crawford can be a champion. At 147, there would be major question marks whether Crawford would be able to hang with guys like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. Those guys would test Crawford’s chin, and he would need to show something. He couldn’t just run around the ring for 12 rounds like he did against Postol and expect to beat them.
I don’t think the judges would give Crawford a win if that’s all he was going to do against those guys, because they’d put a lot more pressure on Crawford than Postol did. The only round where Postol fought smart and really pressured Crawford was in the 12th, which is the round where he clearly gave Crawford all kinds of problems. That’s the blueprint in how to beat Crawford. You’ve got to go after him and fight him like it’s the last round of the fight. If you do that for 12 rounds, Crawford would be vulnerable to lose, because he’s not made for pure slugging, which is why he was running away from Postol.
“I’m told likely Crawford foe Dec. 10 on HBO is John Molina Jr. Will mark first Top Rank/Al Haymon non-purse bid deal other than Mayweather-Pac quiao in years,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter.
The names that were in the running for Crawford’s December 10 fight were IBF light welterweight champion Eduard Troyanovsky, Antonio Orozco and Felix Diaz. Sadly, that’s the best the 140lb division has now when you remove guys like Adrien Broner, Viktor Postol, Ricky Burns, Kiryl Relikh, and Rances Barthlemy from the equation. The 140lb division doesn’t have a lot of big names.
Crawford beat Postol last July in a fight that was televised by HBO pay-per-view. It wasn’t much of a match-up to be honest. Crawford spent most of the fight moving in circles and throwing pot shots. It was pure boxing, and many of the boxing fans that saw the fight were disappointed in the lack of action. They wanted to see a knockout, but instead they saw 12 rounds of movement from Crawford. He won the fight, but he failed to impress a lot of the boxing fans that like to see action. The fans that like to see pure boxing and movement were pleased, but you can argue those are the minority. Fans like to see action, and the action in that fight was very limited.
Molina Jr. might be a disappointment for HBO and the fans if he chooses to box Crawford like he did Provodnikov. Molina is not going to beat Crawford at his own game. The only chance that anyone in the division has of beating Crawford is to fight him the way Yuriorkis Gamboa did in the first four rounds of their fight in 2014. Gamboa was getting the better of Crawford by throwing speedy combinations, and then moving to the outside. However, after Gamboa slipped on the canvas and was knocked down in the 5th, he seemed to lose control over his senses and started slugging. Once Gamboa did that, Crawford was able to pick him off with counter punches to get three more knockdowns en route to stopping him in the 9th.
Gamboa at least showed the blueprint in how to get the better of Crawford. You can’t just brawl with him, and you can’t try and box him either. It’s got to be short bursts of punches and then move to the outside. Crawford’s chin is clearly no better than any fighter in the division. Gamboa had him hurt. He might have won the fight if he didn’t lose his cool after he slipped. The referee clearly blew the call by scoring the slip a knockdown. The fight took place in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Molina is going to need to put in a better effort in this fight than he did against Broner, because he looked unmotivated and overmatched. Molina will obviously be over-matched against Crawford, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still win if he fights smart and doesn’t give up mentally.
That was just a terrible performance from Molina. His corner might as well have pulled him out after the 2nd round, because he looked like he wasn’t even trying to win. For the boxing fans that remember the Broner-Molina fight, they’ll know what I’m talking about. Molina fought the worst fight I’ve seen from a top fighter in many years, because he looked like he didn’t want to try and win.
Anthony Joshua confirmed to fight Eric Molina in second world title defence on December 10
Anthony Joshua will take on Eric Molina in his second world title defence at the Manchester Arena on December 10.
The unbeaten heavyweight will defend his IBF title against the Mexican American fighter who lost his previous world title fight to Deontay Wilder in June 2015.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation over Joshua's next opponent after a prospective bout against Wladimir Klitschko was scuppered by a combination of boxing politics and a minor injury sustained by the Ukrainian.
On the under card will be a domestic heavyweight dust-up between Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte.
Whyte was beaten by Joshua in December last year but has won his three fights since and will defend his British title in this grudge match with Chisora.
Joshua won the IBF heavyweight world title in April with a knockout victory over American Charles Martin and then successfully defended his belt with the stoppage of the previously unbeaten Dominic Breazeale in June.
And now he faces Molina, who has 19 stoppages in 25 wins and just three defeats. The 34-year-old Texan stretched WBC champion Wilder to the ninth round before being stopped in June last year.
Anthony Joshua will take on Eric Molina in his second world title defence at the Manchester Arena on December 10.
The unbeaten heavyweight will defend his IBF title against the Mexican American fighter who lost his previous world title fight to Deontay Wilder in June 2015.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation over Joshua's next opponent after a prospective bout against Wladimir Klitschko was scuppered by a combination of boxing politics and a minor injury sustained by the Ukrainian.
On the under card will be a domestic heavyweight dust-up between Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte.
Whyte was beaten by Joshua in December last year but has won his three fights since and will defend his British title in this grudge match with Chisora.
Joshua won the IBF heavyweight world title in April with a knockout victory over American Charles Martin and then successfully defended his belt with the stoppage of the previously unbeaten Dominic Breazeale in June.
And now he faces Molina, who has 19 stoppages in 25 wins and just three defeats. The 34-year-old Texan stretched WBC champion Wilder to the ninth round before being stopped in June last year.
Ward v Kovalev
November 19th
November 19th
Danny Garcia vs. Samuel Vargas this Saturday
November 7th, 2016 - Post Comments »
By Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) will be in action this Saturday night against contender Samuel Vargas 25-2-1, 13 KOs) in their fight on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vargas is not a great choice for an opponent for Garcia.
It looks bad that Garcia’s management selected Vargas as his opponent, because he was knocked out just last year in four rounds by Errol Spence in April 2015. There’s no gain on Garcia’s part to fight someone that was knocked out so quickly by Spence.
The only way it works well for Garcia is if he can KO Vargas quicker than Spence did, and that’s unlikely because he’s not as big or as powerful as Spence. Garcia is small for a welterweight, and he’s likely going to be winning his fights by decision much of the time unless his management can keep matching him against guys like Vargas. Since his loss to Spence, Vargas has won his last five fights in beating the following obscure fighters: Juan Armando Garcia, Edgar Ortega, Robson Assis, Ulises Jimenz and Cesar Chavez.
The Garcia vs. Vargas fight will not have Garcia’s WBC title on the line. It looks like the World Boxing Council is going to allow Garcia to take a non-title defense against Vargas without stripping him of his title.
This is a voluntary defense Garcia is taking to get him ready for his unification match next year against WBA champion Keith Thurman. Garcia only recently won the WBC title last January in beating Robert Guerrero for earlier this year in January. A lot of boxing fans felt that both Garcia and Guerrero were unworthy contenders to fight for the vacant WBC title. Garcia had fought only three times at welterweight before challenging for the WBC title in beating Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson at catch-weights, and beating 36-year-old Paulie Malignaggi.
When you compare those fights to some of the contenders that Garcia wasn’t matched against in Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter, it looks bad. Guerrero was entirely unsuitable for a world title shot in the mind of many fans because he had lost two out of his last four fights going into the Garcia fight for the vacant WC 147lb. At that point in Guerrero’s career, he was hardly in position to be fighting for a world title. The WBC had their reasons for letting Guerrero fight for their title. It would be interesting to know why they selected him over someone like Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter.
Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said that Danny Garcia is one of four possible opponents for Pacquiao’s next fight. With Garcia looking to fight Thurman in a unification match in early 2017, it doesn’t look possible for him to be fighting Pacquiao in the first half of 2017. It’s unclear why Arum mentioned Garcia’s name as one of the possibilities for Pacquiao to fight in his next fight. The only way that fight comes off is if Garcia chooses not to fight Thurman next. If Arum is serious about a fight between Pacquiao and Garcia, then it would be in Garcia’s best interest to take that fight if it can get made.
It would be on pay-per-view, and not necessarily HBO pay-per-view. It would doable fight for Garcia with potentially more money to be made than what he would get for a fight against Thurman. A unification match against Thurman would be a non-PPV fight. Garcia probably wouldn’t get the big money that some of Pacquiao’s past opponents received for fights against him when he was routinely bringing in huge pay-per-view numbers for his fights.
Pacquiao’s fights against Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and his 2016 fight against Tim Bradley didn’t bring in a lot of buys. Pacquiao;’s fight against Jessie Vargas last Saturday might not have brought in a lot of buys as well. If Garcia asks for too much money for a fight against Pacquiao, then that fight won’t happen. Arum would likely look in another direction towards matching Pacquiao against one of his own fighters. Arum has Top Rank fighters Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomahenko as possible options for Pacquiao’s next fight. If Arum can convince Lomachenko to fight Pacquiao next, then that might be a doable fight if he can’t get Danny Garcia.
By Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) will be in action this Saturday night against contender Samuel Vargas 25-2-1, 13 KOs) in their fight on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vargas is not a great choice for an opponent for Garcia.
It looks bad that Garcia’s management selected Vargas as his opponent, because he was knocked out just last year in four rounds by Errol Spence in April 2015. There’s no gain on Garcia’s part to fight someone that was knocked out so quickly by Spence.
The only way it works well for Garcia is if he can KO Vargas quicker than Spence did, and that’s unlikely because he’s not as big or as powerful as Spence. Garcia is small for a welterweight, and he’s likely going to be winning his fights by decision much of the time unless his management can keep matching him against guys like Vargas. Since his loss to Spence, Vargas has won his last five fights in beating the following obscure fighters: Juan Armando Garcia, Edgar Ortega, Robson Assis, Ulises Jimenz and Cesar Chavez.
The Garcia vs. Vargas fight will not have Garcia’s WBC title on the line. It looks like the World Boxing Council is going to allow Garcia to take a non-title defense against Vargas without stripping him of his title.
This is a voluntary defense Garcia is taking to get him ready for his unification match next year against WBA champion Keith Thurman. Garcia only recently won the WBC title last January in beating Robert Guerrero for earlier this year in January. A lot of boxing fans felt that both Garcia and Guerrero were unworthy contenders to fight for the vacant WBC title. Garcia had fought only three times at welterweight before challenging for the WBC title in beating Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson at catch-weights, and beating 36-year-old Paulie Malignaggi.
When you compare those fights to some of the contenders that Garcia wasn’t matched against in Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter, it looks bad. Guerrero was entirely unsuitable for a world title shot in the mind of many fans because he had lost two out of his last four fights going into the Garcia fight for the vacant WC 147lb. At that point in Guerrero’s career, he was hardly in position to be fighting for a world title. The WBC had their reasons for letting Guerrero fight for their title. It would be interesting to know why they selected him over someone like Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter.
Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said that Danny Garcia is one of four possible opponents for Pacquiao’s next fight. With Garcia looking to fight Thurman in a unification match in early 2017, it doesn’t look possible for him to be fighting Pacquiao in the first half of 2017. It’s unclear why Arum mentioned Garcia’s name as one of the possibilities for Pacquiao to fight in his next fight. The only way that fight comes off is if Garcia chooses not to fight Thurman next. If Arum is serious about a fight between Pacquiao and Garcia, then it would be in Garcia’s best interest to take that fight if it can get made.
It would be on pay-per-view, and not necessarily HBO pay-per-view. It would doable fight for Garcia with potentially more money to be made than what he would get for a fight against Thurman. A unification match against Thurman would be a non-PPV fight. Garcia probably wouldn’t get the big money that some of Pacquiao’s past opponents received for fights against him when he was routinely bringing in huge pay-per-view numbers for his fights.
Pacquiao’s fights against Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and his 2016 fight against Tim Bradley didn’t bring in a lot of buys. Pacquiao;’s fight against Jessie Vargas last Saturday might not have brought in a lot of buys as well. If Garcia asks for too much money for a fight against Pacquiao, then that fight won’t happen. Arum would likely look in another direction towards matching Pacquiao against one of his own fighters. Arum has Top Rank fighters Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomahenko as possible options for Pacquiao’s next fight. If Arum can convince Lomachenko to fight Pacquiao next, then that might be a doable fight if he can’t get Danny Garcia.
Finally, Kell Brook gotta answer to Errol Spence 
Kell Brook wants to keep IBF welterweight title after Golovkin loss
Boxer Kell Brook has insisted he will not give up his IBF welterweight title after returning to training.
The 30-year-old had an operation after suffering a damaged eye socket in his loss to Gennady Golovkin in September when he moved up two weight divisions.
And the Sheffield fighter now has options for his next bout.
"I want the welterweight unification fights but if they aren't there then it will be Errol Spence Jr next in a big UK show," he said.
"I know there are options at 154lb and I may even be more suited there, but I am not willing to give up what I fought so hard for."
Spence is the IBF's mandatory welterweight challenger after he defeated Leonard Bundu in August.
Brook's loss to Golovkin in the middleweight division (160lb) was his first defeat in his 37th professional fight.
"I spoke through various options with Kell and he was adamant that he would not relinquish his title," said promoter Eddie Hearn.
"In an ideal world, he would unify the division against Manny Pacquiao, but the Spence fight is also one that really excites him and fight fans. That could be a big fight here in the UK and with the 75-25 split in place we would be very confident of bringing that fight to Sheffield."
Kell Brook wants to keep IBF welterweight title after Golovkin loss
Boxer Kell Brook has insisted he will not give up his IBF welterweight title after returning to training.
The 30-year-old had an operation after suffering a damaged eye socket in his loss to Gennady Golovkin in September when he moved up two weight divisions.
And the Sheffield fighter now has options for his next bout.
"I want the welterweight unification fights but if they aren't there then it will be Errol Spence Jr next in a big UK show," he said.
"I know there are options at 154lb and I may even be more suited there, but I am not willing to give up what I fought so hard for."
Spence is the IBF's mandatory welterweight challenger after he defeated Leonard Bundu in August.
Brook's loss to Golovkin in the middleweight division (160lb) was his first defeat in his 37th professional fight.
"I spoke through various options with Kell and he was adamant that he would not relinquish his title," said promoter Eddie Hearn.
"In an ideal world, he would unify the division against Manny Pacquiao, but the Spence fight is also one that really excites him and fight fans. That could be a big fight here in the UK and with the 75-25 split in place we would be very confident of bringing that fight to Sheffield."
Heads up...Heavyweight boxing match coming up on HBO in a couple hours. Cuba's Luis Ortiz vs American Malik Scott
and on the undercard
and on the undercard
Thanks I forgot @HeathCliff
And don't forget Danny Garcia fighting later on tonight. May be a low frequency fight due to UFC 205
Props
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Good discussion thread, everyone. 49 pages and counting.
I can't wait til this Saturday
Man. Tomorrow can't get here soon enough 