Fight fans, the drought that is February almost over and we have boxing coming back in a big way. With that said, here is the latest edition of Around the Ring:
1.Thurman Suffers Accident – WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman’s defense of his belt against former champ Shawn Porter will have to wait as it was announced earlier this week the fight scheduled for March 12th live on CBS was postponed due to an auto accident suffered by Thurman. As far as the Porters, who were on their way to Big Bear, CA, to finish up camp when they received the news, want proof of how serious the injuries actually are since they don’t believe Thurman.
2.Top Rank Gets Lean – Top Rank announced this week they were releasing fighters including Diego Magdaleno, Chris Avalos, Gamaliel Rodriguez, Ivan Najera and Vic Pasillas. The company mentioned they had taken these fighters as far as they could and wished them luck in their future endeavors including perhaps fighting on a Top Rank card again but not as part of the company.
3.Step Up for Spence Jr – A very interesting fight was made official this week between up and coming prospect Errol Spence Jr and former champion Chris Algieri for April 16th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This will be a good test for Spence Jr since he will be facing a very experienced welterweight who will be looking to win. A loss here for Algieri basically means the end of his career at the highest level of the sport. Spence Jr is coming off an impressive TKO win in the 5th against Mexican Alejandro Barrera while Algieri defeated Erick Bone after suffering two consecutive losses to Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan.
4.No Quit in Hopkins – The “Alien” Bernard Hopkins has taken to his social media accounts to campaign for one last fight in his illustrious career. We have heard it before but perhaps Hopkins, who is now fifty-one years old, truly means it since he is less than a decade from hitting the big 6-0. Never to take an easy road out, Hopkins has mentioned current WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and currernt WBA/IBF/interim WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin as possible opponents. For Stevenson he can challenge for the 175-pound title while for Golovkin it is imagined he would face him at the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds.
5.WBC Strips Linares – Mauricio Sulaiman of the World Boxing Council ordered Jorge Linares as a champion in recess and stripped him of their lightweight title since the Venezuelan will not be able to defend against his mandatory Dejan Zlaticanin due to a hand injury. Sulaiman did decreed Linares will be able to challenge for the world title directly once he returns back to the ring after recuperating from his injury. Just another way for the WBC to keep collecting sanctioning fees by having two challengers to fight for the vacant title. Why not an interim title?
