Timothy Bradley packs a punch, and he’s hoping to knock around Manny Pacquiao when they fight in June. Photo by Julie Jacobson/AP
Jean Pascal is looking to take on Tavoris Cloud, but a negotiation issues between Don King Productions and GYM have hit a snag. Photo by AP
Taking a look back a little at what has already taken place, and what is set to take place, the year of 2012 could prove to be the most exciting year to date for boxing in a long time.
Already this year Zab Judah looked impressive in his last outing against Vernon Paris; Danny Garcia captured the WBC jr. welterweight title from Eric Morales; James Kirkland eked out a win over Carlos Molina; and even Paul Williams looked good with his win over Nobihiru Ishida.
Looking ahead, Winky Wright vs. Peter Quillian, Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson, Antonio Tarver vs. Lateef Kayode, Floyd Mayweather vs. Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez vs. Shane Mosley, Lamont Peterson vs. Amir Khan, and Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley just to name a few of the most exciting bouts that are all set to take place this year.
There have been some really nice events recently held at the Marriot Hotel in Woodland Hills.
In the semi-main event, a young man by the name of Tyrell Hendrix improved his record to 8-1 as he stopped Reynaldo Rodriguez in the fourth round of a scheduled eight rounder. At age 28 he has had only eight amateur fights but that was not recognizable as he fought a tough guy in Rodriguez.
This kid is local material as he was born right here in Los Angeles and graduated from University High in Santa Monica.
Hendrix is currently under the guidance of Marcus Harvey and trains at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood. And as he continues to grow and develop in the super middleweight division, where he definitely has the potential to be something great.
In other news, hoping for a July fight, negotiations broke down again between Don King Productions and GYM, the promoter for Jean Pascal, as they tried again to work out a deal to put Pascal against Tavoris Cloud, who is the IBF light heavyweight champion. King promotes Cloud and the word coming from Pascal is that King wants options if they sign a deal.
In other news surrounding King, Don King Productions will present the first boxing event at Casino Miami Jai Alai on Saturday April 14 to celebrate the competition of their $87 million expansion. The card will be headlined by local favorite and WBC U.S. super welterweight champion Joey Hernandez 20-1-1 (with 11 coming by way of knockouts) vs. Shakir Ashanti who is 16-12 with 4 knockouts.
“I’m very excited to be returning to Miami Jai Alai with a great card to celebrate their expansion into full fledged casino gaming” says Don King.
“Our official grand opening will take place on Saturday” says Dan Liccardi, Casino Miami Jai Alai Executive Vice President, and C.O.O. “We thought April 14 would be a great time to present another Don King boxing card. It’s an exciting time for us and boxing has been a part of what we do for decades.”
Finally, Burt Sugar, who was widely recognized and known in the boxing world as the walking encyclopedia of the sport, recently past away of lung cancer at the age of 75. He was the former editor, writer, and publisher of Boxing Illustrated, and was an editor at Ring Magazine.
If there was anything anybody wanted to know about the history of the sport, Sugar was the source to turn to.
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