Ring Greats is a Los Angeles, Calif. based collective banner created by a fight photographer Marty Rockatansky.
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Duva Explains Barrera's Decision to Choose Bivol Over Kovalev
Kathy Duva believed Sullivan Barrera would take the Sergey Kovalev fight this time. The Cuban contender turned down a November 25 fight against Kovalev because it wasn’t a title fight at the time it was offered and Barrera thought it was worth more money. After Barrera and Kovalev won their respec...
Destination Combat
Naoya Inoue Destroys Yoann Boyeaux as Move to Bantamweight Looms.
Vintage Boxing Photos Archive
10 THINGS WITH: Willie Pep, Featherweight World Champion
10. I was 105lbs, amateur flyweight champion of Connecticut. And, at that time, Sugar Ray Robinson was boxing under the name of Ray Roberts. They used to come down from New York, the Salem Crescent A.C. was their club, and Ray was the Golden Gloves Open Champion of New York City, featherweight champ, at the time. So I boxed Ray a three round fight in Norwich. I lost the fight. I lost a three round decision to him, but I had no business being in the ring with him. He was a much better fighter than I was. I was a flyweight and he was a featherweight. At that time I had a manager from Hartford, he was the bravest manager in the world. He didn't care who I fought. He put me in with a fellow that weighed twenty pounds more. If I'd weighed the same amount, maybe I couldn't beat Ray. I had no business being in the ring with Ray that night. He was a great amateur fighter.
9. I boxed 65 amateur fights. I was very successful in my amateur career. I won 62 of them. I boxed amateur for about two and a half years, then I turned professional. I won 15 or 20 (fights) in a row, and finally I didn't have to worry about going to work anymore. I made boxing my business. I won the featherweight championship of New England in March, 1942 and I won the championship of the world in November of that same year. I won 62 (fights) in a row. I won the championship of the world in my 56th straight win.
8. I boxed everyone that was around. I boxed Bobby "Poison" Ivy, a local boy from Hartford, who was a pretty damn good fighter. I boxed Pedro Hernandez, who was No.1 challenger. That's how I got the shot at Chalky Wright. I was matched with Chalky Wright, 20th November, 1942, and I won a fifteen round decision and the championship of the world. He was the hardest puncher that the featherweight division had had in the past twenty or thirty years. He could get you out with one punch. He boxed welterweights. He was such a tremendous puncher they'd put him in with anybody.
7. We had a plan of battle, my trainer and I. I've got to give a lot of credit to my trainer, Bill Gore, who was pretty good for me. He was strictly a boxer's trainer, and me being a boxer, he fitted right in with me. I had the speed to burn, but I didn't know how to use it. Bill showed me how to use the speed, how to box. This is very important.
6. We trained hard for it. I outboxed him for fifteen rounds. At the end of the eleventh, twelfth round I knew I was way ahead because he hadn't hit me. I made him miss quite a few of his punches, and this is the idea of the game. Hit and not get hit. And that's exactly what happened. I made him look foolish, I guess, at times because he was missing me all over the ring, but this is the idea, not to get hit, and I won the (world) championship.
5. I was twenty years old. It was a very big thing for me to win the championship of the world. I didn't realise the strength of it. I didn't know what it was all about. I wasn't mature enough to sense what I really won until 1948 when (Sandy) Saddler licked me, then when I won it back, I realised the strength and I realised it was a great thing to be a champion of the world. But the first four or five years (of being champion) I just took it in stride. I didn't handle it too well. I was a soft touch. If I could manage to get back some of that money they borrowed from me I could live for a few years without any trouble. But it's gone and forgotten. I spent my money foolishly, but I did a lot of nice things too. I took care of my folks, bought them a home.
4. I boxed (Chalky) Wright back three months later and I licked him again in a fifteen round fight, and then I fought him again in a ten round fight. I won. And then finally, the last time I boxed him, I stopped him in four rounds. And Chalky Wright, I'll never forget, after the fight he said, "Willie, I've had enough of you. I give up."
3. Manuel Ortiz, he was bantamweight champion when I boxed him, a great bantamweight champion, and I won a ten round decision over him in Boston. About six years before that I went to California, I was a four round fighter, and Manuel Ortiz would give me a dollar a round to train with him. I used to box (with) him in the Main Street Gym in Los Angeles. I used to box him three rounds a day and he would give me three dollars a day. When I boxed him six years later, I got twenty thousand (dollars) for that fight. What a switch that was.
2. January 1947 I (the plane I was in) cracked up in Millville, New Jersey. I was flying in from Miami. I was in pretty bad shape. I broke my right leg and broke my back. No one thought I'd fight again, but I was pretty fortunate. They had about four or five (people) dead. We cracked up in a forest, and ripped the plane apart. I had a cast on my leg and a cast on my back for five months. I took both my casts off in May. I went in the gymnasium, I trained for one month, and I had my first fight in July of that year. I boxed ten rounds with a very, very tough Puerto Rican kid and I found out I was still able to fight. I was (still) champion of the world at the time, and I defended the title the same year (against) with Jock Leslie (by 12th round KO).
1. After (Sammy) Angott had won a decision over me (in 1943) I went on and won 73 fights in a row, with a (ten round) draw in between (against Jimmy McAllister in 1946) until I met Sandy Saddler. I fought him and he stopped me in four rounds. I was in good shape but he just overcome me. He got me cold and he knocked me down and they stopped the fight. I went down two or three times. I held (took) him too lightly. Three months later I won it back. The greatest fight of my life. Sandy's a good quick fighter. I made up my mind to get in better shape. He was full of confidence. He had knocked me out. I had to overcome that and I did in a fifteen round fight. It was a very, very tough fight. I had to keep on the go. He hit me (with) some pretty good punches, he shook me up a few times. All I know is I was on my toes for fifteen rounds and I knew I was in a fight. I outboxed him and won back the title. That was the greatest night of my life. I realised how great it was to be champion again. And I knew I won it from a good fighter. Sandy was a very dangerous fellow. I'll remember him as long as I live.
Destination Combat
Billy Joe Saunders retained his WBO World Middleweight title after putting on a masterful, twelve round boxing clinic against David Lemieux in Montreal, Quebec.
6:40 pacific time tonite on HBO.
Billy Joe Saunders vs David Lemieux fight time and where to watch it
Boxing News
"Some boxers are not quite good enough to be at that elite level. And David, you’re not quite good enough"
Boxing News
“It is a dream to have the opportunity to become a four-division world champion”
~last weekend updates~
Heavyweights.
#5 ranked Andy Ruiz of Imperial Beach, California has been inactive for one year and so exits the rankings. The most worthy entry the TBRB board could come up with was Tony Bellew.
Super Middleweights 167.
#1 ranked James DeGale suffered a just but surprising decision loss to journeyman turned contender Caleb Truax of Minnesota. Truax entered the fight as 16 to 1 underdog. DeGale drops to #6. Truax enters at #5 and is invited to prove again that his gate crashing is no fluke. Fellow journeyman-turned-contender Lolenga Mock is bumped out.
Lightweights 135.
#7 ranked Denis Shafikov is now campaigning at jr. lightweight 130. Yvan Mendy of France gets voted in unanimously.
Jr Lightweight 130.
#4 ranked Orlando Salido, the supreme spoiler who proved Vasyl Lomachenko mortal, has retired. He went out appropriately, after a slugfest with Mickey Roman. Salido went down three times before the action was stopped in the ninth round and the old warhorse himself said it best: “time takes it’s toll.”
Speaking of Vasyl Lomachenko, the board voted to move him up and over Gennady Golovkin, from #3 to #2 on the P4P List. A few thought he should move to #1, but a strong majority believe Crawford’s conquests - and two divisional crowns - make him the best fighter in the world at this moment.
Guillermo Rigondeaux, who surrendered after the sixth round, exits the P4P rankings but remains jr. featherweight king.
Congratulations to Jorge Linares, who enters in at #10.
~big fight this weekend~
Saturday on HBO.
Middleweights 160 #4 David Lemieux vs #5 Billy Joe Saunders in Quebec City, Canada.
HEAVYWEIGHT Champion: Open 1. Anthony Joshua Watford, England.......................... 20-0-0 (20) 2. D...
BOXING HALL OF FAME LAS VEGAS
Archie Moore KOs Yvon Durelle This Day December 10, 1958
https://boxinghalloffame.com/archie-moore-kos-yvon-durelle-this-day-december-10-1958/
Boxing News
Former national champion Kelvin Fawaz, who boxed for England, has been snatched from his gym and is being held in a detention centre.
~Jr Middleweight 154~
Miguel Cotto has been an almost constant presence in the Transnational Jr. Middleweight and Middleweight Rankings since October 2012 when TBRB began their mission. He was #2 at jr. middleweight directly under Floyd Mayweather.
Cotto, a natural welterweight, took the middleweight throne in June 2014 which is an historical accomplishment that should have been far more celebrated.
Cotto faced a who’s who of his era’s best fighters, made a memorable stand against the best fighter of his era in Mayweather, and though those catch weights at middleweight bruised his legacy, proved himself a true champion and more importantly, a true caballero.
Sadam Ali defeated him in his farewell bout past weekend, though it did look like Cotto’s vaunted left arm was of little use after a torn bicep midway through the fight.
Ali was last seen #8 at welterweight until a one-round TKO loss to Jessie Vargas got him booted in March 2016. He returns after the biggest win of his career, entering at #7 at Jr. Middleweight.
~Jr. Welterweight 140~
Eduard Troyanovsky was bumped out of the 140 rankings in September, but knocks out undefeated and untried Carlos Manuel Portillo of Paraguay in round 1 in Moscow, Russia to launch himself back into contention. Troyanovsky is now #8. Adrian Granados ( #5) campaigning at welterweight, exits.
HEAVYWEIGHT Champion: Open 1. Anthony Joshua Watford, England.......................... 20-0-0 (20) 2. D...
World Boxing Super Series
CONFIRMED: Александр Усик / Usyk vs Mairis Briedis semi-final confirmed for Riga, 27 January! 💥
📰 Full story: https://worldboxingsuperseries.com/usyk-briedis-semi-final-confirmed-riga-january-27/
🇺🇦vs🇱🇻 🏆
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