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Sunday, July 22, 2007
Hopkins Wins Decision Over Wright
Bernard Hopkins retained his title with a unanimous decision over Winky Wright Saturday night. It was Wright’s first loss in seven years.
Related
ESPN 360 video recap
Hopkins keeps title with entertaining win over Wright
Hopkins wins in unanimous decision vs. Wright
Hopkins wins, but not with style points
Ruthless Hopkins outpoints Wright
Hopkins says he wants to fight Joe Calzaghe next.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Countdown To Hopkins-Wright Airs July 14
HBO Sports is presenting a thirty- minute special analyzing the upcoming HBO Pay-Per-View showdown between Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. The highly anticipated bout is set for Saturday, July 21 in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. The fight is an intriguing match-up between two of the sport’s elite fighters, who will meet at 170 pounds.
The special “Countdown To Hopkins-Wright, ” which will feature fighter profiles, expert analysis and forecasts for the showdown in Las Vegas, will premiere on Saturday, July 14 immediately after the HBO World Championship Boxing tripleheader telecast that begins at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.
Destined for the Hall of Fame, Hopkins brings a record of 47-4-1 32 KOs into the showdown with Wright, who sports a prolific mark of 51-3-1, 25 KOs in his polished career. Neither has ever back down from a challenge and have engineered some of the biggest surprises in the past five years.
The countdown special will also be available to HBO On Demand subscribers 24 hours a day from July 16 thru July 30.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Hopkins-Wright Undercard Announced
LOS ANGELES - The undercard of Hopkins vs. Wright “Coming to Fight” will showcase two exciting World Championship bouts featuring the United States debut of two of boxing’s most exciting rising stars. Veteran featherweight star and former WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Oscar “Chololo” Larios will have the opportunity to add another title to his extensive resume. However, he will have to get past the undefeated Venezuelan Jorge Linares as they battle for the vacant WBC Interim Featherweight Championship in a bout that will mark the U.S. debut for the young, powerful Linares.
The other explosive bout set to hit the airwaves that night includes the American debut of undefeated WBO Interim World Lightweight Champion Michael Katsidis, of Australia, when he takes on the aggressive Filipino Czar Amonsot. Both bouts make up the featured televised undercard for Hopkins vs. Wright to be held Saturday, July 21st from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and will be broadcast live on HBO Pay-Per-View.
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Hopkins Begins Training With Roach
LOS ANGELES - Light Heavyweight Champion Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday and began training with new trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym. Hopkins is already entrenched in a vigorous regimen in preparation for his summer blockbuster fight against Winky Wright in “Coming to Fight,” on July 21st at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas , Nevada live on HBO Pay-Per-View.
“I’m thrilled to be training with Freddie Roach in Los Angeles,” said Hopkins. “It’s a complete change of scenery for me and the new surroundings are a great motivation at this stage of my career.”
Hopkins is training in Los Angeles for the first time in his long and illustrious career. Previous sites and regular favorites for the veteran pugilist have included Miami, Philadelphia, Big Bear and most recently New Orleans. A major influence in his decision to train in the City of Angels was the addition of Roach to his team, who owns the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Calzaghe Wants Kessler, Taylor, and Hopkins Before Retiring
Joe Calzaghe revealed in a recent interview with Sportinglife that he would like three more fights, possibly against Mikkel Kessler, Jermain Taylor, and Bernard Hopkins, to round out his storied career.
When it comes to Kessler, Calzaghe made it known that he certainly wasn’t his top choice for a future opponent. However Calzaghe didn’t close the door on a possible opportunity of meeting Kessler down the road at some point before he hangs them up:
“Kessler is a good fighter. Frank has been talking to his promoter over the last few days, trying to do something with him.
But I think that fight may be six months or more down the road. Kessler is not a big name in America.
He’s had a couple of good wins but in his last fight he beat Markus Bayer, who was shot. We can go down the Kessler road but Taylor is the one for me.”
So if Kessler isn’t tops then who is? That would be Jermain Taylor as of right now. I say as of right now because we all know how Calzaghe loves to change his mind constantly.
Mega-promoter Frank Warren is desperately trying to get a deal done between Calzaghe and Taylor’s camps for a September bout. Talks have been ongoing for months now but may pick up speed now that both fighters are coming off recent victories and are taking time off.
Calzaghe also expressed interest in Hopkins as always, stating that he would love to take on the winner of the July fight between Hopkins and Winky Wright.
“Hopkins would interest me. Hopkins won his last fight against Antonio Tarver so he’s still a formidable opponent. He looked good against Tarver but he’s 42 and he can’t go on forever. The winner of Winky Wright and Hopkins could be my opponent for January.
They’re fighting in July and I think they’ll put on a good show, but Hopkins will be too big for Winky Wright.”
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Friday, February 02, 2007
Report: Hopkins, Wright Agree to Terms for July 21 Clash
John Cotey of the St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright have agreed to fight on July 21st at a catch-weight of 170 lbs.
The fight will be broadcast on HBO PPV.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Wright’s adviser and attorney Jim Wilkes said. “When Winky wins, he will have beaten all the guys that beat Oscar (De La Hoya). Maybe that will convince Oscar he should fight Winky later this year. “
Wilkes also said that the contracts have not yet been signed but the deal is just about done.
A venue for the fight has not yet been found either but sources say the top two choice are Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas…
So whatever happened to Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr?
Well that was the original plan but the two sides never agreed on the financial terms of the contract despite multiple attempts. Finally they just decided to call it off and pursue other options…
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Another Fight Added to Wright-Quartey Card
This card is looking mighty impressive so far - Wright, Quartey, and Lacy are all already signed to be on the December 2nd event. Now here come two more…
Rey Bautista will take on WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Giovanni Andrade in a 10-round bout that same night.
The two were scheduled to fight earlier this year but the fight was forced to be postponed after Bautista was injured while training. Bautista actually suffered a hairline fracture of his collarbone while shadow boxing of all things.
Doctors have cleared Bautista to be able to fight and his camp has already stated that he is in heavy training for this fight.
Wright-Ouartey Was Almost in Vegas
Yes, the December fight between Winky Wright and Ike Quartey was originally supposed to be in Las Vegas. Oscar De La Hoya (Winky is with Golden Boy Promotions too in case you forgot) wanted to bring the fight to Vegas as he already had a venue and television deal all lined up.
However Winky thought differently...
Wright had strong feelings about wanting the fight in his hometown of Tampa Bay. Lucky for him, De La Hoya stopped and listened:
“I have to admit, my idea was: Okay, we’re going to take this fight to Las Vegas, to the MGM, because this is that type of fight, that type of event. And then Winky convinced me it should be here.
As a fighter, that’s when I step in and say, ‘Yeah, I understand that. Now, if I was just a promoter and only a promoter, then we’re going to take it to Vegas and make all the money in the world.”
I think it’s good to see that Winky is very focused on the fight and not on the money or anything outside of it for that matter…
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Thursday, September 21, 2006
Calzaghe vs Lacy
No, not in the ring people, not yet anyway. It’s a war of words here…
Before we get started, it’s been confirmed that Lacy will be fighting on the undercard of Winky Wright-Ike Quartey in December. An opponent has not yet been named.
Anyway, it’s been well documented that Jeff Lacy wanted another shot at Joe Calzaghe following his dismal performance in a loss to him this past spring. Lacy reminded us again that he still wants Calzaghe in an interview with Gabriel Montoya this past week.
“I want all my fans to know I’m back and I’m fresh and better then ever before so you don’t want to miss what I’ve been missing for some months now. One or two fights back and I want a rematch with Joe Calzaghe! He won the first fight and I just know I let a lot of my fans down. I want my titles back and I’m not going to stop until I do! On March 3rd Joe didn’t even fight 30 percent of me that night. He had to do what he had to do. It’s funny that a fighter can’t say timeout, I’m not up to this tonight and ask to fight when you’re up to it. Someone has to win and he did that. Now I’m fresh and ready to return and get what I really know I should have gotten the first time out. I want Joe again and I won’t let my fans down in doing so.”
Well Calzaghe caught wind of what Lacy had said and decided to respond...
“Is this guy crazy or is he still concussed?
“I can give Lacy a thousand and six good reasons why he should not get a rematch against me, because that’s the number of times I landed with punches on the night, and I can count the number of times he caught me on one hand – four.”
“Lacy will never be the same fighter again after the one-sided beating I gave him. And how can he call for a rematch when the first fight wasn’t even close or controversial? The only controversy is why his corner didn’t pull him out of the fight sooner.
“If Lacy gets in the ring with me again I’m scared I will get arrested for aggravated assault!”
Honestly, Calzaghe has permission to talk in such confidence. He absolutely destroyed Lacy, a fighter who everyone was very high earlier in the year. A lot of experts picked Calzaghe to get murdered and he certainly proved them wrong.
Calzaghe isn’t even going to mess with Lacy - He wants Lacy’s pals…
“It’s his buddies in Florida that I’m gunning for. Winky Wright and Antonio Tarver, who are both on the run from me,” said Calzaghe. “The only way I’ll get them in the ring is if a bounty hunter manages to catch ‘em!”
Well see if Calzaghe is right when fighters start picking their opponents for their first fights of 2007 in a couple of months.
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Hatton, Wright Find Opponents
The search for a opponent is finally over for Ricky Hatton and Winky Wright…
Both fighters have had a tumultuous last few months: Hatton was robbed while visiting China, was forced to relinquish his WBA Welterweight Title in order to pursue other chances to find an opponent, and had to deal with Luis Collazo asking for a rematch every five minutes.
Wright on the other hand has had opponents dodge him left and right. He sent out open challenges to both Jermain Taylor and Antonio Margarito. What happened? Taylor opted to defend his belts against Kassim Ouma; Margarito and his camp completely ignored Wright, deciding to instead take on Joshua Clottey.
The two have finally found matches however:
Wright will take on the recently victorious Ike Quartey who defeated Vernon Forrest in an extremely controversial decision on August 5th.
Wright hasn’t fought in Florida in four years, so the bout against Quartey will be a homecoming of sorts. “Finally,” Winky told the St. Pete Times, “I get to come home.”
Hatton will be fighting Juan Urango in January of 2007. It was speculated for months that this fight might happen, especially with Hatton dropping his belt so he could move down in weight to try and grab Urango.
“I’ll be fighting Juan Urango on January 13,” Hatton told Sky Sports, “which is a little bit of a disappointment because I was hoping to fight in October or November, but that’s the only date HBO had available.”
The system is keeping Hatton down!
Junior Witter called out Hatton after his victory over DeMarcus Corley this past weekend but Hatton says that there are a few things that need to happen before that becomes a reality…
“I’m contracted to HBO for my next two fights,” said Hatton in response to Junior’s challenge, “and they’re practically done deals now. I don’t see why a little bit further down the line that if Junior makes a couple of defenses I can fight him.
“On the undercard will be Castillo. Should I get past Urango they’re lining up Castillo for me. If Junior can hold onto his belt and make a few defenses the fight against me will be even bigger.”
The consenus is right - It’s good that Hatton is being honest about his contract with HBO and the fact that he can’t take on whoever calls him out because of that. It’s better than lying about it to try and make yourself look better…