Sergey Kovalev of Russia retained his light heavyweight championship by knocking out Cedric Agnew of Chicago in the seventh round Saturday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KOs) made the second defense of his belt. He scored knockdowns of Agnew (26-1) in the second, sixth and seventh rounds. Kovalev sustained a cut over his left eyelid from a head-butt.
The fight was televised by HBO.
Golden Boy Promotions has announced it will play host to a Showtime tripleheader to be contested April 26 at StubHub Center in Carson.
The main event will feature Keith “One Time” Thurman defending his interim welterweight title against Julio Diaz.
Also, Omar Figueroa will defend his lightweight title against Jerry Belmontes. And John Molina of Covina will take on former junior welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse in a 10-round fight. Molina (27-3, 22 KOs) and Matthysse (34-3, 32 KOs) have 54 knockouts between them, so that figures to be a fight that does not go the distance.
“I am excited to showcase myself against someone that I consider to be one of the best fighters in the world at 140 pounds,” said Molina, who has campaigned mostly as a lightweight. He is a graduate of Charter Oak High.
Golden Boy Promotions on Monday announced that former junior welterweight champion Amir Khan of England will take on former welterweight champion Luis Collazo of Brooklyn on May 3 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on Showtime pay-per-view).
They will tangle on the undercard of the welterweight title-unification bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana.
Although we reported this on Friday, Goossen Tutor Promotions on Monday made it official by announcing that the heavyweight title fight between Chris Arreola of Riverside and Bermane Stiverne of Miami will take place May 10 at USC’s Galen Center. It will be televised by ESPN.
Arreola (36-3, 31 KOs) and Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KOs) will fight for the belt vacated by Vitali Klitschko, who relinquished the title so he can concentrate on his political career in his native Ukraine.
“Vitali was a great champion, in and out of the ring, and the winner of this fight will have big shoes to fill wearing the green belt around their waist,” said Dan Goossen, Arreola’s promoter. “Chris will definitely be going into this fight with his back against the wall. It’s that type of do-or-die situation I believe when he’s the most motivated and dangerous.”
Arreola and Stiverne have already tangled once, with Stiverne winning a wide unanimous decision over Arreola this past April at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.
Junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan of Glendale kept alive his hopes for another shot at a world title by winning a wide 10-round decision over Mario Alberto Lozano of Mexico on Friday in the main event at Morongo Casino Resort in Cabazon. The Goossen Tutor Promotions card was televised on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
Martirosyan (34-1-1, 21 KOs) decked Lozano (28-5, 22 KOs) with a right hand in the second round. Martirosyan won by three scores of 100-89. It was Martirosyan’s first fight under the Goossen Tutor Promotions banner.
Martirosyan’s lone defeat came in his previous fight, when he lost a split-decision to Demetrius Andrade in a world-title fight in November.
Henry Ramirez, trainer for heavyweight contender Chris Arreola of Riverside, tweeted Friday that he will be interviewed on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights from Morongo Casino in Cabazon and that an announcement will be made regarding the venue for the May 10 heavyweight title fight between Arreola and Bermane Stiverne.
We’re not sure how true this is, but we heard a rumor from a source that says the site will be USC’s Galen Center. One thing’s certain, the fight will be televised by ESPN.
Arreola and Stiverne will fight for the belt vacated by Vitali Klitschko.
Thursday’s weigh-in for Friday’s junior middleweight fight between contender Vanes Martirosyan of Glendale and Mario Lozano of Mexico at Morongo Casino Resort in Cabazon (on ESPN2) is open to the public.
The weigh-in will take place at 2 p.m. at the Vibe night club inside the casino.
Martirosyan will be making his first start for Goossen Tutor Promotions after having fought under the Top Rank Inc. banner.
“Fans on hand at the Morongo Casino and those watching on ESPN Friday Night Fights are in for an outstanding evening of entertainment and what I believe will be a statement performance by Vanes against a very tough fighter in Lozano, who has never been KO’d,” promoter Dan Goossen said.
Martirosyan, 27, is 31-1-1 with 21 knockouts. Lozano, 26, is 28-4 with 22 knockouts.
Freddie Roach, like just about everyone else, thought Manny Pacquiao defeated Timothy Bradley in their June 2012 welterweight title fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But Bradley was judged the split-decision winner.
Not surprisingly, C.J. Ross was one of two judges who gave the fight to Bradley by a 115-113 count; Duane Ford was the other. (You might remember that Ross was the judge who had the September 2013 fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez a draw; that says it all.)
Pacquiao is currently at Roach’s Wild Card gym in Hollywood, where Roach is preparing him for the April 12 rematch with Bradley at MGM Grand (on HBO pay-per-view). Roach remains peeved about the scoring in the first fight, to be sure. He vows to make sure Pacquiao leaves no doubt this time.
“We are training for big game in this fight,” Roach said Tuesday. “Manny knows he is going to have to hunt Bradley down and close the show this time. The first fight with Bradley was so easy for Manny that after six rounds he just took it easy on him. Not this time. Our mantra is ‘Close the show. No mercy.’ You don’t have to be a groundhog to know that Bradley’s days as welterweight champ are numbered. It’s last call for Bradley on April 12.
Bradley, of Palm Springs, is 31-0 with 12 knockouts. Pacquiao, of the Philippines, is 55-5-2 with 38 knockouts.
Shawn “Showtime” Porter earned his first shot at a major title five years and two months after turning pro. Once he got it, he won the championship by defeating Devon Alexander via unanimous decision in December in Brooklyn.
Now that he has the belt, he has no intention of letting it go. He will make his first defense on April 19 when he squares off with former champion Paulie Malignaggi at DC Armory in Washington D.C. (on Showtime).
“I fought hard to get this title,” said Porter, 26, of Akron, Ohio. “Paulie says he wants it, but is he willing to go through me to get it?”
Porter (23-0-1, 14 KOs) then took a shot at the light-hitting Malignaggi.
“Fighting Malignaggi is like fighting Alexander; they don’t have the strength or power to keep me away,” Porter said. “And I will steamroll Paulie on my way to victory April 19.”
Alexander has a knockout ratio of 51.8 percent, which is much higher than that of Malignaggi, whose record of 33-5 with seven knockouts computes to a knockout ratio of just 18.4 percent.
“I’m excited to be back in a title fight so soon after my win over Zab Judah,” said Malignaggi, who defeated former champion Judah via unanimous decision in December in Brooklyn. “I will become a three-time world champion on April 19. Porter is a good fighter and I’m sure he’ll be a champion again in the future, but he doesn’t have the tools or experience to beat me.”
This will be the main undercard fight to the light heavyweight title-unification bout between champion Bernard Hopkins and Beibut Shumenov.
TMZ has been reporting this week that Floyd Mayweather Jr. allegedly arranged a beating of two men who had worked at his home “several weeks ago” and allegedly stole some jewelry from Mayweather’s Las Vegas home. But according to Las Vegas Metro Police, it is just a “rumor,” as reported Friday in the New York Daily News.
Laura Meltzer, a public information officer for the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, told the New York Daily News that at this time there is no investigation because no one has come forward to lodge a complaint.
“So I’ve been trying to put this rumor to rest all week,” Meltzer said in a phone interview with the New York Daily News. “We’ve had a variety of reports that have come out stating this even occurred. We have not had a victim come forward and make a report like what is being alleged.
“So if this even occurred, it’s something where the victim has not come forward to the police to make an official complaint.”
A phone call to Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, has not yet been returned.