Miracle on 1st Street

Two-time junior featherweight world champion Israel Vazquez, former junior featherweight world champion Daniel Ponce de Leon and world title contender Enrique Ornelas will participate in the 28th Annual Miracle on 1st Street Toy Giveaway today between 10AM-2PM at the Hollenbeck Youth Center (2015 E. First Street) in Los Angeles. The event is presented by The Inner-City Games, Hollenbeck Youth Center and the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation.

WBC 2009 Toy Drive

By Igor Frank

The WBC Legends of Boxing is hosting a toy drive to help underprivileged children during the holiday season this Sunday (December 20th) at 2pm at Rudy’s Baja and Grill in Los Angeles. Live music will be provided by Mariachi Juguers de Jalisco and the Dueto Alanniz. A buffet will be available plus an award ceremony will be hosted. The price of admission is $20 and a toy donation. (more…)

Guerrero stops Nicklow in 4

Unbeaten middleweight Fernando Guerrero (17-0, 14 KOs) scored a fourth round TKO over Jesse Nicklow (19-2-2, 7 KOs) on Friday night at the Grand Casino Hinckley in Hinckley, Minnesota. Guerrero dropped Nicklow with a right hook early in the fourth. Nicklow fought back gamely, but Guerrero’s attack was too strong and referee Mark Nelson waved it off at 2:09.

In a clash of unbeaten jr middleweights, Shawn “Showtime” Porter (12-0, 10 KOs) was impressive again as he stopped Jamar “Yung Prince” Patterson (8-1, 4 KOs) in round four. Porter dropped Patterson with a big left hook in round four and referee Celestino Ruiz stopped the fight during Porter’s follow-up attack. Time was 1:54.

In a clash of unbeaten welterweights, Lanard Lane (10-0, 7 KOs) scored a second round TKO over Said “The Messenger” El Harrack (8-1, 3 KOs). Lane dropped El Harrack twice in round one, and after Lane rocked El Harrack again in round two, referee Mark Nelson waved it off at 1:38. The stoppage seemed premature.

Kiattaweesuk defeats Verano

Photo: Johnny Chaichotchuang

By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing

IBF#12 bantamweight Tantong Kiattaweesuk (16-0) chopped down Janrey Verano (16-3-2) of the Philippines in eight action rounds of a scheduled ten round contest at the Krirk University in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday. Verano was down in round two, five, seven and eight from power body shots. In round eight referee Somsak Sirianant crowned Kiattawessuk to save the importation from further punishment. For more details and photos click here…

WBA postpones purse bid

By Gabriel F. Cordero

The WBA has determined to defer for thirty days the purse bid for the cruiserweight champion Guillermo Jones and Russian challenger Valery Brudov. The purse bid was scheduled to take place on December 21 at WBA Headquarters in Panama City. Apparently representatives of both boxers requested an extension. Jones won the title in September 2008 and has yet to defend it.

Weights from the Ukraine

Photo: K2 East

Alexey Sukachev

Zaurbek Baysangurov 152.8 vs Frank Shabani 153.2
(WBA Intercontinental junior middleweight title)
Dmitry Nikulin 153.5 vs Abdulaziz Matazimov* 153.8
(WBO European junior middleweight title)
Vitaly Rusal 176.3 vs Abror Oripov 178.8
Sergey Fedchenko 142 vs Sherzodbek Mamajanov 142
Andrey Rudenko 247 vs Avaz Rustamov 235.5
* First weighed-in at 161.2 lbs
** Several more pairs are subjects to an additional weigh-in later
Promoter: K2 East
Venue: Yunost Palace of Sports, Zaporozhye, Ukraine

Weights from Nicaragua

Photo: mpssportimages.com

Cesar Canchila 108 vs Johnreil Casimero 108
Carlos Buitrago 105 vs Edgar Jimenez 105
Hanna Gabriel 147 vs Gabriela Zapata 147
Juan Mercedes 115 vs Evert Briceno 114
Moises Solis 135 vs Santos Martinez 134
Gonzalo Mungia 130 vs Augusto Pinilla 130
Orlando Rizo TBA vs Gustavo Gomez TBA
Henry Maldonado 114 vs Humberto Pena 114
Eduardo Mendoza 136 vs Jairo Martinez 138
Carla Estrada 135 vs Sochiel Barquero 135
Venue: Estadio Nacional Dennis Martinez, Managua, Nicaragua
Promoter: All Star Boxing, Inc., “The New Generation” & Felix “Tuto” Zabala, Jr. in association with Sampson Boxing, Prodesa, Rizzo Boxing, Cuadrilatero, PR Best Boxing & Producciones Deportivas.

Report/gallery: Santa Cruz-Beltran

Ringside by Francisco Salazar
Photography by “Big” Joe Miranda

Famed trainer Teddy Atlas lives by the adage of going to the body and the head will fall. He would have been impressed with Leo Santa Cruz’ performance on Thursday night.

The junior featherweight prospect Santa Cruz worked the body of Juan Jose Beltran, breaking him down to eventually earn a third round stoppage victory before an almost sold-out Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif. . . . Click here for more

Kolodziej crushes Calloway

By Alexey Sukachev

WBC #10, WBA #14 and IBF #15 cruiserweight Pawel Kolodziej followed the path of another world-ranked contender Grigory Drozd by making a punching bag of well-known American journeyman Rob “All-American Prizefighter” Calloway (now 70-11-2, 57 KOs) tonight at MOSiR Hall in Lodz, Poland. IBC champion Kolodziej was just too much for his faded 40-year old challenger, dropping him once in the first, once in the third and two times in the fifth round. Calloway’s corner mercifully stopped this massacre after the end of the sixth round, saving the veteran from more punishment. The Polish fighter is now 24-0 with 13 KOs. (more…)

Sosnowski new Euro champion

By Alexey Sukachev

Albert “The Dragon” Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KOs) is a new European (EBU) heavyweight champion after a workmanlike tactical decision over Italian veteran Paolo Vidoz (26-7, 15 KOs) on Friday night at the famous York Hall in London, England. Sosnowski, who was coming off a memorable draw against Francesco Pianeta and a destruction of Danny Williams, was the busier and quicker pugilist throughout the whole contest, avoiding the slow blows of the Italian plodder and connecting a lot with light but frequent punches from the outside. Vidoz, who seemingly couldn’t avoid another opportunity to fight for the EBU belt (his fifth consecutive failure in European title contests) showed some poise in the opening rounds but slowed down and badly faded down the stretch. Sosnowski was close finishing the job in rounds five and six, but Vidoz survived the fierce onslaught and delivered some heat later on, which was clearly not enough. The official scores were 120-108, 119-109 and 117-111 – for Sosnowski. Fightnews filled the gap with a 118-110 tally. (more…)

A ShoBox Holiday Wish…

Tom Casino/SHOWTIME

Season’s Greetings from all of us at ShoBox: The New Generation. Wishing everyone the best during the holidays and in 2010! Tune in SHOWTIME tonight at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast) to watch some of the top prospects in boxing.

Weights from Caguas, Puerto Rico

Photo: Promociones Migue Cotto

Jose Miguel Cotto 143 vs Ilido Julio 140
Abner Cotto 135 vs Jorge Perez Adorno 134.2
Juan González 130.5 vs Jorge Cordero 130.5
Jayson Vélez 122 vs Robert DaLuz 123.5
Juan Herrera 118 vs Pedro Salcedo 118.5
Arturo Santiago 112 vs Luis Cosme 113
Reynado Ojeda 136.5 vs Victor Kuilan 137.5
Antonio Salgado 118.7 vs Exmildo Echevarria 115
Carlos Zapata 133.7 vs Orlando Vazquez 134
Jonuel Tapia 155 vs Victor Rivera 156
Irvin Hernandez 128 vs Jose Del Valle 126.5
Venue: Roger Mendoza Coliseum, Caguas, Puerto Rico
Promoter: Promociones Migue Cotto and H2 Entertainment
Click here for more photos…

Weights from Venezuela

Gabriel F. Cordero at the scales

Edwin Valero 134.6 vs Hector Velasquez 134.2
(WBC lightweight championship)
Jean Carlos Hernandez 125.4 vs Alexander Gonzalez 125.4
Luis Alberto Zarraga 113.3 vs Irwier Henriquez 112.2
Breilon Teran 121.6 vs Alexander Espinoza 121.6
Oscar “Sapo” Chacín 121.8 vs Franklin Valera 121.6
Venue: Polideportivo Jose Maria Vargas, La Guaira, Caracas, Venezuela
TV: Direct TV & Meridiano TV
Click here for more photos…

Ramirez upsets Nakamura

Photo: Rocco Morales

By Rocco Morales

Before a sold out crowd of 1,412 fight fans, in the 6 round lightweight main event, unheralded Gloria Ramirez won the hearts of spectators and boxing judges alike and pounded out a 6 round majority decision victory over previously undefeated favorite, standing in at 5’9, Chika Nakamura. Coming into the fight, Ramirez had only won one of her previous nine fights over the last seven years, but was fighting for the third time in the last three months. Meanwhile, Nakamura, although undefeated, was coming off a 13 month stretch of inactivity, the longest of her career. Even so, few could have expected the courageous display that was put on by Ramirez, as she continually attacked her bigger opponent, and then weathered the storm each and every time Nakamura tried to storm back. Click here for more photos…

Weights from Obregon

Photo: Rafael Soto/Top Rank/Zanfer

Nehomar Cermeno 118 vs Alejandro Valdez 118
(WBA Interim bantamweight championship)
Humberto Soto 137 vs Jesus Chavez 137
Hernan Marquez 112 vs Ricardo Armenta 112
Omar Chavez 144 vs Carlos Urrea 143
Venue: Arena Itson, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico
Promoter: Top Rank and Promociones Zanfer
TV: PPV
Click here for more photos…

Weights from Youngstown

Chris Farina/Top Rank

Ohio governor Ted Strickland said ‘The Champ weighs 160′ while officiating the weighin between world middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik and WBC #3-rated middleweight contender Miguel Espino. Pavlik and Espino collide Saturday night on pay-per-view.

Kelley Pavlik 160 vs Miguel Espino 159
(WBC/WBO middleweight championship)
Vanes Martirosyan 153 vs Willie Lee 152.5
(NABF/NABO super welterweight championship)
Sam Peter 240 vs Gabe Brown 363
Matt Korobov 150 vs Ken Dunham 152
Mikey Garcia 126 vs Yogli Herrera 130
Venue: Beeghly Center, Youngstown, Ohio
Promoter: Top Rank
TV: PPV
More photos…

Officials for Schwerin title twinbill

Officials have been named for the two world title fights taking place on Saturday in Schwerin, Germany. Michael Ortega (USA) will referee the WBO light heavyweight fight between champion Jürgen Brähmer and challenger Dmitry Sukhotsky. Judges will be Manfred Küchler (Germany), Fernando Laguna (Spain) and Nelson Vasquez (Puerto Rico). WBO supervisor is Istvan Kovacs (Hungary). Frank Garza (USA) will the third man in the ring for the WBC interim middleweight title bout between beltholder Sebastian Zbik and Emanuele Della Rosa. Judges are Herminio Cuevas Collazo (Mexico), Bela Florian (Hungary) and Eddie Pappoe (Ghana). WBC supervisor is Houcine Houichi (Tunesia).

Fightwriter: Guerrero-Nicklow

By Graham Houston

Showtime winds up an excellent year of fights on Friday with a three-fight card on ShoBox, headed by unbeaten middleweight Fernando Guerrero in a 10-rounder against an old amateur rival from Maryland, Jessie Nicklow. It seems they met five times in the amateurs, with Nicklow winning twice. Guerrero is one of those fun-to-watch fighters. A southpaw with an aggressive style, he has been meeting a tougher calibre of opposition in the past year, getting off the floor to beat Gabriel Rosado and, in his last fight, scraping through on a majority decision against the durable Ossie Duran (one round on one card from being a draw). (more…)

Full report: Hasegawa-Perez

By Joe Koizumi

WBC bantam champ Hozumi Hasegawa (28-2, 12 KOs), 117.75, impressively scored his tenth defense as he exploded a vicious double left cross to Nicaraguan challenger Alvaro Perez (18-2-1-3 NC, 12 KOs), 117, and dropped him face first prone to prompt the referee’s immediate halt at 2:38 of the fourth round on Friday in Kobe, Japan. Hasegawa, a couple of days after his twenty-ninth birthday, celebrated it with his tenth defense by his fifth stoppage in a row. Perez, 27, fought aggressively from the start, throwing big shots to the cautiously counter-punching the champ. (more…)

Early Christmas for Polish fans

By Alexey Sukachev

As usual, Christmas will be celebrated on December 25th. However, for the vast majority of Polish boxing fans, their dreams, inspired by a huge tournament on Oct. 24 in Lodz with the “Polish fight of the century” between Tomasz Adamek and Andrzej Golota, will continue to come into thriving life on this coming weekend. Firstly, on Friday Dec. 18 leading Polish promotional group BullIt KnockOut Promotions, led by Andrzej Wasilewski and Piotr Werner, will arrange quite a big boxing event, billed “Wojak Boxing Night” at the very same city of Lodz (but now at MOSiR Hall) with WBC #10, WBA #14 and IBF #15 Pawel Kolodziej (23-0, 12 KOs) as its headliner. Coming off a comfortable unanimous decision over Czech veteran Roman Kracik this June, 25-year old Kolodziej will put his IBC title at stake against the grizzled American journeyman and fringe contender Rob Calloway (70-10-2, 57 KOs), who has just decided to continue his boxing career despite the chain of recent setbacks. (more…)

Weights from Haiti

Photo: Olivier Monserrat

By Robert Coster at the scales

Jimmy Colas 153.8 vs Junior Ramos 153.8
Nicholas Walters 124.7 vs Carlos Manuel Reyes 124.7
Ricardo Cordoba 123.8 vs Luis Felipe Murillo 123.6
Michael Oliveira 161.8 vs Eduardo Mercedes 164.2
Ramon Ayala 134.7 vs Francklin Frias 134.9
Evens Pierre 139.9 vs Leonel Segura 143.7
Azea Augustama 174.6 vs Aneudis Marte 175.9
Johny Orisme 124.7 vs Luis Hinojosa 119.7
Wilkey Campfort 153.6 vs Daniel Beato 152.1
Venue: Karibe Convention Center, Petionville, Haiti
Promoter: Jacques Deschamps
TV: Miami Boxeo
Click here for more photos…

Brähmer, Sukhotsky make weight

Photo: Eroll Popova

Jürgen Brähmer 174.8 vs Dmitry Sukhotsky 172.6
(WBO world championship light heavyweight)
Sebastian Zbik 159.3 vs Emanuele Della Rosa 158
(WBC interim world championship middleweight)
Jack Culcay 153.8 vs Jindrich Kubin 156
Alexander Alekseev 199.5 vs Daniel Ammann 197
Rachim Tschachkijew 195.3 vs Igor Pilipenko 198.8
Marcel Meyerdiercks 127.8 vs Felix Lora TBA
Igor Michalkin 176.8 vs Doudou Ngumbu 177.9
Pal Bedak 113 vs Lahcence Zemmouri 114.6
Damian Jonak 154.9 vs Nicolas Guisset TBA
Mariano Nicolas Plotinsky 174.6 vs Fernando Fernandes 176.5
Venue: Sport and Congress Center in Schwerin, Germany
Promoter: Universum Box Promotion
TV: ZDF (Germany)
Click here for more photos…

Last Beltway card of the year

By Gary “Digital” Williams

The final card of 2009 in the Beltway area (Washington, DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia) will take place Saturday night at Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, MD. This is slated to be a pro-am show with the pro portion promoted by Baltimore Pro Boxing. The majority of the pro card will feature some of the area’s best young heavyweight talent. Undefeated Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell of Brandywine, MD will headline the show in a scheduled eight-round bout against veteran Zack Page of Warren, OH. (more…)

“Champions League” in Zaporizhya

By Alexey Sukachev

Living up to their promise to stage no less than ten big boxing cards in 2009, K2 East Promotions, undoubtedly and overwhelmingly the most active Ukrainian boxing company, will load yet another show at Yunost’ Palace of Sports in Zaporizhya on this coming Saturday with the help of Nemiroff and an inter-media group. It will be billed “Champions League,” and a number of K2 East local diamonds will be brought into the spotlight during the evening. (more…)

Hasegawa keeps title for 10th time

By Joe Koizumi

WBC bantam champ Hozumi Hasegawa (28-2, 12 KOs), 117.75, impressively scored his tenth defense as he exploded a vicous double left cross to Nicaraguan challenger Alvaro Perez (18-2-1-3NC, 12 KOs), 117, and dropped him face first prone to prompt the referee’s immediate halt at 2:38 of the fourth round on Friday in Kobe, Japan. Hasegawa, a couple of days after his twenty-ninth birthday, celebrated it with his tenth defense by his fifth stoppage in a row. Perez, 27, fought aggressively from the start, throwing big shots to the cautiously counterpunching champ. As the fight progressed, Hasegawa found his range and rhythm with stinging southpaw jabs and caught him with good lefts to the face. Perez, another southpaw, landed a solid left early in the second, but gradually yielded the initiative to the aggressive and more accurate champ. Hasegawa may renounce his 118-pound belt to move up to the 122-pound or 126-pound category afterwards. (More to come)

Danny Green Update

By Craig Watt

When Danny Green stopped Roy Jones Jr in the first round in Sydney on December 2nd he immediately called out Bernard Hopkins who was pencilled to take on the former eight time world champion, Jones Jr in March 2010 in a major PPV bout in the US. In the lead up to the Jones fight Green was labeled a “tomato can” by Hopkins but now it seems that he is being tempted to follow in the footsteps of Jones Jr and come to fight in Australia in mid 2010. On Friday Hopkins confirmed the fight was, “more than 50% but not quite 100%” after Green, his trainer Angelo Hyder and Garry Shaw met Golden Boy Promotions last week. Green landed back in Sydney on Friday for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race where he is taking part for charity and seems confident the fight will happen. (more…)

Santa Cruz, Cherry stop foes

Big Joe Miranda

By Francisco Salazar at ringside

Unbeaten junior featherweight Leo “El Teremoto” Santa Cruz (12-0-1, 4 KOs) scored a third round TKO over Mexican veteran Juan Jose “Pinocho” Beltran (19-16-3, 11 KOs) on Thursday night at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. The 21-year-old Santa Cruz, from nearby Lincoln Heights, simply had too much strength, speed and power as he broke down the shorter Beltran. Referee Dr. Lou Moret waved it off at 2:17 of round three with Beltran under heavy fire.

Former world title challenger Edner “Cherry Bomb” Cherry (21-6-2, 13 KOs) impressively dismantled Jovann Jones (9-8, 4 KOs) in a lightweight clash. Cherry knocked down Jones in each of the three rounds contested. Referee Ray Corona waved it off at 1:14 of the third round after Cherry dropped Jones for the third time. It was Cherry’s first bout under the TKO Boxing Promotions banner and his first ring appearance since his close, hard fought twelve round decision loss to junior welterweight world champion Timothy Bradley in September 2008. Cherry is confident that he will be one of the strongest boxers in the 135lb division as he works towards another world title shot. (more…)