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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Brinkley-Stevens for ESPN!


Brinkley-Stevens for ESPN!
Mark E. Ortega
FightFanNation.com
November 24, 2009

Super middleweight Jesse Brinkley [34-5, IBF #6] of Yerington, Nevada will meet Curtis Stevens [21-2, IBF #10] January 29th in an important super middleweight battle that could position the winner for a future IBF title shot. The bout will be televised on ESPN's Friday Night Fights, possibly at the Grand Sierra Resort in nearby Reno, Nevada, where Brinkley will enjoy a homefield advantage.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Ward takes title home, puts Oakland back on the map


Ward takes title home, puts Oakland back on the map
Mark E. Ortega
FightFanNation.com
November 21, 2009

In front of just over 10,200 fans, Oakland, California's very own Olympic Gold medalist Andre Ward reached the goal he and trainer Virgil Hunter set out to conquer more than fifteen years ago, totally dismantled veteran warrior Mikkel Kessler at the Oracle Arena Saturday night via eleventh round technical decision, earning the WBA super middleweight title as well as securing great position for himself in Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic.

Ward completely dominated from the outset, utilizing his jab and superior handspeed to totally befuddle the reigning champion. In the first round, Ward pushed the jab out and followed it with right hands, and as he grew more comfortable he began to throw lead right hands and hooks as well. Ward opted to switch to southpaw midway through the round and landed the left jab with regularity out of that stance. Ward was surprisingly comfortable on the inside against a fighter many considered the stronger man.

Kessler had some success going to the body early on in the fight but that was the furthest he would get offensively. Kessler had perhaps his best round in the second, but Ward was successful with right hooks and boxed beautifully around the ring.

In the fourth round, Kessler landed a good clubbing right midway through the round, but Ward came right back with three punches of his own. The referee signaled that there was a cut caused by a punch, but in between rounds the referee seemingly changed his mind and ruled it due to a headbutt, and that the cut was opened further by a punch.

Kessler was fighting Ward evenly for much of the fifth, but Ward was landing the more impressive punches, causing Kessler's head to snap back numerous occasions with crisp jabs and right hands. Ward turned southpaw at the end of the round again.

Ward started widening the gap in the sixth, as Kessler seemed more and more hesitant to engage with him. Ward continued his dominance in the seventh, as he began to lead with right hands as well as mix in some left uppercuts. Ward's hand speed had Kessler in trouble all throughout the bout, and Kessler was unable to close the gap in hand speed.

Kessler looked like a beaten fighter by the ninth round, seemingly going through the motions as the younger and fresher Ward pressed forward with his attack. Ward began fighting like a guy who was anything but weary of Kessler's power, firing off quick one-twos and circling around Kessler in the center of the ring.

Ward continued his dominance into the championship rounds, outboxing Kessler while staying out of the range of Kessler's right hand. Midway into the eleventh round, Kessler was deemed unable to continue due to a cut caused by a headbutt, forcing the fight to go to the scorecards. The official scorecards read 97-93, and 98-92 twice for the newly-crowned WBA champion out of Oakland, California. Ward walked away from the bout nearly unscathed, with nothing more than a mouse appearing outside of his right eye. Kessler was much more worse for the wear, having secured more than a few cuts throughout the bout.

With the win, Ward positions himself in the Super Six tournament as a favorite to advance to the semi-finals considering his next two opponents, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell, both lost their “Stage One” bouts and were seen as the weaker links in the monumental tournament.

“He didn't like the inside work, the body shots, sometimes he'd be grunting,” said an ecstatic Ward in the post-fight press conference. “We knew that going in, so part of what I wanted to do was make it rough. I got a little overanxious sometimes and he would counter me sometimes, but honestly he never buzzed me, he never hurt me.”

Ward is a fighter who has been criticized throughout his career for numerous things, but few can look at this fight and take something away from Ward who thoroughly dominated a guy that many pegged as the favorite to win the tournament.

“They had questions about my chin early on. I fought Miranda, and he's as hard a hitter as they come and I got hit more in that fight than I wanted to, and came right back and still didn't get credit,” Ward said.

“Then they said, 'Kessler, he's a big puncher...if he hits Ward, he's going to be in trouble.' Well I got hit a few times tonight, I felt that we showed ourselves strong, we came right back, and I just think over time people are going to have to give us our just due. I'm not going to demand it with my words, I'm just going to keep proving it in the ring.”

Ward's promoter, Dan Goossen, elaborated further. “Tonight, I think he won America over and I don't think there are going to be too many naysayers. I think he is a new star that people are going to believe in.”

It only took twenty-one professional fights and two world championships [one in Athens in 2004 and the super middleweight crown he lifted on Saturday], but Ward will assuredly be getting his proper credit after delivering a virtuoso performance over a tough opponent.

UNDERCARD RESULTS:
In a scheduled eight-round junior middleweight bout, Daly City, California's Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield [11-0-1, 7 KOs] started out slowly before laying a beating on Santa Barbara, California's Francisco Santana [11-2, 5 KOs] via fifth round technical knockout in a rematch of a March 2008 bout that Mayfield won by razor-thin split decision.

The first round saw both guys fight tentatively with Karim landing the only two meaningful punches of the round, two clubbing overhand rights. In the second round, Mayfield worked his jab and followed up with left hooks. Both fighters held a lot throughout the fight until they opened up in the fifth round. Mayfield started the action with a sweeping right hook that landed on the chin of Santana. Mayfield followed with a flurry against the ropes that featured hooks to the body and clubbing overhand rights that eventually dropped Santana. After his opponent returned to his feet, Mayfield went in for the kill and landed a wicked left hook to the body that setup another right hook and a follow-up overhand right that put Santana down a second time and prompted referee Dan Stell to wave off the fight at 2:27 of the fifth round.

In a four-round super middleweight bout, Oakland, California's Tony Hirsch [10-3-1, 5 KOs] notched the biggest win of his career in outgunning former #1 rated welterweight contender and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. opponent Jose Celaya via a unanimous decision victory.

In an over-the-weight four-round lightweight affair, Antelope, California's Stan Martyniouk [8-0, KO] outboxed Anthony Martinez [21-33-3, 9 KOs] of Turrialba, Costa Rica. Martyniouk fought at a measured pace in the opening round, moving beautifully while mixing in varied punch combinations. Martyniouk stuck to his game plan in the second, moving around the ring before planting his feet and firing off left hook and left uppercuts at will.

Martinez had a few moments in the round where he trapped Stan in the corner and fired off a few good body shots. The third round saw Martyniouk fairly dominate the round behind his jab and superior handspeed. In the final round, Martyniouk trapped Martinez against the ropes and unleash a flurry of punches before Martinez postured against the ropes. All three judges scored the bout a shutout for Martyniouk, 40-36. UBR scored the bout 40-36 as well.

In the opening fight of the night, Mel Crossty [4-0-1, KO] of Cincinnati, Ohio scored an early knockdown in round one en route to a unanimous decision victory over the game but outmatched Carlos Herrera [2-3, KO] of Oxnard, California in a super featherweight attraction. Crossty's knockdown of Herrera in the opening round was more of a glancing blow that caused the glove of Herrera to touch the canvas, prompting the referee to issue a count. The two fighters opened up in the third with both guys landing vicious shots. Crossty boxed a little more in the final stanza but Herrera landed a big overhand right every so often. The official scores of the bout were 39-36 and 40-35 twice. UBR scored the bout 39-36 for Crossty.

Saturday night's card was promoted by Goossen-Tutor Promotions in association with Sauerland Event and Antonio Leonard Productions. The main event was televised on Showtime Championship Boxing as part of their Super Six World Boxing Classic as well as internationally.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Bay Area title tilt generating buzz


Bay Area title tilt generating buzz
Kessler, Ward weigh-in for tomorrow's Super Six bout
Mark E. Ortega
FightFanNation.com
November 20, 2009

When Oakland, California's Andre Ward vies for his first world title against WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler tomorrow night, it will mark the first major world title fight in the Bay Area in just over eight years. That November 10th, 2001 card that took place at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium featured two somewhat recognizable names in separate title fights both televised by HBO's Boxing After Dark.

Bay Area title tilt between Kessler, Ward generating buzz

Kessler, Ward weigh-in for tomorrow's Super Six bout
Mark Ortega
UltimateBoxingResults.com
November 20, 2009

When Oakland, California's Andre Ward vies for his first world title against WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler tomorrow night, it will mark the first major world title fight in the Bay Area in just over eight years. That November 10th, 2001 card that took place at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium featured two somewhat recognizable names in separate title fights both televised by HBO's Boxing After Dark.

That card featured Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in separate title defenses, with Floyd defending a super featherweight crown for the eighth time and Pacquiao defending his recently gained super bantamweight title. To put into perspective how long ago that really was, it was only Pacquiao's second appearance in the United States and his second of what would come to be six* world titles in six different weight classes. Floyd was still defending the first of five world titles he would eventually win. Today, these two are the biggest names in the sport and stand to make the largest purses of all-time if they eventually step into the ring.

Kessler's defense against Ward marks the first world title fight in Oakland in twenty-five years, the last being when Carlos De Leon defended his cruiserweight title with a 12-round decision over Bash Ali in June of 1984.

“Oakland was a fight town in the '80's, and there hasn't been this much excitement in quite awhile,” remarked Ward, who is taking it in stride that he has an entire city strapped on his back. “I'm just thankful to be apart of it, and I feel that it's my time.”

Ward only previously fought in Oakland once, his May 16th bout with Edison Miranda earlier this year happening at the same location as tomorrow night's fight, Oakland's Oracle Arena. The fight drew exceptionally well and proved that there is a market for boxing in the Bay Area.

“You're proud of the city for getting behind him,” says Ward promoter Dan Goossen of Goossen-Tutor Promotions. “In this case, you have a fighter who is, in my eyes, a home team sport. He may not wear an A's hat or a Warriors jersey, but he is as much of a home team than any of those organizations.”

This will mark the second time a Goossen promoted fighter attempts to win the world title as an underdog in the past few months, with stablemate Chris Arreola failing to realize his goal of winning the heavyweight title against Vitali Klitschko back in September. Ward will enter the ring tomorrow night as about a two-to-one underdog, which both fighter and promoter have handled very well.

“It's like every one of our fighters, winning is everything. You only hope that the fighter brings everything he's got. There's no doubt he will do everything he can to have his hand raised tomorrow night, and that is all you can ask for,” said Goossen.

At the weigh-in, Kessler stepped onto the scales and came in at 167 pounds even, while the hometown favorite Ward scaled in at 166.5 pounds.

UNDERCARD NOTES:

Tomorrow night's main event will be televised by Showtime, but a four fight undercard will precede the televised action which is scheduled to take place at 7 PM Pacific.

In the bout directly before the main event, an interesting eight-round junior middleweight rematch will take place between Daly City, California's Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield [10-0-1, 6 KOs] and Santa Barbara, California's Francisco “Chia” Santana [11-1, 5 KOs]. The last time these two fought each other on an Andre Ward card back in March of last year, Mayfield walked away with a razor-thin split decision over Santana in a six-rounder. Mayfield was dropped in the fourth round of that fight and held on through the fifth before winning the sixth round big to earn the decision. Mayfield got some sparring with future Hall of Famer Shane Mosley in preparation for this bout. Neither guy has lost since they last met, and this fight promises to deliver fireworks. Mayfield weighed in at 151.5 pounds while Santana came in at 150.5.

In an intriguing super-middleweight bout, former rated contender Jose Celaya [31-5, 16 KOs] of Salinas, California takes on Oakland, California's own Tony Hirsch [9-3, 5 KOs] in a six-round affair. These two were previously set to meet on a card earlier this year at the Playboy Mansion, but Celaya pulled out at the last minute. After weighing in, both guys jawed at each other for an extended period of time before commission officials stepped in and separated the two. Celaya is not the fighter that was led to a #1 ranking at welterweight before being brutalized by Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., giving Hirsch the opportunity to add a good name to his ledger. Celaya weighed in at a flabby 166 pounds while Hirsch came in at a ripped 164 pounds.

Lightweight prospect Stan Martyniouk [7-0, KO] of Antelope, California will take on former super featherweight title challenger and current trial-horse Anthony Martinez [21-32-3, 9 KOs] of Turriabla, Costa Rica in a four-round over the weight lightweight bout. Martinez, 138.5, hasn't won a fight in over three years and has become the ultimate short-notice opponent. Martyniouk, 136, is a fighter who has fought mostly out of Sacramento and has been unable to secure an active schedule since turning professional at the end of 2007.

In the opening fight of the night, Cincinnati, Ohio's Mel Crossty [3-0, KO] takes on Carlos Herrera [2-2, KO] of Oxnard, California in a super featherweight bout. This will mark Crossty's second fight in Oakland as he searches for his first win at the Oracle Arena, with his fight with Jaime Rodriguez being judged a draw. Crossty weighed in at 130 pounds even while Herrera came in a half-pound heavier at 130.5.