by Geoff Poundes Tonight at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena, hometown hero Ricky Burns confirmed his new-found status as the WBO’s lightweight champion proper when he comprehensively outboxed legitimate challenger, Paulus Moses, over twelve rounds. Moses, 28-2, 19 KOs, who is a Namibian police officer by day but a former world champion in his own right, came to fight and gave … [Read more...]
WBO Promotes Ricky Burns to World Champion as Marquez Steps Down
In a statement on their website, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) has officially removed Juan Manuel Marquez as its lightweight World Champion and promoted Scotland’s Ricky Burns from Interim Champion to World Champion. Marquez, who won the vacant title (along with the vacant WBA lightweight title) against Juan Diaz in 2009, agreed to vacate his lightweight title and move … [Read more...]
Burns — Crolla Talks Breakdown – Paulus Moses Steps In
One of Scotland’s finest ever, Ricky Burns, appears to have failed to agree terms for his all-British outing with Englishman Anthony Crolla in March, and has instead drafted in Namibian Paulus Moses for the March 10th clash at the Brae head Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. Burns, 33-2, 9 KO’s, is still marketing himself as a world champion, having given up legitimate WBO … [Read more...]
The British Boxing Year – Not So Much As A Bang But A Whimper…
It’s been a year of near-misses for British boxing in 2011. The UK entered the year with four legitimate world champions and exited with one, and in-between eleven British fighters failed to win in world title fights. December turned out to be our winter of discontent. Amir Khan surrendered his IBF and WBA light-welterweight belts to a resurgent Lamont Peterson, and promptly … [Read more...]
The Boxing Tribune Year-End Awards: 2011
2011 was a mixed bag for fight fans. Marred by poor officiating, awful judging, and stifling promotional politics, boxing could easily have drifted into a dark era of malaise. Instead, the sport proved, once again, that there's nothing wrong with boxing that can't be fixed by what's right with boxing. The rise of quality stars in their twenties is slowly, but surely forcing … [Read more...]