Boxing Prospect Omar Henry Fighting For His Life

Boxing prospect Omar Henry has never lost a fight inside the ring. But outside the ring, he's fighting the toughest battle of his career and also his life. He's battling Stage 4 Gall Bladder Cancer. Henry originally had a fight scheduled for November of last year, but had to pull out due to an illness. He originally had surgery to remove gallstones. But then, it was told by many sources that he has cancer.

It's very heartbreaking for someone as young as the 25-year-old Henry to be in a position like he is today. Many of Omar's fans are praying for a full recovery, and I will be doing the same. Omar is a champion, he can beat the cancer, or at least put up a good fight! My prayers are with you champ!

One champ un-retires, and another one retires.

On April 27, former champion and future hall-of-famer Shane Mosley is coming out of retirement to square off against WBA Welterweight Champion Paulie Malignaggi. Mosley has gone 0-3-1 since his victory over Antonio Margarito back in 2009. He's really going to have to pull off a spectacular victory over Malignaggi. If he doesn't, then his career might be over for good.
I wish Mosley all the best of luck. Let's hope we see the same guy that knocked Margarito out!

While Shane Mosley's coming out of retirement, another former champion is going into retirement. Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik has had a memorable career. It began with winning the middleweight championship from Jermain Taylor. He also won the rematch by decision. But, there were some flaws in his career. One of them was being absolutely dominated by aging wonder Bernard Hopkins. And another was when he lost his middleweight championship by a unanimous decision against future superstar Sergio Martinez. Pavlik moved up in weight and has gone 4-0, 2 KOs since the move. He's retiring because he wants to preserve his health, and that's a great move from a great champion.

Martinez-Burgos fight to a draw! Garcia and Golovkin dominate!

HBO had an exciting triple-header to kick off 2013! In the first bout of the evening, Roman Martinez retained his WBO super featherweight title with a controversial draw against Juan Carlos Burgos. In the first five rounds of the fight, it was all Burgos. He used his hard punches, and excellent aggression to dominate. But then in round 6, Martinez began to come to life, and he started to win some of the rounds by pushing Burgos against the ropes while throwing some very good shots. After twelve rounds, Martinez retained his belt with a draw that many felt was controversial. Many people thought that Burgos had done enough to win this fight. This wasn't a horrible decision, but it was disagreeable.

In the second fight of the evening, hard punching Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin once again looked impressive in his second fight in the United States as he dominated and bloodied a courageous but overmatched Gabriel Rosado. From the beginning, Golovkin's punching power told the story of the fight. Despite getting constantly tattooed, and having a blood painted face, Rosado showed tremendous courage to continue on. That's what I like to see from a fighter. He's like a modern day Rocky Balboa. After 7 rounds of Golovkin punishment, Rosado's corner threw in the towel. With Golovkin retaining his Middleweight Championship, fans can expect to see him in the ring against Sergio Martinez, Peter Quillin, or Saul Alvarez.

In the much anticipated main event, Mikey Garcia won his first world title by dominating and winning a unanimous technical decision over the now former champion Orlando Salido. Right away, Garcia showed off his power, dropping Salido twice in the first round. He would knock him down again in rounds 3 and 4. With the swelling on his face, Salido continued to take Garcia's monstrous shots. In round 8, Salido butted heads with Garcia, which left a cut on Garcia's nose. The action was called to a halt, and by the three judges, Garcia became the new champion by a wide margin on the scorecards. Impressive showing by Garcia, and great courage by Salido.

Happy Birthday to the Greatest of All Time!

I just want to wish a very happy birthday to my favorite boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali! Despite turning 71, and suffering from Parkinson's, Ali is still going strong with the help of his friends and family.Whether it was his creative trash-talk, or his blistering hand speed, or the fact that he calls himself "The Greatest of All Time", I respect Ali for his accomplishments and I've been respecting him since I was three years old! Happy Birthday, Muhammad!

Szpilka-Zimnoch: Fight breaks out at conference!

Szpilka (left) and Zimnoch (right)

Remember the day of the Vitali Klitschko-Dereck Chisora post-fight press conference? In case you don't, here's what happened. On February of last year, Dereck Chisora, who lost to Vitali Klitschko, called out one of the UK's best heavyweights, David Haye. The result was a confrontation between Chisora and Haye. The next thing that happened was very shocking and controversial. Haye threw a glass at Chisora, thus beginning a huge, disgraceful fight at the conference. When the actual fight took place on July 14th, Haye knocked Chisora out in 5 rounds.

Anyway, this is the Polish version of Haye-Chisora. Unbeaten Polish prospects Artur Szpilka and Krzysztof Zimnoch had a conference somewhat similar to that situation last year. It started with some harsh words from both fighters. Then, Szpilka butted heads with Zimnoch, and an all-out brawl breaks out. Both fighters faced penalties over the confrontation. These two are scheduled to fight inside the ring, but Szpilka needs to beat American heavyweight Mike Mollo in order to fight his bitter rival.

Boxing Suffers First Black Eye of 2013!

Barthelemy (right) traps Usmanee (left) on the ropes.

It's been barely a month since the new year arrived, and already, there's controversy involved. Two unbeaten fighters were pitted against each other for the chance to fight for the IBF's #2 ranking in the super featherweight division. Arash Usmanee (20-1, 10 KOs) thought he had the fight in the bag against Rances Barthelemy (18-0, 11 KOs), and so did the fans at ringside. Unfortunately, the judges saw it otherwise. The scorecards read 116-112 twice, and 115-113 all controversially for Barthelemy. These boxing commissions need to hire better judges who are focused on who is actually winning the fight. It's a shame that the judges robbed the true winner of the decision. I should be a judge because I focus on what fighters do to win fights. Boxing suffers the first black eye of 2013, and it definitely won't be the last.

HBO: Salido-Garcia, Golovkin-Rosado, and Martinez-Burgos: Preview and Prediction!

Juan Carlos Burgos

Roman Martinez

First off, let's talk about the opening bout. you have two super featherweights battling for the WBO title. Roman Martinez and Juan Carlos Burgos should be able to produce some fireworks because, in my opinion, both men are determined. They both have only 1 defeat on each of their records, and to me that motivates them to try to win this fight. I've honestly seen just a little bit of footage of these guys' fights, but judging Martinez's performance against Miguel Beltran Jr. and Burgos' performance against Cesar Vazquez, I think Burgos takes this one by decision, although Martinez might have his moments. Because of Martinez's lack of defense, I think that presents a good opportunity to land some hard shots for Burgos, but Martinez can go to war and I think the outcome could change dramatically.

PREDICTION: BURGOS BY DECISION

                                               

Gennady Golovkin

Gabriel Rosado

The next fight of the card will be for the WBA Middleweight Championship. The two men fighting for it will be defending champion, and fearsome power-puncher, Gennady Golovkin and tough Philadelphia contender Gabriel Rosado. I was impressed by Golovkin in his last fight, a five-round destruction of Polish native Grzegorz Proksa. Rosado has some good wins over decent opposition, guys like Sechew Powell, Kassim Ouma, and Jesus Soto-Karass. A win over Golovkin would be huge, but I expect Golovkin to beat down Rosado en route to a KO/TKO in less than 9 rounds. I hope Rosado at least makes this fight competitive because I think Golovkin should be truly tested.

PREDICTION: GOLOVKIN BY KO/TKO IN 9 ROUNDS OR LESS

Orlando Salido

Mikey Garcia

And now let's turn our attention to the main event. This should be a fight of the year candidate. Orlando Salido will defend his WBO Featherweight Title against unbeaten contender Mikey Garcia. This is a very hard fight to predict because both men are very tough! First, you have Salido, a guy who knocked out Juan Manuel Lopez in a huge upset. He was never expected to win, but not only did he win, he won in front of Lopez's fans in his native Puerto Rico. He did it again in the rematch only this time it went two rounds longer. And then you have Garcia, a brilliant and focused fighter, who blitzed Jonathan Barros in 8 rounds in his last fight. He's very good at picking his shots and when he wants to throw them. Like I said, this is a very hard fight to predict. I'm leaning towards Garcia by decision, but it won't be easy.

PREDICTION: GARCIA BY DECISION