Official statement from Amir Khan following the official announcement confirming that Marcos Maidana will fight Floyd Mayweather on Saturday 3rd May.

“Following the announcement by Floyd Mayweather that he will be facing Marcos Maidana on May 3rd I would like to clarify my situation for my fans and members of the media.

“Despite having signed my part of the agreement to fight Floyd in early December, I’ve been preparing myself for some time that the match up with him wasn’t going to happen, as I announced on Twitter a few days ago. Therefore, this announcement did not come as a surprise.

Read more at Boxinginsider.com
 
In a fight with major historical implications, former three-division titleholder Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico will move up in weight to challenge middleweight champion Sergio Martinez of Argentina in one of the year's biggest bouts.

The fight will take place June 7 (HBO PPV) at Madison Square Garden and match two probable Hall of Famers on the weekend of the annual Puerto Rican Day parade in New York, a day on which Cotto has fought regularly. The bout has been in the works for a couple of months and was finalized Thursday before both boxers took to Twitter to announce the deal was complete.

"It's done. Ready to go," Top Rank president Todd duBoef, Cotto's promoter, told ESPN.com. "I think the energy and the passion associated with both these fighters and the passion that their countries have for them is going to make this an incredible event and an incredible fight, maybe unprecedented in my career, which is over 20 years.

Read more at Espn.go.com
 
In what could be a crushing blow to the career of Amir Khan, WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) is saying that he’ll be the one facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 3rd. Nothing has been confirmed or announced about this yet, but Maidana seems to think he’ll be the one in the ring with Mayweather.

“I’m waiting for the fight to be announced”, said via the Buenos Aires Herald. He further said that he’s “anxious and already training for the fight”.

Where this leaves Khan is unknown. He just spent the last 10 months of his career waiting on the Mayweather fight, and he even won a twitter poll that was created by Mayweather’s website.

Read more at Boxingnews24.com
 
Mexican boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez and his vicious, hard-hitting foe, Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo have been busy at their training camps in San Diego and Oakland, Calif., respectively as they ready themselves for their upcoming showdown on Saturday, March 8 live on SHOWTIME PPV from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

CANELO ALVAREZ, Former World Champion

"This fight ahead is a hard one. There will be a lot of punches thrown. Two different styles will clash in the ring and there will be a lot of action. It will be a war that we're all going to enjoy.

"Angulo is a stronger fighter. He is a fighter who hits hard and can last a long time in the ring. He is a fighter that always makes his fights tough and you have to work hard to beat him. That's what will happen on March 8 and that's what we'll hope to see.

Read more at Boxingscene.com

 
Manchester superstar Ricky Hatton says countryman Amir Khan is capable of pulling off a huge upset on May 3rd against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Khan is the frontrunner to face Mayweather for his WBC welterweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Hatton, then undefeated, faced Mayweather in 2007 and was knocked out in ten rounds. Even though he gives Khan a chance, he picks Mayweather to pull through with his undefeated record intact.

Hatton told Talksport's Drivetime: "I do give Khan a chance. I know a lot of people won't share my enthusiasm, and he will be the underdog, there's no getting away from that and I think Amir would admit that, but styles make fights.

"Mayweather likes fighters to run at him and attack him, but he never has to go on the front foot and hunt someone down. If Amir could swallow his pride for one fight and use his hand speed and his boxing ability and let Floyd try to jump all over him, he's probably the only man who can match Floyd for skill.

Read more at Boxingscene.com
 
Welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have signed on to reprise their controversial, down-to-the-wire June 2012 match where each man is guaranteed to pocket at least $20 million. The dream match of all boxing fans is soon to be possible after Mayweather vs Khan fight.

ESPN reports Bradley and the man long saluted as “Pac-Man” will square off at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on April 12. Read what Bob Arum stated about Pacquiao.

“I finished the deal with Pacquiao last week and [Top Rank president] Todd duBoef finished with Bradley Saturday,” said promoter Bob Arum, adding that a formal news conference promoting the bout will be held in New York over the next two weeks and a second gathering will be convened in L.A. within 48 hours of then.

Read more at Xnsports.com
 
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vows to have "no weight problem" in advance of his 168-pound rematch with Bryan Vera, who promises "to beat Chavez decisively" on March 1 at the Alamodome in San Antonio in Vera's home state of Texas. In the other hand, Floyd is in negotiation process about Mayweather vs Khan fight by Golden Boy Promotions.

"People are going to see I have the fire and hunger back," said Chavez. "I have been training for five months and my weight is perfect." Read it here.

Vera lost a controversial 10-round unanimous decision to Chavez in California in September at a 173-pound catchweight because Chavez was not able to make the originally contracted weight.

Read more at Ringtv.craveonline.com
 
Former world lightweight champion Julio Diaz believes ex-opponent Amir Khan is undeserving of a clash with Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 3 having been profusely linked to a massive pay-per-view clash with the pound for pound king for months.

Diaz, 34, shared twelve rounds with Khan the last time the Briton fought, dropping him and giving as good as he got in an entertaining Sheffield clash, with some raising an eyebrow or two at the close unanimous decision handed to the home fighter at the end.

The Californian-based Mexican was surprised himself to hear that the Olympic silver medallist is the likely contender to oppose Mayweather in his 46th pro bout at the MGM Grand and sees a couple of Khan's old rivals as better choices.

Read more at
Worldboxingnews.net
 
This past week Bob Arum of Top Rank mentioned that he’s interested in having Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s), the current WBO super featherweight champion, facing his No.1 star Manny Pacquiao once Mikey moves up in weight in the future. The fact that Arum is talking about this fight tells you that we can expect that fight to happen very, very soon. Arum doesn’t have another pay-per-view presence in his Top Rank stable, and the 35-year-old Pacquiao is about the end of the line as a PPV guy in a year or two.

We’re already seeing Pacquiao’s PPV numbers diminishing with his last fight against Brandon Rios. Was that just an aberration as a result of Pacquiao fighting in Macao, China, or a signal that fans are growing weary of him?

Read more at Eastsideboxing.com
 
Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. sees Manny Pacquiao as being under-equipped in the power department for him to hope that he can beat his son Floyd Mayqeather Jr. It’s possible that Floyd Sr. sees the 35-year-old Pacquiao as being not strong enough to get the job done against Mayweather Jr. due to Pacquiao not having knocked out an opponent for past 5 years since his stoppage win over Miguel Cotto in 2009.

That’s a fight that really was a questionable stoppage because Cotto was still fighting back in the 12th round, and the referee jumped in and stopped it after Pacquiao put a few punches together that got the crowd excited for a moment. Pacquiao’s last real knockout win was over a weigh-drained Ricky Hatton in May of 2009, and at that point it’s possible that a lot of fighters would have been able to knock Hatton out due to the weight that he’d taken off during training camp.

Floyd Sr. said to On the Ropes Boxing Radio “How are you gonna whoop Floyd with no power? That was the only thing he had going when they were talking before, that he may have a lucky chance to hit my son and get my son out. Now what he got in him now, what he fought that guy [Brandon Rios] with, he ain’t gonna whoop my son, period. He’s gonna get his a** tore up. I’m telling you the truth. He don’t have a chance.”

Read more at Boxingnews24.com