In a big weekend for boxing, we saw many great fights around the world including Manny Pacquiao in Macau and Tony Bellew in Liverpool. Here we’ll give you a rundown of the results and potential future fights.
Manny Pacquiao v Chris Algieri
The great Manny Pacquiao, boxing’s only eight-division world title holder was in action in Macau against Chris Algieri. The pair were fighting at a catch weight between light-welterweight and welterweight. The only thing on Pacquiao’s mind ahead of the fight was to try and get a knockout as many people were questioning whether he still has the power to knock people out at welterweight. In his previous 8 fights he hadn’t managed it and it turned out that his 9th fight wasn’t going to change that. Despite dominating the fight from start to finish and knocking down Algieri 6 times, he didn’t manage to get the killer KO. So now the question turns to, will Pacquiai finally take on Mayweather?
Nathan Cleverly v Tony Bellew
The big fight of the weekend in the UK from Liverpool’s Echo Arena was the grudge rematch between Cleverly & Bellew. This fight was a let down, Cleverly was the better man in the earlier rounds, showing his superior speed and footwork but struggled to ever rock Bellew at all. As we got in to the second half of the fight Bellew took over, his weight advantage and therefore stamina advantage really came through with Cleverly pretty much unable to get off the ropes for the last 4 rounds. Bellew won the fight by a split decision but wasn’t impressive in the win at all. In the final 3 rounds he could barely land a punch on a man that was unable to get off the ropes, quite a poor showing.
Anthony Joshua, James DeGale, Scott Quigg & George Groves
There were some big British names in action on the undercards prior to the Cleverly v Bellew fight with the supreme Anthony Joshua in action once again, he dispatched of 39 year old Michael Sprott in 90 seconds, lowering his average KO time for his first 10 fights to under 3 minutes. James DeGale was in action against Marco Antonio Periban and won in straight forward fashion in the 3rd round. Scott Quigg was making a defence of his world title against Hidenori Ohtake, little was known about Ohtake who hasn’t fought outside of Japan and has been unbeaten in his previous 40 fights. He proved to be a very tough customer, tough in the sense that it would have taken a wrecking ball to knock him out, Quigg landed hundreds of good punches and couldn’t manage to force a stoppage, instead winning on points.
Finally, George Groves was in action against ‘Mommas Boy’ Denis Douglin (whose mum was actually in his corner). Douglin started the fight well and seemed to surprise Groves. It looked as though he’d worn himself out by round 5 though and in the 7th round was knocked out in style by Groves to set up a potential rematch with James DeGale. Should Carl Froch decide not to contest for his IBF belt he’ll give it up to James DeGale and another mandatory challenger to fight over.
