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Archive for the ‘Boxing’ Category

At the age of 31, Pacman or the Fighting Pride of the Phillipines, as he is known to his fans, Manny Pacquiao has won 50 of his 55 fights and lost only three. Thirty eight of his 50 win have been knock-outs. He has seven world titles in seven different weight divisions. Voted by Time magazine as one of the World’s most influential person in 2009, Manny Pacquiao is the modern day Muhammad Ali, well at least metaphorically.

Pacquiao was born on December 17, 1978 in Mindanao, Phillipines and started his professional boxing career at the age of 16. In November 2003, he won against Marco Antonio Barerra, in what was his first fight in featherweight division. There was no looking back after that victory. Six month later he fought a highly controversial draw against another Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez. He fought Mexican legend Erik Morales thrice in years to come, beating his twice and winning by knockout in the second contest. It was the first time Morales was knocked out in his career.

In late 2008, he beat Oscar de la Hoya, in what is believed as the highest grossing boxing fight in recent times. It was also tagged “The Dream Match” and made Pacquiao richer by 15 to 30 million dollars. In 2009, he took on British boxer Ricky Hatton in what was billed “The East vs West Contest”. Hatton was knocked out in the second round by the Mexicutioner and suffered an embarrassing defeat.

In November 2009, he defeated Miguel Cotto, thereby winning the WBO World Welterweight title. Manny has reportedly agreed to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr in March 2010 for a kitty of 50 million dollars. But the bout looks to be in jeopardy due to dispute over drug testing methods.

Be sure to follow Manny Pacquiao who is rapidly becoming the most recognisable boxing icon of recent times.

No matter who you ask, there is no doubt that the greatest boxer to ever grace a boxing ring is the incomparable Muhammad Ali. Born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. on January 17, 1942, Ali had a glittering amateur career before he became the best known sportsman in the world. Under the guidance of Fred Stoner, he won 100 fights with only five losses. Ali also won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in Rome at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

His first professional fight was on October 29, 1960 when he outpointed police chief Tunney Hunsaker over six rounds. Over the next three years, Ali won another 18 fights with 15 of them ending in a knockout. He became known for his poetic prediction of the round in which the fight would finish and this combined with his boasting when he beat opponents, resulted in his nickname of the “Louisville Lip”.

Amongst his next fights was a bout against the UK’s Henry Cooper, a bout that resulted in Cooper clubbing Ali to the ground in the fourth round before Cooper suffered deep cuts over in his eyes in the fifth and the referee stopped the fight.

By February 1964 Ali had earned a crack at the World title held by Sonny Liston. Starting as the massive underdog, Ali taunted Liston from the start and the young pretender gave the old master a lesson in the noble art before Liston failed to rise from his stool for the start of the seventh round. Ali was champion and he wasted no time in telling the world!

The rematch in May 1965 was even more decisive and Ali knocked out Liston in the first round. Over the next couple of years, Ali defended the title successfully against a range of contenders including Floyd Patterson, Henry Cooper, Ernie Terrell and Zara Folley, before his refusal to be drafted into the army led to him having his professional boxing license suspended.

Amir Khan was born in Bolton in early December 1986. He showed early promise as a boxer and in 2003 he won a gold medal at the AAU Junior Olympic Games, closely followed by another gold medal at the European Student Championship in 2004. This early interest was encouraged by his father, who considered his son a born fighter and was confident that his son could be very successful at his chosen sport. This early promise came to fruition when, in July 2009, Khan won the WBA World Light-Welterweight World Championship title, defeating Andreas Kotelnik in a unanimous decision over 12 rounds. This title was added to the WBA International Lightweight championship he won just 8 months earlier, in early December 2008.

Background

Khan spent his early years supporting his local soccer team, Bolton Wanderers whilst attending Smithills school. This early support has since been repaid by the club who have allowed Khan to use their training facilities. Amir’s parents hail from the Punjab province of Pakistan and as a result he can speak Urdu and Panjabi in addition to his native English. Khan has declared a serious intent to base a future fight in Pakistan, although all his professional fights to date have been within the United Kingdom and four of those have been in his home town of Bolton.

Amateur

The early amateur career of Khan was distinguished and his early gold medals were soon joined by an Olympic Silver Medal from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at the age of 17, which was two years earlier than even the great Muhammad Ali who won his Gold Medal at the age of 19 at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Khan was beaten to the gold by Cuban Mario Kindelan. They had met before when Kindelan had beaten Khan a few months earlier in Greece. By 2005, Khan was good enough to avenge these earlier defeats and he beat the Cuban by 19 points to 13 at the Reebok Stadium. This became Khan’s last amateur fight before turning professional later in 2005.

Professional

Khan’s professional career began as his amateur career had ended, with a resounding victory over David Bailey in Bolton on July 16th 2005. A further three successful fights brought 2005 to an end and 2006 proved that the young Khan was as talented as his early promise seemed to indicate. In that year he fought a further six times, winning four of these fights inside the distance. This huge promise continued in 2007 with Khan fighting a further 5 times, all but one inside the distance. By mid 2008 it appeared that Khan was invincible and a fight against Columbian Breidis Prescott was expected to bring no surprises and another easy victory for Khan. In the event Khan was the one receiving the surprise as the big hitting Prescott hammered Khan to the canvas in less than a minute of the first round. Khan was unable to meet the count and tasted his first professional defeat. Khan has recovered by easily winning his three subsequent fights, beating the highly ranked Marco Barrera in March 2009 before his World Light-Welterweight Championship victory in July of the same year.

Outside boxing

Khan has long shown an interest in other matters outside boxing including the safety of children around the railways and has also been involved in charity work. This interest has extended to his beloved Pakistan after the earthquakes there in 2005, when he visited the country and provided food parcels to those in need. Khan has also worked for charity in his home town of Bolton where he has spent some of his boxing earnings promoting boxing in an attempt to provide youngsters with a route away from the streets. This interest in providing escape routes to young people has also seen Khan taking part in TV programmes to exhibit the discipline of boxing and how it can be used to focus lives and avoid trouble.