world update
Parker Rated The ‘Secret Weapon’
London: Joseph Parker has been labelled “the secret weapon” of the heavyweight division as he gets set to defend his WBO title in Manchester.
Parker fights Hughie Fury in Manchester on Sunday determined to make a statement and go on to bigger fights in the lucrative UK market.
There are many in Britain who don’t believe he’s the real deal.
But he clearly has a fan in pundit Steve Bunce, dubbed “the voice of British boxing”, a man who has covered the sport since 1985, including five Olympics and over 50 major fights across the Atlantic in Las Vegas. “I think Parker is the secret weapon in the heavyweight division,” Bunce said in his latest video piece for the UK edition of ESPN. “Everyone talks about Anthony Joshua, everybody talks about Deontay Wilder ... about all the stoppages and the belts they own.
“But Joseph Parker is the sleeper. He’s the man on the so-called day that could cause the two big world champions a big problem, a serious problem.”
Bunce conceded Fury would be no pushover and had the ability to cause Parker plenty of problems. But he still picked Parker to do the business at the Manchester Arena. “He’s got to get past Hughie Fury and that’s not easy,” Bunce said on ESPN.
“If he can trouble Joshua and Wilder, surely he will steamroll through Hughie Fury who hasn’t had a hard or competitive fight for nearly two years.
“But Hughie Fury is a brilliant tactical and technical boxer. If he finds a bit of rhythm and unless Parker can cut the ring down, it’s going to be hard.”
Bunce worried if the Parker camp might have their eye off the ball.
“Parker and his team will deny this, Parker in his head doesn’t see Fury as a massive threat. That gives Hughie just a chance. -Stuff
World Champ Ward Retires
Washington: Unified light-heavyweight world champion Andre Ward has retired, ending a career which delivered world titles across two weight divisions.
Ward, 33, held titles at super-middleweight but moved up a weight division and unified the WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight belts in 2016.
In a statement he said his body could not “put up with the rigors” of boxing.
“If I cannot give my family, my team, and the fans everything I have, then I should no longer be fighting,” he said.
Earlier in the week Ward posted an image to social media showcasing titles he had earned during his career.
He last fought in June when he stopped Sergey Kovalev in a Las Vegas rematch to defend the titles he had won in a unification bout with the Russian seven months earlier.
Ward inflicted the only defeats of Kovalev’s career and his perfect 32-fight record also boasts victories over names such as Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler during time spent at super-middleweight.
“To the sport of boxing - I love you,” wrote the 2004 Olympic gold medallist. “You’ve been by my side since I was 10 years old. You’ve taught me so much. You’ve humbled me. You’ve promoted me.
“As I walk away from the sport of boxing today, I leave at the top of your glorious mountain, which was always my vision and my dream. I did it. We did it.”
After turning professional after his Olympic success in 2004, Ward took five years to land his first world title with a shock victory over Kessler.
That success arrived in the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament, where Ward later beat Arthur Abraham and Froch to take the trophy and unify the WBC and WBA belts at super-middleweight.
Ward’s decision comes as a huge surprise and as with any such announcement in boxing will be greeted with scepticism.
He is ranked by many as the best pound-forpound boxer in the world today and he is the last American male to win Olympic gold. His win against Froch in 2011 was high amongst the best performances I have seen as a commentator at ringside. BBC Sports
Raging Bull boxer dies at 95
New York: Jake LaMotta, the uncompromising fighter portrayed by Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, has died aged 95.
The former world middleweight boxing champion died in a nursing home due to complications from pneumonia.
Based on LaMotta’s 1970 memoir, Raging Bull depicts an emotional fighter struggling with life outside the ring.
The 1980 film, directed by Martin Scorsese, earned De Niro a Best Actor award at the Oscars.
“I just want people to know, he was a great, sweet, sensitive, strong, compelling man with a great sense of humour, with eyes that danced,” Mrs LaMotta said.
40s and 1950s
Born on 10 July 1922 to Italian parents in the Bronx area of New York City, he took up boxing after being rejected by the US military due to a medical condition.
Sports commentators praised his willingness to take a severe beating in order to get close enough to land the best punches on his opponent.
His stamina in the ring, which he honed during a prison sentence, earned him the nickname “The Bronx Bull”.
One writer for the Associated Press described how he fought with “blows bouncing off him like ball bearings off a battleship”. LaMotta first won national recognition two years after landing on the professional boxing circuit, when he handed Sugar Ray Robinson his first ever defeat in 1943.