Boxing

Andre Ward is tipping Carl Froch to emerge victorious from Saturday's rematch with Mikkel Kessler.

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Gennady Golovkin will meet Matthew Macklin in the June 29 HBO main event from Foxwoods in Connecticut, and top prospects Thomas Oosthuizen and Willie Nelson have finalized undercard bouts, which will air on the network in a triple-header. Oosthuizen (21-0-1, 13 KO) will face fellow unbeaten super middleweight prospect Brandon Gonzales (17-0, 10 KO) in a 12-round bout. The 6'4" southpaw South African is hoping to make a strong move in the division this year, and Gonzales would be, in theory, the first step toward a potential world title shot by the end of 2013. "Tommy is not only one of the best 168-pound fighters in the division, but, in my eyes, one of the top prospects pound-for-pound in the entire world," said co-promoter Lou DiBella. "He is taking on another undefeated, highly regarded fighter in Gonzales, and the winner of the bout truly emerges as not only a force in the 168-pound division, but as a potential star." Oosthuizen is delighted to be making his HBO debut. "I am extremely excited about this opportunity. There is no bigger stage than fighting on HBO. This is what I have dreamt about since I was a young child. I respect Gonzales as a fighter. He had a great amateur pedigree and he has yet to lose as a professional, but he never faced a fighter like me, and come June 29th, he is going to find that out very quickly." Gonzales, 28, is a Virgil Hunter-trained prospect who has been less than stellar in TV wins over Ossie Duran and most recently Don Mouton. Gonzales barely won either fight, and frankly, hasn't appeared to be a true top prospect so much as a guy who was once thought to be on that level. There's been a sort of plateauing of his ability, it appears, at the 8-round mark of his career. He's never gone beyond that, and will be the clear underdog here. Oosthuizen is considered by many a back-end top 10 guy at super middle already. "I want to thank my team and HBO for this great opportunity," said Gonzales. "Fighting on HBO has always been one of my dreams. Winning this fight will put me in a great position for a world championship and I look forward to putting on a great performance on June 29th." Nelson, another abnormally tall guy for his weight class, standing 6'3" in the 154-pound ranks, will take on Luciano Cuello. Nelson (20-1-1, 12 KO) once looked like a prospect whose bubble had been burst, when he lost a ShoBox bout to Vincent Arroyo in April 2011, but the 26-year-old Clevelander has made great strides since moving up to junior middleweight, beating Yudel Jhonson and John Jackson, and most recently clobbering Michael Medina in one round. Trained by Jack Loew, Nelson's 81-inch reach is even bigger than that of Oosthuizen, who comes in at 78 inches. He's been turning a few heads, and he and his team have been talking big fight. For now, this will do. "Fighting a guy like Cuello on HBO will give me a chance to make a big splash in the junior middleweight division," Nelson said. "He's a high quality fighter whose only two losses have been to world champions. I want to beat him in a better fashion than they did to prove that I belong at the top of the 154-pound division. I need to win and win impressively. My ultimate goal is to become world champion and this fight puts me in line for that." The world champions Nelson is speaking of are none other than Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Canelo Alvarez. Chavez struggled past Cuello back in 2009, but young Alvarez demolished the Argentinean a year later. Cuello (32-2, 16 KO) has no real quality wins, but a lot of the word out there is that Nelson isn't exactly high on anyone's wish list right now, which makes plenty of sense given his size and development. Wins in fights like this in front of an HBO audience will make him a more attractive option, one would figure. Cuello, 29, is as appreciative of the opportunity as anyone. "I am very excited about this opportunity to fight Willie Nelson on HBO and to have the chance to showcase my skills in the U

After announcing his retirement on May 1 following another lousy big-fight performance and first round TKO loss on April 27, when Deontay Wilder finished him off in just 70 seconds, Audley Harrison has surprised pretty much nobody by announcing that he's searched his soul and decided to fight on. The 41-year-old Harrison, whose professional career has been an enormous flop by any standards that aren't trying to simply be nice, made it official on his web site, saying that the birth of his son inspired him to fight again:‘ There is no way I am going to tell my son, ‘I gave up because I didn't want to climb the mountain again, I didn't want to dust myself off again, when I'm now in the best shape of my career, doing things I haven't done for years, and back in love with the sport...how can I retire, when I know I have another shot in me'. ‘If I don't get up and try again, everything I've stood for would mean nothing ...'NEGU', ‘setbacks pave the way for comebacks', etc, etc, I believe it, so I have to live it, and go again'. ‘We all saw how the fight ended, which was not right. I can't walk away with that performance. If I do, it would haunt me until I'm old and grey'. I got up, they should have let him come to finish me, and let me show what I got'. Harrison (31-7, 23 KO) has no hope of ever being any better than he ever has been before, and his best efforts have failed beyond domestic level opposition. Even his European title win in 2010 -- which had an awesome, dramatic ending, one of the best in recent memory -- came against Michael Sprott, a domestic-level fighter. If Harrison wants to box on as the King of Prizefighter, or in fights like he had in 2012 against Ali Adams, then that's fair enough. He's passing physicals, he is in good shape for all anyone can tell, and he's not in any imminent danger. There are far greater mistakes being made all around the world with people climbing into rings. What bothers me, to be clear, is that Audley will win a low-level fight, or another Prizefighter tournament, and some promoter is going to take that opportunity to bleed him against another young star. Against guys like David Price and Deontay Wilder and David Haye, he has straight-up frozen, like a deer in the headlights. Harrison just doesn't belong in the ring on that level anymore. I'm not trying to sound insulting, this is just a fact, at least as best as I can see it. And I think it's appalling of promoters to continue to take advantage of a kind soul like Audley, who I am certain deep down believes in his heart of hearts that the next time really will be different. It's just gross, is all. It's totally unappealing. But, you know, best of luck to him. He's a nice guy and if he somehow backs his way into a world title in fantasy land, then they can make a movie out of it, I guess.

Don King doesn't have the greatest reputation in general, but in recent months (even moreso than recent years), King's negotiating tactics have been routinely called into question, with failed purse bids he's defaulted on for, notably, Chris Arreola vs Bermane Stiverne, and Marco Huck vs Ola Afolabi III. Now, it's being reported that King is demanding a $2 million purse for Bermane Stiverne, as well as U.S. TV rights, if Stiverne is to fight Vitali Klitschko. Stiverne's dominant win over Arreola in April made him the WBC's mandatory challenger for the fight, but it's the sort of purse that Klitschko opponents -- particularly those who bring nothing to the table financially, which Stiverne does not -- just don't get. Vitali and Wladimir run the show, and everyone has accepted that in recent years, save for David Haye, and I guess Vladimir Hryunov. Stiverne (23-1-1, 20 KO) has made as good a case as anyone has recently to have legitimately earned a shot against one of the brothers, and I don't think there's really much against a Vitali-Stiverne matchup. Few would see Stiverne winning or even being competitive, probably, but he handled Arreola and made a statement. He's certainly done more than the likes of Manuel Charr, Dereck Chisora, Tony Thompson, Jean-Marc Mormeck, Francesco Pianeta, and Mariusz Wach. Still, that doesn't mean that he's going to get $2 million to fight Vitali, who is the clear and really only money fighter in this fight. And King's idea to own the U.S. TV rights isn't necessarily bad, but it's not as if either HBO or Showtime have exactly been dying to air Klitschko brothers fights the past few years (or to work with King, whose depleted stable is barely hanging on), so who would he even sell it to? Epix? The Klitschko brothers already take their fights there by themselves. Bounce TV? Does he think Versus is still a thing, perhaps? Would he run it on PPV? Wait, yes, of course. PPV. Anyway, there are two hopeful ways to look at this: Hopefully, there's a surprise and King gets his wish, by which I mean that Stiverne gets a great payday. Hopefully, this doesn't sink the fight actually happening. It's not like the WBC won't cater to Vitali here, and it's not as if King can actually win a purse bid against K2 for the full rights to the fight. I mean, he might win the bid, but he'd probably default.

Andre Ward, who is in London to commentate for HBO told Boxing News magazine he thinks Carl Froch can stop Mikkel Kessler in their super middleweight rematch at the O2 Arena on Saturday night. Ward who holds victories over both … Continue reading →

Kalle Sauerland Interview 21_05_13 Interview with Kalle Sauerland at the Mikkel Kessler media work out in Vauxhall, South London ahead of Kessler's much anticipated rematch with Carl Froch on ... From: SecondsOut.com Views: 3 0 ratings Time: 04:48 More in Sports

Mikkel Kessler Interview 2105_13 From: SecondsOut.com Views: 5 1 ratings Time: 01:06 More in Sports

Miguel Cotto, the Puerto Rican superstar and former three-division titleholder, is planning on a fall return.