JEFF HORN'S POSSIBLE NEXT OPPONENT IS GARY CORCORAN BEFORE PACQUIAO REMATCH
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 02 Oct 2017
Jeff Horn?s promoters at Duco Events are processing a deal with No. 11 WBO contender Gary Corcoran (17-1,7 KOs) to accept the offer to fight with Horn for November, announced Dan Rafael. ?No contracts have been sent out because the deal with the government is not completed. If it happens, Corcoran will be the opponent,? a source said to Dan Rafael of ESPN. The 26-year-old Corcoran is from London, England.
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Corcoran has a lowly 39% knockout percentage, so he is not a big threat to Horn, and he does not have that kind of boxing skills. Corcoran has 7 knockouts but the KOs were against weaker opponents and not against big name and quality fighters. Top Rank will have wait until Horn fights Pacquiao in a rematch in 2018 before trying to arrange a fight between the winner of that fight against unbeaten undisputed light welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
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Pacquiao as of now has not made up his mind whether he wants to continue fighting after the Horn fight. He is too busy with his duties as senator. If Pacquiao beats Horn, he will be pressured by fans to face Crawford. Top Rank can still let Crawford fight against Horn even if he loses to Pacquiao in the rematch, but the fight won?t be a blockbuster if Horn does not win against Pacquiao in their rematch next year.
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The Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor cross-combat fight had a negative impact on the pay-per-view sales of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin unification match. Some viewers who wanted to cut costs chose between Mayweather-McGregor, cost $100 in HD, and Canelo-Golovkin, priced $80 in HD. Several boxing enthusiasts were not willing to spend $180 to watch the two matches within a period of just three weeks.
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The first one being shown, Mayweather-McGregor, which unofficially sold 4.4 million PPV's surely benefited from the economic concern that decreased the views of Alvarez-Golovkin, which earned 1.3 million PPV buys as of the latest count. Both fights were adversely affected by the growing problem of piracy, due to the birth of Facebook Live and other networking sites whom innovative fight fans are streaming to watch pay-per-view fights for free.
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Pedro Diaz, the trainer of Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs, 1 NC), is very positive his boxer could beat Vasyl Lomachenko (9-1, 7 KOs). He says Nonito Donaire, a heavy puncher, was more complicated. Rigondeaux proved it when he outscored the heavily favored Donaire in April 2013. "Lomachenko is a great boxer who punches with frequency, but without power. I consider Nonito Donaire to be more complicated than Lomachenko," Diaz said.
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At flyweight division, China?s Zou Shiming (9-2, 2 KOs) moved up from No. 6 to No. 4 in the WBO rankings. Shiming was the former WBO champion but lost the title in his first defense was he was stopped by current champion Sho Kimura. Froilan Saludar (26-2-1, 17 KOs) moved into the world rankings at No. 11. Saludar won over Salatiel Amit by 9th round TKO last June and won over John Rey Lauza by 4th round KO in August.
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When Andre Ward retires, he has held eight world titles in two weight classes. These includes the unified WBA (Super), WBC, Ring magazine, and lineal super middleweight titles from 2009 to 2015 and the unified WBA (Undisputed), IBF, WBO, and Ring light heavyweight titles from 2016 to 2017. Ward was ranked as the world's best pound for pound fighter by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB).
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Ward won all of his 32 fights as a professional with 16 knockouts and was a gold medalist at the 2004 Sydney Olympics, the last American male boxer to do so. He explained that at age 33 his desire to fight is no longer there and his body can no longer withstand the rigors of the sport. He won two memorable unification bouts with Sergy Kovalev, the first fight by unanimous decision and the second one by 8th round TKO.
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Boxing was first included as a competitive sport during the 23rd Olympiad of the ancient Olympics in 688 B.C. Archaeological findings in ancient cave drawings showed that boxing-like competition existed as far as 3,000 B.C. Boxing in its modern form was commonly fought during the 18th Century, particularly in England. Jack Broughton, widely considered as the ?Father of Boxing,? established the combat sport?s first official set of rules in 1743.
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Boxing was originally bare-fisted until the mid-1700s, when ?mufflers? were introduced to help protect boxers? hands and faces. Some medical experts would debate that the invention of gloves is what makes boxing more likely to cause brain damage. Before the adoption of gloves, boxers usually avoided hitting their opponent?s face due to the risk of injuring their hands on the bones and non-muscle body parts.
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Boxing gloves are actually more dangerous and result in more deaths than bareknuckle boxing. In fact, gloves were introduced into boxing not for safety reasons, but primarily to multiply the hits to the head that would result to dramatic knockouts. The Marquess of Queensberry Rules introduced boxing gloves which resembled a bloated pair of mittens laced around the wrist.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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