DONAIRE FIGHTS FRAMPTON ON APRIL 7 IN BELFAST
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 23 Dec 2017
Promoter Frank Warren disclosed to the media that Carl Frampton will return to the ring on April 7 in Belfast, with the SSE Arena as the probable venue. According to Warren, Frampton will face former WBO world super-bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire. The Filipino Flash has won world championships at flyweight, bantamweight, super-bantamweight and featherweight divisions, and was once considered as the heir-apparent to Manny Pacquiao's throne as the country's premier boxing star.
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The Northern Irishman was heavily tested by the unknown Horacio Garcia last month before carving out a decision win. It was fought in the same card of Jerwin Ancajas' successful title defense against Jamie Conlan. A victory for Frampton who suffered his first professional defeat in January when he was defeared by Leo Santa Cruz in their rematch, could set up for an opportunity to fight for a world crown at Windsor Park next year.
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Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) hopes he wins the fight to set up an encounter with the winner of Lee Selby?s IBF featherweight mandatory title defense against Josh Warrington. Frampton is a former two-weight world champion, having held the unified WBA (Super) and IBFsuper-bantamweight titles between 2014 and 2016, and the WBA (Super) featherweight title from 2016 to 2017.
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By winning the featherweight world title in 2016, Frampton became the first boxer from Northern Ireland and only the second boxer from Ireland to have held world titles in two weight classes after Steve Collins. This feat won for him the Fighter of the Year awards by The Ring magazine, the Boxing Writers Association of America, and ESPN.
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On December 11, 2015, Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) won the vacant WBO Super bantamweight title, defeating Mexican Cesar Juarez by unanimous decision. The fight was controlled by Donaire in the early rounds, dropping the Mexican brawler twice. But Juarez showed a big heart and the latter rounds were fought much closer as the bout turned into a battle of wills.
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Donaire defended the WBO title successfully against Zsolt Bedak of Hungary via a third-round TKO in Cebu City on April 23, 2016. Donaire lost to Jessie Magdaleno as the co-main event on Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas PPV bout on November 5, 2016. This was the first time Donaire and Pacquiao, the two biggest boxing stars of the Philippines, have fought on the same card.
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Former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs) refuted UFC president Dana White's claim that the former pound-for-pound king could try mixed martial arts. White disclosed that Mayweather was in talks of a probable UFC deal after stopping Conor McGregor last August. Mayweather answered that he has no plans to bring his fighting abilities in the octagon. "That's not what I said. Exactly what I said is if I made over a billion dollars before, I could do it again," Mayweather told FightHype.com.
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"If I chose to get in the UFC and fight three fights or fight four fights and then fight Conor McGregor, I could make a billion dollars, which I can...we just don't know what the future holds for Floyd Mayweather," the 40-year-old undefeated boxer said. "And I don't look forward to getting back in a boxing ring. I'm not doing it, but I'm saying I could make a billion dollars quick if I wanted to. But I never said I was going to fight in UFC, I didn't say that. Would and could are different things."
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World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman thinks Mayweather is too old to shift to a different combat sport. "I do not know what he said, if he's toying with the idea, but it would be terrible for him to do that. He would be at a disadvantage in his sport - it's not the sport that made him great. He is no longer capable of entering a new sport without there being a very high risk," Sulaiman said. The WBC boss hopes this talk about MMA is some advertising issue or that Mayweather wants to enter MMA as a promoter.
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Sulaiman added that Mayweather is an example for other boxers, because he retired undefeated and as a champion. "He opened a new stage for boxers, he is a successful promoter, he has many talents in his company and it would not be right for him to change that." He believes that with the Mayweather fight against McGregor, a lot of UFC fans have now started to watch boxing when they saw what it was all about, and a lot of people who stopped watching boxing began to watch the sport again.
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NBA Eastern Conference Standings
1 Boston 26-9
2 Toronto 22-8
3 Cleveland 24-9
4 Indiana 18-14
5 Milwaukee 16-13
6 Washington 17-14
7 Detroit 17-14
8 New York 17-14
9 Miami 16-15
10 Philadelphia 14-17
11 Brooklyn 11-19
12 Charlotte 11-20
13 Orlando 11-21
14 Chicago 10-21
15 Atlanta 7-24
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NBA Western Conference Standings
1 Houston 25-5
2 Golden St. 25-6
3 San Antonio 22-11
4 Minnesota 19-13
5 Oklahoma City 16-15
6 Portland 16-15
7 Denver 16-15
8 New Orleans 15-16
9 Utah 15-18
10 L.A. Clippers 12-18
11 L.A. Lakers 11-18
12 Sacramento 11-20
13 Phoenix 12-22
14 Memphis 9-23
15 Dallas 9-23
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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