UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz Making Progress, Gets Clearance to Start Boxing

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is on the mend and making progress.

The last time he fought was against Demetrious Johnson in October 2011.

Cruz was scheduled to fight a rubber match against Urijah Faber at UFC 148 in July of 2012. While the two were coaching season 15 of The Ultimate Fighter, Cruz tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during training.

He underwent surgery that utilized the ligament from a cadaver to repair his ACL. His body, unfortunately, rejected the foreign ligament, so he had to undergo a second surgery in late 2012.

Now, half a year later, he has finally been cleared to begin sparring again.

“Leaving LA now,n doc just cleared me to start boxing(sparring):)-one step at a time!C u wit some new tricks,” Cruz tweeted on Tuesday.

That’s far from news of a date for his return to the Octagon, but it is welcome news nonetheless, especially considering UFC interim bantamweight champion Renan Barão has just taken up his own spot on the bench.

Barão was slated to face Eddie Wineland in the UFC 161 main event on June 15 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but was forced out of the bout due to an injured right foot, leaving the UFC with both of its bantamweight champions unable to fight.

Hopefully, Cruz’s clearance to spar is a signal that he’ll be returning to action sooner rather than later. (Source)

Professional boxing set to return to Metairie’s Landmark Hotel

Professional boxing returns to Metairie this week where New Orleans native Marcus McDaniel is slated to fight Tristan Todd at the Landmark Hotel. The Middleweight bout pits two of the nation’s top-70 fighters, with the undefeated McDaniel (8-0) entering the ring at No. 62 and Todd (8-2) at No. 54, according to BoxRec.com.

The 29-year-old McDaniel will have his hands full with Todd, whose career is highlighted by five technical knockouts or knockouts as compared to McDaniel’s lone TKO against Omar Ballard in July of 2010. In fact, four out of Todd’s last six fights ended in either a TKO or KO. Not one of those knockouts, however, came against an opponent with a winning record.

Todd will be just the second boxer McDaniel has faced who isn’t coming off a loss in his most recent fight. McDaniel hasn’t fought a boxer in a professional setting since last September when he earned an unanimous decision against Donald Clark.

Todd, on the other hand, will be entering his third fight of 2013 and he is also currently riding the longest winning streak of his career at four consecutive wins, including wins against William Johnson and Cleo Rice in February and March.

The co-feature of the night puts females Sydney LeBlanc from Gretna (2-0-1) and Latasha Burton of Houma in a four-round Super Middleweight fight.

In the Jr. Welterweight Division, James Harrison of New Orleans (2-2-1) will fight Asa Dalphone (3-0).

Another New Orleans native, Regis Prograis (4-0), will put his undefeated record on the line when he steps into the ring against the more experienced Adauto Gonzales (10-8).

Heavyweights Bobby O’Bannon (10-5) and Terrance Marbra (6-3) round out the ticket for the Thursday night fights.

The weigh-ins and pre-match press conference will take place on Wednesday, June 5 at the Penthouse Club in New Orleans at 2 p.m.

The actual fights are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. in the ballroom of the Landmark Hotel in Metairie on Thursday night. (Source)

Steve Bunce on Boxing: David Haye v Tyson Fury - it all makes perfect sense for both fighters

This is a chronicle of a fight foretold, a fight made at a time when nobody wants to freely admit too much about the David Haye and Tyson Fury showdown.

There was a time before multiple championship belts, before the proliferation of television companies when the Lonsdale belt was the most sought-after trophy in British boxing.

That time has gone and during the last 25 years fantastic British fights fail to take place on a monthly basis, which is why the bold, secret and whispered talk of Haye against Fury is such good news.

Haye has been picking and choosing his opponents, his television company, his retirement date and just about every aspect of his boxing career for a long time. It has worked for him, he has amassed a fortune, been in fun fights and has a high profile; he is the best known British boxer since Ricky Hatton's first retirement. He has the touch, people like him and he even wriggled free from ridicule when he presented his damaged toe as an excuse for defeat against Wladimir Klitschko in 2011.

Fury relinquished his British heavyweight title because a mandated fight with David Price was simply not going to make him enough money, which is the only reason fights fail to take place. Fury concentrated on getting a world title fight and is now one fight away from becoming the mandatory challenger for Klitschko's IBF belt. However, that "one fight" was meant to be against a sullen, dangerous and unbeaten Bulgarian called Kubrat Pulev; that fight is not going to happen and Fury now looks likely to sign for the far more lucrative meeting with Haye. It's a simple business the boxing business.

The reality is that a fight between Fury and Haye will do sensational business and the winner will inevitably get a world title fight against one of the two Klitschko brothers, who between them hold all four of the recognised and respected heavyweight belts. The brothers, who are now entering their second decade of dominance, have fights planned and nearly made, which means that Haye/Fury will not get their chance until May next year. It would possibly have been earlier for Fury had he met and beat Pulev instead of taking the money for a showdown with Haye. The Pulev fight was hard, it would have ended up in Berlin and Fury could have lost.

The Haye fight is hard, it will be in Britain and Fury will make more money. However, there could still be a problem with rival television companies making excessive and expected demands; Fury has been starring on Channel Five's irregular coverage and Haye is now back at Sky, where pay-per-view was once again introduced for the Carl Froch fight. The fight only happens if Sky agrees pay-per-view terms with both boxers. Fury had offers, both on and under the table, in excess of £500,000 for fights before shifting his attention to Haye.

Meanwhile, Haye, will be counting his blessings that he injured his hand a few weeks ago in training and had to withdraw from a fight in Manchester at the end of this month against Lebanon's Manny Charr. There is nothing like a bit of summer pantomime. It seems fortuitous that the interim recovery period suited the intentions of Fury and that is why the fight is close to being made. Haye and Charr was not a pay-per-view and was slow to ignite. It is not the first lucky injury in boxing.

There will not be a Lonsdale belt on offer when the pair fight but there will be a lot of pride, a lot of money and a lot of interest. Last summer Haye beat Dereck Chisora in a slugfest at Upton Park in a fight drenched in publicity and notoriety. Haye against Fury could do even better business and it is just a relief that it is happening and not vanishing like so many great British fights have in recent years. (Source)

UK Sport chairman urges warring British boxing to get house in order

The new chairman of UK Sport, Rod Carr, has warned boxing's warring governing body that it will remove responsibility for British Olympic boxers from its grasp if it does not introduce reforms by a deadline of next Monday.

Derek Mapp, chairman of the British Amateur Boxing Association (Baba), was voted out at an extraordinary general meeting last week despite British boxers securing five medals at London 2012. Mapp had the support of the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association but was ousted by England and Scotland.

Carr, appointed chairman of the Olympic sport funding agency last month to replace Sue Campbell, said he was "desperately disappointed" by the situation and said that its first priority would be to protect the athletes already in the system so that their training was not affected.

"We're a bit nonplussed and aggravated," he said.

Boxing was handed an increase of 44% in its funding to £13.8m for the Rio cycle but Carr said the money would be diverted through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) if the situation was not resolved by 10 June.

"The public government funding will flow through us into that legal vehicle if necessary. It is not what we want to do, we want boxing to sort themselves out, but if they don't, that is what we will do – and we will carry on doing that until boxing sorts itself out," he said.

"When that happens, which I am confident it will, then we will dissolve the SPV and give the thing back in its normal state."

Carr, a former Royal Yachting Association chief executive, said there was still a chance the situation could be resolved within the next six days but that if the constitution was not redrawn to UK Sport's satisfaction, it would divert the funding.

Carr said that he and UK Sport, which will invest a record £347m in Olympic sport in the four years leading up to the Rio Games, would consider themselves to have failed if Team GB did not surpass its London tally of 120 medals in Rio.

He said it was a "stretchy" target but added: "Do we think we can do it? Yes, we do feel more medals are achievable. It is a fixed target, the board and I will have considered ourselves to have failed if we don't make those targets."

Carr also said he expected to have a much closer working relationship with the British Olympic Association, where Lord Coe recently replaced Lord Moynihan as chairman, than had been the case in the past. He also said it would work more closely with Sport England, the grassroots sport quango that it will share an office with from next year, on areas such as talent identification. (Source)

Five Irish to contest quarter-finals in Minsk

After the freak accident suffered by light heavyweight Joe Ward on Monday, when his kneecap was dislocated during a collision against Poland’s Mateusz Tryc, Ireland regrouped and has qualified five boxers into the quarterfinals of the European Championships in Minsk.

The three Olympic medallists from London 2012, John Joe Nevin, Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan are all one win away from a European medal with Donegal debutant Jason Quigley and Belfast heavyweight Tommy McCarthy joining them in the last eight.

There was disappointment however for the Bray Southpaw and welterweight Olympian, Adam Nolan, who lost out on all cards to the Ukraine’s Boghdan Shelestyuk.

All five qualifiers are in the ring today hoping to add to the 48 medals male and female Irish boxers have won in the championships since the men began in 1939. Katie Taylor’s contribution to that total is five successive gold medals.

Mullingar’s Nevin, the number one seed and bantamweight silver medallist, dominated his Turkish opponent Selcuk Exer with all three judges scoring the match 30-27 in his favour.

The next is a huge fight for Nevin, who almost quit the amateur ranks after the Olympic Games to turn professional. He meets Hungary’s Krisztian Nagy today knowing that a win will see him become the first Irish boxer along with Olympic champion Taylor to win medals at the four major boxing championships, the Olympics, World, European and EU Championships.

A win would also secure his world number one status above Cuba’s reigning world champion Lazaro Alvarez Estrada, who he defeated in the ExCel Arena last August.

The two-time Olympic bronze medalist Barnes also wasted little time sweeping aside Wales’ John Ashley William on an unanimous (30-27, 30-27,29-28) decision. The Belfast light-flyweight dominated all three rounds to set up a meeting with Hungary’s Istvan Ungvari.

It’s not a bad draw for Barnes, a gold medal winner at the 2010 Europeans in Moscow, as Ungvari is an opponent he beat in the Olympic qualifiers in Turkey in March of last year.

Quigley claimed his 23rd straight win at the expense Austria’s Arbi Chakaev, the Finn Valley middleweight also earning a unanimous (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) decision. Quigley, who won the Irish title ahead of Olympic captain Darren O’Neill now meets Germany’s Stefan Haertel, the man who defeated O’Neill in London last summer.

Heavyweight McCarthy beat Finland’s Tomi Honka 30-27 only to earn a difficult meeting against the defending European champion, Teymur Mammadou of Azerbaijan.

“Paddy’s performance was very good. He had a long week without getting any trial at all. He always into your man, great defence also. He won it well and we’re very happy with that,” said Irish team manager Joe Hennigan

“Tommy McCarthy was another fella that had a long week, but yet again came out on top. It was a good performance from Tommy and Jason had a great contest. He looked very sharp with long jabs to his opponent and John Joe won very well, but we’re only going into the quarter-finals now and it will be all to play for again tomorrow There’s medals to be won now.”

Joe Ward returned home to Ireland last night. It’s expected that the number one seed at the tournament will be out for at least a month.

European Championships Minsk, Belarus

June 4th (last 16)

49kg: P Barnes (Ireland) beat John Williams (Wales) 3-0

56kg: JJ Nevin (Ireland) beat S Exer (Turkey) 3-0

69kg: A Nolan (Ireland) lost to B Shelestyuk (Ukraine) 0-3

75kg: J Quigley (Ireland) beat A Chakaev (Austria) 3-0

91kg: T McCarthy (Ireland) beat T Honka (Finland) 3-0

June 5th Quarter-finals

49kg: P Barnes (Ireland) v I Ungvari Hungary)

52kg: M Conlan (Ireland) v S Loban (Belarus)

56kg:JJ Nevin (Ireland) v K Nagy (Hungary)

75kg: J Quigley (Ireland) v S Haertel (Germany)

91kg: T McCarthy (Ireland) v T Mammadou (Azerbaijan) (Source)

Leon McKenzie: Boxing career for ex-Norwich City striker

Former Norwich City striker Leon McKenzie will make his professional boxing debut at the age of 35.

McKenzie scored 115 goals in 405 games for eight different clubs before retiring as a professional in 2011.

His uncle Duke is a former five-time world champion and father Clinton was a British and European title holder.

"I wouldn't be coming into it just to get out again," he told BBC East Sport. "I'm 35, so I can't do it for long, but I believe I can achieve something."

He added: "I've got through months and months of training camp, getting up at five in the morning for runs. I'm doing what I've got to do."

McKenzie, who started his career at Crystal Palace, played in the Premier League with Norwich in 2004-05, scoring in a famous 2-0 victory over Manchester United, and had spells at Fulham, Peterborough, Charlton, Coventry, Northampton and Kettering.

He has spoken publicly about his battle with depression while playing and served a jail sentence last year for illegally trying to avoid speeding offences.

"I sort of lost my direction a little bit. When I had that time incarcerated I asked myself a lot of questions," he said.

"When I came out of there it just came to me and I just wanted to fight.

"I'm sparring with professionals now and coming out on top and that gave me the confidence to have a go at it."

An opponent has yet to be named for Croydon-born McKenzie's debut at York Hall on 29 June.

But he has been preparing with 2008 Olympic gold medallist and current WBC silver super middleweight champion James DeGale, as well as British middleweight Richard Williams.

"Trust me they've hit me hard - to the point of seeing stars," said McKenzie, who will be fighting at super middleweight.

"It feels amazing. I've been hit and I've been hurt. It's a great experience for me and I held my own.

"As much as I've taken a few, I've got the ability to bring some as well."

A follow-up bout is in the works, with the possibility of a contest in Norwich on 15 September.

"It all depends how the first one goes," he said. "If I come out unmarked we will be fighting in Norwich in the middle of September." (Source)

Amir to Floyd: I'm your best option

Former light-welterweight champion Amir Khan is moving up to the welterweight division with his next fight shaping up to be an elimination bout for a future opportunity to face pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Khan is set to face Devon Alexander, possibly in Dubai, with the aim being to take a step towards Mayweather. And the Brit feels stepping up in weight will make him stronger and more durable.

"I think I'll be a lot more comfortable at 147," Khan told ESPN.com. "I've been struggling to make the weight. I've been at 140 for a long time (since mid-2009). So I'll be looking to fight at 147.

"I'll be a lot stronger at 147, a lot more confident. Look at guys like Adrien Broner and (Robert) Guerrero. They moved up two weight classes and fought for world titles and you see their confidence. You can do a lot more in training. You can build your strength and not always be worried about the weight. I think I'll have a lot more power."

Khan (28-3, 19 KOs), 26, is not planning to fight again until December. He is taking time off after his wedding and also will observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this summer, after which he will begin training again. The schedule works out well for Alexander, as well, as he broke his left hand against Lee Purdy and will be sidelined for a few months.

While Mayweather, who holds world titles at welterweight and light-middleweight, is scheduled to face light-middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in a world title fight on September 14 at a catchweight of 152 pounds, he still has up to four more fights remaining on the deal he signed earlier this year with Showtime/CBS.

Khan and Alexander have already heard their names mentioned as possible future opponents for Mayweather. Alexander, a former light-welterweight champion, moved up to welterweight in 2012 and Schaefer said it makes sense for Khan to do the same.

"If your goal is to fight Floyd at some point, obviously, the action is at 147 and you might as well go up and introduce yourself in that weight class, where he could actually be stronger at the higher weight," Schaefer said. "Amir feels that will be the case with him. He won't have to worry about making weight so much and he can focus on training. He is excited to move up to 147. He realizes there are tremendous opportunities."

In his last fight, on April 27 in England, Khan fought for the first time over 140 pounds and outpointed former two-time lightweight titlist Julio Diaz in a fight contracted at 143. The weight was a concession to Diaz, who had been fighting at a heavier weight for the past few years, but Khan said he felt comfortable.

"(Golden Boy matchmaker) Robert (Diaz) saw at the weigh-in that he was dry and asked if he had a problem making the weight," Schaefer said. "He was at 149, 148 (in the days leading up to the fight) and to get down, those last few pounds usually come off easy. But this time he had more of a difficult time getting them off. Robert noticed that and felt like he didn't look like he usually does. He's been at 140 since 2007, so obviously it's time for him to move up."

Although Khan is leaving behind 140 pounds, where he lost a controversial decision in a world title fight to Lamont Peterson in December 2011 and then got knocked out in the fourth round in his next fight by Danny Garcia in a title unification fight in July 2012, Schaefer said those rematches - which Khan said he wants - eventually could take place at welterweight.

"Nobody says those rematches can't happen at 147," Schaefer said. "Those are great fights and it won't matter if they are at 140 or 147. People will still want to see them."

Khan believes the move up in weight will also help his ability to take a punch. He has been widely criticised for having a poor chin because of the way Garcia knocked him out and because he was stopped in 54 seconds by Breidis Prescott in a stunning upset in a 2008 lightweight fight.

"Part of my punch resistance is due to my weight," Khan said. "Sometimes you need that extra little bit (of weight) to take that punch. If you're not making weight properly, you're not going to take the punches as well. (Trainer) Virgil (Hunter) has seen me spar at 147. I talked to Virgil about moving up and he said, 'Who you looking to fight?' I said, 'Alexander.' He said, 'That's a good fight.'"

But a Mayweather fight remains Khan's ultimate goal, like it is for most every other top welterweight.

"When we are young the dream is to be world champion and now the dream is to fight and beat Floyd Mayweather," Khan said. "Once you beat Floyd Mayweather you become pound-for-pound and that's what everyone aims for. But you have to be in that weight division to be noticed. Everywhere I've been going people ask me when I'm fighting Floyd. Maybe I got knocked out or didn't perform well in some fights, but my style would be exciting to watch against him.

"He has five fights left. Five more opponents. Who brings him money, excitement, recognition and global recognition? I've been in the UK, the European, American and Middle Eastern markets. He'll make a lot of money with Canelo Alvarez, but I can't think of any other boxer with as big of a following or pull that I have that he can make a fight with." (Source)