TOKYO (April 6, 2022) — Fight week is in full swing and throughout Japan, Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin is being hailed as the biggest name to enter a ring in Japan since heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.   Tyson was knocked out by 40-1 underdog James “Buster” Douglas on February 11, 1990 — arguably the biggest sports upset of the 20th century — a fact not lost on Golovkin.  Boxing’s most dominant middleweight of his era, Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs), from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, is finally in Japan, after several postponements caused by the pandemic, enjoying his first fight week since December 2020.  He has brought the Big Drama Show and his IBF and IBO world title belts to face two-time WBA middleweight champion and Japan’s national hero Ry?ta Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) in a long-awaited world title unification fight.  Promoted by Teiken Promotions, in association with GGG promotions, Golovkin vs. Murata will take place this Saturday, April 9, and will be streamed live from Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, just north of Murata’s hometown of Tokyo, to over 200 countries and territories, including the U.S., exclusively on DAZN (excluding Japan and Kazakhstan), beginning at 5:10 a.m. EDT / 2:10 a.m. PDT, with the main event scheduled to start at approximately 8:00 a.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. PDT.  Golovkin and Murata boast a combined record of 57-3-1, 49 KOs — a winning percentage of over 93% — with 86% of their victories coming by way of knockout. 

Golovkin’s Big Drama Show has packed iconic arenas around the world, selling out Madison Square Garden, The O2 in London, the Fabulous Forum and StubHub Center in Los Angeles, and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.  Saitama Super Arena is expected to join that illustrious list.  He has been a middleweight world champion every year since 2010, a testament to his discipline, drive, and talent.  GGG’s résumé includes a division-record 21 title defenses, 20 of them consecutively, also a division record.       

Here’s what Golvkin had to say about Murata, training, fighting in Japan, turning 40 on weigh-in day, and other things.

“Japan is the land of surprises, at least when it comes to boxing.  I remember what happened in the Tyson-Douglas fight.  It has been in the back of mind throughout training camp.  I already had a lot of respect for Ry?ta Murata, but Tyson-Douglas is a reminder to never  give less than 110% every day in training camp.  The last time I fought in Japan was over 20 years ago.  It was in the East Asian Games in Osaka.  I had a great time.    

“I have been in my Florida training camp — off and on — since October because of postponements.  First the fight was going to be last December, than there was a chance of it happening in February, and finally this Saturday.  I chose to train in south Florida because of the warmer weather and it was easier to get good sparring partners.  A lot of the fighters get sick in the cold climate of Big Bear in the late fall and winter months.  I really enjoyed training in Florida.  The biggest obstacle in these postponements, other than the frustration of not fighting, is peaking before the December and February dates and then pulling back and building up again.  It wasn’t easy, but every time I would break camp and go home, I would stay in shape by doing light conditioning and speaking with my trainer Johnathon Banks daily.  Johnathon would remind me every day, ‘Go steady.  Do not go heavy.’  between training camps. He was right.  I always returned to training camp energized and ready to go.  This last training camp resumed in early February.

“It is a challenge when fighting in a different country, especially if that country happens to be my opponent’s homeland.  But it spurs me on even more in training camp.  Now that I am in Japan, the adrenaline is starting to pump.  I am really excited to be here and to fight in front of the fans in Japan.  They really love and appreciate good boxing.

“Murata is a good, solid fighter.  There is a reason he has been an Olympic gold medalist and is a two-time WBA world champion.  He came to my training camp in Big Bear many years ago.  We sparred a little.  He was a very serious fighter.  He worked very hard in everything he did in camp, inside and outside the ring.  We got along very well.

“I am going to be 40 on Friday but I feel good.  I will continue fighting as long as I feel good and can train hard to fight at the level I have come to expect of myself.  Living a healthy lifestyle keeps me feeling good, strong.

“Murata is the most important fight.  Period.  I do not look ahead.  I have been fully invested in training for the fight I have in front of me.  I have too much respect for Murata and his body of work.  My focus is on him and winning his title.  That is why I am in Japan.  I look forward to fighting in a packed arena.  I have missed that energy.  It is going to be exciting because we both have similar styles of fighting.  We are both power punchers, we are aggressive and we come forward.  Diamonds cut diamonds and on Saturday, there will be two diamonds in the ring.  It will be a boxing gift to the fans  I expect it to be the fight of the year.

“Yes, I have been told by several reporters that Canelo wants to fight me again and that this time ‘it is personal.’  If it is so ‘personal,’ why has it taken him four years since our last fight?  He pretends it is personal.  I find it puzzling he would make such a claim.”                  

Hot From GGG – Murata Media Central

Fight Week Wednesday Edition

·         Nearly 40, Gennadiy Golovkin’s clock is tick, tick, ticking for Canelo Alvarez | Jerry Izenberg – nj.com

·         ‘Age gives me additional edge’ – Gennadiy Golovkin all set for unification fight | Press Association

·         Golovkin’s blockbuster Canelo trilogy at stake in Murata showdown (Agence France-Presse)

·         Boxing betting: Gennadiy Golovkin favored to win by knockout (yahoo.com)

INDIO, CALIF. (Nov. 1, 2019): Former heavyweight world champion James “Buster” Douglas will be the special VIP guest for the highly anticipated rematch between champion Andrew “El Chango” Cancio (21-4-2, 16 KOs) and Rene “Gemelo” Alvarado (31-8, 20 KOs) in a 12-round fight for the WBA Super Featherweight World Title. The event will take place Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif. and will be streamed live on DAZN.

Douglas is best known for his electrifying upset against an undefeated “Iron” Mike Tyson to become the undisputed champion in the heavyweight division. In a career that lasted from 1981 to 1999, Douglas went in the ring with the likes of Evander “Real Deal” Holyfield, Terver Berbick and Oliver “The Atomic Bull” McCall. Douglas will be in attendance for this event to meet fans, sign autographs and take pictures inside the Fantasy Springs Special Events Center. The meet-and-greet is open to the public with the purchase of a ticket to the event.

In the co-main event, Xu Can (17-2, 3 KOs), China’s third world champion, will defend his WBA Featherweight World Title against rising contender Manny Robles III (18-0, 8 KOs) of Los Angeles in a 12-round fight that is guaranteed to produce fireworks.

Golden Boy is also proud to announce that a special 10-round attraction between super featherweight prospects Avery ‘A-Plus’ Sparrow (10-1, 3 KOs) and James ‘Crunch Time’ Wilkins (8-1, 6 KOs) has been added to the card. This will be a clash between two highly regarded talents from the East Coast.

Rashidi “Speedy” Ellis (21-0, 14 KOs) of Boston will fight Eddie “Eboy” Gomez (23-3, 13 KOs) of the Bronx, N.Y. in a 10-round rematch for the vacant WBA Continental Americas Welterweight Title. Ellis is very close to a world title opportunity, while Gomez is eager to avenge his stunning first-round knockout loss to him in 2016.

Victor Morales Jr. (12-0, 7 KOs) of Vancouver, Wash. will return in an eight-round super featherweight bout. This will be Morales’ first fight on a Golden Boy card after signing with the company.

Alex Rincon (7-0, 6 KOs) of Dallas will return in a six-round super welterweight fight.

Alberto “Impacto” Melian (5-1, 3 KOs) of Buenos Aires, Argentina will participate in an eight-round super bantamweight fight.

There will also be two addition non-streamed fights. This includes the return of Argentine puncher Marcelino “Nino” Lopez (36-2-1, 21 KOs) in an eight-round super lightweight fight.

Also, Chinese contender Baishanbo Nasiyiwula (15-3-1, 6 KOs) will participate in a eight-round 140-pound clash against Saul Corral (30-14, 20 KOs) of Sonora, Mexico.

Opponents for Rincon and Lopez will be announced shortly.

Cancio vs. Alvarado II is a 12-round fight for the WBA Super Featherweight World Title presented by Golden Boy. The event is sponsored by Tecate, “THE OFFICIAL BEER OF BOXING,” and Hennessy “Never Stop. Never Settle.” The event will take place Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif. and will be streamed live on DAZN. The title defense is one of several highlights this fight season on DAZN – an entire fall featuring boxing’s biggest matchups in one of the best schedules in boxing history.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com and DAZN.com. Follow on Twitter @GoldenBoyBoxing and @DAZN_USA. Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and https://www.facebook.com/DAZNUSA/. Follow on Instagram @GoldenBoy and @DAZN_USA. Follow the conversation using #CancioAlvarado2.

Photos and videos are available for download by clicking here or copying and pasting the link http://bit.ly/CancioAlvarado2 into a browser. Credit must be provided to Golden Boy Promotions for any photo and/or video usage.

In 1990 Evander Holyfield was the mandatory contender for the Heavyweight Title then held by Mike Tyson. Though Tyson’s title defense was overdue, Tyson was permitted to engage in an optional title defense with James Buster Douglas. As we all know, Douglas won by knockout.

Thereafter all hell broke loose. Don King, at the time Douglas’ promoter, and one of the ratings organizations wanted a rematch, avoiding Holyfield. The other organizations were prepared to follow their rules and directed that the Holyfield mandatory take place.

Litigation ensued. Holyfield prevailed and fought James Buster Douglas. Holyfield’s career turned out to be legendary.

Now, 25 years later there is the identical scenario. Vyacheslav Glazkov won a title elimination bout to become the mandatory contender for the title then held by Wladimir Klitschko. There is a well-established rotation system among the ratings organizations when there is a unified champion. When Klitschko fought Tyson Fury it was after Klitschko’s mandatory with Glazkov would have otherwise been due (it was due in August). Following the rotation system, Glazkov stood aside and without any protest watched the Klitschko/Fury bout be scheduled, then postponed, and then rescheduled – all during the period when it would otherwise be his turn to fight the mandatory for the heavyweight title. He stood aside because of the rotation system, which made it the turn of the WBA/WBO to enforce their mandatories. However, everyone knew going into the Klitschko/Fury fight that it was Glazkov’s turn next.

A word on the rotation system. Again, we go back to Evander Holyfield. After Evander Holyfield defeated James Buster Douglas, he was the Unified Heavyweight Champion of the World. A squabble erupted with the different ratings organizations demanding that he engage in different bouts. We were forced to go to Court and the Court enforced an equitable remedy, to wit, the rotation system under which the ratings organizations would rotate the mandatories for unified champions. This enhanced the likelihood of fighters maintaining unified championships rather than allowing them to be stripped due to simultaneous mandatory obligations, something which had occurred too often in earlier years. This rotation system is crucial to enhancing the ability of unified champions to keep their titles.

Of course, a title holder can always voluntarily give up a title. That is the Champion’s choice. However, there is nothing at all unfair about the rotational system or the mandatory system.

No one utilized the rotational system more effectively than Wladimir Klitschko. There is no criticism of this – it was his right.

But everyone involved knew that Glazkov had waited in line for his mandatory to be due. Everybody knew that the rules of the ratings organizations disfavored rematches and generally prohibited them when a mandatory was due.

Again, it was a voluntary choice for Klitschko and Fury to contract for a rematch. Main Events contacted the Fury camp, it was told that Fury could not negotiate because of the rematch clause. Subject to the rules, they had every right to do so even if it meant giving up a title. However, that voluntary choice was one that was made by the camps of Messrs. Klitschko and Fury. There should be absolutely no surprise or anguish that the rules, which are well-established, protect not only the Champion who is protected from being torn from a title by conflicting mandatories, but also the mandatory challenger who is forced to wait due to the rotation because the mandatory challenger is assured that his turn will, in fact, come.

*Note* Patrick English, Esq. litigated the cases referenced above.

By Norm Frauenheim-

A week-long celebration of the 25-year anniversary of Buster Douglas’ upset of Mike Tyson is a revealing look at where boxing has been and where it is, or perhaps isn’t these days. Nostalgia is a good thing. It’s a personal attachment to dramatic moments in a rich history that the UFC will never have.

But nostalgia is also a refuge and I suspect that’s why there’s been so much of it in the days before Wednesday’s anniversary of a stunner that rivals hockey’s Miracle on Ice and New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath’s upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Douglas-Tyson comes with that inevitable question: Where were you? Anywhere is better than the ongoing uncertainty of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. talks. A trip into the past is as good an escape as any.

For the record, I was in Miami at a silly Slam Dunk Contest that precedes the NBA All-Star Game. I didn’t see a single dunk and I’m sure my newspaper story reflected that. Douglas-Tyson was a pretty good escape on the night it happened, too.

There have been other great upsets, of course. Other fights are remembered with that defining, where-were-you question. My late dad would always tell me about Joe Louis’ first-round knockout of Germany’s Max Schmeling in a 1938 rematch of Schmeling’s 1936 victory. He was in the barracks, in basic training for a much bigger fight.

Louis-Schmeling was the fight that captured the collective imagination of my dad’s generation. It represented his attachment to boxing. For my generation, it’s been Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier and increasingly, Ali-George Foreman. The 40-year anniversary of Ali’s upset of Foreman in Zaire on Oct. 30, 1974 was celebrated just a few months ago in a wave of nostalgia that, by the way, was also an early escape from a resumption of the Pacquiao-Mayweather talk.

For younger generations, it’s Douglas-Tyson. Douglas’ upset, a 10th stoppage in Tokyo, was so unscripted — so unthinkable — that has become unforgettable. There’s a great anecdote this week in an Associated Press story about Douglas. Legendary AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler landed in Tokyo and was asked at customs how long he would be working in Japan.

“About 90 seconds,’’ Schuyler said.

Schuyler summed it up as only he could. Tyson was the most feared fighter since Sonny Liston. Over time, the magnitude of Douglas’ upset has multiplied simply because Douglas never did anything else. Douglas’ triumph on the night of Feb. 11, 1990 stands alone. In his next fight, he surrendered to Evander Holyfield in a bout that was preceded by reports that Douglas had pizza delivered to him while he sat in a sauna trying to sweat off excess pounds.

Then, it began to look as if Douglas’ victory was an aberration. Tyson was as feared as ever. Even after three-and-a-half years of lousy food and no sparring during three-plus years in prison, Tyson scared the fight out of just about anyone who dared step in the ring with him. Everybody, that is, but Holyfield.

On this list of great upsets over the last 25 years, Holyfield’s 11th-round TKO of Tyson in 1996 before their Infamous Bite Fight in 1997 ranks as a close second to Douglas-Tyson. It was thought that Holyfield was shot. There was even fear for his life.

He had suffered a reported heart condition in a 1994 loss to Michael Moorer. He opened as a 25-to-1 underdog at some of the Las Vegas books. Holyfield wasn’t as big a long shot as Douglas, whose fight with Tyson was off the board at every book but The Mirage. But the opening odds added up to the same conclusion: No chance.

Holyfield did what Douglas had done before him. He didn’t let Tyson bully him. Douglas showed Holyfield that Tyson couldn’t think through adversity. The rest is history, which is a lot more interesting than anything we’ve heard – or not heard – in the here and now.

EASTON, PA – SEPTEMBER 24 –A night of heavyweight action will serve as the main event at “Fight Night at SteelStacks II” scheduled for October 17, 2013 at 7:00PM at the beautiful ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA. The evening’s main event will feature 13th ranked WBA heavyweight contender Travis Kauffman (26 – 1, 19 KO’s) of Reading, PA in a 6-round bout. In addition to seeing Kauffman in action, former Heavyweight Champions James “Buster” Douglas and Larry Holmes will be on hand for a VIP ticket holder reception and autograph signing.

Kauffman, coming off a TKO victory in North Carolina on September 21, looks to continue climbing the boxing ranks as he prepares for a potential title shot in 2014. Known as “Great White Hope“, Kauffman hopes to turn his rough upbringing on the streets of Reading, PA into being Heavyweight Champion.

Prior to bell time, VIP ticket holders will have the opportunity to meet former Heavyweight Champions “Buster” Douglas and Larry Holmes at a special reception to be held at 6:00PM. Douglas, best known for his 1990 knockout victory over then undefeated Mike Tyson, finished his career with a 38-6-1 record when he retired in 1999. Tickets for the VIP experience start at $100 and include a premium open cocktail package for four hours.

In addition to Kauffman, Jeffrey Dorsey Holmes (0-2), grandson of Larry Holmes will compete on the undercard. Holmes, who was defeated by Marquis Pierce of Phillipsburg, NJ at Fight Night at SteelStacks I in June, will attempt to defend his family’s name as he enters a higher weight class. Holmes has been training with his grandfather and says he feels much stronger in the new division. Pierce(1-1) is also scheduled to appear against a new opponent.

Tickets for the October 17th date are on sale now at www.artsquest.org , by phone at 610-332-3378, and the ArtsQuest Center box office. All tickets include a drink package, and start at $35.

Fight Night at SteelStacks II is proudly sponsored by Boyle Construction, Inc., Bennett Jaguar of Allentown, American Printing Unlimited, Service Electric Cable TV and Communications, and Contrail Aircraft Charters, Inc. Along with media sponsors 99.9 the Hawk, ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley, and 107.1 the Bone.