TalkingBoxing News
Green Faces Murdoch, WBA title shot for winner?
FRI, January 19 - Danny Green defends his IBF Pan Pacific Light Heavyweight title against Pan Asian Boxing
Association champion Paul Murdoch at the Melbourne State Netball and Hockey Centre this Sunday, January 21.
The bout is seen as a step up light heavyweight rankings as Green continues to target WBA Champion Silvio Branco but Team Green isn't underestimating the heavy handed Murdoch.
Said Green's manager Justin Manolikos, "We're not looking past this fight with Paul Murdoch, he's a very tough, experienced fighter who went 11 rounds with WBO Champion Zsolt Erdei in Erdei's backyard. It's going to be a tough fight, Murdoch is quite heavy fisted but we certainly believe that Dan has the tools to take care of him."
Green won the WBC Interim belt as a super middleweight but came up short against Anthony Mundine last year in Australia's highest ever grossing boxing match. Since then the Perth puncher has moved to light heavyweight, knocking out Jason DeLisle in thrilling fashion, and Manolikos is confident of Green's chances at the higher weight.
"Danny is one of the fittest fighters out there and also one of the strongest pound for pound in regards to punching power," he said. "We don't believe that by going up a division, he'd lose any of his advantages; putting on those three extra kilos just allows him to be bigger and stronger. We believe he still clearly has those advantages, and can certainly dominate most light heavyweights out there."
Team Green is banking on WBA Champion Silvio Branco defeating challenger Stipe Drews in February, setting up another world title opportunity for "The Green Machine".
"We had Danny lined up to fight Silvio Branco when the Italian was interim champion," said Manolikos. "But full champion Fabrice Tiozzo retired, Branco had to make his first defense against the number one contender, Stipe Drews.
"So, we had to look at other ways to get Danny up the rankings and in the meantime hope that Branco wins. Both Danny and Paul Murdoch are ranked in the WBA so whoever wins this fight can expect to move up into the top five. All going to plan, Branco fights Stipe Drews on February 24 in Germany, and if he wins, we believe that Branco will then agree to come to Australia and fight Danny."
Green Machine Promotions present "Lights Out" featuring Danny Green vs. Paul Murdoch for the IBF Pan Pacific and PABA Light Heavyweight Championship belts along with full undercard at the Melbourne State Netball and Hockey Centre in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, January 21. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Tickets available at www.ticketmaster.com.au
www.dannygreen.com.au
Solis-Green for IBF Title on Versus
FRI, January 19 - VERSUS, in collaboration with leading boxing promoter Top Rank, today announced that the IBF light flyweight world championship will be up for grabs in a showdown between Mexico’s Ulises Solis (22-1-2, 16 KOs) and Will Grigsby (18-3-1, 7 KOs) of St. Paul, MN. The fighters will headline the network’s second live Fight Night telecast of the New Year on Thursday, January 25 at 9 p.m. ET from The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas .
The 12-round match is expected to bring high energy and maximum effort from two men who have been down this road before. It was a little more than a year ago that Solis captured the title from Grigsby in a 12-round unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York City .
Fight Night viewers will again be able to score the bouts from home through the VERSUS website at VERSUS.com. These viewer scores will be posted throughout the telecast. Scoring from home mostly recently was used on the VERSUS January 11 Fight Night telecast.
Featured on the undercard on VERSUS will be a 10-round heavyweight battle between the rising star of the heavyweight division, Tye “Big Sky” Fields (36-1, 33 KOs) as he takes on Kendrick Releford (14-8-1, 5 KOs ). Fields, who recently signed a promotional deal with Top Rank, brings an impressive streak of 20 straight victories—16 by knockout—to the match in Las Vegas .
“Big Sky” is an extremely popular boxing figure in Las Vegas and is a monster of a man, standing in at 6’8” and 260 lbs. The southpaw is managed by Billy Baxter who previously managed champions Roger Mayweather, Vernon Forrest and Bruce Curry. Fields is trained by Jesse Reid who has worked with many champions including Johnny Tapia, Gaby and Orlando Canizales. Releford of Forth Worth, TX has ranked as high as #10 by the WBO.
Wally Matthews, a veteran boxing writer who has covered the sport for two decades, and Bob Papa, who has called boxing for ESPN and currently for NBC, will host. Michael Buffer, the tuxedoed announcer who coined the catchphrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" will again serve as the ring announcer for the live fights.
VERSUS (VERSUS.com) celebrates real competition in all its forms. The network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events like The Tour de France, the America 's Cup, the Dakar Rally, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), Professional Boxing, the Boston Marathon and Davis Cup. Now in more than 70 million homes, the network features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events that audiences can't find elsewhere. The network offers unique, competition-themed original programming and is the exclusive home of Survivor in syndication. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States .
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