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Okolie You are concerned about whether Billam-Smith will have to swim with Riakporhe in deep water

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Former WBO cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie is undecided on whether last year’s title winner will defend his title for a second time on Saturday.

Last year Okolie lost to Bournemouth star Chris Billam-Smith at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium and on Saturday (June 15) his winner will face Richard Riakporhe at Selhurst Park in another stadium brawl.

Okolie, who has moved up to the bridge division, believes his former gymmate Billam-Smith can defend his title, but doesn’t think CBS needs another tough fight.

“In my opinion, the best version of Chris will beat the best version of Riakporhe,” Okolie said.

There was a caveat, however. Okolie thought about it and added, “The last time I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that Chris had been to the well a few too many times. I think even in our fight, even though he was able to win and had some knockdowns, it would have cost him a lot more than it would have cost me. Since then, you have constantly seen his eye [cut] open, boxing [Mateusz] Masternak and it seemed that Masternak won this fight comfortably until Chris managed to find two great body shots that took him out.

“The question is, will he be able to get to that point again to beat a towering, powerful and good hitter like Riakporhe?”

Okolie admits that after fighting his former spar, Billam-Smith improved over time, which surprised him. Riakporhe defeated Billam-Smith in 10 rounds five years ago, but Okolie believes the Shane McGuigan-trained champion has improved significantly.

“Agreed. I guess it’s something I took for granted because I thought, I do it all the time and suddenly it’s a different kind of atmosphere [from sparring to actually fighting CBS] and a different kind of energy and even being there with him, it felt different.

“It felt very similar [boxing] of yourself by simply pushing. No matter how challenging I pushed, even if I got knocked down, I just said, “Don’t worry.” I’ll get him later.”

“But when we got to the later rounds, I started trying to push and [throw] more shots and changing gears, he was able to push through and somehow survive those moments when I thought that would be enough to break him. It would break most people. That didn’t happen. But I don’t know if he can do it again. Masternak was next. Can he repeat it against Riakporhe? I don’t know. I’d like to see it, but I don’t think so.

“I think it’s a good fight. I think Chris should win if he can get it into gear again, but if not, I think it might be one shot too many.

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Noel Mikaeljan-Ryan Rozicki The fight for the WBC cruiserweight title will take place on October 4

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The fight scheduled for last weekend has already hit the auction block.

The Ring has confirmed that the WBC cruiserweight title fight between Noel Mikaeljan and Ryan Rozicki is up for bidding again. The two were scheduled to meet on September 28 at the Don King Productions concert at Casino Miami Jai Alai in Miami, Florida.

No reason was given for the program’s cancellation. Either way, it was enough that King, Mikaeljan’s promoter, was found to have reneged on the original contract.

Rozicki is promoted by Daniel Otter’s Three Lions Promotions.

The fallout was the fourth time the fight missed its scheduled date. There were problems with a cut suffered by Mikaeljan (27-2, 12 knockouts) during training camp, which disrupted plans for their June 7 meeting. It was agreed to postpone the date in exchange for finding a novel opponent for Rozicki.

Three postponements later, the patience of Rozicki’s team had long since run out.

“We now hope that we win the bid and Ryan becomes the WBC world champion,” Otter told The Ring.

Mikaeljan, rated 200 by The Ring at No. 2, was scheduled to defend his title for the first time. The 33-year-old Armenian won the belt with a third-round defeat of former titleholder Ilunga Makabu on November 4 in his adopted hometown of Miami.

He remains the only busy titleholder on King’s current promotional lineup.

Rozicki (20-1, 19 KO) will fight for the second title fight in his career, either in the USA or on his home field.

The 29-year-old from Ontario, Canada has won seven in a row since losing to Oscar Rivas in October 2021. Their fierce fight was the inaugural fight for the WBC bridgeweight title.

Rozicki was to fight outside Canada for the first time in his career. His team’s intention now is to keep the fight north of the border.

Follow @JakeNDaBox

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Daniela Dubois’ coach: “I wouldn’t tell Anthony Joshua to come back to him”

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For a coach, perhaps the only thing better than a fight going as expected is for that same fight to end in a tie than they expected or indeed hoped for.

That was the experience for Don Charles and Kieran Farrell that night when their fighter, Daniel Dubois, faced Anthony Joshua in front of around 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. It was a fight in which Dubois, despite holding the IBF heavyweight title, was not only forced into the ring first, but was previously treated by most as merely an underdog; reflection. According to the script, this was the man Joshua would stop within a few rounds before lining up to fight the winner of the December 21 rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.

However, it turned out that on September 21, Dubois was who Charles and Farrell claimed. In just 30 seconds, he stabilized Joshua with a powerful jab to the left and minutes later put the former heavyweight champion on the line. At the end of the fifth round, the fight was over.

“We did it relatively easier than we thought we would, I’ll be sincere with you,” Farrell, who retired to his hotel room after the fight to drink tea, eat chocolate cake and some ice cream, told BoxingScene. “But we were there every day and committed to it. We were at Don’s farm every day for 12 weeks and Daniel put a lot of work into it. You do something every day for such a long time and it may get monotonous, but Daniel doesn’t show any enthusiasm for training. That’s great. He likes it. They say a cheerful fighter is a hazardous fighter, and you saw proof of that in the match against Joshua.

Another similar boxing saying is that a hurt fighter is a hazardous fighter. This seemed to be confirmed in the fifth round of the fight. This was the round in which Joshua scored his first and only success, landing a right hand out of nowhere, and yet instead of deterring Dubois or turning the tide in the Watford fighter’s favor, all he had to do with that punch was focus on the fighter . even more focused. Suddenly Dubois, whose power was already worrying Joshua, simply stepped back and let Joshua get excited and have his moment. Then he found the shot that ended the fight – a right hand thrown compact, with considerable strength and conviction.

Looking back, it was another sign of Dubois’ composure and composure under fire – something evident in the first round when he walked up to Joshua and landed the first punch to his face. “The first thing we said to Daniel was, ‘Come out and give him something to let him know he’s in the ring with you’; that’s exactly what he did,” Farrell said. “He went out there and hit that jab, and that jab is like a f***ing back. It’s a powerful weapon.”

Of course, firing this weapon is often easier said than done. Against Joshua, Dubois had to first get into position to shoot without receiving anything in return. Earlier, and even before entering the ring, he had to control the nerves that all competitors experience while waiting for the first bell. This time too, there were more eyeballs on Dubois than ever – causing some players to buckle under the pressure. But not Dubois. Oversized and seemingly unfazed, he stood statuesque and wore a mask of complete indifference throughout the fight; empty in the best way.

“It was relaxing,” Farrell said. “It sounds elementary and it is. I don’t want to overcomplicate it. If you look at the body language of both guys in this fight, you can see the difference. “AJ” looked like he was stepping into the ring for the first time in front of 98,000 fans. Daniel was excited; it was loose. We constantly reminded him to keep it casual and never stand still. We wanted him to be moving and on his toes before he went out there, and then we wanted him to stay the same when AJ was doing his gigantic walk around the ring and the introductions were going on.

“We expected the ring walk to take about 20 minutes, but it ended up being quite compact and piercing. Then, once we entered the ring, AJ stood still. I wouldn’t say he looked scared, but he looked very nervous.

“When we caught him with his back hand above his head in the first round and he went down, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s mental.’ Everyone thought Daniel was going to be grabbed by his back hand, but it turned out that Joshua was grabbed by it. It was a really nice moment. We couldn’t have started better. Now we just had to maintain the good streak and force the finish – and we did it. Daniel boxed perfectly.”

Now, after defeating Joshua, the little thing comes in the form of a rematch. For Joshua, it will be a chance for him to get revenge and prove that the first fight was just an aberration, while for Dubois it should give him a chance to play the role in this fight that he perhaps should have played the first time around. He will also approach a potential rematch as a man who not only believes he can beat Anthony Joshua, as he did before, but also as a man who actually can beat Anthony Joshua.

This is one of the reasons why Farrell suggests that a rematch with Dubois could be the biggest mistake Joshua could make at this stage of his career.

“If I were advising Joshua, I wouldn’t tell him to jump back into Daniel Dubois – a juvenile, hungry 27-year-old lion,” he said. “From what I see day after day, I know what he is capable of and now Joshua knows it too. If Daniel has hurt someone, he won’t see the final bell. He is a devastating boxer and I am only talking about facts. He’s like a modern-day Mike Tyson. But a bigger version.

“There are other fights for Joshua. He can do it [Deontay] Fight with Wilder. This would be a good fight between two huge names who now need a gigantic win. A win for either of them in this fight would give them a boost of confidence. They have been linked for a long time and both now have failures on their record. It would be wise to fight this fight.”

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Bivol may give up Beterbiev, says Chris Algieri

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Image: Bivol Could Drop Beterbiev, Says Chris Algieri

Chris Algieri believes that on October 12 we will see Artur Beterbiev knocked down by WBA airy heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. Algieri believes Bivol (23-0, 12 KO) has the strength to defeat Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KO) at some point in the main event at the Kingdom Arena in Riyad.

It’s demanding to imagine Bivol abandoning IBF, WBC and WBO champion Beterbiev when he couldn’t knock down Lyndon Arthur, Gilberto Ramirez, Canelo Alvarez, Craig Richards or Joe Smith.

If Bivol couldn’t knock down these fighters, it doesn’t seem realistic to assume he can beat Beterbiev. Bivol won’t want to risk stopping in front of Beterbiev and getting clipped. Either way, this could have happened even if Bivol had used his normal hit-and-run style.

“Don’t be surprised if at some point in this fight Bivol catches Beterbiev, which should shock everyone because you’re watching a boxer take a punch to the mat,” Chris Algieri told Probox TVdiscussing the possibility of Dmitry Bivol knocking down Artur Beterbiev during their fight.

“We already saw Beterbiev downstairs. We saw Bivol score some really good knockdowns and knockouts. So it wouldn’t be strange if such a situation occurred,” Algieri said.

The only real knockout Beterbiev suffered was against Callum Johnson in 2018, but it wasn’t that bad. He got up and knocked out Johnson in the next round. Early in his career, Beterbiev was knocked down by Jeff Page Jr. after being quickly knocked down.

“Beterbiev is a very good boxer with very deep amateur experience and his skills have started to emerge recently as he has gotten older. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s not as wild as he used to be. When he comes into the team, he has to be smarter and more dishonest,” Algieri said.

Beterbiev has been fighting harder punches lately than at the start of his career and has had to be more vigilant defensively. If Beterbiev had fought the likes of Callum Smith and Anthony Yarde earlier in his career, he would have been more cautious about attacking them.

“We can see him using his jab, closing the distance and positioning himself much better. Bivol is certainly not a puncher, but he can hit demanding enough to command respect. Even in the Canelo fight, he was able to disarm the offensive machine in Canelo with his power, striking ability and combination punches with the stiffness of his shots. It’s a very complicated and nuanced fight,” Algieri said.

Canelo Alvarez was more concerned about the quick three-punch combinations that Bivol was throwing during their 2022 fight, but he didn’t have enough strength or power to pay for it. If Bivol was the same height as Canelo, he couldn’t have fought like that without getting knocked out because he was exposing himself against him because he was a much bigger guy.

“You’re talking about Bivol’s punching power. We saw some acute right hands. They surprise with their speed. They’re dishonest and all of a sudden you see him land a right hand and the guys get hurt,” Paulie Malignaggi said.

Bivol does have good right hand strength, but he is not at the level of some of Beterbiev’s recent opponents. These former Beterbiev knockout victims have more power than Bivol:

-Anthony Yarde
– Callum Smith
– Radivoje Kalajdzic
–Joe Smith Jr.
– Oleksandr Gvozdyk
– Callum Johnson

Bivol could be a better hitter if he wasn’t so focused on his in-and-out style. He’s always thinking about his exit strategy and doesn’t want to sit around putting weight on his shots like power hitters do. Perhaps one reason is that Bivol has been injured in the past and doesn’t want to risk being marked heavily.

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