IBO Boxing News – Honesty & Integrity
Promoter Eddie Hearn wanted to let the boxing world know that Oleksandr Usyk is on Anthony Joshua’s radar, but the winner of Fury Wilder was first order of business in 2019.
Boxing News from Around The Web
HBO Boxing’s swan song has IBO Women’s Welterweight Champion Cecilia Braekhus headlining.
It looks to be an epic showdown next month when Mbenge and Vazquez square off in South Africa.
Hearn taps Gennady Golovkin as Callum Smiths next opponent.
After dominating Tony Bellew in Manchester, Oleksandr Usyk has his sights set on Anthony Joshua.
For more than 40 years, it’s the tagline by which HBO was known to all boxing fans.
The premium cable giant announced recently it would no longer be a full-time player in the boxing game – thanks to changing subscriber priorities – and the news created ripples across the sport’s landscape.
Some criticized the move and its motives, but others chose to take the high road and celebrate the network for what it did to elevate the sport, support it, and help it transform many fighters into bona fide superstars.
Count IBO President Ed Levine among those taking the latter tack.
“It’s hard to quantify what HBO has done for boxing, but it certainly was positive” he said. “It’s been an admirable run,” Levine said. “I have also had the highest regard for their broadcast team, past and present. In my opinion, Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman, Roy Jones Jr., Harold Lederman, and Michael Buffer are the measure of talent by which many boxing broadcasts will be judged in the future”.
“We’re also proud to say that many IBO champions were featured in HBO fights and we will always be thankful for the opportunities.”
In fact, no fewer than 21 former or current IBO title-holders took at least one turn on the HBO stage during their careers, ranging from the heavyweight division all the way down to the flyweight ranks.
Not surprisingly, the big men tended to make the biggest impacts.
Former IBO kingpin Lennox Lewis was a veritable staple on HBO during his near-four-year run, including a dual pay-per-view extravaganza with Mike Tyson that generated nearly 2 million buys. He also captured the vacant IBO belt on HBO’s air against Evander Holyfield in 1999, lost and regained it from Hasim Rahman in 2001 and closed his career with a stirring defense against Vitali Klitschko in 2003.
Subsequent IBO champion Wladimir Klitschko also appeared frequently on HBO during his long reign that stretched from 2006 to 2015, and another IBO successor – Anthony Joshua – earned street cred on the network with an 11th-round TKO of Klitschko that earned wide acclaim as 2017’s fight of the year.
No fewer than five IBO champs at 175 pounds, including Roy Jones Jr., Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal, were multiple main-eventers, comprising a stirring series of fights that at that time cemented the IBO title as a sign of preeminence in the light heavyweight division.
The network’s final multiple-fight superstar, IBO middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin, appeared 14 times in IBO title bouts and scored 11 of 12 wins by stoppage before drawing and subsequently losing his belt against Canelo Alvarez in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The IBO had one of its biggest nights on HBO in May 2009, when Manny Pacquiao decimated incumbent champ Ricky Hatton in two violent rounds in a title bout sanctioned only by the IBO. The IBO remains the only organization to have recognized Pacquiao as a junior welterweight champion during his run from 112 pounds all the way up to 154. “That was certainly a memorable event that we’ll always consider significant,” Levine said.
Rounding out the roster of IBO champs who appeared on HBO are ex-168-pound king Jeff Lacy, 154-pounders Sergio Martinez and Erislandy Lara, welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr., 130-pounder Jose Pedraza, featherweight Prince Naseem Hamed, 122-pounder Paulie Ayala, bantamweights Rafael Marquez and Vic Darchinyan and flyweight Nonito Donaire.
“Thanks for the great memories HBO”.
2018 IBO World Title Fight Schedule
December 1st 2018 IBO World Super Welterweight (Los Angeles)
Jarrett “Swift” Hurd vs. Jason Welborn
December 2nd 2018 IBO World Minimumweight (South Africa)
Simphiwe Khonco vs. Joey Canoy
December 8th 2018 IBO Women’s World Welterweight (Los Angeles)
Cecilia “First Lady” Braekhus vs. Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes
December 8th 2018 IBO World Welterweight (South Africa)
Thulani Mbenge vs. Miguel Vazquez
December 8th 2018 IBO Women’s World Flyweight (Brussels)
Sanae Jah vs. Nina Radovanovic
December 15th 2018 IBO World Light Heavyweight (Germany)
Karo Murat vs. Sven Fornling
IBO is straight forward with what they do, which I totally respect. I rank them above the WBA.