Manchester star Terry Flanagan will now face Jose Zepeda for the WBO World Lightweight Championship.
The WBO have ordered Flanagan and the undefeated Mexican to meet for the Vacant title with promoters Queensberry Promotions and Top Rank allowed 15 days to negotiate and a purse bid will be held if an agreement isn’t reached.
Flanagan, the current WBO European champion, was due to face the winner out of Ray Beltran and Takahiro Ao who met last Friday night, but when Beltran failed to make the stipulated weight limit at the official weigh-in, the title was still declared vacant even though Beltran won by stunning second round stoppage.
Undefeated Flanagan will now start preparing for knockout king Zepeda, ranked at number five in the WBO, who has stopped 20 out of his 23 victim, with 16 KO’s coming inside the first three rounds and is relishing the showdown.
“I don’t care who I face, I just want that WBO title and to be the world champion,” Said Flanagan.
“It was a surprise when Beltran failed to make the weight, I would have loved to have ended up facing him as it would have been a right good fight between us with our styles, but now it will be Zepeda and that looks like a right good fight as well,”
“He’s got a cracking record, it’s mostly all early KO’s, but he’s never faced anyone of my calibre in his career yet. He’s undefeated, I’m undefeated, one of us is going to lose the ‘0’, but it isn’t going to me.”
WBO Orders Terry Flanagan vs Jose Zepeda for Lightweight Title
Layla McCarter & Diana Prazak Enter “The Pit” April 4th in BKB’s First Women’s Lightweight Championship
McCarter vs. Prazak added to Nine-bout Card for BKB2
Saturday, April 4 at Mandalay Bay and On Pay-Per-View
LAS VEGAS – March 12, 2015 – Big Knockout Boxing’s (BKB) first women’s Lightweight Championship will be up for grabs at BKB 2 on Saturday, April 4 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Live on Pay-Per-View at 10 p.m. ET, combat sport veterans Layla McCarter from Las Vegas and Melbourne Australia’s Diana Prazak will square off in “The Pit” to showcase the tenacity and aggressiveness of female fighters in this no-nonsense, action-packed format.
Known as Australia’s greatest female fighter, Prazak initially joined a boxing gym to turn her life around and get into shape, but quickly fell in love with the sport. As a world-class fighter, Prazak is known for being technically sound while her opponent, local girl and wily veteran Layla McCarter, boasts over 50 fights in her professional career. Technical, aggressive fighting will be on display when these two warriors enter “The Pit.”
“The sport of BKB is about finding the most aggressive, offensive-minded fighters to go toe-to-toe in ‘The Pit’ and these world-class female boxers fit that mold perfectly,” said Bruce Binkow, executive director of BKB. “We have no doubt that these two women will live up to BKB’s promise of putting the ‘fight’ back in boxing when they step into ‘The Pit’ at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in April.”
BKB is stacking the card to create the ultimate in-venue and at-home experience for fight fans and recently announced a new in-glove technology that will track each fighter’s real-time stats in terms of their punching power and velocity throughout the event. Fans will be able to see which fighter throws the hardest punch in every round, the type of punch, where it lands, how much hand mass has connected with the fighter’s body and other real-time stats. Viewers will also see how Prazak’s and McCarter’s punches measure up against that of the male fighters during the evening.
Developed exclusively for BKB, the technology will use a microchip in the wrist of the boxer’s glove that transmits the information to the TV screen as an easy-to-read, graphic display. It is solely for the entertainment of fans and will not be used in the arena or by the judges to score rounds.
BKB, a new and intense close-range form of boxing that debuted last August, will bring back “The Pit,” a smaller, circular fighting space, rather than a traditional square boxing ring with no ropes designed to produce more knockouts and heightened boxing action. BKB 2 will be available on PPV from DIRECTV and DISH, as well as cable and telco providers through IN DEMAND and Vubiquity for $29.95.
Developed by a team of industry veterans and licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, BKB features shorter and fewer rounds. BKB uses a unique format designed to deliver a higher intensity level, maximum action and amazing knockouts, all of which have been declining with conventional boxing. BKB rounds last two minutes compared to boxing’s three-minute and MMA’s five-minute rounds. Fighters, using eight- and 10-ounce boxing gloves (depending on weight class), go five rounds for non-championship bouts and seven rounds for championship bouts.
Season two of BKB “Unfiltered,” will return this spring on DIRECTV’s Audience Network, channels 101 and 239. “Unfiltered” provides viewers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the sport of BKB and insight into the fighters training regiments with never-before-seen interviews before they battle in “The Pit.”
A Rejuvenated Gabriel Campillo Seeks to Reclaim Champion Status
Former world light heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo (24-6-1, 11 KOs) is looking for his next dance partner.
Coming off a career-rejuvenating victory over formerly undefeated Thomas Williams Jr., on August 1, live on ESPN Friday Night Fights at the Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington, in which he stopped Williams in five rounds, “The Handsome Man,” Campillo next wants to “tango” with any other top light heavyweight in the world.
“Gabriel Campillo, with his upset elimination-bout victory over the undefeated Williams, not only gained the right to be number two in the IBF ratings, but is also number nine in the WBC ratings,” said his exclusive promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz of Sampson Boxing. “He is back and looking forward to becoming world champion once again.”
Professional boxing has been a difficult dance for Campillo, who before suffering losses to two of the top light heavyweights in the world, Sergey Kovalev and Andrey Fonfara (a fight in which he was winning when stopped), the 35-year-old Campillo was outright robbed in high-profile fights against former or current champions Beibut Shumenov, Karo Murat and Tavoris Cloud.
“The headlines after the Cloud fight said it was a Texas robbery in the American Bank Center. He should be 27-3 with his only losses in the last seven years against Kovalev and Fonfara,” continued Lewkowicz. “His victory over Williams shows that working with his stablemate Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez and the team from Maravilla Box has him back to being one of the best in the world. He was not supposed to win that fight, according to the experts, but he used his southpaw stance to open up a cut and then worked on it until the fight had to be stopped. He showed a level of accuracy and skill only top fighters ever reach.”
Lewkowicz says he is currently looking for Campillo’s next opponent, one that will continue the fighter’s mission to reclaim his championship.
“Gabriel has told me he feels better than he has in years and is ready for anyone. I will be looking to put him in a fight that will show the world the great tango dancer from Spain, Gabriel “Chico Guapo” Campillo, still has plenty of moves left to show.”
