Fight-size Boxing Update: Andre Ward, Canelo-Smith Press Tour, Former Champ To Lose Eye
This is your fight-size boxing update for July 19!
– Deontay Wilder provided an update on his torn biceps suffered in his win last week against Chris Arreola. Wilder also has a broken right hand and posted this video on social media.
– Famous boxing trainer Freddie Roach said that he believes that Andre Ward’s two-year layoff from boxing from 2013-2015 has hindered his boxing, saying that he “hasn’t looked great” in his last two fights and was not in the gym during that time.
– Canelo Alvarez and Liam Smith kicked off a press tour to advertise their big fight for Smith’s WBO junior middleweight title at AT&T Stadium on Sept. 17. You can check out photos of the press event at this link, courtesy of World Boxing News.
– On to a sad piece of news, former IBF and WBC super bantamweight champion Israel Vasquez (44-5, 32 KOs) will undergo surgery to remove his right eye, which has been badly damaged since his last fight against Rafael Marquez back in 2010. He will have a prosthetic eye placed there. He said the following:
“The problem obviously arose after the last fight [of my career, against Marquez],” Vazquez told Boxing News. “But I don’t want to demonize the sport or the fight, because this was an oversight by my physician and myself. I had many surgeries and one of them was to put silicone into my eye. I assumed that the doctors knew what they were doing, and at that time I did not recover my vision 100-percent, but I could live my life. What’s happened is, I can’t see with my right eye. I have made my life with my left eye and I have no problems.”
By Carlos Toro
