RSSKassim Ouma
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
De La Hoya, Leonard Make Friendly Bet
LOS ANGELES - Famed pugilists Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard have made a “friendly” bet on two bouts between fighters from their respective camps, making the September 15 “Fireworks” boxing event, featuring Juan Manuel Marquez against Rocky Juarez in the main event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and live on pay-per-view, that much more explosive.
In the first bout, and opening the pay-per-view telecast that evening, Francisco “Panchito” Bojado will represent De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. His opponent Steve Forbes, will represent the Leonard-hosted ‘The Contender’ Series, as runner-up from Contender Season Two. In the other bout, Golden Boy pugilist and former junior middleweight champion Kassim “The Dream” Ouma will battle Contender first season winner Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora. The winners of the bouts will decide the winner of the bet between De La Hoya and Leonard with both decorated fighters agreeing that the loser will provide ring card girl duties between the first and second round of the main event. If it’s a draw with one bout a piece for each side, De La Hoya and Leonard will share ring card duties.
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Sunday, December 10, 2006
Taylor Defeats Ouma; Retains Title, Perfect Record
Despite being bloody and battered, Jermain Taylor retained his two middleweight titles and won an unanimous decision over Kassim Ouma on Saturday night.
The fight took place in Taylor’s hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas and was contested under the WBC’s new scoring policy in which the judges’ scores are announced at the end of the 4th and 8th rounds as well as the end of the fight. All of the judges had Taylor winning by an overwhelming margin each time and Ouma used it as fire to go for a knockout but he was unsuccessful.
Speaking of knockouts, didn’t Taylor promise the Little Rock fans a knockout win in this fight? Even though he didn’t deliver, I’m sure his fans are happy anyway.
Despite taking a good amount of punishment, Ouma never backed down from his opponent. Taylor was actually on the defensive for much of the fight, I’m surprised that the judges didn’t score the fight a lot closer…
“He came out and fought hard for all 12 rounds,” Taylor said. “He’s a little guy, but he’s very tough.”
“I’m never going to give up. You know me,” said Ouma, who added that he planned to stay at 160 pounds. “I’m a small guy, but I am here to stay.”
Taylor suffered a deep cut during the 5th round over his left eye and the blood continue to stream down throughout the remainder of the fight.
After the fight there was much speculation that Taylor would now face Sergio Mora next and provided that he win, would take on Joe Calzaghe in a showdown this summer. Both fighters have called Taylor out recently and I’m sure they are going to be happy once they hear the rumors…
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Is Ouma Tailor Made For Taylor?
Middleweight champion Jermain Taylor will take on former junior middleweight titleholder Kassim Ouma in his hometown this weekend. This is a good showcase fight for the talented Taylor after two bouts with Bernard Hopkins and a match with clever Winky Wright. Although Ouma is a good fighter with a name and a reputation, do you honestly think team Taylor would pick a boxer they weren’t sure he was going to beat in Little Rock?
Ouma is moving up in weight. Taylor is a big middleweight. I see him soon moving to 168 and eventually to 175. I see Ouma putting up a good fight in the early rounds but Taylor will take over and dominate. I cannot see this fight going the distance.
Then I’ll be ready for Jermain Taylor vs Kelly Pavlik…
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Now Taylor Wants Calzaghe
Why don’t they just get married, they want each other so bad. Just kidding, bad joke…
WBO and IBF Super Middleweight Champion Joe Calzaghe has already stated that he has a lot of interest in fighting Jermain Taylor…
Well it just so happens that the WBC and WBO Middleweight belt holder feels the same way.
“Calzaghe is a fight I would love because he’s supposed to be the man there and those are the guys I want,” said Taylor, adding that “Boxing is a job, that’s all. What’s the point of sticking around? To get extra, extra rich? I’m already rich, richer than I ever thought, so I don’t need to be any richer. I’m going to get out and never look back.”
Taylor has said that he will move up in weight next year - I’m guessing that means his fight against Kassim Ouma will be his last at 160 lbs.
Even more surprising is the fact that Taylor is saying he will be ready to retire in 2009 at the age of 30. What the hell is with these younger boxers retiring all of the sudden?
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Jermain Taylor Set for First Title Defense
NEW YORK - World Middleweight Champion Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor will don boxing gloves instead of a Santa suit, but he’ll get the opportunity to deliver a present when he defends his title at home in North Little Rock, Arkansas for the first time on Saturday, December 9 at Alltel Arena. Taylor (25-0-1, 17 KOs) will put his title at stake in front of his hometown fans which will be aired on HBO’s World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00PM (ET) / 9:00PM (CT) / 7:00PM (PT) when he takes on former World Champion Kassim “The Dream” Ouma (25-2-1, 15 KOs). The 12-round main event is being promoted by DiBella Entertainment in association with Golden Boy Promotions and Peltz Boxing.
Taylor, 28, is one of boxing’s brightest stars and one of Arkansas’ most popular athletes. The fight with Ouma will mark his first defense in his home state. He won the title by defeating the legendary middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins on July 16, 2005, and repeated the win in the rematch on December 3, 2005.
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Hatton, Wright Find Opponents
The search for a opponent is finally over for Ricky Hatton and Winky Wright…
Both fighters have had a tumultuous last few months: Hatton was robbed while visiting China, was forced to relinquish his WBA Welterweight Title in order to pursue other chances to find an opponent, and had to deal with Luis Collazo asking for a rematch every five minutes.
Wright on the other hand has had opponents dodge him left and right. He sent out open challenges to both Jermain Taylor and Antonio Margarito. What happened? Taylor opted to defend his belts against Kassim Ouma; Margarito and his camp completely ignored Wright, deciding to instead take on Joshua Clottey.
The two have finally found matches however:
Wright will take on the recently victorious Ike Quartey who defeated Vernon Forrest in an extremely controversial decision on August 5th.
Wright hasn’t fought in Florida in four years, so the bout against Quartey will be a homecoming of sorts. “Finally,” Winky told the St. Pete Times, “I get to come home.”
Hatton will be fighting Juan Urango in January of 2007. It was speculated for months that this fight might happen, especially with Hatton dropping his belt so he could move down in weight to try and grab Urango.
“I’ll be fighting Juan Urango on January 13,” Hatton told Sky Sports, “which is a little bit of a disappointment because I was hoping to fight in October or November, but that’s the only date HBO had available.”
The system is keeping Hatton down!
Junior Witter called out Hatton after his victory over DeMarcus Corley this past weekend but Hatton says that there are a few things that need to happen before that becomes a reality…
“I’m contracted to HBO for my next two fights,” said Hatton in response to Junior’s challenge, “and they’re practically done deals now. I don’t see why a little bit further down the line that if Junior makes a couple of defenses I can fight him.
“On the undercard will be Castillo. Should I get past Urango they’re lining up Castillo for me. If Junior can hold onto his belt and make a few defenses the fight against me will be even bigger.”
The consenus is right - It’s good that Hatton is being honest about his contract with HBO and the fact that he can’t take on whoever calls him out because of that. It’s better than lying about it to try and make yourself look better…
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Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Report: Taylor to Defend Against Ouma
The Arkansas-Democrat Gazette is reporting that Jermain Taylor will defend his WBC and WBO Middleweight titles against Kassim Ouma on December 9th in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Many middleweight enthusiasts, wanted a rematch with Winky Wright. Taylor and Wright fought to a draw on June 17th in Memphis in a controversial decision as Wright and other critics believed that he should have won a unanimous decision.
Officials for both Taylor and Wright actually hooked up over the summer to try and bang out a contract but nothing ever came to fruition.
The Boston Globe reported back in August that Golden Boy Promotions on behalf of Wright made a $ 6 Million offer to Taylor’s promotional company concerning a December rematch. It doesn’t make any sense - I’m guessing the report was false since Taylor’s promoter Lou DiBella is saying that a similar offer was made to Wright, who turned it down because he wanted more money, which did happen according to Wright and his advisor, Jim Wilkes.
With Antonio Margarito now locked up for December as well, I wonder if Wright will fight again in 2006…
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Friday, July 28, 2006
Golden Boy Promotions Offers Up Three Opponents for Margarito
LOS ANGELES – In recent weeks, there has been a hearty dose of bluster from the camp of WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, claiming that he is the ‘most feared fighter in boxing’, and that no one is willing to fight him.
Golden Boy Promotions has the solution to Mr. Margarito’s problem in securing an opponent for a fight this year – in fact, it has three solutions in pound for pound superstar Winky Wright, former junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma, and rising star Ishe Smith, all of whom are willing to battle Margarito at a moment’s notice.
‘I respect Antonio Margarito as a fighter, but his claims that no one wants to fight him are baseless,’ said Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya. ‘We already offered Margarito’s promoter, Top Rank, a fight against Winky Wright, but they declined, saying that Margarito was not a middleweight. Well, we never discussed this fight as being at middleweight. Winky is more than willing to come down to 154 pounds for this fight, and given the fact that Margarito has fought at junior middleweight before and has called out other junior middleweights like Shane Mosley, Cory Spinks, and myself, I don’t see why this fight can’t be made.’
‘And just in case Margarito doesn’t want to challenge himself against Winky Wright,’ continues De La Hoya, ‘we have two more warriors who are eager to test themselves against him – Kassim Ouma and Ishe Smith, both of whom can fight at 147 pounds.’
The ball is in your court, Antonio.
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