RSSLou Savarese
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Holyfield Decisions Savarese
Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield won an unanimous decision over former heavyweight contender Lou Savarese on Saturday night:
Evander Holyfield outworked and outclassed Lou Savarese on Saturday night, winning a 10-round unanimous decision to remain undefeated in his latest comeback.
Holyfield, the 44-year-old former heavyweight champion, started and ended the fight with a hard left to the head of the 41-year-old Savarese. In between, Holyfield was in control.
The judges scored it 98-90, 99-87 and 96-91.
Savarese, a former title contender himself, held his own for the first eight rounds before being knocked off his feet with a hard left to the chin.
Holyfield (42-8-2) knocked Savarese (46-7) to the mat again in the 10th, with Savarese looking as though he was hoping to just stay upright.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Roman Added To Holyfield-Savarese Card
Juarez’ brightest young boxing star, the undefeated Miguel “Mickey Mouse” Roman (21-0), has been added in a feature bout on the June 30th, Holyfield vs Savarese card, scheduled for Saturday, June 30th at UTEP’s Don Haskins Center.
Roman (21-0, 15 KO’s) is scheduled to take on Jose Alonso (29-13-2, 14 KO’s) in a ten round Featherweight fight. The Roman vs Alonso contest will be one of seven fights on the card (see attached), which features 4-time World Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield battling two-time World Heavyweight Contender, Lou Savarese in the main event.
Slated for the Semi-Main Event on the card is El Paso’s undefeated heavyweight sensation, David Rodriguez (25-0) taking on another undefeated prospect, Rick Dyer (13-0, Fort Smith, Ark.).
The June 30th fight against Alonso will be Roman’s second ring appearance in the United States, having fought in El Paso this past October 21st when he knocked out Andres Ladesma in the 3rd round.
Continue reading "Roman Added To Holyfield-Savarese Card"
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Friday, March 30, 2007
Lou Savarese: An Ill-Fated Comeback?
On April 5th former heavyweight contender Lou Savarese will have his third fight since 2004 when he meets Matt Hicks ( 10-1 with 10 KO’s ) in Houston. Hicks’ only loss was by knockout to J.D. Chapman in 2006 Big Lou will turn 42 in July. He has a very respectable 45-6 record with 37 knockouts.
Lou turned pro in 1989 and racked up 36 straight wins. His most important victories were kayos over Olian Alexander and Buster Mathis Jr. In 1997 Lou met linear heavyweight champion George Foreman for the WBU version of the title. Lou lost a hard fought split decision. It was Big George’s last win. That was the beginning of phase two of Lou’s career. Counting the loss to Foreman he would go 9-6 for the rest of his career up until now.
After his loss to Foreman, Lou was surprisingly halted in five by David Izon. Two fights later in 1998 he flattened former champion James “Buster” Douglas to win the IBA version of the heavyweight crown. Next came a split decision win over Lance Whitaker. Lou would then lose a decision to unbeaten Michael Grant. Next up…Mike Tyson.
This was the year 2000 and although Tyson was no longer the “Tyson” of lore, he still had something left. He caught Lou early and stopped him in the first round. It was a very disappointing loss for Savarese but he came back with a four fight win streak that included a five round demolition of former champ “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon.
Just when it looked like Lou’s career was back on track he was savaged in four rounds by the talented but under achieving Kirk Johnson. In Lou’s next contest he was outscored by the then undefeated Leo Nolan. That was in 2004. Lou has since knocked out Marcus Rhode and Travis Fulton. Those wins hardly sent a ripple through the almost stagnant heavyweight ranks. A win over Hicks will not shake up the division either but it will keep Lou on a path that he hopes will lead to the heavyweight title.
How far will Lou go on the comeback trail? Hard to tell. Good match making could prolong it and if he racks up enough wins to get ranked you just never know. He might end up in the right place at the right time. Less deserving boxers have received heavyweight title shots in the last couple of years. My guess is that it won’t happen although I could see Lou paired with guys like Andrew Golota, Tommy Morrison, Joe Mesi or Michael Moorer. What about Holyfield-Savarese? Lou has been in with former champions Foreman, Douglas, Tyson and Witherspoon. Why not add Moorer or Evander to his list?
The bottom line is that I can not for see Lou ever putting together enough solid wins to earn a title shot. I like Lou. I’ve always been a fan of his because he always came to fight. I hope he makes some money and that he does not get hurt.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Ibragimov Disgusted With Fellow Heavyweights
Number one WBO heavyweight contender Sultan Ibragimov, disappointed at seeing his long-awaited title shot against Shannon Briggs postponed due to the champion’s illness, minced no words when it came to the topic of the Brooklyn-born Briggs and the rest of the heavyweight division.
“It seems that everything having to do with Briggs is attached to an excuse,” said Ibragimov. “I don’t understand why he just can’t get in the ring and fight. We all get aches and pains and little sicknesses when we’re preparing for a fight, but the real fighters fight through them. Unfortunately, it seems there aren’t any real fighters left.”
High-profile heavyweights Ray Mercer, Dominick Guinn, Taurus Sykes, and Lou Savarese, among others, were all offered substantial paydays to battle the unbeaten Ibragimov on March 10th, but they refuse to get in the ring with the top contender in the game today.
“I’m disgusted, but at the same time I’m not surprised that these so-called fighters won’t fight me,” said Ibragimov. “They’re all like Briggs – no heart.”
The bout between Briggs and Ibragimov will be rescheduled.
“The weather will be nicer so Briggs may show up to defend his title,” said Ibragimov. “Unless he gets a sunstroke and has to pull out again.”
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Friday, January 19, 2007
EEC - January 19, 2007
Not much news at all yesterday so today’s post will be a little shorter than usual if you don’t mind…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- As we reported yesterday, Don King has found a home in Florida for his February 3rd ‘Super Saturday’ card that will be broadcast on Showtime…
- Ricky Hatton was actually asked to be on the reality show Big Brother this past year but he promptly declined:
“It took me three seconds to turn down Big Brother. I could not stand being in a house for a month with people saying, ‘Ricky, your cup is not on the coaster or you’ve not done the washing up’. Those people are just faking it to get votes and that’s not me.”
- Rumors circulated yesterday that Acelino Freitas was not fighting Joel Casamayor and that he was instead taking on David Diaz in April. Freitas quickly took it upon himself to clear things up announcing that will be fighting Casamayor, making the fight all but official instead close to being done.
- Lou Savarese defeated Travis Fulton last night in the fourth round when the referee was forced to stop the fight and save Fulton from a further beating. Savarese dropped Fulton three times in the second round and twice more in the fourth before the referee decided that Fulton had enough.
- I wasn’t able to find anything on the results of Ricco Rodriguez’s bout but when I do I’ll be sure to make note of it on here…
Weekend Fights:
Friday -
Randall Bailey vs Michael Warrick - Key West, Florida - Junior Welterweight
Juan Manuel Lopez vs Cuahtemoc Vargas - Phoenix, Arizona - Junior Featherweight (Showtime)
Saturday -
Ricky Hatton vs Juan Urango - Las Vegas, Nevada - IBF Junior Welterweight Title
Jose Luis Castillo vs Herman Ngoudjo - Las Vegas, Nevada - WBC Junior Welterweight Eliminator
Nikolai Valuev vs Jameel McCline - Basel, Switzerland - WBA Heavyweight Title
Junior Witter vs Arturo Morua - London, England - WBC Junior Welterweight Title
Sunday -
Danny Green vs Paul Murdoch - Melbourne, Australia - Light-Heavyweight
Some Good Reads:
ESPN: Hatton’s at the weight where he feels great
TSS: This Day in History (January 19, 1991)
MaxBoxing: ‘The British are Coming, the British are Coming - For Ricky Hatton!!!
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
EEC - January 16, 2007
On the heels of Tommy Morrison testing negative, we have Mayweather and Hopkins speaking up, George Foreman traveling, the return of a former heavyweight champion, the pro boxing debut of a former UFC heavyweight champ, a major fight announcement and much more…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- What is it about English fighters that people find so intriguing? I mean really, if you followed this site over the summer, you would see how much media coverage both Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe got. They were always calling out the big names, always changing their minds about who they wanted to fight.
These days it’s the exact opposite with the elite American fighters wanting a piece of them.
Bernard Hopkins has shown interest in Calzaghe, hoping that he will move up a weight-class and fight him later this year:
“After Jones I hope he’ll come up to light-heavyweight to challenge me.” said Hopkins.
Calzaghe also met with Sylvester Stallone this past weekend at a boxing gala event as Stallone was making a trip over to the UK and Calzaghe was one of the people he wanted to meet the most.
Calzaghe said of the meeting with the famed Movie star:,“Sly was great. He’s just a normal guy. He turned up for the dinner by himself. There was no entourage. He said he wanted to meet me after seeing my recent win against Jeff Lacy. He said he was a fan of mine and had seen me fight many times but I told him I had seen him fight a lot more in the movies.”
Calzaghe added: “I value Sly’s opinion. He’s in great nick for a man of 60. He has the body of a 30-year-old. It was great to hear him tell us about Hollywood.”
Apparently calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr. 1000 times is going to pay off for Hatton as Pretty Boy Floyd will be ringside for his fight this weekend against Juan Urango. Even better, he’s going there because of him…
“I’m looking forward to getting an up close and personal look at Hatton so that I can make my mind up on whether I might want to fight him.” explained Mayweather.
- Former heavyweight champion Lou Savarese will continue his comeback this Thursday when he takes on MMA veteran Travis Fulton in an event promoted by himself and his business partner Cameron Park.
- On the same card as Savarese and Fulton, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez will be makig his pro boxing debut.
- DRL Promotions has announced that WBC Lightweight Champion Joel Casamayor will defend his title in a rematch against Acelino Freitas. Freitas won the first fight between the two in 2002 by a close split decision in a fight that Casamayor would have won if he didn’t have two points deducted during the fight for illegal blows.
There is no date set for the fight as of yet but it is expected to be televised on HBO…
- George Foreman is reportedly traveling to the Middle East to promote his famous George Foreman Grill machines. He will be visiting the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai to do an expo on his product.
Some Good Reads:
The Sweet Science: Looking Forward To More In The New Year: Part II; Brooklyn southpaw Luis Collazo is ready for Pomona’s Sugar Shane
Eastside Boxing: Big Name Heavyweights James Toney Could Still Defeat
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