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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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Thursday, April 26, 2007
Welterweight Mania!
Woooooooooooo!
HBO will be televising a split-site tripleheader on July 14th. What? Yeah, I’ve never heard of such a thing either but here goes nothin’...
Three welterweight bouts will be televised on HBO that night:
The opening bout will be Kermit Cintron defending his IBF Welterweight Title for the first time against Walter Matthysse from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. The second bout will feature the uber-popular Arturo Gatti, fighting for the ninth straight time in Atlantic City, in a 10-round affair against former Contender star Alfonso Gomez.
The final bout of the night will be Antonio Margarito making the 8th straight defense of his WBO Welterweight Title against mandatory challenger Paul Williams. A location for Margarito-Williams has not yet been selected but officials have stated that the possible location has been narrowed down to two sites: The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA or the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City, CA.
Apparently Gatti’s camp was very picky over who his next opponent would be and it caused quite the delay in getting a deal between HBO and Main Events completed:
HBO and Main Events had spent the last few weeks locked in a disagreement over Gatti’s opponent. The network had pared its wish list down to having Gatti fight either former lightweight titlist Paul Spadafora, who is 2-0 on a comeback, or Steve Forbes, another former “Contender” star and former junior lightweight titlist who lost a highly controversial decision to Demetrius Hopkins last month in an exciting fight.
Gatti’s team didn’t like either style for him and preferred lesser opponents such as Dmitriy Salita or Edgar Santana, neither of whom HBO would approve.
HBO gave Main Events a tentative OK on Gomez earlier this month and it made a deal with his handlers. But a few days later, on April 7, “Contender” first-season runner up Peter Manfredo—who had lost a rematch to Gomez on the series—was wiped out in three rounds by super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. That loss gave HBO second thoughts about using another untested “Contender” boxer against Gatti in the final fight of his HBO contract.
However, when the Margarito-Williams fight came together and Cintron-Matthysse, another potentially explosive fight, was pitched for the telecast, HBO agreed to take Gomez. With Gatti’s HBO contract coming to an end, Main Events also agreed to give HBO the right of first negotiation and a matching right on his next fight.
I’m not surprised that they were so selective of Gatti’s foe. If he loses one more time, he’s pretty much done fighting-wise and HBO most likely won’t sign him to a new deal.
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Thursday, February 15, 2007
EEC - February 15, 2007
We focus on the lighter weight-classes this morning…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- The Boxing Writers Association of America announced their annual awards yesterday. Who were some of the winners?
Fighter of the Year: Manny Pacquaio
Trainer of the Year: Freddie Roach
Fight of the Year: Somsak Sitchatchawal vs Mahyar Monshipour
Pat Putnam Award: Muhammad Ali
Broadcaster of the Year: Steve Albert
- Manny Pacquiao is now saying that he may wait for the winner of Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez before he fights again. That would mean his April 14th bout with Jorge Solis is now on hold…
- Speaking of Barrera-Marquez - Two of the undercard fights have been announced: Daniel Ponce De Leon vs Gerry Penalosa and Demetrius Hopkins vs Steve Forbes.
Some Good Reads:
Boxing Scene: Saturday’s Triple-Header: Quantity Over Quality?
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Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Who Wants To Fight Who?
You guys want your potential matchup gossip? You got it…
Grady Brewer/Stevie Forbes News
Contender 2 winner Grady Brewer is attempting to get into the ring on one of two occasions according to a show executive. The choices apparently are: a show in November or the undercard of the juniors - Roy Jones and Peter Manfredo in January.
Steve Forbes, the guy who came in second place on The Contender for those of that don’t watch the show, has signed with HBO and will fight Demetrius Hopkins on Boxing After Dark on November 25th.
If you didn’t watch the show, read this... (Such shameful plugging…)
Jones/Manfredo Fight On Track For January
By the way John, you gave away the fact that this fight was taking place in the last paragraph. Yes I know self, I’m such a bad blogger. :(
Don’t mind me, I’m in an odd mood…
Anyway, Roy Jones Jr. will take on Peter Manfredo Jr. on January 19 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles if everything goes right - The terms of the contract are still being discussed at this time.
Manfredo is currently scheduled to fight Joey Spina in November and I don’t think that he will get a shot at Roy unless he is victorious against Spina.
Just lay out your plans for the future, it’s apparently the new fad.
According to the UK Mirror, Hatton is attempting to take Mayweather’s title as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today…
“That’s my aim now, to climb the pound-for-pound ratings and be regarded as the No.1 in the world,” Hatton said. I’m disappointed I won’t fight again this year, but HBO has guaranteed me three fights in 2007.
“I’m going back down to 140 pounds and I don’t think anybody can live with me at that weight from a physical strength point of view. First up is Urango and my old IBF belt. That’s no foregone conclusion and he’s a southpaw, who’s like a mini-Mike Tyson. But I expect to win and should I win, then I’ll make my first defense against Castillo. He’s above me in the pound-for-pound ratings so that would boost me if I could beat him.
“Then the obvious step forward for me will be Mayweather, who is recognized as the best operator in the world pound for pound.” Although I accept that Mayweather is massively talented, he’s never been tested by someone like me,” he said to the Mirror. “If he’s going to beat me, he’s got to have some serious firepower to keep me off and I don’t think he could do that for all his talent. Mayweather wouldn’t like my body shots, no-one in the world does, and they are what I would have to bring into play.
“He’s got some great hand speed and some brilliant combinations, but I stand by my belief that if anyone can beat him, it’s me. He may be ranked by all the best judges as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, but when I beat him they will have to think again. Maybe it will be the Hitman at the top of the pile!’’
Hatton better hope that some of these fighters win their upcoming bouts so his plan can work. If Hatton is even able to get past Juan Urango, he has to pray that Luis Castillo beats Vivian Harris in January and that Mayweather can defeat Carlos Baldomir in November, let alone that Floyd will win another fight after that…
B-Hop is serious about this, yo…
In a recent interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, Hopkins confirmed that he is still considering coming out of retirement and challenging WBC Heavyweight Champion Oleg Maskaev.
We already talked about all of this - I just wanted to share my favorite quote from that article:
“I’m going to come in like Apollo Creed, with red, white and blue trunks, red, white and blue shoes and a red, white and blue robe,” Hopkins said to Fernandez. “It’ll be just like ‘Rocky IV,’ with me beating a giant Russian.
Awesome…