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Wednesday, February 14, 2007
WBC President Announces World Summit on Sport of Boxing
WBC President Jose Sulaiman has called for a meeting between boxing executives from around the world to discuss how to improve boxing as well as the future of the sport.
The heads of the WBA and IBF have already stated that they will be attending the meeting which will take place in Cancun, Mexico next year.
Sulaiman wants to have a few meetings prior to the summit in order to come up with issues that can be discussed. He also stated that the intentions of the summit will include uniformity on rules, upgraded safety precautions, and welfare for boxers…
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Peter Rejects Offer to Wait for Title Shot
The Las Vegas Journal Review is reporting that Samuel Peter has rejected Vitali Klitschko’s offer of $2.5 million to step aside and allow Klitschko to fight Oleg Maskaev for the WBC Heavyweight Title. Peter would also get an immediate title shot against Klitschko directly after.
The WBC has refused to make a decision involving the dispute and has instead ordered a mediation between the three parties. It was at the meeting that Peter rejected Klitschko’s inital offer…
Peter’s promoter Dino Duva said that although Peter rejected the offer, a more lucrative one might change his mind:
“This is a business and you never say never,” Duva said. “But Samuel’s focus is on getting the title shot and winning the belt. Realistically, we’ll consider all options, but for us to consider (stepping aside), it would have to be very, very lucrative and there would have to be strict time deadlines when Maskaev-Klitschko would occur and then when the fight between Sam and the winner would occur.”
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Friday, February 02, 2007
EEC - February 2, 2007
Happy Groundhog Day everybody! We have a busy weekend ahead of us…
News, Notes, and Rumors:
- The WBC announced yesterday that it has stripped the WBC Flyweight Title from Omar Nino because Nino has tested positive for methamphetamine according to post-fight testing results done after his November 18th bout against Brian Viloria.
Ironically Viloria and Edgar Sosa will fight for the title in the coming months. The winner of that bout will then have to face Nino who has been giving number one contender status since he was unaware that the drug had been put into his system.
“In light of the fact that the WBC believes that Nino did not voluntarily commit this infraction and considering that his clean record has won him the trust of this organization ... we are declaring that Nino will be the challenger for whoever is the new champion,” a WBC statement said.
- The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that Felix Trinidad will be at ringside to watch Cory Spinks fight Rodney Jones this weekend. He’s just going to see a decent bout, right? Not exactly…
Spink’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, has confirmed that Trinidad will be at ringside with Don King to scout Spinks as a possible opponent in the near future…
“Don’s bringing Felix Trinidad in for this fight,” Cunningham said. “He might come out of retirement. Fernando Vargas is another possibility. But my thing is this: We want to keep chugging away, keep grinding. And eventually that big marquee fight will be there for us. And hopefully we can bring another big fight back to St. Louis.’‘
- Paulie Malignaggi will be the in-studio guest for ESPN’s Friday Night Fights this evening…
Weekend Fights
Friday -
Zuri Lawrence vs Dominick Guinn - Rochester, New York - Heavyweight (ESPN 2)
James Kirkland vs Billy Lyell - Santa Ynez, California - Junior Middleweight (Showtime)
Timothy Bradley vs Manuel Garnica - Santa Ynez, California - Junior Welterweight (Showtime)
Saturday -
Tomasz Adamek vs Chad Dawson - Kissimmee, Florida - WBC Light Heavyweight Title (Showtime)
Jesus Chavez vs Julio Diaz - Kissimmee, Florida - IBF Lightweight Title (Showtime)
Cory Spinks vs Rodney Jones - Kissimmee, Florida - IBF Junior Middleweight Title (Showtime)
Laila Ali vs Gwendolyn O’Neil - Kempton Park, South Africa - Women’s Super Middleweight Title
Sunday -
Naoufel Ben Rabah vs Lovemore Ndou - Sydney, Australia - IBF Junior Welterweight Title Eliminator
Paul Briggs vs Andre Thysse - Sydney, Australia - Light Heavyweight
Sakio Bika vs Rupert Van Aswegen - Sydney, Australia - Super Middleweight
Some Good Reads
Boxing Scene: Chasing Marciano’s Ghost: What’s in a Record?
MaxBoxing: Friday Night Fights Shuffle
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Vitali Klitschko to Attend Super Bowl on Sunday
Comebacking former two-time world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will be in Miami for Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears.
“I am very excited about the game and looking forward to seeing it live,” the ex-World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight titleholder said. “This will be my second Super Bowl. I also went to the big game in Houston in 2004.’’
Continue reading "Vitali Klitschko to Attend Super Bowl on Sunday"
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Samuel Peter is Pissed Off
Trust me, if I was in Samuel Peter’s position, I’d be a little ticked off too…
If this whole thing sounds just a bit familar, it’s probably because we have been through this already. Peter was supposed to get a title shot after beating James Toney the first time around. Then Oleg Maskaev took a voluntary defense before the deadline of 2007 and defeated Peter Okhello. So Peter went ahead and beat Toney once again.
Now it’s time for a title shot right? Not exactly…
We told you a while back that Vitali Klitschko was seriously thinking about attempting a comeback. Well now rumors are swirling that his official return to boxing is only weeks away. Of course it tends to not be a rumor anymore once the president of the WBC is actually speaking to Vitali about fighting in the coming months.
Jose Sulaiman is currently awaiting a phone call from Vitali and his camp about the opportunity of getting an immediate title shot against Maskaev. Vitali was originally promised an immediate title shot if he decided to come out of retirement from injury. It looks like he actually may get it.
That would mean that Vitali would be jumping right over Peter in the rankings and would receive a title shot before him. Rightfully so, Peter is pretty pissed off about this whole thing. Sulaiman however just wishes that everyone would calm down for the time being…
“I am waiting to hear something back from Vitali,” Sulaiman said. “Vitali contacts me directly from the Ukraine or wherever he is. He called me a week ago speaking about this comeback. It’s very clear that an immediate title shot is what Vitali wants. I took notice of that just as I have taken notice of (complaints from) Dino Duva, Don King and Iyavailo Gotzev made on behalf of top contender Samuel Peter.”
Sulaiman may say that he is going to hear arguments from both sides but it’s obvious what he wants to do as of right now. Peter knows that too:
“It’s a disgrace! I fought my way into this position without taking shortcuts. I paid my sanctioning fees not once, but twice. I wasn’t even supposed to fight the second time, but people were questioning their judges, so I fought again to prove myself. They’re trying to take away everything I worked for all those years. I’m number one and they’re going to have a very big problem if they allow this. They are putting their own hands in the fire and making a big mistake.”
Why did he (Klitschko) wait till I beat Toney the second time to say he was coming back? Why not announce before? Because he’s not a true champion. He got his title when Lennox Lewis retired. And now he wants to fight Maskaev, who is also not a true champion because he’s avoiding me. Let me go against Maskaev and I’ll knock him out and then I’ll knock out both Klitschko brothers on the same night!
They tried to bribe me to get me to shut up. I don’t care about money. I want the heavyweight championship. I came to the United States six years ago and I’ve worked very hard to be in this position. They are all going to pay for this!”
If boxers can be measured by the words they say, then Peter is an animal. If that Superfighter thing ever gets started up again, Peter should lay out an open challenge to both Klitschko brothers and see what they say…
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Friday, January 12, 2007
The Barrera-Pacquiao Fiasco Continues
Well while I was gone, Top Rank and Golden Boy apparently sued the shit out of each other…
Anyone want an update?
Well even though there is a lawsuit currently between the two sides, they still tried to come to some kind of agreement to have Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao. That didn’t work out.
Yesterday Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer announced that they have come to terms on a fight between Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez that will take place on March 17th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
So what about Pac-Man?
The WBC is stating that Pacquiao most likely will take on Jin Chi, who is moving up from featherweight to super featherweight, in Macau on April 28th.
The WBC has also decided not to get in the middle of things between Top Rank and Golden Boy since they could run into litigation problems. The expectations after the two fight is that talks will start up again attempting to pair Pacquiao and Barrera together again.
WBC President Jose Sulaiman breaks it down for us:
Sulaiman said he will allow “both fighters to have the opportunity to have one fight.” He said that once those fights are done the WBC will “immediately proceed with free negotiations, purse offers and all of that” setting a three-week deadline for a purse offer should negotiations fall through even in the midst of the legal battle between contending promoters Golden Boy and Top Rank.
Sulaiman also added that the fighters are eventually going to have to fight or else there will be consequences. What kind of consequences?
If Barrera is victorious over Marquez and decides that he no longer wants to fight Pacquiao, he will be stripped of his title. If Pacquiao no longer wants to fight Barrera, he will no longer be the mandatory challenger for Barrera’s belt.
I’m glad to see the WBC taking action and making things a bit clearer among all of this mess. Hopefully things can be settled quickly in court between De La Hoya and Arum’s promoting monsters…
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Thursday, November 02, 2006
WBC to Display Judges’ Scorecards Twice During Sanctioned Bouts
What a novel idea…
The WBC has decided to display the official score of the fight after the fourth and eighth round of it’s sanctioned bouts for an experimental period.
The purpose is to calm down the confusion and anger that comes with fighters, officials, and fans being dumbfounded when a decision by the judges is made and they have a different opinion.
WBC official Mauricio Sulaiman says the new system will have a definite impact on future fights…
“The fighter and the crowd will have the opportunity to know how they are doing, injecting more vigor during the course of a fight,” he said.
The new system will be used at a limited number of events during the trial period and those involved with the fight can select whether or not they want the scorecards to be shown during the fight.
The WBC was even looking to make the showing of the official numbers a prominent thing throughout an entire boxing match:
“The WBC is always changing, looking for better solutions,” Sulaiman said. “We have been doing research and looked at lots of issues for many years. There were even proposals that scores be shown after every round, but it did not pass.”
I think this is good and bad - It will finally give us somewhat of an idea as to what the judges are thinking during the bout and their decision won’t seem like it’s coming out of left field anymore. A bad result of this could be action taken out of anger once a fighter, official, or fan disagrees with the scoring of the bout up to that point.
Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see how this works out and whether or not the WBC will decide to keep it for good.
I’m not too sure on the very first fight the showing will be used at but I will certainly try and find out…
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Maskaev-Hopkins Becoming A Possible Reality?
For those of you who live under a rock or have spent the last couple of months in space, Bernard Hopkins has stated that he would be willing to come out of retirement if he could fight WBC Heavyweight Champion Oleg Maskaev.
We’ve already gone through the obstacle course that they would have to go through in order to make this fight official but let’s go through it again one more time, shall we?
Maskaev first has to defend his title and retain it against Peter Okhello on December 9th. If Maskaev is victorious he then must somehow convince the WBC to allow him to take on Hopkins against of the winner of the Samuel Peter-James Toney rematch in January.
Maskaev has already gotten around facing Samuel Peter once, can he do it again?
Hopkins has already said that he won’t take on Maskaev if it’s not for the title so Maskaev must retain it in December.
Dennis Rappaport, Maskaev’s promoter, said in a recent interview that Hopkins’ challenge is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
However Rappaport has also confirmed that Oscar De La Hoya has contacted him about setting up the fight…
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Peter-Toney II Just About Set
The rematch is just about set in stone…
The WBC has approved a vote to have a rematch between Samuel Peter and James Toney. The WBC Board of Govenors released a statement listing their reasoning behind the decision:
1. First, for having been an extremely close fight which divided the opinions of the media and fans. This rematch will clear the air and we will have an official undisputable challenger to our new champion Oleg Maskaev.
2. The WBC believes that at this moment there can not be a more interesting heavyweight fight than this rematch. There is a huge public demand for this rematch and it will be very good for the promoters, as well as the prestige and the importance of boxing in the world.
Samuel Peter has already said that he will accept the fight and I’m sure that Toney will have no problem with the decision either. Is it really the best heavyweight fight out there at the moment? With just about all of the top contenders locked up in fights, I might be inclined to say that it is.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Maskaev’s Next Opponent: Not Samuel Peter
I told you guys there was a way around it…
Newly crowned WBC Heavyweight Champion Oleg Maskaev will defend his title in mid-December in Moscow, Russia according to his promoter Dennis Rappaport. His opponent will not be mandatory challenger Samuel Peter, but Peter Okhello.
Maskaev’s opponent probably will be 34-year-old Peter Okhello (18-4, 16 KOs), 6-foot-4 fighter from Uganda who is based in Japan. Okhello has never beaten a notable opponent; two of his losses have come to Maskaev victim Sinan Samil Sam (via decision in 2005) and Rahman victim Kali Meehan (via third-round knockout in 1999). In both of those losses, Okhello knocked his opponent down.
“It’s pretty much a done deal,” Rappaport said. “He’s in the [WBC] rankings, he’s available and it’s a voluntary defense.”
Plan A for the Maskaev camp was to set up a unification bout against Wladimir Klitschko but injuries suffered in Maskaev’s fight against Hasim Rahman prevented that from happening.
Maskaev had a hairline fracture in his elbow, two sore thumbs and a bad back.
“It was about a month too soon for Oleg to be ready to fight Klitschko,” Rappaport said. “It’s a fight we wanted and a fight we worked on, but the timing just wasn’t right. It looks like what we are going to do is for the first time have a heavyweight championship fight in Moscow. Oleg can get in a voluntary fight and then we can come back here for the big fights.”
So what about Samuel Peter? Is he getting hung out to dry?
Rappaport stated that the WBC has allowed Maskaev to take the voluntary defense against Okhello before the end of 2006. The fight would be prevented from happening in 2007 as the WBC would force Maskaev to face Peter or be stripped of his title. Basically, Maskaev-Peter will be happening at some point in 2007.
I’m wondering if Peter will fight again this year or wait for Maskaev in the spring. He looked pretty beat up after the Toney fight and the official medical suspensions haven’t been released yet so I guess we will wait and see…