ROY IS BACK Kevin Iole, Las Vegas Review Journal -- Attorney Jim Thomas, who for years guided former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield's career, is now advising ex-champion Roy Jones Jr. Thomas said Jones will fight in the summer against Prince Badi Ajamu, then hopefully take a step up in competition later in the year. Thomas said Jones has patched up differences with HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg, who fired him as an analyst this year because Jones refused to attend production meetings. Thomas said one of his goals is to ensure Jones relates better with the media than he has in the past.
Byrd had his Dad as his cornerman, his Mom as his 2nd, and his hideous wife screaming bullsh*t at him from outside the ring. He was destined to lose, and should immediately retire. Byrd is crap personified in the squared circle. PS: Anyone notice how the German crowed whistled (German equivalent of booing) after they finished playing the US national anthem?
speaking of Mayorga. remeber when he dropped his hands and let Trinidad get sum free shots in. u could tell those shots hurt him, when he started doing that stupid dance after the third left hook.
This Saturday night at 9:15 PM Central time is the return of HBO Boxing After Dark with a brand new announce team. Fran Charles (former lead announcer of KO Nation) Max Kellerman (Around The Horn, I Max) Lennox Lewis (Former Undisputed Heavyweight World Champion) WBO Lightweight World Championship Acelino "Popo" Freitas (37-1, 32 KO) vs. Zahir "King Raheem (27-1, 16 KO) Undercard Andre Ward (7-0, 4 KO) vs. Andy Kolle (8-0, 6 KO)
Larry Merchant rambling from the fight: "Chris Byrd says he gets offended when he gets hit with a big punch. He must be really offended right now."
im waiting for the day larry merchant falls asleep while talking.....sooo many pauses in his sentences
hahahhaha doesnt look like mayweather v. margarito is goin' down Mayweather turns down $8 million to fight Margarito By Dan Rafael ESPN.com Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. rejected promoter Bob Arum's $8 million offer to fight welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito, and he instead exercised a provision in his contract to buy Arum out and become a promotional free agent, Arum told ESPN.com on Monday. According to Arum, Mayweather turned down the career-best purse to meet Margarito on Aug. 12 on HBO Pay-Per-View, instead opting for free agency by buying Arum out of their deal for $750,000. "I did hear from him," Arum said of Mayweather. "He decided not to fight this summer. I made him a tremendous offer. I think Margarito is the riskiest fight for him of anyone out there." Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN.com that Mayweather passed on the fight not because he is ducking Margarito, but because he couldn't be ready to fight by Aug. 12. Mayweather injured his right hand during a dominating April 8 victory against Zab Judah. "Floyd is not 100 percent healthy," Ellerbe said. "He has a bruised right hand. His hand is not broken. It's bruised, but it's a bad bruise. He wants to go into any fight 100 percent healthy. If Antonio Margarito happens to be the best available option when he is healthy, so be it. "We are not turning down Margarito. I want to make that crystal clear. When and if he is the best available option for Floyd's next fight, that's the direction he will move in." With Aug. 12 no longer set aside for a Mayweather fight, Arum said he will use the date to feature one of his other stars, heavyweight titlist Hasim Rahman, in a mandatory title defense against Oleg Maskaev on HBO PPV. That bout, a rematch of Maskaev's 1999 knockout victory, took on greater significance last weekend in the wake of Wladimir Klitschko's title-winning knockout of Chris Byrd in Germany. The reason: Among the four recognized heavyweight title holders, Klitschko became the third from a former Soviet republic to beat an American to win a belt, leaving Rahman as the lone American heavyweight champion and Maskaev poised to give Eastern Europe a sweep of the titles in boxing's marquee division. Arum said Mayweather preferred to await the outcome of the May 6 Oscar De La Hoya-Ricardo Mayorga fight instead of committing to Margarito because he would prefer to fight De La Hoya. "We're not sitting waiting on De La Hoya," Ellerbe said. "He's in a tough, tough fight with Mayorga." Many in the sport believe a De La Hoya-Mayweather fight is the biggest fight on the horizon and the only one capable of generating 1 million-plus buys on pay-per-view. The reason Mayweather opted for the buyout rather than waiting for the May 6 result was because the contract had a limited window for the buyout, one that expired before the De La Hoya fight. However, Arum said he would have extended the window if Mayweather had asked. What Arum wouldn't do, he said, was raise the guarantees for other fights outlined in the contract. Arum said while Mayweather would have taken the $8 million to fight Margarito, he asked for a $10 million guarantee to fight opponents such as Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton, when Arum was only willing to guarantee $7 million. Arum said Mayweather also asked for $20 million to fight De La Hoya, a fight Arum said he wasn't interested in participating in. "That's not in the cards," Arum said. "He wants $20 million for the De La Hoya fight? It's not there. Sometimes, my man, you gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. We'll talk about things down the road." Ellerbe said Mayweather opted for the buyout so he could be "more in control of when and who he fights next. It's as simple as that. There is nothing bad between Floyd and Bob." Arum agreed that the split with Mayweather was not on bad terms like their brief breakup last year. In fact, Arum said, "We intend to be back together. Everything with this was honorable and good. I had offered him numbers [for a multi-fight contract extension] that were livable. His expectations are in the stratosphere. He was entitled to buy me out, and he did. We decided this was the best way to handle it. He is a free agent. We have agreed to work with each other [in the future]." The split frees Mayweather to make a potential deal with De La Hoya without Arum as part of the promotion. His involvement would have made making a deal almost impossible: The head of Top Rank has openly feuded with De La Hoya, his former superstar, and their companies rarely do business together as a result. Arum said he was simply not interested in participating in a De La Hoya-Mayweather fight, but not because of his distaste for De La Hoya. "I don't want to, because if I did that fight, I would be working for such a small percentage, it's not worth it," he said. Instead, Arum is turning his attention to the Rahman-Maskaev fight. Arum said that he and Maskaev representative Dennis Rappaport are about $300,000 apart on making a deal. If they don't finalize terms, the WBC will hold a purse bid May 1 in Mexico City. But Arum is confident they will make the deal. "We're very close," he said. "It will take another day to work it out." Arum said he is already making arrangements to announce the fight at a news conference in New York on May 10. He added that the fight would take place at either Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., or at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Arum said Margarito could wind up on the Rahman-Maskaev card in the co-feature. "But it's tentative," Arum said. "If Mayweather decides to fight in September or October, and Margarito could still be a candidate, I want him to be flexible."
If De La Hoya wins then Mayweather will make at least $10 million against him on September 16. De La Hoya said the only way he would fight Mayweather is if Bob Arum had zero involvement with the promotion, so Mayweather has taken step 1 and cut off ties with Arum. A Anyhow, worst case scenario he could always get back with Arum. Mayweather is such a superstar he could directly sign deals with HBO PPV and that way a bigger percentage of the pot could go to him. There is a point that you no longer need a promotor.
Well ESPN reports that he walked away from a guaranteed 8m payday with Margarito to hold out for DLH. Note: to those who think MMA is going to surpass boxing anytime soon, let me know the next time Chuck Liddell fights for an $8 million purse - or even $1 million, or even 500 k, or even 100k (UFC fighter payout info listed here) No knock on MMA, because I like it, but the reports of Boxing's death are greatly exaggerated.
I've been playing Fight Night on X-Box with some visiting friends and it's funny to me that every single person will be like "Hey, where's Tyson?", usually when they know dick about boxing.
Smoking Mayorga a breath of fresh air itv.boxing People who reckon boxing is devoid of characters these days would do well to spend some quality time with Ricardo Mayorga. The Nicaraguan, who goes in with 'Golden Boy' of the fight game Oscar De La Hoya on May 6, was once dubbed 'The craziest man in sport' by Ring Magazine. The former WBA and WBC welterweight and current WBC light-middleweight champion, who admits to smoking two packets of cigarettes a day, is what my old PE teacher might deem a "loose cannon". 'El Matador' infamously swigs down beer and eats pizza and chicken legs when weighing in for fights, showing a tongue in cheek contempt for his opponents and the niceties of the sport in general. He was a 6/1 betting underdog ahead of his fight with Vernon Forrest back in 2003, the year he really burst onto the world stage proper with an inimitable swagger. But that didn't stop him bragging before the fight: "I will give him a whipping. Not even his dog will recognize him when he gets home." When not fighting or making threats to his opponents, he likes nothing more than drag racing in the streets of his homeland, a pastime that is illegal in Nicaragua. Yet behind the outlandish bravado and wild antics, there stands a boxer who can really fight. He can look crude and is not the most stylish fighter ever to lace up a glove, but he loves a tear up and fights like an alley-cat in there. He also has one of the best chins in boxing, and I still cringe when I remember the night he kept inviting Felix Trinidad, regarded as one of the hardest punchers in the sport 'pound-for-pound', to blast away at his chin as he held it out like a lantern and mocked the Puerto Rican. Few are giving him a chance against De La Hoya, but the 'Golden Boy' may not truly be in love with the sport anymore and an upset is certainly possible. De La Hoya, boxing's main draw outside of the heavyweight division, has been inactive since September of 2004 and will certainly be rusty. With his promotional interests and talk of a farewell fight in September, he could also be taking his eye off Mayorga, who infamously slapped his Mexican-American rival across the face during a recent press conference. Mayorga is certainly talking a good fight. When asked how his preparations are going for the bout, the 28-5-1 (23) pride from Managu nonchalantly replied: "I don't have to prepare mentally all that much for this match because I'm always ready to fight. "That's what I am, a Nicaraguan street fighter. Oscar is the one that needs to prepare mentally to face me." There is genuine animosity between the fighters, who are polar opposites in terms of appearance and the way they live outside the ring. Mayorga has a devil may care attitude to his life and hs career it would seem, and he has had to fight tooth and nail to get where he is in the sport. In contrast De La Hoya, the TV executives darling, has been a draw ever since his gold medal display at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (he turned pro amid a media frenzy soon after). He is also a happily married family man these days who spends more time in a suit and tie than in a pair of boxing boots. He is everything Mayorga is not, something that the Nicaraguan is seems is using as motivation for the bout. "Most people don't understand that of all the fighters in boxing, Oscar is the one I like least. He's a pretty boy and it makes me want to defeat him. "I have been sparring with live chickens as they emulate 'chicken' De La Hoya best. They run just like he does." When pressed as to how he sees the fight going, Mayorga said: "Oscar's washed up. He is crazy to think he can try to stand up in front of me and take the punishment I will deliver. He was great at one time but logic and Mother Nature tell you he's washed up now. "I don't want to leave the decision up to the judges so I'm going to knock him out before the sixth round." Whether or not he can back up his boasts in Las Vegas on May 6 remains to be seen, but I for one wouldn't be totally surprised to see a cigar-chomping, pizza-munching, beer-swilling Nicaraguan celebrating long into the night in the 'City of Sin' in early May.
Six-Heads quits for toilet run! "I just wanted to get out and go to the toilet," said former WBA welterweight champion Andrew "Six-Heads" Lewis after suddenly quiting midway through a bout he was winning on Saturday at the National Park in Georgetown, Guyana. Lewis was ahead on all three judges’ cards when he shockingly surrendered 37 seconds into round seven against Denny Dalton. Lewis later revealed to Stabroek Sport, "I preferred to lose the fight than mess up myself in front of all those people. Everyone saw that I was beating the hell out of Dalton. I was trying to hold in this stuff but in the seventh round I couldn't no more so I decided to quit." Lewis attributed his troubles to a milkshake he drank that afternoon. The Guyana Boxing Board of Control has withheld Lewis' purse pending an investigation. He is facing a possible fine or suspension. Wednesday, April 26 2006
Another ridiculous Larry Merchant quote, this gem is from the Miguel Cotto vs. Ricardo Torres fight September 24 of last year. "And also what is impressive about him Jim, is just how well grounded and stable he seems to be. Sometimes a hot young fighter comes along, he gets to this point, he's challenging the world. He wants to fight Sugar Ray Robinson"
Thanks for the Mayorga story SlikVik. I seriously hope he kicks the living hell out of De La Hoya on May 6th.
