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Written by The Sweet Science
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Friday, 01 March 2013 09:27
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 LAS VEGAS (Feb. 28, 2013) - Golden Boy Promotions hosted the final press conference Thursday for the big fight card this Saturday, March 2 live on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast) and SHOWTIME EXTREME® (8 p.m. ET/PT) from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in LasVegas. In the main event of a SHOWTIME BOXING - Special Edition, Cuba's Richar "El Tigre" Abril (17-3-1, 8 KO's), of Miami, Fla., will make the first defense of his WBA Lightweight World Championship when he meets unbeaten Ugandan Sharif "The Lion" Bogere (23-0, 15 KO's), of Las Vegas. The co-feature on SHOWTIME will feature undefeated, world-rated southpaw Gary Russell Jr. (23-0, 15 KO's), of Capitol Heights, Md., against Russia's Vyacheslav Gusev (20-2, 5 KO's) in a 10-round featherweight bout. Preceding the SHOWTIME telecast will be live preliminary fights on SHOWTIME EXTREME. Hard-hitting... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Thursday, 28 February 2013 16:32
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 I do believe I won a fan for life when I told George Foreman that I was pretty sure he'd be the junior partner in the booth when he, Larry Merchant and Tim Ryan call boxing action from Macau for HBO2 on April 6. Foreman, age 64, will reunite with old HBO partner Merchant, age 82, and ex CBS blow-by-blow caller Ryan, age 73. Filipino-born Brian Viloria defends his flyweight crowns against Juan Francisco Estrada and Puerto Rico's Rocky Martinez defends his junior lightweight belt against Diego Magdaleno on that card. Much of the focus will be on flyweight Zou Shiming, the two-time gold medallist from China who will make his pro debut. Merchant ended a 35 year run with HBO in December 2012. Foreman called fights with HBO from 1992-2005. So, I think you're the junior man on that crew, I told Foreman. He laughed. "I needed that," he said. "Can't wait to renew old arguments... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Wednesday, 27 February 2013 17:33
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 Dib, 50 Cent, Dibella and Gradovich pose in NYC Wednesday, ahead of the Friday Foxwoods/ESPN card. (Ed Diller) If you were expecting 50 Cent to walk into the Strand Hotel in midtown NYC packin' a 9 with a posse of menacing thugs in tow, talking eff-bomb laden menacing trash, you'd have been mistaken this afternoon. The Queens native is doing the boxing promotion thing, adding that to his resume, to go with rapper, and all-around enterpeneur who has set up nice revenue streams from his energy shot line, his headphones and who also made a killing on an early investment in a beverage company which was bought out by Coke. Will the boxing promotion foray be generating him more green or leave him in the red, and looking for another arena to conquer after a spell? That remains to be seen, but I've been impressed with how 50 has been soaking up knowledge of industry vets, rather than parachuting in with the belief that... Read more...
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Written by David A. Avila
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Tuesday, 26 February 2013 21:25
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 WEST HOLLYWOOD-Deep in the bosom of Hollywood where the media capital reigns and just two miles from where the Academy Awards took place, Top Rank held its media day for WBO welterweight titleholder Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley (picture above by Chris Farina-Top Rank) on Tuesday. Fortune’s Gym, located on Sunset Blvd., was abuzz with reporters, photographers, videographers and representatives from HBO like Tony Walker and Top Rank’s Lee Samuels and Ricardo Jimenez. It’s a long drive from Riverside to West Hollywood but still a few miles shorter than Indio, despite that desert community’s location in Riverside County. West Hollywood is 74 miles from my house and Indio is 80 miles. We quickly found parking after I took one of my patented short cuts. Long ago I worked for the Wall Street Journal and Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and West L.A. were my coverage... Read more...
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Written by Kelsey McCarson
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Tuesday, 26 February 2013 15:07
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 Knight (left) is the whole package. There are others similarly gifted. When will the suits embrace women's boxing? Since we’re all friends here, I’ll be honest you. I don’t get it. Women’s boxing has been around longer than MMA has been for either men or women, and our ladies still get the shaft for U.S. television dates? Am I missing something? I can’t go more than a month watching the tube without hearing about some lady named Ronda Rousey or one of her cohorts, but I can’t get even get one female boxing match on the tube every now and then? What gives? As with anything, the first thing I do when I encounter something I don’t understand is turn to my wife, Rachel. While she’s not a boxer herself, she certainly would be considered someone who knows the sport. She spends just as much time traveling around the state to cover fights as I do, and as a photojournalist,... Read more...
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Written by Bernard Fernandez
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Monday, 25 February 2013 14:18
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 Try as he might, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins is finding it difficult to generate much animosity toward IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud, whom he challenges in the HBO-televised main event March 9 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Despite their 17-year age gap and decidedly different points of origin, Hopkins, 48, feels a certain kinship toward Cloud. It’s hard to work yourself into a frothing rage in preparation of a fight with someone you sort of relate to. “I heard this guy talking about his mom’s refrigerator being repossessed, about how they had to put their food in a washtub and fill it up with ice to keep it from spoiling,” Hopkins (photo above by Hogan Photos), a child of poverty who grew up on the mean streets of North Philadelphia, said of Cloud, who hails from Tallahassee, Fla. “I’ve been watching that tape for... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Saturday, 23 February 2013 23:09
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 The first three quarters of the main event on Showtime Saturday night between IBF 154 pound champ K9 Bundrage and Ishe Smith were pretty putrid. K9 employed a bizarre strategy, moving without throwing, while Smith was lacking in aggression. The last portion of the fight heated up, with Smith landing clean right hands most every round, and that went a ways from having watchers remember this as an all-time stinkeroo. The judges had the last word, seeing a split decision, 116-111 for Smith (Herb Santos card), 114-113 for K9 (David Hess card) and 116-111, for the winner, Smith Gerard White card). Al Bernstein, Steve Farhood and Joe Cortez also saw Smith as the winner. Smith cried after, to Jim Gray, he was so emotional. He said that five years ago, he contemplated suicide, and didn't do it, because he has kids and grew up without... Read more...
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Written by David A. Avila
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Friday, 22 February 2013 09:41
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 Women make their Ultimate Fighting Championship debut Saturday when bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey defends against Liz Carmouche in UFC 157. It’s too bad that boxing slept on women’s prizefighting. Not UFC, they saw that Rousey can fight and immediately noticed that she attracted tons of fans. You got to hand it to UFC’s Dana White. He’s sharp. Despite a lack of parity in women’s MMA, Rousey’s (6-0) popularity is sure to inspire young women when she fights Carmouche (7-2) at the Honda Center in Anaheim. It will be televised on pay-per-view television. Several boxing champions appreciate that Rousey is going to headline the UFC event, including Mia St. John and Gennady Golovkin, who both announced they are attending the debut of Rousey on UFC. Gennady, the WBA middleweight world champion, met Rousey in Big Bear Lake where she trained in their facility. He... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 17:29
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 One day, quite likely, somebody will taint Floyd Mayweathers' record. He could retire undefeated, or he could not make it through his new six fight, 30 month deal with Showtime unscathed. Robert Guerrero truly seems to believe in his heart that he will be the one to hand Floyd his first loss, on May 4 in Las Vegas. Not sure that one or two of the guys who fought "Money" recently truly felt in their heart that they'd beat the technical wizard... I asked Guerrero on Wednesday night about getting the gig. Has to feel good, right? "I'm feeling extremely confident that I will come out victorious," he said. "He's never been in the ring with a fighter like me. He's in trouble!" I told the 31-1 boxer, who is 29 years old, that I was happy for him from a financial standpoint. In America, we pay more for medical care and coverage than I think anywhere in the... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 16:01
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 Donaire was a hot fighter in 2012, going 4-0. Can he continue the momentum with a win over Cuban ace Rigondeaux April 13? (Chris Farina-Top Rank) They are the best two junior featherweights in the world quite likely, and on April 13, we will see if Nonito Donaire is No. 1, and Guillermo Rigondeaux is No. 2, as most seem to say. Or not... The April 13 Radio City Music Hall clash between the 2012 Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year and maybe the best amateur the world has ever seen has been on again off again twenty times in the last couple weeks. The issue of drug testing--will it happen? who will administer it?--has been the sticking point, and that issue hung over the press conference at BB King's in NYC Thursday which almost didn't happen, because Donaire was irked that Team Rigo was dragging their feet in agreeing to do random testing as... Read more...
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