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Written by David A. Avila
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Thursday, 17 January 2013 10:37
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 Burgos (pictured) gets a crack at Martinez on a loaded card this Saturday at the Madison Square Garden Theater. (Chris Farina-Top Rank) An Inland Empire war wagon hit New York City as a trio of elite prizefighters from the Southern California region seek to grab or retain championship belts. Led by WBA and IBO middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin, two other I.E. fighters, Mikey Garcia and Juan Carlos Burgos, also engage in separate title fights on Saturday Jan. 19. HBO will televise the three-prong attack from Madison Square Garden’s Theater. Big Bear Lake’s Golovkin (24-0, 21 Kos) defends his two middleweight titles against Philadelphia’s Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 Kos). The Kazakhstan native looks to make an example of Rosado in front of a national audience. The last time New York saw Golovkin he was destroying a very good fighter in Grzegorz Proksa... Read more...
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Written by Kelsey McCarson
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Thursday, 17 January 2013 09:53
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 Undefeated featherweight contender Mikey Garcia (30-0, 26 KOs), of Oxnard, California, heads to New York’s famed Madison Square Garden this Saturday night to take on rough and rugged alphabet titlist Orlando Salido (39-11-2, 27 KOs). The fight represents a humongous step up in class for the 25-year-old Garcia who is ranked sixth in the world by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. A native of Sonora, Mexico, number one ranked Salido has not lost a bout since a 2010 unanimous decision to uber-talented Yuriorkis Gamboa. Since then, he’s reeled off five impressive knockout wins in a row, including two over Puerto Rican rival Juan Manuel Lopez, the last of which was considered by many a Fight of the Year candidate. "Orlando Salido is the best featherweight champion in the world, and he has earned the right to be called that," said Garcia via press release.... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Wednesday, 16 January 2013 18:19
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 What's next for Rios (left) and Donaire (right) was discussed in NYC Thursday with promoter Arum, standing next to trainer Robert Garcia. (Chris Farina-Top Rank) One of the fights most craved by fight fans is a showdown between Nonito Donaire and Abner Mares. Bob Arum, who promotes Donaire, was asked today if a match between the Filipino-American and the Cali-based boxer Mares, who works with Golden Boy, will get made. Arum and Golden Boy’s relations are frosty, to say the least, and the companies work together basically only when forced to do so. The promoter was asked about this so-called “cold war” during a media gathering at Kingsway Gym in NYC on Wednesday. Top Rank along with K2, promotes a show Saturday at the MSG Theater, with three of the bouts to run on HBO. “It’s BS,” he said. “”It’s not a simple business.” Arum explained that Frank Espinoza,... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Wednesday, 16 January 2013 16:15
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 Promoter Bob Arum believes he doesn’t think Juan Manuel Marquez has talked about retirement as an option as a bargaining chip heading towards a fifth fight against Manny Pacquiao. Speaking at Kingsway Gym in NYC, as the headliners for the Saturday Top Rank/K2 card at the Madison Square Garden Theater chatted with media, Arum said he wants to make a fifth tussle in September. He thinks the bout would take place in perhaps Macau, Mexico City, or Singapore…but not in the US. Why? Because top rate income taxes for highest earners in the US has jumped from 35% to 39.6%. “Enough is enough,” Arum railed. Of the chatter that Marquez might walk away from the game on a massive high note, Arum said he believes Marquez at face value. “It’s not a negotiating ploy,” he said. “He’s a really proud guy, he’s saved his money, he has a degree in accounting.”... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Wednesday, 16 January 2013 10:19
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 He is a full-on marvel. Bernard Hopkins turned 48 years old, and during a time when he could be counting his money, and getting deeper into the promotional side of the sport, he's still in spartan mode. He’s earned the right to sleeping in, and a birthday dinner of a massive porterhouse, all the carbs he craves and dessert to top it off, but that’s not his way. The man who promised his mama that he wouldn't fight past 40 simply can't help himself, because his competitive urge is so immense. Yes, Father Time's fiercest foe is back again, looking to prove to himself that age is just a number, and that IBF light heavy champ Tavoris Cloud is just another notch on a belt full of them. Hopkins was at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Monday, talking up his March 9 clash against the Florida-born Cloud, and as per usual, he already looked in... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Monday, 14 January 2013 13:25
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 "I am pumped to change diaaaapers!" (Charis Farina-Top Rank) You might recall a few weeks ago I wrote a piece which touched on Nonito Donaire's struggles with a challenging upbringing. He had self esteem issues, to put it mildly, and felt less than in his house, as a kid. He was bullied at school, subject to some severe discipline at home, and there was a period when he thought about ending it all. He'd tie a shirt around his neck, and come close to the point of passing out. He'd fantasize about getting hit by a bus, and exiting this Earth. His candor in discussing such sensitive matters blew me away and left me looking up to him that much more. To go from a pipsqueak who contemplated suicide, to the point where you are one of the best prizefighters on the planet...lord, if that story couldn't serve as a pick me up to another kid suffering through the same... Read more...
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Written by David A. Avila
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Saturday, 12 January 2013 13:20
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 INDIO-Ronny Rios walked in behind a stiff jab to dominate former world champion Rico Ramos and capture the NABF featherweight title on Friday. It was a clear-cut victory at the Fantasy Springs Casino as Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya looked on at his prodigy. Rios (20-0, 9 Kos) started quickly behind his stiff and accurate jab for the first four rounds. Every so often the Orange County fighter would mix in an overhand right to the body and to the head. It took Ramos ( 21-2, 11 Kos) about three rounds to finally get a rhythm against the peek a boo style of Rios. It was far too long to get unraveled. “He kept running into my left jab,” said Rios, 22. “He’s a counter-puncher and I made him go forward.” After trying to muscle his way inside in the fourth with little success, Ramos then began to send come rocketing combinations, including a sizzling left... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Friday, 11 January 2013 14:31
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 One of the cruddiest fights I watched--OK, sort of semi-watched, because I Tweeted, and also poked around on Facebook during the bout--in 2012 was the Erislandy Lara-Vanes Martirosyan fight. They gloved up on Nov. 10 in Las Vegas, in an eliminator, with the winner to get a crack at WBC 154 pound champ Canelo Alvarez. The bout ended in a draw, prematurely...or, maturely, if you disliked it as much as I did, with nine rounds complete. Martirosyan, cut over his left eye by a head butt, couldn't continue, on advice of the ring doc. Lara ran throughout the bout and Vanes went after him, but without the sort of urgency you'd expect with the stakes being so high, and without the efficiency you might have expected from his record and constant campaigning for a signature bout in the last couple years. Martirosyan said right after he wanted a rematch but suffice to say the... Read more...
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Written by Kelsey McCarson
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Thursday, 10 January 2013 22:18
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 Undefeated middleweight contender and alphabet titlist Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KOs) has become an almost mythical figure in the sport today, and he’s done it without really having yet beaten top level opposition. Saturday Night Boxing’s Adam Abramowitz told me recently it wasn’t for lack of trying on Team Golovkin’s part. They want fights against other top middleweight contenders, he says, but no one wants to fight him. “Quillin, Sturm, Geale, N'Dam and Macklin have all been offered fights with Golovkin in the past six months,” said Abramowitz. Enter opportunistic junior middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 KOs). Unlike the larger and more well-known group of fighters who’ve passed up a chance to step in the ring with Golovkin, Rosado accepted the challenge almost as soon as it was offered him. Sure, the talented 26-year-old Philadelphian has had his ups and downs,... Read more...
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Written by David A. Avila
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Thursday, 10 January 2013 10:11
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Manager Espinoza has been impressed with Rios' smarts and skills. He faces his toughest test in ex champ Ramos Friday. R & R stands for railroad and it can also represent a couple of featherweight prizefighters named Ronny Rios and Rico Ramos. It also signifies an intersection where one fighter goes forward and the other takes a detour. It’s as simple as that. Costa Mesa featherweight Rios (19-0, 9 Kos) intersects with former junior featherweight world champion Ramos (21-1, 11 Kos) at Fantasy Springs Casino on Friday. The Golden Boy Promotions card will be televised on Showtime. It’s free for nonsubscribers this weekend. Ramos had his WBA title ripped away by Cuba’s Guillermo Rigondeaux a year ago and it wasn’t a pretty sight in the mere six rounds it lasted. But in his last ring entrance against rugged Efrain Esquivias, the South-Central boxer seemingly... Read more...
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