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Written by Ron Borges
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Thursday, 02 May 2013 09:57
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 LAS VEGAS – Everybody was ready to fight Wednesday at the MGM Grand but the two guys who knew how. In the midst of the final pre-fight press conference hyping Saturday night’s WBC welterweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Robert Guerrero, near-mayhem broke out when Ruben Guerrero, father of the challenger, began to holler that Mayweather was a “woman beater.’’ This was particularly irksome to Guerrero, apparently, not so much because of the actions that led Mayweather to serve 82 days in the county lockup in Las Vegas last year for misdemeanor battery on the mother of three of his children but rather because that same guy had called his son a “religious hypocrite’’ after seeing photographs of Marilyn Monroe on the wall of the Guerrero family home in Gilroy, CA. Not sure when Marilyn Monroe’s... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Wednesday, 01 May 2013 16:11
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 The final press conference to hype Saturday's return to the ring for Floyd Mayweather, and his first fight in his massive deal with Showtime, unfolded Wednesday afternoon. And it was the father of challenger Robert Guerrero, one Ruben Guerrero (seen in above photo, on the right, next to son Robert), who stole the show. Oscar De La Hoya spoke, after Richard Schaefer introed Leonard Ellerbe, the MGM boss, and Showtime's Stephen Espinoza. Oscar in Spanish talked about Cinco de Mayo and how pumped he was for the fight. Then Ruben got the mic, and went off. He referred to Floyd as a "woman beater," and said his son would beat up the woman beater. He said Floyd probably learned about his methods from his father, Floyd Sr. Floyd bowed his head a bit and shrunk in his seat. "We're gonna beat that woman beater,"... Read more...
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Written by Bernard Fernandez
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Tuesday, 30 April 2013 15:50
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 As a professional boxer who has plied his trade for 17 dominant years, and earned pyramid-high stacks of cash in the process, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has not had to swallow the sour taste of defeat. He is 43-0, with 26 knockouts, and aside from a few momentary hiccups , never has been seriously threatened during all that time. Even at the relatively advanced age of 36, “Money” is so confident that his oh won’t ever go that he has proclaimed himself high above the vaguest hint of failure. How could the most flawless fighter ever to lace up a pair of gloves (and if you don’t believe that, he’ll be glad to tell you again) be taken down by a mortal man? Would the mighty gods of Greek mythology atop Mount Olympus fear someone on Earth hewn of flesh and bone? Mayweather, who puts his WBC welterweight championship on... Read more...
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Written by Phil Woolever
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Tuesday, 30 April 2013 08:55
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 ANOTHER LONG, LONG SHOT - There are occasions when the outcome of a scheduled boxing competition, even a big money, high profile bout that generates millions of dollars at the live gate and millions of viewers for the broadcast seems to have a result so obvious that it's not unreasonable to question why the fight was made in the first place.Such seems to be the case in this Saturday's scheduled 12 round, consensus heavyweight engagement between champion Wladimir Klitschko and challenger Francesco Pianeta, 28-0-1 (15KO).The most realistically accurate ways to define how Pianeta's chances shape up are either extremely slim or absolutely none at all. On paper, this is not the fight to revive the big boy division. We anticipate the word pinata will probably come to mind, but hopefully not reenacted by the bat in Wlad's right... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Monday, 29 April 2013 16:13
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 Ross Greenburg, the ace documentarian who ran HBO's boxing program from 2000-2011, and was with that network for 33 years, put together a doc for CBS-Showtime called "Mayweather," which ran on Saturday night on CBS, in primetime. Much of the material wasn't breaking news for boxing fans, but nevertheless, as a fan of the sport who seeks the sweet science to be accepted and revered by the masses as it should be, it was good to see the sport on in primetime, on a network. LL Cool J narrated, as Floyd kicked things off by talking about how his mom told him he was special. "You're different from the other kids," the fighter recalls his mom saying. "I never knew what she meant," he said, until he finally did. The program, written by Steven Stern, featured some superb stills, and interviews with top drawer pugilists... Read more...
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Written by The Sweet Science
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Monday, 29 April 2013 08:40
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 On November 3, 2001, Zab Judah fought Kostya Tszyu in a much-anticipated 140-pound title-unification bout. Judah had turned pro in 1996 as an 18-year-old phenom with sparkling amateur credentials. He was 27-and-0 in the pay ranks with six title-fight victories and ranked in the top ten on most pound-for-pound lists. Power, speed, boxing savvy; Zab had it all. Some experts likened him to Pernell Whitaker, only Judah had more power. “If you come down to 140 pounds, I'll knock you out,” Zab told his friend, Mike Tyson. Tszyu had some impressive victories on his ledger, but he’d been stopped by Vince Phillips. The assumption was that Judah would be too much for him. A few fighters at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn where Zab trained had a contrary view. Local boxers tend to support and believe in their own. But Judah was flawed, those fighters said. When he got hit hard in sparring,... Read more...
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Written by Ron Borges
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Monday, 29 April 2013 08:21
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 Three things were obvious once the smoke cleared from a middleweight weekend of bomb throwing: Sergio Martinez is on the way down, Peter Quillin is on the way up and the former should stay as far away from the latter as possible. The 38-year-old Martinez looked every bit his age in barely escaping with a slightly generous decision over English challenger Martin Murray in the WBC champion’s hometown of Buenos Aires and so did the 29-year-old Quillin in dominating and finally stopping overmatched Fernando Guerrero in his hometown of Brooklyn. Everything Martinez was not Saturday night in a raging downpour that battered the 40,000-seat soccer stadium of Buenos Aires club Velez Sarsfield, Quillin was at the Barclays Center. While Martinez was twice knocked to the floor and left bloodied and in need of... Read more...
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Written by Kelsey McCarson
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Saturday, 27 April 2013 22:28
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 In front of thousands of singing countrymen, Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KOs) outlasted UK’s Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) to win a hotly contested unanimous decision. All three judges at ringside scored the bout 115-112 for the champion. Martinez retained his TBRB lineal middleweight championship of the world, as well as his RING and WBC title belts. Martinez started carefully in the first. The quick southpaw used his feet to move in and out of the larger Murray’s range, content to focus on establishing an opening. Martinez moved in slowly with his hands down, trying to lure Murray into lowering his high guard. Murray responded by landing a solid right hand that did no real damage and a few light one-twos. Murray’s cautious and sound approach won him the round. The champion was more aggressive in the second. Carrying his guard very low and... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Saturday, 27 April 2013 22:12
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 They wondered if the head would be there with the talent, if Brooklyn-born Zab Judah would be in the right frame of mind to take the junior welter titles from Danny Garcia in Brooklyn at Barclays Center on Saturday night. The skills, no one assumed those had left the building, but the psyche, that was up for debate. At the end of twelve rounds, we knew the head was on straight and the heart was present, big time, but still, it was Danny Garcia who had his hand raised in Brooklyn. Judah won something of a moral victory, making it interesting late, with a superb tenth, but Garcia, too strong, got the nod. The scores were 115-112, 114-112, 116-111, for the Philly fighter. Garcia, to Jim Gray, said after Judah was the craftiest he's ever faced. He said Zab took away the jab, to his credit. He said... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Saturday, 27 April 2013 17:06
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 Junior welter Amir Khan looked to take another step to getting back on the biggest stages, facing off with Julio Diaz in England on Saturday night. Khan bashers believe the Pakistani-Brit is fatally chinny, that his whiskers are too weak to allow him be able to hang with anyone but light punchers, so not many out there dismissed the past his prime Diaz as a no hoper. Khan exited with a UD12 win, but he went down in the fourth and was buzzed in the 11th against a man not known as a bomber. The judges saw it 114-113, 115-113, 115-112, for Khan, who, sad to say, can change trainers all he wants, but seems to be stuck with something you can't fix--a subpar chin. Hard to see what Khan does next; on one hand, his chin makes him must see TV, but you have to make him an underdog against anyone with more than decent pop. The... Read more...
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