09 Boxing Thread:: 12/12 Diaz.vs.Malignaggi HBO/Bradley.vs.Peterson Showtime

[caponecartels]

Originally Posted by wildout4

http://www.youtube.com/v/tNLH9Jjr_B4&hl=en&fs=1& http://www.youtube.com/v/tNLH9Jjr_B4&hl=en&fs=1&http://www.youtube.com/v/tNLH9Jjr_B4&hl=en&fs=1&

War Marquez!

 

[sir rob a lot]

Originally Posted by SJSneakerheadIII

Originally Posted by Sir Rob A Lot

Originally Posted by CAFinest23

But the weight is going to be MAC's biggest problem in the fight.

I actually agree. I'm tired of hearing people say, "It's just 1 pound" MAC hasn't weighed under 146 since he was a Jr. Welter against Paulie (2-3 years ago?). It's way more than "just 1 pound."

But if MAC re-hydrates properly...I think he can win by either late round stoppage or KO.

When he totally reconstructed his face in the ring???

I'll take him at this weight against Pacquiao.

Let's get it Cotto!!!!

CA is right up there....Manny is no Mallanaggi. The reason I brought that up is because that fight was over 3 years ago, and was also the last time MACweighed under 146. People are saying thats all MAC has to do is lose one pound......people hit their limits...ask Gunna's boy Nate Campbell about why hemissed weight against Funeka.

BTW, I'm not sure if you even watched Cotto/Mallanaggi.......but Cotto faded in the late rounds. Which, IMO, because of the weight cutting and made himmove up to 147.

 

[cafinest23]

^^yep i'm writing on my iPhone so I couldn't quote right pauile has featherhands he's not a problem for anybody with a decent chin. Manny'sstyle and hand speed with the power he has will be a problem for MAC. The only way I see MAC winning is if he either rehydrates very well or comes in the bestshape of his career.

 

[bigmike23]

By the time Nate Campbell is done having his hearing with the California commission on Aug. 24, his TKO loss to Timothy Bradley will likely have been turned into a no-contest, and you'll hear a lot of talk about how justice was done. After all, replays clearly showed that the cut above Campbell's left eye was caused by an accidental clash of heads. Referee David Mendoza got the call wrong, a mistake that instant replay can correct.

Unfortunately, a no-contest isn't necessarily justice. It's the correct result according to the rulebook. But it rewards the fighter who was being dominated in the ring, who believed he had one option to escape without a loss, and who immediately dismissed the notion of battling on like a true warrior in favor of that easy-way-out option.

Yes, the Bradley-Campbell controversy has re-opened discussion about the need for boxing to adopt instant replay. But that discussion has unfairly overshadowed an equally important issue: whether fighters are abusing the accidental-foul rule and, in turn, whether it's time to modify that rule.

Campbell was justified in repeatedly screaming "This is wrong!" after Bradley was named the winner by TKO on Aug. 1 because the ref did indeed blow the call. But Bradley will have every right to scream the same thing right back in his face if he ultimately has to settle for a no-contest.

Rewarding a fighter for quitting the first chance he gets? That is wrong. And it's been happening far too often lately.

Last July, Hasim Rahman claimed he was having trouble seeing after clashing heads with James Toney, and after a commission hearing, the result ended up a three-round no-contest. This past March, Robert Guerrero followed the same path in the second round of his fight with Daud Yordan, which also was ruled a no-contest.

What did Rahman, Guerrero and Campbell have in common?

For starters, all three were struggling in their fights. Campbell was being shut out through three rounds, the third stanza bordering on a 10-8 score; Rahman was getting dominated in the third round; Guerrero was having problems with the speed of Yordan, and the fight, which Guerrero was favored to win, was about even through a round-and-a-half.

And all three went out of their way to tell the refs and/or doctors that they couldn't see. These weren't fighters wanting to fight and officials overruling them for health reasons. These were fighters tying the officials' hands with the words that came out of their mouths.

Obviously, a man's eyesight is serious business, and if these boxers truly were having vision problems, then the fights should have been stopped. So there's a part of you that wants to give each the benefit of the doubt.

But it seems awfully coincidental. Three separate fights, three separate cuts that don't look bad enough to end a fight, three separate fighters who weren't doing as well as they'd hoped, and three separate fighters who knew just what to say to give the doctors no wiggle room.

"Everyone knows [Campbell] quit," Bradley's promoter, Gary Shaw, told RingTV.com's Michael Rosenthal last week. "He didn't want the cutman to close the cut. He didn't want to fight. He was getting beat by a bigger, stronger, faster man. He just plain quit."

You don't have to look too hard to find contrasting examples of fighters in similar situations behaving like fighters (to borrow a Teddy Atlas-ism).

In June, Miguel Cotto was stuck in a tough challenge against Joshua Clottey when he got cut over the left eye by an accidental head butt in the third round. He had plenty of opportunities to hint - or flat-out insist - to the doctor that the fight should be stopped. Instead, he insisted on winning or losing honorably and went the 12-round distance.

Back in March, Marco Antonio Barrera suffered a gruesome gash in the opening round of his bout with Amir Khan, was clearly bothered by the blood, and soldiered on until, conveniently, the British officials stopped the fight once enough rounds were in the book for Khan to win a technical decision.

Prior to the Bradley fight, Campbell, who calls himself "The Galaxxy Warrior," had never been anything but a warrior. He'd lost some fights, but he'd never lacked for heart or looked for shortcuts. So you want to believe him when he says he's seeing spots.

But the T-shirt he wore into the ring for the Bradley fight bore the name of the late Arturo Gatti. And you'd better believe spots in his eyes would never have kept Gatti on his stool. Boxers are held to a high standard for toughness - especially boxers who dedicate their fights to Gatti. It's not that Campbell isn't tough by normal human measures. But his determination to get the Bradley fight stopped was a galaxy away from what a warrior would have done.

So between Campbell, Guerrero and Rahman, any or all of whom were arguably abusing the system, is it time to consider modifying the rule that allows fights to be stopped this way and go into the books as no-contests?

"You can never force a fighter to continue, and even if you would try to do that, if he's right and he does get hurt, you're a dead man, legally. You can't take that type of responsibility," said Greg Sirb, the executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission and former president of the Association of Boxing Commissioners. "But you should be able to say to the kid, 'Hey, that's fine. You're allowed to call it quits right here. But it will go down as a loss by TKO.' I'm talking about a situation where the doctor comes to me and says, 'Greg, he's fine, he can continue.' As a commissioner, I can say, 'If you want to quit at this time, you'll lose by abandonment.'

"And that's a ballsy move, but that's going have to be done, I think, to maybe wake a few of these fighters up."

Sirb said this topic came up at the most recent ABC meeting, and that, inspired by the Bradley-Campbell fight, he intends to send an e-mail to his fellow commissioners stating his view. He wants to see a situation where a doctor or referee can use his discretion to differentiate between fights they choose to halt and fights the boxer halts on his own.

"I think that would eliminate these kids who say, 'It's not my night, I'm not feeling good, I'm out of here,'" Sirb continued. "If the current rule lends itself to being abused, you can rectify that. But to rectify it, you're going to have to show some balls. It's a tough call for a commission to make."

Call it the common-sense corollary to the accidental-foul rule.

There are other rule modifications to consider. One is to go back to the way it was for many decades before these no-contests and technical decisions became an option - and the way it still is in some countries: If you get cut and can't continue, no matter the reason, you lose by TKO.

"Nah, you can't go back to that," said Hall of Fame promoter and fight historian J Russell Peltz. "That's the way it always was. And even though I'm usually a believer in the way it always was, in this case, I'm not. I said to myself once, 'How did Willie Reddish ever lose to Abe Simon on a knockout [TKO 4 in 1939]?' And then I finally read the story about the fight a few years ago, and it was from a head butt."

"Automatically making it a TKO, no, that's not fair," agreed Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer. "Say a guy's up 11 rounds to none, it's an accidental head butt, he gets cut, it's a terrible gash, and he loses because of that. How fair is that?"

"I don't want to make the sport barbaric," Sirb said in agreeing with Kizer and Peltz. "We know head butts are a problem in our sport, it happens."

OK, so we all agree that going back to the automatic-TKO rule creates more problems than it solves. How about going to the scorecards no matter how few rounds are complete? If we believe Campbell, Guerrero and Rahman were overstating the severity of their injuries, well, that never happens with this rule modification in place.

"I don't like that change," Peltz said. "Four rounds is short enough, one-third of a 12-round fight."

"In baseball," Kizer said, "a guy can have a no-hitter through four innings and the skies open up and it rains, the game doesn't count. The guy just gets three more outs and the skies open up and he gets a no-hitter. So there always has to be somewhere where it becomes official, and before that it doesn't count. There has to be a line. Four rounds is as fair a place as any to draw the line."

Kizer raised another interesting point. He noted that technical decisions are his No. 1 argument against open scoring, since a fighter who knows for a fact that he's ahead later in a fight will be that much more encouraged to say he can't continue because of an accidental foul. Kizer said the fighters who abuse the accidental-foul rule prior to the end of the fourth round don't concern him as much as those who do it after four rounds are complete.

"My bigger concern is when it happens later in a fight, and instead of quitting and getting a no-contest, you quit and get a victory," Kizer said.

We've seen that happen quite a few times. There was undefeated Hector Camacho Jr. looking for a way out against Jesse James Leija in July '01 after his team members sneaked a peek at the scorecards and knew for sure that he was ahead through five. (Thankfully, the technical-decision win for Camacho was later changed to a no-contest.) Ironically, in Leija's next fight, against Micky Ward, he took the same route, winning by fifth-round technical decision just as Ward was coming on.

And perhaps the most famous case of all came in 1986, after Johnny Bumphus built an early lead against Marlon Starling, started to fade, suffered a relatively minor cut in the sixth round, and won by technical decision when his trainer, Lou Duva, convinced referee Vincent Rainone to stop the fight.

Ultimately, accidental head butts create a situation in boxing for which there are no easy answers. Every rule modification can either be abused or is flat-out unfair. The only solution that makes sense is what Sirb suggests, but that comes down to an extremely difficult judgment call as to whether a fighter is overstating his injury in hopes of ending the fight.

From my seat on the living-room couch, that's exactly what it seemed Campbell, Guerrero and Rahman were all doing. But I'm not seeing the world through their supposedly damaged eyes. I'd hate to make a fighter who is legitimately injured go back into combat if he can't see the punches coming.

Hopefully, no commission or referee or doctor will have to. As long the fighter understands that the rules give the officials the option of calling it a TKO loss if they think the fighter is faking, that threat might be enough to bring an end to any fakery.

 

[cafinest23]

I don't believe that Campbell quit his cut was pretty bad but he better show up of there's a rematch because if not he's going to look pretty bad.

 

[scott frost]

Originally Posted by Proshares

Originally Posted by Scott Frost

stevemaxboxingBeen told that Pavlik-Williams is ON!!! October 3rd, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Book it, Dano!!!

At least I know where I'll be on the 3rd. Cant wait to see this +#+$ live.....

Same here, I definitely gotta hop in the Chinatown bus for this one

When do these tix go on sale? I know the fight was just announced but no way in hell am I missing this.

 

[bigmike23]

im watching the Jones VS ruiz fight and

do we overrate jones beating this bum?

 

[sir rob a lot]

Originally Posted by Bigmike23

do we overrate jones beating this bum?

.....hmmmm. Maybe.

Ruiz is/was a bum. But dude did beat Holyfield.

 

[gunna get it]

"We had a few choices to fight but we chose to fight this guy because he was the easiest guy for us. The guy is a robot. The guy is programmed. He is going to come out and do the same thing, nothing different. He is like Frankenstein; he will take those steps and punch and take those steps and punch. This fight is long overdue."

People are expecting fireworks in this fight and fireworks they will get. The strategy for Williams, according to Peterson, is to stand his ground and take the fight directly to Pavlik. Peterson has a theory that Pavlik is one of those punchers who can dish it out, but can't withstand the return fire.

"He won't have to find us because Paul will step right to him and rock him. His chin is made in china. Paul will stand right in front of this joker and bang him right out. We are fighting a ghost that you can see. We thought a ghost was invisible but we have one here that we can see and we are going to spank that butt. They call him "The Ghost" but what do you do when you have a problem with a ghost - you call Ghostbusters," Peterson said.

"Pavlik is taller, bigger and punches harder but he has to find something to punch. When will he have time to punch when 125 punches are coming at him in every round? All of those guys who can punch, they can't take it. You have to be able to pitch and catch. We want to see how good he can catch. How well can he catch? How good is his chin? I know he can pitch but can he catch? Paul is going to test that chin."

October 3rd Babayyyy!

 

[uclamike]

o and That Roy Jones VS Ruiz Fight is worse then DLH VS PBF of big time that that turned into hot boring trash

 

[jagshemash]

Peterson is talking crazy

First, why would you say that you choosePavlik because he's the easiest option? Second, did he only watch the second round of the Taylor fight lol...because Pavlik's chin has been tested byMiranda, Taylor (twice), and Hopkins. I do agree with him though about Pavlik's style. He needs a guy in there who is going to stand in front and allowhim to set up his 1-2 and Williams throws so many damn punches and give's all kinds of movement which could be a style nightmare for Pavlik.

 

[proshares]

Ohhhhh boy, it's going to be wild in here on October 3rd

Kelly doesn't have a chin now

I'm not even going to talk $*@%, I'm just patiently counting down the days

 

[sir rob a lot]

I wished Pavlik/Williams was announced a month earlier.....I would've been able to save some dough for a trip.

 

[scott frost]

Kelly doesn't have a chin now

JT checked it, and if he didnt punch himself out who knows where Pavlik would be.

 

[bigmike23]

Originally Posted by Scott Frost

Kelly doesn't have a chin now

JT checked it, and if he didnt punch himself out who knows where Pavlik would be.


pretty much

 

[proshares]

Originally Posted by Scott Frost

Kelly doesn't have a chin now

JT checked it, and if he didnt punch himself out who knows where Pavlik would be.


Eh, I know he knocked him down but Kelly basically stuck his head out for JT to hit him. He took a lot of clean punches from Edison and didn't go down soI guess we'll see.

 

[el producto79]

Anybody know when Klitschko/Arreola tix go on sale?

 

[jagshemash]

Like proshares said, Pavlik basically stuck his head out and Taylor threw 4-5 punches with everything he had and he got back up immediately. Taylor can bang,too. He took down Froch at 168 who had never been down (and claimed he had never been hurt) in his entire amateur and professional career.

 

[rayfizzle]

go bernabe concepcion! I hope he wins another belt for the Philippines. He is a 2 to 1 underdog against Lueveno, i think ill bet 100 on him. what doeseverything think?

 

[tcerda]

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

"We had a few choices to fight but we chose to fight this guy because he was the easiest guy for us. The guy is a robot. The guy is programmed. He is going to come out and do the same thing, nothing different. He is like Frankenstein; he will take those steps and punch and take those steps and punch. This fight is long overdue."

People are expecting fireworks in this fight and fireworks they will get. The strategy for Williams, according to Peterson, is to stand his ground and take the fight directly to Pavlik. Peterson has a theory that Pavlik is one of those punchers who can dish it out, but can't withstand the return fire.

"He won't have to find us because Paul will step right to him and rock him. His chin is made in china. Paul will stand right in front of this joker and bang him right out. We are fighting a ghost that you can see. We thought a ghost was invisible but we have one here that we can see and we are going to spank that butt. They call him "The Ghost" but what do you do when you have a problem with a ghost - you call Ghostbusters," Peterson said.

"Pavlik is taller, bigger and punches harder but he has to find something to punch. When will he have time to punch when 125 punches are coming at him in every round? All of those guys who can punch, they can't take it. You have to be able to pitch and catch. We want to see how good he can catch. How well can he catch? How good is his chin? I know he can pitch but can he catch? Paul is going to test that chin."

October 3rd Babayyyy!


Im not even gonna entertain this....

 

[scott frost]

For those interested in Pavlik v. Williams:

http://www.ticketmaster.com/Live-Championship-Boxing-tickets/artist/841511

Tuesday 8/18, tix go on sale.

 

[proshares]

^Nice, good looks. I'm definitely in there. Withdraw from the poker account to sit at some tables

 

[yungmatt]

Ill be there

 

[bigmike23]

The Mayweather-Marquez televised undercard is all but done, according to Golden Boy. Two supporting bouts are finalized. Featherweight titlist Chris John and Rocky Juarez, who battled to a draw in February, meet again in the co-feature. Also on tap for the strong undercard: 2004 U.S. Olympian Vicente Escobedo and Australian brawler Michael Katsidis have signed their contracts and will meet for a vacant interim lightweight belt. The fourth TV fight pits Zab Judah against Antonio Diaz. They'll meet in a 10-rounder at a contract weight of 145 pounds. According to Golden Boy, Judah has signed and it awaits Diaz's signed agreement
best undercard on paper we have seen in some time

 

[proshares]

Escobedo/Katsidis is going to be good. Might need to bust out String's old avy for that one.


[h1][/h1]

[h1]Jones channels old Roy, not an old Roy, ahead of Lacy fight[/h1]

By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
(Archive)

Updated: August 14, 2009, 4:26 PM ET

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• 
  
  Tom Casino/Square Ring
  Jeff Lacy, right, has kept a low profile going into Saturday's fight with Roy Jones.
• 
  
  Tom Casino/Square Ring
  Roy Jones took some time out from promotional duties to visit the New Orleans Saints.
• 
  
  Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
  Roy Jones believes a bad cut contributed to his loss to Joe Calzaghe in November 2008.

« Low key | Motivational time | Not cutting it | »
[h3]Jones back to face Lacy[/h3]
Yes, Roy Jones Jr. is still fighting.

At 40, and two fights removed from an uncompetitive decision loss to Joe Calzaghe, Jones is no longer "Superman," as he was once called. He isn't even close to the pound-for-pound superstar who was the best fighter on the planet for about a decade, when he dazzled with speed and power while winning titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and even heavyweight.

Now, Jones (53-5, 39 KOs) just soldiers on even if few realize or care that he is still fighting.

He rebounded from the loss to Calzaghe to stop the badly faded Omar Sheika in the fifth round in March and now will face fellow Florida native Jeff Lacy (25-2, 17 KOs), the former super middleweight titleholder whose own career is in a precipitous free fall.

[h4]Hook City[/h4]
TV lineup for the Square Ring PPV card on Saturday (9 p.m. ET, $34.95) from the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Miss.:

• Light heavyweights: Roy Jones Jr. (53-5, 39 KOs) vs. Jeff Lacy (25-2, 17 KOs), 12 rounds
• Cruiserweights: Danny Green (26-3, 23 KOs) vs. Julio Cesar Dominguez (20-4-1, 14 KOs), 12 rounds
• Cruiserweights: B.J. Flores (23-0-1, 14 KOs) vs. Epifanio Mendoza (29-7-1, 25 KOs), 10 rounds
• Lightweights: Verquan Kimbrough (21-1-2, 7 KOs) vs. Jason Litzau (24-2, 20 KOs), 10 rounds

They'll meet at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi on Saturday (9 p.m. ET, Square Ring PPV, $34.95) in a scheduled 12-rounder that headlines a four-fight card dubbed "Hook City," an homage to the best punches of each fighter.

Jones seems to think he can defy Mother Nature and recapture his old form. He blames the loss to Calzaghe in November 2008 largely on a cut he suffered, saying it took him out of his game plan. He seems to think the wipeout loss was merely a glitch, and that's it's only a matter of changing a few things to get back to his old self.

"Calzaghe was a better fighter than me that night, but he got me with a good cut and [he] was the better fighter that night," Jones said. "Overall, I am one of the best that ever did it, and I feel like I'm getting back to my potential right now."

After Jones beat John Ruiz for a heavyweight belt in 2003, he dropped back down to light heavyweight and was clearly sapped from losing more than 20 pounds, a lot of it muscle. After that fight, he struggled to a decision win against Antonio Tarver and then suffered three losses in a row -- including brutal knockouts to Tarver and Glen Johnson.

"When I had gone to heavyweight, I was a speed-combination puncher who [had] power," he said. "When I went to the heavyweight division, I focused on getting more power and less combinations and speed. Now I am focused more on my combinations and speed. Now I am back to the fighter I was when you saw me fight Julio Gonzalez [in 2001]. As a matter of fact, I might be better now than I was on that night. Now I am back to that Roy Jones, and that Roy Jones was a technician."

Defensively, Jones said he has also made some changes.

"I realized that when I was keeping my hands up by my face like an ordinary fighter, I was not Roy Jones," he said. "Roy Jones is not an ordinary fighter and that was hard for me, so I had to leave that alone. The old Roy is now me."

Jones is working closely again with his father, Roy Jones Sr., the man who taught him to fight and trained him in the early part of his career. But they had a bad falling out and were estranged for many years other than a brief reunion before the third fight with Tarver in 2005.

But Big Roy, as he is called, was in camp with his son for the second consecutive fight, although Jones' longtime trainer, Alton Merkerson, was also there.

Big Roy seems to agree that his son still has some fight left in him.

"Roy Jones Jr. should have never lost to Joe Calzaghe," Big Roy said. "I don't want to take anything away from Joe, but Roy fought out of his element. He didn't do the things he was known for. Physically, he was in the best shape I had seen him in in years. But he may not have trained for the occasion. You know, you don't take snow skis to the desert. Right now he is the same old Roy."
[h3]Possible unification, but not with who you think, for Berto[/h3]
When Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer and Lou DiBella met last week in New York, the key topic was finding a way to schedule a Shane Mosley-Andre Berto welterweight title unification bout for Dec. 5 on HBO's "World Championship Boxing."

Ed Mulholland/US PRESSWIRE

You can bet on a return to the ring for Andre Berto, but it won't be against Shane Mosley.

Although HBO offered $3.2 million, there wasn't enough money to satisfy both fighters and the promoters, because Mosley was asking for $2 million and Berto more than $1 million. Since neither fighter is a huge ticket seller (and Dec. 5 is a poor date that late in the year to secure a site fee), it would have left no money for either promoter to make a profit, stage an undercard or take care of the other expenses.

That means Mosley-Berto is on hold until at least next year, DiBella told ESPN.com. However, Berto (25-0, 19 KOs) could still fight Dec. 5, which would become an edition of HBO's lower-budget "Boxing After Dark."

Berto would fight South Africa's Isaac Hlatshwayo (29-1-1, 10 KOs), who outpointed Delvin Rodriguez on Aug. 1 to claim the belt Joshua Clottey vacated to fight Miguel Cotto. DiBella said he and Branco Milenkovic, Hlatshwayo's promoter, have a deal pending HBO's approval. They came to terms a few days after the Hlatshwayo-Rodriguez rematch in Connecticut, a bout DiBella attended to scout and also because he had bought the American television rights for the fight. (By the way, it will air Aug. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on DiBella's "Broadway Boxing" series on SportsNet New York, which is available on satellite services.)

Although Berto has a mandatory rematch due with Luis Collazo, DiBella said the WBC would make an exception for a unification bout.

DiBella said he hopes to add junior middleweight titlist Sergio Martinez to the card to fight in the televised opener now that plans for Martinez to fight in Spain on Sept. 26 have been scrapped.

"I'd like to do Sergio in a good fight," DiBella said. "We would fight Clottey in two seconds or maybe Joe Greene," whom DiBella co-promotes.
[h3]Caballero keeps the pressure on[/h3]
Even as unified junior featherweight titlist Celestino Caballero prepares to defend his belts Aug. 29 against Francisco Leal in Mexicali, Mexico, he still has beltholder Juan Manuel Lopez on his mind.

Caballero (32-2, 22 KOs) has launched a campaign to try to lure the rising Puerto Rican star into a unification fight. Caballero has produced video blogs calling Lopez out and has been talking up a storm. He has also taken shots at Lopez's manager, Orlando Pinero, who has dismissed Caballero.

AP Photos/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

Celestino Cabellero is on a mission to land a big-money fight with Juan Manuel Lopez.

"Orlando, I have been a fighter for over a decade, and unfortunately, I know how things work in this business when it comes to fighters who choose to avoid the real challenges in their careers," Caballero said. "They receive preferential treatment and are never forced to live up to their boasts of being the best fighter in their division. The real fans know the only real fight left for your fighter at 122 pounds is against me, and you have the power to make it happen by going to your promoter, Bob Arum, and letting him know that this is the fight you want.

"Orlando knows that if I didn't bring up the possibility of this fight, he and his team would continue to run from me. Now the fans and the media are demanding it, so he has to respond now. And just so he hears me loud and clear, I will say it again -- if Juan Manuel Lopez is the great champion you say he is, he will step up and fight me. This is a fight for the fans and the sport of boxing, and if Lopez cares about his reputation and legacy, this should be the only fight he's thinking of. Just because Lopez comes from the island that produced great Puerto Rican champions like Felix Trinidad, Wilfred Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez and Miguel Cotto doesn't mean he's one of them yet. Those champions never ducked a challenge. Don't let him disgrace them by being the first."

Panama's Caballero added that he is willing to go to Puerto Rico to fight Lopez.

Lopez is scheduled to fight Oct. 10 in the main event of a Top Rank PPV card, probably against Rogers Mtagwa.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

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75 comments on "Jones channels old Roy, not an old Roy, ahead of Lacy fight"

[h4]QUICK HITS[/h4]

Toney

• Heavyweight James Toney (71-6-3, 43 KOs) is coming back. He faces Matt Greer (12-5, 11 KOs) in Temecula, Calif., Sept. 12 in an untelevised bout on the "ShoBox" card headlined by super middleweight Andre Ward against Shelby Pudwill. Toney, 40, hasn't fought since winning a controversial split decision against Fres Oquendo in December. Although Toney, a former three-division champion and two-time positive tester for steroids, is only 3-2-1 with two no contests in his last eight bouts, promoter Dan Goossen is giving him another chance. "If James can go out there and show he's still go something in the tank and has gotten into tip-top shape, he could get another opportunity in 2010 to fight for the heavyweight championship. So this is a fight to get him out in the public and give the media and people a chance to see how he looks and make a determination about if he's serious finally about his conditioning." Goossen said he hoped to make the bout available live via an Internet stream.

Mayweather

• In an effort to promote his Sept. 19 HBO PPV fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is returning to the WWE, at least for one night. Mayweather, who was a big hit in his "fight" with wrestler Big Show at last year's WrestleMania, will serve as the guest host of the Aug. 24 edition of "Monday Night RAW" (USA), according to multiple sources with knowledge of the deal. The show will be at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, where Mayweather lives and trains. WWE has been using guest hosts to jazz up "RAW" in recent weeks instead of relying on a single general manager character to "book" the matches for the night. No word on whether we'll see Mayweather-Big Show II.

John

• The Mayweather-Marquez televised undercard is all but done, according to Golden Boy. Two supporting bouts are finalized. Featherweight titlist Chris John and Rocky Juarez, who battled to a draw in February, meet again in the co-feature. Also on tap for the strong undercard: 2004 U.S. Olympian Vicente Escobedo and Australian brawler Michael Katsidis have signed their contracts and will meet for a vacant interim lightweight belt. The fourth TV fight pits Zab Judah against Antonio Diaz. They'll meet in a 10-rounder at a contract weight of 145 pounds. According to Golden Boy, Judah has signed and it awaits Diaz's signed agreement.

Bika

• Once Golden Boy made the decision to slot Escobedo-Katsidis on Sept. 19, it left an opening for a televised bout on the HBO undercard of Lucian Bute's super middleweight title rematch with Librado Andrade on Nov. 28 in Canada. It could be another super middleweight title bout, with beltholder Karoly Balzsay facing former "Contender" winner Sakio Bika, Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez told ESPN.com. "We're in talks," Gomez said. "Bika [whom Golden Boy co-promotes] is in. He'll fight anybody. We've talked to Balzsay's people and there's interest on both sides. It's a good fight and HBO likes it." Next week, Gomez is headed to Budapest, Hungary, Balzsay's hometown and the site of this year's WBO convention. On a card being staged in conjunction with the convention, Balzsay defends his title on Aug. 22 against Robert Stieglitz, which he would have to win. Gomez will be at the fight and said he'll meet with representatives from Universum, Balzsay's promoter.

Rigondeaux

• Although "Friday Night Fights" finishes its season Aug. 28 and won't be back until January, there will be a live boxing special Sept. 18 on ESPN2, network boxing programmer Doug Loughery told ESPN.com. In conjunction with "Hispanic Heritage Month," ESPN2 will air a card from the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. Headlining will be two-time Olympic gold medalist and Cuban defector Guillermo Rigondeaux (2-0, 2 KOs), who will step up to a 10-round fight for a regional junior featherweight title against an opponent to be named. Three other former Cuban Olympians are also slated for action: cruiserweight Yunier Dorticos, light heavyweight Yordanis Despaigne and junior middleweight Yudel Johnson. Two other prospects may appear: junior middleweight Erislandy Lara, another Cuban defector and former world amateur champion, and junior welterweight Felix Diaz, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist from the Dominican Republic.

Darchinyan

• Vic Darchinyan is planning to return to junior bantamweight to defend his belts after losing a bantamweight title shot to Joseph Agbeko, and promoter Gary Shaw told ESPN.com he wants to match Darchinyan with interim titleholder Tomas Rojas, one of Darchinyan's mandatories. Shaw hopes to make the fight for Dec. 5 on Showtime. He said ideally he'll deliver Showtime a tripleheader that would also include lightweight Ali Funeka, whom he co-promotes, against Joan Guzman for a vacant lightweight belt, plus Yonnhy Perez, whom Shaw also co-promotes, in a mandatory shot at Agbeko. "What a great card. What a way for Showtime to close the year," Shaw said.

Jirov

• Vassiliy Jirov, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and former cruiserweight titlist, is returning to boxing. Jirov (37-3-1, 31 KOs) last fought in July 2007 and has fought only twice since mid-2005. But the 35-year-old hopes to box Sept. 17 in Woodland Hills, Calif. Jirov has reunited with manager Ivaylo Gotzev; they had split before Jirov lost his title and perfect record to James Toney in a 2003 slugfest. Jirov moved up to heavyweight after the loss but didn't have much success. The comeback will be at cruiserweight, Gotzev said. "There is no doubt in my mind that Vassiliy will be unified cruiserweight champion of the world," he said. "We are going to bring excitement to every fight, and there are some great fights to be made at that weight."

Sturm

• Conflicts between fighters and promoters aren't limited only to the United States. Middleweight titlist Felix Sturm of Germany is on the outs with promoter Universum. Sturm was quoted in German newspaper BILD as saying, "I will never fight for Universum again. I'd rather retire." The fighter and promoter disagree about when the contract ends. Sturm says it's up Nov. 16. Universum says it has an option to extend it three more years. "Both sides benefited from our partnership," Sturm was quoted as saying. "Now I reached a point where I want to stand on my own feet." There had been discussions between Universum and Top Rank about a fall match between champion Kelly Pavlik and Sturm. Golden Boy has also been talking to Universum about a Sturm-Winky Wright match.

Brewster

• Former heavyweight titlist Lamon Brewster (35-4, 30 KOs), who is now promoted by Sauerland Event, returns to action Aug. 29 in Germany to face Gbenga Oloukun (16-1, 10 KOs). The fight will be on the undercard of Victor Emilio Ramirez's cruiserweight defense against Marco Huck. Since being crushed in a rematch by Wladimir Klitschko in July 2007, Brewster has won two in a row on the comeback trail, including a win in March in Germany, his first fight since signing with Sauerland. "I believe I am about two fights away from the world title," Brewster said.

Angulo

• Junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo (16-1, 13 KOs) -- who rebounded from his loss to Kermit Cintron to knock out Gabriel Rosado in the second round last week on "Friday Night Fights" -- will return Nov. 7 in the HBO-televised opener on the Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson II card. Although no opponent has been signed, Harry Joe Yorgey (22-0-1, 10 KOs) is one of the prime candidates, Yorgey promoter Artie Pelullo told ESPN.com. Yorgey made a name for himself in March when he scored an upset ninth-round knockout to hand Ronald Hearns, the son of Thomas Hearns, his first defeat.

Jones

• Philadelphia welterweight prospect Mike Jones (18-0, 15 KOs), who outpointed Lenin Arroyo last week while nursing a sore left arm, will take some time off because of the injury. Promoter Russell Peltz said it was diagnosed as a pinched nerve in Jones' neck, which runs down his arm and into his triceps. Peltz said Jones, 26, has had problems with the arm for several months. He saw two doctors after the fight and was given medication and a physical therapy program. He'll see the doctor again in three weeks. Peltz hoped Jones would be ready to fight Sept. 24 against fellow prospect Henry Crawford at the Wachovia Spectrum, but it is due for demolition in late October, so that plan is off.

Linares

• After long stretches of inactivity, junior lightweight titlist Jorge Linares (27-0, 18 KOs) will defend for the second time in less than four months when he faces Juan Carlos Salgado (20-0-1, 14 KOs) in Tokyo on Oct. 10. Linares, an ex-featherweight titlist from Venezuela who is based in Japan, hopes to get on a roll before moving up in weight. "I'd like to stay in this [weight] category for two more years before moving up to the lightweight division to win my third title," Linares said. In the main event, junior featherweight titlist Toshiaki Nishioka (34-4-3, 21 KOs) -- who is coming off a third-round starching of ex-bantamweight titleholder Jhonny Gonzalez in May -- faces former junior bantamweight titlist Ivan Hernandez (25-3-1, 15 KOs).

[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]

V. Klitschko

"Cris Arreola is one the strongest opponents I can think of. He is young, unbeaten, very confident and has a hard punch on his side. I will not underestimate him, but no doubt, I will leave California as the world champion." -- heavyweight titlist Vitali Klitschko, on Arreola, whom he will defend against Sept. 26 (HBO) in Los Angeles

[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]

Arreola

"It is the chance of a lifetime to have a fight in my hometown against the best heavyweight in the world. Truly, a dream comes true. Klitschko's last opponents did not have the class I have. I will take the advantage and grab Vitali's belt. I will be the first Mexican on the heavyweight throne." -- Arreola, on challenging Klitschko

[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]

Mayweather

"Marquez says hes goin after my ribs, but theres no weakness in MONEY MAY. Only ribs he'll b diggin n2 will b at Outback after I take him down." -- Floyd Mayweather Jr., on his Twitter page, responding to Sept. 19 opponent Juan Manuel Marquez's boasts that he'll go after Mayweather's tender ribs, which forced the fight to be postponed from July 18