2010 Official Boxing Thread: Soto/Antillon, 2010 Fight of the Year.

Originally Posted by dako akong otin

Originally Posted by marionthebarberian

did any of ya see what happened in that fight in mexico?



smh.

you talking about Mayol vs Romero?


i didnt see the fight, i just saw the highlights but imma describe what happened and see if its the boxers you are talking about.

the mexican guy low blows the asian guy and the ref had his arms spread to his side and was about to stop the fight when the mexican threw I think a left hook.

edit:
 
Yup thats it ^ 
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The Asian guy is Rodel Mayol the defending champion. His coach Jeremiah Quijano is also my trainer (the one who's the first to rush to his aid). So yeah, i was shouting obscenities at my laptop watching the stream
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During the 2nd round, Mayol was hurting him with some left upper cuts.. almost knocked Romero down
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sooooo friggin close man.. The ropes supported him. Thought we had him during the 3rd.

Edit: found a vid of the 3rd round. I gotta admit after watching this replay, I'm thinking Mayol might have been acting? He was getting tagged with low blows this round and the ref wasn't giving out warnings.
 
Junior featherweight
Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. KO4 Marvin SonsonaWins a vacant junior featherweight title

Records: Vazquez Jr., 18-0-1, 15 KOs; Sonsona, 14-1-1, 12 KOs
Rafael's remark: Like father, like son. Wilfredo Vazquez Sr. went 56-9-2 with 41 knockouts during his career (1981-2002) in which he won world titles at bantamweight, junior featherweight and featherweight. Now, his kid owns a world title too after Vazquez Jr. turned in an impressive display in front of the hometown crowd as he knocked out the Philippines' Sonsona on the Puerto Rican half of an entertaining split-site pay-per-view card. With his old man in his corner as his trainer, Vazquez Jr., 25, started a tad slowly as the quicker Sonsona took the first round. But then it was all Vazquez. He began to pressure Sonsona and walk him down. His punches were obviously heavier than the smaller man's. Sonsona, 19, had won a junior bantamweight belt in September but was stripped of it going into his first defense in November because he could not make weight. Jumping up two divisions to face Vazquez for the 122-pound belt that Puerto Rico's Juan Manuel Lopez vacated in January, Sonsona could not take the heat from his bigger, stronger opponent. In the fourth round, Vazquez landed a terrific right hand that brutally snapped Sonsona's head back, and followed the punch with a left hand to the body. Sonsona crumpled to the canvas after a delayed reaction and could not beat the count from referee Luis Pabon. It set off quite a celebration in the ring as Vazquez joined his father as one of boxing's rare father-son combinations to win world titles. Other father-son combos to win titles include Leon and Cory Spinks, Guty Espadas Sr. and Guty Jr., and Floyd and Tracy Patterson. Vazquez has come a long way since turning pro. He's gotten better and better each time out. Part of the credit goes to promoter Tuto Zabala Jr., who also worked with Vazquez Sr. Zabala has done an excellent job of moving Vazquez Jr. well, and the payoff came in the form of his this big win. Sonsona, who burst on the scene when he won his junior bantamweight title in exciting fashion, clearly isn't the second coming of Manny Pacquiao, as some ridiculously suggested. The question is in which weight class can Sonsona be most effective? He was overpowered at junior featherweight. He can't make junior bantamweight. Can he make bantamweight?
Records: Arroyo, 1-0, 1 KO; Sanchez, 0-1

Rafael's remark: Arroyo, 24, was a decorated amateur. In 2007, he won the flyweight gold medal at the Pan American Games. He represented Puerto Rico in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he carried the Puerto Rican flag during the opening ceremonies. And in 2009, Arroyo won the gold medal at the world amateur championships. Now, making his pro debut on the same card as twin brother and Olympic teammate McJoe Arroyo, McWilliams Arroyo crushed the overmatched Sanchez, 24, who was also making his pro debut. It was over in 1 minute, 46 seconds, as Arroyo simply blew him out with a sweet straight right hand to the chin. Sanchez was down and out, flat on his back with no prayer to continue. It was an explosive debut for Arroyo, but went as expected. He faced far better opponents in the unpaid ranks.
Records: Arroyo, 1-0, 1 KO; Rivera, 0-3

Rafael's remark: Arroyo, a 2008 Puerto Rican Olympian and bronze medalist at the 2007 world amateur championships, made his pro debut on the same card as twin brother McWilliams Arroyo and had to go only slightly longer. McJoe Arroyo, 24, scored a quick knockdown in the first round against Rivera, an utterly horrible opponent with no remote clue how to fight. In his previous two fights, Rivera, 20, had been stopped in the first round. Because he held and ran as much as possible, Rivera made it through the opening round only to have Arroyo knock him out in the second round with a left to the chin that flattened him face first.
Records: Negron, 8-0, 7 KOs; Ashworth, 5-8, 1 KO

Rafael's remark: Negron, a 23-year-old 2008 Puerto Rico Olympian, is 6-foot-6 and towered over the 5-7 Ashworth, 37, of Lake Charles, La. If you thought the result would be anything different than what it turned out to be, you were foolish. Negron blitzed Ashworth, who looked a bit soft. Negron scored three knockdowns to end the blowout in quick fashion. First it was a left hook that forced Ashworth to the canvas. Then came a body shot for the second knockdown. Finally, a left hook to the chin flattened Ashworth.
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Saturday at Bayamon, Puerto Rico​
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Junior bantamweight
McWilliams Arroyo KO1 Eliecer Sanchez


Bantamweight
McJoe Arroyo TKO2 Giovanni Rivera

Cruiserweight
Carlos Negron KO1 Rudy Ashworth

Junior flyweight
Rodel Mayol Tech. Draw 3 Omar Niño
Retains a junior flyweight title
Records: Mayol, 26-4-2, 20 KOs; Niño, 28-3-2, 11 KOs

Rafael's remark: What is it about the Philippines' Mayol and weird endings? This was his fourth consecutive fight in which there was an odd ending, although this time Mayol left the ring on a stretcher despite retaining his 108-pound title in his first defense. In 2009, Mayol twice challenged Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon for the world title, and each time the fight ended because Calderon was severely cut by an accidental head butt, the first time resulting in a split technical decision draw after six rounds and the second time resulting in Mayol's losing via seven-round technical decision. In November, Mayol claimed a version of the title when he knocked out Mexico's Edgar Sosa in Mexico in the second round. However, there was also controversy in that fight because Mayol had severely hurt Sosa with an accidental head butt that knocked him down in the second round moments before the knockout. Then this fight with Niño ended in even more bizarre fashion. The bout, in Niño's hometown, was shaping up as an excellent scrap as Mayol, 28, and Niño, 33, were battling hard through the first two-plus rounds. Mayol was landing tremendous power shots, including accurate uppercuts in the second round, but Niño, a former titleholder who held the belt briefly in 2006, showed a great chin. Then in the third round, Niño was coming on when the wackiness happened with about 45 seconds left in the round. After Niño nailed Mayol with a low blow, Mayol winced and dropped his hands. As referee Vic Drakulich was moving in to call a timeout (and had actually grabbed Niño's right arm to pull him away), Niño unleashed a left hook that knocked Mayol out. Niño celebrated thinking he had won the fight. Mayol needed medical attention and was fitted with a neck brace before leaving the ring on a stretcher as a precaution. After some confusion and Drakulich huddling with ringside officials, the fight was ruled a technical draw (rather than a no contest, which it would have been called in the United States) with Mayol retaining his title. Undoubtedly, the WBC, which sanctioned the fight, will order a rematch.
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Saturday at Guadalajara, Mexico
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Welterweight
Mike Jones W10 Henry Bruseles
Scores: 98-92 (twice), 97-93
Records: Jones, 20-0, 16 KOs; Bruseles, 28-4-1, 15 KOs

Rafael's remark: Jones, 26, is a talented prospect from Philadelphia who has not gotten a whole lot of television time despite the considerable efforts of promoter Russell Peltz. But since Peltz has not been willing to turn over part of Jones' contract to a promoter who has close relationships with HBO, Showtime or ESPN, Jones has languished largely unseen. But Peltz and Top Rank were able to come together for this card on a one-off basis, and Jones got an opportunity in the main event of the new "Top Rank Live" series on Fox Sports Net. Jones didn't disappoint as he rolled past Bruseles, a competent gatekeeper-type of opponent at this stage of his career. Bruseles was competitive round by round, but not enough to actually win more than a few of them. Jones, a tall, lanky fighter, controlled Bruseles with a long jab and powerful right hand. Jones, who sold out the Bally's Ballroom for the fight, wasn't overly dynamic but he did just about everything you'd want to see him do except score the knockout. He fights in a star-studded division, so it's time for him to make his move. Will the networks give him an opportunity against a good opponent? Hopefully. HBO had talked about a possible Jones fight against Joshua Clottey before Clottey wound up landing the big March 13 opportunity against Manny Pacquiao. Bruseles, 29, of Puerto Rico, saw his seven-fight winning streak come to an end. It was his first loss since Floyd Mayweather Jr. stopped him in the eighth round of a 2005 junior welterweight bout.
Records: Rosado, 14-4, 8 KOs; Roman, 32-6, 27 KOs

Rafael's remark: Rosado and Roman are not championship-level fighters, but they can still entertain the crowd, and that's just what they did in the "Top Rank Live" co-feature. Rosado deservedly won the split decision, which should not have been split. It was a competitive fight, and both guys bled from accidental head bumps and took their lumps, but Rosado was a little quicker, a little more accurate and did just a little more overall. That's how judges Debra Barnes and Ed Gabler scored it, giving Rosado the close call. Unfortunately, judge Pierre Benoist remains on another planet. You remember him, right? He's the guy who insanely scored the Dec. 5 bout between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez 119-109 in favor of Williams even though it was a ridiculously close and competitive fight. Yet, here we go again. While two judges had the fight tight for Rosado, Benoist was way off, having it wide for Roman. Someone please take away his pencil. In any event, the right guy won as Rosado, 24, of Philadelphia, notched his second victory in a row following a second-round blowout loss to Alfredo Angulo in August. Roman, 29, of Mexico, saw his four-fight winning streak come to an end.
Records: Mabuza, 25-4, 13 KOs; Holt, 23-6-3, 14 KOs

Rafael's remark: In an upset, South Africa's Mabuza, 30, made Holt quit and became the mandatory challenger for the winner of Saturday's Devon Alexander-Juan Urango title unification bout. Mabuza had never beaten anyone remotely recognizable, and the only fighter of note he had ever faced, countryman Isaac Hlatshwayo, had beaten him twice -- via first-round knockout in his 2000 pro debut and via lopsided decision in 2003 for the South African national lightweight title. The 28-year-old Holt, of Paterson, N.J., however, had faced several quality opponents (including a lopsided decision win against Hlatshwayo in 2006) and was fighting on his home turf. But Holt, who is managed by his good friend and New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, also had not fought since losing a unanimous decision and his title to Timothy Bradley Jr. in a unification fight in April 2009. Holt started off well enough in the first round before Mabuza took over and battered Holt with body blows and uppercuts. Finally, after the sixth round, Holt retired on his stool in a stunning fall. "I thought Kendall won the first round, but after that, it was the fastest downhill [slide] in the ring that I've ever seen," Top Rank's Carl Moretti told The Associated Press. "After a while, it was like [Holt] was a heavy bag and he could hit him whenever he wanted." While Mabuza will move on to an eventual mandatory title shot, Holt has lost two in a row and it could be a tough road back to contention.
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Saturday at Atlantic City, N.J.
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Junior middleweight
Gabriel Rosado W10 Saul Roman
Scores: 96-94 (twice) Rosado, 97-93 Roman
Junior welterweight
Kaizer Mabuza TKO6 Kendall Holt
Title eliminator
Featherweight
Antonio Escalante W10 Miguel Roman
Scores: 97-92 (twice), 96-93
Records: Escalante, 22-2, 14 KOs; Roman, 28-7, 20 KOs

Rafael's remark: It's been a great start to the season on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights," and this main event was the best of all of them -- so far. What an outstanding fight, entertaining and competitive all the way as the crowd cheered throughout. Escalante, the crowd favorite who lives in El Paso, Texas, but was born just across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Roman, who still lives in Ciudad Juarez, once duked it out in a street fight as kids. Now, here they were meeting as professionals with a score to settle. All these years later, it was worth the wait if you like good all-Mexican slugfests. It's early still, but Escalante's well-deserved decision victory in the all-action brawl should be among the fight of the year honorable mentions come December. They rumbled for 10 fun-filled rounds. They both showed good chins, great determination and an unwillingness to take a backward step. Finally, in the eighth round, Escalante broke through, dropping Roman with a combination late in the round. Roman's nose was bloody and he looked hurt, but there were only a few seconds left in the round and he made it to the rest period. Then Roman came back in the ninth as a tiring Escalante held on. But in the 10th round, Escalante had Roman reeling again. Terrific fight. Do you care that Roman, 24, lost his second fight in a row? He deserves to be right back on TV after the effort he gave and the heart he showed. Escalante, 24, won his ninth fight in a row since an upset, eighth-round TKO loss to Mauricio Pastrana in January 2007, and now he deserves a world title opportunity. He comes to fight, he makes great action, he's got a growing rÃ[emoji]169[/emoji]sumÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] and he sells tickets. Give him his chance.
Records: Garcia, 16-0, 10 KO; Theophane, 25-4-1, 7 KOs

Rafael's remark: That was just a little too close to call if you're Garcia and his handlers, Golden Boy Promotions and manager Shelly Finkel. Philadelphia's Garcia, 21, is one of their most heralded prospects, a standout amateur for whom there are high expectations in the professional ranks. But let's be honest: Garcia struggled badly in this one against England's Theophane, 29, in easily the toughest fight of his career. Garcia is lucky to have walked away with the split-decision victory in the "Friday Night Fights" co-feature. Although he deserved the close call, despite a ninth-round point deduction from referee Robert Velez for a low blow, it should be a wake-up call for him that there is still much to learn as a pro. For one thing, he should be forced to stand at a blackboard and write 1,000 times, "I will never again abandon my jab." He did against Theophane and it almost cost him dearly. It isn't all negative for Garcia. Most important, he did win the fight. Also, he went 10 rounds for the first time as a professional. Although he looked like he was fading near the end, especially in the final round, getting through a 10-rounder for the first time has to build his confidence, because now he knows he can do it. Theophane, whose record has been built against some woeful opponents, saw his five-fight winning streak come to an end.
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Friday at El Paso, Texas
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Junior welterweight
Danny Garcia W10 Ashley Theophane
Scores: 96-94, 95-95 Garcia, 95-94 Theophane

Welterweight
Victor Ortiz TKO10 Hector Alatorre
Records: Ortiz, 26-2-1, 21 KOs; Alatorre, 16-9, 5 KOs

Rafael's remark: The road back continued for Ortiz, the 23-year-old 2008 ESPN.com prospect of the year from Oxnard, Calif. Although Ortiz won the fight, culminating his performance with a sweet knockout, he didn't look particularly good against a journeyman opponent. Ortiz does deserve credit for becoming the first man to stop Alatorre, 28, of Tulare, Calif., who lost for the seventh time in his last eight fights, but before the knockout his performance was uninspiring in the season debut of Golden Boy's "Fight Night Club" series. Ortiz looked like a future star until running into Marcos Maidana on HBO in June 2009. Ortiz had Maidana down in the first and second rounds, but was on the deck himself in the first and the sixth. After the knockdown in the sixth round, Ortiz quit, eliciting a massive negative backlash against him as his heart and desire were called into question. He rebounded with a seventh-round TKO win against Antonio Diaz in December, but that was also a fight in which Ortiz did not look particularly good. Now, Ortiz was taking a step down against Alatorre, whom he had once beaten in the amateur ranks. Ortiz methodically outboxed and outpunched Alatorre, but Alatorre had his moments. Finally, in the 10th round, Ortiz landed a left on the top of Alatorre's head and then nailed him with a right uppercut that knocked him down. Alatorre beat the count, but he was wobbly and referee David Mendoza stopped the fight. Ortiz is slated to return to HBO on May 15 to face battle-tested veteran former lightweight titleholder Nate Campbell on the Amir Khan-Paulie Malignaggi undercard in New York. It will be a true test for both fighters, who each desperately need to win and to look good doing it.
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Thursday at Los Angeles
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0301clottey_576x324.jpg
Michel Comte for ESPN The Magazine

This story appears in the March 8 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

Joshua Clottey arrives at Contenders Gym in Fort Lauderdale for the second consecutive afternoon. His black eyes cast around the place, February clouds rolling through the glass doors behind him. A boxer's camp before a big fight normally has a romance about it: Muhammad Ali holding court in Deer Lake; Lennox Lewis running through snow in the Poconos; Oscar De La Hoya chopping wood in Big Bear. But there's no romance at Contenders. There isn't even a working shower. It's a single-ring gym at a community athletic complex named Carter Park, marked by only a small blue plaque that says Activity Room. Two local fighters shadowbox nearby in board shorts and running shoes; one is wearing a Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles T-shirt. This is not what the dream is supposed to look like.

Clottey thought the same thing yesterday, when he left after his first day here -- sweated up and without a shower -- determined to find somewhere else to hold his camp. But there was nowhere else to go, and Clottey had no one to help him get there. On his long list of things to worry about these days, hot water is close to the bottom. And so here he is, back once again, ducking into an adjacent office to get his hands wrapped. Lenny De Jesus, a 64-year-old New Yorker, part-time locksmith and longtime boxing satellite -- "I'm kind of a hidden guy," he says -- pulls out the wraps, yellow and white, and spools them around Clottey's hands. The two men know each other from John's Gym in the Bronx, a New York City joint close to where Clottey keeps a cheap apartment. De Jesus is watched by two of Clottey's rotund friends from his native Ghana: Bruce, who will do the pad work, and Kwaku, who will drive and make dinner. The Ghanaians are a silent, mysterious duo. "I think they might be family," De Jesus says with a shrug. While most fighters arrive at training camp with a full entourage, these are the three men who will make up Clottey's corner. They have only five weeks to find matching shirts, and to prepare him for the fight of his life.

0301clottey2.jpg

Clottey's known for his toughness. In a narrow 2006 loss to Antonio Margarito, he fought the last eight rounds with a busted tendon in his hand.

"He just has to go in there and throw punches," De Jesus says. "What else are you going to do against that guy?"

That guy is Manny Pacquiao, pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world -- "Best I've ever seen," says legendary promoter Bob Arum -- a champion in seven weight classes; dismantler of De La Hoya, Erik Morales and Ricky Hatton; future congressman in the Philippines; and strong enough for Floyd Mayweather Jr. to suggest that he must be on something normally given to horses. That accusation allowed Mayweather to duck Pacquiao in a fight many predicted would have been the biggest pay-per-view event in boxing history.

Instead, Joshua Clottey became Mayweather's doomed proxy, chosen to fight Pacquiao on March 13 in front of an expected 40,000 fans at Cowboys Stadium. Out of that 40,000, it's a good bet that only De Jesus, Bruce and Kwaku will be rooting for him. The other 39,997 will see Clottey for what he actually is: a hiccup, a substitute, a placeholder. Pacquiao-Mayweather would have been the sort of fight that girlfriends talk about, would have broken records and earned each fighter around $40 million. Jerry Jones had been told that Cowboys Stadium wasn't good enough to hold that bout. Now, instead of the best fighter in the world facing the second-best fighter in the world, here stands Joshua Clottey -- most admired, perhaps, for his ability to take a punch -- getting his hands wrapped by a part-time locksmith in an office with a single gold cup on an otherwise empty trophy shelf. He is the man nobody wants to see, except in the back of an ambulance.

"I can't think about all that," the 32-year-old Clottey says, shaking his head. "Otherwise I don't sleep no more. Right now, I sleep very good."

In a short-staffed camp, De Jesus has taken on the bulk of the worry. (At the moment, Bruce is more concerned about the workout's sound track; he takes out a compact disc and heads over to the stereo in the corner. Kwaku is thinking he might make chicken soup for dinner.) "I'll be honest with you," De Jesus says after he's finished the wraps. "Our first job will be getting this kid up those three steps and into the ring."

Most trainers set bigger goals for their fighters than on-time delivery, but De Jesus has been around long enough -- having worked Pacquiao's corner as a cut man many years ago -- to know how badly the odds have been stacked against his fighter. It's just that everyone in a challenger's camp usually does a better job of ignoring the odds, often by invoking the fat ghost of Buster Douglas. This time, though, nobody bothers pretending, except Arum, whose Top Rank stable happens to include Pacquiao and Clottey. "I really believe this is the better fight," he says, trying to banish thoughts of what could have been. "Joshua won't run." That's probably true, but only because Clottey has nobody to run to. Arum has left him largely to his own devices, not wanting to see his greatest asset, Pacquiao, devalued by a shock loss to some African. Clottey's current manager, a self-described "businessman from Jersey" named Vinny Scolpino, whom Clottey threatened to drop last year after a public contract dispute and money woes, isn't exactly boxing's most influential power broker either. And most important: Godwin Kotey, the Ghanaian trainer who helped start Clottey on his way to 35 wins, has been denied his U.S. visa. (Clottey flew to Ghana in January to help the trainer negotiate with the U.S. embassy, but was unsuccessful.) All of which has left Clottey in this broken-down Fort Lauderdale gym with De Jesus, one man substituting for Floyd Mayweather and the other for an entire machine. "I guess I'm it," De Jesus says with his hands in the air.

Just this February morning there were reports that Pacquiao has already sparred more than 24 rounds at the famed Wild Card gym in Hollywood, Calif., against Abdullai Amidu, a Ghanaian who has boxed with Clottey since they were kids. (Clottey is genuinely saddened and bewildered by the idea of a friend's possibly selling his secrets. "I don't know why he is doing that," he says.) After Clottey made the drive up yesterday from his little rented house in a very different Hollywood to this gym with a busted shower, he banged out just three rounds against Damian "Devo" Frias, a Cuban welterweight whose name appears in the smallest of type on a poster in the gym, alongside some guy named Joey "Twinkle Fingers" Hernandez.

Clottey will spar with Frias again today, this time for six rounds. He begins his warmup by jumping rope, a little toy plastic one he found draped over one of the turnbuckles. He stares at his reflection in a wide mirror, then pulls on his heavy black gloves and headgear. He throws light jabs at a speed bag, loosening his shoulders. He glances up and sees Mayweather staring back at him from a poster ("Witness the Speed of Light"), and quickly returns his gaze to the mirror. Bruce finally gets the music going, and Ghanaian electro- pop fills the room, an unlikely combination of African beats and Auto-Tune. One of the most upbeat songs, by the duo Ruff-N-Smooth, will be Clottey's walk-in music in Dallas. The song is called "Swagger"; the opening lyrics rhyme "banana" with "Ghana." Clottey can't help dancing, admiring himself in the mirror, his broad, smooth face breaking out in a smile. He looks blissfully unaware. "I love this song," he says. "Make me feel good. And when you dance, you don't know what is going on. You don't think. You just do." He shimmies some more before he furrows his brow and drops his hands. The music has stopped doing its job. "Swagger," he says. "I do not know what this word means."

"Joshua is just a lovely boy," Arum says from Las Vegas. Arum has been a boxing promoter for 200 years. When the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather fell apart, he considered a number of substitutes before finally settling on Clottey. His thinking: Like Pacquiao, the Ghanaian has a decent record (35-3 with 20 KOs), represents limited one-punch risk and wouldn't be a pain in the $##. "The antithesis of Floyd Mayweather Jr.," Arum says.

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Clottey flew to Ghana to retrieve his longtime trainer. He was unsuccesful. "I don't understand why nobody helps me," he says.

Clottey first saw his name thrown into the mix for the Pacquiao fight online. He was in his native Accra, Ghana's port capital on western Africa's famed Gold Coast, when he read that Arum had floated him as a possible replacement. "You're joking," Clottey remembers thinking. Clottey called Scolpino to find out if there was any truth to the story, and Scolpino got in touch with Arum. "When I told Vinny we were ready to move," Arum says with a laugh, "he told me he'd collapsed in his chair." Clottey then asked Scolpino to set up camp somewhere warm and close to a beach, because running on the beaches of Accra had always brought him good luck, and he needed all the good luck he could get. Scolpino knew the guys who run Contenders, and just five weeks before the fight, Clottey was on a plane to Florida. "A gym is a gym, you know?" Scolpino says.

The businessman from Jersey did take a harder look at the cash, though. Never mind his humble surroundings: Clottey is guaranteed his biggest payday, $1.25 million, and will be given a share of PPV revenues for the first time in his 15-year pro career. Depending on how well the fight sells, he could gross more than $3 million -- a life-changing amount of money, even after the majority of it gets stripped away by boxing's inevitable pilot fish. (Damian Frias, for starters, has been demanding $1,000 a week to play make-believe Pacquiao.) "I don't really want to talk about money," Clottey says. "But this is huge for me. I come from very, very poor background. My father don't have nothing except two sons. We both become fighters. My brother, he can't fight anymore, so it's up to me. I have to take care of a lot of people. If I'm walking in Accra, I'm in trouble, because everybody needs money there. But now my family is going to be very, very good. We are going to lack nothing. I will have my house, and I will have my cars. And if I win this fight ... "

This is the first time Clottey has allowed himself to talk about the fight. After Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, predicted that his fighter will win by knockout, the Ghanaian waved away the thought like heat. ("I give my respect to his feelings," Clottey says. "That's his right to say anything.") But now, despite the happy music filling the room and despite his staring only in the mirror, Clottey has been pushed into a corner, forced to think about what's coming. Maybe, deep down, he believes he can win. Maybe he'll get lucky. Maybe Pacquiao will take him too lightly, and Clottey will see an opening and land a miracle punch that will change the course of two men's futures. Maybe he can be the next Buster Douglas. Or, maybe ...

"Maybe Pacquiao's as fast as everybody tell me," Clottey says. "Maybe he will knock me out. If he knock me out, then I will say to the whole world: 'If I'm telling you that I'm seeing a ghost in the ring, don't brush me off. It won't be a joke. If I tell you I'm seeing a ghost, see that ghost with me.' "

He climbs through the ropes -- there's just one step at Contenders -- and into the ring. De Jesus grabs a bottle of water from a row of bottles and starts throwing handfuls of it into Clottey's face and onto his arms, like a priest. Neither man knows that it's the wrong bottle, and that the water has salt in it, a poor man's electrolytes. Clottey's eyes begin to sting and fill with tears. A buzzer sounds. He turns to face Frias, but he can't see a thing.

The rest of the gym goes quiet except for those African beats. (The banana song is kind of catchy.) Everybody else, including the dude in the Roscoe's T-shirt, stops flailing at the heavy bags and takes a seat on the wooden benches that surround the ring. No matter what happens on March 13, Joshua Clottey has suddenly become someone worth watching. He's become famous for his proximity to fame, the boxer about to become only the 53rd man on the planet to know firsthand what it's like to be punched by Manny Pacquiao. "You can see on his face, he's in a dream," Arum says.

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Clottey is no pushover, but at Jerry Jones' press conference at Cowboys stadium, one fighter received most of the attention.

They held a press conference at Cowboys Stadium in January. Clottey saw himself on that giant TV hanging from the roof, walked out of the tunnel in a cloud of smoke, and the Cowboys cheerleaders kicked their white boots into the air around him. It was a long way from Accra, a long way from his place in the Bronx. He looked like a man who'd been struck by lightning. Despite appearances, though, Clottey says he's always known this fight was in his future. It was less a dream and more an inevitability. "Never a doubt," he says. His optimism is surprising. What would have been Clottey's biggest fight, against Shane Mosley (Mayweather's May 1 opponent) last Dec. 26, was taken out from under him. (HBO execs reportedly didn't want to stage the fight so close to Christmas.) "It was devastating for him," Arum says. Now, just weeks later, Clottey's been given an even bigger chance on an even bigger stage. "I don't drink alcohol, no smoking, I don't gamble," he says. "Good things happen to good people." For him, there's no other explanation. And there's no need to worry about what comes next.

Because good things happen to good people.

He touches gloves with Frias. Like Pacquiao, the Cuban is a southpaw, but there the comparison ends. Clottey blinks the salt out of his eyes and shows his strength, easily pushing Frias around the ring. He has good power and he is big for a welterweight -- he could weigh as much as 160 pounds on fight night -- but he doesn't possess much flash or grace. He doesn't even bother moving his head; if he keeps it this still against Pacquiao, the Filipino might very well remove it, take it home and bury it in his backyard. Near the end of the third round, Clottey shouts and launches himself into Frias, his feet leaving the canvas and his fist crashing into the Cuban's headgear. That's enough of that. Halfway through the workout, Frias quits. He gestures to his right shoulder, saying it's hurt. "We'll find someone new for tomorrow," De Jesus says.

Later, Bruce works the pads for Clottey, their rhythm broken by the rust, and after Clottey spends a round dancing to the music, the workout's over, a little over an hour after it began. He takes a swig of water, spits it into the air and catches it with the top of his head. He's looking forward to his shower.

Except that it's still broken, even though Scolpino had promised it would be fixed. Clottey looks like he's been struck by lightning again. The gym rats point him across a long parking lot to Carter Park's pool, where there are working showers. Clottey shakes his head and walks across the asphalt, a strong breeze blowing out toward the water. He reappears a few minutes later in shorts and flip-flops. Everybody bundles into their rented white van, Kwaku trying to find his way back to the house in Hollywood. It's a small stucco bungalow with a palm tree out front and a pool out back. Kids play on the street. In a corner of the kitchen are crates of Gatorade -- the real deal, not salt dumped into water. It's a small, big thing. "I love drinking this," Clottey says. He takes a glass of it out to the pool, ice clinking, and lies back in a lounge chair. De Jesus leaves to work with another fighter for the rest of the afternoon; Kwaku gets to work on the chicken soup; Bruce decides to go for a swim. He takes off his shirt, revealing a big belly and a tattoo of a hand dunking a basketball that looks to have been drawn by a child. Bruce rubs it self-consciously and says his first words of the afternoon: "It's incomplete."

Clottey waits for his soup on the lounger. The smell of it comes out from the kitchen window. Birds sing. Kicked back like this, under palm trees by the pool, he looks for the first time less like a contender and more like a champion. It's possible to look at him, here in the sun, and marvel at how far he has come, this man from Ghana who, for one night at least, will find himself at the center of boxing. Looking at him, it's hard not to want to believe what he believes. It's hard not to hope that good things really do happen to good people.

And it's just as hard not to tell him to run.

"Do you ever think -- "

"No think," he says, and he closes his eyes.

The wind picks up. It catches an old awning over the back of the house. The awning breaks off its mooring, falls across the patio door and knocks over a flowerpot sitting on a step. The flowerpot hits the concrete and shatters into pieces. Bruce lets out a little scream. Clottey doesn't even open his eyes.

Chris Jones is a contributing writer for ESPN The Magazine.


Great read. 
 
Great read man.
Just this February morning there were reports that Pacquiao has already sparred more than 24 rounds at the famed Wild Card gym in Hollywood, Calif., against Abdullai Amidu, a Ghanaian who has boxed with Clottey since they were kids. (Clottey is genuinely saddened and bewildered by the idea of a friend's possibly selling his secrets. "I don't know why he is doing that," he says.)
That is just wrong.  Guess everyone has their price.
 
Articles like that are why I have a love/hate relationship w/boxing. Love it because a guy like Clottey who came from %*%% will be fighting in front of 40,000 with the chance to earn millions of dollars. Hate it because he is going to be robbed blind of that money by people, as seen with the article, that could really care less about him. Arum will scratch Manny's balls if he asked him to, but can't set Clottey up with some halfway decent training arrangements?
 
You know if Clottey somehow pulls it off or even looks like he's winning rounds during the fight, he'll be going over Clottey's contract w/a fine tooth comb to make sure he can squeeze more fights out of him.

I've said it before, Arum is the damn devil.
 
It pissed me off just to read that +%@%. I'm actually a little more hyped to see the fight now though, hopefully Clottey wrecks this dude.
 
[h2]
[h2]Katsidis-Mitchell title fight set

By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com[/h2]
Interim lightweight titlist Michael Katsidis of Australia will head to England for a mandatory defense against Kevin Mitchell after Mitchell's promoter, Frank Warren, won the purse bid on Tuesday.

Warren's bid of $515,000 beat the only other offer of $501,000, which was made by Brendon Smith, who handles Katsidis. Warren announced that the fight would take place in Great Britain on a date to be determined in May.

"I'm delighted that I won the purse bid for this cracking contest and I'm sure it will be an explosive encounter," Warren said. "Both guys are come-forward, all-action fighters throwing plenty of punches, so it's hard not to see this fight developing into real war."

The winner will be obligated to face full champion Juan Manuel Marquez within six months of the fight, although Marquez has said he is unlikely to fight again at lightweight and plans to move up to junior welterweight. If Marquez leaves the division, the Katsidis-Mitchell winner will become the WBO's full titleholder.

Katsidis (26-2, 21 KOs), 29, claimed a vacant interim belt in September when he took a split decision from 2004 U.S. Olympian Vicente Escobedo in Las Vegas. Katsidis has boxed in England before. In 2007, he scored a fifth-round knockout of Graham Earl to claim an interim belt in a memorable shootout that was among the best fights of the year.

Mitchell (31-0, 23 KOs), 25, is one of England's top young fighters. He's coming off a second-round knockout of Ignacio Mendoza last month and easily outpointed Breidis Prescott -- who owns a first-round knockout of junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan -- in December.

"Frank has done a fantastic job getting me the fight and bringing it to England," Mitchell said. "I know all about Katsidis. I've watched him over here against my then-stablemate Graham Earl and I've watched all his fights on DVD. My trainer Jimmy Tibbs is the best in the business and he'll work out the plan to beat this guy. This is the kind of fight I've dreamed of since I was kid and now [that] I've got it I can't wait.

"The English and the Aussies have got a big rivalry and we kicked their arses last year to regain the Ashes [the prize in a storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia], so I'm looking forward to kicking Katsidis' %$@! to win the title," he said.

Top Rank wins Cruz-Salido bid

Also Tuesday, Top Rank won an IBF purse bid for the right to stage the match between featherweight titleholder Cristobal Cruz and mandatory challenger Orlando Salido.

Top Rank, which handles Salido, bid $251,000, edging the $250,000 offer made by Artie Pelullo, Cruz's promoter. The fight is due within 90 days.

Top Rank's win was surprising because under the rules of the bid it has to give Cruz 85 percent of the money ($213,350) while Salido gets just 15 percent ($37,650).

Carl Moretti of Top Rank said the fight would take place in the spring in Mexico, where both fighters are from, and likely be televised on "Top Rank Live," the company's new series that runs three times per month on Fox Sports en Espanol and Fox Sports Net.

Cruz (39-11-2), 32, who will be making his fourth defense, won the vacant title in October 2008 when he took a split decision against Salido (33-10-2, 22 KOs), 29, who has won his only two bouts since then.

Dan Rafael is ESPN.com's boxing writer.



2. Vitali Klitschko (39-2)

Klitschko was in talks to face former titlist Nikolai Valuev in May, but Valuev's co-promoter, Don King, is demanding an absurd $4 million. The fight won't happen at that price, so one of the leading candidates to land the shot is Odlanier Solis, a 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist.
Next: TBA.

6. Samuel Peter (33-3)

Peter faces Nagy Aguilera (who is coming off a first-round upset knockout win against former titlist Oleg Maskaev) in an eliminator on a "Top Rank Live" card in Dallas the night before Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey. The winner moves a step closer to a mandatory shot against Wladimir Klitschko.
Next: March 12 vs. Aguilera.

4. Glen Johnson (50-13-2)

The 41-year-old Johnson looked years younger as he thrashed and bashed Yusaf Mack, dropping him three times in the sixth round for the TKO victory Feb. 5. The win earned the former champ a mandatory shot at Tavoris Cloud, whom he'll meet on the HBO card headlined by welterweight titlist Andre Berto and Carlos Quintana.
Next: April 10 vs. Cloud.

8. Andre Dirrell (18-1)

A bad back forced Dirrell to delay his Super Six tournament fight with Abraham, scheduled for March 6, by three weeks. The good news for Dirrell is that instead of the fight being held in Rancho Mirage, Calif., it has been moved to Detroit. So Dirrell, who is from Flint, Mich., will have the hometown advantage.
Next: March 27 vs. Abraham.

8. Winky Wright (51-5-1)

The former undisputed junior middleweight champ has gone almost a year without a fight, and now he's talking to Top Rank about working together. But if Wright thinks he's going to get a shot at Pavlik, who is with Top Rank, he's dreaming.
Next: TBA.

. Alfredo "Perro" Angulo (17-1)
The always-entertaining Angulo will be back on HBO against Joel "Love Child" Julio (35-3) on the undercard of heavyweight Cristobal Arreola's fight with Tomasz Adamek.
Next: April 24 vs. Julio.

. Andre Berto (25-0)
Berto was slated for a Jan. 30 unification fight against Mosley, but understandably withdrew following the massive earthquake in Haiti in which he lost eight family members. Now Berto is set to return against former titlist Carlos Quintana (27-2) on HBO on a card that will help raise money for Haitian relief.
Next: April 10 vs. Quintana.

7. Luis Collazo (30-4)

Collazo could meet Selcuk Aydin in Europe for a vacant interim belt in April. Don King, Collazo's promoter, is working with Aydin promoter Ahmet Öner to put it together.
Next: TBA.

10. Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3)

South Africa's previously undistinguished Mabuza battered former titleholder Kendall Holt into quitting after the sixth round on Feb. 27 in a major upset in a title eliminator. The victory made Mabuza a mandatory challenger for the winner of the Alexander-Urango unification fight.
Next: TBA.

2. Edwin Valero (27-0)

Venezuela's Valero went to Antonio DeMarco's turf in Mexico and beat him down for nine rounds to retain his title in an exciting performance on Feb. 6 in his Showtime debut. A few days later, Valero vacated the belt he won and made his intentions clear: He's going up to junior welterweight, where he likely will meet Lamont Peterson.
Next: TBA.

1. Celestino Caballero (33-2)

Caballero was stripped of one of his belts because nobody, including his own handlers, offered a purse bid for his mandatory bout with the undeserving Takalani Ndlovu. It's too bad for Caballero, but ultimately it won't make a difference because he plans to go up to featherweight, where he is being discussed as a possible summer opponent for titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Next: TBA.
[/h2]
 
Originally Posted by Proshares

You know if Clottey somehow pulls it off or even looks like he's winning rounds during the fight, he'll be going over Clottey's contract w/a fine tooth comb to make sure he can squeeze more fights out of him.

I've said it before, Arum is the damn devil.

laugh.gif
We all know Clottey has NO chance to win a decision
  
 

Mayweather, Mosley Nearly Brawl at NYC Presser
Posted by: Rick Reeno on 03-02-2010.


>>>Click Here For Tons of More Breaking Boxing News, Articles and Insider Information<<<

By Rick Reeno

Thebig punches were nearly exchanged a months early. Floyd Mayweather Jr.and Shane Mosley met face to face to announce their big May 1stshowdown at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, which is located in theheart of Manhattan.

The two fighters met head to head at thestart of the press conference. When they met face to face to starttalking trash, things got heated very quickly when Mayweather put hishands on Mosley and shoved him back. Mosley charged forward atMayweather and the two of them engaged in a shoving/wrestling match.

GoldenBoy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who was standing next to me withGolden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya, had to run to the stage at fullspeed in order to stop the situation from getting out of hand. Membersfrom both camps charged to the stage to break things up. While itwasn't clear from my angle, I believe Mayweather adviser LeonardEllerbe went down during the early frenzy on stage. Once order wasrestored, the presser started.

es3m34.jpg


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^smh at dudes going the wwe route. anyone that knows about floyd know's he's real mellow and respectful dude i dunno why they going that route to promote the fight lol.....far as prediction goes ...after fighting a good chunk of his career at 154 at age 38 he's not ready to go toe to toe with the p4p champ ESPECIALLY after a what.....16 month layoff...the shift in speed for margarito to floyd is HUGE. And at the end of the day shane cant out think floyd in that ring


any who in the clottey manny fight.....if i could give any piece of advice to clottey is to keep his jab input through out the fight and try to do a little damage to the body before going head hunting.i hope dude doesnt go in there under estimating manny's power


as far as the urango fight......urango doesnt excite me.its like he's good enough to get in there with the best but he hit his wall do to his limitations in the ring, im more excited in seeing what alexander has and maybe he can be one fight closer to bradley
 
[h2][/h2]
[h2]Promoter accuses Don King of foul play[/h2]

By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Archive

Ask promoter Lou DiBella and he'll say that what happened was thedirty side of boxing -- that Don King stole light heavyweight titlistTavoris Cloud using a pile of cash as bait and screwed up his April 10HBO "World Championship Boxing" card less than 48 hours beforeWednesday's news conference at which Cloud's mandatory defense againstformer champ Glen Johnson was supposed to be announced.

King, ofcourse, told a different story. In his version, yes, he signed Cloud,but that the fight wasn't going to happen anyway because Cloud has aleft hamstring injury.

Regardless of the version you believe thismuch is clear: Cloud did sign with King even though he may have anexisting promotional agreement with Richie Boy Promotions and he isn'tgoing to face Johnson April 10 at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise,Fla. That's where welterweight titlist Andre Berto defends his beltagainst former titleholder Carlos Quintana in the HBO main event.

WithCloud-Johnson off, DiBella worked through Monday night and into Tuesdayto put together a strong replacement fight for the HBO co-feature:junior featherweight titlist Celestino Caballero moving up tofeatherweight to face Daud Yordan for a vacant interim belt that willmake the winner the mandatory challenger for titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa.

DiBella, of course was not happy about what happened.

"Igot a call at literally 10 at night [Monday] from a representative ofKing [Roy Langbord] saying King did a deal with the kid," DiBella toldESPN.com on Tuesday night from Miami, site of the Wednesday newsconference. "I told him that Richie Boy Promotions was the kid'spromoter of record and that I had made deal for the fight with Glen.[Langbord] said there were issues and that King did a deal with Cloud,but that King would talk to me about doing a deal for the fight. Ialready had a deal for the fight. So I'm sitting there -- I have a showon April 10, a press conference on Wednesday and a flight to Miami in12 hours. What the [expletive] is going on here? I told [Langbord] totell Don I have nothing to talk to him about.

"Ten minutes laterI get a call back [from Langbord] saying Cloud is hurt. I was on thephone with his lawyer, with his manager and with his adviser. They saidthey had no idea about him being with King. They were in the blindabout him doing a deal with King and to their knowledge he was healthy.He must have gotten hurt walking up the steps to King's mansion to signthat deal."

King said he simply did a straightforward business deal with a free-agent fighter.

"Idon't know anything about any of that," King told ESPN.com when told ofDiBella's version of events. "All I know is that the guy came to mefive weeks ago and him and his manager [Jerry Attardi] told me they hadno deal with anybody and they asked me to help and I said, 'OK.' Wefinalized the details. He signed with me and I didn't know nothingabout any of this."

King said even if he and DiBella could workout a new deal, Cloud wasn't available to fight April 10 anyway becauseof the injury. Cloud won a title eliminator against former champ JulioGonzalez in August 2008 and didn't fight again until winning the vacantbelt against Clinton Woods a year later. Now, he's mired in anotherlong layoff.

But King produced an e-mail dated March 2 from theIBF to King's office granting a medical waiver and an extension for themandatory fight until May 28. It was based on a previous letter the IBFsaid it received from Dr. Allan Fields, who recommended that Cloud notrun or weight train for at least six weeks.

"This guy is hurt. Hecan't even fight if he wanted to," King said. "I told Lou [throughLangbord] I'd be happy to have him fight Glen, but he can't do it April10. We'll jump through hoops to fight Glen Johnson. But we asked for amedical exception from the IBF, the IBF granted an exception. It's justa postponement of the fight. With or without me, Cloud wouldn't be ableto fight on April 10. So he'll fight Glen Johnson as soon as the doctorclears him."

Once it was clear to DiBella that Cloud-Johnson was off, he went to Plan B: Caballero-Yordan.

"Ihad to make a decision in the middle of the night on whether I couldsave this fight and I didn't think it could, so I turned to the mostmeaningful thing I could do and something that would also work forHBO," DiBella said. "I was on the phone with Caballero's people and wewere in touch with Yordan's people in Indonesia."

DiBella said hebriefly pursued a match between welterweight titlist VyacheslavSenchenko of Ukraine and Antwone Smith, a welterweight prospect DiBellapromotes who is scheduled for the undercard.

"They got back to mequickly and they weren't interested in the fight in this time frame,"DiBella said. "I had already locked in a doubleheader with the site andthe promotional materials were done. So we made Caballero-Yordanovernight and changed everything."

Caballero (33-2, 23 KOs), 33,of Panama, has been one of the top fighters in the world for the pastfew years but struggled for attention from HBO.

Indonesia'sYordan (25-0, 19 KOs), 22, has twice fought in the United States,including when he faced Robert Guerrero in a junior lightweight fighton HBO last March. The fight was declared a no contest after Guerreroquit due to a cut over his eye caused by an accidental head butt. ButYordan looked formidable in his brief appearance.

DiBella said heis considering his legal options against King and Cloud (20-0, 18 KOs).He also said that when Al Bonani, Cloud's trainer who also worked forRichie Boy Promotions, left the company recently and returned to workfor King, he had a feeling this might happen.

"There may be somelawsuits. I suffered damages," DiBella said. "I don't like litigating,but what went down was wrong and the way it went down was wrong."
 
I'll just have to wait a month and a half to see one of the most overrated boxers get put on their back.
 
Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

short notice to fight Yordan? has disaster written all over it


Especially moving up to 126.

I thought Pascal was going to be good to go in June?
 
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