2010 Official Boxing Thread: Soto/Antillon, 2010 Fight of the Year.
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Some very good reads for anyone with interest:
About two months ago, when the New York Yankees were in Tampa for spring training, Alex Rodriguez asked me, out of the blue, what it had been like to cover Mike Tyson in the 1980s.
"It was like covering you," I told him. "Only bigger."
Except to answer questions in a scrum, Rodriguez hasn't spoken to me since. Not a hello, how-ya-doin', not even a nod of recognition. Maybe he thought I meant it as an insult. Or maybe he saw it for what it was: the truth. Either way, he didn't like hearing it.
Early Tuesday morning in Harlem, more than 100 people lined up outside a grimy warehouse, in the area of the city where there's nothing glamorous about Park Avenue, where it still has an elevated subway line, for the chance to watch Mike Tyson be interviewed for a television program and to hear what he had to say.
He hasn't been an important athlete since 2002, when he got pummeled by Lennox Lewis in his last shot at salvaging a shred of his boxing career. Tyson hasn't, in fact, won an important heavyweight fight in nearly 20 years.
Yet, here were these people, waiting in the morning sun, clutching photos and magazines and T-shirts for him to sign, wanting to take home a piece of the champ.
They went home with a lot more than that.
You would think that, by now, Mike Tyson would have lost his ability to shock us, or to move us, or to even make us pause for a moment to listen to what he had to say.
You would think that after 25 years in the spotlight -- he made his professional debut in 1985, won his heavyweight title in 1986 -- after all the beatings given and taken, the messy marriages and divorces, the rape conviction, the drug rehab stints, the streetfights and, most of all, the ear bite, that the novelty of Tyson would have worn off, that we all would have tired of hearing his tale told and retold, dusted off and embellished for a new generation of virgin ears.
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Ellen Wallop/YES NetworkMike Tyson: 'I have a lot of pain and I don't know how to let it go.'
And upon seeing Tyson now -- his skull shaven, his face emblazoned with a Maori tribal tattoo, his once-massive body smaller and his head huge -- it is easy to forget just how formidable a presence he had been in his menacing prime all those years ago.
But somehow, he remains a singular, compelling figure, able over the course of a 90-minute conversation with a professional interviewer to make us laugh and cry and think. Unlike so many of the prepackaged, overprocessed and mega-rehearsed professional athletes who are churned out today by image-molders and shoe companies and uber-agents, Mike Tyson remains that rarest of all commodities.Instead of the human being sold as superhero, Tyson is the superhero who is selling himself as a human being.
"Sometimes I'm a dreadful, disgusting human being," he told Michael Kay of the YES Network during the interview, which will air as a segment of "CenterStage" later this month. "I have a lot of pain and I don't know how to let it go."
Moments later, he said, "I'm living such an awesome life, it's scary. I ain't got no drama going on right now."
Mark down the date -- May 26 -- and keep the appointment, because as always, Tyson is must-see TV. Fighting or talking, he is about as compelling an athlete as this country has even known.
Over the course of 90 minutes -- which will be whittled down to an hour for TV, including commercials -- Tyson was alternately funny and frightening, inspirational and heartbreaking. More than once, he choked back tears. When speaking of his former trainer and mentor, Cus D'Amato, Tyson became nearly inaudible with emotion.
What came through was not so much a performance as performance art, a man exposing his humanity and laying bare his soul for the world to see, and not caring all that much about the reaction.
As he said, "My whole life is out there. I'm naked, man."
He spoke candidly of the brutality of his life in Brownsville before the reclusive D'Amato, recognizing the oversized 12-year-old's potential to wreak havoc and make millions with his fists, eventually took custody of him in his home in upstate Catskill.
Tyson moved through his glory years, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history ("I knew I would. I knew it like I know Sunday follows Saturday. It had been drilled into my brain."), through his decline at the hands of Don King and Robin Givens, to the lowest point of his life (the 1992 rape conviction and subsequent three-year jail sentence), and the lowest point of his career (the night he resorted to biting a piece out of one of Evander Holyfield's ears to escape a beating).
"I despised him so much because I admired him so much," Tyson said of Holyfield. "I wanted to kill him. I had been jealous of him from when we were kids. I'm a spoiled brat and things weren't going my way. I wanted to hurt him. So I bit him. I was just a [bleeping] mess."
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Ellen Wallop/YES NetworkTyson on the Holyfield incident: 'I'm a spoiled brat and things weren't going my way. I wanted to hurt him. So I bit him. I was just a [bleeping] mess.'
Contrast that with the likes of A-Rod, professing to have "hit rock bottom" because he had to answer questions from Peter Gammons, or Tiger Woods sincerely apologizing to his corporate sponsors for having been a lousy husband, or Michael Jordan, who believes in nothing, it seems, but selling sneakers and underwear.
We forget that, at one point, there was no more well-known athlete on the planet than Mike Tyson, because boxing was a global sport long before baseball even knew there was a West Coast, or that he made as much in one night -- $30 million for the Lewis fight -- as A-Rod earns in an entire season.
No athlete has ever risen so high or fallen so far as Tyson did from 1986 to 1992.
And now, there are those who might be tempted to believe that his newfound self-awareness is nothing more than a newfound awareness that telling his story -- in all its gory detail -- can be a better living than getting punched in the head.
But those people either weren't around when it was all happening, or never really got it in the first place. And they certainly weren't in that studio when Tyson, in a strangled voice, said of D'Amato, "I wish I could say he was just this white dude that I played. I wish I could say he was just this piece of [bleep] that I used. But he made me. He broke me down, but he made me."
In many ways, Mike Tyson is both the American Dream and the American Tragedy, a gifted athlete built to succeed and a fractured person doomed to fail.
Now, nearly 44, he is taking what seems to be the approved method of career rehab for the washed-up and the never-really-was, about to become a reality TV star on a show featuring his lifelong interest in pigeon-racing.
He doesn't pretend to be anything that he is not, doesn't claim to have been born again or cured of his demons. Right now, he just seems content to recognize that they exist, and he's not afraid to share them with the rest of us.
"Sometimes I'm filthy. I'm wretched," he said. "And sometimes I'm not so bad. Mike Tyson ain't nothing special. Just another human being, trying to get along."
It's a lesson lost on too many of our most pampered and rewarded athletes, a lesson some of them may be doomed to repeat.
Wallace Matthews covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Junior middleweight titlist Sergei Dzinziruk of Ukraine, due to make his American debut May 14 on Showtime, got a new opponent Wednesday.
Dzinziruk will fight Australia's Daniel Dawson at the Chumash resort in Santa Ynez, Calif., Gary Shaw, Dzinziruk's co-promoter, told ESPN.com.
Dzinziruk (36-0, 22 KOs) was due to make the sixth defense of his 154-pound belt against untested Sherzod Husanov (14-0-1, 7 KOs) of Uzbekistan. However, Husanov is having problems obtaining a work visa to come to the United States, so they changed opponents, Shaw said.
"Husanov was having visa problems and we didn't want to take a chance he wouldn't be able to get here in time, so we made the fight with Dawson," Shaw said. "Dawson is in Los Angeles training with Justin Fortune. He's had management problems, but he's done with those problems and we have a signed contract for the fight. Everybody is OK with it. His only loss was at 160 pounds. And Dzinziruk has been here, so there are no issues."
Dawson (34-1, 24 KOs) has won five in a row since the 2007 decision loss to countryman Daniel Geale in a middleweight bout.
After a lengthy legal dispute, Dzinziruk and German promoter Universum parted ways earlier this year and he signed a co-promotional deal with American promoters Shaw and Artie Pelullo in order to come to the United States to fight regularly.
The fight this month will be the first for Dzinziruk, 34, a 1996 Olympian and 1997 world amateur champion, since outpointing Joel "Love Child" Julio in November 2008.
"I expect to see some ring rust because he hasn't been in a fight," Shaw said. "I don't care how much you spar, so I expect to see the rust. But I am glad he will finally be able to fight, even if we had to change opponents."
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
Three of former cruiserweight titleholder Steve Cunningham's last five fights have been in Europe. It looks like he'll be fighting there even more regularly now.
Cunningham, of Philadelphia, signed Tuesday with leading German promoter Sauerland Event, a surprise because it was widely anticipated that he would sign with New Jersey-based Main Events.
"I am very excited about beginning the next chapter in my boxing career by signing with Sauerland Event," Cunningham said. "I believe this is a bold but smart move especially because of my weight class. Sauerland is a major player worldwide and I can see how well they support their fighters. I'm happy to be a part of Team Sauerland and look forward to spending more time in Germany, a beautiful country with great boxing fans."
Cunningham (22-2, 11 KOs) is due to face Canada's Troy Ross, a former winner of the reality series "The Contender," for the belt Cunningham used to hold. That bout has not been scheduled yet.
In Cunningham's first fight in Europe in 2006, he lost a disputed split decision to Krzysztof Wlodarczyk for a vacant belt in Poland. In 2007, Cunningham won the title via majority decision against Wlodarczyk in a rematch and then defended it in Germany against Marco Huck via 12th-round knockout in December 2007. He lost it to Tomasz Adamek in December 2008.
"He is a true champion inside and outside the ring," promoter Kalle Sauerland said of Cunningham. "We saw what he did to Marco Huck when he fought in Germany and we very much look forward to guiding him back to the top. Steve is a hell of a fighter and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Sauerland family."
Huck, who is also promoted by Sauerland Event, eventually won a version of the title and looms as a likely opponent for Cunningham in what would be a big-money unification bout in Germany should he defeat Ross.
Sauerland Event has other opponents for Cunningham as well. If he defeats Ross, it is expected that Cunningham's first defense would come against Yoan Pablo Hernandez (21-1, 11 KOs), a Cuban defector based in Germany. After that could come a rematch with Huck (29-1, 22 KOs). Sauerland Event also promotes rising cruiserweight contender Alexander Frenkel (22-0, 17 KOs).
Cunningham was supposed to fight Matt Godfrey for the vacant belt on March 26 on ESPN2 but promoter Don King defaulted on the purse bid. Main Events, which hoped to sign Cunningham when his contract with King expired a few days later, inherited the rights to the fight because of its second-place purse offer and tried to keep the fight together.
Main Events could have delayed the bout for a couple of months and mounted a serious promotion. However, as a show of good faith to Cunningham and to do right by ESPN, which was supposed to air the bout on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights," Main Events spent money to move the bout to a new location in order to keep it together. Everything had been worked out in short order until Godfrey surprisingly elected not to go through with the fight. After that, the IBF demoted Godfrey in its rankings and Ross, the next leading available contender, got the title opportunity.
Cunningham and Main Events had been talking about a deal and Cunningham indicated he was interested, so Main Events chief Kathy Duva was disappointed in his decision to go with Sauerland, especially after losing money trying to salvage Cunningham-Godfrey.
"He has apparently agreed to fight them [Hernandez and Huck] in succession if he gets past Troy Ross," Duva said. "I don't blame Sauerland. I blame myself for trying to save Steve's fight with Godfrey and losing the rights to promote it, and my purse bid fee plus wasted expenses, in the process because it was the right thing to do for Steve's career. My bad. Won't ever happen again."
Ken Adams took the number out of his cell phone last week. It seemed useless to keep it any longer. Edwin Valero was gone.
Adams' younger days as a master sergeant in the Army prepared the old man for this, that life, in a violent profession, is accompanied by its share of death. He speaks in a gravelly Ozark accent and carries 69 years of wisdom packed underneath a thick layer of skin. Outside of a sport they both loved, he had very little in common with Valero.
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Omar Torres/AFP/Getty ImagesEdwin Valero, seen here on Feb. 6, was found dead in his jail cell on April 19, a day after being arrested on suspicion of killing his wife.
The Venezuelan boxer was young, talented and unpredictable. He once told Adams he wanted a tattoo of his homeland's president, Hugo Chavez -- Adams told him it would be a huge mistake -- and the next day, Valero showed up with Chavez's face inked on his chest. Oh, did they clash sometimes. Valero wanted to send sparring partners home on a stretcher; Adams wanted to rein the kid in. But even after they parted ways, Adams knew this: Valero was on the verge of something big.
He'd fight Manny Pacquiao someday, and Adams believed Valero would beat him. He'd channel his inner rage and go down as one of the greatest in his sport.
Now Adams passes a giant photo of Valero in his garage and shakes his head. Last month, one of boxing's brightest allegedly stabbed his wife to death in a Venezuelan hotel, then hung himself by his sweatpants in jail. The old man is tough; he's seen everything. He gets choked up when he thinks about Valero's two orphaned children. They're the biggest casualties in all of this, Adams says.
He hasn't talked much in the days since Valero's death. What is there to say? It's been a brutal year in the world of boxing. Four high-profile figures -- Alexis Arguello, Arturo Gatti, Vernon Forrest and Valero -- have died in the past 10 months. All of them died violently. In that same span, 28-year-old fighter Darren Sutherland was found dead in his apartment in September, an apparent suicide. Sutherland won a bronze medal for Ireland in the 2008 Olympics.
Adams can't explain it -- and, in this latest case, was nowhere near prepared for it.
"In boxing, you live on the edge," he says. "When you go in the ring, especially if you're an elite kind of fighter, you've got to know that each time you step in there, you could be killed. It's a respected sport, the oldest sport. But it's just the way it is. You're on that edge. Always."
[h2]The pressure is immense[/h2]
The first bulletin came from a wire out of Nicaragua in the early hours of July 1, 2009. Alexis Arguello, the three-time world champion with a huge heart, was dead at 57 from a gunshot wound to the chest. Ten days later, 37-year-old Arturo Gatti was found dead in a rented Brazilian apartment, his last breaths allegedly taken as he hung from a bloody purse strap. The tributes were still flowing July 25 when another jolt came from Atlanta. Former WBC junior middleweight champ Vernon Forrest, 38, was gunned down after an armed robbery.
Al Bello/Getty ImagesArturo Gatti, seen in August 2006, died last July in Brazil.
The long, heartbreaking year has prompted questions about the culture of boxing, and whether men who take and administer beatings for a living have a hard time escaping the violence outside the ring. It's been asked for decades, really. Legendary boxing columnist John Lardner once wrote a classic sentence to a story about the 1910 death of middleweight great Stanley Ketchel:
"Stanley Ketchel was 24 years old when he was fatally shot in the back by the common-law husband of the lady who was cooking his breakfast."
No, "Boxer Meets Violent End" isn't exactly a new storyline. But in recent months, there appear to be a couple of common themes. Three of the boxers -- Valero, Gatti and Arguello -- were known to have had substance-abuse issues, and their deaths were ruled suicides. Forrest, Arguello and Valero came from extreme poverty; Gatti died in a community surrounded by it.
Two of the suicides -- Gatti's and Arguello's -- have since come under scrutiny, and Arguello's is believed to be a homicide.
"I think these are tragic incidents that have happened across the board," says Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank Boxing. "[But] we're looking at two cases of most likely foul play, [and] one case of a carjacking. Does that mean the sport is responsible for somebody getting carjacked?
"To throw all of this in a basket … it's not fair. I think it's trying to take point at a sport rather than understand a lot about the socio-environmental issues of being a celebrity or being an athlete."
But people close to the sport acknowledge there are factors that might contribute to a boxer's volatility. A boxer sometimes goes an entire year without fighting, which leaves months of down time and plenty of time to get involved with drugs, alcohol and bad elements. The pressure is immense; the buildup to a fight is enormous.
Because of the socioeconomic issues of a global sport, some fighters go from ghettos and Third World countries to fame, riches and entourages.
"They don't have the same coping mechanisms," says Ray Franklin, Valero's former strength and conditioning coach. "There's massive pressure and too much availability of anything you want."
Alex Ramos knows a little about that pressure. He was once one of those rags-to-riches stories, going from the ghettos of New York to making hundreds of thousands of dollars in boxing. He has since battled alcoholism, drug addiction, depression and homelessness.
He takes medication to stop the neurons from misfiring in his brain. He doesn't drink because he knows it affects his temper.
"This one, I think, is a coincidence," Ramos says of Valero's death. "I just pray to God nothing happens next. What I'm just praying for is that everybody's safe. What's been happening lately … I don't know. It's been kind of weird extremes this year. A really crazy year."
But it's not just boxing. Dr. Margaret Goodman, former chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, says mixed martial arts has also seen its share of violent deaths outside the ring recently, and the common denominator appears to be the repeated blows to the head an athlete takes.
Goodman says concussions can lead to depression and other psychiatric disorders. Those problems, she says, are amplified by "super-imposed exposure to alcohol and drugs."
"This isn't just about boxing," Goodman said in an e-mail to ESPN.com, "but people turning their back and not doing the right thing for someone in trouble. Valero didn't need a fight. He needed emotional and psychiatric help and support."
[h2]Demons outside the ring[/h2]
The people close to Valero, at least in the United States, say they tried to help. Adams steered him away from what he called the "hangers-on," the bad elements, and was the occasional voice in Valero's head that told him things he didn't want to hear.
Franklin threatened to stop training him if he didn't get off the booze.
"As his trainer and his mentor, I forewarned him," Franklin says. "I told him, 'I know these things are getting to you. Don't get off track. With what I'm smelling right now, you'd better put me on speed dial. Because in a very short time you'll be calling me.'"
Valero did call Franklin shortly after that, when he was pulled over for a DUI in Las Vegas. The boxer didn't exactly know what the charges meant.
And when he returned to Venezuela, Valero's life spiraled out of control. A person close to the fighter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says Valero's cocaine use was "off the charts" in his final days. There were rumblings in Venezuela, the source says, that Valero was doing two to three grams of coke a day. He also said Valero died virtually broke.
Friends close to Valero say there was a duality to him that few people saw. He could laugh and joke on a friend's couch, his kids sitting on his lap, then shift to a jealous rage. Valero trusted very few people. He'd ask a question and then stare intently, sizing a person up. From an early age, he was always on alert.
His childhood home, Franklin says, could have been pulled from the National Geographic Channel program "Locked Up Abroad:" a harsh, almost terroristic hovel run by gangs. Boxing was his way out, and it was clear, early on, that he was passionate about it.
Valero started fighting at 12, and won three amateur championships in Venezuela. Seven years later, he was in a motorcycle accident and suffered a fractured skull and a blood clot in his brain. That injury would follow him for the rest of his life, limiting his chances at boxing in the United States and feeding his anger and aggression.
"It ate away at him, that people seemed to drag their feet prima facie and wouldn't give him a license to fight," Franklin says. "During that time, it was a very large struggle for Edwin to keep this tremendous anger and energy he had bottled up inside of him. That did create some problems along the way."
The waiting made things worse. Franklin and Adams would put together a list of sparring partners, fly them in from all over, and within a couple of hours the fighters would bolt for the airport. They didn't want to get their heads bashed in for what amounted to a practice. It wasn't worth the money. So it was Franklin's job to help burn that energy. He ran him up mountains, and Valero never seemed to drop pace. There was no limit that Franklin couldn't push. Valero was an anomaly, a fighter so intense his switch didn't flip off.
"I'll put it to you this way," Franklin says, "it's very easy for trainers to identify almost immediately who these individuals are who have that super intense edge. It's the guy in the NFL who does not feel remorse when he clotheslines somebody and they have to take him off the field in a stretcher. There are athletes like that in every sport.
"You have to try to work with that and realize the caveat is that what makes him a great, ferocious fighter with 27 knockouts could also create difficulties with just living a normal everyday life."
And when alcohol and drugs were involved, it opened a Pandora's box of paranoia and aggression. In September 2009, Valero was reportedly arrested for assaulting his mother and sister. His mother later told the media that she wasn't assaulted. Five months later, Valero was accused of assaulting his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, who was sent to the hospital for bruises and a damaged lung.
Of course, there were people who tried to help, Franklin says. Valero's manager, Jose Castillo, went to Venezuela to try to pry his fighter away from the alcohol and cocaine. If they could have gotten Valero back in the United States, Franklin is convinced the boxing world would be focused on Valero's next fight, not the next tragedy.
The last time Valero and Franklin spoke was in February. Valero had just made weight for his final fight, which would end in his 27th knockout in 27 tries. The fighter had a calm about him. He called to say thanks, that Franklin would be a friend forever. They hung up, and Franklin felt a sick pang.
"It was like when a guy gives you his worldly possessions," Franklin says. "I almost got an eerie feeling.
"It was like a supersized, ominous thundercloud."
[h2]A hard life[/h2]
The last time Alexis Arguello Jr. talked to his dad, it was like any other call. They laughed and reminisced, and Junior told Senior that he loved him and would see him soon.
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Getty ImagesAlexis Arguello Sr., seen during a bout in 1985 or 1986, died last July after allegedly shooting himself.
So much has happened in the past 10 months that the days seem to run together. There was the 3 a.m. call the night Arguello died, the flash on Arguello Jr.'s phone that said DAD CELL, which he ignored. Truth is, Arguello's oldest boy was scared when that phone rang, scared that his dad might have relapsed back into drugs after being clean for years. When the phone rang again, Arguello Jr. knew he had to answer. It was Arguello Sr.'s wife, who told him that his father shot himself in the chest.
"She was just matter-of-fact," Arguello Jr. says. "No tears, no sobbing, nothing.
"I just sat there dumbfounded. I just couldn't believe it. I'll never believe it."
It's past 10 p.m. on a recent Thursday night, and Alexis Arguello Jr., a producer for CBS College Sports, is sitting in a coffee shop in Manhattan, Kan., bleary-eyed from a long day's work. He looks so much like his father, who was nicknamed "El Caballero del Ring" -- "The Gentleman of the Ring." Arguello Jr. walks up to the counter and orders a large cup of coffee. He wants to stay up and talk about his dad.
Arguello Sr. grew up so poor that he once got into a fight with his brother over food, and it ended with his brother stabbing him in the chest with a fork. Arguello Jr. started his life in poverty, running around the streets of Nicaragua with no shoes. But then his dad's boxing career took off, opening the door to a lifestyle that little boys dream of.
When he was 10, he talked on the phone with Sylvester Stallone, a friend of Arguello Sr.'s. He hung with a few Hollywood actors. Whenever his dad entered a room, people cheered.
But it wasn't all a party. In the days and weeks before a fight, Arguello Sr. would be stressed out and anxious. He'd have to cut weight, and the closer to the fight he got, the more the family was "walking around on eggshells," Arguello Jr. says.
His father's life was hard, from the physical beatings to the mental toll. Various media reports say Arguello Sr. battled depression, but his son says he was happy and upbeat in his final years. He looked forward to reunions with his old boxing friends, and they laughed and carried on like frat boys.
Arguello Sr.'s death was seemingly far removed from boxing. His final job was as mayor of Managua. He won his election under allegations of fraud, was eventually stripped of his power, and had planned to resign on the night of June 30, when a lieutenant to Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega visited Arguello Sr.'s house. Within a few hours, Arguello Sr. was dead.
"My dad called a press conference for the next day. He was going to resign," Arguello Jr. says. "Who knows? The government was scared about what he was going to say. Who knows what they could have done?
"My dad tried to do the right thing. He tried to help the poor people. That was his main goal getting into politics. He wanted to become a mayor who could help the people in poverty. The people who really needed that help."
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Ed Mulholland/US PresswireVernon Forrest, seen here in August 2006, died last July after an armed robbery.
Arguello Jr., who was called A.J. for most of his childhood, is determined not to let his dad become categorized as just another number. But he also knows the sport has had too many violent tragedies. He wonders if Forrest, a beloved and charitable man who was shot after chasing the men who robbed him, was compelled to do so because of the fighter's mentality of never letting go of something that's his. He stops himself. He doesn't want to paint anything with a broad brush. He loves boxing.
A.J. is 38 now, but he still thinks a lot about his dad's days as a boxer. The younger Arguello devoted a year and a half of his adult life to the pursuit of following in his dad's footsteps. He had 15 amateur fights, and won 14 by knockout.
"I was this close," Arguello Jr. says, "this close to becoming a professional. But the one person who changed my mind was my dad.
"He said that he fought so I wouldn't have to."
[h2]In support of the sport[/h2]
Four deaths won't change boxing. Top Rank's duBoef says boxing is "doing amazing" in terms of popularity over the past 18 months. He points to the 51,000 people who showed up in Dallas two months ago to watch Pacquiao dominate Joshua Clottey. He talks about the enormous pay-per-view audience for the recent Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley fight.
Franklin, who has spent the past few weeks vacillating between anger and grief, says this latest tragedy will barely make a dent in boxing. It's the most Teflon sport there is, he says. Everything seems to eventually slide right off.
"I think it will be nothing more than a little ripple on the pond for those who weren't really involved with them," he says. "And then, of course, it's devastating for the rest of us.
"I can't explain that crazy, crazy situation where Edwin took his wife's life. I'm not able to get around it. I'm not sleeping on it because it will live with me the rest of my life. I see the kids' faces. I'm telling you, there's no one who can make excuses for the act."
There are telltale signs in the life of a fighter that should not go unnoticed.
When lawsuits begin to accumulate as easily as knockout victories, when a fighter's headlines can be equally divided between the sports and police sections, when every fight is preceded by a laundry list of legal run-ins -- that's when things can take a turn for the worse, when the steering wheel starts to veer toward the curb and a crash is imminent.
Edwin Valero, who died Monday in a jail cell in Caracas, Venezuela, knew all this. He had hit that curb more than once, sometimes literally. The former Central and South American amateur champion had amassed an 11-0 record (all by first-round KO) when a routine MRI revealed a small blood clot on his brain, the result of a motorcycle accident that occurred years earlier -- a condition that initially kept him from being sanctioned to fight in the United States.) One of his last legal problems was a DUI charge that was still pending trial. Fast cars and lots of booze in the life of a boxer? Nothing new.
But Valero had other demons, as well.
The left-handed Venezuelan power puncher was driven by urges he seemed unable to control. His boxing style serves as an example: Valero couldn't settle for simply defeating his opponents. He had to overpower them, overwhelm them, attack them with blazing combinations loaded with explosive power from all angles, to the point of neglecting his own defense (arms low, mouth open, eyes popping out of their sockets, high-pitched screams with every punch). The fury in his expressions was the fuel for his successes -- but was also at the heart of his failures, including his tragic demise.
Valero's appetite for excess was prodigious, and his struggles with substance abuse (and depression) came to be common knowledge. His troubles ranged from denied visas and pending jail sentences to DUI charges and allegations of having punched or threatened to punch multiple family members. (Valero's mother and sister were among the victims of his rage, according to a report.) After being charged with harassing his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, last month, Valero was arrested Sunday when, local police said, she was found dead in a hotel room where the couple had been staying. On Monday, Valero hanged himself in his jail cell, according to police.
As tumultuous as Valero's personal life was, his career was equally vertiginous. After being denied a boxing license to fight in the States, Valero became a traveling act, and his services were rendered all over the world. He traveled to Panama, Japan, France, Mexico and Argentina, putting his all-out style to work toward one purpose only: the destruction of his rivals, with the intent of leaving an indelible mark in the minds of his growing number of fans.
Watching Valero fight was a task in itself. He quickly became boxing's first Internet legend, a cult hero among hard-core fight fans. The KO artist who was barred from fighting in Las Vegas and New York, the fighter with the power to crush his opponents with frightening ease, became the subject of countless forums and chat sessions. The underground peer-to-peer live broadcasting websites that thrive today overflowed with fans from all over the world. It wasn't unusual for 20,000 fans to connect to a single site to watch Valero fight.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?id=5123088#/sports.espn.go.com/espn/gallery/enlargePhoto?id=5120714&story=5123088">http://sports.espn.go.com...120714&...idth=440,height=750,scrollbars=no,noresize'); return false;">[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Edsau OlivaresEdwin Valero's life had long since spiraled out of control by the time he was detained on suspicion of killing his wife.
His successes quickly mounted. Valero became the WBA champ in the 130-pound division with a TKO victory in the 10th round against Vicente Mosquera in his 20th fight. Before that, he had completed fewer than 20 rounds of action in his previous 19 fights. His 18 first-round KOs were a world record until Tyrone Brunson broke it in 2008, and Valero's 19th fight marked the first time he heard the bell more than once during a fight in his professional career. That's what the fighter known as "El Inca" brought to the ring -- an explosive style that would later earn him a more fitting moniker that needs no translation: Dinamita.
At this point, Valero's potential was huge, and everything suggested he would have an extraordinary career. His style was captivating: speed, numbing punching power and the controversial personal background that helps capture the attention of casual fans. The controversy was even stronger in Valero's own country, which was divided between admirers of his boxing achievements and those who dismissed him as a drunken, irresponsible wife-beater. And none of this took into account the fighter's inflammatory politics.
Valero was an ardent supporter of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, going so far as to get the face of "El Comandante" and the Venezuelan flag tattooed across his chest. Valero's politics follow him after his death. A few hours from the celebration of Venezuela's bicentennial, the news of Valero's suicide caused a huge national commotion -- a division between those who lamented the gifted fighter and those who used the tragedy to attack Chávez's self-styled "Bolivarian" project. The president has been accused of pampering Valero, putting him above justice by allowing (and even arranging) for his unlawful release from jail (on previous charges of assault and battery on his now deceased wife).
The fight on this front -- part of an ongoing battle between two completely opposed political ideologies -- has begun already. Both sides threaten to attack or defend the figure of the fallen fighter to unthinkable extremes. There are even rumors of an Elvis-like fake-death scheme that probably will feed the tabloids for years with bogus pictures of Valero pumping gas at an undisclosed location somewhere south of the Rio Grande.
One of the most serious controversies this episode should generate, though -- one that must be discussed in a far broader environment -- is the relationship between fighters and the women in their lives. Although there is no statistical evidence to confirm higher levels of domestic violence among boxers as compared with the rest of the population, recent incidents suggest a problem that deserves more detailed analysis.
Valero's case is just one of many instances in which an ambitious and talented athlete is drowned in a downpour of advice regarding how to improve his skills in the ring, how to become more violent and vicious, how to make (and spend) more money -- but finds himself left hung out to dry when in need of more profound life lessons. As a result, fighters often are left unassisted in finding ways to solve personal issues without using the same methods that brought them success in the ring.
Today, boxing fans struggle with the mixed emotions of an unexpected loss and the way in which it occurred. Without overlooking Valero's controversial and violent nature outside the ring, we can lament the loss of an extraordinary boxing specimen. As a top fighter in the most lucrative and attractive divisions of this era (lightweight and welterweight), he might have engaged in very attractive fights with such champions as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Marcos Maidana, Miguel Cotto and even Manny Pacquiao (a fight that had legions of fight fans holding their breath), with chances to win many of those contests and earn much more than a plaque in the Hall of Fame.
Instead, Valero's name -- forever stained -- will always bear a question mark next to it. And as long as we refuse to acknowledge it and fail to make the effort to find answers and solutions, the possibility of a new and similar tragedy will continue to cast its shadow upon the world of boxing.
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Good reads Proshares! Thanks for sharing
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yeah, thats a good read. Boxers always have the saddest and most hard up stories compared to other athletes
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I think Punisher is in for a Tough Nite.
Kermmy is a good athlete with a big right hand.
Paul dont get in and get out like Sergio, he stands there and trades. If Kermit is willing to take 3 or 4 punches to land one big bomb, this could be an interesting fight, but Kermmy has been known to get frustrated and not do anything correct
Kermmy is a good athlete with a big right hand.
Paul dont get in and get out like Sergio, he stands there and trades. If Kermit is willing to take 3 or 4 punches to land one big bomb, this could be an interesting fight, but Kermmy has been known to get frustrated and not do anything correct
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I got Pun putting Cintron on his back in round 9.
[h4]
I got Paul TKO10 tomorrow night.
[/h4][h4]Cintron first on long list for Williams[/h4]
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Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.comThe better Paul Williams looks, the harder it is for him to find opponents.
Paul Williams a middleweight? A junior middleweight? Welterweight? Who knows? It all depends on which day you catch "The Punisher."
In his past five fights, Williams has fought in all three divisions -- welterweight, then at middleweight, then junior middleweight and then his last two bouts again at middleweight.
He's has had success in all three divisions. He's a former two-time welterweight titleholder, a former interim junior middleweight titleholder and, in his most recent fight in December, he beat the guy, Sergio Martinez, who would go on to win the middleweight championship in his following bout.
"I've been asked the same questions so many times about fighting in different weight classes, if I feel I am getting slighted, that sort of stuff, that my answers are almost like turning on a recorder and listening to it play, but only with my mouth moving," Williams said. "But, make no mistake, I don't mind getting the attention and all the questions. I am confident and comfortable fighting in different weight classes and I will continue to do so for as long as I can and it is feasible.
"Whatever the weight is, my mindset is -- and always has been -- to fight to the end. I think that is my greatest advantage. I'm satisfied with the way things are going."
Williams is returning to junior middleweight to tangle with big puncher Kermit Cintron (32-2-1, 28 KOs), a former welterweight titleholder, in a scheduled 12-rounder Saturday night (HBO, 9:45 ET) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. HBO will open the telecast by replaying last Saturday's Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley pay-per-view bout.
But which division is really home for Williams (38-1, 27 KOs), who has bounced around the three weight classes in an effort to find the biggest fights?
Even though the lanky Williams is 6-foot-2, he and his team insist he can make the 147-pound welterweight limit and they are sick of hearing and reading that he can't, even though he hasn't fought in the division since drilling Carlos Quintana in the first round in their 2008 rematch.
Trainer George Peterson is probably more sick of the comments than anyone.
"Paul is saying, "Give me a 147-pounder and let me show you that I can make 147 pounds,'" a slightly annoyed Peterson said. "And if you are still that much in doubt then watch us eat breakfast before the weigh-in."
Promoter Dan Goossen said the only reason Williams has moved up and down in weight is because none of the top welterweights will give him the time of day, even though it's the division he prefers to fight in.
"With the welterweight division, it's getting harder and harder to find takers out there mainly because of the size discrepancy," Goossen said. "But it's not Paul's fault that he's 6-foot-2 and has a longer reach than the Klitschkos. But what has never left us is that we're looking to crack that superstardom, and the way to do that is to make the super fight. It's been no secret that's Paul's best weight is 147."
Like every other welterweight on the planet, the dream matches are against Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
"You throw any of the top welters out there and they've gone by the wayside now," Goossen said. "The [Miguel] Cottos, the [Antonio] Margaritos. I mean, Paul got rid of Margarito [in 2007] when no one wanted to. Cotto was dispatched by Margarito. So there are three welterweights that are out there today and they should all be mentioned in the same breath and that's Pacquiao, Mayweather and Williams. When everything is said and done, Paul is a 147-pounder. To be the best and to be the greatest and to be No. 1, I don't believe anyone can really say that until they get in the ring with Paul Williams. It may not be today or it may not be tomorrow but eventually Paul Williams will get his opportunity to show what we've been saying for the past two or three years. It will all come to fruition."
In his last bout, Williams eked out a majority decision against Martinez in a tremendous action fight. Williams had hoped to either face Martinez in a rematch or challenge Kelly Pavlik for the middleweight title in a fight that had already been called off three times previously. But when Pavlik and Martinez made a deal, it left Williams looking for another fight, and Cintron, whom Williams almost fought a few different times over the past few years, got the call.
"This fight has been in the works since 2006 when he was WBO champion and I was IBF champion. We were supposed to fight a unification fight back then," Cintron said. "There've been talks three or four times since, but the time wasn't right. Now, for me, the timing is perfect and I am very confident. You can call Williams a 'feared' fighter or whatever, but he's just another fighter for me. This will be an interesting fight because we've both overcome some obstacles to get here. Stylewise, it could be the fight of the year."
Cintron has fought his past three bouts at junior middleweight after a career at welterweight, so Williams is moving down to face him and enjoys confounding folks with his division hopping.
"To me, it's kind of fun," Williams said. "People can't really categorize me. It's hard because you can't get anybody to fight you. It takes discipline because once you finally pick a weight you've got to get up or down in weight. I kind of like it. [Moving divisions] isn't killing us so far. Everything's good. So if it's not broke don't fix it."
"Right now, Cintron is my main focus. The guy right in front of me is always my main focus. I don't think about any other possible fights. If I'm asked, I'll talk about it, but otherwise my sole concentration is my next fight. But my thing is I'll fight anybody if the money is right."
[h4]Donaire-Darchinyan rematch implodes[/h4]
Marty Rosengarten for Ringsidephotos.com A rematch between Nonito Donaire, left, and Vic Darchinyan is on hold again.
The proposed rematch between junior bantamweight champ Vic Darchinyan and interim titlist Nonito Donaire, slated for Aug. 21 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., is off.
Donaire scored a sensational fifth-round knockout of Darchinyan in a 2007 upset and there has been talk about a rematch since. They got close, but it fell through.
According to Darchinyan promoter Gary Shaw, it came down to a disagreement over international television rights and Darchinyan's team was tired of waiting for Donaire to sign the contract for which talks began almost six weeks ago.
"It was an easy fight to make and Showtime bought it right away and I have the Home Depot Center on hold," Shaw said. "I have nothing bad to say about Top Rank but the breakdown was on the international rights. Every day I would get calls from Vic's manager and be bombarded by e-mails to either make the fight or move on. I said let's be patient. Then I got an e-mail from Team Darchinyan saying they weren't going to wait. They said it shouldn't take five weeks to make a fight between 115 pounders who say they want to fight each other."
Top Rank's Carl Moretti, however, said the foreign TV situation had been ironed out and only after Top Rank agreed, did Darchinyan's management tell Shaw to pull the plug.
Shaw said Darchinyan will still fight Aug. 21 on Showtime on a telecast that is slated to also include the Carl Froch-Arthur Abraham Super Six bout from Europe.
Shaw said Darchinyan is interested in facing unified bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel; the winner of the May 22 bout between bantamweight titlist Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares or moving to featherweight to face the winner of the May 22 main event, the fourth bout between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez.
Darchinyan won't get Montiel, according to Moretti. Top Rank co-promotes him with Fernando Beltran and they have no intention of giving Darchinyan the fight because Montiel-Donaire is a fight they'd like to do.
"That's a distinct possibility for the fall," Moretti told ESPN.com.
Moretti and Shaw worked for weeks to get Donaire-Darchinyan done but, said Moretti, "At the end of the day, it just couldn't be made. Life goes on. Darchinyan has the belts at 115 and knows he may never get to avenge a terrible beating. Besides, I'm dealing with bigger issues like my daughter's senior prom this weekend. Her date is a 6-foot-2, 220-pound all-county linebacker."
Moretti said Donaire could probably would fight in July before the possible fight with Montiel.
[h4]Familiar face[/h4]
John Gichigi/Getty ImagesThere's more where that came from for Amir Khan if Breidis Prescott gets his way.
In September 2008, before Amir Khan claimed a junior welterweight title, he was blown out in 54 seconds by Colombian's Breidis Prescott (21-2, 18 KOs) in a lightweight bout. It was a shocking upset, although Khan rebounded to win his next four fights, including a 140-pound title against Andreas Kotelnik.
Now, Khan will see Prescott, who is 1-2 since his big win, again next week in New York. The reason? While Khan is slated to defend against New York's Paulie Malignaggi on HBO next Saturday at the Madison Square Garden Theater, Prescott faces Jason Davis on the undercard now that he's signed a co-promotional deal with Lou DiBella, who also promotes Malignaggi. Obviously, a rematch with Khan could loom in the future.
"Breidis still needs a little more work, but he punches like a mule and he holds a win over one of the hottest guys in the division, which means there's a big rematch for him down the road," DiBella told ESPN.com. "I don't know how big it will be after Paulie beats Khan but I'm sure it's a fight that Khan, a proud, young kid wants to avenge."
Dan Rafael covers boxing for ESPN.com.
[h4]QUICK HITS[/h4]
Pavlik
• Former middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik, who lost a decision and the title to Sergio Martinez on April 17, has until May 17 to decide whether he will exercise his option for an immediate rematch. Co-manager Cameron Dunkin said he thought Pavlik would make the decision in the next few days. "He's going to weigh himself and see how much weight he's put on since the fight," Dunkin told ESPN.com. "He's been living a normal life, eating, playing golf and running around. If he's too heavy and knows he will struggle so much to make weight again, maybe he will pass. If not, he'll do the rematch. Kelly never used to get above 174. For this last fight, he started out at like 191. He needs to see what his weight is like and if he feels he can make weight the right way. I think he wants the rematch if there is any way possible. I just know Kelly. He's so competitive. He wants him back something terrible."
Guerrero
• Now that Golden Boy has announced the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz lightweight championship rematch for July 31, it's working on the HBO PPV undercard. CEO Richard Schaefer, with a nod to the ESPN.com Fight Freaks, said he wants to put together "a Freak-type card of great fights." Schaefer said bouts under discussion include a featherweight scrap between former bantamweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez and former junior featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon; a fight involving former two-division titleholder Robert Guerrero, who is now at lightweight; and a middleweight bout between Sergio Mora and British action fighter Matthew Macklin. Schaefer had initially discussed Macklin against Winky Wright, but he said Wright has indicated he's looking for a bigger fight.
Hatton
• Former junior welterweight champ Ricky Hatton, who was in Las Vegas for last week's Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley fight and hasn't fought since his knockout to Manny Pacquiao last May, told ESPN.com he's leaning toward retirement. "I took a vacation to Australia [recently] and when I came home I went to the gym for a couple of weeks to see if I still had that fire in my belly and the desire. If you're going to do this, you have to give it everything. It wasn't there for me, being honest. Maybe it will be eventually, but right now it wasn't. I'm not announcing anything right now, but I don't know if I will fight again."
Valuev
• The camps continue to work on finalizing a heavyweight eliminator between Odlanier Solis and former titlist Nikolai Valuev, according to Carl Moretti of Top Rank, Solis' co-promoter. "We're taking to [Valuev co-promoter] Don King and trying to get it done for Germany sometime in June," he said. Moretti said the tentative date if they make the fight is June 5. "We're trying to get it done," he said. The winner of the bout becomes mandatory challenger for titleholder Vitali Klitschko. Moretti said the sides were close enough to a deal that they asked for a 10-day delay in the purse bid, which was granted by the WBC. If they don't make a deal there is supposed to be a purse bid May 13.
Johnson
• Terms have been reached for the light heavyweight bout between titleholder Tavoris Cloud and former champ Glen Johnson and a purse bid has been avoided, Johnson co-promoter Leon Margules of Warriors Boxing told ESPN.com. Margules, who co-promotes Johnson with Lou DiBella, said they reached agreement with Cloud promoter Don King. "We made a deal for the fight to be on or before Aug. 7," Margules said. "It should be a hell of a good fight. On paper, it looks like a tremendous fight. Neither guy runs. Both guys fight. One is the up and coming guy [Cloud] and one is the outstanding veteran." The fight is likely to land on HBO as the co-feature for the next junior welterweight title defense of Devon Alexander, who is slated to fight Aug. 7 in his hometown of St. Louis against an opponent to be determined.
Barrera
• Former three-division champ Marco Antonio Barrera (65-7, 43 KOs) will face Brazil's Adailton De Jesus (26-4, 21 KOs) in a 10-round lightweight bout June 26, Top Rank announced. Barrera, idle since a five-round technical decision loss to Amir Khan in March 2009, is now working with Top Rank and Mexico's Fernando Beltran and will appear on the "Latin Fury" pay-per-view undercard at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. headlines against John Duddy.
Brinkley
• Super middleweight Jesse Brinkley, battling a bout of the flu, is out of a title eliminator against Sakio Bika, which was scheduled to take place on the undercard of the Eric Lucas-Librado Andrade light heavyweight bout in Quebec City on May 28 (ESPN2). The winner of Brinkley-Bika was supposed to become the mandatory challenger for titlist Lucian Bute of Montreal, who plans to defend the title this summer in his native Romania. Bute already holds a victory against Bika.
Mayorga
• Promoter Don King is attempting to stop former welterweight and junior middleweight titleholder Ricardo Mayorga from participating in a May 15 MMA bout on a Shine Fight Promotions pay-per-view. King claims to have a valid promotional contract with Mayorga and claims Shine Fight is tortuously interfering with his agreement. Mayorga, who hasn't fought since Shane Mosley stopped him in the 12th round in September 2008, is supposed to make his MMA debut on the card in Fayetteville, N.C. Shine Fight's Devin Price's response was that Mayorga's MMA bout would go on "without a doubt" and that he has "a valid and exclusive promotional contract with Ricardo Mayorga for mixed martial arts," not boxing.
Rigondeaux
• Junior featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, the two-time Olympic champion and Cuban defector, returns June 4 (ESPN2) in Miami. Rigondeaux was supposed to fight April 10 on the Andre Berto-Carlos Quintana undercard but withdrew because of a supposed back injury, although the real reason was more likely the fact that he'd split with trainer Freddie Roach a week earlier. In any event, Rigondeaux's bout with Reynaldo Lopez has been rescheduled for a "Friday Night Fights" card. Now training Rigondeaux is Alejandro "Pupi" Torre, who has worked with fighters such as Daniel Santos, Juan Urango and Juan Carlos Gomez.
Morales
• Former three-division champ Erik Morales (49-6, 34 KOs), who came out of a 2½-year retirement to outpointed former lightweight titlist Jose Alfaro in a March 27 welterweight bout, told ESPN.com that he plans to fight again July 17 in Mexico against an opponent to be determined. … Top Rank made a formal offer to featherweight Celestino Caballero's handlers for a July 24 HBO fight against titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa, although Top Rank's Carl Moretti admitted it probably wasn't enough money to get the deal done. He said they are on a tight budget with the card and are also talking to promoter Don King about matching Gamboa with titleholder Elio Rojas. … Rising welterweight Mike Jones will return July 9 or 16 against Irving Garcia, promoter Russell Peltz told ESPN.com. Peltz said he is talking to ESPN2 about televising the bout, which will be at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., or in the small ballroom upstairs at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]
Marquez
"I like the wars because the people like to see those types of fights." -- lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez, on his 2009 fight of the year with Juan Diaz while announcing their July 31 (HBO PPV) rematch at a news conference in Las Vegas
[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]
Diaz
"It's no secret that my loss to Marquez is the one that I want to get back the most. I was dominating the beginning rounds of the first fight, but I didn't finish. This time, that won't be the case and I promise my fans that I will get the victory on July 31." -- Diaz, who was knocked out in the ninth round of the first fight, on the rematch.
I got Paul TKO10 tomorrow night.
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Seems like Vic dont want it with Nonito. damn shame...........
Probably going to see USS Cunningham on Saturday night, going to ask him about this move.
Probably going to see USS Cunningham on Saturday night, going to ask him about this move.
That television deal in the Phillippines doomed it from the start from everything I've seen. Not like Vic wanted to get in there this whole time anyways.
With Cunningham, I really hope any bad blood between him and Kathy Duva does not mess up a potential rematch down the line with Adamek. From what people say she's not one to hold a grudge but didn't seem too pleased about Cunningham signing with Sauerland. It'll be good to see him fighting again, though.
With Cunningham, I really hope any bad blood between him and Kathy Duva does not mess up a potential rematch down the line with Adamek. From what people say she's not one to hold a grudge but didn't seem too pleased about Cunningham signing with Sauerland. It'll be good to see him fighting again, though.
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I been said Vic dont want it with Nonito. can just see it.
from Shaw cryin about Nonito never getting the opportunity to fight Vic again like Vic won that fight or some #*#% ... whaaa?!!
I hope Pun Whups Cintron's +++ so either Manny or Floyd put him on the radar for a potential fight ...
from Shaw cryin about Nonito never getting the opportunity to fight Vic again like Vic won that fight or some #*#% ... whaaa?!!
I hope Pun Whups Cintron's +++ so either Manny or Floyd put him on the radar for a potential fight ...
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You think? I think he could still do some damage at super middleweight. It's funny because if he had a halfway decent cutman he'd still be the middleweight champ IMO. I just think he lost a bit of the hunger w/the alcoholism and the staph infection. Maybe this loss opens his eyes a bit and reinvigorates him.
caponecartels
Banned
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I think Martinez will beat him again should they rematch,
and 168 is too great a leap for him to make (Ability wise, not weight wise).
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The Hopkins fight set him back, big time. He had a chance to take control and dominate the middleweight division and capitalize on the momentum from the Taylor fights but that window is closed or pretty damn close to it.
Yea, he should have never made that jump all the way to light heavy.
Kevin Cunningham (Devon Alexander's trainer) threw the idea out there if Khan, Ortiz, Alexander and Bradley all win their summer fights to match them up in a semifinal format.
Speaking of Khan, he's stuck in Canada and has an immigration issue getting into the US. Fight may be postponed.
Kevin Cunningham (Devon Alexander's trainer) threw the idea out there if Khan, Ortiz, Alexander and Bradley all win their summer fights to match them up in a semifinal format.
Speaking of Khan, he's stuck in Canada and has an immigration issue getting into the US. Fight may be postponed.
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Nonito might be better off facing Montiel anyway. Don't think he can make 115 comfortably anymore.
Still wish the rematch happened tho, woulda made the trip to SoCal to watch it
Still wish the rematch happened tho, woulda made the trip to SoCal to watch it
So it does look like Vic and his team are ducking the fight. Nonito and his team signed the contract and got the TV rights situation figured out and right then and there Vic and his team stepped away from the table.
Now he's talking about moving all the way up to 122 or 126 to fight the winner of Marquez/Vasquez IV. Don't know how he'll do that when his power clearly didn't move to 118 against Agbeko.
Now he's talking about moving all the way up to 122 or 126 to fight the winner of Marquez/Vasquez IV. Don't know how he'll do that when his power clearly didn't move to 118 against Agbeko.
caponecartels
Banned
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Williams- 152.5
Cintron- 154
Cintron- 154
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Both of them can't make 115 anymore. Should be a good match at 118.Originally Posted by EAGLE 0N
Nonito might be better off facing Montiel anyway. Don't think he can make 115 comfortably anymore.
Still wish the rematch happened tho, woulda made the trip to SoCal to watch it
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That's amazing that Williams weighs less then Cintron as he looks just as thick, only taller.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing punishment he's going to dish out tomorrow.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing punishment he's going to dish out tomorrow.