Pacquiao will have to wait several years more to run for vice president
Manila: Although Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is willing to run for the vice presidency in 2016, will have to wait several years more to be eligible to run for the second highest public office in the Philippines.
Reports said that Pacquiao, during his press tour to in Mexico to promote his November bout with Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez, had revealed plans to seek the vice presidential mandate vice in 2016.
Read in depth coverage: Manny Pacquiao
But the now 32-year-old boxer and Congressional Representative for Sarangani province is not yet eligible to run for the vice presidency even if the race is still five years down the road. The reason—the Philippine Constitution prescribes that aspirants for the presidency and the vice presidency be at least 40 years old on the day of the election.
Pacquiao will just be 37 by the time the elections are held on May 2016. The Filipino boxing icon was born on December 17, 1978.
Article continues below
Article VII, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution states: “No person may be elected President unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines , a registered voter, able to read and write, at least forty years of age on the day of the election…”
Pacquiao, who had been basking in popularity as a boxer for nearly a decade had clearly shown winnability in electoral contest when he secured the mandate of Sarangani voters during the 2010 polls. In the same breath, he is no stranger to defeat after he was beaten in the polls for congressional representative of his original congressional district in 2007 by Darlene Antonino, a local charmer whose family has established political roots in South Cotabato.
According to Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes, if Pacquiao is really bent on seeking higher political office, she could consider being elected in a national contest such as the senatorial elections of seek another mandate in Sarangani, as a governor.
Article source: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/pacquiao-will-have-to-wait-several-years-more-to-run-for-vice-president-1.864081
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
James Toney: “Bernard Hopkins is a big old crybaby, a sissy in disguise!”
JENNA J: It’s actually time for our second guest of this week’s show. He’s making his second appearance with On the Ropes. We’re joined by the former middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight champion of the world—James “Lights Out” Toney! How are you feeling today James?
JAMES TONEY: I’m feeling good. Fabulous!
JENNA: Alright! Well let’s talk about some rumors that are going on around with you. There are rumors that you will be taking on Denis Lebedev in November. How true are those James?
TONEY: Well the rumors are true. Whatever goes on we’re pushing pretty soon because I’m ready to fight. I can’t get a fight with the so-called big guys in the division—the Klitschko sisters, or any of those guys, so I’m going for the next best thing.
JENNA: Okay well the next best thing would be down at 200 pounds. Why did you make this choice to go from your last fight at 257 down to the cruiserweight limit?
TONEY: Well basically like I said, I can’t get a fight in the heavyweight division so I have to go down in weight in order to try and get a big fight. The main goal right now is to get Bernard Hopkins in the ring. First thing first is David, I don’t know how you say his last name but whatever his name is, I’m going to get him in there and then I’m going to get rid of him!
JENNA: How hard has it been to get down to this weight? It’s a weight that you haven’t been at in a good seven years.
TONEY: Well it’s hard, but I’m training. You know what I’m saying? That’s the main thing, being focused. I’m real focused right now so when I’m focused and ready to go like I am now there ain’t nothing stopping me.
JENNA: Okay now if you win a fight against someone like Lebedev, what do you think that does for your career?
TONEY: After I beat Lebedev the sky is the limit! I’m still going to be heavyweight world champion, I’m still going to be a heavyweight regardless. Maybe I’ll have a big fight against Antonio Tarver or maybe we can get something with Hopkins. Who knows? Let’s see if they got balls.
JENNA: So with this weight loss and this new desire to train here, does this mean at the age of 43 that you’re as focused as ever on your boxing career?
TONEY: Oh, I’m very focused! I’m ready to go! I’m a dangerous man! Everybody knows that. Why do you think the Klitschko sisters don’t want to fight me? Everybody knows I’m the most dangerous fighter in the world, period! That’s why everybody has been ducking me for so long. If these two are the best fighters in the world that you claim to be, and they’ve been ducking me for seven or eight years! They always have an excuse why they don’t want to fight James Toney because everybody knows I’m going to whop their ass!
JENNA: Alright well one of the Klitschkos himself has a fight this upcoming weekend against Tomasz Adamek. Does Adamek have any chance at all?
TONEY: Well like I keep on telling everybody, it’s bum versus bum! May the best bum win. I mean you really don’t consider those guys real fighters, do you? Both Klitschkos and Adamek they fight hand-selected over the hill guys who can’t even spell the word “fight”. So like I said, put them in with a real fighter like myself and see what happens. They will fold!
JENNA: How damaging do you think it was to the heavyweight division with the whole debacle between David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko?
TONEY: Well it made something bad even worse! Now you see why everybody is with MMA. Don’t use that fight as a message as to why boxing is declining. We got James Toney here! James Toney is here! When James Toney is in shape, everybody knows in boxing! They don’t want to admit it, but they know I got the most skills out there. Nobody has more skills than me—nobody!
JENNA: You mentioned Bernard Hopkins. How low do you think you need to go in weight to temp him to fight you?
TONEY: Well I would go as low as 190 for him, no problem!
JENNA: So you would go 190 for him? So what do you think would happen? You’re crafty, he’s crafty—
TONEY: What do you mean? What do you think? Don’t tell me, please young lady, that you think Bernard Hopkins is an old-school fighter! You think he’s a crafty fighter?
JENNA: I think he—
TONEY: You think he’s a craft fighter?
JENNA: He might not be a throwback fighter like you, but he’s crafty!
TONEY: Right there! He’s not a throwback fighter like me! He’s not crafty! Anyone who runs in while holding their heads down, that’s not a throwback fighter! Okay? When I look at old film like Ray Robinson, he does not run in with his head down, hitting and holding, and then crowd and get hit! Pow! Bernard Hopkins is a big old crybaby, a sissy in disguise!
JENNA: Well what do you think allows him to be so successful at his older age?
TONEY: Well he’s always in great shape! You can’t take that away from Bernard. Bernard has stayed in great shape all of these years and I tip my hat off to him. You know what? If I would have stayed focused all those years I would still be undefeated and be one of the greatest ever period, like I am now but even more.
JENNA: Alright now James do you think this is your last run? Now that you’re 43 and you’re focused, is this your last chance to put together a final credential on your career?
TONEY: My career is solidified! Everyone is trying to do what I’ve been doing. I’m already a first ballot Hall of Famer. You know I’ve won more titles than anybody besides Pacquiao. You know what I’m saying, whether you guys want to count them or not. It is what it is. I’m only doing things for James Toney! I ain’t doing this for everybody else. I don’t care what anybody says! I don’t care what everybody is trying to tell me to do. James is going to be James! I’m going to do what I want to do, and that’s to dominate!
JENNA: Alright well James, we’re also on the line with my Co-Host Geoff Ciani.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hey James, it’s a pleasure to have you back on the show.
TONEY: Hey what’s up, man? How are you doing Geoff?
CIANI: I’m doing very good, thanks. James, going back to Bernard Hopkins for a minute, his upcoming fight with Chad Dawson—what are your thoughts on that?
TONEY: Oh he’s going to knock Chad Dawson out! Chad Dawson’s head ain’t right. Even if it he was right, he still can’t beat Bernard because Bernard has too many tricks for him. He leads him in, he’s going to bring him in, and boom! He’s going to be knocked out!
CIANI: Now you mentioned that a victory against Lebedev could potentially open up a door and you mentioned Hopkins as a target. Right now, if you couldn’t get a fight with Hopkins if you beat Lebedev, what about a fight against the better known champions in the division who are considered the best like Steve Cunningham or Marco Huck? Would you consider fighting them?
TONEY: Marco or Steve Cunningham? Like I said, batter up! I don’t turn down nothing! I’m the best fighter, period! You know what I’m saying? If you’re the best fighter in the world you fight the best opposition out there! You don’t run from anybody. I ain’t never done that! You look at my record. I fought the best in every division and I’ve done very well. So why should things change now? Like I said I’m an old school fighter, I’m a real old-school fighter! I fight the best available competition out there. All fighters should be that way today, but I’m the only one! I’m the only real fighter out there, the only real fighter!
CIANI: So if you had the choice if you beat Lebedev—
TONEY: If I had my choice, after I beat Lebedev—after I beat him, not if! I’m not Roy Jones. I’m a real fighter. I’m a dangerous man. I can tell you. After I beat him my preference would be one of the two “Bitchko sisters”. You know what I’m saying? That’s my first choice, but that ain’t got the balls, they ain’t got the guts, so my preference would be Hopkins or Antonio Tarver.
CIANI: Okay, Antonio Tarver, what did you think about his win against Danny Green and what do you think of his prospects in the cruiserweight division right now?
TONEY: Well I thought his victory with Danny Green was tremendous. Once again, hats off to him. Everybody was saying he couldn’t do it, but he went over there and took advantage of the man in his hometown. We’ll see. Batter up! Everybody talks a good game in boxing, but they don’t follow through with it. I do it!
CIANI: You mentioned Roy Jones before. I thought he was actually doing better against Lebedev through nine than the official scorecards suggested. What do you take out of that fight between Jones and Lebedev?
TONEY: Well I ain’t seen the fight so I don’t know. I’m just going by word of mouth. You know what I’m saying? I’m not Roy Jones. I’m a fighter. I don’t run around the ring and shake my ass. That’s not my thing. I go in there and try to hurt people. That’s what I do.
JENNA: Okay James well you like to refer to the Klitschkos as the “Bitchko sisters”.
TONEY: That’s right.
JENNA: Now if you were able to get them in the ring, what do you think you need to do as a fighter to beat them, to get a decision? How do you beat them?
TONEY: How do I beat them? That’s for me to know and you to find out. I don’t tell my secrets over the phone. Number one, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. All you got to do is go back to when he fought Lamon Brewster. You see, you know what happens. When you put pressure on pipes, the pipes bust. Right? It’s the same thing. You put pressure on those guys and they will fold over in the corner. I promise you. They don’t have the intensity to fight the right fight. David “Gaye” showed he was really gay how he went out there and just collapsed. As a matter of fact, that was one of the biggest robberies in history. They robbed people of a lot of money without a gun. You know what I’m saying? Thank God the fight wasn’t on pay-per-view in the United States, because nobody would have bought it anyway.
JENNA: Alright since you can’t tell me your secret and we don’t want you to give that away, what are all the other fighters doing wrong against the Klitschkos? What are they doing wrong?
TONEY: They’re not fighting! They’re taking pictures, and trying to find an opening here and there, and getting outpointed by that weak-ass jab that they got, or what they so-call a jab. They’re not great fighters. I mean their trainer sucks! Emanuel Steward is a half-assed trainer. Emanuel Steward is supposed to train like me. Emanuel Steward knows why he doesn’t want them to fight me. It was the same thing I did to all the fighters he had in the Kronk Gym all these years—kill, crush, destroy!
JENNA: Alright, I got to stop you there James. You’re saying Emanuel Steward isn’t that great of a trainer?
TONEY: You heard what I said! Let me tell you something. All the fighters he trained will confirm it and I know for a fact, the only thing Emanuel ever did in his whole career was come in the last week before a fight after he had Walter Smith, Bill Miller, and everybody else doing all the training camps for the whole eight or nine weeks. The last week Emanuel comes in when the camera is on him and he does mitts with him and says he did something. Man that’s bullsh*t! If he was training he would be with them day and night. He’s doing it now because of with Klitschko over there, he’s kissing his ass. He’s an ass-kisser. He’s an Uncle Tome. You can tell him I said it, too. I don’t care.
JENNA: You’re entitled to your opinion like everyone else.
TONEY: Oh yeah! I am entitled to my opinion and I hope everybody is listening because what I’m speaking is the truth. I speak the truth, and nothing but the truth because the truth sets you free, period! I see you’re an Emanuel Steward fan, huh?
JENNA: We have him on quite often and I believe he’s a great trainer. He’s trained so many world champions—
TONEY: Anybody can come in the last minute and train somebody and come in and take the lead the last week and take credit for it. You don’t see him making champions like Freddie Roach.
JENNA: What about Tommy Hearns? He trained Tommy Hearns from the amateurs.
TONEY: No, no, no, no! That’s my trainer. Bill Miller was the original trainer of Tommy Hearns. If you want to bet me on that, we can call up Bill Miller right now! He’s 95 years old and still alive and he’ll tell you the f*cking truth! So look! Let me tell you something! I don’t know how old you are or how long you’ve been in the game, but apparently you’re brand new to this because you don’t know what the f*ck you’re talking about!
JENNA: I know what I’m talking about. I’ve interviewed him. He trained him from the amateurs into the professionals.
TONEY: Okay! That’s what he says! That’s what he says! But ask the mother*ckers around here! Okay!
JENNA: Okay, okay James. Let’s change the subject because we don’t need to argue about this. Let’s talk about you. If you do not get the fight with Denis Lebedev, what are your options?
TONEY: Well like I said I’ll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. I want to fight the best opposition out there, Tarver, Hopkins, you know like I said, whoever.
JENNA: Alright well what about Alexander Povetkin? He just won a portion of the heavyweight title. Would that fight interest you?
TONEY: Oh no doubt! 100%! The more the merrier, whoever wants to dance let’s make it happen.
JENNA: People have been complaining about whether or not that fight should have been for a real belt. Do you think if you win that fight you would be considered a champion?
TONEY: Of course! See number one, my name is gold! So everybody already knows I’m the real deal. A belt don’t make James Toney! James Toney makes the belt, so I’m not even worried about that. All we get to do is get him and make it happen. I’m pretty sure after I beat this guy Denis, if the fight does materialize I’ll take care of my business and everybody will see that I’m the new heavyweight champion.
JENNA: How great do you think it would be for boxing to once again have an American holding a heavyweight title belt around his waist?
TONEY: Well we do have an American heavyweight champion! I am! Like I said the belt don’t make me, I make the belt. What people need to understand, I’m not falling into the boxing politics. I don’t do that. It ain’t my thing. I’m an old school fighter and I’m going to keep on rumbling and do this damn thing right! And I’m going to get it right! One day it’s going to happen!
JENNA: How do you feel now, now that you’re at a lighter weight? Do you feel better? Do you feel stronger? Do you feel like you can do better in the ring now that you’re down a little bit in weight?
TONEY: Yeah, I feel pretty good. I feel excellent. I’m going to feel better when I get closer to 190. I’ll feel even greater, but right now I’m just going to take it one day at a time. That’s all I can do.
CIANI: Your last fight against Damon Reed, that was one of the longest layoffs you had in your career between professional fights in a boxing ring. How did you feel after the long layoff? Did you feel any rust at all or anything like that?
TONEY: To be honest with you I felt like sh*t and I looked like sh*t, and I already knew what the problem was because I had been out for so long and it wasn’t my fault! I’ve been trying to fight but there ain’t anybody who wants to fight. Like I said in this new age of boxing there ain’t anybody trying to fight nobody! If you’re a top ten fighter and you want to get a shot at the title, you should fight another top ten fighter, period! It’s a shame for boxing fans. That’s why we’re losing our fans from boxing to MMA, because we’re not putting the fights on that everybody wants to see. So my thing right now is now that I’m back, I’m healthy and 100%, I’ll make sure everybody gets their money’s worth.
CIANI: Was there any doubt in your mind before that time, that you were going to return to the boxing ring in the midst of that long layoff?
TONEY: Oh yeah, no doubt! I’m still doing both. I’m enjoying myself and having fun again. It’s like anybody. Whoever enjoys their job they’re going to want to go to work every day, and that’s what I do! I can’t wait to wake up and go to the gym and work out every day. The excitement is back!
CIANI: So would you say that’s what keeps you motivated to keep going at this stage?
TONEY: Oh what keeps me motivated is to go down as the best ever, period. I’ve done something that no one has ever done. You have people who move from middleweight to heavyweight and don’t do too well. I’ve been able to do it constantly. Roy won the title and went down. I stayed and I competed against the big guys in the division. I have done very well! I’ve beaten them!
CIANI: You mentioned before James that the fans aren’t getting to see a lot of the fights they want to see, and the fight that immediately jumps to mind when you say that of course is Pacquiao versus Mayweather. They both have upcoming fights. Pacquiao is fighting Juan Manuel Marquez for a third time and Mayweather’s fighting Victor Ortiz. Do you think fans will ever get to see that fight?
TONEY: It’s going to have to happen one way or another because the fights they’re fighting are garbage! Victor Ortiz? Come on! The guy quit on national TV a couple of years ago. And Juan Manuel Marquez? I don’t know how he even got into the Pacquiao sweepstakes, but it is what it is. So it’s going to have to happen eventually.
CIANI: Have you been watching the 24/7 series at all for the buildup to Mayweather-Ortiz, and if so what do you think of it?
TONEY: It’s a good series. You know it’s okay, it could be better, but it is what it is. I think Mayweather is probably a lot better. Victor doesn’t look like he’s really sure of himself. You know what I’m saying? That’s what I’m saying, because I’ve seen fighters like that for 25 years, almost 25 years as a professional. So I know the fight game inside and out from the promoter’s point of view to the fighter’s point of view. So I’m not convinced.
JENNA: Alright well James we just have a couple of more questions before we let you off the line. You mentioned David Haye, or as you call him David “Gaye”. Seeing as he upset a lot of boxing fans with his last performance in the ring against Wladimir Klitschko, how much would you like to get in the ring with him?
TONEY: If he wants to come to the United States we’ll do it! I ain’t got no problem with knocking him out here on US soil and then he can back to Britain with the rest of the fans over there and do what he does. David is nothing special. Like I said, all of these opponents are hand-selected. If you look at my record, even from my first pro fight, my opponents have never been hand-selected. I fought the best and toughest guys out there. All of the fighters of today’s era couldn’t last when I was coming up. There ain’t a chance! They get protected too much.
JENNA: Alright now James you mentioned all the great fighters you fought in your career. Do you have any regrets now? At the age of 43 do you think you could have done anything differently?
TONEY: Yeah! If I would have gotten serious and motivated for the Roy Jones fight you guys would have never heard of him again! But it is what it is, I made a mistake and I paid for it!
JENNA: Okay James, well some people are saying you’re getting towards the end of your career. Realistically how much longer do you see yourself boxing?
TONEY: I can do this as long as I want to! There is no reason to end my career. Ya’ll say it, but my career is going to go as long as I want it to go. I’m not going t o let anybody tell me when I have to go. I feel like I’m just getting started, I’m fresh again, so we’ll see!
JENNA: How would you feel if Evander Holyfield, who you beat eight years ago, gets a title shot before you do?
TONEY: Well I expected that, because they do a lot of ass-kissing in their camp so I can’t worry about that. I can’t worry about what another man does.
JENNA: Well I have one final question. There are a lot of James Toney fans out there in the world. Is there anything you want to say to them?
TONEY: Yeah, I love them! Keep on moving! We ain’t done. We’re just getting this party started. I promise you!
JENNA: Alright, take it easy James and we wish you the best of luck with all your future fights.
TONEY: Alright.
CIANI: Thank you James, best of luck.
***
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 141st edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with former three division champion who spoke about his career, his future, and the prospect of fighting Denis Lebedev later this year. Toney also shared his views on a variety of other aspects pertaining to the current boxing landscape including the Klitschko brothers, David Haye, Pacquiao-Marquez III, Mayweather-Ortiz, HBO’s 24/7 series, Bernard Hopkins, Antonio Tarver, Marco Huck, Steve Cunningham, and more! Here is a complete transcript from that interview:
For those interested in listening to the James Toney interview in its entirety, it begins approximately forty-four minutes into the program.
RIGHT CLICK and ‘SAVE AS’ TO DOWNLOAD EPISODE #141
***
To learn more about “On the Ropes Boxing Radio:
Visit our official Website:
http://www.ontheropesboxingradio.com
Subscribe to our show on i-tunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-ropes/id427474189
Join our Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=231954175413ref=ts
Or Follow us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/JennaOnTheRopes
http://twitter.com/CianiOnTheRopes
To contact Geoffrey Ciani or Jenna J:
ontheropes@eastsideboxing.com
To read more by Ciani or Jenna please visit The Mushroom Mag:
http://www.eatthemushroom.com/mag
Article posted on 11.09.2011
Article source: http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=29187&more=1
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Boxing Champion Holm Stops Finney with Kick in Albuquerque
by
Tristen Critchfield
(tcritchfield@sherdog.com)
Article source: http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Boxing-Champion-Holm-Stops-Finney-with-Kick-in-Albuquerque-35466
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
When a dream fight turned nightmare reality
VIDEO PLAYLIST 
- Don King Remembers 9/11
Don King Remembers 9/11
- Pedro Beato Reflects on September 11th
Pedro Beato Reflects on September 11th
- New York Coaches Remember 9/11
New York Coaches Remember 9/11
- Remembering September 11th
Remembering September 11th
At 7 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, I thought I already had the biggest news of the day for my newspaper, El Vocero, in Puerto Rico.
Just four days before he was scheduled to fight Bernard Hopkins, Puerto Rico’s three-time champion, Felix “Tito” Trinidad, had spoken for the first time about his recent affair and the state of his marriage. In addition to asking forgiveness from his wife and his fans, Trinidad had also said he would dedicate the fight to her and to the couple’s daughters.
I had arrived in New York from San Juan the night before and Trinidad had picked my first day of work to tell all. Our photographer, Willin Rodriguez, and I had been up since 4:30 a.m. to follow Trinidad during his morning workout. Knowing that we had time before we needed to send our stories and photos, I headed back to the hotel to take a nap. After all, it was only 8:30 a.m. I knew we had the whole rest of the day to transmit our work back to San Juan, and even the morning coffee hadn’t really woken us up.
A phone call from Ranier Rentas, our paper’s director of photography, changed all that.
“Listen, a plane just hit the Twin Towers,” Rentas said. “Head over there right now.” I wrestled the phone from Rodriguez to tell Rentas that we were already awake and that he could stop making jokes. But then I remembered, Rentas never joked around.
“Listen, a plane just hit the Twin Towers,” Rentas said. “Head over there right now.”
I wrestled the phone from Rodriguez to tell Rentas that we were already awake and that he could stop making jokes. But then I remembered, Rentas never joked around.
Any semblance of fatigue was now gone, replaced by panic as we immediately turned to our TV screens. “It has to be on the news,” Rodriguez said.
The televised images not only confirmed what our photo chief had told us, but also let us know that our nightmare was just beginning. Just as we were saying that it couldn’t be a small plane, we watched in horror as another plane hit the second tower. That’s the TV replay, I remember thinking.
But Rodriguez was quick to point out that now both of the towers were on fire.
Our first reaction was, We need to get there. We were on the street in seconds, and it didn’t take long for us to realize that in New York, the world’s capital for public transportation, there was no way to move about except on foot. No taxis were stopping and there were no subways or buses.
From 34th Street to ground zero
We began what proved to be a long walk to ground zero. The New Yorker Hotel was at 34th and Eighth Avenue. We walked to Sixth Avenue, where we had a live look at the images the rest of the world could see only on their TV screens.
It took us several hours to make our way there. Rodriguez was shooting pictures the entire time as we took it all in. We saw people stop to listen to car radios for news broadcasts in all different languages, experienced the hysteria of the folks on the street, and even had one unbelievable encounter with a woman who was walking her dog amid all the confusion of sirens, ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. At the store where we stopped to get some water, one customer asked at the checkout, “What is going on today in Manhattan that everyone is out on the street and running all over the place?”
The woman at the register looked him over. “Mister, we’ve been attacked. New York has been attacked and they’ve knocked down the World Trade Center towers.”
On that same street in lower Manhattan, I first heard the rumors that the attack had been carried out by a group called Al Qaida. Before that, I had been imagining in my mind a new Timothy McVeigh, calmly seated on the roof of another building admiring his work.
Sequel to a disaster
Rodriguez, like thousands of other photographers, took pictures from different spots in the city as the towers fell. To this day, when I close my eyes, I can still see them falling. But the hardest part for me came later, in the days that followed. There were parents looking for their children, children looking for their uncles, co-workers looking for other colleagues, tales of encounters, searches, vigils for those who had perished. This was all part of my daily work routine in the aftermath of that fateful day. (I’d immediately transitioned from covering a fight to covering a tragedy.)
The streets of New York were filled with photocopied pictures, pasted on every corner, on every wall. Photos of women on the day of their graduations, men on the day of their weddings, firefighters and cops on the day they took their oaths to protect the city. There were pictures of people at the happiest moments of their lives, all posted by their loved ones in hopes of finding them again. The photos might as well have been a sprawling scrapbook of best moments.
Even as I was filing my stories, it wasn’t until several days later that I realized just how difficult my job was.
One of my assignments was to visit a help center at 106th and Lexington, an area where many Puerto Rican families live. The husband of one of the supervisors on the support team, Benito Valentin, had been found dead on Sept. 11. So even though the woman was in need of consoling, it was she who was helping others.
I remember another moment: I was with a rescue group that traveled from Puerto Rico to help search for victims. Upon its arrival at Jacob Javits Convention Center, which was being used as temporary housing, the group was informed that one of the first victims reported had been Dennis Mojica, a lieutenant in the NYFD who had trained Puerto Rican firefighters in his spare time.
Mojica specialized in rescues from buildings that were on the verge of collapse. The chief of Rescue Company No. 1, he had spent several days in Puerto Rico in 1996 when a building exploded in Rio Piedras. That’s how he met and made friends with these Puerto Rican colleagues. I saw first-hand how firefighters and rescue personnel handled grief.
“For a fireman, dying on the job is a matter of honor,” Hay Leddy told me.
“So what’s up with the fight?”
The fight. Whatever happened with the Trinidad bout I had traveled to New York to cover?
Well, the news of Trinidad’s affair passed unnoticed. The fight was rescheduled for Sept. 29 and there wasn’t much to write in the days leading up to it, especially after everything that had happened. Trinidad and his camp remained at the Doubletree Hotel in Times Square, one of the places people were gathering as they looked for lost family members. Hopkins drove back to Philadelphia as soon as the fight was postponed.
Trinidad wound up losing by knockout in the 11th round. I returned home a few days before the fight and watched it on TV. Before 9/11, I would have felt Trinidad’s loss as a sad moment for Puerto Rico. But from my new perspective, knowing that hundreds of Puerto Ricans (and so many others) had died or were injured in such an awful tragedy, it instantly became just a boxing match.
When I returned home to my family, I spent several weeks nagged by a feeling of mourning, as though someone in my family had passed away. When the U.S. announced it would enter Afghanistan, I thought about all the people who had died in the attacks, but I also thought about all of the innocents abroad who would die as an indirect consequence of the World Trade Center bombing.
New York will never be the same for me. Every corner I visit reminds me of that September day in 2001. Each open space takes me back to the stories I wrote and the sadness I witnessed during those 11 days following the attack.
Hiram Martinez has covered sports for 25 years for various newspapers in Puerto Rico. He is currently the sports editor at El Vocero newspaper in San Juan.
Article source: http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/6945552/when-dream-fight-turned-nightmare-reality
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Yuriorkis Gamboa ready for anything, Daniel Ponce De Leon
Ray Kasprowicz/FightWireImages.comA win over Orlando Salido put Yuriorkis Gamboa a step closer to cleaning out the featherweight division.
Featherweight star Yuriorkis Gamboa would love to still have the title belt that was unceremoniously stripped from him by a sanctioning body this summer for no apparent reason. But Gamboa knows it is even more important — if he wants to make big money and earn wider recognition — to just keep beating top opponents in impressive style, hardware be damned.
That’s what the blindingly fast and powerful 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist will aim to do when he meets Mexican slugger Daniel Ponce De Leon, a former junior featherweight titlist, in a matchup of crowd-pleasing 126-pounders.
The fight is on Saturday night (HBO, 10:30 ET/PT) at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., a scheduled 12-rounder that will advance the winner to greater stardom regardless of whether a belt is strapped around his waist.
“I think he’s a very good fighter, a very good boxer, but I am not here really to talk about the fight,” Gamboa said. “I am going to show it on [Saturday] in the ring. From there, we will go on.”
Said Ponce De Leon: “Gamboa is a very good fighter. He is tough. But I fought the best in the past. I fought them all, and I’m looking forward to this fight.
“I know it is a very important fight, and that’s why I accepted it. I take challenges. I love challenges. I took Gamboa because he is the best in the division, the most dangerous in the division. But I feel very good. I feel very comfortable, and I’ve trained very hard, and I’m going in there to win. I’m still young, and a loss doesn’t cross my mind.”
The HBO telecast will open with a replay of the fight that will air live earlier in the day between heavyweight titlist Vitali Klitschko and Tomasz Adamek from Wroclaw, Poland.
Gamboa hopes to eventually clean out the featherweight division and move up in weight to do the same there.
“I am ready to fight at 126, 130 or 135,” Gamboa said. “I am ready for anything. Right now, this [fight] is something the promoters want. I will fight at any of those weights. I just want the big fights.”
Ponce De Leon will be the third consecutive titleholder or former titleholder from Mexico whom Gamboa will face. That fact isn’t lost on him.
“I know that Mexico has a great history of world champions, but so does Cuba,” he said. “I welcome this chance I am getting to continue to prove I am one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. I will not disappoint my fans.”
Indeed, the 29-year-old Gamboa (20-0, 16 KOs) blew away Jorge Solis, a top 130-pounder who came down in weight, dropping him five times en route to a fourth-round knockout in March. In his previous fight, Gamboa outpointed Orlando Salido, who would later score a major upset by knocking out titlist Juan Manuel Lopez — the big fight Top Rank was moving Gamboa toward before it went up in smoke as a result of Lopez’s defeat.
“I want to box with the best and do the big fights,” said Gamboa, who lives in Miami after defecting from Cuba in 2007. “Whatever they bring to me, that’s what I am going to do.”
Fighting Ponce De Leon (41-3, 34 KOs), 31, doesn’t come without danger. Although Gamboa’s speed is on a different level, Ponce De Leon is known for his prodigious power.
“Yuriorkis Gamboa is recognized as one of the great fighters in boxing today,” said Bob Arum, Gamboa’s co-promoter, who is putting on the fight with Golden Boy Promotions’ Richard Schaefer, Ponce De Leon’s promoter. “He’s going to be tested by Ponce De Leon, who is a tremendous puncher and a very good fighter. So it should be an extremely interesting match.”
With the rival companies calling a truce in their bitter business battle, this is the first fight they are working on together since they co-promoted Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton in May 2009.
The promoters have sought to keep the focus on the fight, not their relationship.
“No question about it that Gamboa is a tremendous fighter with a tremendous background with a gold medal,” Schaefer said. “Ponce De Leon is a 2000 Olympian as well. He has a tremendous record with huge punching power, and that’s what he’s going to be looking for — to take it to Gamboa and show what he’s all about. He’s looking for his second world title in a second weight class.”
Arum promotes several top featherweights, so if Gamboa gets past Ponce De Leon, a number of interesting fights await him. He is planning a Salido-Lopez rematch and would like to match Gamboa with the winner next year.
But there is an even more intriguing showdown on Arum’s mind. He also promotes bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, one of the world’s top five pound-for-pound fighters. Donaire is scheduled to defend his title Oct. 22, then plans to move up to junior featherweight and, eventually, to featherweight.
Gamboa could be waiting for him.
“Probably the biggest fight in the featherweight division would be against the up-and-coming bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, who will be going up to featherweight next year — and that should be a big, big match,” Arum said.
Ponce De Leon doesn’t have a huge fight looming for him if he beats Gamboa. He’s just trying to re-establish himself in the featherweight division.
He was closing in on a title opportunity when he was offered a chance to face rising junior lightweight contender Adrien Broner, who is also with Golden Boy, in an HBO fight in March. So he moved up in weight and gave Broner everything he could handle in a controversial decision loss.
Ponce De Leon is now back at featherweight with no regrets about the fight against Broner.
“Everybody saw the fight,” Ponce De Leon said. “I took the fight because an opportunity was presented to me. It was a fight that could be done through our promoter. I took it, and everybody saw the results, except the judges.
“It was an opportunity and I took it because I felt I could beat Broner. I wanted to check to see how I felt at 130. But right now, 126 is best for me.”
Toney to face Lebedev in Moscow
Russian cruiserweight contender Denis Lebedev apparently likes picking on old guys.
After he dropped a split decision in challenging Marco Huck for a title in December, Lebedev next fought in May, when he knocked out the long-faded 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. with one punch in the 10th round in Moscow. Now Lebedev is being lined up to fight 43-year-old former three-division champion James Toney (73-6-3, 44 KOs), who is years past his best.
Rafael’s boxing blog
Get the latest scoop and analysis on the world of boxing from ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael in his blog.
The fight is close to being signed, Ivaylo Gotzev, Toney’s adviser, told ESPN.com. If the deal is finalized, the bout would take place Nov. 5 in Moscow and would be fought at the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds. Toney, with a long history of weight trouble, has been a heavyweight for years. He hasn’t fought at cruiserweight since he won the title in 2003 and vacated it without defending to move up in weight.
Toney has fought sporadically for the past few years and weighed 257 pounds for his last fight, a shutout decision against Damon Reed in February. But Gotzev said Toney has “been walking around the last couple of weeks at 215 pounds. He feels very comfortable, and he can go down to 200 with no problem.”
“James will be in a good fight, and we are looking for him to make a statement against Lebedev and then we want [titlist Alexander] Povetkin back at heavyweight,” Gotzev said. “James Toney beat up Vassiliy Jirov to win [a cruiserweight] title and then went on to TKO the great Evander Holyfield in his next fight. James will try to repeat history. If James knocks out Lebedev, it’s only right that he gets a shot at Povetkin.”
Gotzev said the negotiations with Lebedev are going well and that they are close to a deal.
“All parties are on board,” Gotzev said. “We are working on a few details. I think James can turn back the clock. I watch him every day, and I am confident of that.”
A fight for the undercard has been signed, a light heavyweight title eliminator between Gotzev-managed Ismayl Sillakh (16-0, 13 KOs) of Ukraine and Houston’s Chris Henry (25-2, 20 KOs).
Square Ring CEO John Wirt, Sillakh’s promoter, said the fight was signed Wednesday and that the winner would be mandated to fight former titlist Zsolt Erdei, with the winner of that bout earning a mandatory title shot against the winner of the Oct. 15 fight between champion Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson.
Aydin-Dan rematch set
Welterweight contenders Selcuk Aydin (22-0, 17 KOs) and Jo Jo Dan (29-1, 16 KOs) will meet in a rematch of their controversial June 2010 bout in Aydin’s native Turkey. They will meet Nov. 19 in Trabzon, Turkey, Aydin’s hometown, promoters Ahmet ner (Aydin) and Chris Ganescu (Dan) announced after making a deal and avoiding a purse bid.
In their first fight, Aydin claimed a narrow split decision against Dan, a Montreal-based Romanian, in a fight many believed Dan, who was knocked down in the first round, should have won.
“It’s good to hear that the deal is done,” said Aydin, who turned 28 on Sept. 4. “Although I won the first fight, I was not happy with my performance. So this is a chance for me to prove that I can do better and stop him. He is a good and slick fighter and moves well in the ring. But that won’t help him this time. I will do what I have to do. I will knock him out and then go on to fight the big names in the division.”
Dan, 30, said he is OK with going back to Turkey.
“I am used to fighting on the road,” he said. “Boxing fans everywhere like me and my style. I will have the best preparation ever, and I will leave no doubt. There will be no controversy now.”
The WBC ordered the rematch as a final eliminator, with the winner becoming the mandatory challenger for the winner of the Sept. 17 bout between welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz and former champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Sanchez a hungry fighter
Before fighters reach big-money championship fights — and most of them never do — they usually struggle to make ends meet, fighting to feed their families, with every win so important to paving the way to another payday.
Junior welterweight prospect Hector Sanchez (19-1, 9 KOs) of Puerto Rico is just that kind of fighter, and he faces a fight very important to his career when he meets fellow Puerto Rican Vincent Arroyo (11-1, 7 KOs) of Buffalo, N.Y., in the main event of “ShoBox: The New Generation” on Friday night (Showtime, 11 p.m. ET/PT) at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minn.
Sanchez is desperate to help lift his family out of poverty.
“The eight of us live in a two-bedroom house,” said Sanchez, 25. “One of my sisters will have a baby, so that is going to complicate the matter further. The most important thing for me is that they have everything they need and, for that reason, I must win this fight and many more. We have suffered enough.”
Sanchez, who was a top amateur, was handed his only pro defeat via fifth-round knockout to Cleotis Pendarvis in an upset in April 2010, and has won his only fight since. Now he’s shooting for two in a row.
“I’ve been climbing through the ranks, getting closer and closer to where I want to be,” Sanchez said. “All I have to do is keep winning. Boxing is an opportunity to earn enough money to give them everything they need and move them out of the house that we live in.”
In the opening bout, Los Angeles-based Nigerian cruiserweight contender Lateef “Power” Kayode (17-0, 14 KOs) faces battle-tested Felix Cora Jr. (22-5-2, 12 KOs).
Quick Hits
• ESPN3.com will offer live streaming coverage in the United States of Saturday’s junior welterweight title eliminator between Colombian slugger Breidis Prescott (24-2, 19 KOs) and Northern Ireland’s Paul McCloskey (22-1, 12 KOs) from the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Coverage begins at 3:45 p.m. ET. The winner will be in position to challenge for one of the 140-pound belts held by Amir Khan, who has already faced both fighters. (Both are seeking a Khan rematch.) Prescott handed Khan his only loss, a first-round knockout in 2008, and McCloskey lost a one-sided six-round technical decision in a title challenge in April.
• Plans are in the works for a Nov. 26 HBO tripleheader to take place in Cincinnati, the hometown of junior lightweight contender Adrien Broner (21-0, 17 KOs). Golden Boy hopes to match the 22-year-old Broner, a mandatory challenger, with 130-pound titlist Ricky Burns (32-2, 9 KOs) of Scotland, according to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who has worked out a deal with Burns’ promoter, Frank Warren. However, Schaefer said there is a chance Burns won’t take the fight because of issues making weight that could force him to vacate the belt.
“I’m waiting for Frank Warren to get back to me about Ricky Burns, but it looks like he is not going to take the fight and Broner will be fightng for a vacant title.” That means Broner could end up facing Golden Boy stablemate Eloy Perez (22-0-2, 6 KOs), who scored a second-round knockout of Daniel Jimenez in the main event of last Friday’s Telefutura card. Schaefer said that for the other two televised bouts he and HBO are targeting heavyweight prospect Seth Mitchell and featherweight prospect Gary Russell Jr. (18-0, 10 KOs), who rolled past Leonilo Miranda for a shutout eight-round decision in his HBO debut on Sept. 3. Broner, Mitchell and Russell are all in adviser Al Haymon’s stable.
• Before the proposed November HBO appearance, Mitchell (22-0-1, 16 KOs), 29, of Brandywine, Md., has to win his Sept. 16 main event that will air live simultaneously on Spanish-language Telefutura and English-language Fox Sports Net from the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas. Mitchell now has an opponent for the evening. He will face Hector Ferreyro (21-10-2, 12 KOs) of Laredo, Texas, in a scheduled 10-rounder on the eve of the Mayweather-Ortiz HBO PPV fight that Golden Boy is promoting at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mitchell was supposed to open an HBO card against Mike Mollo on Aug. 27, but when headliner Robert Guerrero suffered a shoulder injury, the card was canceled. In the co-feature, welterweight Felix Diaz (9-0, 6 KOs), a 2008 Olympic gold medalist from the Dominican Republic, will face Larry Smith (10-5, 6 KOs) of Dallas.
• Junior featherweight titlist Rico Ramos is supposed to make his first defense against interim titlist Guillermo Rigondeaux. A purse bid has been scheduled for Monday at the WBA headquarters in Panama if the sides don’t make a deal. Ramos (20-0, 11 KOs) won his 122-pound belt when he rallied for a seventh-round knockout of Japan’s Akifumi Shimoda on July 9 in Atlantic City, N.J. Rigondeaux (8-0, 6 KOs), a two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist, had stepped aside to allow Ramos-Shimoda to take place, with the contractual obligation from the winner to face him next.
Tweet, tweet
Don’t miss a moment of the latest boxing coverage from around the world. Follow us on Twitter and stay informed. Join »
• In preparation for the Oct. 29 final of the Super Six World Boxing Classic between super middleweight titleholders Andre Ward and Carl Froch — a fight that will finish the two-year tournament — Showtime has unveiled a schedule of special programming around the fight. First is “Staredown: Ward vs. Froch,” which premieres Oct. 5 (7:45 p.m. ET/PT). Showtime broadcaster Jim Gray will moderate a conversation between the two finalists. The network will air the final three episodes of its “Fight Camp 360: Inside The Super Six World Boxing Classic” series, which has followed the tournament from the beginning with behind-the-scenes coverage and fight recaps. The 10th episode of the series will debut Oct. 8 (10 p.m. ET/PT), and Episode 11 will premier Oct. 22 (10 p.m. ET/PT). They will cover the semifinal results and buildup to the final. The series finale will air later in the fall, on a date to be determined, and wrap up the tournament. Showtime will also use its Showtime Extreme channel during October to replay Froch and Ward tournament fights.
• Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez, who meet for Pacquiao’s welterweight title Nov. 12 (HBO PPV) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, will be featured in a four-part “24/7″ series on HBO. The network announced this week during a promotional tour stop in New York that the Emmy award-winning series will return Oct. 22 (10:30 p.m. ET/PT) and follow the fighters throughout their preparation for the fight. The second and third episodes will air on subsequent Saturday nights (Oct. 29 at 10 ET/PT and Nov. 5 at 9:45 ET/PT), with the finale set for the night before the fight, Nov. 11 (8:30 ET/PT).
• Super middleweight prospect Shawn Estrada (13-0, 12 KOs), a 2008 U.S. Olympian, has had his career slowed by a series of hand problems. Now, just as he was getting back on track, and with an aggressive schedule in the works by promoter Dan Goossen, Estrada has suffered another setback. He suffered a tear in his meniscus and needs arthroscopic surgery, according to Tom Brown, Goossen’s matchmaker. Brown said Estrada’s next two fights have been scrapped, an appearance on a Sept. 15 ESPN Deportes-televised card in El Paso, Texas, and an Oct. 28 fight slated for the main event on Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation.” Brown said the hope is that Estrada, who already had fought three times this year, will be ready to return to fight on ESPN2′s annual “Salute to America’s Heroes” Veterans Day card on Nov. 10.
• British heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury (15-0, 10 KOs) will return to the ring against Ohio’s Nicolai Firtha (20-8-1, 8 KOs) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Sept. 17 (Ch. 5 in England). The 23-year-old Fury, who holds the British and Commonwealth titles, is coming off the biggest win of his career, a unanimous 12-round decision against Dereck Chisora on July 23.
“There was a lot of talk about me fighting Martin Rogan, and a few other names like Mike Perez and Leif Larsen were mentioned, but I’ve accepted to fight Firtha, who’s a lot younger than Rogan and has mixed in a lot higher company than any of those other guys,” Fury said. “With two weeks to go, I know this is a risk, a gamble, but I’m a true fighting man and a man of honor and I’m prepared to fight any man on the planet.” In his most notable fight, Firtha, 32, went the distance in losing a lopsided decision to Alexander Povetkin in December.
• Heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko (31-1, 21 KO) of Germany will defend the European title against England’s Michael Sprott (36-16, 17 KOs) on Sept. 24 in Hamburg, according to Universum Box-Promotion. The fight had originally been scheduled in August but was delayed. The undercard will feature cruiserweight prospect Rakhim Chakhkiev (10-0, 8 KOs), a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, against Michael Simms (21-14-2, 13 KOs), and heavyweight contender Denis Boytsov (28-0, 23 KOs), trying to shake off continued hand problems, against Matt Greer (14-6, 13 KOs). Former cruiserweight titlist and former heavyweight title challenger Juan Carlos Gomez (49-2, 37 KOs) may be added to the show.
• San Antonio’s Raul Martinez (28-1, 16 KOs) and Mexico’s Rodrigo Guerrero (15-3-1, 10 KOs) are slated to fight for a vacant junior bantamweight belt — the one Cristian Mijares recently relinquished to move up in weight — on Oct. 8 in Tijuana, Mexico, according to Martinez manager Lou Mesorana. The fight would headline a “Top Rank Live” card (Fox Deportes), according to Top Rank’s Carl Moretti. It will be a rematch of Martinez’s split-decision victory against Guerrero in a November 2010 title eliminator.
• Coming off the most notable win of his career, blue-chip junior middleweight prospect Demetrius Andrade (14-0, 9 KOs), a 23-year-old 2008 U.S. Olympian and former world amateur champion, will face Saul Duran (38-12-2, 31 KOs) in the main event of the 10th annual Fight To Educate on Sept. 21 in Manchester, N.H. On Aug. 19, Andrade stepped up in competition and rolled to a one-sided decision against veteran Grady Brewer, a former winner of “The Contender” realist series. This will be the second year in a row that Andrade, of Providence, R.I., will fight on the Fight To Educate card, which raises money to assist children and seniors in New Hampshire.
• Former undisputed cruiserweight champion O’Neil Bell (26-4-1, 24 KO) of Atlanta will try to shake off a three-fight losing streak when he returns for a scheduled 10-rounder against an opponent to be named on Sept. 24 in North Bergen, N.J. Bell, 36, knocked out Jean Marc Mormeck in the 10th round to become the undisputed champion in January 2006, but he hasn’t won since, losing all three of his bouts while also taking layoffs of 13 months and nearly three years. He lost a decision in a 2007 rematch with Mormeck, was stopped in the eighth round by Tomasz Adamek in April 2008 and then returned on June 2 and was knocked out in the second round by Richard Hall. “I’m slowly working to regain my status with the boxing world and get my belts back,” Bell said. “I’m still a champion, but on paper I’m not, so I still have to get it back.”
Quotable
Pacquiao
“This fight will answer all doubts. There have been a lot of changes in me since those first two fights. I learned a lot of different techniques. I improved my power, and I now have a right hand.”
– A confident Manny Pacquiao on facing Juan Manuel Marquez, against whom he has a draw and controversial split-decision win, in their third showdown on Nov. 12 (HBO PPV) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas
“Manny knows I beat him twice. I know he thinks about our two fights all the time.”
– Marquez, on meeting his great rival Pacquiao for a third time
V. Klitschko
“What would it mean to fight David Haye? He touched my brother Wladimir and my life very personally. I wish Wladimir knocked him out. I will be very happy to do that, to knock him out in the future. It will be good for my personal ego to send him to the floor.”
– Heavyweight titlist Vitali Klitschko on the prospect of facing Haye — who trash-talked the brothers relentlessly before losing a lopsided decision to Wladimir on July 2 — if he gets past a title defense against Tomasz Adamek on Saturday (HBO, 4:45 p.m. ET)
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at danrafaelespn.
Article source: http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/6947262/yuriorkis-gamboa-ready-anything-daniel-ponce-de-leon
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Enter to win an HBO jacket and signed glove!
One of boxing’s biggest stars returns to the ring to face off boxing’s newest star in this Las Vegas mega-fight: Floyd “Money” Mayweather vs. “Vicious” Victor Ortiz! Click the “Register Now” button below for your chance to win an HBO 24/7 warm up jacket and an autographed boxing glove marking this huge fight!
If you’re not already a member of the 710 ESPN VIP Club, click here to sign up now. It’s free and easy to join, and once you’re a member, you’re just one click away from every contest we have at ESPNLA.com!
###
The wait is over and the time has finally come! Floyd “Money” Mayweather and “Vicious” Victor Ortiz have wrapped up their training camps and are making final preparations for their upcoming fight and you can see it all on the finale of 24/7 Mayweather/Ortiz next Friday night at 9 PM only on HBO. Click here to catch episode 1 of the series. Plus make sure to see the fight LIVE! from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this Saturday, September 17 at 6 PM on Pay-Per-View!
For more info on the much-anticipated fight, visit HBO.com.
Deadline to enter is 9/16/2011 at 11:59pm PT
Article source: http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/radio/story/_/page/6948221/enter-win-hbo-jacket-signed-glove
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Police remain convinced Arturo Gatti’s death a suicide
SAO PAULO — The Brazilian police official who oversaw the 2009 investigation into the death of Arturo Gatti said Friday he remains convinced the boxing champion killed himself.
However, Paulo Alberes said that if asked by prosecutors, he would re-examine the case and take into account the findings of private investigators in the U.S. who released a report this week saying they are certain Gatti was murdered.
“Our investigations were conclusive in that this was a suicide,” Alberes said. “First of all, there was nothing disturbed in the hotel room. If this was a homicide, there would have been a fight. Also, the marks on his neck were characteristic of a suicide.”
Police initially said the two-time world champion had been murdered by his wife, Amanda Rodrigues Gatti, saying she strangled him with a handbag strap as he drunkenly slept and their infant son lay in a room in the suite.
They arrested her shortly after his death and she was held in jail for 18 days.
But police reversed course and determined that Gatti killed himself. Gatti’s wife was then freed by a judge and no other arrests have been made, though prosecutors say the case was never technically closed.
In a 2009 phone interview conducted as she was leaving jail, Rodrigues Gatti said she believed her husband took his own life because he was afraid she was going to leave him following a violent disagreement in public the night before his death.
She is in Canada for a civil trial concerning her late husband’s estate. The trial will determine who inherits Gatti’s multimillion-dollar fortune. At the center of the debate is the validity of two wills with different beneficiaries — one will giving Rodrigues Gatti everything.
Alberes said he thinks the fight over the money is what prompted the private investigation in the U.S.
“The family (of Gatti) isn’t satisfied that the boxer’s wife and son will inherit the millions of dollars left by him,” he said. “But we cannot imprison an innocent person.”
It was not known if Rodrigues Gatti still has a lawyer in Brazil. Messages left at the office of the lawyer who represented her in 2009 were not returned. However, she told The Canadian Press earlier this week that her husband took his own life.
Prosecutor Paula Ismail, at the same media conference as Alberes, said again that she would look at the results from the private investigation in the U.S. and may order Brazilian police to reinvestigate the case. She could eventually file murder charges if appropriate.
Forensic experts hired by Gatti’s former manager in the U.S. used crime-scene photos, interviews, autopsy reports and computer-generated simulations to challenge the initial criminal investigation in Brazil on numerous fronts.
Questions surrounding Gatti’s death prompted a second autopsy at the request of the boxer’s family in Canada in 2009. Michael Baden, former chief pathologist for the New York state police and host of the HBO show “Autopsy,” observed the procedure on behalf of the family and said coroners didn’t rule out homicide as a cause of death. Canadian officials have not released the second autopsy results.
Rodrigues Gatti dismissed the results of the private probe because it was paid for by Pat Lynch, Gatti’s former manager. The private investigators presented a report filled with findings showing Gatti didn’t kill himself.
They said a severe laceration on the back of Gatti’s head couldn’t have happened during a fall to the floor, and the position he was found in — with his head wedged under a cabinet — was not consistent with a hanging. The investigators also said the handbag strap he allegedly used wasn’t strong enough to hold his weight for more than a few seconds, far shorter than the several hours alleged by police based on interviews with his wife.
The laceration was caused by a blunt instrument and could have incapacitated Gatti before he was strangled, they said. Also, two hand towels covered with blood, presumably from the head injury, were never tested by Brazilian authorities, according to Brent Turvey, an Alaska-based forensic scientist who took part in the private investigation.
Gatti developed a large following in New Jersey, where he lived and trained beginning in the early 1990s. Nicknamed “Thunder,” he fought some of his most memorable fights at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, including a trilogy of slugfests with fellow 140-pounder Mickey Ward beginning in 2002 that endeared him to fans.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
Article source: http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/6949106/police-remain-convinced-arturo-gatti-death-suicide
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Pablo Cesar Cano to take on Erik Morales in place of ill Lucas Matthysse
“Star Power”
TV lineup for the split-site HBO PPV card on Sept. 17 (9 ET) from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and Staples Center in Los Angeles:
• Welterweights: Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KOs), 12 rounds, for Ortiz’s title
• Junior middleweights: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (37-0-1, 27 KOs) vs. Alfonso Gomez, 12 rounds, for Alvarez’s title (from Los Angeles)
• Junior welterweights: Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KOs) vs. Pablo Cesar Cano (22-0-1, 17 KOs), 12 rounds, for a vacant title
• Junior welterweights: Jessie Vargas (16-0, 9 KOs) vs. Josesito Lopez (29-3, 17 KOs), 10 rounds
Article source: http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/6949588/pablo-cesar-cano-take-erik-morales-place-ill-lucas-matthysse
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Late boxer Gatti might not have read will, trial hears
MONTREAL — Welterweight champion Arturo Gatti never read his boxing contracts before signing them. Did he read the will he signed three weeks before his mysterious death?
And having dropped out of school in Grade 8, did the boxer understand that he was leaving everything to his Brazilian wife?
That seemed to be the argument Gatti’s family was pursuing Friday to try and have the will he signed, along with a million-dollar “fidelity promise� to his wife, annulled.
Antonio Rizzo, a childhood friend with whom Gatti went into business after he retired from boxing in 2007, testified Friday that Gatti rarely if ever read any of his contracts.
He also repeated that Gatti was adamant about not wanting to leave his $6 million estate to his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, from whom he was seeking a divorce.
But with Rizzo under cross-examination Friday, Rodrigues’ lawyer began to poke holes in the portrayal of Gatti as a husband abused, manipulated and finally estranged from his foul-mouthed wife.
In the six months before his death, Gatti was staying, off and on, in his mother’s basement, Rizzo testified.
But he took long trips with his wife to Europe, Mexico and Panama, before his fateful trip to meet her in Brazil, the court was told.
Pierre-Hugues Fortin, Rodrigues’ lawyer, also tried to debunk the idea that it was his client who was violent toward her husband.
On March 24, 2009, Gatti was arrested and charged with domestic violence.
“(Rodrigues) was the one who called the police?� Fortin asked.
“Yes,� replied Rizzo.
Gatti was released on bail with strict conditions not to drink and not to communicate with Rodrigues.
Less than three weeks later, Gatti was re-arrested for breaking those conditions. He was found drinking at Chez Pare, a strip bar, on the night of his birthday.
Then there was the incident the day of Gatti’s death in Brazil, July 11, 2009. Gatti allegedly hit Rodrigues before numerous witnesses, an incident she later reported to the press.
“Do you believe he beat her in front of many people?� Fortin asked Rizzo.
“I don’t believe he was violent toward her,� Rizzo replied. “I don’t know what happened that night. He was so patient, very patient with her.�
Gatti was found dead hours later, in a vacation home in Brazil, with a purse string near his body. Authorities, after arresting Rodrigues and jailing her for 18 days, ruled it was a suicide — Gatti hung himself, they concluded.
But the Gatti family doesn’t believe that version of events, and Gatti’s former manager commissioned a new investigation by experts in the U.S. On Wednesday, they released a 300-page report concluding that it was not suicide: Gatti was hit over the head, then strangled.
Brazilian prosecutors said Friday they would study certain elements of the new investigation. The case was never closed per se, they said. But police in Brazil, though willing to re-examine the case, stood by their initial conclusions. Rodrigues is not a suspect, they said.
Back in Montreal, Rodrigues, who has been frantically writing notes to her lawyer since the trial began, finally spoke to the press, saying she’s eager to get her chance to testify as to what really happened between her and her late husband.
“I just believe the truth somehow is coming out,� Rodrigues said. “And I have faith and I think justice always (wins) in the end. So I’m sure the end is going to be good for me, I think I deserve it.�
Rodrigues also said she couldn’t understand why Gatti’s family and friends have been maligning her.
“I think they are in pain, and I’m in pain, too. But I don’t understand why they want to sit there and try to humiliate me. I don’t think it’s necessary … Today is my son’s (third) birthday and I have to be here — I wish I was with Junior right now. Hopefully it’ll end soon and I’ll be able to be with him.�
Montreal Gazette
csolyom@montrealgazette.com
Article source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Late+boxer+Gatti+might+have+read+will+trial+hears/5380128/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
Jumbo-Sized ‘Real Steel’ TV Spot Contains Eminem, Robot Boxing
Check out the minute-long TV spot to feel the power of both an underdog arc and the impact of metallic fists.
The film uses Richard Matheson‘s short story Steel as a conceptual springboard, with a final screenplay written by John Gatins. Shawn Levy, who previously directed Night at the Museum, its sequel, Date Night, and The Pink Panther, is behind the camera here. DreamWorks is reportedly very happy with Levy’s work on the film, with a potential sequel in the very earliest stages of development. Levy’s currently attached to the Frankenstein project at 20th Century Fox.
Hugh Jackman is the anchor for the cast, which also includes Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo, Hope Davis, Phil LaMarr, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, and James Rebhorn.
Real Steel throws its punches in theaters on October 7th.
Article source: http://www.iamrogue.com/news/movie-news/item/4774-jumbo-sized-real-steel-tv-spot-contains-much-robot-boxing.html
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Boxing Champions
