Almost two months after junior welterweight titleholders Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley Jr. signed to fight each other in the first major fight of 2011, the bout finally found a home on Wednesday.
Alexander and Bradley will put their 140-pound belts on the line Jan. 29 (HBO) at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Mich., Bradley promoter Gary Shaw told ESPN.com.
[h4]Rafael's Boxing Blog[/h4]
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"We're going to the Silverdome, [outside of] Detroit. It's done," Shaw said.
Thus ends the lengthy process of finding a venue for a fight that will match two of the best young fighters in boxing.
For weeks, venues in Detroit, Atlanta, St. Louis (Alexander's hometown), Miami and Washington were mentioned.
"The two finalists were Atlanta and Detroit and at the end of the day, we felt Detroit was the best place to the put the fight. Detroit is a great fight town and has a rich fight history," Shaw said of the city that produced several boxing stars, including Thomas Hearns. "We're excited to go there and give them a great fight with these two great young fighters. HBO has promised to put a lot of muscle behind this fight."
Shaw said the cavernous Silverdome will be scaled for 15,000 for the fight and that tickets will go on sale Dec. 10.
Shaw is co-promoting the fight with Don King, Alexander's promoter. King spokesman Alan Hopper said King had signed off on the deal to take the bout to the Silverdome, the former home of the NFL's Detroit Lions.
Bradley (26-0, 11 KOs), 27, of Palm Springs, Calif., has made four title defenses since going to England and dethroning Junior Witter on points in May 2008. In his second defense, Bradley unified belts with a decision against Kendall Holt but was later stripped of one of them for taking a fight other than one of his mandatory defenses.
Alexander (21-0, 13 KOs), 23, stopped Witter in the eighth round to win a vacant title -- the one stripped from Bradley -- in August 2008 and has made two defenses. In his first defense, Alexander scored a highlight-reel eighth-round knockout of Juan Urango to unify belts and then scored a tight unanimous decision against Andriy Kotelnik in August. Like Bradley, Alexander was stripped of one of his belts because he opted to face Bradley instead of making a mandatory defense for a fraction of the money he will make against Bradley.
Besides the undisclosed site fee from the Silverdome, HBO is paying approximately $3 million for the fight with the sides working on a 50-50 split.
As much as I loved the concept of Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic, I knew going in there were bound to be some issues along the way. That just goes with the territory in a complicated, high-stakes, lengthy tournament. There's a reason they are rare. There was a good chance that fighters would not see the modified round-robin tournament through to the end because of injuries or, yes, fake injuries.
There was also the chance that even guys who wanted to stay in the tournament might lose so badly it would render their next fight irrelevant to the public. We are now at that point with Arthur Abraham.
Abraham was a fine middleweight titlist and scored a massive knockout of Jermain Taylor, another blown up middleweight, in the opening round of the tournament. But now he's damaged goods -- at least as far as trying to sell him as a semifinalist. He entered the Super Six expected by many to reach the final, but now simply has no credibility as a 168-pounder after two wickedly one-sided losses in his past two tournament fights. He ought to go back to middleweight.
Carl Froch took him to the woodshed in their Group Stage 3 match last Saturday night, shutting him out in as lopsided a fight as you'll see. Abraham was also dominated by Andre Dirrell in Group Stage 2 in March. Dirrell knocked him down and was having his way with him until Abraham committed a blatant foul. When Dirrell was down after slipping to the canvas in the 11th round, Abraham knocked him cold and was disqualified.
Then came the disaster against Froch, who claimed a vacant belt with the win. But he and Abraham had already advanced to the semifinals even before the first bell rang. Besides the vacant title, they were fighting for the higher seed.
By virtue of the terrible loss (after which Abraham's trainer, Uli Wegner, was quoted in German media calling his man a "coward" because he barely threw any punches and never appeared to try to win), Abraham wound up with the fourth seed.
That means he now has to fight titleholder Andre Ward, who has emerged as the class of the field.
I do not envy Dan Goossen, who promotes Ward. He's a good promoter. He could probably sell steaming hot coffee to folks at the beach in August. But Goossen now has to find a way to sell Ward-Abraham, a fight that has become about as interesting as a television test pattern. I also do not envy Showtime, which must try to persuade folks to tune into a fight for which there is no compelling reason to watch. It would be one thing if Abraham was coming off two losses in good or competitive fights. But he is coming off two one-sided defeats that were not exciting. Ward-Abraham is pointless.
Since Abraham's loss to Froch, speculation is rampant that he'll drop out of the tournament, although there has been no formal announcement. But Abraham could do us all a favor by doing exactly that. Ideally, Ward would simply fight another bout outside of the tournament, like he did last week against Sakio Bika because Dirrell had dropped out. Then Ward (who topped the field in the round-robin portion of the tournament with six points) could fight the winner of the semifinal between Froch and Glen Johnson in the Super Six final.
Maybe if Abraham drops out Goossen can make a run at getting titleholder Robert Stieglitz to fight Ward. Certainly that would be a lot better than Abraham, who looked so bad in the two losses that he's even out of the super middleweight rankings I update weekly for ESPN.com.
Speaking of Ward, I have been so impressed with him since the tournament started. He has scarcely lost a round in his three fights, shutting down Mikkel Kessler to win a title, shutting out Allan Green and then winning a lopsided but grueling fight against Bika. The fact that each bout has been in his hometown of Oakland, Calif. -- which seems to irritate some people -- makes no difference. It's not like any of the three fights were remotely close enough that anyone could cry hometown decision.
Ward, a 2004 U.S. Olympic gold medalist, does everything well. He's smart, always comes in great shape and has no serious flaws in his game. In a couple of years I think he has a legitimate chance to be sitting atop the pound-for-pound list.
A Ward-Froch Super Six final would be very intriguing. It's a good fight and would be fought with the knowledge that an even bigger fight with Lucian Bute awaits the winner. Bute, left out of the tournament when it started, signed with Showtime last month hoping to get a shot at the Super Six winner.
While Ward has won comfortably at home, you have to give Froch credit for traveling. He's become a man of the world. His destruction of Abraham came in Helsinki, Finland, a neutral territory the promoters finally settled on when neither side would give in and go to the other man's home country. In fact, Froch's last four fights have all come in different countries. He defended his title against Taylor in the United States just before the tournament began. In his tournament opener, Froch edged Dirrell at home in England. Then he lost his belt in a tight fight to Kessler in Kessler's native Denmark before battering Abraham to regain a belt in Finland. It's not often you see an elite fighter fight four times in a row in four countries. I just thought that was kinda cool.
Manny Pacquiao's 32nd birthday is on Dec. 17 and the pound-for-pound king will be picking out his own present -- his next opponent -- at about that time.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and trainer Freddie Roach will be in the Philippines for Pacquiao's birthday party, but aside from the celebration, they will also meet to discuss who Pacquiao will next fight.
Arum said that with Floyd Mayweather Jr. out of the picture due to his legal problems, Pacquiao's next fight will take place April 16, likely at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, against one of three opponents: Shane Mosley, welterweight titlist Andre Berto or lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez, who is 0-1-1 in two sensational fights with Pacquiao that could have gone either way.
Before Arum leaves for the Philippines he said he will get proposals from all three and then discuss them with Pacquiao and let him make a decision, although Arum said the contract weight will be 147 pounds with no room for any discussion.
"I will have all three proposals and I will sit with Manny in the Philippines when I'm there for his birthday and let him decide who he wants to fight," Arum told ESPN.com. "We'll go over everything because each fight has a different set of financial parameters. It's Manny's career, it's his life and he'll decide. Will I make a recommendation? Sure, but all it will be is a recommendation, and Freddie will have some input. I certainly don't act as a dictator."
Arum already has an agreement with Mosley, whom he began talking with just before going to Dallas for Pacquiao's destruction of Antonio Margarito on Nov. 13.
Mosley claims he is free from his Golden Boy promotional contract, although if he takes a fight with Top Rank he would likely have to give up his 5 percent equity stake in Golden Boy.
Arum and Lou DiBella, Berto's promoter, have been in touch regularly this week and DiBella said he was preparing a proposal for the fight.
Marquez is also with Golden Boy, Top Rank's bitter rival, but Golden Boy is willing to step aside and let Top Rank promote the fight in order to get Marquez the opportunity, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com. He has been dealing with Top Rank president Todd duBoef on a potential deal.
"I had a very nice conversation with Todd and we subsequently exchanged some e-mails and that's all I'm really going to say," Schaefer said. "We said we would keep the discussions private."
[h3]Jones-Soto-Karass rematch in works[/h3]
AP Photo/David J. PhillipJesus Soto-Karass, left, might get another crack at Mike Jones.
Welterweight prospect Mike Jones (23-0, 18 KOs) escaped with a majority decision against Jesus Soto-Karass (24-5-3, 16 KOs) on the Nov. 13 Pacquiao-Margarito undercard in a fight close enough and action-packed enough to warrant a rematch, which is just what is in the works.
Top Rank and HBO have agreed to a price for the fight, which would take place Feb. 19 in Las Vegas on the "Boxing After Dark" card headlined by the bantamweight title fight between Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire. However, nothing has been finalized yet because Donaire and Montiel both have to get through interim bouts.
"The first fight was a tremendous fight and Montiel-Donaire is a great fight, so we want to add the [rematch] to the HBO card and make it a big night," Top Rank's Arum told ESPN.com. "It's not that expensive of a fight and we've agreed on the number. Right now, we need to see if Donaire and Montiel get through their fights."
Donaire moves up to bantamweight to fight former titlist Wladimir Sidorenko on Top Rank's "In Harm's Way" pay-per-view card on Saturday night (9 ET, $44.95) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Montiel, coming off a leg injury suffered in a dirt bike accident, returns for a tuneup fight on a "Top Rank Live" card Dec. 11 (Fox Deportes) in Torreon, Mexico. Montiel will be in a nontitle bout against journeyman Eduardo Garcia.
Marco Antonio Barrera was supposed to be on that card in Torreon, but has withdrawn. In the main event, Juan Alberto Rosas makes his first junior bantamweight title defense against former titlist Cristian Mijares.
• Lightweight contender Brandon Rios (26-0-1, 19 KOs) had quite an eventful second half of 2010, upsetting Anthony Peterson on HBO in September in a strong performance and then knocking out Omri Lowther on Nov. 13 on the Pacquiao-Margarito pay-per-view undercard a few days after a video of him mocking Roach's Parkinson's symptoms went viral on the Internet. Between his action style and the reviled video, Rios has gained notoriety. His 2011 debut will come Feb. 26 at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas on Showtime. Rios will challenge for a belt against the winner of the fight between titlist Humberto Soto (53-7-2, 32 KOs) and Urbano Antillon (28-1, 20 KOs), who meet Saturday night on Top Rank's "In Harm's Way" pay-per-view card. "Rios is an extremely entertaining television fighter and whether he's on HBO, Showtime or the Food Network, you're going to tune in," Top Rank's Carl Moretti said.
• Top Rank won an IBF purse bid Tuesday for junior featherweight titlist Steve Molitor's mandatory defense against Takalani Ndlovu. Top Rank's bid of $215,000 bested the only other bid, $154,240 offered by Branco Sports, Ndlovu's promoter. The fight will be Molitor's first since "The Canadian Kid" signed with Top Rank on Nov. 1. Molitor (33-1, 12 KOs) already owns two wins against South Africa's Ndlovu, a knockout and a decision, but is being forced to fight him again or risk being stripped of his belt. The fight does not have a set date, but could land on the undercard of super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute's March fight in Montreal, Top Rank's Carl Moretti told ESPN.com. Moretti has been talking to Jean Bedard of InterBox, Bute's promoter, and his trainer, Stephan LaRouche, who he has known for years. "We think it makes sense for both camps," Moretti said. "Molitor brings Toronto to Montreal and Montreal can see Molitor. If we can make it work financially, why not?" If Molitor does wind up on the undercard, no word if Showtime would televise it along with Bute, who recently signed with the network.
• Former junior welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi, training in Hollywood, Calif., is getting ready for his welterweight debut, which will take place on the undercard of light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal's defense against Bernard Hopkins in Quebec City on Dec. 18 (Showtime), although Malignaggi's bout isn't slated to be televised in the United States. Malignaggi (27-4, 5 KOs), who is coming of a one-sided 11th-round knockout loss to titleholder Amir Khan, will face Mexico's Michael Lozada (36-6-1, 29 KOs). The fight will be Malignaggi's first since signing with Golden Boy. Also on the card, in his first fight since signing with Golden Boy, will be Brooklyn, N.Y., middleweight prospect Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin (21-0, 15 KOs). Quillin has fought just once since September 2008 because of various injuries. His opponent has not been determined.
• Heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin (20-0, 15 KOs) fights journeyman Nicolai Firtha (19-7-1, 8 KOs) of Akron, Ohio, in Germany on Dec. 18 on the undercard of cruiserweight titleholder Marco Huck's mandatory defense against Denis Lebedev, Sauerland Event promoter Chris Meyer told ESPN.com. Povetkin, a 2004 Russian Olympic gold medalist, was due to challenge champion Wladimir Klitschko in September, but he gave up the long-overdue mandatory shot and a career-high payday of more than $2 million by pulling out of a fight because trainer Teddy Atlas didn't think he was ready for a fight of that caliber. Also on undercard, cruiserweights Yoan Pablo Hernandez (22-1, 11 KOs) and Ali Ismailov (18-3-1, 13 KOs) meet in a title eliminator.
• Welterweight contender Selcuk Aydin (20-0, 15 KOs) of Turkey was scheduled to fight a stay-busy match on co-promoter Don King's Dec. 17 card in Miami. However, Aydin is the mandatory challenger for titleholder Andre Berto and when the WBC ordered a Jan. 11 purse bid, he was pulled off the card to remain available for the fight, according to co-promoter Ahmet Öner of Arena-Box. It remains to be seen if Berto will take the fight, or if HBO will agree to televise it. Berto is also in the running to land an April 16 fight with Pacquiao. Although Aydin is off the card, junior welterweight Felix Diaz (7-0, 5 KOs) of the Dominican Republic, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, has been added to the card.
• Roy Jones Jr. will be back ringside as an HBO analyst with Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant on the network's Dec. 11 card headlined by the Amir Khan-Marcos Maidana junior welterweight title bout. Jones, who used to be a regular for HBO before being fired, has been brought back here and there recently. He will be filling in for regular analyst Emanuel Steward, who will be in Germany training heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko for his fight against Dereck Chisora on the same night.
[h3]Quotable[/h3]
"There is no magic trick to this. Dec. 18, you are going to see me win this fight. Not just go the distance, but win by stoppage. I get a chance to be the oldest fighter in history to win a title. I get to continue to make history. How many times can an athlete do that? Winning is the most important thing. This is the playoffs. There is no tomorrow. No excuse. I am not going to embarrass myself. A lot of people believe that I can and will win this fight." -- Bernard Hopkins, 45, on his light heavyweight championship fight against Jean Pascal, which Showtime will air from Quebec City
how so?
Nonito Donaire has yearned for a big fight since he took the boxing world by surprise in 2007 when he scored a sensational fifth-round knockout of Vic Darchinyan to win a flyweight title.
But since then, it's been one fight after another against obscure opponents, and he has been relegated mainly to Top Rank's small pay-per-view undercards as he defended his flyweight title and eventually won and defended an interim junior bantamweight belt.
Now, Donaire finally has that big fight within his grasp, a Feb. 19 main event in Las Vegas on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" against bantamweight titleholder Fernando Montiel.
How significant is it that HBO is buying the fight? The network does not typically dip into the small weight classes and has not televised a bantamweight fight since 2007. But Montiel-Donaire is one of boxing's premier fights in the little weight classes and HBO has embraced it.
However, you never know what could happen to trip it up.
Donaire must first take care of business when he moves up to bantamweight to face former titlist Wladimir Sidorenko of Ukraine in the main event of Top Rank's "In Harm's Way" pay-per-view card Saturday night (9 ET, $44.95) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
[h4]In Harm's Way[/h4]
TV lineup for the Top Rank "In Harm's Way" pay-per-view card Saturday night (9 ET, $44.95) from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.:
• Bantamweights: Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KOs) vs. Wladimir Sidorenko (22-2-2, 7 KOs), 12 rounds
• Lightweights: Humberto Soto (53-7-2, 32 KOs) vs. Urbano Antillon (28-1, 20 KOs), 12 rounds, for Soto's title
• Featherweights: Miguel Angel "Mikey" Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) vs. Olivier Lontchi (18-1-2, 8 KOs), 10 rounds
• Middleweights: Pawel Wolak (27-1, 17 KOs) vs. Jose Pinzon (19-1-1, 13 KOs), 10 rounds
"I have never been this motivated for a fight, and you have never seen Nonito Donaire fight when he is this motivated," Donaire said. "You will see the best in me and you are going to see it against Sidorenko, and hopefully against Montiel in February.
"Sidorenko is a tough guy, a former champion, and I have to be at my best. If I slip I'll never get past him and I'll never get to Montiel. I have Montiel on the horizon if I get past this guy and that's why I have all the motivation that I need. This is where I want to be, with Montiel and Sidorenko."
Said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, "Nonito has his work cut out for him in the next two fights as his career goes on. I am confident in Nonito, now recognized as one of the best pound-for-pound in boxing, that his best days are ahead of him."
The Donaire-Sidorenko bout was moved up to the pay-per-view main event position this week when the original headliner, middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., withdrew from his fight because of the flu. That turn of events gives Donaire a chance to shine in the main event.
"Nonito has a big fight coming up, and the next one will be even better," trainer Robert Garcia said. "Nonito has had very intense sparring. He is in tremendous shape for this fight. We have a tough opponent in front of us, but like you mentioned, he has a fight next against Montiel that he has been wanting for a very long time. Hopefully everything goes well on [Saturday] so we can get that big date against Montiel."
While the Philippines' Donaire, 28, must defeat the crafty and experienced Sidorenko (22-2-2, 7 KOs) in their scheduled 12-rounder, Montiel also has to win an interim bout. He defends his title against Eduardo Garcia on Dec. 11 in Mexico. But Donaire isn't concerned about Montiel's fight. He said he is only thinking about the obstacle of Sidorenko, 34, who held a bantamweight belt from 2005 to 2008 and has lost only a pair of close decisions to slick Anselmo Moreno in title fights.
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"Sidorenko is a very tough guy," Donaire said. "He is very experienced and he knows how to win, as well. He is there to bring his name up as well in beating me. I am really focused on this fight and ready for whatever he brings to the ring. He is a different style than I have seen. I will change my style accordingly to take advantage of my opponent. It is going to be a tough fight and one that I want to make a statement on. Montiel may be after this, but we don't want to look past Sidorenko."
Yes, Donaire is doing his best not to look ahead to the Montiel fight.
"Bob [Arum] and everybody are already talking about the fight with Montiel on Feb. 19, but we would never look past Sidorenko," Donaire said. "We have a tough opponent and I've been studying his tapes for the past couple of weeks. … He is not looking past his next opponent and we see great fights in the future, not only [against] Montiel."
Some fighters would view a big fight looming in the future as a distraction to the business at hand. Donaire (24-1, 16 KOs) said he is using the lure of the Montiel fight to keep him focused on the fight with Sidorenko.
"It is always a learning experience, and the one thing I look at is there is a lot of pressure on this fight, and I don't want to look past Sidorenko," Donaire said. "I want to make a statement in the fight, so that way I motivate myself to work harder, looking forward to that big fight. But we can't look past Sidorenko, so we use that as motivation."
Promoter Lou DiBella met with HBO brass Thursday to discuss the future of middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who is coming off that massive second-round knockout of Paul Williams in their rematch two weeks ago. While the plan is for Martinez to return in March or April, his opponent remains up in the air.
There are several possibilities, but DiBella is hoping to entice junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto into what would be a high-profile fight. To that end, DiBella and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had some discussion about the fight this week.
"We had an honest-to-goodness conversation about the fight," DiBella said. "Bob knows we can easily make the fight. He will be meeting with Cotto's people this week and presenting them with various options. Cotto has already proven his mettle time and again, but to do a fight like this, he will get nothing but props from people."
The chances of Martinez-Cotto probably improved this week when Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. dropped out of Saturday's fight with Pawel Wolak. Had Chavez fought and won, there was a good chance that he would have faced Cotto next in April, Arum said.
But Chavez won't go into a big fight against Cotto without at least one more fight under his belt. Trainer Freddie Roach has made that clear, and Arum agreed. That means Chavez won't be Cotto's next opponent.
Martinez is willing to drop down to 155 pounds and put his middleweight championship at stake against Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs), who won a junior middleweight belt in June by stopping Yuri Foreman in the ninth round at Yankee Stadium -- one fight after Manny Pacquiao knocked Cotto out in the 12th round to take his welterweight belt.
"Cotto is an elite fighter, and this is a very good fight for boxing," said Martinez, who is already back in the gym doing some light training after the win over Williams. "It's a big Latino fight. I will fight him at 155. I would love to fight Cotto. I have a lot of respect for him."
Said DiBella: "Cotto wouldn't be risking his 154-pound belt and would be getting a shot at the middleweight title. If Cotto loses, he goes back and defends his title in other big fights, like against Antonio Margarito [in a rematch] or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. If Cotto beats Martinez, it's a huge accomplishment. If he didn't win, he's still 154-[pound] champion and the Chavez and Margarito bouts are still there for him. It's like the Martinez fight is a free pass. Like he gets two bites at the apple."
DiBella said he and Martinez (46-2-2, 25 KOs) respect Cotto as "a true warrior, so if Martinez has to struggle a little bit to make 155, so be it. It might be a little bit uncomfortable, but he's not that far removed from fighting at junior middleweight. You know it would be a big fight."
Arum said he isn't going to rush into a deal until he sits down with Cotto and his team.
"I told Lou that Cotto is coming this weekend [to Top Rank's pay-per-view card on Saturday in Anaheim, Calif.] and I'm going to talk to him about his future plans," Arum said. "We'll talk about fights, including Martinez, and if that's a fight they want to pursue, I will pursue it."
Arum said he's more interested in matching Cotto with Margarito in a rematch of their 2008 slugfest, which Margarito won on an 11th-round TKO, although the victory is clouded by suspicions that he fought with loaded hand wraps, as he was caught trying to do in his next fight against Shane Mosley.
"I think the Martinez fight would interest us, but I think Miguel can make more money fighting the rematch with Margarito," Arum said. "My opinion is he should wait for Margarito because that's such a big fight and it will be as big as the first fight, and maybe bigger."
Cotto, however, has said repeatedly that he didn't want to fight Margarito again because he believed he cheated in their first fight. Also, a rematch with Margarito likely wouldn't take place until at least June, while Margarito recovers from the beating Pacquiao laid on him Nov. 13, and Cotto has said he is interested in fighting in the spring.
So if Cotto fights in the spring, and there's no Margarito rematch and no Chavez fight, that would seem to leave Martinez as his biggest viable option.
[h3]Harrison fights on[/h3]
Press Association/AP ImagesDespite a poor showing in his previous fight, Audley Harrison is adamant about fighting on.
British heavyweight Audley Harrison (27-5, 20 KOs), the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, announced this week that he would continue his career despite a horrific performance in a third-round knockout loss to heavyweight titlist David Haye on Nov. 13.
Harrison, who literally did not throw a meaningful punch in the fight, has had part of his purse held by British authorities while his nonperformance is investigated. Nonetheless, the 39-year-old said he will fight on.
"After spending some time away reflecting on the fight and outcome, I have made the decision to continue my journey in boxing and carry on my career as a professional. … I didn't get the result I wanted, and the critics have once again tried to bury me under the rubble and hope I disappear. All I can say is I had a game plan and went into the ring to win. The way the fight ended was frustrating to me, as I didn't get going and was just settling into my rhythm," Harrison said in a statement.
He complained in his statement that the stoppage was premature, even though he had been knocked down and was getting hammered with unanswered shots when the fight was stopped.
"I give David credit as I never expected him to hurt me as he did, but anyone could see it was a premature stoppage and I should have been allowed to carry on and ride out the rough patch, even if that meant I would have got KO'd," he said. "… Let the haters and negative comments continue -- I don't really care. I know me, and I can sleep at night as I'm happy with who I am."
• A representative for Fernando Vargas contacted ESPN pitching a comeback fight for the former two-time junior middleweight titlist in March on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights." No opponent was offered, but Vargas would fight the proposed fight at 170 pounds. No word on whether ESPN is interested. Vargas (26-5, 22 KOs) has been in retirement since losing a decision to Ricardo Mayorga in a November 2007 super middleweight fight. Vargas has lost three in a row: the fight to Mayorga and two knockouts in a row to Shane Mosley.
• HBO Latino has been an underused platform for boxing since the demise of the monthly "Boxeo De Oro" series Golden Boy Promoted a few years ago, but HBO's Spanish-language network is back in the fight game Saturday (12:30 a.m. ET/9:30 p.m. PT). It will air rising welterweight star Saul Alvarez's fight against former junior welterweight titlist Lovemore N'Dou from Veracruz, Mexico (on a one-hour delayed basis). Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KOs), just 20, is coming off a tremendous knockout of former welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir in September. N'Dou (48-11-2, 31 KOs), who has never been stopped in his 17-year professional career, is 2-0-1 in his three fights since a competitive decision loss to Kermit Cintron in November 2008.
• Irish middleweight contender Andy Lee (24-1) faces Daniel Urbanski (19-5-3, 5 KOs) on Dec. 11 in Mannheim, Germany, on the undercard of Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight title defense against Dereck Chisora. A win could propel Lee into a proposed Feb. 4 rematch with Brian Vera (who handed Lee his only loss) on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights." However, Lee is also in the running for a shot against middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, who is slated to make his second defense in March. If Lee gets the call, he could forgo the fight with Vera. Lee and Klitschko are both trained by Emanuel Steward, so they are often in training camp together and have sparred with each other. "Wladimir is a great role model for me," Lee said. "I learn so much from him, and I thoroughly enjoy the experience of being in camp with him and Emanuel."
• In September, Scotland's Ricky Burns (29-2, 7 KOs) was knocked down in the first round, got off the floor and went on to outpoint Roman Martinez to win a junior lightweight title in a clear fight of the year candidate. That fight came in Burns' home country, and he returns Saturday night to fight again in front his fans in his first title defense against Colombia-born, Norway-based Andreas Evensen (13-1, 5 KOs). It's been bitter cold and snowy in Scotland lately, and Burns has been doing road work in the snow. He said the brutal weather is not impacting his preparation for the fight. "We're used to a bit of cold up here, but I'm going to turn the heat up on Evensen on Saturday," Burns said. "He's going to find himself in a blizzard of punches, and there is no way he'll be able to dig himself out. My trainer, Billy Nelson, asked me if I wanted the heaters on at the gym the other day. But I told him I'll quite happily work up a head of steam all by myself. I've been running in the snow, real 'Rocky' stuff, but as the old saying goes, no pain, no gain." Evensen is more used to terrible weather living in Norway. "I was born in heat of Colombia, but I have been made into a man in the cold of Norway," he said. "When it's bad here I have to shovel through six feet of snow just to get my car off the [driveway] so I can go to the gym. That certainly gets your muscles working first thing in the morning. When I saw the snow in Scotland it was like an omen, as if the boxing gods were saying 'It's your time now.'"
• Mexico's Juan Carlos Burgos (25-1, 18 KOs) may have lost a unanimous decision -- 117-111 (twice) and 116-111 -- against Hozumi Hasegawa (29-3, 11 KOs) in an action-packed fight for a vacant featherweight belt in Japan last week, but he made no excuses upon his return home. "I told all the reporters in Japan that I had no excuses. I fought a rough Japanese opponent that did the same as me; he gave it his all," Burgos said. "I won't take that away from him. He had a better night, and his hand was raised at the end. But I disagree with a few things that happened during the fight. For one, I got a point deducted on the eighth round for a supposed unintentional head butt. Referee Roberto Ramirez Jr. saw it as a butt but it was a punch, a clean punch, that cut Hasegawa's eye. I watched the fight three times. I can't see the head butt in the eighth round. I knew I had to knock him out to get the win in Japan. I tried my hardest to do it, even after my eye was swollen shut from the ninth round on, but Hasegawa is one tough champion." The Japanese Boxing Commission abides by the WBC rules in which if there is an accidental butt and one fighter is cut, the uncut fighter loses a point. Hasegawa -- a longtime bantamweight titleholder until being stopped by Fernando Montiel in April -- moved up two divisions to face Burgos.
[h3]Quotables[/h3]
"My weight is not any matter. I am in shape. Look at me. I'm not even breathing hard. I'm comfortable at this weight. I'm not even thinking about weight, only my conditioning." -- heavyweight contender and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Odlanier Solis, who has weighed as much as 271 pounds (but said he expects to be closer to 250), at a media workout in advance of his Dec. 17 fight against Ray Austin in Miami with shot at titleholder Vitali Klitschko at stake
"This ain't amateur boxing; it's professional boxing. You score points in the amateurs with fast hands. Now Solis is in the big leagues. You've got to take it to a new level. I don't see anything about Solis that impresses me. I've seen the guys he has fought, and it looks like they came to lose. It's going to be different for him when he's got a man in front of him that's willing to do anything to win." -- Austin, on his title eliminator against Solis.
• A representative for Fernando Vargas contacted ESPN pitching a comeback fight for the former two-time junior middleweight titlist in March on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights." No opponent was offered, but Vargas would fight the proposed fight at 170 pounds. No word on whether ESPN is interested. Vargas (26-5, 22 KOs) has been in retirement since losing a decision to Ricardo Mayorga in a November 2007 super middleweight fight. Vargas has lost three in a row: the fight to Mayorga and two knockouts in a row to Shane Mosley.
{Jay-Z} When the money goes {Jay-Z}
