2011 Official Boxing Thread: 12/30 Jermain Taylor + Andre Dirrell return on ShoBox.

[thacapt]

Originally Posted by Night Marcher01

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

Originally Posted by Night Marcher01


He could have gotten 65 though?

Manny could have taken the test and they both could have made Big Bucks

Or Floyd could have just not request Olympic style testing and just sign the contract. See what I did there?

C'mon son! We can go on with this all night if you want.

Then Manny shouldn't have requested his $10 million dollar per pound penalty.
They're both requesting something that's not within the standard rules.

 

[gunna get it]

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

 

[gunna get it]

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

 

[cafinest23]

People try to make it seem like Floyd is ducking yet Manny cannot take a simple blood test? Come on now.

And i'm not of fan of either fighter I grew up a Roy Jones Jr. fan.

 

[cafinest23]

People try to make it seem like Floyd is ducking yet Manny cannot take a simple blood test? Come on now.

And i'm not of fan of either fighter I grew up a Roy Jones Jr. fan.

 

[thacapt]

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

The only people in the "Mainstream" media to really criticize Pacquiao is Teddy Atlas and Brian Kenny.
That should tell people something.

 

[thacapt]

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

The only people in the "Mainstream" media to really criticize Pacquiao is Teddy Atlas and Brian Kenny.
That should tell people something.

 

[night marcher01]

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

Exactly! But that still doesn't change my original statement. I think we all would rather take $65 MILLION rather than $40 million.

I'm not really great at math, but i'm guessing 65 is higher than 40? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong!

There's a reason why he gave himself a new nickname "Big Money"

So take the big money then homeboy!

 

[night marcher01]

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

Exactly! But that still doesn't change my original statement. I think we all would rather take $65 MILLION rather than $40 million.

I'm not really great at math, but i'm guessing 65 is higher than 40? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong!

There's a reason why he gave himself a new nickname "Big Money"

So take the big money then homeboy!

 

[jd214]

Money May is a $#*++

THE END.

 

[jd214]

Money May is a $#*++

THE END.

 

[thacapt]

Originally Posted by Night Marcher01

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

Exactly! But that still doesn't change my original statement. I think we all would rather take $65 MILLION rather than $40 million.

I'm not really great at math, but i'm guessing 65 is higher than 40? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong!

There's a reason why he gave himself a new nickname "Big Money"

So take the big money then homeboy!

And Pacquiao rejected $65 million to fight Canelo.
http://www.badlefthook.com/2011/6/5/2207931/manny-pacquiao-news-saul-alvarez-65-million-carlos-slim

I don't believe that Mayweather or Pac got offered all that money to fight. Jus sayin.

 

[thacapt]

Originally Posted by Night Marcher01

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

Exactly! But that still doesn't change my original statement. I think we all would rather take $65 MILLION rather than $40 million.

I'm not really great at math, but i'm guessing 65 is higher than 40? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong!

There's a reason why he gave himself a new nickname "Big Money"

So take the big money then homeboy!

And Pacquiao rejected $65 million to fight Canelo.
http://www.badlefthook.com/2011/6/5/2207931/manny-pacquiao-news-saul-alvarez-65-million-carlos-slim

I don't believe that Mayweather or Pac got offered all that money to fight. Jus sayin.

 

[Pmighty]

Originally Posted by CAFinest23

People try to make it seem like Floyd is ducking yet Manny cannot take a simple blood test? Come on now.

manny agreed to testing tho
floyd still wont agree for w/e reason

 

[Pmighty]

Originally Posted by CAFinest23

People try to make it seem like Floyd is ducking yet Manny cannot take a simple blood test? Come on now.

manny agreed to testing tho
floyd still wont agree for w/e reason

 

[night marcher01]

Originally Posted by thacapt

Originally Posted by Night Marcher01

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

Exactly! But that still doesn't change my original statement. I think we all would rather take $65 MILLION rather than $40 million.

I'm not really great at math, but i'm guessing 65 is higher than 40? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong!

There's a reason why he gave himself a new nickname "Big Money"

So take the big money then homeboy!

And Pacquiao rejected $65 million to fight Canelo.
http://www.badlefthook.com/2011/6/5/2207931/manny-pacquiao-news-saul-alvarez-65-million-carlos-slim

I don't believe that Mayweather or Pac got offered all that money to fight. Jus sayin.

NO WHERE in the article did I read that Pacquiao turned down the fight.

All I read in that article was "Slim is legit, Slim can guarantee, Slim is networth $74 Billion... ect"

What I did read though, is that it COULD be a possibility that Pacquiao DOES fight Alvarez.

 

[night marcher01]

Originally Posted by thacapt

Originally Posted by Night Marcher01

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

and both to blame despite what PTI and media Spinsters say

Exactly! But that still doesn't change my original statement. I think we all would rather take $65 MILLION rather than $40 million.

I'm not really great at math, but i'm guessing 65 is higher than 40? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong!

There's a reason why he gave himself a new nickname "Big Money"

So take the big money then homeboy!

And Pacquiao rejected $65 million to fight Canelo.
http://www.badlefthook.com/2011/6/5/2207931/manny-pacquiao-news-saul-alvarez-65-million-carlos-slim

I don't believe that Mayweather or Pac got offered all that money to fight. Jus sayin.

NO WHERE in the article did I read that Pacquiao turned down the fight.

All I read in that article was "Slim is legit, Slim can guarantee, Slim is networth $74 Billion... ect"

What I did read though, is that it COULD be a possibility that Pacquiao DOES fight Alvarez.

 

[alleniversonfan01]

Originally Posted by Pmighty

manny agreed to testing tho
floyd still wont agree for w/e reason

Get the facts str8 tho. He agreed to testing with a window before the fight for no testing. He DID NOT agree to Olympic style which is what Floyd is pushing for. It is what Marques did for his fight with Money, Mosley agreed to them as well (both dont have to do this for their fights with Manny) and what Ortiz has agreed to do as well.

Seems like everyone in boxing is cool with it except one guy. Im not sayin, im just sayin.

 

[alleniversonfan01]

Originally Posted by Pmighty

manny agreed to testing tho
floyd still wont agree for w/e reason

Get the facts str8 tho. He agreed to testing with a window before the fight for no testing. He DID NOT agree to Olympic style which is what Floyd is pushing for. It is what Marques did for his fight with Money, Mosley agreed to them as well (both dont have to do this for their fights with Manny) and what Ortiz has agreed to do as well.

Seems like everyone in boxing is cool with it except one guy. Im not sayin, im just sayin.

 

[night marcher01]

Anyway, in other news:

[h1]Victor Ortiz Calls Mayweather Great, but Says He's "Not Impressed" by Him [/h1]

by Scott Christ on Jun 8, 2011 9:55 PM EDT in Boxing News Analysis

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Scott Heavey - Getty Images

Victor Ortiz is confident in his ability on September 17 against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

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Victor Ortiz spoke with the Los Angeles Times about his September 17 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, and had some interesting words about his opponent:

"It's a cool thing, because ever since I was a kid, I've said I'll be the first to defeat Mayweather, and now I'm on the doorstep of making it true," Ortiz said Wednesday in his first public comments since the Sept. 17 fight for his welterweight title was announced.

"Mayweather's quick, he's a great fighter, but I've never been that impressed with his style," Ortiz said.

Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO) is coming off of by far the best win of his career, beating Andre Berto in exciting fashion on April 16, lifting a welterweight trinket and handing Berto the first loss of his professional career. But most are seeing the fight as hugely in favor of Mayweather right now. Ortiz is being looked at as, at best, a live underdog -- but a real underdog nonetheless.

Ortiz also offered this:

"I don't think [Mayweather's legal issues] matter," Ortiz said. "He's an elite fighter, one of the greatest of all time. At the end of the day, I think boxing and reality are two separate things."

 

[night marcher01]

Anyway, in other news:

[h1]Victor Ortiz Calls Mayweather Great, but Says He's "Not Impressed" by Him [/h1]

by Scott Christ on Jun 8, 2011 9:55 PM EDT in Boxing News Analysis

• 41 comments
• Email
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Scott Heavey - Getty Images

Victor Ortiz is confident in his ability on September 17 against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

View full size photo »

Victor Ortiz spoke with the Los Angeles Times about his September 17 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, and had some interesting words about his opponent:

"It's a cool thing, because ever since I was a kid, I've said I'll be the first to defeat Mayweather, and now I'm on the doorstep of making it true," Ortiz said Wednesday in his first public comments since the Sept. 17 fight for his welterweight title was announced.

"Mayweather's quick, he's a great fighter, but I've never been that impressed with his style," Ortiz said.

Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO) is coming off of by far the best win of his career, beating Andre Berto in exciting fashion on April 16, lifting a welterweight trinket and handing Berto the first loss of his professional career. But most are seeing the fight as hugely in favor of Mayweather right now. Ortiz is being looked at as, at best, a live underdog -- but a real underdog nonetheless.

Ortiz also offered this:

"I don't think [Mayweather's legal issues] matter," Ortiz said. "He's an elite fighter, one of the greatest of all time. At the end of the day, I think boxing and reality are two separate things."

 

[alleniversonfan01]

I respect that, you gotta be confident. But to say he hasnt impressed you is a little much.

 

[alleniversonfan01]

I respect that, you gotta be confident. But to say he hasnt impressed you is a little much.

 

[proshares]

Piece on Tyson.

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Spoiler [+]

Spoiler

Mike Tyson has a new life now. The former heavyweight champ is married for the third time, to Kiki, raising children and working for a living, be it in movies (like the summer hit "The Hangover II") or his Animal Planet reality series about his beloved pigeons or appearing on Argentina's version of "Dancing with the Stars."

Whatever Tyson is doing, it's far removed from boxing -- even if boxing is why he's famous, beloved by some, reviled by others.

He electrified the world as the youngest heavyweight champion in history at age 20 and was knocking guys dead while carving out a legacy as "the baddest man on the planet."

But Tyson, who turns 45 on June 30, says he doesn't look back at those days much anymore, even though he is doing so this week, culminating with his induction Sunday into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.

It will draw the final curtain on Tyson's boxing career, which ended in 2005, when Kevin McBride stopped him in the sixth round for his third knockout loss in his final four fights.

Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and I talked for about 45 minutes on Wednesday, and he is so removed from boxing that when I asked him if he had any idea which of his famous fights happened on this day in history, he had no idea. He was surprised to hear that we were speaking on the ninth anniversary of the last time he fought for the title -- an eighth-round knockout loss to then-champ Lennox Lewis in Memphis on June 8, 2002.

"The air even smells different now. I feel like a dinosaur out here now," Tyson said. "I was so consumed with that character of 'Iron Mike, the Baddest Man on the Planet.' I was imprisoned by that guy, but that guy is dead as ever. I never think about it until you bring it up. That's not my reality anymore. My reality is to take care of my bills, take care of my wife, take care of these kids."

Although Tyson doesn't dwell on his career, he said he is looking forward to attending the induction ceremony. He will be enshrined with great champions Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Kostya Tszyu, as well as "Rocky" screenwriter and star Sylvester Stallone, trainer Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain and referee Joe Cortez, among others.

"My wife wants to go. It will be pretty cool," said Tyson, who has never visited the shrine. "It will be really interesting looking at the memorabilia and all the pictures and stuff from history."

Tyson got emotional several times during our conversation, as though it was really the first time he had seriously looked back at his career in quite some time.

Mike Tyson: Hall Of Famer

Mike Tyson For more on Mike Tyson's HOF induction, check our topics page.

"My boxing career is just who I am," he said. "I grew up as a kid on television, bearing out my soul. I was immature. I couldn't deal with my feelings except in a fight. Whatever happened in boxing, the good, the bad, the [Evander Holyfield] ear biting -- if I died tomorrow, I was overpaid. I have an incredible life. My life is hard to beat.

"I'm very grateful to boxing. I just wanted to be a fighter. I wanted to be a great fighter, like the guys I watched on videos, like Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Gans, Willie Pep, Tony Canzoneri, Roberto Duran. I used to watch those guys. Now I'm going in with those guys. I am excited. This is an interesting moment in my life.

"I just wanted to be a great champion, fight guys, knock guys out. I never was thinking it would come to an end. My expectations as an old fighter was to retire and have a bar. I'm just grateful. I came from nowhere, a guy from my background with [my] parents -- my mother was a prostitute, my father was a pimp. And I met [original trainer and adoptive father] Cus D'Amato, and this guy took me places I could never dream of going to this day."

Whenever Tyson mentioned D'Amato, who died a year before Tyson became champion, he got choked up. He said to expect more tears on Sunday.

"I haven't prepared anything to say yet and I don't know if I will be able to control my feelings," he said. "I'll cry. I just wanted to be in the [record] books with the rest of the guys. All my life, Cus and I talked about fighters -- who was a great fighter, what made them great. We wanted to be the youngest [heavyweight] champion. I think sometimes I wish I was still fighting and I was 20 years old again. I think about that periodically. I look at fighters fight and I wonder if they could cut it with me when I was 20.

"A lot of guys give up now. It seems acceptable for a guy to quit now because he has a cut eye. So what? You have another one. We were more hardcore back then."

Tyson looked back on some of his memorable fights. Although he couldn't pinpoint his favorite, he did single out some bouts. One of his best victories came in his first fight with Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, whom he stopped in the seventh round in 1991.

"That was a good fight. That was an awesome fight," Tyson said. "I was very nervous about that fight. He was knocking guys silly. I knew I was not as sharp going into the fight as I [had been]. It was just scary."

There was, of course, his second-round destruction of the late Trevor Berbick in 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion ever. D'Amato had died a year before the November 1986 fight.

[+] EnlargeTyson and Holmes
Focus on Sport/Getty ImagesMike Tyson says he told Muhammad Ali he would avenge Ali's beating at the hands of Larry Holmes, right. When he got his chance in 1988, Tyson backed up his promise.

"I wanted that fight so bad. I wanted my preeminence not to be ignored," Tyson said. "I was beating everyone and I just wanted to make sure the world never forgot us. We wanted to be God. My frame of mind was to be mean and ferocious inside and outside the ring. I just wanted to win. I had my ego riding on me. I had Cus' wishes riding on me. Cus used to tell me all this magic was in my hands, and I couldn't let him down. Winning the title, it was what we planned. A lot of our plans didn't work out. Olympic champion didn't happen, but I became heavyweight champion. I wish he could have seen me fight as champion."

After he beat Berbick, how did Tyson celebrate? He went out with one of his buddies, who had won on the undercard.

"Me and [former junior middleweight titleholder] Matthew Hilton went out and got so drunk," said Tyson, who had his battles with drugs and alcohol. "We hung out. We celebrated together."

Another that meant a lot to Tyson was his 1988 defense against aging former champ Larry Holmes, whom Tyson drilled in the fourth round.

"Cus had wanted me to beat him so bad," he said. Then he explained why, in a fascinating story I had never heard before.

Tyson explained that he was 14 when D'Amato took him and Jay Bright, a longtime member of Tyson's inner circle, from their home in Catskill, N.Y., to Albany to watch on closed circuit as Holmes retained the title in a 1980 destruction of the faded Muhammad Ali. Tyson even recalled the exact date: Oct. 2.

"I was offended by how bad he beat up Ali," Tyson said. "When we drove home to Catskill [about an hour from Albany], nobody in the car said a word, we were all so upset. The next morning, Cus was on the phone with Muhammad Ali after taking this shellacking from Holmes. He said to Ali, 'I have this young black kid who is going to be heavyweight champion someday and I want you to talk to him.'"

Tyson got on the phone and said he told Ali, "'When I grow up, I'll fight Holmes and I'll get him back for you.' I was 14 at the time."

When Tyson did meet Holmes seven years later, Ali was a guest at the fight. Tyson said Ali whispered to him beforehand, "Remember what you said -- get him for me."

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That story also choked up Tyson, who said he catches some of his old fights from time to time on ESPN Classic, which runs many of his early bouts regularly.

"Everything Cus told me was right, that I'd be champion and nobody will ever forget me," he said. "I'm gonna cry. I put so much into it. It's kind of sad. You have no idea. I was a young kid. So much hard work. But me and Cus had huge egos. We talked a lot of s---.

"Me and Cus would talk about how nobody could beat us and how we were invincible. That was our mindset. We weren't afraid of nobody."

The night that Tyson reached the zenith of his career was when he obliterated Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988 to retain his belts and earn the lineal championship.

"I felt I was invincible. I was really ready," Tyson said of the fight, which at the time was the richest in boxing history. "I had no fear of anything. I was so calm and relaxed."

After Tyson blew away Spinks, he looked almost stoic in the ring after winning. In fact, Tyson rarely put on any kind of significant ring celebration. That was also because of D'Amato.

"I never celebrated or raised my hands," Tyson said. "That's because Cus thought it was ridiculous. He would say, 'You do that [they knock guys out] every day in the gym, so why act excited after the fight?' That's why you never saw me raise my hands. Cus would say, 'Don't act like winning is a surprise. Why act like you hit the lottery?' He didn't have too much emotion."

As crazy as it might sound, Tyson doesn't look back on his 10th-round knockout loss to James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 with any sort of sadness, even though it was, for my money, the biggest upset in boxing history.

"That's a good fight. I don't take it personal. I've watched it," Tyson said. "I missed him with some bombs, but Buster was hurting me and he was moving pretty good. He did an awesome job. He did a great job."

Tyson's career is often viewed in two acts -- pre-Douglas and post-Douglas -- but of that fight in Tokyo, Tyson said, "That was my bravest fight, one of my best fights. I took that beating like a man. I was so in tune with the old fighters. I knew they lost fights. I was never discouraged. I knew I'd be champion again even though I went to prison [on a rape conviction]."

After getting out of prison, Tyson eventually regained belts in 1996 with easy knockouts of Frank Bruno (in a rematch) and Bruce Seldon. Then came two losses to Holyfield and the long, slow slide.

Tyson is going into the Hall of Fame for what he did in his pre-Douglas career, not the mess his career became afterward.

"I'm going in with guys like Stanley Ketchel and Jack Johnson, guys who lived colorful lives," Tyson said. "I wanted to be like them even though they were tragic at the end. But what lives they had. They had interesting lives. I wanted to live like them, like Mickey Walker, Harry Greb. Those guys had no boundaries. That's who I wanted to be. I wanted to be heavyweight champion. I wanted to conquer everyone. I looked at boxing different than most people. It was about destruction and pain and 'nobody can ever stop me.'

"Back then, I lived by those comments. I was the best in the world and nobody could beat me. It was a weird journey."

Far removed from where or what he once was, the boxing journey finally ends for Tyson on Sunday with his enshrinement among the immortals.

News + Notes.

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From the minute they sat down maybe five feet from each other at the dais, lightweight titleholder Brandon Rios and challenger Urbano Antillon were already seething at each other, seemingly ready to fight right there.

And this was only the kickoff news conference on Tuesday in Los Angeles, still weeks away from their showdown on July 9 (Showtime) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

They spent more time jawing at each other, with plenty of curse words and insults, than talking to the assembled media.

By the time the news conference was over and Antillon was leaving, the emotional Rios was shouting at him, "Get out of my life and get out of this hotel!"

Antillon (28-2, 20 KOs) had gotten a bit personal with Rios (27-0-1, 19 KOs) during the contentious and emotionally charged press conference, and Rios didn't like it at all.

"I'm a clown and I joke around a lot, but this guy really gets under my skin and it's not going to affect me in the ring," Rios said. "If anything, it's going to help me. He's opening his big [expletive] mouth and talking about my wife. You don't mention my family. I didn't talk about his family. He made it personal. He named my wife and brought my family into it. And now he's going to pay."

Promoter Bob Arum was bemused by the whole spectacle.

"They're wacky kids," Arum said. "I had to calm them down, not that I was very successful. I didn't even know there was any animosity between them. Apparently, this has been going on for awhile. These guys talk their own language. They're so much younger than me, I don't even know what the hell they're talking about."

One thing Arum did know, however, is that it's best to save the fight for the ring.

"These guys are crazy," he said. "They really wanted to go at each other. They have a dislike for each other. We wanted to pose them for a picture and I had to remind them, 'If you get into a fight, you don't get paid. You don't get paid for a fight at the press conference. You get paid when you fight in the ring on July 9.' They said the most awful things to each other, but Rios is the one who started it."

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Even before the fireworks at the press conference, Rios-Antillon already had the look of an explosive fight between two straight-ahead brawlers. On paper, many view it as a fight of the year candidate.

The Southern California rivals -- Rios is from Oxnard and Antillon from Maywood -- were supposed to meet 13 months ago, but Rios suffered an injury and the fight was called off.

On Feb. 26, Rios claimed a 135-pound title on Showtime, rallying for a dramatic 10th-round knockout of Miguel Acosta in an electrifying fight.

Antillon, who had lost a tight decision to Humberto Soto while challenging for a piece of the lightweight crown in December in the 2010 ESPN.com fight of the year, was supposed to face him in a rematch on May 7 on the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley undercard. However, Soto pulled out of the fight because of contractual issues with Top Rank.

With that bout off and Rios and Antillon both in need of a dance partner, Top Rank matched them once again.

"I'm predicting the main event to be the fight of the year because Brandon and Urbano only know how to give crowd-pleasing fights and it should really be sensational," Arum said.

Rios started right in on Antillon, predicting a knockout.

"On July 9, I will knock him out and show the world why I am the best 135-pound fighter in the world. That's why I became the champion," Rios said. "That's why I beat Acosta and you didn't. I knocked him out and he knocked you out. On July 9, you're going to get more than knocked out. Your career is going to be done and you will never fight for a title again. I promise you that and I don't break my promises."

In July 2009, Acosta stopped Antillon in the ninth round in a highly competitive interim title bout.

"I just have to say that the third time's a charm, I guess," Antillon said. "I've fought for a world title twice before and I'm going to win it on my third try. We're two fighters who come forward, so I know it's going to be a good fight. We're both hard-headed and don't like to back down. On July 9, Maywood is going to be champion."

In the co-feature, former welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KOs) will fight for the first time in 14 months since his oddball fourth-round technical decision loss to Paul Williams -- when Cintron fell out of the ring at the Home Depot Center and did not continue. Cintron will face Carlos Molina (18-4-2, 6 KOs) in a 10-round junior middleweight bout.

Marquez tuneup set

Lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez has a lot riding on his next fight. With his much-desired third showdown with pound-for-pound king and welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao on the books for Nov. 12 in Las Vegas and on pay-per-view, Marquez is taking a must-win tuneup fight ahead of the bout.

Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs) has not fought since November, when he knocked out Michael Katsidis in the ninth round to retain the title, and he did not want to go without fighting for a year before facing Pacquiao.

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So Marquez will fight in his native Mexico on July 16 against Likar Ramos (24-3, 18 KOs) of Colombia after negotiations with former lightweight titlist (and Pacquiao victim) David Diaz fell apart over money. Ramos briefly held an interim junior lightweight belt before losing it via seventh-round knockout to Jorge Solis in February 2010.

If Marquez loses or suffers an injury that would keep him out of action for an extended period, he can kiss the Pacquiao fight goodbye, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said.

Arum will be keeping a close eye on the fight even though he is only peripherally involved in Marquez-Ramos. Top Rank will handle the international television sales. Arum's longtime Mexican promotional partner, Fernando Beltran, will work on the show with Marquez's promotional company.

"We're going to sell the international television and it will definitely be on in America," Arum said. "It's valuable as a promotional tool for the fight with Manny. So it will definitely will be on, but where, I'm not sure."

If Arum doesn't sell it to a network, he can put it on his "Top Rank Live" series, which airs regularly on Fox Deports and Fox Sports Net.

Sean Gibbons, Beltran's matchmaker, said the weight for the fight would be "no lighter than 140." Pacquiao-Marquez III is contracted at a maximum of 144 pounds.

Alvarez also on Sept. 17?

With Floyd Mayweather Jr. announcing his return from a 16-month layoff to face welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, what does that mean for junior middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, who is penciled in by Golden Boy to fight on pay-per-view on the same date?

[+] EnlargeSaul Alvarez
Harry How/Getty ImagesGolden Boy hopes to feature Saul Alvarez on a split-site card with Floyd Mayweather Jr., with an eye toward matching the fighters in the ring soon.

Alvarez, Mexico's most popular active fighter, makes his first title defense June 18 (HBO) against Ryan Rhodes. If he wins, Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer, who also promotes Ortiz, said Alvarez will still fight on that date, which comes during the weekend of Mexican Independence Day -- a traditional date for a major Mexican star to fight on.

"I don't want to talk about it too much because I have not discussed it with my people, and Canelo has a very tough fight with Rhodes," Schaefer said. "But once that is done, I think then we can have some conversations and see if something can be done where maybe we would have a split-site pay-per-view."

In other words, Mayweather would fight Ortiz -- almost certainly at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas -- while Alvarez would fight in Mexico, with his bout being part of the U.S. pay-per-view telecast.

"I think it would add another element to the telecast and event," Schaefer said. "I would love to find a way to have Canelo on the same night on the same pay-per-view on Mexican Independence Day weekend. It makes a lot of sense. Canelo keeps talking about wanting to fight Mayweather if Mayweather wins, so why not show them together on the same pay-per-view?"

Schaefer said whatever winds up on the Sept. 17 PPV, he promised it would be "the 'Fight Freak' card of all 'Fight Freak' cards. It's gonna be good. The stuff I'm working on, if I can pull it off, it will be the biggest card we've ever promoted. We're working on some stuff."

Kirkland returns

Middleweight James Kirkland (27-1, 24 KOs) of Austin, Texas, will try to pick up the pieces of his career when he fights in an eight-rounder against an opponent to be named on June 24 on Telefutura's "Solo Boxeo Tecate."

Kirkland will be fighting for the first time since April 9, when he suffered three knockdowns in a shocking first-round knockout loss to Nobuhiro Ishida on the Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales HBO PPV undercard in Las Vegas in the clear upset of the year so far.

The card will take place at Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas. The stadium is home to the Frisco Rough Riders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Kirkland had been a leading junior middleweight contender and one of the hottest fighters in boxing before going to prison for 18 months. He faced Ishida in the third fight of his comeback after being idle for two years because of his sentence for gun possession by a convicted felon.

Had Kirkland defeated Ishida, he was looking at a likely fall title shot against middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.

In the co-feature, Forth Worth's Brian Vera (18-5, 11 KOs) meets San Antonio's Eloy Suarez (11-11-1, 5 KOs). Vera, a former participant on "The Contender" reality series, is coming off an upset decision against former junior middleweight titlist Sergio Mora in February.

If Vera wins, he could propel himself into an October fight on HBO in a rematch against contender Andy Lee on the undercard of Martinez's next defense. Vera handed Lee his only loss, stopping him in the seventh round on ESPN2 in 2008. A rematch has been discussed on and off since.

Viloria gets another title shot

Brian Viloria, a former two-time junior flyweight titlist and 2000 U.S. Olympian, will get a chance to win a third belt when he challenges flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Miranda of Mexico on July 16.

Miranda has agreed to fight Viloria (28-3, 16 KOs) in his hometown of Honolulu, Gary Gittelsohn, Viloria's manager, told ESPN.com. Miranda-Viloria was a tough fight to make, with various dates being set and then called off. But now, Gittelsohn said, it's on for real.

"This was the toughest fight I've ever been involved in making," the veteran manager said. "Every time we thought we had a deal to do the fight, first in Manila, and then later in other places, what I thought was a firm understanding, then time would go by and I would hear through intermediaries that it wasn't going to happen. Now it's really done. We signed our papers and I am of the understanding that Miranda has signed his."

Viloria, the mandatory challenger, has won two bouts in a row since losing his 108-pound title to Carlos Tamara via 12th-round knockout in an upset in January 2010.

"I think it's a very exciting fight," Gittelsohn said. "I'm very nervous about the fight. Miranda is a capable talent and has gotten better and better in recent vintage. I think Brian has his hands full and the best Brian has to show up to win the title."

Mexico's Miranda (35-5-1, 28 KOs) will be making his fourth defense.

Quick Hits

[+] EnlargeAntonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto
Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesIt appears Miguel Cotto will get a chance to avenge his controversial 2008 welterweight title defeat to Antonio Margarito.

• Top Rank's Bob Arum said the new working date for a rematch between junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito is Dec. 3, in a pay-per-view fight. Margarito stopped Cotto in the 11th round of a 2008 welterweight title bout that hangs under a cloud of suspicion because many believe Margarito fought using loaded gloves. (He was caught trying to fight Shane Mosley with loaded hand wraps in his next fight.) Arum said Margarito, who had recent cataract surgery because of eye injuries sustained against Manny Pacquiao in November, would be ready to fight by December. Top Rank had originally hoped to put on Cotto-Margarito II in July, but then pushed it back to September before moving it again because of Margarito's medical situation. Arum said he hopes to stage the proposed rematch at New York's Madison Square Garden, where Cotto has fought regularly and is a big draw among the Puerto Rican community. Cotto's March 12 fight against Ricardo Mayorga was produced and distributed by Showtime PPV even though Cotto's major fights had regularly been on HBO PPV previously. Arum said Showtime had the right of a first negotiation for Cotto's next fight but that he is free to also shop the bout to HBO.

• Former three-division champ Shane Mosley is a promotional free agent after parting ways with Top Rank not long after his lopsided loss to pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao in their May 7 welterweight title bout. Arum told ESPN.com that he had declined to exercise the contractual option he held on Mosley's next fight and notified Mosley in a letter to his manager's attorney. "We are not exercising our option, and we have told that to Shane's people," Arum said. "We like Shane, but we told him the reason was that we didn't want to leave him hanging around waiting, because right now we have nothing for him, so it would be wrong to keep the option and then just do nothing with him. We said if something comes up and he was still available, then I would hope we would be able to make a deal, but right now I don't see anything on the horizon." The 39-year-old Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) dropped to 0-2-1 in his last three fights with the loss to Pacquiao.

• Former bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel (43-3-2, 33 KOs) is set to make his ring return. Montiel, who was relieved of his two 118-pound belts when Nonito Donaire brutally knocked him out in the second round of their high-profile fight Feb. 19 in Las Vegas, will face Nehomar Cermeño (20-3, 12 KOs) on June 25 in Culiacan, Mexico, Zanfer promotions announced. "Rest assured that I'll be at 100 percent," said Montiel, 32, who is moving up one division to junior featherweight for the bout. Montiel, a former three-division titleholder, said he is still motivated to win a title in a fourth weight class, "but I am focused on Cermeño, a Venezuelan boxer who is very experienced. He beat Cristian Mijares twice and he's hungry, like me, and wants to climb back to the top." Cermeño beat Mijares in interim bantamweight title bouts. He also lost twice by split decision to Anselmo Moreno in 2010 bantamweight title fights.

• When super middleweight titlist Carl Froch outpointed Glen Johnson in a crowd-pleasing fight last Saturday to advance to the finals of the Super Six World Boxing Classic, fellow titlist Andre Ward was ringside to scout the fight and work as part of Showtime's broadcast team. Ward was excited about meeting Froch in the final and had a strong opinion about where he would like the fall fight to take place. "My hope is Las Vegas," Ward said. "It's where there are big fights and it would be fitting for the finals." To the consternation of many, Ward fought all of his tournament bouts in his home state of California, including two in his hometown of Oakland. He was the only participant in the tournament who did not have to travel to enemy turf. "I don't want the fight in California. I want the fight on neutral ground. That's what Froch deserves and what I deserve." Dan Goossen, Ward's promoter, has mentioned Las Vegas and New York among possible sites for the fight that will crown the top 168-pounder in the world.

• Welterweight Joel "Love Child" Julio will still fight on the Amir Khan-Zab Judah undercard on July 23 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but not against rising prospect Shawn Porter as had been proposed. Main Events, Julio's promoter, was discussing the match with Porter promoter Prize Fight and Porter's father and trainer, Kenny Porter, but the Porter side decided to go in another direction. Brian Young of Prize Fight told ESPN.com that the promoter has designs on trying to get a fall fight against unbeaten contender Mike Jones rather than taking an untelevised bout against Julio. Main Events, meanwhile, is focusing on trying to put a fight together for Julio against Antwone Smith. The fighters had been scheduled to headline "Friday Night Fights" on ESPN2/ESPN3 on May 11, but Smith dropped out because of an injury and Julio went on to easily outpoint replacement Anges Adjaho.

• Lightweight titlist Miguel Vazquez (28-3, 12 KOs), who retained his title for the second time via unanimous decision against Lenny Zappavigna on March 12 on the Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga Showtime PPV undercard, returns for a nontitle bout on "Top Rank Live" on June 18 (Fox Deportes) in Toluca, Mexico. Vazquez, of Mexico, faces Marlon Aguilar (25-10-1, 18 KOs) of Nicaragua. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he would like to eventually match Vazquez with Mercito Gesta (21-0-1, 11 KOs), the San Diego-based Filipino who recently signed with Top Rank. Gesta's first fight of his new deal will take place on the undercard of Rios-Antillon on July 9. "If Gesta looks good, we may put him in with Miguel Vazquez," Arum said. "What we will do is try to make the fight, and if we can get it on a premium network, that's what we will do. If we can't, we'll do it on our own on one of our other shows." Gesta will serve as one of Amir Khan's sparring partners as the junior welterweight titleholder prepares to face Judah in a July 23 unification bout.

• Cruiserweight titlist Marco Huck (32-1, 23 KOs) of Germany will make his seventh title defense against former light heavyweight beltholder Hugo Hernan Garay (34-5, 18 KOs) of Argentina on July 16, Huck promoter Sauerland Event announced. The fight will take place in Munich on the same card as the heavyweight clash between rising contender Robert Herelius and former titleholder Sergei Liakhovich.

• Junior bantamweight titlist Hugo Cazares (34-6-2, 24 KOs) makes his fourth defense against Mexican countryman Arturo Badillo on July 9 in Mazatlan, Mexico. Cazares hopes a victory leads to a major fight. "He wants to be a champion and I want the big fights," Cazares said, "so I have to beat this guy and then try to get into the big leagues against more important opponents, and then unify all [junior bantamweight] world titles."

• Former cruiserweight titlist Firat Arslan, 40, of Germany will try to avenge one of his defeats when he faces Lubos Suda (23-5-1, 15 KOs) of the Czech Republic on July 15 at Göppingen, Germany, Arlan's home base. Suda outpointed Arslan (30-5-1, 19 KOs) in Prague in 2003. "I know very well that Suda is a strong opponent and that I have to be at my best to beat him," Arslan said. "I think it's only fair that he is coming to my backyard now. I have fought him in Prague, now he is coming to Germany. I want to prove that I am better than him and that I've still got what it takes to become world champion again." Suda is coming off a fifth-round knockout loss to top-10 contender Ola Afolabi on March 19.

• Junior lightweight titlist Takashi Uchiyama found an interesting way to keep busy between fights, something you don't usually see fighters do: He was a guest professor at Takushoku University, his alma mater, on June 1. He gave a lecture titled "To Seize a Chance," speaking before some 300 students for an hour. He said he would like to become a professor after he retires from boxing. "It's good for mental training to speak in front of a big audience," he said. "That may do me good in the ring."

Quotables

Mike Tyson

Tyson

"That's a joke man. Haye shouldn't last more than two rounds. I like David Haye, but I think [Wladimir Klitschko] is too superior and too strong. I respect Haye as a human being, but he hasn't earned this fight. Let him go fight and beat all those guys Klitschko did to earn the shot. Klitschko should wipe him out. Klitschko's a great champion and I think Klitschko's gonna beat him. I just don't think Haye can keep him off him. I could be wrong, but Wladimir should beat him." -- Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, on his expectations for the July 2 (HBO) heavyweight championship fight between Klitschko and Haye

 

[proshares]

Piece on Tyson.

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Mike Tyson has a new life now. The former heavyweight champ is married for the third time, to Kiki, raising children and working for a living, be it in movies (like the summer hit "The Hangover II") or his Animal Planet reality series about his beloved pigeons or appearing on Argentina's version of "Dancing with the Stars."

Whatever Tyson is doing, it's far removed from boxing -- even if boxing is why he's famous, beloved by some, reviled by others.

He electrified the world as the youngest heavyweight champion in history at age 20 and was knocking guys dead while carving out a legacy as "the baddest man on the planet."

But Tyson, who turns 45 on June 30, says he doesn't look back at those days much anymore, even though he is doing so this week, culminating with his induction Sunday into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.

It will draw the final curtain on Tyson's boxing career, which ended in 2005, when Kevin McBride stopped him in the sixth round for his third knockout loss in his final four fights.

Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and I talked for about 45 minutes on Wednesday, and he is so removed from boxing that when I asked him if he had any idea which of his famous fights happened on this day in history, he had no idea. He was surprised to hear that we were speaking on the ninth anniversary of the last time he fought for the title -- an eighth-round knockout loss to then-champ Lennox Lewis in Memphis on June 8, 2002.

"The air even smells different now. I feel like a dinosaur out here now," Tyson said. "I was so consumed with that character of 'Iron Mike, the Baddest Man on the Planet.' I was imprisoned by that guy, but that guy is dead as ever. I never think about it until you bring it up. That's not my reality anymore. My reality is to take care of my bills, take care of my wife, take care of these kids."

Although Tyson doesn't dwell on his career, he said he is looking forward to attending the induction ceremony. He will be enshrined with great champions Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Kostya Tszyu, as well as "Rocky" screenwriter and star Sylvester Stallone, trainer Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain and referee Joe Cortez, among others.

"My wife wants to go. It will be pretty cool," said Tyson, who has never visited the shrine. "It will be really interesting looking at the memorabilia and all the pictures and stuff from history."

Tyson got emotional several times during our conversation, as though it was really the first time he had seriously looked back at his career in quite some time.

Mike Tyson: Hall Of Famer

Mike Tyson For more on Mike Tyson's HOF induction, check our topics page.

"My boxing career is just who I am," he said. "I grew up as a kid on television, bearing out my soul. I was immature. I couldn't deal with my feelings except in a fight. Whatever happened in boxing, the good, the bad, the [Evander Holyfield] ear biting -- if I died tomorrow, I was overpaid. I have an incredible life. My life is hard to beat.

"I'm very grateful to boxing. I just wanted to be a fighter. I wanted to be a great fighter, like the guys I watched on videos, like Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Gans, Willie Pep, Tony Canzoneri, Roberto Duran. I used to watch those guys. Now I'm going in with those guys. I am excited. This is an interesting moment in my life.

"I just wanted to be a great champion, fight guys, knock guys out. I never was thinking it would come to an end. My expectations as an old fighter was to retire and have a bar. I'm just grateful. I came from nowhere, a guy from my background with [my] parents -- my mother was a prostitute, my father was a pimp. And I met [original trainer and adoptive father] Cus D'Amato, and this guy took me places I could never dream of going to this day."

Whenever Tyson mentioned D'Amato, who died a year before Tyson became champion, he got choked up. He said to expect more tears on Sunday.

"I haven't prepared anything to say yet and I don't know if I will be able to control my feelings," he said. "I'll cry. I just wanted to be in the [record] books with the rest of the guys. All my life, Cus and I talked about fighters -- who was a great fighter, what made them great. We wanted to be the youngest [heavyweight] champion. I think sometimes I wish I was still fighting and I was 20 years old again. I think about that periodically. I look at fighters fight and I wonder if they could cut it with me when I was 20.

"A lot of guys give up now. It seems acceptable for a guy to quit now because he has a cut eye. So what? You have another one. We were more hardcore back then."

Tyson looked back on some of his memorable fights. Although he couldn't pinpoint his favorite, he did single out some bouts. One of his best victories came in his first fight with Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, whom he stopped in the seventh round in 1991.

"That was a good fight. That was an awesome fight," Tyson said. "I was very nervous about that fight. He was knocking guys silly. I knew I was not as sharp going into the fight as I [had been]. It was just scary."

There was, of course, his second-round destruction of the late Trevor Berbick in 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion ever. D'Amato had died a year before the November 1986 fight.

[+] EnlargeTyson and Holmes
Focus on Sport/Getty ImagesMike Tyson says he told Muhammad Ali he would avenge Ali's beating at the hands of Larry Holmes, right. When he got his chance in 1988, Tyson backed up his promise.

"I wanted that fight so bad. I wanted my preeminence not to be ignored," Tyson said. "I was beating everyone and I just wanted to make sure the world never forgot us. We wanted to be God. My frame of mind was to be mean and ferocious inside and outside the ring. I just wanted to win. I had my ego riding on me. I had Cus' wishes riding on me. Cus used to tell me all this magic was in my hands, and I couldn't let him down. Winning the title, it was what we planned. A lot of our plans didn't work out. Olympic champion didn't happen, but I became heavyweight champion. I wish he could have seen me fight as champion."

After he beat Berbick, how did Tyson celebrate? He went out with one of his buddies, who had won on the undercard.

"Me and [former junior middleweight titleholder] Matthew Hilton went out and got so drunk," said Tyson, who had his battles with drugs and alcohol. "We hung out. We celebrated together."

Another that meant a lot to Tyson was his 1988 defense against aging former champ Larry Holmes, whom Tyson drilled in the fourth round.

"Cus had wanted me to beat him so bad," he said. Then he explained why, in a fascinating story I had never heard before.

Tyson explained that he was 14 when D'Amato took him and Jay Bright, a longtime member of Tyson's inner circle, from their home in Catskill, N.Y., to Albany to watch on closed circuit as Holmes retained the title in a 1980 destruction of the faded Muhammad Ali. Tyson even recalled the exact date: Oct. 2.

"I was offended by how bad he beat up Ali," Tyson said. "When we drove home to Catskill [about an hour from Albany], nobody in the car said a word, we were all so upset. The next morning, Cus was on the phone with Muhammad Ali after taking this shellacking from Holmes. He said to Ali, 'I have this young black kid who is going to be heavyweight champion someday and I want you to talk to him.'"

Tyson got on the phone and said he told Ali, "'When I grow up, I'll fight Holmes and I'll get him back for you.' I was 14 at the time."

When Tyson did meet Holmes seven years later, Ali was a guest at the fight. Tyson said Ali whispered to him beforehand, "Remember what you said -- get him for me."

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That story also choked up Tyson, who said he catches some of his old fights from time to time on ESPN Classic, which runs many of his early bouts regularly.

"Everything Cus told me was right, that I'd be champion and nobody will ever forget me," he said. "I'm gonna cry. I put so much into it. It's kind of sad. You have no idea. I was a young kid. So much hard work. But me and Cus had huge egos. We talked a lot of s---.

"Me and Cus would talk about how nobody could beat us and how we were invincible. That was our mindset. We weren't afraid of nobody."

The night that Tyson reached the zenith of his career was when he obliterated Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988 to retain his belts and earn the lineal championship.

"I felt I was invincible. I was really ready," Tyson said of the fight, which at the time was the richest in boxing history. "I had no fear of anything. I was so calm and relaxed."

After Tyson blew away Spinks, he looked almost stoic in the ring after winning. In fact, Tyson rarely put on any kind of significant ring celebration. That was also because of D'Amato.

"I never celebrated or raised my hands," Tyson said. "That's because Cus thought it was ridiculous. He would say, 'You do that [they knock guys out] every day in the gym, so why act excited after the fight?' That's why you never saw me raise my hands. Cus would say, 'Don't act like winning is a surprise. Why act like you hit the lottery?' He didn't have too much emotion."

As crazy as it might sound, Tyson doesn't look back on his 10th-round knockout loss to James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 with any sort of sadness, even though it was, for my money, the biggest upset in boxing history.

"That's a good fight. I don't take it personal. I've watched it," Tyson said. "I missed him with some bombs, but Buster was hurting me and he was moving pretty good. He did an awesome job. He did a great job."

Tyson's career is often viewed in two acts -- pre-Douglas and post-Douglas -- but of that fight in Tokyo, Tyson said, "That was my bravest fight, one of my best fights. I took that beating like a man. I was so in tune with the old fighters. I knew they lost fights. I was never discouraged. I knew I'd be champion again even though I went to prison [on a rape conviction]."

After getting out of prison, Tyson eventually regained belts in 1996 with easy knockouts of Frank Bruno (in a rematch) and Bruce Seldon. Then came two losses to Holyfield and the long, slow slide.

Tyson is going into the Hall of Fame for what he did in his pre-Douglas career, not the mess his career became afterward.

"I'm going in with guys like Stanley Ketchel and Jack Johnson, guys who lived colorful lives," Tyson said. "I wanted to be like them even though they were tragic at the end. But what lives they had. They had interesting lives. I wanted to live like them, like Mickey Walker, Harry Greb. Those guys had no boundaries. That's who I wanted to be. I wanted to be heavyweight champion. I wanted to conquer everyone. I looked at boxing different than most people. It was about destruction and pain and 'nobody can ever stop me.'

"Back then, I lived by those comments. I was the best in the world and nobody could beat me. It was a weird journey."

Far removed from where or what he once was, the boxing journey finally ends for Tyson on Sunday with his enshrinement among the immortals.

News + Notes.

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From the minute they sat down maybe five feet from each other at the dais, lightweight titleholder Brandon Rios and challenger Urbano Antillon were already seething at each other, seemingly ready to fight right there.

And this was only the kickoff news conference on Tuesday in Los Angeles, still weeks away from their showdown on July 9 (Showtime) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

They spent more time jawing at each other, with plenty of curse words and insults, than talking to the assembled media.

By the time the news conference was over and Antillon was leaving, the emotional Rios was shouting at him, "Get out of my life and get out of this hotel!"

Antillon (28-2, 20 KOs) had gotten a bit personal with Rios (27-0-1, 19 KOs) during the contentious and emotionally charged press conference, and Rios didn't like it at all.

"I'm a clown and I joke around a lot, but this guy really gets under my skin and it's not going to affect me in the ring," Rios said. "If anything, it's going to help me. He's opening his big [expletive] mouth and talking about my wife. You don't mention my family. I didn't talk about his family. He made it personal. He named my wife and brought my family into it. And now he's going to pay."

Promoter Bob Arum was bemused by the whole spectacle.

"They're wacky kids," Arum said. "I had to calm them down, not that I was very successful. I didn't even know there was any animosity between them. Apparently, this has been going on for awhile. These guys talk their own language. They're so much younger than me, I don't even know what the hell they're talking about."

One thing Arum did know, however, is that it's best to save the fight for the ring.

"These guys are crazy," he said. "They really wanted to go at each other. They have a dislike for each other. We wanted to pose them for a picture and I had to remind them, 'If you get into a fight, you don't get paid. You don't get paid for a fight at the press conference. You get paid when you fight in the ring on July 9.' They said the most awful things to each other, but Rios is the one who started it."

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Even before the fireworks at the press conference, Rios-Antillon already had the look of an explosive fight between two straight-ahead brawlers. On paper, many view it as a fight of the year candidate.

The Southern California rivals -- Rios is from Oxnard and Antillon from Maywood -- were supposed to meet 13 months ago, but Rios suffered an injury and the fight was called off.

On Feb. 26, Rios claimed a 135-pound title on Showtime, rallying for a dramatic 10th-round knockout of Miguel Acosta in an electrifying fight.

Antillon, who had lost a tight decision to Humberto Soto while challenging for a piece of the lightweight crown in December in the 2010 ESPN.com fight of the year, was supposed to face him in a rematch on May 7 on the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley undercard. However, Soto pulled out of the fight because of contractual issues with Top Rank.

With that bout off and Rios and Antillon both in need of a dance partner, Top Rank matched them once again.

"I'm predicting the main event to be the fight of the year because Brandon and Urbano only know how to give crowd-pleasing fights and it should really be sensational," Arum said.

Rios started right in on Antillon, predicting a knockout.

"On July 9, I will knock him out and show the world why I am the best 135-pound fighter in the world. That's why I became the champion," Rios said. "That's why I beat Acosta and you didn't. I knocked him out and he knocked you out. On July 9, you're going to get more than knocked out. Your career is going to be done and you will never fight for a title again. I promise you that and I don't break my promises."

In July 2009, Acosta stopped Antillon in the ninth round in a highly competitive interim title bout.

"I just have to say that the third time's a charm, I guess," Antillon said. "I've fought for a world title twice before and I'm going to win it on my third try. We're two fighters who come forward, so I know it's going to be a good fight. We're both hard-headed and don't like to back down. On July 9, Maywood is going to be champion."

In the co-feature, former welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron (32-3-1, 28 KOs) will fight for the first time in 14 months since his oddball fourth-round technical decision loss to Paul Williams -- when Cintron fell out of the ring at the Home Depot Center and did not continue. Cintron will face Carlos Molina (18-4-2, 6 KOs) in a 10-round junior middleweight bout.

Marquez tuneup set

Lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez has a lot riding on his next fight. With his much-desired third showdown with pound-for-pound king and welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao on the books for Nov. 12 in Las Vegas and on pay-per-view, Marquez is taking a must-win tuneup fight ahead of the bout.

Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs) has not fought since November, when he knocked out Michael Katsidis in the ninth round to retain the title, and he did not want to go without fighting for a year before facing Pacquiao.

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So Marquez will fight in his native Mexico on July 16 against Likar Ramos (24-3, 18 KOs) of Colombia after negotiations with former lightweight titlist (and Pacquiao victim) David Diaz fell apart over money. Ramos briefly held an interim junior lightweight belt before losing it via seventh-round knockout to Jorge Solis in February 2010.

If Marquez loses or suffers an injury that would keep him out of action for an extended period, he can kiss the Pacquiao fight goodbye, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said.

Arum will be keeping a close eye on the fight even though he is only peripherally involved in Marquez-Ramos. Top Rank will handle the international television sales. Arum's longtime Mexican promotional partner, Fernando Beltran, will work on the show with Marquez's promotional company.

"We're going to sell the international television and it will definitely be on in America," Arum said. "It's valuable as a promotional tool for the fight with Manny. So it will definitely will be on, but where, I'm not sure."

If Arum doesn't sell it to a network, he can put it on his "Top Rank Live" series, which airs regularly on Fox Deports and Fox Sports Net.

Sean Gibbons, Beltran's matchmaker, said the weight for the fight would be "no lighter than 140." Pacquiao-Marquez III is contracted at a maximum of 144 pounds.

Alvarez also on Sept. 17?

With Floyd Mayweather Jr. announcing his return from a 16-month layoff to face welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, what does that mean for junior middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, who is penciled in by Golden Boy to fight on pay-per-view on the same date?

[+] EnlargeSaul Alvarez
Harry How/Getty ImagesGolden Boy hopes to feature Saul Alvarez on a split-site card with Floyd Mayweather Jr., with an eye toward matching the fighters in the ring soon.

Alvarez, Mexico's most popular active fighter, makes his first title defense June 18 (HBO) against Ryan Rhodes. If he wins, Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer, who also promotes Ortiz, said Alvarez will still fight on that date, which comes during the weekend of Mexican Independence Day -- a traditional date for a major Mexican star to fight on.

"I don't want to talk about it too much because I have not discussed it with my people, and Canelo has a very tough fight with Rhodes," Schaefer said. "But once that is done, I think then we can have some conversations and see if something can be done where maybe we would have a split-site pay-per-view."

In other words, Mayweather would fight Ortiz -- almost certainly at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas -- while Alvarez would fight in Mexico, with his bout being part of the U.S. pay-per-view telecast.

"I think it would add another element to the telecast and event," Schaefer said. "I would love to find a way to have Canelo on the same night on the same pay-per-view on Mexican Independence Day weekend. It makes a lot of sense. Canelo keeps talking about wanting to fight Mayweather if Mayweather wins, so why not show them together on the same pay-per-view?"

Schaefer said whatever winds up on the Sept. 17 PPV, he promised it would be "the 'Fight Freak' card of all 'Fight Freak' cards. It's gonna be good. The stuff I'm working on, if I can pull it off, it will be the biggest card we've ever promoted. We're working on some stuff."

Kirkland returns

Middleweight James Kirkland (27-1, 24 KOs) of Austin, Texas, will try to pick up the pieces of his career when he fights in an eight-rounder against an opponent to be named on June 24 on Telefutura's "Solo Boxeo Tecate."

Kirkland will be fighting for the first time since April 9, when he suffered three knockdowns in a shocking first-round knockout loss to Nobuhiro Ishida on the Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales HBO PPV undercard in Las Vegas in the clear upset of the year so far.

The card will take place at Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas. The stadium is home to the Frisco Rough Riders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Kirkland had been a leading junior middleweight contender and one of the hottest fighters in boxing before going to prison for 18 months. He faced Ishida in the third fight of his comeback after being idle for two years because of his sentence for gun possession by a convicted felon.

Had Kirkland defeated Ishida, he was looking at a likely fall title shot against middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.

In the co-feature, Forth Worth's Brian Vera (18-5, 11 KOs) meets San Antonio's Eloy Suarez (11-11-1, 5 KOs). Vera, a former participant on "The Contender" reality series, is coming off an upset decision against former junior middleweight titlist Sergio Mora in February.

If Vera wins, he could propel himself into an October fight on HBO in a rematch against contender Andy Lee on the undercard of Martinez's next defense. Vera handed Lee his only loss, stopping him in the seventh round on ESPN2 in 2008. A rematch has been discussed on and off since.

Viloria gets another title shot

Brian Viloria, a former two-time junior flyweight titlist and 2000 U.S. Olympian, will get a chance to win a third belt when he challenges flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Miranda of Mexico on July 16.

Miranda has agreed to fight Viloria (28-3, 16 KOs) in his hometown of Honolulu, Gary Gittelsohn, Viloria's manager, told ESPN.com. Miranda-Viloria was a tough fight to make, with various dates being set and then called off. But now, Gittelsohn said, it's on for real.

"This was the toughest fight I've ever been involved in making," the veteran manager said. "Every time we thought we had a deal to do the fight, first in Manila, and then later in other places, what I thought was a firm understanding, then time would go by and I would hear through intermediaries that it wasn't going to happen. Now it's really done. We signed our papers and I am of the understanding that Miranda has signed his."

Viloria, the mandatory challenger, has won two bouts in a row since losing his 108-pound title to Carlos Tamara via 12th-round knockout in an upset in January 2010.

"I think it's a very exciting fight," Gittelsohn said. "I'm very nervous about the fight. Miranda is a capable talent and has gotten better and better in recent vintage. I think Brian has his hands full and the best Brian has to show up to win the title."

Mexico's Miranda (35-5-1, 28 KOs) will be making his fourth defense.

Quick Hits

[+] EnlargeAntonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto
Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesIt appears Miguel Cotto will get a chance to avenge his controversial 2008 welterweight title defeat to Antonio Margarito.

• Top Rank's Bob Arum said the new working date for a rematch between junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito is Dec. 3, in a pay-per-view fight. Margarito stopped Cotto in the 11th round of a 2008 welterweight title bout that hangs under a cloud of suspicion because many believe Margarito fought using loaded gloves. (He was caught trying to fight Shane Mosley with loaded hand wraps in his next fight.) Arum said Margarito, who had recent cataract surgery because of eye injuries sustained against Manny Pacquiao in November, would be ready to fight by December. Top Rank had originally hoped to put on Cotto-Margarito II in July, but then pushed it back to September before moving it again because of Margarito's medical situation. Arum said he hopes to stage the proposed rematch at New York's Madison Square Garden, where Cotto has fought regularly and is a big draw among the Puerto Rican community. Cotto's March 12 fight against Ricardo Mayorga was produced and distributed by Showtime PPV even though Cotto's major fights had regularly been on HBO PPV previously. Arum said Showtime had the right of a first negotiation for Cotto's next fight but that he is free to also shop the bout to HBO.

• Former three-division champ Shane Mosley is a promotional free agent after parting ways with Top Rank not long after his lopsided loss to pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao in their May 7 welterweight title bout. Arum told ESPN.com that he had declined to exercise the contractual option he held on Mosley's next fight and notified Mosley in a letter to his manager's attorney. "We are not exercising our option, and we have told that to Shane's people," Arum said. "We like Shane, but we told him the reason was that we didn't want to leave him hanging around waiting, because right now we have nothing for him, so it would be wrong to keep the option and then just do nothing with him. We said if something comes up and he was still available, then I would hope we would be able to make a deal, but right now I don't see anything on the horizon." The 39-year-old Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) dropped to 0-2-1 in his last three fights with the loss to Pacquiao.

• Former bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel (43-3-2, 33 KOs) is set to make his ring return. Montiel, who was relieved of his two 118-pound belts when Nonito Donaire brutally knocked him out in the second round of their high-profile fight Feb. 19 in Las Vegas, will face Nehomar Cermeño (20-3, 12 KOs) on June 25 in Culiacan, Mexico, Zanfer promotions announced. "Rest assured that I'll be at 100 percent," said Montiel, 32, who is moving up one division to junior featherweight for the bout. Montiel, a former three-division titleholder, said he is still motivated to win a title in a fourth weight class, "but I am focused on Cermeño, a Venezuelan boxer who is very experienced. He beat Cristian Mijares twice and he's hungry, like me, and wants to climb back to the top." Cermeño beat Mijares in interim bantamweight title bouts. He also lost twice by split decision to Anselmo Moreno in 2010 bantamweight title fights.

• When super middleweight titlist Carl Froch outpointed Glen Johnson in a crowd-pleasing fight last Saturday to advance to the finals of the Super Six World Boxing Classic, fellow titlist Andre Ward was ringside to scout the fight and work as part of Showtime's broadcast team. Ward was excited about meeting Froch in the final and had a strong opinion about where he would like the fall fight to take place. "My hope is Las Vegas," Ward said. "It's where there are big fights and it would be fitting for the finals." To the consternation of many, Ward fought all of his tournament bouts in his home state of California, including two in his hometown of Oakland. He was the only participant in the tournament who did not have to travel to enemy turf. "I don't want the fight in California. I want the fight on neutral ground. That's what Froch deserves and what I deserve." Dan Goossen, Ward's promoter, has mentioned Las Vegas and New York among possible sites for the fight that will crown the top 168-pounder in the world.

• Welterweight Joel "Love Child" Julio will still fight on the Amir Khan-Zab Judah undercard on July 23 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but not against rising prospect Shawn Porter as had been proposed. Main Events, Julio's promoter, was discussing the match with Porter promoter Prize Fight and Porter's father and trainer, Kenny Porter, but the Porter side decided to go in another direction. Brian Young of Prize Fight told ESPN.com that the promoter has designs on trying to get a fall fight against unbeaten contender Mike Jones rather than taking an untelevised bout against Julio. Main Events, meanwhile, is focusing on trying to put a fight together for Julio against Antwone Smith. The fighters had been scheduled to headline "Friday Night Fights" on ESPN2/ESPN3 on May 11, but Smith dropped out because of an injury and Julio went on to easily outpoint replacement Anges Adjaho.

• Lightweight titlist Miguel Vazquez (28-3, 12 KOs), who retained his title for the second time via unanimous decision against Lenny Zappavigna on March 12 on the Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga Showtime PPV undercard, returns for a nontitle bout on "Top Rank Live" on June 18 (Fox Deportes) in Toluca, Mexico. Vazquez, of Mexico, faces Marlon Aguilar (25-10-1, 18 KOs) of Nicaragua. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he would like to eventually match Vazquez with Mercito Gesta (21-0-1, 11 KOs), the San Diego-based Filipino who recently signed with Top Rank. Gesta's first fight of his new deal will take place on the undercard of Rios-Antillon on July 9. "If Gesta looks good, we may put him in with Miguel Vazquez," Arum said. "What we will do is try to make the fight, and if we can get it on a premium network, that's what we will do. If we can't, we'll do it on our own on one of our other shows." Gesta will serve as one of Amir Khan's sparring partners as the junior welterweight titleholder prepares to face Judah in a July 23 unification bout.

• Cruiserweight titlist Marco Huck (32-1, 23 KOs) of Germany will make his seventh title defense against former light heavyweight beltholder Hugo Hernan Garay (34-5, 18 KOs) of Argentina on July 16, Huck promoter Sauerland Event announced. The fight will take place in Munich on the same card as the heavyweight clash between rising contender Robert Herelius and former titleholder Sergei Liakhovich.

• Junior bantamweight titlist Hugo Cazares (34-6-2, 24 KOs) makes his fourth defense against Mexican countryman Arturo Badillo on July 9 in Mazatlan, Mexico. Cazares hopes a victory leads to a major fight. "He wants to be a champion and I want the big fights," Cazares said, "so I have to beat this guy and then try to get into the big leagues against more important opponents, and then unify all [junior bantamweight] world titles."

• Former cruiserweight titlist Firat Arslan, 40, of Germany will try to avenge one of his defeats when he faces Lubos Suda (23-5-1, 15 KOs) of the Czech Republic on July 15 at Göppingen, Germany, Arlan's home base. Suda outpointed Arslan (30-5-1, 19 KOs) in Prague in 2003. "I know very well that Suda is a strong opponent and that I have to be at my best to beat him," Arslan said. "I think it's only fair that he is coming to my backyard now. I have fought him in Prague, now he is coming to Germany. I want to prove that I am better than him and that I've still got what it takes to become world champion again." Suda is coming off a fifth-round knockout loss to top-10 contender Ola Afolabi on March 19.

• Junior lightweight titlist Takashi Uchiyama found an interesting way to keep busy between fights, something you don't usually see fighters do: He was a guest professor at Takushoku University, his alma mater, on June 1. He gave a lecture titled "To Seize a Chance," speaking before some 300 students for an hour. He said he would like to become a professor after he retires from boxing. "It's good for mental training to speak in front of a big audience," he said. "That may do me good in the ring."

Quotables

Mike Tyson

Tyson

"That's a joke man. Haye shouldn't last more than two rounds. I like David Haye, but I think [Wladimir Klitschko] is too superior and too strong. I respect Haye as a human being, but he hasn't earned this fight. Let him go fight and beat all those guys Klitschko did to earn the shot. Klitschko should wipe him out. Klitschko's a great champion and I think Klitschko's gonna beat him. I just don't think Haye can keep him off him. I could be wrong, but Wladimir should beat him." -- Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, on his expectations for the July 2 (HBO) heavyweight championship fight between Klitschko and Haye