Boxing Info (please stick)

[Complex]

Hatton prepares for Maussa....eyes Mayweather....

When Ricky Hatton faces Carlos Maussa on November 26 at Sheffield's Hallam FM Arena, Hatton is not only attempt to wrest the Columbian's WBA belt, he's hoping to move a step closer to his dream showdown with WBC king Floyd Mayweather. "The fight with Mayweather is definitely going to happen and it's going to be a superfight in the same mould as Sugar Ray Leonard versus Roberto Duran," said Hatton's trainer Billy 'The Preacher' Graham. "After seeing off Kostya Tszyu, Ricky's proved himself as being the man everyone has to beat. Ricky's got what Mayweather wants, not the other way round." Not overlooking Maussa, Graham commented "Ricky's preparation is going great, his timing's especially looking good. He's been ahead of schedule for weeks now, and we've even noticed improvements in certain departments since the Tszyu fight. Ricky wants to go down in history as a legend. He's training hard for this fight and he's intent on unifying the division."

[Complex]

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Tyson......still the most relevant heavyweight.....and retired

Former heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson, 39, was arrested last night in São Paulo, Brazil. According to local reports, Tyson was in a dancing night club called "Bahamas" when got angry after asking several times not to be filmed by the local TV SBT staff. According to the cameraman, Tyson took the camera from his hands and broke the tape and afterwards hit him in the head with the equipment. After leaving the nightclub and going to another one, Iron Mike was taken by local police officers for a late-night hearing. After about 3 hours, Tyson left the place. Tyson declared that he did not hit the man and seemed at ease when leaving the local police office. According to sources from the press, the former champion was angry before the confusion, still at the hotel, when he reportedly said: "You are getting me nervous! Leave me alone! You may have heard that I am aggressive sometimes." The former champion will be allowed to return to the US, but will probably need to hire a laywer to go to local Justice next Friday.

[bigeastbumrush]

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Tyson took the camera from his hands and broke the tape and afterwards hit him in the head with the equipment.

Tyson should've stuck the camera in the guy's face afterwards and started taping like How does it feel now?

[Complex]

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Naseem Hamed stays active...

Hamed offered six-fight contract

Hamed believes he can still win at the highest level
Naseem Hamed, Sheffield's former world featherweight champion, says he has been offered a six-fight contract by an American television network.
And the 31-year-old, who has not fought since May 2002, confirmed he is poised to make a comeback some time in 2006.

"If everything goes right in training, we're making plans for early-mid next year," Hamed told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"There are no opponents as yet, we're just talking to TV. Then hopefully next year there'll be a nice, big fight."

Hamed became Britain's youngest world champion when he won the WBO featherweight title aged 21 years and seven months in 1995.

BBC South Yorkshire boxing

He added the IBF crown when he beat Tom Johnson in London in 1997 and claimed the WBC title with a points win over Cesar Soto in Detroit in 1999.

However, his unbeaten run came to an end against the great Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in 2001 and his last bout was a lacklustre points win over Spain's Manuel Calvo over three years ago.

"I've been spending plenty of quality time with my two sons and my wife and parents, basically just chilling," added Hamed.

My confidence has never really gone... I'm raring to go after a good three-year lay-off

Naseem Hamed
"I've been boxing since the age of seven and it got to a time where I just thought I could take a break, and that's what I did.

"I've really missed boxing because I've been doing it for a hell of a long time, and I consider myself not bad at it. But then again I think boxing has missed me and it's time to get back and do some stuff.

"My confidence has never really gone. I'm raring to go after a good three-year lay-off. I believe I can be even better. I'm stronger and more mature now.

"And I don't think it will be hard to find someone to promote me. They'll be knocking on the door once they've heard this interview, don't worry about that."

There is no way that Hamed could make a successful comeback for a number of reasons

Meanwhile, Frank Maloney, manager of Glasgow's WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison, refused to rule out a fight with Hamed - but said Hamed would struggle to get down to the nine stone limit.

"If he's there and it's a fight that can be made, then obviously it's a fight the Harrison team would be interested in," Maloney told BBC Sport.

"But Hamed won't come straight back into a title fight. And it will be very hard, especially to get the weight down.

"I know how hard Scott Harrison works to get the weight down and he fights regularly. I'd be surprised if we saw Hamed coming in under lightweight."

[Complex]

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Vitali Klitschko has surgery.....

Vitali Klitschko was scheduled to defend his WBC title against Hasim Rahman on Nov. 12 in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the fight was cancelled because Klitschko suffered a knee injury during a recent sparring session. Because of his injury, Klitschko underwent surgery Tuesday in Southern California. The operation was done by Dr. Neal Elattrache, Director of the Sports Medicine department at the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic, in Inglewood, Calif. Dr. Elattrache treated a new rupture in the torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and damage to the medial meniscus on Klitschko's right knee.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The surgery took 1½ hours and was a complete success, but Vitali cannot compete in professional sports for the next six months," Dr. Elattrache said. "With this severe an injury it would have been absolutely impossible for Vitali to participate in a fight in the near future. The knee was totally unstable and it would have not held up."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Said Vitali: "Lately, I have been spending more time with my injuries than with my opponents inside the ring. The decision to retire from professional sports was a very difficult one, one of the hardest I have ever had to make. I love boxing and am proud to be the WBC and RING heavyweight champion. But I would like to end my career at its peak so I am retiring now as the champion to clear the way for my successors. I would like to take this opportunity to thank again the WBC, especially President Jose Sulaiman, my team, the media and all my fans for the many years of cooperation and support. In the future, I plan to get more heavily involved and devote more energy to tackling social and socio-political challenges in my native Ukraine."

[Complex]

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Cruiserweight news

IBF cruiserweight champion O'Neil Bell signs a contract to fight WBC/WBA cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck at Don King Productions Headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Across the table are DKP executives Dana Jamison-Lisabet and Bob Goodman. The fight is expected to take place in January.

[Sully]

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Please link the copyrighted material that you are posting.

Thanks.

[Complex]

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Don King working on Tournament

http://www.secondsout.com/USA/news.cfm?ccs=229&cs=17876
"Tyson and Holyfield can be part of tournament" - King

Interview by Ant Evans: When a forlorn Vitali Klitschko, his giant body under siege by injuries for nearly a year now, retired on Wednesday promoter Don King was able to finally cry 'checkmate' in one of the longest games of political chess in his Hall of Fame career.

Whatever your opinion of King, the way he manipulated the board to corner the elusive WBC title was worthy of Garry Kasparov. Manoeuvring Hasim Rahman into the mandatory contender position for Klitschko on the basis of beating Kali Meehan (knocked out in 32 seconds by Klitschko's first challenger, Danny Williams) was impressive opening. The masterstroke came in August. As Klitschko's postponements piled up, King pressured the WBC into allowing an 'interim title' fight between Rahman and Monte Barrett, another highly ranked King fighter.

King explained to SecondsOut: "From day one I knew he was never going to fight Rahman. From day one. This is a guy (Klitschko) who has never fought a mandatory challenger, when he was WBO champion or WBC, and he likes to hand-pick his opponents. The thing with the WBO was that he had Klaus-Peter Kohl (the vastly experienced and powerful German promoter who handled all but one of Klitschko's fights) helping him but without Kohl you saw what happened. Without Kohl, Klitschko was discombobulated.

"With all the pull outs and excuses I recognised the situation and rectified the situation. I went to my fighter and said: 'This guy isn't gonna fight you but if you fight Monte Barrett for the interim championship (and win) and Klitschko pulls out again you automatically become the champion under the WBC rules'."

And that's exactly what happened.

With Rahman, WBA champ John Ruiz, WBO champ Lamon Brewster and IBF champ Chris Byrd in various stages of disgruntlement with their promoter, it would perhaps be a stretch to say King 'controls' the four major belts. However, he at least has a clear field to initiate a tournament. Boxing's flagship division has been at half-mast since Lennox Lewis abdicated in February of 2004 and maybe, just maybe, an elimination tournament would spark some interest.

"There are a couple of fights that have to take place first," King said. "The WBC have to rule that Rahman fights someone next (probably Sinam Samil Sam, who is booked to defeat aged Oleg Maskaev in a WBC eliminator on Nov 12) and Johnny Ruiz goes to Germany (Dec 17) to fight this giant (Nico Valuez). There's a little way to go but the tournament is on for next year."

Yet, as my colleague Tom Hauser asked the other day, what if HBO or someone decide to do a rival tournament featuring Wladimir Klitschko, James Toney, Cal Brock and Sam Peter? Which one would you prefer to watch?

King may well have all the belts, but what he most certainly does not have in his title-wielding quartet is a star. Rahman hasn't beaten a top contender since his one-punch KO of Lennox Lewis in April of 2001, and while Brewster can be great to watch his profile is even lower than those of Ruiz and Byrd, whose outings are tantamount to torture to witness.

King had tremendous success in 2001 when he took three unappealing middleweight champions - Bernard Hopkins, Williams Joppy and Keith Holmes - and put them into a title tournament but, of course, he had the supernova star power of Felix Trinidad to attract fan and media attention. There's certainly no 'Tito' in the heavies right now...

"Yes, I wish I had a star like Tito in this but I wish I had a Tito to put on a card 365 days of the year," King said. "The thing about a tournament is these fighters will have the opportunity to become stars. They can seize the day and with their performances become stars."

But, for good measure, King said he will be inviting aged legends Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield to enter his tourney.

"I am interested in working with Mike again," King said. "Provided that he does the proper things in training. He's had some bad losses of late but there's no reason Mike Tyson cannot win the heavyweight title again. He is only 38, George Foreman, a man who has similar punching power, won the title back at age 45. If Mike can dedicate himself to training again and can (promise me) that he is able to do that then yes, I will give him a chance to create history all over again."

Tyson hasn't held a version of the world title since he was KO'd by Evander Holyfield in November of 1996. And, worse still, he retired this summer after quitting - following lowly Kevin McBride's refusal to fall down -in what was supposed to be a mismatch. Tyson has made it quite clear that he doesn't want to fight again - ever - but, then again, he needs the money. Tyson v Holyfield III would be a guilty pleasure but one which people would pay to see.

King added: "And Evander Holyfield has his licence back and he can be part of all this, too. He lost to Larry Donald who is a different kind of fighter but the 'Real Deal' can be a factor, too."

Holyfield holds a win over Rahman, is 1-1-1 in a dreary series with Ruiz, and was beaten out of sight by Byrd. He was placed on medical suspension by the New York State Athletic Commission after his alarming performance against the light-hitting Donald last November and, determined to fight on even at the age of 43 and with only two wins since September of 1998, was considering offers to fight in Europe.

However, the NYAC's Hugo Spindola confirmed to SecondsOut that the former undisputed champion has been taken off medical suspension and placed on 'administrative' suspension, meaning that while Holyfield will never licensed to box in New York again, other commissions in the US are not required to follow suit anymore.

[Complex]

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Please link the copyrighted material that you are posting.

Thanks.

Thanks for the headsup Sully.. Will do

[Complex]

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http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=2225171

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Former junior featherweight champion Agapito Sanchez died Tuesday from gunshot wounds during a fight outside his home.

AP
Sanchez
The 35-year-old boxer died at a Santo Domingo hospital hours after surgery to remove two bullets from his stomach, cousin Antonio Sanchez said.

An officer in the Dominican air force shot Sanchez on Sunday night, police said. A mob then chased and beat the officer, whom police identified as Sgt. Diogenes Nova Rosario. Nova was under guard at a military hospital, where he was treated for unspecified injuries, police spokesman Simon Diaz said.

Police recovered a .38-caliber pistol they say was used to shoot Sanchez, Diaz said.

"We want justice. Agapito didn't deserve this," said Ramon Sanchez, the boxer's brother.

Sanchez had a 36-11-3 record as a pro. He vacated his junior featherweight title in 2002 after being diagnosed with cataracts. He lost a bid to regain the title in 2004 in a bout with Joan Guzman.

In his most recent fight, Sanchez defeated Edison Torres of Venezuela on Sept. 17 in Santo Domingo.

[Complex]

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http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=2224259

Judah to defend welterweight title vs. Baldomir

Zab Judah will make the second defense of his undisputed welterweight title when he meets mandatory challenger Carlos Baldomir on Jan. 7, officials from Showtime and Don King Productions told ESPN.com on Monday night.

The fight will take place at a venue to be determined on the first card of Showtime's 20th anniversary season of televising boxing.

In the previously-announced main event, cruiserweight champions Jean-Marc Mormeck (30-2, 21 KOs) and O'Neil Bell (25-1-1, 23 KOs) will meet to crown only the second undisputed champion since the division was created in 1980. The other: Evander Holyfield, who beat Carlos De Leon in 1988 to unify the three major titles.

Judah (34-2, 25 KOs), a former junior welterweight champ, won the undisputed title in February, knocking out Cory Spinks in the ninth round of their rematch in front of more than 20,000 in Spinks' hometown of St. Louis.

Judah won his first defense in emphatic fashion, scoring three knockdowns en route to a third-round knockout of mandatory challenger Cosme Rivera on the May 14 undercard of the Winky Wright-Felix Trinidad fight.

Baldomir (41-9-6, 12 KOs), of Argentina, is not expected to pose too many problems for Judah. Baldomir, who like Judah is promoted by King, is 34, has never fought a name opponent and is unranked by ESPN.com and Ring magazine.

He was awarded the title shot based on winning a unanimous decision in a WBC-sanctioned title eliminator against Miguel Angel Rodriguez on May 21. The fight was on the undercard of Lamon Brewster's heavyweight title defense against Andrew Golota in Chicago.

For Judah, the bout figures to be a warm-up for a potential mega-fight in the spring against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who makes his welterweight debut on Saturday night against Sharmba Mitchell.

[Complex]

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http://www.fightnews.com/fightnews_2...FfWjMiWtI.html

"I'm not overlooking Sharmba," vows WBC jr welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather (34-0, 23KOs), who faces two-time champion Sharmba Mitchell (56-4, 30KOs) in an HBO-televised non-title fight at welterweight Saturday night at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Floyd was very respectful toward Mitchell today in a teleconference with reporters. "To be the best, you've got to beat the best," he said, "and the world can't take anything away from Sharmba Mitchell....there's no need to badmouth this guy. All the negative comments are in the past. I do all my fighting in the ring." After this fight, Floyd hinted at a possible showdown with welterweight champion Zab Judah. Mitchell commented, "I know it's going to be a tough fight, but that brings the best out of me." He later added, "Floyd reminds me of myself when I was coming up."

Promoter Dan Goossen said HBO will televise Olympian gold medalist Andre Ward's fight with an opponent to be named. Local hero and former world champion Steve Forbes will head the undercard.

[Complex]

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http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/index

From the ESPN Rankings by Dan Rafael

3. Miguel Cotto (25-0)
Expected back from September bout with Ricardo Torres in February. One of the fights we want to see next year is Cotto vs. Jose Luis Castillo. It's a tremendous matchup, and since both guys are with Top Rank, it can be made fairly easily.

What do you all think of a Cotto vs Castillo match?

fixed:tu

[Complex]

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Muhammad Ali Center to be unveiled this weekend

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=2227577

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Architect Lee Skolnick took on a heavyweight assignment eight years ago -- create a building worthy of commemorating the life and ideals of Muhammad Ali.

Skolnick said he wanted the design to "tell this incredible story" -- of a man who grew up amid segregation and went on to boxing glory while becoming an outspoken voice during tumultuous times. Skolnick's vision is nearly complete near the Ohio River in Ali's hometown.

This weekend, a star-studded lineup including Bill Clinton, Jim Carrey and Angelina Jolie will gather to celebrate the opening of the Muhammad Ali Center. The center will promote Ali's humanitarian goals as well as relive his exploits as a three-time heavyweight boxing champion.

Now nearing completion, the Ali Center has become Skolnick's crowning achievement.

"There's been nothing that's been more important to me, including designing my own house," said Skolnick, whose New York City-based firm played a major role in the architectural and exhibit design of the 93,000-square-foot center.

Skolnick, in a recent phone interview, said famous images were incorporated into the design.

The roof was made to resemble a butterfly -- a reference to the champ's self-description of his boxing skills: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Part of the center looks like a giant torch, meant to evoke the image of Ali lighting the torch at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Ali also was a gold medalist at the 1960 Olympics.

Still, Ali didn't want to the center to be about him, Skolnick said.

"Muhammad, for all his bravado, is actually a very humble guy," Skolnick said.

Skolnick said he hopes the center inspires generations of visitors by promoting Ali's ideals to respect yourself and others, and to stand up for your beliefs.

"What I'm after is for a child to go there, to be inspired by these rich stories that are part of Muhammad's life, and to come out thinking, 'It's not a far-fetched idea for me to achieve something great, on my own terms,'" Skolnick said.

For Skolnick, it was the assignment of a lifetime. He said the potential for creative expression for a project that can promote social good was "at an all-time high."

He dug into Ali's, and the country's, past to get a better feel for Ali's life and times.

Skolnick spent time visiting sports hall of fames and presidential libraries to see how they celebrated individual achievements. He spoke with people who lived in Louisville while Ali grew up to get a better sense of what life was like for a young black man in that era. He spoke with experts on the civil-rights movement, the Vietnam War, sports ethics and faith.

Skolnick also spent considerable time with Ali.

"He's the most fun person to be around," he said. "You just feel like there's no place else on earth you want to be when you're with him."

He also witnessed some "incredibly moving experiences" between Ali and his fans.

On the steps of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham, an older white man approached Ali saying, "Cassius Clay, you're Cassius Clay" -- Ali's name before his conversion to Islam, Skolnick recalled. The man said he had disagreed with Ali's refusal to serve in the military during the Vietnam War, a principle that cost Ali his heavyweight title.

The man went on to say that he now had a much different view of Ali. Ali was gracious and funny during the exchange, Skolnick said.

"I'm just standing there, melting, listening to this," Skolnick said. "It's like a story of our times, to see this evolution."

[Complex]

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http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SPORT/11/15/boxing.toney/

The WBC's Board of Governors has voted to elect James Toney as the official challenger against newly appointed WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. The free negotiations period for the Rahman's defense against Toney will begin today, and if no agreement is reached by December 15, the purse offer ceremony will take place when Rahman receives his belt on December 20 in Cancun, Mexico. Toney received 21 votes, Wladimir Klitschko received 5 votes and #1 rated Oleg Maskaev received 4 votes. The winner of the bout between Rahman and Toney must face Maskaev with no intervening voluntary defense. Wladimir Klitschko was dropped from consideration after the report that he will fight for the championship of a different organization.

Its a rap....Toney v Rahman in 2006