Boxing News Thread

[heyzel]

Mayweather Sr. Shreds Manny Pacquiao: "He's a P*ssy!"

By Mark Vester

Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. is very upset with Manny Pacquiao being honored with the BWAA's [Boxing Writers Association of America] award for fighter of the decade. Mayweather felt that his son, Floyd Mayweather Jr., should have been the recipient.

Speaking with Percy Crawford of fighthype.com, Mayweather Sr. went after Pacquiao's record, and attacked him as a person.

"What award they gonna give my son when he whoops Pacquiao," Mayweather Sr. said. "Pacquiao ain't no f**king fighter of the decade. He is a p*ssy. Pacquiao has two draws and a loss in this decade. Lil' Floyd is undefeated in this decade and in his career."

"On top of that, Pacquiao beat two guys Lil' Floyd already beat and struggled twice with a guy Floyd blanked out twelve rounds to nothing."

Mayweather Sr. is adding some fuel to the fire. Pacquiao currently has a defamation suit pending in Las Vegas against Mayweather Sr., Mayweather Jr., Roger Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions heads Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer. Pacquiao claims the parties damaged his credibility by making allegations that he is using performance enhancing drugs.

 

[heyzel]

Bradley Wants All of The Big Fights at 147, or Cotto at 154

By Mark Vester

WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley is ready for all of the big fights at welterweight, including WBC champion Andre Berto, WBO champion Manny Pacquiao or Shane Mosley.

Bradley makes his welterweight debut on July 17 against Carlos Abregu. He is not against fighting any of the big names at 140 either, including Amir Khan, Devon Alexander or Victor Ortiz. After Abregu, his direction depends on the biggest financial opportunity on the table.

"I want all of those fights. I want every last one of those guys. It just has to be right. People think I'm ducking Devon Alexander, I'm not ducking anybody," Bradley said.

"We been trying to get at Khan for while. My promoter was in negotiations with Golden Boy and then phone went dead."

Bradley, and his promoter Gary Shaw are very open to a move to 154-pounds to fight WBA champion Miguel Cotto, who is a small junior middleweight and a former champion at 140. Bradley is right now working his way down to 147 after his weight shot up to a muscular looking 160-plus.

"I hope this will launch me to a big fight [at 147]. If that doesn't happen, I will just keep fighting and continue to win. I think I'll be a lot faster and a lot faster at this weight," Bradley said.

Shaw likes the sound of a Cotto clash at 154-pounds.

"I would make that fight," said an excited Shaw.

 

[heyzel]

Shaw: Golden Boy, Amir Khan Turn Down 140 Tourney

By Mark Vester

Promoter Gary Shaw had a recent meeting with HBO and pitched the idea of a big 140-pound tournament. Based on Shaw's idea, the tournament would include champions Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Amir Khan, and Juan Manuel Marquez - if he beats Juan Diaz next month.

As part of Shaw's idea, he wanted HBO to hold a big press conference where the fighters, or at least two of them, would pick their first round opponent from a hat in a lottery style selection.

According to Shaw, Khan and his promoters Golden Boy Promotions were not interested in being involved.

"If we pulled [the name of] Devon Alexander, then we would fight Devon Alexander. Golden Boy said no. Amir Khan doesn't want to fight anybody. Bradley will fight anybody and to Devon Alexander's credit, he will fight anybody," Shaw said. "We would do it and Devon Alexander would do it."

"As a bonus, I said for the winner of the tournament should get $500,000. A check direct to the fighter."

 

[heyzel]

Marcos Maidana Should Be Punished For Lying, Says Shaw

By Mark Vester

Promoter Gary Shaw is very upset with the recent admission by Marcos Maidana that his back was never injured. Maidana had two scheduled opportunities to fight WBO junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. He withdrew from the first date, scheduled in June, and said his back was injured and he needed more time to recover. A July date was then scheduled and Maidana once again withdrew with a back injury. Bradley will now face Carlos Abregu at 147-pounds on July 17.

Last week Maidana put out a letter where he admitted his back injury was non-existent. He said managerial and promotional problems were the real cause of his withdrawals from the two dates with Bradley.

"[When I found out] I was very angry at Maidana, his management and Golden Boy. To tell all of us and HBO that he's injured and make Timmy sit on the sidelines is just plain wrong. He lied and he should be punished for it," Shaw said.

 

[heyzel]

Is Green too flawed to beat Ward? – Super Six

By Dave Lahr: I want to give Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) at least a small chance of beating World Boxing Association (WBA) super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) when they meet this Saturday night at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. If I hadn’t seen Green’s fights against Edison Miranda and Tarvis Simms, I would think that Green has a very real chance of beating the 26-year-old Ward on Saturday night.


However, I’ve seen those fights and Green looked absolutely horrible in both of the fights. In Green’s fight against Miranda in 2007, Green, for some reason, was staring at his lead left foot for the entire fight. It was the strangest thing. Green would take his eyes of Miranda and look down at his own feet and then stare back up at Miranda. Even when Green was badly hurt in the 10th round from a huge right hand from Miranda, Green still was looking down at his feet.

Green was dropped twice in that round and was on the verge of being stopped at the time the bout ended. It wasn’t the kind of performance that would lead you to believe that Green would have any chance of beating a fighter like Ward. In Green’s fight with Tarvis Simms last year in October 2009, Green looked really sloppy and showed poor technique at times as he threw desperate looking hooks. He was also very hittable and had problems getting out of the way of anything that he was throwing at him.

This fight will be the stage 2 part of the Super Six tournament, but it’s a must win bout for Green. He can’t afford to lose this fight if he wants to make it to the semi finals of the tournament. Ward, on the other hand, has room to lose a fight and still make it o the semi finals. However, he doesn’t plan on losing to Green and putting pressure on himself by having to beat Andre Dirrell, his next opponent in the Super Six tournament.

Green has to show better defensive ability if he wants to beat Ward. If Green can’t block Ward’s shots, then this fight probably won’t go that far because Ward will land a lot more punches than Miranda did in his fight with Green and I kind of doubt that Green’s chin is strong enough for him to take solid right hands and left hooks all night long without him going down.

Green is good at clinching when he’s hurt, I give him that. He didn’t sloppy in clinching after Miranda had him hurt, but I doubt that Green would be able to survive if Ward has him hurt. But Green must find a way to get out of the way of shots because he was getting hit regularly in his last fight against the 38-year-old Simms and looking nothing like any of the Super Six tournament fighters.

Green also looked slower than he was three years ago. It could be that Green, now 30, is starting to show his age. He turns 31 in September and he doesn’t look as fast and as busy as he was back in 2007. That could be a problem for him too. He’s got to be fast and throw a lot of punches to beat Ward.

 

[heyzel]

Can Roach turn Khan into the next Pacquiao?

By William Mackay: With Manny Pacquiao being on the verge of retirement in one or possibly two more fights, trainer Freddie Roach needs a fighter to step in an fill the gap that Pacquiao will be leaving when he retires from boxing. Unfortunately, Roach doesn’t have anyone approaching the ability of Pacquiao except for possibly the 23-year-old Khan. Roach has said that Khan’s skills remind him a lot of Pacquiao and he thinks he can become a star like Pacquiao, but can Roach transform Khan into another Pacquiao in three or four years.


Khan says himself that he’s four years away from his prime, and that time he’ll be at his very best. If Roach is still Khan’s trainer at that point in time will Khan be on the level of Pacquiao or will Khan have been exposed many times by then and relegated to a gate keeper status? Khan can’t get to the level of Pacquiao if he’s put in with soft fighters all his career or ones that are a division below him.

I think Khan can continue to pick up wins that way and make himself better known but it probably won’t improve him much if he’s being matched against older fighters, ones that have no power to test his chin and fighters in the lightweight division. Pacquiao, for the most part, took on the best fighters while he was coming up. Yeah, there’s a lot of fighters that he didn’t fight and he does seem to steered consistently towards more stationary fighters rather than ones that can move and box.

However, Pacquiao has done well against the opposition that he’s been matched against and that’s all you can ask from him. Perhaps the one thing that could prevent Khan from becoming another Pacquiao is his chin. Khan has had problems in the past being able to take hard shots and he failed miserably in the one time he was put in with a fighter that could push a little with Breidis Prescott.

Khan hasn’t had any similar bad experiences since that loss, but then he’s been put in against weaker punchers. At some point, Khan will have to be put in with a fighter that can punch you would think. It’s possibly for Khan to be steered away from punchers his entire career, but it wouldn’t be very easy to do. The one fighter that could be the biggest threat to Khan right now is Marcos Maidana.

But that problem could take care of itself if Maidana is beaten by someone else before Khan is absolutely forced to fight him or risk being stripped. But if Roach wants to turn Khan into another Pacquiao, then he’s going to have to teach Khan how to beat sluggers like Maidana.

That could be the only thing that separates Khan from being as good as Pacquiao and dominating for a lot of years. He’s got to know how to handle a fighter that can punch. We learned nothing from Khan’s win over Paulie Malignaggi on May 15th. They should have matched Khan up with someone that could punch a little so that he could actually learn something instead of wasting time on someone that posed no threat.

 

[heyzel]

Mayweather versus Pacquiao, The Fight to Define an Era

By Sam Owens: Floyd Mayweather Jr (41-0, 25 KO’s), Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s). The most highly anticipated match up so far this century. The mouth watering boxing skills possessed by Mayweather, built together of his electrifying hand speed, pin point precision and a water tight defence, against the ferociously fast Pacquiao, armed with relentless energy and an arsenal that boasts hands quick as lightening and fists with the roar of thunder.


This fight will be worth every word of hype that can be uttered. Any real boxing fan, the world over, knows this is the fight that needs to happen.

Then again there is the matter of the drugs testing issue and all of the controversial questions that this issue arises about both of the fighters. So let’s clear up these arguments first and foremost.

Some recent articles seemingly suggest Floyd cherry picks his opponents and dodges those dangerous fights. Well for one, I believe that the unbeaten former pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr, who has only touched the canvas once (and that being due to a hand injury) in a 41 fight professional career, is afraid of any welterweight that has ever walked the planet. The fact that he has fought and beaten thirteen title holders in his career, a career that includes wins over the likes of Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Oscar De La Hoya and has more recently stopped the unbeaten light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton and then schooled over 12 rounds the dangerous Juan Manuel Marquez and ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley, is evidence that further supports my argument that Floyd does not cherry pick or avoid any fighters.

The argument against Manny Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach seems to be that they tactically approach fighters, perhaps as to fighting them in lower stages of their careers.

This may be suggested as the ‘Pac Man’ fought two opponents that Mayweather had already beaten within recent years. The first opponent in question would be ‘The Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya. At the time Mayweather and De La Hoya fought though, Manny and Oscar were fighting at super feather weight and light middleweight respectively, and so at the time were not considered possible match ups when the fight went ahead. When that Mayweather Versus De La Hoya fight did happen, Floyd won by a controversial split decision, whereas Pacquiao went on to fight Oscar and beat on him so badly that Oscars corner had to throw in the towel in the eighth. The second opponent mentioned is Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton. Once again Mayweathers opponent Hatton and Manny Pacquiao were weights apart and after Mayweathers impressive tenth round stoppage of Hatton, the ‘Hitman’ went on to lose for only the second time in his career and for the first and only time in his favoured light welterweight division, against an on form Manny Pacquiao who won the bout with a crushing second round knock out. These two examples of opponents are not to show how Pacquiao appeared to fair better against former Mayweather opponents, as each Mayweather and Pacquiao have two opposing styles, but is rather to show how Manny rose to the occasion when he did fight previous Mayweather opponents, as these performances would clearly be compared to Floyds efforts against the same fighters. Pacquiao himself has had twelve fights against title holders, with wins over boxing greats such as Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez (of whom Pacquiao fought before Mayweather had) and taught Miguel Cotto a lesson in boxing that he will never forget. These fights prove to me that this fighter and his trainer do not tactically choose their fights.

So it appears evident to me that the issue of drugs testing is not that of cherry picking opponents or of avoidance tactics but is merely for professional reasoning. After all, it is understandable that Mayweathers camp have reasons to believe that Pacquiao may take sports enhancing drugs as Manny has been a champion at so many as seven different weight classes. On the other hand it is understandable that Pacquiao does not want his blood to be withdrawn in such close proximity to the fight as he believes a withdrawal of blood had affected his performance in a previous fight. So in my eyes the arguments over the drugs testing are for professional reasons only.

Now that all of the arguments over drugs testing are pushed aside we come to my main concern. For the sakes of the legacies of both Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao and for the sport of boxing, this clash needs to go ahead now. For if the two were never to meet in the ring, however far each fighter went in their careers, questions would forever arise: Would Floyd of finally lost that 0 record he’s been defending? Would Pacquiao have remained the pound for pound number 1? Who was the best fighter of their generation? The world waited for these questions to be answered through a break down in the original fight deal, through two displays of complete dominance in Mayweather v Mosley and Pacquiao v Clottey that built the anticipation of the match-up to a climax. All the rest of the possible opponents in and around the welterweight division are either too inexperienced for a Mayweather or Pacquiao fight, such as Amir Kahn or Andre Berto, or haven’t had enough big fights to reward such a challenge, which includes the likes of Paul Williams and Devon Alexander. Other contenders and former welterweight kings in Shane Mosley, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto have been eliminated by one or the other of Mayweather and the ‘Pac Man’, or by both in Hatton’s case. A Pacquiao v Cotto rematch has been suggested, I don’t doubt Cotto as a fighter and have the utmost respect for him, but after how easily Pacquiao dealt with him in the first fight I believe for now all other suggestions of possible match ups should be left aside until after maximum effort has been put in to bringing Floyd and Pacquiao in to the same ring. Between Floyd and Manny they have also beaten legends of the division such as Gatti, Judah, De La Hoya, Jose Luis Castillo and effectively retired the majority of these fighters. All of these opponents suggested have either been beaten by ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ or the ‘Pac Man’or are really out of the question, leaving just these two boxing greats to go toe to toe.

Each fighter needs a landmark, defining fight in their career, each boxing era needs a landmark, defining fight to grace the history books and to live on in the memories of fight fans. Just as Jake Lammota v ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson, just as ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard v Roberto Duran and just as ‘The Greatest’ Muhammed Ali v ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier lit up the sport and left their marks on boxing history, making it the sweet science that we know today.

It is time for all of the talking to stop and for the fight, winner takes all.

Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao. The fight to define an era.

 

[heyzel]

What’s Looms in the Future For Kelly Pavlik?

By Kirk Jackson: After his decisive defeat to Sergio Martinez in his most recent fight at middleweight, Kelly Pavlik has decided to move up in weight from 160 pounds, to 168 or 175 pounds. Some are wondering, Why the move up in weight?

There has been talk Pavlik has been having a lot of trouble making it down to the 160 pound weight limit and it may have affected his past performances in the ring.


Another reason is he probably doesn’t want to fight Martinez again, who presents many style problems for Pavlik, being a very quick, elusive southpaw.

The question is going forward, who can Kelly Pavlik fight and be effective against moving up to these higher divisions? Granted he will probably be 2 or 3 tune ups against lesser opposition so he can get better accustomed to the weights, but after that, who can Pavlik face?

Most of the top fighters in the super middleweight division are occupied in the Super Six Tournament and that probably won’t end until late next year, and may even extend further beyond that. One option for Kelly Pavlik is facing the IBF Champion Lucian Bute, who may arguably be the best fighter in the division but lacks the mainstream star recognition. Bute is also a stylistic night mare for Pavlik, as he is just as big as Kelly and he is also a skillful, counter punching, quick southpaw.

Former contender turned gate keeper Edison Miranda also lurks in the division, and a rematch with the brawler could be a good option for Pavlik. Sakio Bika, Brian Vera, guys who may not be elite fighters but have a recognizable name can be solid opportunities for Pavlik at 168.

In the light heavyweight division there is Bernard Hopkins, who handed Pavlik his first defeat, Chad Dawson, another quick southpaw with boxing ability who is a natural 175 pounder, and Glen Johnson, a tough, swarming, iron chinned warrior capable of overwhelming most fighters.

Perhaps Kelly Pavlik will feel stronger in the higher weights but if an older Bernard Hopkins at times was able to rough up and bully Pavlik, then the Youngtown star may have some problems in the future. There is also the dilemma of whether Kelly will change trainers. Perhaps obtaining the services of a trainer that can add more versatility to Kelly’s style, possibly implementing a new style altogether in order to be effective in the higher weights.

 

[heyzel]

Is Ward hated because he beat Kessler?

By Scott Gilfoid: If you take a look at a typical boxing forum or comment section on the net you’ll often notice that WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) takes an abundant amount of criticism from boxing fans related to his win over former World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler last November. Ward is called a dirty fighter because he and Kessler clashed heads a number of times in the fight.


Ward ended up totally schooling Kessler and beating him by an 11 round technical decision in their stage 1 Super Six bout in Oakland, California. Kessler ended up getting caught from the accidental head butts in the fight and fought poorly before and after the cuts. Some boxing fans seem to hate Ward because of his win over Kessler and blame him for the head butts and say he clinches too much.

When you point out that Kessler was coming forward during most, if not all, of the times that they clashed heads, they still don’t want to listen. I think there’s a lot of anger towards Ward because he beat Kessler, a fighter he wasn’t supposed to beat and fans are having a hard time dealing with Ward’s upset still. They’re just going to have to get over it and deal with it.

Ward owned Kessler in that fight from start to finish, and he’s very likely do it again if Kessler is able to make it to the semi finals of the Super Six tournament. I seriously doubt that Kessler will make it that far, though. He’ll probably get eliminated in his next fight against Allan Green in the stage 3 part of the Super Six tournament.

But it seems like some fans can’t forgive Ward for spanking Kessler and handing him a loss. Believe me; the cuts had nothing to do with Kessler losing the fight to Ward. Kessler just didn’t have an inside game and was severely lacking in hand speed as well. As soon as Ward realized that Kessler was slow and couldn’t fight on the inside, the fight was as good as won.

Ward already saw all these things on video before he even fought Kessler, so the fight was already won before the two fighters ever stepped foot in the ring. All Ward did was accomplish out what he had already known in his mind.

I expect a lot of still bitter fans to be rooting against Ward this Saturday night against Allan Green when the two fighters go at it in the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. And I expect there to be some hurt feelings when Ward again dominates another opponents and shows how talented he is. The Kessler fans that angry with Ward need to understand that losing is a part of the game.

Kessler had already been beaten before he entered the Super Six tournament and has been starting to show his age as he enters his early 30s. For this reason, it shouldn’t have to such a shock to the Kessler fans when Ward battered him the way he did. That’s what happens when a fighter gets old and faces a young star. I do think Kessler was briefly able to recapture a last fleeting glimpse of glory when he defeated WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch in his stage 2 Super Six bout last April.

However, father time is going to catch up with Kessler again when he fights Green in his stage 3 tournament bout. I expect Kessler to get dominated and probably knocked out by Green. Kessler then will be drummed out of the Super Six tourney, and will probably be accompanied by Froch after he loses to Arthur Abraham – if ever fights him.

 

[heyzel]

Two months and Haye still hasn’t picked an opponent to fight

By William Mackay: It’s been well over two months now since World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) last fought and Haye still hasn’t selected how his next opponent will be. At this rate, it could be four or five months before Haye fights again. The last we heard from Haye is that he was “resting” from his hard fight with 38-year-old on April 3rd.


Haye dominated Ruiz in that fight and stopped him in the 9th round of a fight that Haye was rarely hit. Haye was supposed to be looking to fight a unification bout against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko next. However, Wladimir has been upset that Haye isn’t stepping up to fight him. Wladimir’s manager Bernd Bonte says that Haye was offered a 50-50 deal with no options, but he still hasn’t taken the offer.

The 50-50 deal was what Haye’s trainer/manager Adam Booth had asked for going in the door for the negotiations. But even though it was reportedly offered to Haye, he has taken Wladimir up on the fight. There’s talk that Haye could fight 38-year-old former 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Audley Harrison at some point in the near future.

This is a fight that only the UK would be interested in seeing, because Harrison doesn’t have a following in the United States and isn’t well thought of by many boxing fans. But it’s a fight that Haye could make a good deal of money if he decides to take it. Right now, it’s anyone’s guess what Haye is going to do but his silence to Wladimir’s offer isn’t a good sign right now.

Haye said he was the new breed of heavyweight and that he was going to shake up the boxing world by taking on the best opponents. Unfortunately, if Haye moves forward and takes on Harrison, you have to believe that Haye is no different from a lot of the past heavyweights that, once in possession of a title, have tended to try and milk their titles for as long as possible against beatable fighters.

Haye hasn’t gotten to that point yet, because he had no choice but to fight John Ruiz in his last fight because he was his mandatory challenger. But if Haye takes on Harrison next, then you might think he’s not willing to take the tough fights that he said he would. If Haye does fight Harrison, he’s going to be really busy after that fighting a rematch against former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, who has a rematch clause in his contract with Haye, and then his mandatory challenger Ruslan Chagaev.

It may be difficult for Haye to find any time to fight either of the Klitschko brothers after that. When Haye first moved up, boxing fans said he was a “breath of fresh air.” My, how things have changed suddenly now that Haye doesn’t appear to fighting Wladimir Klitschko next. In a way, you can’t blame him for wanting to avoid fighting him because Wladimir has the size, and experience advantage.

However, Haye was the one calling Wladimir and his brother Vitali Klitschko out for the longest time, and it looks a little strange that Haye doesn’t want to fight Wladimir after all that talk. But who knows? Haye could come out of his slumber in a month or two and say that he’s ready to fight one of the Klitschko brothers. Let’s hope so, because it’s not going to be interesting to watch Haye fight guys like Harrison, Chagaev and Valuev after all the talking that Haye has done about wanting to fight the Klitschko brothers

 

[heyzel]

Paul Williams moving back down to welterweight, hoping to get fights against Mayweath

By William Mackay: Former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Paul Williams is moving back down to the welterweight division to go after the bigger money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Williams is back moving down to welterweight because he’s been unable to get the big money fights he had been hoping to get when he moved up in weight.


In hindsight, Williams likely would have been much better off had he not moved out of the welterweight division to begin with. By moving up in weight, Williams has given the top welterweights excuses for not fighting him by saying he’s not in the same weight class. Had Williams stayed at welterweight all this time, he would have likely fought Shane Mosley and Andre Berto at the very least.

And he would have been able to put a lot of pressure on Mayweather and Pacquiao to have to fight him if they wanted to be considered the best in the welterweight division. That doesn’t mean that they necessarily would, because Pacquiao chose to fight David Diaz when he was looking for a title at lightweight instead of the two fighters that were considered the best in the division at the time Nate Campbell and Juan Diaz.

And Pacquiao might go after a rematch against WBA junior middleweight in order to snatch an 8th world title. But Cotto isn’t considered the best at junior middleweight; WBC title holder Sergio Martinez is, and he’s not even being mentioned as a possible opponent for Pacquiao. However, Williams would at least have a good chance of fighting Berto. I seriously doubt that Mosley would want to fight Williams, so that fight is probably not going to happen.

On second thought, I’m not so sure that Berto would be eager to fight Williams either. I can see Berto dodging Williams forever without fighting him unless Williams becomes Berto’s mandatory challenger. In that case, Berto would have no choice but to fight him or risk being stripped. I can see that scenario too, because I think Williams would really mess Berto up with his long arms and high punch volume.

The one question that you have to wonder about Williams is how strong he’ll be in moving back down to welterweight. He’s been fighting at 154 and 160 and looking almost skeletal when having to make the 154 limit. If he now has to boil down even lower at 147, it might be the same as it was when Williams was fighting at welterweight previously. He could be weaker and not as effective. But that also could be a good thing because at least he could get fights from some of these guys.

But honestly, I think there’s zero chance of Mayweather or Pacquiao fighting him. Pacquiao is near retirement and is looking to either fight Mayweather for a big money fight or fight either Cotto or Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum probably isn’t going to even consider putting the 5’6” Pacquiao in with the 6’2” Williams for a fight that might not make any more money that Pacquiao’s fight against Joshua Clottey in March.

 

[heyzel]

The Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations need to wrap up soon if they want to be able mar

By Chris Williams: With only five months away from the November fight month that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has designed for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao mega fight, this would be the perfect time for the negotiations to wrap up so that they ‘re management teams can start to market the fight properly. Five months to market the Mayweather-Pacquiao would be ideal, because there would be plenty of time to advertise and get the causal boxing fans interested in this fight in a huge way.


If the negotiations take longer and creep into July, August and September, it could really mess up the ability of Arum and Golden Boy Promotions to sell this fight. Of course, the fight will be hugely successful no matter what, but it will do so much better if they’re able to wrap up the negotiations five months before the fight date, so that they can start building up the momentum for this fight now.

As for the training for the bout, I think Mayweather can be ready for Pacquiao’s style almost immediately. Mayweather is a fighter that can adapt to any style on the fly and come up with a strategy to beat it. He doesn’t need three long months of hard training and strategy sessions to come up with a plan to beat Pacquiao.

Mayweather has such a brilliant boxing mind that he can come up with the perfect plan in an instant without needing a guru like trainer Freddie Roach. Pacquiao, however, is going to need at least three good months of training for him to have even a small chance of beating Mayweather. Roach has to come up with the perfect plan and Pacquiao has to follow it to the letter for Pacquiao to have a chance of beating Mayweather.

Floyd is just too hard to really train for and all the idea that Roach will likely have will probably involve things that Mayweather has already seen many times during his career. Roach will likely give Pacquiao instructions to bum rush Mayweather, throw a lot of right hooks and look to overwhelm him with punches once Manny traps Mayweather near the ropes. In other words, Roach will have Pacquiao do pretty much what he always does in his fights.

If it’s successful, Roach can glow about it afterwards and talk about how he came up with the perfect plan to beat Mayweather, when in all likelihood, it will be the same old thing that Pacquiao does every fight. Pacquiao needs to have more than a plan to beat Mayweather; He needs a lot of luck and he needs Mayweather to do something really stupid like try to fight on the ropes for extended periods of time and try to slug with Pacquiao.

If Manny can catch Mayweather with a big shot like Shane Mosley did in the 2nd round of their fight in May, then Pacquiao would have an excellent chance of stopping Mayweather. Pacquiao won’t run out of gas suddenly like Mosley did and if he does, Pacquiao is young enough to get his second wind almost immediately, unlike Mosley.

 

[heyzel]

Froch on the verge of being eliminated from the Super Six tournament?

William Mackay: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO’s) has been dragging his heels for the past two months ever since he was beaten by Mikkel Kessler by a 12 round unanimous decision on April 24th in his stage 2 Super Six bout. Now, Froch is rejecting venues like their going out of style for his stage 3 Super Six bout against Arthur Abraham and I’m worrying whether the loss did something to Froch’s mind. He doesn’t seem to have the old fearless warrior attitude that he had before his loss to Kessler.


Froch now seems worried about losing instead of bragging about how he’s going to easily beat and knock out his opponents. There’ no more “I’m going to decapitate him” and instead it’s, “I don’t think I can win a decision over there.” They say no one knows yourself better you do. I’m wondering if Froch has got some self doubt lurking around in his head and clouding his thoughts with a negative outlook of him losing by decision to Abraham in this country or that.

Froch doesn’t seem to want the fight to take place in Europe at all unless it takes place in good old Nottingham, England, where Froch lives. But Froch can’t go on rejecting venues forever. He’s going to have to get off the pot and meet Abraham’s people halfway. Instead of rejecting the European locations, Froch needs to find at least one that he is comfortable with and thinks he can get a fair decision. But as far as the fight taking place in Canada, Nottingham or the United States, I think that’s a pipe dream on Froch’s part. He needs to let that go and come to the table with something a little more realistic.

Froch says he doesn’t care about money for this fight, which is why he’s okay with it taking place in Canada or the U.S., where it would likely do poor ticket sales because neither he nor Abraham likely have a big enough fan base to sell out anything but a really small hall. But Sauerland Events, the promoter for Abraham, do want to make money for this fight and they would like to have the fight take place in a location where they can make the most money.

What I would hate is for Froch to end up leaving the tournament because he can’t come with anything more than Nottingham, Canada or the U.S. to fight. And I’d also hate to see Froch get asked to leave. I don’t know if Showtime would ever do this, but you have to wonder what they would do if Froch steadfastly refuses to fight anywhere but those three locals.

I think Froch doesn’t have anything to worry about in terms of losing by a decision to Abraham. I see Froch getting knocked out by one of Abraham’s vicious shots. The loss, of course, would be Froch’s second in his three first round fights in the Super Six tournament. As such, this would mean that Froch would be basically drummed out of the tournament because he wouldn’t make the semi finals. He would move on while Abraham would move up to the next level.

I don’t know how Froch would react being eliminated from the Super Six tournament. Given how seemingly upset he was with his close 12 round decision loss to Kessler, a knockout defeat, especially a bad one, might really mess up Froch’s mind and cause him to start thinking about retirement. Hopefully, he would have it together a little bit and see the loss as nothing to worry about, but I have my doubts that Froch would be able to just put the defeat behind him and move on.

As it is, you can make a strong argument that Froch should have lost both of his Super Six tournament fights, not just his second fight. Froch looked horrible in his stage 1 bout against Andre Dirrell while fighting at home in Nottingham. Froch won the fight by a 12 round split decision, but a tremendous amount of people believe that Dirrell should have won.

 

[heyzel]

You may be seeing more of Yuri Foreman on HBO in the future

Matt Stein: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) may have lost his fight and his WBA title to Miguel Cotto on June 5th at the Yankee Stadium, but in this case both fighters came out a winner in this fight. And Foreman may be the bigger winner because it put him on the map in terms of making him known to the larger boxing public.


Before the Cotto bout, Foreman had fought a handful of bouts on HBO, but hadn’t really been involved in any fights that had him matched against an exciting opponent like Cotto. However, Foreman fought his heart out against Cotto, giving as good as he got for six rounds before his bad right knee gave out on him in the 7th.

Showing great heart, Foreman fought through the pain for another two rounds before the bout was finally stopped in the 9th after Foreman was knocked down by a left to the body. But what makes Foreman an appealing fighter for HBO to show is the way that he brought in the fans for the Cotto fight.

The ratings for this fight was the best of the year for HBO in boxing related fight, and it showed that Foreman has potential to bring in similar numbers in the future against talented opposition. If you look at the fight, Foreman appeared to be the more exciting fighter compared to Cotto because of his ability to jump around like a white Floyd Mayweather Jr., land fast punches and then move away before Cotto could land his own shots.

Foreman’s leg looked like a rag doll by the end of the fight, just hanging there and unable to support his weight sufficiently for him to fight at the same level he was in the first six rounds. Last Friday night, Foreman had his right knee successfully operated on in New York.

The prognosis is that Foreman should be better than ever in six months and ready to resume his career with two good legs instead of one good one. Little do people know that Foreman had been walking around with a bad right knee for the past 14 years since badly injuring it in a bicycle accident at the age of 15.

Because Foreman lacked health insurance, he never got the injury taken care of and instead wore an elastic knee brace to give his bad knee some semblance of support in his fights. It was a problem should have been taken care of years ago and it’s a credit to Foreman that he was able to get this far in his career with only one good knee.

It would have been interesting to imagine how well Foreman would have done against Cotto if he only had taken care of his bad knee years ago instead of letting it go this long and trying to fight on it.

With boxing practically begging for stars, Foreman is on the verge of becoming one of the new stars in the sport. All he needs is one more good fight and he’s there. I think Cotto would do good if he was to give a rematch against Foreman to prove that he can beat Foreman when Yuri is fighting on two good legs without an injury.

I think it would be another successful fight for HBO and boxing fans would likely be very pleased in seeing a rematch. I think this is a far better alternative than seeing Cotto fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or John Duddy

 

[heyzel]

Schaefer thinks that Khan will be the best and richest fighter by the end of 2011 – N

By William Mackay: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer believes that his fighter World Boxing Association junior welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) will be the “best and richest fighter” by the end of 2011, according to the Mirror.co.uk. This is a huge compliment that Schaefer is making towards Khan because Schaefer and Golden Boy Promotions has a number of talented fighters in their stable and ones that are a lot proven against top echelon opposition than Khan is at this early point in his career.


Schaefer is making this prediction off of Khan’s wins over a handful of decent lightweight and light welterweight fighters. Khan still hasn’t proven that he can beat a fighter with huge talent and big power. He failed once in a fight against the slugger Breidis Prescott in a 1st round knockout loss in 2008, and his handlers have been slow in putting him back in with anyone who has any kind of punch.

If Khan can prove that his chin has improved enough to beat fighters like Marcos Maidana, Prescott, Victor Ortiz and Devon Alexander, it would be much easier to understand Schaefer’s extreme optimism about Khan’s future. But right now, Khan is still largely unproven and has a lot of questions still unanswered about him after his loss to Prescott.

Khan recently defeated former IBF junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in an 11th round TKO victory on May 15th, but Malignaggi can’t punch, and seems to have been selected specifically for that reason so as not to be a threat to Khan’s sometimes weak chin.

Schaefer says “Khan, the speed, the power, the commitment – he is the future.” That may be, but it might be a disappointing and frustrating future for boxing fans if Khan is kept away from big punchers and fighters with a high degree of talent like Timothy Bradley and Alexander.

Khan can only go so far being matched up against fighters like Dmitri Salita, Malignaggi and Andriy Kotelnik, you would think. There’s no meat in Khan’s resume right now to get excited in the same way as Schaefer is getting.

If you had matched Bradley, Maidana, Ortiz and Alexander against the same opposition that Khan has been put in with, there would be an excellent chance that they would have an even better record than Khan right now and would be unbeaten.

No doubt that Maidana did lose a 12 round decision to Kotelnik in the past, but the fight took place in Germany where Kotelnik fights, and it appeared to be a win for Maidana in the minds of many boxing fans, including this writer. I think Khan is a good fighter but you can’t really say how good he is until he finally fights someone.

I would tend to want to wait to see how Khan does against Bradley, Alexander and Maidana – if he ever fights any of them – before I would start crowing about how good and how rich Khan will be in the future. That just puts a lot of pressure on Khan before he’s even proven that he can compete, much less win.

I do think that Khan will be a very rich fighter, because he’s making big bank just facing soft punchers like Malignaggi. I guess it doesn’t take a popular opponent for Khan to make a lot of money in the ring. This is kind of like WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, who also gets paid really well even in fights against opponents that aren’t much of a threat to him.

 

[heyzel]

Can Golden Boy Promotions make a star out of Khan by matching him against smaller lig

By Scott Gilfoid: Despite winning the WBA light welterweight title last year against Andriy Kotelnik, Amir Khan appears to be being brought along very slowly by Golden Boy Promotions, who matched him against the light hitting Paulie Malignaggi in his last voluntary title defense of his WBA title.


They could have put Khan in with a much tougher opponent than that by putting him in against WBA junior welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s), who punches very hard and has a high pressure style offense. Instead, Khan got an easy fight against an opponent that can’t punch and who has lost two of his last four fights coming into his bout with Khan.

Now it’s looking like Golden Boy will be trying to set Khan up with one of the following lightweights: John Murray, Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz, Juan Manuel Marquez or John Murray. These are smaller fighters than Khan, who you would assume, would be forced to move up in weight to take Khan on.

Given the track record of Khan being steered around big punchers, it’s not likely that Katsidis will get selected for a fight with Khan. Besides, he would probably want to get paid well to have to move up in weight to take on a champion. Can you blame him? Why move up in weight and take on a bigger fighter, who would have a tremendous advantage because this is his normal fighting weight and not yours.

At any rate, Katsidis probably won’t make the selection. Golden Boy would like to put Khan in with the winner of the July 31st bout between Marquez and Diaz. Marquez and his team already rejected a fight with Khan months ago, so it’s hard to imagine why Golden Boy is still looking to match Khan up with him.

They obviously must know something because Marquez wouldn’t keep getting mentioned if they knew the answer was going to be no again. I suppose Marquez will be paid well enough for him to take the fight against the younger, taller, faster and more powerful Khan.

It does seem kind of disappointing that Khan and his team are looking to match him up against lightweights, in particular an old star like Marquez, who really isn’t the same fighter he once was while fighting at featherweight. He looks much better at that weight than he does at lightweight and he might not get past Diaz on the second try.

A Khan-Diaz fight is hardly an interesting bout because Diaz was totally dominated by Malignaggi, a fighter Khan just stopped. I think a Diaz-Khan fight is clearly better than fights against Murray or Casamayor, but not very appealing when you take in the full picture and realize that Diaz was just beaten by Malignaggi.

Of course, this fight would appeal to fans with short memories and ones that have no real knowledge about boxing. A hardcore boxing fan will see it differently, as another safe fight for Khan. But one has to wonder why Khan isn’t being put in with fighters from his own weight class?

It makes sense that he should fight those guys if he’s to be holding down the belt rather than using his status as champion to lure smaller guys up from lightweight to fight him. It would be so much more interesting to see Khan face light welterweights Maidana, Victor Ortiz, Mike Alvarado or Victor Cayo rather than a much smaller lightweight. And it would be sad if Khan becomes a mega star off of wins over lightweights and light hitting junior welterweights like Malignaggi, Dmitri Salita and Kotelnik.

 

[heyzel]

De La Hoya reveals that Mayweather-Pacquiao contract is almost finalized

By Chris Williams: Oscar De La Hoya spilled the beans about the negotiation status of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight, saying to the Univision television station yesterday “I think right now we are very, very close in finalizing the contracts. I can’t talk right now in detail about the negotiations but I can say that we are very close.” If the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight can be made, it would be possibly be the biggest fight in boxing history with both fighters making tens of millions each for the historic fight.


The only bad thing about that, however, is that boxing fans would be forced to pay $60 to see it on pay-per-view and it would likely be filled with a lot of boring, one-sided mismatches on the undercard. The last two Top Rank undercards at Yankee Stadium and the Cowboy Stadiums didn’t exactly have interesting undercard fights. I would hope that maybe Arum could match his Top Rank fighters against some top Golden Boy promoted fighters instead of pitting his fighters against each other on the undercard. It would be nice to see some different fighters for a change instead of seeing the same fighters that were on the last two cards. I’d like to some quality fights for a change instead of watching one massacre after another while waiting for the main even between Pacquiao and Mayweather.

This is a lot more info than what we’ve been receiving by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who handles Pacquiao. Mayweather hasn’t said a word about what’s going on and neither has his adviser Leonard Ellerbe. Arum wanted there to be a freeze on revealing the negotiation status with the media because of the failure to put together a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao last time they attempted to negotiate a fight in January and February 2010.

But it’s hardly the media’s fault that the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight didn’t get made last time out. It was more of a result of Mayweather and Pacquiao not agreeing about the blood testing methods for the fight for the drug testing that Mayweather wanted. There was nothing that could be done when Pacquiao didn’t want to meet Mayweather’s request of a 14 day cutoff rather than sticking to the 24 days he wanted as the cutoff for the testing.

Also, Arum and Pacquiao seemed to be in too big of a hurry to conclude the negotiations and hastily quit negotiations to take a fight against another Top Rank fighter Joshua Clottey. That fight didn’t do all that well on pay-per-view and seemed out of place at the huge Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. It looked like a mismatch going into the fight and ended up being just as much a mismatch as many people thought it would be, even though Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach kept saying it would be a more appealing fight than a Mayweather bout. That was quickly proven wrong when Clottey stationed himself against the ropes early on in the fight and pretty much stayed there, covering up and doing little to fight back for 12 rounds.

 

[408mobsta]

Casamayor, Guerrero to face off

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By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Archive

When lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez and former titleholder Juan Diaz meet July 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in a rematch of the 2009 fight of the year, they will have a strong supporting cast on the undercard.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who vowed when the fight was announced in May to deliver a worthy undercard for the $49.95 HBO PPV show, believes he has done that with the addition Wednesday of a junior welterweight fight between Joel Casamayor and Robert Guerrero, both former two-division titleholders.

Casamayor-Guerrero, a scheduled 10-rounder at a maximum contract weight of 139 pounds, rounds out the four-fight telecast that will include Marquez-Diaz II, 2009 ESPN.com prospect of the year Daniel Jacobs facing Russia's Dmitry Pirog for a vacant middleweight title and a lightweight bout between former two-division titlist Jorge Linares and perennial contender Rocky Juarez.

"I made a promise to the 'Fight Freaks' that this would be a freak card and I think I've delivered that," Schaefer told ESPN.com. "I love Casamayor against Guerrero. It's a big step up for Guerrero and a big opportunity for Casamayor. It's one of those true crossroads fights. We have Linares-Juarez done and we have Jacobs fighting an undefeated fighter for a world title. I think the rematch of the fight of the year has become more than just that. I think it's going to be the night of the year."

Schaefer had been working on Casamayor-Guerrero for a couple of weeks. The Guerrero camp was on board, but the talks were tabled when Casamayor emerged as a possible opponent for junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan, whom Golden Boy also promotes. Khan was considering a summer fight in England, but when he decided to wait until later in the year for his next bout, the Casamayor-Guerrero talks resumed.

"We are finalizing the contract, but we have an agreement by e-mail and have agreed on all the deal points," Schaefer said.

The 38-year-old Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KOs) is a former lightweight and junior lightweight champion. Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), 27, is a former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist who recently moved up to the lightweight division. Now, he'll be adding a few more pounds to accommodate Casamayor, who has fought only once since losing the lightweight title on an 11th-round knockout to Marquez in September 2008. In his one bout since, Casamayor, a 1992 Cuban Olympic gold medalist who later defected, won an eight-round decision against Jason Davis in November fighting as a welterweight.

"Joel is a veteran and he wanted a bigger fight. He wanted Khan," manager Luis DeCubas Jr. told ESPN.com. "But if it's not Khan, he'll fight Guerrero. I think we're in a different league than Guerrero. Robert is a great young fighter, but he's never been in there with anyone like Joel. He's real green. We'll go through Guerrero first and then we'll go get Khan or (junior welterweight titleholder Timothy) Bradley, or anyone else."

Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), of Gilroy, Calif., returned from an eight-month layoff for an eighth-round knockout of Robert Arrieta in a lightweight fight on April 30. He had been out of the ring while caring for his wife, Casey, who is battling leukemia but is doing better.

New York's Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs) and Pirog (16-0, 13 KOs), whose fight was made earlier this month, meet for the 160-pound belt recently stripped from Sergio Martinez.

Golden Boy signed Venezuela's Linares (28-1, 18 KOs), a former featherweight and junior lightweight titleholder, with much fanfare last fall, but in a fight already scheduled before he signed, Linares lost his 130-pound belt when Juan Carlos Salgado knocked him out in the first round in October in a major upset.

Linares rebounded with a more-difficult-than-expected majority decision win against Francisco Lorenzo in March to set up the July fight, his first in the United States since a 2007 featherweight title bout.

Houston's Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KOs) faces perhaps his last chance in a significant fight. The 2000 U.S. Olympian, who is 0-5-1 in world title bouts at featherweight and junior lightweight, has lost two in a row and is 1-3-1 in his last five fights.

"I think to have Linares back [fighting in the U.S.] and fighting a credible opponent like Rocky, I think it's a big test for Linares, and it's high noon for Rocky," Schaefer said. "It's a very interesting matchup."

In the main event, Mexico's Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs), coming off a decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September, returns to defend the lightweight title against Diaz, who is coming off a decision loss to Paulie Malignaggi in a December junior welterweight bout.

In February 2009, Marquez went to Diaz's hometown of Houston and knocked him out in the ninth round of a bloody brawl that was widely acclaimed as the fight of the year, including by ESPN.com, Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.


what do u all think of ghost vs joel????

 

[408mobsta]

ghost use to work out with Casamayor at the wild card gym so they kno each other well...big fight...

 

[2-0-Sixx]

^^interesting strategy.

Ghost should fuck him up though regardless, being that Casa is getting old and fighting in a weight class he shouldn't be fighting in. He's a vet though so he'll put up a good fight for the first half of the fight I reckon.

Turned out to be a sold ass card too, tempted to order this PPV..




Joel Casamayor, Robert Guerrero to face off at 139 pounds.
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Archive

When lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez and former titleholder Juan Diaz meet July 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in a rematch of the 2009 fight of the year, they will have a strong supporting cast on the undercard.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who vowed when the fight was announced in May to deliver a worthy undercard for the $49.95 HBO PPV show, believes he has done that with the addition Wednesday of a junior welterweight fight between Joel Casamayor and Robert Guerrero, both former two-division titleholders.

Casamayor-Guerrero, a scheduled 10-rounder at a maximum contract weight of 139 pounds, rounds out the four-fight telecast that will include Marquez-Diaz II, 2009 ESPN.com prospect of the year Daniel Jacobs facing Russia's Dmitry Pirog for a vacant middleweight title and a lightweight bout between former two-division titlist Jorge Linares and perennial contender Rocky Juarez.

"I made a promise to the 'Fight Freaks' that this would be a freak card and I think I've delivered that," Schaefer told ESPN.com. "I love Casamayor against Guerrero. It's a big step up for Guerrero and a big opportunity for Casamayor. It's one of those true crossroads fights. We have Linares-Juarez done and we have Jacobs fighting an undefeated fighter for a world title. I think the rematch of the fight of the year has become more than just that. I think it's going to be the night of the year."

Schaefer had been working on Casamayor-Guerrero for a couple of weeks. The Guerrero camp was on board, but the talks were tabled when Casamayor emerged as a possible opponent for junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan, whom Golden Boy also promotes. Khan was considering a summer fight in England, but when he decided to wait until later in the year for his next bout, the Casamayor-Guerrero talks resumed.

"We are finalizing the contract, but we have an agreement by e-mail and have agreed on all the deal points," Schaefer said.

The 38-year-old Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KOs) is a former lightweight and junior lightweight champion. Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), 27, is a former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist who recently moved up to the lightweight division. Now, he'll be adding a few more pounds to accommodate Casamayor, who has fought only once since losing the lightweight title on an 11th-round knockout to Marquez in September 2008. In his one bout since, Casamayor, a 1992 Cuban Olympic gold medalist who later defected, won an eight-round decision against Jason Davis in November fighting as a welterweight.

"Joel is a veteran and he wanted a bigger fight. He wanted Khan," manager Luis DeCubas Jr. told ESPN.com. "But if it's not Khan, he'll fight Guerrero. I think we're in a different league than Guerrero. Robert is a great young fighter, but he's never been in there with anyone like Joel. He's real green. We'll go through Guerrero first and then we'll go get Khan or (junior welterweight titleholder Timothy) Bradley, or anyone else."

Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), of Gilroy, Calif., returned from an eight-month layoff for an eighth-round knockout of Robert Arrieta in a lightweight fight on April 30. He had been out of the ring while caring for his wife, Casey, who is battling leukemia but is doing better.

New York's Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs) and Pirog (16-0, 13 KOs), whose fight was made earlier this month, meet for the 160-pound belt recently stripped from Sergio Martinez.

Golden Boy signed Venezuela's Linares (28-1, 18 KOs), a former featherweight and junior lightweight titleholder, with much fanfare last fall, but in a fight already scheduled before he signed, Linares lost his 130-pound belt when Juan Carlos Salgado knocked him out in the first round in October in a major upset.

Linares rebounded with a more-difficult-than-expected majority decision win against Francisco Lorenzo in March to set up the July fight, his first in the United States since a 2007 featherweight title bout.

Houston's Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KOs) faces perhaps his last chance in a significant fight. The 2000 U.S. Olympian, who is 0-5-1 in world title bouts at featherweight and junior lightweight, has lost two in a row and is 1-3-1 in his last five fights.

"I think to have Linares back [fighting in the U.S.] and fighting a credible opponent like Rocky, I think it's a big test for Linares, and it's high noon for Rocky," Schaefer said. "It's a very interesting matchup."

In the main event, Mexico's Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs), coming off a decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September, returns to defend the lightweight title against Diaz, who is coming off a decision loss to Paulie Malignaggi in a December junior welterweight bout.

In February 2009, Marquez went to Diaz's hometown of Houston and knocked him out in the ninth round of a bloody brawl that was widely acclaimed as the fight of the year, including by ESPN.com, Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.