In a bout that should have taken place a few years ago, Jorge Arce scored a one body punch knockout over Martin Castillo in a battle of former world champions in Tepic, Mexico.

The bout was a scheduled yen round Bantamweight bout.

The first round was non-descript until Arce placed a left hand to the body of Castillo and Castillo stayed on all fours until the referee counted ten at 2:56 of round one.

Arce, 120 lbs of Los Mochis, Mexico is now 55-6-1 with forty-two knockouts. Castillo, 120 lbs is now 35-4.

Juan Alberto Rosas won the IBF Jr. Bantamweight title with a sixth round stoppage over defending champion Simphiwe Nongqayi.

The fight was an entertaining battle until Rosas Dropped Nongqayi from a barrage of punches in the sixth. The corner Nongqayi stopped the bout at thirty seconds of round six.

Rosas is now 32-6 with twenty-seven knockouts. Nongqayi of East London, South Africa is now 16-1.

In a battle of pro debuters, Luis Lugo scored three knockdown en route to third round stoppage over Roberto Morales.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

LAS VEGAS – In the beginning, the arena looked like a vacant warehouse. The Mandalay Bay Events Center felt empty. It didn’t stay that way.

A crowd began to gather, maybe to escape the recession, or the desert heat, or the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao talks. There’s a lot to run from these days. But a good main event isn’t among them. Juan Manuel Marquez’ unanimous decision over Juan Diaz Saturday night wasn’t one of the best, not even as a rematch.

But it was an attraction in a year without many. Or any. It also was a good example of a fan base hungry for a real fight instead of just talk about one that has yet to happen and perhaps never will.

“If I never hear another word about whether Pacquiao will fight Mayweather, that’s fine with me,’’ said Rudy Perez, a Los Angeles fan who was one of 8,383 who began to fill the Mandalay Bay arena not long before opening bell for the rematch of Marquez’ stoppage of Diaz in the 2009 Fight of the Year. “I just wanted to see a couple of good fighters, good guys, really fight. I’m so sick of all that bull.’’

After his one-sided victory over Diaz, Marquez couldn’t resist talking about Pacquiao. He still wants a third shot at the Filipino Congressman, who has quit talking about Mayweather and apparently has an agreement to fight Antonio Margarito on Nov. 13.

“Everybody wants that trilogy,’’ said Marquez, who lobbied to keep himself in line for rich shot at Pacquiao if a licensing problem in the United States or some other issue knocks Margarito out of the November date. “It’s the one fight I want.’’

Perez is skeptical that Marquez will ever get that opportunity. So, too, is Golden Boy Promotions, the Oscar De La Hoya company that promotes the Mexican lightweight champion. In two fights, Marquez has been more of threat to Pacquiao than anybody since Erik Morales beat the Filipino in their first bout.

“Pacquiao should fight him,’’ Perez said. “But he won’t. No way that happens.’’

The good news is that Marquez probably will fight somebody as soon as he can. He’ll be there in the ring when there is only talk, rumors and denials on message boards.

LAS VEGAS – A trip to the hospital is no victory.

But that’s about all Jean Paul Mendy won in a scary moment Saturday night against Sakio Bika before the Juan Diaz-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch at Mandalay Bay.

Mendy was hospitalized for tests and observation after Bika was disqualified for hitting him while he was down on one knee 79 seconds after the opening bell of a super-middleweight bout.

“He put his life on the line,’’ Michael Bazan of the Mendy promotional team said.

Mendy was face down for several seconds after Bika threw an uppercut that landed like a baseball bat. Mendy never saw it coming. He was on one knee, dazed, after he had been rocked by an overhand right from Bika.

Mendy, a stationary target, was looking down at the canvas when Bika wound up and delivered the uppercut. Mendy, declared the victor by disqualification, had to be helped onto a stool.

“I’m really disappointed,’’ Bika said through a member of the publicity staff for Golden Boy Promotions. “I was very excited. I didn’t see him go to a knee.’’

It looked as if Bika would win easily in a 12-round eliminator for a shot at the International Boxing Federation title held by Lucian Bute of Montreal.

“We’re happy at the official call,’’ Gabriel Gaide, also of Mendy’s promotional team, said. “But I don’t want him winning that way. Jean Paul came to fight the right way.’’

Mendy didn’t come for the money. His purse was $12,000, according to Bazan, who said most of that went for expenses. Bazan said Mendy was fighting only for an opportunity that didn’t include a doctor’s bill.
No Maidana for Ortiz

Surfing has taught junior-welterweight Victor Ortiz something about boxing. Fights are like waves. There’s always another one.

Ortiz, a surfer when not in the gym, expressed disappointment Saturday at not getting a rematch against Marcos Maidana on Sept. 18 on the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora card at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

But Ortiz — who has boxing gloves and his nickname, Vicious, inscribed on to his surfboard — was already looking forward, toward the horizon, for another opportunity. Maidana is gone, but it looks as if Vivian Harris will be there. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said Harris, a former World Boxing Council champion

“Sept. 18 was supposed be about a fight with Maidana,’’ Ortiz said at Mandalay Bay before Diaz-Marquez. “He turned it down.’’

Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya said Ortiz was anxious for some redemption in a rematch with Maidana, who scored a stunning 6th-round stoppage of Ortiz in 2009.

“I know the truth and Victor knows it too,’’ said De La Hoya, who also introduced Mosley, Mora, and emerging Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. “He wants to redeem himself.’’

But Ortiz talked as if he only wants to continue his career, which has proceeded with three successive victories after Maidana. Questions about his will have lingered since the loss. Some in the media said Ortiz quit in the fight and that perhaps it’s time to leave the ring for the beach.

“Why retire?’’ said Ortiz, who promises that one loss didn’t wipe out the potential he displayed a few years ago. “I’m only 23.’’
NOTES, QUOTES

· Alvarez, a Guadalajara welterweight called the Mexican James Dean by Schaefer, is expected to face former WBC champ Carlos Baldomir on the Mosley-Mora undercard, which is being marketed as a celebration of the 200-year anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.

· WBC light-heavyweight champion Chad Dawson also met with the media Saturday to talk about his Aug. 14 against Jean Pascal on Pascal’s home ice in Montreal. “It’s my coming out party,’’ Dawson said of his appearance on HBO and an expected capacity crowd at Montreal’s Bell Centre.

· And Arizona’s tough immigration law continues to be a hot talking point among Mexican and Mexican-American boxers. De La Hoya told 15rounds.com Wednesday that he saw “racism” in the state’s controversial law, SB 1070. Mora wasn’t asked about the law at Saturday’s news conference. But he ripped it anyway. “Lots of ignorant laws are being passed in Arizona,’’ Mora said. “There’s a lot of bigotry and latent racism being expressed down there.’’

LAS VEGAS – It was entertaining as a one-sided fight could be, but finally, “The Rematch” was a one-sided fight. Blame it on Marquez’s class – the ageless type.

Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, in a rematch of 2009’s Fight of the Year, Mexico City’s Juan Manuel Marquez (51-5-1, 37 KOs) and Houston’s Juan Diaz (35-4, 17 KOs) squared up to determine the lineal lightweight champion of the world. Twelve rounds later, it was the same guy as it was when the night began, with Marquez winning by unanimous decision scores of 116-112, 118-110 and 117-111.

The 15rounds.com scorecard concurred, scoring it 118-110 for Marquez.

Diaz’s strategy, to box and keep his weight from falling over his front foot, was a sound one for survival. But starting in round 1, and with only a brief exception in rounds 2 and 3, it was not a strategy that would ever bring him victory.

For his part, Marquez was the same master craftsman he has always been, riddling Diaz with left uppercut-right cross-left uppercut combinations whenever the younger man’s enthusiasm brought him within range. The rest of the time, Diaz was safe, but he wasn’t in the fight.

Afterwards, Diaz hinted at the possibility of his retirement, saying he still wasn’t sure about his future and thanking his hometown of Houston for its undying support.

Marquez, meanwhile, addressed the possibility of a rubber match with pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao, after his victory.

“I think the third fight with Pacquiao is the one the aficionados want,” Marquez said. “And it’s the best thing for the fans.”

Class tells: Pirog ruins Jacobs
Golden Boy Promotions’ eye for talent has been questioned often since its inception. What Russian Dmitry Pirog did to Golden Boy prospect Daniel “Golden Child” Jacobs in the co-main event of “The Rematch” will make such questions all the more prevalent.

Pirog (17-0, 14 KOs) outclassed Jacobs (20-1, 17 KOs) in each round, using fundamental boxing to solve the speedy Brooklynite, before catching him flush with a perfect right cross, knocking Jacobs out cold at 0:57 of the fifth round to become the WBO middleweight champion of the world.

After a fairly even opening stanza, round 2 began with Pirog marching forward behind a right cross and extremely efficient footwork, entirely neutralizing Jacobs’ reflexes. Then Jacobs wisely began the third on his bicycle, circling away from Pirog, fighting part of the round as a southpaw and regaining his composure. Round four, too, passed in a somewhat even fashion.

Pirog came out in the fifth, however, backed Jacobs to the ropes and waited for him to start a tentative punch. At that moment, Pirog stepped fully into a right cross that landed on Jacobs’ chin and dropped him to the blue mat in a pile. Referee Robert Byrd wisely forwent his 10-count, waving an immediate conclusion to the fight.

Guerrero brushes away “Cepillo”

Boxing may never know Joel Casamayor’s true age, but Saturday it learned how old he now is: Too old.

In a junior welterweight scrap some in Mandalay Bay’s Events Center hoped would be competitive, California’s Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (27-1-1, 18 KOs) easily decisioned Cuban Joel “El Cepillo” Casamayor (37-5-1, 22 KOs) by lopsided unanimous scores of 98-89, 98-89 and 97-90.

Down in each of the match’s first two rounds and penalized a point for holding, the previously resilient Casamayor looked old and spent, Saturday, as Guerrero hurt him with every landed left hand. In round 2, a Guerrero left cross even stunned Casamayor to the point of dropping both gloves and looking around in disbelief before rallying to wrap his arms round Guerrero’s trunks.

Never a strict adherent to the Queensbury rules, Casamayor looked particularly sad in his opening six minutes against Guerrero, when he was reduced to fouling to survive rather than win.

After such a shaky start, though, Casamayor, whose chin has never been doubted, found enough of his stride to give Guerrero quality rounds. Still, a Guerrero left hand or two seemed to buckle Casamayor’s old knees in almost every round.

But as the fight progressed, and Casamayor threw more punches, Guerrero began to holster his left hand, gradually sapping the match of its emotion. By the ninth round, a few vocal fans began to boo the action in the ring while the large majority of the Events Center crowd expressed its displeasure with abject silence.

The final stanza, though, saw Guerrero over-commit to a left hand and impale himself on Casamayor’s outstretched right glove. But the suspense passed quickly when Guerrero rose and boxed to a comfortable victory.

Linares plays bus driver, takes Juarez to school

Venezuelan Jorge Linares literally towered over Houston’s Rocky Juarez at Friday’s weigh-in. Saturday night, Linares towered over him figuratively too.

In the first fight of “The Rematch’s” pay-per-view telecast, Linares (29-1, 18 KOs) easily decisioned Juarez (28-7-1, 20 KOs) over 10 one-sided rounds to win the WBA’s vacant lightweight title by unanimous scores of 99-90, 97-92 and 99-90.

The fight began as Juarez fights always do, with Juarez doggedly chasing his opponent, eating punches and unable to let his own hands go. Linares, who would look nimble in the ring with anyone, looked positively balletic across from the heavy-footed Juarez. Snapping jabs and dancing away, Linares gave Juarez a boxing lesson in the fight’s first four rounds.

Towards the end of round 5, Linares landed one of many left uppercuts, and this one caused Juarez to stumble backwards and drop to the blue mat, a place one rarely finds him. Unable to hurt Linares and now worried that Linares might hurt him, Juarez, who’s hesitant even when he’s winning, began trading two Linares uppercuts for his every landed jab – a formula destined to fail.

What few vocal fans there were gave a number of halfhearted “Rocky, Rocky” chants as the fight progressed, and Juarez’s eyes continued to close, but the arena was otherwise silent enough for the bell to cause echoes at the end of each round.

The final round saw most of the fight’s sustained action, but those three minutes did not feature nearly enough pressure from Juarez to undo the 27 minutes that preceded them. The problem for Juarez, finally, is not just that he is now 0-6 in world title fights. It’s that he’s losing by larger margins in his every subsequent challenge.

Undercard

It was a case of dog attacks man in “The Rematch’s” final off-television match, as undefeated junior welterweight Los Angeleno Frankie “The Pit Bull” Gomez (5-0, 5 KOs) went through Minnesota’s Ronald Peterson (2-3, 2 KOs) without a modicum of resistance. A Gomez left hook to Peterson’s liver ended the match at 2:14 of round 1, when Peterson chose not to continue.

The fourth match on the untelevised undercard might well have been its best, as unheralded Mexican lightweight Juan Manuel Montiel (6-3-1, 1 KO) swapped blows and taunts with Nevadan Mike Peralta (4-6, 1 KO) in a well-matched six-round bout, which Montiel won by unanimous scores of 58-55, 60-53 and 58-55.

Despite spitting blood for half the fight and appearing fatigued throughout, Peralta nevertheless entertained the local crowd with his heart and will. Finally, though, Montiel had too much class, and the judges did not see the fight competitive as fans did.

The night’s third bout came to a rapid and ugly end when Australian Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KOs) fouled undefeated and unarmed Frenchman Jean Paul Mendy (29-0-1, 16 KOs) at 1:19 of the first round of their IBF super middleweight eliminator, losing by disqualification and bringing some well-deserved hostility from the desert crowd.

In a maneuver disappointingly reminiscent of a different super middleweight – Arthur Abraham and his right hand to a kneeling Andre Dirrell in March – Bika knocked Mendy to the canvas and then stepped forward and fired a point-blank right uppercut at the defenseless Frenchman. Mendy, who had almost no power to speak of while upright, tilted forward and landed on his own forehead. Referee Joe Cortez called an immediate end to the match.

Mendy was later able to walk from ringside unassisted.

At Friday’s weigh-in, ESPN commentator (and cruiserweight contender) BJ Flores said the man to watch on Saturday’s undercard was a Brit by the name of George Groves. Flores was right. Accompanied to ringside by heavyweight titlist David Haye and favoring a left hook-right cross combination, Groves (10-0, 8 KOs) chopped away at Mexican Afredo Contreras (11-8-1, 5 KOs) until a somewhat early intervention by referee Russell Mora halted the match at 0:48 of the sixth round.

While Contreras did not appear to be in any trouble, and never went down, Groves, for his part, appeared to be committing fully to each of the right crosses with which he tagged Contreras with increasing frequency.

Before that, “The Rematch” got off to a quick and violent start Saturday afternoon as Maryland heavyweight Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell (18-0-1, 12 KOs) went directly through overmatched Philadelphian Derek Bryant (20-6-1, 17 KOs), stopping him at 1:45 of the first round.

After firing a succession of left hooks to Bryant’s body, Mitchell went upstairs with lefts and rights to the head and continued his assault till referee Kenny Bayless had seen enough.

The opening bell rang on a sparse Events Center crowd at 2:40 PM local time.

Photo by Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos

Jr. Welterweight prospect Danny Garcia remained undefeated by stopping Jorge Romero in round nine of a scheduled round fight in Cancun, Mexico.

Garcia boxed very well as he picked his spots over the course of the bout. Garcia started focusing on the body through the middle rounds. In round nine, Garcia landed a perfect left hook to the jaw that viciously dropped Romero to the canvas. Romero was able to continue to only eat a barrage of punches that had the referee quickly stop the fight.

Garcia, 143 lbs of Philadelphia is now 18-0 with twelve knockouts. Romero, 142 lbs of Culican, Mexico is now 17-3.

Ashley Theophane scored a controversial majority decision over former world title challenger Delvin Rodriguez in a ten round Welterweight bout at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma.

Rodriguez seemed to control the first half of the fight, mostly with his jab while mixing in some right hands. Theophane came on a bit late and had good spots over the last four rounds but it seemed like Rodriguez had easily banked enough rounds to get the nod.

When the scores were read, Rodriguez was stunned to hear 95-95, 96-94 and 96-94 for Theophane as the crowd and ESPN 2 broadcast team as it looked like Rodriguez should have had his hands raised for the win.

Theophane, 147 1/2 lbs of London, England is now 27-4-1. Rodriguez, 148 1/2 lbs of Danbury, CT is now 25-5-2

Francisco Sierra battered and bloodied previously undefeated Don George in a scheduled ten round Super Middleweight bout.

George had a good first minute of the fight and it was completely downhill from there when what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow hit George and blood began to leak from his nostrils. In round two, George was rocked from a big right hand that had George stumbling across the ring. The fight was never competitive after that.

In round six, Sierra continued to rock George all over the ring and blood was now all over the face of the native of Chicago. In round seven, Sierra landed a huge right that sent George to the canvas. At the end of round seven, Sierra landed a crushing left-right combination that sent George to the deck for a second time. Referee Gary Ritter correctly ruled that the second punch came after the bell. George was in bad shape as he had to be helped to his corner.

After a deliberation, Ritter ruled to take two points away from Sierra and then went to the score cards.

Sierra, 170 1/4 lbs of Tepic, Mexico won by scores of 69-62, 69-62 and 68-63 to raise his record to 22-3. George, 167 lbs of Chicago is now 20-1-1

LAS VEGAS – This town might be only a little bit closer to Houston than it is to Mexico City on a map, but if a town’s heart can be measured, this one’s a lot closer to Chilango than Houstonian. Or so it sounded Friday afternoon.

That was when Mexico City lightweight world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs) took the scale with Houston’s Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KOs) in Mandalay Bay’s Events Center before a small but enthusiastically partisan-Marquez crowd.

As the challenger in Saturday’s fight, which is being billed simply as “The Rematch,” Diaz was first to be weighed. Looking relaxed and customarily fit, if a little soft, Diaz marked the lightweight limit on the nose, weighing 135 pounds for his first fight since two ill-advised trips to 140 last year.

Those fights, of course, came after his knockout loss in 2009’s Fight of the Year against Marquez a couple Februaries ago. Marquez, meanwhile, appeared both the taller and more muscular fighter, Friday, marking a well-defined 133 1/2 pounds.

If the Mandalay Bay crowd favored Marquez, so too did most boxing insiders milling about the stage during the weigh-in for Marquez-Diaz II. Though all gave Diaz a chance at an upset, knowledgeable fighters such as Shane Mosley and BJ Flores confidently predicted victories for the lightweight champion of the world.

Also taking the stage were Golden Boy Promotions fighters and partners. Michael Katsidis, David Haye, Amir Khan, Bernard Hopkins, and of course Oscar De La Hoya all greeted gathered fans.

LINARES TOWERS OVER JUAREZ
First on the Events Center scale Friday were Venezuelan lightweight standout Jorge Linares (28-1, 18 KOs) and perennial Houston contender Rocky Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KOs). Though Linares weighed only a half pound more than Juarez – 132 1/2 to Juarez’s 132 – he appeared to have significant physical advantages over the Texan. And the advantages didn’t stop there.

While Juarez has made unsuccessful challenges in five world title fights – all happening at or below the super-featherweight limit of 130 pounds – Linares sported a 4-0 (4 KOs) record in championship matches until a shocking first-round knockout to Mexican Juan Carlos Salgado last October.

Is Linares’ chin suspect? That is a question Juarez will have to ask early and often, Saturday, if he is to pull the upset in a fight most are only giving him a “puncher’s chance” of winning.

GUERRERO AND CASAMAYOR JAW THEN EMBRACE
Following a quiet run-up to his Saturday showdown with California lightweight Robert Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), Cuba’s Joel Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KOs) briefly returned to form on Friday’s stage. After he’d made 138 pounds and Guerrero had made 138 1/2, Casamayor stepped into Guerrero’s chest and began speaking his trademark Spanish – which always features a Cuban rhythm and is often seasoned with unthinkable vulgarity.

After exchanging a few unfriendly phrases, though, the fighter’s made nice and embraced before leaving the Events Center.

Also making weight Friday were undefeated middleweights Danny Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs), from New York, and Dmitry Pirog (16-0, 13 KOs), from Russia. In Saturday’s co-main event, Jacobs and Pirog will swap blows for the WBO’s vacant middleweight belt.

MOSLEY MAKES AN EARLY PACQUIAO PREDICTION
Receiving the largest ovation of any Golden Boy Promotions dignitary, Friday, was future hall of famer Sugar Shane Mosley. After exiting stage right, Mosley, cordial as ever, posed for photos and gave impromptu interviews that included, among other things, some details about his recent made-for-television match with NBA great Shaquille O’Neal – a fight in which, apparently, Mosley buckled the 350 pounder.

When asked for a prediction on rival promoter Top Rank’s upcoming fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito – the Mexican prizefighter Mosley knocked out 18 months ago – Mosley was initially reticent, sticking to the old cliché about styles making fights. Asked on whom he would bet the proverbial house, though, Mosley opened up slightly.

“Bet the house?” he said. “Probably Pacquiao.”

COVERAGE OF THE REMATCH
Saturday’s card will feature nine bouts. Four of them will be broadcast on the pay-per-view portion of “The Rematch.” 15rounds.com will have full ringside coverage.

Photo by Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos

LAS VEGAS – Shane Mosley likes to play basketball when he isn’t pounding a heavy bag. He did a little bit of both a few weeks ago.

Mosley got into the ring against Shaquille O’Neal, who is as big as a collection of heavy bags these days and just about as quick.

“It was fun,’’ Mosley said of his appearance on Shaq Vs., which is expected to be shown on ABC within a couple of weeks.

Mosley wouldn’t say who won the mock fight, which was filmed in Las Vegas on July 10. The pick-and-roll might have been his most effective combination.

O’Neal, who lost a mock decision to Oscar De La Hoya a couple of years ago, hasn’t been able to step up and defend against that fundamental combo since he left the Miami Heat for the Phoenix Suns and then the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But Mosley sounded as though he was relieved that his next opponent will be Sergio Mora instead of O’Neal on Sept. 18 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Mosley’s punches were enough to rock Floyd Mayweather Jr. in an eventual loss on May 1. But those same blows apparently didn’t have much impact on the 7-foot-2 O’Neal, who is big enough to slam-dunk Mosley.

“He gave me a couple of big shoves,’’ said Mosley, who must have felt like a point guard tossed around like a rag doll after just one push.

Mosley is scheduled to appear at a news conference for the formal announcement of the fight against Mora today at Mandalay Bay before the Juan Diaz-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch. Then, Mosley is expected to begin training, which won’t include O’Neal as a sparring partner.

Among other possibilities, Mosley would like to keep himself in line for a shot against Manny Pacquiao, who is headed for fight against Antonio Margarito on Nov. 13.

Margarito appears to be closer to getting a license for a fight in the United States. According to AOL’s Fanhouse and the Los Angeles Times, the California State Athletic Commission will hear an appeal on Aug. 18 from Margarito, whose California license was revoked for one year after altered hand wraps were discovered at Staples Center before his loss to Mosley in January 2009.

The Nevada commission told Margarito to face California regulators before it would consider his application for a fight. It’s not clear whether there’s time to get a license in Nevada, or whether the Nevada commissioners would balk at granting him a license because of the hand-wrap flap.

Texas at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas is another possibility. Margarito promoter Bob Arum also says he has an offer from Monterrey, Mexico, although the U.S. State Department has warned against traveling to the city because of drug-cartel violence.

“Margarito has the height advantage,’’ Mosley said. “Anything could happen. But the winner would probably be Pacquiao.’’
NOTES, ANECDOTES

· Juan Diaz stepped on the official scale Friday at 135 pounds. Unlike Marquez (133 ½), there was no muscle definition. There was baby fat where other fighters have a six pack. “That’s why fans identify with me,’’ Diaz aid. “I look like the average Joe.’’

· Golden Boy Promotions says it has invested $4 million in the Diaz-Marquez card. Out of that, $1 million will go to Marquez, $540,000 to Diaz, $200,000 to Danny Jacobs, $75,000 to Robert Guerrero and $40,000 to Joel Casamayor.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

Tickets for Top Rank’s ‘Battle of the Champions’ — Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Orlando Salido – on Sept. 11 at the Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas go on sale tomorrow, Saturday, July 31.

Gamboa, the WBA featherweight champion, will take on Salido, the IBF featherweight champion, in the Pearl Concert Theater.

Gamboa, a big puncher, has a record of 18-0, 15 KOs. He is a four-time Cuban national champion and a 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist. Salido is the IBF featherweight champion. He has a record of 34-10-2, 22 KOs and is trained by former world champion Daniel Zaragoza.

“This is an exciting matchup of champions – a real battle,” said Bob Arum of Top Rank.

Two strong undefeated lightweights, Brandon Rios of Oxnard, Ca. and Anthony Peterson of Washington, D.C., will fight in a World Lightweight Eliminator. Rios has a record of 24-0-1, 17 KOs; Peterson is 30-0, 20 KOs.

Notre Dame champion Mike Lee of Chicago will be in a special attraction bout. Lee is trained by Ronnie Shields in Houston.

“Mike Lee is very popular. He is bringing a new fanbase into the sport of boxing,” Arum said.

Top Rank is promoting in association with Arena Box and Zanfer Promotions. The Gamboa vs. Salido and Rios vs. Peterson bouts will be televised on HBO After Dark.

Tickets are $200, $100, $50 plus applicable fees and will be available on Saturday, July 31.

To purchase tickets, please visit the Pearl Box Office, any Ticketmaster location, call 1-800-745-3000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com

The Pearl Box Office is open Sunday from noon to 7 pm, Monday from noon to 10:30 pm, Tuesday from noon to 7 pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 9 pm and Saturday from noon to 10 pm.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, nullam sapien erat tristique tempor nulla, blandit sit metus volutpat integer wisi. Sed elementum, nec nec inceptos vestibulum diam proin erat, sociosqu et sit provident pellentesque sed aenean. Faucibus per turpis est pellentesque potenti, tristique iaculis adipiscing mauris, ante velit et massa donec facilisis, sed felis sed est.

Molestias ultricies, ante quam urna ut volutpat, egestas dolor dui, nec hac ultrices nulla non netus. Placerat vehicula donec non suscipit egestas, augue vel suspendisse. Et felis venenatis blandit sed est ultrices, adipiscing urna, at aliquam nullam facilisis aliquet sapien, eget duis consectetuer tristique nunc vitae erat, mi purus nisl lorem. Ac magna lobortis non, vulputate vitae viverra. [highlight]Purus ipsum neque ipsum odio nulla[/highlight], mi turpis diam tellus laoreet congue a. Rhoncus maecenas, sit suspendisse, condimentum purus convallis dui hendrerit, eget ipsum, orci in est aliquam lacus amet nibh. Sit quam massa diam sit rhoncus, semper vitae. Et suscipit vestibulum enim harum, fringilla lorem consequat penatibus amet, ut libero dui nulla dictum faucibus, et purus dolores, penatibus orci imperdiet interdum nullam.

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Aenean in pharetra arcu class in, justo orci varius, sociosqu in ante massa wisi, vestibulum vitae aenean ante. Lectus neque congue, mi mi natoque vivamus nostra. Cras enim ultricies, commodo sed vivamus. Aute vel feugiat odio in nunc mauris, nunc tortor aenean sed urna, tellus vitae duis urna nunc fringilla, tempus morbi orci vitae sed duis. Vulputate in ipsam lacus vivamus ut turpis, vitae nulla ipsum, dignissim maecenas aliquam donec aliquet ipsum elit. Elit condimentum, augue placerat pellentesque cras. Parturient ornare tortor donec sem, maecenas nunc eget elit, ligula a mattis lectus, justo tempor arcu in dolor per. Rutrum neque molestie nulla accumsan risus a, commodo lorem mi nonummy nulla mus, placerat rhoncus tempus quam ac suspendisse justo.

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Suscipit sed at montes at tellus. Aliquam nisl penatibus commodo massa mi rutrum, ut massa mollis dolor dui at, tortor ullamcorper vel diam pretium sit leo, pellentesque in leo eu mauris mollis aliquam, ultricies adipiscing eu a dui sollicitudin posuere. Massa vivamus ac ipsum, pede enim quam sit, mus aliquam amet pede quis laboriosam.

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Molestias ultricies, ante quam urna ut volutpat, egestas dolor dui, nec hac ultrices nulla non netus. Placerat vehicula donec non suscipit egestas, augue vel suspendisse. Et felis venenatis blandit sed est ultrices, adipiscing urna, at aliquam nullam facilisis aliquet sapien, eget duis consectetuer tristique nunc vitae erat, mi purus nisl lorem. Ac magna lobortis non, vulputate vitae viverra. [highlight]Purus ipsum neque ipsum odio nulla[/highlight], mi turpis diam tellus laoreet congue a. Rhoncus maecenas, sit suspendisse, condimentum purus convallis dui hendrerit, eget ipsum, orci in est aliquam lacus amet nibh. Sit quam massa diam sit rhoncus, semper vitae. Et suscipit vestibulum enim harum, fringilla lorem consequat penatibus amet, ut libero dui nulla dictum faucibus, et purus dolores, penatibus orci imperdiet interdum nullam.

Posuere class eget sollicitudin vitae, commodo libero nascetur. Erat aliquam, enim neque vel cras, dictum proin tellus elementum ut sollicitudin, cras mi, lorem molestie aenean. Augue eu illum sed ac wisi. Felis id cursus vestibulum lorem quam vivamus. Nonummy eget maecenas, mi donec et, etiam quam ultrices. Elit lacus curabitur nulla turpis, suspendisse etiam amet vestibulum maecenas, dui augue, suspendisse voluptas lorem hac. Morbi sed, fusce quis nam. Vestibulum vel nunc vitae pede. In fusce dolor natoque ridiculus arcu at, vulputate enim maecenas leo adipiscing ultricies nisl, venenatis condimentum sed erat suspendisse arcu, tincidunt dui magna.

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York, PA’s Carney Bowman informed 15rounds.com that he will battle Union City, NJ’s Roberto Acevedo tomorrow night at Sovereign Bank Stadium in the ten round main event of the “Battle of York 5”.

Acevedo, 9-10-3 (1 KO), is a tough veteran who has not been matched easy. The rugged Puerto Rican import battled both Bey Brothers (Mickey and Cortez), Jose Gonzalez, Chris Howard, Vincent Arroyo, Ramesis Gil, Adrien Broner, Kenny Galarza, Abi Santizo, Joshua Cordero, Ray Robinson and Khabib Allakhverdiev, all of whom were unbeaten at the time. Acevedo has victories over both Santizo and Cordero by decision, while also holding a decisioning the tough Lenin Arroyo. His most recent bout came against the aforementioned Howard, who beat him by decision.

Bowman was a highly touted amateur prior to turning pro. He won medals at a number of amateur tournaments and at 14-0 (6), is one of TKO Boxing Promotions’ prized prospects. This will be the local favorite’s first fight in 364 days.

The bout is slated to take place at 130 lbs, five pounds less than Acevedo has ever fought.

For more New Jersey boxing news, go to gardenstatefightscene.com

Tonight, live on ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” Cestus Management’s undefeated Super Middleweight contender, Donovan “Da Bomb” George (20-0-1, 17KO’s) will have the opportunity to win his first title as a professional when he fights for the vacant WBO/NABO Super-Middleweight Title against tough and rugged, power punching Mexican, Francisco “Ponchito” Sierra (21-3, 20KO’s) at the Buffalo Run Casino, in Miami Oklahoma.

George, of Greek decent, is coming off a impressive and highly entertaining win in his last fight against once beaten Osumanu Adama. It was George’s 2nd win in 2010, and an another win tomorrow night on the nationally televised broadcast will be a yet another major step forward towards Super Middleweight supremacy for the Chicago native.

George said, I can’t describe the incredible feeling i have; my manager (Cestus) made this title fight possible and i have the chance to fight for a title, its a dream come true and the victory will be even more sweeter. George added, I know that Sierra can punch, but so can i and if he fights hard like he said; i will fight even harder, I have never been more ready in my life the title is mine.

The power punching Francisco Sierra, is a ferocious all action fighter who has won 20 of his 21 victories by way of knockout. Sierra is an all action fighter who puts non stop pressure on his opponents and grinds them down before he knocks them out. At the end of the day both fighters know what’s at stake and the fight fans are guaranteed to see a barn burner.

Mike Michael, who is Cestus Management’s Chief advisor, said, Everyone at Cestus worked overtime to give Donovan this opportunity to fight for the NABO Title. We believe that Donovan is the real deal and we are backing him 110% and tonight Championship fight is the beginning of big thing fto come in the future. Michael added, For Cestus this is a special time as Donovan is a Greek American and our Company is also a Greek American. So tonight Donovan will be representing every Greek across the world. Michael further added, “I want to thank Jimmy “ZEEK” Hartofilis for his undeniable support, our Promoters, the fabulous Buffalo Run Casino, and ESPN for this great opportunity.

USBA Jr. Lightweight champion, Argenis Mendez scored an eight round unanimous decision over Shamir Reyes in an eight round non title Jr. Welterweight bout that headlined a six bout card at BB Kings in New York City.

Mendez dropped Reyes with a counter right to the head in the first round and never looked back as he used he decided height advantage and scored against the hard charging Reyes.

Scores were 80-71, 80-71 and 79-72 for Mendez, 131 1/2 lbs of Brooklyn, NY and is now 17-1. Reyes, 136 1/4 lbs of Brooklyn, NY is now 18-7-2.

Gabriel Bracero scored four knockdowns en route to a fourth round stoppage over late-sub Raymind Betancourt in a scheduled six round Jr. Welterweight bout.

Bracero scored the first knockdown in round one from a right to the body. In round two, Bracero rocked Betancourt with a hard right and dropped him with a big left.

Bracero was all over Betancourt in round four as he landed a big seven punch flurry that was ended by a left hook that sent Bentancort to the canvas. Bracero ended things by landing a four punch flurry that had Betancourt holding on and then dropped him with a left and the fight was halted at 2:53 of round four.

Bracero, 140 lbs of Brooklyn, NY is now 11-0 as he scored his first stoppage. Betancourt, 137 lbs of Boca Raton, FL is now 8-5.

Phillip Jackson Benson put on a power display in round three as he dropped previously undefeated Alexander Santana with a big combination and finished him off shortly after by scoring a third round stoppage in a scheduled six round Super Middleweight bout.

Benson, 165 lbs of Brooklyn, NY is now 6-1 with five knockouts. Santana, 165 lbs of the Dominican Republic is now 6-1.

Joe Smith Jr. kept his knockout streak alive as he scored a second round stoppage over Charles Wade in a scheduled four round Light Heavyweight bout.

Smith of Long Island is now 6-0 with six knockouts as he scored the stoppage at 1:10 of round two.

Willie Monroe Jr. scored a fourth round stoppage over Loren Myers after a bad gash on the forehead of Myers forcedc the fight to be stopped after the fourth.

Monroe, 158 1/2 lbs of Ithaca, NY is now 9-0 with three knockouts. Myers, 157 1/2 lbs of Fresno, CA is now 7-9-1.

The opening bout saw Stivens Bujaj make a successful pro debut with a stoppage at the end of round two of Calvin Rooks in a scheduled four round Cruiserweight bout.

Bujaj, 200 lbs of Brons, NY is 1-0 with one knockout. Rooks, 193 lbs of Las Vegas is now 1-2-1.

LAS VEGAS – Long before management and marketing promoted him as The Golden Child, his grandmother called him Baby Maniac.

Cordelia Jacobs knew her grandchild better than anybody. She saw the fight in Danny Jacobs before it matured and began to look as if it had value.

“I was probably the worst baby you could possibly have,’’ said Danny, who at 23 isn’t a child anymore, yet retains potential that is as golden as ever. “I was doing everything. Running into walls, knocking everything down.’’

Grandma Jacobs is gone. She died Sunday, within a week of her grandson’s first shot at a major title, the World Boxing Organization’s middleweight championship, this Saturday night against Dmitry Pirog at Mandalay Bay. Danny was there, at her bedside in New York before leaving for Vegas.

“There are people in life you can’t live without,’’ said Jacobs, who will fight for the vacant WBO title in a HBO pay-per-view bout on the undercard of the Juan Diaz-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch. “She was that person to me.

“I took it hard. I sat there and watched her pass. I was in the hospital and witnessed everything. I get emotional just talking about it. But I know I have to be strong at the same time.’’

Strong is what his grandmother would expect. He and his mom, Cordelius, raised him in Brooklyn after his parents separated when he was a toddler. Grandma Jacobs was not a boxing fan. She couldn’t be, Danny said, because of her faith. She was a Jehovah’s Witness.

“She couldn’t support boxing, but she supported me,’’ Jacobs said of a grandma who taught him to believe in the person more than the profession.

The unbeaten Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs) said his grandmother did not attend his fights.

“To actually go there is something she just couldn’t do,’’ he said. “She’d see me fight on TV, but never in person. Then, she’d only watch the fight after it’s done. So, she already knew that I’d won. Then, she would only watch the first round, probably because that might have been when I was at my best.’’

But, Jacobs said, she always would tell him not to skip any part of his daily workout. Call her Grandma Trainer.

“Her advice to me was always: ‘Make sure you do your sit-ups, so when they hit you in the stomach you won’t cry,’ ‘’ he said.

Jacobs joked that he has been working harder than ever to strengthen his abdominals for his first scheduled 12-rounder against Pirog, an unknown Russian and also unbeaten (16-0, 13 KOs).

In remembering his beloved grandmother, her lessons will always be with him. He has dedicated Saturday’s fight to her. Her nickname, Lady Bird, will be stitched onto his trunks.

A few hours after the fight, he will take the red-eye home. The funeral is scheduled for Sunday in New York.

He plans to celebrate Saturday night. He knows he will mourn Sunday. He will have to be strong to do both. But without Grandma’s lessons, a Baby Maniac would never have become The Golden Child.

NOTES, ANECDOTES
· Despite eight options, an octopus in the Shark Reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay had the same pick as everybody else. The eight-armed octopus picked Marquez over Diaz Thursday in a promotion borrowed from the World Cup. Two boxes, each with a prawn inside, were lowered into a tank. Marquez’ name was on one box. Diaz was on the other. In a quick TKO, the octopus immediately attacked the Marquez box.

· Marquez’ victory, a ninth-round stoppage of Diaz last year, was voted the 2009 Fight of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. “I think this fight will be better than the first one,’’ Marquez said.

· Boxing’s international reach was evident Thursday at a news conference. Jorge Linares, who faces Rocky Juarez of Houston, is a Venezuelan lightweight who has been living in Japan for the last several years. Linares has a Japanese trainer, Sendai Tanaka. Tanaka is bi-lingual, but that doesn’t include English. He spoke to the media in Spanish, which was translated into English by Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez, who would have been in trouble if Tanaka had spoken Japanese.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK (July 29, 2010)-On Saturday night August 7th, Havoc Boxing will make its initial foray in to boxing promotion as the upstart Promotion presents a terrific night of boxing at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn, New York.

In the main event, Former world Bantamweight champion Mauricio Martinez will
take part in a ten round bout against Reynaldo Lopez for the New York State Super Bantamweight title.

Martinez, a native of Panama has a record of 35-9-1 with twenty-three knockouts. Martinez was 8-0-1 in his first nine bouts before being stopped and overmatched against twenty-six fight veteran and future world champion, Freddie Norwood way back on May 31st, 1997. Martinez split his next four fights with a win over undefeated Antonio Diaz and two losses to future WBC
Super Bantamweight champion Hecto Arcero Sanchez.

That did not dissuade Martinez as he went on to win nine straights, all by knockout which included winning the WBO Bantamweight title with a fifth round knockout over Lester Fuentes in Manchester, England and making one defense which was first round knockout over Esham Pickering in Pickering’s home country of England. Martinez lost the belt to Cruz Carvajal via ninth round stoppage on March 15th, 2002.

Martinez went on to win nine in a row which set him up for another challenge of the WBO Bantamweight title. Martinez lost a controversial majority decision to Ratancchi Singwangcha in Singwangcha’s homeland of Thailand. Martinez won three in a row before being stopped by future world champion Gerry Penalosa.

Since the loss to Penalosa, Martinez has gone 4-2 with his latest outing being a twelve round unanimous decision loss to Heriberto Ruiz on March 20, 2009.

Lopez of Santa Fe Springs, CA via Colombia has a record of 30-8-3 with twenty-one knockouts.

Lopez started out his career by going 15-0-1 before a loss to undefeated Carlos Meza.

Lopez then went 10-1-1 in his next twelve bouts which set him up for an IBF Jr. Bantamweight title elimination bout with future champion Dimitry Kirillov.

Lopez dropped a close majority decision but went on to win three straight before losing a twelve round unanimous decision to Cristian Mijares for the WBC Interim Super Flyweight championship.

Lopez was then stopped in five rounds to former 122 lb champion Daniel Ponce De Leon before scoring a vicious third round stoppage over undefeated Mike Oliver (21-0).

In his last bout, Lopez dropped an eight round unanimous decision to undefeated Rico Eamos (15-0) on April 24th in Ontario, Ca.

In the six round co-feature, Popular Super Featherweight, Gary Stark Jr. 22-3 with eight knockouts of New York City will return to the ring Leopaldo Arocha

Stark won his first seventeen bouts and was looking like one of the top prospects in the lower weight divisions.

He then met fellow 17-0 prospect Mike Oliver and dropped a unanimous decision for the USBA Jr. Featherweight title.

After a stunning knockout defeat to Andreas Ledesma, Stark went on to win four straight which included a ten round unanimous decision over Ledesma in the highly anticipated rematch.

Stark will be making his first ring appearance in nearly sixteen months as in his last bout he was taken out in three rounds against top contender Antonio Escalante (19-2) on April 24, 2009.

Arocha of Panama City, Panama has a record of 10-12-2 with six wins coming via knockout.

The road has not been easy for Arocha has he has faced a murderers row of world champion, title challengers and top prospects.

To look at the dossier of Arocha, one would find names such as former WBA Super Bantamweight champion Celestiono Caballero (TKO by 3) in Arocha’s third bout; Jose Beranza (TKO by 4); Former WBO Super Flyweight champion Adonis Rivas, for whom Arocha fought a spirited draw with; Former WBA Bantamweight champion Nehomar Cermano (TKO by 7); former world title challenger Feidor Viloria (TKO by 5) the aforementioned Mauricio Martinez (Loss bu unanimous decision)

In his last bout, Arocha traveled to Japan and scored an eight round unanimous decision over Yosuke Takeuchi on November 3rd in front of Takeuchi’s hometown fans.

Undefeated Featherweight, Joselito Collado, 10-0 with three knockouts of Jamaica, Queens will take on an an opponent to be named in a six round bout.

Christian Martinez, 4-0 with four knockouts of New York City will tussle with Jose Luis Perez Adorno (2-3, 1 KO) of Caguas, PR in a six round Jr. Welterweight bout.

Former 2008 U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali will fight a six round Welterweight bout against an opponent to be named.

Ali has a record of 8-0 with four knockouts. is coming off an explosive knockout over Julias Edmonds on July 16th in Newark, NJ.

Light heavyweight Andy Mejia, 7-0 with three knockouts will take on Juan Zapata (1-3, 1 KO) of Bronx, New York

Mike Ruiz (8-4, 5 KO’s) of Long Island, NY will take on Noel Garcia (2-4-1, 1 KO) of Springfield, MA in a four round Jr. Middleweight bout

Danny Valle, 1-0 with one knockout will take on debuting George Santiago in a four round Super Featherweight bout.

Rounding out the card will be female heavyweight Sonya Lamonakis (1-0, 1 KO) of Turner Falls, MA in a four round bout.

Tickets for this special night of boxing are priced at $50 for all seats and can be purchased at the Following Locations:

The Aviator Box Office
Gleasons Gym (718) 797 2872
Sadam Ali Boxing & Fitness Center (917) 807 3630
New Legend Boxing Club (718) 487 4474

The Aviator Sports Complex is located at:

3159 Flatbush Ave – Brooklyn, N.Y. 11234

For more information on Havoc Boxing, Click:
www.havocboxingnyc.com

Watch Derek “Pooh” Ennis and Gabriel Rosado weigh-in for the biggest Philly fight in nearly a decade as the two will battle for Ennnis’ USBA Jr. Middleweight title LIVE on www.gofightlive.tv on Friday night at 7:30 pm est

Watch ALL PHILLY WAR WEIGH IN in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

CLICK LINK TO WATCH THE WEIGH IN
http://news.gofightlive.tv/2010/07/ennis-vs-rosado-weigh-in/

TO ORDER THE FIGHT FOR JUST $9.99 CLICK:
http://news.gofightlive.tv/2010/07/ennis-vs-rosado-weigh-in/

Earlier today in Cardiff, Wales whilst attending the WBC “Night of Champions” Shannon Briggs 51-5-1 (45) confirmed to 15rounds.com that he had signed to fight Vitali Klitschko for Klitschko’s WBC title on 16 October in Hamburg, Germany.

Briggs 38, returned to the ring in late 2009 and has won three straight this year all by first round KO since his two and a half year lay off. He will be hoping to become a two time champion and seems highly motivated to achieve that goal.

Carlos Vinan’s professional record doesn’t exactly stand out.

At 10-8-2 with two wins by kayo, The Newark, NJ based Ecuadorian journeyman is not regarded amongst the top fighters in the lightweight division. He has however proven to be a battle tested veteran without the luxury of hand picked fights.

When it comes down to taking a deeper look into Vinan’s losses during his 5 year career, things certainly become a bit more interesting. Carlos’ opponents that managed to defeat him came into those bouts a combined 73-9-4. The latest, Diego Magdaleno was a perfect 10-0 and is one of the more heralded prospects around. Naturally, Carlos and his team are not ones to turn down bouts with promising fighters.

“We look for fighters whose styles match up well with Carlos,” said manager Jose Rosario. “Carlos is a skilled fighter. His only problem in his closer fights is that he fights to the level of his competition. When Carlos fights an undefeated fighter, he seems to fight much better than when going against someone not as good.”

This proved to be the case on the undercard of the David Tua-Monte Barrett matchup earlier this month in Atlantic City.

Vinan was pitted as the opponent for IBF #2 rated lightweight, Anthony Mezaache. At 18-5-3 (4 KO), the Frenchman had not suffered a defeat in his past 11 matchups and spring boarded up the IBF rankings. With bigger fights on the horizon, Mezaache likely failed to realize Vinan was far better than his record indicated.

Early in the bout, Mezaache seemed to control most rounds, using his jab to keep Vinan from winning too many rounds. This was until crunch time.

In the 8th and final round, Vinan came out of the corner with a newfound energy and sent Mezaache to the canvas following a barrage of punches. Just moments later, a follow up assault forced his corner to throw in the towel 37 seconds into the round.

When asked about what was the drive behind the furious 8th round by Vinan, Rosario noted “He is not afraid to finish off fighters; we felt we were ahead in the scorecards. Carlos isn’t afraid to finish off fights. And this was the biggest fight that Carlos won.”

Another big victory of Vinan’s career was against skilled prospect, Eric Hunter, 13-1 (6 KO). At the time, the undefeated Hunter was looking for a fight, and Carlos stepped in on 15 days notice. Hunter bit off more than he could chew.

After getting knocked down in the second, Vinan outhustled the well regarded hunter over the next four rounds. Even though he appeared to be a clear cut winner, Rosario and Vinan were worried that the hometown favorite Hunter would win on the scorecards. This didn’t turn out to be the case. Vinan was awarded a split decision.

After the victory at the Tropicana against Mezaache, we look to what is next for Vinan. Rosario is hoping to get him ranked in the top 10 by the IBF and WBC, but knows that if he is, they must be careful. He is worried about some of the talent at the top of the division. Stylistically, southpaws tend to give Vinan problems, and with many tough fights behind him, he is not a young 30 years old. Either way I hope to see Vinan compete for a while longer.

He is a fan’s boxer; he is going to trade blows with the bangers and is going to show his boxing IQ against the more technical fighters. Hopefully, for all of his sacrifices fighting against undefeated boxers and other heavily favored opponents, Carlos is rewarded with a bout that is showcased in front of a large audience. With few easy fights and most of his matches taking place in his opponent’s hometown, this is something he earned.

For more New Jersey boxing news, go to gardenstatefightscene.com

PROVIDENCE (July 28, 2010) – Jimmy Burchfield, President of Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc., categorically denied reports issued today that lightweight prospect “Hammerin’” Hank Lundy (18-1-1, 10 KOs) is a promotional free agent.

“He is not a free agent and promoters shouldn’t be speaking with him or his team,” Burchfield explained. “CES turned him pro and we have completely and totally honored our end of the contract. We just had him fighting on national television twice within 90 days.

“We’ve worked through his different managers and trainers, never wavering in our full support of Hank. Like with all of our fighters, other than actually fighting for them, we do everything we can to help them, in and out of the ring, including Hank. We still strongly believe in him.”

Go to www.cesboxing.com for information about CES or any of its fighters, including Lundy.

Photo by Emily Harney

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, WBA Featherweight champion Yuriorks Gamboa will now face IBF beltholder Orlando Salido after WBC champ Elio Rojas had to withdraw due to shoulder and hand injuries.

The fight will take place on September 11 at The Palms in Las Vegas.

“The doctor recommended that he be out for two months, so the fight is off,” said Rojas’ manager Tony Tineo. “Elio is very disappointed because he wanted to fight Gamboa and prove to the world that he is the best featherweight. He is very, very disappointed. He told me yesterday, ‘Oh, Tony, I have all my plans on how I’m going to beat Gamboa and then it all goes down.’ I told him, ‘We can fight him in the future.’ ”

“The hand was injured in that fight and that is why he didn’t knock Espadas out,” Tineo said. “Now it’s still giving him problems. Elio wants to fight, but as the manager, I spoke with the doctor and we made the decision. We decided no fight because the arm and hand were bothering him too much. We have to follow the doctor’s instructions. This is his future. I can’t send him into a fight with damage. I can’t let him fight with an injury.”

“We had Salido and wanted to make that fight. HBO wanted Rojas,” Said Bob Arum, who promotes both Gamboa and Salido. “So they went to [Rojas’ promoter] Don King and they got Rojas done. And then Rojas got hurt and he can’t fight and now we’ve gone back to Salido and HBO has OK’d Salido. Salido is a big puncher and it probably will be a more exciting fight than Rojas anyway because Rojas is more of a boxer. The fight with Gamboa should be a really good fight between two big punchers.”

Arum said HBO asked Top Rank to reconsider trying to make a deal for Gamboa to face Celestino Caballero, the former unified junior featherweight titlist who moved up in weight and made his HBO debut with a tremendous performance against Daud Yordan in April.

“We said, ‘Listen, it’s only about a month until the fight and the big guy [Caballero] towers over everybody,’ ” Arum said. “You have to get the right sparring partners. It’s not fair to do that to Gamboa on short notice. But what I told HBO is that we have no problem fighting the guy next as long as the money is right. I even told them we’ll do a nice Caballero fight on one of our pay-per-view undercards as long as it doesn’t cost me a lot of money and we can set up the fight next.”

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Wladimir Klitschko will indeed defend is IBF/WBO/Ring magazine Heavyweight title on September 11th in Frankfurt, Germany in a rematch of a 2005 bout.

“The Sam Peter thing has been agreed to,” Top Rank’s Bob Arum, Peter’s promoter, said. “They’re coming into the [Las Vegas] office to sign [on Thursday]. It was a relatively easy negotiation.”

Bernd Boente, Klitschko’s manager, told ESPN.com in an email, “We found an agreement which is not signed yet, but hopefully [Thursday] so that we can send out a press release.”

“Peter came close last time. This time he has the experience that if he gets Klitschko in trouble again, he can finish him,” Arum said. “If Peter happened to upset Klitschko that would really start a lot of talk in the heavyweight division.”

Said Boente, “This is a very interesting fight especially with the history of the first one in 2005. By the way, we have already sold 15,000 tickets in the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt without an opponent.”

“We’re going [Thursday] morning to sign. We’re good to go,” said Ivaylo Gotzev, Peter’s manager. “My prediction has always been the same if we got a rematch. This time we’re going to finish the job and not leave it to the judges’ scorecard. We are going into the lion’s den to take him out.”

LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya said Wednesday that the Arizona immigration law is racist if it is allowed to stand as it was written.

“We’re looking at racism,’’ De La Hoya said during a news conference to promote the Juan Diaz-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch Saturday night at Mandalay Bay. “We really are.’’

De La Hoya made the comments while U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton filed an injunction in Phoenix against parts of SB 1070, delaying provisions that require immigrants to carry documentation and prohibits them from seeking employment on street corners or in parking lots. The law was scheduled to go into effect Thursday.

De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions and a fulltime promoter since he retired after a loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2008, said he would not stage cards in Arizona if the law is reinstated through likely legal fights, including an expected appeal by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

Golden Boy promoted at Desert Diamond Casino near Tucson for a few years. The last Golden Boy card in southern Arizona was in the summer of 2009.

When asked if he could return to the state and promote again, De La Hoya said: “If they do lift the law, I would. But I don’t know now. If they don’t lift the law, then I don’t think we have business there.’’

Both Diaz and Marquez have fought in Arizona. Diaz, a Mexican-American lightweight, beat Fernando Angulo in 2006 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Marquez, a Mexican, has fought in Arizona twice, both in 2007 and both in Tucson. In his last Arizona bout, he beat Rocky Juarez, also of Houston, is also on Saturday night’s card at Mandalay Bay.

Six of the eight fighters on HBO’s pay-per-view portion have fought in Arizona, including middleweight Daniel Jacobs of New York junior-welterweight Robert Guerrero of Gilroy, Calif., and Joel Casamayor, an Olympic gold medalist from Cuba.

Diaz, an aspiring attorney, was born in Houston to parents, Olivia and Fidencio, who at the time were undocumented immigrants from Mexico.

“I talk about it with them and it hits home for them a little bit more,’’ said Diaz, whose parents took him back to Mexico briefly before returning to Houston. “They experienced it first-hand as far as crossing the border, dealing with border patrol and sometimes running from immigration. Those are some interesting stories.’’

The stories are also full of reasons to fear the SB 1070 if the courts allow it to be enforced, Diaz said.

“It’s a rough law,’’ he said. “It’s gonna infringe on a lot of human rights. Local law enforcement is going to take a little bit too much of the power that it has and abuse it. There’s going to be so many cases in which families and people are going to be abused that we’re not even going to hear about.’’

Despite his concern about the law’s potential abuse, Diaz said he would not rule out fighting in Arizona again.

“I’d have to look at the circumstances,” said Diaz, who Saturday hopes to avenge a loss to Marquez in the 2009 fight of the year. “I’m not going to sit here and say: ‘No, I’m never going to go fight.’

“You look at each, specific situation. If the situation is that they want to put on a show to raise money for immigrants, then it would be different. A lot of people automatically assume that they won’t fight there because of the law. But, like I said, I’d have to look at the circumstances. Then, say yes or no.’’

Marquez, who is from Mexico City, said the Arizona law has been talking point in his country ever since Brewer signed it in late April.

“It is bad, bad for me and bad for the Mexican people,’’ Marquez said. “Many Mexicans live in Arizona. I want to support them, help them through this.’’

De La Hoya said he understands those who argue that the United States has to defend its borders and maintain a process through which immigrants can gain legal entry.

“If you are illegal in this country and you’re a person who doesn’t come here to work and to help build America and to be in gangs and commit crimes and this-and-that, then, you-know-what, maybe you should go back,’’ said De La Hoya, who fought at then-America West Arena in Phoenix twice early in his career.”But if you are a person who is this country to help build America the way immigrants built America back in the day, then I think they do have a chance, that there should be fairness.

“I understand that there has to be a process, of how that is regulated.’’

De La Hoya says the law targets Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent.

“They were thinking that this is meant for European immigrants, this is meant for the Asian immigrant,’’ said De La Hoya, who grew up in Los Angeles before becoming the world’s most popular and richest boxer after winning an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

De La Hoya points to Arizona large Hispanic community, which is estimated to be about one-third of the state’s population.

“So, to a certain extent, I call it racism,’’ De La Hoya said. “I really do. What happens now? I got to Arizona. I look Hispanic. They pull me over and ask for my ID? It’s not fair.’’

Back when things were in Black and white and Boxing had only 8 weights classes, Lightweight was one of the toughest division’s to make a name for yourself fast forward to today things haven’t changed much. Lightweight still has some of the elite performers in the game. Granted things aren’t as hot at 135 as they have been in the past years. That could all change this weekend when Juan Manuel Marquez heads back to the more cosy confines of Lightweight after his sojourn to a Welterweight catchweight against Floyd Mayweather. His opponent this time at least seems mortal, a rematch with Juan Diaz. Last February Diaz’s youth, size and strength seemed as though they would help him gain the biggest win of his career to date. Slowly but surely Marquez refined and tuned his considerable skills, creating gaps in Diaz defence until landing two howitzer right hands that dropped Diaz before conclusively ending the argument with a devastating right uppercut. It was ultimately one of the top fights of 2009.

Also on Saturday’s card will be Robert Guerrero & Joel Casamayor, though the fight is a few pounds above the Lightweight limit the winner will most likely look to fight the winner of the main event. Just a few pounds south at 130 Jorge Linares and Rocky Juarez duel in an intriguing fight in which the loser has no place to go. It’s not quite the Lightweight Lightening that took place last April when eight of the top Lightweights were scheduled to face off, though it never quite worked out. This could end up having more of an effect on the Lightweight demigraphic.

A few months ago Michael Katsidis scored possibly the best win of his career to date when he went into the lions den and stopped unbeaten Kevin Mitchell in three. Afterwards Katsidis declared he wants to fight the winner of Marquez-Diaz 2 this fall. The Lightweight confines also house the legendary Marco Antonio Barrera who recently ended a year long hiatus, he’s expected to return again in late summer before fighting another Mexican Humberto Soto for Soto’s WBC crown. Soto himself is angling for a big fight and would be a handful for anyone at 135.

In the past the Lightweight division has been the home to a murders row of greats including Joe Gans, Benny Leonard, Tony Canzoneri, Carlos Ortiz, Roberto Duran, Pernell Whitaker and Shane Mosley, even briefly Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather & Manny Pacquiao.

Here’s a look at some of the guys who created havoc at 9 stone 9 pounds.

The Old Master Joe Gans fought in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, reigning from 1902-1908 making 15 defence’s. He died of tuberculosis in 1910, at just 35 years old with a record of 138-10-15(96) and considered one of the greats of Boxing. Sadly Gans passed away at just 35 from tuberculosis.

A year after Gans sad demise Benny “Ghetto Wizard” Leonard made his debut, losing a third round KO. It was hardly the start to a career that would make anyone forget Joe Gans. Over the next 6 years Leonard learnt his trade and stayed busy developing his skills. It was at this stage he won the Lightweight crown beating Freddie Welsh making 9 defence’s reigning from 1917-1925. In 1918 he even dared to go up to Welterweight where he drew with Ted “Kid Lewis, he again made that move in 1922 though lost a thirteenth round disqualification to Jack Britton, when he hit Britton while Britton was down. Leonard retired as the reigning Lightweight champion in 1925. Before briefly trying to make a return in 1931.

Like Leonard before him Tony Canzoneri fought out of New York. Canzoneri won the Featherweight world title in the late 1920’s before heading up to Lightweight where he demolished Al Singer in the first round in late 1930. He even went up to Light Welterweight where he beat Jack “Kid” Berg reigning at both weights consecutively. Canzoneri would reign until the summer of 1933 when he lost a majority decision to another Lightweight legend Barney Ross then losing a split decision 3 months later. It was at this stage he really showed his metal staying busy when most though he’d seen better days and winning his old Lightweight title back nearly 2 years later against Lou Ambers though he eventually lost it back to Ambers.

Puerto Rico Carlos Ortiz fought for 17 years and won the Light Welterweight crown four years after debuting in 1959 after one defence he lost the title. Ortiz then dropped to Lightweight where he had even more success beating Joe Brown for the title then reigning for 3 years making 4 defence’s before losing a very close decision Ismael Laguna in Panama. Not deterred Ortiz reclaimed the crown 7 months later outpointing Laguna in Panama making a further 5 defence’s until he lost to Carlos Teo Cruz in 1968. He continued until 1972 when he lost to Ken Buchanan.

The Pride of Panama Roberto “Manos De Piedra” Duran was a force of nature that for over 5 years in the 1970 was a wrecking machine. He devastated all before him, that version of Duran many believe was the greatest Lightweight to ever draw breath. He bludgeoned all 12 title challengers into defeat with only one lasting the course. Duran went onto become a 4 weight world champion fighting well into his forty’s and decades past his prime. His relentless pressure, unbridled ferocity coupled with no lack skill saw off all comers. Similar to Mike Tyson years later Duran beat many opponents before they stepped in the ring with him. Through out his storied career Duran beat some fantastic fighters most notably Sugar Ray Leonard thought that was up at Welterweight.

Having won Gold at the 1984 Olympics Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker was long known for his outstanding boxing skills, fantastic defensive ability along with an uncanny knack of making Hall of Fame Fighters look like novices. Whitaker was so gifted that it was difficult to find rounds he would lose let alone fights. Whitaker like Duran would go on to become a 4 Weight world champion. Both fighters were poles apart with Whitaker a modest puncher at 135 though he would end up using his mastery to conquer 140, 147 & 154 defeating many good fighters including Azumah Nelson, Jose Luis Ramirez, Buddy McGirt and in the eyes of everyone except the two judges who scored it a draw he beat Julio Cesar Chavez Snr.

After a stellar amateur career in which “Sugar” Shane Mosley narrowly missed out on taking part in the 1992 Olympics he embarked on a pro career starting out at Lightweight. Though many insiders and Los Angeles aficionados knew Mosley’s potential fans and media alike seemed to miss out on the secret that was Shane Mosley. Infact he arguably didn’t gain his full adulation until he relinquished the IBF crown he had defended 8 times all inside the distance, going straight to Welterweight where he posted an outstanding victory over a prime Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley joined Duran missing out Light Welterweight and heading straight to 147.

In the last decade or so Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather & Manny Pacquiao all had brief layovers at 135 before heading to Light Welterweight and then Welterweight.

De La Hoya lasted 18 months and 7 fights before he out grew the division. Though in that time he did post impressive stoppages over Rafael Ruelas, Jesse James Leija & Genaro Hernandez & a points win over seasoned veteran and former world champion John John Molina.

After an outstanding run at Super Featherweight Floyd Mayweather won his second world title at his second weight class when he barely squeezed past Jose Luis Castillo in early 2002. To shut up all the doubters he fought Castillo in a rematch and was far more convincing 8 months later. After two defence’s against average opponents in Victoriano Sosa & Phillip Ndou, Mayweather abdicated his thrown.

In the summer of 2008 Pacquiao made a brief pit stop of just a single fight when he flattened David Diaz to collect the WBC crown.

Another shooting star Edwin Valero threatened to join the elite at Lightweight before his untimely demise.

Just who joins the list of immortals in the future remains to be seen but one thing is likely to continue and that is that the Lightweight division will thrive as one of the strongest weight classes in Boxing just as it has over the past 100 or so years.

PHILADELPHIA (July 28, 2010)—World ranked (WBO #7); and once beaten Lightweight, “Hammerin” Hank Lundy is now a promotional Free Agent after leaving Jimmy Burchfield CES Boxing.

Lundy, 18-1-1 with ten knockouts has become a fan favorite because of his action style and many television appearances on ESPN 2 Friday Night Fights, will be looking to get back in the win column after his first professional setback which took place on July 9th after getting stopped by Johnny Molina in a bout that Lundy was dominating.

“Certain obligations were not met in his contract”, said Lundy’s manager, Ivan Cohen.

“We believe that Hank is still one of the best Lightweights in the world and we will be looking for another promoter who we believe will advance his career to world championship status.”

The Friday before last, Team Mayweather handed Bob Arum and Top Rank a bunch of lemons. Instead of trying to make lemonade, Arum passed the lemons off to boxing fans in the form of Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito.

Now it’s up to the boxing community to determine what to do with them.

During his now-infamous conference call, Arum made it clear that his intentions were to pursue fights with possible opponents other than Mayweather, specifically Miguel Cotto or Margarito.

Less than two weeks later the “Tijuana Tornado” emerged as the next opponent for the Filipino Congressman.

In fighting Pacquiao (51-3, 38 KO) on November 13, Margarito (38-6, 27 KO) is receiving a “hand-wrapped” gift from Arum and Top Rank. In taking care of his own, Arum is granting Margarito what will most likely amount to the biggest pay day of his career. He is awarding “Tony” the chance of a lifetime simply for fighting under the Top Rank banner.

During his conference call, responding to an inquiry about a potential Pacquiao-Tim Bradley fight, Arum immediately dismissed the possibility.

“Tim Bradley is a tremendous fighter and he’s a great young man,” Arum said. “But the problem with a guy like Tim Bradley is that even though you and I know what a superb fighter he is, the public really doesn’t know.”

He continued, “The other promoters don’t really promote their fighters. They take money from HBO or Showtime or a little Indian casino and they think they’re doing the kid a big service. I’m not going to give them a free ride on the work we have done.”

That same logic applied to a question about a potential Paul Williams fight with Pacquiao.

“Paul Williams is a tremendous fighter – a great fighter, but he hasn’t been promoted correctly — he doesn’t have any following, can’t sell any tickets,” Arum said. “Nobody is financing the pay-per-view fight. On an HBO fight – HBO pays the money. I’m the one that’s financing the pay-per-view and don’t want to give anyone a free ride.”

Arum’s thinking, which in this specific case is reasonable, has ultimately left us with a mid-Autumn clash between Pacquiao and Margarito. It has also left us disappointed with the realization that a Mayweather-Pacquiao superfight won’t be taking place any time this calendar year.

It’s left us with a decision about what to do with these lemons.

It’s true that Margarito, or as many in the fistic community have comically renamed him, “Margacheato”, was caught with loaded hand-wraps before his bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

It’s also true that he doesn’t deserve the big pay day that will come when he faces the world’s number one pound-for-pound boxer.

Margarito is a cheater who was caught and is still being punished. He is a fighter who, presumably, was willing to endanger the lives of his opponents for a win inside the ring.

He is still not licensed to prizefight in the United States ] and the last time most boxing fans saw him, he was being battered around the ring for nine rounds by Mosley.

So what are we to make of Pacquiao-Margarito?

Lemonade?

Let me try.

Margarito is a battle tested warrior. Having suffered early defeats in his career, Margarito had to work twice as hard to prove the crooked numbers in the loss column were due to the fact that he turned professional at the ripe young age of 15, not necessarily due to lack of skill.

After years of compiling win after win, Margarito fought his way to the top. He has held, at some point or another, the WBA, WBO, and IBF welterweight championships.

He walks through the best punches his opponents have to offer just so he can fire off a few of his own.

This past decade alone, Margarito has stopped Sergio Martinez, Antonio Diaz, and twice stopped Kermit Cintron.

He was awarded a decision over Joshua Clottey. He has battled in tough losses against Paul Williams and Daniel Santos, proving that even in defeat, he still possesses the heart of a true Mexican warrior.

He has fought in fights that looked like they belonged in bars, specifically the hellacious brawl with Miguel Cotto — a fight that left Cotto’s face almost unrecognizable.

Truth be told, plaster-wraps aside, Margarito is an entertaining fighter to watch.

To add to the fan-friendly style of Margarito is the always-entertaining Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao, the seven division world champion and current WBO welterweight champion, is the world’s number one pound-for-pound fighter and arguably the most entertaining boxer on the globe.

Pacquiao’s “Energizer Bunny” style is enough to draw most boxing fans’ interest. In recent years, Pacquiao’s domination of opponents has tended to end fights in spectacular fashion — such as the Ricky Hatton knockout, Cotto stoppage, and David Diaz knockout.

But even in fights where the endings weren’t as exciting, Pacquiao is still a pleasure to watch.

Take the Clottey fight, for instance. It was a fight that was dominated by Pacquiao from the opening bell, a fight in which Clottey suffered a slow, twelve round death. In a unanimous decision win, where two judges somehow awarded Clottey a single round, Pacquiao still made the fight entertaining. Pacquiao’s tireless work-rate was something to marvel at. He averaged over 100 purposeful punches a round throughout the twelve round bout and finished the fight looking like the he could fight twelve more.

Any time the best fighter in the world is fighting, I am going to be watching. It’s as simple as that.

The number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world versus a Mexican warrior, who can take an inordinate amount of punishment, but always seems to dish out just more than he receives. This has all the makings to be an intriguing fight.

End of squeezing lemons.

Do I buy into the hype I just tried to create in an attempt to excite myself?

I’m not so sure.

But at least I was trying to make lemonade. With the immediate dismissal of a potential Bradley or Williams fight with Pacquiao, that’s more than Arum and Top Rank can say. They simply handed off the lemons to boxing fans to let us decide what to make of them.

Photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank

Rendell Munroe was last night given the date for his world title showdown against Japanese star Toshiaki Nishioka. Munroe (21-1) will challenge for Nishioka’s (36-4-3) WBC super-bantamweight title at Tokyo’s 10,000 capacity Sumo Hall on Sunday October 24.

Munroe, 30, will take eight weeks off from his binman’s job to prepare for the biggest fight of his career. The Leicester southpaw, promoter Frank Maloney, manager Mike Shinfield and trainer Jason Shinfield, will spend 12 days in Tokyo before the fight.

Maloney explained: “Tokyo is about eight hours ahead so we need to be there well in advance to make sure everything is spot on. “People are writing Rendall off, but there are far more hostile places than Japan for a fighter to travel to. “Nishioka’s camp have been complete professionals to deal with and I am sure Rendall will get a fair deal if the fight goes 12 rounds.”
The fight will take place early afternoon British time and UK television rights will be announced at a later date.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (July 27, 2010) – With G&P Fitness and Boxing Center officially opened, President and CEO Mike Brestle is continuing his quest to make a difference in the community of Atlantic City as well as the boxing and fitness industries. With a brand new state of the art boxing and training facility, located squarely in the heart of Atlantic City, Brestle is ready to launch Spartan Fight Promotions. Spartan Fight Promotions’ goal is to be Atlantic City’s premier sports and entertainment promotional company. “Our main focus and vision is to bring the sport of boxing BACK to Atlantic City, just as it was not too long ago during the times of Iron Mike Tyson and Arturo Gatti,” says Brestle.

Spartan Fight Promotions mission is to provide their fans with an exciting, competitive and entertaining evening of world class boxing action. What makes Spartan Fight Promotions unique is their willingness to work with any and all promoters, managers and fighters in the sport to help achieve their vision of making the best and most entertaining fights for the fans on a consistent basis. As Spartan Fight Promotions continues to grow and build their brand, their focus will remain to present fan friendly fight cards, while building and sustaining long lasting relationships that are based on trust, loyalty and mutual respect. This vision is the key to the success of Spartan Fight Promotions and their ability to represent the sport’s top talent on a local, national and international level.

The Spartan Fight Promotion team will be comprised by some of the sport’s brightest and freshest talent. Jim Kurtz is the President of Boxing Operations at Spartan Fight Promotions and will handle many of the day to day responsibilities. Kurtz is well versed in many areas of the sport and he is highly respected by his peers within the sport. He is one of the sport’s youngest and most well respected managers and advisors. He has vast promotional experience and he has even handled matchmaking responsibilities. Working along with Kurtz will be former Main Events matchmaker, Brian Little. Little has established an impeccable reputation within the boxing community. With over the fifteen years of experience and having worked hand in hand with some of the sports most respected talent, Brian brings a wealth of knowledge to Spartan Fight Promotions. Brian has experience handling everything from matchmaking, arranging boxer travel, public relations and site coordination.

“Kurtz and Little will coordinate the day-to-day and event operations for Spartan Fight Promotions,” according to Brestle. “Their extensive experience, combined with the rest of our dedicated staff, will help lead Spartan Fight Promotions towards achieving our goal, to ‘bring boxing back to Atlantic City’ while establishing a reputation throughout the boxing world for staging world class boxing events. Kurtz and Little will be key components to achieve our goal of signing, developing, and mentoring talented boxing professionals and helping them achieve their dreams of becoming World Champions!”

The Spartan Fight Promotions plan is to promote 6-8 boxing shows per year while establishing a well defined presence in New Jersey and the Atlantic City region in particular. To reach these lofty goals, Spartan Fight Promotions is committed to dealing with any promoter, manager and fighters in the sport to make the most competitive and entertaining fights for the fans. With each and every Spartan Fight Promotions experience boxing fans will be able to see and feel the Spartan Fight Promotions difference.

Brestle concluded, “We look forward to seeing everyone at the fights. I am sure the attendees will become loyal fans of Spartan Fight Promotions and they will continue to be a part of our future. Spartan Fight Promotions strives to be the best in all that we do and we look forward to providing our fans with events that they will remember!”

On August 21, the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey will play host to “The Big Challenge” fight card, presented by Main Events, Ziggy Promotions and X-Cel Worldwide. The main event will feature North Jersey’s adopted son, Tomasz “Goral” Adamek, against “Big” Michael Grant. Adamek (41-1, 27 KO), who is coming off an impressive majority decision victory against heavyweight contender Chris Arreola, will look to continue building his heavyweight resume and retain his IBF International Heavyweight Title when he takes on his 6’7” opponent. Grant (46-3, 34 KO), who has already defeated a Polish icon in Andrew Golota, will look to disappoint a sure to be packed Prudential Center with a victory over Adamek.

The card will also feature a junior middleweight bout between Colombia’s Joel Julio (35-4, 31 KO) and Philadelphia’s Jamaal Davis (12-6, 6 KO). Julio will look to bounce back from a violent KO loss that came at the fists of Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo back in April.

Also fighting on the undercard will be former United States Olympian Sadam Ali (8-0, 4 KO). Most recently, Brooklyn’s Ali defeated Julias Edmonds by third round TKO on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, as part of the Zab Judah-Jose Santa Cruz undercard. “The Big Challenge” will also feature Paterson, New Jersey’s Jeremy Bryan. The two-time national Golden Gloves Champion, Bryan (13-1, 6 KO), will look to rebound from his only professional, which came back in April.

Adam “Baby Face’ Kownacki and Shemuel Pagan will join Ali as other Brooklyn fighters on the card.

Kownacki (4-0, 4 KO), who was born in Lomza, Poland, will return to the Prudential Center, where he viciously defeated Damon Clement by second round KO less than two weeks ago.

As for Pagan, August 21 will mark the date of his professional debut. The twenty-two year-old is a 5-time New York Golden Gloves Champion and has compiled an impressive amateur record of 85 wins and only 19 defeats.

Tickets for the event can be purchased at Prudential Center Box Office, by calling Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000 or www.PruCenter.com. Tickets are priced at $53, $78, $103, and $253 (ringside).

The bout will also be distributed as a Pay-Per-View card by Integrated Sports Media. It will be available on both cable and satellite Pay-Per-View via iN Demand, DIRECTV, Avail-TVN and DISH Network. The price for the event is listed at $29.99.

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NOTES FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE: Kathy Duva:
“Tomasz is moving along in his career very nicely…This is Tomasz’s first PPV fight in the United States, we are pretty excited about that. His opponent is Michael Grant, 6’7” “Big” Michael Grant. The title of it is “The Big Challenge.” That is what this is going to be for Tomasz…the biggest challenge of his career, as he will fight the biggest opponent of his career.” Roger Bloodworth: “This is a very important fight for Tomasz…Grant is trained by a very good trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. I haven’t seen Grant’s fights since he last lost (which was in 2003 to Dominick Guinn). He presents a difficult problem in that he’s 6’7”…he’s got a long reach. So what I think you are going to see is a hell of a fight.”

“I don’t want to give you the impression that this is rehearsal because I’m taking Michael Grant very seriously. He needs this fight desperately, so I don’t want to give the impression that he is taken for granted or he is a dress rehearsal. It is going to show us what Tomasz can do against an extremely tall guy.”

“In the heavyweight division, you don’t have tremendous knockout power, but you have to have the ability to hurt people with combinations. Evander Holyfield wasn’t a great one-punch [boxer], but he put enough punches together, he made you quit. That’s the way I see Tomasz. I think eventually he’ll put enough punches together he will make you quit.” “One advantage of his weight having settled in at 220-222 lbs. is that he is still able to carry his body around. He has very good legs. When you start getting up around 240-250 lbs., sometimes it’s tough.”
*For his last fight, Tomasz Adamek was trained by both Roger Bloodworth and Ronnie Shields. When Bloodworth left camp to train with David Tua, Adamek worked exclusively with Ronnie Shields. This time around, Shields was not figured into the Adamek equation at all.

In an interview with Beats, Boxing, and Mayhem, Ronnie Shields admitted he doesn’t really know why Adamek decided not to work with him again. “You’ll have to ask his manager Ziggy Rozalski,” Shields explained. “I got a call from someone else [not] Tomasz or Ziggy telling me that he wasn’t coming to Houston. I have no idea what happened.” I asked Bloodworth about it all and he replied by saying, “It doesn’t have to do with anything except that Tomasz wanted to train up here and Ronnie trains in Houston. Simple as that.”

Tomasz Adamek:
“I’m very excited to come back to the Prudential Center…I think we will make a good fight with Michael Grant, for my fans. I would like to invite everyone to see my fight in Newark. Thank you very much, see you August 21.” No other boxers spoke at the press conference. Michael Grant attempted to phone in from Las Vegas, but due to technical problems, it was inaudible.