Antonio Diaz scored a stoppage victory over Ernesto Zepeda after round eight of a scheduled ten round Jr. Middleweight bout at the Fantasy Springs Hotel in Indio, California.

Diaz controlled the action and really turned up the volume in round eight as he sent Zepeda to the canvas twice in the round for which referee Jose Cobian ruled slips but Zepeda went down for more or less exhaustion.

When Zepeda got back to the corner he had a look a defeat and the fight was stopped.

Diaz, 150 lbs of Indio, CA is now 46-6-1 with twenty-eight knockouts. Zepeda, 150 1/2 lbs of Tijuana, MX is now 39-15-2

Andrew Cancio scored a four round stoppage over Lowell Brownfield in round three of a scheduled six round Lightweight bout.

Cancio dropped Borwnfield in round two from a left to the head that was followed by two rights. Brownfield hit the deck once again in round three from a body shot.

Cancio finised thins off by landing a big flurry of punches until referee Tony Crebs stopped the bout at 1:49 of round four.

Cancio, 135 1/2 lbs of Blythe, CA is now 11-1-2 with all wins coming by knockout. Brownfield, 134 1/2 lbs of Los Angeles, CA is now 11-9-1.

Humberto Zatarain scored four knockdowns en route to an easy four round unanimous decision over Rocco Espinoza in a Featherweight bout.

Zatarain dropped Espinoza three times in round one and one in round two.

Zatarain,125 3/4 lbs of Whittier, CA is now 3-0. Espinoza, 125 lbs of Las Vegas is 1-1

Angel Osuna dominated, battered and eventually stopped Raul Rodriguez in the fourth and final scheduled round of their Jr. Middleweight bout.

Osuna had Rodriguez in trouble in every round and finally dropped him in the final round and the bout was stopped at twenty-five seconds of round four.

Osuna, 152 1/2 lbs of Cochella, CA is now 5-3-1 with three knockouts. Rodriguez, 154 lbs of Bakersfield, CA is now 3-7-1

Alejandro Lopez scored a solid twelve round unanimous decision over previously undefeated Teon Kennedy in a Super Bantamweight bout at Ballys in Atlantic City.

After a slow round one, Lopez started boxing nicely by putting right hands behind a long jab. In round three the two came out and had a furious exchange on the ropes. That was followed up by a blistering five punch combination from Lopez. Lopez put together a couple more combination’s before the close of the round that started some swelling underneath the left eye of Kennedy. Lopez’ movement cause Kennedy to look uncomfortable at times. In round five, it was a right hand that started the close of the right eye of Kennedy. Round six was a telling round as Lopez’ confidence began to show as he started clowning around and landing quick combination’s for which Kennedy started to look a little frustrated.

In round’s seven and eight Kennedy started to get a little closer as he started to get a little closer but he wasn’t slowing the full ring circular movement of Lopez. Kennedy kept trying to come forward but Lopez was slow that down with some pot shotting and little combonations that was offsetting Kennedy’s attempt at aggression. In round eleven, Kennedy started to look a little desperate. the two waged war on the ropes in the final round with a big shot opening up a nasty cut on the left eyelid of Kennedy. Despite that, kennedy tried to press forward only to eat quick right hands on his way in. For good measure, Lopez landed a hard right just before the final bell sounded.

Lopez, 121 1/2 lbs of Tijuana, MX won by scores of 117-111; 117-11 and 115-113 to raise his mark to 22-2. Kenendy, 121 1/2 lbs of Philadelphia, PA is now 17-1-1.

Karl “Dynamite” Dargan scored a sixth round stoppage over Juan Suazo in a scheduled eight round Lightweight bout.

Dargan dropped Suazo in round one from a blistering counter right. Dragan bloodied Suazo around his right eye and he never looked back.

Dargan landed some beautiful counter shots that drew ohhs and ahhs from the crowd. Finally in round six, a nice combaintion forced Suazo’s corner to end things at 1:20 of of the round.

Darga, 134 1/2 lbs of Philadelphia, PA is now 10-0 with five knockouts. Suazo, 134 lbs of Tucson, AZ is now 6-5.

In an entertaining Super Middleweight scrap, Derrick Webster scored a six round unanimous decision over Romaro Johnson.

Both guys landed some big shots with Webster landed a lot more volume and landed hard to the body

Both guys were stunned but Webster was effetive when he wanted to step on the gas.

Webster, 164 1/2 lbs of Glassboro, NJ won by scores of 60-54; 59-55 and 59-55 to raise his perfect mark to 10-0. Johnson, 164 lbs of Clevelnand, OH is now 11-4-1.

Camilo Perez remained perfect with a knockout over James Owens in a Featherweight bout.

Perez landed a perfect left hook that sent Owens down and the fight was stopped at 1:43

Perez, 123.6 lbs of Rio Piedras, PR is now 5-0 with four knockouts. Owens, 122 1/2 lbs of Milwaukee, WI is now 4-6.

Cuban import Yordenis Ugas scored a six round unanimous decision over gritty Fernando Rodriguez in a Welterweight bout

Ugas was dominant as he boxed very well. He hit Rodriguez with some hellacious right hands. In round three, Ugas started to pound the body with both hands. Ugas continued to batter Rodriguez but Rodriguez not only would take but come back with a (less effective) flurry of his own.

That scenario played for most of the fight whete Ugas got much better of exchanges but Rodriguez got the toughness, courage and approval of the crowd award.

Ugas, 144 1/2 lbs of Havana, CUB won by scores of 59-55; 59-55 and 58-56 to stay perfect at 9-0. Rodriguez, 145 lbs of Dallas, TX is now 6-5.

On the strength of three knockdowns, Pedro Martinez held on to score a four round unanimous decision over Elvin Sanchez in a Cruiserweight bout.

Martinez dropped Sanchez at the end of round one from an overhand right. Martinez scored two more knockdowns from big right hands in round two. Sanchez made a brief comeback over the final two rounds but Martinez was able to make it to the final bell without much trouble.

Scores were 38-35 on all cards for Martinez, 200 lbs of Philadelphia and is now 6-4. Sanchez., 196 lbs of Paterson, NJ is now 4-2

Photo by Chris Toney/Top Rank

Welterweight Ed “The Lion” Paredes 27-3-3(16KO) fought off a very tough and ready Juliano Ramos 16-5(13KO) who came after Paredes the entire fight. Ramos started very strong pressuring the taller Paredes and landing some very nice inside shots while Paredes touched the Brazilian from the outside. Ramos stuck to his game plan nicely for the opening few rounds pushing Paredes back and making the rangy brawler fight going backwards.

Paredes adjusted and started to create distance landing cleaner punches midway during round three which slowed Ramos down and turned the early momentuem into his direction. Ramos slowed as the fight wore on and Paredes got stronger landing bigger shots wearing the tough and tested Ramos down. Regardless Ramos stalked The Lion down looking to get inside but the sharp punching Paredes did his damage breaking his Brazilian counterpart down until a big right hand in the eight dropped Ramos, who got up slowly and staggered just enough to have Telis Assimenios wisely wrap him up and wave him into safety at 2:07 of the eighth.

WBC’s #8 ranked lightweight Richard Abril 16-2(8KO) dropped and stopped Sergio Rivera 25-8(16KO) fighting out of Mexico, with a big right hand to the body in the fifth round. The punch was initially called low however Rivera refused to continue. The blow was very suspect as far as being low and it would look like Rivera took an early siesta on a good body shot. Abril set the pace early with a steady diet of jabs and straight right hands and outclassed the tough Mexican showing superior hand speed and landing at a high percentage. The fight was called a TKO 1:28 in the fifth round. Abril has his sights set on WBA Champion Brandon Rios and hopes to soon see him on the other side of the ring.

Heavyweight prospect Luis “El Mercedes” Ortiz 13-0 (11KO) took the TKO win over Arron Lyons 12-11(9KO) from Mississippi. Ortiz clobbered and bloodied Lyons throughout the fight with thunderous shots and impressive speed, all while quickly maturing in the professional ring. While taking a nasty beating, Lyons was able to land a few shots but none seemed to faze the former world amateur champion Ortiz who had 381 fights before entering the pro ranks. It will be interesting to see how Ortiz would do with the top of ranks which he should be ready for in a few fights of tougher opponents. Ortiz looked sharp but may need to work on turning his punches over a little more as many of his power shots were somewhat palming the inferior opponent. Ortiz, who is working at fast tracking his way to the top of the heavyweight ranks, holds both the WBA Federation and the WBC FECARBOX titles which were not on the line tonight. Lyons was cut badly early in the fight and by the end of the seventh the ringside physician had advised the fight to be stopped. In the end Ortiz did his job and disposed of the tough but outclassed Lyons.

In a 105 lb hotly contested bout among a raucous crowd Carlos “el Chocorritonito Buitrago 20-0 (15KO’s) squared up against a fiery Mexican fighter Felipe Riveras 9-9(4KO). The first round were “choc” full of good exchanges and jeers from the crowd with both men getting in some nice shots to oohs and ahhs of the Nicaraguan and Mexican fans. The second round was more of the same with both men getting off some great shots with an extra dose of showmanship from Rivas before the end of the round. Third round was more of Riva getting off the better and cleaner power shots. The 4th ended up with more of the same all Rivas. The 5th round there was a shift in the momentum with Buitrago starting to get off the cleaner shots with Rivas doing more of the Ali shuffle then boxing. The 6th round showed a clear shift in the action with the Nicaraguan starting to dictate the action and dominate the fight. The 7th and 8th rounds gave the crowd a little less action with Buitrago and Rivas going back and forth equally with not man winning the rounds in spectacular fashion. The ninth and tenth rounds gave us more back and forth leaving a nail biting decision for the crowd to wait on.

Lightweight Yoelvis Gamboa 7-0(3KO), the younger brother of WBA and IBF Featherweight World Champion Yorkies Gamboa was successful in stopping iron chinned and clearly out matched Larry Yanez 2-3. Referee Frank Gentile stepped in and saved Yanez at 1:54 of the fourth round. This fight could have easily been stopped a stanza earlier.

In a youth vs. age bout Super Bantamweight Cuban amateur star Yoandris Salinas 16-1(7KO) pressured veteran fighter Felipe Almanza 18-27(9KO) from the opening bell and controlled the entire fight with commanding ring generalship and aggression. Salinas was relentless and landing big shots on the Colombian Almanza and in the 3rd the Cuban landed a vicious left hook right hand the floored Almanza who was unable to reach his feet at the count of ten. The end came at 2:35.

Nearly five weeks after suffering what some boxing insiders called a career killing defeat to Carlos Molina, former Welterweight champion Kermit Cintron got back on the horse and scored a solid ten round unanimous decision over Antwone Smith in a Welterweight bout at The Ameristar Casino in St. Joseph, Missouri.

It was a tough battle that was contested mostly on the inside with Cintron landed the better shots on Smith.

Cintron showed better hand speed and more urgency then he did in the loss to Molina that took place on July 9th.

Cintron, 149 lbs of Carolina, PR won by scores of 98-92; 97-93 and 96-94 and is now 33-4-1. Smith, 148 1/2 lbs of Miami is known for his upset ability came up a little short on this night and is now 20-3-1.

Dannie Williams scored an emphatic fourth round knockout over Antonio Cervantes in round four of their scheduled ten round Lightweight bout.

Williams dropped Cervantes in round one from a right-left combination to the head.

In round four, Williams landed a jab to the body and then came over the top with a thudding right hand that sent Cervantes plummeting to the canvas as he hit the back of his head on the canvas and referee Steve Smoger waved the fight off instantly.

The time of the of the stoppage was 1:05 of round four for Williams, 135 1/2 lbs of St. Louis, MO and is 19-1 with fifteen knockouts. Cervantes, 135 1/2 lbs of Ensenada, MX is now 16-6-5.

Keandre Gibson scored a six round unanimous decision over Lawrence Hughes in a Jr. Welterweight bout.

Gibson scored a knockdown in round one form a hard right hand. The same thing happened in round three as he landed a right that sent Hughes to the canvas.

Gibson dominated the rest of the bout and coasted home to the victory by scores 60-51; 60-52 and 59-53.

Gibson, 143 lbs of Berkley, MO is now 5-0. Hugues, 142 1/2 lbs of St. Louis, MO is now 3-1-1.

Bantamweight title holder Nonito Doanire will make his ring return on November 5th in a bout to be televised by HBO according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

“We are looking to secure an opponent and a site for Nonito’s return on Nov. 5 and we’re very excited,” said Todd duBoef, President of Top Rank.

The names presented to HBO as possible opponents, according to Moretti, are Argentina’s Omar Narvaez (35-0, 23 KOs), a reigning junior bantamweight titleholder and former longtime flyweight titlist; former two-time title challenger Silence Mabuza (23-3, 19 KOs) of South Africa; Mexico’s Christian Esquivel (23-2, 17 KOs); Sebastian Gauthier (21-2, 13 KOs) of Canada; former junior bantamweight titlist Alexander Munoz (35-4, 27 KOs); and Juan Mercedes (26-3, 17 KOs) of the Dominican Republic.

“Narvaez’s people have interest in the fight and there’s a hefty offer out to them right now,” said Top Rank’s Carl Moretti.

“We have absolutely zero interest in pursuing a Darchinyan rematch,” Moretti said. “We’ve been down that road before. We’ve tried to make it and it didn’t get done. I don’t think there’s anything for Nonito to gain by fighting him again.”

PHILADELPHIA—Rashad Evans came back after nearly a year and a half layoff to write a bad chapter in the Cinderella Story of Tito Ortiz as Evans scored a punishing second round stoppage of their emotional Light Heavyweight bout at the Wells Fargo Center.

The crowd was in frenzy as it was a Pro-Ortiz audience and they tried to urge their man on.

There was not much action in the first moments but Evans took control in the latter stages of the round as he had Ortiz in a dominant position while landing some good punches.

The second and deciding frame had as much ebb and flow as a round could have as Evans back slammed Ortiz hard to the mat. Ortiz showed his fighting spirited and excited the crowd as for a brief moment he applied a Guillotine choke for which Evans was able to slide out of.

That may have deflated Ortiz as Evans got on the offensive and pounded a prone Ortiz before the fight was stopped.

Evans, 204.4 lbs of Boca Raton, FL will now look for the winner of Jon Jones and “Rampage” Jackson for Light Heavyweight supremacy with a record of 21-1-1. Ortiz, 205.8 lbs of Huntington Beach, CA took the fight on just two and a half weeks notice and is now 17-9-1.

RASHAD EVANS
“Speed kills and I feel that tonight I was fast. Tito was a couple of steps behind. I had to keep the pressure on because Tito is strong. I didn’t feel in any danger with the choke, I felt like it was a wrestling position where I put my head to the ground and my shoulder to him so there wasn’t too much he could do with that. This victory is sweet, after 14 months off I feel stronger than ever.”

TITO ORTIZ
“Rashad was the better man tonight. I take my hat off to him. I fought my ass off tonight and I will be back. I took this fight on short notice and gave it my all. I stepped up for Dana, Lorenzo and the UFC.”

In the Middleweight co-feature, Vitor Belfort thrilled a partisan crowd by stopping Yoshihiro Akiyama in round one.

After a cautious first moment of the bout, Belfort landed a hard combination that got Akiyama to the ground. Belfort followed up by pounding the head of Akiyama and the fight was stopped.

Belfort, 185.4 lbs of Las Vegas, NV showed no affects of his title losing knockout loss to Anderson Silva and will look for another title shot at 20-9. Akiyama, 184.6 lbs of Osaka, JAP is now 13-4.

VITOR BELFORT
“I feel great. God gave me the strength to move forward and I thank Him for that. I have the courage it takes to be one of the best. I feel strong, fit, powerful and fast.”

Brian Ebersole took out Denis Hallman in round of their welterweight battle of MMA veterans.
The match took a backseat to Hallman’s tight trunks, which Dana White later described as tighter than Speedos.

That did not seem to distract Ebersole as escaped off his back to turn the tables and begin to land hard punches and elbows on Hallman. A thudding elbow across the head was the nail in the coffin as it sent Hallman out and the bout was stopped at 4:28 of round one.

Ebersole, 170.6 lbs of Melbourne, AUS is now 48-14-1-1. Hallman, 170.8 lbs of Yelm, WA is now 66-14-2.

BRIAN EBERSOLE
“The feeling is bitter sweet, the fight didn’t start the way I wanted it to start. I thought I would have had to wear him down much more but luckily for me he had an open guard which let me get in there. I’m ecstatic about my two straight victories. I want to fight the veterans now, the ones that I came up watching.”

DENNIS HALLMAN
“I feel the fight was stopped too soon, but Brian had some good blows. Overall it was a fair fight.”

Constantinos Philippou scored a three round split decision over Jorge Rivera in a Middleweight bout.
It was a close fight with both guys having their moments.

Scores were 29-28 for Philippou in two cards and Rivera took a card at 29-28.

Phililppou, 185.2 lbs of Long Island, NY is now 8-2. Rivera, 186.4 lbs of Milford, MA is 18-9

CONSTANTINOS PHILIPPOU
“I am very happy with winning my first UFC fight, but it wasn’t the way I wanted to win it. I wanted to show off my boxing skills and instead I was wrestling and using my jiu jitsu skills. But I will learn from my mistakes and come back stronger and fitter.”

JORGE RIVERA
“I wish I had finished the fight. I think that when the decision is left to the judges, you get what you deserve, and tonight I didn’t deserve to win.”

Superstar in the making Rory McDonald scored an impressive first round stoppage over Mike Pyle in a Welterweight bout.

McDonald had Pyle on his back and began to reign elbows and punches and the fight was stopped at 3:54 of round one.

McDonald, 170.5 lbs of Montreal is now 12-1. Pyle, 170.8 lbs of Las Vegas is now 21-8-1.

RORY MACDONALD
“I went in really confident, and I have a lot more to show. I’m constantly improving and stepping up the ladder which is what I want to be doing. Everything went my way tonight, I wanted a clear shot and I knew from looking in his eyes that the fight was over.”

MIKE PYLE
“I’ll do better next time”.

Alexander Gustafsson pounded Matt Hamill in round two of their three round Light Heavyweight bout.
After Hamill took round one, Gutafsson pounded Hamill on the ground until the ref stopped the bout at 3:34 of round two.

Gustafsson of Gothenburg, Sweden is now 12-1. Hamill of Utica, NY is 11-4.

ALEXANDER GUSTAFSSON
“This was by far the biggest fight of my career. It was unbelievable. I think that I was too defensive in the first round, but the second round I felt great. I want a career out of this, I want to fight the best guys in the world.”

MATT HAMILL
“I was eager going into the Octagon, but I was also fatigued. I had little time to prepare for the fight, and you could see my fatigue as my arms were down from the start of the fight. Alexander is a dangerous striker, and it was dangerous for me to have my arms down. I’ll be back tougher than ever though.”

Chad Mendes remained perfect with a three round unanimous decision over Rani Yahya in a Featherweight bout.

Scores were 30-27 across the board for Mendes of Sacramento, CA and is now 11-0. Yahya of Brasilla. Brazil is now 16-7.

CHAD MENDES
“Of course we all look for a finish, but overall I am happy with the fight and I felt good. When I took him down the first time I wanted to see what he felt like. Hes a tough guy and I knew he would be strong. I was trying to elbow him and follow through with some quick pop-shots as much as possible.”

RANI YAHYA
“Chad is strong and Chad is good. He is really good at what he does. He kicked me a few times and I felt them for sure, and he has great take downs.”

Ivan Menjivar scored a three round unanimous decision over Nick Pace in a Bantamweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on all cards for Menjivar of Montreal and is now 23-8. Pace of Staten Island, NY is 6-2

IVAN MENJIVAR
“I happy with the win, he took me down so it was a very close fight. I think I punched him more than he did so I was more in control, but he hit me hard twice and that made my legs shake.”

NICK PACE
“I hate losing more then I like winning, and I want to be the champion. It was very unlucky, but that’s MMA and that’s life, its not always fair.”

Johny Hendricks scored a three round split decision over Mike Pierce in a Welterweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on two cards for Hendricks and Pierce took a card at 29-28.

Hendricks of Dallas, TX is now 11-1. Pierce of Vancouver, WA is 12-4.

JOHNY HENDRICKS
“It was a very tough fight. Its always hard with other wrestlers, and he changed levels often making it even harder. I feel that the take downs were even, in fact, I don’t think he took me down at all. I feel awesome, my ground game is good, my knees are great and I am really happy with my improvement.”

MIKE PIERCE
“I’m obviously dissapointed. I had a really good camp, went through really good training and I feel dissapointed after all the hard work I put in. It was a fair fight, both of us were trying to finish what we started, and unfortunately it went the way it did.”

On the strength of a dominant first round, former WEC champion Mike Brown scored a three round unanimous decision over Nam Phan in A Featherweight bout.

Brown pounded Phan on the ground for the majority of the opening frame.

Scores were 29-27; 29-28 and 29-28 for Brown, 146 lbs of Coconut Creek, FL and is now 25-8. Phan, 145 lbs of Orange County, CA is 16-10.

MIKE BROWN
“At the beginning my back was haunting me so that’s why I was a little conservative, but I’m glad I got the job done. There was a lot of repetitive trauma there for over four minutes so even though I didn’t knock him out, I know that I was breaking him down. It wasn’t the most perfect fight, but I’m happy I got the victory.”

NAM PHAN
“It was a really tough bout so I did what I could do. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, but I believe it was as fair as it could be”.

In the opening bout of the evening, Rafael Natal scored a three round unanimous decision over Paul Bradley in a Middleweight bout.

Scores were 30-27; 29-28 and 29-28 for Natal.

Natal, 185.4 lbs of New York is now 13-3-1. Bradley, 185.2 lbs of Minneapolis, MN is now 18-3-0-1

RAFAEL NATAL
“I am really, really happy about this fight! I feel like I needed it, I worked really hard for it. It was a tough fight and I’m glad I came through winning. Thank you God and thank you UFC.”

PAUL BRADLEY
“I feel like it was my fault, I could have taken him down in the second round. I didn’t, so it’s my fault. It was a close fight, and I am disappointed by the result. Like Dana always says, never leave it to the judges.”

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that that Manny Pacquiao’s November 12th Welterweight title defense against Juan Manuel Marquez will be distributed bu HBO Pay Per View.

Pacquiao who had been a staple of HBO Boxing, had his May 7 showdown with Shane Mosley carried by Showtime after his promoter Top Rank got a better deal.

Just a few weeks after HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg resigned, HBO came to Top Rank with a better offer to reacquire the right to televise the world’s best Pound for Pound fighter.

“In boxing we talk about great fighters coming back after a loss. Well, HBO came back just like a great fighter,” said Top Rank President Todd duBoef, a key architect of the deal, told ESPN.com. “They came back from being on the canvas. They made their adjustments and came back and won the fight. You have to give them a lot of credit.”

“The Pacquiao-Mosley fight re-established Showtime as a major player in the pay-per-view arena and we look forward to future opportunities with Top Rank and the other promoters in boxing,” Showtime spokesman Chris DeBlasio told ESPN.com. “Right now we remain focused on a huge slate of sports programming we have lined for the fall.”

“I’m absolutely sick. This has been a physically and mentally very grueling process,” duBoef said. “But it’s invigorating to see how two major media companies have used incredible resources and assets to show how much they want to be involved in a boxing match.

“Showtime was disappointed and I’m disappointed. You’re disappointed when someone puts in a terrific proposal and then you have to tell them they’re not good enough because someone came across with a better one, a more appealing map for this fight. It was a tough call to make, especially when you’ve built relationships. I felt it was appropriate to be truthful and up front with Ken. I couldn’t sleep last night. I’m disappointed I had to leave somebody that I have a lot of respect for. The proposals (both networks) put together were fantastic. They were unprecedented. I’ve never seen anything like it. When you have that it is very difficult to make your decision. I wish both could have distributed the fight.”

“One of the things that motivated me personally (to make the HBO deal) is the attitude of Plepler and Lombardo,” Arum told ESPN.com. “I think they are extremely bright guys and have the same vision that we have to make boxing big-time again and a desire to elevate it on a world stage. With this deal, they brought to bear all the resources of the Time Warner empire.

“HBO can do only so much because of the limited audience it has. I can tell when people are extremely motivated and will put the time and effort in and to have them behind it and working with us on a day-to-day basis, along with the HBO staff, like (HBO PPV chief) Mark Taffet, it will be a home run.”

“We’re not tying ourselves to anyone,” he said. “Let’s see how this goes. But I have very high hopes that it will be a blockbuster.”

Arum said the goal is not only to do big pay-per-view numbers, but to bring boxing more into the mainstream. With Showtime and CBS marketing Pacquiao-Mosley, it generated about 1.3 million buys, according to Arum — the most ever for a Pacquiao fight.

Besides the usual promotional tools HBO would typically use for a fight — including the “24/7? reality series following the buildup, “Face Off With Max Kellerman” and replays of classic Pacquiao and Marquez fights — Arum said the fight would be promoted across Time Warner’s numerous platforms, which includes television networks (such as HBO, TNT, TBS and CNN), magazines (Sports Illustrated and People) and the websites for those outlets. They will be heavily utilized, Arum said. Among the plans, according to Arum and duBoef:

• CNN will show replays of “24/7? episodes.
• Arum and Pacquiao will appear for a joint interview on Piers Morgan’s primetime CNN show as well as be interviewed on CNN international programming.
• The fight will be promoted during TBS’ coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs.
• If the NBA lockout is lifted, the fight would also be promoted during TNT’s basketball coverage.
• There will be daily coverage of fight-week activities on HBO, including the final news conference and weigh-in.

“Being on shows on CNN, to me, is elevating the sport to new levels,” Arum said. “To have the fight discussed on programs that intellectual elites watch is good for the brand. Time Warner is also going to pull out all the stops on their sports programs on TNT and TBS.”

Said duBoef: “The currency of these deals isn’t about the dollars. It was the currency of who could get my product out to the most eyeballs. It was an analysis. I didn’t just do it on a gut feeling. I went through this very strategically and we had it analyzed. At the end of the day, it was HBO, Time Warner who had a better deal across the board.”

Initially, Arum said whichever company got the rights to Pacquiao-Marquez III would also get the Dec. 3 Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch, another major fight. HBO PPV did their initial fight in 2008 while Showtime PPV did Cotto’s win against Ricardo Mayorga in March.

Arum said he eventually changed his mind about making the two fights a package deal.

“Showtime still has a position on the Cotto fight because they did the last one, so Monday we’ll start talking to them,” Arum said. “When Todd and I had further discussions and we realized that it wasn’t the most advantageous thing to do, to make a package deal. Showtime did such a great job for us on the last Pacquiao fight and it would be important and good for the sport for Showtime to stay involved in these major pay-per-view fights. So if Showtime meets certain proposals that we’re going to make, and we get the support we need from them, then it behooves everybody to go with them. That way we keep more people and entities involved and it’s great for the sport.

“I don’t want to go back to the situation where there is one entity doing all the major pay-per-views and that entity does the same thing over and over and gets into this narrow box, which I felt the pay-per-views were in because they had been successful and we kept repeating the same thing over and over again. That is not a way to grow a sport. You grow it by being innovative and having competition and new ideas.”

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that Jr. Welterweights Kendall Hilt and Danny Garcia will fight eachother on October 15th as part of the Bernard Hopkins – Chad Dawson world Light Heavyweight title fight undercard in Los Angeles.

“It’s done, 100 percent done and I’m very excited about this fight,” said Holt’s promoter Gary Shaw. “I think it’s a great fight and the right fight for both fighters.”

“It wasn’t hard at all,” he said. “Golden Boy and myself both wanted to make the fight and both fighters wanted the fight. That makes the perfect marriage.”

“I don’t think Garcia has ever felt the kind of power Kendall has and Kendall may not have been in with anyone recently with the kind of speed that Garcia has,” Shaw said. “It’s the old cliche — this is the young fighter versus the veteran, which is the theme of Hopkins and Dawson as well.”

junior lightweight titleholder Jorge Linares (31-1, 20 KOs) for the lightweight belt recently vacated by Humberto Soto (DeMarco’s cousin).

Shaw said he and Golden Boy are still working to finalize a fourth televised bout, but that it could include heavyweight Franklin Lawrence, whom Shaw recently signed, or blue chip featherweight prospect Gary Russell Jr., a 2008 U.S. Olympian.

“We’ll lock in the last fight probably by Wednesday,” Shaw said.

NEW YORK, NY (August 3, 2011) – DiBella Entertainment has added Irish middleweight contender Matthew “Mack the Knife” Macklin to its ever-growing stable of fighters. Macklin, 29, is an intelligent boxer-puncher, who has shown that he is not afraid to engage or press the action when necessary. He is currently ranked #4 by the WBA, #7 by the WBO, and #12 by the IBO, and has nothing but big fights on his mind as he joins the same promotional roster as middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and middleweight contenders Andy Lee, Brian Vera, Ronald Hearns, Peter Manfredo, Jr., and Ishe Smith.

There are times when a loss brings more positive attention to a fighter’s career than any of his previous victories. Coming off his most recent fight, a controversial loss to “Super” WBA middleweight titlist Felix Sturm, that statement could not be truer of Macklin, 28-3 (19 KOs). But now, Macklin is looking for redemption under a new promotional banner, a deal to bring him to the United States that was facilitated by Brian Peters, his manager since 2005.

“I am really happy to be signing with DiBella Entertainment,” said Macklin. “I’ve known Lou DiBella for many years. I met him in Manchester when Paulie Malignaggi fought Lovemore Ndou in 2008. We spoke about doing something together last year, but the timing wasn’t right. I feel that we’re now on the same wavelength. I’m excited about the future and I feel that I am in very good hands with Lou.”

Born in Birmingham, England, to Irish parents, Macklin was studying law at Coventry University while simultaneously competing as an amateur boxer. After winning the national senior Amateur Boxing Association of England welterweight title in 2001, Macklin made the decision to put his studies on hold, to the ire of his parents, in order to pursue a professional boxing career.

In Glasgow, Scotland, on the undercard of future featherweight champion Scott Harrison, Macklin stopped Ram Singh in just 112 second, on November 17, 2001. Going on to win his first nine bouts, six by knockout, Macklin built up enough of a reputation to challenge for the British junior middleweight title. Fighting Andrew Facey on November 6, 2003, Macklin lost a razor-thin 10-round decision by one point, with a score of 96-95.

Macklin bounced back from that defeat winning three straight before fighting professionally in Ireland for the first time against Michael Monaghan for the Irish middleweight title, on May 14, 2005, his 23rd birthday, at National Stadium in Dublin. Macklin won the belt with a fifth-round knockout, at 1:28 of the frame.

Three months after winning the Irish middleweight title, Macklin traveled across the pond to get his first taste of fighting in the United States, winning two bouts by knockout, stopping Leo Laudat in three in Atlantic City, and Anthony Little in two in Philadelphia.

Three fights later, Macklin would engage Jamie Moore in one of the best fights of 2006, in his second attempt to win the British junior middleweight crown. Fighting Moore at George Carnall Leisure Centre in Manchester on September 26, Macklin was quickly drawn into a brawl and the two continued to fight in the trenches for over nine brutal rounds, before the Irishman would succumb to a knockout halfway through the 10th frame.

“I fought Jamie Moore at the wrong weight,” said Macklin. “Although I shouldn’t have fought Moore’s fight, making weight was the problem in that bout. I felt weak, I had no stamina and no reflexes. I stayed at welterweight and junior middleweight for far too long. I am a middleweight.”

Maintaining a busy schedule over the next two years, Macklin would win his next six fights, three by knockout, including a 10-round decision over veteran Yori Boy Campas. Macklin then returned to his hometown of Birmingham to challenge Wayne Elcock for the British middleweight title on March 14, 2009, winning by TKO in the third. Macklin followed that up with a fight against Finnish Amin Asikainen six months later and destroyed him inside one round to add the European title to his collection.

After defending the European title in two of his next three victories, Macklin was poised to make a big slash on the world-boxing scene with a bout against former junior middleweight champion Winky Wright set for Las Vegas. However, that bout did not come to fruition when Wright pulled out after suffering an injury in training. A WBA eliminator against Khoren Gevor next presented itself with the winner to face Felix Sturm. Contractual issues led to Macklin pulling out of that contest, but he was rewarded with a direct shot at Sturm and, despite losing a highly controversial split decision on the champion’s home turf, made a statement with his dynamic performance.

“I went over to Germany and I proved myself. I felt that I won,” said Macklin, who lost the split decision by two votes of 116-112 for Sturm and a 115-113 tally in his favor. “I feel that if we fought 100 times, I would beat him every time. If it were up to me, I’d fight him next, although I don’t think he has any intention of pursuing a rematch with me. If he wants to fight me again, it’s an easy fight to make, as he is his own promoter. I think he knows that he cannot beat me. He’s not going to come to Ireland or England. Fighting Sturm in New York would be great, but I would go back to Germany if I had to. I’d expect a fairer crack at the fight. I think the German officials would be under a lot more pressure to make sure things were on the level, given the controversy of our first fight.

“I think the Sturm fight was an eye-opener for the boxing public at large. Sturm is a leading man in the middleweight division and I think I proved that I am among the top three middleweights of the world.”

DiBella Entertainment President Lou DiBella is excited about his new recruit.

“I viewed signing Macklin as a no-brainer,” said DiBella. “I have Sergio Martinez, the real middleweight champ, the best in the world. But clearly Matthew handled Sturm with ease and he has a claim at being the second-best middleweight in the world. He’s going to want a shot at Sergio and eventually that will make sense.

“I’m very, very happy with the deal,” he continued. “I happen to like the kid very much and that is part of it. There are certain guys who have very pleasing styles for TV. This guy rumbles but he also has skills. He’s fun to watch and made a case that he stands near the top of the middleweight division with the way he fought Sturm.”

LOS ANGELES (August 3)…The “STAR POWER: Mayweather vs. Ortiz” pay-per-view telecast is now complete with four star-studded fights from two sites all taking place Saturday, September 17 from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions announced today that Erik Morales vs. Lucas Matthysse and Jessie Vargas vs. Josesito Lopez have been added to the mega-event, which is being produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®.

The out-of-this-world night of boxing will kick-off with a super lightweight bout featuring undefeated rising star Vargas in his HBO Pay-Per-View debut against hard-hitting Lopez, followed by the first of the night’s three world title fights as Mexican boxing legend Morales will face power punching Argentine Matthysse for the WBC Super Lightweight World Championship. The pay-per-view telecast will then go live to STAPLES Center in Los Angeles with Mexican boxing phenom Canelo Alvarez taking on Alfonso Gomez for the WBC Super Welterweight World Championship, followed by the main event welterweight championship mega-fight, Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz, live from Las Vegas.

Fans in attendance at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas will be able to see the Alvarez vs. Gomez fight live, while those in attendance at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles will see Mayweather vs. Ortiz and Morales vs. Matthysse live. Following the showing of Mayweather vs. Ortiz at STAPLES Center, fans in attendance will see two special post-fight concerts performed by Los Tucanes de Tijuana and El Gran Silencio.

“The addition of Morales vs. Matthysse and Vargas vs. Lopez to the September 17 fight card makes ‘STAR POWER’ without a doubt the biggest night of boxing in 2011,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “Mayweather Promotions is very excited about Jessie Vargas’ pay-per-view debut on such a huge event to really get his name out there and show the world what he can do.”

“Now that we have a complete pay-per-view card, the stage is set for the world to witness a real supernova of boxing,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Three title fights in one night is something that we are very proud to bring to boxing fans around the world. Each of these championship fights could stand alone as their own main event and fans will be able to experience them all in one night. Adding undefeated Jessie Vargas in his pay-per-view debut and the legendary Erik Morales, who is fighting to make history as the first Mexican boxing warrior to win world titles in four weight classes, really strengthens the entire ‘STAR POWER’ event.”

Tickets for Mayweather vs. Ortiz, Morales vs. Matthysse and Vargas vs. Lopez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena are priced at $1,250, $1,000, $600, $300 and $150, not including applicable service charges. Ticket sales are limited to twelve (12) per person at the $1,250, $1,000, $600 and $300 price levels with a ticket limit of two (2) per person at the $150 price level. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

STAPLES Center tickets for Alvarez vs. Gomez are priced at $300, $150, $75, and $50, are on sale now and available for purchase online at ticketmaster.com, via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone lines at (800)745-3000. Tickets are also available at STAPLES Center box office.

A three-division world champion and future Hall of Famer, Erik “El Terrible” Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) ruled the boxing landscape for years, thrilling fans with his classic battles against Manny Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, Paulie Ayala, Wayne McCullough and In-Jin Chi. But when he returned from a nearly three year layoff in 2010, many wondered if the Tijuana native still had what it took to compete with the elite. Those questions were answered loud and clear with a three fight winning streak in 2010 and a Fight of the Year candidate in April of 2011, when he went to war for 12 rounds with Marcos Maidana before losing a razor-thin majority decision. Now, the 34-year old warrior is back in the ring and back in Las Vegas to face the concussive punching Matthysse as he vies to become the only Mexican fighter in history to win world titles in four weight divisions.

“This fight is the chance of a lifetime,” said Morales. “I have waited for this moment my entire career. To have the opportunity to win world titles in four weight divisions on Mexican Independence Day and on a night like this is a dream come true. I am going to train harder than ever to make the Mexican people proud and to be victorious on September 17.”

One of boxing’s hardest punchers, Lucas Matthysse (28-2, 26 KO’s) of Trelew, Argentina has made former World Champions Zab “Super” Judah and Devon Alexander see stars in his last two fights, knocking each of them down, only to lose both fights by controversial split decisions. The 28-year-old’s new role as the people’s champion is a good one for the crowd-pleasing standout, who has been delivering stellar performances from the time he turned professional in 2004. A former WBO Latino and WBO Intercontinental champion who counts “Vicious” Vivian Harris, DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley and Rogelio Castaneda Jr. among his vanquished foes, Matthysse, who has won 93 percent of his fights by way of knockout, is amped up and ready to trade blows with one of the sport’s modern greats, Erik Morales, on September 17.

“I cannot wait to get in the ring and fight Erik Morales,” said Matthysse. “I will do anything and everything I can to walk away from this fight as a world champion. I will work harder because I don’t want to pass up this magnificent opportunity.”

Jessie Vargas (16-0, 9 KO’s), who grew up in Los Angeles, now resides in Las Vegas and trains at the Mayweather Boxing Club with recently hired trainer Robert Alcazar, is coming off of an impressive second-round knockout win over veteran Walter Estrada on July 8. His extraordinary performance set off a national buzz among boxing writers and fans that the young prospect is on the fast track to boxing greatness. Appearing in the opening bout in his pay-per-view debut, Vargas has the chance of a lifetime to make his name and talent known around the world against a stiff test in Josesito Lopez.

“Floyd Mayweather and Mayweather Promotions have given me an amazing opportunity to fight on the biggest night in boxing this year,” said Vargas. “On September 17, I know I will be ready to show the world that all of my hard work and preparation has led to this opportunity. I am so excited to be a part of this event and I look forward to beating Lopez and keeping my undefeated record.”

Riverside, California’s Josesito Lopez (29-3, 17 KO’s) may only be 27-years-old, but he’s old school when it comes to his approach to the sport of boxing. This attitude has led him to nearly 30 pro wins, with his only losses coming via narrow decisions. Currently riding a seven-fight winning streak, Lopez showed off his veteran savvy in his most recent victory in January, when he tarnished hot prospect Mike Dallas Jr.’s perfect record by scoring a seventh round knockout.

“I am very excited to be a part of this event and to show the world that I am a force to be reckoned with in the ring,” said Lopez. “I haven’t lost a fight in over three years and I don’t plan on losing this one. Jessie Vargas might be undefeated now, but he won’t be after September 17.”

“STAR POWER” is a mega-event taking place on Saturday, Sept. 17 from two world-class cities with three world titles at stake. Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz will face off in a 12-round fight for Ortiz’s WBC Welterweight World Title from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. Canelo Alvarez and Alfonso Gomez will do battle in a 12-round fight for Alvarez’s WBC Super Welterweight World Title from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Also live in Las Vegas, will be Erik Morales vs. Lucas Matthysse in a 12 round fight for the vacant WBC Super Lightweight World Title and an opening fight featuring undefeated rising star Jessie Vargas against top contender Josesito Lopez. The mega event is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate, DeWALT Tools and AT&T. Alvarez vs. Gomez is presented in association with Canelo Promotions and Morales vs. Matthysse is presented in association with Box Latino Promotions and Arano Box Promotions.”STAR POWER: Mayweather vs. Ortiz” will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.mgmgrand.com and www.staplescenter.com; follow on Twitter at @floydmayweather, @mayweatherpromo, @goldenboyboxing, @VICIOUSOrtiz, @terrible100, @Jessie_Vargas, @JosesitoLopez, @mgmgrand; or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/Mayweatherpromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing. Follow HBO Boxing newsat www.hbo.com/boxing,Facebook at www.facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter @hboboxing. Follow STAPLES Center on Facebook at www.facebook.com/staplescenter and on Twitter @STAPLESCenterLA.

The “STAR POWER” pay-per-view telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View®, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. For Mayweather vs. Ortiz fight week updates, log on to www.hbo.com.

HBO®’s Emmy® Award-winning all-access series “24/7” premieres an all-new edition when “24/7 Mayweather/Ortiz” debuts Saturday, Aug. 27 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. The four-part series will air for three consecutive Saturday nights before the finale airs the night before the welterweight championship showdown in Las Vegas.

Jr. Welterweight Mike Alvarado remained perfect by scoring a ten round unanimous decision over Gabriel Martinez at a Softball Park in Alvarado’s hometown of Denver.

Alvarado was dominant as he controlled the bout by boxing well and mixing in a good aggressive game plan. Alvarado scored a flash knockdown in round one.

Alvarado was never challenged in the bout that saw Martinez go down several times which were ruled slips.

Alvarado, 140 lbs of Denver, CO won by scores of 99-90; 100-89 and 100-90 and will now look for a big fight with a record of 31-0. Martinez, 140 lbs of Sinora, MX is now 27-3-1-1.

Roberto Marroquin scored two knockdowns en route to an eight round unanimous decision over veteran Jose Beranza in a Super Bantamweight fight.

Marroquin sent Beranza down in round three and again in round six from a perfect uppercut. Marroquin controlled the action with his combinations and hand speed but did get hit a few times as evidenced by the mouse that formed under his right eye.

Marroquin, 123 lbs of Dallas, TX win by scores of 78-71; 78-71 and 79-70 to raise his record to 19-1. Berazna, 123 lbs of Mexico is now 33-21-2

Sammy Martinez spoiled the pro debut of Martin Quezada by scoring a second round stoppage in a scheduled four round Lightweight bout.

Martinez was relentless in his assault by dropping Quezada twice in the second round with the finishing blow being a hard left hand that dropped Quezada to his knees and the fight was stopped immediately at 2:33 of round two

Martinez, 134 lbs is now 4-0 with three knockouts. Quezada, 133 lbs of Denver is now 0-1

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

BROOKLYN, NY--Gabriel Bracero remained perfect as he thrilled a partisan crowd by overwhelming Danie Van Staden at 1:08 of round three in a scheduled eight round Jr. Welterweight bout that headlined a six bout card at the Aviator Sports Complex

It did int start out well for Van Staden as he was cut early in round one from a headbutt.

Bracero rocked Van Staden in round two from a right that was followed by a q quick flurry. Bracero landed a huge left that had Van Staden holding on. Bracero landed another big left to the head that sent Van Staden down just before the end of round two.

Van Staden was in deep trouble to start the third round and Bracero jumped on him by landing a flurry on the ropes that focused on the body before a perfect left sent Van Staden down and out. Van Staden was down for several minutes but left the ring on his own power.

Bracero, 141 lbs of Brooklyn is now 17-0 with three knockouts. Van Staden, 140 lbs of Key West, FL is now 8-7.

“It was so hard, I didn’t really feel it in my hands,” Bracero said of the winning shot. “I knew I had him.”

For Bracero, it was the second straight time he has ended a fight in dominating fashion. In June, he finished Guillermo Valdes in one round in a similarly devastating style.

“The only knock anybody had on ‘Tito’ was that he couldn’t punch,” said Lou DiBella, promoter of Bracero and Broadway Boxing. “Well guess what? Now he has added power to his fan friendly style of fighting. What is the knock now? He is becoming a complete fighter.”

Melissa McMorrow made it two straight against some of New York’s top females as she successfully defended her New York State Flyweight title as she evened up the score with Keisher McLoed-Wells via split decision in an eight round bout.

McMorrow showed the same determination she showed in her title winning effort when he she defeated Eileen Olszewski a month ago in Queens.

McMorrow bobbed and weaved her way inside very effectively through and under jabs and right hands of McLoed-Wells. In the middle rounds McLoed-Wells landed a few nicely timed uppercuts while McMorrow tried to get inside and even made McMorrow take a step backwards for the first time in the fight.

That didint last long as McMorrow had the fighting spirit and was undaunted by continuing to get inside and land combinations to any area that McLoed-Wells left unblocked.

It was a a crowd pleasing and close fight that saw McMorrow get the verdict by scores of 78-74 on two cards while McLoed-Wells took a card at 77-75.

McMorrow, 111 lbs of San Carlos, CA is now 6-2-3. McLoed-Wells, 109 lbs of New York is now 4-2.

Like Bracero, Seanie Monaghan brought a large cheering section and they didint cheer long by the were lous as their man needed just eighty-nine seconds to dispose of Brian Bernard in a scheduled six round Light Heavyweight bout.

Monaghan dropped Bernard with a hard right to the head early in the first round that sent Bernard on his back. Bernard was shaken up bad and referee Randy Neumann reached the count of ten at 1:29 of round one.

Monaghan, 175 lbs of Long Beach, NY is now 8-0 with five knockouts. Bernard, 175 lbs of St. Joseph, MO is now 10-9-2.

Jonathan Cepeda looked very good in taking out Rahman Yusubov at thirty-one seconds of round five in a scheduled six round Middleweight bout.

Cepeda landed countless power shots in the first round which foreshadowed what was to come throughout the contest.

In round two, Cepeda landed a hard left hook that sent Yusubov to the canvas. Yusubov made it back to his feet to continue to take some hard shots. Yusubov was also cut around his left eye in that round.

Yusubov showed tremendous courage and in between taking about fifteen shots, would land a few of his own and even cut Cepeda in round four around his left eye.

In round five, Cepeda landed a couple of four punch combinations with the latter being to a defensless Yusubov and the fight was stopped.

Cepeda, 158 lbs of West Palm Beach, FL is now 11-0 with ten knockouts. Yusubov, 156 lbs of Dallas, TX is now 10-3.

Joe Smith Jr. rebounded from his first career loss to take out Santos Martinez in round two of a scheduled four round Light Heavyweight bout.

The time of the stoppage was 2:40 for Smith Jr., 179 lbs of Mastic, NY and is now 7-1 with seven knockouts. Martinez, 179 lbs of Adrian, MI is now 2-2.

Travis Peterkin opened up the show by scoring a first round stoppage over Damion Reed in a schedule four round Light Heavyweight bout.

Peterkin, 175 lbs of Brooklyn dropped Reed three times before the fight was stopped at 1:50 and is now 3-0 with three knockouts. Reed, 172 1/4 lbs of Reidsville, NC is now 2-7-1

Photo by Claudia Bocanegra

Dante Jordan scored a second round stoppage over Adrian Tellez in round two of a scheduled twelve round Jr. Lightweight bout in Mexico.

Jordan dropped Tellez one in the first round from a hard combination. Tellez was clearly still shaken as he started the second and was dropped just seconds into the frame. Jordan finished the fight with a vicious upper the put Tellez down for a third and final time.

Jordan, 130 lbs of Mexico is now 18-1 with sixteen knockouts. Tellez, 130 lbs of Mexico is now 15-6-1.

Hector Morales scored an upset second round stoppage over Josue Veraza in a four round Featherweight bout.

Morales landed a big left that opened up a cut over the left eye of Veraza and the fight was stopped.

Morales, 125 lbs of Mexico is now 8-4-2. Veraza, 125 lbs of Mexico is now 12-2-1.

Jesus Faro scored a stoppage Mario Andrade after four rounds of a scheduled six round Jr. Flyweight bout.

Faro battered Andrade for the duration of the fourth frame and Andrade had taken enough for the night.

Faro, 108 lbs is now 6-5 with five knockouts. Andrade, 108 lbs is now 3-5-1.

Carlos Alberto Berraza and Salvador Juarez battled to a four round draw in a Light Flyweight bout.

Berraza, 108 lbs is 3-2-1. Juarez, 108 lbs is 1-1-1.

Beibut Shumenov defended his WBA Light Heavyweight championship with a ninth round stoppage over Danny Santiago at The South Point Hotel in Las Vegas.

Shumenov showed the faster hands and was more active throughout the bout. In round nine, the champion came out and landed twenty unanswered shots on Santiago and referee Tony Weeks stopped the bout at forty-six seconds of round nine.

Shumenov, 175 lbs of Las Vegas is now 12-1 with eight knockouts. Santiago, 173 lbs of Ocala, FL is now 31-5-1

I didn’t count the punches,” Shumenov said after the fight, “but I could have thrown more.”

“Fire& Fury” was promoted by KZ Event Productions (the Shumenov brothers –Beibut and Chingis – own and operate the Las Vegas-based KZ Event Productions) in association with Golden Boy Promotions, Don Chargin Productions, GuiltyBoxing and South Point Hotel Casino, and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and AT&T.

Former world light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal watched the fight from ringside.“He said he wanted to fight me in Canada,” Shumenov said after speaking with Pascal in the ring. “I said he was from Canada, I’m from Kazakhstan, so let’sfight in Las Vegas where all champions dream of fighting. Pascal, Cloud, Dawson……I’m ready for anybody!”

“Shumenov is a great fighter,” Santiago remarked. “He has a good, sound technique. My eye swelled and got worse and I had trouble seeing the punches at the end. I thought I could have gone longer but, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

Lonnie Smith scored an impressive stoppage over Eduardo Arcos after round three of their scheduled six round Jr. Lightweight bout.

It was a very exciting bout while it lasted as Arcos landed some heavy bombs during some furious exchanges in round one. In round two, Smith gained control as he ripped some hard power shots that was showcased by some thumping uppercuts.

It was more of the same in round three, as Smith landed some hard shots and opened a cut on the left eyebrow of Arcos and the bout was stopped before round four could commence.

Smith, 130 lbs of Las Vegas is now 14-2-2 with ten knockouts. Arcos, 129 1/2 lbs of Tijuana, MX is now 16-5-1.

Joel Diaz Jr. dropped Esteban Nichol twice in round one en route to a stoppage in the opening frame of a scheduled four round Jr. Lightweight bout.

The time of the stoppage was 2:20 For Diaz Jr., 127 1/2 lbs of Palmdale, CA and is now 5-0 with four knockouts. Nichol, 127 1/2 lbs of North Denver, CO is now 3-2

Juan Suazo scored a six round unanimous decision over Ramon Montano in a Jr. Welterweight bout.

Scores were 60-54; 59-55 and 58-56 for Suazao, 137 1/2 lbs and is now 8-4-3. Montano 139 lbs is 17-10-2

Lamont Peterson secured a future date with IBF/WBA 140 lb champion by stopping Victor Cayo in round twelve of their IBFelimination bout at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.

Peterson was very solid thoughout the fight as he dictated the fight at his geography by forcing Cayo to fight on the inside where he could effective with good body work. Cayo had some moments by landing some good long right hands.

In the final round, the fruits of Peterson’s labor came to fruition as a worn down Cayo could not withstand the infighting of Peterson and he was dropped after a flurry of punches. Cayo could not beat referee Kenny Bayless’ count and the fight was stopped at 2:46 of round twelve.

Peterson, 140 lbs of Washington, DC is now 29-1-1 with fifteen knockouts. Cayo, 139 1/2 lbs of the Dominican Republic is now 26-2.

Yordenis Desaigne scored a fifth round victory over former two-time world title challenger Edison Miranda after referee Vic Drachulich disqualified Miranda due to low blows.

Despaigne hurt Miranda with a big right at the end of round one. At the end of the second frame, Miranda was docked a point for the first time as he tapped Despaigne low for the first time. Just seconds into round three Miranda was docked for a second time for a low blows. Round four saw Despaigne landed a six punch combination to the head of Miranda as Miranda invited Despaigne to hit him as he kept his gloves at his side.

In round five, another of Miranda’s punches strayed low and Drachulich was quick to pull the plug on the fight just forty-five seconds into the round.

Badou Jack remained perfect by scoring a second round stoppage over Timothy Hall in a scheduled six round Super Middleweight bout.

Jack dropped Hall with a body shot early in round two. Jack finished Hall off with a flurry of punches that sent Hall down and referee Kenny Bayless stopped the bout at 1:31 of round two.

Jack, 170 lbs of Las Vegas is now 7-0 with six knockouts. Hall, 168 lbs of Athens, GA is now 6-12.

Despaigne, 176 lbs of Miami is now 9-1. Miranda, 174 lbs of Carolina, PR is now 34-6.

PHILADELPHIA– Undefeated Juan Rodriguez survived some tense moments to score a closer then the cards six round unanimous decision over Greg Hackett in a Welterweight bout that headlined a six bout card at The Asylum Arena in South Philadelphia.

It was a close and action filled bout from the opening bell as Hackett was effective with his right hand against the southpaw Rodriguez. Round two saw Rodriguez become more aggressive and start working the body of Hackett. The two fought at close quarters in round three with Hackett moving his hands more in tight while Rodriguez continued to work the flanks of Hackett.

The best action of the fight happened in round four as Hackett rocked Rodriguez with a big right that had Rodriguez staggering around the ring. Hackett did his best to try to capitalize and even end the fight but Rodriguez not only survived the round but got in a couple hard shots of his own.

Hackett started off round five by landing three more hard shots which included a good right and a a nice right on the ropes. Rodriguez went back to the body and two fighters thrilled the crowd with some furious exchanges.

Both guys went for it in the final round as Hackett tried to counter the oncoming Rodriguez. there wasn’t much to choose from with the possible exception of Rodriguez work rate against the gaudier punches of Hackett.

Rodriguez Jr., 147 lbs of Union City, New Jersey got the verdict by 60-54; 59-55 and 58-56 to remain perfect at 7-0. Hackett, 149 1/2 lbs of Philadelphia again fought much better then his record indicates and is now 2-9.

Much has been made about scoring after the recent Paul Williams – Erislandy Lara fight a few weeks back in Atlantic City and this fight, while not questioning the winner because Rodriguez fought well enough to win or at worst have a draw but Hackett clearly won one if not two rounds and to have a judge score the fight 60-54 for Rodriguez is a bit dubious. Rodriguez was clearly rocked and hurt in round four which should have been a no-brainer round for Hackett.

In the six round co-feature, Ardrick Butler scored a six round unanimous decision over William Wilson in a Welterweight bout.

Butler dropped Wilson with a right hand in round two. Earlier in the round, The product of Butler’s right hand produced blood from the nose of Wilson. Butler was very effective with the right hand as he used his length to land that shot and come behind it to set up his flurries.

Butler was in control into round six when Wilson, knowing he was behind, went for a big finish by stalking Butler and landed some good body shots.

Butler, 148 1/2 lbs of Philadelphia held on and won by scores of 59-54; 58-55; 58-55 to go to 7-4. Wilson, 148 lbs of North Carolina is now 8-8.

Jose Luis Roque scored a pedestrian four round unanimous decision over durable Taffo Asongwed in a Heavyweight bouts.

Scores were 40-36 on all cards for Roque, 263 lbs of Miami and is now 4-0. Asongwed, 233 lbs of Montreal is now 2-8-7.

In an entertaining Heavyweight bout scheduled for four rounds, John Lennox got tagged time and time again for the first four plus minutes of his bout with John Paulet but came back to stop Pauley at 2:10 of round two.

Pauley continuously landed thudding shots off the head of of Lennox and the feeling of an upset was in the air. Pauley dominated round one and was on his way to taking round two until Lennox landed a hard combination that sent Pauley to the canvas. Pauley got to his feet but stumbled around the fight was stopped with fifty seconds to go in the freame.

Lennnoz, 219 lbs of Carteret, NJ remains unblemished at 6-0. Pauley of Canin Creek, WV is now 5-5.

Georgiy Guralink scored a stoppage at the end of round one of his scheduled four round Heavyweight bout with Damian Richardson.

Guralink landed about fifteen hard body shots in close on Richardson and when the bell rang at the end of the stanza, Richardson seemed spent.

Richardson must have felt the effects of those shots as he could not answer the bell of round two.

Guralink, 225 lbs of Philadelphia is now 2-0. Richardson, 225 1/2 lbs of Washington, DC

The opening bout saw Josh Bowles fight through a cut over his right eye to score a shutout unanimous decision over Cyprian Khumalo in a Featherweight bout.

Bowles was cut early in round one as the two clashed heads. Bowles was effective by mixing up combinations and lead right hands.

Bowles, 126 lbs of Harrisburg, NJ won by 40-36 scores on all cards and is now 2-0. Khumalo, 127 lbs of Maryland is 0-2.

It was announced that Khumalo’s wife was in labor during the fight.

The show was promoted by KEA Boxing

Once thought to be staged at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson HBO Pay Per View fight will now land at The Staples Center in Los Angeles on October 15th accroding to Dan Rafael of espn.com

“It does look like it will be at the Staples Center,” said Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions. “It’s probably 95 percent it will be there. I am just working with them to finalize our deal.”

Talks with The Prudential Center hit a snag after The building insisted that Main Events, which has staged all of the boxing events at the Prudential Center be involved with the fight card by having signage in the building and a spot on the undercard for Kathy Duva’s promotion.

This will be Hopkins second fight at The Staples Center and first since his February, 2005 Middleweight title defense against Howard Eastman.

“We had a great crowd when Bernard did his historic 20th title defense and now he will do his first defense of the historic title he won against (Jean) Pascal,” Schaefer said. “I think Los Angeles boxing fans, Los Angeles sports fans, the celebrities — I think they like these kind of meaningful events. Staples Center is very excited about it.”

The fight will headline an HBO PPV card. Schaefer and Gary Shaw, Dawson’s promoter, have been working on the undercard.

One of the supporting bouts has been agreed to, Schaefer said. Golden Boy fighter Jorge Linares will face Antonio DeMarco, who is promoted by Shaw, for the lightweight title recently vacated by Humberto Soto (DeMarco’s cousin).

“Gary confirmed to me that his side is in and our side is in, so it looks like that will be one of the fights,” Schaefer said.

The final press conference for Lou DiBella’s Broadway Boxing card which will take place on Saturday night at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn, New York, was held on Tuesday at Portobello’s Pizzeria & Sicilian Kitchen which is located at 83 Murray Street — a two minute walk from the World Trade Center.

— The main attraction, undefeated prospect, Gabriel “Tito” Bracero unfortunately was not able to attend the press conference on Tuesday. Bracero’s trainer, the famed Tommy Gallagher, informed those in attendance that Bracero’s daughter has juvenile diabetes and was not having the best of days. DiBella pledged that in the near future — on an upcoming Broadway Boxing card — some of the gate would be donated to a charity that

— Keisher McCloud Wells continues a new-born tradition of females appearing on DiBella fight cards. She joins the likes of Sonya Lamonakis and Amanda Serrano — two local fighters who always put on a great a performance. McCloud Wells will be looking to improve to 5-1 in her professional career this Saturday against an opponent yet to be named.

— 6’2″ Delon Parsley will look to stretch his record to 6-0 on Saturday night when he takes on an opponent yet to be named. This will be Parsley’s first fight since late March and it also marks his first fight under the DiBella Entertainment promotional label. The 6’2″ Parsley fights at 154 lbs. — making him very Paul Williams-esque to that regard. He plans on staying at 154 for a few more fights, before he likely makes a leap up to 160. It should be noted that Parsley is the son of former heavyweight boxer and trainer by the same name — Delon Parsley — or as he is more affectionally known; “Blimp.” Parsley is also the cousin of young up-and-comer, Denis “Da Mommas Boy” Douglin — who recently rebounded from his first professional defeat against Doel Carrasquillo to score a unanimous decision over Philadelphia’s Philip McCants.

— There will also be a FDNY table set up at the Aviator Sports Complex — so those in attendance should feel free to stop, ask any questions, and maybe purchase a calendar.

Fight Card:

Gabriel Bracero 16-0, 2 KO vs. Danie van Staden 8-6, 4 KO

Keisher McLeod Wells 4-1, 1 KO vs. Melissa McMorrow 5-2-3

Sean Monaghan 7-0, 4 KO vs. Brian Bernard 10-8-2, 6 KO

Delen Parsley 5-0, 2 KO vs. Eric Marriott 3-3, 2 KO

Joe Smith Jr. 6-1, 6 KO vs. Santos Martinez 2-1, 2 KO

Jonathan Cepeda 10-0, 9 KO vs. Rahman Yusubov 11-3, 9 KO

Travis Peterkin 2-0, 2 KO vs. Damion Reed 2-6-1, 1 KO

Todd Brown 3-0, 2 KO vs. TBA

Jay Rodriguez debut vs. Ken Rosser 0-1

Tickets for Broadway Boxing are priced at $125, $75, $55 and are on sale now by calling DiBella Entertainment at 212-946-2577. More information can be obtained by visiting DiBella Entertainment on the web atwww.dbe1.com or the Aviator Sports & Events Center on the web at www.aviatorsports.com.

Photo by Claudia Bocanegra

Orlando Salido defended the WBO Featherweight title with an eleventh round beatdown of Japanese challenger Kenichi Yamaguchi in Ciudad, Mexico.

Salido dropped Yamagucji from a combination in round three.

Yamaguchi was extremely game but he took a tremendous beating and the referee could have stopped the bout anytime after the sixth round as the visiting challenger took a lot of punishment from the opening bell.

Finally in round eleven, Salido landed a flurry of hard shots to the head that had the ref stop the bout at 2:50 of round 11.

Salido, 126 lbs of Ciudad, Mexico will now look for a fall rematch with Juan Manuel Lopez, who was ringside and Salido’s record now reads 37-11-2 with twenty-four knockouts. Yamaguchi, 125 1/2 lbs of Osaka, Japan is now 17-2-2

Enrique Bernache scored a fourth round stoppage over Alejandro Valdez in a scheduled ten round Super Bantamweight bout.

It was a fast paced bout until Bernache dropped Valdez with a vicious combination at the end of round four.

The time of the finish was 2:59 of round four for Bernache, 123 lbs of Guadalajara, MX and is now 18-2 with nine knockouts. Valdez, 123 lbs of Ciudad, MX is now 26-7-2.

Ruben Tamayo scored a second round stoppage over Jorge Cardenas in a scheduled four round Super Bantamweight bout.

The time was 2:24 of round two for Tamayo, 122 lbs of Ciudad, MX and is now 17-2-2 with thirteen knockouts. Cardenas, 122 lbs of Los Mochis, MX is now 16-13

Bobby Voelker made it two in a row as he scored a second round stoppage over Roger Bowling in a Welterweight rematch that headlined Strikeforce Challengers 17 at the Pear at The Palms in Las Vegas.

Voelker kneed Bowling in the face that sent him stumbling to the mat. Voelker then landed ten straight punches to the face of a prone Bowling and the fight was stopped by referee Josh Rosenthal at 2:16 of round twp

Voelker, 171 lbs of Kansas City, MO is now 24-8 with fifteen knockouts. Bowling, 171 lbs of Cincinnati, OH is now 9-2

Devin Cole scored a three round unanimous decision over Shawn Jordan in a Heavyweight bout.

Cole, 239 lbs of Medford, OR is now 19-9-1. Jordan, 255 lbs of Baton Rouge, LA is now 11-3

Ovince Saint Preux scored a first round stoppage over previous undefeated Joe Cason in a scheduled three round Light Heavyweight bout.

Saint Preux landed a kick to the ribs and followed up with a left and then pounded Cason until the fight was stopped at 1:12

Saint Preaux, 205 lbs of Knoxville, TN is now 11-4 with six knockouts. Cason, 205 lbs of Milwaukee, WI is now 8-1.

Sarah Kaufman scored a three round unanimous decision over Liz Carmouch in a Lightweight bout.

Kaufman won by scores of 30-27 on all cards and is now 14-1. Carmouch, 135 lbs of San Diego is now 6-2.

Adlan Amagov scored a three round split decision over Ron Stallings in a Middleweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on two cards for Amagov and Stallings took a card 29-28.

Amagove, 184 lbs is now 8-4. Stallings, 184 lbs of Temple Hills, MD is now 9-4-1.

Christopher Martin remained undefeated by scoring a ten round unanimous decision over Jose Silveira in a ten round Featherweight bout at Casino Sol Sol in Tucson, Arizona.

It was a workmanlike effort for Martin who was very effective and controlled the action.

Martin, 123 1/4 lbs of San Diego, CA won by scores of 99-90; 99-90 and 98-91 and is now 23-0-2. Silveira, 123 1/4 lbs of Mexico is now 12-4.

Marc Salser remained undefeated by scoring a six round unanimous decision over Radolpho Armenta in a Jr. Welterweight bout.

Luis Borrego scored a four round majority decision over Carlos Lozano in a battle of undefeated Welterweights.

Borrego, 146 3/4 lbs of Tucson, AZ won by scores of 39-37; 39-37 and 38-38 and is now 2-0. Lozano, 148 lbs of Ensenada, MX is now 2-1

Salser landed the harder punches and was very effective despite finding with a bad cut over his left eye.

Scores were 60-54 on all cards for Salser, 137 1/2 lbs of Mansfield, OH and is now 13-0. Armenta, 137 3/4 lbs of Los Mochis, NM is now 10-5-1.

LAS VEGAS – It was a career on the borderline. Zab Judah always walked it. Amir Khan knocked him off of it Saturday night with a body punch. There will be controversy about the punch. Legal? Illegal? Below-the-belt? Right on it?

Review the video. Go ahead and argue. Judah surely will. He always has. Judah and controversy are a combination, if not a tiresome redundancy. There’s no way to separate them. Perhaps, Judah is an older, wiser man.

Perhaps, Judah has changed. There’s no doubt that Khan has. He changes and changes a little bit for the better almost every time he steps through ropes for a significant fight. He confounded Judah seconds after the opening bell, moving in-and-out foot and landing precise jabs as he circled to his right.

Judah, whose right eye was slightly hurt in an apparent collision in the first round, appeared confused, then weary. He began to drop his right hand, leaving himself wide open to Khan combos that were sure to come. They didn’t, only because of body shot in the fifth round that put Judah on his hands-and-knees before he started arguing.

Judah bent over after he was rocked by a right hand. As he held on, Khan threw another right to the body. At first, it looked as if it might have been below the belt.

But repeated reviews from different angles of video at the Mandalay Bay Events Center appeared to show that the punch landed right on Judah’s belt, gold above his black trunks. At 2:47 of the round, referee Vic Drakulich counted out Judah, a loser by knockout. Other than the ensuing controversy, there was nothing technical about it.

“The shot when he went down was clean on the belt,’’ said Khan, who earned a minimum of 1.07 million and added Judah’s IBF junior-welterweight belt to his WBA title “If the fight had gone a few more rounds, I would have knocked him out with a clean shot. I knew he was hurt. It was only a matter of time.’’

At ringside, a theory quickly began to circulate about whether Judah simply went down to avoid the beating that seemed to be inevitable. His post-fight comments only seemed to support that speculation.

“I thought it was a low blow,’’ said Judah, who collect a minimum of $500,000. “I thought the referee was trying to give me a standing 8-count. I didn’t understand.’’

Yeah, it is hard to understand how Judah thought he could get a standing eight count when he was on hands, knees, an occasional elbow and never his feet.

On the back of Judah’s belt, there was this inscription: Godspeed.

Should have been goodbye.

On the undercard
The Best: It was another chapter in an ongoing comeback for Texas middleweight James Kirkland (29-1, 26 KOs), who scored his second successive stoppage by putting an overwhelmed Alexis Hlores (15-3-2, 11 KOs) onto his knees at 28 seconds of the second. Kirkland, who is fighting to restore his earlier promise after a stretch in prison, scored a first-round KO after he got knocked out in April.

The Rest: Unbeaten Peter Quillen (25-0, 19 KOs) threw chocolate kisses at the crowd and the corner for Jason LeHoullier (21-6-1, 8 KOs) of Dover, NH, threw in the towel at 1:38 of the fifth after the Brooklyn middleweight nicknamed Kid Chocolate punished him wit body shots and uppprcuts;

featherweight Gary Russell (17-0, 10 KOs) of Capitol Heights, MD, put some more polish on an already bright future by scoring one knockdown and winning all eight rounds in a one-sided decision over Eric Estrada (9-2, 3 KOs) of Chicago;

Philadelphia heavyweight Bryant Jennings (9-0, 4 KOs) was stronger and faster throughout six rounds for a unanimous decision over Theron Johnson (5-6, 1 KO) of Chicago;

lightweight Jamie Kavanaugh (8-0, 3 KOs) of Hollywood, Calif., won a six-round unanimous decision over Marcos Herrera (6-6-1, 2 KOs) of Arvada, Calif.;

Brooklyn super-middleweight Josiah Judah (10-1-1, 2 KOs) scored a six-round majority decision over Rafal Jastrzebski (4-7-1, 1 KOs) of Poland;

junior-lightweight Ronny Rios (15-0, 7 KOs) of Santa Ana, Calif., moved in a hurry and finished Noe Lopez (8-9, 5 KOs) in a hurry, stopping the Mexican at 1:12 of the first round.

LAS VEGAS – The scale might as well have been a stage. The weigh-in played out as though it had been written and rehearsed. It was a non-event. The fight doesn’t figure to be.

Amir Khan and Zab Judah each weighed 140 pounds – the junior-welterweight limit, posed like body-builders and smiled politely at each other Friday in front of a quiet crowd of about 300 at Mandalay Bay.

Unscripted drama is supposed to supplant the predictable Saturday in the Khan-Judah clash for two pieces of the junior-welterweight title, also at Mandalay Bay, in an HBO-televised bout. There are no guarantees. Never are.

But talk suggests that a dramatic twist is possible. It’s up to Judah (41-6, 28 KOs), who is at crossroads that includes only two paths. Win, and he is on the road to a rebirth. Lose, and his career is on the exit ramp. When the fight was announced in June, it looked as if Judah was already hurtling down the ramp to nowhere. But his intriguing talent, quick hands and fast feet, is still there, which means he still has a real chance.

One scenario has Judah, the International Boxing Federation’s champion, aggressive early in search of the suspected weakness in Khan’s chin. By the middle rounds, a swift left uppercut might find it for an upset of Khan (25-1, 17 KOs) in a stunning stoppage.

Here’s one reason: Judah is more capable of setting up a precise punch than Marcos Maidana, whose wild whirlwind of punches lacked tactical design, yet were enough to almost stop Khan in a memorable 10th round last December. Here’s another: Khan looked vulnerable to a left uppercut in his last outing, a decision over Paul McCloskey, who lacked the power to do any real damage.

That might be Judah’s best, perhaps only chance if there is anything to believe in a second scenario that circulated Friday during the formal weigh-in. If the fight goes into the later rounds, the guess is that Khan, the World Boxing Associations champ, will survive and prevail.

Here’s one reason: Judah is known for meltdowns. The longer the fight goes, the better the chance at another one. Here’s another: Khan’s mastery of tactical skill means he is built for the long haul, which means his best chances rest between the eighth and 12th rounds.

Rest of the weigh-in for an eight-fight card scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. (PST):

10-round middleweight fight: Peter Quillin (24-0, 18 KOs) of Brooklyn, NY, 161 pounds; Jason Lehoullier (21-5-1, 8 KOs) of Dover, NH, 161 pounds.

Eight-round featherweight: Gary Russell (16-0, 10 KOs) of Capitol Heights, MD, 126 pounds; Eric Estrada (9-1, 3 KOs) of Chicago, 128.

Six-round heavyweight: Bryant Jennings (8-0, 4 KOs) of Philadelphia, 221; Theron Johnson (5-5, 1 KOs) of Chicago, 231.

Eight-round middleweight: James Kirkland (28-1, 25 KOs) of Austin, TX, 157.5; Alexis Hloros (15-3-2, 11 KOs), Mt. Clemens, MI, 157.5.

Eight-round junior-lightweight: Ronny Rios (14-0, 6 KOs) of Santa Ana, CA, 129; Noe Lopez (8-8, 5 KOs) of Mexico, 130.

Six-round super-middleweight: Josiah Judah, (9-1-1, 2 KOs) of Brooklyn, NY, 163; Rafal Jastrzebski (4-6-1, 1 KO) of Poland, 166.

Six-round lightweight: Jamie Kavanaugh (7-0, 3 KOs) of Hollywood, CA, 135.5; Marcos Herrera (6-5-1, 2 KOs) Arvada, CO, 135.5.

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that WBC Super Welterweight champion Saul Alvarez will defend his crown against Alfonso Gomez on September 17th in Los Angeles as part of a split site doubleheader that will be part of the Floyd Mayweather – Victor Ortiz televised undercard.

“It’s going to be an historic pay-per-view. It will be an amazing experience because the fans at Staples Center will be able to see the live feed from Las Vegas and also see Canelo Alvarez fight live that night, and the people in Las Vegas can see the live feed from the Canelo fight in the Staples Center,” Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com.

“You’re going to have two HBO crews and they’ll give it back and forth between L.A. and Las Vegas. It’s going to be great,” said Schaefer, who is in Las Vegas promoting Saturday’s Amir Khan-Zab Judah junior welterweight title unification fight.

“To be able to see Mayweather-Ortiz and then add to that Erik Morales and Canelo Alvarez against Alfonso Gomez, and a young and emerging fighter who is tremendously talented in Jessie Vargas, it’s sort of like a little bit of everything on this pay-per-view,” Schaefer said.

“You can go to the fight at the Staples Center for as little as 50 bucks, which is the price of a closed circuit ticket (to see the pay-per-view view in Las Vegas). So you could see the pay-per-view on the big screen at Staples plus see Canelo Alvarez. That’s a pretty good deal, isn’t it?”

“For Gomez, he’s been waiting for an opportunity like this,” Schaefer said. “There was a time (in December 2010) when he was supposed to fight (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jr. but Chavez had to pull out. Now he gets to show what he’s all about against (another) big star from Mexico, Canelo Alvarez. I know Alfonso Gomez will come ready and will give Canelo a helluva fight. I told Canelo he better be ready because this guy is coming to win.”

Jayson Velez scored a ten round unanimous decision over Carlos Varcarcel Super Bantamweight in Cantano, Puerto Rico.

It was a close and spirited fight with both guys having good moments in front of a raucous crowd.

Velez, 122 lbs of Junocs, Puerto Rico won by scores of 97-93; 96-94 and 96-94 to remain undefeated at 16-0. Varcarcel, 121 1/2 lbs of Catano, Puerto Rico is now 12-3-4.

Eighteen year old Eddie Gomez was very impressive in taking out Jonuel Tapia in round one of a scheduled six round Jr. Middleweight bout.

Albert Cruz Jr. scored a second round stoppage over Christopher Rivera in a scheduled four round Jr. Welterweight bout.

Cruz landed a straight right and then a left to the body that sent Rivera down on a delayed reaction for the referee’s ten count at 2:59 of round two.

Cruz jr., 140 lbs is now 8-2 with seven knockouts. Rivera, 136 1/2 lbs is now 3-8.
Gomez dropped Tapia just seconds in with a hard left hook and and a moment later another left hook sent Tapia to the canvas on a delayed reaction and the fight was immediately stopped at 2:04 of round one.

Gomez, 152 lbs of Bronx, NY is now 5-0 with four knockouts. Tapia is now 6-2.

Braulio Santos droppped Nelson Casanova four times in just over one round and score a second round stoppage over Nelson Casanova in a four round Jr. Lightweight bout.

Santos scored knockdowns in round one from a straight right and then a combination on the ropes. Just after the second round bell rang, Santos sent Casanova to a knee from a barrage of punches and then finished the fight with a crunching right and the fight was stopped at thirty-nine seconds of round two.

Santos, 129 lns of Carolina, PR is now 3-0 with three knockouts. Casanova, 130 1/2 lbs of Corcel, PR is now 1-6.

Edgardo Lopez scored a second round stoppage over Felix Rivera in a scheduled four round Jr. Lightweight bout.

In what was an amazing second round, Rivera dropped Lopez hard early in the frame from a hard right hand. Lopez was visibly hurt but somehow regained his composure to comeback and hurt Rivera with some body and head shots before dumping hard on his face with a hard combination and the fight was stopped immediately at 2:13 of round two.

Lopez, 129 lbs of Catano, PR is 2-0 with two knockouts. Rivera, 130 lbs of Aguas, PR is now 0-3

Rivera left the ring on a stretcher.

Dan Rafael of espn.com is confirming that the long awaited rematch between WBA Super Welterweight champion Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will take place on December 3rd at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“Everything is being finalized for the fight and when it is, we’ll be at Madison Square Garden,” Said Todd duBoef, president of Top Rank who will promte the fight. The famed arena, which is undergoing a significant renovation. “Madison Square Garden is one of the most important arenas in the country and I like doing events here. Miguel has a big fan base here and we want those fans to see him again.”

“When you look at the electricity of previous Miguel Cotto fights that have been at the Garden and the magnitude of this event, the Garden was the perfect place to do it,” duBoef said. “Both guys were open to it. It’s great to be back at a big venue in a big city to keep boxing at the forefront.

Dan Rafael of espn.com is reporting that the head of HBO Sports, Ross Greenburg is out and there is conflicting reports weather he resigned or forced out of his position.

“We believe that Ross’ track record speaks for itself,” HBO co-presidents Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo said in a joint statement given to ESPN.com, confirming his departure, which has been in the works for months. “He has helped redefine the sports programming genre and set an extraordinary standard of excellence in the industry. We will miss his leadership, vision, creativity and passion for sports television.”

Greenburg did not respond to a voicemail or email message seeking comment. He did, however, speak to the New York Times. He denied that he was forced out and again downplayed the impact of losing Pacquiao.

“That’s a silly rationale. That added to my angst, but one fight doesn’t determine whether I stayed or didn’t stay,” he told the paper.

Liverpool, England: Kevin Mitchell captures WBO Intercontinental title after TKO victory over John Murray, and Nicky Cook suffers the same fate after 93 seconds against Super Featherweight champion Ricky Burns, in slightly more controversial circumstances

In an astonishing and controversial night here at Liverpool’s Echo Arena, Kevin Mitchell, fighting out of Dagenham, East London finished the proceedings of a stacked card (12 fights) with a TKO victory of the European lightweight Champion John Murray after only 8 rounds. The fight was a British classic, showcasing two of the countries premier fighters, but only did we get to view this bout after witnessing one of the worst fights to grace these shores this year, soundly rounded off with one of the most shocking endings to a world title fight you will ever witness.

The supporting fight, was suprisingly Ricky Burns making the 3rd defence of his WBO Super Featherweight strap he won, back in 2010 against the highly rated Roman Martinez. His opponent Nicky Cook, fighting out of Stepney, East London, was a previously unbeaten EBU Featherweight champion had won the above title back in 2008, defeating Alex Arthur in Manchester, as the supporting act to Amir Khans infamous bout with Breidis Prescott. Cook possessed good credentials on paper coming into this fight, but his best days were behind him. A sound beating at the hands of Roman Martinez, followed by a dismal 6 round point victory over Youssef Al Hamidi who had acquired 33 losses at the time of them fighting, followed his controversial points win over Arthur.

Only hours before the fight, UK bookmakers had ceased all activity on the Londoner being KO’ed in round 3. Apparently, there was a suspicious amount of bets being placed on the early rounds in and around East London, home of the challenger. It did not even get to reach the third, as Burns improved his record to 32(9)-2, only throwing 1 meaningful punch in the process. Burns swung a right hook which did clearly land at the 6 second mark, but Cook collapsed to the floor grimacing as he held his back. Cook managed to stand again, but did hit the deck again without any punches being landed. Burns did knock the London man down again on the minute mark, at which point the towel was thrown in, and the fight stopped at 1 minute 33 seconds. Nicky Cook left the ring in a stretcher, and Ricky Burns left with yet another frustrating ‘W’ on his record. One cannot blame the Scot for the insane way in which the bout ended here tonight in Liverpool, but serious questions do need to be asked as to why the challenger was allowed to even fight?

The dust had hardly settled since David Haye’s disastrous attempt at Heavyweight glory two weeks again, when yet again another high profile domestic fight ended in a highly controversial manner. At least Khan v Mcloskey went 6 rounds, this fight seemed to have been won outside of the ring. Robert Smith, general secretary for the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC), was interviewed post fight by SKY TV. “The lad was in a wonderful condition before the fight, and there was no sign of injury, it looks to be a freak injury, and we are really disappointed for the lad.” Asked if there would be an enquiry into the outcome of the fight, Smith replied, “We will have to look at the fight again, we will wait and see.” As for the betting being suspended just before the fight, one can make their own assumptions, but quite clearly, something drastically went wrong last night. If Cook’s team knew about the injury, and let him fight in that condition then they should be suspended, and if somehow the details were leaked by his team to family and friends, who proceeded to bet on their man being KO’ed early, they too should be suspended, and they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. That was genuine pain on the face of Cook, not a broken toe, but a genuine spinal condition that he should not of been actively fighting with. Once again, paying UK fight fans were treated to a non-event, and were left with one final bout of the evening to bring some much needed excitement.

Luckily, the main bout of the evening lived up to, and exceeded expectations. Kevin Mitchell, the returning Londoner, who had been KO’ed in front of 20, 000 fans at his beloved Upton park stadium in 2010, was challenging the best lightweight in Europe, Manchester brawler John Murray. The fight was moved up to the Liverpool bill from last weeks planned show at the EXCEL arena amid poor ticket sales down in London, although the official reason was Mitchell had contracted a bad viral infection a wekk before the fight. It is just a well it ended up on tonight’s bill, as without this great scrap, the whole card would have been a dire event. Tony Bellew fought a lackluster points win against Orville Mckenzie, in a Light Heavyweight rematch from May which saw the Liverpool man knocked down twice in the opening 3 rounds. We did not have such a luxury this evening as even the home fans starting booing the loud and over confident British and Commonwealth champion, as he jabbed his way to a landslide points victory. Newly crowned WBO king Nathan Cleverly was ringside, but will not of been troubled by what he saw.

There was a great atmosphere in the Echo Arena as the fighters made their way to ring for the main event. Mitchell, the skilled technician, out to prove a point after his emphatic defeat to Michael Katsidis, wearing blue, Union Jack trimmed trunks appeared confident and was hoping to make the headlines for his boxing skills, not for the personal problems which have plagued the Dagenham man of late. He allegedly spent £200, 000 on alcohol binges after his TKO defeat against the world class Australian. Murray, wearing black with white trim trunks, started the proceedings well, his constant pressuring style not allowing Mitchell to use his jab. One minute in and Mitchell found some rhythm, trading well on the inside, and picking his shots well when the space was available. Although Mitchell is the technically more gifted fighter of the two, he would need to prove that he can mix it rough, as Murray would not be giving any leeway with regards to space and finding his range. Mitchell definitely won the first round, purely based on the crisper punches being landed, and the fact he looked the sharper fighter, better speed and accuracy, and the punches he landed looked very dangerous.

The second round started at a higher pace, with Murray applying his shots well, mixing to the body and throwing some good left hooks. 1.43 of the round saw a huge right stagger Mitchell badly, although he managed to retaliate with some clean punches whilst trying to avoid being stuck on the ropes. With 43 seconds left, Murray again landed a great right, but Mitchell rebounded well with a superb uppercut, and managed to regain the centre of the ring, with some nice combinations, and an eye catching flurry, although that would not be enough to win the round. 10/9 Murray, but Mitchell showed the better footwork and speed.

The 3rd round was an absolute peach, both fighters exercising their power, and taking some heavy shots in the process. Mitchell adapted very well, commanding the ring well and not allowing Murray to engage on the ropes, although at 1.14 Mitchell was rocked by a solid right. The east London man was now mixing his punches better, starting to work the body, and definitely letting Murray know that he was fighting as a proper lightweight. The round was incredibly hard to score, as Murray was naturally the aggressor, throwing more punches, but hardly any cleanly landing in this session. The round ended with Murray being badly rocked himself after a great right from Mitchell. Too close to call, 10/10, and the fight was practically all even going into the 4th.

Round 4 pretty much went to Murray, as again his output was superior, but clearly he was not the technician in this fight. Mitchell landed on the minute mark with 2 great uppercuts and a very nice combination. Murray did look to have won this round easily, purely based on punch output, but when Mitchell was on the ropes he did not appear hurt, and reeled off some nice shots in return, Murray 10/9.

One third of the way in to the fight, and statistically, it was suprisingly even with Murray throwing 209 shots, of which 64 landed; Mitchell throwing 211 and landing 54. The 5th probably went to Murray again, as he threw the cleaner punches, although again, Mitchell landed another stinging uppercut, it was his best tool in the box, by far. Mitchell ended the round bruised, but Murray’s right eye seemed badly swollen, and seemed very tried and disorientated when returning to his corner.

Round 6 saw the fight explode, as Mitchell started finding his range, letting the right go, with some great combinations surely catching the judges eyes. Murray looked incredibly fatigued mid round and was relying on holding and rough inside fighting, though Mitchell appeared very strong and not bothered with the Hatton like mauling he was encountering. Great round, which Mitchell won, Murray was taking far too many shots for my liking. Joe Gallagher was imploring Murray to work the body as they entered the 7th; only 15 bodyshots were thrown from each fighter up until this round. The 7th saw an astonishing comeback from Mitchell as he sensed his opponent was losing heart, and proceeded to start putting together some very very decent combinations, including some devastating left hooks which staggered Murray badly, as well the signature uppercut which had performed well all night long for Mitchell. Murray was in a very bad way as the bell signaled the end of the seventh round, and was very lucky to hang on as Mitchell looked very dangerous and relaxed, and knew he had his man in serious danger of being knocked out.

Mitchell exuded confidence as the eight started, reeling off 4,5 great left hooks, but Murray was not going down without a fight, and he landed some of the best punches of the fight, two perfectly timed uppercuts followed by a left hook which rocked Mitchell. Murray looked shattered and was sent to the canvas at 1 minute 33 seconds after taking a heavy left from Mitchell, teed up beautifully from a straight right. Mitchell did not lose eye contact with his opponent as he was counted to 10, blood streaming from his nose, and both eyes badly swollen. Murray did not even raise his guard, and looked ready to drop again, as Mitchell landed 3 huge left hands, at which point the referee rightly ended the contest just before the end of round 8.

Delirious scenes followed for Kevin Mitchell and his team, as he proved his critics wrong, with a stunning TKO victory over one of the best lightweights in the world. Murray cut a sad figure, and looked tearful, and badly bloodied after this epic war, a truly great fight with a stunning ending. I had the fight even until this round, but Murray, now dropping to 31(18)-1, had exhausted all supplies, and had quite clearly been matched against a far better fighter on the night. Though there is no shame in this defeat, he too can still reach the world level again, it was just Mitchell had too much in the box for him on the night.

Do not forget, the Dagenham fighter was fighting for a world strap himself only last year. As the result was read out to the crowd, a rather poignant scene emerged, Mitchell, the referee Richard Davies, and Murray hugging, both in respect of each other, and knowing they had just been in a great war. A great end to a mixed card, which would of been an absolute disaster, should this have been staged last week in London as planned. Murray can re-group, and should be pushing for a world title shot very soon, Mitchell on the other hand has just come off a 14 month layoff, and the manner of this victory over his rival tonight, showed a great deal of character, professionalism and a lot of heart. Mitchell, improving to 32(24)-1, is a very talented boxer/technician who may end up fighting Katsidis again very soon, although a huge fight against Brandon Rios would appeal, and would sell both sides of the Atlantic. The lightweight division is packed with talent at present, and with John Murray being ranked number 4 in ‘the Rings’ rankings as of last night, big matches will now await the rejuvenated Mitchell and his trainer Jimmy Tibbs. Superb fight.

Diego shook off an a first round knockdown to score a ten round unanimous decision over Alejandro Perez at the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas.

Magdaleno was caught with a right hand in the first frame that sent him to the canvas. He got that point back as Perez was penalized a point in round two for low blows.

Magadaleno recovered well from that knockdown as he settled in nicely by mixing up his punches and kept Perez off balance. the body punches would drive Perez back to the ropes on occasion.

Magadaleno was very consistant with the knockdown being the only blemish on the performace.

Magdaleno. 130 lbs of Las Vegas, NV won by scores of 99-90; 98-90 and 98-91 to stay perfect at 20-0. Perez, 129 lbs of Salinas, CA is now 15-3-1.

Magdaleno landed some hard over hand left hooks and started top feature the uppercut as the fight went on.

Casey Ramos remained undfeated by scoring a eight round split decision over Georgi Kevlishvili in a Jr. Lightweight bout.

Ramos controlled the action from distance by landing some nice body/head combinations where Kevlishvili was confused by often switching from southpaw to orthodox stance. Kevlishvili moved a lot and landed a very few authoritative punches.

Ramos was cut underneath his right eye from a headbutt in round four.

Ramos, 129 lbs of Austin, TX won by scores of 78-74; 77-74 while Kevlishvili somehow took a card at 77-75.

Ramos is now 14-0. Kevlishvili, 130 lbs of the Republic of Georgia is now 8-3.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK — For thirty-six minutes, Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez turned midtown Manhattan’s Roseland Ballroom into the Roseland Brawlroom as they went at it from bell to bell in an exhilarating fight that was ultimately ruled a majority draw.

There’s no secret as to what Pawel Wolak’s gameplan is inside the boxing ring: come forward, bring pressure, force the action. On Friday night, Delvin Rodriguez was tasked with figuring out a way to turn off a constantly charging Wolak’s engine.

For the first two rounds, Wolak’s pressure looked like it may be too much for Rodriguez, who struggled to ward off his Polish opponent. Wolak fired punch after punch from point-blank range, doing most of his work to Rodriguez’s midsection.

In the third round, Rodriguez seemed to find working solutions to Wolak’s aggressiveness. The Connecticut native used a combination of jabs, right uppercuts, and left hooks to Wolak’s face to slow him down as best he could.

It would be those left hooks to the right eye of Wolak that would ultimately add an extra element into the fight.

By the fifth round, those hooks began to take a toll on Wolak’s eye — it began to swell.

After two more action packed rounds, Wolak stood up from his stool to begin round seven only to reveal a giant growth on the right side of his face. His eye didn’t just swell up — his eye grew — it ballooned. At any moment it looked as if a Rodriguez left hook to the growth would cause it to deflate, and Wolak would look like a human being again.

Except, those left hook’s did the exact opposite. As Wolak continued to walk forward, Rodriguez — in retreat, continued to pepper Wolak’s right side. While Wolak ultimately threw more punches and pressed the action, Rodriguez threw the more effective and precise punches. It was amazing to watch the constant back and forth, to see what style would ultimately win out.

At the ends of the 7th, 8th, and 9th rounds, the ringside physician inspected Wolak’s swelling eye and ruled he was fit to continue.

Rodriguez had his best rounds late. Landing a majority of punches he threw, finding it just a bit easier to create some space to get off his own punches before eating a few of Wolak’s wild blows to the body.

By round ten, the entire Ballroom was on their feet. Half the crowd supporting Rodriguez, waving “DR” towels in the air, chanting “Delvin! Delvin!”. The other half, wearing some sort of Polish gear or standing behind one of two large flags, one that read “New York Polska” and the other that read “Raging Bull Pawel Wolak” chanted “Pawel! Pawel!”

They continued to battle until the final bell. Thirty-six minutes, non-stop action. ESPN Friday Night Fight’s Fight Of The Year frontrunner.

From ringside I scored the bout 96-94, Wolak.

The important people, Tom Schreck, Steve Weisfeld, and Julie Lederman disagreed

Judge Tom Schreck saw the bout 97-93, Rodriguez, while Judges Steve Weisfeld and Julie Lederman agreed on a 95-95 score, which resulting in the fight being ruled a majority draw.

I think it’s safe to say that I can speak for all those watching, in attendance or on the World Wide Leader…. “Rematch, please!”

The co-feature of the evening Raymond Serrano (15-0, 8 KO’s, 141 ¼lbs) took on Daniel Sostre (11-3-1, 4 KO’s, 141 ¼lbs). Neither fighter took their time feeling each other out, as they both began the bout by throwing aggressive combinations. Serrano was more patient and worked Sostre’s body very effectively. The right hand was the main punch of the fight, as both fighters were able to land that fight effectively. Sostre was able to land them from the outside, and Serrano was able to get his in as counterpunches while in closer.

Halfway through the fight, neither fighter was in total control, but Serrano seemed to have trouble figuring out Sostre, who was landing some hard shots. As the bout continued, Serrano regained his composure and began pressing the action onto his fading opponent. It appeared that Serrano’s excellent body work was paying off. As Sostre continued to tire, the fight began to get more and more sloppy. Still, Serrano maintained his composure and smartly boxed his way towards a unanimous decision with scores that read 78-74, 78-74, and 77-75.—Arben Paloka

Rogelio Sanchez vs. Steven Gamache — 4 Rounds, middleweight

In the first of two swing bouts that followed the main event, New York City’s Steven Gamache scored a unanimous decision victory over Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Rogelio Sanchez.

About a minute or so into the first round, Gamache landed a perfectly placed right hand on Sanchez’s chin, sending him to the canvas. Sanchez beat the referee’s ten count and did surprisingly well the remainder of the round.

In the third round, Sanchez almost evened the score when he landed a huge right of his own that wobbled his hometown counterpart. Unlike Sanchez in round one, however, Gamache remained upright and weathered the mild storm.

In the end, one judge saw the bout 40-35 and two others scored it 39-36, all in favor of Gamache.

With the win, Gamache improves to 2-0, 1 KO, while Sanchez remains winless and falls to 0-4.

Reggie LaCrete vs. Lionel “Lonnie B.” Thompson — 4 Rounds, cruiserweight

The final bout of the evening saw two undefeated New York cruiserweights square off against one another: Brooklyn’s Reggie LaCrete and Buffalo’s Lionel Thompson.

Although he entered the bout having not lost a bout in six professional fights, it was clear from the get-go that Reggie LaCrete was going to get one handed to him courtesy of Thompson.

It was ultimately Thompson’s slickness and speed that did LaCrete in — he struggled finding his target for all four rounds. Thompson is a promising prospect who has a little bit of Roy Jones Jr. in him. He’s slick, he throws from all angles, he’s got flair, cockiness, and for better or worse, keeps his hands at his sides.

While I’d advise against keeping your hands below your belt, it didn’t matter for Thompson tonight — he was elusive.

The first professional bout of the evening featured Kevin Rooney Jr (1-0, 155lbs) take on Elmer Vera (0-1, 151 ½lbs). Rooney is the son of famous trainer Kevin Rooney, who is most notable for training Mike Tyson at his peak.

Vera came out swinging right from the opening bell. He aggressively worked Rooney into the ropes and occasionally landed some flush shots around Rooney’s guard. Halfway through the round, with his back against the ropes, Rooney landed a flush left hook onto Vera’s chin, stunning him. This turned the tide of the fight, and Rooney became the aggressor. A right by Rooney continued to keep Vera on the retreat. Vera was landing some punches of his own, but did not have the same power in his punches while going backwards.

As the ten second mark came, both fighters threw flurries hoping to make a lasting impact on their opponent. It was Rooney who landed the last shot. At the exact moment when the bell rang, Rooney landed a right hand right on the button, knocking Vera down. The crowd went wild, and Vera was unable to beat the ten count. Rooney was credited with a first round knockout at 3:00 of the first round.
Rooney also handles public relations for Joe Deoguardia’s Star Boxing, and was required to get back to his duties immediately following the bout.–Arben Paloka

He won on all three judge’s scorecards, 40-36.

Thompson improves his record to 8-0, 5 KOs, while LaCrete suffers his first professional defeat and falls to 4-1-2, 3 KOs.