LOS ANGELES, December 21 – This holiday season, get ready for a gift all boxing fans will love, as Golden Boy Promotions teams up with FOX Deportes to re-air classic fights for four days and nights of epic fights featuring current and future Hall of Famers, world champions and rising stars engaging in some of the most pivotal bouts of their careers.

Included in these marathons are “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, Julio “JC” Cesar Chavez, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Erik “El Terrible” Morales, Marco Antonio “Baby Faced Assasin” Barrera, Miguel Cotto, Sugar Shane Mosley, Canelo Alvarez, Abner Mares, Ricky “Hitman” Hatton and Danny “Swift” Garcia, just to name a few.

The action begins this Saturday, December 22 at 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT with the following lineup:

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Pernell Whitaker – 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT

Manny Pacquiao vs. Marco Antonio Barrera I – 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley I – 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT

Erik Morales vs. Pablo Cesar Cano – 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT

Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez III – 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT

Miguel Cotto vs. Shane Mosley – 8:00 p.m.ET/5:00 p.m. PT

Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz – 9:00 p.m.ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

The next day of classics begins on Tuesday, December 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT with 10 more bouts:

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Ike Quartey – 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT

Shane Mosley vs. Ricardo Mayorga – 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT

Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Oscar De La Hoya – 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT

Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton – 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas – 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT

Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez II – 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad – 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT

Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana – 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT

Canelo Alvarez vs. Ryan Rhodes – 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Canelo Alvarez vs. Mathew Hatton – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

On December 29, it’s a Saturday night doubleheader featuring:

Abner Mares vs. Vic Darchinyan – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

Danny Garcia vs. Nate Campbell – 11:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. PT

Finally, on Saturday, January 5, it’s another marathon of elite level boxing action with the following bouts:

Rigoberto Alvarez vs. Austin Trout – 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT

Lamont Peterson vs. Victor Ortiz – 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT

Amir Khan vs. Paulie Malignaggi – 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT

Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley -9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad – 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT

For more information on Golden Boy Promotions, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxingor visit us on Facebook at Golden Boy Facebook Page. For more information on FOX Deportes visit www.FOXDeportes.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FOXDeportes or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FOXDeportes.

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 12, 2012) – Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya, former Unified Super Lightweight Champion Amir “King” Khan, his opponent, unbeaten Carlos Molina and the four other pugilists fighting this Saturday, December 15, live on SHOWTIME® (10:30 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast) at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena participated in a media workout Tuesday at the jam-packed Ponce De Leon Boxing Gym in Montebello, Calif.

Khan meets Molina in the main event in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBC Silver Super Lightweight Championship. In co-featured 10-rounders on SHOWTIME, knockout artist and 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s), of Tuscaloosa, Ala., takes on Kelvin Price (13-0, 6 KO’s), of Pensacola, Fla., in a collision of 6-foot-7 unbeatens for the vacant WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight Championship and Alfredo “Perro” Angulo (21-2, 18 KO’s), of Los Angeles, battles Jorge Silva (18-2-2, 14 KO’s), of Chula Vista, Calif., in a junior middleweight match.

The evening event will also be televised live on Sky Sports 1HD in the United Kingdom at 2:00 a.m. GMT on Sunday, December 16.

The tripleheader on SHOWTIME concludes an unprecedented day-night boxing marathon that begins with fights on CBS Television Network in the afternoon and is followed later by one fight on SHOWTIME EXTREME.

Undefeated IBF Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruz (22-0-1, 13 KO’s), of Los Angeles, will defend his title against Alberto Guevara (16-0, 6 KO’s) of San Diego, Calif., in the main event on CBS while talented 2012 U.S. Olympian Joseph “Jo-Jo” Diaz, of South El Monte, Calif., will make his pro debut against Vicente Alfaro (5-2, 1 KO), of Northfield, Minn., in the opening bout.

The live 90-minute broadcast on CBS, its first since Bernard Hopkins knocked out Glen Johnson in the 11th round on Jan. 20, 1997, will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT.

Admission is free to the afternoon event that begins at 1:00 p.m. PT and will include three of Diaz’s U.S. Olympic teammates who were all victorious in their professional debuts on Nov. 9 on SHOWTIME’S ShoBox: The New Generation: Errol Spence Jr. of Brentwood, N.Y., Marcus Browne of Staten Island, N.Y. and Dominic Breazeale of Alhambra, Calif., all in four-round bouts. Junior middleweight Spence will face Richard Andrews (5-2-3, 2 KO’s), of Charlottesville, Va., light heavyweight Browne is matched against Ritchie Cherry (3-5, 1 KO), of Oklahoma City, Okla., and heavyweight Breazeale faces Michael Dennis (0-1), of Glendale, Calif.

Welterweight Shawn “Showtime” Porter (20-0, 14 KO’s), of Cleveland, Ohio, will put his unbeaten record on the line against surging former World Champion Julio Diaz (40-7, 29 KO’s), of Indio, Calif., in a 10-round bout on SHOWTIME EXTREME (9:00 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).

Tickets for the evening boxing session (SHOWTIME-televised fight card) are priced at $150, $100, $75, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes and service charges, and are on sale at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Non-televised fights on the undercard (first fight is 4:00 p.m. PT): Frankie Gomez (13-0, 10 KO’s), East Los Angeles, vs. Pavel Miranda (19-8-1, 10 KO’s), Tijuana, Mex., 8 rounds, welterweights; Hugo Centeno (16-0, 8 KO’s), Oxnard, Calif., vs. Allen Conyers (12-7, 9 KO’s), Bronx, N.Y., 8 rounds, junior middleweights; Chris Pearson (6-0, 5 KO’s), Trotwood, Ohio, vs. Dashon Johnson (13-9-3, 4 KO’s), Escondido, Calif., 6 rounds, middleweights; and Jerren Cochran (6-0, 3 KO’s), Houston, Texas, vs. TBA, 4 rounds, featherweights.

Tickets for the afternoon boxing session (CBS broadcast) will be free of charge as part of the Golden Boy Promotions Holiday Fanfest and can be acquired at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena box office.

Fans who present ticket stubs from the CBS event when purchasing tickets for the SHOWTIME event will receive a 20 percent discount. There is a limit of one discounted purchased ticket per ticket redeemed while supplies last.

Saturday’s mega-event will also feature Golden Boy’s Holiday Fanfest on the grounds of the Sports Arena that will include music, autograph sessions with boxing’s biggest stars, games, boxing memorabilia, a visit by Santa Claus at an Oscar De La Hoya Foundation-sponsored toy give-away (10:00 a.m.), and much more.

Khan vs. Molina is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Khan Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. Santa Cruz vs. Guevara is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T.

Below please find quotes from Tuesday’s workout:

OSCAR DE LA HOYA

“Saturday is a special day for all of us – the fighters, fans, everybody. Because of the toy drive, there will be lots of gifts to give away, lots of gifts for us to disperse to the kids. That makes it a win-win for everybody.

“The turnout today is wonderful. The fights on Saturday will be exceptional. We’re very proud to be teaming up with CBS and SHOWTIME for what will be a memorable day and night of exciting fights.

“The main event on SHOWTIME has attracted international attention and is very intriguing. The big questions are: who is Carlos Molina and what is he bringing to the table? And what does Amir Khan have left? A strong contingent of press are here from England, which is always the case whenever and wherever Amir fights. There is a huge amount of interest in his return to the ring. As a fan, I can’t wait for Saturday.”

AMIR KHAN

“Obviously, this fight means a lot to me and is very important. I can’t afford to get beat. Yes, I want to fight the biggest names, but to do that, I first have to win on Saturday. I think it’s equally important for me that I win and that I win impressively.

“I never treat a fight as a tune-up or go in underestimating my opponent because all opponents are dangerous. I am certainly not taking Molina lightly. I’ve seen a little of him. I expect a good fight and for him to come at me. I appreciate the fact he took this fight.

“My sparring has been brilliant. The switch in trainers has been a positive change. I feel great and I’m in a great state of mind. You’re going to see a smarter, much more mature fighter, a mistake-free, precise puncher who’ll make every punch count and won’t make any mistakes.”

CARLOS MOLINA

“I grew up in tough neighborhoods with tough neighbors, so one thing I won’t be is intimidated by him, or by his reputation. I’ll be ready for anything.

“We got the call for this fight in September and I’ve been running and training hard ever since. My trainers have really pushed me. I’m in tip-top shape and feel stronger at 147 pounds than I ever have. I believe we have a great game plan.

“I’ve seen all his fights and know what he brings into the ring. There have been a lot of great fights this year and a lot of upsets. This is going to be a great fight, too, and I’m confident I can win it.’’

DEONTAY WILDER

“I’ve won all my fights by knockout, but I never go into a fight thinking I’ll win that way. I still have too much to prove to think that way.

“I’m thrilled and very happy to be part of a great fight card like this. I like pressure, so that is never a factor, but I know this is going to be a good fight. Both of us are hungry and are coming to win.

“People criticize me all the time. They look at my record, see all the knockouts and say I haven’t fought anybody, but we set out with a game plan when I turned pro and we continue to follow that game plan.

“The next step is Saturday night. I’m not saying it will be my toughest fight, but it could be my hardest. Both of us dream of becoming heavyweight world champion one day. Both of us want to impress on SHOWTIME. I’ve had a great camp with really great sparring. To the fans, all I’ll say is…buckle up.”

KELVIN PRICE

“It’s great to be back on SHOWTIME and to get this kind of opportunity. Finally, after years of missing out on big fights for one reason or another, I get the chance for my coming out party. I am beyond excited.

“Despite a late start in boxing after switching over after playing pro basketball for years in Europe, I should have many more fights than I do. But the fact is I’ve been turned down by almost all the young heavyweights, including Tyson Fury, David Price and Chris Arreola. They may agree to fight, but once they do their research on me the fight is scrapped.

“I consider myself the best unknown fighter in the world, but now I’m finally getting my chance. I’m like a diamond in the rough, still learning every day, but this is the kind of fight I’ve been waiting for. I’m ready to show my stuff. I’m hungry like you wouldn’t believe.’’

ALFREDO ANGULO

“I’m really excited to be coming back so quickly and fighting again in Los Angeles. Like I always do for any opponent, I’ve trained very hard and am ready to go 10 rounds. You never know what’s going to happen once the bell rings. I’ll take early knockouts all the time, but you can never count on them.

“Silva is a really good fighter, and he’s Mexican. So we have a Mexico versus Mexico fight, which is always a war.

“You may not be familiar with Silva or know his name, but those are the fighters who are the most dangerous. They’re very eager to change that and make a name for themselves.

“No one’s paid a lot of attention to Silva, but I have. I know that hunger he has, his ambition to be somebody and make himself a name. This is going to be a hard fight. No way I’m taking him lightly.’’

JORGE SILVA

“This is my second fight in the United States and first on SHOWTIME, so I have a lot to prove, but I’ve waited a long time for this kind of opportunity and I’m ready to take advantage of it.

“I’m really excited and motivated to finally be fighting a quality opponent, and I most definitely feel I will win and get the recognition that goes with it. I look at this as not only the biggest fight of my career, but the most difficult. I think I a lot of the guys Angulo has knocked out were intimidated by him before they even got in the ring. I’m not intimidated by anything or anybody.

“I’m in great shape and confident of a victory. I look forward to showing SHOWTIME and all the fans exactly who I am.’’

###

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, follow us on Twitter at, www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/AmirKingKhan, www.twitter.com/CarlosMolina562, www.twitter.com/ElPerro82, www.twitter.com/BronzeBomber, www.twitter.com/teampriceboxing, www.ShowtimeSHAWNP, www.JosephDiazJr, www.twitter.com/ErrolSpenceJr, www.twitter.com/Marcus_Browne, www.twitter.com/SHOsports, follow the conversation using #KhanMolina or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

Television, a medium silly as it is ubiquitous, tells very few truths and perhaps none disinterestedly. In keeping with its current place in sports, boxing, as a gathering of only free agents, is, on television, a less-disinterested place than most. Praise any bubble of truth, then, that somehow rises through television’s thick, shifting filters and brings a spectacle honest as Oscar De La Hoya’s face. Whatever he is as a promoter, De La Hoya very apparently loves to see men punch one another, and his face, 25 feet back from the ring, visible between the ropes, center of the screen for most Golden Boy Promotions telecasts, is, anymore, the most honest television commentator boxing has.

De La Hoya’s face on Saturday, while Robert Guerrero was beating Andre Berto 116-110 and 116-110 and 116-110 in Ontario, Calif., in an interim title match on HBO, was often a picture of euphoria. De La Hoya’s face spoke to a couple happenings: His fighter, Guerrero, was not genuinely imperiled for a moment of the match (doubters should find contrasting footage of De La Hoya’s face during Johnathon Banks’ Nov. 17 dismantling of Seth Mitchell), and the fight itself was a spectacle of punching performed by two men who knew how – which anyone reading this ought love as much as De La Hoya helplessly does.

The most important discovery Saturday brought was that Andre Berto, a career welterweight, was unable to hurt Robert Guerrero, who, recently as last year a lightweight and recently as 2009 a super featherweight, took Berto’s flush right uppercuts, thrown with what appeared to be perfect leverage and ferocious intent, much better than he took Selcuk Aydin’s same punches in July. Is Guerrero that much tougher than he looked just four months ago, or is Berto, after a suspension for PED use, not the force, or not capable of summoning the force, he was or once did?

If Saturday’s excellent fight lacked suspense at times, and it did no matter the assiduous sales pitch tossed HBO viewers’ ways, it was because Guerrero never once appeared out of control or discomfited by Berto. Guerrero’s lead eye closed, as did both of Berto’s, but that wasn’t the ordeal it might have been if either guy had space enough to throw a full combination from proper range in the fight’s final nine minutes. One detected genuine panic in Guerrero’s bearing during his July match with Aydin, whom Guerrero held for desperation more than strategy, but that panicked bearing never materialized against Berto, regardless of how many Berto uppercuts put the top of Guerrero’s head nearly between his shoulder blades.

Saturday Guerrero settled accounts with aficionados who long ago tired of his promoter and publicists. Guerrero won a fight much more than a boxing match. And for that referee Lou Moret deserves a spot of praise. That he had limited control of the fighters from the opening bell to well past the match’s closing is much the reason Saturday’s fight was much better than anticipated; Moret appeared to be from a very old school, with a founding text that instructs if a man wishes to make a million dollars fighting another man, he should not be protected from that other man if it can be helped.

An officious referee would have broken the fighters each time they locked arms, likely precluding one, if not both, Berto’s slumps to the blue canvas, and issuing another round of invitations to future athletes-cum-prizefighters to believe, as Berto does, every event of pugilism is a showcase of his athleticism in which a superior athlete’s personal injury can be attributed only to governance gone missing. After beginning the match in a crisis of identity crisis – “My Mayweather is better than Broner’s!” – Berto occasionally bodied Guerrero in rounds 3 and 4 to create separation enough to pull his right fist back towards his own chest and strike Guerrero behind the ear several times along the way, a trick that brought few complaints from Guerrero and not much of a warning from Moret. But Guerrero adjusted to it, kept his chin pressed to Berto’s collarbone while marching him backwards, and in round 5 those punches behind Guerrero’s left ear became punches to the center of Guerrero’s brainstem, a patently illegal place to put them – as Berto, Guerrero, Moret, and everyone else knew.

This gave Berto his desired opening: the referee was against him! – an inanity championed by Berto’s cheering squad on the HBO broadcast team and voiced by Berto in a postfight interview Guerrero gracelessly but gratefully interrupted to remind viewers they’d just seen neither the fight of the century nor a very even match but actually one unanimously scored 116-110 in which Robert Guerrero beat Andre Berto’s ass.

If you came to Saturday’s fight without a rooting interest, because neither guy is fractionally compelling as the heroic images force-fed to boxing fans about both – hurricane relief worker, cancer survivor spouse, victim of chemistry – you left the fight thinking much more highly of Guerrero than Berto, since Guerrero, from the very first minute, wanted to fight a hell of a lot more than Berto did, which, as Lou Moret’s inaction reminded us, is what the men signed up for, an obligation no less meaningful for the numerous instances lesser entertainers find ways round it.

Maybe it marks a change. When one considers the way Miguel Cotto was allowed to pin Floyd Mayweather to the ropes in May, the way Andre Ward was able to brutalize Chad Dawson in and out of clinches in September, the way Abner Mares obstinately purpled Anselmo Moreno’s beltline three weeks ago, and the way Guerrero was able to hold and hit Berto Saturday, one detects a possible pattern wherein the aggressor of a match is given more leeway than its superior athlete appreciates. If this is the pendulum reversing course and beginning its descent, let it swing, friends, let it swing.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Atlantic City, NJ (Nov. 12) – Golden Boy Promotions will not only bring a night of entertainment relief to Atlantic City when they present the Adrien “The Problem” Broner vs. Antonio DeMarco WBC Lightweight World Championship at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, they will also bring monetary relief to those effected by Hurricane Sandy by making a donation to the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City whose main and satellite buildings suffered extensive damage in the storm. Caesars Atlantic City and Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya will match those funds in a collective effort to reach a vital part of the community.

Golden Boy will donate two dollars for every ticket sold and $1,000 per knockout registered during the event with De La Hoya and Caesars Atlantic City matching and adding to the much-needed donation. Several of the area Boys and Girls Clubs were heavily damaged during the storm, forcing the closure of the facilities that directly impact underserved youth and their family members in the area.

In addition to the monetary pledges, Golden Boy Promotions will donate tickets to the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City and fighters Adrien Broner and Seth Mitchell will visit one of the clubs on Wednesday during fight week.

“We are hoping that the Broner vs. DeMarco fight will afford people the opportunity to forget their worries for an evening and enjoy this great night of boxing,” said Richard Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions. “At the same time we understand the severity of the situation and would be remiss not to make a donation to help those directly effected by this terrible storm. With Oscar and Caesars Atlantic City providing matching donations, we feel very positive that our collective donation will help to make a difference.”

“The people of Atlantic City are in need now and I am happy to join in the effort and make my own contribution order to help some of the people affected by Hurricane Sandy,” said Oscar De La Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions. “A world of good can happen when everyone comes together to give back to people who are in need.”

“Sandy not only breached the walls of the Boys & Girls Club, but the lives of each and every member here in Atlantic City,” said John Smith, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Harrah’s Resort. “So it’s with great honor that I announce this donation to an organization that embodies the never-give-up attitude of New Jersey. We will not sit idly by and allow anything to compromise these impressionable youths.”

ABOUT “BRONER VS. DEMARCO”:

Broner vs. DeMarco, a 12-round fight between Adrien “The Problem” Broner and Antonio DeMarco for DeMarco’s WBC Lightweight World Championship will take place Saturday, November 17 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The event is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and R & R Promotions in association with Gary Shaw Productions, sponsored by Corona, AT&T and Caesars Atlantic City and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. The co-main event will be a 12-round heavyweight clash between Seth Mitchell and Johnathon Banks for Mitchell’s NABO title and the vacant WBC International Heavyweight title.

Tickets priced at $200, $100, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes and service charges, are available for purchase at the Boardwalk Hall box office, by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 736-1420 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/GaryShawBoxing, www.twitter.com/AdrienBroner,www.twitter.com/De_Marco07, www.twitter.com/SethMayhem48, www.twitter.com/BoardwalkHall, www.twitter.com/HBOboxing, follow the conversation using #BronerDemarco or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.facebook.com/HBOboxing.

ABOUT CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT

Caesars Entertainment Corporation is the world’s largest provider of branded casino entertainment. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada, more than 73 years ago, Caesars has grown through development of new properties, expansions and acquisitions, and now operates casinos on four continents. The company’s properties operate primarily under the Harrah’s®, Caesars® and Horseshoe® brand names. Caesars also owns the World Series of Poker® and the London Clubs International family of casinos. Caesars Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. For more information, please visit www.caesars.com.

INDIO, CALIF. (Nov. 9, 2012) – The transition from amateur to professional in sports is a rite of passage for nearly all athletes who earn pay for play. For many Olympic athletes, however, there is added pressure due to real or perceived expectations of them as professionals. Such is the case with Olympic boxers the world over who don’t have the luxury of turning professional in low-profile fights.

Those high expectations come with good reason as from the 1976 Olympics through the 2004 Games, 41 percent of U.S. Olympic boxers went on to win at least one world title as a professional.

On the eve of “Night of Olympians” tonight/Friday, Nov. 9, on ShoBox: The New Generation live on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast) from Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif.), six past U.S. Olympians, all of whom would become world champions, looked back at their pro debuts and their mindsets going into those fights.

Here’s what Oscar De La Hoya, Howard Davis, Raul Marquez, Russell, Jr., Antonio Tarver and Andre Ward had to say:

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, Gold Medalist, 1992

(Pro debut: De La Hoya registered three knockdowns en route to a 42 second, first-round knockout win over Lamar Williams at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Calif. on Nov. 23, 1992.)

“Because I was a fighter who was brought up fighting as a professional-type style I was actually really looking forward to my pro debut. I’d been sparring and training with pros like Joey Olivo and Paul Gonzales since I was 13, so I wasn’t nervous at all. Actually, I couldn’t wait. Just the fact I would be wearing eight-ounce gloves without headgear for the first time excited me.

“Once I got that first fight out of the way, I knew I was on my way.”

HOWARD DAVIS, Gold Medalist, 1976

(Pro debut: Davis outpointed Jose Resto over six rounds at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 15, 1977.)

“The fight was nationally televised. I was disappointed because I wanted to fight in front of my hometown fans at the Nassau Coliseum. Ray Leonard got to turn pro in front of his hometown fans. Instead, the fight was in Vegas, and only a couple of hundred, maybe 500 fans showed up.

“I was very nervous and the nerves didn’t go away until my second pro fight, but I beat him silly every round and didn’t let him hit me. He had no neck, and every time I hit him, I felt like I was breaking my hand.”

RAUL MARQUEZ, 1992

(Pro debut: Marquez stopped Rafael Rezzaq in the fourth round at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio, Texas on Oct. 3, 1992.)

“It was a big night for me. There was pressure because I was supposed to be one of the U.S. Olympians who would go on to win a world title. I was nervous, but I was nervous before every fight. There were a lot of friends and family from Houston and Mexico there.

“I fought a tough guy. I kept knocking him down and he kept getting up. I don’t even remember how many knockdowns I scored. I’ll tell you this, he was much tougher than I had expected for an Olympian making his pro debut.

“One thing I definitely remember: Lou Duva threw me a party afterward at Mi Tierra, a famous restaurant in San Antonio. There was a mariachi band and everything.”

GARY RUSSELL JR., 2008

(Pro debut: Russell scored a third-round TKO over Antonio Reyes at the Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa, Okla., on Jan. 16, 2009)

“My pro debut was in Oklahoma on ShoBox and I remember being excited and a little bit anxious. I had the opportunity to start all over again. I felt like I was having my first amateur fight and it was exciting to do something for the first time.

“My opponent was wearing a suit at the press conference and I remember thinking that wasn’t going to help him in the ring at all. I had full confidence in my ability to beat him.”

ANDRE WARD, Gold Medalist, 2004

(Pro debut: Ward knocked out Chris Molina in the second round on Dec. 18, 2004 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.)

“I was more anxious than nervous. It was STAPLES Center, on the undercard of Antonio Tarver-Glen Johnson. My fight was televised on premium cable. There were huge expectations and I had a lot to prove even though I had won the gold medal. I also had to prove to myself I could take a shot as a pro.

“I had an absolute wild man on the other side of the ring. Molina wanted to prove I born with a silver spoon in my mouth. He was throwing bombs, head-butting and yelling at me during the fight. I just had to stay in the moment. I hit him some good shots and he quit.”

(Note: Molina, who was 2-0 going in, never fought again.)

ANTONIO TARVER, 1996

(Pro debut: Tarver scored a second-round knockout over Joaquin Garcia at the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia on Feb. 8, 1997.)

“I didn’t know what to expect. You take off the headgear, you put on the little gloves. There were a lot of butterflies. It was like starting over. All jitters and I was fighting on national TV on ‘Tuesday Night Fights,’ and at the Blue Horizon, which had a tough, educated crowd. I just wanted to be perfect.

“I was 28 and a lot of people thought I was too old to be turning pro. I fought an undefeated guy who had a good chin. I was so anxious; I don’t know if I did everything I wanted to do, but I still got the award for Knockout of the Night.”

# # #

In tonight’s ShoBox main event, talented unbeaten featherweight contender and 2008 United States Olympian Gary Russell Jr. (20-0, 12 KOs) of Capitol Heights, Md., will face Roberto Castaneda (20-2-1, 15 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

The five 2012 U.S. Olympians – heavyweight Dominic Breazeale, of Anaheim, Calif., cruiserweight Marcus Browne, of Staten Island, N.Y., super middleweight Terrell Gausha, of Cleveland, Ohio, junior middleweight Errol Spence, of Desotol, Texas, and bantamweight Rau’Shee Warren, of Cincinnati, Ohio – will box in four-round pro debut fights.

Breazeale takes on Curtis Tate (4-3, 4 KO’s), of Oakland, Tenn., Browne will meet Codale Ford (2-0), of Fort Gibson, Okla., Gausha will face Dustin Caplinger (2-3, 1 KO) of Chillicothe, Ohio, Spence will be opposed by Jonathan Garcia (3-3, 1 KO), of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and Warren collides with Luis Rivera of Ponce, Puerto Rico (1-2).

The event is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. PT with the first live fight at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets priced at $25, $35 and $45 are available at the Fantasy Springs Box Office, by calling (800) 827-2946 or online at www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

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For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.fantasyspringsresort.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/mrgaryrusselljr, www.twitter.com/BreazealeBoxing, www.twitter.com/MarcusBrowne, www.twitter.com/TerrellGausha, www.twitter.com/ErrolSpenceJr, www.twitter.com/RauSheeWarren,www.twitter.com/fantasysprings or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.facebook.com/fantasyspringsresort.

For information on SHOWTIME, visit http://Sports.SHO.com, www.twitter.com/SHOsports or www.facebook.com/ShoBoxing.

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 31, 2012) – Former Unified Super Lightweight World Champion and British superstar Amir “King” Khan, unbeaten super lightweight contender Carlos Molina, President of Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya, Khan Promotions’ Asif Vali, Khan trainer Virgil Hunter, Molina trainer Clemente Medina and Executive Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports Stephen Espinoza participated in a press conference Tuesday to formally announce Khan’s and Molina’s Saturday, Dec. 15 fight at the Los Angeles Sports Arena which will be broadcast live on SHOWTIME® (10:30 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).

Khan (26-3, 18 KO’s), of Bolton England, a Silver Medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games who’ll be making his SHOWTIME debut and first start under new trainer Virgil Hunter, and Molina (17-0-1, 7 KO’s), a former National Amateur Champion from Norwalk, Calif., will meet in a 12-round 140 lb. bout in a main event on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. The event will also be televised live by Sky Sports 1HD in the United Kingdom at 1:00 a.m. GMT on Sunday, December 16. The SHOWTIME telecast will be preceded by live preliminary fights on SHOWTIME EXTREME (8:00 p.m. ET/PT).

Khan, 25, has defeated past or current world champions Marco Maidana, Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah and Marco Antonio Barrera. Molina, 26, is taking a big step up in class after defeating the likes of Manuel Leyva, Glenn Gonzales and Marcos Jimenez.

Festivities on Dec. 15 will feature a holiday fanfest complete with musical acts, memorabilia and gift giveaways, autograph signings, and meet and greets with some of boxing’s biggest stars.

Tickets priced at $150, $100, $75, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes and service charges, are on sale at the Los Angeles Sports Arena box office, all Ticketmaster outlets or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000, or online at ticketmaster.com. Tickets for fans traveling from the United Kingdom are available for purchase online at www.sportscorporation.com or by calling +44 (0)845 163 0845.

What the fighters, trainers and executives said at the Sports Arena on Tuesday:

AMIR KHAN

“I’d like to thank the promoters for putting this fight together and Team Molina for taking the fight. I’m looking forward to fighting on SHOWTIME in the United States.

“I made some mistakes in my last fight, so I changed trainers and training camps. I am now in the Bay Area and I love it. There are no distractions. Sparring has been brilliant.

“I came to the States early so I could work on my technique. Virgil’s got me thinking more, but in a way that won’t get in the way when I fight. I know I have to keep thinking once the fight starts.

“I think Molina has a similar style to mine. He’s a pressure fighter and exciting to watch. We both want to win. I know he doesn’t want to lose his unbeaten record, and I want to show I’m back.

“This fight is in Molina’s backyard but I expect a lot of fans from England to be there. I believe I will win and get back to where I want to be.”

CARLOS MOLINA

“I’m prepared for an all-out war. I want to thank Amir Khan for this great opportunity, but I have to say I think he’s made a big mistake. I’ve got a great team behind me including my trainer Clemente Medina and I’m fighting in my hometown. I can’t ask for anything more than that.

“Come December 15th, the only outcome I see is me remaining undefeated. We’re going to be ready for anything he brings to the table.

“Khan’s a good fighter, a fast fighter. He’s got a great jab and good footwork, but on fight night I’m going to be the dictator and he’s going to fight the way I want to fight. We’re going to shine.

“I think I have the power to knock him out. I don’t think I’ll do it in one punch. I don’t think I have one-punch power but if I hit a guy with three or four shots he will feel it.”

(On his ring-walk on Dec. 15)

“Just like Mike Tyson — focused and straight ahead. Nothing flashy.”

VIRGIL HUNTER (Khan’s Trainer)

“We’re going on our fourth week together and I couldn’t ask for anything better, or for a better situation to be in. Amir is easy to work with and easy to train. He has an open mind and is easy to communicate with.

“Everything has just been great so far.”

CLEMENTE MEDINA (Molina’s Trainer)

“We’ve had some great sparring. We know Amir Khan is considered the greater fighter, but we are hungrier right now, and that’s why we’ll win.

“We are training more with the legs because we know that we will have to move a lot. We’re training hard, like this is a championship fight.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA (President, Golden Boy Promotions)

“We’re very excited about this main event fight and to be back on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. We’re extremely fortunate to have Amir Kahn back in action against a tough local fighter in Carlos Molina.

“Once again, we will have an action-packed event. I’m proud and happy that SHOWTIME will televise this great fight card from the L.A. Sports Arena, which has a lot of great history. Danny “Little Red” Lopez fought “Schoolboy” Bobby Chacon in a great, great fight here. That fight, like Kahn against Molina matched youth vs. experience.

“It’s always great to do fights in Los Angeles and what better way than with Amir Kahn in the headliner. Amir is always entertaining, always on his game and always in great shape. He’s also always prepared to put on a great show and go 12 hard rounds.

“Amir’s been there and fought the best of the best and wants to prove he’s the No. 1 fighter pound-for-pound in the world.

“In Molina we have a fighter who comes to fight, has made a name for himself on the local scene in L.A. and has been on several high-profile cards.

“This is not an easy comeback fight for Kahn. He could have taken an easier fight, but once again he chose to fight a tough, unbeaten guy in his backyard. It shows what kind of character Amir has.

“With the December 15th event so close to Christmas, we here at Golden Boy Promotions decided to do a fanfest. Anyone with a ticket can participate in all the events leading up to the fights. It’s a family-friendly experience where fans will be able to get autographs and have photos taken with some of their most favorite fighters from around the world. It’s our way of saying thank you for all their continued support.”

ASIF VALI (Khan Promotions)

“I want to thank everyone for having us here. The Sports Arena is a fantastic facility. Muhammad Ali fought here and a “Rocky” movie was filmed here.

“I’d like to wish Team Molina all the best.

“We went back to the drawing board after Amir’s last fight. We made a lot of changes, all because we wanted to make Amir the great fighter we thought he could be. We parted ways with Freddie Roach. There were 20-25 trainers to choose from, but we brought in Virgil Hunter to see what he would bring to the table.

“The first big test is December 15th. We know this is Molina’s coming out party, but it’s Amir’s coming in party. He will make a statement. He will show all the people who ever doubted him.”

STEPHEN ESPINOZA

“Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina will cap off what is likely the highest-profile and most star-studded run of fights in the history of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. Over the last few months SHOWTIME has already brought you established stars such as Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero, Canelo Alvarez, Devon Alexander, Paulie Malignaggi and the legendary Erik Morales, and the new faces and stars of tomorrow, Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia and Peter Quillin.

“On Dec. 15 we have a classic match-up between two exciting fighters: the established star, Amir Kahn against the up-and-comer, Carlos Molina. Each has questions to answer. Each has a lot at stake.

“We are very excited to have Amir fighting on SHOWTIME for the first time and look forward to having him on SHOWTIME for the rest of his career. We are also looking forward to seeing Carlos Molina, who is also fighting for the first time on SHOWTIME and will be striving to make a great first impression.

“One programming note: The Nov. 10 telecast starts at 7:30 (PT). A half-hour before, at 7, “All Access: Cotto vs. Trout’ – Epilogue” will premiere on SHOWTIME. This episode will give fans an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at fight week and the aftermath of the December 1 fight between Miguel Cotto and Austin Trout.”

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Khan vs. Molina is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Khan Promotions and sponsored by Corona. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast begins live at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast) with preliminary fights live on SHOWTIME EXTREME® beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast). The Sky Sports 1HD telecast begins live at 1:00 a.m. GMT on Sunday, December 16.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, follow us on Twitter at, www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/AmirKingKhan, www.twitter.com/CarlosMolina562, , www.twitter.com/SHOsports, follow the conversation using #KhanMolina or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

LOS ANGELES (October 25, 2012) – Following the death of Emanuel Steward, one of boxing’s most important contemporary figures, former 10-Time World Champion in Six Weight Divisions and President of Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar De La Hoya who trained under Steward in 1997 commented:

“It brings me great grief and sadness to hear of the passing of one of the best and most respected trainers of this era, Emanuel Steward.

“I learned a lot from him during our professional relationship and I will be forever grateful for his help during that time.

“We were also friends and I know I am going to miss him as so many others will too. He was an important part of our boxing community.”

New York, NY (October 18, 2012) – With four world title bouts scheduled and an undercard stacked with elite talent kicking off boxing’s debut at the Barclays Center, Captain Boyd “Rainmaker” Melson understands they’ll be a ton of people watching him Saturday evening. Additionally, Golden Boy Promotions Founder and boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya announced that he’s personally contributing to Justadollarplease.org, the charity Melson’s donated all of his fight purses to.

“There’s definitely a lot of pressure on me for this fight but I’m far more excited than nervous, especially after Oscar announced at the press conference that he’s helping Justadollarplease.org,” said Melson, who twice fought on big cards headlined by world title matchups. “This is something different than ever before because I’m going to be a part of history and people have been talking about the first fight card at the Barclays Center as long as I can remember.”

To ensure he’s sharp as a razor inside the squared circle, Melson returned to the gym just three days after dominating Yolexcy Leiva on September 22. Against Leiva, Melson displayed drastic improvements from his prior bout, but knows he’ll have to be even better when he fights in front of a packed house in his native Brooklyn.

“It’s an honor to be fighting on the same night as some of the sport’s top talents,” said Melson, who attended Brooklyn Technical High School, which is a five minute walk from the Barclays Center. “There are a lot of people coming to see me fight and all of the other fighters on the card have large fan bases too. I can’t wait to go out and give the fans a great performance. I’ve never been this excited before!”

Melson battles tough New Yorker Jason Thompson, who fought six undefeated opponents, and his full fight purse will once again go to Justadollarplease.org to support bringing clinical trials to the United States to help cure Spinal Cord Injuries.

In association with the 501 (C) 3 nonprofit Justadollarplease.org, Melson and his best friend Christan Zaccagnino created Team Fight to Walk, whose mission is to raise awareness within the boxing community as well as the entire nation about the importance of bringing Clinical Trials to the United States to help cure Spinal Cord Injuries. Team Fight to Walk is comprised of Melson, Zaccagnino, former Rutgers football player/ESPY honoree Eric LeGrand, two-time cruiserweight champion Steve “USS” Cunningham, title contender DeAndre “The Bull” Latimore, Edgar “El Chamaco” Santana, Hector “Machito” Camacho Jr., 2008 US Olympians Demetrius “Boo” Andrade and Shawn Estrada along with prospects Sid “The Messenger” El Harrak, Jeff “TNT” Spencer, Denis “Da Momma’s Boy” Douglin, Will “Power” Rosinsky, Floriano “Italiano” Pagliara, Danny “Little Mac” McDermott, Vinny “The Lion” O’Brien, Ahmed “Prince of Egypt” Samir and Delen “Sniper” Parsley.

For more information or to make a donation, go to teamfighttowalk.com or Justadollarplease.org. All specific questions about the nature of the Clinical Trial to cure Spinal Cord Injury can be sent to boydmelson@yahoo.com.

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 3, 2012) – Oscar De La Hoya formally announced yesterday at ESPN Zone L.A. Live that undefeated Abner Mares (24-0-1, 13 KO’s), of Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., would defend his WBC Super Bantamweight World Championship against WBA Bantamweight Super World Champion Anselmo Moreno (33-1-1, 12 KO’s), of Panama City, Panama, in the main event on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING on Saturday, Nov. 10, at STAPLES Center live on SHOWTIME® (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).

In other televised fights, exciting, hard-hitting junior middleweight Alfred Angulo (20-2, 17 KO’s), of Los Angeles by way of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, will make his highly anticipated return in his initial start under trainer Virgil Hunter and first fight in a year against Raul Casarez (19-2, 9 KO’s) of Edinburg, Texas. Undefeated IBF Bantamweight Champion Leo Santa Cruz (21-0-1, 12 KO’s), of Lincoln Heights, Calif., who is coming off an eye-opening fifth-round TKO win over former world champ Eric Morel, will make his second defense against an opponent to be determined. A fourth bout will be announced soon.

Tickets, priced at $200, $100, $50 and $25, not including applicable service charges and taxes, are on sale at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or at the STAPLES Center Box Office.

Mares vs. Moreno is a 12-round battle for Mares’ WBC Super Bantamweight World Championship promoted by Golden Boy Promotions taking place on November 10 at STAPLESCenter in Los Angeles. The event is sponsored by Corona and AT&T and will be televised live on SHOWTIME.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com and www.staplescenter.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/AbnerMares00, www.twitter.com/ChemitoMoreno, www.twitter.com/ElPerro82, www.twitter.com/STAPLESCenterLA, www.twitter.com/SHOsports, follow the conversation using #MaresMoreno or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

What Mares, Moreno, Santa Cruz, Angulo and De La Hoya said yesterday:

ABNER MARES

“It’s an honor to be headlining at STAPLESCenter, but I really don’t think about it. I’m just excited to be fighting a guy like Chemito, who people say is a pound-for-pound fighter, which he is. The fans have been asking for a fight like this for a long time. I think they’re happy that it is going to happen.

“I’m also excited for my hometown fans and friends, who’ll get the chance to see this fight live, but I know I can’t get caught up with stuff like that. This is a big fight for me, for both of us, and a great opportunity to showcase my talents.

“Chemito hasn’t lost in 10 years. He is a very difficult fighter, very talented, a technical, defensive fighter who knows his way around a ring. This is a tremendously hard fight for me, but one I wanted. I’ve been training very hard.

“I don’t want people to like me; I want them to respect me. I want to fight the best. The big winners on Nov. 10 will be the fans.

“I’d like to thank everyone responsible for making it happen. I look forward to defending my title and giving it all I have.”

ANSELMO “CHEMITO” MORENO

“After I beat Vic Darchinyan (Dec. 3, 2011, on SHOWTIME), I made a challenge to all the top fighters at 118 and 122. I got this offer and I took it. I am moving up to 122 pounds because that’s where the money and the big names are.

“I wanted a challenge at 122 pounds and this is a big one. This is a great opportunity. Abner Mares is a great champion. I’m looking forward to Nov. 10 and fighting a fellow champion of the world.

“After this fight I will sit down with my team to see what I want to do next – whether I want to stay at 122 or move back down to 118.”

LEO SANTA CRUZ

“I think people really started noticing me after my last fight against Morel (Sept. 15). I go places now and people recognize me more than ever before.

“It’s great to be fighting again so soon and I thank everyone involved for keeping me busy. I’ve been training really hard, and I think I’m getting better with each fight. It doesn’t matter who I fight because I train the same for all of them and will never underestimate any opponent.

“This will be my first fight at STAPLES so it is very exciting for me. I hope a lot of people come out.”

ALFRED “PERRO” ANGULO

“I really want to thank my lawyers, everybody really, who helped clear up all my visa issues so that I could fight again. Without them, there is no way I would be in L.A. today and getting ready for a fight.

“I also want to thank Golden Boy and SHOWTIME. I’m working now with Virgil Hunter and will be very prepared to go at it on Nov. 10.

“It’s really great to be back in business, doing what I really want to do.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA

“I’m extremely proud to put this type of show together for the fans. We have a tremendous card once again, a quadruple-header that is showcasing some of the best fighters in the world. Whether you are at STAPLESCenter on Nov. 10 or watching on SHOWTIME, this will be an exciting night of boxing.

“I’d like to thank everyone responsible for making this event a reality, especially those at STAPLESCenter and Stephen Espinoza of SHOWTIME.

LAS VEGAS – And in an instant, Martinez-Chavez went from Pacquiao-De La Hoya to Chavez-Taylor.

Not since Manny Pacquiao retired Oscar De La Hoya had a small southpaw looked so profoundly dominant against a larger titlist as Sergio Martinez looked against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for 11 rounds. And not since Chavez Sr. came back to stop Meldrick Taylor in the final seconds of a fight he was losing lopsidedly had such a profound change of fortunes been brought to a world champion the way Chavez brought it to Martinez in the 12th.

Saturday night, in a match at Thomas & Mack Arena that disappointed all expectations of suspense for 33 minutes before becoming an unforgettable thing in its final three, Argentine middleweight champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KOs) rose from the canvas in the final round to survive and decision Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1-1, 32 KOs) by unanimous scores of 117-110, 118-109 and 118-109. The 15rounds.com ringside scorecard concurred, marking 117-110 for Martinez – while marking the final round 10-7 for Chavez.

“We are two professionals,” Martinez said afterwards. “And we comported ourselves as professionals.”

The fight began the way all prognosticators believed it would. Martinez’s class was too much for Chavez in the first round and each of its successors. What little sense of geometry Chavez showed in the opening round, extending Martinez’s circles to the perimeter somewhat, was gone by the third.

“I began slowly,” Chavez said in the ring after the judges’ cards were read. “But I will not do that in the rematch.”

In fact, not till the sixth round did Chavez land anything consequential. Though Chavez was the much larger man, Martinez was the far more balletic, polished, athletic and accurate, hitting Chavez with nifty left uppercut leads and other inventive combinations. Chavez, sporting a knee brace and suffering abrasions and swelling round both eyes, was not dissuaded, however.

“This confirms me in boxing,” said Martinez, to an outnumbered but surprisingly vocal Argentinean group of fans. “Long live Argentina!”

More fatigued than he knew as the bell for the 12th rang, Martinez walked into a short Chavez left hook that wobbled and shocked him in the final two minutes. Martinez’s eyes bulged and he collapsed in the ropes. A pair of rights and lefts from Chavez then tossed him limply to the canvas. But Martinez rose, ran, held, slipped, and ultimately punched his way to the final bell, as suddenly enchanted Mexican fans rabidly urged their man on.

“Of course,” Martinez said when asked if he would grant Chavez a rematch.

“Long live Mexico!” cried Chavez at the end of his postfight interview.

ROMAN MARTINEZ VS. MIGUEL BELTRAN JR.
In an attempt at prophecy, or at least wishful thinking, Saturday’s excellent Top Rank co-main event featured a hard-pressing Mexican slugger named “Junior” against a foreigner named Martinez. Unfortunately for the emotional Mexican crowd, the Mexican did not prevail.

Fighting for a vacant WBO super featherweight title, Puerto Rican Roman Martinez (26-1-1, 16 KOs) sneaked past Mexican Miguel Beltran Jr. (27-2-0-1, 17 KOs), besting him by split-decision scores of 116-111, 113-114 and 113-114. The fight would have been a majority draw, were it not for a penalty assessed to Beltran in the championship rounds.

Each round of Martinez-Beltran featured punches both well leveraged and well landed by both fighters, but in each of the opening six rounds, regardless of what Martinez did, Beltran appeared to do a little more. In the sixth, Beltran landed the match’s most-devastating punch, a right cross that snapped Martinez’s head back between his own shoulder blades.

The seventh round, though, saw Martinez begin to establish a more effective attack, catching Beltran on the way in, with oddly placed punches. But by the middle of the eighth, Beltran again appeared the stronger man. By the end of the 10th, Martinez, game as he was, did not appear to want much more.

The 11th brought a point deduction to Beltran’s tally from overly officious Nevada referee Russell Mora, though, tightening ringside scorecards somewhat. Martinez also flurried in the 12th, appearing to steal that stanza as well. Ultimately, the fight was a close one that might have gone either way and probably should have gone the way of a majority draw.

MATTHEW MACKLIN VS. JOACHIM ALCINE
Matthew Macklin makes his ring entrance to a hybrid song of “Mack the Knife” and “Rocky Road to Dublin,” in a two-part nod to his nickname and heritage. But Saturday, he didn’t have to take his opponent very far down a rocky road before knifing him.

In the penultimate match of the evening’s undercard, Macklin (29-4, 20 KOs) caught Canadian middleweight Joachim Alcine (33-3-1, 19 KOs) with a flush right cross in the opening moments of the fight then marched him down, dropped him a second time and brought the match to an exciting knockout conclusion at 2:36 of round 1.

Despite a record with four losses on it, Macklin again proved that he can rally a crowd and make an exciting, satisfying match whomever he is given for an opponent.

GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX VS. ROBERTO MARROQUIN
After a 2010 showing in Cowboys Stadium that brought loud boos from those fans not yawning, Cuban super bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux needed two years of exciting knockouts to make fans forget how displeasing his defense-first style can be. Saturday in Thomas & Mack Arena, though, they were reminded once more.

Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KOs) successfully, and rather easily, defended his WBA super bantamweight title against tough if limited Texan Roberto Marroquin (22-2, 15 KOs) by unanimous scores of 118-108, 118-108 and 118-109. And if there is a prizefighter today who fights like Floyd Mayweather as well as Mayweather does, he is Rigondeaux, right down to the cautiousness.

Rigondeaux established a superiority of reflex over Marroquin – a superiority of reflex Rigondeaux enjoys over most every opponent he faces – and then put the match on a form of cruise control that did little to entice fans. Possessed of every punch and step in the boxing lexicon, Rigondeaux does not appear to enjoy physical matches with larger men, and he certainly did not look for one with Marroquin, who appeared a weight class or two larger than Rigondeaux on Saturday.

Twice in the match Marroquin managed to land a pulled left hook that temporarily destabilized the Cuban southpaw’s otherwise flawless footing, but from each of those faux scares, Rigondeaux quickly recovered and returned to mastering Marroquin technically if not combatively.

In round 10, bored by Rigondeaux-Marroquin, the crowd – partisan Mexican though with an Argentinean contingent – began to sing futbol songs at one another till the match was over, despite Rigondeaux’s scoring the match’s one knockdown in its final two minutes.

MIKE LEE VS. PAUL HARNESS
Mike Lee is undoubtedly the best light heavyweight on the Notre Dame campus, but he is decidedly not the best light heavyweight in the world. Further evidence of this came at the midway point of Saturday’s undercard when Lee (11-0, 6 KOs) whacked away at Kansas City opponent Paul Harness (4-4-1, 3 KOs) for four rounds and ultimately prevailed by unanmious scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36.

Questions about Lee’s power – he landed at least four clean right hands in every round without once felling Harness – and his defense, though, remain, and grow, with every showing. Despite leading comfortably in the fourth round, Lee nevertheless was tagged by several knee-buckling shots by Harness.

UNDERCARD
Highly regarded super welterweight John Jackson brought his undefeated record in the Thomas & Mack Center ring for Saturday’s third bout, against Cleveland’s Willie Nelson, and Jackson’s ‘0’ left the ring before Jackson did. In a close fight that might have been scored either way, Nelson (19-1-1, 11
KOs) decisioned Nelson (13-1, 12 KOs) by unanimous scores of 96-94, 96-94 and 98-92.

Before that, in an eight-round super welterweight match, Mexican Michael Medina (26-3-2, 19 KOs) scored a lopsided decision victory over North Carolinian James Winchester (15-5, 5 KOs). All three judges had the match 80-70 for Medina.

The evening began with an eight-round, unanimous-decision victory for California welterweight Wale Omotoso (23-0, 19 KOs) over Puerto Rican Daniel Sostre (11-7-1, 4 KOs).

Opening bell rang on a sparsely populated Thomas & Mack Center at 3:17 PM local time.

Manny Pacquiao can be beaten, but this is not news because any man who ties gloves on his fists and makes combat with large and good enough men will be beaten eventually. Manny Pacquiao can be beaten by the man he faces Saturday, and this is news. It is not an outcome aficionados have allowed-for in a Pacquiao fight since at least Miguel Cotto but probably Oscar De La Hoya – and nobody knew what the hell was going to happen in that fight.

Pacquiao was unofficially beaten by Juan Manuel Marquez in November, yes, but you couldn’t find three people to predict it aloud in the MGM Grand Media Center during fightweek. It will be different this week. Pacquiao has not looked sensational against another prime fighter since his second tilt with Marquez in 2008 – another fight he may have lost with every scorecard in an honest hand. None of his recent opponents, not even Marquez seven months ago, prepared him for what he’ll see Saturday, when he faces Timothy Bradley at MGM Grand for the WBO welterweight title.

Bradley, 7-0 in world title fights, is an undefeated 28-year-old volume puncher who leads with his head. That sentence comprises everything needed to beat a subprime Pacquiao.

It has been more than five years since Pacquiao faced someone who had no idea how to lose, and that was the overmatched Jorge Solis at Alamodome in a fight with more anxious moments than one infers today from its boxscore. Those moments came behind a collision of heads that caused a cut to drop blood in Pacquiao’s eye, much as had happened two years before in the last prizefight Pacquiao lost – when Erik Morales took notice of the queasy look Pacquiao showed him after a visit to the ringside doctor. The Solis cut, too, brought a queasy look, one followed immediately by Pacquiao thrice making the Sign of the Cross – forehead to breastbone, left shoulder to right – in rapid succession, before tearing into Solis with a savageness unpredicted by any previous act in the fight.

The Sign of the Cross is a thing young Catholics learn to make in anxious situations, an emergency petition of sorts: I could be in over my head, here, so please watch over me. Pacquiao learned to do it as a child, like millions of others, and has continued to do it through a career that, as discovered in this match’s promotion, saw him occasionally eschew the teachings of Rome. Pacquiao’s rededication to his Catholic faith is sincere, but like other sincere initiatives Pacquiao has launched – like eradicating world poverty with yellow gloves – this one looks flighty.

It should be a private matter, either way, Pacquiao’s born-again Catholicism during a prizefight promotion, but as a matter that exploits Americans’ dual fascinations with evangelism and salesmanship, it was too rich for HBO not to shine its documentary light on – as part of a “24/7” programming concept, once innovative in 2007, that now covers mostly itself and predicts storylines it once discovered.

Pacquiao’s unconventional conversion is a bit relevant, too, because a fighter is not supposed to “feel empty inside” during training camp. If he is not too physically exhausted and mentally obsessed with another man’s injury to partake of such flummery, he’s likely not throwing hard enough at the heavybag. Or is that too ungentle for this era? Well. Can you imagine Marvelous Marvin Hagler, cloistered at the Provincetown Inn – the better to marinate in hatred and rage – having a telegenic advisor to ensure his spirit felt fulfilled? Heavens.

Just another part of the Pacquiao mystique, we are told. The soap-operatic entourage, the constituents in Sarangani Province, record deals, lawsuits and countersuits, the feuding corner, training breaks for Bible study; none of these is a distraction because Pacquiao has preternatural focus in the prizefighting ring. Or he’s been well-matched.

Inherent in most aficionados’ Pacquiao fight predictions has been a wager like this: Too much money to be made in a Floyd Mayweather fight for promoter Top Rank to risk it with a miscue. This has been a well-placed bet on the legendary marriage of matchmaker Bruce Trampler’s prowess and promoter Bob Arum’s business acumen, and their continued assumption a superfight with Mayweather is still doable.

Timothy Bradley’s one other showing at welterweight, an unimpressive 2010 outing with Luis Carlos Abregu, also indicates a prime Pacquiao will have his hand raised Saturday. Bradley is special in his way, special in both style and character, but he is not quite special as a guy who went 4-1-1 (3 KOs) against the primest versions of his era’s three best Mexican champions, as Pacquiao did. When was that prime-Pacquiao last seen, though? Pacquiao is the variable, Saturday, not Bradley; if the Pacquiao who has been showing up since he decked Ricky Hatton makes a pre-concert appearance at MGM Grand later this week, he will get conclusively outworked.

We already know what a volume puncher like Bradley brings: a glorious sort of shamelessness. Bradley doesn’t care much where he hits you and cares even less if you stretch him; so long as he surrenders himself fully to his intensity and does what his corner tells him, he is contented. Bradley doesn’t have to worry about losing because he has never done so as a professional, and because a volume puncher knows quickly when someone is decisively better than he is, as Pacquiao will be, and finds euphoria in breaking that man’s spirit with a want of polish, an enchanting rudeness.

I’ll take Bradley, SD-12, then – with a dissenting 112-116 scorecard filled-out the day before.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Somewhere in the 11th round of Saturday’s HBO main event one man’s lovely face expressed wholly what viewers wished to see. It was Oscar De La Hoya’s. Once a great fighter, now a promoter of sorts, De La Hoya, sandwiched between the man who runs his company and his evening’s co-promoter, gazed at the ring, and therefore the camera, with a look that said: “Will they forgive us for this?”

To De La Hoya’s right his co-promoter, Gary Shaw, a more complete manifestation of the American entrepreneurial spirit – If it makes me money, it is good! – showed no remorse for what happened before him. Shaw’s guy was stumbling, holding and fading his way towards another big payday because somewhere it is written in HBO’s charter the winner of Saturday’s eyesore will be paid again and again according to a compensation scale made of durable pixie dust.

But De La Hoya, for all his recent fruitiness, remains a former fighter and a fan. As his autobiography implies, he is the product of two cultures, and one of those cultures watches a confrontation between two men with expectations greater than an accountant’s. And so the best description of what De La Hoya’s handsome countenance showed Saturday was sheepishness.

There was a feeling of quiet embarrassment to the entire main event that was Chad Dawson decisioning Bernard Hopkins for light heavyweight titles at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., in a rematch to an October fight considered an embarrassment by both casual fans and aficionados.

Pay-per-view receipts, or at least rumors about them, implied there was no appetite for Dawson-Hopkins II. However unfinished the business from their first meeting, a disqualification that ended in a tangle of limbs, winces and recriminations, Dawson and Hopkins’ business together was clearly and shamefacedly finished. The rematch happened anyway.

Chad Dawson fought as a young man embarrassed that his path to celebrity required him to beat on a 47-year-old. Mauling someone born in 1965 seemed to offend Dawson’s sense of decorum, and so he chose not to. In defiance of everything Joe Calzaghe showed the world four years ago, Dawson waited for perfect opportunities – which even at 70 Hopkins would never afford him – and when they didn’t come, Dawson chose not to risk the embarrassment of swinging at and missing a man so much older. Which led Dawson to suffer a greater fear indeed: What if my conditioning fades, and after doing nothing I actually find myself physically incapable in front of this guy? What will people say about me then?

A question of others’ opinions hung limply over the ring from the opening bell. For all Hopkins’ bluster, he is fantastically preoccupied with others’ opinions of him – a preoccupation sometimes dandied up with words like “legacy.” Dawson lies awake at night with the same preoccupation, though without the same chamomile of achievement to soothe him. Dawson fights like a man very much afraid of humiliation.

How delicious might it have been had referee Eddie Cotton played on these men’s capacities for shame? Any round of the middle eight or so, Cotton might have seen them come together in an embrace and shuffled himself to a neutral corner and stood there, shoulders shrugged. After what duration of clinching and playacting at violence – 90 seconds? 110 seconds? – would either Hopkins or Dawson have become ashamed enough to detach himself and throw a punch? Perhaps the embarrassing job would have devolved entirely to the timekeeper’s bell.

There was a moment in the final minute of round 9, though, a three-second intermission from a 30-minute hug, when each man threw more than a single punch at the other. An exchange ensued. Each man took the other’s punches personally and cared more about avenging them than avoiding the embarrassment of missing or being hit. And within that moment came a reminder for posterity: Were this an actual fight rather than a spectacle, were this a private affair not to be stopped until either Hopkins or Dawson had what honorable men once called “satisfaction,” Hopkins, even at age 47, would have prevailed.

Lowering his chin and head and tearing forward to catch his opponent with an accidental right cross or an intentional headbutt, Hopkins was, during most of Saturday’s 12 rounds, still more interested in confrontation than “Bad” Chad Dawson. Hopkins’ performance was unbefitting a man who calls himself “The Executioner” – hell, it was unbefitting an executive order – but it was often as not a representation of the best Hopkins could do. There was not one round about which the same could be said of Dawson’s effort.

After the judges’ tallies were read, after a first card of 114-114 tantalizingly predicted he might have gotten away with something, Hopkins flashed a perfunctory look of disbelief about his loss. It was not shock but obligation. His theatricality retired, or just tired, Hopkins made a tiny down payment of insincerity on the possibility of grifting HBO one more time. Why couldn’t an “On Graterford” special set the table for a retirement match, complete with another contract extension in the event of a win or honorable loss?

Dawson showed less shame still. He summarized Saturday’s incident thusly: “(Hopkins) came back, he fought his heart out, and it was a great fight.” No, Chad, it was a breathing antonym for “great fight.”

Whatever promoters and publicists next try to do with the spectacle of Dawson-Hopkins II, however much obfuscation gets heaped on this thing, there will happily remain the image of Oscar De La Hoya’s beautiful face to tell Saturday’s story all too eloquently.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com.

New York – April 23, 2012 – FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG), the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform U.S.-based sports assets,announced today that it has reached a multi-year, multi-media agreement with Golden Boy Promotions to provide live boxing content in the United States and internationally. Golden Boy Promotions, owned by renowned former Ten-Time World Champion Oscar de la Hoya, is the first Hispanic-owned boxing promotional company in America doing business domestically and internationally.

Domestically, Golden Boy fights will be carried on FOX Deportes, the leader in U.S. Latino sports media, on FOX Sports regional networks, the nation’s leading provider of local sports and FUEL TV, FSMG’s dynamic sports network for males and television’s fastest-growing cable network. One originally produced boxing event per month from the United States airs live on FOX Deportes, FUEL TV and FOX Sports regional networks. Additionally, live boxing events from cities throughout Mexico will be carried on FOX Deportes. The first U.S. event is scheduled for Friday, May 4 (11:00 PM ET/8:00 PM PT), live from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and features an all-Mexican battle between former World Champion Daniel Ponce De Leon of Cuauhtemoc and Juarez’s Eduardo “El Chucky” Lazcano in a 12-round main event for the vacant WBC USNBC Super Featherweight title and, in the co-feature, perennial contender and Las Vegas favorite Ishe “Sugar Shay” Smith facing Derrick Ennis in a 10-round junior middleweight bout.

During the first year of the partnership, FOX Deportes is scheduled to air a total of 44 live events originating in both the United States and Mexico; for every year thereafter, the network airs 36 live events. In addition, FSMG networks gain access to classic fights from the Golden Boy fight library which features fights of past and current world champions such as Oscar de la Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.

“Led by the incomparable Oscar de la Hoya, Golden Boy Promotions has developed a great reputation over the last few years for putting together very exciting cards,” said Bill Wanger, Executive Vice president, Programming & Research, FOX Sports Media Group. “It’s great that we’ve been able to establish what we hope will be a fruitful relationship that benefits multiple networks within the FOX Sports Media Group for years to come.”

“We are excited about our new partnership with FOX Sports Media Group,” said Oscar de la Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions. “This is another step in ensuring that fight fans around the world don’t miss out on any of the great boxing action we present, both in the United States and Mexico. It’s a very important move towards increasing viewership and knowledge of our great sport. We are thrilled about this new partnership.”

Internationally, FOX’s networks have exclusive rights to FOX’s U.S.-produced fights throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe and to fight cards originating in Mexico throughout most of South America, the Caribbean and Europe.

Additionally, FOX’s networks have exclusive rights to Golden Boy’s Solo Boxeo series in Mexico and Central America, while FOX Sports Brazil has rights to select Golden Boy Promotions premier events.

LOS ANGELES (May 31, 2011) — Manny Pacquiao has settled his defamation lawsuit against Richard Schaefer and Oscar de la Hoya on confidential terms. In connection with the dismissal, Mr. Schaefer and Mr. De la Hoya made the following statement:

“Richard Schaefer and Oscar de la Hoya, on behalf of themselves and Golden Boy Promotions, wish to make it crystal clear that we never intended to claim that Manny Pacquiao has used or is using any performance enhancing drugs, and further state that we do not have any evidence whatsoever of such use.

“Manny Pacquiao is one of the greatest fighters of all time, and we apologize if anyone construed our prior remarks as in any way claiming or even suggesting that Manny uses or has used performance enhancing drugs.”

Photo By Chris Farina / Top Rank

According to TMZ.com, six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya has checked himself in a substance abuse treatment center in California.

De La Hoya tells TMZ he feels he will come out “a stronger, healthier person.”

De La Hoya issued a statement to TMZ that reads, “After doing an honest evaluation of myself, I recognize that there are certain issues that I need to work on. Like everyone, I have my flaws, and I do not want to be one of those people that is afraid to admit and address those flaws.

“Throughout my career and my life, I have always met all challenges head-on, and this is no different. I am confident that with the support of my family and friends, I will become a stronger, healthier person.

“I ask for respect and privacy as my family and I go through this process.”

This past Saturday night at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Golden Boy Promotions hosted a highly entertaining HBO Pay-Per-View dubbed ‘Action Heroes.’ In the main event, light welterweight contender Marcos Maidana survived a surprisingly stiff challenge from aging former champion and all-time great Erik Morales. The undercard featured several other surprises and thrills, as did the post-fight press conference, thanks in large part to the emcee work of Oscar De La Hoya.


Watch Morales-Maidana Post-Fight Press Conference in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

He may be in the Twilight of his career and zeroing in on his 40th birthday but “Sugar” Shane Mosley is still a tough night’s work for anyone. For a few years now Mosley has wanted to fight Manny Pacquiao, he has got what he wished for and takes on the Filipino Icon on 7 May in Las Vegas at The MGM Grand in front of millions on Showtime PPV. It’s a fight Mosley believes he can win; he has blind faith in his ability and left his position as a partner of Golden Boy Promotions to take up this challenge. Mosley 46-6-1(39) has fought many of the best fighters in the world from 135-154 winning 5 world titles in 3 weight classes. He’s been one of the standard bearers of the past 2 decades fighting 15 past or present world champions including Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto & Floyd Mayweather.

Hello Shane, welcome to 15rounds.com

Anson Wainwright – You are fighting Manny Pacquiao on 7 May in Las Vegas. What are your thoughts on the fight & how good do you think Pacquiao is?

Shane Mosley – I think he’s a great fighter, he does a lot of good things. It’s going to be a terrific fight.

Anson Wainwright – Of course it has been much discussed you have left Golden Boy & will be fighting Pacquiao who’s a Top Rank fighter. How are things?

Shane Mosley – No, it’s moving pretty smoothly along with Top Rank. Everything I have asked for has been ok and I’m just happy.

Anson Wainwright – People will say that you haven’t won in your last two fights and not looked the best in your fights with Mayweather & Mora. What do you say to them?

Shane Mosley – I believe I will do a lot better than I did in those two fights. My mentality right now is I’m ready to go and fight and give my 100% all.

Anson Wainwright – It would of been easy for you to stay with Golden Boy where your were a partner and claim your reported 5% but you’re obviously still highly motivated despite being months shy of 40. What are your thoughts on this?

Shane Mosley – I’m very motivated and happy to be able to box at this age. I’ve been boxing for about 31 years and I’ve fought at this level a lot. I’m willing to go in there and prove that I’m still one of the best fighters and fighting Pacquaio will prove that and be a great accomplishment for me.

Anson Wainwright – The Mayweather fight wasn’t your finest hour in the ring. Could you talk us through the fight from your point of view along with the second round?

Shane Mosley – A lot of times I don’t look back on them or think about them (The fights). But it was a pretty good punch, I just couldn’t at that point do what I needed to do to win the fight to KO him but I’ve been working very hard to make sure I close the deal next time I get a person hurt.

Anson Wainwright – If I can take you back to the Margarito fight, going into that fight you had a lot going on outside the ring. The on fight night there was the gauzing that went into Margarito glove. How much of what was going on were you aware of or were you just focused on the fight?

Shane Mosley – Yeah I was just focusing on my game plan, because if he had concrete gloves on I didn’t care I was going to win that fight. I trained hard, I was determined to prove the critic’s and everybody wrong that I was to old and that his rhythm was to much for me and he was going to knock me out and retire me. And I did I stopped him and proved the critics wrong. I’m going to do that in this fight as well.

Anson Wainwright – Do you see this fight with Pacquiao similar to the Margarito one where you were also the underdog and have something to prove?

Shane Mosley – Yeah, I aim to do it again. I aim to shock the world and beat Pacquiao. Once again prove the critics wrong.

Anson Wainwright – How much longer do you think you can keep performing at the top of Boxing? Do you have any plans for what you’d like to do when your finish Boxing?

Shane Mosley – Well yeah I have my promotional company “Sugar” Shane Mosley Promotions and I’m looking to start signing fighters and get more active in the promotional field and help these young fighters become world champions and superstars. That would be another great challenge for me. After this fight I have another 3 or 4 fights in me, then I can start my promotional company.

Anson Wainwright – You’re son Shane Junior is also an up and coming boxer. How are things developing with him and his career?

Shane Mosley – He’s doing pretty good; he’s up here training with me now. Basically I’m just showing him the ropes right now what you have to go through to be world champion and that’s important mentally so he can see what it takes, realise if it’s for him or not. He’s doing good, his punches are pretty hard, and he’s getting faster and better as the days go by. I think he’s going to be alright.

Anson Wainwright – A chip off the old block hey?

Shane Mosley – Ha-ha I think so, he has the determination and he’s getting better and better as we go along.

Anson Wainwright – Has he had any amateur fights yet?

Shane Mosley – He’s had a few, I think I’ll start fighting him more so he can have the experience of fighting in the ring more. He’s been in the ring sparring a lot but not really fighting. There’s a difference between fighting and sparring, that’s what I aim to do a little more.

Anson Wainwright – You’ve fought many of the best fighters of the last 15 years. Who is the best fighter you’ve ever fought?

Shane Mosley – Styles make fights but the most difficult I’d say Winky (Wright) earlier in my career but later on Floyd (Mayweather) was a pretty good defensive fighter as well.

Anson Wainwright – To date what do you consider to be your proudest moment in Boxing?

Shane Mosley – I think the proudest moment was winning my first world title at Lightweight against Philip Holiday.

Anson Wainwright – What are your thoughts on the current Welterweight division?

Shane Mosley – I think there’s a lot of great challenge’s with Khan coming up. Me & Manny Pacquiao fighting, there’s others. The division’s good an exciting. There’s a lot of great talent out there.

Anson Wainwright – You’re known as one of boxing good guys but we don’t know to much about you away from Boxing. Can you tell us about other activities you are involved with? Also what are your hobbies & Interests?

Shane Mosley – Well I mean, I’m a family man, I have 4 kids. I like to play Basketball, snowboard, bowl. I’m a very active person, I’m an outdoors person. I like to get out and do things. Boxings in my heart so I don’t stray too far from that. I’m involved in a boxing programme and sponsor the kids in the community.

Anson Wainwright – Last year you teamed up with PETA to help stop dog fighting & the slaughter on Seal trade in Canada, it’s obviously something that’s close to your heart?

Shane Mosley – Well yeah, I have a few pets. Dog’s don’t have a choice to fight or not but we do. So I kind of got behind it and just spoke out about it.

Anson Wainwright – Finally do you have a message for your fans ahead of the Pacquiao fight?

Shane Mosley – This is going to be the fight you don’t want to miss. I’m definitely giving everything I’ve got. You wont be disappointed so come and check it out or watch it on PPV Showtime. It’s definitely going to be a knock out. Also follow me on Sugar Shane on Twitter.

Thank you for your time Shane, it’s been a pleasure.

Anson Wainwright

15rounds.com

Midweek Thoughts – Yuriorkis Gamboa looked sensational blowing away Jorge Solis on Saturday. Solis was no mug he was a very solid guy, he just couldn’t deal with the Cuban’s power and speed. Hopefully Juanma Lopez looks just as impressive in a few weeks and Top Rank can get these two together in what would surely be a barnburner…Mikey Garcia kept his unbeaten record but took Matt Remillard’s when Remillard’s corner mercifully stopped the fight at the end of the tenth. Garcia is only 23 but has the look of a man far more experience. He systematically broke down Remillard. Outside of Gamboa & Lopez, Garcia is right in the fight with anyone at Featherweight right now…I haven’t had chance to see it yet but the Kennedy-Diaz fight appeared to be a cracker…Disappointing to see Erislandy Lara on Friday night not really perform, all credit to Carlos Molina…On Saturday Leo Santa Cruz scored a very impressive KO over Stephane Jamoye, it’s the biggest win of Santa Cruz career & proved he can go place, I’m looking for him to have a big year now…I’ve been told Ricardo Mayorga dislocated his thumb in the Cotto fight. He’s also on the short list to fight Saul Alvarez in September provided “Canelo” wins in a June fight possibly against Ryan Rhodes. I’ll say this much if Mayorga does decide to give it another go and not retire a fight with “Canelo” would be a fun promotion. Alvarez wont ever of seen anything or anyone quite like Mayorga.

On Friday night it was the final of the WABA (Welsh Amateur Boxing Association)

Female

54kg Lynsey Holdaway beat Catherine Gillen after the referee stopped the action with Holdaway 20-1 up in the fourth and final round.

60kg Rebecca Price beat defending champion Ashley Brace 14-10.

Male

49kg Ben Baker beat Annes Rashid in the second round Rashid took two standing 8 counts before being stopped

52kg Two time European Bronze medallist Andrew Selby returned from his duty on the British squad to show the gulf in class as he stopped Andrew Perry in the second after Perry had two standing 8 counts in the first.

56kg Daniel Chapman run out 14-1 winner against last years Flyweight champion Jay Harris

60kg Zack Davies outpointed Craig Woodruff 16-4

64kg Chris Jenkins the Welsh representative in last years Commonwealth games beat Ashley Appleby when the referee stopped the action in the second. Jenkins was 9-0 up at the time of the stoppage

69kg Fred Evans who also went to the Commonwealth games won 18-8 against Jamie Evans.

75kg Liam Williams outpointed warren Sinden 19-4

81kg Charlie Moseley narrowly outpointed Tom Lloyd 13-9

91kg Lloyd Davies impressively overwhelmed Robert Penn and after 3 standing 8 counts the fight was called off in the second round.

91+kg Dorian Darch beat Andrew Wyn Davies 16-9 stopping Davies winning the title for the 5th consecutive year.

If you would like to hear from any particular fighters please e-mail me on elraincoat@live.co.uk

It’s never dull when Ricardo Mayorga’s about that’s for sure. For the past decade the Wildman from Nicaragua has enthralled us with all action style and bad guy ways. Now 37, Mayorga 29-7-1(23) may not be a young fighter but he still feels he has a role to play. He firmly believes he’ll KO Miguel Cotto on 12 March in Las Vegas and then get a shot a Manny Pacquiao in what he thinks will be his career defining moment. Mayorga first sprang to prominence beating Andrew Lewis for the WBA Welterweight title, he then stunned Vernon Forrest KO3 to add the WBC title to his collection. He then won a rematch before losing a majority decision for all the marbles against Cory Spinks. He became a two weight world champion when he claimed the WBC laurels beating Michele Piccarillo in 2005. Never one to turn down a challenge Mayorga has fought many of the top fighters of his generation including Felix Trinidad LKO8, Oscar De La Hoya LKO6, Fernando Vargas PTS12 & Shane Mosley LKO12.

Hello Ricardo, welcome to 15rounds.com

Anson Wainwright – You have a big fight coming up against Miguel Cotto on 12 March in Las Vegas. What do you think of that fight and Cotto as a fighter?

Ricardo Mayorga – I think that he a punched out old fighter and I’m going to knock him out quickly.

Anson Wainwright – In your last fight your stopped Michael Walker in nine rounds. Can you tell us how you felt after so long out of the ring?

Ricardo Mayorga – I was very strong, I wasn’t in the best shape but I was in good shape and now I’m even better.

Anson Wainwright – Can you tell us why you had so long out of the ring? You didn’t fight in over 2 years, what happened?

Ricardo Mayorga – I had an automobile accident and I was out for 2 years. I was operated on, I had a minor operation on my back.

Anson Wainwright – Can you tell us about your team for this fight, who is your manager, trainer & promoter? Also what gym do you train at in America?

Ricardo Mayorga – My Promoter is Don King, my trainer is Luis Leon and Al Bonami is co-training me. I don’t have a manager, I do that myself. Where training for this fight in Ocala, Fl. at Danny Santiago’s gym called Central Florida Boxing. Danny is still fighting but was a ranked Light Heavyweight & Cruiserweight.

Anson Wainwright – You always seem to make weight with ease, why is this and what is your walk around weight between fights?

Ricardo Mayorga – I’m about 161/162 right now. I never really have trouble with my weight, that’s why I’m always underweight. I’m going to come in 152 when I fight Cotto and I’m going to be eating Puerto Rican beans!

Anson Wainwright – You love to play the villain and regularly try to get under your opponents skin. Is this who you are, can you tell us about your nicer side?

Ricardo Mayorga – I always like to a bad guy like in the movies.

Al Bonanni – I started with him when he came to the United States and we were together until he won the title and then I left because he’s a lot to handle and then I worked with him for Trinidad and left again. As far as a person, I love him, I really like him, he’s a wonderful person. We get along very good, we have no problems. He calls me Papi Gordo which is Far Man! Ha-ha He’s a very nice person to me. I have no problems with him. He has a wonderful personality. I don’t believe the energy he has.

Anson Wainwright – Can you tell us about your younger days growing up in Managua did you have a tough time growing up?

Ricardo Mayorga – It was really tough, we were very poor. I always used to fight in the streets and in school. I was always in a fight.

Anson Wainwright – What do you like to do when your not Boxing, what are your hobbies and Interests?

Ricardo Mayorga – Playing Billiards and I like to play cards like poker with family.

Anson Wainwright – What is the proudest moment of your career so far?

Ricardo Mayorga – It still hasn’t come to it, the greatest will be when I beat Pacquiao.

Anson Wainwright – You have fought many of the best fighters of your generation including De Le Hoya, Forrest, Mosley, Vargas, Spinks & Trinidad. Who do you consider the best ?

Ricardo Mayorga – For me De La Hoya.

Anson Wainwright – What would you like to do when your retire from Boxing?

Ricardo Mayorga – I want to put the money I earned in the bank and live on a ranch in Nicaragua.

Anson Wainwright – Are there any up an coming fighters you would like to mention from Nicaragua?

Ricardo Mayorga – Right now there isn’t anyone.

Anson Wainwright – Much has been said about you on wiki-leaks with regards an incident between you and a young lady & your relationship with President Ortega. Could you give us your thoughts?

Ricardo Mayorga – I don’t have any comment on that. I have the president’s respect and he has mine. All that on the Internet is just baloney. The only thing I can say is the president is a just man and he’s a good man and we have a good relationship.

Anson Wainwright – Finally do you have a message for your fans?

Ricardo Mayorga – Buy the PPV it’s going to be a great fight and I’m going to knock him out in 4 rounds.

Thank you for your Time Ricardo & Al.

Anson Wainwright
15rounds.com

Special thanks Al Bonanni

Relentless Preview – As well as the Cotto-Mayorga main event the Showtime PPV will have several other bouts. Miguel Vazquez 27-3(12) will be defending his IBF Lightweight title for the second time against unbeaten mandatory challenger Lenny Zappavigna 25-0(17). It pits the classic boxer (Vazquez) against the fighter (Zappavigna). We’ll also see the return of both Joshua Clottey 35-4(20) & Yuri Foreman 28-1(8) in seperate Light Middleweight bouts. Clottey hasn’t been seen since his tentative performance against Manny Pacquiao a year ago will be up against Calvin Green 21-5-1(13). While Foreman was last seen 9 months ago when he injured his knee and lost his title to Cotto meets Pawel Wolak 28-1(18). Amateur standout Matt Korobov 13-0(8) see’s action for the first time in 2011 when he meets Michael Walker 19-6-2(12) over 8 rounds. Also scheduled for action Lightweight Juan Gonzalez 10-0(9), Heavyweights Eric Molina 16-1(12) & Tommy Zbikowski 1-0(1), Featherweight Jesus Rojas 16-1(12) & the return of the ever popular Christy Martin 49-5-3(31).

It is the indispensable medium. Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya need television as much as Bill O’Reilly needs to shout into the cameras. But it is also a dilemma for young fighters impatient to get onto that rich stage as quickly as possible. Mike Jones is about to step through those ropes and into that light, which can be as unforgiving as it is bright.

That Jones has yet to do so can be viewed through a prism that casts a varied spectrum of interpretation. Prospects with less experience, a lesser record and a lot less potential have already been there. Fair or not, Jones has been waiting his turn, which finally comes on Nov. 13 beneath a screen that enriches as much as it exposes at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

The wait, however, represents another opportunity, one which has been swept aside in the headlong rush to cash in before dues have to be paid. Jones, a Philadelphia welterweight who faces Jesus Soto-Karass on the HBO telecast of Manny Pacquiao-versus-Antonio Margarito, has served an apprenticeship. That’s a quaint notion, I know. Maybe, it’s even been forgotten. But forgotten fundamentals are a sure way to foreclosure.

While listening to Jones, promoter J Russell Peltz, Arum and Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler on a conference call Wednesday, I couldn’t help but think that Jones hasn’t been allowed to forget lessons presented, reviewed and repeated at the rhythm and rate of a speed bag over the course of his 22-fight resume (22-0, 18 KOs).

A negative turned into a positive, Peltz said of Jones’ classroom away from HDTV’s defining portrayal.

“You can’t be beholden to the television networks,’’ Arum said. “If you are, you’re doing a disservice to your fighter.’’

More than a disservice.

It is irresponsible to both fighter and fan to push a prospect in front of the HBO cameras before he has a chance to discover whether he really wants to enter the crosshairs in pursuit of a living. Too many have. I still recall a former heavyweight, Danell Nicholson, saying that he wanted to be famous. Nicholson never said he wanted to be a fighter. Fame was his only objective. But it’s not a commodity. You can’t pick up a couple of pounds of it at the corner store

It was as if Nicholson had calculated that boxing was the quickest way to claim his share. But dangerous punches can get in the way of fame, money and common sense. A willingness to take those punches, endure them and counter them is the priority. Fame or money is the windfall, but it is only there if the prospect discovers that he likes to fight — first, foremost and mostly for himself. The cameras are incidental, almost like that windfall.

Among other things, Jones has had a chance to discover that, yeah, that willingness is within him like a heartbeat. Throughout his apprenticeship, he supported two daughters, aged four and six, with a day job at Home Depot. It would have been easy, even understandable, if he had decided to punch-in, punch-out and forget about punches at the gym.

But he didn’t. In the gym and away from the cameras, Jones, who has been compared to Thomas Hearns, learned that the brutal trade was his trade. He’s still learning and re-applying some of the fundamentals, including a more effective jab. He calls himself “a work in progress.’’ But it doesn’t sound as if there any doubts or looming identity crisis about where that progress is headed.

HBO is just a natural step in the progression.

NOTES, QUOTES
· Pacquiao fans must be getting nervous. According to reports from the respective camps, Margarito’s has been single-minded and his work uninterrupted. Meanwhile, Pacquiao has suffered from the flu and a slight foot injury. It might not matter; Pacquiao might win as expected. In the long wake of hand-wrap controversy in a loss Shane Mosley in January, 2009, however, Margarito has much to prove, He is armed with motivation to redeem himself. That’s powerful. Meanwhile, Pacquiao has a new career as a Filipino Congressman and an opponent not named Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

· More Margarito motivation: Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Margarito has a bet with clothing manufacturer Affliction. He will wear the company’s T-shirt during HBO’s 24/7 series and into the ring. If he loses, he’ll only have the shirt. If he upset Pacquiao, he’ll win a renewal of his endorsement deal. It’ll be worth five figures.

· Two more reasons to forget about the heavyweight division are on the schedule, first Friday and then Saturday. Antonio Tarver is old enough for a cinematic rematch against Sylvester Stallone. Yet, he will make his heavyweight debut on ShoBox against Nagy Aquilera in Miami, Okla. On Saturday, Shannon Briggs faces Vitali Klitschko in Hamburg, Germany. Tarver, an insightful commentator for Showtime, and Briggs are personable. They’re great talkers. If only they could have talked their way out of these fights.

Heretofore, sincerity has not been a hallmark of the Golden Boy brand. Both as a fighter and promoter, Oscar De La Hoya has often used borrowed words to transport his statements someplace other than where his thoughts would steer them. But that changed last week.

In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, one that was deeper and more honest than anything boxing writers have come to expect from the man or his company, De La Hoya spoke of a desire to take over boxing. He implied all would be better if he were granted sole authority over the sport.

In his words, and despite the semi-retractions that followed, De La Hoya set the truth free. Lacking an adequate lexicon of meaningless expressions, he spoke without his betters’ nuance. Bless him for it.

De La Hoya’s candor brought clarity. Golden Boy Promotions will no longer be able to hide in the silly, one-for-all costume that aspiring monopolists tend to don. And other promoters will no longer be able to make unsatisfactory efforts, lose to Golden Boy Promotions, and then feign victimhood. They now know De La Hoya wants to eat their children – to borrow another fighter’s timely candor.

Oh, but they were taken aback. “Is this not America!” they thundered. Along with a goodish number of commentators, Golden Boy Promotions’ rivals reached for the flag and free market. It was that reaction – indeed reactionary – that made De La Hoya’s unguarded statements provocative.

While some were boning up on MBA-speak in their twenties, De La Hoya was imperiling, and being imperiled by, others. Today, he wishes to obfuscate better than he’s equipped to do. Undoubtedly, he thinks capitalism is just a cool system for making him rich – like most everyone who prays at the altar of the free market. Frankly, you could name the system “potatoes” and not budge their faith.

And then there’s the idea of competition. Does any businessman ever celebrate it until he’s certain of the outcome? Only the winner erects a monument to competition. That doesn’t make it untenable, of course, it just means you should be suspicious of anyone in business who claims to love the idea.

What may well be untenable, though, is capitalism itself. The very system promoters and writers summoned against De La Hoya’s plot last week is what facilitated De La Hoya’s plotting in the first place. Contrary to 30 years of literature on the subject, capitalism is a great destabilizing force that devours itself and eventually puts us all on the same side of the ledger.

So long as one does not openly speak about driving others out of business, though, so long as his only sin is offering customers a better product – with that rubbery definition of “better” stretching to fit any circumstance at all – he is merely a market participant, blameless for the fate of his competition. Everyone purchases his product because he competes and wins, and we’re all better for it. Look at the innovation!

Except that we are not all better for it. Imbalances beget imbalances until no one is left on the other side of a trade. That is why boxing, for all its unscrupulousness and poor execution, still manages to reward 10 percent of its participants with 90 percent of its revenues.

Then it plays the poor ones off against one another, saying that they, too, could be rich one day. Though of course they can’t be.

De La Hoya’s plans for Golden Boy Promotions are not too dissimilar from Todd DuBoef’s plans for Top Rank.

“We need to sign all the talent and get all the TV dates,” De La Hoya said last week. “Then you can have your own agenda and have a schedule for the fans and the sport.”

“In boxing, virtually all of the publicity is keyed to a specific fight and, on a few occasions, to a specific fighter,” DuBoef said in June, by way of explaining a major impediment to his “brand of boxing” concept.

The biggest difference between those two statements? Polish.

Both De La Hoya and DuBoef cite as a model Major League Baseball, an entity which – as Norm Frauenheim pointed out Friday – enjoys an antitrust exemption. How about those animal spirits!

So let’s consider for a moment this “commission” of De La Hoya’s and “brand” that entices DuBoef, while the two men gaze longingly at professional baseball’s model. MLB is, of course, a league. And that league has a union to protect the interests of its employees.

Now ask yourself, is there a boxing promoter in this life or the next who wants prizefighters to unionize?

Until someone can answer yes to that question, let us have no more talk from promoters about being in the business to help fighters. Promoters are in boxing to enrich themselves, and whatever benefits accrue to outside parties are at best ancillary and usually accidental.

The bad news out of last week’s candor from De La Hoya was that nothing is new in boxing. Golden Boy Promotions is not the transformational entity it said it was years ago. The good news, too, is that nothing is new in boxing. There is little chance of one promoter gaining power enough to deal our sport a deathblow.

Whither Oscar’s vision, then? In 2003, columnist George Will ridiculed our President’s rosy prediction by writing: “Iraq needs only four people to achieve post-Saddam success. Unfortunately they are George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall.”

Well, Oscar needs only three people to achieve his stated goal. Unfortunately they are Bob Arum, Bruce Trampler, and Lee Samuels.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter.com/bartbarry

Oscar De La Hoya is shortsighted, misguided or just naive, but – please – he isn’t an enemy of the free-market system in comments this week about wanting to sign all of the talented fighters and secure the best television dates.

De La Monopolist, he is not.

In telling Broadcast & Cable that boxing needs to be run more like baseball or the National Basketball Association, De La Hoya is being as American as the New York Yankees. Since when haven’t the major leagues been able to sidestep anti-trust laws? Baseball has an anti-trust exemption.

In 2007, economist Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College and author of books on the sports business, told The New York Times:

“Each league is a monopoly and exercises significant market power by, (among other things), extracting significant public subsidies for the construction of facilities.

“The players in each league share in the monopoly booty.”

Enough said.

Unfortunately, De La Hoya said a lot more, too much more in the Q-and-A format. First, the Golden Boy Promotions president said he did not want to take over boxing. Then, he said, “in a way, yes, we do want to take over.’’ He wasn’t finished. In the next sentence, he said, “Well, we don’t want to take control of boxing, but we want to do the right thing for the sport.’’

De La Hoya is more of a politician than Congressman Manny Pacquiao. More than annoying, the yes-no-maybe spin is a unifying call for promotional rivals, who are having a tea party of their own in an overreaction to De La Hoya’s comments.

Not to worry. Boxing is the Balkans. Allies are temporary and always an imminent enemy. If it sounds like anarchy, it is and has been. Leave it to somebody else to decide whether that’s good or bad for business.

This week, at least, Paulie Malignaggi will probably says it’s very, very good after Golden Boy signed him to a contract in the wake of his last fight, a loss to Amir Khan, that prompted even him to concede that retirement was a consideration. In an attempt to expand the Golden Boy brand from west-to-east, from Los Angeles-to-New York, De La Hoya needed a well-known New York name to sell a deal to promote at the new Brooklyn arena, the Barclays Center, starting in 2012. There are questions about whether Malignaggi can still fight, but absolutely no doubt about whether he can talk through 2012 and beyond.

Above all, Malignaggi’s signing exposed – all over again – the game’s defining characteristic. He wasted little time and no apologies in a rip of his former promoter, Lou DiBella, whom he said did not market him enough. It was as unfair as it was embarrassing. But it was boxing. It illustrates a business guided more by bitter rivalries that unity.

For three decades, it was Bob Arum-versus-Don King. Now, Arum and King talk like old friends and loom as business partners if an agreement for a Pacquiao fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. can ever be reached.

For Arum, however, the rivalry – a little bit like oxygen – is still there.

In De La Hoya, Arum has another one, which makes some fights tough to make and makes all those worries about a monopoly just look foolish.

Carbajal’s legal fight continues
Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal, a retired junior-flyweight from Phoenix, appeared Thursday in court with companion Laura Hall for a hearing to retain an order of protection against his neighbors, Carbajal niece Josephine and Jose Espinal.

Carbajal alleges that he and Hall were assaulted by Espinal and a couple of unidentified assailants on the night of Sept. 6. Through an interpreter who translated his Spanish, Espinal called the allegation a lie. He said he was not there. No charges have been filed. A criminal investigation is underway.

At the hearing in downtown Phoenix, Hall wore a cast on her left arm. She said two fingers had been crushed in the alleged incident. A bruise from a black eye was still evident. Photos of her injury and cuts to Carbajal’s face and head were provided as evidence.

Josephine alleged that Michael Carbajal had been drinking. Police officers, who answered the 911 call, said that they smelled alcohol. The hearing was continued. It will resume on Oct. 20.

It is just the latest battle in Carbajal’s star-crossed life. Brother and former trainer Danny Carbajal, Josephine’s father, is still in prison for stealing an estimated $2 million from his brother, who earned about $8 million over 49 fights. Danny Carbajal is scheduled for release in October 2011. Danny Carbajal’s wife, Sally, was murdered in Feb. 25, 2005, three days before they were scheduled to be in divorce court. The murder has never been solved. More than five years after Sally after was found dead from a gunshot, the murder is still a cold case.

Josephine entered a guilty plea for her role in the theft from Michael, who is trying to recover what was stolen from him in civil court. She was sentenced to probation. In April, she and Espinal moved into Danny’s former residence next to Michael’s boyhood home. Michael Carbajal said they moved into the house in an attempt to provoke him.

“They’re trying to make me to do something that will put me in jail,’’ said Carbajal, who continues to battle a drinking problem. “That’s what they want. It’s about greed. That’s what it goes back to. That’s what this is all about.’’

Notes, quotes and a couple of counters
· Golden Boy is suing Top Rank for allegedly trying to hide money that De La Hoya’s company says it is owed from three Pacquiao fights. Pacquiao advisor Michael Koncz reacted to the lawsuit suit, telling AOL: “I guess since Golden Boy doesn’t have any boxers to promote that are of any high quality, they have to find a fight somewhere, so they have chosen to fight in the courts through frivolous litigation.” Say what? Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach might disagree. Roach trains the Golden Boy promoted Amir Kahn.

· And the International Boxing Federation is threatening to strip Devon Alexander of its junior-welterweight title if he fights Timothy Bradley instead of South African Kaiser Mabuza, the No. 1 contender. Where is the trash can that Riddick Bowe made so in famous in 1992? That’s where Bowe deposited the World Boxing Council’s heavyweight belt. That’s where the IBF’s 140-bout belt belongs right now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOS ANGELES – In the hot blood that came immediately after his loss, blood that had streamed in his left eye and made a red mask of his face yet again, Israel Vazquez expressed a desire to fight Rafael Marquez a fifth time, to break their tie. Thirty minutes later, when everyone’s blood had cooled, Vazquez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya shared a wiser sentiment.

“It’s 2-2,” De La Hoya said, “and that’s the way that it should be.”

Saturday in Staples Center, Vazquez and Marquez made an unusual fourth fight that ended at 1:33 of round 3 when referee Raul Caiz Jr. astutely read Vazquez’s body language and precluded any further damage from being done to one Mexico City native by the other. Before Vazquez could drop to the canvas a second time, Caiz stepped in front of Marquez and waived the end. Marquez had evened the series. There was no reason to fight any more.

Finally, there was little reason for Vazquez and Marquez to have made their legendary trilogy into a disappointing tetralogy. If any energy coursed through Staples Center during the Friday weigh-in and Saturday undercard, it was an obligated sort. Those of us present showed dutifulness more than excitement. The larger venue and paychecks, too, were more honorary than celebratory:

We’d like to give you guys an apt send-off and pension, but to do it, unfortunately we’re going to need you to fight once more.

Vazquez and Marquez obliged – or should it now be Marquez before Vazquez? – and made an uneven end to their fantastically even beginning and middle. But if the fourth fight had to happen, its conclusion was unexpectedly merciful. For that we should be grateful.

Throughout, there was an appropriate theme of unity. Both men were Mexicans, world champions and gentlemen. This theme happened best during ring walks, when for the first time in memory, two fighters shared the same band, a Mexican mariachi group that paid homage to “La Patria.” The Staples Center crowd of 9,236 – a couple thousand more than attended Vazquez-Marquez III in nearby Carson, Calif. – was predominantly Mexican, too, if smaller than hoped.

If there was a moment that reminded you of the last time Vazquez and Marquez fought, it came in the opening seconds. The two men touched jabs more than gloves, and then Vazquez tossed a wild right hand Marquez’s way. It said, “We both know how you were at the end of our third fight, why don’t we pick things up right there?”

That was Vazquez’s most confident moment of the night and perhaps his last. Asked afterwards when he knew his opponent was in trouble, Rafael Marquez said he felt it on the end of his jab in round 1. As he once more sunk knuckles in Vazquez’s flesh, that is, Marquez noted something less resolved, a bit softer, somewhat less steeled. Fighters do sense that sort of thing; it’s a requisite tool in the box when your craft is hurting other men.

Ringsiders would not notice the slice Marquez put beneath Vazquez’s left eyebrow till it became gruesome in round 2. But it was there. Even from 30 feet away, a redness could be seen over Vazquez’s damaged eye in the first minute. And looking at pictures from early in Saturday’s fight, you now see darker blemishes in the tissue than the rosy hue that has dusted Vazquez’s eyebrows at his public appearances since 2008. Were it anyone else, you’d wonder if some handler had taught the man how to apply makeup en route to press conferences and award ceremonies, to ward away errant inquiries from careful journalists.

Marquez’s masterful right hand, among the finest seen in a generation, instantly knew better. It quickly took the flesh over Vazquez’s eye from nick to gash to wound.

“You could see the bone,” explained Vazquez’s veteran cut man Miguel Diaz afterwards. “You cannot stop these things with the medicine that we have.”

Then you stop the fight! Well, yes. Or maybe no.

Better that you do what Vazquez’s corner did. You tell your charge he gets one more round. You give him a last chance to measure himself, and you hope nothing gets permanently altered within him but his desire to fight on. And so, in the third round of his fourth fight with Rafael Marquez, Israel Vazquez relented.

He went down differently than he’d gone down in the fourth round of their third fight. He didn’t get knocked to the canvas by a concussive blow. He blindly wandered into a Marquez right cross, instead, and kneeled hopelessly. It was a distress signal from one of prizefighting’s noblest men. All read it. And had Caiz not closed things a few seconds later, Vazquez’s corner would have.

Had the fight been stopped by a ringside physician after round 2, the prospect of Vazquez-Marquez V would haunt both men, and their managers, and their fans. Were Vazquez able to attribute his loss to an accident of some kind, chances are good some of us would have to make another trek to California and see things to their bitter end. Who, after all, would deserve another chance if not Israel Vazquez?

No, it ended better this way. Vazquez was beaten, his incredible will subdued. Pushed for a retirement announcement at the post-fight press conference, he used the Spanish verb “meditar” – to meditate. He and his family will meditate on his future, think about it thoroughly, and see what it holds for them.

Those of us who came to this city to honor Vazquez and Marquez, to stiffen the ranks on press row or stand and cheer the men’s sacrifices as they walked to the ring, could never return for a fifth fight. All the reasons that brought us to this one would bar us from another.

Bart Barry can be reached at bbarry@15rounds.com