Archive for February, 2010

Ortiz, Huerta & Ramos Ready For Fox Sports Spotlight

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
By William Trillo
 

When it comes to open media workouts, things can be hit and miss at times. Depending on the mood of the fighters, the accessibility in the gymnasium and the mix of journalists in the room anything can happen. You just never know.
 
As for this Monday at the Maywood Gym in Southern California, it was all good, the Golden Boy ran media day was a good time for all and if this is any indication of what the fans will see this Thursday night at Club Nokia then it should be a great way to kick off “Fight Night Club” in 2010.
 
Amongst the fighters in attendance were the Hot California kids who will be getting some face time on Fox Sports this Thursday night, Top junior welterweight Victor Ortiz (25-2-1, 20 KO’s), top featherweight prospect Charles Huerta (12-1,6 KO’s) & Luis Ramos Jr. (13-0,7 KO’s) a top lightweight prospect. Also in attendance was Jr. Welter Carlos Molina (10-0, 6 KO’s) who will be performing in an off TV bout.
 
All the guys not only looked to be in good shape but more importantly they all were in great spirits. The one thing I have noticed during my years covering the sport is the mood of the fighters just days before their fights, and in all honesty, when these guys are cutting weight they are not pleasant to be around. More often than not the fighters who seemed to edgy for their own good usually had a bad night days later. The ones who were relaxed normally perform well on fight night.
 
As I said, all the fighters were relaxed so I am expecting good showings from all of them.
 
For Ortiz, it still seems that everyone still wants to talk about the bad night against Marcos Maidana even though he has had a fight with a KO performance over Antonio Diaz since then. The focus is still on that loss and what happened, but to me it’s about what Ortiz does with the lesson learned from that nights loss. “You know I learned a lot about myself and more importantly about the people around me that night. As you see I have the people who are closest to me here today and that really helps keep me focused. I have a completely different perspective on things after the Maidana fight and I promise I will not let anything like that ever happen again’” said a confident Ortiz.
 
As for the youngsters Huerta, Ramos & Moilna, it’s easy to see the fire in their eyes and the determination that drives these young men. Still wanting to prove that his KO loss was a mishap, Huerta was all business during the workout. For the undefeated Ramos, the kid from Santa Ana says he feels great and is looking forward to opening up the televised card with a bang. Though he won’t be on the televised card you can expect the fan friendly Molina to entertain the Nokia crowd with his all action style.
 
As cameras popped and reporters mingled looking and listening for tidbits to use in their reports, I was reminded why I thoroughly enjoy this journalistic pastime. Through all the nonsense that seems to permeate the sport with supposed fight fixing, PED drug abuse, loaded gloves and questionable judging, there is nothing like sitting in a stinky gym with the boys and watching some young guns with high hopes getting themselves ready to perform in an arena were few dare to tread. 
 
Tickets are almost sold out with only General Admission seats available for $19.75 (Floor Standing Room & Balcony Seats) for purchase by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 online at http://www.ticketmaster.com or through any Ticketmaster outlet or the STAPLES Center box office.  Group tickets and full series tickets at a discounted rate are also available by calling 1-877-AEG TICKETS (1-877-234-8425).
 
Doobie Bros. Nix Super Six Bout
 
So a press release was sent out today by Agua Caliente Casino saying the Arthur Abraham vs. Andre Dirrell fight will not be moved to March 27th in their venue due to a prior commitment with The Doobie Brother on that night.
 
Hmmm… I mean the Doobies had their great moments but with just 2 of the original members of the band left and neither one is named Michael MacDonald that’s a little embarrassing.
 
What…Sha Na Na wasn’t available? Norman Greenbaum had a prior engagement? How about Mungo Jerry? 
Okay, I’ll give it a rest……..Dexy’s Midnight Runners??   Nevermind…

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

 

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Dirrell Injury Delays Super Sux Bout; Abraham Single Handedly Removing Competition

Friday, February 19th, 2010
By William Trillo
Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

That’s not a typo and I didn’t stutter.
 
I warned you from the onset that there were just too many players and too many ego’s involved for this Super Six thing to go smoothly.
 
I posed the question before this tournament started as to what would happen if Arthur Abraham beat Jermain Taylor into retirement?
 
Well, Abe did just that and we got our answer,Taylor quit and now we are stuck with the unpredictable late sub Allan Green who has the monumental task of taking on Andre Ward….Good Luck.
 
Another question I posed before this thing set sail was what will happen if someone gets hurt, or claims to be hurt prior to his next fight? Won’t this upset the applecart? And what if the injury takes 6 months to heal?
 
Well…now we are going to get an answer to that apparent “mind boggler” as it appears Andre Dirrell has pulled up lame at the post with a bad back. No real word when he might be able to resume training but you got to imagine Arthur Abraham and his German contingency are very happy they made the trek State side early……NOT!
 
My guess is Team Sauerland is fuming over this turn of events, especially since Dirrell has given no real time frame for his return. Reports are Andre says it may be just one or two weeks. Forgive me for being a skeptic but since when does a back injury take a couple weeks to clear up? Especially when the first time you will put it to test is against Abraham. Normally a bad back will put you on the shelf for at least a month if not more. Unless of course he some has the same “only needs 2 weeks to heal back injury” that plagued David Haye before he ran away from Klitschko # 1. 
 
And if that’s the case this Tournament has real problems.
 
And just to remind you, my other concern was egos and promoters, not that you would ever want to suggest this should become a problem..noooooooooooo!!
 
I guess as long as things are going smoothly everyone should be giving each other high fives, patting each other on their backs and congratulating each other for a job well done.
 

This thing ain’t goin’ smoothly!
 
I am expecting low blows and kicks in the asses along with pointing the finger of blame any day now.
 
It’s as inevitable as was a fighter running scared from King Arthur after witnessing the beat down he put on his first victim.
 
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Arreola vs. Adamek: A Step In The Right Direction; Prayers To Mr.& Mrs.Robert Guerrero

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

By William Trillo

Pound4Pound wants to send out our heartfelt prayers to Robert Guerrero who chose to step down and relinquish his IBF Jr. Lightweight crown so he can be there for his wife Casey as she battles Leukemia. This is absolutely the right move by Guerrero and we applaud him for his decision. We know that their faith in God will get them through this difficult time as they look to Jesus Christ for His will to be done.
 
Arreola vs. Adamek: A Step In The Right Direction
 
This week in California Dan Goossen of Goossen Tutor Promotions & Kathy Duva from Main Events will hold a press conference to announce the April 24th clash between Chris Arreola and Tomasz Adamek that is aptly named “Ring of Fire”
 
The HBO BAD fight that is set to take place in Arreola’s Southern California neighborhood in Ontario is exactly what the good Doctor has been prescribing to the Heavyweights for years. Unfortunately we have been getting a fistful of Placebo’s up until now but this fight is the type of fight that will cure what has been ailing the Heavyweights.
 
Two Legitimate contenders who are willing to put it all on the line to get a shot at the title.
 
Quite a novel concept.
 
Over the past few years all we have been getting is a possible heavyweight star who instead of climbing his way up the ladder is fed a diet of Stiffs, Ham & Eggers & Tomato Cans. That sounds like a good All Night Diner menu but it is hardly a way to build a “Real” Champion.
 
Hopefully the rest of the Heavyweight boxing World will take note and will start putting on more fights like this instead of rushing their ill prepared fighters into an undeserved title shot. Come to think of it I hope all of the boxing world follows this blueprint!
 
Am I excited about this match up??
 
Heck yes!!
 
What we have hear is a good old fashioned barn burner. Two guys who are willing to trade punches and are just short enough on defensive skills to assure a very good scrap that should produce multiple knockdowns before someone is declared the winner….this is gonna be good!
 
Props to Goossen & Main Events for putting this fight together….I can hardly wait!
 
Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

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Boxing’s Version Of Musical Chairs

Monday, February 15th, 2010

By William Trillo

You know the drill, march around a bunch of chairs until the music stops and then do your best to plant your derriere on a chair or get left standing and out of the next round of marching.

Well such is the case for a group of boxers and their promoters as they all have marched around the April 17th date but only a select few remain firmly seated on the prize weekend.

Let’s see if I can break this all down.

Start the music please!

First Showtime had announced that Stage 2 of their Super Six Tournament featuring Mikkel Kessler vs. Carl Froch and Andre Ward vs. Allan Green was on tap for April 17th.

Soon thereafter Golden Boy hinted that the proposed fight between Bernard Hopkins vs. Roy Jones Jr. could end up on that same 17th weekend on HBO PPV.

As soon as HBO brass caught wind of that thought they informed all parties concerned that the HBO date was reserved for Super Middle champ & budding star Lucian Bute.

Stop the music!

Golden Boy took that hint and moved the Hopkins and Jones PPV to April 3rd. With a proposed undercard of Rocky Juarez vs. Jason Litzau and Sergio Mora vs. Daniel Edouard this will become more commonly known as “April Fool’s Weekend”.

HBO made the Bute news official as they announced Lucian would defend his 168 pound belt against Edison Miranda in Montreal and as part of the April 17th broadcast Kelly Pavlik would take on Sergio Martinez in Atlantic City and both fights would hit the HBO airwaves via split feed broadcast. This is can’t miss TV.

Stop the music!

For reasons that could only be explained as a “scheduling conflict”, Showtime unexpectedly moved their Super Six double header from the 17th to the 24th of April. No real reason was given that I am aware of. What I do know is that if anyone has taken a firm lead as the best Super Middleweight on the planet it is Lucian Bute, and he is not even part of Showtimes “Super Six” tournament. Funny how that worked out.

Stop the music!

By moving to the 24th the Super Six Tournament has planted it’s fanny firmly onto another HBO Boxing chair. As it turns out HBO has plans to air Chris Arreola against (possibly)Thomasz Adamek with an Alfredo Angulo vs. Joel Julio side bar. TIVO time!

Fire that music back up and start marching!

That’s one heck of a game of musical chairs put on by boxing’s finest and I am not sure if it’s over yet. What I am sure of is after a slow start to the year, April will have more than it’s share of interesting battles, (give or take a few), and if boxing fans budget themselves properly they stand to get a whole lot of bang for their buck this spring.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

Posted in Boxing | 3 Comments »

Valero Finally Exposed

Monday, February 8th, 2010

By William Trillo

For 26 fights WBC Lightweight Champ Edwin Valero flew under the radar like a Stealth Bomber on a secret mission. The Venezuelan B-52 was not only undefeated but all of his fights ended by KO. No one has gone the distance with ol’ Dynamite hands.

But because of an accumulation of different reasons, like being banned from fighting in the U.S.A. because of a motorcycle wreck head injury, being denied a U.S. visa because of a drunk-driving charge in Texas, along with his strong support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Valero has seemed more of an urban myth than a real fighter. But…the days of him destroying opponents and then riding off into the sunset with fans saying “Who was that masked man?”, are officially over.

With his Showtime televised destruction of Interim Champ Antonio DeMarco this weekend everyone in the U.S.A. is now very aware of this guys talent and it shouldn’t be long before we see him in some big match ups, and it won’t just be “Bomb’s Away” as many might assume.

Valero can box, he can throw punches in combinations and then get out of harms way before you know what hit you. And if that’s not enough he gets better when he tastes his own blood. An errant elbow opened a gash on Valero’s head in the second round that would have made most mere mortals quit. Not so with Valero who only got stronger and more determined from that point on.

One quick look across the 135 pound landscape and I am pretty convinced Valero is going to be sitting on top for quite some time! And now that Valero is a proven commodity in the U$A let’s see how long it takes for lifetime bans to get lifted and Visa’s to get renewed.

Up, up and awaaaaayyyyyyyy!

Click Here For Valero “lol” Video

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Posted in Boxing | 7 Comments »

May Day! May Day! Now It’s Official: Mayweather vs. Mosley

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

By William Trillo

After almost a week of wondering why Floyd Mayweather Jr. had not signed the contract to make the May 1st Las Vegas battle with Shane Mosley official, the wheels are finally officially in motion as Mayweather scratched his name on a contract that was promptly put into Golden Boy Promotion’s Richard Schaefer possession. Shortly after Mayweather had signed the contract Schaefer contacted yours truly saying, “William, Just got back from a meeting and I have the contract signed. The fight is on!”

This time there was no premature speculation or innuendo, (more on that later), the fight is a done and if all goes according to plan, Floyd and Shane will be in Miami this weekend to be a part of the Super Bowl festivities and of course they will be there to pump the volume up on a fight that is a sure fire can’t miss event!

It’s no secret that there were rumblings that Mayweather was looking for a way out when he went MIA for a few days after Shane put his autograph to paper, but whatever rumors were out there can now be put to bed, Floyd has autographed the contract!

The fight that will be held at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the first of May promises to be a very interesting and hard fought test of will, strength and finesse. Throw in the fact that there is no love lost between Shane and Floyd and what you have here is exactly what the drug testing doctor ordered.

Yes, Shane has agreed to Mayweather’s Olympic style drug testing demands. Coming from a guy who is an admitted PED abuser that is a big step and worthy of at least a little praise. There has not been much more revealed about the contract but it is likely Floyd came out with the lions share of the purse and other concessions, something Mosley most likely was willing to put aside as he has been wanting to tear out a pound of Mayweather’s flesh for years, and now he has his chance to do it.

For Floyd, this is his proving ground. He has said he wants to fight only the best of his generation and now he is finally going to do it. Signing the contract is the first step to proving he is the fighter he has always claimed he is and a victory over Mosley would make a lot of reporters like me eat a plate full of crow for questioning Floyd’s testicular fortitude…a win over Mosley would put a lot of us in our place. I’ll even go so far to say that a loss to Mosley won’t be as detrimental to Floyd’s career as he thinks if he goes out there and makes a fight out of it. But he has to fight!

Personally I think that even though Shane is the one with his WBA Welterweight Championship belt at stake it’s Floyd who has more to lose if he gets beat. You can assume Mayweather feels the same.

The next hurdle we have to cross now is getting these guys to the ring on May 1st. There is 2 months between now and fight night and that’s a lot of time for something crazy to happen. If the worst does happen and this fight gets canceled or postponed, in light of all that has transpired in boxing recently, no one is going to take it lightly, especially the fans.

We don’t want to hear about phantom rib injuries. We don’t want to find out Floyd twisted his leg in a late night basketball game nor do we want to hear that Shane has wrenched his back in some ill advised snow boarding run in Big Bear. We want these guys to climb into the ring on May 1st and if they don’t, trust me, there is going to be hell to pay!

And To Those Scribes Who Jumped The Gun…

Allow me to take you back in time if I may. It was this past Tuesday night and the fact that Floyd had not yet signed the contract was becoming a bit of an issue. It was quite a few days earlier that Yahoo’s Kevin Iole amongst others had proclaimed the fight a done deal because Leonard “Hot Flashes” Ellerbe had told them Floyd would sign the contract in 2 days. I told everyone immediately that stories that THE FIGHT IS ON were very premature. As it turned out 2 days turned into 3-4 and then 5 and the press was getting anxious.

It was then that I wrote an email to Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer saying:

Dear Richard,
I am writing in regards to the premature announcements on Mosley vs. Mayweather being a done deal. Every website on the planet has written that the fight was on. That includes Yahoo/Ring Online writer Kevin Iole who over a week ago deemed this fight a done deal and claimed it was set for May 1st. Yet here we are on late Tuesday afternoon some 5 days after Leonard Ellerbe assured everyone Floyd would sign the contract and still we have nothing.

With the fight still in limbo Schaefer took the time to respond by saying:

Dear William,
I agree totally with your statement regarding pre-mature announcements. That is why you did not see me making any statements. I don’t know why so many reporters always like to “jump the gun”. I think they do a disservice to the fighters, the sport and their readers. The fact is that Mayweather still has not signed… Regards, Richard

My point exactly when I wrote my article on Saturday!

Why do reporters like to jump the gun?

Because in this day and age of instant news via the Internet, getting news up first is a badge of honor, but when you are jumping the gun just to say you got things up first you are, to quote Schaefer, “Doing a disservice to the fighters, the sport and their readers.”

Dictionary.com defines disservice this way: to provide inadequate or faulty service.

Nice work! You must be proud!

By the way after we posted the “official” news of the Mayweather signing on Wednesday I checked the sites that had posted the premature “Done Deal” news last week, and guess what…NOTHING!

I guess they were all asleep at the wheel, in the buffet line at their favorite “All You Can Eat” or what is most likely is nobody had spoon fed them the information yet.

Again….. Nice work! You must be proud!

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