Boxing Blog – TSS Tidbits

LAS VEGAS (June 19, 2007) – Media critics who bashed him unmercifully for years won’t admit it.

Fans that trashed him don’t want to hear it, either.

But American media members and fans alike do agree, in terms of their constant complaints that, today all of the major world heavyweight champions – IBF Wladimir Klitschko, WBA Ruslan Chagaev, WBC Oleg Maskaev, and WBO Sultan Ibragimov – are from Soviet bloc nations.

Where are the American heavyweight hopefuls, they ask? Better, yet, which American has the best chance of bringing a world title belt back to America?

Underachieving Shannon Briggs? Out-of-shape Hasim Rahman? An exposed Calvin Brock? Juiced-up James Toney?

Take the anonymously referred to fighter’s name out of the equation, as well as his awkward and unappreciated style, and go strictly by the facts:

§ The first responsibility of a boxer is to win and _____ has won 41 of 50 fights (7 losses, 1 draw and 1 no contest), including two WBA heavyweight titles and five world title fights against the likes of Evander Holyfield, Kirk Johnson, Hasim Rahman, Fred Oquendo and Andrew Golota.

§ In addition to judging a fighter by who he has beaten, many gauge success in the squared circle by who a fighter’s losses have been to and five of _____’s defeats have been at the hands, or gloves, of world champions Roy Jones, Jr., Evander Holyfield, Ruslan Chagaev, Nikolay Valuev, and world title contender David Tua.

§ _____ has beaten three world champions: Holyfield, Rahman and Tony Tucker.

§ Never one to back down from a fight, ________ fought all of the top heavyweights that would step in the ring with him since he turned pro in 1992. Lennox Lewis threw his title belt away rather than fight ___________, the WBA mandatory contender at the time, and Vitali Klitschko retired after saying nyet to numerous offers from _________ for a unification bout.

Like it or not, fans, fill in the aforementioned blanks with the worthy name of John “The Quietman� Ruiz (41-7-1, 28 KOs).

All he did was win, as ugly as many of his fights may have been. The sad part was Ruiz’ last two fights, against present WBA champion Chagaev (117-117, 115-114, 112-116) and former WBA title-holder Valuev, were Ruiz’ two most exciting fights in years, since he beat Holyfield for his first world title belt in 2001, but neither was televised in the United States.

“I’m not bitter by all of the negativity,� 35-year-old Ruiz said. “I only took it as a sign to get better and that was the reason I made changes in my camp and got a new trainer (Manny Siaca, Sr.). I think the changes showed in my last two fights. I was robbed against Valuev (114-116, 114-114, 113-116) and lost a split decision to Chagaev in his hometown.

�I look forward to bringing the world heavyweight title belt back to the United States. I’m waving my white flag to the public and reporters to let them know this is a new beginning for me. I hope they join me in my rise to bring home the belt.�

Legendary boxing promoter Don King will present a boxing event with three world championships on Saturday, July 7 at Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn. The main event will feature Norwalk’s own undefeated World Boxing Association super welterweight champion ‘Tremendous’ Travis Simms (25-0, 19 KOs) defending his crown against undefeated WBA No. 1-ranked mandatory challenger Joachim “Ti-Joa� Alcine (28-0, 18 KOs), from Montreal.

The two additional world championships will showcase undefeated knockout machine Vic “Raging Bull� Darchinyan (28-0, 22 KOs), an Armenian now living in Sydney, Australia, defending his International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organization championships against once-beaten Filipino Nonito “Flash� Donaire (17-1, 10 KOs) and former IBF super flyweight champion Luis “El Demoledor� Perez (24-1, 15 KOs) of Managua, Nicaragua, stepping up a notch in weight to tangle with Genaro “Poblanito� Garcia (35-5, 20 KOs) of Puebla, Mexico, for the vacant IBF bantamweight championship.

Dubbed “Fistic Fireworks� by King, tickets for the event priced at $35, $50, $100 and $200, with a limited number of ringside seats at $350, went on sale today (June 19) and can be purchased by those 18 years of age and older at Arena at Harbor Yard box office (Information Line: 203-345-2400), all Ticketmaster outlets, on-line at ticketmaster.com or charge by phone at (203) 368-1000, (203) 624-0033, (860) 525-4500 or (203) 744-8100.

“I am so happy to be coming to Connecticut for our nation’s birthday followed by Fistic Fireworks of our own at Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport on July 7,� the Only in America promoter, King, said. “This is a stellar card that already features three world titles and I will be adding many more great fights.�

The co-featured main events of Simms vs. Alcine and Darchinyan vs. Donaire will be televised on SHOWTIME (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast). The event is being promoted by Don King Productions with Darchinyan vs. Donaire being promoted in association with Gary Shaw Promotions, LLC.

World famous boxer Oscar De La Hoya will be giving the commencement speech this Thursday at his namesake high school Oscar De La Hoya, in East Los Angeles. This is the first senior class to graduate from Oscar De La Hoya High School and they have produced tremendous academic results.

While LAUSD graduates less than 45% and sends less than 20% to four-year colleges. De La Hoya who helped build the school, is actively involved with the students and faculty — This year 98% of the seniors are graduating. 78% will be going on to four year universities.

Dave Tenny, a 30-year veteran of the sport of boxing with more than 30 world championship fights as a top cutman, has joined Rivera Promotions, the newest promotional team that hopes to ignite the world of boxing in New England.
“I’m excited that Dave Tenny has decided to join our team,� said José Antonio Rivera, three-time world boxing champion and president and CEO of Rivera Promotions. “Dave has the knowledge and love for the sport of boxing that will only help Rivera Promotions grow.�
Mr. Tenny was an amateur boxer before continuing professionally in the sport as a trainer, manager and top cutman for more than 30 years. He has worked the corner for several championship fights, including Mr. Rivera’s fights in which he won the WBA championship at the welterweight and junior middleweight levels.
Mr. Tenny will serve as a coordinator and consultant as Rivera Promotions begins to develop the top promotional team in the New England area. The team is planning its first event for the end of the year.
“Dave will bring experience in the sport of boxing that will serve as a true asset to Rivera Promotions and its team of fighters,� Mr. Rivera said.
Mr. Rivera, a veteran of the sport and active professional boxer, formed Rivera Promotions months ago with the goal of guiding the careers of local, committed boxers and rebuilding the sport of boxing in the New England area.
Rivera Promotions consists of John Zablocki, longtime referee who has left the Massachusetts Boxing Commission for this endeavor; former professional boxer and current trainer and matchmaker Sean Fitzgerald, and local businessman Raul Crockett, formerly of New York.
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Evander Holyfield has been in training camp for about six weeks, and according to trainer Ronnie Shields the four-time world heavyweight champion is ahead of schedule: “I wish the fight was this Saturday. I’m going to bring him down now even though there’s still two weeks to go before the fight. That’s how ready he is� . . . It was nearly 20 years ago when Shields began his first tour of duty as Holyfield’s trainer. In their first bout together Holyfield stopped Carlos DeLeon to unify the cruiserweight championship. What is different between the Holyfield then and now? “I don’t see any difference. Still the same speed and he works just as hard. Evander is wise and he uses his knowledge to the fullest. I guess some people as they get older they find it harder to have goals. He’s not like that. He always sets goals for himself� . . . Holyfield will end sparring late next week. He’ll arrive in El Paso on Sunday, June 23 . . .

Lou Savarese has moved his camp from Houston to Las Cruces, New Mexico as scheduled: “I like to get away from the distractions, and New Mexico works logistically. Plus it’s closer to El Paso and it’s a lot drier� . . . Savarese, like his June 30 counterpart, doesn’t spar as much as he used to: “When I fought George Foreman I sparred up to 150 rounds in camp. For this fight I’ll spar maybe 25-30 rounds. There’s no point in going into the ring and getting banged around and risking injury. Sparring is more for learning. At this stage of my career I use it mainly for execution.� Savarese will be sparring with national amateur champion Justin Jones . . . Count Savarese among those disappointed by the Briggs- Ibragimov bout: “I was hoping it would turn out to be a great fight because boxing needs it, especially with ultimate fighting taking up a bigger market share. But it wound up being one of the worst fights I’d ever seen. Ibragimov is a good fighter, technically sound, but he seemed hesitant to fight Briggs. Luckily, Cotto-Judah followed the next week with a great fight� .

Light welterweight prospect Frankie “El Gato” Figueroa has signed an exclusive managerial contract with Sal LoNano, president of S&L Boxing, it was announced today.

Figueroa (16-2, 12 KOs), fighting out of the Bronx (NY), is the reigning WBC International Mundo Hispano welterweight and New York State light welterweight champion. He has won eight in a row, six by knockout, including a four-round stoppage against Ilidio Julio (35-10-1) in his last fight on April 13.

LoNano has managed “Irish” Micky Ward and handles another New York light welterweight, Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi, who fights tomorrow night for the IBF title against defending champion Lovemore N’dou at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut.

“Frankie has a lot of heart and that’s the type of fighter I like to work with,” LoNano said. “Nobody was working with him, other than his promoter, and he contacted me to manage him because of my boxing experience with Micky and Paulie. I saw how he fights with so much heart and I believe that he will be a world champion someday.”

The hottest smaller-weight boxer in the world, WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares, headlines the July 13th “The Gladiators” pay-per-view event live from the Gomez Palacio in Durango, Mexico.

Mijares (31-3-2, 12 KOs) captured the WBC Interim title last September by 12-round split decision (114-113, 114-113, 113-114) against Katsushige Kawashima (30-4) in Japan. The crafty southpaw successfully defended his WBC Interim belt last November in Mexico, winning a 12-round unanimous decision (118-109, 117-110, 116-111) versus Reynaldo Lopez (28-3-2), and won his rematch for the WBC outright championship in January when he stopped Kawashima (30-5) in the 10th round.

On the largest stage of his career this past April, fighting colorful Jorge Arce (46-3-1) on HBO, Mijares came of age with an impressive, one-sided victory by unanimous 12-round decision (119-109, 118-110, 117-11) in San Antonio. Mijares defends his WBC crown in the 12-round main event against No. 15 rated Teppei “Tippy” Kukai (21-5, 4 KOs), former Japanese super flyweight title-holder, on July 13 in Cristian’s home country.

“The Gladiators,” featuring three championships bouts from Mexico, will be broadcast live (10 PM/ET) and distributed for pay-per-view by Integrated Sports on the DISH Network, the leading PPV provider of Latin sports in the United States, for a suggested retail price of only $19.95. SIVOO owns exclusive worldwide rights to broadband content distribution.

WBC ranked No. 5 Eric Rameriz (20-4-1, 15 KOs) faces No. 4 rated Lorenzo “Explosivo” Trejo (29-15, 16 KOs) in a battle of Mexican warriors in a 12-round WBC minimum weight elimination bout. In the other championship match on PPV, WBC No.8 rated featherweight Gamaliel “Platano” Diaz (21-6-2, 9 KOs), of Mexico, meets No. 11 ranked Naoki Matsuda (27-7-3, 10 KOs), of Japan, in a WBC title eliminator. Diaz is the former NABF and WBC FECARBOX 126-pound champion, while Matsuda is riding a 13-fight win streak.

“Integrated Sports is proud to partner with SIVOO to bring the hottest Latino boxer, Cristian Mijares, to boxing fans watching on the DISH Network, which has become a favorite for Latino sports fans,” Integrated Sports president Doug Jacobs said. “The Latin sports market is exploding and these passionate fans show tremendous support for their boxers. Integrated Sports is going to be busy during the July 14-15 weekend, distributing this fight from Mexico and another show the following night from Ireland, featuring unbeaten middleweight sensation John Duddy.”

It will be the Battle of Midway when three-division world champion ERIK “El TERRIBLE� MORALES, making his Chicago debut and seeking his record fourth world title in as many weight divisions, rumbles with WBC lightweight champion and Chicago native DAVID DIAZ in the main event of “The War for 4!� Promoted by Top Rank Inc., in association with Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Promotions, “The War for 4!� world championship extravaganza will take place Saturday, August 4 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, ILL. and broadcast live on pay-per-view.

The pay-per-view broadcast will also feature two additional world title fights and the Chicago debut of undefeated welterweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., son of the legendary three-division world champion and Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez. Tickets for the fight, priced at $300, $200, $100, $50 and $35, go on sale June 13.

“Erik is out to grab some history,� said promoter Bob Arum, CEO and founder of Top Rank. “He is already one of the all-time greats. If he can win this title it would be a fitting conclusion to what has already been a Hall of Fame career, but it won’t be easy. Diaz is no walk in the park and Morales needs to be at the top of his game for this fight.�

“With two great trilogies against Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales has earned his place in the hearts of boxing fans the world over”, said HBO PPV’s Mark Taffet. “Adding a title in his fourth weight class would be the icing on the cake of Morales’ hall-of-fame career, but champion David Diaz has the opportunity to measure himself against a ring legend.”

Morales (48-5, 34 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico will be seeking to become the first Mexican boxer in history to win four world championships in four different weight classes, a feat not even achieved by the legendary Chavez . Morales held WBC world titles at 122, 126 and 130 pounds.

Recognized as one of the best and most exciting fighters in the world, Morales is 18-2 in world championship fights and his pair of trilogy fights against Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera produced some of the best fights in boxing history. His three fights against Pacquiao exceeded one million pay-per-view buys, a record for that weight class.

“I will always fight for the people,� declared Morlaes. “I have given them all I can inside the ring and hope that they will believe in me one more time as I try to accomplish my biggest personal goal in boxing: to become Mexico’s first four-time world champion.�

At age 21, Morales became a world champion for the first time when he stopped Hall of Famer Daniel Zaragoza to win the WBC super bantamweight championship in El Paso, Texas in 1997. He successfully defended the belt seven times. In February of 2000, he unified the title, beating WBO champion Marco Antonio Barrera, which was awarded “Fight of the Year,� by The Ring magazine.

He added a second world title to his trophy case, winning a unanimous decision over Guty Espadas, in February 2002, for the WBC featherweight title. Morales joined the great Julio Cesar Chavez as a three-division world champion by defeating Jesus Chavez to win the WBC super featherweight championship in February 2004, a title he would unify in his next fight, in July 2004, when he won a unanimous decision over IBF champion Carlos Hernandez.

Morales became the only Mexican to beat Manny Pacquiao, giving the Filipino icon a true boxing lesson, in their March 2005 fight, in what many consider Morales’ best performance of his great career.

Diaz (32-1-1, 17 KOs), a 1996 U.S. Olympian, will be making the first defense of his title. He waited a long time to get his opportunity for a world title and when it came he was ready. Diaz stopped the then interim world champion Jose Armando Santa Cruz in the 10th round of a fight he was losing before knocking out Santa Cruz.

“Winning the world championship was very special, but facing a great champion like Morales is just as special. This will be a fight to remember�, said Diaz.

The Morales vs. Diaz pay-per-view telecast, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, has a suggested retail price of $44.95, will be distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 61 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. For your daily Morales vs. Diaz fight week updates visit www.hbo.com.

HBO’s late-night boxing series showcases an action-packed doubleheader when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: LOVEMORE N’DOU VS. PAULIE MALIGNAGGI AND CURTIS STEVENS VS. ANDRE DIRRELL is presented SATURDAY, JUNE 16 at 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT), from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., exclusively on HBO.

The main event features a 12-round junior welterweight title showdown, as Lovemore N’Dou (45-8-1, 30 KOs) of Sydney, Australia puts his title on the line against the flashy and popular Brooklynite Paulie Malignaggi (22-1, 5 KOs). N’Dou is a veteran fighter with more than twice as many professional bouts on his resume than Malignaggi.

In the opening bout, Brooklyn’s heavy-handed Curtis Stevens (17-1, 12 KOs) faces 2004 Olympic Bronze medalist Andre Dirrell (11-0, 7 KOs), out of Flint, Mich., in a ten-round clash of young super middleweight prospects. With his power, 22-year-old Stevens has quickly become a fan favorite in the New York area, earning 11 of his 12 knockouts in the first two rounds. Dirrell, a complete boxer with respectable power, hopes to show he’s on the fast track to prominence in the 168-pound division.

The telecast kicks off at 9:30 p.m. with the exclusive replay of the thrilling Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah junior welterweight title fight.

The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI), the world’s number one team-based professional mixed martial arts league, is supporting America’s troops through an awareness partnership with the USO. This partnership will have service men and women “tapping out,� as IFL athletes and coaches teach them techniques on USO entertainment tours to military bases worldwide. IFL spectators will learn more about the USO and ways to support the troops as part of a multimedia campaign highlighting the partnership.

“The IFL is firmly committed to taking every opportunity possible to both honor and assist servicemen and women and their families around the world, and this partnership with the USO will be a big piece of that work,� said Gareb Shamus, IFL co-founder and CEO. “It is a great pleasure to use this partnership to honor the true warriors who defend this country every day.�

�We are excited to work with the International Fight League, and appreciate their commitment to the USO’s mission of supporting America’s men and women in uniform,� said Edward A. Powell, USO president and CEO. “Their overwhelming generosity will help raise awareness of the USO’s vital work.�

This partnership is designed to assist both the USO’s mission of supporting America’s troops, and grow awareness for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and the IFL. Later this month IFL coaches and MMA legends Pat Miletich, Don Frye and Dan Henderson will take part in a good will trip to the Persian Gulf. Other recent activities have included clinics at bases in Everett, Wash., and Chicago, a meet-and-greet at the U.S. submarine base in Groton, Conn., and a series of clinics and events aboard ships leading into Fleet Week New York 2007. More events are also planned for the near future.

The IFL will document these events and show highlights of the activity on their weekly shows on FSN (Fridays at 11 p.m.) and Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific/7 p.m. Central on MyNetworkTV “IFL Battleground,� hosted by Bas Rutten and Tiffany Fallon.

About the USO

For more than 66 years, the USO (United Service Organizations) has been providing morale, welfare and recreational services to U.S. military personnel and their families. The USO is a nonprofit, charitable organization, relying on the generosity of the American people to support its programs and services. For more information on the USO, please visit our Web site at www.uso.org.

About the IFL

International Fight League™ (IFL) is the world’s number one professional mixed martial arts sports league. IFL has its headquarters in New York and offices in Las Vegas. For more information about IFL, please see: www.ifl.tv.