Boxing archive

South African boxer Francois Botha was in Invercargill yesterday. Logan Savory caught up with the charismatic fighter and chatted about his career, which stretches back to 1990 and includes 61 professional fights.

As a boxing enthusiast, 40 minutes talking with Francois "The White Buffalo" Botha was fun.

In his own words, he says he talks plenty of "s..." It's what gets him fights; he's good at promoting bouts with the talk.

But in between all that promotional talk there's an interesting story.

Say the name Francois "The White Buffalo" Botha and most Kiwis and Australians will associate Sonny Bill Williams with him.

The 44-year-old lost to the rugby-league-player-cum-boxer in a controversial fight in Brisbane in February, with allegations of bribery, drugs and the cutting of rounds chucked about.

But there's more to this guy than just 10 rounds with Sonny Bill. In fact, that's at the smaller end of the scale as to what he's seen and done in the boxing game.

Since the fight with Williams he's signed to fight 21-year-old rising New Zealand heavyweight Joseph Parker in Auckland on June 13, and was Invercargill yesterday to talk with The Southland Times as part of promotion for the fight.

He talked at length about his career - his time under promoter Don King, his fights against the likes of Mike Tyson, his paydays, the lot.

Francois Botha has seen and done plenty in the mystical world of boxing.

In 1990 he shifted as a youngster from South Africa to the United States to chase his boxing dream.

"I left South Africa with a thousand dollars in my pocket. I left my son alone in South Africa with his grandma. I didn't know where I was going to live and I ended up in Texas."

He started out in the United States chopping wood for $5 an hour before his big break came.

After an 18-zero record he got the chance to take on Mike "The Bounty Hunter" Hunter, a well-respected and well-ranked boxer.

Botha won and the doors started to open. He went from struggling to pay any bills to being wowed by what professional boxing can do for someone's bank balance.

"All of a sudden I started to get calls from Don King," he said.

"Don King signed me and gave me $50,000 cash; I felt like a rich guy.

"I can still picture me today holding all that money."

It was just the start of it for Botha as the paydays started coming.

He's fought some of the biggest names in boxing - Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, and Wladimir Klitschko. His biggest payday was in 1999 when he got $3 million to fight Mike Tyson, a fight he lost when he was knocked out in the fifth round.

He estimates he's racked up more than $9m in earnings in his career but, like many other boxers, has lost it all.

Living the high life and taking a dive in the stockmarket has seen much of his money dwindle over the years.

Botha says he is now back on his feet and living comfortably. He doesn't need the money from fights like his next against Parker but is keen to pull on the gloves a couple more times before he steps away from it for good.

He wants to beat Parker and then line up David Tua in one final bout before he stops throwing punches himself and steps into training his son, Marcel.

Marcel will fight on the undercard to the Parker-Botha fight in June, something that Botha senior says is pretty special.

"It's going to be a first. It's going to be one for our [family] collection. The Buffalo can say me and my son have fought together. I can wrap his hands, I'll get him ready in the locker room, he goes out and fights and comes back and helps get Dad ready and he can be with me in my corner."



Boxing | 'White Buffalo' shows colourful character... | Stuff.co.nz

I like Botha boxing style.

With limited professional accomplishments, Guillermo Rigondeaux understood he needed a significant victorious performance against an established champion to push his career to optimal standing.

Rigondeaux had his ideal opponent and backdrop for such aspirations late Saturday. This was the occasion for Rigondeaux to prove that his legacy would stretch beyond an outstanding amateur career and one professional alphabet soup belt.

The Miami resident and native of Cuba capitalized on his opportunity. Rigondeaux frustrated the Philippines’ Nonito Donaire with superior boxing skills and won a unanimous decision in their super-bantamweight title unification fight at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

“I was going to do my job, and I did it,” Rigondeaux said. “The public that saw this fight can appreciate the quality of good boxing. I made him look like I wanted to.”

During the past five years, Donaire (31-2) has compiled impressive performances and won championships in three weight classes, putting him onto the list of “pound-for-pound” best fighters. But on Saturday, Donaire had limited answers for Rigondeaux’s counter punches and lead shots, far from resembling “pound-for-pound” recognition.

Donaire finally found his opportunity, dropping Rigondeaux (12-0) with a left to the head in the 10th round for the fight’s only knockdown, but Rigondeaux shook off the punch and continued to dictate the pace until the final rounds. Early in the 12th, Rigondeaux landed a left near Donaire’s right eye and Donaire stayed on the retreat for most of the round.

All three judges scored the bout for Rigondeaux, 116-111, 115-112 and 114-113.

Lauded for winning two Olympic gold medals, Rigondeaux, now is adding professional title belts. In addition to retaining his World Boxing Association title, Rigondeaux now owns the World Boxing Organization belt previously held by Donaire.

“With one punch you don’t win a fight,” Rigondeaux said. “My movement and boxing frustrated him.”

Rigondeaux, 32, welcomes a rematch with Donaire, but it would need to be at a higher weight class. Donaire, who had difficulty making the 122-pound limit for Saturday’s bout, plans to move to the 126-pound featherweight division.

“I have much respect for Rigondeaux for the beautiful boxing that he gave me,” Donaire said. “I really didn’t feel his power until the last round. I got too carried away and I wanted to take him out.

“We have to go back to the drawing board.”

While Rigondeaux remains unbeaten and looks for additional lucrative bouts, fellow Cuba native and Miami resident Angelo Santana suffered his first professional loss Friday night. Late replacement Bahodir Mamadjonov (13-1, 9 KOs) scored a ninth-round technical knockout win over Santana in their lightweight bout Friday night in Las Vegas. Mamadjonov (13-1, 9 KOs) took the fight on two weeks’ notice after original opponent Carlos Cardenas withdrew because of a shoulder injury.

Santana is now 14-1.

Golden gloves

Male and female boxers in the open and novice divisions will compete in the 2013 State Golden Gloves Tournament on Saturday and Sunday at Indoor Soccer in West Palm Beach.

The two-day event will determine the open division - boxers with more than five amateur bouts – that will advance to the National Golden Gloves Tournament May 13-18 in Salt Lake City. The Women’s National Golden Gloves will be July 9-13 at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Tickets to Saturday’s state tournament are $15 and $25 in advance and $20 and $35 the day of the event. For information, call 561-833-2131.

Read more here: Guillermo Rigondeaux scores big in title defense - Boxing - MiamiHerald-com

Carl Williams, a former heavyweight champion who built a reputation for climbing into the ring with the best fighters of his era, including Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson, died on April 7 in Valhalla, N.Y. He was 53. The cause was complications of throat cancer, said his sister, Shirl Parsons. Williams, who died at Westchester Medical Center, lived in Jamaica, Queens.

The 6-foot-4-inch Williams, who was known for a rock-solid jab and a bit of a glass jaw, was nicknamed the Truth for his ability to make believers of his opponents and critics.

“He made a believer out of me,” said Holmes, who survived a controversial 15-round unanimous decision against Williams in May 1985 to win the International Boxing Federation title in Reno, Nev.

At the time, Williams was a relative unknown, though he had defeated the well-regarded James Tillis the year before and had entered the Holmes bout having won his first 16 professional fights. Before turning professional in 1982, Williams had twice won New York Golden Gloves championships.

“I underestimated the Truth that night,” Holmes said in a telephone interview on Monday from his home is Easton, Pa. “When I jabbed, he jabbed. We both had similar styles; it was like looking at myself in a mirror. He was strong and tall with a great reach, and I was fortunate enough to wear him down late with a few hard body blows — but not before he gave me a black eye. He really had my number.”

Parsons said Williams “never really got over losing that fight to Holmes.”

“My brother had no fear,” she said, “so when it came to fighting Holmes, he always looked back and thought that he gave the champ a little too much respect that night.”

Williams managed to rebound by winning six of his next seven fights, including an impressive victory over Jesse Ferguson and another over Bert Cooper in 1987 to capture the vacant United States Boxing Association heavyweight title, a national title that carried more clout than it does today.

Wiliams defended the U.S.B.A. title three times — including a victory over the highly regarded Trevor Berbick — before meeting Tyson in Atlantic City in July, 1989, for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Just 93 seconds into their fight, Tyson connected with a vicious left hook that dropped Williams. Williams managed to rise on wobbly legs, but the referee stopped the fight.

Williams, who was born in Belle Glade, Fla., but grew up in Queens, retired in 1997 with a career record of 30-10, with 21 of his victories coming by knockout. He was divorced and had been working as a fire safety director for Verizon in Queens.

In addition to Parsons, Williams is survived by his father, Charlie J. Williams; a daughter, Carla; a son, Daniel; and two brothers, Darryl and Kenneth.

“He was a phenomenal fighter with a big heart,” the boxing great Roy Jones Jr. said of Williams. “What earned him the greatest amount of respect was the fact that he never ducked anyone.”



www-nytimes-com/2013/04/16/sports/carl-williams-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-at-53-html?_r=0

The sports ministry has confirmed that boxer Vijender Singh is drugs free. Recent tests conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Vijender and four others have proved a blank.

A ministry release on Tuesday says: "The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is glad to announce that none of the boxers were found to have used any banned substances in the recent past."

Vijender and four others were subjected to an out-of-competition test for banned substances. A full menu test was conducted which included testing for psychotropic substances. Tests were only carried out on blood and urine samples.

Vijender found himself in quandary when his name cropped up in a massive drug haul where the police had recovered 26 kg of heroin, estimated around Rs 130 crore, from an NRI's house in Shivalik Vihar in Zirakpur on March 7. The presence of a car used by Vijender's wife Archana near the NRI's house only raised more doubts.

On April 1, Punjab Police said Vijender allegedly bought heroin for personal consumption on 12 different occasions from a Canada-based NRI drug dealer.

The police said that the heroin was first procured by Vijender's sparring partner Ram Singh in December from alleged drug dealer Anoop Singh Kahlon. Both boxers subsequently went together to Kahlon's house near Chandigarh for procuring the drug in January and February, police added.

Police sources said both Kahlon and Vijender knew each other well and even exchanged SMS-es. After examining Vijender's call records, sources confirmed that he was in touch with Kahlon since August last year and the two have spoken to each other on phone about 80 times. However, they did not actively connive with the smugglers in their activities and nothing was recovered from them, the police said.

Vijender was initially reluctant to share blood and hair samples for tests, but after the sports ministry insisted, the boxer relented. The Olympic bronze medalist has been skipping training and was subsequently dropped from the national team for a training stint in Cuba.





Vijender is drugs free, says sports ministry | Other Sports - Boxing | NDTVSports-com

Holly Holm announced on Tuesday that she will be retiring from the boxing ring following a May 11 fight in Albuquerque against Mary McGee, and will be going into mixed martial arts full-time, seeking a new challenge at age 31.

Holm (32-2-3, 9 KO) remains one of the very best women's boxers on the planet, and has had a splendid career since going pro in 2002. Following a scary KO loss to Anne Sophie Mathis in 2011, she has bounced back to beat Mathis in a rematch, followed by a shutout win over Diana Prazak last December.

"Since I first started fighting, it became my passion," Holm said at the presser. "I decided a long time ago, after quitting school to fight, that I would box as long as my heart was in it. One of my biggest and controversial fights was against Christy Martin. Then, it was Mary Jo Sanders. There's always a champion. This is my own journey. Every one of my fights have helped me to believe in myself.

"When we were deciding which way to go with my future, my trainer, Mike Winkeljohn, said it best, 'You want to climb a new mountain.' This thing has created a new spark in me and I'm following my heart."

Holm addressed the idea that leaving boxing before fighting Cecilia Braekhus, considered the top female boxer in the world today, won't bother her.

"I wish much success to Cecilia, but not fighting her does not, by any means, define my boxing career. I know there's a lot of talk about that but what does that say about all the women I've already fought? I've never been a paper champion. I've grown so much every step of the way. I'm in this fight, on May 11, 100 percent; I'm not distracted. This is obviously an emotional, spiritual and physical journey and I'm so grateful for the people who have supported me. I just want to fight where my passion is (MMA). I train in an MMA gym and always have."

Holm has fought in MMA already, going 3-0 with all wins coming by stoppage, including a February 28 bout on a Bellator show.


Holly Holm retiring from boxing to pursue MMA career - Bad Left Hook

She is a tiger.

Patrick Ball enlisted his girlfriend, Alyssa King, to drive him and four other Kutztown club boxing team members to the American Top Team Lehigh Valley training center in Bethlehem.

It was a 40-minute journey each way, once or twice a week this winter.

There were more than five members of the newly formed club, but that's all who could fit into King's Hyundai Elantra. "I sent out a message to all the members and it was first-come, first-serve," Ball said. Those who made the trek up Route 222 struggled to maximize their training time.

"It was hard to even want to practice," Kelvin Nance said. "You're in the car through all that traffic. You sleep most of the way because you've already had a long day of classes.

"The last thing you want to do is train."

Such were some of the struggles of the new club sport.

It took about eight months of paperwork, meetings and encouragement for the group to be the latest of the 20 club sports recognized on the Berks County campus.

It was nearly three months of limited training access before the boxing club was granted a place on campus to work out.

The fight has been worth it. Membership has more than tripled in the last month and there is talk around campus about many others looking to join next semester.

"The first practice on campus was the best," said Ball, the club boxing team president. "A lot of people showed up that we never met. It was a great feeling of success."

Ball participated on the club boxing team at Lock Haven as a freshman in 2011-12. When the Philadelphia resident decided to transfer to Kutztown, he sought advice from Ken Cooper, who is president of the National Collegiate Boxing Association and stationed at Lock Haven.

Last spring, Ball and a couple of other wannabe boxers met with Kutztown officials about the process of organizing a club sport.

It was an eye-opening experience for the students.

"We hit quite a few speed bumps along the way," Ball said.

Jay Gallagher, coordinator of structured sports at Kutztown, acknowledged that the process to create a club sport is a comprehensive one but designed with the safety of the participants in mind.

There is no university funding for the first calendar year of the club sport's existence.

Club sports teams aren't required to have a coach, but must have an adviser. At least three club members must be certified in CPR, with two at each practice.

"The first goal is to do the activity safely," Gallagher said. "We want the kids to walk before they run. They see some of the bigger colleges such as Shippensburg, Maryland and Delaware, who have had [boxing] programs around for 20, 30 years.


Read More: Kutztown club boxing team had to fight for acceptance, spot to train on campus - mcall-com

More than 40 of England’s most talented 13-16 year old boxer met Olympic super-heavyweight champion and members of the GB Boxing squad this week at a special ceremony to mark their achievement in winning the Amateur Boxing Association of England’s (ABAE’s) Schools Boxing Championships.

The schoolchildren and their families were given an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at GB Boxing’s state-of-the-art training facility at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield and had a question and answer session with Anthony Joshua, world championship bronze medallist and London Olympian, Natasha Jonas and Jack Bateson, who was recently promoted to GB Boxing’s Podium squad and is a three-time ABAE Schools Champion.

The winners watched the GB squad in training, met coaches and sport science staff from the Olympic programme and were each presented with a souvenir pair of ‘Golden Gloves’ to mark their achievement in winning the ABAE’s Schools Championships.

14-year-old, Ebony Jones from the Charter Academy School and Heart of Portsmouth Boxing Academy said: “It was an amazing experience to see the Olympic boxing gym, meet the Great Britain boxers and learn about their training programme. The facilities are fantastic and the whole experience has really inspired me to train even harder and do everything I can to improve and see if I can make it into the squad one day.”

Olympic super-heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua said: “It is great to have the opportunity to meet with the next generation of young boxers and be able to provide them with help and advice. I hope that one day, some of the young boys and girls that I met will go on to be part of the GB Boxing squad and win a medal at the Olympic Games.”

Richard Caborn, Chairman of the ABAE said: “English boxers have been very successful in recent years, winning medals at World Championships and Olympic Games, and this is all part of the ABAE’s on-going activities to ensure we maintain that talent pipeline and have the pathways in-place to enable our best young boxers to progress through the England system and onto the GB Boxing programme.

“An event like this is hugely inspirational as it gives the schoolchildren a chance to meet with boxers that have achieved success and provides them with an insight into what it takes to reach the top, win medals internationally and be part of an Olympic programme.”

Rob McCracken MBE, Performance Director of the GB Boxing programme and the man who led Great Britain to the top of the boxing medal table at the 2012 Olympics said: “We have been successful in recent years but to continue this we need to have a steady flow of talent coming into the GB Boxing programme so events like this, which support the home nation’s talent development activities, are important to our future success.

“We would not be able to achieve the success we have had in recent years without the great work of the home nation ABAs in developing and nurturing talent so it’s good that we can assist them in their talent development activity by giving young boxers an insight into what it takes to be an Olympian.”

Jack Bateson from the GB Boxing squad, who won the ABAE Schools Championships three times from 2007-09 and is the current senior champion at light-flyweight, said: “I remember being very proud when I won my ‘Golden Gloves’ for being the Schools champion so it is great to be part of something that aims to inspire the next generation of young boxers. I hope that all of the boys and girls that come to the GB Boxing gym enjoy the experience and are inspired to go on and achieve more in their boxing careers.”

Lonsdale supports Schools and Junior boxing and donated the souvenir ‘Golden Gloves’ that were awarded to each of the winners.



British amateur boxing

Julius Menendez, who coached Muhammad Ali to the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, has died. He was 90.

San Jose State University says Menendez died April 14 in Gilroy, Calif., two days before his 91st birthday.

Menendez was the head boxing coach for the United States in the 1960 Olympics in Rome when Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, won the light -heavyweight division. Eddie Crook Jr. and Wilbert McClure also won gold medals for the U.S. that year.

Menendez also coached the U.S. men's soccer team in the 1976 Olympics and was the assistant for the 1972 soccer team.

Menendez also won three NCAA boxing championships as coach at San Jose State and won 295 games in 36 seasons as the Spartans' soccer coach.



Former U.S. Olympic boxing coach Julius Menendez dies - ESPN

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, they say. Or in this case, heavy is the burden of being boxing’s next big thing.

Golden Boy Promotions knows it. They, along with television partner Showtime, have put most, if not all, of their golden eggs into the cinnamon basket of Canelo Alvarez. Who could blame them? There’s a lot to like about the undefeated junior middleweight. At the tender age of 22, he’s already Mexico’s biggest boxing star. More than that, though, he’s one of the country’s most recognized celebrities period.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Had I not witnessed it firsthand, I would have never believed it myself. The PlazAmericas mall has become the de facto home of Houston’s pre-fight proceedings. When the three-city, two-day Alvarez vs. Trout press tour rolled into town in March to promote their WBC and WBA Super Welterweight World Championship unification bout, I was prepared for normal proceedings.

Oh, how I was wrong.

Many top-level boxing celebrities had traveled through: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Erik Morales and Nonito Donaire, to name a few. All brought big crowds out to see them. People with bright, grinning faces hoped to nab a picture or an autograph.

But none of those boxing stars packed them in like Canelo. Not even close. To his credit, the kid drank it all in like he was born for it. He looked focused and calm. There he was amidst the biggest gathering I’d seen on the tiny converted food-court stage—cool, quiet and confident Canelo, ready to grab the reins.

The reins of boxing are perhaps the hardest to grab, though. There are no teams in boxing. Sure, the fighter has a manager, a trainer and a cut man in his corner. Yes, he’s got a promoter, handlers, etc.

But when the bell rings, he is alone. He can't use any timeouts or call for a substitution. He can’t hope someone on his team carries him to victory.

And all the while, he’s getting punched in the face.

Still, as much as Canelo and his team want to be front and center of the boxing world, the truth of the matter is that boxing wants him to be, too.

Is Canelo the future of boxing?

We sure hope so, because more than any other sport, boxing is driven by one thing: star power. A fighter with that on his side defines the sport to the general public. Don’t believe me? Ask any mainstream sports fan what he knows about the sport of boxing today.

You know what he’ll say. We hope that he is the future because the ripeness of age comes early in boxing. Fighters cannot just be excellent at their craft but marketable too. Boxing is at its best when young, hungry stars make their mark as early as possible.

Because of all these things, Alvarez needs to deliver—and not just against Austin Trout this weekend. He needs to do more. He needs to be a star. He needs to be great. He needs to be what we hope he is.

“I am very well prepared. It will be a difficult fight but I’m ready,” he said last month in Houston, in Spanish and with a smile. “I’m ready.”

We will see.




Will Canelo Alvarez Deliver What Boxing Really Needs? | Bleacher Report

Saturday night in the Alamo City the many crooks, boneheads and buffoons who compose boxing’s fractured leadership have fallen backward into a fight genuinely worth watching.

Canelo Alvarez is Mexico’s next big thing and Saturday night at the Alamodome he will fight Austin Trout for one of those glittery belts that has three big letters.

This has all of the makings of the thrilling fight that was held 20 years ago in the Alamodome, when Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker was robbed in a decision against Julio Cesar Chavez.

Both Canelo and Trout are undefeated, have lots of those pretty title belts and at least the presence of mind that boxing needs this night for a little credibility.

Boxing needs to promote real fights such as this more than it needs Floyd “Money” Mayweather’s self-promotion.

“You don’t see fights like the one you’re going to see Saturday night [often]” said the fight’s big promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, in a news conference on Friday. “Fighters are usually too afraid to take on the best in their division, but not these two.”

We’re looking right at you, Fraud Mayweather.

Boxing needs Money to follow Canelo and Trout’s lead by taking a risk, and fighting a worthy opponent one more time before he is too old for us to care.

The pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather has transformed himself into the Kansas State of boxers, which is why I call him “Fraud.” Rather than schedule someone who can actually give him a fight, he celebrates victories against outclassed opponents who need his money.

Mayweather needs to fight someone who can beat him, rather than an opponent who’s in awe of him.

Fraud doesn’t know it, but his time is short and he owes it to boxing to give the sport that made his life one more glorious fight against a worthy opponent.

Once upon a time someone gave Mayweather his shot and he needs to return the favor by scheduling a real fight. He is 36 and his relevance fades every time he fights a Robert Guerrero, as he will early next month, or that waste of time against Victor Ortiz.

There may not be a pro athlete today who plays the traditional media, or social media, any better than Fraud. He has a big mouth, a huge personality and knows how to move the needle with brash, outlandish and arrogant talk.

But all of his talk is growing stale because he refuses to fight a genuine opponent who is hungrier to kick his butt than to take the money.

At this point in his career, Mayweather has more money than anybody but Apple. He has proven himself to be a dynamic champion. His legacy in this sport is secure, and if he isn’t secure by now, he never will be.

Boxing doesn’t need Fraud in order to survive, but he definitely could help it a little bit more.

A sport that gave Mayweather so much needs his help by lining up the type of fight that Canelo and Trout are giving fans.

But rather than schedule fighters like Canelo or Manny Pacquiao, who could give him a real fight, he gives Guerrero a check disguised as a chance. On May 4, Fraud will defeat Guerrero and claim he was a tough out.

It will be a bogus fight but should draw enough pay per view buys to justify the night.

Fraud has said he will fight one more time this year, just before the start of the NFL season.

It may be his last best chance to create the type of excitement this sport hasn’t enjoyed in years. After that, he will be 37 — and that’s old in boxing.

Before he fights again, Alvarez and Trout are doing what Fraud hasn’t — doing right by the sport and fighting each other. This is Quality v. Quality, and a night where both men have so much to gain or lose.

To be fair, Alvarez has grown fat on a load of nobodies, too. The difference is he is 22, and is now fighting a guy who can beat him. This fight happened because the fighters wanted to take a risk.

The scene in the Alamodome should pop with what will be a massively pro-Alvarez crowd of roughly 40,000.

Both fighters want this and should willingly engage from the opening bell through all 12 rounds.

The judges are going to be terrible because that’s what they do.

It’s the type of night that Mayweather needs to arrange just one more time before we no longer care.

Read more here: Boxing fans need more fights like Canelo Alvarez-Austin Trout | Dallas-Fort Worth Sports News...

Boston marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev (R) and Lamar Fenner (L) stand during a decision in the 201-pound division boxing match during the 2009 Golden Gloves National Tournament of Champions May 4, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a car chase and shootout with police on April 19. A manhunt continues for his brother and the second suspect in the bombings, 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev.






The boxing career of Tamerlan Tsarnaev Pictures - CBS News

David Tua's opponent for his planned comeback to boxing in New Zealand, highly rated Cuban boxer Luis Ortiz, is still in the balance - but could yet be a fight to turn the head of the heavyweight division.

As revealed by the Herald on Sunday in December, Ortiz is the likely opponent - if the word "likely" can ever be attached to something as slippery as fight negotiations. If you've never heard of Ortiz, you are not alone, even though he is one of the few heavyweights to be ranked across almost all of boxing's ridiculous collection of "world" bodies.

Most such bodies selfishly prefer to have "sole agency" of their world rankings, pushing their own fighters. But the 34-year-old Ortiz is ranked 11th in the world by the WBC, second by the WBA and sixth by the WBO, with only the IBF not rating him in their top 15.

So you haven't heard of him because he is not much of a fighter. On the contrary, you haven't heard of him because he has had so few fights. That's because most heavyweight contenders recognise his talent - but also the danger he poses. In today's heavyweight scene, opponents are carefully chosen to provide an upwards, always improving, path for fighters until they get the big pay-off of a world title fight.

Ortiz is a gamble. He's 1.93m, about 107kg and a southpaw - unusual in heavyweight boxing.

He's quick, with good hand speed and, though he has only had 19 professional fights, he is a defected Cuban with over 340 amateur fights behind him. So boxers and their managers look at Ortiz with some wariness. Getting beaten by a talented Cuban with only 19 fights (mostly journeymen with no "name" fighters) wouldn't be helpful.

Duco Events boss David Higgins confirmed this week that they are trying to interest Ortiz in a bout - though it is understood the Ortiz camp has cooled lately.

There could be several issues - Ortiz's No2 ranking with the WBA means he could think he is close to a shot against WBA champion and the man most regard as the best in the world: Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko. Choice of venue and the purse could also be factors or Ortiz and his handlers may be wary of Tua.

The Tua who lost to Monte Barrett would not be a threat but a fit and motivated Tua would be. The slim pieces of information coming out of the Tua camp is that he is taking this "last gasp" shot at his career highly seriously and is training hard. For whatever reason, Ortiz may be drifting in the likely opponent stakes.

Higgins has previously said Duco got together with Tua on the grounds that he fight a highly rated opponent.

"We have made it very clear that we are only interested in him fighting a credible boxer - we are looking for a top four- or five-ranked fighter - as we do not think it will benefit anyone if he comes back and fights a nobody or a series of nobodies while looking for a title fight," said Higgins in December.

"We have said David needs to get right back up there if he wants to get that title fight and, to do him credit, he has agreed. It's a big thing to consider. You could say he is fighting for his life here, as a win could well get him back on the path but a loss could end his career."

If Ortiz doesn't work out, another option is 41-year-old US heavyweight Tony Thompson. Also a southpaw and a hard-hitting one at that, he has fought 40 times and (other than an early loss), he has only ever been defeated by Klitschko, in 2008 and 2012. He destroyed British heavyweight hope David Price in two rounds in February.

A third option is another US heavyweight Fres Oquendo. Now 40 but still with fast hands and rated fifth by the WBA, Oquendo has, in 42 bouts, lost seven times but has some big names on his CV: Chris Byrd, John Ruiz, Evander Holyfield, James Toney and Oliver McCall. He has lost to that entire brigade and one other - a younger David Tua on his first journey in the heavyweight ranks, in 2002.

Oquendo has apparently always felt he was harshly done by in the loss to Tua; boxing loves a good revenge match.





Boxing: Big Tua bout still on cards - Sport - NZ Herald News

Nathan Cleverly moved from neglected world champion to the centre of attention with a flawless display while Tyson Fury survived a wild night to lead a confused crowd in song at the end of his New York debut on Saturday night.

Fury had talked and talked in the weeks and days before the first bell at the Felt Forum, the cavernous basement venue at Madison Square Garden, and there were many hoping for him to be silenced by the educated fists of Steve Cunningham. It looked like Cunningham, who was three stone lighter and six inches shorter, would deliver their wish when Fury, standing square and with his left hand low, was hit and dropped with the first punch of the second round.

"I was caught, I went down and then I got up to win," said Fury, after his singing had silenced the crowd. "I have grown up watching real men fight and real men get up when they are knocked down, get on with it and win. That is what a heavyweight has to do. "

Fury was fighting without his mentor, trainer and uncle in his corner after a visa mishap left , Peter Fury fuming at the Canadian border; it is unlikely that the fight would have started, continued and ended in any other way. Fury is a reckless attraction, a fighter with excessive heart, tremendous natural talent and a tendency to make his fights slugfests like the clashes that illuminated the 1970s and 80s.

On Saturday night Fury was out on his feet and at the mercy of Cunningham, who looked at times like a peak Evander Holyfield, for several rounds; he had a point deducted in round five for holding, which was the only way he was staying upright. However, it was also in the fifth that Fury's bulk first started to drain Cunningham's strength and desire. It was, make no mistake, the type of fight scriptwriters refer to when they create ridiculous fight scenes.

"Man, he is just so big and he can fight," admitted a crushed and tearful Cunningham, who was stopped for the first time in his career. "I thought that he was down for good when I dropped him but he just got up more determined."

It needs to be said, to put the fight in context, that last December Cunningham lost a disgraceful split decision to Tomasz Adamek, who is considered the No 1 challenger for the world titles held by the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali.

In round seven, as Cunningham was being manhandled with disturbing ease, Fury held up Cunningham's head with his left forearm and delivered a cruel right hand to the chin. Cunningham went down heavily and had no chance of beating the count. The final punch and illegal move, by the way, would have the delighted the kings of filthy fighting Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali.

Fury, who is 24 and unbeaten in 21 fights, now has a final eliminator for Wladimir Klitschko's IBF heavyweight title against Bulgaria's Kubrat Pulev, another of the "Eastern European stiffs", before getting a championship fight. On Saturday night he failed to convince everybody but he showed once again that grit and guts are crucial, and often missing, ingredients in a heavyweight boxer's construction.

Cleverly is much better at containing his emotions and fought with the right amount of brain and force to win every single round against Robin Krasniqi, his mandatory challenger, and retain his WBO light-heavyweight title at Wembley. Cleverly, performing like a vintage Joe Calzaghe, seldom wasted a punch, moved unnecessarily or took too many silly punches. It was a masterclass of control, a welcome outing for the purists.

"The plan was to just get through this guy because he was a mandatory and I had to fight him," said Cleverly. "Now I want the fights that will really test me and I know that they can be made."

In a bizarre decision by the WBO, an organisation that is based in Puerto Rico but, like all the sanctioning bodies, often delivers orders based on fantasy, Cleverly has another immediate mandatory against Jürgen Brähmer, a German who is a balding bad-boy and felon from the old east of the country.

"I would like to make the fights the fans want, not the ones that the sanctioning bodies order, " said Frank Warren, the promoter. "I will speak to all involved and see what can be done about Brähmer." In theory Cleverly could fight the WBA champion Beibut Shumenov as chief support when Bernard Hopkins defends his IBF title against Karo Murat in Brooklyn on 27 July. Hopkins, 48, is the weight's prize cash attraction and has agreed to fight Cleverly.

There will be some serious late-night fixing necessary to get Cleverly to Shumenov without meeting Brähmer, and to get Manchester's Fury in the opposite corner to Pulev. In boxing the fighting has always been the easy part.


Boxing: Klitschko clash still some way off despite grit and guts of Fury - Others - More Sports - The Independent

Kazakhstan and the Ukraine reach the final of the World Series of Boxing after taking semi final wins over Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder and Mexico Guerreros respectively.

The World Series of Boxing continued with the semi finals.

The Ukraine Otamans masterminded a stunning comeback from a 4-1 loss last week in the first leg against last season's champions Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder in their semi final clash in Kiev.

The match started at Lightweight (57-61kg) with two-times Olympic and World Champion Vasyl Lomachenko defeating 2009 AIBA World Champion Domenico Valentino of Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder.

At Middleweight (68-73kg), Dmytro Mytrofanov demonstrated a lot of motivation against Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder's Michel Tavares. Some serious uppercuts landed by the Ukrainian in the last three minutes of the fight swayed the bout with the Ukrainian able to again seal the win.

In the Light Heavyweight (80-85kg) clash undefeated Otaman Oleksandr Gvozdyk won a narrow battle on a split decision, giving the lead to his team at 5-4 on aggregate against 2011 WSB Individual Champion Abdelhafid Benchabla.

In the Heavyweight (91+kg) division Rostyslav Arkhypenko secured his first World Series of Boxing success against Youth Olympic Champion and London Olympian Tony Yoka.

The emphatic 5-0 win saw the Ukraine progress to the finals.

It was a similarly one-sided affair in the other semi final between Astana Arlans Kazakhstan and the Mexico Guerreros on Saturday night.

Arlans No.1 Bantamweight (50-54kg) Bagdad Alimbekov earned the win over 19-year-old Mexican Aaron Alameda to give his side a 1-0 lead early on.

In the Lightweight (57-61kg) clash Samat Bashenov took a narrow and tenacious win over Belarusian Vazgen Safaryants for a 2-0 advantage.

Middleweight (68-73kg) supremo Sergiy Derevyanchenko was motivated enough to defeat Mexico Guerreros' Irish rising star Conrad Cummings in their fight.

The 3-0 win rendered the two remaining fights inconsequential.

However, at Light Heavyweight (80-85kg) Iranian Ehsan Rouzbahani took another win for the Kazakhs and Astana Arlans Kazakhstan's team captain and Best Asian WSB Boxer of 2012, Heavyweight (91+kg) Ruslan Myrsataye finished the job against Milutin Stankovic.

Reaching their second WSB Team Finals in three seasons, the Arlans will face Ukraine on the 10th and 11th of May 2013 at the Saryarka Velodrome.

VIDEO: VIDEO: Kazakhstan and Ukraine reach the final of 2013 World Series Boxing - Story - 3 Sport - 3 News

Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez and unbeaten US boxer Tim Bradley, who each beat Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao last year, will fight each other in September, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Promoter Bob Arum told the newspaper that Marquez would take on Bradley in Las Vegas on September 14 for the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown that Bradley took from Pacquiao by split decision last June.

"Marquez wanted to fight Bradley and Bradley wanted to fight Marquez," Arum told the Times.

The deal pushes back plans for a possible fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez, who knocked out the Asian star in the sixth round last December after suffering a draw and two narrow defeats in early fights against "Pac-Man."

Arum said the major stumbling block to a fifth Marquez-Pacquiao matchup was Pacquiao insisting the fight be staged in Macau or Singapore, where he could avoid a 40 percent tax on his prize money.

"Marquez isn't convinced Marquez-Pacquiao in Asia will result in the pay-per-view money being as strong," Arum said.

Marquez, 55-6 with one draw and 40 knockouts, has not fought since beating Pacquiao. Bradley, 30-0 with 12 knockouts, comes off a unanimous but narrow title defense over Russia's Ruslan Provodnikov last month.

Pacquiao, 54-5 with two drawn and 38 knockouts, will next fight later this year at Singapore or Macau against a US boxer, either Brandon Rios (31-1-1 with 23 knockouts) or Mike Alvarado (34-1 with 23 knockouts), Arum told the Times.

Rios and Alvarado split their past two fights, staged against each other. Rios inflicted Alvarado's first defeat with a seventh-round stoppage last October but Alvarado won a unanimous but narrow 12-round decision last month.

Unbeaten Floyd Mayweather had planned to fight in Las Vegas on September 14 depending on the outcome of his face-off next week with fellow American Robert Guerrero, with Mexico's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez a possible opponent.

Arum said he might change dates if a Mayweather-Alvarez fight were booked against Marquez-Bradley on that weekend.



Boxing: Marquez to fight Bradley next, not Pacquiao: report

Can people ever really change?

It is a question that has taxed criminologists, philosophers and wronged partners for centuries, and it is one boxing fans should be asking themselves right now, because the sweet science is in thrall to two men who almost destroyed athletics.

Victor Conte and Angel Heredia were rival drug-dealers a decade ago, plying their cynical trade on the margins of the US Olympic scene.

Conte's cocktails of untraceable performance-enhancing substances fuelled sprinters Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Britain's Dwain Chambers to global fame, only for his Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) conspiracy to come crashing down in 2003.

The cause of his downfall was the anonymous delivery of a syringe containing traces of the bespoke steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, aka "The Clear", to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada). It was Conte's premium product, and its very existence came as news to the testers.

That syringe was sent to Usada by the coach of a rival group of sprinters, Trevor Graham , who was fed up with watching his athletes being beaten by the Balco gang. The reason he knew they must have been cheating is because his athletes were cheating too, their drugs coming from Heredia. Graham got his comeuppance five years later in 2008, when a by-now-rumbled Heredia acted as the US government's star witness in a perjury trial. The Jamaican-born coach was eventually given a relatively mild sentence, largely because the jury was unimpressed with the prosecution's "true devil" of a witness.

"The past is the past, but it will always follow me," Heredia told me from Las Vegas earlier this month.

"I helped the anti-doping authorities, and a lot of anti-doping protocols have been established because of my help, but I don't shout about it.

"I've made mistakes, but I've done more good than bad."

The 38-year-old Mexican was talking to me in between jobs in his current line of work: strength and conditioning coach to the world's best boxers.

His previous gig had been helping American light-welterweight Brandon Rios to prepare for his rematch with Mike Alvarado. Their first fight had been one of the fights of 2012, Rios winning in seven savage rounds.

He lost the second fight last month, but nobody blamed Heredia, his boy looked like he had been sculpted out of granite. In fact, Heredia has not been short of job offers ever since his star pupil Juan Manuel Marquez flattened one of the greatest of all-time, Manny Pacquiao , in a brutal contest in December. It was their fourth meeting, Marquez's first win and Pacquiao's first knock-out defeat for 13 years.

It did not take fans, pundits and rivals long to start speculating about the provenance of Marquez's newfound power - the Mexican had never so much as wobbled Pacquiao before. The reaction in the Philippines, Pacquiao's homeland, was almost hysterical, but it was not much calmer in the US.

Marquez simply denied all accusations of doping, saying "I'm a clean fighter", and his fans pointed out that Pacquiao had put on a lot of muscle during his transition from an undersized strawweight at 16, to a chiselled welterweight at 34, a difference of about 50lbs, or three-and-a-half stone.

Heredia's journey is equally remarkable.

Once his own athletics career reached the limits of his ability, Heredia combined his US college education in kinesiology (the study of human movement), with family connections in the Mexican pharmaceutical industry - if that sounds like a euphemism, it soon became one for "Memo" when he started to ship banned drugs to athletes throughout America. In a notorious 2008 interview with German magazine Der Spiegel , Heredia outlined the extent of his business, naming a generation of American sprinters in the process, and said "peak performances without doping are a fairy tale".

But being picked up by the FBI during their Graham investigation brought this chapter to an end for Heredia. Between late 2008 and early 2011, the only public mention of his name is as a witness in four anti-doping tribunals against former clients in 2010. According to Usada, that is the last involvement he has had with the agency.

Heredia is nothing if not resilient, though, and in 2011 he was back, helping Mexican boxer Jorge Arce to a WBO title. He now claims to have worked with eight world champions, but will not name them all.

"I've got a bright mind and a science degree, so I've got things to offer," he explained.

"I've used my degree and my knowledge to develop a strength-and-conditioning programme for boxing. I use whatever tool I have that is legit - I do nothing that is illegal."

Marquez, Rios and every other boxer that has admitted to working with Heredia has made the same claim.

"We do a lot of weight training - some very specific lifting - and we do altitude training," Heredia added.

"I used to use (banned blood-boosting drug) EPO; now it's altitude. I also use nutrition and legal supplements to enhance certain hormones and amino acids. "There was a lot of ignorance in boxing. Marquez had never lifted weights before. He just ran and hit the bag. But the science has evolved, boxing should too."

Heredia says he has evolved as well, finding God and becoming a father. He insists his doping days are behind him, and now he could perhaps "be a bridge" between the anti-doping authorities and boxing, a sport he acknowledges needs to do more testing.

But others are not convinced about his transformation, none more so than Conte.

As dealers on different sides in track and field's dirtiest decade, the two men were never going to be friends, but their animosity has deepened since their re-emergence in boxing.

This hostility is played out most days on twitter, with Conte repeatedly accusing Heredia of doping his athletes and lying about his past.

"I strongly believe he is still a dope man," Conte told me last week, although there is no ac

British boxer Amir Khan defended his link-up with American drugs cheat Victor Conte ahead of his fight with Mexico's Julio Diaz on Saturday.

Conte was jailed in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute banned steroids and his association with Khan has been criticized by UK Anti-Doping.

However, Khan said the controversial American, who was introduced to the boxer by trainer Virgil Hunter, had passed on a lot of invaluable tips.

"The advice he's been giving me has been brilliant," Khan told the BBC's website. "I know he's had a bad background and has done things he shouldn't have.

"Virgil Hunter is my trainer and he's the one who's told me we are going to use Victor Conte as an assistant in a way, as he has a team of trainers who can teach you stuff.

"On the training methods he's brought so much good training into the game. He's introduced me to a lot of new trainers who have helped me on my running, sprinting, on my engine really, which is working my fitness, also breathing methods and telling me what to do and what not to do."

Conte was at the center of the BALCO doping program which included several high profile athletes like Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

A steroid specifically designed to fool testers, dubbed tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), was produced and distributed by BALCO.

Following his release from prison, Conte became an anti-drug campaigner who works with several anti-doping bodies in a bid to clean up sport.


Boxing: Khan defends link up with drugs cheat Conte

Cuba is breaking a five-decade ban on professional boxing and joining an international semipro league. Fighters will compete for sponsored teams, box without protective headgear and earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month.

The country has a long and storied boxing tradition and is usually a force at international amateur tournaments. This move represents a big step for the island's Communist authorities, who long ago decided pro sports were not in keeping with Marxist social ideals.

The new format, the World Series of Boxing, consists of 12 squads from across the globe that square off in a series of five fights using a point system similar to the pros.

The World Series of Boxing is organized by the international boxing association known as AIBA. The competition begins in November.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Cuba to World Series of Boxing," AIBA President C.K. Wu said in a statement. "With a total of 116 World medals and 67 Olympic ones, Cuban boxers have always lived at the pinnacle of our sport. ... We are convinced that this new franchise will bring WSB to an even higher level."

In addition to the salaries, boxers in the series can make $500 to $2,000 bonuses, although it's not immediately clear how, or how much, the Cubans will be paid.

They still stand to receive a big raise from their current salaries, which are close to the $20 a month that most Cuban workers earn. The best boxers, those who win medals at major tournaments, are granted lifetime stipends of up to $300 a month.

Wu visited the island in January for talks with local sports officials about adding Cuba to the series. The nation's fighters have expressed great excitement about the prospect. Boxers in the World Series will compete for 30 automatic bids to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

"It is our duty to help our athletes develop their careers as far as possible," Cuban Boxing Federation President Alberto Puig de la Barca was quoted as saying by AIBA. "Our best boxers will compete in WSB over seven months against the world's cream of the crop. This will offer them the chance to get a taste of the styles of other world-class athletes and thus be better prepared to face them in the Olympic Games, Pan American, Central American and world championships."

"We are pleased to join," he added.

Fidel Castro banned professional sports in 1961, two years after the Cuban Revolution.

"Sport is not just another instrument of the market ... nor of profit for promoters, agents and all manner of parasites that feed off the athlete's hard work," Castro said in 2005.

He left office in 2006 because of a near-fatal intestinal ailment, and brother Raul has been in charge since. The younger Castro has since instituted a number of social and economic reforms that have brought significant change to the country's socialist model.



Cuba ends half-century ban on pro boxing