Here are a few things that I've heard in recent days, plus your weekly random thoughts …
• Nothing is finalized yet, but Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer told me the other day that when Bernard Hopkins takes his planned December tune-up fight in anticipation of a rematch with Roy Jones Jr. in the first quarter of 2010, he'll probably face Enrique Ornelas. By the way, for those wondering why Jones didn't pull out of his December fight with Danny Green in Australia after he agreed to the rematch with Hopkins, it's pretty simple: Jones is due a payday of about $4 million to fight Green. For that kind of bread, I wouldn't have pulled out either.
• A few weeks ago, heavyweight Kevin Johnson pulled out of Saturday night's Top Rank pay-per-view undercard fight in New York against 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Odlanier Solis. The reason was legitimate: He had been offered a Dec. 12 shot at titleholder Vitali Klitschko. Now that Klitschko is safely through his title defense against Cristobal Arreola, Klitschko-Johnson is just about finalized. In any case, when Johnson fell out of the Solis fight, he was replaced by former title challenger Fres Oquendo. Then on Monday, Oquendo also pulled out. Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels told me the reason was that Oquendo was scheduled for a mandatory court appearance this week in Chicago because of legal trouble he faces. That put Top Rank matchmaker Brad "Abdul" Goodman in the bind of trying to find a suitable replacement on short notice for a fight that would be on pay-per-view. But Goodman, as usual, handled it. He got New Yorker Monte Barrett, a former title challenger, to accept the fight on Wednesday. That's a tremendous save. Frankly, Solis-Barrett should be a much more entertaining fight than Solis-Oquendo anyway.
• So Roger Mayweather skipped a recent court appearance in Las Vegas related to the battery charges he faces for allegedly beating a female boxer half his size and now has a warrant out for his arrest. I had two thoughts when I heard the news. First: What the hell was he thinking? The second thing was that I should be ashamed of myself for putting "Roger Mayweather" and "thinking" in the same thought.
• Shannon Briggs announced his comeback last week, David Tua scored a crushing second-round knockout the other day, and Oliver McCall and Lance Whitaker are scheduled to fight Oct. 23. Let's party like it's 1997!
• You might remember Top Rank's Bob Arum promising over and over that he would put on a stellar undercard for the Nov. 14 Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao HBO PPV. Apparently, however, Arum doesn't remember his vow, because the undercard rots. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. against Troy Rowland and the potentially horrific Daniel Santos-Yuri Foreman junior middleweight title bout do not a stellar undercard make. At least the Alfonso Gomez-Jesus Soto Karass welterweight fight should be fun, although it's not very meaningful. Next thing you know, Arum will be promising a stellar undercard for a fight in a stadium in Macau.
• Only a couple of weeks until Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic begins with Arthur Abraham-Jermain Taylor and Carl Froch-Andre Dirrell. Who else is psyched?
• One of the reasons I like welterweight prospect Antwone Smith, who looked excellent dismantling Henry Crawford on "ShoBox" last week, is because he has earned everything he's got. Smith has fashioned his record by fighting real opponents, not by having an overprotective manager or promoter feed him one stiff after another to pad his record.
• Three of my favorite prospects to keep an eye on: welterweight Saul Alvarez, junior featherweight Roberto Marroquin and junior middleweight Omar Henry.
• Somebody had the audacity to put a fight between Hector Camacho Jr. and Yory Boy Campas on pay-per-view this month. They should give me $24.95 to watch that crap.
• A light heavyweight title rematch between Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu is on tap for Dec. 11 in Montreal, with a possible co-feature of Kendall Holt against Herman Ngoudjo in a junior welterweight eliminator. Somebody has to get that card on American television. Even if it's pay-per-view, count me in.
• So the Kelly Pavlik-Paul Williams middleweight championship fight has finally been officially announced for Dec. 5 on HBO. All I can say is that it's about time and I can't wait.
• I wouldn't mind seeing Juan Manuel Marquez face Ricky Hatton.
• I am looking forward to the return of Israel Vazquez on Saturday.
• Paging Alexander Povetkin. Ditto for Sakio Bika.
• I got a release from Don King touting his Oct. 31 card in Las Vegas, which is headlined by bantamweight titlist Joseph Agbeko against Yonnhy Perez. Neither guy is very well known, but I think that's going to be one helluva fight. However, King also has added a heavyweight bout between Ray Austin and DaVarryl Williamson to the untelevised undercard. King sure knows how to make pointless and crappy heavyweight fights, doesn't he? And just how in the world did this become some sort of WBC eliminator? Stuff like that makes me ill.
• Gotta give a shout-out to Dougie Fisher and Mike Rosenthal from Ring magazine's Web site. Can't thank them enough for their humongous technological save in the press room after the Klitschko-Arreola fight. Thanks, guys.
• Thailand's Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym was very impressive in his recent third-round destruction of Bernard Dunne in Ireland to win a junior featherweight belt. If you didn't see it, look for it on YouTube. Excellent performance.
• Perhaps it's a little off topic, but it's my blog: I picked up the new CD of my favorite rock band, KISS, when it was released Tuesday. After waiting 11 years for a disc of new music from the group, it was worth the wait. It rocks. And I'm a little torn. On Saturday night, I'll be at the Juan Manuel Lopez-Rogers Mtagwa Top Rank PPV card at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York. At the same time that the fights are taking place, KISS will be rocking the house in the main arena. That hurts.
• DVD pick of the week: I'm still going through some DVDs of older fights I recently received from a friend of mine, and picked out some Thomas Hearns action. This one was from Phoenix on April 25, 1981, and featured a young "Hit Man" doing damage. Hearns made the second defense of his welterweight title against tough Randy Shields. It was two fights before Hearns' epic showdown with Sugar Ray Leonard and Hearns was on his game. Shields, who had previously been beaten by Leonard, Wilfred Benitez and Pipino Cuevas (whom Hearns had knocked out to win the title), was very tough. He fought with a lot of spirit but took a beating. Hearns had a big lead on the scorecards and had battered Shields, whose eyes were swelling, in the 12th round. Finally, following the 12th, Shields' corner called off the fight, which was scheduled for 15 rounds. This was a 22-year-old Hearns in his prime. It was a thing of beauty.
Dan Rafael
