Notebook: Hunt is on for Calzaghe opponent
The hunt is on for an opponent for unified super middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe, who makes his HBO debut July 8 in Wales., Dan Rafael's notebook reveals.
By Dan RafaelAround the ring
Calzaghe hunt: The hunt is on for an opponent for unified super middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe (41-0, 31 KOs), who makes his HBO debut July 8 in Cardiff, Wales.
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| Calzaghe |
So far, HBO has approved three opponents, none of whom seems to work: Golden Boy-promoted Librado Andrade, who recently stopped Otis Grant to earn a mandatory shot at titleholder Markus Beyer of Germany; Top Rank-promoted middleweight contender Kelly Pavlik; and Don King-promoted Australian light heavyweight contender Paul Briggs.
Andrade (23-0, 17 KOs) can have the fight, but Calzaghe is reluctant to fight him, according to those involved in the talks. The Calzaghe camp is said to prefer Pavlik (27-0, 24 KOs), a smaller man who would be moving up in weight and taking an astronomical step up in competition. However, Pavlik, through manager Cameron Dunkin and Top Rank, turned the fight down Thursday because of the short money on the table. The word on Briggs, who fights at 175 pounds, is that he is unable to make 168.
If Andrade doesn't get the fight, he probably would face Beyer late this summer or in the fall in Germany. Pavlik probably will appear in the co-feature on the July 27 premier of Top Rank's series of live cards on OLN (which will be renamed Versus in September). Briggs is scheduled to fight June 16 in Australia.
Whomever Calzaghe fights, he will be making his first appearance since unifying belts with a surprising shutout decision against Jeff Lacy in March.
Mayorga tests positive: Ricardo Mayorga, who lost his junior middleweight title via sixth-round TKO to Oscar De La Hoya on Saturday, tested positive for a banned substance in his postfight drug test.
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| Mayorga |
Mayorga tested positive for furosemide, also known as Lasix, a diuretic, according to Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner, who is leaving his post this week.
According to several people close to him, Mayorga was having trouble losing weight to make the 154-pound limit. A diuretic would help him lose weight because it is a substance that promotes urination.
Ratner said that Mayorga will be asked to attend a hearing in front of the commission, which could fine and suspend him. Mayorga, of Nicaragua, has 20 days to respond to the commission's request.
"We're thinking there must be a trainer or physician in Nicaragua that is recommending this for boxers," said Alan Hopper, spokesman for Mayorga promoter Don King Productions.
Alvarez suspended: Mayorga wasn't the only Nicaraguan fighter to test positive for a banned substance in Nevada.
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| Alvarez |
Former two-division champion Rosendo Alvarez was suspended by the Nevada commission this week for the rest of 2006 and fined $2,000 for failing a postfight drug test.
Alvarez (37-3-2, 24 KOs), a former champion at strawweight and junior flyweight, lost on a sixth-round TKO to flyweight star Jorge Arce on April 8 in Las Vegas on the Floyd Mayweather-Zab Judah undercard.
Ratner said that Alvarez also tested positive for furosemide.
Alvarez, who also had trouble making weight, was supposed to challenge for Arce's interim flyweight title but weighed in at 115 pounds, three pounds more than the division limit. Because Alvarez didn't make weight, the fight was declared a nontitle bout.
Ratner said that Alvarez told the commission he took a pill from trainer Celso Chavez to help him urinate in an attempt to make weight.
With Alvarez being 36 years old, coming off a knockout loss and getting suspended for the rest of the year, his run as a champion and top contender could be over.
Family ties: Showtime's schedule of airing fight cards on the first Saturday of each month has been generally well received, but it does not always work to the network's advantage because some dates are worse than others.
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| Paez Jr. |
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| Hearns |
Take Saturday, July 1, a poor date because viewership is usually down dramatically during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
So in order to stick to its schedule, but not waste big bucks for a card that few will see, the network is thinking about airing a card offered by promoter Lou DiBella, one that is sure to draw publicity but that costs an arm and a leg.
The idea for the card -- which would be branded as a special edition of Showtime's monthly Friday night prospect-oriented series "ShoBox: The New Generation" -- is a gimmick, but a fun one.
DiBella has proposed a four-fight card involving prospects with famous family ties: 18-year-old lightweight Jorge Paez Jr., the son of the former featherweight champ; super middleweight James McGirt Jr., the son of former welterweight champ James "Buddy" McGirt; heavyweight Chazz Witherspoon, a cousin of former heavyweight champ Tim Witherspoon; and middleweight Ronald Hearns, the son of legend Thomas Hearns.
Showtime is strongly considering it.
What about the Prince? Prince Naseem Hamed, the flamboyant former featherweight champion from England, was jailed Friday for 15 months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, according to The Associated Press.
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| Hamed |
Hamed, 32, also was banned from driving for four years.
Hamed crashed his Mercedes into two other cars on the outskirts of his hometown of Sheffield, England, breaking the leg and both arms of someone involved in the wreck.
There has been talk out of England for the past couple of years that Hamed (36-1, 31 KOs) would launch a comeback, but obviously that is off for now.
He suffered his only loss to Marco Antonio Barrera in April 2001. Hamed returned 13 months later to defeat Manuel Calvo of Spain in 2002, but hasn't fought since, although he never announced his retirement.
Tarver training: Light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver (24-3, 18 KOs) says he views his June 10 HBO PPV fight with former undisputed middleweight champ Bernard Hopkins as an important fight for his legacy.
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| Tarver |
"For everything I've accomplished in my career, there's always someone trying to chip away at it," Tarver said from his training camp in Vero Beach, Fla. "But when I beat Bernard Hopkins on June 10, no one can ever take that away from me. For 100 years, people will look at Antonio Tarver and say, 'There's the legend killer.' First Roy Jones, and now Bernard Hopkins. This win will cement my place in Canastota [home of the Hall of Fame in upstate New York]."
Trainer Buddy McGirt said Tarver is very focused on the fight.
"Antonio's focused because he's looking at himself as a legend killer, and he knows he's got to be right," McGirt said. "Antonio's got something to prove. He gets up for these fights when he feels he's being disrespected."
After his victory against Jones in their third bout this past fall, Tarver landed a starring role in the upcoming movie "Rocky Balboa," the sixth movie in the popular "Rocky" series.
In the movie, Tarver plays heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon, a role that required him to bulk up even more than he normally would between fights. Tarver was close to 220 pounds but said losing so much weight to get to the 175-pound light heavyweight limit was not a huge concern.
"I was working so hard that I didn't even think about the weight until I stepped on the scale and saw that the pounds were flying off," Tarver said. "My camp is focused now on staying sharp and working on our game plan to beat Bernard Hopkins, not on my weight, which is right on target."
Tarver-Hopkins card: With such stiff competition from Top Rank's five-fight (and less expensive) Miguel Cotto-Paulie Malignaggi pay-per-view card June 10 from Madison Square Garden, organizers of the Tarver-Hopkins HBO PPV card in Atlantic City, N.J., have done little to help their cause by putting together such an inferior undercard.
The HBO PPV card probably in store:
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| Camacho Jr. |
• Junior featherweight champ Israel Vazquez against Ivan "Choko" Hernandez, a former junior bantamweight titleholder who has done little to merit a title shot at his new weight.
• Hector Camacho Jr., a former prospect who hasn't been in a serious fight in years, against Andrey Tsurkan in a junior middleweight fight. Camacho's best days were as a junior welterweight.
• Lightweight prospect Jorge Paez Jr. in a four-round showcase fight.
• Tarver defending the light heavyweight title against Hopkins in a main event that many experts predict could be one of the most boring big fights of the year.
Green-Mundine: The Danny Green-Anthony Mundine super middleweight fight is perhaps the biggest fight in Australian history, and it is almost fight time.
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| Mundine |
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| Green |
The bitter rivals -- who have yet to come face-to-face during the promotion because of their animosity toward each other -- meet May 17 at an outdoor soccer stadium in Sydney, where 40,000-plus are expected to turn out for the heavily-hyped grudge match.
That the winner becomes the mandatory challenger for titlist Mikkel Kessler of Denmark is secondary.
For Green (21-2, 19 KOs), the fight five years in the making is personal.
"In November of 2001, Mundine was interviewed on national TV and he called me a bum, basically disrespecting me," Green said. "He continued to say that, so enough was enough and I fired back saying, 'Well mate if that's how you feel then let's do it, let's get it on.' And he avoided it for a long, long time. But now money talks so he figures the time is right.
"I'm very, very pumped. It's a massive occasion. It's a big fight but I have fought on bigger occasions. This fight isn't for the world title, it's just a stepping stone, an eliminator, but it's a massive fight in Australia. I'm going to test Mundine's spirit, test his heart and I think that the man who wants to win more on the night is going to be the victor. That's how I feel and I'm very confident of being the man on the night."
Both fighters have been sparring with top fighters to prepare. Mundine (25-3, 20 KOs), a former titleholder who lost in a previous challenge to Kessler, has been working with light heavyweight contender Paul Briggs while Green has been working with middleweight contender Sam Soliman.
New opponent: Thailand's Yodsanan "3K Battery" Nanthachai (46-3-1, 37 KOs), a former junior lightweight titlist, suffered a cut eyelid in training, according to promoter Artie Pelullo and has been forced to withdraw from a May 31 ESPN2 "Wednesday Night Fights" bout.
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| Medina |
Nanthachai was supposed to fight Manuel Medina (66-14, 31 KOs), a former five-time featherweight belt holder, for a vacant junior lightweight title.
Instead, Medina will face Cassius Baloyi (31-2, 16 KOs) of South Africa with Nanthachai slated to get the first shot against the winner.
Jacobs a Star: Brad Jacobs, who spent six years as the top adviser for Roy Jones Jr. and his promotional company, Square Ring, until being let go last year, has been hired by Joe De Guardia's Star Boxing as senior vice present of operations and development.
Jacobs and DeGuardia were on opposite sides during Jones' trilogy with Tarver, who is promoted by DeGuardia, but that didn't stop him from hiring Jacobs.
"We are ecstatic to have a guy with the experience of Brad Jacobs to be a part of Star Boxing," DeGuardia said. "Brad and I worked together on three of the biggest fights in the history of boxing and I know he will be a huge asset to the Star Boxing team."
Before working with Jones, Jacobs spent 12 years as the chief programmer for the now-defunct USA Network series "Tuesday Night Fights."
"I have been in this business for many years as a promoter, adviser and television executive and I can truly say that Star Boxing is in a strong position to become one of the major players in the industry for a long time and I am thrilled to be a part of it," Jacobs said. "I have a great deal of respect for what Joe has done with Star Boxing. Although we have been in adversarial roles for the better part of three years, spanning the three Tarver-Jones fights, we always seemed to find a way to represent our interests in a professional and friendly manner. I look forward to working on the same side of the ring with Joe."
Quick hits
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| Lazcano |
• Now that the Sugar Shane Mosley-Fernando Vargas rematch has been announced for July 15 on HBO PPV, promoters Golden Boy and Main Events have started working on the undercard. Golden Boy plans to fill one of its slots with junior welterweight contender Juan Lazcano, a former lightweight title challenger who recently moved up in weight. Golden Boy doesn't plan to give Lazcano an easy fight. There is talk that he could face Joel Casamayor, a longtime lightweight contender and former junior lightweight champ who would move up in weight if the fight is made.
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| Morales |
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| Pacquiao |
• The Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales rubber match, originally slated for Sept. 16 in Las Vegas, has a new date. HBO PPV is holding Oct. 7 for the junior lightweight fight. Pacquiao, who knocked Morales out in the January rematch after losing a decision last year, first faces Oscar Larios in the Philippines on July 2, a fight that will be offered on pay-per-view in the United States.
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| Castillo |
• Junior bantamweight champ Martin Castillo turned down an offer to defend his title against Nobuo Nashiro in Japan in July because he would rather stay in the United States and gain the exposure fighting here. "We'd rather fight here in the U.S. in late July or early August," manager Frank Espinoza said. "I feel Castillo deserves the exposure and wouldn't mind putting him in with [Fernando] Montiel, [Jorge] Arce, or [Luis] Perez. It was reported that Jorge Arce called out Castillo. Castillo would gladly accept this challenge." Castillo promoter Top Rank is looking for a slot to put Castillo this summer.
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| Codrington |
• Super middleweight Jaidon Codrington, a touted prospect until suffering a horrific first-round knockout loss in November, is making his ring return May 19 at New York's Manhattan Center on promoter Lou DiBella's "Broadway Boxing" card. Codrington (9-1, 9 KOs), who will face an opponent to be named in a six-round bout, was on the fast track until running into Allan Green, who brutally knocked him out in 18 seconds on a nationally-televised "ShoBox" card on Showtime. It was ESPN.com's 2005 knockout of the year.
• Hatton, who won the Boxing Writers Association of America 2005 fighter of the year award, was unable to attend last week's awards banquet in Las Vegas because he was training for the fight with Collazo. But at Thursday's final news conference, Boston Globe boxing writer Ron Borges presented him with the award.
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| Pereira |
• Featherweight titlist Valdemir Pereira (24-0, 15 KOs) of Brazil makes his first title defense against late-replacement Eric "Mighty Mouse" Aiken (15-4, 12 KOs) in the Hatton-Collazo co-feature (which won't be part of HBO's telecast). On April 1, Aiken scored an upset TKO of former bantamweight champion Tim Austin, and got the title fight when Esham Pickering suffered a training injury and had to withdraw.
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| Karmazin |
• Promoter Don King is planning a July 8 card in St. Louis, which will be headlined by hometown favorite Cory Spinks, the former undisputed welterweight champion, challenging junior middleweight titlist Roman Karmazin. Television coverage has not been determined. Karmazin has not yet defended the 154-pound title he won from Kassim Ouma last summer, and Spinks has not fought since losing the undisputed welterweight title to Zab Judah in St. Louis in February 2005. Karmazin, who has a mandatory bout against Rodney Jones due, was granted an exception by the IBF so he can fight Spinks first.
• If you can't get enough of the Jose Luis Castillo-Diego Corrales trilogy, which will be completed June 3 (Showtime) in Las Vegas, the epic first fight -- the 2005 fight of the year -- .is available for download at the iTunes Music Store (www.itunes.com). The second fight, from last October, will be available May 23, and the third fight will available following the fight. The fights cost $1.99 apiece or you can buy the trilogy for $3.99.
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| Klitschko |
• Newly crowned heavyweight titleholder Wladimir Klitschko, who is in the United States this week to meet with HBO about his next fight, will be host Brian Kenny's studio guest on this week's "Friday Night Fights" (ESPN2, 9 ET). Klitschko stopped Chris Byrd in the seventh round April 22 to win a title. The "FNF" main event features lightweight Edner Cherry (19-4-2, 8 KOs) vs. Monty Meza-Clay (20-0, 13 KOs) from Tampa, Fla.
• Heavyweight titleholder Hasim Rahman, a native of Baltimore, will be the grand marshal at Saturday's Preakness Celebration Parade. Rahman will head the parade of high school marching bands, drill teams, colorful floats and equestrian units which will launch a week-long celebration of the 131st annual running of the Preakness Stakes on May 20.
• Former bantamweight titlist Mauricio Martinez (30-6-1, 21 KOs) of Panama has signed a promotional agreement with Sycuan Ringside Promotions, the company announced. The 30-year-old southpaw held a title from 2000-02 and has won 11 of his last 12 fights.
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| Rahman |
Quotable: "Maskaev took a real beating in the first fight, but he did win, and I haven't really slept right since that night. I will not let this happen again. He is going to get a real good beating. I am going to train harder than him and keep my title."
-- Heavyweight titlist Hasim Rahman, at a news conference in New York announcing that he will defend his title Aug. 12 in Las Vegas (HBO PPV) against mandatory challenger Oleg Maskaev, who in 1999 scored a dramatic come-from-behind knockout of Rahman
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
