Evander Holyfield is the only former cruiserweight champion to successfully move up in weight to become heavyweight champion. Now, Chris Byrd (39-3-1, 20 KOs), who lost his heavyweight title via seventh-round TKO to Wladimir Klitschko in their April 22 rematch, would like to become the first former heavyweight champion to move down in weight to win the cruiserweight championship.
Byrd attorney John Hornewer and representatives for cruiserweight champion O'Neil Bell are talking about that historic match, one both fighters want.
"My heart is at heavyweight for sure, but I don't see much here for me to get right back in the mix," Byrd told ESPN.com. "Guys still don't want to fight me, so I will look down to cruiserweight for a challenge."
Byrd started his career as a middleweight and has spent most of his career fighting as a 215-pound heavyweight. He would need to get down to 200 pounds for a cruiserweight fight.
Byrd, 35, said he became convinced he could make the weight after a recent trip to Zambia. He and his wife, Tracy, along with several members from their church, went to the African nation to do missionary work. While he was there, Byrd said he lost more than 10 pounds and returned home at 199, which convinced him a fight with Bell was realistic.
In addition, Hornewer has been a big advocate of the fight.
"Bell has nowhere to go and I have nowhere to go for something major, so why not do it?" Byrd said. "I think it would draw some interest and can be a springboard for the winner to something bigger. I still want to challenge heavyweights, but I see this as a great opportunity. O'Neil is the perfect guy for me because he is champion, he is the man. I don't want to fight a slouch cruiserweight. I want to fight the best guy out there."
| |  |
|
| Byrd |
Bell (26-1-1, 24 KOs) also wants the fight, saying so during an interview on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" last week.
"We just want to make the match," Byrd said. "It's very alive right now and hopefully it will stay alive. I want the fight really bad and I think Bell does too, so let's do it. I'm hoping with the negotiations everything goes well. I am not being stubborn about anything and asking for anything crazy because I was heavyweight champion. No. Let's be fair all the way around and make the match. I accomplished a lot for my size at heavyweight, so I see this as a new venture, something fun and something I would take pride in -- winning another championship."
Bell, 31, became undisputed champion when he knocked out Jean-Marc Mormeck in the 10th round in January to unify the division, although he was later stripped of one of his belts when he was unable to make a mandatory defense due to a dental problem.
Warriors Boxing executive director Leon Margules, Bell's promoter, said he is all for the match but the key hang up is the lukewarm interest from the TV networks.
"Chris and O'Neil want the fight, but I haven't been able to convince television to take it," he said. "But I think it's a pick 'em fight, a classic boxer [Byrd] against a puncher [Bell]."
Margules said if he can't close a Byrd fight, Bell has other options. Margules said he received a lucrative offer for Bell to defend against European champion David Haye of England, and that he also has had brief talks with Don King about a rematch with Mormeck.
Jones-Cunningham called off
Guillermo Jones didn't arrive in St. Louis as planned on Wednesday, and Thursday he withdrew for medical reasons from Saturday night's fight against Steve Cunningham.
They were supposed to fight for a vacant cruiserweight belt at the Savvis Center in St. Louis in the opening bout on the Showtime card (10 p.m. ET/PT) headlined by Roman Karmazin's first junior middleweight title defense against Cory Spinks. Now, Showtime will televise only the main event.
According to Bobby Goodman of Don King Productions, Jones said he hadn't been feeling well and went to the doctor in his native Panama. Goodman said Jones' wife told him Jones was feeling light-headed and having a problem with his blood pressure.
"We called the house and his wife said he went to the hospital," Goodman said. "He was waiting for some tests and that his blood pressure was all messed up."
Cunningham had been scheduled to fight undisputed champion O'Neil Bell on Showtime in May, but also lost that opportunity when Bell withdrew because of complications from dental surgery.
Bell was then stripped for no apparent reason by the IBF, and Cunningham was ordered to fight Jones for the vacant belt.
The fight would have been a rematch: Cunningham edged Jones in April 2005, winning a 10-round split decision.
A disappointed Cunningham sat without an opponent at the dais during the final press conference for the card on Thursday.
"This is the second fight in a row that has been canceled on me," Cunningham said. "I want to show my skills and my ability on Showtime. I found out on Wednesday [that Jones was not flying as scheduled to St. Louis]. It was legitimate health problems, so my heart goes out to him. But I need to fight. My heart goes out to Jones. I give him the benefit of the doubt and I wish him a speedy recovery so he can get back to his career."
Goodman spent much of Wednesday and Thursday looking for a suitable replacement, but couldn't come up with anyone.
Heavyweight Shannon Briggs, who was supposed to co-headline an ESPN2 "Wednesday Night Fights" card with David Tua July 26 in New York, is now off the show.
The reason is simple: With a possible November heavyweight title shot against Klitschko looming, the Briggs camp didn't want to take a risk.
"He's off the show because I am in serious negotiations for him to fight Klitschko, and we just didn't want to take a chance," promoter Cedric Kushner told ESPN.com. "He would love to fight Klitschko and I want him to get the fight with Klitschko. It's too much to risk."
| |  |
|
| Briggs |
Kushner said he was optimistic the Klitschko-Briggs deal would be completed, although other fighters, such as Calvin Brock, have been mentioned as possible opponents.
"I think we're making some headway and I am optimistic," Kushner said. "But I don't have a contract yet. I need to meet with [Klitschko adviser] Shelly Finkel in the next few days to continue the negotiations. But we are excited that the fight will potentially will be at Madison Square Garden. It would be a dream come true for Shannon."
Tua (44-3-1, 38 KOs) remains on the July 26 card and will face 40-year-old journeyman Edward Gutierrez (15-2-1, 6 KOs), who has lost two fights in a row, the only two times he ever fought outside of his native Illinois.
Replacing Briggs in the 10-round main is a 10-round cruiserweight match between Cuban defector Eliseo Castillo (20-1-1, 15 KOs) vs. Emanuel Steward-managed Johnathon Banks (11-0, 8 KOs) of Detroit.
Jose Antonio Rivera won a junior middleweight title from Alejandro Terra Garcia on May 6 in one of the most impressive performances of the year. In front of his hometown fans in Worcester, Mass., and a national TV audience on Showtime, Rivera dropped Garcia five times en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Rivera, also a former welterweight title holder, hopes the victory will help him cash in.
| |  |
|
| Rivera |
"I'm setting new goals and that includes unifying the title," Rivera said. "That's why De La Hoya was my first preference. He has something I want, the WBC championship, but he's said if he fights again, it won't be until next year.
"Since Oscar said he won't fight Floyd Mayweather this year, I'm offering Mayweather an opportunity to fight for my world title. He turned down $8 million to fight Margarito, Winky Wright refused to fight Margarito for $4 million, so I'm willing to fight Mayweather or Margarito for $3 million."
Those matches are unlikely for Rivera, but he said if none of them come to fruition, he would also be open to facing the Mosley-Vargas II winner or the Karmazin-Spinks winner. Making a match with the Karmazin-Spinks winner should not be too difficult because they, along with Rivera, are all promoted by Don King.
"I'd even be willing to fight [title holder] Sergei Dzindziruk in Germany for both belts as long as the money's right," Rivera said.
Rivera wants at least one big payday because he has never made big bucks in his boxing career, which is why he maintains a full-time job as a court officer in Worcester.
"I work a full-time job for the security and benefits," Rivera said. "It's hard working full time and training for world championship fights, but I have two children and I'm thinking about their futures, as well as saving money for their college education."
Spadafora ready for comeback
Former lightweight titlist Paul Spadafora is laying the groundwork for a ring comeback after being paroled in May.
"We're agreed that we're going to give him back his license. If he doesn't be a good boy and breaks his parole, we'll take it away," Andrew DePaolo of the Pennsylvania boxing commission told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
According to the newspaper, Spadafora told the commission on a teleconference that he did 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 sit-ups a day during his six months in the state prison system's boot camp, and that he could be ready to fight in a month.
Spadafora, 30, pleaded guilty in February 2005 to shooting his girlfriend, Nadine Russo, after arguing with her because she caused two flat tires on his Hummer by driving across a median. Spadafora was drinking the night he shot Russo, who has since given birth to Spadafora's child.
In addition to six months in the correctional boot camp, Spadafora served another seven months in prison.
Spadafora (38-0-1, 15 KOs) won a vacant lightweight title in 1999 and made eight defenses (including a draw in a unification fight against then-titlist Leonard Dorin) before vacating it in July 2003 because he could no longer make the 135-pound limit.
|
| QUICK HITS |
• Featherweight prospect Robert Guerrero (18-1-1, 11 KOs), who scored an impressive knockout of Gamaliel Diaz to avenge his only loss in a June 23 rematch on Showtime's "ShoBox" series, could challenge titlist Eric Aiken (16-4, 12 KOs) on Showtime's Sept. 2 undercard of the heavyweight title elimination fight between James Toney and Samuel Peter. Although the network still hasn't agreed to televise the bout, Aiken promoter Artie Pelullo and Guerrero promoter Dan Goossen both told ESPN.com they are negotiating the fight and believe they will make a deal. Guerrero's win over Diaz put him in position to challenge titlist Takashi Koshimoto of Japan, but an Aiken fight would be more attractive because it would be in the U.S. and on national TV, Goossen said. Aiken, a last-minute substitute, won a belt in an upset May 13 when Valdemir Pereira was disqualified in the eighth round for low blows. • Bernard Hopkins, speaking as a promoter, said he hoped to match his nephew, up-and-coming junior welterweight contender Demetrius Hopkins, with titlist Juan Urango on one of Golden Boy's fall HBO "Boxing After Dark" dates. Urango won a vacant belt June 30 on a highly controversial decision against Naoufel Ben Rabah, who is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. Warriors Boxing promoter Margules, who promotes Urango, told ESPN.com that a Urango-Hopkins match is intriguing, especially since Urango has little chance of getting a fight with his preferred opponent, welterweight titlist Ricky Hatton. • Welterweight Paul Williams (30-0, 22 KOs), who was so impressive in a 10th-round TKO of Walter Mattysse on HBO's May 27 "Boxing After Dark" card, is coming right back to headline the Aug. 19 "BAD" card against former junior welterweight champ Sharmba Mitchell (57-5, 30 KOs). No other top welterweights would accept a fight against the dangerous 6-foot-1 southpaw other than Mitchell, who rebounded from a one-sided destruction at the hands of Mayweather in November 2005 to outpoint fringe contender Jose Luis Cruz on May 3. • Former cruiserweight champ Vassiliy Jirov (36-3-1, 30 KOs), who ended his heavyweight experiment by moving back to cruiserweight in April, headlines on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" on Aug. 18 against an opponent to be named. Appearing in the co-feature: middleweight contender Sam Soliman, who gave Winky Wright so much difficulty in a decision loss in December. Soliman (32-8, 13 KOs) is slated to face Enrique Ornelas (24-2, 14 KOs). Soliman was being considered for HBO's Aug. 19 "Boxing After Dark" card, but was switched to the ESPN2 card because HBO was lukewarm to the Ornelas match and has time constraints on that date. • When Floyd Mayweather vacated his junior welterweight title in order to move up to welterweight to face Zab Judah in April, the move opened the door for former titlist DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley to face British contender Junior Witter for the vacant belt. It has taken time for the fight to be scheduled, but now, according to a spokesman for Witter promoter Hennessy Sports, the contracts are being finalized and the bout is expected to take place in September in London. | |  | |
| De La Hoya |
• With the numbers now more completely counted, the performance of the May 6 Oscar De La Hoya-Ricardo Mayorga fight was even better than initially reported by HBO PPV. Originally, HBO PPV announced De La Hoya's sixth-round knockout of Mayorga to win a junior middleweight title had generated 875,000 buys for $43.8 million in revenue. However, the totals have been adjusted to 925,000 buys and $46.3 million, HBO PPV chief Mark Taffet said. The fight remains the fifth-biggest in history for a non-heavyweight fight, trailing four other De La Hoya bouts: against Felix Trinidad (1.4 million buys, $71.4 million in revenue), Hopkins (1 million, $56 million), Mosley II (950,000, $48.4 million) and Vargas (935,000, $47.8 million). • Rising featherweight prospect Elio Rojas, a New York-based Dominican, has been the top young fighter in promoter Don King's stable for the past few years. He was supposed to box on Saturday night's Karmazin-Spinks undercard in St. Louis. However, Rojas twisted his ankle in training and will be sidelined for a few weeks, according to Bobby Goodman, King's matchmaker. • In anticipation of the July 15 Mosley-Vargas rematch, the HBO2 service will replay their first exciting fight July 14 (12:30 a.m. ET/PT) and July 15 (9 a.m. ET/PT). In their rousing junior middleweight battle Feb. 25, Mosley scored a 10th-round TKO when the fight was stopped because of terrible swelling around Vargas' left eye. |
| QUOTABLE |
"If you watched the fight closely, you will see on at least two occasions when I was on the ropes, I was winking to Oscar De La Hoya, who was sitting there with Shane Mosley. It definitely brought me pleasure to see the shock in his eyes when he saw me dismantling his investment. The fact that Mosley and De La Hoya were both sitting ringside during that fight did definitely give me more motivation because these are guys in my weight class and these are guys that I consider myself in the same category with."
-- Junior middleweight titlist Roman Karmazin, on how he felt last July while easily defeating then-titlist Kassim Ouma, who had recently signed with Golden Boy Promotions, headed by De La Hoya and part-owned by Mosley
|
|
