Originally Published: March 23, 2007

Tarver fight on ABC might revive boxing on network TV

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Rafael By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
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AROUND THE RING
Tarver headlines ABC's return to boxing

Antonio Tarver
Al Bello/Getty ImagesTarver is going to get his shot on a rare appearance by boxing on ABC.

Former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver is not the only one making a comeback. So is ABC, a onetime stalwart of televised boxing.

Tarver (24-4, 18 KOs) hasn't fought since losing a lopsided decision and his light heavyweight crown to Bernard Hopkins in June, unless you count his movie victory as Mason "The Line" Dixon over Rocky Balboa in the sixth installment of the popular movie series (which came out on DVD this week).

ABC has been away from boxing for much longer. The last fight the network televised was on June 17, 2000, when Jose Luis Castillo upset Stevie Johnston to win the lightweight title in Bell Gardens, Calif.

Now, Tarver will return to the ring on ABC on April 22 to face New York-based Albanian Elvir Muriqi (34-3, 21 KOs), 27, a crowd-pleasing brawler known as "The Kosovo Kid." They'll meet in a scheduled 12-rounder in the 3,000-seat room upstairs at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. The one-hour telecast begins at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Promoter Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing has been working on the time buy deal for months with ABC, whose sports programming is now overseen by sister company ESPN, which will handle the production of the event and feature "Friday Night Fights" broadcasters Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas.

With the Hilton locked in as the host casino and the deal with ABC awaiting nothing more than some paperwork formalities, the fight is on.

"I think it's going to be great for boxing and great for ABC, and the ratings will be very high," DeGuardia told ESPN.com. "It's a great thing for the fighters to get the exposure from a network like ABC. It's good for our sport. Anything good for boxing, I am for."

Tarver, 38, has been training for the fight in Vero Beach, Fla., with trainer Buddy McGirt.

"Antonio is anxious to get in there," McGirt said. "He's excited about being the first fight on ABC in a long time."

The fight will culminate a big weekend in Atlantic City for Star Boxing. DeGuardia is also promoting a Friday night "ShoBox" card on Showtime at Bally's, where junior welterweights Mike Arnaoutis and Kendall Holt will square off in a title eliminator. The winner gets a shot at titlist Ricardo Torres.

"We'll have an important fight on Showtime and then there will be an exciting fight with Tarver-Muriqi on ABC," DeGuardia said. "It will be a big Atlantic City weekend for us and a revival of boxing on network TV."

Mayweathers reunite
Floyd Mayweather Jr. reunited with his estranged father, Floyd Sr., earlier this month during the final stop of the national media tour to promote his May 5 showdown with Oscar De La Hoya. This week he reunited with another family member.

Mayweather Jr. welcomed back Roger Mayweather, his uncle and trainer, to his Las Vegas training camp. Roger Mayweather had been incarcerated in the Clark County (Nev.) Detention Center, where he served a six-month sentence for committing battery with substantial bodily harm against the grandmother of his infant son in July 2005.

Floyd Sr. had been in camp working with his son as trainer for the past two weeks awaiting Roger's return.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Roger Mayweather
Roger Mayweather

Roger Mayweather missed his nephew's welterweight championship victory against Carlos Baldomir in November, but he'll be in the corner for the De La Hoya fight, a far more dangerous assignment.

The fight with De La Hoya will also be Roger Mayweather's first fight since being suspended by Nevada officials for entering the ring during the 10th round of Mayweather Jr.'s April 2006 fight with Zab Judah and inciting a melee.

"When he got to the gym we picked up where we left off and things were back to normal," Mayweather Jr. said. "It's great to have my uncle back and I never thought to pick someone else to train me, as I truly believe that my uncle is the best in boxing, and there is absolutely no substitute for what he can do."

Roger Mayweather was happy to be back: "There is no time for catch-up. I'm happy to be back in the gym with my nephew and help him prepare for De La Hoya. I've been keeping close tabs on him and am very pleased with how things have been going so far. Now we're ready to get down to serious business."

Pacman arrives in United States
The Pacman has landed. Junior lightweight star Manny Pacquiao finally arrived in the United States on Saturday, less than a month before his April 14 pay-per-view fight against Jorge Solis in San Antonio's Alamodome.

The Filipino icon was met by more than 600 fans at Los Angeles International Airport and resumed training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., on Monday.

On Wednesday, Pacquiao and promoter Top Rank got some good news when, according to company spokesman Lee Samuels, a Nevada judge denied rival promoter Golden Boy's motion for an injunction to stop the fight. The companies are in litigation over Pacquiao's promotional rights.

Manny Pacquiao
Pacquiao

"I am glad to be back in the United States and I am ready to meet Jorge Solis head-on," Pacquiao said, according to a media release. "I love San Antonio because that is where I knocked out Marco Antonio Barrera and I am ready to do my best again against Solis."

Manny Ilagan, Philippine Consulate General to the United States, met Pacquiao at LAX and gave him a traditional gift as a token of support from Pacquiao's countrymen.

Pacquiao will be preparing without longtime trainer Freddie Roach, who is in Puerto Rico training De La Hoya to fight Mayweather on May 5. Instead, Pacquiao's training will be handled by Justin Fortune, Roach's assistant.

Toney-Jirov II discussions
When James Toney outpointed Vassiliy Jirov to win the cruiserweight title April 26, 2003, it was a sensational battle that was later named fight of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Both fighters have since moved up to heavyweight with mixed success. With both looking to re-energize their careers -- Toney (69-6-3, 43 KOs) has lost two in a row to Samuel Peter and Jirov (36-3-1, 30 KOs) has been out of action for almost a year -- a rematch could be in the cards, promoter Dan Goossen told ESPN.com.

"It's always been a fight that people wanted to see again because it was fight of the year. It certainly put James back into the forefront for boxing fans and TV [executives]," said Goossen, who promotes Toney and used to promote free agent Jirov. "Obviously, a rematch comes a few years later than people would like, but when everything is said and done, you can't take the heart away from either one of them. We're working on it. I see it as a very entertaining fight."

Goossen said the talks have centered on putting the fight in Russia, where Jirov, a native of Kazakhstan, would have something of a homecoming.

"We've discussed doing the fight in Russia, but it comes down to if the money that we have discussed is there," Goossen said.

Goossen hoped to put the bout together for June, but since the announcement that Shannon Briggs would defend his heavyweight belt against Sultan Ibragimov on June 2 in Moscow, "it has changed the lay of the land for Toney-Jirov II because we were looking around that time frame," Goossen said. "Both fighters have no problem fighting each other. It's a matter of seeing if all the other facets come together, but it's an attractive fight."

QUICK HITS

Tommy Morrison
Morrison

• The second fight of heavyweight Tommy Morrison's improbable comeback will have to wait. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum planned to put Morrison on the untelevised portion of the April 14 Pacquiao-Solis PPV card in San Antonio, but Arum told ESPN.com that Morrison won't be available. "He's not ready to go," Arum said. "His ribs were hurting. We expect him to be ready to go in May." Morrison hurt his ribs against John Castle on Feb. 22 in West Virginia. Morrison knocked out Castle in the second round in his first fight in more than 10 years, a retirement caused by a positive HIV test in 1996. Morrison (47-3-1, 41 KOs), however, passed a battery of tests in January and was licensed to fight in West Virginia.

• If junior welterweight titlist Lovemore Ndou of Australia does not land a July 14 fight with Arturo Gatti -- which appears unlikely -- he could defend his belt against Paulie Malignaggi (22-1, 5 KOs) in the main event of promoter Lou DiBella's "Boxing After Dark" card slated for June 16. Malignaggi rebounded from his first loss to Miguel Cotto last summer to easily outpoint Edner Cherry in a "BAD" fight Feb. 17. Welterweight Andre Berto (17-0, 15 KOs), the 2006 ESPN.com prospect of the year, will open the card, possibly against Freddy Hernandez (20-1, 16 KOs).

• Former four-time heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield, 44, who battered and bloodied Vinny Maddalone for a third-round TKO Saturday, is expected back in action in late June as he continues to work his way toward yet another title fight. Promoter Main Events plans to bring the fight against an opponent to be named to Calgary, Alberta.

Junior Witter
Witter

• In addition to gearing up to begin sparring in early April with business partner and pal Shane Mosley to prepare for his May 5 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya was also going to bring junior welterweight titlist Junior Witter to his Puerto Rico training camp to help him get ready for the fight. However, De La Hoya told ESPN.com that he changed his mind because he didn't think Witter's style was right for him. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Mayweather's main sparring partners are junior middleweight Anthony Thompson and rugged Kofi Jantuah, who is preparing to fight Larry Marks April 7 on the untelevised portion of the Diego Corrales-Joshua Clottey Showtime card.

• Rising junior middleweights Anthony Thompson (23-1, 17 KOs) of Philadelphia and Yuri Foreman (22-0, 8 KOs) of New York have agreed to meet June 9 on the Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah HBO PPV undercard at Madison Square Garden. Thompson's only loss came on an upset to Grady Brewer, who later won "The Contender" second season competition. "We're very excited that Anthony is going to be on pay-per-view," manager Cameron Dunkin told ESPN.com. "This is a coming out for both kids. The winner of this fight will really step out into the forefront." The proposed Steven Luevano-Nicky Cook featherweight title bout, originally being discussed for the card, will be put off to another show.

• A week after Hasim Rahman and Ray Mercer agreed to fight June 14 on Versus in a bout rescheduled from February, Mercer backed out to take a more lucrative mixed martial arts match, according to Top Rank. Rahman will still headline the show, but the search is on for a new opponent to face the ex-heavyweight champion.

• Seminole Warriors Boxing has announced that Shannon Briggs' mandatory heavyweight title defense against Russia's Sultan Ibragimov in Moscow on June 2 will take place at the 12,000-seat Luzhniki Sports Palace. The arena is the home to hockey's Dynamo Moscow and has hosted World and European championship competitions. It is also the arena where the famed 1972 Summit Series between the Soviet Union and Canadian hockey teams took place. "The new king will be crowned in a palace, and we couldn't be happier," said Warriors' Leon Margules. "This is a wonderful arena with a lot of history, and we expect that the fight fans of Russia will sell it out."

Calvin Brock
Brock

• Heavyweight contender Calvin Brock (30-1, 23 KOs), who knocked out Ralph West with one punch in the first round last week, is already planning his next bout. The former title challenger, who suffered his only loss to titlist Wladimir Klitschko in November, is expected to return June 2 on the Briggs-Ibragimov undercard in Moscow.

• Rising Canadian super middleweight star Lucian Bute (19-0, 16 KOs) will face Sakio Bika in a title elimination bout June 15 in Montreal. The winner gets a crack at Alejandro Berrio, who won a vacant belt by stopping Robert Stieglitz on March 3. Bika had a shot at the IBF title in October, but lost to Joe Calzaghe, who then gave it up to fight Peter Manfredo on April 7, rather than face Stieglitz in a mandatory defense.

Cory Spinks
Spinks

• The purse bid for the rematch between cruiserweight titlist Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and Steve Cunningham has been rescheduled for March 26. It had been postponed because Cunningham suffered an arm injury. Wlodarczyk won a split decision against Cunningham in Poland on Nov. 25 and a rematch was ordered after the controversial result. Also on March 26, a purse bid has been scheduled for the junior middleweight eliminator between ex-titlist Roman Karmazin and Terrance Cauthen. The winner becomes mandatory for titlist Cory Spinks.

• Former two-time junior bantamweight titlist Masamori Tokuyama, 32, a North Korean living in Japan, announced his retirement March 18. Tokuyama won a 115-pound belt in 2000 with an upset decision against Injoo Cho of South Korea and made eight defenses before losing to Katsushige Kawashima via shocking first-round TKO in 2004. Tokuyama (32-3-1, 8 KOs) regained the belt from Kawashima in 2005 and defended against American Jose Navarro in 2006, which turned out to be his final fight.

QUOTABLE
"He's going to fight Cory Spinks. I'll give Taylor this, after beating Kassim Ouma, and if he can beat Cory Spinks, he will definitely be the best junior middleweight in the world. Unfortunately for the rest of us, he's supposed to be the middleweight champion."
-- middleweight contender Edison Miranda, lamenting champion Jermain Taylor's choice to fight a second consecutive junior middleweight on May 19 instead of a top middleweight challenger

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