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For the first time in nearly five years, a legitimate heavyweight champion roosts atop the boxing food chain.
What a muddled mess the heavyweight division has become. Four recognized titles. Five, if you count Ring Magazine. Champions. Champions in Recess. Champions Emeritus. Sanctioning bodies manipulating their rankings (have you seen WBA No. 1 contender John Ruiz recently?) just to squeeze out a few extra dollars. And the only cost is the integrity of the sport.
World heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko was left frustrated on Wednesday when Briton David Haye pulled out of their June 20 title clash after suffering an injury in training.
The four-year-old daughter of boxing legend Mike Tyson was in "extremely critical condition" after she was injured in a treadmill accident at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, police said.
Andre Ward's young career has been a series of firsts. There was his first Olympic gold medal in 2004, an accomplishment that put him in elite company with Cassius Clay, Leon Spinks and Evander Holyfield as the only U.S. gold medalists in the light heavyweight class.
Pacquiao's stunningly swift and brutal win over Ricky Hatton clearly established him as the best fighter in four weight classes: super featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight. Perhaps the only question Pacquiao has left to answer, and one trainer Freddie Roach acknowledged after the Hatton fight, is how the Pac-Man can handle the top counter-puncher. He may get the chance as early as next year in a showdown with the winner of Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez.
Ricky Hatton never saw it coming.
LAS VEGAS -- We're baaaack. You missed The Blog, didn't you? Well, here we are, sitting at a wobbly folding table blanketed by a cheap black tablecloth four rows from ringside at the MGM Grand Arena to bring you play by play and instant analysis from the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton junior welterweight title fight.
Ricky Hatton heads into his light-welterweight super-fight against Manny Pacquiao with his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr admitting that there have been "problems" in their camp.
In sports, there are two types of fans. There are regular fans -- a group that ranges from the tailgating, body-painting and opposition-cursing diehards, to the corporate 9-to-5'ers who knock back a couple of pints at the local bar a few hours before a game before taking their seats, donning freshly purchased jerseys. These fans are loyal. Most eat, sleep and drink their local team, and some will even pack a duffel bag on occasion and make a road trip.
For the first time in nearly five years, a legitimate heavyweight champion roosts atop the boxing food chain.
What a muddled mess the heavyweight division has become. Four recognized titles. Five, if you count Ring Magazine. Champions. Champions in Recess. Champions Emeritus. Sanctioning bodies manipulating their rankings (have you seen WBA No. 1 contender John Ruiz recently?) just to squeeze out a few extra dollars. And the only cost is the integrity of the sport.
World heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko was left frustrated on Wednesday when Briton David Haye pulled out of their June 20 title clash after suffering an injury in training.
The four-year-old daughter of boxing legend Mike Tyson was in "extremely critical condition" after she was injured in a treadmill accident at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, police said.
Andre Ward's young career has been a series of firsts. There was his first Olympic gold medal in 2004, an accomplishment that put him in elite company with Cassius Clay, Leon Spinks and Evander Holyfield as the only U.S. gold medalists in the light heavyweight class.
Pacquiao's stunningly swift and brutal win over Ricky Hatton clearly established him as the best fighter in four weight classes: super featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight. Perhaps the only question Pacquiao has left to answer, and one trainer Freddie Roach acknowledged after the Hatton fight, is how the Pac-Man can handle the top counter-puncher. He may get the chance as early as next year in a showdown with the winner of Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez.
Ricky Hatton never saw it coming.
LAS VEGAS -- We're baaaack. You missed The Blog, didn't you? Well, here we are, sitting at a wobbly folding table blanketed by a cheap black tablecloth four rows from ringside at the MGM Grand Arena to bring you play by play and instant analysis from the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton junior welterweight title fight.
Ricky Hatton heads into his light-welterweight super-fight against Manny Pacquiao with his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr admitting that there have been "problems" in their camp.
In sports, there are two types of fans. There are regular fans -- a group that ranges from the tailgating, body-painting and opposition-cursing diehards, to the corporate 9-to-5'ers who knock back a couple of pints at the local bar a few hours before a game before taking their seats, donning freshly purchased jerseys. These fans are loyal. Most eat, sleep and drink their local team, and some will even pack a duffel bag on occasion and make a road trip.
At a press conference to promote Saturday's WBC super middleweight title fight, a table at the front of the room was tightly packed with promoters, trainers, managers and various network and hotel executives. And, of course, there were the fighters. Well, at least one fighter for sure.
Briton David Haye has finally secured a shot at the world heavyweight title after signing a contract to take on Ukrainian champion Wladimir Klitschko.
9:30 p.m. -- And we're back! Seated alongside SI boxing editor Rich O'Brien, I'm Chris Mannix here to bring you live coverage of the Miguel Cotto-Michael Jennings welterweight title fight. As you can see the crowd is starting to stream in here at Madison Square Garden in anticipation of Cotto's big comeback. Rich, what are your keys to... Wait...we're not on TV?
Miguel Cotto made the fifth and most memorable defense of his world welterweight title last July against Antonio Margarito at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Say you're Jack Shephard. You have been stranded on an island for months, far removed from civilization and cut off from all information relating to the outside world. Suddenly (and for the purposes of this example, recently) you're rescued. Big celebration. A couple of weeks later, after you reacclimatize yourself to eating fish out of a can and figure out how to play Nintendo Wii, you get an e-mail from a friend inviting you over to watch this weekend's Kelly Pavlik fight.
Shane Mosley has spent the better part of his professional career fighting in someone else's shadow. First, it was Oscar De La Hoya, who Mosley defeated twice -- in 2000 and '03 -- but who he could never match in popularity. Then it was Floyd Mayweather Jr., who danced in and out of Mosley's weight class before dancing (literally) right off the boxing stage.
One week, two cheaters. Rarely have the days of professional sports ever been darker.
Joe Calzaghe's retirement announcement yesterday didn't take anybody by surprise.
"As the most representative organization of Professional Boxing, where the right application of the fundamental principles of ethics, moral, loyalty, honesty and good faith can be found, considered as the main values, which orientates all legitimate activity of the Professional Boxing Worldwide." -- WBA Mission Statement
What we saw Saturday in the heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Hasim Rahman was a clinical dismantling.
Vitali Klitschko is hurt, and it may be serious.
In the five years I have spent covering boxing, I have had a few of what I like to call "cringe moments." I cringed when greedy promoters paraded a battered and broken Mike Tyson into the ring for fight after fight, even though he was little more than a shell of his former self. And he had a history of biting people.
I don't know, of course, what "Sugar" Shane Mosley is doing this Sunday afternoon. Maybe settling in to watch some football or getting a little work done around the yard. Or sneaking out for a round of golf. Or maybe he's counting the reported $1.5 million he was guaranteed for his bout last night against Ricardo Mayorga. Whatever he's up to, though, I hope the thought occurs to him that there are easier ways for a 37-year-old guy to make a living.
I'm beginning to understand Paul Williams' game plan: mop the floor with fighters from as many weight classes as possible until an opponent who carries a big payday agrees to a fight.
You are Juan Manuel Marquez. You just turned in arguably the finest performance of your professional career when you systematically destroyed lightweight champion Joel Casamayor last Saturday night. You have catapulted yourself to the top of every pound-for-pound rankings and have the boxing world buzzing about a potential third fight with your nemesis, Manny Pacquiao, once Pacquiao finishes his business with Oscar De La Hoya.
In a sport where sanctioning bodies routinely manipulate the rankings to serve their interests, where networks permit promotional companies to dictate scheduling and where promoters allow a general distaste for one another to get in the way of making the best fights, is it possible that judging is the most corrupted part of boxing?
Nikolai Valuev's disputed decision win over John Ruiz on Saturday (his second disputed decision win over Ruiz, for those who are counting) reportedly drew boos from the crowd in Berlin's Max Schmeling Stadium. It drew basically no response at all from American sports fans, of course, since the bout wasn't actually televised in the U.S. Even had it been, though, it's hard to imagine that the rematch between the 35-year-old Valuev, whose 7-foot height is barely enough to compensate for his rudimentary skills, and the 36-year-old Ruiz, who though adept, always seems to do just enough to underwhelm the judges, would have generated much interest on the first weekend of the college football season. Or on any other weekend, for that matter.
Ten-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya will make a decision on his next opponent by Thursday, Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez told SI.com.
BURBANK, Calif. -- Intent on making his last fight a "worldwide event," Oscar De La Hoya said that negotiations for a possible megafight with Manny Pacquiao, the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, are not dead and that he is hopeful to make an official announcement on his final opponent either by the end of the week or early next week.
"I learned a long time ago from this guy named Cyrano de Bergerac, 'Don't bring me no mortal men, bring me giants.'" --Don King
With 30 seconds left in the fourth and final round of his Olympic-opening bout, Rau'shee Warren, the U.S.' reigning flyweight world champ, looked to his teammates in the stands. They were gesturing wildly, and Warren swore he heard them yell, "Move! Move!" So Warren danced around on the outside until the referee told him to engage. By then, only four seconds remained.
Joe Calzaghe's eagerly-awaited light heavyweight bout with Roy Jones Jr. has been rescheduled to take place at Madison Square Garden on November 8.
At 4 p.m. Wednesday, a contingent from Top Rank, led by CEO Bob Arum, will arrive at the Los Angeles offices of Golden Boy Promotions to begin -- and hopefully finalize -- negotiations with Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer for a December welterweight bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Paquiao.
In a controversial battle July 16, James Toney defeated Hasim Rahman at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif., by techinical knockout at the end of Round 3
The already battered sport of boxing took another body blow when Floyd Mayweather Jr. walked away from the ring (and a potential $25 million fight with Oscar De La Hoya) last month.
Andre Berto claimed the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight title when he halted Miguel Rodriguez in the seventh round in Memphis.
1966 Mike Gerard Tyson is born.
Timothy Bradley, whose first professional fight outside his native California has earned him the WBC light-welterweight title, is keen to become undisputed world champion in the division.
Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins both weighed in at 173 pounds for their eagerly-awaited light-heavyweight super-fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Double world heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko has been given the green light to defend his WBO belt against American Tony Thompson on July 12 in Hamburg.
The call came last week, just as I was boarding a plane to Salt Lake City. On the other end of the line was Bernd Boente, the top-flight manager for IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and his brother, former WBC champion Vitali Klitschko.
International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko seized the World Boxing Organization belt on Saturday with a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden.
Nicknames should be apropos, shouldn't they?
While the most common topics leading up to Super Bowl XLII this weekend are the Patriots run for a perfect season and Tom Brady's ankle, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has its own questions to answer Saturday at UFC 81 in Las Vegas.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship opens 2008 with its first pay-per-view card of the year coming just three weeks after UFC 79. The promotion takes its show to Newcastle, England, after the UFC held two events in the country last year. UFC 80 begins a very busy stretch for the UFC -- one that includes a UFC Fight Night the Wednesday after UFC 80 and UFC 81 just two weeks later.
Floyd Mayweather grabbed the boxing spotlight May 5 in Las Vegas and he has yet to relinquish it. With a less than stunning showing but more than decisive victory over Oscar de la Hoya that night, Mayweather kicked off a year in which he accumulated more than $50 million in ring performances. He also developed thousands of new fans for his slick footwork out of it (Or maybe you missed Dancing with the Stars).
In the sport of boxing, Floyd Mayweather is without peer. He is an unparalleled champion, a fighter with multiple talents to go along with his multiple personalities. On Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Mayweather (39-0) put on a boxing clinic against welterweight pretender, er, contender Ricky Hatton, out-boxing the former junior welterweight champion before flattening Hatton with a series of combinations that left the former undefeated Brit wondering why he even bothered stepping into the ring in the first place. After the fight ended, Mayweather embraced his challenger as a friend and praised him for his efforts, calling Hatton "the best I have ever fought."
Boxer Ricky Hatton loves to eat, drink beer and throw darts. But if he can upset Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas, he'll be the toast of Britain
A unification fight between IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov is close to being finalized, Klitschko's manager Bernd Boente told SI.com on Friday.
One of the loudest criticisms of boxing -- usually levied by advocates of mixed martial arts -- is that the sport is dominated by aging stars. For the most part, the critics are correct. Oscar de la Hoya (34), Floyd Mayweather (30), Wladimir Klitschko (31) and Shane Mosley (36) are all on the wrong side of 30. They are also still the biggest draws, with De La Hoya-Mayweather breaking every box office record and Klitschko leveling every young fighter left dangling in his path.
Shane Mosley knows all about big fights. They don't get much bigger than his two matchups with Oscar De La Hoya.
In the aftermath of the most impressive win of his career, Joe Calzaghe did an incredibly unimpressive thing.
He is one of the most successful fighters of his generation but he is as anonymous as Waldo.
Three Romanians were thrown out of the World Boxing Championships and banned from amateur boxing for life after being caught trying to steal from a Chicago department store.
With enough glitz, kitch and corporate sponsorships to make Las Vegas blush, welcome to the new and weird (yet weirdly underwhelming) epicenter of world boxing
NEW YORK -- Patience is a virtue that Samuel Peter is fresh out of. It has been nine long months since the 27-year-old Peter last competed, nine months since the man known as the Nigerian Nightmare beat James Toney for the second time to earn (for the second time) the title of the WBC's number one contender.
There is a belief in this world that boxing is dead. There is a belief the sport is plagued by dull fights and managed by corrupt promoters -- whose only interest is keeping an alphabet soup of title belts around the waists of their fighters. There is a belief that when the icons of the sport (Floyd Mayweather, Oscar de la Hoya, Bernard Hopkins) walk away, the sport will be left with scores of average fighters who possess a fraction of the skills of their predecessors.
WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev has been forced to call off his title defense against Nigerian Samuel Peter after injuring his back during training.
I just wanted to ask him one question. Maybe two. But Floyd Mayweather wasn't having it.
WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev has returned to training just a month after he suffered a stomach injury which forced him to cancel next month's unification contest against WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov.
Last week SI writer Richard Deitsch interviewed Buster Douglas for the magazine's Q&A. The 47-year-old former heavyweight champion -- he stunned Mike Tyson in 1990 -- is launching a career as an actor. Here are additional excerpts from their conversation:
Name: Suzanne Grassel School: Syracuse Age: 21 Major: Magazine journalism and sport management Job: Media Intern, USA Boxing, USOC Paid/unpaid: Paid School Credit: Yes Hours: 8-5, Monday-Friday Duration: May 30-Aug. 27 (with a week off in the middle)
Boxing has long been regarded as, in the words of Jimmy Cannon, the red-light district of sports. In the popular imagination, the Sweet Science is anything but: it is widely viewed as a shady game run by mobsters and sharps, corrupt officials and snakelike managers, a morass of mismatches and fixed fights, in which the principles take more dives than Greg Louganis. Such Hollywood-fueled melodrama aside, however, boxing is a remarkably straightforward and transparent sport.
NEW YORK -- IBF and IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko refuted a report Sunday that he suffered a broken hand during his win over Lamon Brewster.
Saturday night was all right for fighting. But the pageantry for the 69th card in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's tough-and-rumble existence began much earlier that week. Long before the fighters unhinged the latch of the steel Octagon on April 7 and fought on a card titled UFC 69: Shootout, thousands of fans had converged on Houston, tribalists on a pilgrimage. The prefight weigh-ins drew massive crowds. The line for the fighters' autograph show wreathed the girth of the Toyota Center, the venue for UFC 69. The downtown bars and restaurants were overrun by fight fans.
And so, having finally attracted a little mainstream attention again, has boxing squandered another opportunity. With all eyes upon the sport -- well, more eyes than usual -- it produced an event of not much drama, little excitement and no satisfying conclusion. And even for somebody who found the semispectacle satisfying, there was no possibility of another one with even this much promise. The winner immediately announced his retirement, and the loser, who doesn't fight much anyway (or win much anymore), was ambivalent about his future in the ring.
LAS VEGAS -- Nearly 24 hours have passed since Saturday night's epic battle between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya. The crowds have thinned out (or as much as they can in a casino) and the celebrities have all gone home.
The rumblings of the jet engine are deafening, but for Oscar De La Hoya they're as soothing as an ocean breeze. As he settles into one of the plush leather seats on the Gulfstream G-4 -- one of two $14 million planes leased by his promotion company, Golden Boy, to carry him and Floyd Mayweather Jr., his opponent in Saturday's megafight, on a nine-day, 11-city promotional tour -- he can finally be at peace. Why? Well, for starters, it's one of the few times during the day he can put some much-needed distance between himself and Mayweather, against whom he will defend his WBC super welterweight crown and vie for the title of boxing's best pound-for-pound fighter. "I love being able to interact with people, to shake their hands and sign autographs," says De La Hoya. It's the other stuff that gets a little old. "Sometimes when I'm sitting onstage listening to Floyd run his mouth, I think to myself, Hey, I don't need this."
Oscar De La Hoya, the most acclaimed boxer of his era, has a loving family and a budding business empire. He needs one more victory to gild his Hall of Fame career -- and wants one more whopping payday.
Miguel Cotto will defend his World Boxing Association welterweight title against Zab Judah on June 9.
Special from SI Latino
Andre Ward can hear the doubters.
Juan Manuel Marquez entered the ring Saturday as an unknown commodity. When he walked out, he was a proven one.
Former IBF junior flyweight champion Victor Burgos remains in a critical condition on Monday after getting pummelled in a title fight with Vic Darchinyan.
Four-time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield will return to the ring in March as he bids to round off his career by becoming undisputed world best again.
Shane Mosley eased to a comfortable points victory over Luis Collazo to lift the interim World Boxing Council welterweight title on Saturday.
Britain's Ricky Hatton has relinquished his IBF light-welterweight title in order to set up a showdown with Mexico's Jose Luis Castillo.
Also in this column: SI.com's boxing gurus make their picks.
Vitali Klitschko wants to make history. More precisely, he wants to make history again. "I have a vision," said Klitschko in a telephone interview from the Ukraine. "It's one I have had for a long time. I want my brother and I to be heavyweight champions at the same time."
Former WBC champion Hasim Rahman is close to a deal to fight Sinan Samil Sam in a bout that would pit together two of the organization's top four heavyweight contenders.
In 1992, Riddick Bowe decided to take a stand. Unhappy with the WBC's mandate that he fight No. 1 contender Lennox Lewis, Bowe decided that the belt was no longer worth the leather strap it came on. So in a glorious public-relations stunt, Bowe took the belt and unceremoniously dumped it into a London trash can.
Samuel Peter scored a unanimous decision over James Toney in their WBC heavyweight elimination bout on Saturday.
Russia's Oleg Maskaev retained his World Boxing Council heavyweight crown on Sunday with a unanimous points decision over Ugandan challenger Peter Okhello in Moscow.
American Shannon Briggs knocked Sergei Liakhovich through the ropes one second before the end of the last round to win the WBO heavyweight title in dramatic style.
WBA titleholder Nikolai Valuev, the biggest heavyweight champion of all time, will fight in the United States on October 7, defending his title against Monte Barrett.
Oleg Maskaev scored a 12th-round victory over Hasim Rahman to claim the WBC heavyweight championship in Las Vegas, leaving the United States without a champion in the top division..
Unbeaten Englishman Ricky Hatton is confident of making two conquests in Boston, Massachusetts, next week in his welterweight debut, taking the World Boxing Association title and winning over US fight fans.
Wladimir Klitschko is aiming to repeat a previous victory over champion Chris Byrd again when the two meet on Saturday in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) world heavyweight title bout in Mannheim.
Britain's light-welterweight world champion Ricky Hatton will relinquish his IBF crown in order to step up a division to meet Luis Collazo.
England's undefeated Ricky Hatton will move up a weight to face American southpaw Luis Collazo for the World Boxing Association welterweight title in Boston on May 13.
Hasim Rahman retained his World Boxing Council heavyweight title on Saturday after judges ruled his 12-round bout against James Toney a majority draw.
Russia's Nikolai Valuev, known as the "beast from the east" for his size and menacing appearance, will defend his WBA heavyweight title against American Owen Beck in April in Germany.
American John Ruiz puts his WBA heavyweight title on the line on Saturday against Russian Nikolay Valuev in Berlin.
English boxer Ricky Hatton will need plastic surgery and a six-month rest before he can return to the ring after his hard-fought nine-round knockout victory over Colombian Carlos Maussa in Sheffield.
James Toney's planned December bout against fellow American heavyweight Rob Calloway has been called off because Toney's connections hope that he might now face new World Boxing Council champion Hasim Rahman.
World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has given up his fight against injury and will hang up his gloves, his agent has revealed.
Leavander Johnson is fighting for his life after losing his world lightweight title in an 11th-round technical knockout to Jesus Chavez at the MGM Grand Arena.
IBF light-welterweight champion Ricky Hatton will fight WBA titleholder Carlos Maussa in a unification bout in November, the Briton has announced.
Ukraine's Vitali Klitschko will defend his World Boxing Council heavyweight title against Hasim Rahman in Las Vegas on November 12 or 19.
WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster made quick work of Andrew Golota, scoring a TKO just 53 seconds into their scheduled 12-round bout.
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