Promoter De La Hoya chose own foe artfully
By Jerry Magee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

LAS VEGAS – Ethically, there would seem to be something amiss here: Oscar De La Hoya, the fighter, engaging an opponent selected by De La Hoya, the promoter.

Only in boxing. As one member of the fistic community said yesterday, “When has anything about boxing ever been proper?”

In scheduling himself against Ricardo Mayorga this evening at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions is a co-promoter of the program being televised on pay-per-view by Home Box Office, has had two considerations:

Booking himself against somebody he could beat. De La Hoya, it has to be remembered, is 33, has not fought since September 2004 and has lost in two of his last three appearances.

Coming up with a rival who can be marketable.

In both these areas, De La Hoya would seem to have succeeded magnificently. In Mayorga (28-5-1, 23 KOs), the WBC super welterweight champion, De La Hoya has an undisciplined opponent given to doing such things as jutting out his jaw and inviting the other guy to take a shot at it. As much boxing expertise as De La Hoya (37-4, 29 KOs) possesses, the Nicaraguan would seem a perfect foil.

Mayorga, however, has some things about him that lend the evening an element of mystique. He is nothing if not unorthodox, and he can punch.

“A guy like Oscar does better against a guy who is doing things right, but when he is going against a guy who doesn't know himself what he is going to do, it makes it tough,” longtime California promoter Don Chargin said.

De La Hoya is a 3-1 favorite for what he is projecting as the next-to-last bout of a professional career he began as a 133-pounder in November 1992. The eight-time world champion plans to box just once more after tonight – in September, when he could be a party to a megafight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., whose father is De La Hoya's trainer. Winky Wright and Tito Trinidad, should Trinidad choose to box again, are other possible opponents for De La Hoya's farewell appearance.

For his bout tonight, De La Hoya is guaranteed $8 million and Mayorga, much to his expressed dismay, $2 million. Mayorga on Thursday stilled his cries concerning the inequity of this arrangement, a suggestion that the Central American has received some additional inducement.

The fighters each weighed in yesterday at 153½, a half-pound under the super welter limit of 154. The weigh-in was conducted without any of the bombast that has been attaching to the bout, with De La Hoya contending Mayorga has been speaking disparagingly of him and Mayorga complaining he is being underpaid.

Said Chargin of Mayorga's taunts: “I think that has been the best thing that has happened for De La Hoya. It motivated him.”

Said De La Hoya: “There's fire in my belly. I feel as if I want to give this guy a lesson. People may think I am going to dance around and box this guy, but it's not going to be that way. We've prepared for a really tough fight – to stand in front of him, but obviously in a smart way. It's going to be a long night for him.”

Mayorga said he would welcome De La Hoya trading with him. Odd, since Mayorga has not scored a knockout since he stopped Vernon Forrest in the third round at the Pechanga Resort and Casino on Jan. 25, 2003. In the moments after his hand was raised, Mayorga lit a cigarette in the ring – his signature gesture.

It was when he was opposing Trinidad in October 2004 that Mayorga mocked his opponent by sticking out his jaw and inviting Trinidad to hit it. He did, and stopped Mayorga in the eighth round.

Mayorga almost certainly will be pressing De La Hoya and winging his wild shots at him from the opening bell. It's how Mayorga fights. He's a bully, a man who tries to intimidate his opponents immediately.

“We're prepared for anything,” De La Hoya said. “I started training four months in advance in order to get the rust out, to make sure that the timing and the power and the speed is there. My body feels rested and with energy.”

But how are his legs going to feel should the fight go into a late round? Being idle for 20 months does not improve one's stamina. Rather than attack from the outset, it might behoove Mayorga to try to take the fight into the final rounds; De La Hoya does not have a recent history of boxing effectively in a fight's closing phase.

He also has tactical concerns tonight. “Guys like this who hit hard and are wild are guys you have to know how to maneuver,” said the East Los Angeles stylist. “The more you box them, obviously the more pressure they put on you. You have to know how to stand your ground, keep your distance and be careful.

“This fight is going to make me so aware and keep me on my toes and make me fight as hard as I can. He is going to bring out the best in me, which I am really looking forward to.”

Results and Predictions

May 4th Las Vegas

WHAT I SAID PRIOR TO THE FIGHT:

Sergio Mora vs. Archak Termileksitean, favorite Mora, selection Mora. Mora didn't look all that good in his last win, which I felt was a gift, over Peter Manfredo, Jr. The judges had an off night that night, remember the decision Jesse Brinkley got over Anthony Bonsante on that same card? I expect Mora to be in better form tonight against Archak "The Shark Attack" Termileksitean. Look for Mora to win by UD. Prediction correct although I was surprised Mora, who had only 3 KO's, stopped Archak. It was a quick stoppage although Mora had the fight in hand other than a scare in round two when he was dropped by a short left hook.

WHAT I SAID BEFORE THE FIGHT:

Alfonso Gomez vs. Jesse Feliciano, favorite Gomez, selection Gomez. Should be an exciting fight. Expect it to got the distance. RESULT: DRAW, THERFORE THIS IS A PUSH FOR PREDICTION PURPOSES, GREAT FIGHT!

WHAT I SAID BEFORE THE FIGHT:

Jonathan Reid vs. Ryan Davis, favorite Reid, selection Reid. This is a tough one because Reid isn't that good. I don't know anything about Davis, but he's only 5'6" and he's from the midwest. That usually says it all. RESULT: REID UNANIMOUS DECISION OVER A DETERMINED DAVIS.

My record is now 42-22, 42 correct and 22 incorrect.

May 6th Las Vegas

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Ricardo Mayorga, Favorite De La Hoya, Selection Mayorga TKO7 over De La Hoya UPSET! I'm sticking with this pick although it seems like only me and T.J. Simers from the LA Times are picking Mayorga. Mayorga is going to come out blazing and put it on De La Hoya. If he can whip Vernon Forrest twice, and Forrest defeated Shane Moseley twice, and Moseley defeated De La Hoya twice, well, you get the picture!

May 6th Worchester, Mass

Alejandro Garcia vs. Jose Antonio Rivera, Favorite Garcia, Selection Garcia. This will be a good fight shown on Showtime opposite the Mayorga-De La Hoya pay per view. Rivera is the hometown guy, but Garcia is a bad dude. In his only loss, a KO defeat to Travis Simms, he was sucker punched with a left hook on the break! I was at that fight live in Atlantic City on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins vs. William Joppy. Believe me, Garcia was winning the fight easily until the cheap shot. Also, 24 of Garcia's 25 wins are by knockout! Rivera is tough, but I expect him to be stopped for the first time in his career.

Kassim Ouma vs. Marco Antonio Rubio. Favorite Ouma, Selection Rubio in an upset! Rubio is a good fighter and Ouma is inconsistent. I realize Rubio is a big underdog, about 3 to 1, but he has an excellent chance in this fight and I think he will prevail by unanimous decision.

Joan Guzman vs. Javier Jaraguei. Should be a very good fight with Guzman, the favorite, winning a pretty comfortable unanimous decision. Jaraguei is a tough, tough guy though. Just ask Jose Luis Castillo, whom Javier has defeated twice by knockout! I'm going with El Pequeno Tyson (Little Tyson), Joan Guzman in this one.

DaVarryl Williamson vs. Mike Mollo. The undercard of the Showtime bout features DaVarryl Williamson vs. undefeated, and untested, Mike Mollo. Williamson is no big shakes, but he is under rated as a puncher. He can crack a little bit. Mollo hasn't fought anyone even close to the talent level of Williamson. Look for Williamson to stop Mollo, maybe even in the first round. Favorite, and selection Williamson. Williamson is only a 2 to 1 favorite, ($1 bet returns a profit of fifty cents) not bad because I don't think Mollo has maybe a 1 in 10 chance of beating Williamson. Pretty safe pick and a decent return.

Randy Griffin vs. Anibal Acevedo. Also on the Showtime undercard. Expect Griffin, the favorite, to win a unanimous decision.

Mora Uses Speed To Overtake Termileksitean

by Dan Rafael ESPN.com

LAS VEGAS -- Sergio "The Latin Snake" Mora isn't known for his power, but he unleashed some on Archak TerMeliksetian.

Mora, the winner of "The Contender" reality series' first season, survived a second-round knockdown to stop TerMeliksetian at 2:44 of the seventh round Thursday night in a middleweight headliner at the Aladdin Resort & Casino.

Mora (18-0, 4 KOs) had the obvious speed advantage from the outset as he peppered TerMeliksetian (15-4) with punches using both hands.

But in the second round, TerMeliksetian looked like he was in business when he dropped Mora with a hard left hook to the nose. Mora, however, got up quickly and survived the round.

"I got up, I wasn't hurt at all," Mora said. "It woke me up. I got up and started using angles and throwing body shots."

By the third round, Mora had recovered and began to take over the fight. While TerMeliksetian was busy complaining of a borderline low blow in the third, Mora was firing and landing shots to his head.

Seemingly cruising to a decision win in the 10-rounder, Mora, 26, suddenly hurt TerMeliksetian, 27, with a pair of right hands in the seventh, bringing the crowd to its feet.

Moments later, he landed a combination that sent TerMeliksetian reeling into the corner, and referee Robert Byrd jumped in and stopped the fight.

TerMeliksetian, who was throwing a punch just as the fight was halted, aggressively protested the stoppage. But Mora was dominating the round and had hurt TerMeliksetian, owning a 39-17 connect advantage in the round.

"I'm glad I got the stoppage, but I'd rather have a good chin than big power," Mora said.

Had Byrd not stopped it at that moment, "One more big shot would have done it," Mora said. "He didn't have much spirit to win."

Once considered a prospect, TerMeliksetian has now lost three consecutive fights, including to Giovanni Lorenzo and Sechew Powell.

In the junior middleweight co-feature, Alfonso Gomez (14-3-2), a participant in the first season of "The Contender" reality series, and Jesse Feliciano (14-5-3) battled to a grueling eight-round majority draw that settled nothing in their trilogy.

In their first fight, Gomez won a four-round split decision on Dec. 28, 2001, at The Orleans in Las Vegas. They met again in a six-rounder on Feb. 28. 2003, which Feliciano won on a unanimous decision, also at The Orleans.

From the opening bell, they went it at close range in the rubber match, and each fighter had moments when it looked he would take over the fight.

Gomez, 25, appeared to open up an early lead, but Feliciano, 23 had a big fourth round as he stung Gomez with a hard right hand and had him covering up along the ropes for the final 20 seconds of the round.

It went back and forth until the end of the fight, one that probably paved the way for an eventual fourth meeting.

Judge Adalaide Byrd had it 77-75 for Gomez while judges Dick Houck and Dave Moretti each had it 76-76. ESPN.com at ringside had it 77-75 for Feliciano, who thought he won the fight.

"I wish it was 10 rounds or 12," Feliciano said. "If it was even 10 rounds, I would have knocked him out."

Gomez sounded like the loser when it was over.

"My legs went out on me. I wasn't able to move," he said. "I kind of got them back, got a second wind late in the fight, but that's what happened."

Statistically, it was virtually even, according to CompuBox statistics.

Feliciano, who earned his way into the fight by beating former junior welterweight champ Vince Phillips on a majority decision March 17, landed 274 of 791 punches (35 percent). Gomez connected with 282 of 785 blows (36 percent).

Mayorga refuses to back off

By Ron Borges, Boston Globe May 5, 2006

LAS VEGAS -- It is fewer than 72 hours before the biggest fight of his life and Ricardo Mayorga is angry. For him, it is a familiar state of mind.

Mayorga has been shouting to be heard, first over the din in the poverty-riddled streets of Managua, Nicaragua, and later in the dank, cacophonous world of prizefighting, where he has labored without getting what he believes has been his due for many years.

Today he is shouting at his attorney, Tony Gonzalez, and at his promoter, Don King, in an effort to get more money out of King and HBO, the network televising his light middleweight title defense against Oscar De La Hoya tomorrow night. As usual, no one is listening.

''He ain't changed his mind," King said when asked yesterday if Mayorga has decided to go back on his promise to refuse to fight if he is not paid $8 million, a sum that exceeds the contract he signed by roughly $6 million. ''He ain't got no mind! I don't know what goes through a mind like that, but Ricardo Mayorga is my pick to bring back boxing. I said that right here in Forbes magazine [the financial tome that did a recent story on King and his fistic empire].

''Why? Because he's a fighter. He's not no rocket scientist. He's a fighter. Now ethics and morals leaves a little bit to be desired, but he's a fighter. You just can't take everything he says like it's holy writ.

''Wednesday he said he'd give me an hour to agree to the $8 million. The message there was extortion and blackmail, but we ain't got no dispute on what the agreement is. You sign for a fight, you go fight. He signed for $2 million and I owe him $200,000 from his last fight. That's $2.2 million. I asked him, 'Why'd you pick $8 million? Why wasn't it $12 million or $20 million?' I admit, he's always scheming, but it's been 24 hours and he's still here. Of course, he's going to fight.

''I could never condone what he did yesterday but Ricardo is just trying to get into Oscar's head. He's been quite effective, too. He's in my head."

Mayorga holds the World Boxing Council 154-pound title, a belt he won in his most recent fight, against Michele Piccirillo. It's the second time he has been a world champion but he has never cashed the kind of checks that are commonplace for De La Hoya. The same was true when Mayorga lost to Felix Trinidad. It is others who get the millions, he says.

That, at least, is how he sees it. Mayorga's life is a struggle -- to overcome poverty, boxing politics, and the lack of a powerful promoter until King took over his career. Now it is to overcome King himself, who is set to grab half the $4 million fee De La Hoya's promotional company gave him to deliver Mayorga.

Mayorga is angry at De La Hoya, whom he has publicly insulted repeatedly during the promotion. He has called him a chicken, and worse. He has insulted De La Hoya's wife and his Mexican-American heritage. He even reached out and slapped De La Hoya on the back of the head when he wasn't looking at one news conference during a coast-to-coast tour to hype the fight, a move that caused De La Hoya to uncharacteristically leap up and go after him until cooler heads got between them. Even the usually cool De La Hoya acknowledges Mayorga has done what others could not do: He has gotten under his skin.

''He done insulted Oscar De La Hoya to the point where he can't back down," King said of Mayorga. ''After all that talk, he can't walk out. That can't stand with the ghetto mentality or the barrio mentality. He's got to fight, man."

Mayorga (28-5-1, 23 KOs) knows this. He may, indeed, smoke and drink during training camp and even in his corner after a knockout victory, as he did the night he upset Vernon Forrest three years ago to become welterweight champion. He might act like a lunatic at nearly every public appearance, but King is right about one thing: Mayorga knows what he is. He's not a rocket scientist. He's a fighter. And so he will fight after having built up a powerful distaste for an opponent he barely knows.

''I really just don't like him on a personal level," Mayorga said. ''I've always had disdain for him, especially now that he's going to fight me. I was in training [for De La Hoya] on my birthday. I wasn't able to have Easter dinner with my family like I usually do. I attribute that all to him. I am going to knock him out but I want to stop his heart or detach his retina. One of the two.

''I just don't like him. There's really no explanation. I have absolutely no respect for his punching power. Even if he hits me below the belt, it's not going to even make me wince."

When Mayorga says such things, there is a level of anger in him that percolates so close to the surface, you can almost see it bubbling beneath his skin. But there is also a lunacy to much of what he says and does that makes you wonder if he's simply putting on the world.

Wednesday was such a day. First, he calmly talked about how he would knock De La Hoya out to honor his mother, who was in the crowd, and his country. He was, by his standards, calm. Then, as the final press conference -- delayed two hours while he sought more money from King, De La Hoya, and HBO -- wound down, he suddenly took the microphone and said, ''There may be no fight."

This is the same guy who said he had been waiting years to fight De La Hoya because he wants to avenge the two beatings De La Hoya gave his idol, Julio Cesar Chavez. Even Mayorga knows he cannot do one and the other at the same time.

''Chavez was one of my great idols when he faced Oscar," Mayorga said. ''That's a perfect example of why I don't like him. Oscar was pretty much in his prime and Chavez was well past his prime. When I remember seeing him beat up Chavez, I remember saying to myself that I was going to avenge his loss and make Oscar pay for what he did to one of my great idols, his own Mexican idol. And I will."

Not if he doesn't show up at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, of course, which is why he'll be there. That and the 2 million reasons King has given him, plus the best reason of all -- De La Hoya is no longer in his prime. At 33, he has not fought in 20 months and is 6-4 since starting his career with 31 straight victories. Although still the betting favorite, De La Hoya is not a prohibitive one and King knows it.

''This is a great opportunity for Ricardo," King said.

Even De La Hoya conceded that this week. There might be no better time to face him since it is nearly two years since he was last hit in anger and that night he ended up on his knees, knocked into submission by a body shot from then-middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

Mayorga has suggested De La Hoya quit that night, saying he could have gotten up but chose not to. What he perceives to be De La Hoya's vulnerabilities is why he has run 5 miles a day for the past three months and trained between 2-2 1/2 hours a day. It is why, he says, he has refrained from sex, which is not always his training regimen, and only smokes three or four cigarettes a day rather than his usual 2-3 packs.

He has done all this because, for all his bombast and threats, Ricardo Mayorga knows what is in front of him tomorrow night -- both a difficult opponent and an opportunity like no other.

''Obviously, this is the biggest fight of my career and of my life," Mayorga said last week. ''With this fight, I can pretty much guarantee my future and my family's future. I'm coming to leave him a failure. I'm coming to win."

Assuming, of course, that he decides to come at all.

DE LA HOYA: I'LL TEACH MAYORGA A LESSON

By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport

Oscar De La Hoya will have retribution on his mind when he makes the penultimate stop on his path to boxing's Hall of Fame in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

The Los Angeles 'Golden Boy' returns to the ring after an 18-month absence to challenge trash-talking Nicaraguan Ricardo Mayorga for his WBC light-middleweight title.

De La Hoya is intent on silencing former welterweight champion Mayorga, who has derided his rival at every opportunity, before moving on to a major farewell fight in September.

De La Hoya, who has won world titles in six different weight divisions in the course of his glittering 14-year career, said: "It is the motivation that keeps me going now.

"Ricardo Mayorga has sparked that in me. He lit the fire in my belly and I am full steam ahead. My blood is boiling inside. I am human, and a few things he said got under my skin.

"I do want to teach this guy a lesson and hit him as hard as I can, but at the same time I have to be cool and collected and stick to my game plan."

Former welterweight champion Mayorga is as notorious for his bad-mouthing and wild living outside the ring as he is for his brawling style within the ropes.

Known for drinking and smoking throughout his training camps, Mayorga even lit up a cigarette in the ring to celebrate his shock title win over Vernon Forrest three years ago.

This week Mayorga provoked more controversy, claiming: "I am going to knock him out but I want to stop his heart or detach his retina - one of the two."

He then refused to show on time for Wednesday's scheduled pre-fight press conference, insisting De La Hoya's Golden Boy organisation, which is promoting the fight, stump up an extra �3.3million.

Mayorga's demands even appeared to take his manager Don King by surprise, although the feeling is the Nicaraguan is simply employing a change of tactics in his bid to wind up De La Hoya.

An exasperated King said: "He demanded the money or he wouldn't fight. But he gave me an hour to come up with the money and the hour is long gone and he is still here. I hope he will do the right thing."

Bouncing back from a stoppage loss to Felix Trinidad in October 2004, Mayorga won the WBC title on points from Michele Piccirillo last September but also has some ring-rust to shake off.

The outome of an intriguing clash of styles could well hinge on which of the champion's wild slugs or the challenger's textbook boxing style have aged best over time.

De La Hoya, who is favoured to win on points, is adamant Mayorga is the last man to derail his best-laid plans.

He confirmed: "My plan is to win this fight and have my retirement fight on September 16."

Marciano's milestone still one of the greatest

By George Diaz ORLANDO SENTINEL

ORLANDO, Fla. - A nation looking for heavyweight heroes embraced Rocky Marciano, wrapped up in a tidy package of patriotism and punching power.

He was the son of Italian immigrants -- his father worked in a shoe factory -- growing up poor against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Determined to find a better way of life, Marciano pursued baseball, then boxing, as his career path.

As the calendar years clicked away, Marciano's legacy grew with each devastating victory, reaching 49 consecutive victories before he retired April 27, 1956.

Fifty years later, the boxing world remembers Marciano with much more than a nostalgic twist. It misses him for so many reasons, starting with the palookas posing as heavyweight champions these days, to the painful work ethic of a man willing to take one or two punches to give one in return.

He remains the only heavyweight in boxing to retire undefeated.

It probably will never happen again.

"It stands on its own as the second most important statistical monument in sports after '56,'" boxing historian Bert Sugar said, paying homage to Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.

Most of America's sporting heroes have a certain shelf life. Cal Ripken Jr. respectfully bumped Lou Gehrig as baseball's definitive iron man. Emmitt Smith became the NFL's leading career rusher, displacing Walter Payton. Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have been crowned baseball's greatest Sultans of Swat over a season.

But Marciano likely will not be chased away so easily. Too many alphabet soup sanctioning-bodies clutter the ring, a situation aggravated by a lack of a heavyweight who can connect with the public as a true champion. And even if a modern-day fighter did, he wouldn't fight as often as Marciano did over his career. Marciano stepped into the ring 24 times in a two-year span alone.

Marciano was a thunderous throwback in those black-and-white frames, crouching down in an exaggerated pose -- almost at eye level at his opponent's knees -- stalking and biding time before delivering the big boom.

His right fist had a name -- "Suzie Q" -- and a nasty disposition. Suzie Q took a wallop at Jersey Joe Walcott and etched his profile for eternity with a 13th-round shot to the head, Walcott's face grotesquely distorted as sweat flew over his head like a watery halo.

No man delivered that much punishment over that extended period of time. Between March 1947 and September 1955, Marciano knocked out 43 opponents.

"No question he was the hardest puncher in the history of the sport," Sugar said.

During a time when boxing truly mattered in this country, Marciano stood among baseball stars Ted Williams and Stan Musial as icons of the generation that would lose its innocence once America stepped into the '60s.

A rebellious kid named Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) screamed for attention, changing the dynamics of boxing, if not the world, as Marciano faded away in quiet glory.

It was the end of an improbable rise for a kid from Brockton, Mass., who once had aspirations of becoming a professional catcher, only to see the dream fade because his arm wasn't strong enough.

For baseball, anyway.

Nicknamed "The Brockton Blockbuster," Marciano used his stocky frame -- 5-foot-101/4 and 184 pounds -- for unorthodox leverage. He would bend down and hit upward, a style that also made him hard to hit.

First impressions were memorable.

"I knew the Rock when he first came to New York," said Angelo Dundee, a longtime trainer whose client list includes Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. "Charley Goldman (Marciano's trainer) called me and said, 'Ange, I want you to come with me today to the CYO. I'm training this kid from Massachusetts, and I want you to see him because he's short, stocky and bald-headed with sweeping shoulders but, boy, can he punch.'

"Everything Charlie told me about him was true."

Rocco Francis Marchegiano turned pro in 1947, fighting under the assumed name Rocky Mack to protect his amateur status. He knocked out Lee Epperson in the third round, beginning a run of 16 consecutive knockouts. He received a purse of $35.

Five years later, Marciano knocked out Walcott in the 13th round to win the heavyweight title. He defended it six times before retiring after knocking out Archie Moore.

Marciano still had plenty punch of left in Suzie Q.

"You felt like someone had been beating you all over the body with a blackjack, or hitting you with rocks," Moore said after the fight.

Although Marciano said he "wanted to start living for my family," a driving motivation in his decision to walk away was his contempt for his manager, Al Weill. Under the terms of their contract, Weill was receiving half of the earnings from Marciano's fights.

"I'm getting out while I can," Marciano told reporters on the day he retired. "I'm dumping this guy before he dumps me."

Always fiscally frugal -- he stashed money away because he distrusted banks -- Marciano contemplated a few comebacks but never felt an urge strong enough to fight again.

"The retirement of Rocky Marciano clearly demarcates an end of an era," said Mike DiLisa, a boxing historian and author. "It was the end of all those hard-core boxing people from the '30s, '40s and '50s. After that, we ended up with the Peter McNeeleys of the world."

Marciano would "fight" one more time, matched in a computerized matchup against Ali. The "super fight" was filmed in privacy, with various alternate endings so the fighters didn't know the results until the movie was released on Jan. 20, 1970, through closed-circuit venues.

Although each fighter had to let up on hard shots to the head, many of the body blows were true. Reflective of his competitiveness, Marciano lost 50 pounds and bought a new toupee (which Ali playfully flicked away at one point in the filming).

"His hairpiece lost 10 pounds at least," Sugar said.

“TOP RANK” GRAND JURY HEARS “WIRETAP” TAPES

WWW.RingTalk.Com by Pedro Fernandez

ARUM CAN NO LONGER “SPIN” DENIAL WHEEL!

Las Vegas, NV-The Federal Grand Jury yesterday heard testimony from a number of individuals. But the man they put the heat on was Buck Smith. The Oklahoma based ex-fighter was caught on Federal wiretaps plotting to throw a fight in Mexico City with Jorge Khawagi, an unbeaten (11-0, 11 KO’s) fighter who was seemingly the benefactor of as many (11) fixed fights. The wiretaps have also got audio of Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum, Bruce Trampler, Todd du Beof, Pete Susens, as well as ex-staffer, Sean Gibbons.

TARGET IS CLEARLY TOP RANK & ARUM’S EMPIRE!

Having talked with somebody who testified this week, this person offered little doubt that the U.S. Justice Dept. seems intent on bringing down Top Rank, and Arum, himself a former U.S. Attorney. They are working from the bottom of the tree up. People like Buck Smith and the like, they were the pawns of an "ongoing criminal enterprise," that is what the Government will try to contend.

WITNESS “STUNNED” BY AUDIO TAPES!

This subject accused of fight fixing, he had little room for denial with he and his co-conspirators spelling it out on tape. Without going into detail, this out of fear for the lives of certain witnesses, I’m going to leave this story right here. I have to tread lightly here in that I don’t want to blow any aspects of the Government’s case.

HOW WILL FIGHT NEWS SPIN THIS FOR MASTER BOB?

For years I have contended that Top Rank “buys” news coverage. You know, great credential seats, Top Rank’s advertising money which has sites like Fight News actually “shilling” for them. To show you how bias Fight News is, after his offices were raided in January 2004, and the FBI took out computers, files, tapes, and the traps from the office sinks (looking for Cocaine residue), Arum told Fight News, “Nobody in my office is under investigation," Karl Freitag,, Flattop Pope, they had the audacity to insult the intelligence of their readers by printing the tirades of a man with his 75-year old balls in a vice!

TIME TO INDICT BOXING PRESS AS A WHOLE?

If Bob Arum didn’t have almost every website and boxing writer in his pocket, how can you explain that after I printed the names of two fighters appearing before the Grand Jury, Buck Smith, and Marty Jakubowski, that not one member of the media attempted to contact them? Because they all work in fear of Arum, and his mean spirited stepson Todd du Beof, who is exposed on the wiretaps for the axxhole that he is!

BOXING MEDIA AS “GULLIBLE” AS WHITE HOUSE CORPS!

As a whole, the boxing media believe every word of Arum’s Scott McClellan, AKA Lee Samuels, who like McClellan when he told the press that Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove, were not involved in the CIA leak case, lied to the boxing press when he has repeatedly said over the years, “there is no investigation. We haven’t done anything wrong.”

De La Hoya dismisses Mayorga's threat as psychological ploy

BY MICHAEL HIRSLEY
Chicago Tribune

LAS VEGAS - Ricardo Mayorga, who has said he dislikes Oscar De La Hoya so much and wants to beat him so badly he would fight him for nothing, has threatened to pull out of their showdown Saturday night if he only gets $2 million.

Mayorga, the World Boxing Council super welterweight champion, used the two fighters' final news conference Wednesday to announce, "I'm thinking about not fighting because I'm not getting the pay I deserve."

Insisting that "I'm not scared of Oscar," the eccentric beer-swilling, cigarette-smoking Nicaraguan said, "I'm not getting my worth."

He admitted he signed a contract for $2 million "to lure Oscar out of retirement," but said he had been promised a revised purse of $8 million.

Mayorga's promoter, Don King, saying he had not heard of the threat before Wednesday, advised that his fighter "should go out and fight Oscar De La Hoya and beat him." He said he would meet with Mayorga to settle their differences.

De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer, his chief adviser and CEO of his Golden Boy Promotions, dismissed Mayorga's pronouncement as an attempt to distract De La Hoya at its mildest and "an extortion attempt," in Schaefer's words, at its most severe.

Regardless, De La Hoya and his camp said they would not change any financial terms of the contract and insisted the money squabble was up to King and Mayorga to resolve.

"We have a deal which states how much King Productions gets to deliver his fighter," Schaefer said. "There's no more money coming from our side."

"This has got to be a ploy, an attempt to get into my head," said De La Hoya, who agreed to meet briefly with his opponent before Wednesday's news conference. Surprised first by Mayorga's civility and then by his payday pitch, De La Hoya admitted he had approached the meeting cautiously: "I still thought he might take a swing at me."

Indeed, Mayorga had slapped De La Hoya in the back of the head when they appeared together in Chicago to promote the fight. And at other promotional stops, Mayorga has insulted not only his multimillionaire opponent but also De La Hoya's wife and Mexican-American heritage.

Even at Wednesday's meeting with reporters, before making his money complaint, Mayorga continued his taunting, presenting De La Hoya with a "gift," a short, black feminine outfit lettered "The Golden Girl."

Whether it was an admission of trouble making the 154-pound weight limit or a threat to barely make it and then beef up between the Friday weigh-in and Saturday's scheduled 12-round bout, Mayorga said he weighed 155 1/2. He said he would make it down to 154 by Friday and then, "Saturday night, I'm going to blow up to 18 pounds over 154."

De La Hoya did have trouble in his two fights against heavier opponents, a narrow victory over Felix Sturm and a knockout loss to Bernard Hopkins in 160-pound middleweight bouts.

But if wild-swinging Mayorga came in that heavy, he would likely be even more vulnerable to the speed of De La Hoya, who was a 3-1 favorite Wednesday. He said his brief session with Mayorga before their news conference left him confident his opponent will show up Saturday.

"I don't know what he's thinking, but he's nervous," said the challenger and former champion in six weight classes.

King and Schaefer also expressed confidence that Mayorga would be in the ring Saturday.

"Where else can he fight for this kind of money?" Schaefer asked. "You don't train for three months and then walk away from $2 million and the chance to fight an Oscar De La Hoya who has just had a 20-month layoff."

Mayorga Tries Money Grab

George Willis, nypost.com
May 4, 2006 -- LAS VEGAS - Ricardo Mayorga has been a bully throughout the promotion of Saturday's fight with Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand.

During a recent press tour, Mayorga insulted De La Hoya's heritage, his family and repeatedly used homosexual slurs.

Yesterday, he pulled one last bully move by threatening to pull out of the WBC super welterweight championship fight bout if he isn't paid $8 million. Mayorga, who is contracted to earn somewhere between $1 million and $2 million depending on pay-per-sales, said he signed the original deal to "lure" De La Hoya into the fight, but now wants $8 million, which is De La Hoya's guaranteed purse.

"I'm thinking about not fighting," Mayorga said at the end of a news conference that was delayed for nearly an hour as he tried in vain to squeeze more money out of his promoter, Don King, and De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions.

"I'm not scared of Oscar," Mayorga said. "I want what I'm worth."

Mayorga's blast of hot air had King shaking his head in disbelief and sent Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer to prep his legal team on a possible lawsuit against King and Mayorga should Mayorga, the defending champion, pull out.

Golden Boy, which is promoting the bout, paid Don King Productions a lump sum of $4 million that included Mayorga's purse.

"I don't know what kind of fighter-promoter deal Don King has with Mayorga," Schaefer said. "But obviously, there would be a tremendous claim against Don King because he signed a deal with us that he's going to provide Mayorga. If he's not going to fulfill that contract, there's obviously a claim against Don King."

King said he first learned of Mayorga's miff about money upon landing in Las Vegas yesterday morning. "Somebody whispered in his ear," King said. "Oscar ain't going to pay [$8 million] and that's not what the deal was. [Mayorga], he needs to keep his mind on fighting."

Mayorga said he would make a decision whether to fight later in the day, but should he pull out it would be career suicide. He would likely be stripped of his title and face possible suspension. Boxing could also take a huge blow.

This is De La Hoya's first fight in 20 months, and Golden Boy, with an eye on getting more corporate sponsorship into boxing, has signed deals with Bacardi, Coca-Cola and Southwest Airlines for this fight.

"I'll never give in to extortion, which is what this is," Schaefer said. "But I have to believe that Ricardo will eventually understand that his future lies with this. I have no doubt that this fight will go on."

Steward now trains Taylor; Burns doesn’t feel burned

BY CHRIS GIVENS Arkansas Gazette

Jermain Taylor’s two-trainer experiment is over before it ever began.

Taylor, of Little Rock, began training camp Monday for his title fight against Ronald “Winky” Wright without Patrick Burns, who has conducted every training camp in Taylor’s 25-0 professional career.

Two weeks ago, Taylor’s camp announced it had retained renowned trainer Emanuel Steward to help prepare Taylor for his middleweight championship fight with Wright in Memphis on June 17.

Ozell Nelson, Taylor’s mentor and amateur coach, said at the time Steward and Burns would work together, but the training camp would be moved from Miami, Burns’ hometown, to Detroit, Steward’s home base.

Camp began Monday in Detroit, but without Burns.

Nelson said one of the reasons the decision was made to keep Burns out of camp was to keep Taylor free of distractions that might have come from having two head trainers. Nelson also said Taylor is working well with Steward.

Nelson said Burns will continue to earn a salary from Taylor and that he is still part of Taylor’s team, but Nelson didn’t discuss specific ways Burns will remain a part of the team.

Nelson and the rest of Taylor’s team did not comment further on the newest change, choosing to focus on getting Taylor settled in Detroit for the six-week camp.

Lou DiBella, Taylor’s promoter, downplayed the change and spoke highly of Burns.

“Pat Burns has conducted himself like a professional throughout this and has nothing but the kid’s [Taylor’s ] best interests at heart,” DiBella said. “He is still part of team Taylor.”

Burns, contacted in Miami, declined to comment specifically on the decision not to bring him to camp. He said he will be pulling for Taylor and harbors no ill will toward the camp.

“I wish Jermain well. I certainly want him to win this fight,” Burns said. “I’m going to keep busy, but I will be rooting for Jermain.”

Burns has helped lead Taylor to a 25-0 professional record. He is not training any other fighters but is a consultant for Big Star Productions, which puts on boxing events in Florida.

Burns said he has helped line up a four-fight deal with American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat, and will be involved with the boxing scene in Miami. He also said he is considering offers from at least two boxers who wish to retain his services.

Meanwhile, training camp continues in Detroit for Taylor.

Nelson is taking a more active role in Taylor’s training for this fight and will be in camp when Steward leaves to assume his duties for HBO. Steward is a color analyst for HBO’s World Championship Boxing and the network’s boxing pay-per-view events, and will have to leave Taylor’s camp to work several weekend fights.

Among the events Steward will attend is Saturday’s Oscar De La Hoya-Ricardo Mayorga fight and the June 10 fight between Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Tarver, a week before the Taylor-Wright fight.

Nelson said Taylor has enjoyed working with Steward in the first days of camp and that the move to the Kronk Gym in downtown Detroit has been smooth.

Nelson also said Taylor is right on track in his training for being six weeks away from the fight.

Mayorga Threatens To Pull Out!

Ricardo Mayorga threatened to pull out of Saturday's fight with Oscar De La Hoya unless he gets $8 Million Dollars. Mayorga said he didn't want it like the Trinidad fight, where "Trinidad made all the money". Maybe Mayorga has been DK'ed. You don't know what DK'ed means? Well, here's an example of how Tim Witherspoon got DK'ed when he fought Bonecrusher Smith. The following is from Jack Newfield's book titled, "Only In America, The Life and Crimes of Don King", page 246.

WITHERSPOON EXPENSES

SPARRING SALARIES 14,113.89

FOOD - MIAMI 2,950.00

MR. EARLY - CHEF 3,642.00

TRAINER EXPENSES (MIAMI SLIM) 500.00

ADVANCE TO WITHERSPOON 1,000.00

MIAMI OTHERS 115.82

CAR RENTAL 10/27 thur 11/30/86 2,108.99

MARRIOTT ATLANTA (DRUG TEST RM) 836.26

BUDGET CAR RENTAL 11/7 thur 11/9/86 113.68

TRAINING CAMP 28 DAYS @ 100.00 28,000.00

CAMACHO CAMP 10/26 thur 10/29 4,000.00

TIRES FOR TIM'S CAR 251.30

EDEN HOTEL PARKING CHGR 36 DAYS 252.00

DRUG TEST (ATLANTA 11/8/86) 38.00

EDEN ROC HOTEL 10/29 thur 11/30/86 13,881.93

MANHATTAN LIMO NY TO PENNA 75.00

TRAVEL EXPENSES FOR PRESS CONF 3,514.50

FED EXPRESS CHGR SHIPPING CHGR

PAYROLL SPARRING, ETC

10/30, 11/6,13,21,27, 12/4/86 201.20

TOTAL DEDUCTIONS 75,594.27

___________________________________________________________

Don King's deductions from Tim Witherspoon's purse for his 1986 match with Bonecrusher Smith. Note miscalculated deduction of $28,000 for 28 days of training at King's camp for $100 a day. Also, the contract called for the promoter to pay for taining expenses, not the fighter.

Taken from Jack Newfield's book titled, "Only In America, The Life and Crimes of Don King", page 246.

___________________________________________________________

DK'ed, if you hadn't figured it out by now, stands for Don King and his accounting practices. Think about it, how many fighters have said through the years that they've been ripped off by Don King. That's what I refer to as being DK'ed. I'm not saying it's true, I'm just saying that there have been many fighters who have made that allegation.

Good Thing De La Hoya Isn't Fighting for Scale

Three more diary days with Oscar until he gets his butt kicked.

T.J. Simmers, LA Times

LAS VEGAS — I'm standing in the hallway talking to Dr. Phil outside his dressing room before "The Tonight Show" listening to all his problems because Oscar De La Hoya forgot his suit at home and he's late.

Dr. Phil has brought his book for the wife, reading in Sunday's paper that I'd probably have to ask for an autograph from "Baldy," and "that's the first time I ever heard that," he mocks. I probably should have guessed that Dr. Phil would have a wife who calls it like she sees him.

"The Tonight Show" publicist stops by with notes detailing every appearance on the show — this being Oscar's 15th time with Jay Leno.

"How many times has Salma Hayek been on?" I ask. I'm told 11 times, which makes you wonder about Leno, who has the ability to pick up the phone and invite Hayek to the show any time he wants, but instead wants the pug more.

Oscar arrives. He's wearing the same suit as Leno, and he's sweating like a man waiting to find out what the jury has to say. "I'm super nervous," he admits.

"I don't know why," I tell him. "Letterman has Tom Hanks on tonight, and I can't imagine anyone watching Dr. Phil and you."

"The Tonight Show" asks Oscar to sign forms so he can be paid $428 Hollywood scale for his appearance. They are paying him to promote his own fight!

YOU GET hit in the head as many times as Oscar and you forget to take your suit to "The Tonight Show" and you agree to allow Page 2 to shadow you behind the scenes through Saturday's fight with Ricardo Mayorga at the MGM.

That's why I'm standing on the tarmac at an airport in Van Nuys, watching the tough guy carefully walk up stairs to a private jet as he carries a Louis Vuitton handbag with a 2 1/2 -pound foo-foo dog inside.

"This is Annie," he says, and if only Mayorga could see him now. I see why they're calling this "Danger Zone," though. Forget to look where you're walking, squash Oscar's fur ball and he's liable to let you have it.

Oscar has been training in Puerto Rico since Feb. 2, arriving in Los Angeles a few days ago on the Gulfstream, which seats 12 and rents for about $6,000 for the 50-minute flight to Las Vegas. The kid from East L.A. has come a long way.

He's joined on the flight by his wife, Millie, and I ask how she'll react when her husband loses Saturday.

"I don't care," Millie says. "I'm just waiting for Monday so he can take the middle-of-the-night feeding with the baby, and I can sleep."

Oscar is listening. He hires an Elvis impersonator, and now plans to marry his wife again in a chapel here Saturday after the fight. He did the same thing a year ago. It's a great scam. With so many different wedding dates, he can never be blamed for forgetting his anniversary.

SECURITY GUARDS, led by a former Navy SEAL, are waiting for De La Hoya's Monday evening arrival. Everyone is taken to a rear MGM entrance.

The public is led to believe he's arriving Tuesday, with a band playing and a crowd gathering to meet him. They don't know he's coming out the MGM's back door, getting in a car and driving to the front.

Later Mayorga arrives, and Debbie Caplan-Paz, a De La Hoya publicist, says, "He looks like a drug lord." Did I mention Mayorga's promoter is Don King?

OSCAR BEGINS the day running on UNLV's track. His business manager tells him that workers saw Mayorga outside the hotel — smoking.

"I'll hit him in the body and see if he coughs up smoke," Oscar says.

Oscar works out accompanied by guards. I worry about a boxer who needs security to protect him. A bunch of men arrive to run, which puts the security detail on alert. They don't know it, but they're guarding Oscar from a group of federal air marshals and their counter-terrorism instructor.

Oscar runs at a steady pace, sideways at times and for almost an hour. His demanding conditioning trainer, Ron Garcia, has him hanging upside down in boots later and doing sit-ups, 24 at a time in that position. He's down to 5 1/2 % body fat, Garcia says, "and on the same diet as Serena and Venus Williams.''

"And look how well they're doing," I say.

THE GUY still sells tickets. They're adding more seats. For most fights, they sell $150,000 in merchandise, but for a De La Hoya fight, they've gone over the $1-million mark in the past with Oscar getting 30%.

At the fake arrival, women are yelling, "I love you, Oscar." I have no idea why. When he's done, he does a series of media interviews and after a late-afternoon nap, he moves to the gym to pound everything they put in front of him. This will be the last time they tape his hands and really push him until he fights Saturday.

Before the workout, he gets an eye exam per Nevada Boxing Commission rules. His eyes dilated, he emerges wearing black eye shades and bumps into the wall for Page 2's benefit. He might want to consider another career other than acting when his boxing career is over.

"I'm thinking of taking a role in 'Mission Impossible 4,' " he says.

"I thought that was the name of this fight," I reply, and he laughs, deflecting jab after jab once more, obviously knowing it's going to get a lot tougher as the week goes on — especially Monday when he's up in the middle of the night with the baby.

Boxing writers salute Sylvester Stallone

Bernard Fernandez Philly.com

VINNY PAZIENZA was a 13-year-old in Cranston, R.I., when he went to a local

theater and saw "Rocky" for the first of many times.

"Changed my life," Pazienza said some years ago. "I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to become a fighter and win a world championship someday."

Pazienza, now 43, retired in 2004 with a record of 50-10 that included 30 victories by stoppage. And, yes, he did win several world titles.

But Pazienza isn't the only fighter - or moviegoer - inspired by Sylvester Stallone's most famous fictional creation. "Gonna Fly Now" is the soundtrack that has played in the mental boom boxes of millions of "Rocky" fans as they launched self-improvement projects that might or might not have been carried through to completion. If some South Philadelphia pug could make it to the top, why not an eighth-grader in Rhode Island? Or a construction worker in Pocatello, Idaho?

"Rocky" was a small-budget flick with a then-unknown screenwriter/star that came out of nowhere in 1976 to win three Academy Awards, including the big one for Best Picture. It also spawned five sequels, the most recent of which, "Rocky Balboa," was shot here over the winter and is scheduled for a Christmas release.

"At one time I thought people would get over it and move on," Sly told me recently. "Never

happened. After 30 years, the character has really taken hold."

For his continuing to climb

into the ring and for going such an improbably long distance, the Boxing Writers Association of America will present Stallone with an award for "lifetime cinematic achievement in boxing" at the 81st annual BWAA Awards Dinner Friday at the Mandalay Bay Resort Casino in Las Vegas.

The presentation to Stallone, who will receive a specially

commissioned sculpture from renowned Philadelphia artist Carl LeVotch, figures to be the high point of the evening. Fighter of the Year honoree Ricky Hatton is home in Manchester, England, prepping for his May 13 challenge of WBA welterweight

titlist Luis Collazo in Boston, and will appear only in a taped acceptance speech.

A few self-proclaimed boxing "purists" have complained that Stallone is a pretend fighter and thus is unworthy of recognition from the industry. The feedback I've received, however, overwhelmingly suggests that

anyone whose reel fights have brought the masses to real fights deserves to have his hand

symbolically raised in triumph.

But what of those who have done the math and know that Rocky had to be pushing 60 when he laced up the gloves in "Rocky Balboa" for his climactic showdown with heavyweight champion Mason "The Line"

Dixon, played by actual boxer Antonio Tarver?

Hey, it's a movie. Purchase of a ticket virtually requires "suspension of disbelief," which enables us to accept the notion of 50-foot apes on an uncharted island,

flying men from the planet

Krypton and vampires who come out at night to slurp blood.

But Sly assures his castmate (full disclosure: I have two scenes, with lines) that the screen action will be the most

authentic yet committed to film.

"The trials and tribulations of a fighter come through. It's glorious, it's painful, it's heroic," said Stallone, who turns 60 July 6.

"As hard as it was for the original 'Rocky' to get made, this one was 10 times harder because of the age thing. But we pulled it off."

Drago lives

There was no professional boxing in the Soviet Union in 1985 when Stallone released "Rocky IV," whose gigantic villain, Ivan Drago, was widely regarded in this country as the embodiment of what President Reagan called the Evil Empire.

The USSR broke up in 1991, and fighters from former Soviet republics now hold three of the four most widely recognized heavyweight championships. Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko (IBF), Russia's Nicolay Valuev(WBA) and Belarus' Sergei

Liakhovich (WBO) have erected a pugilistic Iron Curtain, and they soon could be joined by another Eastern European in what would be tantamount to globalex domination of the division.

On Aug. 12, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, WBC champ Hasim Rahman (41-5-2, 33 KOs), the lone American big man to hold a belt, takes on

Oleg Maskaev (32-5, 25 KOs), of Kazakhstan.

Rahman will be favored, but don't forget that Maskaev knocked him out in eight rounds in their Nov. 6, 1999, bout in

Atlantic City.

Head run

In the military, they call

bathrooms "heads," which seems appropriate in light of what happened during an April 22 bout involving former WBA welterweight champ Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis.

Lewis was handily outpointing Kenny Dalton in Georgetown, Guyana, when in the seventh round he signaled he'd had enough and hurriedly exited the ring.

"I wanted to get out and go to the toilet," Lewis said of his pressing need to answer the call of nature. "I preferred to lose the fight than mess myself in front of all those people."

Lewis blamed an afternoon milkshake for his gastrointestinal distress.

I'm sure many of you remember Sergei Kobozev, the tremendous cruiserweight boxer from Kostroma, Russia. He defeated John Ruiz, Robert Daniels, and Andrew Maynard in his short career. Others reading this article may have never heard of Kobozev, or perhaps you remember Sergei but wondered what happened to him.

The Murder Of A Russian Boxer

It is a law of sports physics that to make your mark as a boxer you either move up to heavyweight or die trying. Before his mysterious disappearance in November 1995, cruiserweight contender Sergei Kobozev seemed to have mastered the sweet science. A few years after he emigrated to Brooklyn from St. Petersburg, Russia, the 31-year-old Kobozev was set to bag his second major cruiserweight belt and $100,000 to boot. But a few months before his bout, he was brutally murdered by New York's roughest Russian mob crew.

Even now, after two of the three men accused of his murder were recently convicted in a Manhattan federal court and details of Kobozev's death finally emerged, no one but the killers knows the full story. The fact that Alexander Nosov, Vasiliy Ermichine, and Natan Gozman—the three men indicted for the murder—worked for Brighton Beach's Russian mafia group called the "Brigade," and that Gozman is still at large only seems to fan the flames of rumor on the boxing scene. "When he got killed, I was shocked. I got the feeling in my gut that there's more than meets the eye here," says Tommy Gallagher, Kobozev's former trainer at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. "This guy was a moneymaker. They're going to tell these guys to whack this kid? There had to be something more to it."

There definitely was more to Sergei Kobozev than his violent end. He first earned his rep fighting for the Soviet national boxing team at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. When he moved to Brighton Beach in 1991 he was part of a wave of Soviet bloc boxers recruited by Gallagher to go pro in the States. If it can be said that Gallagher's "Russian Invasion" briefly took American boxing by storm in the early '90s, then Kobozev was the thunder.

By the time Kobozev absorbed his first loss to cruiserweight challenger Marcello Dominguez in October 1995, he had won 22 consecutive bouts (including one against current WBA heavyweight champ John Ruiz), among them 17 knockouts. Norman "Stoney" Stone, Ruiz's longtime trainer, remembers Kobozev as "a tough kid." "There's no doubt he could have been a heavyweight contender," Stoney says. Of course Gallagher agrees, saying, "He was so easy to work with. He was a great boxer."

When Kobozev disappeared on November 8, 1995, it was such a mystery that his common-law wife, Lina Cherskikh, and Gallagher even consulted Russian émigré psychics about it. The psychics hinted that he might have left Cherskikh for another woman. Weighing in at 190 pounds and just a little over six feet, with blue eyes, light brown hair, and clean-cut good looks, Kobozev sometimes "got into trouble with women," says one friend. Kobozev apparently didn't need the money he earned from his weekend work as a bouncer at the Paradise restaurant, a hot spot in Sheepshead Bay's Russian émigré community. A close friend says Kobozev kept his job at Paradise "for the broads."

It took nearly four years for Brooklyn homicide detectives and the FBI (news - web sites) to discover for sure that Kobozev hadn't gone on a romp. His corpse turned up with a broken neck in March 1999 in a shallow grave in the backyard of a home owned by Alexander Spitchenko of Livingston, New Jersey. As it turned out, Kobozev lost his last fight during a confrontation with hoods in an auto-body shop on East 15th Street in Brooklyn. Spitchenko, after making a deal with authorities, laid out the story in court.

Spitchenko, who arrived in Brighton Beach in 1991, was not only a master extortionist; he later became the Brigade's No. 2 man in New York. By Spitchenko's own account given at Nosov and Ermichine's trial in early December, the Brigade (headed by famed godfather Vyacheslav Ivankov until 1995) ran "hundreds" of protection scams on Brighton Beach businesses. "We strong-armed people and collected money, extorted, stole, did counterfeit credit cards," Spitchenko explained to a hushed courtroom. When the Brigade's victims refused to cooperate, Spitchenko offered a solution: "We beat them up."

The Brigade's operations added up to a smorgasbord of petty theft, prostitution, and, most importantly, protection rackets. In one extortion case described by Spitchenko, he and Ermichine raided a Brooklyn clothing retailer and made off with $3000 worth of high-quality suits. The heist was only one part of an elaborate ruse the Brigade deployed to force the petrified store owner to accept their protection scheme. Soon after the robbery, Ermichine returned to the store with Spitchenko in tow. "I had a baseball bat on me," Spitchenko told jurors. "The owner of the store was hiding from us." He said he shouted at the owner, "If we catch you, we'll break your legs."

During the trial, Spitchenko gave detailed testimony on Brigade operations and Kobozev's run-in with Nosov, Gozman, and Ermichine on that chilly November afternoon in 1995. The boxer had gone to the auto-body shop to have his car worked on. Instead, he was the one who got worked on.

Spitchenko and several other members of the Brigade were indicted on federal racketeering charges in the spring of 1999. In exchange for testifying against his friends, Spitchenko copped to charges of racketeering and accessory to murder. He got a plea deal that will reduce his sentence and place his family in the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Prosecutors used Spitchenko's testimony to support their theory that when the hoods saw Kobozev at the auto-body shop, the Brigade's 24-year-old bad boy Nosov was still smarting from a bar brawl he was involved in that Kobozev had broken up at Paradise a couple of days before. Defense lawyers attempted to portray the brawl as an extension of Spitchenko's rumored feud with the club's former owner, Valera Zimnovitsch. A sources familiar with the case doubts the prosecution's theory that Nosov's loss of face to Kobozev at Paradise was the only motive for the killing.

Daniel Nobel, defense attorney for Ermichine, says a court ruling on his cross-examination of Spitchenko prevented him from countering the mob boss's testimony against his client. "He's basically a dirtbag," Nobel says of Spitchenko. "But he claims to have undergone this very radical change of character since he was arrested." Though Nobel says he considers the Kobozev murder a secondary element of the much larger case against his client, he speculated that Kobozev's relationship with Paradise owner Zemnovitsch might not have been entirely innocent. "In his testimony, Zemnovitsch described his relationship with Kobozev as 'friendly,' "says Nobel. "I would hazard a guess that if you dig deeply enough you might unearth at least a friendly relationship between Zemnovitsch and a lot of the people the government is currently investigating."

Nakhman Gluzman, a worker at the garage where Kobozev was killed, testified that the boxer did not seem surprised when Nosov and his friends showed up. Instead of kicking up a fuss, Kobozev allowed Nosov to throw an arm around his shoulder and guide him to a small office attached to the garage. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Buehler attributed the false camaraderie to Kobozev's overconfidence in his fighting skills. "As a professional fighter, Kobozev probably thought he had nothing to worry about," said Buehler.

The truth about what Kobozev and Nosov discussed may never be revealed. What is certain, at least according to testimony, is that in the heat of the struggle Nosov pulled out a gun and shot Kobozev in the back. Minutes after the shot, Gozman and Nosov hefted the crumpled boxer to their Grand Cherokee and dumped him in the back. Still conscious during the first few minutes of his journey to his grave in Spitchenko's backyard, prosecutors said, Kobozev "begged for his life." But a mercy plea to Spitchenko's boys proved a waste of his breath.

After depositing Kobozev's black-and-white 1988 Chevy Blazer just a few miles from the garage at a 24-hour restaurant called the Petrina Diner, the men drove around aimlessly for hours, according to testimony, while they cooked up a plan to get rid of Kobozev's body. It was late at night when they finally arrived on Spitchenko's doorstep in New Jersey looking for a way out. In his testimony, Spitchenko insisted that he did not take part in the actual murder and that it was Ermichine who broke Kobozev's neck. Whatever the case, that night in Jersey, Kobozev was KO'd for good.

With Gozman still on the loose, the only thing Kobozev's friends and family have to look forward to is Nosov and Ermichine's sentencing in May. Seven years after the boxer's death the only thing those who knew him are certain of is that Kobozev did not go down without a fight. "Even when he lost, he maintained his dignity. He kept his head up," Gallagher said.

Experts Contemplate: Oscar vs. Mayorga
By Marylyn Aceves

Danger Zone. It's going to be the marquee boxing extravaganza of the year...the colorful wildman WBC Super Welterweight king from Nicaragua vs. Living Legend, Mr. Madison Avenue superstar Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya.

In this article Lennox Lewis, Bernard Hopkins, Antonio Tarver, Tito Trinidad, Jermain Taylor, Luis Collazo, Sugar Shane Mosley, Hasim Rahman, Sergei Liakhovich, Winky Wright, Floyd Mayweather and a few more big names weigh in on this mega event that could break the record for non-heavyweight pay-per-view buys:

FELIX “TITO” TRINIDAD—Three-time World Champion (welterweight, junior middleweight & middleweight) with one of the highest knockout percentages in
boxing history at 81%.
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA, DECISION
VIEW— "It's going to be a really hard fight between the two fighters. De La Hoya hasn't fought in a long time, but should dominate based upon his speed and intelligence in the ring. Oscar should win by decision, and leave the ring while he's on top."

VERNON FORREST—Former Undisputed Welterweight Champion who lost twice to Mayorga
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA, DECISION WIN OR LATE ROUND STOPPAGE
VIEW—“Mayorga is very dangerous early. But De La Hoya is an exceptional boxer so he should be able to avoid trouble by staying away in the early rounds. On the other hand, De La Hoya tends to fade in the later rounds so he can’t wait too long to begin his own attack. I also think De La Hoya’s chin is highly underrated. He can take it. So if he has to mix it up, expect him to weather any storm and either stop Mayorga late or get the decision.”

“SUGAR” SHANE MOSLEY—Three-time World Champion with two wins over De La Hoya; fighting Fernando Vargas July 12 in Las Vegas on HBO Pay Per View.
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA DECISION
VIEW—“I think Oscar's speed is going to be the determining factor. Oscar needs to watch out for Mayorga's overhand right and he needs to keep his composure when Mayorga gets crazy."

“PRETTY BOY” FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR—Four-time world and currently rated boxing’s #1 rated pound-for-pound champion.
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA, DECISION
VIEW—“De La Hoya is going to have to be smart, very smart throughout the fight. He’s the better boxer and should dominate for the entire 12 rounds. If he’s not smart, he could get himself in BIG trouble.”

ANTONIO “THE MAGIC MAN” TARVER—Light heavyweight champion fighting Bernard Hopkins June 10 in Atlantic City on HBO Pay-Per-View
PREDICTION—MAYORGA
VIEW— "I truly believe Mayorga has a good chance. Oscar has been inactive and I think he’s trying to do the Trinidad blueprint – come back and get a win over a credible guy. But I don’t think De La Hoya has that kind of punching power. He has the speed and quickness to outbox Mayorga, but I think Mayorga is going to put pressure on him and he’s got that wild side – no matter how bad he’s being beat, he’s trying to knock your head off and he won’t quit. De La Hoya’s not used to that pressure. I think Mayorga coming in as an underdog is a good bet. I like Mayorga in an upset."

BERNARD “THE EXECUTIONER” HOPKINS—Fighting light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver June 10 in Atlantic City on HBO Pay-Per-View.
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA, LATE ROUND TKO
VIEW—“De La Hoya is all around the better boxer and fighter. He is going to make Mayorga look amateurish. Oscar has to be aware of Mayorga’s brawling tactics, fight smart and stick to his own game plan. He cannot get caught up in the emotion of Mayorga’s trashtalking either.

HASIM “THE ROCK” RAHMAN—WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World Scheduled to Face Oleg Maskaev August 12 on HBO Pay-Per-View.
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA, LATE ROUND STOPPAGE
VIEW—“I think De La Hoya is going to be able to wear Mayorga down and stop him late. The body attack by De La Hoya is going to be too much for him and will have a big effect on him as the fight goes on. I also think De La Hoya is going to catch him in the later rounds with his text book left hook, a punch Mayorga has been susceptible to during his career. Against Oscar, Mayorga’s wildness will be totally ineffective.”

SERGEI “WHITE WOLF” LIAKHOVICH—WBO Heavyweight Champion of the World
PREDICTION—MAYORGA 9TH ROUND KO
VIEW—“I'm expecting this be a tough match for both fighters. My feeling is that if Mayorga can land power shots, I favor him. If it goes to the judges, I would favor Oscar.”

LENNOX LEWIS—Former Heavyweight Champion of the World
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA UNANIMOUS DECISION
VIEW—“De La Hoya is the seasoned and composed boxer and he knows how to deal with Mayorga’s style. Mayorga can have an erratic and unpredictable style, which will make for great drama in the first few rounds, but Oscar’s composer will make him victorious.”

JERMAIN “BAD INTENTIONS” TAYLOR—Middleweight champion fighting Winky Wright June 17 in Memphis on HBO.
PREDICTION—DE LA HOYA, DECISION
VIEW—"This is going to be an interesting fight, Oscar who has not fought in over a year and Ricardo is so unpredictable. I think this fight will go the distance with a lot of action , but I think Oscar will come away with the victory because of his boxing skills and he has a way at getting up for big fights and this is a big fight for him."

WINKY WRIGHT—Former junior middleweight champion fighting Jermain Taylor June 17 in Memphis on HBO
PREDICTION—TOSS-UP
VIEW—“I think this fight’s a toss-up. Oscar has the skills and ability, so he should win. But Mayorga's power and constant pressure, his ability to absorb a lot and Oscar being inactive for almost 2 years, gives Mayorga an edge. I just think it can go either way.”

LUIS COLLAZO—WBA Welterweight Champion defending title against Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton at the Boston Garden May 13 on HBO.
PREDICTION—MAYORGA, 10TH ROUND KO FROM A BODYSHOT
VIEW: “De La Hoya's style has changed for the worse since he started training with Floyd Mayweather Sr. He doesn't move and throw combinations the way he used to. Mentally, I see Mayorga getting stronger and stronger, and if Oscar hasn't got it yet, he's gonna get it on May 6. Mayorga fights better against people he truly dislikes, and he doesn't like Oscar at all. I see Mayorga breaking him down with pressure and body work. When Mayorga hits him right on the nose, let's see how De La Hoya responds to that. My guess is, he's not going to like that."

Oscar will give Mayorga well-deserved beating

BY FRANKLIN McNEIL, nj.com
Star-Ledger Staff

No matter your past feelings toward Oscar De La Hoya, root for him Saturday night (HBO pay-per-view at 9). Root for Oscar to beat WBC junior middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga. And beat him good.

Here's why: No fighter has shown more hatred toward other human beings than Mayorga. He has gone after Oscar in many ways to prove his bigotry. He has berated Oscar's Mexican heritage (ethnic prejudice), questioned his sexual orientation (homophobia) and has even made derogatory statements about his wife (sexism).

It should have stopped there, but Mayorga chose to continue. He physically assaulted Oscar during a press conference -- hitting him behind the head -- and disrespected his deceased mother. Mayorga's morally debased behavior knows no bounds.

Through it all, Oscar has maintained his dignity. Sure, he has expressed anger, but never has he tossed offensive remarks toward anyone -- not even toward Mayorga. Oscar (37-4-0, 29 KOs) is a good man, a professional; Mayorga (28-5-1, 23 KOs) isn't.

Oscar's also a very good fighter. Mayorga falls short in that area, too.

What Mayorga can do is throw a lot of punches, very hard punches. And that makes this fight a dangerous one for Oscar.

But if all goes according to plan, and it should, Oscar will punish Mayorga in this good vs. evil showdown. If Oscar has his way, it will be a very good night for all decent people of the world.

And here's a little of what they're likely to see: Oscar using his superior boxing skills to hit Mayorga in the nose every time he throws those looping power shots. Oscar wobbling Mayorga in the third round and again in the fifth.

By the seventh, Oscar will be having his way. He'll draw a trickle of blood from Mayorga's nose -- that's right, just a trickle, Oscar won't want too much blood flowing at this point in the fight. No need to give the referee reason to call it off.

Forced to wipe blood from his nose, the champion now will know he's in trouble. And like most cowards, he will begin looking for a way out. But Oscar won't let him escape. Oscar promised to punish this clown for 12 rounds.

Staying true to his words, Oscar will wobble Mayorga again in the 10th round. Mayorga will nearly go down but Oscar will back off -- he doesn't want the fight to end early.

This isn't business; it's personal.

The fight will enter Round 12, exactly as Oscar said it would. Mayorga will still be on his feet, but by now it will be clear that he's a soon-to-be ex-champ. The only question left will be whether Oscar can finish Mayorga before the final bell rings. Hopefully, he can.

It'll cost $49.95 to see, but if the price was twice that amount it would be worth watching this very classy guy hand it to this very mean-spirited guy. Go Oscar.

For De La Hoya, these are the golden years

BY TIM SMITH
New York Daily News

RIO PIEDRAS, Puerto Rico - As he chips golf balls onto a putting green in his back yard, Oscar De La Hoya longingly points to a spot in the distance, amid the lush green mountains behind his home, to a golf course where he sometimes sneaks away in the morning to play a quick round.

Inside the house, his infant son sleeps, having confused his days for nights, the way most newborns do. De La Hoya is fretting about an afternoon appointment with the pediatrician for the baby's first shots. Inside his mahogany-paneled office, proposals and deals from the many arms of his Golden Boy companies await his approval. Even so, De La Hoya seems at peace in his Eden-like back yard.

De La Hoya's home is a sanctuary from the rigors of his job - boxer-turned-boxing promoter - and the controversy that inevitably surrounds it: He comes to the Spanish-style hacienda, which he shares with his wife, Millie, his infant son, Oscar Gabriel, and two dogs, to rest and regenerate.

De La Hoya, who was born and raised in East L.A., moved to Puerto Rico shortly after he married Millie five years ago. She was born in Puerto Rico and her relatives are here, which has been a blessing with the new baby. De La Hoya lives in the same neighborhood as his former nemesis, Felix Trinidad.

"I love it here, and Millie wanted us to have our children and raise them here so they could be around her family," De La Hoya says. "But I made a deal with her when we moved here. I told her that we would be here for five years and then we'd move back to Los Angeles so I'd be close to my work."

De La Hoya is having a new home built in Pasadena, Calif., and he plans to move there with his family in September. That will be around the time that he plans to fight for the last time. These are monumental changes in the life of the man known as "The Golden Boy."

At 33, De La Hoya has arrived at a crossroads. Physically, he is still in good shape and able to compete at a high level. But mentally, his thoughts have gone beyond his sport. His aspirations are no longer confined to winning world championships - he has six between 130 and 160 pounds.

In a wide-ranging interview at his home, De La Hoya talks about reaching that crossroads, the joys of fatherhood, the satisfaction he derives from his charitable work and the exhilaration he gets from running Golden Boy Enterprises, the umbrella company for his many business and charitable interests.

De La Hoya has just come off a four-city promotional tour with Ricardo Mayorga, whom De La Hoya will fight for the WBC super welterweight title at MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday (HBO Pay Per View). And he is just about to get into the heavy part of his training for the fight at the Wilfredo Gomez Gym in Guyanabo.

It was the most unsettling promotional tour that De La Hoya has ever been involved in. Mayorga insulted De La Hoya at every turn and even slapped him behind the head during a tour stop in Chicago.

"I really don't like this guy," De La Hoya says. "One of the reasons I picked this guy was I knew he'd get my blood boiling. He just reassured me because he really got under my skin. Now, I'm going to knock him out."

Only one other opponent, Fernando Vargas, has angered De La Hoya this much. He battered Vargas and knocked him out in the 12th round of a 2001 fight.

At this stage of De La Hoya's career and life, people wonder just why he is bothering with Mayorga, a foul-mouthed Nicaraguan slugger whose incendiary rhetoric normally sinks his opponents to his guttural level. Mayorga can't box his way out of a paper bag, but if he lands one of his unorthodox shots he can KO any opponent.

De La Hoya is the polar opposite of Mayorga. Not only is De La Hoya the most bankable Pay-Per-View boxing star in the business, he heads a holding company that owns shares in Spanish-language newspapers in L.A., New York, Miami and Chicago; owns buildings in downtown L.A. and Manhattan; and a promotion company that is looking to redefine the business of boxing. His charitable foundation has built a charter high school in Los Angeles, constructed a cancer ward at an L.A. hospital and awards scholarships to deserving students each year.

And he has authored a children's book entitled "Super Oscar" that is written in Spanish and English.

Boxing, of course, is still in De La Hoya's blood. He is driven by the loss in his last bout, a ninth-round KO by Bernard Hopkins on Sept. 18, 2004. Shortly after the fight, De La Hoya made Hopkins an equity partner in Golden Boy Promotions.

And he is driven back into the ring by his business interests: He knows how important it is to go out a champ. He plans to fight two more times - against Mayorga and then again on Sept. 16 - before hanging up his gloves for good.

"Being a champion and retiring as a champion is very important," De La Hoya says. "I have to do it. It's not really something that will give me personal satisfaction because I have accomplished almost everything I wanted to accomplish in boxing.

"Boxing and being a champion drives everything I do and everything I have ever done. Retiring as a champion is something that will follow me for the next 30 to 40 years. I have to go out a winner. It was supposed to happen at 160 pounds against Bernard Hopkins, but it didn't happen."

Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Enterprises, says De La Hoya's appearances in the ring are the catalyst for the promotion side of the business. Schaefer, a former banker with United Bank of Switzerland, says De La Hoya has a brand name recognition that is heightened when he fights and will be beneficial to attracting sponsors for the fights he promotes under the Golden Boy banner later. De La Hoya already has lined up Bacardi, Coca Cola and Southwest Airlines as sponsors for his match against Mayorga. None of the three companies traditionally sponsors boxing, but Schaefer says they do not see De La Hoya as the typical boxer.

Schaefer left UBS, where he managed the assets of the 20 richest men on the West Coast, to join De La Hoya in 2000. He has helped transform De La Hoya from boxer into businessman. It is a transformation that is nearly complete.

"When he is not training we talk every day," Schaefer says. "He is very involved in all the business decisions."

De La Hoya says they will be opening a bank, "Banco Latino Americano" in L.A., in July, and his development corporation is building home and retail centers on 10-acre sites in various communities in the area. They already have five properties up and running and they're getting ready to break ground on two other sites.

"In five or six months we'll have tenants moving in," De La Hoya says. "The businesses we're involved in let us focus on the Hispanic communities. It's not only good business, but it's giving back, it's creating jobs, it's creating opportunities in these communities."

De La Hoya says his athlete-to-businessman role model is former Lakers star Magic Johnson.

"He's a guy I look up to," De La Hoya says. "What he's doing in the African-American community, we're trying to do in the Hispanic community."

It was De La Hoya's idea to involve other boxers in the promotion side of his company. He has given equity stakes to Hopkins, who is in charge of recruiting and promoting matches on the East Coast; Shane Mosley, who is charge of identifying and developing young talent; and Marco Antonio Barrera, who will do in Mexico what Hopkins does on the East Coast in the U.S.

"Every fighter coming aboard has been taken advantage of in some way or another. So they're able to talk to other boxers about the way things should happen in this business," De La Hoya says. "We want fighters to educate themselves on the business of boxing. We want them to know how much money there is and how much they're getting. We want to be open and honest with our boxers. You can't believe the number of telephone calls we get from boxers who want to join Golden Boy."

De La Hoya cut ties with his long-time promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, two years ago. Though he has never accused Arum of cheating him - Arum made millions for De La Hoya and for himself before the split - De La Hoya has chosen to distance himself from the promoter as his own company has grown. Arum blames Schaefer for the rift between him and De La Hoya. De La Hoya didn't take kindly to Arum's comments about his performance against Hopkins, who KO'd De La Hoya with a body shot to the liver in the ninth round in the 2004 fight, when Arum said that De La Hoya didn't try to get up after Hopkins knocked him down. According to Arum, De La Hoya, who pounded the canvas, could have gotten up from the body shot, but decided to stay down.

"I'll never fight in a fight promoted by Bob Arum," De La Hoya says. "The thing he's now saying that I threw the fight against Hopkins because we had a deal before that fight is absurd. I didn't talk to Hopkins about joining Golden Boy until after that fight. The timing would appear to be suspicious, but it's not. The timing was right because Hopkins and me were both coming off some bad deals."

De La Hoya has one last fight on his menu after the Mayorga bout. It could be against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who was promoted by Arum. Mayweather removed the Arum obstacle last week by buying his way out of his promotional agreement with Arum for $750,000, paving the way for De La Hoya and Mayweather to meet in September. It is the biggest Pay-Per-View boxing match on the horizon - a passing-of-the-torch bout between boxing's two superstars.

De La Hoya has embraced the idea of making Mayweather the last match of his career. It would be the perfect springboard into his life after boxing.

"Out of all the things I'm doing with the newspapers, the book, the development company, boxing is the thing that presents me with the biggest opportunity to have the greatest impact," De La Hoya says. "Boxing is at a level where it's down. It doesn't look like it's ever going to come back up. But I'm in the sport for the long run, to change the sport and make it better. That could take five years, 15 years or 20 years.

"But I believe we can make those changes."

“TOP RANK STING” GRAND JURY CONVENES TODAY

02 May, 2006 by Pedro Fernandez; visit his site www.RingTalk.com

FIXED FIGHTS, DEATH & COCAINE ARE “OPERATION MATCHBOX”

Las Vegas, NV-There are those of you that have asked that I explain “Operation Matchbox,” the “sting” that the FBI set up in promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank plush offices on Howard Hughes Parkway, is all about. Joey Torreo was a convicted murderer who fought as Joey Torres. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, Torreo known from here on as Torres, got out on a technicality as he awaited a ruling asking for a new trial.

TORRES FREE ON TECHNICALITY OR PART OF STING?

Joey says the bond put up to secure his release was put up by ex-baseball star Paul Moliter, while others say his sister put her house up as collateral. Regardless, after 20 years in the penitentiary Joey Torres was back on the street. Throughout his incarceration, Joey, an extremely intelligent man who turns 46 on May 4, kept in contact with some people in boxing, either through the mail or by phone. It was always his dream to box professionally when he got out.

JOEY HEADS STRAIGHT TO BRUCE & SIN CITY!

Upon his release, Joey, then 41, after spending a brief amount of time in the Los Angeles area headed to Las Vegas. One of the people Joey reached out to was Top Rank VP Bruce Trampler. Concerning Torres, Trampler got the idea of writing a Rocky Balboa type of screenplay. You know, convicted murderer cleans his act by becoming a professional fighter. Taking Joey under his wing, Trampler put Joey to work within Top Rank. All the while Joey was supposedly training at the Top Rank gym here in town for a California fight.

HOW DID JOEY & THE FBI REALLY GET TOGETHER?

Now this is one of the aspects of Operation Matchbox that confuse me. Did Joey go to the FBI as he says, or was his release part of the original Federal sting? Regardless, Joey told the Federales that he was going to take part in a “fixed” fight in Anaheim, CA on April 27, 2002. Having taken several unsuccessful swings at boxing over the years, the FBI was willing to work with Joey if he could deliver.

SURVEILANCE TAPES TITLED “TOP RANK’S GREATEST HITS!”

The FBI set Joey up with a “wire” that in time taped entire conversations with the aforementioned Trampler, Sean Gibbons, Cameron Dunkin, Todd du Beof, and Perry Williams, the man that would lay down for Joey in the April 2002 fight. Among FBI Agent Henry Schlumpf’s favorite tunes on the “Top Rank’s Greatest Hits” CD is one in which Gibbons instructs Williams and Torres, in a hotel room, just how to rehearse their soon to take place fight.

“FIXED FIGHT” BENEFACTOR ALMOST LOSES!

With the FBI in attendance, and local TV airing the fight, Joey and Williams are introduced at the Anaheim Pond. The bell rings, and Joey who was better than 20 lbs. over the weight originally stipulated to, and a reported Hepatitis C carrier, is boxing professionally. Why Dean Louhis of the California Commission even allowed him to fight may some day be adequately answered. When the bell rang, Williams did the unthinkable and landed a punch! Down went Joey. Up in enough time to satisfy the referee, Williams never threw another punch per se. In the end, true to script, Joey was a winner in round two.

THE NAME “BIG FRANKIE” WOULD HAVE SENT ME RUNNING!

Around this same time, Joey hooked up with a decorated New York City Police Sgt. Frank Manzione, and brought him into the Top Rank fold. Operating a firm dubbed YGJ Trucking, which stood for “You’re Going to Jail,” Frankie dealt and bought stolen goods. He could even have somebody roughed up for you. All the while the people at Top Rank thought Frankie was a Mafia under boss. Like 99.9% of us, if a guy named “Big Frankie,” claiming to be a mobster comes anywhere near me, I’m running! Not the guys at Top Rank! No, this select group would hold court after 5 PM when Bob Arum’s offices officially closed. With cocaine plentiful to those who wanted it, the party in Vegas was on Howard Hughes Parkway.

JOEY WAS WIRED FOR SOUND & ON THE FBI PAYROLL!

With Joey’s boxing career no longer a reality, he ended up doing schlep work for Top Rank staffers. Joey says he fixed other fights, roughed some people up, and had somewhat of an intimate relationship with Todd du Beof, Arum’s stepson, and like Trampler, a Top Rank VP. By now, the FBI is paying Joey to play the role. With Henry Schlumpf collecting evidence from both Frankie and Joey, he was putting together a case that should end up charging that Arum’s company was “an ongoing criminal enterprise.”

FAKED MEDICAL TESTS LED TO RHONE’S DEATH!

Besides fights being fixed under the Top Rank umbrella, Medical and Optical tests were forged, fudged, or fabricated. One man pled Guilty over two years ago for faking medical slips for Top Rank in Texas. Oh, did I mention Tax Fraud? The same crime that sent gangster Al Capone away has IRS Inspector Bill Lee of Las Vegas issuing subpoenas. Fighters like “Yory Boy” Campas were fleeced out of their earnings. There is also a possibility that charges will be brought in the death of boxer Bradley Rhone.

MURDER, MANSLAUGHTER, OR NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE?

Or none of the above? Bradley Rhone died in the ring on July 18, 2003, officially a TKO 1 loss to Billy Zumbrun in Utah. According to the autopsy, Rhone, 34, a loser of 27 fights in a row, suffered from a number of maladies, any of which should have medically kept him out of boxing. It’s obvious somebody tampered with his Medical papers. How else could Rhone have been allowed to fight and subsequently die? The responsibility of Rhone’s death lies with whoever forged his papers!

WHY JOHNSON WILL PUSH “RICO ACT” ON TOP RANK?

U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson of Las Vegas will present evidence that Top Rank, with corporate officers Trampler and du Beof in charge, were operating what the Government terms, “An ongoing criminal enterprise.” When a fighter got sick sometimes there just wasn’t enough time to properly clear another. That’s when people from Top Rank either went to the aforementioned convicted Texan, or to a laboratory in Phoenix, AZ, to allegedly obtain fraudulent documents.

COCAINE, MONEY, & POWER EQUALS TROUBLE!

When you combine cocaine, impotent men craving power, greed and money, you have what amounts to a ticking bomb! The device would explode in January 2004, when Joey says Henry Schlumpf told him that his cover had been blown! The authorities say Joey went on the run, but Joey denies such. Within a few days, Joey was rearrested in Las Vegas. I have had some correspondence with Torres, who claims the FBI sold him out.

FIGHTERS LINKED TO FIXED FIGHTS INCLUDE…

In addition to Torres and Perry Williams, boxers Buck Smith, Marty Jakubowski, Verdell Smith, Dmitriy Salita, Dwayne Swift, Jorge Khawagi, and Jorge Paez Sr., have all been thought to have (some unknowingly) participated in fixed fights.

MORE AFTER I GET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!

This “Operation Matchbox” article was written in advance with the foreknowledge that I wouldn’t be actively writing for a while.

Pedro Fernandez

Rahman gets shot to avenge loss

'Great Black Hope' defends title against Maskaev

By Kevin Iole Las Vegas Review Journal

Hasim Rahman said he thought he was being handed "a gimmee" when he signed to fight Oleg Maskaev in 1999.

Rahman was then a rising heavyweight prospect who was expecting to fight a big name on HBO on Nov. 6, 1999.

Instead, he was given Maskaev.

"You have to realize, I thought the guy was a total bum," Rahman said. "I went into that fight thinking it was a gimmee, not knowing what I was getting myself into."

But what Rahman was given was a devastating knockout. In the eighth round, Maskaev knocked Rahman through the ropes and into the lap of HBO announcers Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant.

The stakes will be higher the second time the two meet. A Las Vegas resident, Rahman now holds the WBC heavyweight title and will defend it on Aug. 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center against Maskaev.

The fight takes on extra significance because Rahman is the last remaining American holding a heavyweight title. The other three champions -- Wladimir Klitschko of the IBF, Nikolai Valuev of the WBA and Sergei Liakhovich of the WBO -- are from the former Soviet Union.

"I'm the Great Black Hope," Rahman said, chuckling.

If Rahman gets past Maskaev, he is supposed to give a rematch to James Toney. Rahman and Toney fought to a controversial draw on March 18.

But Rahman has his eye on Wladimir Klitschko, who won the title on April 22 with an impressive seventh-round stoppage of Las Vegan Chris Byrd.

Rahman conceded Klitschko was impressive, but said much of that is because Byrd wasn't firing back.

Rahman compared Klitschko to baseball pitching great Randy Johnson.

"He's going to look dominant when all he's doing is pitching," Rahman said of Klitschko. "He's like Randy Johnson of the late 1990s. He's throwing 100 miles an hour, he's probably the most dominant pitcher there is and no one can hit the guy.

"But you can't put Randy Johnson into the cleanup spot and ask him to hit the ball out of the park and drive in runs. Randy can pitch but he can't produce offense. Klitschko can pitch, but when something's coming back, it's a different story."

* SAME OLD SAME OLD? -- The rematch between super welterweights Sugar Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas was finalized and will be held July 15 at the MGM Grand.

Mosley stopped Vargas in the 10th round on Feb. 25 at Mandalay Bay when a softball-sized welt grew over Vargas' left eye.

Mosley said Vargas never hurt him and that will play a factor in the rematch.

"I've seen what he has and he never hurt me with any of those shots," Mosley said. "I stayed in the pocket for a long time, but he couldn't hurt me.

"He's not quick enough and he's not fast enough. I'm going to do the same thing as last time and it might turn out worse because there are no surprises for me."

Mosley said Vargas proved he is no welsher by paying off on the $100,000 pre-fight bet they made.

Vargas promised to knock Mosley out prior to the fight and dared Mosley to bet $100,000 on it.

Mosley said the money was wired to his account a week or so after the fight.

"He knew he had to be a man of his word or he'd became a laughing stock among his fans," Mosley said.

* HE LIKES OSCAR -- Mosley is clearly biased, since he is a partner in Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, but he thinks De La Hoya has the style to beat Ricardo Mayorga when they meet Saturday at the MGM Grand for the WBC super welterweight title.

Mosley said De La Hoya has worked hard in the gym, which will offset his 20-month layoff.

"Oscar needs to work the jab and establish control with it," Mosley said. "And when Mayorga makes a mistake and throws some of those wild shots, Oscar has to catch him with a right hand and the left hook."

* TITO COMEBACK -- Promoter Don King suggested that former middleweight champion Felix Trinidad, who retired for a second time after a one-sided drubbing last year at the hands of Winky Wright, would come back if Mayorga beats De La Hoya.

Mayorga and Trinidad engaged in a rousing slugfest at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 2, 2004, which Trinidad won by eighth round stoppage.

"I think this is the time that (Mayorga) will knock out this guy (De La Hoya)," King said. "Don't be surprised when he knocks out Oscar, he'll have an opportunity to revenge himself with Tito Trinidad because Tito Trinidad is waiting in the wings to come back no sooner than (Mayorga) knocks out Oscar."

* READY AGAIN -- Alejandro Terra Garcia holds the WBA super welterweight title, which he will defend Saturday against Jose Antonio Rivera on Showtime.

But though he's 25-1 with 24 knockouts, he's usually asked about the one loss, a knockout at the hands of Travis Simms on Dec. 13, 2003.

Garcia dropped his hands when referee Samuel Viruet started to break the fighters.

Viruet changed his mind and Simms clipped Garcia on the butt of the chin, knocking him out.

Garcia has regained a world title, but is bitter that he never got a rematch. He doesn't, though, have hard feelings toward Viruet.

"I don't think it was (cheating)," Garcia said. "I just listened to what the referee told me. This is boxing. It was my mistake to drop my hands and he took advantage. That is past."

* TIDBITS -- Middleweight Sergio Mora, who was the champion on Season One of the reality show, "The Contender," will meet Archak TerMiliksetian in the main event of an ESPN2 card Thursday at the Aladdin. ... Unbeaten lightweight Nick Casal signed a long-term deal with promoter Gary Shaw.

Golden Gloves Results

AP Reports OMAHA, Neb. -- Eric Fields outpointed Jordan Shimmell on Saturday night to win his second straight Golden Gloves national heavyweight title.

Fields, from Ardmore, Okla., outworked Shimmell down the stretch to earn a 3-2 decision. Fields was one of two past champions to claim a second title Saturday.

"I'm real proud of myself because last year I came out of nowhere," Fields said. "This year everybody knew who I was, and everybody was really gunning for me."

Fields kept the pressure on Shimmell in the first round, often forcing the challenger against the ropes. But Shimmell, from Hudsonville, Mich., settled in during the second round and the fighters spent much of rest of the match trading punches in the middle of the ring.

Fields, who said after the match that he will turn professional as soon as he can, finished the fight as the stronger boxer, throwing more punches down the stretch.

In another fight featuring a past champion, Brad Solomon of Douglasville, Ga., who won the 152-pound crown last year, took the 145-pound title with a 4-1 win over Michael Dallas II of Bakersfield, Calif.

"He was strong and everything," Solomon said. "After I figured him out, I started baiting him in with my tricks."

In the 106-pound division, Luis Yanez of Duncanville, Texas, scored a second-round knockdown on the way to 3-2 decision over defending-champion Roberto Ceron of Doraville, Ga.

"I threw my jab and I took a step back, and that's when he was falling," Yanez said. "I knew that was a knockdown."

Felix Stewart of Columbus, Ohio, fought to a 4-1 decision over Michael Hunter of Las Vegas in the super heavyweight division, which featured boxers heavier than 201 pounds.

"It was tough duel, but I fought it out at the end," Stewart said.

In other finals:

• Yathomas Riley of San Diego won the 178-pound title with a 5-0 decision over Bear Richardson of Philadelphia.

• Edwin Rodriguez of Worcester, Mass., notched a 4-1 decision over Jonathan Nelson of Little Rock, Ark., in the 165-pound final.

• Demetruis Andrade of Providence, R.I., took the 152-pound title with a 5-0 win over Fernando Guerrero of Salisbury, Md.

• Jesus Mendez III of Houston scored a 3-2 decision over crowd-favorite Terence Crawford of Omaha to take the 132-pound title.

• Saddam Ali of New York beat Rico Ramos of Los Angeles 4-1 to win the crown at 125 pounds.

• Aaron Alafa of Visalia, Calif., earned a 3-2 victory over Steven Huitt-Johnson of St. Joseph, Mo., in the 112-pound division.

_Efrain Esquivias of Torrence, Calif. used a fourth-round knockdown to score a 5-0 victory over Derek Winston of Minneapolis in the 119-pound final.

Cullen, LA
Back Yard Boxing Match Breaks into Brawl

A backyard boxing match, in one Webster parish community, broke out into an all out brawl, Monday.

Now, one man who witnessed what happened, is wondering if someone will be arrested.

"There are people who could have died in my front yard," says Reverend James Drew.

Drew still has the towel he used to wipe the blood off of a young man's body, after Drew say the teenager was beat so badly he had a seizure. Drew called police Monday night when two groups of Springhill High School students, from two different towns, fought in his front yard.

"I've never seen nothing like it in my life, fifteen to twenty people."

At one point, Drew says the back bumper of his wife's car was cracked when one of the fighter's fell on it.

"One guy came from Springhill. I had to cut it, that's it."

Artemus Crow is the home owner, who allowed his son, and some of his son's friends, to box in his backyard, Monday. Crow, who's home is in the quiet Webster parish community of Cullen, says some teenagers from nearby Springhill, dropped by watch and box.

"We been doing it for two weeks. I let the kids box, they been boxing for fun, playing with the gloves or whatever, they had some guys come down from Springhill, and one guy felt that he couldn't beat this other guy. He wanted to throw his gloves off and fight for real," says Crow.

From the home video of the boxing match, obtained by News 12, you can hear one man saying, "Ya'll fight by hand."

Webster parish Sheriff Gary Sexton confirms with News 12, an ambulance was dispatched to the home, just after 6pm Monday night.

Crow says the front yard fight knocked out his idea of another backyard boxing match, for a group of young men, just looking to have fun.

"They could have been out their in the street robbing somebody, stealing something, selling some drugs, or doing anything but they were right here boxing."

Jones, Holyfield, Hill Could Create Legends Pay Per View Card

By Dan Rafael ESPN.com

Roy Jones Jr., the faded former pound-for-pound king who has lost his last three fights (two by crushing knockout), will return to the ring July 29 to face little known "Prince" Badi Ajamu.

Although that is the only fight on the card that has been announced, there's more.

It is expected to be part of a pay-per-view "legends" card that will also include former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who is 2-5-1 in his last eight fights, facing club fighter Frank Wood and cruiserweight titlist Virgil Hill defending against Kenny Keene, a 37-year-old former fringe contender who has fought once in three years.

It will be an independent pay-per-view, not on HBO PPV, where Jones and Holyfield fought so many of their biggest fights. HBO was pitched the "legends" card, but passed given its sideshow nature and poor matches.

No site has been selected, but Boise, Idaho, Keene's home state, is a possibility, as are sites in Mexico.

According to Jim Thomas, Jones' adviser, Ritch Danner of Las Vegas-based Sports and Entertainment Media called him originally to inquire about Jones' interest in a rematch with Hill.

"I told him that Roy wanted to concentrate on the light heavyweight or super middleweight division, where he is at his best, and that cruiserweight was not part of Roy's plan," Thomas told ESPN.com. "Ritch called back and said, 'What if I put Evander, Roy and Virgil all on the same card? We started talking and we reached terms quickly and easily. They like the idea of fighting together on the same card."

Holyfield, 43, and Hill, 42, were 1984 Olympic teammates and Holyfield and Jones, who were once close to fighting each other a few years ago, have a friendly relationship. And despite Jones owning a knockout victory against Hill, they have great respect for each other.

Jones (49-4, 38 KOs), who used to earn millions for his fights, is taking a substantial pay cut, Thomas said. But he wouldn't divulge the terms.

"My advice to Roy is to do what is necessary for him to show he is still a great fighter," said Thomas, the former longtime adviser for Holyfield. "The money and venue is the not as important as the platform to show he is a great fighter. Roy is worried about the things that matter -- winning the fight and winning impressively."

Thomas said Jones' main focus eventually is to fight unified super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, and that he is willing to go down to Calzaghe's division for the fight if he needs to.

"That's who Roy really wants to fight," Thomas said. "But he needs to win this fight first."

Ajamu (25-2-1, 14 KOs), 34, of Camden, N.J., said he was excited to fight a big-name fighter.

"Once the American people see me fight Roy Jones Jr., I have no doubts that I'll be fighting for major world title belts," said Ajamu, who is trained by Buddy McGirt. "I want to do what hasn't been done in my division for a long time, since Roy Jones Jr., and make my mark by bringing all of the major belts back to the United States."

Ajamu's losses were decisions to Otis Grant in 2004 and Rico Hoye in 2003. The draw was in an eight-rounder in 2002 against Anthony Bonsante, the former participant on "The Contender" reality series.

Jones, 37, a former middleweight, super middleweight, lightweight and heavyweight champion, was knocked out in two rounds in a light heavyweight title bout by Antonio Tarver in May 2004 and in nine rounds by Glen Johnson in September 2004. Jones faced Tarver in their third meeting last fall and lost a lopsided decision, after which many called for his retirement.