WBA Won’t Approve Diaz vs. Freitas

WBA Press Release
April 3, 2007

PANAMA – The World Boxing Association (WBA) wants to clarify the situation of its Lightweight champion Juan Diaz as in the last few weeks it has been widely publicized that he would be taking part in a fight that has not been approved by the WBA.

During the last WBA Annual Convention, held back September 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, representatives for Juan Diaz solicited a special permit for him to fight an optional fight against Fernando Angulo even though his mandatory period was overdue. The permission was granted on the grounds that the winner of Diaz vs. Angulo would face Prawet Singwancha, who had been appointed as official challenger, before February 4, 2007.

However, in the last few weeks a unification bout between Diaz and Freitas emerged as a possibility.

The WBA has always been in favor of encouraging unification fights and in this case has been open for an agreement between the parties involved for that bout to come off.

Consequently, the WBA showed its good willingness towards this matter but ultimately it goes far beyond its power. As no agreement had been reached, the WBA had no other option but to call a purse bid for the Diaz vs. Singwancha fight to proceed as mandated.

The mentioned purse bid was won by Golden Boy Promotions on Monday and that fight has to take place within the next 90 days.

The World Boxing Association (WBA) informs that on Monday April 2 Golden Boy Promotions won the purse bid for the WBA Lightweight mandatory fight between champion Juan Diaz and official challenger Prawet Singwancha.

The purse bid was supervised by WBA Executive Vice-President Gilberto Jesus Mendoza and Audit Director Michael Welsh and was won with a 160,000 US dollars offer, presented by Sampson Lewkowicz on behalf of Golden Boy Promotions.

The cities appointed as possible venues for the fight are Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Atlantic City, while the tentative date is June 30.

According to WBA Rules, the winning promoter of the purse bid must submit the signed contracts of the fight to the WBA and confirm the date and venue within the next 15 days.

TWO PURSE BID CANCELLED

Meanwhile, two other purse bids originally scheduled for Monday were cancelled due to the fact that the respective managers and promoters have come to an agreement and have sent the corresponding signed contracts for the fights.

In the case of the vacant WBA Light Flyweight title fight between No. 2 contender Juan Carlos Reveco and No. 3 contender Nehtra Sasiprapa, the bout will be organized by promoter Osvaldo Rivero, who appointed the province of Mendoza, Argentina as the venue next May 25.

As far as the bout between WBA Super Welterweight champ Travis Simms and official challenger Joachim Alcine, it will be promoted by Don King Productions, who appointed the state of Connecticut, US, as the venue, no later than next June 30.

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Don King in Front Row for Pope

By DANIELA PETROFF
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

VATICAN CITY — Don King got a front row seat at Pope Benedict XVI’s general audience Wednesday. The usually flamboyant boxing promoter, wearing a blue suit with his preferred high hair style primly flattened for the papal event, gave the pope a green-and-gold boxing belt and a handwritten letter asking for prayers for people ranging from President Bush to the world’s sick and aged.

“I was thrilled to be there. It was a deep spiritual experience,” King told The Associated Press after the two-hour open-air audience in St. Peter’s Square.

In Rome to discuss possible boxing matches in Italy, King had expressed his wish to meet with the pope.

“Faith is the thing that carries us through,” the 75-year-old King said as he walked through St. Peter’s Square, waving Italian and Vatican flags and signing autographs.

Don King Productions spokesman Alan Hopper said the Vatican visit was arranged through a boxer King represents _ Italian super welterweight champion Luca Messi, whose brother Alessandro is a Catholic priest.

King was seated in the front row of a special section on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica. He was able to hand the pope the gift and the letter as Benedict drove slowly by in an open jeep at the end of the audience.

King, who spent four years in prison for manslaughter, had hoped for a personal meeting with Benedict. Very few nonchurch people, however, receive private time with the pope during his Wednesday audiences.

Before arriving in Rome, King toured Messi’s hometown, Bergamo. During the visit to the northern Italian city, King began a fundraising campaign to restore the city’s church of St. Mary Major, which includes frescoed paintings on the walls of a pre-existing church buried underneath.

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Mormeck Wins Against Bell

Mormeck Wins Back Cruiserweight Title
17 March 2007

Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck regained his WBA/WBC cruiserweight titles from O’Neil Bell in Saturday’s rematch. Just over a year on from their explosive first fight, Mormeck won out on points in a very good fight at the Levallois-Perret, France, Saturday night.

The difference on was Mormeck was able to weather Bell’s late surge to finish the fight and win a close, unanimous decision in front of a raucous sellout crowd of 4,000 at the Palais des Sports Marcel Cerdan.

Mormeck (33-3, 22 KOs), from Point-a-Pitre, Guadalupe, France, now residing in Rosny-sous-Bois, had been the first French fighter to become a unified world champion, and he said he felt tremendous pressure attempting to regain the titles in his home country.

“I felt the whole country of France on my shoulders going into this fight,” Mormeck said, “but it helped me. I was fighting for them tonight. We were in it together. I couldn’t let them down.”

Saturday’s match resembled the first fight in many ways as Mormeck built an early lead by staying busy and landing power shots. While he faded at Madison Square Garden in what became a “Fight of the Year” (and “Round of the Year”) nominee that took place on Jan. 7, 2006, Mormeck was able to box his way to a win in the later rounds when Bell asserted himself most strongly.

Bell had commented at the weigh in on Friday that Mormeck looked like he had trained harder for the rematch by the looks of his physique, and Mormeck came out aggressively from the opening bell.

Bell tried to establish his jab and often followed with one-two combinations while Mormeck—just as he had done in the first fight—landed power shots, including four tremendous right hands in the opening stanza.

Mormeck added an uppercut, some left hooks and body shots in the second round. Bell tried to answer but Mormeck landed the harder shots.

Bell landed an uppercut of his own in the third round before Mormeck fell to the canvas at 2:15 into the round from a low blow. When the action resumed after a one minute break, Mormeck showered a vicious assault on Bell that, ironically, may be best remembered for the fact that Bell didn’t go down.

The non-stop action continued in round four as Bell attempted to counter Mormeck’s power shots, but the Frenchman seemed unwilling to lose exchanges in the early going of this seesaw battle.

The brisk pace slowed a bit in the beginning of the fifth round before the staggering blows returned. Seeking ways to break Mormeck down, Bell even acted like he was hurt near the end of the round to only try to gain an advantage by exploding with combinations.

Bell had his best round of the fight in the sixth. The referee warned Mormeck for punching in the back of the head at 1:40 into the round. Bell then deployed a rope-a-dope strategy in an attempt to get Mormeck to exhaust his seemingly boundless energy.

The tactic worked wonders for Bell, who appeared to have Mormeck on the verge of a knockdown before the bell sounded ending the round.

Bell tried to keep his momentum rolling into the seventh, and a referee’s warning to Mormeck for hitting behind the head seemed to encourage him. Bell used more rope-a-dope before returning to the center of the ring for more brawling.

Bell responded to a belt-line shot in the eighth round with a delayed-response pratfall, apparently mocking Mormeck’s low-blow fall to the canvas in the third round.

Mormeck sensed or learned from the open scoring announcements spoken in French on the public address system that he had built a sizeable lead going into the ninth round.

Bell knocked a fading Mormeck out in the 10th round in their first fight, and Mormeck made a deft decision to box more and conserve energy for the championship rounds.

Mormeck lowered his punch output and displayed boxing skills in the closing rounds while Bell wanted to continue brawling to pick up some desperately needed rounds from the judges.

In the end, Bell’s rally came a few rounds too late. All three judges scored the fight for Mormeck by scores of 116-112 and 115-113, twice.

Bell (26-2-1, 24 KOs), from Jamaica now fighting out of Atlanta, did not agree with the decision.

“Mormeck is a monster in the ring,” Bell said. “I spared him the knockout this time but I think I did enough to win.

“I am disappointed by this decision. I thought I won every round. I am appalled by the judges. He never hurt me.

“I’ve been off for 14 months and my promoter Warriors Boxing needs to answer for that.”

Bell prowled the dressing room hallways looking for Mormeck after the fight, and he stormed into the post-fight press conference with his anger festering while he waited for the Frenchman to arrive.

After Mormeck commented on the fight, he responded to a reporter’s question by saying, “I don’t like O’Neil Bell.” Before the translator could say, “but I do have tremendous respect for him as a fighter,” Bell rushed toward Mormeck and a brief melee broke out that promoter Don King would later characterize as “deplorable after such a great match took place.”

The victor was understandingly more positive in his comments.

“Bell was in good shape,” Mormeck said. “He always has surprises for me and tonight was no different. He was still standing after 12 rounds.

“I do not respect him as a person but I do have tremendous respect for him as a fighter.”

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King To Unify Heavyweights

King Vows To Unify Heavyweights
by Barnaby Chesterman
15 March 2007

PARIS – Don King rolled into Paris this week ahead of the cruiserweight world title rematch between undisputed champion O’Neil Bell and France’s Jean-Marc Mormeck.

The flamboyant King’s primary role is that of fight promoter but the man with electric hair had a surprise for everyone up his sleeve.

Aside from seemingly turning his hand to French politics during his stay in the French capital – King spent half the pre-fight press conference in Parisian suburb Levallois campaigning for Levallois mayor Patrick Balkony, who does not even have any elections coming up.

The loud man of boxing was also keen to tell anyone within earshot about his next engagement.

After Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated title fight, King will head off to the Vatican for a meeting with the Pope.

“Pope Benedict XVI is going to receive me and I’m going to ask him to say a prayer for this great man Patrick Balkony,” gushed King, clearly pleased that Balkony had helped him bring the title fight to France.

Mormeck is King’s main man for the fight and the promoter is convinced his charge will win back the titles he lost to Bell in their original meeting a year ago.

“I will be with Pope Benedict XVI to tell him about the great comeback (of Mormeck) that took place here and I’m going to present him with the WBC belt,” added King, who was draped in sparkling silver jewellery.

After meeting with the Pope, an arrangement facilitated by the priest brother of a fighter King promotes, King will turn his attentions back to the jumbled heavyweight division.

After briefly claiming that Mormeck will storm the division once he has dealt with Bell and swept up all before him at cruiserweight, King turned his focus to the actual reigning champion big men.

With four recognised world championship belts in each of the 17 professional boxing divisions, the sport can become somewhat confusing for the ordinary fan.

A few years ago, King tried to clear up matters in the middleweight division by staging a mini-competition between the four belt holders.

American Bernard Hopkins emerged as the undisputed middleweight king and a star was born. He has since lost his titles but his name still commands the utmost respect in the boxing fraternity.

Now King wants to put on a similar winner-takes-all competition in the heavyweight division.

“Absolutely! That’s the only way to give the public something they can relate to and identify with,” said King.

“They must be able to know who is the champion. Right now they’re very confused and so am I.”

The four current world champion heavyweights are Ukraine’s Vladimir Klitschko, giant seven-feet tall Russian Nikolay Valuev, Kazakh-born Russian Oleg Maskaev and American Shannon Briggs.

It is generally accepted that the two outstanding fighters in the division are Klitschko and Valuev – whose recent performances have suggested he is more than a giant freak show.

King, who co-promotes Valuev, is desperate to get Klitschko into the ring with his man.

“He’s on the list. I want Klitschko like a rare steak or roast beef. Nikolay Valuev told me yesterday: I want him Mr King, I want him. He has a great appetite and it’s insatiable.

“Nikolay is a giant man with a giant heart. He’s a great man and I love him. He protects women in the parking lot.

“He’s the man who gets out there and knocks down men that are pushing women around or grabbing their pocket books.”

That is one fight the world is waiting to see, but one that poses a minefield of contractual obstacles to overcome.

However, after meeting the Pope, hopefully King will come away from the Vatican with the kind of divine intervention needed to make Klitschko-Valuev become a reality.

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DON KING IN RING WITH POPE

March 14, 2007 — WE hope someone is videotaping when high-haired boxing promoter Don King has an audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on March 21.

King, who wore a floor-length white mink coat to President Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration, is a larger-than-life character who started out in Cleveland, Ohio, as a numbers racketeer who was accused of killing two men. The first incident was deemed self-defense, but the second was manslaughter – which got King four years in prison.

“I am standing in the need of prayer,” King told Page Six yesterday from Paris. “I’m going to ask the pontiff to pray for all of us. He has a direct line to the man who sits high, looks low and keeps his eye on the sparrow.” That “man” would be Jesus, King informed us.

While King is a Baptist, not a Roman Catholic, the ecumenical entrepreneur doesn’t believe there should be any quibbling between denominations. “The thing is, we’re all going before the man on high on Judgment Day.”

Quoting Isaiah, King said, “Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness flow like a mighty stream.”

The papal meeting came about through Luca Messi, a super-middleweight King put in a big fight in Chicago two years ago. Unfortunately, Messi lost. “I’m going to try and help him again,” King vowed. But Messi has a brother who is a priest and who agreed to set up an audience with the pope.

King is in Paris promoting Saturday’s sold-out rematch of last year’s dramatic slugfest at Madison Square Garden between O’Neil Bell and Jean-Marc Mormeck. Then, King will be honored at a festival in Bergamo, Italy, the Messi brothers’ hometown, before his pilgrimage to Rome.

King, who often wears crazy clothes and waves Old Glory, owns three large, diamond-encrusted crucifixes – “for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.” But asked what he’ll wear to his meeting with Benedict XVI, King humbly replied, “I’ll see what the protocol is.”

The bombastic orator seems prepared to play second fiddle to His Holiness and pay every respect to the Vicar of Christ. “I am going to ask the pontiff for world peace. I will be prepared to kiss his ring.”

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Klitschko vs. Austin

Klitschko Enjoys Easy Win Over Austin
10 March 2007

Wladimir Klitschko made light work of American challenger Ray Austin with an easy second-round TKO win to successfully defend his IBF and IBO heavyweight titles on Saturday.

Klitschko was back at Mannheim’s SAP Arena where he won his two titles last April in a one-sided win over American Chris Byrd, and Austin proved to be just as weak after the Ukrainian unleashed a flurry of punches.

Austin, 36, barely troubled the 30-year-old champion and was left slumped on the canvas and counted out after Klitschko landed several heavy blows after 1 minute 23 seconds of the second round to claim his 48th career win.

“He was slower than my sparring partner,” said an unimpressed Klitschko.

“I am pleased with the win, back in the place where I won the titles, and I am looking forward to my next fight.”

The fight was thrown into doubt on Friday following a squabble when Austin’s flamboyant promoter Don King hinted the showdown could be scrapped in a row over Klitschko’s choice of gloves.

But both fighters took the ring in Klitschko’s second defence following last November’s decisive seventh-round victory over Calvin Brock at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Klitschko’s record is now 48 wins and 3 losses, while this was the Austin’s first defeat in thirteen fights since he suffered a technical knock-out defeat by Attila Levin in 2001.

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Austin Promises Transformed Fighter

By ROY KAMMERER
03.09.07, 4:34 PM ET

Not many believe American challenger Ray Austin will take the IBF heavyweight title away from Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday.

But Austin’s camp is promising to send a different fighter into the ring against the hard-hitting Ukrainian than the one that compiled a mediocre 24-3-4 record with no big wins.

Stacy McKinley has trained Austin for the past two months, after drawing praise for improving Samuel Peter of Nigeria, who is in line for a title shot against WBC champion Oleg Maskaev.

“You’re going to see a much improved fighter,” said McKinley, who was the assistant trainer for Mike Tyson for a decade. “I don’t see any reason he can’t win. Once you get past the punching power of Klitschko, there is nothing there.”

Three straight wins against top fighters have ranked Klitschko – 47-3 with 42 knockouts – at the top of the current heavyweights.

He beat Peter – before McKinley trained him – then stopped Chris Byrd and Calvin Brock. Now, the 30-year-old Ukrainian is looking beyond Saturday’s mandatory defense to loftier goals.

Klitschko’s hopes of a unification fight, however, have been thwarted by the competing interests of the four boxing organizations and their champions’ promoters.

“I have been working on that since I won the title again, but I’m not one step further,” said Klitschko, who was once the WBO champion. “But fights can happen that everybody wants to see.”

Wladimir and older brother Vitali Klitschko – who promote themselves – see Saturday’s bout as about more than just two boxers. Austin fights for Don King, whom the Klitschkos have generally refused to work with.

“This isn’t just about two fighters, it’s about two promoters,” said Vitali Klitschko, the former WBC champion who is planning a comeback.

Like Austin, Wladimir Klitschko has also received a boost from his own corner.

Emanuel Steward, who trained Lennox Lewis, is credited for vastly improving Klitschko since two knockouts threatened to end his career. Klitschko was stopped in two rounds by Corrie Sanders in 2003 and in five by Lamon Brewster in 2004.

“Most trainers ignore the basics. Steward and I are the few that don’t,” McKinley said. “It’s like a house. You have to start with the structure, then build from there. That’s what I did with Peter and that’s what I’m doing with Austin.”

McKinley said Austin, for the first time in his career, has the benefit of a professional training camp, multiple sparring partners and conditioning coaches.

Before a July draw against Sultan Ibragimov, which earned him the Klitschko fight, Austin had just eight sparring rounds.

Now Austin has been fine-tuned by the pros to beat Klitschko, according to McKinley. They are close to the same height and weight at around 6-foot-6 and 246 pounds.

“Steward has been saving Klitschko from the corner in his last fights,” McKinley said. “The downside of Klitschko is he can’t take a punch and he hasn’t got the heart.”

Klitschko, avoiding any trash talking, said he hoped for a quick end to the fight.

But Steward was quick to defend his fighter.

“After one minute of the first round, everything will change for Ray Austin when he realizes who he is in the ring with,” Steward said. “Wladimir is on a different level.”

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Boxer Burgos In Coma After Bout

CBC Sports
March 5, 2007

Mexican flyweight Victor Burgos underwent brain surgery following his loss on Saturday to Australian Vic Darchinyan.

The operation to remove a blood clot and relieve swelling was performed at Harbor-University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center late Saturday.

Burgos was stopped in the 12th round of the fight at Carson, Calif., and slumped on his stool afterward, prompting ringside physician Dr. Paul Wallace to quickly summon a stretcher and ambulance.

According to a release from Don King Productions, the promoter of Saturday’s 112-pound title bout, Burgos remained in a medically induced coma, a method used to help reduce swelling around the brain.

“I urge everyone to join me in prayer for Victor Burgos and his family,” King said. “I know he’s fighting right now to come through this because a brave fighter is what he has always been. Now we need God’s help to see him back to health.”

Burgos had been knocked down in the second round and though he tried to battle back, trailed badly on the scorecards late in the fight. He had also slipped to the canvas without being hit on several occasions.

Darchinyan’s trainer, Billy Hussein, told The Australian newspaper that he and his fighter were both disappointed and saddened by what had transpired.

“Why let him be punished and cop a beating like that?,” said Hussein. “I do wish his corner or the referee would have stopped it earlier.”

Burgos’ record fell to 39-15-3 with the loss to the undefeated Darchinyan, who is 28-0 with 22 knockouts.

Burgos won the IBF junior flyweight title in 2003, and moved up to the 112-pound flyweight limit to challenge Darchinyan.

The 32-year-old fighter has been joined at the hospital by his wife, Claudia, his manager, and several family members and friends.

The bout was on the undercard of a 122-pound title fight between champions Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez.

Marquez overcame a knockdown to win when Vazquez couldn’t continue after seven rounds due to a broken nose.

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