After a burglary at his Las Vegas apartment put his career on hold, super bantamweight Jessie Magdaleno returns to the ring Saturday to fight Erik Ruiz at Texas Station.
Boxing
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that camps of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are ironing out details, such as pre-fight drug testing, that could bring the two boxers into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden later this year.
Bermane Stiverne, won the World Boxing Council heavyweight belt May 10 when he stopped Chris Arreola, remains focused as he trains to defend his title. Most of the hype focuses on undefeated Deontay Wilder, his opponent on Jan. 17 at the MGM Grand Garden.
He didn’t win another world title, but Ishe Smith left the ring in San Antonio last month with his dignity intact and the knowledge he’s not through as a boxer.
“At the end of the day, I want Nevada to maintain its reputation as the fight capital of the world,” said Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Francisco Aguilar.
The condition of Muhammad Ali has “vastly improved” since he was admitted to the hospital over the weekend with a mild case of pneumonia and doctors hope to discharge the boxing legend soon, a spokesman said on Monday.
If you followed boxing in the 1990s, you probably remember Johnny Tapia. The former super flyweight and bantamweight champion from Albuquerque, N.M., was known for his entertaining style in the ring and a self-destructive lifestyle outside it.
Boxing great Muhammad Ali was hospitalized with a mild case of pneumonia that was caught early and should result in a short hospital stay, a spokesman said Saturday night.
It took months to finalize the Jan. 17 title fight between Bermane Stiverne, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, and undefeated Deontay Wilder, but it won’t take long to sell the fight to the public, primarily because there’s less than a month to do so.
Don’t expect the state attorney general’s office to get involved this time after the latest unpopular decision in the boxing world.
Mauricio Sulaiman, who watched his father rule the World Boxing Council for nearly 40 years, hopes to restore credibility and build a bigger fan base for the sport. “We have to get the people’s trust back in boxing,” he said.
This is always the tough part: Predicting how a fighter who looked as dominating as Amir Khan on Saturday night might translate in the ring against Floyd Mayweather.
Timothy Bradley has had the judges in his corner in the past when he has fought in Las Vegas. On Saturday, he felt their wrath. Bradley appeared to have dominated Diego Chaves in a welterweight bout at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. But all he got was a draw.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. kept quiet as Manny Pacquiao and his team campaigned for a fight. But Mayweather ended his silence Friday. In an interview with Showtime from San Antonio, Mayweather said he wants the fight and claimed Top Rank chairman Bob Arum is the reason the bout hasn’t happened.
It would be easy for Amir Khan to try to deny his feelings and let his critics have their way with him for being hypocritical. But the fact is Khan has wanted a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for some time now.
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