It has been said there are two kinds of smarts in the world. Chris Algieri happens to be both.
Boxing
She hadn’t fought in more than two years, so many in boxing thought Layla McCarter had retired from the sport in which she had spent 14 years as one of the best female fighters.
Arkansas prosecutors have charged champion middleweight boxer Jermain Taylor in a shooting at his home. Taylor was charged Wednesday with first-degree battery and first-degree terroristic threatening. If convicted, he faces up to 26 years in prison.
Manny Pacquiao didn’t need the huge bouquet of flowers he was holding to feel welcome in this gambling enclave, where he will be fighting at an odd hour Sunday against an opponent who has to already feel as though he won boxing’s biggest lottery.
Vic Drakulich has been officiating fights in Nevada since 1986. Now, the 61-year-old referee is in a fight of his own. Drakulich was diagnosed with a rare form of abdominal cancer two weeks ago and will undergo surgery in mid-January at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
As Chris Algieri wraps up preparations for the biggest fight of his life, he does so with the knowledge that a lot more people know about him now than they did before he agreed to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 22 in Macau.
Diego Magdaleno’s first appearance at 135 pounds was a successful one, as the Las Vegas boxer scored a third-round knockout of Hevinson Herrera on Saturday in their 10-round main event bout at Pharr, Texas.
Top Rank had earlier announced a card at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas featuring former world welterweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr. facing Diego Chaves in the main event on HBO.
Two fledgling professional fighters in Las Vegas are suing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and producers of a cable TV show, alleging they never consented to be part of a promotional training bout depicted as a “dog house” fight that was supposed to last until someone quit.
Brandon “The Havoc” Harris is an undefeated professional boxer. “I came up with the name myself because I destroy everything that gets in front of me when I’m fighting,” he said. Outside the ring he’s “the nicest guy … always laughing and cracking jokes.” He shares the art of boxing at the Henderson Multigenerational Center.
Former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks is in a Las Vegas hospital after a second operation for abdominal problems.
The 27-year-old super featherweight from Las Vegas will fight Arturo Uruzquita to headline a card Nov. 8 in Pharr, Texas. In his last fight, Magdaleno easily outpointed Oscar Bravo on May 17.
The fight that the boxing world has been waiting to see for years will finally take place in 2015. That’s the word from Floyd Mayweather Sr., who said Thursday that his son, Floyd, will put his perfect record and “pound-for-pound best boxer” title on the line against Manny Pacquiao sometime next year.
If Bermane Stiverne has learned anything during his brief reign as a heavyweight champion, it’s patience. Stiverne, who won the vacant World Boxing Council title May 10 with a sixth-round technical knockout of Chris Arreola, has a mandatory title defense against undefeated Deontay Wilder.
LISTEN TO THE TOP FIVE HERE