WORLD BOXING REVIEW
v. 52 / e. 10
OCTOBER 2006
(following are selected entries from the magazine's "Notes & Quotes" section)
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Wednesday 04/10/06
"People been askin' me why I'm turnin' pro. They're sayin' "You could be an Olympic champ", "You could win a gold medal". That'd be real nice, I guess, but at this point in my life, with my family situation, it ain't even close to bein' a priority. My mother's sick and it's gonna take money to make her better. Simple as that. Could say the decision been taken out o' my hands, but I ain't complainin'."
Ohio-based amateur heavyweight Earnie Shavers speaks about his decision to turn his back on a likely spot on the Beijing Olympics team and join the professional ranks. The 22 year-old's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in September and Shavers intends to use his professional winnings to fund her treatment.
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Friday 06/10/06
"When I woke up Wednesday mornin' it was like, for a second, thought it had all been a bad dream. Thought I'd only dreamnt that Cheetah Brown had beaten me. But then it all came crashin' down an' I jus' spent the day lyin' around or starin' out the window like some kind o' zombie. See, I never even con'emplated losin' that fight. Defeat didn't even enter my mind and when I stepped in the ring I felt invincible. I fully expected to kick his ass and then go on and claim the title in December. But life does these kind o' things to ya, man. Life hits hard and this loss has given me a big wake up call. I'm gonna have to get stronger, more disciplined, tighter. This Alvarez cat's gonna be just as hungry as me when he step in that ring and I'll jus' have to be harder than him to prevail."
Oxnard heavyweight Sam McVey discusses the deep disappointment he felt after falling to his first professional defeat at the hands of Florida's Cheetah Brown on October 3. McVey was favoured to claim the IBL's Americas Championship title but dropped a unanimous decision to Brown in the tournament semi-finals. He'll next take on another talented Florida fighter in Romy Alvarez, the bout to be an eliminator for a shot at the Americas title.
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Sunday 08/10/06
"I don't care about the circumstances that have brought them together, okay? All that matters is that they're talking about a merger and that can only be a good thing for the sport. One less sanctioning organisation is something we could have only wished or prayed for a couple years ago but now it's close to being a reality. And the truth is, in large part we have the IBL to thank for it. They've really pushed these alphabet boys around, given them a taste of reality. They took Haynes, Mugabi and the other fellas away from the WBO and that put them in one helluva mess. I really, really hope nothing comes up to put the kybosh on this 'cause boxing really needs it to happen."
HBO's Greg Jackson expresses his enthusiasm over the announcement from the previous day that the IBF and WBO had entered into merger talks.
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Monday 09/10/06
"Gotta say it ain't turn out how I was expectin', y'all. Ain't even close. Felt conf'dent goin' in dat I could get ev'ry one o' these brothers into a final, man. But it's just T 'n' he was th' only one I be hundred percent sure of to start wit'. You know, I could say we was unlucky, that we had some thangs go 'gainst us. That might be true but brothers ain't goin' forward pressin' blame on others, see? So in the en' it all be on me, y'all. It all fall on my shoulders. I's the one dat gotta step up and do better. Have t' look at the way I did things, how I prepar'd these brothers f' war. It ain't work out so we gotta change some thangs. Ain't gonna be satisfied 'less every one of these brothers is holding one title or the other by the end o' '07."
Pensacola-based trainer Roy Jones gives a critical appraisal of his efforts in training his "Florida Alliance" stable during the IBL's various tournaments and outlines his ambitions for 2007.
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Wednesday 11/10/06
"It's an often-used phrase but one I really believe in: there are a lot more important things in life than sports. I make my living from boxing but that's not a reason to let it consume my life. The Lord has blessed me with these abilities and as a consequence, I've become a celebrity through my achievements. That status makes me a person of influence. It's not just a privilege, it's also a responsibility that I take very seriously and something I'm absolutely aware of. So it's incumbent upon me to use the position I'm in to help those less fortunate than I am, to make positive changes in the community. None of it would be possible without the Lord. He is working through me and in my day-to-day life there is nothing more important than that."
Canada's two-time Olympic gold medallist and IBL-signed junior-heavyweight Sam Langford speaks to a local journalist at the opening of a homeless shelter in Metro Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to contributing some of his own funds Langford lobbied local government and businesses in order to make its construction a reality.
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Thursday 12/10/06
"There ain't no way I didn't win that fight, man. I put the guy on his ass in the 7th, outlanded him and I was the aggressor. I've watched it all the way through a couple times already and I can't see where those two judges got that verdict from. I really can't. It's put me in a position now where I'm gonna have to win three or four big fights just to get a title shot and that just ain't right. But ain't nothing gonna change, so I jus' have to suck it up, take it like a man and move on. I'll always know in my heart that I should've got the W and I think Lennox knows it, too. But, you know, good luck to him. Far as I can see Jackson's gonna give him one helluva fight. The brother's looked fantastic through the tourney and he's come a long way since I beat him in Athens. Lennox's gonna have to go all out to earn that title shot. But I'll have to be even better to get past Anyukov. Gotta say it excites me and scares the hell out of me all at once when I think I'll be tradin' blows with him come December. It's gonna be the biggest challenge of my life, man, and I'll have t' be more dedicated to my trainin' than ever before to have a chance to beat him."
Californian heavyweight Jack Johnson disputes the verdict in his October 8 clash against Lennox Lewis, which was scored as a draw despite Johnson appearing to have a slight edge. As a result Lewis moved on to the final of the IBL's Challenger's tournament while Johnson next steps in the ring against Russia's former WBA champion Sergey Anyukov.
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Friday 20/10/06
"I've always had a lot of admiration for Mike but after the stance he's taken on this it's only grown. More of the top fighters need to stand up and let these alphabet clowns know that they ain't gonna put up with their nonsense anymore. He could have caved in but he didn't. He stood his ground and told Napoles' people that the fight wasn't gonna happen if they tried to put a title on the line. He stuck to his guns and as a result we've got ourselves another superfight, and only a couple months away! McCallum ain't gettin' any younger but the guy still has a few years left in him. This is the type o' thing I can see him doin' for a while to come, just settin' up mega-fights with these other stars. We don't know what's in store but I can easily see him movin' up to middleweight, maybe even higher and goin' after guys like Lytell. That would be something to see. I also have to give props to Napoles 'cause he's takin' a huge risk here. He's ruled the welterweight division but now he's movin' up and the first guy he takes on is McCallum? A huge risk for him but if it comes off he'll be an even bigger superstar than he already is."
Speaking on ESPN's Friday Night Fight's former world champion boxer Leroy Grant gives his seal of approval to the announced December showdown between Jamaica's Mike McCallum and Miami's Jose Napoles. The clash will be fought at the junior-middleweight limit and promises to be one of the biggest of the year. However, it will be a non-title fight as McCallum no longer wishes to deal with boxing's various sanctioning organisations.
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Tuesday 24/10/06
"We don't want to put unnecessary pressure on the kid so we're going to bring him along slow. I've gotta say, I haven't met many people during my time in this sport with his drive, confidence and determination. You meet him the first few times and he seems shy and reserved but there's a lion's heart beating in his chest. We're just in the moulding process right now, you know? What we're doing is refining the skills he already has, building on those and working out a gameplan for him. Abram is excited but at the same time he knows he has a long way to go. For a fifteen year-old kid he really has his head together. We'll be entering him in next month's Jersey City junior amateur tournament and I guess we'll get an idea of where he's at then."
North Bergen trainer Jimmy Floyd discusses the development of his student Abram Sin, the talented Hoboken youth who was the topic of a story by Michael Bartell in the October 16 issue of the boxing magazine AMERICAN | PUGILIST. Within a couple of days of the article's publication a number of different media outlets had visited the gym to get a look at the 15 year-old in action. As a result he has become something of a local celebrity but is apparently handling the situation quite well. As Floyd said, Sin will be participating in November's Jersey City junior amateur championships. Sin weighs 155 pounds, which makes him a middleweight.
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Wednesday 25/10/06
"It's something I wasn't expecting them to propose but once they showed how much confidence they have in me it didn't take a lot of consideration to say yes to it. I've loved this sport my entire life but I knew pretty early on that I was never gonna make it as a fighter. After I came to terms with that I still wanted to be involved in it in some way. I started off managin' guys and eventually worked my way up to the promotions side of the business. It's been an incredible time and has brought my family security and happiness. But this ... this is something beyond anything I could've dreamed of. To be the president of an organisation that'll be involved in running the sport is really the ultimate. I was right behind the merger but I just expected to keep on goin' along promotin' fights and the thought of doin' that exclusively for the IBO excited me. To know that my input will be so much more than that is incredible and I'm really grateful to both Juan and Larry for the trust they've given me."
New Jersey promoter Robert Tattaglia expresses his happiness over the decision to install him as the first president of the International Boxing Organisation, which will come into being on the first day of 2007 as a merger between the IBF and WBO.
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Thursday 26/10/06
"It's gotta be obvious to any boxing fan that this is gonna be an ugly mismatch and I'm disappointed in the IBL because of it. The way I look at the whole situation is simple: they shouldn't have signed the guy. They approached him back in April and he turned them down without a second thought. Fighting Bert Lytell was all he cared about. So we fast forward to July: he losses the fight, gets screwed by his promoter and then all of a sudden the IBL looks pretty good to him. But because he snubbed 'em the first time, now he has to start at the bottom. Do you really think this is what boxing fans want to see, Jim? Freddie Steele beating up a bunch of inexperienced opponents who have no chance in hell against him? I can't believe that James Molk and his crew are going to allow this to happen. And to make it worse, it'll probably take him at least another year to get within sight of a world title shot. Who knows if the guy is gonna be washed up or not by then? Both of them would have been better off if he had just stayed with the alphabet boys. Hell, he could of signed with Tattaglia and won back the IBF belt, seeing as Lytell gave it right back to them after he won it. Now the guy is gonna be irrelevant for the next year, maybe even longer. From this point on the IBL really just have to forget about signing any more established guys 'cause it'll turn out as ugly as this every time. They are the future of the sport so they should just be looking to sign the prospects and the amateurs who are ready to make the jump."
Showtime's Hugh Ballard voices his unhappiness with the IBL over their signing of former IBF middleweight champion Freddie Steele. The Tacoma native will have to work his way up the organisation's rankings from the bottom, which means he'll be stepping in the ring against a string of opponents who are less experienced and far less talented than he is. The first of these bouts took place on October 27, with Steele dominating and then knocking out England's Herol Graham early in round five in front of an appreciative crowd at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma.
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Friday 27/10/06
"I really believe that it'll be fantastic for boxing. Personally, the prospect of fighting under the banner of the IBO for the rest of my career brings me a lot of excitement. This has been a pretty incredible year for me because I started it being fiercely loyal to the WBC and, back in January, I never could have considered that would change. But you know, things changed that were out of my control and sadly that relationship with them ended. But since then we've struck up a great situation with the IBF and next month's event is going to be really incredible. We'll see the final IBF and WBO title fights ever in the lightweight division but also, the winners are gonna be the guys who contest the first IBO lightweight title fight. There's a whole lot at stake and it's added some extra spice to what was already going to be a great night. It's made me even more determined to get this win over Joe because I don't want to miss out on being part of history for the IBO next year."
Speaking on a Mexican sports radio show lightweight boxer Patricio Marquez shows his enthusiasm over the announcement of the merger between the IBF and WBO and the interesting consequences it has brought about for his career in particular.
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