Astounding, although you can't take anything away from Mexican fighters.


Apparently Liston was a "practical joker" with something of a sadistic streak. He used to play "saluggi" with lawyers and reporters--he'd grab their briefcase, then toss it back and forth over their heads with one of his retainers. In another one: the day after he got out of prison after a long stretch, he went to the police station where the cop who pinched him worked, extended his hand for a shake--and shocked him with a "joy buzzer" he had hidden in his palm. That one cost him four more days in the local lockup.

I don't know if I'd say easier, but Oscar would definitely have a better chance at going out with a win against Pacquiao than Margarito. The reason is simple... size. If the fight were to happen, the catchweight would be around 150 lbs. Pacquiao has only fought once above 130 lbs (he made his pro debut at 106). While he is still one of the best in sport, the added weight would surely slow him down. Pacquiao is only 5'6, which would also be an advantage for the 5'11 De La Hoya.

I think that Margarito would absolutely destroy De La Hoya. Also, a De La Hoya vs Pacquiao fight would do better financially.

You're right FC. The size advantage presents a huge problem for Manny. A guy with De La Hoya's experience won't let the small guy feast on him from the inside.

Ricky Hatton has parted company with long time trainer Billy Graham!

Much as i like Hatton i don't like to see this sort of thing!

Graham has been a loyal and willing ally to him his whole career but now Hatton is a mega star he dumps him?


Not uncommon in boxing though eh?

Heard a rumour recently vanquished Miguel Cotto is the fighter being lined up to fight De La Hoya in December.

The UK has a good team at the Olympics.

Frankie Gavin and Bradley Saunders are 2 to watch for!

Don't bother watching out for Saunders any more...he got beat today

What do i know eh?

Anyone see Dimitri "Baby" Kirilov vs. Vic "The Raging Bull" Darchinyan on 8/2? Darchinyan just overwhelmed him to take the title via 5th round KO. He was great!

No Turnbull,never seen it.

Seen Darchinyan fight before though and he is all action and power!

And Gavin got sent home for being over weight....

Who let that happen?

Another feather in my "what do i know" cap methinks

A real shame. Ironically, he was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, which Yogi and I were discussing just the other day.

A Dispute, Shots and the Death of a Young Boxer

By CHRISTINE HAUSER and SHARON OTTERMAN (The New York Times).

The sidewalk shrine to the murder victim that kept growing outside a small market in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon had the familiar offerings: dozens of candles and scribbled tributes from grieving friends. But taped to a wall were newspaper stories and photographs that depicted what the young victim had accomplished inside a boxing ring and hints of what might have been.

Shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, the boxer, Ronney Vargas, who was 20, was shot in the torso while sitting in a car after he and some friends got into a dispute with strangers at a bodega on Clinton Avenue in the Bronx, the police said.

As an amateur, Mr. Vargas had won the Golden Gloves junior middleweight title in 2005, 2006 and 2007 before turning professional in September, winning all of his eight pro fights, six of them by knockouts.

He last fought about two weeks ago in North Bergen, N.J., where he knocked out his opponent in the third round, said his manager, Pat Lynch, in a telephone interview from St. Petersburg, Fla. “He had all the tools to be a real good fighter,” he said.

Most of Mr. Vargas’s pro fights were preliminary bouts, coming on cards with more established fighters, and at least one was in Madison Square Garden.

He showed promise as a boxer early on and started training when he was 8 or 9, said one of his brothers, Ronald Vargas, 24, who added that Ronney had dropped out of high school to pursue boxing.

Ronney Vargas’s day revolved around being fit for the ring, his brother said, and he would train in the gym at the Police Athletic League on Longwood Avenue in the Bronx until 7 or 8 p.m.

“He was already special,” Ronald Vargas said. “He had the moves, he had everything. All his life he dreamed of being a champion.”

Early Saturday morning, Ronney Vargas, who lived on East 151st Street, went to the bodega at Clinton Avenue and 179th Street with five friends. They got into an argument with a group of two men and two women they did not know, the police said.

His brother said he had been told by several of the friends who were with Ronney that the dispute started because the women were flirting with Mr. Vargas, who was sitting in a Honda outside the store.

When Mr. Vargas drove off with his friends, the other group followed them in a light-colored automobile and cut them off at Hughes Avenue and East 178th Street, blocking Mr. Vargas’s car, the police said.

One of the men in the pursuing group got out of the car with a gun, pistol-whipped Mr. Vargas in the driver’s seat, and then shot him, the police said. Mr. Vargas drove in reverse, sideswiping other cars before getting out and collapsing on the street, the police said. He was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital.

As news of the shooting spread, Mr. Vargas’s family and neighbors gathered outside the Broadway Mini Market on West 152nd Street, one of his favorite neighborhood hangouts, where the memorial began to grow.

Mr. Vargas lived with his father, German Vargas, 52, and two brothers, Ronald, and Ronniel, 15, in a two-bedroom apartment in the South Bronx.

“He lost his life for nothing,” his father said during an interview in the family’s living room, which was filled with boxing trophies. Sets of Golden Gloves were hanging on the walls, which were also adorned with medals.

“He was learning how to live his life,” his father added. “They did not just kill a boxer, they killed a champion.”

Ronald Vargas said that he had just surprised Ronney Vargas with a new sound system for his car and that Ronney went out early Saturday to show it to friends. “I told him be safe,” Ronald Vargas said. “It was stupid girl stuff.”

Mr. Lynch, the boxer’s manager, said he last spoke with him about two days ago, talking about his training and the possibility of his fighting sooner than his next scheduled match in October in Atlantic City.

The police said on Saturday afternoon that they were speaking with the friends who were with Mr. Vargas when he was killed, but they had not announced any arrests.

One friend, Ralphie Vasquez, was in the passenger seat when Mr. Vargas was shot. Mr. Vasquez’s cousin Jay Colon, 24, said Mr. Vasquez told him what had happened.

Mr. Vasquez held Mr. Vargas outside the vehicle after he was shot, his cousin said.

“I think I got hit because I can’t breathe no more,” Mr. Vargas told Mr. Vasquez, according to Mr. Colon.

That is a really sad story PB!

Anyone see the PBS special on “Ali in Miami”? Excellent program on Ali’s early years as contender and champ. But while they covered his fight with the Selective Service System, they didn’t mention the denouement: an historic Supreme Court Decision. I followed it closely in those days:

Potential draftees were called for a “pre-induction examination to determine if you are fit for service.” It consisted of a physical and an intelligence test. Ali flunked the latter. “I always said I was the greatest…I never said I was the smartest,” he quipped. But Uncle Sam had a hardon for Ali because of his “uppity” attitude and his membership in the dreaded Nation of Islam. So the Selective Service System arbitrarily lowered the intelligence test standards. They said it was because they needed more draftees to fight in Vietnam. The real reason was to button the Louisville Lip. Ali was suddenly reclassified 1A—“fit for service at this time.” He then tried to get an exemption as a “Muslim minister,” but his draft board turned him down.

Ali was one of millions of young men who resisted being drafted to fight in Vietnam. “I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong,” Ali said. “No Viet Cong ever called me n****r.” He complied with every request from his draft board, filed appeals through each and every means available. He even showed up for his induction to the Armed Forces and submitted to another physical. He broke the law only at the very last stage: he refused to repeat an oath to “obey all lawful orders of the United States, and to “take the step forward” that constituted that he accepted being drafted. As soon as he did, the boxing authorities (which had no problems licensing Mob-controlled, ex-con thugs like Sonny Liston) stripped him of his title.

He was later indicted, tried and convicted of violating the Selective Service Act. Plenty of other resisters got off with suspended or light sentences. The judge hit Ali with the max: five years in prison and a $10k fine. Ali appealed all the way to the Supreme Court—appeals took all his millions at a time when he couldn’t box because no commission would license him. Finally the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Ali’s favor. Though it’s most often overlooked, the Supreme decision was a landmark in the Civil Rights era:

Ali was registered with a draft board in an all-black neighborhood in Houston. But all the members of his local draft board were white. While the Court stopped short of saying that the board should have approved his application for exemption as a minister of the Nation of Islam, the justices said that the all-white board in the all-black neighborhood wasn’t capable of understanding a Black Muslim ministry, or considering Ali’s application without prejudice. They also ruled that, from then or, all local draft boards had to reflect the ethnic/religious composition of the neighborhoods or towns they served.

This was a very significant step forward by the Supreme Court. Although local draft board members were civilian political appointees, they were rubber stamps for the Selective Service System, which used the draft to silence and punish dissenters during the Vietnam War. Also, Selective Service rules applied military standards of justice to civilians who were draft-eligible. Lower courts were loath to find in favor of defendants who ran afoul of draft laws because they thought they’d create a Constitutional crisis. The high court ruling in the Ali case introduced some much-needed civilian accountability into the Selective Service System. Thank you, Ali!

Hopefully this show might get aired eventually in the UK?

I wonder, Yogi.
PBS stands for "Public Broadcasting System." It's a US TV network that's partly funded by the government and doesn't have adverts like the commercial TV stations. PBS has always had a connection with BBC and Granada Television, and has shown lots of splendid UK dramatic series like "Upstairs, Downstairs," and "Foyle's War," to name just two. But I don't know if there's any reciprocity for PBS programs to be shipped to the UK.

Well, most US shows usually make their way over the water sooner or later Turnbull. I will just have to keep a close eye out.

My mother watches Foyles War although i have never,ever seen it.

The fight's set... Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya on Dec. 6.

Oscar likes fighting little guys these days eh?

Manny might put a stain on his legacy yet,even with the size difference!

It's amazing how money puts these fights together.

Wonder why Oscar didn't want to fight Antonio Margarito?

I feel that Manny will have a great chance to win the fight. I have been following Manny's fights for some time now and Pacman is really a devastating boxer. He is arguably the most exciting fighter today. He is the consensus pound for pound champion.

Now as for why Oscar De La Hoya won't fight Margarito, He said he does not want to fight Mexican fighters or Fighters of Mexican heritage.

Since when does Oscar not want to fight Mexicans?

It never stopped him against Chavez,Campas,Ruelas or Vargas?

Trust me, put your money on Pac-man. I know Freddie Roach. He's the best trainer around today. Pac-man listens to Freddie and Freddie always has a game plan specific to the guys he's fighting. I'm still a fan of Oscar's but Freddie and Pac-man are gonna end his career.

GGChamp

I can't see Oscar beating Pac-Man. The guy's a machine.

I believe Pacquiao will win the fight in stunning fashion. He will shock the world with a knockout win in the first four rounds. I would not be surprised if it ends in the first in Pacman's favor... Next would be Ricky Hatton, then Edwin Valero,Nate Campbell and then the year ender(2009) with Juan Manuel Marquez III.

Being from the UK and obviously a big Hatton fan,i still wouldn't want to see him go against Manny.....

He would be blown away!

HBO has a good card on tonight.

Shane Mosley vs Ricardo Mayorga (junior-middleweight)
Andre Berto vs Steve Forbes (for Berto's welterweight title)

Berto/Forbes was well-fought but lopsided.
Mosely showed what he was made of. Knocked out Mayorga with one second left in the 12th round! In-effin'-credible!

Hopkins did a number on Pavlik!!!!

I'm stunned.

Hopkins just keeps going. i'm not a great fan of his but i have the utmost respect for him to be still so competitive at this stage of his career!

The Hopkins fight was incredible! He is my favorite fighter of my lifetime and this was with out a doubt one of the biggest wins of his career. I hope that the winner of Calzaghe-Jones has the guts to fight him.

Calzaghe is adamant he will retire after the jones fight but i believe Roy wants to fight on!

I saw the replay last night. Amazing! Hopkins had Pavlik baffled from the first round. Pav won, at most, one round. Hopkins, always dangerous, probably the most intelligent fighter in the ring today, may have fought his best fight ever--and at age 43!