The countdown to Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto officially begins this evening when HBO presents the first installment of Pacquiao-Cotto 24/7. This fight brings extra excitement in that Manny, who many consider to be boxing’s pound-for-pound champion (until he fights Floyd Mayweather, I believe), is moving up in weight (again) to 145 pounds to fight Miguel Cotto, the current WBO welterweight champ. I’ve doubted Manny in the past and I’ve always lived to regret those doubts.
There are unanswered questions for both fighters. Miguel has only lost once. That was a little over a year ago when Antonio Margarito beat him …read more

Imagine you are Antonio Margarito. Your impressive July beat down of Miguel Cotto was a rousing success both in pulling pay-per-view buys and in garnering media attention. Casual sports fans have started recognizing your name and maybe even your face.
The sky is the limit. Right? Well, not so much. There are so few people out there for you to fight for your deserved huge payday. Shane Mosley? Yawn, that guy never caught the public’s eye. Paul Williams? Nobody knows him and maybe he’s a little too dangerous. Zab Judah? I’d have a good time at least. Ricky Hatton? Um, …read more

One after the next The Contenders have come and gone. Unimpressive, overhyped and out of their league. Until tonight. In a startling but well-deserved victory Sergio Mora outworked Ring Magazine’s #1 junior middleweight and WBC super welterweight champ Vernon Forrest to earn a majority decision win.
Few gave Mora a chance. Conventional wisdom said he was a club fighter who got a chance against the two-time Shane Mosley slayer not because of skill but because of his marketability. For the first three rounds this standard line of thinking seemed accurate. But in the fourth Mora landed some punches, found his groove, …read more

Fight fans everywhere are feeling a huge Zab Judah putting his arm through glass-caused void in their Saturday night fight watching plans. OK, maybe not. I wasn’t planning to buy Zab’s pay-per-view bout against Shane Mosley and am relieved that I didn’t have any last minute pangs and pressures to do so.
That doesn’t mean that Sugar Shane has kept himself out of the news. Today’s Los Angeles Times reported that Mosley’s former trainer, Derryl Hudson, swore in federal court on Friday that “Shane was fully aware he was using performance-enhancing drugs as he prepared for his victorious 2003 rematch …read more

Last night a message appeared on my Comcast cable box. It read: You still have time to order this Saturday’s exciting welterweight pay-per-view event “Sugar” Shane Mosley vs. Zab “Super” Judah. I wonder what would happen if you did order the May 31 fight that was officially canceled almost three weeks ago because of Zab Judah’s unfortunate incident with a shower and the resulting fifty stitches Zab had installed in his right arm?
Would you get a Zab Judah highlights montage showcasing the choking Jay Nady incident, the Roger Mayweather corner clearing brawl, the dizzying Kosta Tszyu knockdown? Or …read more

Do you remember Zab Judah’s wobbly 2001 first-round knockout from Kostya Tszyu? After getting flattened he immediately pounced back up only to have his legs and equilibrium double-cross him all while telling the ref he was OK. Imagine the same betrayal happening in a Las Vegas glass shower. Because those are the reports coming from Sin City and the reason our oft-suspended hero’s May PPV bout against Shane Mosley has been put on indefinite hiatus.
Judah fell through the shower glass on an as-yet-to-be-determined date sometime this week resulting in an astounding 50 stitches in his right arm. How could this …read more

Former welterweight champions Shane Mosley and Zab Judah have formally announced that they will meet on May 31st in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
Former super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler will face Edison Miranda, potentially in Montreal. The bout will be aired on Showtime.
Ruslan Chagaev and Nikolai Valuev will sqaure off on May 31st in Germany. Chagaev, the WBA heavyweight title holder, defeated Valuev via majority decision early last year.