With his potential opponents list dwindling, Oscar de la Hoya's next fight will be announced in "less than ten days," says Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer. Bob Arum says that Oscar won't fight a Mexican in his last bout, which rules out Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., and newly-crowned WBA welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito. What are we looking at here? With Chavez or Margarito out, that narrows
Would Miguel Cotto really want to fight Antonio Margarito again after the kind of defeat he suffered when losing his welterweight crown yesterday? In the opening stages of this fight Cotto was boxing beautifully. Countering at will, his movement excellent and to many, there may have been an argument that Margarito was being left to look outclassed and bewildered. And each ti
There was a pall of gloom in AJ Banal’s dressing room Saturday evening, almost an hour after the previously undefeated boxer took a stunning loss to Panama’s Rafael Concepcion. For so long, the boxer who was designed to win the fight sat motionless on a plastic chair, shell-shocked, hardly saying a word even as the people closest to him tried to comfort him. His mother, Marl
Concepcion Crashes Banal’s Party. Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion was pitted to be a “supposed-to-lose, tough fighter,” before his bout with hot upstart AJ Banal but somehow, they forgot to tell him that. Concepcion won the match by a tenth round KO that totally stunned the Filipino crowd at the Cebu Coliseum, Philippines. This is a major upset in Filipino boxing becau
Written by Associated Press, International Herald Tribune
Sunday, 27 July 2008
LAS VEGAS: Antonio Margarito showed he is the world's best welterweight by stopping Miguel Cotto to win the WBA title Saturday. The Mexican, who had also won the IBF version of the title in April, inflicted Cotto's first defeat and took his WBA belt with a late barrage of punches that ended the contest in the penultimate 11th round. Margarito, the 30-year-old so often ducked
Heartaches continue for the fabled fighters of the well-known ALA Gym in the Philippines as Rafael Concepcion (11-2-1) of Panama knocked out the popular AJ “Bazooka” Banal (17-1-1) in the tenth round of their twelve round encounter. Banal won most of the early rounds by connecting hard punches to Concepcion’s head and body but his stamina fizzled out and Concepcion grew
Manny Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, and trainer, Freddie Roach, are back on the same page. More than a week after two men calling the shots for Pacquiao had a little verbal tussle, Roach said all’s really well between him and the Top Rank president. “I talked to Bob Arum about it and he just told me to let him do his job,” Roach told a boxing website yesterday. “He’s going to
WBC lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s former business manager Rod Nazario said yesterday Oscar dela Hoya may be too tough an opponent for the Filipino icon if the Golden Boy won’t be dehydrated making the catchweight limit of 147 pounds proposed for a Dec. 6 showdown. “It’s a dangerous fight for Manny,” said Nazario who introduced Pacquiao to the US market in
AJ “Bazooka” Banal, the world champion prospect from the respected ALA Gym remains that. A prospect. Banal gave up after getting decked by a right from Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion in the 10th round of their World Boxing Association super flyweight title fight at the Cebu Coliseum last night. A scene the reminds Filipino fans of Erik Morales shaking his head while he was counted in
The consensus opinion in boxing over the past several years has been that the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world was Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Upon the announcement of Mayweather’s unexpected retirement, four-time world champion Manny Pacquiao was immediately anointed as his successor, a move made with minimal debate on most fronts. Yet this weeke
CEBU CITY — AJ Banal of the Philippines will not load up right away the moment he gets in close contact with Panamanian Rafael "El Torito" Concepcion in their scheduled 12-round interim fight for the World Boxing Association (WBA) super-flyweight crown. "I plan to read his style and be very careful," said Banal in Pilipino after easily tipping the scales exactly at 115 lbs. Concepc
FREDDIE ROACH: "I TALKED TO BOB ARUM...THE FIGHT WILL HAPPEN!"
Written by Percy Crawford, FightHype.com
Saturday, 26 July 2008
"I talked to Bob Arum about it and he just told me to let him do his job. He's going to try and negotiate the deal. If it can be negotiated, the fight will happen...At this juncture of his career, I think Manny's on top of the world. He's very motivated right now and I think he just has too much
CEBU CITY--Unbeaten Filipino AJ 'Bazooka' Banal and Panama's Rafael "El Torito" Concepcion will do battle for the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) superfly interim championship today at the 10,000-capacity New Cebu Coliseum here. The event, sanctioned by the WBA president Gilberto Mendoza, is presented by
CEBU CITY -- The 'Laban na Banal' boxing event which will explode tonight at the Cebu Coliseum here will be beamed live by giant broadcasting network ABS-CBN on The Filipino Channel (TFC) except in North America, ABS-CBN Vice-President Peter Musngi informed the media during last Thursday's presscon at the Waterfront Hotel. TFC is also available in the Middle East, Europe
Written by Recah Trinidad, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Saturday, 26 July 2008
CEBU CITY, Philippines — It was a mismatch right off as Panama’s Rafael Concepcion, coming in a full pound over the limit, took nearly two hours before passing yesterday’s official weight test for the World Boxing Association super flyweight interim championship here. AJ Banal, on the other hand, used less than 15 seconds to complete the weigh-in requirement, registering
Both fighters made weight on the first try. They faced off for about a minute, then waved to the crowd before leaving the stage in front of thousands gathered at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. ---- Miguel Cotto
Manny Pacquiao is larger than life. He’s the biggest star in the Philippines, and he’s the best boxer on earth, pound for pound. Anyone this big deserves their own dictionary. After all, “Pacland”, the moniker for Pacquiao’s website, is already a household name… The word: Pacmania (Noun) Definition: The extreme craze over Manny Pacquiao, the world’s greatest
The Mexican media reported that Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) has dangled an offer of $ 10 million for Manny Pacquiao to face Oscar De La Hoya in December. Box-latino said that apart from the guaranteed purse, GBP is also luring the Filipino with a share on the expected high pay-per-view sales which is estimated to reach $ 5 million. The figures that have been released
Bare Eye: What’s this big secret they are hiding about AJ Banal?
Written by Trinidad, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Friday, 25 July 2008
MANILA, Philippines—So what’s extra golden, what’s so special and strictly secret about AJ Banal who goes for a piece of the world super flyweight boxing crown in Cebu City on Saturday? This question had to be raised on the eve of AJ’s reckoning after his chief handlers continued to keep battle plans and other details on Banal jealously under wraps. So what if Banal, contrary to what the World Boxing Association had made everybody here to believe, will no longer
It seems that Manny Pacquiao has run out of worthy challengers that it is only Oscar De La Hoya who will force him to go the extra mile in training.Although Pacquiao had trained long and hard when he faced the challenge of Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight king believes De La Hoya will compel him to
WITH only a few more fights left in his long illustrious boxing career, World Boxing Organization Bantamweight titleholder Gerry “Fearless Peñalosa wants the best out of it. First he will defend his crown against Mexican Nestor Rocha in a blockbuster fight card on Sept. 20 at the Mindanao Civic Center Gym in Tubod, Lanao del Norte dubbed “Judgement Day” before aiming at one of
