Shane Mosley to fight May 18

By Dan Rafael | ESPN.com

 

Former three-division champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley, who has been looking for a fight since deciding to end his brief retirement late last year, has found one.

Mosley will face welterweight contender Pablo Cesar Cano on May 18 (Fox Deportes) in Cancun, Mexico.

.


"I'm happy to get back in the ring competing," Mosley told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "This can put me back in contention to fight for another world title."

Mosley has not fought since losing a lopsided decision to junior middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez last May. A month later, Mosley announced his retirement.

He thought his first fight out of retirement would be challenging welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi for his version of the 147-pound title on April 27 in a Showtime main event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Mosley had agreed to terms in January, as did Malignaggi, but Malignaggi later changed his mind, leaving Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KOs) without a fight.

So now Mosley, 41, a former junior middleweight, welterweight and lightweight champion, will take on the 23-year-old Cano. In his last fight, Cano, of Mexico, dropped Malignaggi in the 11th round of their world title fight but Malignaggi hung on to win a heavily disputed split decision and retain his belt on Oct. 20 at the Barclays Center.

Cano (25-2-1, 19 KOs) was scheduled to face Manuel Perez of Denver on March 16 in his first fight since the loss, but Cano withdrew three days before the bout after being diagnosed with the flu. It worked out for Cano, who now has a much bigger fight.

"Cano's last fight fell out because he was sick, so now he needs an opponent for his next fight," Mosley said. "And I told everyone at Golden Boy that I am willing to fight anybody at 147. Anybody. My mind set is I am on a mission to win a world title again and do it with my father (Jack Mosley) in the corner."

Jack Mosley trained his son for most of his career, but they have had multiple breakups. This will be their first fight together since 2008.

"We think it's an interesting fight," Golden Boy Promotions chief executive Richard Schaefer said. "Televisa, which we have a (television) deal with in Mexico, likes the fight so they are excited about it and, of course, those fights are on Fox Deportes in the United States, so this gives them a fight with some good names also."

After Malignaggi-Mosley fell apart, Schaefer understandably was unable to sell a Mosley fight to Showtime or HBO because of Mosley's recent performances. He is 0-3-1 in his last four fights and has not performed well in any of the bouts, including in losses to Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather as well as a draw with Sergio Mora.

"HBO and Showtime felt that Shane should have a fight where he shows he's still got it and that such a fight should not be on a premium network," Schaefer said. "That was communicated to Shane. The message was conveyed and he took this fight with Cano.

"This is a fight that is going to show where Cano is and where Shane is. For Shane to fight Joe Shmoe wouldn't do anybody any good. But if Shane can beat a young, talented guy like Cano, it's a huge step for Shane, who can say, 'Hey, I'm still here and I want to have another shot at the title.' So this is a meaningful fight for Shane and also for Cano, because if he can beat Mosley that's a great name on his resume. So Cano will be motivated for that reason and Shane knows how important this is because it can open doors for him again if he wins."

Besides the controversial loss to Malignaggi, Cano's other defeat came against all-time great Erik Morales because of cuts in the 10th round in 2011. Mosley said he has watched that fight.

"I haven't seen his fight with Malignaggi yet. I'm going to get a copy of it," Mosley said. "But I watched the fight with Morales and I got a feel for how Cano fights. He looks like a good, young fighter. He likes to fight, he's tough and he's strong. I'm looking forward to fighting him. This is the type of fight I need to get myself back on the road to fighting the top guys at welterweight. At this point, I'm looking to fight everybody."

Mosley said he was inspired by watching Bernard Hopkins, his longtime friend, win a light-heavyweight world title on March 9 at age 48, breaking his own record for being the oldest fighter in boxing history to win a world title when he outpointed Tavoris Cloud.

"I was proud of him and I was inspired by the things he was doing at the age of 48," Mosley said. "He looked good doing it. He had the moves and the style matched up very well for him. For him to be able to do that at 48 is phenomenal. At the end of the fight it didn't look like he was breathing. He was smiling and talking -- he always talks -- and looked great. That really inspired me."

Mosley added that he has no issue with going to Mexico to face a Mexican opponent.

"I've never fought in Mexico, but I went there for the press conference for the fight with Canelo and I got a good response," Mosley said. "A lot of people there love me and respect me and I think it will be the same with this fight. Cancun is fine with me. After the fight maybe I'll take a little vacation there and enjoy myself after all the hard work I'm about to put in."

Ishe Smith hangs on for big hurrah

By Kieran Mulvaney | ESPN.com

This was not how it was meant to be, not how Ishe Smith had imagined things ending up. He had been married, with beautiful kids and a boxing career that was in the ascendant -- had even, thanks to his leading role in a TV reality show, enjoyed fame far beyond anything that a young prospect could normally dream of.

Now, here he was, in his early 30s. His marriage had disintegrated and ended in divorce, and he was battling for joint custody of his children. He was broke, he was piling up more losses than wins, and on those occasions when he did fight -- which were becoming increasingly rare -- he was now the opponent, not the attraction. And so he sat in his home in Las Vegas, contemplated his gun collection and wondered whether he should quit. Not just boxing, but life.
It was a far cry and a long road from where he and I had first met, in Big Bear, Calif. In 2003, I decided to decamp for a while to Las Vegas to write a book about Sin City and the sweet science. As a key part of that, I wanted to focus on three Vegas-based boxers in various stages of their careers. One of them was young welterweight Ishe Smith.
For all its long involvement in the sport, Las Vegas has never had a world champion to call its own, and back in 2003, Smith hoped to be the first. He had made his bones fighting at The Orleans, west of the famed Strip, where local promoters Guilty Boxing put on monthly "Friday Night Fights" cards that were a staple of the Vegas boxing social calendar. The fights, booked by Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman, were almost invariably competitive, and one of the series' early standout stars was local boy Ishe.

Jeff Kowalsky/Hoganphotos/Golden Boy PromotionsIshe Smith peaked as a prospect with a run on the TV boxing series "The Contender," but some admittedly poor choices soon led to his career stalling out.

 

 

Smith fought at The Orleans eight times in a row, running his record to 10-0, until he came to national attention courtesy of junior middleweight titlist Fernando Vargas. In 2002, "El Feroz" revealed on HBO that "Sugar Shay" had given him solid sparring for his upcoming grudge match with Oscar De La Hoya, which led to interest from Vargas' promoter, Gary Shaw, who ultimately bought out Smith's Guilty Boxing contract. Soon, Smith was making his first appearance on Showtime and had garnered a reputation as a top-notch sparring partner -- and particularly, it seems, the perfect preparation for De La Hoya opponents. When we met, it was at Shane Mosley's training camp prior to Sugar Shane's 2003 rematch with the Golden Boy.
"When Vargas did that, it blew me up," Smith told ESPN.com. "Everybody wanted to know, Who is this guy? I saw him in Vegas last year and I told him, 'Thank you.' I appreciated that; he got my career started."
In January 2004, after televised wins against Sam Garr and David Estrada, Smith took on hard-hitting former titlist Randall Bailey. The prospect emerged victorious, but it was a close decision and the fight wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing to watch.

“ Whenever I would sit in a dark house, looking at my guns, I would always think of my kids. I wouldn't even think of myself. I would always think of my kids and the way I felt not ever having a dad, and I didn't feel I could do that to them.
” -- Ishe Smith, on his struggles after several losses and a lack of activity stalled his career and affected his personal life

"Bailey had more knockouts than I had fights," Smith said. "You see what he's doing now; he's still around, still knocking people out. I don't think I get enough credit for that fight. You don't get guys with 13 fights fighting a guy like Randall Bailey."
Shortly after the Bailey fight, Smith declared bankruptcy to secure an exit from his contract with Shaw, and although he maintains that it was the right decision for him and his family, he took a lot of heat for the move in industry circles. After an unimpressive win and an ugly break from his promoter, it wasn't clear where Smith could go next.
And then one day, as we both sat ringside for a card at The Orleans, he told me about an approach from the TV production company responsible for the smash hit "Survivor." They were putting together a boxing-themed show along similar lines called "The Contender," and he had been recommended to them as a possible participant.
He seemed skeptical.
"I thought it was a gimmick," he said. "They called, and I kind of told them on the phone, 'You guys aren't looking for me. I'm way too experienced.'"
Still, Smith went ahead with the process, and he was ultimately selected to be one of the 16 boxers featured on the show. He soon became one of the standouts, although he didn't progress as far as he had hoped: After defeating Ahmad Kaddour, he lost to eventual champion Sergio Mora.

Johnny Hanson/ChronicleWhen Ishe Smith's career took a turn, he fought less, didn't trust his stamina and as a result would put on unimpressive performances -- a cycle that led him to a low point professionally and in his personal life.

 

 

When the series ended, Smith fell out with the producers -- a development he says he now regrets -- and entered several years wandering the boxing wilderness. He signed with Golden Boy, who ultimately released him. He signed with Lou DiBella, who also released him when he couldn't get Smith enough fights.
"Working with Lou was great," Smith said. "Lou went to bat for me a couple times, he had my back, and when he couldn't get me fights, he said, 'I'm not going to do the typical promoter thing and hold you back. I'm going to release you.' Any other promoter would have just held on to me, so I love Lou for that."
But by then, Smith's interest in his career, and in pretty much everything, had petered out. He was fighting irregularly, and his lack of in-ring action led to a loss of confidence in his stamina. So he would often hold back, turning winnable fights into ugly losses. That didn't exactly make him must-see TV, but he remained dangerous enough for potential opponents to think twice about fighting him, thus adding to his inactivity and perpetuating the cycle.
Money became tight, and his personal life, too, began to crumble.
"It was just spiraling out of control," he said.

His own personality, he says now, wasn't helping things.
"Those post-'Contender' years, I was kind of my own man, kind of hard-headed." He paused. "Just kind of an a------."
Smith became divorced from his wife, Latoya, a wrenching break made all the more difficult by the fact that, he says, "we had been together so long. We kind of grew up together." He had lost everything. The only thing that he still had was life, and he began to wonder whether he even still wanted that. What held him back, he said, was remembering his own fatherless youth. It wasn't something he wanted to bequeath to his own children.
"So whenever I would sit in a dark house, looking at my guns, I would always think of my kids," he said. "I wouldn't even think of myself. I would always think of my kids and the way I felt not ever having a dad, and I didn't feel I could do that to them. It just came to a point where I thought, 'Let me just get rid of these guns, get them out the house.'"
He had all but given up on boxing, was focused more on coaching youth football. But a final shot at the brass ring emerged, courtesy of an unexpected source. Smith was coaching a game last year when he received a phone call from Cornelius Boza Edwards, the former junior lightweight champ who is now part of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s Money Team. Would Ishe be available to help Floyd prepare for his upcoming bout with Miguel Cotto? Oh, and by the way, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe wanted to put Smith on a card to be held the day before the Mayweather-Miguel Cotto fight, at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas.

Tom Casino/ShowtimeFloyd Mayweather Jr., center, has taken Ishe Smith, left, under his wing. Mayweather told him, Smith says, "I'm gonna get you a title shot."

 

 

"I was just happy to go to camp because, to be honest, Floyd pays great," Smith said. "Floyd is the best-paying guy in camp ever. So I thought, 'Great, I can make a couple dollars.'"
That Mayweather and Ellerbe provided him with a fight, which Smith won, was an added bonus. Then they set him up with a second bout, which he also won. And now, on Saturday, in his third fight working under the banner of Mayweather Promotions, Smith finally gets his chance to be the first-ever Vegas-born world titlist when he takes on junior middleweight beltholder Cornelius "K9" Bundrage in Detroit (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET).
"Floyd told me personally, 'I'm going to take you under my wing, and I'm gonna get you a title shot. You're too good of a fighter not to even have a title shot,'" Smith said. "He even sent me some letters while he was incarcerated [last year], to keep me motivated, to let me know, 'I got your back. Don't worry about a thing, I got your back. I promise.' He just kept reassuring me."
But Floyd could promise him only so much. "I'm gonna get you your title shot," Mayweather told Smith, "and it's up to you to win it." And so it is -- just as it's up to Bundrage to prevent him from making it happen.
It has taken a lot longer to reach this point than either of us could have imagined when Smith and I met that California day almost 10 years ago. But that the opportunity has arrived at all means that, win or lose, the future is brighter than it appeared on those dark night in Las Vegas, when Ishe Smith looked at his guns and wondered if his journey was about to reach a permanent end.

Romero grabs IBF title in Mexico

17 February 2013, 11:18

supersport.com

Jonathan Romero upset Alejandro Lopez to win the vacant IBF junior featherweight title in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday night.

The Colombian beat the Mexican favourite on a split decision over twelve rounds – 116-111 and 115-112 against 115-112 for Lopez.

Romero improved his record to 23-0, including 12 knockouts. Lopez dropped to 24-3; 7.

In a bantamweight bout Alejandro Gonzalez improved to 16-0-2; 11 when he knocked out Hanzel Martinez (19-1; 15).

Middleweight Jose Uzcategui remained undefeated at 18-0, with 13 knockouts when he beat Rogelio Medina (30-3; 24) on points. The scores were 96-93 and 97-92 on the two other cards.

Former Olympian middleweight Matt Korobov also remained unbeaten, improving to 19-0; 10, when he stopped Arturo Rodriguez (13-13; 8) in the fifth round.

In Tulum, Mexico, super-lightweight Roberto Ortiz took his record to 28-0-1, with 22 knockouts, when he won on a majority technical decision after five rounds against Fidel Monterrosa (29-7; 23) in a bout for the vacant WBC silver welterweight title.

Monterrosa was unable to continue as a result of a cut over his left eye after a clash of heads. The scores were 56-56 and 58-54 on the other cards.

In Uncasville, Connecticut, Delvin Rodriguez (27-6-3; 15) stopped George Tahdooahnippah (31-1-1; 23) in the sixth round of a junior middleweight bout. Referee Eddie Cotton stopped the fight 2 minutes 41 seconds into the sixth round.

Lightweight Chris Howard improved to 15-2-1; 7 when he knocked out Bayan Jargal (17-4-3; 10) in the third round.

In St Paul, Minnesota, Phil Williams (12-5-1; 11) stopped Shujaa El-Amin (12-4; 6) in the first round to win the vacant WBU super-middleweight belt.

Deinz, Belgium: Heavyweight Denis Boytsov remained unbeaten at 32-0, with 25 knockouts, when he beat Samir Kurtagic (11-6; 8) on points over eight rounds – 80-73, 79-74 and 78-74.

Gatineau, Canada: Super-lightweight Dierry Jean (24-0; 16) stopped Mexico’s Juan Jesus Rivera (25-10; 16) in the second round.

Ratchaburi, Thailand: Beijing Olympian Amnat Ruenroeng improved his record to 8-0 by beating Filipino Michael Rodriguez (13-35-1) on points over twelve rounds to win the vacant IBF Asia flyweight title. The scores were 118-110 on two cards and 117-111.

Sydney: Australian Garth Wood (11-3-1; 7) stopped Togasilimai Letoa (12-10-1; 7) in the ninth round to take the PABA light-heavyweight title

Boxing Brandon Rios-Mike Alvarado II set for March 30 in Las Vegas on HBO

By Kevin Iole | Boxing 
yahoosports.com

 

Mike Alvarado (L) and Brandon Rios will meet March 30 in a reprise of their Oct. 13 classic (Getty Images) 

Great news for fans of two men who stand in front of each other and throw haymakers: Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said Wednesday that a rematch of the great 2012 fight between Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado has been signed and is set for March 30 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Rios stopped Alvarado at 1:57 of the seventh round on Oct. 13 in Carson, Calif., in a staggeringly brutal fight. At the time, I called it the best fight I'd seen since 2000. I may have to revise that list in light of Juan Manuel Marquez's knockout of Manny Pacquiao on Dec. 8, but Rios-Alvarado I remains a classic.

"When the bell rings, basically this picks up in Round 7," Moretti said. "That's how these guys are."


 


Brandon Rios (R) cracks Mike Alvarado on Oct. 13 (Getty Images)Top Rank had groomed Rios as a potential opponent for Pacquiao for a year and after Rios stopped Alvarado, it seemed certain that Pacquiao-Rios would occur in April.

Marquez, though, had something to say about that and altered plans when he knocked Pacquiao cold.
"Once Manny lost, and after the kind of fight that was, it made Pacquiao-Marquez 5 a viable fight and a fight that we really needed to make" Moretti said. "And so that left Rios and Alvarado kind of outside there."

A fight with Pacquiao would have meant life-altering money for Rios, who now will have to pick up the pieces and be content with fighting a guy he's always beaten. That would seem to give Alvarado a bit of a boost, but Rios has never been a guy to look ahead too much. Plus, he has to have earned great respect for Alvarado during their first battle, so it's unlikely that he'll look past him.

Moretti said the bout will be broadcast by HBO.