In lieu of a preview: Revisiting Israel Vazquez vs. Jhonny Gonzalez

By Bart Barry-

It’s the new year. Time for a preview.

Nope.

Some laziness and more wisdom say a preview of what’s to come in this new year in this new column won’t work well because its writer hasn’t a strong feeling about anything that is to come in 2018 and hasn’t even minimal interest in ingesting or digesting or egesting others’ opinions on it. Here’s a better idea.

Let’s revisit Israel Vazquez versus Jhonny Gonzalez as a reminder of just how special “El Magnifico” is.

There’s the longform preview, the bulletpoint preview – apparently how the leader of the free world takes his intelligence briefings – the panelist preview, even on special occasion the poetry preview. It’s what you have to do with a weekly column and no action on the horizon each January and many a June or July; it’s either that or make an agepoorly review of whatever slim fare happens at the top of the year, pretending some historically inconsequential fight or other is a worldbeater certain to be remembered 11 months later during award season but not actually memorable come even March or April.

Such is the chore of making a constant effort at a subject whose quality is inconstant at best. Which brings us more symmetrically than may appear to the subject of today’s nonpreview column.

Ringside at Vazquez-Gonzalez in 2006, the co-comain of my first Vegas fightcard, I never saw the HBO broadcast or heard its soundtrack, believing as I do there’s no replacement for an eyewitness experience and nothing in a video is accurate as being ringside because there’s an intuitive thing that happens when you’re in physical proximity to an event, there’s an intimate sense for the accumulation of moments that belongs to you, not the cameras of a selfinterested broadcaster, that makes what you feel more trustworthy. The trustworthiness of this intuition is doubly thwarted by sayings like “you’d better think twice” and television’s relentless revenuedriven drive to replace the personal experience with itself, culminating for me years ago in the crowning idiocy of television viewers telling ringside reporters to review fight tapes to see what they missed – like aspiring tourists telling residents to watch Netflix to see what their native country is really like.

What perception happened quite quickly in my review of the Vazquez-Gonzalez broadcast, then, was the sobriety of the HBO commentary: Jim, then as now, steered the narrative wherever his cohosts directed it, but Emanuel and Larry were simply quieter than Roy and Max. At match’s end, for instance, when Jim set his mind on setting a blaze of controversy, Emanuel simply said, no, the result would’ve been the same regardless, and the whole thing got extinguished. Even were Roy today cogent as Emanuel then, he’d never get a chance to stay the inertia of his partners’ babbling long enough, and Roy is nowhere near so cogent.

In 2006 it felt like reporting. By 2010 it felt like presenting. And today it feels like selling.

OK, back to what matters.

I don’t know why I waited till 2018 to revisit this match – not in the sense that I don’t know why I chose to watch Israel Vazquez on the second Sunday morning of the year but why, if I’m capable of such an impulse, I don’t do it much more frequently. Before I was enamored of Chocolatito I was enamored of El Magnifico. And his match with Jhonny Gonzalez comprises many of the reasons why.

What Vazquez had that I admire most was physical intelligence; Vazquez thought with his body and thought through his opponents’ bodies better than most, neutralizing other men’s superiority of speed and length by doing things more precisely than they did. Vazquez’s underappreciated technique, too: the way he L-stepped from Gonzalez’s righthand towards his own, calculating as he later did in his revered trilogy with Rafael Marquez that as a Mexican-bred prizefighter he could handle well any fellow Mexican’s lefthook as any fellow Mexican could handle his, and so why trade lefthooks when neither he nor his opponents would withstand a rightcross thrown as counter or combo or lead?

It was a calculation that nearly got him undone by Gonzalez, who dropped him with a lefthook lead twice in the match, first with a balance shot then later with something indeed flusher. Whatever lefthook power be his birthright Vazquez changed decisively Gonzalez’s calculus with his right, though, in a match Gonzalez led prohibitively, 60-52, at its midpoint.

Izzy may have won two minutes of the match’s first 18. Yet there he was at each round’s opening bell, bounding off his stool and hustling to ringcenter, eager to seize some initiative from Gonzalez.

Then Vazquez shortarmed his jabs until he knew they counted, bringing the much longer Gonzalez closer and closer, extending fully only when certain a landed punch might undermine Gonzalez’s fitness more than it improved his perception of what Vazquez was up to. And goodness, but Gonzalez was a proper challenger.

Twenty-four years old and 37 prizefights into a 75-prizefight (and ongoing) career Gonzalez dropped Vazquez with a pair of the lefthooks that later razed Abner Mares in a single round, and each time he did Gonzalez finished the round worse than he started it. And Gonzalez threw those lefthooks with abandon, several times imbalancing himself into pirouettes when they missed. Izzy made him miss oftener than posterity records, too.

When the time came for finishing Vazquez was ever more robotic than predatory, enthusiastically applying a template more than attacking another man. And gracious in victory, always.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

“Cancun Boxing” September 24 replay featuring Mexican KO artist Jhonny Gonzalez airing Tonight at 10 p.m. PT on CBS Sports Network

Jhonny Gonzalez
CANCUN, Mexico (October 12, 2016) – The replay of the August 24th “Cancun Boxing” card, presented by Pepe Gomez Boxing in association with Neon Star Media, will air tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 12), starting at 10 p.m. PT / 1 a.m. ET, on CBS Sports Network. Encore presentations will be Friday, Oct. 21 (7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET) and Friday, Oct. 28 (1 a.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET).

The event is the third installment of the “Cancun Boxing” series that will air on CBS Sports Network in 2016. Grand Oasis Cancun the Hotel Complex, Cancun`s ONLY Ultimate All-Inclusive Entertainment Resort, will play host to all events in this ongoing series.

Hall-of-Fame announcer Al Bernstein and Sean Wheelock called the action live from ringside in Cancun, Mexico.

Future Hall of Fame candidate Jhonny Gonzalez (61-10, 51 KOs) defended his World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver super featherweight title for the fourth time, against Japanese invader Hiroysugi Yamamoto (19-12-2, 3 KOs), in the scheduled 10-round main event.

In the 10-round co-feature,Diego “Demoledor” Cruz (16-3-1, 13 KOs) faced welterweightIvan “Macanon” Cano (23-7-2, 15 KOs), and flyweight Lourdes “Le Pequena Lulu” Juarez (17-2 2 KOs) met Yesenia Gomez (13-4, 8 KOs), in the 8-round TV opener.

CBS Sports Network is available across the United States through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com

INFORMATION

Twitter: @pepegomezcancun, @cancun_boxing, @Neonstarmedia

Instagram: @pepegomez1

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/pepigomezquiqui, www.facebook.com/Neon-Star-Media-378687919005532

About Pepe Gomez: The first promoter in Mexico to bring together 100 world champions of all time in a night of stars called,NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS, on March 8, 2008, conducted in partnership with Don King’s first heavyweight fight in Mexico, where champions Oleg Maskaev, of Russia, faced Sam Peter, representing Nigeria, resulting in the Peter winning the WBC heavyweight title. He later defended and lost his title in Berlin to Vitali Klitschko. In his career as a promoter, Pepe Gomez has organized more than 1,000 boxing matches and other disciplines in contact sports, including MMA and Luca Libre. One of Pepe’s most important gratifying achievements is to have participated with Jose Sulaiman former president of the WBC at the 50th WBC convention where Muhammad Ali was given the honorary crown and green belt as all-time King of the Boxing World. Pepe Gomez has made many of these important and historical events possible from the wonderful vacation territory of Cancun, Mexico.

About Neon Star Media LLC: Neon Star Media is a marketing and content company that creates highly effective brand-integration experiences for our clients, executed through a unique “story-telling” approach that empowers client’s product messaging to soar while delivering results. At Neon Star Media, we maximize client media spends by leveraging our relationships with various sporting events, cable channels, digital platforms and other social media outlets. We work with our clients to engage, endorse and advance their message with audiences on all platforms 24/7.

About Grand Oasis Cancún: Grand Oasis Cancun is a beachfront, all-inclusive resort and spa with an on-site 9-hole golf course that is perfect for the entire family! The Grand Oasis Cancun is only 25 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes from downtown Cancun. Grand Oasis Cancun is Cancun`s ONLY Ultimate All-Inclusive Entertainment Resort. Grand Oasis Cancun is distinguished by the grand pyramid structure as the center point of the property with 613-rooms in the center pyramid, and two additional buildings. Under an impressive crystal cupola the lobby of the hotel is characterized by its hanging plants and exotic gardens.

“Cancun Boxing” September 24 replay featuring Mexican KO artist Jhonny Gonzalez to air this Wednesday at 10 p.m. PT on CBS Sports Network

Jhonny Gonzalez
CANCUN, Mexico (October 10, 2016) – The replay of the August 24th “Cancun Boxing” card, presented by Pepe Gomez Boxing in association with Neon Star Media, will air this Wednesday night (Oct. 12, starting at 10 p.m. PT / 1 a.m. ET, on CBS Sports Network. Encore presentations will be Friday, Oct. 21 (7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET) and Friday, Oct. 28 (1 a.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET).

Hall-of-Fame announcer Al Bernstein and Sean Wheelock called the action live from ringside in Cancun, Mexico.

Gonzalez is Mexican knockout machine (51 career KOs) who, as the saying goes, has never been in a bad fight. The 3-time, 2-division world champion Gonzalez, rated No. 4 by the WBC going into this fight, has been on a mission for one more world title shot.

The 35-year-old Gonzalez has defeated 11 world champions during his illustrious 17-year professional boxing career, including a Who’s Who of the bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight divisions: Mark Johnson (KO8), Abner Mares (KO1), Jorge Arce (TKO11), Ratanachai Sor Vorapin (KO7), Fernando Montiel (DEC12), Irene Pacheco (TKO9), Elio Rojas (DEC12), Maurice Pastrana (TKO4), Hozumi Hasegawa (TKO4), Francisco Tejedor (TKO1) and Adams Rivas (DEC12).

Yamamoto, who was fighting in North America for the first time, is a former WBC Asian Boxing Council and Asia Pacific title challenger.

(L-R) Yamamoto and Gonzalez (photo courtesy of Pepe Gomez Boxing)

In the 10-round co-feature, Mexico City archrivals Diego “Demoledor” Cruz (16-3-1, 13 KOs) and Ivan “Macanon” Cano (23-7-2, 15 KOs) battled for local welterweight bragging rights, while Mexico City flyweight Lourdes “Le Pequena Lulu” Juarez (17-2 2 KOs) took on Cancun’s favorite daughter, Yesenia Gomez (13-4, 8 KOs), in an 8-round bout that opened the televised segment of the “Cancun Boxing” event.

INFORMATION

Twitter: @pepegomezcancun, @cancun_boxing, @Neonstarmedia

Instagram: @pepegomez1

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/pepigomezquiqui, www.facebook.com/Neon-Star-Media-378687919005532

About Pepe Gomez: The first promoter in Mexico to bring together 100 world champions of all time in a night of stars called, NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS, on March 8, 2008, conducted in partnership with Don King’s first heavyweight fight in Mexico, where champions Oleg Maskaev, of Russia, faced Sam Peter, representing Nigeria, resulting in the Peter winning the WBC heavyweight title. He later defended and lost his title in Berlin to Vitali Klitschko. In his career as a promoter, Pepe Gomez has organized more than 1,000 boxing matches and other disciplines in contact sports, including MMA and Luca Libre. One of Pepe’s most important gratifying achievements is to have participated with Jose Sulaiman former president of the WBC at the 50th WBC convention where Muhammad Ali was given the honorary crown and green belt as all-time King of the Boxing World. Pepe Gomez has made many of these important and historical events possible from the wonderful vacation territory of Cancun, Mexico.

JONATHAN OQUENDO RETURNS TO GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS

LOS ANGELES (September 22) – Fresh off one of the biggest wins of his career over former world champion Jhonny Gonzalez on September 12, Puerto Rican star Jonathan “Polvo” Oquendo (26-4, 16 KOs) has returned to Golden Boy Promotions as he pursues his first world championship.

“We’ve had a long relationship with Jonathan and are thrilled to welcome him back as he continues his journey to becoming a world champion,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Jonathan’s win over Jhonny Gonzalez showed just how dangerous he is to all titleholders at 126 and 130 pounds. Talent and experience are both crucially important at this level, and Jonathan has both.”

“Golden Boy Promotions has always been fair with me and they’ve given me all the opportunities I’ve hoped for over the years,” said Jonathan Oquendo. “They are family and I am glad to have them on my side as I look to continue my dream to become a world champion.”

Currently ranked 11th in the world at featherweight by the IBF and 12th at super featherweight by the WBO, the 32-year-old Oquendo is a former WBO Latino and NABO champion at 122 pounds. The current interim WBO Latino Featherweight Titleholder was the first Puerto Rico native signed to the Golden Boy Promotions roster. Winner of four of his last five bouts, Oquendo won an exciting 10-round decision over Gonzalez on the Mayweather vs. Berto undercard in Las Vegas, and the victory has motivated the Vega Alta native to get back in the ring as soon as possible and work his way to a world title fight.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com and follow on Twitter @GoldenBoyBoxing, become a fan on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or follow on Instagram @GoldenBoyBoxing.

Mayweather goes 49-0 and gets the last laugh in what he says is his last fight

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. said it was his last dance. If it was, he also got the last laugh.

In what he promised was his farewell fight Saturday night, Mayweather mocked Andre Berto. Beat him. too, for most of 12-one-sided rounds for a unanimous decision that put him alongside Rocky Marciano in the historical ledger at 49-0.

Everything, including his body language, said he would not fight again. He hugged and kissed his father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., on the cheek before the start of the 12th and perhaps his final round.

After the 118-110, 117-110 and 120-108 scores were announced, he knelt at the center of the ring, pointed one of his green-gloved hands toward the ceiling and look up as if he were saying a goodbye prayer.

“My career is done,’’ Mayweather said.

After the ninth, he complained to his father about an injury to his left hand.

“It doesn’t matter whether I hurt my left hand or my right hand,’’ said Mayweather. who collected another $32 million guarantee in the sixth and final fight on his Showtime contract. “My career is over.’’

As definitive as his statement was in the wake of his victory over Berto, speculation will continue about whether he will pursue a 50th victory sometime in the spring, perhaps at a brand new Las Vegas arena scheduled to open next spring.

His decision to face Berto had been mocked the day it was announced. In the end, Mayweather managed to mock Berto, if not the mismatch, himself.

Sometimes, he moved robotically as if to mimic a tiring and clueless Berto. Sometimes, he moved as if had been hurt. He wasn’t. Mostly. He just made fun of Berto. At the strta of the 10th, Mayweather talked non-stop at Berto. Finally, referee Kenny Bayless called timeout and warned both.

“Just trash talk,’ said Mayweather, who hasn’t knocked anybody in eight years.

Berto was cheered for just about anything he attempted from the 13,395 in a crowd that began to fill a Grand Garden Arena that about 90 minutes before opening bell appeared to be nearly half empty.

In the early rounds, however, Berto must have felt like he was playing dodge-ball with a target always close enough to hit, yet always elusive enough to make him miss.

“He a great fighter,’’ said Berto, who didn’t call him greatest when as if he thought Mayweather was The Best Ever.
Berto will let history decide that one.

The rematch was supposed to settle the argument. It didn’t.

Instead, Orlando Salido and Roman Martinez have more to fight about after battling to a draw Saturday night in junior-lightweight bout on the Floyd Mayweather Jr .-Andre Berto card at the MGM Grand.

“I won this fight,’’ said Martinez (29-2-3, 17 KOs), a Puerto Rican who scored a unanimous decision over Salido in April

Salido (42-13-3, 29 KOs) was credited with a knockdown in the third. Martinez complained to no avail. Turns out, Martinez was right and referee Vic Drakulich wrong in ruling it a knockdown. Video replay showed that Salido stepped on Martinez’ foot, knocking him off balance and onto the canvas.

Later in the third, Martinez scored a legit knockdown, landing a big right that sent Salido back on his heels and onto his rear end. Salido was clearly hurt. But he was able to survive and then managed to drag the fight into the kind of bruising exchange he so often wins. He threw 1,037 punches. Martinez threw 691.

“I should have won,’’ Salido said. “That’s not fair.”

Anybody for a trilogy?

Badou Jack scored a first-round knockdown that proved to the key to a split-decision over George Groves in the first defense of his WBC super-middleweight bout.

“I should have knocked him out,” said Jack (20-1-1. 12 KOs), a Jamaican who lived in Stockholm and has moved to Las Vegas to train at Mayweather’s Gym. “But he was tough. George Groves is a tough fighter.”

A right to the temple put Groves (22-3, 16 KOs) onto a knee with 25 seconds left in the first round. The popular UK fighter recovered and forced Jack into a grind-it-out affair that was often hard to score.

What’s next for Jack?

“I’ve heard (Julio Cesar) Chavez Jr. is interested,” he said. Maybe, Lucian Bute. But first, mon, a vacation in Jamaica.”

Jonathan Oquendo of Puerto Rico and Johnny Gonzalez of Mexico opened the PPV part of the card in a super-featherweight bout that began with fireworks and then settled down into a battle of wits, survival and some blood. In the end, Oquendo (254, 16 KOs), prevailed, winning a 10-round majority decision after suffering a knockdown in the first round, knocking down Gonazlez (58-10, 49 KOs) in the second and sustaining a nasty cut on his legs ye;id in the sixth.

The Floyd Mayweather-Andre Berto show opened Saturday during the noon hour, or probably before Mayweather rolled out of bed.

In an empty MGM Grand Garden Arena, Atlanta junior-welterweight Trakwon Pettis didn’t waste any time in his pro debut. Pettis stopped Devante Seay (0-1) of Martinsville, Va., at 2:24 of the first round. He was done in time to catch a late lunch.

In the afternoon’s second matinee, London junior-welterweight Ashley Theopane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) outworked Steven Upsher (24-5-1, 6 KOs), winning a one-sided decision over the Philadelphia fighter who lost to Berto last year.

Then, Baltimore lightweight prospect Gervonta Davis (12-0, 11 KOs) took over with a fast and furious beating of Filipino Recky Delay (8-2, 5 KOs), who was down twice in the first and signaled to referee Russell Mora that he was done at 1:34 of the round.

In another afternoon beating, Romanian super-middleweight Ronald Gavril (13-1, 9 KOs) punished Scott Sigmon (25-7-1, 14 KOs) before the ringside physician ended it before the ninth.

A disciplined, patient Vanes Martirosyan waited as if he knew Ishe Smith would leap and lunge. Smith did. Not once, but twice. Martirosyan (36-2-1, 21 KOs), a middleweight from Glendale, Calif., capitalized both times, scoring knockdowns with well-timed counters late in the third round and again in the eighth for a majority decision over Smith (27-8, 12 KOs), a Mayweather-promoted fighter.

Dayton middleweight Chris Pearson (13-0, 10 KOs) rocked Canadian Janks Trotter (9-2-1. 9 KOs) repeatedly in the sixth and finally floored him in the seventh for a stoppage at 2:59 of the round.

In the last fight before the pay-per-view portion of the card, Uzbekistan junior-welterweight Sanjarbek Rakhmanov (2-0, 1 KO) rocked an overmatched, yet durable Farkhad Sharipov (4-5, 1 KO) of Kazakhstan repeatedly in scoring six-round unanimous decision.

FOLLOW MAYWEATHER – BERTO ROUND BY ROUND

Mayweather_Berto Weigh In Follow all the action as Floyd Mayweather fights in his final fight of his career against Andre Berto. The action kicks off at 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT with a 4 fight undercard that will feature 2 world title bouts

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12 Rounds WBA/WBC Welterweight title–Floyd Mayweather (48-0, 26 KO’s) vs Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KO’s)
ROUND	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	TOTAL
MAYWEATHER	10	9	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	118
BERTO	9	10	9	9	9	9	10	9	9	10	9	9	111

Round 1 Mayweather suing the left..lead left hook.

Round 2 Right from Berto..

Round 3 Mayweather landing rights to body..Double jab from Berto

Round 4 Jab from Berto..Lead left from Mayweather..body..Hard right..

Round 5 Counter right from Berto..Right from Mayweather..

Round 6 Good counter left from Berto…Hard body shots from Mayweather..left uppercurt…right hand..

Round 7 Right uppercut in inside from Mayweather..Berto works the body with the left hook..Left from Berto..

Round 8 Mayweather lands a left uppercut…terrific combination..1-2..Counter left from Berto…

Round 9 Berto jabs to the body…Right over top from Mayweather…

Round 10 Both guys are talking to each other..

Round 11 Lead left hook from Mayweather,,good uppercut..Nice combination…

Round 12 2 huge uppercuts on the inside from Mayweather,,counter right..jab to the body…right over the op…left uppercut…

117-111, 118-110 and 120-108

Punch Stats

Mayweather 232 of 410 Berto 83 of 495

12-rounds WBO Jr. Lightweight title–Roman Martinez (29-2-2, 17 KO’s) vs Orlando Salido (42-13-2, 29 KO’s)
ROUND	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	TOTAL
Martinez	10	9	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	112
Salido	9	10	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	116

Round 1 Uppercut on inside from Martinez..Salido lands a combination…Combination from Martinez

Round 2 Hard right from Salido..combination..

Round 3 Right FROM SALIDO AND RULED A KNOCKDOWN..Jab from Martinez…LEFT AND DOWN GOES SALIDO..Big right from Martinez

Round 4 Huge right buckles Salido..Counter right from Salido..

Round 5 Hard right from Salido and a left hook..Jab from Martinez..

Round 6 terrific action…Salido pressing

Round 7 Jab from Salido..another jab..hook…

Round 8 Hard right from salido..

Round 9 Right from Martinez..Right from Salido on the inside..uppercut in the inside..Martinez lands a right..Hard combination by Salido…Hard combination,..

Round 10 Martinez landing hard shots in the counter…counter left hook and right from Salido..terrific exchange..

Round 11 Big right from Salido

Round 12 great infighting..Martinez lands a left hook….

115-113 Martinez, 115-113 Salido, 114-114—-DRAW

Punches Martinez: 189- 691 Salido 285- 1037

12-rounds–WBC Super Middleweight title–Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KO’s) vs George Groves (21-2, 16 KO’s)
ROUND	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	TOTAL
Jack**	10	9	10	9	10	9	10	9	10	10	10	9	115
Groves	8	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	9	10	114

Round 1: Jack lands a jab..Double left hook and right from Groves..right..Good right…HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN Goes groves…

Round 2 Jack lands a jab..combination from Groves..Body and right..Combination from Jack…Counter from Groves..

Round 3 Body shot from Goves…Trading jabs…1-2 from Jack..

Round 4 Groves lands a right over the top..right uppercut

Round 5 Right from Jack..Good right from Groves..

Round 6 1-2 from Jack..Jab and right from Groves..another right..

Round 7 Body shot from Jack…Hard right from Groves

Round 8 Hard right from Groves

Round 9 Good right from Jack…

Round 10 Groves lands a jab that buckles Jack..Sharp right from Jack..

Round 11 Left to the body from Jack..left hook to the jaw..

Round 12 Body work from Jack…Groves lands a right…trading good rights..Groves lands a hard right that sets off a great exchange

114-113 Groves; 115-112 Jack; 116-111 Jack

Punch stats: Jack 210- 506 Groves 154- 721

10-rounds–Jr. Lightweights–Jhonny Gonzalez (58-9, 49 KO’s) vs Jonathan Oquendo (25-4, 16 KO’s)
ROUND	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	TOTAL
Gonzalez	10	8	10	9	9	9	10	10	9	10			94
Oquendo	8	10	9	10	10	10	9	9	10	10			95

Round 1: Uppercut by Gonzalez..BIG UPPEERCUT AND DOWN GOES OQUENDO…

Round 2 Right uppercut from Gonzalez…3 punch combination…Blood over the right eye of Gonzalez..right from Oquendo…HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN GOES GONZALEZ…Big left staggers Gonzalez…

Round 3 Good body work from Gonzalez..Straight right from Oquendo..Left hook…Combination from Gonzalez..Oquendo switches southpaw..Body shot from Oquendo..

Round 4 Combination from Oquendo..left hook..Jab to the body..left hook..right

Round 5 Left to body from Oquendo

Round 6: Overhand right from Oquendo..Triple Jab…Good right from Gonzalez..Nice Left

Round 7 Left hook from Gonzalez..Jab..Oquendo working the body…Gonzalez lands a hard right..

Round 8: Gonzalez cut over left eye from accidental headbutt…Left and right from Gonzalez..Jab…Jab from Oquendo drives Gonzalez to the corner..

Round 9 Doctor looking at cuts on Gonzalez…

Round 10

94-94; 95-93 and 98-90 for Oquendo

Punch stats: Gonzales –139 of 502 Oquendo: 100 of 455

10 Rounds–Jr Middleweights–Vanes Martirosyan (35-2-1, 21 KO’s) vs Ishe Smith (27-7, 12 KO’s)
ROUND	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	TOTAL
Martirosyan **	9	10	10	10	9	9	9	10	9	9	MD		94
Smith	10	9	8	9	10	10	10	8	10	10			94

Round 1: Good left from Smith

Round 2 Jab from Martiroysan…Combination..Right to the body..Counter left from Smith

Round 3: 2 shots to the body from Martirosyan..Left from Smith..Counter left..RiGHT FROM MARTIROSYAN AND RULED A KNOCKDOWN

Round 4: Jab from Martirsyan…right…right to body from Smith,,,Nice right from Martirosyan..

Round 5: Good combination from Smith..Good uppercut..Good combination..right lead..3 punch combination..counter right…

Round 6: Good combination..right to body and left to the head..Body…Combination..

Round 7: Smith lanleft to head and left uppercut..lands a left..right

Round 8: Huge LEFT AND DOWN GOES SMITH

Round 9 Nice combination from Smith..good left to body and head..Swelling under the right eye of Martirosyan..Left..

Round 10 Good right from Smith

95-95; 97-91 two times Martirosyan

ROMAN MARTINEZ AND JONATHAN OQUENDO PUERTO RICO MEDIA DAY QUOTES

DORADO, PR (Sept. 1, 2015) – WBO Junior Lightweight Champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2-2, 17 KOs) and WBO/IBF featherweight world-ranked Jonathan “Polvo” Oquendo (25-4, 16 KOs) worked out for the press in Puerto Rico on Monday, Aug, 31 in advance of their SHOWTIME PPV® fights against former world champions Orlando “Siri” Salido (42-13-2, 29 KOs) and Jhonny Gonzalez (58-9, 49 KOs), respectively. The event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas highlighted by HIGH STAKES: Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto.

Martinez and Oquendo worked before the media at the Dorado Municipal Gym in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Both fighters completed a full training session with their respective trainers Raul Torres and Dennis Pantojas.

This is what the fighters had to say during Monday’s workout:

Román “Rocky” Martínez
“I’m preparing for a big fight on September 12. Everyone saw that the first fight against Salido was a true ‘War.’ This time around, I’m planning to give my fans the same type of fight. I predict a non-stop action slugfest.

“My team and I are working and have been working really hard in training camp. I believe that we are doing everything that needs to be done. I’m in the best shape of my career and I’m planning to win once again, either by knockout or decision, but I’ll win.

“We have worked more on side-to-side and in-and-out movement. If I see him hurt early I’m going to finish him.”

Raul Torres, Martinez’s Trainer
“Rocky is a 100 percent prepared for [Orlando] Salido. I have no doubt that we will emerge victorious once again.

“[Orlando] Salido is a fighter that likes to go forward. He stands in front of you and he goes at it. He’s tough, but we are tougher. We are ready.”

Jonathan Oquendo
“This is very important fight for me. This is my opportunity to put myself in the world title landscape. I’m not going to let this opportunity slip away from me.

“Jhonny Gonzalez is a veteran of 60 fights, so you can’t take him lightly. Preparation is key.

“This will be the first fight at 130 pounds for me and I can say that the training camp has been very good, better than expected.

“I’m feeling strong. I think this is a good weight for me, I’m comfortable because I don’t have to lose much weight and can train better.”

Dennis Pantojas, Oquendo’s trainer
“We have had a very good training camp. Jonathan [Oquendo] has not had any problems and he’s right on weight that we want.

“I see Jonathan [Oquendo] more focused and stronger than ever. We are not only hitting the gym, we are also swimming a lot and that has helped him lots. “

# # #

Tickets for the live event, which is promoted by Mayweather Promotions LLC., are priced at $1,500, $1,000, $750, $500, $300 and $150 and are on sale now. Tickets are limited to eight (8) per household for all ticket prices except the $150 ticket category, which is limited to four (4) per household. To charge by phone or with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

“HIGH STAKES: Mayweather vs. Berto,” a 12-round welterweight world championship bout for Mayweather’s WBC and WBA 147-pound titles, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions LLC. The event will take place Saturday, September 12 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be televised by SHOWTIME PPV. The undercard features a WBO Junior Lightweight World Championship fight, which is a rematch between Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido, which is promoted in association with PR Best Boxing. Also featured on the PPV telecast will be a WBC Super Middleweight title bout between Badou Jack and George Groves, which is promoted in association with Team Sauerland. The opening PPV bout pits former world champion Jhonny Gonzalez against Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo in a 10-round junior lightweight bout.

ANDRE BERTO LOS ANGELES WORKOUT QUOTES

LOS ANGELES – (Aug. 28, 2015) – Two-time welterweight world champion Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) participated in a media workout at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live as he prepares for the biggest fight of his career. In front of an enthusiastic crowd, Berto looked focused and in great shape, jumping rope and shadowboxing, as he looks to become the first fighter to defeat 12-time world champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs), on Saturday, Sept. 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas live on SHOWTIME PPV® (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT).

In addition to Berto, top 168-pound contender George Groves and former three-time world champion Jhonny Gonzalez participated in the media workout as they prepare for their respective fights on the SHOWTIME PPV broadcast.

The training session was hosted by TV & CBS Radio personality Big Tigger and Emmy® Award-winning sports reporter Mark Kriegel and streamed in high definition across multiple platforms, including via satellite feed, YouTube and social media.

Promoted by Mayweather Promotions, the Sept. 12 four-fight pay-per-view telecast will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV and is the sixth and final fight of a record-breaking deal between Mayweather and Showtime Networks Inc. SHOWTIME Sports® will support the event with the Sports Emmy® Award-winning series ALL ACCESS.

In world championship fights on the pay-per-view telecast, Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2-2, 17 KOs) will defend his WBO Junior Lightweight title in a rematch against four-time world champion Orlando “Siri” Salido (42-13-2, 29 KOs), and Badou Jack “The Ripper” (19-1-1, 12 KOs) will make the initial defense of his WBC Super Middleweight World title against mandatory challenger “Saint” George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs). The opening fight of the telecast will feature former three-time world champion and Mexican power-puncher Jhonny Gonzalez (58-9, 49 KOs) against Puerto Rico’s Jonathan “Polvo” Oquendo (25-4, 16 KOs) in a 10-round junior lightweight scrap.

Plus, former 154-pound world champion Ishe Smith (27-7, 12 KOs) will be opposed by longtime top-five contender Vanes Martirosyan (35-2-1, 21 KOs) in the 90-minute COUNTDOWN LIVE: MAYWEATHER vs. BERTO” preshow on Saturday, September 12.

What Berto, Berto’s trainer, Virgil Hunter, George Groves, Jhonny Gonzalez and Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe said Friday:

Andre Berto

“From an energy aspect I feel great. It’s my first time in a while coming into a fight with no injuries. This is the healthiest I’ve been since I can remember.

“At the end of the day, this fight was supposed to happen two or three times. Situations with me not taking care of myself and not taking opponents seriously caused it to happen. But styles make fights and we’ll see what the boxing fans say Sept. 12.

“I know that I’m still the same guy who people thought could have given Floyd problems a couple years ago.

“Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero both got fights with Floyd because they beat me. There must be something to that. They said ‘if he did something to Berto, he should get a shot at Floyd.'”

“We’re here. It’s my time to see him. He can have his ‘MayVinci’ code because we put in the work. The whole team is confident. I’m going to do what I do.

“We worked on a lot of different things at camp. I have the speed to keep up with him. I have more power.

“The thing with Floyd is, most guys he fights aren’t as athletic as he is. But I am.

“If you come at Floyd fast but don’t have a plan and don’t have good footwork, it’s too easy for him. If you have a guy that’s as athletic as him, it gives him problems.

“There is a lot more to me than just walking guys down. I have speed, I have power, I have a crazy uppercut, I can move to the side. There are a lot of ways I can get it done.

“I’m not going to watch his sparring. I don’t want to watch him driving his cars, none of that. I want to see him Sept. 12.

“This is my first time going into a fight without all the pressure on my back. I’ve always been the favorite in every fight. I don’t know what he’s feeling and I don’t really have to care about it.

“It’s a different mindset. Coming from where I come from, we always had to defeat the odds. We didn’t have what other people had. We had to work twice as hard for everything. To be noticed to be seen. Even back then it drove me to be the best that I can be. I wanted everyone to know I was somebody you had to watch.

“I’ve faced these odds my whole life. I was discounted two years ago when I was laying in the hospital. I’m constantly envisioning victory.

“All the hard work we’re putting in, it’ll all pay off fight night. It’s not just for me. I’ve been through doing things for me. I see what’s real now.

“I’ve prepared myself mentally to be in this position. People can say whatever they want. We’re focused.

“This is going to be for everyone who believes in the underdog.”

Virgil Hunter

“We have a unique opportunity right in front of us. We have a chance at history and to cement a legacy for my fighter (Berto).

“What is the key to winning this fight? (Berto) has got to want to win. He has to want it more. He holds the keys in his hand. You can plan as much as you want for tomorrow, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We can only prepare.

“If (Berto) wins this fight, you’ll see me jumping up and down and it will be hard to compose myself. I’m usually pretty composed, but you might see me jump up and fall out of the ring and hit my head or something.

“No matter what happens, Floyd will always be considered one of the best ever. Win or lose, his legacy is cemented.

“There are similarities between Floyd and Andre Ward. They both started boxing as young boys, and were Olympians and are undefeated. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being undefeated and they both have faced that.

“It’s not fair to the fight game to say this is a free shot and to go in there and say we have nothing to lose. We have everything to lose.”

George Groves

“Training camp has been going great. We’re fully acclimated to the time change and altitude. We’re performing very well in the gym and fulfilling the plan. I’m ready to rock.

“We’ve trained in the U.S. before. Last year we came over to spar with Gennady Golovkin. This time we’re out there for much longer and it has been very successful.

“I like training in the altitude and I expect it to help me on fight night. We got used to it over the weeks of camp and now it’s time to bring the extra energy to the ring.

“I’m fully immersed in this fight with Badou Jack. Everyone wants to know about the future plans, but I leave that up to the promoters. My main concern is winning that WBC belt.

“I carry power. I have good hands and foot speed. I can control the fight from anywhere. The mistakes that Badou Jack makes, I will take advantage of.

“I want to announce myself as the best fighter in the division and I’m planning on doing that Sept. 12. There won’t be any question marks. After I win this fight, I’ll have proof.

“I’m a valuable commodity in the UK and it’s about time I started building my brand in the states. This is a huge opportunity being on the Mayweather card. The undercard will not be overlooked this night.

“Every fight is more important than the last. It doesn’t matter who you fight, it can affect you in a big way. I have a style that will naturally engage with the fans. People like to see me fight. I look to take the opponent out and that will be the same on Sept. 12.

“Once Badou Jack leaves an opening, I will take it. I plan to look very good doing so.”

Jhonny Gonzalez

“I feel great. I’ve been preparing at the gym a lot and I feel very good about this fight.

“I am ready to win in this division and compete for a world title right away.

“I am fighting so quickly after my last victory because I am very confident. I want to stay active. I want to gain what I had before the loss to [Gary] Russell. I’m moving forward.

“I know that my opponent is a strong fighter. He’s going to throw a lot of punches but I’m going to bring it right back at him hard.

“Being on the Mayweather card is a blessing. I’m excited to be in Las Vegas with the whole world watching.

“I’m honored to be fighting on the Mexican Independence weekend. I’m ready to represent for my Mexican people. I’m going to leave everything in the ring.

“What I want out of this fight, is an opportunity to win a world title. This is why I train so hard, to win world titles and fight in big fights.

“I believe in my power punches. I’m intelligent on the inside and the outside. I believe in myself as a fighter and that is why I’ll win.”

Leonard Ellerbe

“I think Floyd shocked everyone by sparring on his media day on Wednesday. It wasn’t planned. You just never know what you’re going to get at any Mayweather event. He’s always going to do something to attract attention and put on a show.

“There’s no fear in Virgil (Berto’s trainer) or Andre checking it out and finding something that they can use against Floyd. Virgil is an excellent trainer and they will be prepared for everything for this fight.

“Everything is right on track with the promotion. Doing a media workout like this is very important to keep the publicity up and to market the event and let the fighters interact with the fans. We have a tremendous undercard on Sept. 12

“The SHOWTIME All Access episodes have been excellent and are getting the fans and media excited for this fight.”

# # #

“HIGH STAKES: Mayweather vs. Berto,” a 12-round welterweight world championship bout for Mayweather’s WBC and WBA 147-pound titles, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions LLC. The event will take place Saturday, September 12 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be televised by SHOWTIME PPV. The undercard features a WBO Junior Lightweight World Championship fight, which is a rematch between Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido. Also featured on the PPV telecast will be a WBC Super Middleweight title bout between Badou Jack and George Groves, which is promoted in association with Team Sauerland. The opening PPV bout pits former world champion Jhonny Gonzalez against Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo in a 10-round super featherweight bout.

“ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Berto” Episode 1 premieres this Friday, Aug. 28 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.

For more information visit www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.SHO.com/Sports andwww.mgmgrand.com and follow on Twitter at @floydmayweather, @AndreBerto, @BadouJack, @StGeorgeGroves, @Romancito77, @sirisalido, @jhonnygbox, @JonathanOquen @mayweatherpromo, @SHOSports and @Swanson_Comm or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather,www.Facebook.com/TheRealAndreBerto,www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

ROMAN MARTINEZ, ORLANDO SALIDO, JHONNY GONZALEZ & JONATHAN OQUENDO MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT

Kelly Swanson
Thanks everybody for calling in. We appreciate it. We know it’s a busy week, but we wanted to kick it off with this conference call and on the line today we have two bouts from the HIGH STAKES: Mayweather vs. Berto Pay-Per-View undercard, taking place Saturday, September 12.

The two bouts that we’re talking about today are Jhonny Gonzalez versus Jonathan Oquendo
and also Roman Martinez versus Orlando Salido, in their rematch. We’re going to start with Gonzalez and Oquendo and then we will move into the Martinez-Salido portion of the call. To make the introductions and MC the call I’d like to introduce Leonard Ellerbe, Chief Executive Officer of Mayweather Promotions.

Leonard Ellerbe
Thank you Kelly. I’d like to thank everyone for calling in to our first of two conference calls. It’s exciting to present these great fights on the Pay-Per-View televised portion of the Mayweather versus Berto event. This call is extremely special because we have not only one, but two classics – Mexico versus Puerto Rico matchups which we’ll be discussing. Before we get into the fight details and fighters I’d like to introduce Chris DeBlasio, he’s the Vice President of Sports Communications for SHOWTIME.

Chris DeBlasio
Thank you to all the press for getting on and Kelly for setting this up. I won’t take much of your time. I know you want to hear from the fighters today, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t share some of the exciting programming that we have coming up. As Leonard mentioned, the two fights that we’re going to talk about today are special in the classic rivalry between Mexico and Puerto Rico and we do expect this to be a very exciting and fun undercard. So we’re excited to get to it.

As such, SHOWTIME Sports, in keeping with our tradition with the Mayweather events that we have been fortunate enough to work with Mayweather Promotions since 2013, we have a strong lineup of programming that comes in advance of the Pay-Per-View. The lynchpin of that is, of course, our Sports Emmy Award winning “ALL ACCESS” series.

We will premiere the first of a four episode series this Friday, August 28, on SHOWTIME. That is chronicling Mayweather and Berto as they prepare for the main event on September 12. In addition we have the first fight of Orlando Salido versus Rocky Martinez from April of this year. We believe many of you have already called this a leading candidate for fight of the year for 2015. That first fight in its entirety is airing on SHOWTIME EXTREME. It airs on the CBS Sports Network, our sister cable television network. It is also available in full on the internet. If you haven’t seen that fight or you want to relive some of the excitement or share with your readers and viewers, please do. That fight was excellent and we expect a great one in the rematch as well.

Our typical compliment of programming during fight week will be available as expected and as you’ve seen before from SHOWTIME in partnership with Mayweather Promotion. You’ll see a main event press conference streaming live on Wednesday of fight week. The undercard press conference we will also stream live that week. Weigh-in Live on Friday will air on SHOWTIME network, on CBS Sports Network and on many other platforms, including the internet.

We also have a very special “COUNTDOWN LIVE” on Saturday, September 12. COUNTDOWN LIVE is going to be a 90-minute show on SHOWTIME leading up to the Pay-Per-View. That’s going to include a live 10-round fight between Mayweather Promotions’ Ishe Smith in a super welterweight bought against Vanes Martirosyan. So lots of great programing coming up.

I know you guys have lots of other live action to cover as well. So I’m not going to take up any more of your time. I wish you luck and thanks for the time.

L. Ellerbe
Okay, thank you Chris. Mayweather versus Berto is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and as Chris mentioned it will be live on SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View. Just a reminder the Pay-Per-View telecast will start at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET. This event will be sponsored by Tecate.

Also, just a reminder tickets are on sale now at the MGM Grand and the ticket prices are $150, $300, $500, $750, $1000 and $1500. Mayweather versus Berto will be shown live in select movie theaters all across the country with our partners Fathom Events. Tickets are on sale now at www.fathomevents.com. In the main event, obviously, you have Floyd “Money” Mayweather versus hard hitting former champ Andre Berto. In the co-main event we have WBO Junior lightweight title fight between Roman “Rocky” Martinez and Orlando Salido. This will be a rematch of their fight of the year from this past April.

The Martinez versus Salido fight will follow Mayweather Promotions own Badou Jack “The Ripper” making his first title defense of his WBC Super Middleweight World Championship and he’ll be fighting “Saint” George Groves. The Jack vs. Groves fight is in association with Sauerland Events. And as announced last Tuesday the first Pay-Per-View television fight will be a 10 round Junior Lightweight showdown featuring Mexican power puncher Jhonny Gonzalez against Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo. I’d like to acknowledge Peter Rivera of PR Best Boxing

Peter Rivera
Hi, Leonard. Hi everybody. Once again, thanks for the opportunity to SHOWTIME and Mayweather and we’re looking forward to being part of this great event.

L. Ellerbe
Thank you. I would like to introduce and first the opening televised bout on the Pay-Per-View portion. Jonathan Oquendo, fighting out of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He’s won 11 of 13 fights and will fight for the sixth time in his career at the MGM when he faces Jhonny Gonzalez on September the 12. Coming to us with a record of 25-4 with 16 KOs. Jonathan, would you like to make a few comments?

Jonathan Oquendo
I want to thank the press. I want to thank everyone for this opportunity. I’m very excited. I’m very focused and looking forward to the match up.

L. Ellerbe
Next up I’d like to introduce a very very exciting fighter from Mexico City, Mexico. He has won world championships at 118 and 126. One of his most memorable fights is his fight against Abner Mares in a very very exciting fight he ended with the first round KO to grab the WBC featherweight title. He defended it twice because eventually losing to Gary Russell Jr. Jhonny Gonzalez comes in with with a 58-9 record with 49 big KOs

Jhonny Gonzalez
I’m very happy for this opportunity. I’m extremely excited for the chance to fight on such a big stage that is important to fans around the world and I’ve really picked up my training and I’m extremely focused and looking ahead towards September 12.

Q
Jonathan, why did you accept this fight at this stage of your career?

J. Oquendo
I feel like this is a great opportunity. I want to be a great champion. I want to go ahead and showcase my talents on the card that Floyd Mayweather is headlining because there is a lot of attention when he fights. I feel that the training and that we’ve been doing in camp has been fantastic and I do believe that I have enough to defeat somebody of the caliber of Jhonny Gonzalez.

Q
Jhonny, what do you expect out of Jonathan Oquendo?

J. Gonzalez
He is very complicated and difficult to fight. I know that for Jonathan it’s a great opportunity. I’m awaiting a very stiff and strong challenge and I believe that Jonathan will bring his best coming up on September 12.

Q
Johnny, you just fought earlier this month. Did you already know that this fight was in the works if you won?

J. Gonzalez
I’m very happy that I took the previous fight and came out fine and it’s allowed me to just keep up the same training. I feel terrific at 130 pounds. I understand how important this is for all the Mexicans to be able to celebrate during this time on September 12 and during the month of September. At the end of the day I want to come out with my hand raised on September 12.

Q
How important is it to you to keep up the tradition of always fighting on or near your birthday, which of course is also the Mexico Independence Day?

J. Gonzalez
It’s very important for me to fight during this time of the year. I have had the opportunity to compete during this time of the year on various occasions and also more than anything I’ve learned from my defeats. Sometimes I’ve came up short but I have looked back and figured out the reasons why. And at the end of the day, most importantly, I want to go out and I want to fight for one more world title.

Q
Jhonny, do you believe you’re done at featherweight or would the right opportunity prompt you to drop that kind of weight?

J. Gonzalez
No, I’m done. My days are over fighting at 126. My focus is strictly on 130 pounds. I want to fight for a world title and I want to fight the best at 130. I get that opportunity to do so on September 12 against Jonathan Oquendo.

Q
This question is for Jhonny. Are you going to put on another action-packed fight or will this be a more conservative Jhonny?

J. Gonzalez
I feel that the face that I’m back with my father will make me better than ever. I feel better at 130 instead of at 126 and my mindset is more to focus on boxing and that ability to focus on boxing, is going to allow me to land harder shots against Jonathan Oquendo.

Q
Do you plan on making a title run at 130?
J. Gonzalez
I want to put on exciting fights, but I also want to focus on my campaign at 130 step-by-step. I feel that I will be ready to fight for a world title if the opportunity presents itself, but I’m more focused on handling things one by one and step-by-step.

Q
Having been through the process of rebuilding after a loss, do you feel more comfortable going through it?

J. Gonzalez
I always learn from my losses. I’m going to come back stronger and my mindset is to fight for a world title at 130 pounds. I understand the adjustments I need to make and I’m going to put that on display against Jonathan Oquendo.

Q
Jonathan, how do you feel fighting at 130 pounds?

J. Oquendo
I’m in excellent condition right now. I understand the opponent that I have against me in Jhonny Gonzalez and I think I’m going to be totally fine conditioning wise and physically against Jhonny Gonzalez.

K. Swanson
Great. Thank you so much. Okay, now we’re going to transition over to Orlando Salido and Rocky Martinez.

L. Ellerbe
This next bout, which will be the second part of this great Mexico versus Puerto Rico rivalry, we have a very exciting fight. It’s a fight that the fans are really looking forward to and I’d like to introduce first Roman “Rocky” Martinez. He comes to us with a 29-2 record with 17 KOs and he’s fighting out of Puerto Rico. He’ll be making the first defense in his third stint as the WBO Junior Lightweight champ. He survived a desperate late rush to unanimously out-point Salido in a hard fought action packed fight this past April and it was a classic Puerto Rico versus Mexico battle. Roman, would like you to say a few words?

Roman Martinez
I’m very prepared. My team has done a terrific job in training camp. I want to put on an amazing fight and I’ve worked extremely diligently to be able to defend his title on a spectacular card like this one that is headlined by Floyd Mayweather.

O. Salido
I’m very happy and it means a lot for me to be included on such a great card like this that is headlined by Floyd Mayweather and I want to prove to everybody that I still have a long career in front of me and I want to go out and recapture the world title.

Q
Orlando, what will be different in this fight coming up?

O. Salido
I’ve been training with guys that are very mobile that like to move a lot and I know that Roman is going to constantly be on the move, but the difference with this fight is that during his last fight in training camp I did not spar with guys that are very mobile and moved around the ring. But in this fight I’m very focused and prepared to go head and seek Roman Martinez in every single corner of the ring.

Q
For both fighters, what is your mentality of going back into the ring immediately with an opponent you just fought in what was a very very hard, physical, tough fight. How do you mentally prepare yourself for that knowing you’re probably going to be standing across the ring from a guy who is going to put you through another 12 rounds or maybe less of all out warfare?

R. Martinez
My training has been excellent. To be able to come out and put on a show on a card like this, I want to not only look good, but I want to look spectacular. The difference is that I’m going to use my intelligence more. I know Orlando is a terrific fighter and is going to leave it all inside the ring, but I’m going to use my brains more in this fight compared to the last.

O. Salido
Training has been going very well. I understand that we went toe-to-toe in our last match, but honestly, mentally I feel fantastic. What I’m looking at in this fight is not to leave anything behind. To give it my all and he understands that Roman Martinez is a great fighter, but I want to go out and recoup the title for all of Mexico on September 12.

Q
Roman did you think at any point that you could finish him in that fight and did you think that because you were able to drop him two times that perhaps this time you could finish him off in the rematch?

R. Martinez
I understand in the first fight I feel like I didn’t start as strong and in this fight I’m going to fight with pressure of from the outset and I do have a lot of confidence understanding that I could hurt Orlando Salido, but in this fight it’s all about starting faster and stronger and really going ahead and putting the pressure on Orlando Salido early. I definitely feel I can go ahead and finish off Orlando Salido. Orlando is a very valiant fighter and very courageous, but if I have the moment and I have the opportunity, if it is there then I will certainly oblige and finish off Orlando Salido.

Q
Leonard, could you talk about how this fight ended up on the undercard of Floyd’s show?

L. Ellerbe
We’re always looking to put on exciting fights on our undercards and this was the best fight out there that we could make. I’m truly excited, not only as the promoter of the event, but as a fan to be able to witness another great fight. We know the first fight was a hardcore fight and I suspect nothing else in this fight. I went out and I tried to make the best fight I could on the card and that’s what we got.

Q
Roman do you believe that you have the advantage mentally heading into the rematch?

R. Martinez
Orlando is a veteran. We had an amazing fight back in April, but I’m not going to get over confident because Orlando Salido is a dangerous fighter and I understand I must bring 100% and my absolute best on September 12.

Q
Orlando did you want the rematch immediately?

O. Salido
The first fight was in Roman’s backyard out in Puerto Rico. I did not fight well, but I craved an opportunity to regain my title and I will do so for all of Mexico.

Q
Orlando how do you feel being able to fight very close to Mexican Independence Day and all that it represents?

O. Salido
It’s such an honor to be fighting so close to this day for the Independence of Mexico. I am so just overjoyed by the opportunity to be able to regain my title for all of Mexico during that time of year.

Q
Orlando do you think that this is the last time you will be fighting for the world title?

O. Salido
I do not know whatsoever. You can’t tell and you can’t know for sure. Anything can happen in the ring. But what I do know is that I am focused and coming up on September 12 I will, once again, regain my world championship for all of Mexico.

Q
The first fight that you had was very close and a lot of people felt that real difference in the decision was the two knockdowns. What happened with those knockdowns and how are you going to work in this fight to prevent something like that from happening again?

O. Salido
Mentally I feel great. Roman hit me with great shots, but the second knock down he hit me with an amazing show. In the first fight I lost the fight mentally and in this fight everything is different mentally, spiritually. I just feel so much better and I thought that in the first fight that everyone was for Roman. This time everything is different and I think that the results will be different as well.

Q
Roman, could you tell us what led up to the knockdowns and how you will try to repeat that in the rematch?

R. Martinez
The first fight, it was just an amazing matchup. I went ahead and I saw an opportunity. I took advantage of it. I’m training very hard to go out there and get the finish that I was looking for in the first match up.

Q
In the back of your mind have you thought at all about a trilogy?

O. Salido
If the fans want a third fight after I am victorious then so be it. Let’s make it happen. But in my mind I’m coming out only thinking about this fight. That is my only focus at the moment. I want to come out and fight an intelligent fight. I know Roman is going to be at his best, but when he steps inside the ring on September 12 I want to put on a spectacular performance for all the fans and everyone watching on Pay-Per-View.

R. Martinez
I know it’s going to be a great fight and that if the fans want a third fight then I’m willing to oblige, but it will have to be on my point because I’m going to be victorious yet again over Orlando Salido. So if it is another great fight where I am victorious it will certainly be up to me and I would be willing to go ahead and consider the option of fighting a third time against Orlando Salido.

“HIGH STAKES: Mayweather vs. Berto,” a 12-round welterweight
world championship bout for Mayweather’s WBC and WBA 147-pound titles, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions LLC. The event will take place Saturday, September 12 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be televised by SHOWTIME PPV. The undercard features a WBO Junior Lightweight World Championship fight, which is a rematch between Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido. Also featured on the PPV telecast will be a WBC Super Middleweight title bout between Badou Jack and George Groves, which is promoted in association with Team Sauerland. The opening PPV bout pits former world champion Jhonny Gonzalez against Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo in a 10-round super featherweight bout.

MEXICAN POWER-PUNCHER & FORMER THREE-TIME WORLD CHAMPION JHONNY GONZALEZ TAKES ON PUERTO RICO’S JONATHAN OQUENDO TO ROUND OUT MAYWEATHER VS. BERTO STACKED FOUR-FIGHT SHOWTIME PPV® TELECAST LIVE FROM THE MGM GRAND GARDEN ARENA IN LAS VEGAS 8 P.M. ET/5 P.M. PT

LAS VEGAS (August 20, 2015) – Former three-time world champion and Mexican power-puncher Jhonny Gonzalez (58-9, 49 KOs) will take on Puerto Rico’s Jonathan “Polvo” Oquendo (25-4, 16 KOs) in a 10-round junior lightweight showdown that will open up HIGH STAKES: Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto, the live, four-fight, SHOWTIME PPV® event on Saturday, September 12 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

“This will be an attractive fight for the fans as we all know that the sporting rivalry between Mexico and Puerto Rico always generates great battles,” said Gonzalez. “Oquendo is a fighter who always goes forward and who likes to exchange blows. I will demonstrate that I have the desire to return to the top and fight for a world championship. Participating on a Floyd Mayweather event is a great opportunity for me and I will make the most of it.”

“This opportunity against Jhonny Gonzalez is very important because I will face a former world champion and will be part of a great show headlined by Floyd Mayweather,” said Oquendo. “It’s an honor for me to be part of the undercard of this event. I’m excited to share the stage with my countryman Rocky Martinez, who also has a big fight against Orlando Salido, so there are two wars between Puerto Rico and Mexico. We are training hard to get in top condition for this fight.”

“Boxing fans are in for a great night of action from start to finish with the addition of the Jhonny Gonzalez vs. Jonathan Oquendo matchup,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “This will be another chapter in the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico boxing rivalry. I have no doubt that both men will leave it all in the ring on September 12 and live up to the historic event.”

The main event features the final fight in the extraordinary career of boxing’s pound-for-pound king Floyd “Money” Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs) as he takes on former two-time welterweight champion Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs) in a 12-round battle for Mayweather’s WBC and WBA 147-pound titles. Mayweather will look to match the 49-0 mark of late heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano and reaffirm his claim as “The Best Ever.”

Two stellar world championship fights will also be included on the pay-per-view telecast.
Roman “Rocky” Martinez (29-2-2, 17 KOs) will risk his WBO Junior Lightweight title in a rematch against the boxer he dethroned, four-time world champion Orlando “Siri” Salido (42-13-2, 29 KOs). Their first fight in April of this year is considered by many to be a leading candidate for Fight of the Year. In addition, Badou Jack “The Ripper” (19-1-1, 12 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBC Super Middleweight World title against mandatory challenger “Saint” George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs).

With the Gonzalez vs. Oquendo fight added to the jam-packed SHOWTIME PPV telecast, boxing fans are in for a night of action from top to bottom that features two more additions to the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico boxing rivalry, three world championship fights and the final bout of the greatest fighter of this generation.

One of the best Mexican fighters of this era, Mexico City’s Gonzalez has held world championships at 118 and 126 pounds, defeating the likes of Hall-of-Famer Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson and former world champions Fernando Montiel, Irene Pacheco, and Hozumi Hasegawa along the way. His most recent championship winning performance came via a stunning first round knockout of three-division champion Abner Mares which earned him the WBC Featherweight World Title. He would defend the title twice before losing to Gary Russell Jr. but the 33-year-old bounced back earlier this month by knocking out Kazuki Hashimoto.

A top contender from Bayamon, Puerto Rico Oquendo has won 11 of his last 13 fights, including his most recent victory over Gabino Cota in March. The 32-year-old owns victories over Joe Luis Araiza, Eden Sonsona, Alejandro Montiel and top prospect Guillermo Avila. He will fight for the sixth time in his career at MGM Grand when he enters the ring on September 12.

# # #

“HIGH STAKES: Mayweather vs. Berto,” a 12-round welterweight world championship bout for Mayweather’s WBC and WBA 147-pound titles, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions LLC. The event will take place Saturday, September 12 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be televised by SHOWTIME PPV. The undercard features a WBO Junior Lightweight World Championship fight, which is a rematch between Roman Martinez and Orlando Salido. Also featured on the pay-per-view telecast will be a WBC Super Middleweight title bout between Badou Jack and George Groves, which is promoted in association with Team Sauerland. The opening PPV bout pits former world champion Jhonny Gonzalez against Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo in a 10-round junior lightweight bout.

Gary Russell Jr, and the end of cable sports journalism

By Bart Barry–

Saturday, Showtime’s preternaturally gifted Gary Russell Jr., an Al Haymon fighter, knocked-out the hardest puncher in Mexican history, Jhonny Gonzalez, on Showtime, a Haymon-affiliated network, to seize from Gonzalez the Showtime featherweight title Gonzalez took from Showtime’s Abner Mares a few years back. Whatever the depth of boxing’s featherweight division, and whatever Russell’s postfight protestations, Showtime’s featherweight division now finds itself bereft of fitting challengers for Russell’s crown – and Showtime viewers are admonished, therefore, to raise Russell’s fragile left hand against every hypothetical opponent from here to Nicholas Walters.

Unfortunately there is nothing new or more hyperbolic to say of Showtime’s Gary Russell Jr. than was already said by HBO’s crew 4 1/2 years and nine fights ago. Back then Russell’s membership on USA Boxing’s woeful 2008 Olympic team was viewed with greater skepticism than it is today; time and Deontay Wilder’s semisuccess, and the still-worse showing by USA Boxing in 2012, all, made shouting “2008 Olympian” somehow more positive Saturday on Showtime than it did when Russell began underachieving on HBO, who honored what remained, then, of its journalistic integrity by noting Russell did not even compete in the 2008 Olympic Games.

While it would be impossible to mark the day on which HBO completed its transition from broadcaster to promoter, historians might find riches worth mining in a review of a Boxing After Dark telecast on Sept. 3, 2011, one that featured an Andre Berto-rehab assignment in its main event and Gary Russell Jr.’s HBO debut in an eight-rounder on its undercard:

“Gary Russell Jr. is an ex-cep-tional talent!” cheered Max Kellerman before the opening bell even rang. “I think, Roy (Jones), he’s a gold-medal-caliber talent.”

“I hear his hands are almost as fast as mine used to be,” Jones answered, rhetorically, with what autobiographical modesty marked his every broadcast. “He’s got to be a gold-medal talent.”

In round 2 Kellerman strayed dangerously close to insubordination when, in an attempt to define Russell as both a supreme offensive force and a supreme defensive one, he ran afoul of Jones’ definition of a “boxer” – which Jones promptly made indistinguishable from other styles, specifically the difference between a “boxer” and a “boxer!”

“Signs of a great fighter, son,” added Jones in round 4. “Great hand-speed. Great power. Great defense. (Russell) has the total package.”

Comically, Kellerman then explained the hardest challenge to come for Russell’s people would be resisting temptations to move Russell too fast – since he was so outclassing the guys a lesser prospect would face at this point in his career. Caught under the spell of his own salesmanship, then, Kellerman asked Jones if room even remained for Russell to improve.

As the end of the fight neared, and Russell had failed even marginally to imperil someone named Leonilo Miranda, Kellerman looked ahead rosily:

“It’s not so much of a stretch to imagine (Russell) and Nonito Donaire in the winners bracket of a super fight at 130 pounds – two, three years down the line.”

Almost.

Four and a half years down the line, Russell finally won a title from an ancient Jhonny Gonzalez on the same day Donaire steamrolled someone named William Prado, off-television, somewhere in the Philippines.

While Russell seems like a good guy with talent, and certainly his managerial shop has produced lesser items in recent years, the fact remains no one should be excited about Russell, and excepting only those who are paid to act excited about Russell, no one genuinely is. Russell landed one great punch Saturday, a counter whose power derived mostly from Gonzalez’s sloppy aggression in the closing instants of round 3, and the rest of the stoppage came via Russell’s venomous flailing in round 4, Gonzalez’s despondency, and referee Tony Weeks’ mercy.

When Russell lacks power, generally, it is because he is afflicted with something like front-foot-itis, a condition that plagued the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team. Russell often loads weight on his front foot as an anxious habit more than a strategic consideration, in a vestigial tick from his time in USA Boxing, when all the sweet science was reduced to reflexes and conditioning. Trained by men who idolized Roy Jones Jr., in 2008 Team USA believed in leaning forward, triggering an opponent’s jab, and then yanking back on one’s chin and weight while snapping a counter hook at one’s trapped opponent. Of course, when these counter hooks did not land, or got simply blocked, there was nothing for the American Olympian to do but retreat, bounce, and reset his weight over his front foot.

The medal count that year confirmed the approach’s sagacity.

Saturday’s most interesting revelation, though, came in the celebration of Jhonny Gonzalez’s now-extraordinary power, a concussive force he did not have until his first-round elimination of Showtime’s Abner Mares in 2013. Before then, Gonzalez was another sturdy Mexican, whose career and life, likely, were shortened by Israel Vazquez in 2006.

I was ringside for five Gonzalez fights, in Jhonny’s actual prime, and not once do I recall anyone talking about his historic power. He had good technique and made entertaining fights, and had a great nickname, “Jhonny”, but if anyone had said at the time Gonzalez packed more relative power than, say, Rafael Marquez – an assertion Showtime implied by implying trainer Nacho Beristain labeled Gonzalez as Beristain’s hardest-hitting champion ever – he’d have been laughed right off the writers’ table at Desert Diamond Casino.

The game certainly has changed. Back then, a cable network like Showtime would call an advisor like Al Haymon a “power broker.” Today, they call him “Boss.”

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Charlo decisions Martirosyan

Gary Russell Jr. won the WBC Featherweight title with a fourth round stoppage over Jhonny Gonzalez at the Palms in Las Vegas.

Russell dropped Gonzalez in the closing seconds of round two from a perfect right hook to the jaw. Russell scored a second knockdown in round four with a right hook to the head. Russell finished thins as he landed a huge flurry that put Gonzalez on the deck for a third and final time and the fight was called at 37 seconds of round four.

Russell, 125 3/4 lbs of Capitol Heights, MD is now 26-1 with 15 knockouts. Gonzalez, 125 lbs of Mexico City, MX is now 57-9.

Jermell Charlo remained undefeated by scoring a 10-round unanimous decision over former world title challenger Vanes Martirosyan in a jr. middleweight bout.

In round eight, Martirsyan was cut above the left eye from a headbutt.

Charlo, 154 3/4 lbs of Houston, TX won by scores of 97-93 and 96-94 twice and is now 26-0. Martirosyan, 153 lbs of Glendale, CA is now 35-2-1,

Video: Gary Russell Jr.: Family, Training, & Motivation – SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING

GOLDEN BOY FILES SUIT AGAINST JHONNY GONZALEZ AND PROMOCIONES DEL PUEBLO

LOS ANGELES, (March 27, 2015) Boxer Jhonny Gonzalez and his Mexican promoter Promociones del Pueblo conspired with manager/promoter Al Haymon to violate Golden Boy’s exclusive rights to promote Gonzalez, a bombshell complaint filed today against the fighter and the promotional company contends.

Despite Golden Boy’s repeated attempts, Gonzalez, Promociones del Pueblo and Haymon repeatedly refused to put on tomorrow night’s fight between Gonzalez and Gary Russell, Jr., until they cut Golden Boy out of the process, clearly violating the agreement between the boxer and promoter.

“Golden Boy’s contract with Jhonny Gonzalez couldn’t be clearer – the company has exclusive promotional rights for two years or four fights, and neither of those milestones has been reached to date,” said Golden Boy Spokesman Stefan Friedman. “Furthermore, the motive behind the defendants adamant and longtime refusal to match Gonzalez with Gary Russell, Jr is now plain for the world to see. We will vigorously fight to ensure our contract is enforced.”

Golden Boy is seeking damages of no less than $1 million and for the court to enforce the company’s existing contract with Gonzalez.

According to the complaint:

“In December 2013, Golden Boy entered into a written agreement with Gonzalez and DPP wherein Golden Boy obtained the exclusive right to promote Gonzalez’s professional boxing matches throughout the world for a period of two years beginning on the first bout conducted pursuant to the agreement, or four fights, whichever comes first (the “Agreement”). The Agreement further provides that Gonzalez will not take part in any professional boxing match prior to the first bout conducted pursuant to the Agreement.

In August, 2014, Golden Boy proposed that Gonzalez fight Gary Russell, Jr., a promising featherweight boxer in either November or December of that year. DPP initially ignored this proposal and then rejected it, preferring to have Gonzalez fight a lesser opponent, Jose Arce, in Mexico in October.

Thereafter, Golden Boy continued to try and find appropriate fights for Gonzalez. However, DPP consistently refused the fights proposed by Golden Boy for Gonzalez.

In February, 2015, it became clear why DPP was refusing all of the fights proposed by Golden Boy for Gonzalez. DPP was conspiring with Russell’s manager/promoter, Al Haymon, to put together a fight between Gonzalez and Russell in which Golden Boy would not be involved.”

JHONNY GONZALEZ VS. GARY RUSSELL JR., JERMELL CHARLO VS. VANES MARTIROSYAN FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

LAS VEGAS (March 26, 2015) – Two days before their important fights live on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT), this Saturday, March 28, hard-hitting WBC Featherweight World Champion Jhonny Gonzalez, 2008 U.S. Olympian and former world title challenger Gary Russell Jr., undefeated super welterweight Jermell Charlo and once-beaten super welterweight Vanes Martirosyan participated in the final press conference at The Pearl Theater at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
In the second half of a SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® doubleheader, the hard-hitting Gonzalez (57-8, 48 KOs), of Mexico City, will defend his WBC Featherweight World Title against talented once-beaten Russell (25-1, 14 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Md.

The telecast opener will match undefeated rising star Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo (25-0, 11 KOs), of Houston, against the battle-tested Martirosyan (35-1-1, 21 KOs), of Glendale, Calif., in a 10-rounder for the WBO Intercontinental 154-pound championship.

Earlier on Saturday, SHOWTIME Sports® will present the Sky Sports telecast of the IBF Welterweight World Championship between defending champion and hometown favorite Kell Brook and No. 1 challenger Jo Jo Dan live on SHOWTIME at 6:15 p.m. ET/3:15 p.m. PT from the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, England. Sky Sports’ Jim Watt and Nick Halling will call the action from ringside.

Tickets for this Saturday’s stacked DiBella Entertainment fight card are priced at $200, $100, $75, $50, and $25, plus applicable fees are on sale. Tickets may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or by clicking HERE. Tickets are also available online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Here’s what the boxers and the other participants said Thursday at Palms Resort Casino Lounge.

JHONNY GONZALEZ, WBC Featherweight World Champion

“I am well aware of the history of the prestigious WBC featherweight title and the many great Mexican fighters before me who held it. It is an honor and a privilege and actually very exciting for me to be mentioned with those names.

“I definitely know that more people have been watching me since I knocked out Abner Mares. Knowing that more people are paying attention keeps me motivated, keeps me going strong.

“I feel I am getting better with every fight. Every victory only makes me work that much harder.

“I am very excited about fighting Gary Russell. He is a great fighter and this is going to be a great fight. I am totally prepared for anything. Everyone says it is my power against his speed, but anything can happen in a fight.

“The media thinks I’m done. They say Russell is too fast for me. I’m an underdog in this fight. While I don’t let any of the talk bother me, it does give me more motivation to prove to the people that I am for real and that I am a good fighter fight in and fight out.

“I enjoy being champion, putting in all the hard work and proving people wrong. I had a great training camp and prepared myself well in Mexico City for this fight. I’m known for knockouts but I never go into a fight looking for knockouts. I am ready to fight 12 hard rounds. If the knockout comes, it comes.

“I want to win and take the belt home to Mexico. You’ll see on Saturday what I have in store. You can see my strategy then. I hope to see you all there.

“I want to thank everyone for helping make this fight possible.’’

GARY RUSSELL JR., 2008 U.S. Olympian and former world title challenger

“I’m ready and in shape. In the ring I’m omnipresent. I’m going to change all those pictures on that belt.

“I feel the same going into this fight as I always do, and I expect the outcome to be the same as always, that I will come out on top.

“I respect Jhonny Gonzalez like I respect all my opponents. He worked hard to win the title. I have studied tape of him. I know he is going to come right after me. Gonzalez is a puncher. But I’m a good puncher too. He’s been knocked out before, maybe he’ll get knocked out again.

“I can do a lot of things in the ring. Of course, my youth and speed will be keys but I have other attributes, too, like boxing acumen, ring generalship and what I call controlled chaos. I can move and punch and I’m thinking all the time in there.

“Gonzalez and Lomachenko are totally different fighters with completely different styles. Lomachenko may be a bit better overall, but Gonzalez is more of a pure puncher with power. I know Gonzalez has a dangerous left hook. But I’m totally prepared for that and everything else.

“In my fight with Lomachenko I was flat. A lot of things went wrong in camp before that fight. I allowed my conditioning coach at that time to change up all sorts of little things with me, and they wound up working against me.

“For this camp, we went back to basics with the same people I’ve always had. It was a great camp. You know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and that’s the philosophy all of us have again.

“I never dreamed growing up of being a world champion. My goal was to become a U.S. Olympian and win a gold medal. When I didn’t, I felt I let so many people down. It was then I started dreaming of becoming a world champion.

“I get another chance on Saturday. I’m ready for it.’’

JERMELL CHARLO, Undefeated Super Welterweight Contender

“It’s been an awesome camp, we enjoyed it. It’s been an awesome six or seven weeks. One thing you can never forget is — being a Charlo, being a lion — we stay on our game for weeks. Always training, always in shape.

“We know who is around us in the division, and which fighters to pay attention to. We know how far up we are. Vanes is a great fighter – I grew up with him a little bit. We trained with him back in ’08. His father is great. His father knows my father. We made it to a level where we both carried ourselves to the top. Carried ourselves to rank No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 … and when you’re in that position you fight the best.

“Of course, I’m not going out without a fight. I know neither is Vanes. You guys are going to get a fight Saturday night. As simple as this — I come to roar, I come to take over, I come to show guys that you can’t figure us out.

“There’s so many different things that have been said … ‘you’re basic,’ ‘you’re a boy vs. a man.’ Impossible. I wouldn’t be here if I was a boy. So, Saturday you all will see. I’m going to work.

“There are several weaknesses that I plan on exploiting. He’s got 35 wins but you have to look at who he fought. I would argue some of those guys don’t have the resume of the guys I have fought.

“I’ve fought tougher fighters than Vanes, stronger guys. A lot of people avoid Charlie Ota because it’s a rugged fight, but I’ll take those fights. You have to get in there and adjust, which is something I do.

“Vanes has a good right hand that you have to watch out for. There are certain punches that we have to throw to neutralize it.

“This can open up bigger doors for fights with top guys at 154 and even some other guys we can make catch-weight fights with. I consider myself and my brother (Jermall) both top five fighters in the division.”

VANES MARTIROSYAN, World-Ranked 154-pound Contender

“I’ve been here before. I love the lights.

“To all the fighters, I wish them the best. We’re ready to go. There’s not much to say right now. I do all the talking in the ring. I’ll let my fists do the talking.

“We’re 100 percent ready. I want to thank my trainers Roma, Coach D, my brother, my father. We’re ready to go. On Saturday I guarantee a victory by knockout. I promise that.

“It’s been a great two month camp, but we’re always ready. I’m always doing something athletic even if I don’t have a fight.

“Jermell is a good fighter, a good boxer. I would say he’s basic and I really do believe that. You can’t change a fighter overnight — that takes time. We’ll see what he brings to the table and be ready for anything.

“I’ve been in situations before where I knew even bigger fights were ahead of me and I got kind of used to the lights. I know what to do now and I’m ready. After this fight there are bigger things to come but to get to those bigger things you have to focus on this task.

“I don’t look at myself as the B-side, I think he is. I’ve been in this situation before and I’ve fought a lot of big names. Maybe there’s hype around him that makes him the A-side but it is all hype. I’ve been in there with guys who have a lot of experience so I’ll be ready.’’

NACHO BERISTRAIN, Gonzalez’ Hall Of Fame Trainer

“I expect a very difficult fight against southpaw who is very fast. Gary Russell is a great fighter, I like him.

“Jhonny knows what he has to do. He has to throw punches, maintain constant pressure and cut off the ring. That’s the way to help overcome Russell’s speed.

“Since beating Mares, Jhonny has definitely become stronger and more confident and more ambitious. It’s not about money, however, he just wants to prove to all the people that he is a good champion.

“Jhonny was always dedicated but now he is even more dedicated. We expect a victory by a big margin on points, but if the knockout comes, it comes.’’

GARY RUSSELL SR., Russell’s Trainer/Father

“Gary’s speed is going to be the difference. Speed kills.

“After the camp we’ve had, we expect Gary to come out and do what he knows how to do. They talk a lot about Gonzalez’ punching power, but Gary can whack too, along with his overall hand- and foot-speed and overall ability.

“We went back to our old routine in training and I can tell you Gary feels a whole lot better now. He’s primed for a big effort on Saturday. We all are.’’

RON RIZZO, Vice President of DiBella Entertainment

“Seems to be that this fight has been lost a little been in the shuffle recently. I’m not sure why. We have a lot of big things happening within the boxing industry — just as the University of Kentucky is dominating with their undefeated season, there’s a lot of other great matchups that are involved in boxing, and this is one of them.

“This is one I’m really excited about, and all the matchmakers I’ve been talking to are excited as well.

“I think this is a bout that’s really going to stand out. I don’t want people to miss it. This is a really good fight. There’s also another good fight with Charlo vs. Martirosyan as well.

“I really feel the main event is an unbelievable fight that just got lost in the shuffle of big fights that are happening on network television. For me, all the matchmakers that I’m talking to… it’s just one of those perfect kind of style bouts that are very intriguing. Of course Jhonny Gonzalez always makes for exciting bouts. Gary Russell is another guy who wants that title. He’s ready to take it this time.”

JAIME QUINTANA, Promociones Del Pueblo

“On behalf of Promociones Del Pueblo who represents Jhonny Gonzalez, the World Champion, we would like to let you know that we are happy to be here in Las Vegas defending the title.

“Jhonny Gonzalez has put up pretty good fights before – you all know. You have followed the steps in his career. We appreciate that. Thanks to the media, it’s them that makes a great fighter a great champion.”

BILLY CONN, Vice President of Entertainment and Special Events for The Pearl Theater at Palms Casino Resort

“On behalf of everyone here at the Palms Casino and our 2,000 employees, we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to cover this great event.

“We’re excited to work again with SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING and DiBella Entertainment. Our crew at The Pearl has been working feverishly to make this intimate venue for everybody.

“You’ll really enjoy seeing fights here. Tickets are still available here at the Pearl Box Office, Ticketmaster, on our website, etc. Tickets start at $25. We look forward to hosting everybody here.”

BOB BENNETT, Executive Director of Nevada State Athletic Commission

“I feel privileged for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to go ahead and regulate this great Championship fight. We want to thank DiBella Entertainment and Goossen Promotions for bringing this fight to the fight capital of the world and to SHOWTIME for broadcasting the fight. Last but not least, and most importantly, I want to thank the fighters. Without the fighters, none of us would be here.”

# # #

“Gonzalez vs. Russell Jr.”, a 12-round world championship bout for Gonzalez’s WBC Featherweight World Title, is promoted by DiBella Entertainment. In the co-feature, Jermell Charlo takes on Vanes Martirosyan in super welterweight action. The event will take place at The Pearl Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and will air on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT). The telecast will also be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).

For more information, visit www.sports.sho.com, follow on Twitter at @SHOSports, @jhonnygbox, @mrgaryrusselljr, @TwinCharlo, @LouDiBella and @PearlAtPalms, follow the conversation using #GonzalezRussell, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SHOBoxing or visit the SHOWTIME Boxing Blog at http://theboxingblog.sho.com.

Video: Jhonny Gonzalez 1st Round KO Upset over Abner Mares

VANES MARTIROSYAN VS. JERMELL CHARLO & GARY RUSSELL JR. CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT

Kelly Swanson
Thank you, operator. Thanks, everyone, for calling in. We have a great call this morning and this afternoon actually here on the East Coast to talk about the March 28 SHOWTIME show, CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING Show, featuring Jhonny Gonzalez, Gary Russell, Jr. and Jermell Charlo against Vanes Martirosyan. We have all the fighters joining us today on the call. We will start with Jermell and Vanes. But, before we get to the fighters, I’d like to introduce Chris DeBlasio, Vice President of Communications for SHOWTIME Sports to fill you in a little bit about the fight. Chris?

Chris DeBlasio
Thanks so much, Kelly. I just want to take a quick moment to thank the fighters for being on this call, thank the press for being here, and just say on behalf of Stephen Espinoza, the EVP and General Manager for SHOWTIME Sports, and all of us at SHOWTIME, we’re really excited to get back into it with a nice live SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING event this Saturday. As you may have seen in the boxing press, it was about two weeks ago that we announced the addition of a new platform called SHOWTIME Boxing International. The first fight will be this Saturday, March 28; it’s an international fight on the SHOWTIME network live to our subscribers. So, the first instance is a nice way to kick off our Saturday March 28 boxing coverage, and that’s gonna be the Kell Brook versus Jo Jo Dan IBF Welterweight World Championship fight that’s taking place in Sheffield, England. SHOWTIME is going to carry that fight live at 6:15 Eastern, 3:15 Pacific. And then, we will take a break during the afternoon hours and then go live at 10 p.m ET./7 p.m. PT SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING event with Jermell Charlo, Vanes Martirosyan, Jhonny Gonzalez and Gary Russell. So, it’s sort of a two- part platform on Saturday with three live fights coming to you, which we’re really excited about. And we appreciate the opportunity to be in business with the guys on the phone here today. So, without anything further, let’s get it started. We welcome you guys.

Kelly Swanson
Okay. And one quick note — or rather, media, one quick note — we have just sent out the Fight Week Media Schedule, so please look for that in your inboxes, and it will give you the details of what is going on this week for the fight. Thank you. Okay, let’s go ahead and open it up. Actually, let me go ahead and introduce the two guys that are on the call right now. They want to say a couple words. First, we have Vanes Martirosyan. He’s a world-ranked 154 pound contender. Vanes, you want to say a couple words, tell us how training is going and how you’re getting ready for the fight?

Vanes Martirosyan
Training is going great, everything is going good. We can’t wait to fight. You know, I’m sure everybody says that before they fight, but we really are ready to go. We just can’t wait to go.

Kelly Swanson
Okay, great. Thanks so much. And where are you training?

V. Martirosyan
I’m training here in California at Main Event Sports Club. There’s been a couple of locations we’ve been training, but the major has been Main Event Sports Club, which the media will be at today.

K. Swanson
Now, I’m going to move to Jermell Charlo. He’s an undefeated super welterweight contender. Jermell why don’t you tell us a little bit about what’s happening in your training camp and how you’re feeling heading into the fight.

Jermell Charlo
Training’s been great. Every time I step in the ring, every time I get ready for a fight, I feel like just there’s never been a time where I repeat myself or do something the same. I’ve been learning from all my past mistakes. Every win I’m still learning from. So, training camp has been good. Trainer Ronnie Shields, Danny Arnold. I opened my own gym, so I get a little late night extra hours in when I want to. And, I want to fight with my twin brother. We’re pushing to fight. I can’t wait to fight. Just like Vanes, he’s hungry, he’s ready. I’m I’m ready.

Q
Given both of your positions, as considered as top 10 contenders in the 154 pound weight class, in your mind, do you consider this an elimination fight? Vanes, what are your thoughts about that?

V. Martirosyan
I think every fight right now at this point in my career and Jermell’s career should be considered a title fight. It is — I think it is — an eliminator fight. I’m looking at this as a championship fight. Jermell is tougher than any of the champions, so to me, this is a championship fight, and that’s what we got ready for. And it should be an eliminator fight. I don’t know if it is or not, but that’s how we’re taking it as, and we’re taking this as a world title fight.

Q
Jermell, your thoughts on that – is it an official eliminator or a de facto one?

J. Charlo
Same thing with me. I feel that this is a tough fight. Every fight is a fight for my life. And I step in the ring and make sure that I fight with that on the back of my mind. Vanes is a great fighter — grew up with him. I know what I bring to the table. And this fight is a fight for manhood, it’s a fight to show who the real tycoon of the sport is in the 154 pound weight division. There’s a lot at stake, so it’s more than a title fight to me.

Q
Jermell, did you say that you grew up with him a little bit?

J. Charlo
Yeah, I grew up with him, at least two or three years with Vanes, you know, and his family, his people, you know? So, I know — we know each other well.

Q
Have you guys ever sparred with each other?

J. Charlo
Yeah, we’ve sparred with each other several times.

Q
How often, would you say? And how long ago?

J. Charlo
I can’t really say how often. I know it was back when we were a little bit younger. I was younger, still a little boy growing up into a man. So, right now, I don’t even think about how it was, what it was about, or how training was when we were training together. Wasn’t even 19 — I was 17, 16, 17, 18, I mean, those ages. Here, we face each other because we’re both at the top, and that’s what happens when you’re in the same division. Never had anything personal or different to say about him. It’s just work.

Q
Vanes, you feel the same way about your times in the ring with him?

V. Martirosyan
Yeah, I remember when we used to train. It was good training. We were always in competition — me, him and his brother. We used to go running at Memorial Park every day, and we’d try to see who’d finish the lap first. It was always competition between us — running and training or what-not. But it was nothing but love and I respect him, his father, and his trainer, Ronnie Shields. They’ve been good people to me. But Saturday night, he’s going to be my enemy in the ring. For now, outside the ring, I respect everybody. Once we step in the ring, it’s a totally different story.

Q
Your fight that took place in October was a big win for you against Willie Nelson. You harnessed a lot of the emotion going into that fight because it had taken place just after your promoter Dan Goossen had passed away and you had his brother Joe in your corner. It was a lot of heavy emotion that night, and you really came through in a big way that night. Is it gonna be difficult in any way to sort of get that same emotion behind you?

V. Martirosyan
No, because at that fight, we had to forget about a lot of things. Dan passed away. We were all sad, and we didn’t know what to do. And we actually thought — ‘should we fight’ or I don’t know if Joe (Goossen’s) going to be there. I didn’t know what was going on. There was too much emotion going into that fight. We kind of got away from the fight a little bit. But we used it as motivation for our fight. This fight to me is big. When I lost to Andrade, I didn’t step into the ring 100 percent, and when I came home — when you come home a loser, it’s a bad feeling. I can’t look at my wife, my kids. I feel like I let them down. So, right now, I’m just in that mode where I’d rather die than see that again.

Q
If you were to win this fight, obviously, you’d be in position for a major world title fight. Are you comfortable with waiting for one of those, figuring those fighters only fight maybe twice a year, or would you want to stay active and take more fights between them?

J. Charlo
You know, winning this fight to me — a world title would be ideal. A world title is important. I want to fight for a world title. I want the world title. That’s every boxer’s dream and envision whenever they’re young. Fighting for the world title matters and all this extra stuff, but if I’m here building my name and building my brand, that’s just as important. Being a household name throughout the World Boxing Council, everything. That matters to me.

V. Martirosyan
The fight, this fight — I’d say like a lot of the champions that are champions right now in our weight class, most of them just run their mouth, starting with Andrade. A fight like this for me and Jermell, it’s such a big fight for me, you know, but it’s not only for us. I mean, it’s for the fans. The fans are in, and it’s great. I mean, you rarely get to see contenders like me and Jermell wanting to step up and fight each other. You know, usually, people will get up to the rankings like we are, they just want to just talk a lot of bad stuff about the champions to get the world title fight. But, you know, you rarely get to see contenders like that, you know, No. 1 and No. 2 fighting each other when, you know they really want to fight each other and they both said yes to the fight. So, it’s a big fight, but I feel like, you know, we’re all gonna be — we’re gonna do our best, and I feel like the fans are gonna be the winners for this fight.

K Swanson
Okay, great. You guys, I think that was your last question, and so we appreciate you taking the time out of your training. And Vanes, we look forward to seeing you later for your open workout. And, Jermell, we will see you in Las Vegas later this week.

J. Charlo
No problem. See you, guys.

V. Martirosyan – Thank you. Take care.

Kelly Swanson
We’re going to switch the call over to Gary Russell, Jr.

K. Swanson
Gary Russell, Jr. will be facing Jhonny Gonzalez for Gonzalez’s 126 pound title, the WBC Featherweight World Championship. Gary, if you want to tell us a little bit about how training is going, your anticipation to be fighting Jhonny Gonzalez for this world title and what you think about the whole fight in general?

Gary Russell Jr.
We had a great training camp. Everything has been perfect, no excuses, no cutting corners. We’re 120 percent ready for this fight. We can’t wait be able to call ourself the new WBC World Champion.

K. Swanson
Are you doing anything in camp in preparation for this that’s different from your other fights?

G. Russell Jr.
No, we’re not doing anything that’s different in preparation for any of the fights. I think the only difference is, depending on the fight, you want to prepare depending on the opponent that you’re competing against. So, I think the only difference is the difference in sparring. You want to bring in guys that have a similar style to who it is you’re gonna be competing against etc. That’s the only change that we’ve made so far. Besides that — basic fundamentals, ring generalship, hand speed, punching power, strength and conditioning, all of that stuff is the same.

Q
Gary, were you surprised to get another shot at the title?

G. Russell, Jr.
No, I’m not surprised. I got the same Al Haymon Promotions, just Al Haymon in general when it comes to that. He’s my manager, and we know that he did everything in his power to try to make things happen for us, and give us another shot at a world title. I’m extremely grateful and thankful for this opportunity.

Q
When you fought the fight against Lomachenko for one of the titles, do you take anything out of that defeat? Whether it’s the experience, or being on that level of the stage that you bring towards this next championship opportunity?

G. Russell Jr.
Of course. One of the main things that we took out of it is, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. In that particular fight with Lomachenko, we did a lot of things completely different in that fight that we normally wouldn’t do. We brought other people in. We let other people take the reigns and be in control of our conditioning. We’ve seen the outcome of that and the side effects of it. We don’t take losses easy, by far. So we’re back on pace. We have the same team around us that have been here from the beginning of my career all the way up until now. We had the same team way back in motion. We’re ready, we’re focused, we’re determined, we’re driven and we’re just looking to give a good show.

Q
Do you see Gonzalez as a much better fighter than Lomachenko, or perhaps a bit of a more vulnerable fighter than Lomachenko or similar? How do you stack up the two title holders?

G. Russell Jr.
They’re two very different fighters. Lomachenko has a little bit more hand speed than Jhonny Gonzalez. Gonzalez is more of a puncher. Jhonny Gonzalez is more of a dangerous fighter than Lomachenko just because of his punching ability and just him being a seasoned professional, being able to get all these rounds in as a professional. Lomachenko definitely is a good fighter. We take every fight serious. You take no one for granted. We definitely said, oh, this is a dangerous fight taking with Jhonny Gonzalez, but we feel as though what we bring to the table will be superior in the end.

Q
What specifically did you do differently to prepare for Lomachenko that you wish you hadn’t?

G. Russell, Jr.
We brought someone in for our strength and conditioning. We’ve known our strength and conditioning was completely different. Even when it came to the way that we cut weight, it was different. Leading up to the fight, we were in a sauna for the past two, maybe three days leading all the way up into the fight. That’s what my strength and conditioning coach wanted me to do.
Anyone that’s seen that fight, whether it was Lomachenko or anyone else, they’ve seen the difference in my punching ability, my endurance, my speed, just me as a person. People knew that that wasn’t the Gary Russell, Jr. that they’d seen the previous 24 fights. And that was some of the things that came up in the Lomachenko fight. I was completely tired and fatigued in the first round, you know?

Q
About Jhonny Gonzalez — he obviously is a guy who is a volume puncher, he’s not afraid to stand in and trade. How does this fight work to your advantage if he does fight a typical Gonzalez fight in your mind?

G. Russell, Jr.
I don’t think that he’s going to be able to deal with, once again, my speed. I think we’ll be able to do it with my speed. He’s always been slow in the speed. Even though he’s been a puncher, a lot of punchers have to really sit to actually apply these punches efficiently. I think he lacks the ring generalship as far as the footwork goes that he would need — the foot quickness. And a lot of his shots are a little wide. So, I’ll be about to outpunch him and be able to punch him between his shots.

Q
What did you think of the decision in the Lomachenko fight?

G. Russell Jr.
I didn’t think anything of it. The only thing that registered in my mind was the fact that I didn’t have the ability to perform the way that I normally would have. I never really looked at a decision. I never looked at how the referee was going about the fight or any of these things. The only thing that came to my mind was the fact that I just lost my first professional fight, and I sort of saw the reason why I lost — it was because I wasn’t able to do what it was that I normally do.

Q
So, you feel that you lost the fight then?

G. Russell Jr.
Certainly. I’d definitely say that I lost the fight.

Q
You touched on Al Haymon earlier. Can you explain what his impact is in your career? And we’ve all seen the moves that he’s been making. How is that gonna help you moving forward?

G. Russell, Jr.
I feel as though the fire is under these managers and promoters. There’s a team effort. You’ll be able to tell your manager or your promoter, ’Hey, this is my game plan, this is what it is that I want to accomplish this year.’ I wanted to at least be able to contend for a world title. I want to have maybe four fights this year, maybe six fights this year, etc. Your manager and promoter, where they come in at, they should be able to meet you halfway with their game plan. If you want to have six fights within a year, etc., your manager and promoter should be able to get it done for you. We feel as though that Al Haymon is very efficient in doing exactly what it is that we want from him. It’s about who you know, I guess.

Q
Heading into this fight, do you feel like you have to give a certain quality of fight to really make fans relate to you and make you a household name? Now that there’s so many platforms for boxing, do you feel like there’s added pressure to put on an exciting fight, or do you feel like you can still just, methodically box and gain fans from that?

G. Russell Jr.
I honestly don’t feel as though that we have to do anything out of the ordinary. You’re going to see the typical Gary Russell, Jr. that you’ve seen the previous 24 fights — hand speed, punching ability, ring generalship and etc. ,A lot of fighters get caught up in the hype, and they feel as though they have to do things a little more to win the fans over, etc. That’s never one of my things. I’m always to be exciting without being reckless. And I’m going to do what it is that I’m comfortable doing.

K. Swanson
Okay, Gary, thank you so much for being available to answer those questions, and we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day, and we look forward to seeing you fight this Saturday, March 28, at the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and live on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. Thanks, Gary.

* * *

Tickets for the live event are priced at $200, $100, $75, $50, and $25, plus applicable
fees are on sale now. Tickets may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or by clicking HERE. Tickets are also available online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Gonzalez vs. Russell takes place at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and will air on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT). In the co-main event, Jermell Charlo takes on Vanes Martirosyan in super welterweight action. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast will also be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).

Jhonny Gonzalez and Vanes Martirosyan Los Angeles Media Workout Quotes

GLENDALE, Calif. (March 28, 2015) – Current world champion Jhonny Gonzalez and once-beaten world ranked welterweight contender Vanes Martirosyan participated in a media workout on Monday at the Main Event Sports Club in Glendale, Calif., six days prior to their respective upcoming fights on Saturday, March 28, at the The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas live on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).

In the 12-round main event on the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® doubleheader, the hard-hitting, current WBC Featherweight World Champion Gonzalez (57-8, 48 KOs), of Mexico City, will defend his 126-pound title against talented once-beaten former world title challenger Gary Russell Jr. (25-1, 14 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Md.

In the 10-round co-feature, battle-tested, world-ranked contender Martirosyan (35-1-1, 21 KOs), of Glendale, Calif., will take on undefeated rising star Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo (25-0, 11 KOs), of Houston, in an important super welterweight showdown.

Here’s what the boxers as well as trainers, Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain (Gonzalez) and Dean Campos (Martirosyan), had to say Monday at the Los Angeles-area gym:

JHONNY GONZALEZ, WBC Featherweight World Champion
“First off, I would like to apologize for not participating in the media conference call that took place this morning. I have never missed a conference call before, and I take full responsibility for missing the call. I know how important these calls are and I promise that I will not miss another one.

“I have been very focused for the past three months during my training camp. I have been training in the high altitude in Toluca, Mexico.

“I have had two title defenses since beating Abner Mares and I am excited and ready for my fight on Saturday.

“Ever since beating Mares, I feel like I am finally getting the respect and support from the fans and media that I deserve. I get recognized all of the time now. The recognition motivates me to work harder than ever before and not let my fans down.

“I feel like I am in my boxing prime. There is still so much to prove and show to the world that I am still at the top of my game and capable of fighting with the best.

“In my fight on Saturday I am going to bring the same energy and intensity that I brought in my fight against Mares.

“I know that Gary Russell Jr. has fast and powerful hands. He is a quick and strong southpaw. I know he’s an excellent boxer.

“I am going to attack him with my power and speed. Once he feels my power in the ring, he’s not going to be able to think in there. He’s going to run, but if he decides to brawl with us, then we will have something for him.

“At this point in my career, he [Russell] is the fastest opponent I have ever faced. He has very fast hands and puts together good combinations.

“To prepare for Russell, I am constantly keeping my hands up at all times during my training. I am training that if he throws punches at me, I know how to immediately react and throw shots back at him.

“A lot of people are doubting me going into this fight because of the speed of Russell. It’s a great challenge for me and I can’t wait to get in the ring.

“I am absolutely looking for the knockout and I believe I will get it. I don’t expect this fight to go the distance. I am going to pressure him from the opening bell, my conditioning and confidence is at an all-time high. I am very anxious for this title fight, I want to fight right now.”

VANES MARTIROSYAN, World-Ranked Contender
“I am in great shape, training camp has gone great. I am just as excited for this fight as I was when I fought for the U.S. team in the Olympics.

“I feel like this fight is more of a test for him [Charlo], and I have to make sure he fails the test.

“I used to work with Ronnie Shields [Charlo’s Trainer] for about three years. I am pretty sure they have a game plan for me, but I am a totally different Vanes than the one who used to train with Shields. I hope they are getting prepared for that Vanes because I have changed a lot since then.

“Jermell [Charlo] is a good boxer, but he’s a basic boxer. He’s done well with guys that he’s supposed to look good against. There are some guys that he should’ve knocked out that he didn’t. If he hits me I will hit him right back and we’ll see how he handles that.

“If I stick to my game plan and everything goes as planned, I will say that it will be an easy fight. We have a B and a C plan if the fight doesn’t go exactly as planned.

“All I can do is prepare and go out there and win the fight. After I lost my fight to Demetrius Andrade I felt like a loser. I can’t lose this fight, I’d rather die than go out there and lose again.”

IGNACIO “NACHO” BERISTAIN, Gonzalez’ Trainer
“Gary Russell’s speed and quickness could be a factor for us in this fight. We must find a way to eliminate it.

“We need to find a solution to his quickness and do everything we can to win. We feel like we’ve prepared enough and are in a great position to come out on top.

“Russell has fast hands and he recovers quickly. He has had knockouts at different weight levels. But we’re working really hard, and on Saturday you guys are going to see a different Jhonny Gonzalez.

“Jhonny Gonzalez is a very strong fighter. I think the strength and power of his punch beats Russell’s. I think that will be one of the keys– Jhonny Gonzalez knows how to punch, hard.

“I don’t just believe in Jhonny because he’s my fighter, but because he’s fought and trained immensely hard — he knows what he wants.”

DEAN CAMPOS, Martirosyan’s Trainer
“Vanes is such a quick learner. He is able to pick up everything that I am trying to teach him to accomplish everything that we want to do to win this fight.

“We must exploit Charlo’s weaknesses. Charlo is a good fighter, but everyone has weaknesses. My job is to prepare him as best as I can so that he can get in the ring with the best opportunity to win this fight.

“I want to supply him with ideas to unlock that final last edge to come out on top. If he is able to do some of the things that we go over in camp, then he will be in a good position for a victory come Saturday.”

# # #
“Gonzalez vs. Russell Jr.”, a 12-round world championship bout for Gonzalez’s WBC Featherweight World Title, is promoted by DiBella Entertainment. In the co-feature, Jermell Charlo takes on Vanes Martirosyan in super welterweight action. The event will take place at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and will air on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT). The telecast will also be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).

Tickets for the live event are priced at $200, $100, $75, $50, and $25, plus applicable fees are on sale. Tickets may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or by clicking HERE. Tickets are also available online at www.ticketmaster.com.

JHONNY GONZALEZ PUTS HIS TITLE ON THE LINE AGAINST GARY RUSSELL JR. ON SATURDAY, MARCH 28, FROM THE PEARL AT PALMS CASINO RESORT IN LAS VEGAS ON SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® DOUBLEHEADER

LAS VEGAS (March 2, 2015) – A world-class doubleheader, featuring featherweight world champion Jhonny Gonzalez (57-8, 48 KOs) defending his 126-pound title against exciting young star Gary Russell Jr. (25-1, 14 KOs)in the main event on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING, will take place at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, on Saturday, March 28, live on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).

In the co-feature, undefeated rising star Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo (25-0, 11 KOs) faces a tough test when he takes on the experienced former U.S. Olympian Vanes Martirosyan (35-1-1, 21 KOs) in an important super welterweight showdown.

Tickets for the live event are priced at $200, $100, $75, $50, and $25, plus applicable fees are on sale today, Monday, March 2, at 12 p.m. PT. Tickets may be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or by clicking HERE. Tickets are also available online at www.ticketmaster.com.

“I’m very excited to be coming back to the United States. Every time I have fought on American soil, it has been career-changing for me,” said Gonzalez. “In 2012, [Daniel] Ponce De Leon stopped me in Las Vegas and made me reconsider my whole strategy. I came back to the U.S. in 2013 and I stopped an undefeated champion, Abner Mares. Now I’m back and once again I’m facing a tough opponent. Russell is not an easy test, but I’m confident I’m going to surprise everybody once more. Nobody thought I had a chance in 2013 and I stripped Mares of his title. Food for thought.”

“I’m blessed to be back on this stage, fighting once again for a world title,” said Russell Jr. “I came up short at my first opportunity for the title and that has me more motivated than ever to get the job done on March 28. I will finally hold up my very own belt.”

“I love fighting on SHOWTIME and I’m excited to put on a show for the fans in Las Vegas,” said Charlo. “I have a tough opponent, people think I might not be ready, but on March 28, they’re going to know that I’m taking over the sport.”

“This is a great opportunity for me and I’m just thankful to get the chance to showcase my talents,” said Martirosyan. “Charlo is a tough kid, but I’ve been around this sport longer and I’m going to show him some things he’s never seen before. The fans better get ready for an awesome show.”

“This edition of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is guaranteed to be action-packed,” said Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment, promoter of the event. “The main event presents the classic boxer versus puncher matchup, with the slick, talented former Olympian Russell looking for redemption and the title against reigning, three-time world champion brawler Gonzalez. The co-feature between Charlo and Martirosyan is a highly competitive clash of styles. A big fight is in the future for the winner of this bout.”

“March 28 should be a tremendous night of fights to kick off a stacked run of boxing on SHOWTIME and CBS,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President & General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports. “Both bouts on the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast have world title implications. The main events matches the one-punch knockout power of world champion Jhonny Gonzalez versus the speed of Gary Russell, who is one of the most skilled boxers in any division. And with Jermell Charlo vs. Vanes Martirosyan, we have a matchup of two top 154-pounder contenders, each on the verge of a world title opportunity.”

“Boxing continues to be a major draw for Las Vegas,” said Billy Conn, Vice President of Entertainment and Special Events for The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort. “The Pearl is one of the most intimate venues where you can catch those world class athletes in action.”

One of the best Mexican fighters of this era, Mexico City’s Gonzalez has held world championships at 118 and 126 pounds, defeating the likes of Hall-of-Famer Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson and former world champions Fernando Montiel, Irene Pacheco, and Hozumi Hasegawa, along the way. The 33-year-old Gonzalez’ last loss came in 2012 to Daniel Ponce De Leon, but he has won his last five fights, including a shocking 2013 first-round knockout over defending beltholder Abner Mares resurrecting his career. He has defended the title twice in Mexico and now he returns to the U.S. in a very tough defense on March 28.

A supremely talented boxer, Capitol Heights, Maryland’s Russell Jr. is looking to strike world championship gold in his second shot at a belt. The 2008 U.S. Olympian looks to wipe out the memory of his first opportunity, when he fell by 12-round majority decision to Vasyl Lomachenko. He was able to return to his winning ways in December 2014, when he dominated Christopher Martin on his way to a unanimous decision. Now Russell Jr. has his eyes set on Gonzalez’ featherweight crown.

Younger-by-one-minute than his identical twin Jermall, Charlo is also a highly ranked young fighter looking to get one step closer to a world title shot. A tall fighter for his division, Charlo stepped up in class in 2014 and delivered three wide unanimous decision victories over Gabriel Rosado, Charlie Ota and Mario Lozano. On March 28, he takes on another tough challenge when he meets the experienced Martirosyan.

Born in Armenia, but fighting out of Glendale, Calif., Martirosyan represented the U.S. at the 2004 Olympics and has put together a stellar pro career since. He won his first 32 fights before fighting current world champion Erislandy Lara to a draw in 2012. He suffered a narrow defeat by split decision in his first world title shot against Demetrius Andrade but has rebounded with nice wins over Mario Lozano and Willie Nelson.

The event takes place at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and will air on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT). In the co-main event, Jermell Charlo takes on Vanes Martirosyan in super welterweight action. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast will also be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).

Jhonny, El Travieso, and Devil’s River

By Bart Barry–

DEL RIO, Texas – A few miles south of here begins the Mexican state of Coahuila, and about 40 miles north of here begins Devil’s River State Natural Area, and if you’re wondering which is more hospitable, it is Mexico – by far. There are lovely places whose brochures promise romantic getaways, and then there are mere getaways, places in America where one is likely to be found only by accident and a man on a burro. Devil’s River is the latter.

About 800 miles southwest of here, though decidedly in the same biotic region, Mexican Jhonny “Jhonny” Gonzalez beat down countryman Jorge “El Travieso” Arce, Saturday, causing referee Johnny Callas to wave the match off at 2:43 of round 11, in Arce’s home pueblo of Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Gonzalez, aficionados will recall even if Showtime programmers will not, stretched Showtime-developed titlist Abner Mares in one round, 14 months ago, and evidently got banned from the network for doing so.

Gonzalez-Arce was certain to be a better match than what last brought Arce to American premium cable, when Travieso was served hot to Nonito Donaire 22 months ago on an HBO platter, but Showtime, whose boxing coverage is in a shambles, televised instead another eyesore, this time from a casino in Connecticut, where a slate of shabby Al Haymon-managed fighters were plying their limited wares. Arce, who retired after Donaire iced him in 2012, returned, according to Arce, to win another title in another weight class, and while that might still hold meaning in noble and proud if benighted Mexico, here in the U.S. we measure greatness by a more-sophisticated metric: How many networks have you razed?

Word came last week, on a media shuttle no less, undefeated manager Al “The Annihilator” Haymon, having torn apart HBO in a six-year knockout and having destroyed Showtime in half that mark, has called-out NBC Sports Network, despite its eponymous relationship with a non-cable broadcaster, in a match that promises to include more offensive brilliance from today’s best technician. The Annihilator’s paucity of ruth raises this interesting question: If a pacifist who hated our sport set out to exterminate boxing’s American fanbase, and was willing to spend millions of his own dollars to do it, could that man turn the trick any better than The Annihilator? The match’s outcome is fun, if ultimately futile, for our generation to ponder the way previous generations pondered, say, Muhammad Ali vs. Rocky Marciano.

Meanwhile in Mexico, a country whose broadcasters are still blessedly out of The Annihilator’s reach, or too far below his weightclass, wonderful fighters still conduct wonderful fights, and yes, both Jhonny and El Travieso are wonderful fighters even if their Saturday match was not quite wonderful. Arce who, for being a fighter’s fighter, is more beloved by his opponents than just about anyone fighting today, continues to search for a chance to do to someone else what Michael Carbajal, in “Manitas de Piedra’s” 53rd and final career match, did to Arce 15 years ago. Alas, Arce had his Carbajal moment in 2011 against undefeated super bantamweight titlist Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, but Arce, at age 32, could not take yes for an answer.

Following fellow Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez’s example, Arce has grown himself a Body-by-Memo physique that features the shoulders of a statuesque middleweight and legs of a flyweight, a fitness choice that, for all its rejuvenating enhancements, makes Arce top-heavy as Marquez, causing him to fold over his lead knee whenever he throws in combination. Long known for the brawling style that immortalized him against Hussein Hussein in 2005, Arce actually has never wanted for ring IQ; you don’t get to Las Vegas as a 112-pound Sinaloan with mere toughness, because toughness is guaranteed in Sinaloa, a Mexican state of 2.8 million souls in which there is but one Jorge “El Travieso” Arce.

Toughness is guaranteed by a number of factors that mainly reduce to climate and topography. Once a shallow sea millennia ago, the North American region that ripples out from Sonora Desert comprises some of the Western Hemisphere’s more forbidding terrain. Traipsing towards, then away from, then back towards Devil’s River, Saturday, reminded me of nothing so much as marching barefoot over a rocky beach with a 25-degree incline and cacti needling you every third step. The beauty round such pristine spots is usually called “rugged” – a code word indicating every hour of pleasure must be accompanied by three of unpleasantness. All clichés spring from original truths, and clichés about the West and individualism are no exception; Saturday, 37,000 acres of Devil’s River State Natural Area were inhabited by fewer than a dozen persons, all day, and that ensures hundreds of minutes of solitude for anyone willful enough to wander unaccompanied through the expanse – and another 120 minutes of lacerating solitude for anyone dimwitted enough to misread a map and blaze his own trail through miles of thornbushes.

Jhonny Gonzalez, hailing from Mexico City though born in the more rural state of Hidalgo, is a prizefighter whose ruggedness is tempered by intelligence; Saturday he engaged Arce when the shorter man needed engaging and kept him at range the rest of the match. A man who truly likes to fight and truly knows how, Gonzalez struck Arce with perfectly placed and fully released hooks enough to drop Arce on the blue mat – complemented by a white “Playboy” bunny logo – three times, including a punctuating blow at the end of round 3, when Arce went for the knockout, his or Gonzalez’s, ¡que sea!, exactly as he did against Donaire, with a nearly identical result.

Saturday was a good way for Arce to end his career, as good as he’s likely to get anymore, but as ruggedness is not a synonym for wisdom, El Travieso surely will fight on.

Bart Barry can be found on Twitter @bartbarry

Gonzalez retains Featherweight crown; stops Arce in 11

Jhonny Gonzalez retained the WBC Featherweight title with an 11th round stoppage over Jorge Arce at the Centro de Usos Multiples in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Gonzalez scored knockdowns in round’s three, five and nine and the fight was stopped at 2:43 of round 11.

Gonzalez, 126 lbs of Mexico City is now 57-8 with 48 knockouts. Arce, 126 lbs of Los Mochis, MX is now 64-8-2.

Adrian Estrella scored four knockdowns en route to a 12-round unanimous decision over former world champion Celestino Caballero in a Super Featherweight bout.

Estrella dropped Caballero in round five from a hard right hand. A follow up flurry sent Caballero down on his back for a second time in the round. he scored knockdowns in both round;s ten and eleven.

Estrella, 130 lbs of Mexico won by scores of 117-107 twice and 115-109 and is now 19-0. Caballero, 130 lbs of Colon, PAN is now 37-6.

Adrian Young and Edgar Monarrez fought to an 8-round draw in a Super Featherweight bout.

Young, 130 lbs is now 19-1-2. Monarrez, 130 lbs is 18-2-1.

Jhonny Gonzalez to defend Featherweight crown against Arce

Featherweight world champion Jhonny Gonzalez will defend his Featherweight world title against former world champion Jorge Arce in October 4 in Los Mochis, Mexico, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

“I will face a strong and experienced fighter, who has won five world titles, so I will prepare as if I am challenging a world champion,” Gonzalez said. “Arce throws punches right from the opening bell. He is brave and strong. We anticipate a war in the ring because I will not take even one step back.”

“I am determined to win and I will win,” Arce said. “I am determined to get my sixth belt. I will celebrate win or lose, but defeat does not go through my mind. It will be a tough fight but I trust my talent and my desires. I know perfectly how to fight Jhonny. We know what to do and how to defeat an opponent who has long arms and is very strong.”

Selby earns Featherweight title shot with decision over Koasicha

Lee Selby earned a shot at WBC Featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez with a 12-round unanimous decision over Romulo Koasicha in a WBC title elimination bout as well as a WBC International title fight at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.

Selby was effective with the volume of punches just doing a solid job of keeping Koasicha on the receiving end of three and four punch combinations. Koasicha had a few opportunities in round’s five and seven as he got through with some solid left hooks but he was not able to capitalize on t his few effective moments. Down the stretch, Selby was not challenged in the least as he boxed and moved well and cruised home to the victory to the tune of 119-109, 119-109 and 119-110.

Selby, 125 1/2 lbs of Barrie, Wales is now 19-1. Koasicha, 125 1/2 lbs of San Luis Potasi, Mexico drops to 21-4.

Former world Light Heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly made a splash in his Cruiserweight debut by taking out Shawn Corbin in round two of their scheduled 12-round WBA Intercontinental title bout.

Cleverly hurt Corbin with and uppercut and was relentless with pinpoint punches that continued to snap the head of Corbin back until referee Richie Davies stopped the bout at 2:19 of round two.

Cleverly, 198 1/2 lbs of Wales is now 27-1 with 13 knockouts. Corbin, 195 1/2 lbs of Trinidad and Tobago is now 17-5.

Former world champion Gavin Rees and Gary Buckland staged their 2nd war in just over three months that saw Rees capture a split decision in a 12 round Lightweight bout that was Rees’ final ring outing.

The two traded hard shots in close for basically all 12 rounds that saw many ebbs and flows during the contest. Both guys landed hard thudding shots and had each other in trouble. Rees was cut over his left eye in round 10 but came back to rock Buckland several times in the final two frames.

Rees had Buckland in trouble in the final round but Buckland came on to land a few good power punches of his own.

Rees, 137 lbs of Newbridge, Wales won by scores of 117-113 and 117-112 while Buckland took a card 117-112.

Rees finishes his career with a record of 38-4-1. Buckland, 137 of Cardiff, Wales is now 28-4.

Good looking Super Middleweight prospect Callum Smith took out Tobias Webb in round two of their scheduled 10-round WBC International Super Middleweight bout.

Smith droped Webb four times in round two, three of them were from vicious body shots. The final knockdown was a left to the body that sent Webb down on all fours and he was counted out at 2:50 of round two.

Smith, 166 3/4 lbs of Liverpool is now 11-0 with 9 knockouts. Webb, 167 1/2 lbs is now 14-2-1.

Paul Smith Jr tuned up for a potential world title shot with Arthur Abraham with a 2nd round destruction over David Sarabia in a eight round Light Heavyweight bout.

Smith dropped Sarabia in the 1st round from a right hand. He hurt Sarabia in round two and pounced on him with a big barrage of punches and the fight was stopped at 1:17 of round two.

Smith, 171 3/4 lbs of Liverpool, UK is now 35-3 with 20 KO’s. Sarabia, 170 1/4 lbs of Spain is now 7-4-2.

OFFICIAL STATEMENTS REGARDING POSTPONEMENT OF FEBRUARY 15 REMATCH BETWEEN JHONNY GONZALEZ AND ABNER MARES

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (Jan. 7, 2014) – Following a rib injury suffered in training, former three-division world champion Abner Mares has been forced to withdraw from his Saturday, Feb. 15 rematch with WBC Featherweight Champion Jhonny Gonzalez, causing a postponement of the entire SHOWTIME® televised event at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.

A new date for the rematch will be announced once Mares is cleared to resume training.

“I’d like to apologize to all of my fans, Golden Boy Promotions and Jhonny Gonzalez,” said Mares. “I was looking forward to getting back into the ring with Jhonny to avenge my loss, and once I recover from this injury, I’ll be back in the gym and ready for this rematch as soon as possible.”

“I’m disappointed of course, but I know that these things happen in boxing, and I wish Abner a speedy recovery,” said Gonzalez. “We both know that we’ll meet again and when we do, we’ll give the fans a fight to remember.”

“It’s never a good thing when injuries like this occur, and I know Abner tried to fight through it, but it’s best that we postpone this event and reschedule it so that both fighters are at their best on fight night,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “The fighters’ safety is always paramount and both Abner and Jhonny understand this completely.”

Refunds may be obtained at the point of the original purchase.

Mares hurts rib; rematch with Gonzalez postponed

Former two division world champion Abner Mares injured a rib during sparring and his February 15th rematch with the man who took his Featherweight title Jhonny Gonzalez will have to be postponed according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“I got a call from directly Abner [on Monday afternoon] and he said that he suffered a rib injury last week in sparring and that he tried to see if he could shake it off but he had to go and see the doctor and that the doctor told him he should not have any contact for several weeks,” said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. “So that necessitates that we move the date of the fight and it will not happen on Feb. 15.”

Schaefer said that Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez informed Gonzalez’s team of the situation. Schaefer said he also informed Showtime Sports chief Stephen Espinoza.

“I will be working next week with Stephen to see what we want to do,” Schaefer said. “I need to talk to venues and coordinate with Showtime to find a different date. Abner wants this fight and so does Jhonny, so it’s just a matter of finding a different date that works.”

Frank Espinoza, Mares’ manager — and no relations to Showtime’s Espinoza — said Mares was in training camp in Mexico City when he suffered the injury.

“He said that his ribs were very sore and when I reached out to talk to Richard [on Monday], he said there is nothing that we can do as far as rescheduling the fight until next week, after the holiday, when the Showtime people are back in the office,” Espinoza said. “Of course, Abner is disappointed. He was ready to go in and win the world title again.

“This is boxing and accidents happen in sparring. Unfortunately, he got hurt. So now we will wait and talk to Golden Boy about a new date.”

JHONNY GONZALEZ TO DEFEND HIS WBC FEATHERWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AGAINST FORMER THREE-TIME & THREE-DIVISION WORLD CHAMPION ABNER MARES SATURDAY, FEB. 15, 2014 AT STAPLES CENTER IN LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 19, 2013) – Golden Boy Promotions will present a rematch of one of 2013’s biggest upsets when Jhonny Gonzalez defends his WBC Featherweight World Championship against former Three -Time & Three-Division World Champion Abner Mares, on Saturday, Feb.15 from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif. live on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).

In their first bout on Aug. 24, 2013, at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., hard-hitting Gonzalez shocked the world with a first round knockout of Mares taking his title and his unbeaten record from him. On Feb. 15, Mares gets his shot at redemption.

“Abner Mares gave me my shot and now I’m giving him his,” said Gonzalez. “I respect what he’s done in the ring and the heart he shows every time he fights, but I worked too hard for this to give it up now. I will keep my title on February 15.”

“I’d like to thank Jhonny Gonzalez for this opportunity. It will be an honor to fight him a second time,” said Mares. “August 24 was his night and I take nothing away from him, but February 15 will be my night and I’m going to get my title back.”

“This fight says a lot about both Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Jhonny wants to leave no doubt about his first win and Abner wanted to get another shot at him immediately. These are two great warriors and I can’t wait to see them fight again.”

“After the most unexpected upset of 2013, Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares will meet again in one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the first quarter,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports. “Any time you put two Mexican warriors like Abner and Jhonny in the ring together, you can expect an action-packed fight. This is the type of fight that our SHOWTIME viewers have come to expect, and February 15 will undoubtedly deliver.”

“We are very excited to host such an incredible fight here on February 15th with our partners at Golden Boy Promotions,” Lee Zeidman, STAPLES Center, Sr. Vice President and General Manager. “Southern California boxing fans will definitely not want to miss this rematch of Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares, it is sure to be a memorable night at STAPLES Center.”

One of the best Mexican fighters of this era, Mexico City’s Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8, 47 KO’s) has held world championships at 118 and 126 pounds, defeating the likes of Hall of Famer Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson and former World Champions Fernando “Cochulito” Montiel, Irene Pacheco, and Hozumi Hasegawa, along the way. Winner of 15 of his last 16 bouts, with the only loss a technical decision defeat to Daniel Ponce De Leon in September of 2012, the 32-year-old Gonzalez has resurrected his career in style with his first round title-winning knockout of Mares, and he’s looking forward to doing it again.

A member of the 2004 Mexican Olympian team, 28-year-old Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico’s Abner Mares (26-1-1, 14 KO’s) earned a spot on boxing’s pound for pound list in 2013 when he stopped Daniel Ponce De Leon in nine rounds to win his third divisional world title, the WBC featherweight crown. A previous owner of championships at bantamweight and super bantamweight, the Hawaiian Gardens, Calif. resident now has the opportunity to make history once again by regaining his crown on February 15.

Gonzalez vs. Mares II, a 12-round fight for Gonzalez’ WBC Featherweight World Championship, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Promociones del Pueblo and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The bout will take place on Saturday, Feb. 15 at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be televised live on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary bouts will air live on SHOWTIME EXTREME® beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

Tickets priced at $200, $100, $50 and $25, not including applicable service charges and taxes, go on sale Friday, Dec. 20 at 10 a.m. PT and will be available for purchase online at AXS.com, by phone at 888-9-AXS-TIX (888-929-7849) or at the STAPLES Center Box Office (Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm). VIP Suites are available by calling (213-763-7755). For more information on group discounts or VIP packages, please call (877-234-8425).

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com and www.staplescenter.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/AbnerMares00 , www.twitter.com/JOGLEZ, www.twitter.com/STAPLESCenter, www.twitter.com/SHOsports, follow the conversation using #GonzalezMares or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.facebook.com/SHOboxing.

Jhonny Gonzalez to rematch Abner Mares on February 15

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, WBC Featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez will defend against the man he won it from, Abner Mares on February 15th at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Gonzalez stopped Mares in the 1st round on August 24th.

“We did get an email confirmation from Jhonny Gonzalez’s promoter, Oswaldo Kuchle, saying that they accepted the terms,” said Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer. “We were going back and forth and they have accepted the terms, and they also confirmed it to the WBC. I like signed contracts but for all intents and purposes this fight will happen Feb. 15 at the Staples Center.”

“They reneged on the deal but Richard was ready to get him stripped if he didn’t comply with the contract they signed,” said Mares manager Frank Espinoza told ESPN.com. “There was a rematch clause in the contract and [Gonzalez] would have been violating it if he didn’t do the rematch.

“Abner is looking forward to fighting Feb. 15. We work well with Golden Boy and Richard and we’ll work out the rest of our deal this week. We should have it all done this week.”

“He just got caught and he got stopped,” Espinoza said. “You can’t judge a fight on less than one round. It’s not like Abner went in there and lost after seven or eight rounds and was getting beat up. He got caught. It’s boxing. Abner is looking forward to coming back. He’s looking for redemption.”

Said Schaefer, “I remember back in the day when I was working with [Top Rank’s] Bob [Arum] and I would have these conversations with (Hall of Fame matchmaker) Bruce Trampler and he always said to me that when a guy gets knocked out in the first round it’s almost like it doesn’t count because you can’t read too much into it. Abner was winning the first round and he got caught. I take nothing away from Jhonny. But Abner had some (undisclosed) issues in his training camp. He never brought it up or complained about it or used it as an excuse, but I know for a fact he had issues in camp.

“He will be refocused and knows what he has to do. I think it will be a very interesting fight. It’s a very dangerous fight. Jhonny’s will cannot be underestimated and he will come in with a lot of momentum having won the first fight by a knockout. I do believe Abner is the more skilled fighter but Jhonny is dangerous as hell. He has that game changer — one-punch knockout power that can come at any time.”

Schaefer said he has not worked out the undercard fights but said that if junior featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KOs) retains his title against Cesar Seda (25-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio on a Showtime-televised card featuring four world title fights that he could return Feb. 15.

“We’re hoping to do a tripleheader,” Schaefer said. “I want to see what happens this weekend and see how everything goes. If Leo looks good and doesn’t get cut we might have him back. I have a lot of ideas but I’m not ready to talk about them all yet.”

Mares to take immediate rematch against Gonzalez

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, former three division world champion Abner Mares will invoke his rematch clause and will face Jhonny Gonzalez next despite being knocked out in the first round last Saturday night.

“When we prepared the contract with Golden Boy, I made sure we had a rematch clause,” Frank Espinoza, Mares’ manager, told ESPN.com on Thursday.

Espinoza said he hopes that the bout can take place in December and is talking to Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer about a deal.

“Abner wants the rematch,” Schaefer said. “He has a rematch clause and wants to do it before the end of the year. Abner called me himself and said, ‘I want to set the record straight and exercise my rematch option. This was nothing, it wasn’t a fight. I want to fight the guy again and I want to take care of it this year.'”

“Abner just wants to get right back in the ring with this guy,” Espinoza said. “You can’t judge that fight by one punch. It wasn’t even a fight. But Abner came out healthy. It was one punch and it happens to the best in boxing.”

“The way Abner is, he wants to come back and avenge his loss and prove himself,” Espinoza said. “Abner has always wanted to fight the best. After the fight, he called me and said, ‘Frank, I want to come back and I want to fight him again this year.’ Abner said he’s ready to go. He’s not afraid to fight anyone. So I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and I reached out to Richard Schaefer. He said he would work on it for December.”

“Richard’s going to work on it for December, but if we can’t get it done then we may have to wait until January, but my understanding is that December looks good,” Espinoza said.

“But Abner was very clear that he wants the fight next,” Schaefer said. “I don’t know if I can do it this year because it’s a pretty big fight and those kind of fights are expensive, but I will work on it and I will talk to Showtime about it.”

Jhonny and Abner, Leslie and Glenn

Saturday in Carson, Calif., Jhonny Gonzalez floored Abner Mares with a left-hook lead in the third minute of their featherweight title match then stopped Mares at 2:55 of round 1, scoring the sort of delightful upset that makes prizefighting a dasher of corporate plans and the corporate-minded folks that plan them.

Saturday’s plan was to continue a coronation of Mares, the 126-pound Mexican titlist who, in light of Nonito Donaire’s recently razed stature and Guillermo Rigondeaux’s impossible style (he’d handle Mares more easily than he handled Donaire), has run out of what opponents might attract large crowds, and fees from Showtime, a network long supportive of Mares for the good reason that he won its 2011 bantamweight tournament. Mares was valuable to Showtime though more important to Golden Boy because he was a first prizefighter developed by the outfit into a world champion, an accomplishment disproving, in small part, what was rightfully said of the promoter – handsome figurehead, good salesmen, no eye for talent.

There is, in other words, no chance Golden Boy expected its first homegrown world champion to get stretched in fewer than three minutes by a stalking-horse Mexican they promoted in an inaugural Boxing World Cup nearly eight years ago, when Gonzalez stopped Ratanachai Sor Vorapin to win the WBO’s bantamweight title, one Gonzalez defended seven months later against Fernando Montiel, in a rainstorm of boos at a venue then named Home Depot Center. Four months after that Gonzalez made the best fight any American saw live in 2006, a super bantamweight donnybrook with Israel Vazquez, a fight Vazquez won by 10th-round knockout, a fight that, were it not for YouTube, would have won 2006’s fight-of-the-year honors.

A 2007 knockout loss, on a body shot from a southpaw, a nifty bit of crossed-over footwork by one of the two best Filipino fighters Americans have seen, Gerry Penalosa, marked Gonzalez as the sort of man who did not win his biggest fights, which in its way made him pleasantly predictable, pleasant for being predictable, to any matchmaker looking to sell his network a genuine test, from a fabled and ubiquitous “tough Mexican” challenger, for any great young fighter. But Jhonny “Jhonny” Gonzalez did not see his career the way others do.

Gonzalez does not show the same self-deprecation about his craft he does about his name; in a number of interviews at Desert Diamond Casino, just south of Tucson, Ariz., in 2008 and 2007 and 2005, Gonzalez proved himself serious to a point of surliness, a man who believed he was cut from elite cloth and did not cotton to insinuations that first-round knockouts of unremarkable opponents like Leivi Brea were about burnishing a resume bright enough to get him beaten by more talented men on pay television.

The plan for Saturday was to have Showtime commentators walk a circular tightrope like this: While it would be an insult to Jhonny Gonzalez’s legacy to say he’s now what he was in his prime, it would also be an insult, an outrage even, to imply he is anything but the sternest possible test for Mares – a true superstar who just proved himself such by knocking out a man, in Gonzalez, many of us believed had a chance to beat him. That loop, repeated and reversed and reiterated thrice more, is how Saturday was scripted to go when Mares, the young superstar who once ate out of garbage cans and reminds himself he once ate out of garbage cans whenever he considers throwing money away (in garbage cans, one presumes), either scored a remarkable stoppage after round 8 or an incredible stoppage before then.

Instead of another Mares coronation, though, Showtime and Golden Boy must presently put together a rematch their young star must win – or else do it the HBO way, pretending Gonzalez no more beat Mares than Timothy Bradley beat Manny Pacquiao or Rigondeaux beat Donaire, and risk looking equally ridiculous. Writing of HBO, a child of Time Warner, a company that wisely divested itself of Time Warner Cable a few years back, there is Time Warner Cable’s ongoing contractual dispute with CBS, the parent company of Showtime. A goodish number of subscribers who pay Time Warner Cable to watch Showtime programming were sent scrambling for pirated online streams of Saturday’s fight because Time Warner Cable now blocks Showtime channels with a script that begins “The outrageous demands from CBS . . .”

It is the verbiage of businesschildren, not businessmen. Raised in a garishly self-interested generation to believe compromise is ever a synonym for weakness, the leaders of these companies, politicians more than entrepreneurs, and grotesquely overcompensated more than anything, now fail at one thing they are good at, if they are objectively good at something: Making a deal. They interrupt their customers’ service for the good of their customers, they say, and this is true, because their customers are not the witling Americans who purchase their products, but rather what computers daytrade their stocks, an army of machines collectively and absurdly called “shareholders” that sets executive compensation via the ticker symbols TWC and CBS. Any Time Warner employee of any kind itching to defend this system might first answer a simple question – “Why are we no longer called ‘AOL Time Warner’?” – and then familiarize himself with the historical omniscience of this free-market system that once openly guffawed at his company’s expense, and expenses.

Look elsewhere, then, for character, and find Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares’ interaction on Twitter 38 days before their title match. While in training to render one another unconscious on Aug. 24, they had this exchange in their native Spanish on July 17:

Mares: A greeting to my great friend and proximate rival @JOGLEZ who is training hard, the same as I am, to give you all a great fight. #mexico

Gonzalez: @abnermares00 equally, a hug (for you), champion, and we’ll see each other in the ring. Encouragement!

That is what character looks like.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Gonzalez shocks Mares with 1st round stoppage

Jhonny Gonzalez scored a shocking 1st round knockout over previously undefeated Abner Mares to recapture the WBC Featherweight title at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Gonzalez landed a crushing left hook to the jaw that sent Mares sprawling on his back. Mares was clarly hurt but tried to fight back instead of holding until he got caught with another left hook that was followed by a straight right that sent Mares down and the fight was stopped at 2:55 of the opening round.

Gonzalez, 125 lbs of Mexico City is now 55-8 with 47 knockouts. Mares, 125 1/2 lbs of Hawaiian Gardens, CA is now 26-1-1.

“This moment right now is the single greatest and most glorious moment of my life,” said an elated Gonzalez, who reclaimed the 126-pound belt he once held and breathed new life into his career with the win over his former training partner. “When I came to the United States for this fight no one gave me any credit. All they talked about was Mares fighting Santa Cruz. I didn’t say anything but I knew I was getting disrespected.”

“I knew I had him badly hurt after the first knockdown,” Gonzalez said.

“I’m good,” said Mares, who held titles at 118 and 122 pounds before claiming the featherweight belt last May. He was making his eighth consecutive appearance on SHOWTIME. “You have to win and you have to learn how to lose in this sport. I’m not in the sport to remain undefeated, but I’m here to fight the best.

“I was alright with the ref’s decision. He did his job and I respect it. But I thought I could go on,” he added. “Now I’m going to take a break and enjoy my family.”

Leo Santa Cruz became a two division world champion as he stopped Victor Terrazas in round three to win the WBC Super Bantamweight title.

Santa Cruz was effective if not relentless in drubbing the now former champion as he landed some hard shots to the body. The shots started to form bad swelling around the right eye. Santa Cruz came out in round three and landed hard flush punches that sent Terrazas to the canvas from a left hook. Santa Cruz finished the fight as he was all over Terrazas and landed a right that sent the native of Guadalajara, Mexico to a knee. When he got to his feet, Terrazas told referee Lou Moret that he could not see and the fight was stopped at 2:09 of round three.

Santa Cruz, 121 3/4 lbs of Los Angeles is now 25-0-1 with 15 knockouts. Terrazas, 121 lbs is now 37-3-1.

“This is a dream come true,” said Santa Cruz, 25, who had fought 106 fewer rounds in his career than Terrazas, who is 30. “I’ve wanted the green belt my entire life. Once I saw the eye start to swell I knew I had to go after him and put the pressure on him.”

Terrazas said, “The eye was not a problem. This was a good fight. He was tough like I expected. He just caught me. I wanted to continue the fight.”

Antonio Orozco scored a three round beatdown over Ivan Hernandez in a Jr. Welterweight bout.

Not much happened in round one but then Orozco got things rolling in round two as he pounded Hernandez with shots that swelled up the right eye of Hernandez. Orozco wasted no tim in round three as he scored two quick knockdowns from relentless pressure that overwhelmed Hernandez. Orozco landed two more thudding lefts that sent Hernandez down for a third and final time that forced the referee to stop the bout at 1:39 of round three.

Orozco, 141 1/2 lbs of San Diego is now 18-0 with 14 knockouts. Hernandez, 141 1/2 lbs of Barranquilla, COL is now 29-4.

Joseph Diaz Jr. scored 3rd round stoppage over Noel Mendoza in a scheduled six round Bantamweight bout.

Diaz showed a tremendous offensive repertoire as he worked the body and the head with austhority.

Diaz dropped Mendoza twice from hard and furious combinations with the second coming from a hard left – right that forced the referee to stop the bout at 1:54 of round three.

Diaz, 123 lbs of South El Monte, CA is now 8-1 with five knockouts. Mendoza, 121 1/2 lbs of Phoenix, AZ is now 6-3-1.

2012 Olympic Heavyweight Dominic Breazeale scored a fourth round stoppage over Lenroy Thomas.

Thomas came and won the first round as Breazeale used it as a feeling out round. With each round, Breazeale picked up the pace and in ronund three he started working the body. In round four, Breazeale landed a flurry that was finished up with a right to the body that sent Thomas down for referee at 2:29 of round four.

Breazeale, 251 lbs of Alhambra, CA is now 6-0 with all wins coming Early. Thomas, 246 lbs of St. Petersburg, FL is now 16-3.

WATCH MARES – GONZALEZ WEIGH IN LIVE

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Opportunity Knocks: Mares can enhance his pound-for-pound credentials against Gonzalez

Abner Mares defies traditional categories, perhaps because he’s nimble enough to switch from one to the other quickly and sometimes seamlessly. Within a single fight, he moves from skill to skill, category to category, like an actor changing costumes.

From brawler to boxer, from puncher to careful tactician, Mares has a variety of roles he employs for every situation. His resourceful versatility isn’t exactly a secret anymore, but that doesn’t make it any less problematic for an opponent who can never be quite sure who and what he is facing from round to round.

That leaves experienced and tough Jhonny Gonzalez with a difficult task Saturday at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., in the main event of a Showtime-televised card. Facing Mares is a little bit like playing Russian Roullette. At some point, Mares will find a skill that exploits a weakness.

“You can’t really compare Jhonny to my last opponent,’’ said Mares, who beat Daniel Ponce De Leon in May on the undercard of Floyd Maywetaher Jr.’s victory over Robert Guerrero. “Jhonny is more of a thinker than Ponce, who just came to brawl. I know I have to fight him in a very smart way.’’

If there’s one word that best describes Mares (26-0-1,14 KOs), it’s opportunistic. Sure enough, an intriguing opportunity is on the line for him in a featherweight fight against Gonzalez (54-8, 46 KOs). His promoter, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, grabbed it and introduced it by arguing that Mares should be ranked No. 2 in the pound-for-pound ratings behind Mayweather.

The pound-for-pound debate is a little bit like a video game. It’s a collection of talking points and not much more. But it matters in terms of public perception. It’s Schaefer’s job to campaign for his fighters. In arguing for Mares, Schaefer has managed to get his name into the debate in a way that that figures to generate interest. Translation: A potential boost in television ratings.

The rest is up to Mares, who has held titles at three weights – 118 pounds, 122 and 126. He figures to beat Gonzalez, but now there’s some pressure on him to win impressively in a bid to further enhance his pound-for-pound credentials.

The opportunity is there because of mounting questions about the presumptive No. 2, super-middleweight Andre Ward, whose position has eroded because of inactivity brought on in part by injuries. Of late, most of the news about Ward has come from an arbitration hearing won by his promoter, Dan Goossen.

Meanwhile, another contender, middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, is on the shelf until next year because of knee and hand injures aggravated in difficult decision over Martin Murray in April. Juan Manuel Marquez is scheduled to resume his career on Oct. 12 against Timothy Bradley in his first bout since his December stoppage of Manny Pacquiao. Inactivity isn’t a loss, but it isn’t much of an argument for any fighter trying to hold onto his pound-for-pound status either.

Contrast that to Mares, who beat Eric Morel and Anselmo Moreno in 2012. If he can follow up his ninth-round TKO of Ponce De Leon with a definitive victory over Gonzalez, he can punctuate his pound-for-pound argument in a way that could be hard to counter.

FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES: ABNER MARES & JHONNY GONZALEZ, VICTOR TERRAZAS & LEO SANTA CRUZ, GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS PRESIDENT OSCAR DE LA HOYA, ANTONIO OROZCO, DOMINIC BREAZEALE, JOSEPH “JO JO” DIAZ JR. & MORE

CARSON, CALIF. (Aug. 22, 2013) – Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions hosted the final press conference Thursday for the outstanding fight card that will take place this Saturday, Aug. 24, on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING live on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, immediately following the series premiere of ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Canelo) and SHOWTIME EXTREME (8 p.m. ET/PT) from StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.

In Saturday’s main event of an explosive world championship doubleheader on SHOWTIME, undefeated three-time and three-division World Champion Abner Mares (26-0-1, 14 KO’s), of Downey, Calif., by way of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, will defend his WBC Featherweight World Championship against former Two-Division World Champion Jhonny Gonzalez (54-8, 46 KO’s), of Mexico City.

Unbeaten former IBF Bantamweight World Champion Leo “Terremoto” Santa Cruz (24-0-1, 14 KO’s), of Los Angeles, by way of Huetamo, Michoacan, Mexico, will challenge WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Victor “Vikingo” Terrazas (37-2-1, 21 KO’s), of Guadalajara, in the opening bout of the telecast.

Scheduled for SHOWTIME EXTREME: Antonio Orozco (17-0, 13 KO’s), San Diego, Calif., vs. Ivan Hernandez (23-9, 22 KO’s), Miami, Fla., 10 rounds, junior welterweights; Joseph “Jo Jo’’ Diaz Jr. (6-0, 4 KO’s), South El Monte, Calif., vs. Noel Mendoza (6-2-1, 1 KO), Phoenix, Ariz., 6 rounds, featherweights; and Dominic Breazeale (5-0, 5 KO’s), Los Angeles, vs. Lenroy Thomas (16-2, 8 KO’s), St. Catherine, Jamaica, 8 rounds, heavyweights.

This will be the eighth consecutive appearance on SHOWTIME for Mares (including last May 4 when he dethroned Daniel Ponce De Leon via a ninth-round TKO to capture the WBC 126-pound crown on SHOWTIME PPV) dating back to his SHOWTIME debut on May 22, 2010. Five of Santa Cruz’s six fights since June 2, 2012, have been on SHOWTIME. The other came on The CBS Television Network.

Tickets for an event with a distinct Southern California flavor are priced at $150, $75, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges, and are available now at AXS.com, by phone at 888-9-AXS-TIX (888-929-7849) and at StubHub Center Box Office (Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. PT to 6 p.m. PT). VIP Suites are available by calling 877-604-8777. For more information on group discounts or VIP packages, please call 877-234-8425. Doors open at 2 p.m. PT and the first live fight is at 2:20 p.m.

What De La Hoya and the boxers said Thursday from StubHub Center (all the SHOWTIME and SHOWTIME EXTREME fighters except Mendoza were in attendance):

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, President Golden Boy Promotions

“Jhonny Gonzalez brings a lot to the table and is fighting one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world in Abner Mares. I believe they have Abner at No. 5, but I have to disagree with that. I put him up there at No. 3, if not No. 2. Jhonny knows he’s in for a tough fight. Abner knows he’s in for a tough fight. It’s going to be fireworks on Saturday night.

”For the boxing fans in L.A., this is what boxing is all about and this is what they deserve. Abner Mares is a special talent that we are witnessing in our era. He’s a talent that doesn’t come around very often. He’s fought nothing but the best. We all know Gonzalez. He’s a machine who is a tough puncher and a very calculated puncher. Jhonny knows this is his opportunity. Everybody knows that.

“When I first saw Abner fighting in the Olympics for Mexico in 2004 I just knew instinctively that he had that something that all champions have. There is no quit in his game and he has a long career ahead of him. And I wasn’t wrong about him. He’s already great and he keeps on proving it by wanting to only fight the best. And that’s what it takes to become great.”

ABNER MARES, WBC Featherweight World Champion

“I want to thank the entire Golden Boy staff for making this possible. I know them all, from the guy who cleans the office to the head honchos like Oscar and Richard (Schaefer). And I want to thank SHOWTIME. I’ve been a headliner like eight times and it’s just a huge blessing. I won’t disappoint. I promise you a great fight like I always do.

“This is another tough fight, but I want to fight nothing but the best. Champion, ex-world champion, whoever you bring, whoever the fans want me to fight, you know I’ll fight. I like and admire Jhonny Gonzalez. I like his style of fighting and know his camp because (Ignacio) ‘Nacho’ Beristain was my trainer for three years. I know the style and it’s nothing but finesse and nothing but pureness.

“I’ve seen my share of fights from StubHub in the stands, but now I’m ready to experience coming out and putting on a real show for the fans.’’

JHONNY GONZALEZ, Former Two-Division World Champion

“I want to thank Golden Boy and everyone involved for making this fight happen. I am very prepared. A fighter always wants to fight the best and I am fighting the best in Abner Mares.

“The question I’ve been asked the most is if I am looking at this as my last chance at the bigtime. Well, I am not. One way to stop getting this question from the media is to win on Saturday.

“Every fighter wants to get a shot at the world title, and then to win it, but my body feels good and I still feel I have a lot of fight left in me. I’m not looking ahead, but I can see a possible move to super featherweight in the future.

“I may have more knockouts than he has fights (actually, almost twice as many), but he had such a great amateur career than I think we are tied when it comes to experience.

“I am sure the biggest winners will be the fans and the sport of boxing because this fight is going to be a total war.’’

LEO SANTA CRUZ, Former IBF Bantamweight World Champion

“I’d like to thank Golden Boy, SHOWTIME, my manager, Al Haymon and everyone else. I’m 100 percent ready. I’m ready for war. I know that Terrazas is very tough and this will be the hardest fight of my career. I know that he’s been through as much as I have to get to this point. The good thing is that the belt will stay with a Mexican no matter who wins. May the best man win.

“We’ve trained really hard for this and we’re ready. My career depends on this so I have to just leave it all in the ring.’’

VICTOR TERRAZAS, WBC Super Bantamweight Champion

“I think it is great to have so many Mexican fans behind me even though this fight is in his backyard. The support I am getting really makes me feel good.

“We’re going to give the fans what they come out to see: a real fight with toe-to-toe, non-stop action.

“As world champion, you have to defend against any and all comers. Every fight I’ve had, or he’s had, has been a war, and this will not be an exception. This is a great matchup, a fans’ fight. If I was a fan, I know for sure that I’d be watching.

“I’ve studied a lot of tape on Santa Cruz. We’ll see on Saturday how it plays out. Fighters can change from fight to fight, but I know I am prepared and ready for anything. I think one of my best advantages is that I am shorter than he is and because of that I will be able to get inside.’’

ANTONIO OROZCO, Unbeaten Junior Welterweight

“This is my second time on SHOWTIME EXTREME and I am really thankful to SHOWTIME for bringing me back. I am ready to do what I do.

“I don’t know much about Hernandez except that he probably packs a punch, so I know I have to be cautious and not just go out winging shots. But I had a great camp and the work is done

“I don’t just go out looking to be impressive; that’s not in my mindset. Winning is the important thing. I always want to put on a great performance and entertain the fans, but I know I have to stay focused.’’

IVAN HERNANDEZ, Hard-Hitting Junior Welterweight

“I’m looking forward to Saturday. This will be a great fight. Orozco is undefeated, but I don’t think he’s ever faced a fighter like me.’’

JOSEPH “JO JO’’ DIAZ JR., 2012 U.S. Olympian and Undefeated Featherweight

“I just fought last month so I’m right back at it. I had a taste of the StubHub Center before and just knowing it’s my backyard and that the two headliners are in my weight class is just a huge blessing to me.

“I’m expecting my opponent to come out and try to pull off the upset. I’m going to give my all and give everybody a great show. I’m going to be aggressive and I’m going to be alert, and just very powerful.

“I’m working on sitting down my punches more often. And landing more shots. In the amateurs you’re just landing punches and just trying to rack up points. But in the pros I’m trying to be more relaxed and pick the better shots.’’

DOMINIC BREAZEALE, 2012 U.S. Olympian and Unbeaten Heavyweight

“It’s an honor to be on TV and fighting in front of the entire nation. I’m a hometown kid and I’ll have all my friends and family out.

“This is a stepping-stone fight and I have to come out and prove myself and show what I’ve got. I have to impose my will.

“I started my amateur career just down the road at ‘The Rock’ so to be a Southern California kid I couldn’t ask for more to make my television debut. I’m here to gain some fans and I hope to get more and more.”

LENROY THOMAS, Heavyweight

“I know I am coming an as the ‘opponent’ and as basically a stepping stone for him, but if you step on a stepping stone you are going to slide. I haven’t fought in a long time because of personal problems and having to take care of things with my family, but I am looking forward to coming back and proving myself.

“To return to the ring in this kind of fight is a great opportunity for me. I had a great camp. We’ll see who’s best on Saturday.’’

ABOUT “MARES VS. GONZALEZ”:
Mares vs. Gonzalez, a 12-round fight for Mares’ WBC Featherweight World Championship, will take place on Saturday, August 24 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. The event is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, sponsored by Corona and AT&T and will be televised live on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® immediately following the series premiere of ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Canelo at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Also featured will be a 12-round world championship showdown between WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Victor Terrazas and former IBF Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruz. SHOWTIMECHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is available in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP). Mares vs. Gonzalez is presented in association with Promociones Del Pueblo. Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME® (8 p.m. ET/PT).

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com,www.sports.sho.com
and www.stubhubcenter.com, follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/shosports, www.twitter.com/StubHubCenter,
www.twitter.com/AbnerMares00, www.twitter.com/leosantacruz2, follow the conversation using #MaresGonzalez or become a fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing,
www.facebook.com/SHOBoxing and www.facebook.com/StubHubCenter.

ABNER MARES & JHONNY GONZALEZ, VICTOR TERRAZAS & LEO SANTA CRUZ,DOMINIC BREAZEALE & JOSEPH DIAZ JR. TUESDAY’S MEDIA WORKOUT QUOTES

CARSON, CALIF. (Aug. 21, 2013) – Six of the fighters who’ll compete this Saturday, Aug. 24, on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING live on SHOWTIME® (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, Immediately following the series premiere of ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Canelo) and SHOWTIME EXTREME (8 p.m. ET/PT) worked out for the media Tuesday at a jam-packed Fabela Chavez Boxing Center in Carson, Calif.

In Saturday’smainevent on SHOWTIME, undefeated three-time and three-division World Champion Abner Mares (26-0-1, 14 KO’s), of Downey, Calif., by way of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, will defend his WBC Featherweight World Championship against former Two-Division World Champion Jhonny Gonzalez (54-8, 46 KO’s), of Mexico City.

Scheduled for SHOWTIME EXTREME: Antonio Orozco (17-0, 13 KO’s), San Diego, Calif., vs. Ivan Hernandez (23-9, 22 KO’s), Miami, Fla., 10 rounds, junior welterweights; Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz Jr. (6-0, 4 KO’s), South El Monte, Calif., vs. Noel Mendoza (6-2-1, 1 KO), Phoenix, Ariz., 6 rounds, featherweights; and Dominic Breazeale (5-0, 5 KO’s), Los Angeles, vs. Lenroy Thomas (16-2, 8 KO’s), St. Catherine, Jamaica, 8 rounds, heavyweights.

Two of boxing’s most exciting and popular practitioners, Mares and Santa Cruz have become SHOWTIME mainstays in recent years. This will be the eighth consecutive appearance on SHOWTIME for Mares (including last May 4 when he dethroned Daniel Ponce De Leon via a ninth-round technical knockout to capture the WBC 126-pound crown on SHOWTIME PPV) dating back to his SHOWTIME debut on May 22, 2010. Five of Santa Cruz’s six fights since June 2, 2012, have been on SHOWTIME. The other came on The CBS Television Network.

What the boxers said Tuesday:

ABNER MARES, WBC Featherweight World Champion

“My preparation is done and I’m ready to perform and put on a great show. I’ve got a hard fight ahead of me. Jhonny Gonzalez is a tremendous fighter, tough, and very skilled. But I’m here to fight.

“Jhonny may well be thinking that this is his last shot in a big fight, so I know he’ll be bringing his ‘A’ game, which is why I know I need to bring my ‘A-plus’ game on Saturday. I always train like a contender anyway. When I’m getting ready for a fight, I don’t think of myself as a champion. I don’t want to lose my edge, my hunger. There’s no way I will ever become complacent.

“You can’t really compare Jhonny to my last opponent (Daniel ‘Ponce’ de Leon). Jhonny is more of a thinker than Ponce, who just came to brawl. I know I have to fight him in a very smart way.

“I’m very happy and proud to be fighting the main event. This card features a bunch of us Los Angeles guys, and is really an old-school card, like ones they used to put on at the Forum. The undercard is filled with a lot of up-and-comers. Any of those fights could serve as the televised co-main event.

“I know they’re talking about me fighting Santa Cruz. It would be a spectacular fight between two Southern California fighters. If you know me you know I’ll fight anybody. But I have a tough fight in front of me.

“I’m feeling really strong at this weight class, but who knows? Maybe someday I’ll make a decision to move up a weight class to 130 pounds and win a fourth world title in my fourth weight class. But that’s down the road. For now, all my focus is on Jhonny Gonzalez and putting on a great fight for the fans.

“Saturday is going to be a very exciting night of fights. You won’t want to miss it.”

JHONNY GONZALEZ, Former Two-Division World Champion

“I have fought at StubHub before so I am very comfortable being at that venue. A lot of fight fans will recognize me from the past fights that I have fought there.

“On Saturday night my fight with Mares is going to be a war. Mares built his career with hard-earned fights and he wants to defend his title. I am motivated to claim the title. At this point in my career I feel that this could be one of my last opportunities to take that title.

“I invite all fight fans to witness what will be a battle for the ages. Abner Mares is youthful and strong but I have experience and will come well prepared with my own arsenal of weapons.”

LEO SANTA CRUZ, Former IBF Bantamweight World Champion

“‘I’m very excited and happy for the opportunity to be fighting for a world title for a second time, and now I have to take advantage of it. I’ve been training 100 percent in the gym and I’m really motivated. This card has so many great fighters on it, and they are all going to do their best to put on a great show. I just want to do my part.

“I feel great. I think when I took that break it did my body a lot of good. I know I felt more rested. But working as hard as I do doesn’t give you much time to rest. A week after my last fight I was right back in the gym. My Dad told me I had to be ready for whenever they called again.

“I think Terrazas is going to be toughest fighter I’ve fought in my career. He’s a great champion. He likes to come forward and throw a lot of punches. He’s a true Mexican warrior, very brave, but those are the kinds of fighters I like to fight.

“Some guys are like wildfires, they get crazy and throw a lot of wild punches. He’s not like that. Terrazas also has great technique. But he doesn’t run, and those types of guys are easier for me. I know he’s going to give it his best and leave it all in the ring. I expect a very hard fight. Both of us have trained really hard to give a great fight, and the better fighter is going to win.

“It’s an honor for me to be fighting on SHOWTIME as often as I have. It’s been a great experience for me. I still can’t believe I’ve accomplished this much in so short of time, and it’s still like a dream for me.

“But thanks to my Dad, who’s always pushing me in the gym, Al Haymon, Golden Boy Promotions and SHOWTIME, I’m where I’m at right now.”

VICTOR TERRAZAS, WBC Super Bantamweight Champion

“This is going to be a very active (busy) fight. Going in we know that Leo Santa Cruz is the favorite in his hometown, but I’m champion of the world and I’m here to show you why I’m the champion. I’m really excited about fighting in his backyard, and I’m confident I’ll be successful. I am ready.

“I do believe I’m getting overlooked in this fight, but that doesn’t take away my desire or my will to win. Being overlooked also doesn’t give me any more motivation, but that’s only because I’m already motivated. There’s a reason why I’m champion.

“Fighting in Los Angeles and SHOWTIME is a great opportunity for me to get more exposure and for more fans to know who I am. I absolutely know the importance of getting great exposure and know what a victory on Saturday will mean for me.

“More than anything the added exposure gives you more notoriety and opens more doors for you, not only in boxing but everything else. I am looking forward to this fight very much.”

DOMINIC BREAZEALE, Unbeaten Heavyweight

“I think this is probably the biggest step-up in my career and the toughest opponent so far in my career. Lenroy Thomas has a ton of experience and ring generalship compared to me. He’s a 6-foot-1 southpaw, and I haven’t fought a lefty since the amateurs.

“But I am definitely prepared and way anxious to get in there. I can’t wait to fight. The only way to build character as a boxer is to take it a step at a time and fight the best fighters you can. This is what I’ve been doing and on Saturday I’m taking the next step.”

JOSEPH “JO JO” DIAZ JR., Undefeated Featherweight

“This is my seventh fight this year and I’m well-prepared and definitely ready to go. I had a really great training camp. I know my opponent is a pretty sound guy with good ability, but I’m ready to give everybody a great show.

“I’m very excited to be fighting on this undercard because it’s all local fighters. It’s really going to be a great night of boxing.

“I think this is a step-up fight for me, which is what I want. I always want to be stepping up and fighting good fighters just to prove to everybody that I’m improving. This will be a great fight. .If all goes well on Saturday – there’s no injuries or cuts or anything — I’m looking to maybe fight again next month.”

CALIFORNIA KIDS HIGHLIGHTED ON SHOWTIME EXTREME® THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 24 OLYMPIANS DOMINIC BREAZEALE AND JOSEPH DIAZ JR. JOINED BY UNDEFEATED ANTONIO OROZCO AT STUBHUB CENTER

CARSON, CALIF. (Aug. 21, 2013) – Rising junior welterweight star Antonio “Relentless” Orozco and two highly regarded members of the Olympic class of 2012, Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz Jr. and Dominic “Trouble” Breazeale will get a glimpse of the national spotlight this Saturday, Aug. 24 when they step into the ring at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., live on SHOWTIME EXTREME (8 p.m. ET/PT), followed by the live SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®(10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, immediately following the series premiere of ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Canelo) doubleheader featuring two world championship matches.

In an eight-round heavyweight bout, Los Angeles’ unbeaten Breazeale faces St. Catherine, Jamaica’s Lenroy “TNT” Thomas. Plus, Diaz, of South El Monte, Calif., looks to keep his perfect record intact in a six-round featherweight bout against Phoenix’s Noel Mendoza and in a 10-round junior welterweight attraction, San Diego’s Orozco faces seasoned opponent Ivan Hernandez.

“A great card just got even better with the addition of the SHOWTIME EXTREME fights featuring three of the top young stars in the sport,” said President of Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya. “2012 Olympians Dominic Breazeale and Joseph Diaz Jr. have made great strides since the London Games and Antonio Orozco is on the verge of big things at junior welterweight. They’re all in tough this weekend, making for some exciting fights.”

2012 United States Olympian Dominic “Trouble” Breazeale (5-0, 5 KO’s) has the size, style and personality to become a superstar in the heavyweight division and thus far in his young pro career, the 27-year-old has also shown the power, knocking out each of his opponents in two rounds or less. On Saturday, he will face his toughest test yet in seasoned southpaw Lenroy “TNT” Thomas (16-2, 8 KO’s), who has won 16 of his last 17 bouts.

Showing rapid improvement with each fight, 25-year-old Antonio “Relentless” Orozco (17-0, 13 KO’s) has reached the point in his career where fight fans are starting to talk about his prospects when fighting the best 140-pounders in the world. That’s exactly where Orozco wants to be and he doesn’t plan on letting his growing base of followers down Saturday when he faces Miami, Florida’s hard-hitting Ivan Hernandez (29-3, 22 KO’s).

Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz Jr. (6-0, 4 KO’s) has stayed busy since his pro debut following the 2012 Olympics and despite such a hectic schedule, he’s handled each challenge with poise and maturity. Coming off a body shot knockout of Luis Cosme in July, the 20-year-old Diaz relishes the opportunity to perform in front of his Southern California fans. Looking to spoil the homecoming will be Phoenix’ Noel Mendoza (6-2, 1 KO’s).

East L.A.’s phenom Julian “El Camaron” Ramirez puts his 8-0 (5 KO’s) record on the line in a featherweight six rounder, Mexican super bantamweight contender Rey Vargas (14-0, 13 KO’s) looks for another knockout in an eight-round contest, and Nogales’s Jesus Ruiz (28-5-5, 21 KO’s) takes on Los Angeles’ Enrique Quevedo (14-5-1, 9 KO’s) in an eight-round meeting of super bantamweight veterans. Plus, undefeated promising prospects Las Vegas’ Ronald Gavril (5-0 (4 KO’s) and Kansas City’s Lanell Bellows (4-0-1,4 KO’s) will be featured in non-televised bouts.

Mares vs. Gonzalez, a 12-round fight for Mares’ WBC Featherweight World Championship, will take place on Saturday, August 24 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. The event is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, sponsored by Corona and AT&T and will be televised live on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® immediately following the series premiere of ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Canelo at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. Also featured will be a 12-round world championship showdown between WBC Super Bantamweight World Champion Victor Terrazas and former IBF Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruz. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is available in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP). Mares vs. Gonzalez is presented in association with Promociones Del Pueblo. Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME® (8 p.m. ET/PT)

Tickets priced at $150, $75, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges are available online at AXS.com, by phone at 888-9-AXS-TIX (888-929-7849) and at StubHub Center Box Office (Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. PT to 6:00 p.m. PT). VIP Suites are available by calling 877-604-8777. For more information on group discounts or VIP packages, please call 877-234-8425.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com
and www.stubhubcenter.com, follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/shosports, www.twitter.com/StubHubCenter,
www.twitter.com/AbnerMares00, www.twitter.com/leosantacruz2, follow the conversation using #MaresGonzalez or become a fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing,
www.facebook.com/SHOBoxing and www.facebook.com/StubHubCenter.