LOS ANGELES (SEPTEMBER 26, 2013)—Below are quotes from Wednesday’s press conference in advance of Saturday’s Super Middleweight showdown between former WBC Middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and WBO #1 ranked Middleweight Bryan Vera that will take place at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

The show is promoted by Top Rank and Banner Promotions and will be televised LIVE on HBO’s Championship Boxing.
Bryan Vera (23-6, 14 KO’s)—“It has been the longest camp I have ever been in so I am not lying when I say I am in the best shape of my career.”

Arthur Pelullo—“Bryan knows he is fighting a great young fighter and it’s going to be a great night of boxing. We feel that Bryan will have an excellent night. When Bob Arum called me about the fight, Bryan didn’t blink an eyelash and said yes. He knew this could be a career changing fight. He wanted this fight from the get-go. He understands the formal task in front of him. He is a great fighter and he is coming to win the fight.”

David Watson (Vera Manager)—“This is going to be a great exciting fight. Bryan has prepared for it. You are going to see two prideful fighters going at it.”

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s)—“I am very happy that fight night is coming very soon. I think it’s going to be a great fight for the audience. You are going to see the best Julio you have ever seen.”

Bob Arum—“People who know and understand boxing know that this will be a tremendous event and very exciting.”
Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. –“We are very happy that the fight is getting closer. I can assure that you will see a great fight on Saturday. I know that Bryan Vera will give a sensational fight. We know my son is in for a tough fight on Saturday but we have a lot of confidence and we know that he will come for a victory.”

Fernando Beltran (Zanfer Promotions)—“I know that Chavez has a very tough opponent in front of him. The people are the winners of this show as they will see a sensational match.”

Tony Walker (HBO)—“The challenge of Bryan Vera will be very formidable.”

Photo by Shane Sims / Banner Promotions

LOS ANGELES (September 25, 2013) — Hall of Fame promoter and Jenny Craig acolyte Bob Arum concluded his remarks at today’s final Julio César Chávez Jr. – Bryan Vera press conference at the Millennium Biltmore hotel with the proclamation, “Wait for the Weight!”

What would a Chávez Jr. fight week be without a concern about his official weight? It took up the majority of the questions during Tuesday’s media conference call that he and Arum hosted.

The contract weight for Saturday’s super middleweight rumble is a maximum of 168 pounds for the two fighters.

“Julio must be a Union man because he seems to be working for scale for this event,” said Arum with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

A member of Team Vera suggested that Tecate Light sponsor the official weigh-in and that Chávez change his middle name from César to Cerveza.

Friday’s official weigh-in will be streamed live from the Gold Room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel (506 South Grand Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90071-2607), beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET / 3:00 p.m. PT via www.toprank.tv.

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Chávez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KOs), of Culiacán, México, making his 2013 debut in his first fight in the Los Angeles area in over two years, and Vera (23-6, 14 KOs), of Austin, TX, riding a 16-month, four-bout winning streak, will go mano a mano This Saturday! Saturday, September 28, under the stars, at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. Chávez vs. Vera will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®, beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions, Banner Promotions and Tecate, remaining tickets to Chávez vs. Vera, priced at $200, $100, $50 and $20 (plus applicable taxes and fees), can be purchased online at http://www.axs.com, by telephone at (888) 929-7849 or at the StubHub Center box office, Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Suites are available by calling (877) 604-8777. For information on group discounts, please call (877) 234-8425.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.banner-promotions.com or www.hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo, facebook.com/banner-promotions or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, twitter.com/bannerboxing or twitter.com/hboboxing.

Former World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion and Son of the Legend JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR., (46-1-1, 32 KOs), of Culiacán, México, makes his 2013 debut in his first fight in the Los Angeles area in over two years. He will go mano a mano against No. 1 contender BRYAN VERA 23-6, 14 KOs), of Austin, TX, who is riding a 16-month, four-bout winning streak, This Saturday! September 28, under the stars, at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. Chávez vs. Vera will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®, beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT.

BOB ARUM: It’s nice to be on this call and it will be good to see Julio César Chávez Jr. get back into the ring after an absence of a little over a year. Julio has a great fan base and everyone is anxious to see him perform at the StubHub Center on Saturday. We have a full card o nine bouts with some great prospects including Óscar Valdez, Jose Ramírez and Diego Magdaleno. It should be a really fun night. Now we can hear from Fernando Beltran on his feelings about the event.

FERNANDO BELTRAN: Hi everybody. I think it is going to be a very exciting night of boxing. Julio César Chávez will be back, which is very important, after almost a year absence. He is very hungry and is coming with everything for this bout, including Daniel Sandoval who is a knockout artist. It’s going to be a great night and we are going to have a packed house.

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: It has been a real good training camp. I have been training real hard for this fight for the past three months. I am excited to get back in the ring and am very happy to get back in the ring.

Can you confirm what the official weight will be for the fight?

BOB ARUM: We will take a look at what the fighters weigh tomorrow and then we will decide what the weight will be. There is ne determination on that. I know what Julio Sr. said but I know that he misspoke when he said it.

How do you feel about coming back after your first loss?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: It is very important to me. I am coming off a loss and I want to show everyone what I am capable of doing. I worked real hard and I am looking forward to getting in the ring to show everyone that I am back. Of course I want to regain the position where I was before the loss against Martinez.

There is a lot of talk about your present weight. Are you having trouble?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: I think it is time for me to move up to 168. That is the goal we have been working on for this fight. We want to do the best that we can to get near that weight. I just felt that at 160 my health was not going to be good. Health-wise I think that 168 is good for me and I would like to continue my career at 168. This is not a championship fight but I will be close to 168 for this fight.

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: The only way I will go to 160 is to fight Martinez again. That fight is so big that it would be worth the sacrifice to make.

How much do you weigh now and how much will you weigh tomorrow?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: I weigh 173 right now.

Julio, how do you feel about the talk about your training habits?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: People have to realize how hard I trained for this fight. It wasn’t easy making 160 but yet I became a champion at 160. I had four title defenses at 160, came within a couple seconds of knocking out the best 160-punder in the world. So you can’t say I wasn’t ready to fight in those fights. I made the weight and I showed everyone what I am capable of doing. I don’t think people realized how hard it was to make 160 and how much I had to sacrifice to make 160.

Bob do you think this reputation is warranted?

BOB ARUM: It is very difficult when a young man starts at the age that he did. He had a completely different body than the body that he has now. Now he has matured and he is a big, big kid. There are light heavyweights that look smaller than he does. We have to question ourselves whether he stayed at 160 too long even though he was able to make the weight because I really believe that if you struggle to make weight that you deplete yourself and you can’t give as good a performance than if you fight at a more natural weight. Julio is a big man and for him to get down to 160, he might still do it, but it would be a tremendous sacrifice for his health and his ability to perform in the ring. I am not a doctor or a nutritionist but I have been around the sport for a long time and that’s what I see.

Looking back, how do you feel about the suspension and smoking?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: You know, you make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. It happens, I am human. I thought it was excessive what I got but it comes with the territory. I need to show everyone what I am capable of doing. On Saturday night I want to give a great performance. I am really looking forward to erasing all of those bad memories that I had.

BOB ARUM: I want to go on record that there is nothing wrong with smoking pot. There is nothing wrong with Marijuana. Any sentence for an athlete that has smoked marijuana other than smoking while he is in the ring is unconscionable and wrong and now even WADA has said the same thing. Let’s be honest. There is nothing wrong with pot and it absolutely cannot be beneficial. I know what Julio said about doing wrong but I don’t think he did anything wrong by taking Marijuana two weeks prior to his fight with Martinez

BOB ARUM: The rules have changed and there is a doctrine that states that if the rules have changed it applies retroactively. So it was unfortunate. Those were the rules of the commission but those rules were preposterous and have now been changed and it should be specified.

Julio, what would you like to accomplish next in boxing?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: I am looking to win a world title at 168, something that no other Méxican has done. That is one of my goals and maybe move up to light heavy to win a title there. But all I’m thinking about now is how I look on Saturday and then I will think about what’s next. I know I am going to repeat myself, but I would sacrifice everything to make 160 because I do want that fight.

How is it working with your dad as head trainer?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: The most important thing is he is going to work my corner. He has always been in my training camps – supervising it and looking over what I am doing. But the key to all of this is he is going to be in the corner giving instructions. Before he would come up yelling and screaming and no one would know what is going one. He was doing it unprofessionally and now he is doing it professionally. He is now going to be in the corner giving me instructions and that is going to be very important.

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: My main trainer for this fight is Baldomir Valdinegro – he has worked with me for nine years and has always been in my corner and is the one in charge of the boxing aspect of this operation. And my strength trainer is the one that put me at 158 for my last couple fights at 160 and has worked real hard on my conditioning and meals. He is going to have me make the weight and do it the right way.

Has Sr. been in camp on a daily basis?

JULIO CEÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: He is in camp at least three days a week.

Have you spoken to Vera’s camp regarding weight?

BOB ARUM: To be frank, I have talked to Vera’s promoter Artie Pelullo and I will be having breakfast with him tomorrow morning in Los Angeles at the Biltmore hotel to discuss it. Artie is a professional promoter and we always seem to find a solution.

Will you be working with Robert Garcia for your next fight?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: I need to see how I do with this fight. The guys have been working real hard in this camp and I have to see how I look and how I feel. I am not saying ‘no’ to Robert Garcia or Freddie Roach. I just want to see what comes up next and we’ll go from there.

How is the cut you recently got in sparring?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: The cut is going very good. I suspended one week of sparring. I continued to train, never stopping and I am ready to fight.

BOB ARUM: I think Julio is an enormous talent and has always performed at a very high level. I am proud of his performances and even in the Martinez fight whereas throughout the fight Martinez was getting the best of him, Chávez didn’t quit and he almost pulled out the fight miraculously in the last round. I never doubt Julio’s performances. He is a great athlete and he always gives 100% in the ring.

I am proud of the way he fights. I am proud of the way he entertains the crowd and I think the adulation of the Méxican fans for Chávez Jr. is very well justified.

Julio’s father was great champion; Julio Jr. had no amateur background and became champion. How do you think he has handled that and should he be given credit for that?

BOB ARUM: I think he should get enormous credit. We all know about athletes whose fathers were world famous and how difficult it is for them to excel in the same sport. But I think he has carried himself well and become his own person. He isn’t a carbon copy of his father’s own style. He has his own style. And I think he has done very well. Boxing is a very tough sport and the fighters that succeed the most are the ones that come from impoverished backgrounds. He didn’t come from an impoverished background because of who is father was. He has dug deep and I am very proud of what he has done in the ring.

What damage was done to Jr. in the Martinez fight?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: After that fight, I didn’t have to go to the hospital – I wasn’t cut. There was nothing other than some scratches or bruises that you would normally get after being in a fight for 12 rounds. Other than that, I was fine and my body was fine. I never had to go to the hospital or anything else. I went to a nightclub right after the fight so you know I wasn’t hurt. Any reports to the contrary are totally false. I was fine. I could have gone another 12 rounds if I needed to. I don’t think he could have but I know I could have.

How comfortable will you feel with who will be in your corner?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: The important thing, I know those guys and I have been around those guys. Baldomir has been with me for nine years and my father knows him very well. Cornejo has been with me the last four years and my father knows him very well. The key is that my father is going to be in the corner. He is going to look professional – no more screaming and yelling and running up and making me lose my focus. I think it is going to be great for all of us.

How do you reflect on the long year away from the ring and all the changes?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: There has been a lot of changes in my life. I am coming off a loss and coming off a suspension. There have been a lot of things that happened in my career and my personal life. My girlfriend is pregnant and I am going to be a father for the first time. I think it has been a blessing that I have been able to concentrate on my personal life. I wasn’t ready to fight so this makes it great and I am ready to get back into the ring and concentrate on my professional life once again.

Do you know the baby’s sex? How do you feel about being a father?

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: It is a girl. It will be a new life for me. I am very happy and excited all the time. My girlfriend and I will have a baby in January and it changes a lot of things in your mind. Everyone knows how special a bond is with your daughter and I am looking forward to it.

BOB ARUM: Tickets are going very well at StubHub Center. I think there are less than 500 left. We may have to open the outer reaches of the stadium to accommodate more people. It’s going to be a great night of boxing. to watch Julio and Vera battle it out. We have a great middleweight fight with Matt Korobov vs. Grady Brewer. I want to thank HBO for airing the event and I want to thank Tecate for sponsoring who has been there for and been a great partner in our events.

JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR: I want to thank everyone that is involved – Tecate, Top Rank, HBO. I am very happy and excited to get back in the ring and I want to give the fans a great fight which is what I always try to do.

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Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions, Banner Promotions and Tecate, remaining tickets to Chávez vs. Vera, priced at $200, $100, $50 and $20 (plus applicable taxes and fees), can be purchased online at http://www.axs.com, by telephone at (888) 929-7849 or at the StubHub Center box office, Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Suites are available by calling (877) 604-8777. For information on group discounts, please call (877) 234-8425.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.banner-promotions.com or www.hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo, facebook.com/banner-promotions or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, twitter.com/bannerboxing or twitter.com/hboboxing.

CARSON, CALIF. (August 29, 2013) — Former World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion and Son of the Legend JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ, JR., returning to the ring in his 2013 debut, and No. 1 contender BRYAN “The Warrior” VERA formally announced their fight at a packed Los Angeles press conference today. Taking place Saturday, September 28, under the stars at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., the Chávez vs. Vera 12-round super middleweight rumble marks the first time Chávez has fought in the Los Angeles area since June 4, 2011, when he won the world title over undefeated interim world champion Sebastian Zbik. The fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing®, beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT.

Promoted by Top Rank®, in association with Zanfer Promotions, Banner Promotions and Tecate, remaining tickets to Chávez vs. Vera, priced at $200, $100, $50 and $20 (plus applicable taxes and fees), can be purchased online at www.axs.com, by telephone at (888) 929-7849 or at the StubHub Center box office, Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Suites are available by calling (877) 604-8777. For information on group discounts, please call (877) 234-8425.

“Vera is the real deal, a warrior,” said Chávez. “Years ago I sparred a few rounds against Vera when I was in Dallas during the Pacquiao vs. Margarito event. Vera was pretty intense and I knew he could fight. We were in a ring set up inside of the Gaylord Hotel. So this fight on September 28 will challenging for me. I am just so happy getting back into the ring after such a long layoff. I think about the Sergio Martinez fight every day. A little of me died inside when I lost that fight. Could I have done better? Of course I should have but it did not happen. Now we have Vera who is aggressive and punches hard. I wanted to come back against a great fighter and Vera is all of that. I plan to win this fight and then we will discuss my plans for 2014.”

“We could have stayed around and fought WBO champion Peter Quillin but we know what is at stake with all of this,” said Vera. “I feel like I been in camp for three fights. I expect to be victorious in a great fight on September 28th.”

Chávez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KOs), of Culiacán, México, returns to the ring for the first time since his thrilling world title loss to Sergio Martinez on September 15. Their Méxican Independence Day spectacular was the highest-attended boxing event in the history of the Thomas & Mack Center, with 19,186, topping the record set by the heavyweight championship rematch between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, which drew 19,151 in 1999. He captured the WBC middleweight crown in 2011, winning a majority decision over undefeated interim world champion Zbik at STAPLES Center, just a few blocks away from where his father won his first world title, in 1984, at the old Olympic Auditorium, when he knocked out Mario Martinez to capture the vacant WBC super featherweight title. Chávez Jr. successfully defended his title three times, knocking out Andy Lee and Peter Manfredo, Jr. in the seventh and fifth rounds, respectively, and winning a unanimous decision over two-time world title challenger Marco Antonio Rubio.

Vera (23-6, 14 KOs), of Austin, TX, who enters this fight having won six of his last seven bouts, is riding a 16-month, four-bout winning streak. Vera’s current hot streak includes NABO middleweight title victories over Sergio Mora, former world champion Sergeii Dzinziruk, and Donatas Bondoravas, the last two victories coming by way of knockout. Vera, who trains in Houston with Ronnie Shields, is currently world-rated No. 1 by the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.banner-promotions.com or www.hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo, facebook.com/banner-promotions or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, twitter.com/bannerboxing or twitter.com/hboboxing.

PHILADELPHIA (August 16, 2013)—Due to a cut suffered by former WBC Middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the twelve round Super Middleweight bout between Chavez Jr. and WBO number-one ranked Middleweight Bryan Vera has been pushed back to Saturday September 28th at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

The bout, which was originally announced for September 7th is promoted by Top Rank and Banner Promotions and will be seen live on HBO.

Chavez (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) suffered the cut earlier this week while sparring and forcing the bout to be moved back three weeks.

Vera (23-6, 14 KO’s) of Austin, Texas has been training intensely in Houston.

“We are happy that after Chavez suffered the injury that the fight could be rescheduled so quickly”, said Banner Promotions president, Arthur Pelullo.

“Bryan has been training hard and has been thinking about this fight for the better part of six months. We know he will put on a great show and that this is a great opportunity for him”

LOS ANGELES (August 15, 2013) — A training camp injury incurred by former WBC middleweight champion Julio César Chávez, Jr. has forced the cancellation of his fight with Bryan Vera, which was scheduled to take place Saturday, September 7, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. Information on a new date and new venue for Chávez Jr. vs. Vera will be announced shortly.

A refund will be offered at the original point of purchase. If tickets were purchased from AXS via Purchase By Phone or through www.axs.com, refunds will be received automatically via AXS. Tickets purchased from the STAPLES Center box office can be refunded there, beginning today, Thursday, August 15, 2013. Those who purchased tickets at any other outlet should reach out to that original point of purchase and contact them directly for a refund.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.banner-promotions.com or www.hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo, facebook.com/banner-promotions or facebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo, twitter.com/bannerboxing or twitter.com/hboboxing.

PHILADELPHIA (July 29, 2013)—On Saturday September 7th, former U.S. Olympian and undefeated Demetrius Andrade will vie for his first world championship, when he takes on fellow former U.S. Olympian Vanes Martirosyan in a twelve round bout from the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.

The bout, which will be televised live on HBO Championship Boxing, will be the co-feature to the Super Middleweight clash between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Bryan Vera.

Demetrius Andrade of Providence, Rhode Island was a former world amateur champion and has a perfect professional mark of 19-0 with thirteen knockouts and is currently the number two contender for the WBO belt.

Vanes Martiroysan of Glendale, California is 33-0-1 with 21 knockouts.

Andrade, who is co-promoted by Banner Promotions and Star Boxing, was scheduled to contend for the belt on July 6th but an injury to then-champion Zaurbek Baysangurov forced the title to become vacant, thus setting up this showdown of undefeated former Olympians.

“I am looking forward to this fight and have been waiting for this fight ever since I walked into the gym at age 7”, said Andrade.

“I always wanted to be champion of the world and on September 7th I will be crowned champion. I wanted to win an Olympic gold medal and since they took that from me, I am going to take this world title.”

“I was a 2008 Olympian and he made it in 2004. I will show him that if I was around in 2003 and 2004, he would not have made the team”, finished Andrade.“This will be an outstanding fight and we worked hard on getting this fight on HBO”, said Banner Promotions CEO Arthur Pelullo.

“We feel that Demetrius has all the talent to become a star in this sport and only needed the opportunity on this kind of stage and on September 7th he will get that chance. I want to thank my partner Joe DeGuardia, HBO, Top Rank and the WBO for making this great fight. I have a feeling that after September 7th, not only will Demetrius be a world champion but he will be a household name and in line for even bigger fights.”

PHILADELPHIA (July 18, 2013)—On Saturday September 7th at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Brian Vera will step into the ring with former WBC Middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. in what will be the biggest test of Vera’s career.

The fight is promoted by Top Rank, Banner Promotions and Zanfer Promotions and will be televised live on HBO Championship Boxing.

Brian Vera (23-6, 14 KO’s) is currently ranked number-one by the WBO in the middleweight division. Vera is currently on a four fight win streak with victories over former world champions Sergiy Dziznriuk (37-2-1, 24 KO) and Sergio Mora (24-3-2, 7 KO).

This fight had been in the works since May and due to the fight being close to finalized a few times, Vera has been training for weeks in Houston, Texas.

“I will be fully prepared. I have never had this much time to train and prepare”, said Vera.

“I feel like I already have a head start and I am going to make everyone proud. I am going to win”

The fight will be contested at 168 pounds, which Vera has no problem with.

“I have actually fought three times at that weight and Chavez hasn’t. I know the weight will not affect me and I will be strong at the weight”

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) is coming off his first defeat in his much anticipated showdown last September against Sergio Martinez. Vera believes he is set up in the right spot to pull the upset.

“He is probably taking me lightly but it doesn’t matter. I will be 110% on fight night”.

Chavez Jr. like his father, is a darling among the Los Angeles sports fans, as this will be his 3rd appearance at the STAPLES Center. (Chavez Jr. won his world title in the arena versus Sebastien Zbik) but Vera sees a silver lining going into the hostile environment.

“Fighting in Los Angeles is better than fighting him in Mexico City”.

Vera knows that a win will only bring him the biggest fights in the Middleweight division.

“A win will turn my whole career around and it will change my life”.

Chavez Jr. who tested positive for a banned substance after the Martinez fight and sat out the subsequent nine month suspension has had his share of outside the ring negatives and Vera knows that it could factor in as the fight draws near.

“He is only human like everyone else. Of course the suspension, the fines and some of the other stuff that has been said about him will play on his mind.”

“I just want to thank my trainer Ronnie Shields and the people at Plex Performance as well as my manager David Watson, my promoter Banner Promotions and the rest of my team. I will make them proud on September 7th”.

Tickets go on sale this Friday at $250; $150; $100; $75 and $50 (Plus applicable taxes and fees) and can be purchased online at www.axs.com, by telephone at (888) 929-7849 or at the STAPLES Center box office, Monday – Friday, 10 am – 6pm.

For fight updates go to www.toprank.com, www.banner-promotions.com or www.hbo.com/boxing,on Facebook at facebook.com/trboxing, facebook.com/trboxeo, facebook.com/banner-promotions orfacebook.com/hboboxing, and on Twitter at twitter.com/trboxing, twitter.com/trboxeo,twitter.com/bannerboxing or twitter.com/hboboxing.

ST. LOUIS (July 15, 2013) – World Boxing Council (WBC) No. 3-rated Willie “The Great” Nelson (21-1-1, 12 KOs) continued his advanced education in boxing on June 29, learning invaluable lessons in his HBO® debut fight against battle-tested Argentinian veteran Luciano Leonel “El Principito” Cuello (32-3, 16 KOs), whose only two previous losses as a professional were to world champions Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (TKO7) and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (DEC10).

The 26-year-old Nelson, fighting out of Cleveland, strayed too often from his game plan, struggling for parts of three challenging rounds. He regrouped to earn a hard-fought victory by unanimous 10-round decision (97-93, 97-93, 96-94), successfully defending his North American Boxing Federation (NABF) 154-pound title, at MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods® Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Despite not having his “A” game, like an ace baseball pitcher who wins without his best stuff, Nelson won a tough fight against an underrated opponent, overcoming adversity along the way like the world-class prizefighter he has become.

“I tried to knock him out early to look better than Alvarez had,” Nelson admitted, “and that’s all on me. I took him too lightly and he really came to fight. I tried to outclass him, take him out in the first few rounds; now, I know that I can punch but I can’t knockout everybody. I should have stuck to the game plan and used a double jab and then come back with a right. I was supposed to spin him so I wouldn’t get caught by his left hook, but I didn’t do what I worked on in the gym. I’ll learn from this fight.”

The 6′ 3 ½” Nelson, whose 81″ reach is freakish for a light middleweight, stayed too often in the pocket and essentially gave up his tremendous size advantage in an effort to put Cuello (listed at 5′ 9 ½”) to sleep early, as he did in his previous fight to Michael Medina (KO1). Never-the-less, he still defeated the WBC No. 13-rated challenger, who gave Chavez all that he could handle and more in their controversial 2009 fight, in which Chavez won a questionable 10-round decision (97-93, 96-95, 96-94) at home in Mexico.

“I watched more videotape of Cuello than just his Alvarez and Chavez fights,” said Jack Loew, who trains Nelson in Youngstown, Ohio. “I knew Cuello could fight and we were in for a tough fight. We know that Willie can do better but it was a great learning experience for him. I know it’ll make him an even better fighter. Don’t forget, it wasn’t perfect, but Willie won the fight fair and square on HBO. We didn’t take a step backwards, not by any means, and he’s ready right now to fight any of the top names in the light middleweight division. There’s no doubt in my mind that Willie will be world champion.

“I thought he dominated when he did what he was supposed to do – use a double jab and come back with the right. His second jab landed all night long but he wanted to bang-out his opponent early. When Willie didn’t throw his double jab, throwing only one jab at a time, Cuello blocked it and then snuck inside. Willie has so much talent; he can box and punch. He just can’t go looking for a knockout like he did. He needs to learn how to adjust better during a fight and listen to his corner. This is like fine-tuning a car. Everything is there and all we need to do is put it all together.”

Because most of the top light middleweights are committed to fights during the next few months, rather than wait for a major fight opportunity, Nelson will headline a local show, presented by Rumble Time Promotions and DiBella Entertainment, September 28 close to his adopted second-home of Youngstown at Packard Music Arena (tickets: 314.662.2000) in Warren, Ohio.

“The top guys aren’t available and we’re not waiting for Willie to fight again,” explained Rumble Time Promotions president Steve Smith, who co-promotes Nelson with Lou DiBella. “We’re going to keep him busy so he can continue to improve his skills. We tried to get (WBC #1 rated Sergey) Rabchenko for this fight (June 29) on HBO but they turned it down.

“Willie was a little too overconfident and put too much pressure on himself to knockout Cuello quicker than Alvarez had in six rounds. That’s why Willie came out so fast. He’s young and could have made things a lot easier, if he had just fought his fight. He’s a big puncher whose strong boxing skills enabled him to win a lot of amateur titles.”

Cuello was a relatively unknown, at least in the United States, but the Argentinian proved to be a rugged, albeit awkward opponent who is cut from the same mold as his countrymen, contemporary stars such as Sergio Martinez, Lucas Matthysee and Marcos Maidana.

Nelson was cut for the first time in his pro career, in fact, he suffered lacerations over both eyes (in the 3rd and 10th rounds), but he was fortunate to have one of the world’s premier cut-men working his corner, Danny Milano, who kept the bleeding under control. Nelson displayed the heart and determination of a true champion down the stretch to win convincingly in his first HBO fight.

“American fans didn’t know how good Cuello is because he had never fought on U.S. television before,” Smith added. “His close loss to Chavez was in Mexico to the son of a Mexican legend. Willie solidified his position among the top-ranked light middleweight contenders in the world like (Miguel) Cotto, (Erislandy) Lara, (Alfredo) Angulo, (James) Kirkland, and (Vanes) Matirosyan.”

Go online to www.RumbleTimePromotions.com for more information about Nelson or any of his Rumble Time Promotions stable-mates.

Friday the Nevada State Athletic Commission reduced the fine to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. from $900,000 to $100,000 and suspended and fined J’Leon Love for banned substance infractions according to Dan Rafael of espn.com

On a 4-0 vote, the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Friday lowered the massive fine it handed out to Chavez after he tested positive for marijuana following his unanimous decision loss to middleweight champion Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

In another decision made at Friday’s commission meeting, the panel voted 4-0 to suspend middleweight prospect J’Leon Love of Detroit for six months and fine him $10,000 of his $100,000 purse for a positive drug test. He must also submit a clean urine test before he can fight in Nevada again.

Love, who badly struggled to make the 160-pound weight limit, tested positive for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, which is often used to assist in weight loss, following his controversial 10-round decision win against Gabriel Rosado on May 4 on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas

“I’m the heart of my family,” Love told the commission. “If I fall apart, they fall apart.”

Former Middleweight beltholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was fine $900,000 and suspended for nine months for his positive post fight drug test following his loss to Sergio Martinez in September that showed that Chavez had marijuana in his system.

“I’d like to apologize to everyone in boxing,” Chavez told the commission. “I know this has been a very bad thing for me and my career. A lot of things have been said about it and my reputation. I respect boxing a lot. I’ve been in it a long time. I try to do the best I can and will continue to try to do the best I can because I love boxing more than ever.”

“The nine months is fine, but a 30 percent fine on a purse of $3 million, that’s extortion,” Chavez promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com. “That means Julio has to make a decision — is he going to contest the fine in court or he can elect not to fight ever again in Nevada. There’s no question the nine months is the nine months, but it’s ridiculous money, particularly since you already take out 30 percent for taxes.

“I was hoping for nine months, that worked out. The fine is an absolute stunner. You don’t do that to an athlete. Which athlete in any sport has been fined as much as $900,000?”

Under questioning from the commissioners, Chavez admitted that he smoked marijuana “eight or nine days before the fight.”

“I feel very bad about the situation,” Chavez said. “I know I committed a big error, a mistake. I wanted everyone to know this has hurt me and that I let a lot of people down. It was a big mistake and I know it has damaged me.”

Chavez was asked why he thought the commission should be lenient on him.

“I’m asking for leniency so I can fight as soon as I can, but I am willing to take my punishment,” he said. “I know I committed an error.”

Asked why he decided to smoke before the fight, Chavez said, “I was told it would help my stress. I was tense for the fight and someone mentioned it to me and that’s why I did it eight or nine days before the fight.”

Chavez would not say who suggested he smoke marijuana other than that it was a “personal friend of mine from Los Angeles.”

Chavez was asked if he had felt pressure before previous fights and answered, “Never like this time.”

On why he smoked marijuana before this fight and not any other, Chavez said, “I couldn’t tell you the exact reason why I did it. I just can tell you I was under a lot of stress and had family problems, a lot of things going on in my life. Just something I did. It was the biggest mistake and I’ll never do it again.”

Chavez said he never smoked before any other fight, but declined to answer whether he had ever smoked marijuana at all, answering only, “I wasn’t myself. I was not thinking properly

“He didn’t answer if he had smoked before and that has an impact on me making a decision,” commissioner Pat Lundvall said.

“He’s well aware of the rules of the commission,” Lundvall said.

“He’s going to fight June 16, we cleared that with the commission,” Arum said. “They told us we can promote the fight during the suspension as long as the fight takes place after the suspension is up. But we were not going to take this fight to Las Vegas anyway. We have a hold on a building in Texas or we may do the fight in the new arena in Mexico City. One thing we won’t do is have Chavez fight in Mexico during the suspension [where he could get a license].”

“The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully, is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.” – Edmund Burke, “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Part Two,” 1757

It is the horror that concerns me. Horror, after all, is what the 18th-century Irishman uniquely identified – an ingredient of astonishment that might otherwise escape us. Horror is what I unknowingly wished to get at the morning after Argentine Sergio Martinez nearly succumbed to his 12th-round sacking by Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Sept. 15 at University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center: “a burst of something so chemically pure the body hates it, an intensity unendurable for more than a few seconds.”

That was the sensation I experienced in the final 90 seconds, or at least the moment of those seconds that started when Martinez, the world’s middleweight champion, collapsed between the ropes, straightened himself, then got pounded rightwards to the mat. There was a sensation of horror, a sensation that something torturous was afoot, and that its consequences would resonate. Without a rooting interest per se (it was my seventh Chavez fight, having first interviewed him in the concourse of America West Arena seven years before; it was my first Martinez fight, having first enjoyed a conversation with him in July, one that treated, in part, Martinez’s delight with John Kennedy Toole’s novel “A Confederacy of Dunces” and its relish of absurdity), I was decidedly more horrified by Chavez’s felling Martinez midway through their final round than any of the 300 flush blows with which Martinez’s black leather striped Chavez’s face and body.

Chavez was not the match’s thinker, not by any stretch, and perhaps that’s why. Throughout, Chavez concerned himself only with striking or blocking while trusting pedigree to guide him through a geometry of the ring others need years to master but Chavez absorbed as a boy spying on his dominant father; Chavez was not setting traps, disproving theories or making inquiries of any Martinez attribute save weakness. Martinez, meanwhile, analyzed every set of Chavez stimuli at every moment, checking it against its immediate predecessor and its forming template, a means of combat more enervating for a person of Chavez’s temperament than even the Argentine’s relentlessly pumping legs and bobbing, uncovered chin would be for someone of Chavez’s flaccid conditioning.

There were several things that happened in round 10, the gravity of whose consequences went at first unnoticed: An accidental banging of heads to which Chavez reacted theatrically and Martinez more subtlety, and when Chavez pushed the back of Martinez’s neck till he dropped him on all fours. I recorded both in my notes but didn’t assign either sufficient import. The headbutt opened a gash inside Martinez’s scalp line, and if it did that, it dazed him, too, setting his magnificent brain misfiring. But the way Martinez had to lift himself from the mat was more significant still: It revealed his fatigue.

There is something naturally stressful about being chased by a larger man, especially one intellectually incapable of dissuasion or discouragement, but each movement Martinez’s legs made till that instant they’d made through training camp, and their fatigue was a slow-mounting thing. Rising from his knees, though, put Martinez’s legs in a unique enough position to shock him with how much strength had fled, and his jaw dropped in a large O that remained through the explosive finish.

“But pain is always inflicted by a power in some way superior, because we never submit to pain willingly. So that strength, violence, pain, and terror, are ideas that rush in upon the mind together.”

Here again Burke instructs us. However devastating Martinez’s blows to Chavez’s head were, no matter their longterm consequences, Chavez’s punches were more dramatic to behold, because they more evidently pained the smaller man, causing a submission Martinez did not expect, did not in any conscious way allow for – more macho than his rivals know – but, in empathy, must have imagined. There was an imposition of will in the final round, when Chavez succeeded, mostly, in brutalizing a man 15 or so pounds smaller, and it followed the moment Martinez came off his stool in misplaced triumph, gloves raised as if the ordeal were over, and Chavez lumbered off his stool like a man not even keeping a tally of lashes, rounds or punches – a tormentor in his own timezone, one devoid of urgency, a man who a round earlier had to silence his ferocious father’s barking from behind by saying over his left shoulder, “ya, ya, ya (enough, enough, enough).” For paternal prodding and its impatience with spectacle, actually, were all that agitated Chavez the whole evening.

“Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.”

In Part Three of his classical treatment of aesthetics, Burke explored the linguistic ploy every culture uses of making the beautiful diminutive and the ugly large. Chavez, in the moment of the 12th round he spun Martinez for a second time to his knees and elbows on the mat, remains ogre-like in my mind, careless, insatiable, enormous, ugly. Martinez, I see, reduced to tininess, preciousness – enfeebled and distressed. He would swell to normal size a half minute later, with the paddled apron’s signal of 10 seconds, but those moments of Martinez’s diminishment and fragility hold within them, for me, the door to another chamber of prizefighting’s palatial appeal.

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

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, last Saturday night’s Middleweight showdown between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez drew an estimated 475,000 Pay Per View buys.

“It’s an extremely solid number,” said the head of HBO PPV Mark Taffet. “I expect the figures to go up as we collect more of them.”

“It significantly exceeded our original expectations of 250,000 buys,” Taffet said. “Fight fans had been talking about and looking forward to Chavez-Martinez for a year. The pay-per-view performance simply reflects that the fans got the fight they wanted.”

“Pay-per-view fights typically have an average of five or more viewers per household,” he said. “Based on the group viewing phenomenon of pay-per-view, it’s likely well over 2 million people watched the fight.”

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has tested positive for Marijuana following his unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Sergio Martinez this past Saturday night in Las Vegas.

“The commission let (Top Rank’s Carl) Moretti know (Tuesday) night that he tested positive,” said Chavez promoter Bob Arum. “I can’t really get excited about it. There’s no promoter in boxing who could pass the marijuana test, including myself.

“Julio is going to have to explain to the commission what happened and the commission will be guided accordingly. If there was a trace of marijuana, to me, it’s not the same as using a performance-enhancing drug. That is cheating.”

“I will release the results from the event once I get them all back, but Top Rank’s statement is an accurate reflection of the conversation I had with them (Tuesday),” Kizer said. “We had a positive test, one from that card.”

“Of course, we’re disappointed in him,” Arum said. “Hopefully, he can learn a lesson here and next time get in top shape for the fight. But it shows you the immaturity here. He needs to grow up.”

“Of course, we’re disappointed in him,” Arum said. “Hopefully, he can learn a lesson here and next time get in top shape for the fight. But it shows you the immaturity here. He needs to grow up.”

New York, NY (9/19/12) – Just hours before he was to step into the ring for the most important fight of his life against the now former WBC Middleweight Champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., The Ring Middleweight Champion Sergio Martinez took the time to make a dream come true for one special family.

Days before the fight, Martinez’ camp received a touching letter stating that a family of five was driving 550 miles from Albuquerque, NM, to attend the fight to see Sergio, their favorite fighter. The family’s two oldest sons are severely disabled, with the oldest suffering from Cerebral Palsy while his brother has Downs Syndrome. The oldest son’s birthday had just passed on September 14, and while they knew their request “would be a stretch,” they asked if Sergio could meet the boys.

“Even though I was deep in my preparation and focused on the fight later that night, my team told me about a special request from a fan who was traveling very far with his sons to see my fight. I learned about the hardships that both of his sons face and that it would be a birthday surprise if I met with them and posed for a photo. There was no way I was going to let them down.”

“I believe that Karma is powerful,” said Martinez’ promoter Lou DiBella. “Sergio met with these young men just hours before his fight, rearranging his schedule to do so. He invited no press or camera crews and it had nothing to do with last minute promotion. It had to do with a sense of compassion and social responsibility by a kind, good hearted man.”

After meeting the family, Sergio went on to reclaim the WBC Middleweight Championship–which had been stripped from him–and defend his The Ring Middleweight Championship with a dominant 12-round unanimous decision over Chavez Jr.

LAS VEGAS – Two major cards separated by a short ride looked like an accident about to happen. Look again. Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand were a lot of things. It was a good night to wear a sombrero. It was a long night in line for a cab and a longer line at the bar.

It was one shot of Pancho Villa, a shot of Peron, another shot of soccer and endless shots of tequila. Above all, it was thoroughly Vegas, at least Vegas before the recession. It was also boxing at its best, which also means some of its worst. Nothing can be so irresistible and so distasteful at the same time.

But there it was Saturday night, a double shot and 180 proof of what is so compelling about a sport that just won’t die no matter how hard it tries to kill itself.

It was impossible to see the depth of its unique resiliency Saturday. I tried. But there was just too much to see. My night started at the MGM Grand. It ended at Thomas & Mack with a brilliant victory by Sergio Martinez, who survived a wild 12th-round comeback from Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

My cab driver predicted the winner. But not the drama.

“Martinez by knockout,’’ the driver said beneath an old cowboy hat that he had to have been wearing 25 years ago when he collected fares from fans who watched Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin, Hagler, Robert Duran and Thomas Hearns.

But it was Chavez who almost won by knockout. Chavez sent Martinez spinning down and onto the canvas in the 12th round, immediately conjuring up memories of how his dad, Julio Cesar Legend, beat Meldrick Taylor with two seconds left so long ago.

An encore for the Chavez family didn’t happen, not even on a weekend celebrating Mexican Independence. Chavez blamed himself after losing a unanimous decision. He said he started his stubborn assault too late. Martinez, a proud Argentine, also put himself in harm’s way when he didn’t have to. In the end, however, Martinez wouldn’t let Chavez steal a victory or the middleweight title he had ensured himself on the scorecards. Argue with Chavez’ early rounds. Argue with Martinez’ last round.

But don’t argue with the climactic finish. A record crowd of 19,187 at Thomas & Mack loved it. Mexicans and Argentines, alike, cheered loudly, filling the old basketball arena with chants that echoed down the aisles and through time.

Boxing isn’t back. It never left.

Not long after leaving the MGM Grand, super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez scored a fifth-round KO of Josesito Lopez in a bout that was probably more significant for the number of people in the seats than it was for the victory. The undersized Lopez was overmatched. Canelo had been favored by odds as big as 14-1. Yet, a capacity crowd of 14,275 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena showed up. There’s been a nasty debate between Golden Boy Promotions and rival Top Rank about how many tickets were sold and at what price. Yet on a night when Canelo was a laughable favorite in a Golden Boy promotion up against Top Rank’s intriguing Martinez-Chavez Jr. showdown, Canelo filled the seats.

“That underlines just how big an attraction Canelo is,’’ Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said.

It underlines much more than that. Two cards within a couple of miles of each other drew a total of 33,462 fans. That’s no accident.

LAS VEGAS – And in an instant, Martinez-Chavez went from Pacquiao-De La Hoya to Chavez-Taylor.

Not since Manny Pacquiao retired Oscar De La Hoya had a small southpaw looked so profoundly dominant against a larger titlist as Sergio Martinez looked against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for 11 rounds. And not since Chavez Sr. came back to stop Meldrick Taylor in the final seconds of a fight he was losing lopsidedly had such a profound change of fortunes been brought to a world champion the way Chavez brought it to Martinez in the 12th.

Saturday night, in a match at Thomas & Mack Arena that disappointed all expectations of suspense for 33 minutes before becoming an unforgettable thing in its final three, Argentine middleweight champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KOs) rose from the canvas in the final round to survive and decision Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1-1, 32 KOs) by unanimous scores of 117-110, 118-109 and 118-109. The 15rounds.com ringside scorecard concurred, marking 117-110 for Martinez – while marking the final round 10-7 for Chavez.

“We are two professionals,” Martinez said afterwards. “And we comported ourselves as professionals.”

The fight began the way all prognosticators believed it would. Martinez’s class was too much for Chavez in the first round and each of its successors. What little sense of geometry Chavez showed in the opening round, extending Martinez’s circles to the perimeter somewhat, was gone by the third.

“I began slowly,” Chavez said in the ring after the judges’ cards were read. “But I will not do that in the rematch.”

In fact, not till the sixth round did Chavez land anything consequential. Though Chavez was the much larger man, Martinez was the far more balletic, polished, athletic and accurate, hitting Chavez with nifty left uppercut leads and other inventive combinations. Chavez, sporting a knee brace and suffering abrasions and swelling round both eyes, was not dissuaded, however.

“This confirms me in boxing,” said Martinez, to an outnumbered but surprisingly vocal Argentinean group of fans. “Long live Argentina!”

More fatigued than he knew as the bell for the 12th rang, Martinez walked into a short Chavez left hook that wobbled and shocked him in the final two minutes. Martinez’s eyes bulged and he collapsed in the ropes. A pair of rights and lefts from Chavez then tossed him limply to the canvas. But Martinez rose, ran, held, slipped, and ultimately punched his way to the final bell, as suddenly enchanted Mexican fans rabidly urged their man on.

“Of course,” Martinez said when asked if he would grant Chavez a rematch.

“Long live Mexico!” cried Chavez at the end of his postfight interview.

ROMAN MARTINEZ VS. MIGUEL BELTRAN JR.
In an attempt at prophecy, or at least wishful thinking, Saturday’s excellent Top Rank co-main event featured a hard-pressing Mexican slugger named “Junior” against a foreigner named Martinez. Unfortunately for the emotional Mexican crowd, the Mexican did not prevail.

Fighting for a vacant WBO super featherweight title, Puerto Rican Roman Martinez (26-1-1, 16 KOs) sneaked past Mexican Miguel Beltran Jr. (27-2-0-1, 17 KOs), besting him by split-decision scores of 116-111, 113-114 and 113-114. The fight would have been a majority draw, were it not for a penalty assessed to Beltran in the championship rounds.

Each round of Martinez-Beltran featured punches both well leveraged and well landed by both fighters, but in each of the opening six rounds, regardless of what Martinez did, Beltran appeared to do a little more. In the sixth, Beltran landed the match’s most-devastating punch, a right cross that snapped Martinez’s head back between his own shoulder blades.

The seventh round, though, saw Martinez begin to establish a more effective attack, catching Beltran on the way in, with oddly placed punches. But by the middle of the eighth, Beltran again appeared the stronger man. By the end of the 10th, Martinez, game as he was, did not appear to want much more.

The 11th brought a point deduction to Beltran’s tally from overly officious Nevada referee Russell Mora, though, tightening ringside scorecards somewhat. Martinez also flurried in the 12th, appearing to steal that stanza as well. Ultimately, the fight was a close one that might have gone either way and probably should have gone the way of a majority draw.

MATTHEW MACKLIN VS. JOACHIM ALCINE
Matthew Macklin makes his ring entrance to a hybrid song of “Mack the Knife” and “Rocky Road to Dublin,” in a two-part nod to his nickname and heritage. But Saturday, he didn’t have to take his opponent very far down a rocky road before knifing him.

In the penultimate match of the evening’s undercard, Macklin (29-4, 20 KOs) caught Canadian middleweight Joachim Alcine (33-3-1, 19 KOs) with a flush right cross in the opening moments of the fight then marched him down, dropped him a second time and brought the match to an exciting knockout conclusion at 2:36 of round 1.

Despite a record with four losses on it, Macklin again proved that he can rally a crowd and make an exciting, satisfying match whomever he is given for an opponent.

GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX VS. ROBERTO MARROQUIN
After a 2010 showing in Cowboys Stadium that brought loud boos from those fans not yawning, Cuban super bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux needed two years of exciting knockouts to make fans forget how displeasing his defense-first style can be. Saturday in Thomas & Mack Arena, though, they were reminded once more.

Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KOs) successfully, and rather easily, defended his WBA super bantamweight title against tough if limited Texan Roberto Marroquin (22-2, 15 KOs) by unanimous scores of 118-108, 118-108 and 118-109. And if there is a prizefighter today who fights like Floyd Mayweather as well as Mayweather does, he is Rigondeaux, right down to the cautiousness.

Rigondeaux established a superiority of reflex over Marroquin – a superiority of reflex Rigondeaux enjoys over most every opponent he faces – and then put the match on a form of cruise control that did little to entice fans. Possessed of every punch and step in the boxing lexicon, Rigondeaux does not appear to enjoy physical matches with larger men, and he certainly did not look for one with Marroquin, who appeared a weight class or two larger than Rigondeaux on Saturday.

Twice in the match Marroquin managed to land a pulled left hook that temporarily destabilized the Cuban southpaw’s otherwise flawless footing, but from each of those faux scares, Rigondeaux quickly recovered and returned to mastering Marroquin technically if not combatively.

In round 10, bored by Rigondeaux-Marroquin, the crowd – partisan Mexican though with an Argentinean contingent – began to sing futbol songs at one another till the match was over, despite Rigondeaux’s scoring the match’s one knockdown in its final two minutes.

MIKE LEE VS. PAUL HARNESS
Mike Lee is undoubtedly the best light heavyweight on the Notre Dame campus, but he is decidedly not the best light heavyweight in the world. Further evidence of this came at the midway point of Saturday’s undercard when Lee (11-0, 6 KOs) whacked away at Kansas City opponent Paul Harness (4-4-1, 3 KOs) for four rounds and ultimately prevailed by unanmious scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 40-36.

Questions about Lee’s power – he landed at least four clean right hands in every round without once felling Harness – and his defense, though, remain, and grow, with every showing. Despite leading comfortably in the fourth round, Lee nevertheless was tagged by several knee-buckling shots by Harness.

UNDERCARD
Highly regarded super welterweight John Jackson brought his undefeated record in the Thomas & Mack Center ring for Saturday’s third bout, against Cleveland’s Willie Nelson, and Jackson’s ‘0’ left the ring before Jackson did. In a close fight that might have been scored either way, Nelson (19-1-1, 11
KOs) decisioned Nelson (13-1, 12 KOs) by unanimous scores of 96-94, 96-94 and 98-92.

Before that, in an eight-round super welterweight match, Mexican Michael Medina (26-3-2, 19 KOs) scored a lopsided decision victory over North Carolinian James Winchester (15-5, 5 KOs). All three judges had the match 80-70 for Medina.

The evening began with an eight-round, unanimous-decision victory for California welterweight Wale Omotoso (23-0, 19 KOs) over Puerto Rican Daniel Sostre (11-7-1, 4 KOs).

Opening bell rang on a sparsely populated Thomas & Mack Center at 3:17 PM local time.

Follow all the action from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas as the long awaited Middleweight championship showdown with take place featuring recognized world xhampion Sergio Martinez and WBC champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The action kicks off with a five fight undercard at 8pm eastern/ 5 pm Pacific featuring two world title bouts as WBA Super Bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux defends against Robert Marroquin. The WBO Super Featherweight title will be contested by Rocky Martinez and Miguel Beltran Jr. Also Joachim Alcine battles Matthew Macklin an and appearance by Notre Dame favorite Mike Lee.

12 ROUNDS–WBC MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE–SERGIO MARTINEZ (49-2-2, 28 KO’S) VS JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ JR. (46-0-1, 32 KO’S)

Round 1 Martinez lands a left..Chavez lands a right to the body…Sergio more active…10-9 Martinez

Round 2 Hard left from Martinez…Body shot from Chavez…Combination and body shot from Martinez..Body shot and a jab..right hook from Martinez..Good body work on the ropes...20-18 Martinez

Round 3 Hard left from Martinez..Hard left from Chavez..Good body shot..Martinez landing to the body..Left hook from Martinez..straight left…Blood from the mouth of Chavez…30-27 Martinez

Round 4 Martinez lands a left..short right hook..Hard right from Chavez…hard right…Left/body from Martinez..Chavez landing left to the body..Big left from Martinez at the bell…40-36 Martinez

Round 5 Martinez lands 2 lefts to the body…50-45 Martinez

Round 6 Chavez lands a couple little shots in the corner..2 good rights…Good body shot..big rally from Martinez…Martinez picking Chavez apart…60-54 Martinez

Round 7 Straight left..Counter left…4 hard lefts on the ropes…Chavez landing and eating shots in return..70-63 Martinez

Round 8 Wide right from Chavez..Martinez going to the body..2 good left hooks from Chavez..Blood from Martinez left eye…79-73 Martinez

Round 9 Martinez lands a combination…89-82 Martinez

Round 10 2 good rights and 2 more from Martinez…body..Jab…99-91 Martinez

Round 11Great action with Chavez landing hard shots…Martinez landing in return…Martinez favce bloody…108-101 Martinez

Round 12 Big right hurts Martinez..WOW…CHAVEZ ALL OVER MARTINEZ AND DROPS HIM….MARTINEZ IS BLEEDING AND HURT…ITS A WAR…MARTINEZ LOOKS LIKE HE WILL GET OUT OF THE ROUND….116-111 Martinez

12 Rounds–WBO Super Featherweight Title–Ramon Martinez (25-1-1, 16 KO”s) vs Miguel Beltran Jr. (27-1, 17 KO’s)

Round 1 Hard right from Beltran…2 more rights…10-9 Beltran

Round 2 Good left hook from Martinez…19-19

Round 3 Trading shots …29-29

Round 4 Beltran pounding Martinez in the corner…Hard right from Martinez..Good left hook..Martinez lands a good right…39-38 Beltran

Round 5 Beltran lands a hard right…Big left and right from Martinez…Beltran lands a right…Blood from the left eye of Beltran…48-48

Round 6 Beltran lands a counter uppercut..Good right from Beltran..58-57 Beltran

Round 7 Good body shot from Beltran…Hard body shot…Good combo from Martinez…Good body shot from Beltran…68-66 Beltran

Round 8 Good uppercut and body shot from Beltran…left hook to the body..78-75 Beltran

Round 9 Hard right from Beltran...88-84 Beltran

Round 10 Beltran lands a left and right..Body shot..98-93 Beltran

Round 11 Good right from Beltran..Martinez 4 punch combination…Hard right from Beltran…POINT DEDUCTED FROM BELTRAN FOR HITTING BEHIND THE HEAD…Good right from Beltran…106-103 Beltran

Round 12 Martinez lands a right…115-113 Beltran

116-111 Beltran; 114-113 Martinez; 114-113 Martinez

10 Rounds–Middleweight–Matthew Macklin (28-4, 19 KO’s) vs. Joachim Alcine (33-2-1, 19 KO’s)

Round 1 HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN GOES ALCINE….Macklin ALL OVER ALCINE AND DOWN GOES ALCINE FROM A LEFT HOOK…2 HUGE BODY SHOTS AND A FLURRY AND REFEREE JAY NADY STOPS THE FIGHT

MACKLIN TOK 1 AT 2:36

12 Rounds–WBA Super Bantamweight Title–Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KO’s) vs Robert Marroquin (22-1, 15 KO’s)

Round 1 not mucj…10-10

Round 2 Rigondeuax lands a counter left…20-19 Rigondeuax

Round 3 Marroquin lands a hard left hook…Straight right…29-29

Round 4 Right from Rigondeuax..Marroquin landsa left hook..39-39

Round 5 PERFECT LEFT DOWNS GOES MARROQUIN..49-47 Rigondeaux

Round 6 Rigondeuax lands a left to the body..59-56

Round 7 69-66

Round 8 Rigondeaux lands a big left..Good body…Marroquin lands a left hook to the body…79-75 Rigondeaux

Round 9: Left from Marroquin drives Rigo into the corner…Right hand..88-85 Rigondeaux

Round 10 Rigondeuax lands a uppercut to the body..leaping uppercut and another..98-94 Rigondeaux

Round 11 Good straight left from Rigondeaux..Good right from Marroquin…Body shots from Rigondeuax..108-103 Rigondeaux

Round 12 HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN GOES MARROQUIN…118-111 Rigondeaux

118-108, 118-108, 118-109…RIGONDEAUX

10 Rounds–Jr. Middleweights–Willie Nelson (18-1-1, 11 KO’s) vs John Jackson (13-0, 12 KO’s)

Round 3 Jackson going to the body…

Round 4Nelson lands a hard right and left hook..Right down the middle

Round 5 Nelson Active

Round 6

Round 7

LAS VEGAS – The weekend’s first upset happened Friday, and it wasn’t by way of a punch at Thomas & Mack Center. In what may turn out to be the greatest surprise of Martinez-Chavez, barring of course an early stoppage, Argentine Sergio Martinez outweighed Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Friday afternoon at Wynn Las Vegas’ Encore Theater. But if either man was surprised, neither showed it.

Martinez, considered by most to be a small middleweight champion, and Chavez, considered by all to be an enormous middleweight titlist, shared a one-pound disparity on the scale: Martinez made 159, and Chavez made 158.

“He said it’s going to be a war,” Martinez said immediately after a talkative stare-down with Chavez that followed both making weight for their middleweight world championship match. “I want a war.”

Martinez, known as much for his cool demeanor and handsome countenance as his jazzy southpaw style, appeared uncharacteristically anxious Friday afternoon. Dressed in a black sweatsuit and dark shades, Martinez preceded Chavez to the stage and the scale and made a show of rallying a small Argentinean contingent waiving robin’s-egg-blue and white flags, stage left.

“He said that he is going to rip my head off,” said Chavez, when asked what words Martinez spoke to him after he climbed off the scale. Then Chavez, easily the cooler character Friday, laughed and shrugged.

While Saturday’s match for the lineal middleweight championship of the world – along with belts from The Ring, WBC and surely a few others – will be the biggest fight of both men’s careers, Chavez shows the demeanor of a man who knows other superfights will inevitably follow. Martinez, about whom the same cannot be said, appears to be channeling some of his handlers’ nervousness.

Part of what led to onlookers’ general surprise at Friday’s weighin, and specifically Chavez’s coming-in two pounds under the middleweight limit, were reports of undertraining by the Mexican champion. Numerous sources reported Chavez had skipped scheduled sessions with trainer Freddie Roach during his camp, preferring to work-out at home instead.

But Chavez’s promoter, Top Rank, expressed no concern. Chavez made weight easily, and apparently needs little instruction in how to cut-off a prizefighting ring, as he is expected to have to do against Martinez on Saturday.

Early Friday afternoon, one last thread of controversy was stitched in the Martinez-Chavez tapestry: Trainer Nazim Richardson will attend the wrapping of Chavez’s hands in behalf of the Martinez camp, Saturday. Richardson, of course, was the man who caught a hardening substance on the wraps of Antonio Margarito before the Mexican champion’s 2009 match with Shane Mosley.

Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer said on Friday that while he’ll be at both of Saturday’s fight cards – Martinez-Chavez, and Saul Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez a few blocks away at MGM Grand Garden Arena – the main event he’ll be attending is Chavez-Martinez, as Kizer anticipates potential prefight controversy at Thomas & Mack Center.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

LAS VEGAS – News conferences came like a one-two punch Wednesday and Thursday for dueling promotions Saturday night featuring Sergio Martinez-versus-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand.

It’s been a rhetorical food fight, boxing’s version of Republicans and Democrats after back-to-back conventions. First, it’s Top Rank to the bully pulpit. Then, it’s Golden Boy’s turn. It’s Home Box Office- versus-Showtime. Ego-against-ego. An insult-fest. But should it be?

After widespread criticism for scheduling two major cards on the same night and amid all the ongoing negativity, there’s a chance at some numbers that might put a surprising spin on the business. Attendance at each could provide a powerful counter to an epitaph so often repeated, yet never proven.

If boxing is really dying, then a lot of people – maybe more than 30,000 at two venues within a couple miles of each other – have yet to hear the news.

There’s plenty of debate about box-office numbers promised by Golden Boy for Alvarez-Lopez in a 154-pound bout televised by Showtime. Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya said Thursday at the Canelo-Lopez news conference that 13,000 tickets had been sold.

“We are expecting a sellout,’’ De La Hoya said of a weekend celebrating Mexican Independence.

Top Rank doesn’t believe it. On the surprise meter, that ranks somewhere between zero and yawn. If the situation was reversed – and it will be one day, Golden Boy wouldn’t believe it either. Remember, Republicans and Democrats trust each other more than Top Rank and Golden Boy do.

For Martinez-Chavez, Jr., in a HBO pay-per-view bout for the middleweight title, Top Rank already has a sellout, 19,186, a boxing record at Thomas & Mack. Even if a sellout is announced for Alvarez-Lopez, there will be suggestions that Golden Boy gave away tickets to get there.

As of Thursday, it wasn’t clear what number Golden Boy needed for a sellout. Seating capacity at The MGM Grand Garden Arena has been 14,800. But Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said 2,000 seats can be added before Saturday’s opening bell. If there’s time to construct the addition and the seats are filled, the crowd would be announced at 16,800. Add the Thomas & Mack sellout, and the total would be 35,186.

“That would tell you a lot about the sport,’’ Schaefer said.

With apologies to Mark Twain, t would tell you that all those dire warnings of imminent death are greatly exaggerated.

It might also tell you what could happen if Golden Boy and Top Rank made peace and did business together. But that’s another story, if not a miracle. It didn’t sound as if peace were even a remote possibility Thursday. The irony is that the fighters were the diplomats. Canelo and Lopez praised each other. The only real trash talk came from Keith Kizer, the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s executive.

In an apparent reference to the controversy over the judging of Tim Bradley’s decision over Manny Pacquiao in June at the MGM Grand, Kizer seemed to take exception at HBO’s criticism of judges Duane Ford, CJ Ross and Jerry Roth.

“There was another fight here in June, but some of the veterans at ringside that felt badly that night won’t feel so bad this time, because HBO, (Jim) Lampley and (Harold) Lederman won’t be there,’’ Kizer said. “I like the Showtime announcers much better.’’

Kizer’s shot followed one at Showtime from Top Rank’s Bob Arum.

“Half the people who’ve got Showtime don’t know they have it,’’ Arum said.

Shot, counter-shot. The beat goes on.

But if predictions are fulfilled and the numbers add up Saturday night, there won’t be an argument about whether the business still has a heartbeat.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. (September 11, 2012) – This week’s Méxican Independence Day weekend World Middleweight Championship event between undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion and Son of the Legend, JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ JR. (46-0-1, 32 KOs), of Culiacán, México, and two-division world champion and pound for pound kingpin with the matinee idol looks, SERGIO “Maravilla” MARTÍNEZ (49-2-2, 28 KOs), of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, sold its last remaining tickets today at 1:58 p.m. PT. Chávez Jr. vs. Martínez will become the highest-attended boxing event in the history of the Thomas & Mack Center with 19,186 seats, eclipsing the Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield heavyweight championship rematch, which previously held the record with 19,151.

“Viva Chávez and Martínez,” said Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum. “The last two tickets were purchased just before 2 p.m. PT and our sellout has produced a paid gate of over $3 million. How appropriate that on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Julio César Chávez vs. Hector Camacho, the Thomas & Mack’s fourth highest-attended event [17,972], which took place on September 12, 1992, that Julio César Chávez, Jr. surpass his father’s record in an epic fight of his own. Father and son will be forever linked as two of the highest-attended paid boxing events in the building’s history. Naturally, the live pay-per-view telecast will be available to all cable and satellite TV systems in the Las Vegas area.”

“This is a celebration about everything that is great about boxing,” said promoter Lou DiBella. “This is obviously a fight that everyone wanted to see and thanks to Sergio and Julio everyone will have the opportunity to see — live on pay-per-view. I strongly recommend that boxing fans in the Las Vegas area buy their tickets to the closed circuit screenings at Wynn Las Vegas now before they sell out too.”

Promoted by Top Rank®, Zanfer Promotions and DiBella Entertainment, in association with Wynn Las Vegas, AT&T and Tecate, the Chávez Jr. vs. Martínez Middleweight Championship Event will take place Saturday, September 15, Méxican Independence Day Weekend, at the Thomas & Mack Center, on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Remaining tickets to the Wynn Las Vegas closed circuit presentation are priced at $70 for reserved seating in the intimate Encore Theater and $50 for general admission in the Lafite Ballroom at Wynn. Tickets are inclusive of applicable taxes and fees and can be purchased by calling (702) 770-7118, through the website wynnlasvegas.com or by visiting the Wynn Ticket Office (Friday-Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. PT / Wednesday-Thursday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. PT) or the Wynn Concierge (Daily: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. PT.)

The Chávez Jr. vs. Martínez world championship telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #ChavezMartinez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Chávez Jr. vs. Martínez updates log on to www.toprank.com, www.dbe1.com or www.hbo.com.

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank

September 11, 2012 – Gary Shaw Productions newly crowded unified WBA and IBF middleweight champion, Daniel “Real Deal” Geale (29-1, 15 KOs), is scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas this week to be ringside at the September 15, 2012, Julio Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KOs) vs. Sergio Martinez (48-2-2, 28 KOs) showdown, taking place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Geale, coming off his most impressive victory where he dethroned Germany’s Felix Sturm (37-3-2, 16 KOs), is interested to see who comes out victorious between Chavez Jr. and Martinez, as a possible fight with the winner could be next for him.

“The winner of Chavez Jr. and Martinez could be my next opponent,” said Daniel Geale. “I’m willing to fight the best out there and my promoter Gary Shaw is ready to make it happen. It’s an interesting fight and the winner puts himself in a great position to challenge me. I never shy away from a great test and I’ll be ready to go when Gary Shaw tells me who my next opponent will be.”

Geale’s fellow countryman, undefeated featherweight contender Joel Brunker (23-0, 13 KOs), who scheduled to make his U.S. debut on October 27, 2012, will join him while they both attend fight week activities.

“I’m excited to be traveling to the United States and be present for Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez,” stated Brunker. “I’ll remain in the States and start my training camp in preparation for my fight scheduled for October 27th. Daniel Geale and I both want to show the United States audience what we are made of.”

“I’m extremely excited to be promoting the best fighters out of Australia,” Shaw said. “Grange Old School Gym has been fantastic working with me and Daniel Geale, and it’s been a pleasure working with Angelo DiCarlo with Joel Brunker. The future looks bright for my company being that we have a great working relationship with all the top talent from the land down under.”

LAS VEGAS – There was a time when the son couldn’t mention his father’s name. It was too painful. Legends don’t die. But dads do.

It was 2010. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. watched substance-abuse wash away the immortality that Mexicans have attached to his famous dad, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

“I kept thinking this guy is going to die,’’ Chavez Jr. said Wednesday to handful of reporters after a formal news conference for his middleweight title fight Saturday night against Sergio Martinez at Thomas & Mack Center. “He’s going to die. I got used to thinking about it.’’

Dad changed his son’s mind, but only after the end so feared by his son ominously appeared one day in Tijuana. Julio Sr. said he didn’t feel well. His son recalls that he sought medical help. His father was sedated and then rushed to rehab.

Twenty-six months later, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. sat Wednesday – clean, sober and proud — near his son just days before the family business continues against Martinez in an HBO pay-per-view bout.

“Right now, our relationship is good,’’ said Chavez Jr., about a 2-to-1 underdog in betting odds posted late Wednesday. “It can withstand the disagreements we have.’’

The relationship has healed so much that the son can now often joke about a dad who doesn’t often like to be the intended target of any sort of mockery. Julio Chavez Sr. has been in gym with his son and trainer Freddie Roach. But Chavez says he listens only to Roach. The son is a smart guy. He knows that old lesson about dads, even Hall of Fame Fathers. They don’t belong in their son’s corners.

“Freddie is the last word,’’ Chavez Jr. said. “Sometimes, my dad will run to my corner and say something. I’ll tell him: ‘Work the corner or get the hell out.’ ‘’

Dad always gets the message, Julio Jr. said.

At least, he does now.

A couple of years ago, he wasn’t certain. His father, he says, would come home early in the morning after a night of drinking.

“He would come home, sometimes at 5 a.m. and sometimes on the day I’d fight, sit down and start talking, while I was trying to sleep’’ he said. “He’d just talk and talk, talk for three and four hours.’’

About what?

“Not sure,’’ Chavez said. “About everything.’’

In the couple of years since his dad underwent rehab, Julio Jr., once dismissed as a lazy rich kid, began to mature as a fighter under Roach’s steady guidance. His training schedule might be quirky. Roach said he often trains in the early morning hours. Workouts can start at 1 a.m. and end 4 a.m. But the work is serious, Roach said.

In part, Julio Jr. appears to have inherited some his dad’s toughness. There’s the durable chin. There are also the body punches. Both made a Hall of Famer out of his stubborn dad.

“That’s why I feel sorry for Sergio Martinez,’’ Bob Arum, Julio Jr.’s promoter, said Wednesday during the news conference. “He’s going to take body shots like he’s never felt before.’’

But there can also be dangers in what a son inherits from his dad. For Julio Jr., it is a lifestyle that put his dad in rehab. A warning sign was there in January when The Ring’s Lem Satterfield reported that Julio Jr. was charged with DUI within a couple of weeks of his victory over Marco Antonio Rubio.

It was a lesson then.

It’s a lesson now, especially for a family business that needs to remember them if it hopes to fight on.

MIAMI (September 11, 2012) — World Boxing Association Super Bantamweight Champion Guillermo “El Chacal” Rigondeaux is expected to defend his title this Saturday evening against Robert Marroquin (22-1, 15 KOs), on the Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. HBO Pay-Per-View event, live from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A Circuit Court in Miami ruled on August 21 to enjoin Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KOs) from engaging in any bout not approved by his manager, Gary Hyde, and also enjoined Rigondeaux from participating in this Saturday’s scheduled show promoted Top Rank.

Last night, however, Hyde and Top Rank reached a resolution to allow the Rigondeaux-Marroquin title fight to go forward, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission was informed this morning.

“Thanks to my attorneys, Patrick English and Bill Brown, we have negotiated a far superior deal to fight Robert Marroquin on September 15th,” said Hyde, who has managed Rigondeaux since the two-time Olympic gold medalist defected from Cuba in 2007. “‘Rigo doesn’t get involved or side tracked by legal dramas. He has promised me that he is at his all-time best and that he will KO Marroquin.”

After the legal situation that forced WBA Super Bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux out of a potential champions showdown on on September 15th, once-beaten Robert Marroquin will now face Alejandro Lopez as part of the Julio Cesar Chavez – Sergio Martinez Pay Per View card on that date according to San Rafael of espn.com

“Lopez was scheduled to fight in a couple of weeks, so he’s been training for at least six weeks,” Moretti said. “If he’s anything like the kid that showed up against Teon Kennedy, this ought to be a heck of a fight.

“Top Rank respects the court’s decision but we are extremely disappointed that his manager, his attorney (Pat English) and co-promoter (Caribe Promotions) would try and stop a kid from fighting when he wants to fight on Sept. 15 and agreed to pay these parties their agreed upon shares,” Moretti said. “It makes no sense and is completely unjust — but to be expected when inexperienced people let there egos get in the way of a fighter’s development.”

It’s hard to know whether September’s promise is a new dawn or just a familiar set of oncoming headlights in another head-on collision with a demise predicted and heightened by August’s doom and gloom.

No matter how you look at Andre Ward-versus-Chad Dawson Saturday in Oakland, Calif., and a dueling Las Vegas’ twin bill on Sept. 15 featuring Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand, however, it is hard not to see potential for a comeback that is a boxing specialty. No business does it better.

Reliable resiliency is there in a shifting alignment that offers a way out of the never-never land of talk and only talk about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Yeah-yeah, it could still happen. But a generation of lost fans doesn’t care anymore. The good news is that there is always a new one. In part, chances at winning over generation-next rest in what happens with fighters poised to succeed Pacquiao and Mayweather.

For now, the intriguing battle is for No. 2 spot in the pound-for-pound debate. The fading Pacquiao, second on most lists behind Mayweather, is in jeopardy of falling to third or even fourth after evidence of decline in his last two fights, controversial decisions over Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley.

“Me, I believe I’m No. 2 at this moment,’’ Martinez said Wednesday in a conference call for his showdown with Chavez Jr. in a HBO pay-per-view bout for the middleweight title.

A better argument might come from Ward, if he remains unbeaten (25-0, 13 KOs) Saturday in a HBO-televised bout against light-heavy champion Dawson (30-1 17 KOs), who agreed to come down in weight for a 168-pound fight in Ward’s hometown. Mayweather stays at No. 1 because of his perfect record (43-0, 26 KOs). Martinez can’t make that claim. Even if he beats Chavez Jr., there are still losses to Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams and two draws on his resume (49-2-2, 28 KOs).

Predictably perhaps, the more circumspect Ward isn’t as bold about his place in the pound-for-pound debate as Martinez, who has become more outspoken in an escalating exchange of trash talk with Chavez Jr.

For the most part, Ward’s attention isn’t easily diverted by anything beyond the challenge immediately in front of him. That means the dangerous Dawson. Everything else is just talk that would take him away from the task at becoming an equal of fighters he admires, including Mayweather and Sugar Ray Leonard.

“They’re masters,’’ Ward said. “I’m trying to be a master.’’

The guess is that Ward will never quit trying. The goal will be there for as long as he is fighting. It’s a motivational piece to a Ward persona that in a couple of years could put him at the top of the pound-for-pound crowd.

Even in the build-up for Dawson, he seemed to look for something that would drive him to knock out slights, imagined or real. Dawson’s camp praises him. But the skeptical Ward deflects it.

“I think they’re giving us some superficial credit because they have to,’’ he said. “…To listen to them tell it, they have every advantage in the book. I think they’ll discover that isn’t the case.’’

Ward’s insightful trainer, Virgil Hunter, had his own spin.

“Our advantage is being at a disadvantage in their eyes,’’ Hunter said.

If there’s a disadvantage during the next nine days, it is expected to be in betting odds against Chavez Jr. and Dawson. But even those are slim. Spring an upset, and one or both will suddenly leap to the front of a line in the fight for spots at the pay window long occupied by Pacquiao and Mayweather.

Bob Arum, Chavez Jr.’s promoter, said an earlier opportunity for big money against Martinez was resisted precisely for the moment that will transpire on Sept. 15.

“We could have taken a chance against Martinez a year ago,’’ Arum said. “If he wins – and we believe he will, he will become an attraction on the level of Pacquiao, Mayweather.’’

Meanwhile, a hint at Mayweather’s immediate future could unfold at the Canelo-Lopez fight at the MGM Grand. Canelo keeps talking about how he wants to fight Mayweather. His representatives at Golden Boy Promotions have advised caution. At least, Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya did on May 5 in the wake of Canelo’s victory over Shane Mosley. But an impressive victory over a smaller Lopez on Showtime might sweep aside concern that Canelo is getting ahead of himself.

If Mayweather decides he wants to fight the popular Mexican redhead now instead of later, there’ll be no waiting.

Another future will have arrived.

VENTURA, CALIF. (August 27, 2012) — Threats and an incident of vandalism over the weekend at the Oxnard-based training camp of two-division world champion SERGIO MARTINEZ (49-2-2, 28 KOs), of Argentina,has forced the cancellation of Martinez’s Media Day Workout, scheduled for Tuesday, August 28 in Ventura, Calif. Martínez is deep in training for his upcoming challenge of undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion and Son of the Legend, JULIO CÉSAR CHÁVEZ, JR. (46-0-1, 32 KOs),of México.

“This past weekend Sergio received threats from an unknown source and the car in front of his home was vandalized,” said Lou DiBella, Martinez’s promoter. “Unfortunately, until we have a security team in place, we are going to have to suspend any and all public and media appearances for Sergio, including the upcoming media day scheduled for tomorrow in Oxnard. We apologize for the inconvenience to the media and fans that have planned on attending tomorrow’s event.”

Julio César Chávez’s Las Vegas Media Workout, scheduled for Thursday, August 30, beginning at 2:00 p.m., at the Top Rank Gym (3041 Business Lane, Las Vegas, NV. 89103), will go on as scheduled.

Promoted by Top Rank®, Zanfer Promotions and DiBella Entertainment, in association with Wynn Las Vegas, AT&T and Tecate, the Chávez Jr. vs. Martinez Middleweight Championship Event will take place Saturday, September 15, Méxican Independence Day Weekend, at the Thomas & Mack Center, on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View®, beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT. The live pay-per-view undercard will feature four exciting bouts.

Remaining tickets to the Julio César Chávez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez World Middleweight Championship, priced at $600, $400, $200, $100, $75, $50 and $25, can be purchased at the Thomas & Mack Center box office and Town Square Las Vegas Concierge. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.unlvtickets.com. To charge by telephone call (702) 739-FANS.

HBO’s Emmy-Award®-winning reality franchise returns with an all new edition when 24/7 CHÁVEZ JR./MARTÍNEZ premieres This Saturday! Sept. 1 at 11:45 p.m. ET/PT. Episode two debuts Saturday, Sept. 8 at 12:30 a.m. ET/PT on HBO.

The Chávez Jr. vs. Martinez world championship telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com and at www.facebook.com/hboboxing. Use the hashtag #ChavezMartinez to join the conversation on Twitter. For Chávez Jr. vs. Martinez updates log on to www.toprank.com, www.dbe1.com or www.hbo.com.

The dog days of August, an unexpected offseason, is full of more idle speculation than medal winners among the American men at the London Olympics. There’s little to celebrate and much to anticipate before it starts all over again next month. A busy September includes one night — the 15th — with two good cards: HBO’s telecast of Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center and the Showtime telecast of Canelo Alvarez-Josesito Lopez down the street at the MGM Grand. A couple of miles of Vegas neon will separate the two. After a barren August, an embarrassment of riches awaits. Or maybe just embarrassment. Until then, it’s just a guessing game.

A few more guesses:

Manny Pacquiao. Further uncertainty is about the only way to interpret his latest decision. Reports about him moving his next bout from Nov. 10 to Dec. 1 seem to say he doesn’t really know what he wants. Advisor Michael Koncz says the new date is a political necessity. It eliminates a potential interruption of training by allowing Pacquiao time in October to refile his candidacy for re-election to the Filipino Congress, according to Koncz, who was quoted as saying he has to be in the Philippines to file the documents. But Filipino media reports that he does not have to be there. He can mail in the documentation, according to the reports. The contradictions only muddy uncertain waters. Just who does he plan to fight? Reported options are Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto and Timothy Bradley. There would be a lot less uncertainty about Pacquiao if he had announced the opponent along with the new date. As it is, there are questions about whether retirement is another option.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s been three weeks since he walked out of a Las Vegas jail after serving about two months for domestic violence. There’s still no word on what his plans are. Pacquiao doesn’t seem to be among them, at least not during the final months in 2012. Keep an eye on Twitter, Mayweather’s favorite way to communicate. Also keep an eye on Canelo-Lopez. It’s not the biggest fight on Sept 15. Martinez-Chavez is. But Golden Boy Promotions has dropped hints that Canelo might be Mayweather’s next opponent if Lopez doesn’t score an encore of his upset of Victor Ortiz.

50 Cent. Keep another eye on the rapper whose birth name, Curtis Jackson, is included on the promotional license that sets him up as a potential rival to Golden Boy and Top Rank. He might have some very different ideas about who Mayweather, his friend and confidante, should fight next.

Juan Manuel Marquez. He plans to write a book. At least three of the chapters figure to be about how he says he got
robbed against Pacquiao, who won two disputed decisions after a draw against the tactically-skilled Mexican. A fourth chapter looks doubtful, if only because the proven risk isn’t worth an iffy reward for Pacquiao

Ricky Hatton. Yeah-yeah, we read the rumors about a Hatton comeback, possibly against Paulie Malignaggi. Can another Oscar De La Hoya rumor be far behind?

Andre Ward and Chad Dawson. It looks like the best of September. Martinez-Chavez Jr. is getting most of the attention, which also means all of the expectations. Those might be very hard to fulfill. Ward-Dawson on Sept. 8 in Oakland, Calif., isn’t surrounded by all of the hype, in part because neither fighter engages in much braggadocio. But the fight, an All-American bout, might introduce a new argument to a pound-for-pound debate grown stale by the unresolved blather about when or whether Pacquiao and Mayweather will fight. Ward-Dawson “sells itself,” Ward told the media Thursday in hometown Oakland. It does.

Gennady Golovkin. Never heard of him? That’s a question Golovkin, an unbeaten middleweight and Olympic silver medalist from Kazakhstan, hopes to quit hearing in the U.S. sometime after he fights for the first time in America on Sept. 1 when he kicks off next month’s schedule on HBO After Dark against Grsegorz Proksa at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y. “We’ve made it clear we’ll fight anybody in the middleweight division,” Tom Loeffler of K2-Promotions said of Golovkin. In a month that includes middleweight Chavez Jr. and Martinez, Golovkin needs to make his American debut a memorable one.

Devon Alexander and Randall Bailey. Showtime and HBO will stage a preliminary Sept. 8 to their Sept. 15th duel for viewers. That’s when Showtime will televise the Bailey-Alexander welterweight at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the same night as HBO’s telecast of Ward-Dawson. Alexander-Bailey has the makings of a classic boxer-puncher confrontation. Bailey already is making it fun. Bailey, who says his one-punch KO power makes him the last of a kind, has little patience for Alexander’s speed and boxing skill. “Everybody gets hit with that right hand,” Bailey said during a conference call. “Question is, when you get hit with that right, what are you gonna do?”

In September, at least, we’ll get the chance to find out.

Dan Rafael of espn.com reports that two of the three televised undercard bouts for the much anticipated Sergio Martinez – Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight on Sepetmber 15th in Las Vegas have been set.

WBA Super Bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux will take on once beaten Robert Marroquin while former Middleweight title challenger Matthew Macklin will take on former Jr. Middleweight titlist Joachim Alcine.

“Everybody has agreed to extend it so he can be on this card,” said promoter Bob Arum. “He signed a bout agreement for the fight, so the fight with Robert Marroquin, that’s a done deal.”

“Marroquin feels he can beat him and he really wanted this fight. He is up for this kind of challenge,” Arum said. “Rigondeaux is probably one of the best fighters around, but one thing is even if he’s one of the best fighters around, he’s a little chinny and Marroquin can hit pretty good.”

“Alcine fought really well in his last fight against David Lemieux and I thought Macklin made a lot of fans with his performance against Sergio,” said Lou DiBella,who promoted both Macklin and Alcine. “It think it’s a really good fight. Alcine is a little older now so he will be more in front of Macklin. It’s a very high skill level middleweight fight and it very well could create the next opponent for Chavez whether he loses or wins against Sergio.”

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PART 2

PART 3

PART 4