News and Notes from
Around the World of Boxing
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After the disappointing conclusion to his trilogy against Brandon Rios this past Saturday, sources informed me that Mike Alvarado is being seen and treated at home in Denver for a fractured orbital bone and retina strain.
Alvarado took some devastating shots for three rounds, before the ringside doctor halted the fight. Alvarado admitted in his post-fight interview that he came into the fight very unprepared, but that he will be back.
Denver fans were extremely disappointed in Alvarado’s performance and acted very disrespectfully, throwing bottles and spitting on Alvarado and his team as they headed back to the locker room.
Photo edit by Fight Gauge/RBRBoxing
Immediately after the Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado fight last Saturday, “Vicious” Victor Ortiz took to his Instagram and Twitter pages, asking to fight Rios next.
Rios and Ortiz are rivals and have taken small jabs at each other indirectly for quite some time now, but never to this magnitude.
Rios gave Manny Perez (before his last bout with Ortiz) some advice on how to make Ortiz feel like a punk and beat him. Ortiz mentioned after the TKO win over Perez, that the advice obviously didn’t work and that sort of stuff doesn’t phase him.
Again, before the Alvarado fight, Rios threw more jabs at Ortiz during an interview. “I’m not a fighter who makes up stories about being homeless and poor, I actually came from the streets, I didn’t have anything,” Rios said (per Rocky Mountain Boxing), poking fun at Ortiz’s back story.
Reports are that the winner of the Josesito Lopez vs. Andre Berto fight will get their rematch with Ortiz. Could this be the reason why Ortiz felt the need to call out Rios, knowing the fight will never actually happen?
Maybe one day we’ll see these two finally do their talking in the ring, but with promotional differences and Ortiz possibly having his next fight lined up, who knows.
Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather continue to tease boxing fans as they engaged at the Miami Heat game last night. Pacquiao and Mayweather sat court side, directly across from each other and at one point were put on the jumbo screen with the headline “Coming in 2015?”
The teasing got worse as they were seen talking to each other, and at one point exchanging phone numbers. Numerous videos caught the two talking, but no real sound gave us any clue as to what they could be saying. Witnesses reported (per ESPN) they were talking about the negotiations, and at one point Mayweather told Pac, “I don’t entertain trash.” Whatever that meant. The two met up after the game in a hotel to talk about the fight privately.
Even though fight fans have been teased for some time now, Tuesday night’s events now have us all drooling and checking social media like crazy stalkers. And as if things couldn’t get any worse, a Mayweather commercial is rumored (per BoxingNews24) to broadcast this Sunday during Superbowl 49.
Someone run a cold shower please!
Premier Boxing Champions hosted a conference call today for their March 7, 2015 card on NBC. The call featured all four fighters for this inaugural event on NBC including John Molina, Adrien Broner, Keith Thurman and Robert Guerrero.
Broner made it clear he will be a champ in the 140-pound division, and that he will deliver a beating to Molina on fight night.
“It’s nothing personal, Molina is cool, we can kick it on March 8th, but for now he is my opponent,” said Broner.
Molina mentioned how well they are going to prepare for Broner, and stated that they studied his previous fights, most notably the Maidana fight of course.
“I won’t know what kind of Broner will be in the ring that night ’til the bell rings, but he will get pressured like never before with me,” stated Molina.
Keith Thurman made the conference call a little more personal as he repeatedly took shots at Floyd Mayweather, however he remained very humble when it came to his opponent Robert Guerrero.
“I know I’ve never faced a fighter like Robert, but he’s never faced a fighter like me. Unlike Floyd, I like diversity, I’m ready to fight all styles of boxers. I’m ready to fight the world,” said Thurman.
Guerrero laughed at Thurman briefly during the call as it was mentioned his last opponent, Leonard Bundu, was comparable to Mayweather. After that, the call went back to business and both fighters expressed how grateful they are to be a part of history, ushering boxing back to prime time television.
