Archive for November, 2006

Jeff Lacy (21-1, 17 KO’s) makes his comeback fight on Saturday night, December 2nd, against Vitali Tsypko (17-1, 10 KO’s) at the St. Pete Times Forum, in Tampa, Florida. Lacy, the one time IBF Super Middleweight champion, has a lot of questions that need to be answered about whether or not he still has it, after sustaining a methodical 12-round beating by Joe Calzaghe, in his has last bout on March 4th, 2006, in Manchester, England. The fight wasn’t close after the first round, and probably should have been stopped by the 6th round, when it became clear that Lacy wasn’t mentally into the fight. Read the rest of this entry »

Former light Welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu (31-2, 25 KO’s) has still yet to decide whether or not to pursue boxing. He has reportedly said, “I have a feeling that I failed to do something in professional boxing,” saying this to Russian news media. He also feels that, he doesn’t want to rush a decision. With that said, however, it appears that he has become in somewhat of a stuck state, where he is almost paralyzed since losing a close 12-round decision to British fighter, Ricky Hatton, in June 2005. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK, November 29, 2006- The International Fight League, (OTC.BB: IFLI) the world’s first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, today announced its full 11-event 2007 schedule, the most comprehensive advance schedule in the history of fight sports. The full slate includes events in eight different states and kicks off with the Nevada-based Lions (coached by legend Ken Shamrock) facing the San Jose-based Razorclaws (coached by his brother, world champion Frank Shamrock) at the ORACLE Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, January 19. The arena partnerships were secured by the IFL through its partnership with the William Morris Agency, and many include multi-year commitments to the IFL. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK, November 29, 2006- International Fight League, Inc. (OTC.BB: IFLI), the world’s first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, today reached another milestone in its early history, becoming one of a handful of professional sports entities to be traded as a public company. Effective today, the IFL begins trading on the over the counter bulletin board under the symbol “IFLI.” Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK, November 27, 2006- The International Fight League (IFL) today announced that completion of its 12-team field for its 2007 season, adding a Chicago-based team of Russian fighters named the Red Bears. The inaugural IFL season will begin in the first quarter of 2007, with the 11 date full season schedule to be announced shortly. Read the rest of this entry »

Like many people, I’m personally not too impressed with all the hoopla surrounding Manny Pacquiao’s (43-3-2, 34 KO’s) recent win over Erik Morales (48-5, 34 KO’s), whom I consider to be completely used up. Sure, Pacquiao did what he had to do to win the fight and look good, yet he seemed totally beatable, at least to me. Now that Morales’ carcass has been cleared out of the way, Pacquiao is talking of wanting to fight Marco Antonio Barrera, followed by Juan Manuel Marquez. In other words, fighting re-treads, opponents that Pacquiao has already fought. I don’t about you, but that seems almost like being stuck in a rut, like he’s afraid to try something different. Read the rest of this entry »

Following Floyd Mayweather Jr’s (37-0, 24 KO’s) recent 12-round win over Carlos Manuel Baldomir on November 3, 2006, came the announcement that Mayweather would be taking on Oscar De La Hoya (38-4, 30 KO’s), the current WBC Middleweight champion, and setting up meeting between boxing’s two most popular fighters, while at the same time, making this potentially the most lucrative fight of all time with each fighter guaranteed between 10-25 million dollars, at the minimum. The PPV sales will likely be tremendous, due to the crossover appeal of De La Hoya, whom has a strong following in both the Hispanic and the white public. Read the rest of this entry »

WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, (45-0, 33 KO’s) would seem to be at this point in time, the most popular of the 4 heavyweight champions, and the one that the boxing public, wants to see fight. So far, everyone is waiting to see who Valuev selects, with many of boxers considering it was potential lottery, if they our lucky enough to be the opponent for Valuev. Read the rest of this entry »

Former WBA Middleweight champion Felix Sturm (25-2, 11 KO’s) returns to the ring on Saturday night against Gavin Topp (20-2-2, 4 KO’s) at the Estrel Convention Center, in Berlin, Germany. This will be Sturm’s first bout since losing his WBA middleweight crown to Javier Castillejo, in July 2006, a bout that Sturm was stopped in the 10th round. Unfortunately for him, Sturm performed badly in that fight, being exposed by Castillejo, who proved that Sturm couldn’t handle heavy pressure. More than that, however, Castillejo showed that Sturm has almost zero ability to fight on the inside. Read the rest of this entry »

IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (47-3, 42 KO’s) appears to have no interest in fighting his IBF mandatory challenger Ray Austin, and instead, shooting for a unification bout with either, Oleg Maskaev, the WBC heavyweight champion, or Nikolay Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion. Wladimir isn’t, however, calling out the newly crowned WBO heavyweight champion, Shannon Briggs, who recently knocked out Sergei Liakhovich in the 12th round, to take away his championship belt. Of the possibilities, the 7-foot Russian, Valuev, would easily be the most appealing for Wladimir, including with the public. Read the rest of this entry »

Former WBA heavyweight champion, Greg Page (58-17-1, 48 KO’s) has been reportedly hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia. This, however, isn’t the first time in recent years that Page has been treated for the same illness, as he developed pneumonia earlier in year, in February. At that time, Page, 48, was suffering from acute respiratory failure, sepsis, hypothermia, and seizures, all which were caused, in part, due to his previous brain damage, that he suffered after a loss to Dale Crow, in 2001. Following that bout, Page had emergency surgery to safe his life. Since then, Page has been restricted to a wheelchair, after the surgery left him partially paralyzed. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jason Kim: Rather than fight the mandatory IBF Super Middleweight challenger, Robert Stieglitz (29-0, 19 KO’s), Joe Calzaghe has decided to give up the IBF belt, choosing instead, to fight Peter Manfredo Jr., (26-3, 12 KO’s) a fighter mainly known for being on ‘The Contendor,” an American reality based television program, which pits different boxers against each other. According to Calzaghe, he didn’t see the point in fighting the undefeated Stieglitz, considering that he was only popular in Germany. Read the rest of this entry »

By Tarig Simil: Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (47-4-1, 32 KO’s), has recently stated to the press that he is coming out of retirement, in hopes for a possible match with Oleg Maskaev (33-5, 26 KO’s), the WBC heavyweight champion. However, as things stand now, Hopkins’ chances for a bout with Maskaev would seem remote, at best, mostly due to Maskaev’s already booked fight calendar. Maskaev is already scheduled to make his first WBC heavyweight title defense against Peter Okhello (18-4, 16 KO’s) on December 10th, 2006, in Moscow, Russia. Following that, Maskaev will either be fighting the winner of James Toney vs. Samuel Peter, both of which fighting an elimination bout for the right to face Maskaev. Read the rest of this entry »

Jake O’Brien upped his record in the Ultimate Fighting Championship to 2-0 with a workmanlike unanimous decision over Josh Shockman at UFC 65 this past Saturday night at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, CA, and Hector “Sick Dog” Ramirez was awarded “Fight of the Night” honors in his UFC debut despite losing to James Irvin by TKO in the second round.

With takedown after takedown, Jake O’Brien (9-0) maintained octagon control in the opening bout of the night en route to the unanimous decision win (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) over Josh Shockman. It is the first time that O’Brien has gone the distance in his short career. With this dominating performance, O’Brien remains an undefeated heavyweight prospect with a bright future. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK, November 20, 2006– The International Fight League (IFL), the world’s first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, today announced the rosters for the 2006 IFL World Team Championship final, to be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Friday, December 29, at 7 p.m. The team matchup between the Silverbacks, coached by Pat Miletich and based in Quad Cities, Iowa/Ill., and the Wolfpack, coached by Matt Lindland and based in Portland, Ore., yields five outstanding bouts. Renzo Gracie (Holmdel, N.J.) and Carlos Newton (Newmarket, Ontario) will square off in a Superfight matching two MMA legends and the coaches of the New York and Toronto teams, respectively. And four other bouts will feature members of IFL teams which did not advance to the finals, for a total of 10 fights on the card. Read the rest of this entry »