The Curious Case Of Bernard Hopkins

By Jack Sumner @Jack_Sumner_

http://southpawjacks.wordpress.com/

'The Executioner'

When Oscar De La Hoya returned to his corner following the third round of a certain 2004 middleweight unification bout, he had to be pretty content with how the opening stanzas of the fight had unfolded.

As he positioned himself onto his stool, his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr placed both his hands upon the Golden Boy’s shoulders and beamed a smile before delivering an assured assessment of the opponent’s chances in the fight.

“The man’s an old man. Look at me, he’s an old man. He’s looking the worst that I’ve ever seen him.”

The old man who sat across the ring was a 39-year-old Bernard Hopkins. Throughout those opening rounds, a 31-year-old De La Hoya had outworked the bigger and stronger fighter with greater activity and hand speed, with Hopkins looking as sluggish and as ‘old’ as Mayweather Sr suggested.

De La Hoya looking to stage Mares Vs Cruz!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97

Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions is eager to make a fight between WBC super-bantamweight champion Abner Mares and IBF bantamweight world champ Leo Santa Cruz.

Both men are unbeaten and, although  they're world champions, they still are far away from the peak of their careers, but this does seem like a fight that is likely to happen. Both fighters are promoted by Golden Boy and are happy to fight as many times as possible at this current time.

Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KO's) has been interested in fighting Mares for a very long time, and has made this clear in almost every one of the five post-fight interviews he has had in 2012. However this isn't the No.1 priority on Mares' list. The 27-year old is targeting super-bantamweight king and pound-for-pound contender Nonito Donaire. Unfortunately there isn't much chance of this fight happening as Donaire is promoted by Golden Boy's main rivals Top Rank.

De La Hoya discusses Bradley's future...

WBO champ Timothy 'Dessert Storm' Bradley.

Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya realises that WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley has what it takes to become a very big star of the future, and the 39-year old has revealed that there are a lot of potential opponents for him in the Golden Boy stable.

Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La  Hoya.

There's a lot of great fighters in the welterweight division and there's no doubt that 'Dessert Storm' will want to fight every single one of them. De La Hoya has a chequered past with Bradley's promoter Bob Arum but he hopes that this won't affect the chances of any big fights happening.

"There's a lot of options out there, a lot of great fights," said De La Hoya. "The only thing Bob Arum and Top Rank has to do is pick up the phone and call... We have all the fighters, we have all the opponents, we have all the big fights that people want to see. Pick up the phone. I'm sure Bradley wants to fight all of them."

The fighters that De La Hoya is talking about, are the likes of Amir Khan, Paulie Malignaggi and Devon Alexander. Seeing Bradley in the ring with any one of these would be a very interesting match-up for the fans and the fighters.

The 28-year old could continue to fight Top Rank promoted fighters but he would run out of options pretty fast. The only other big name welterweights in Bob Arum's stable are Manny Pacquiao, who Bradley has already fought and beat in a very controversial fight, and Juan Manuel Marquez who his almost reaching 40 and will likely not have many big fights left in him..

Oscar De La Hoya wants Peterson stripped of titles...

Peterson with titles after his fight with Khan.

Golden Boy boss Oscar De La Hoya says that the WBA and IBF should vacate their 140lb titles, held by controversial light-welterweight Lamont Peterson, following their hearing in the next few days. Many people believe that Amir Khan is the rightful champion as Peterson was caught using steroids in the build-up to their rematch.

Khan hopes to have at least one world title on the line when he faces WBC champ Danny Garcia on July 14th. De La Hoya would like all three titles to be on the line next month at the Mandalay Bay and he believes that the two organisations will see sense and allow Khan to have a chance of winning the vacated titles against Garcia.

"They have to vacate the title, otherwise it would be an endorsement for steroids and other illegal substances," De La Hoya told World Boxing News. "Sanctioning bodies don't want to send the message that it's alright to juice up a month before their title fight as happened in this case."

There is also one other problem that needs to be solved before July 14th. The mandatory challenger for Garcia's WBC title is not Khan, it's Ajose Olusegun. Golden Boy are trying to persuade Olusegun to step aside but at the moment he is refusing. If the problems is not solved then Garcia will most likely be stripped of his title.

"I can confirm that there is no deal in place yet with Olusegun," added De La Hoya.

De La Hoya denies rumours of ring return...

De La Hoya denies all rumours.

There have been a few rumours flying around that ring legend Oscar De La Hoya is eyeing a return to the ring. What is even more bizarre about these rumours is that people have been saying that the 39-year old is looking to fight the winner of Saul Alvarez Vs Shane Mosley.

As you know, De La Hoya is Alvarez's promoter for Golden Boy, so the idea that this fight could happen is insane. Unless they are planning a stunt where Alvarez and De La Hoya share the ring and Oscar just lays down for the young champion to try and improve Canelo's reputation. But, I can't see this happening as De La Hoya has too much pride as a fighter to do this.

This is what De La Hoya had to say about the rumours: "The rumours that have been circulating, I've been hearing. It's just rumours that I'll be fighting the winner of this fight. That's not true. These guys are too difficult for me."

Another rumour that has been flying around is that the 39-year old will headline the the Golden Boy show at the new Barclays Centre on October 20th but it looks as if that show will instead be led by WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi and Devon Alexander.

De La Hoya's last fight came in 2008 when he lost to Manny Pacquiao. He ended his career with a record of 39-6, 30 KO's and won world titles in six different weight divisions. Although it would be great to see this man back in the ring, I do not think it is beneficial for his health or his reputation... He is already a legend in the sport, he doesn't have to prove himself anymore.

Mayweather Vs Alvarez could happen soon...

Saul Alvarez

Golden Boy CEO Robert Schaefer has been ranting about Saul Alvarez being good enough to take on P4P No.1 Floyd Mayweather Jr for a very long time. But, nobody has paid that much attention to it.

Floyd Mayweather

In the past we all thought it was just a way of building Alavarez's reputation but we can see now that in the weight division Mayweather is now in there is no one else that we will provide him with a challenge if he beats Miguel Cotto. Most people believe now that Mayweather Vs Pacquiao will never happen so a fight with Alvarez is the next best thing. The 21-year old is young, strong and in his prime and Floyd Mayweather is in his mid 30's but he is still classed by many as the greatest fighter in the world.

Oscar De La Hoya has also admitted that a fight between Alvarez and Mayweather is definitely in Golden Boy's long term plans.

"The Alvarez-Mosely winner goes on to bigger and better things, that's a given... They can go on to face the winner of Ortiz-Berto or Mayweather-Cotto," said Golden Boy's main promoter.

Alvarez has appeared as chief support and Mayweather's last two fights and he will do the same on May 5th when he takes on Shane Mosely on the undercard of Mayweather Vs Miguel Cotto.

A fight between these two would be very easy to make as Mayweather is the biggest selling fighter in the world and Alvarez has also started to gain a lot of fans and a lot of popularity. The fight may not happen this year as Mayweather is due to report to prison on June 1st and he has to stay there for a minimum of three months. But, as long as both of the fighters keep on winning,the anticipation will build and somewhere down the line we will see a great fight between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Floyd 'Money' Mayweather.

Top Rank Sues Yuriorkis Gamboa... And More!

As we all know from reports last week, Top Rank is suing Yuriorkis Gamboa for breach of contract. The main reason being that he didn't turn up to the press conferences for his fight with Brandon Rios who will now be fighting Richard Abril instead of Gamboa.

If you thought Top Rank were just going to make an example of Gamboa by just suing him, you were wrong, they're not just going to stop there. It looks like they could be suing up to 10 other people who were rumored to be involved with the whole ordeal. According to reports, these are people who are associated with promotional companies that apparently tried to poach Gamboa.

Gamboa seen training at Mayweather's gym.

These people have not yet been named but going by rumors and common sense I think most people will be able to guess who a few of them are. Even Oscar De La Hoya at Golden Boy has been accused. The reason for this being his big announcement on Twitter that we were all waiting for just to find out that he had been sober for 10 months. Maybe he was about to announce that he had poached Gamboa but thought better of it and stayed out of trouble.

Most people think that it is Mayweather Promotions who are guilty. Gamboa was seen training at Mayweather's gym whilst he was meant to be at the press conferences for his fight with Rios. So this is a big lump of evidence that would point towards Mayweather Promotions so they will definitely have some explaining to do.

Top Rank's reason for suing is that they believe if Gamboa was left unpunished it would damage their reputation and make other fighters believe that they can do the same whenever they want. They will likely try to drag out the case for a while to try and punish Yuriorkis Gamboa with legal fees.

Canelo & Trout go face-to-face!

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