Talk Tough
8-13-04

INSIDE BOXING (August 13, 2004) - I told you not to miss the Acelino Freitas vs Diego Corrales fight last Saturday on Showtime. It didn’t end the way I hoped it would, but it was still a great fight. I told you not to bet against Corrales. Diego should prove to be a major player in the lightweight division. I would love to see him in a rematch with Floyd Mayweather down the road. I was glad to hear Freitas’ manager, Art Pellulo announce that Freitas was going to enforce the rematch clause in his contract and schedule the fight for next year.

In my June 26 column I asked how NJ governor, Jim McGreevey had the nerve to question Mike Tyson’s integrity and ban him from boxing in NJ. Yesterday he came out of the closet and admitted to cheating on his wife with a man. I’m glad he is resigning November 15. This now opens the doors for Tyson to bring some of that revenue back to my state.

I just witnessed former cruiserweight world champion and current heavyweight contender, Juan Carlos Gomez (37-1) get stopped in the first round by Yamplier Azcuy, (11-1) on the Telefutura channel while I was writing this. Gomez who was ranked #2 by the WBC and #9 by the IBF and WBA will probably fall out of the rankings after such a devastating loss.

2000 US Olympic silver medallist, Ricardo Williams Jr is being sought by federal authorities. He was indicted Tuesday on charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. If convicted he could face 10 year to life.

Undefeated Irish featherweight Bernard Dunne will face Adrian Valdez on August 19 in the opening bout of ShoBox: The New Generation at the Aldrich Arena in St. Paul, MN. Dunne originally from Ireland, now resides in California and is trained by Freddie Roach out of the Wild Card Gym.

The Kosta Tszyu vs Sharmba Mitchell bout scheduled for November 6 looks like it is heading to the East coast. The Showtime televised card will now be held in either Atlantic City or Foxwoods Connecticut. (Great news for us on the East coast)

Jr welterweight, Ricky ”The Hit Man” Hatton (36-0) will face Mike “No Joke”Stewart (36-2) at the MEN Arena in London England, October 1. The winner will be ranked number one by the IBF and become the mandatory challenger for the winner of the Tszyu vs Mitchell fight.

Danny Williams (32-3), who is coming off his stunning 4th round knock out over Mike Tyson, is now scheduled to face Oleg Maskaev (29-5) on October 9 for the vacant WBU heavyweight belt. It will be held at the 10,000 seat Excel Centre in London England. (Personally, I can’t believe William’s people are rushing him into a tough fight like this right away. If he loses it could ruin a multi-million dollar rematch against Tyson.)

I wanted to close with some great personal news. Last week I was contacted by ESPN Radio 1180 and asked to come on their program as a boxing analyst. I was a little nervous at first, but once I got warmed up I couldn’t stop. They told me it went great and they would have me back on in the future.