Talk Tough With Shawn Darling June 26 2004

INSIDE BOXING (June 26, 2004) - I have to take my hat off to Jose and Mauricio Sulaiman from the WBC. Despite filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year and going through Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation proceedings now, they found it in their hearts to give former WBC light heavyweight champ, Matthew Saad Muhammad a brand new belt. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Matthew winning the belt and a formal presentation is in the works. A New York court ordered the WBC to pay former champ, Graciano Rocchigiani $31 million after it was deemed that they illegally stripped him of his title. The WBC’s defense stated the misunderstanding was over a typographical error.

Heavyweight contender, James Toney was given clearance to resume training this week after finishing physical therapy for an Achilles tendon injury. He had been coming off two big wins against Evander Holyfield and Vasiliy Jirov when the injury occurred training for a fight against Jameel McCline. Toney is negotiating a fight against WBO champ, Lamon Brewster for the fall.

Super welterweight champ, Kostya Tszyu was recently stripped by the WBA for not defending his belt in the allotted time period. Tszyu has not fought since January 19, 2003 in a TKO 6 win over Jesse James Leija. Tszyu will be defending his IBF belt November 6 against IBF interim champ, Sharmba Mitchell in Australia.

Mike Tyson’s July 31 bout against Kevin McBride has been changed to a July 30 bout against Danny Williams in Louisville, Kentucky. Tyson’s handlers stated that they got a more credible opponent for a better price. (McBride wanted $400,000 and Williams settled for $250,000) In other Mike Tyson news, the former undisputed heavyweight champ, was granted a boxing license in New Jersey this week. Unfortunately for Tyson, NJ Governor James McGreevey is attempting to block him from fighting in any state owned facilities which include the Meadowlands arenas and the Boardwalk Hall in AC. Call me crazy, but if McGreevey is doing this because of Tyson’s prior criminal history why isn't he blocking all the other professional boxers with criminal records from fighting in NJ too? How can McGreevey of all people, question Tyson's integrity anyway? I say let him fight because it will bring a large amount of revenue to the state. He has been behaving for a while since he allegedly raped the beauty pageant contestant, bit Holyfield’s ear, attempted to break Frans Botha’s arm, knocked out Orlin Norris after the bell, knocked the ref down with a punch after the fight was stopped against Lou Savarese, tested positive for marijuana after the Golota fight, bit Lennox Lewis’ leg during their press conference fiasco, and served a couple of months for assaulting the two elderly guys in Maryland. (I didn’t mention the two guys in NY because they started it and Tyson finished it.) And to finish off the Mike Tyson news, he settled his $100 million lawsuit against Don King for $14 million. This could open the doors to Tyson fighting one of King’s heavyweight champs in the near future.

There is a great card at the King’s Hall in Belfast Ireland tonight featuring Brian Magee (22-0) against Robin Reid (36-4-1) in the main event. Magee will be defending his IBO super middleweight belt for the eighth time against the former WBC super middleweight champ. Other Irish favorites on the card will be flyweight Damaen Kelly, light heavyweight Darren Corbett, and lightweight Michael Kelly in separate bouts. (And yes, I am of Irish heritage)