Last week's pay-per-view fight of Oscar De La Hoya and Ricardo Mayorga was not only another win by De La Hoya, but one more hugely subscribed fight involving "the Golden Boy."
The fight was the fifth best-selling of the 17 HBO Pay-Per-View fights De La Hoya has been featured in. The top five events for De La Hoya — which are also the the top five non-heavyweight pay-per-view in boxing history — are:
vs. Felix Trinidad (1999) – 1.4 million buys, $71.4 million in revenue
vs. Bernard Hopkins (2004) – 1 million buys, $56 million in revenue
vs. Shane Mosley (2003) – 950,000 buys, $48.4 million in revenue
vs. Fernando Vargas (2002) – 935,000 buys, $47.8 million in revenue
vs. Ricardo Mayorga (2006) – 875,000 buys, $43.8 million in revenue
With the Mayorga fight, De La Hoya's all-time pay-per-view totals are an amazing 10.3 million buys and $488.1 million in revenue.
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Speaking of the fight, according to the Nevada Athletic Commission, Ricardo Mayorga tested positive for a banned diuretic known as Lasix on Wednesday. Diuretics are known to not only help quickly lose weight, but also are affective in masking steriods.
Mayorga has twenty days to respond before the Commission holds a hearing to decide the boxer's fate. Past cases involving diuretics have resulted in fines and suspended licenses.
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While the current hot topic of Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Jr. continue to make headlines, another father and son boxing duo recently made news.
After firing his father as trainer after his 2004 loss to Winky Wright, Shane Mosely reunited with Jack Mosely, who will be in Shane's corner as trainer for the July 15 rematch with Fernando Vargas.
Jack Mosely was Shane's trainer since the age of 8, helping him become a champion in the lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight divisions. In 1998, Jack was named Trainer of the Year while his son was named Fighter of the Year.
But after a loss to Wright for the undisputed junior middleweight title, Shane not only dropped his father from his corner and brought in Joe Goossen to train him. Later, John David Jackson became Mosley's trainer but currently Jackson is training Bernard Hopkins in preparation for his June 10 fight against Antonio Tarver, leaving Mosley with no trainer for the Vargas rematch.
The Mosleys had tremendous success working with each other, so the reuniting is not only a great personal move, but should prove to be a good won professionally.
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The extremely popular and flashy Naseem Hamed was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Friday stemming from a driving accident in April 2005.
Hamed, the former world featherweight champion, crashed his car into two other vehicles in England last year, leaving a man with a broken leg and two broken arms. It was found that Hamed was driving over 90 MPH when the crash occured.
The boxer known as "Prince Naseem" has not announced his retirement, but Hamed (36-1, 31 KOs) will be 33 when he leaves jail and will have not fought since 2002, when he beat Manuel Calvo by unanimous decision.
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In his home country, Clinton Woods retained his IBF light heavyweight belt Saturday night in Sheffield, England, beating Jason DeLisle with a sixth-round TKO.
DeLisle (18-5-2, 9 KOs) was aggressive, going inside all night, but he paid for it. Woods used his uppercut to defend his title and move his record to 39-3-1, with 24 KOs.
Woods must next face Glen Johnson in a mandatory defense, the third fight between the two. After a draw in November 2003, Johnson won by unanimous decision in February 2004.
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Also on Saturday was Arthur Abraham's victory of Kofi Jantuah in an IBF middleweight title bout in Germany.
Abraham took the championship with a unanimous decision and kept his record a perfect 21-0 (17 KOs) while Jantuah fell to 30-3 (19 KOs.)
On the undercard, Markus Beyer (34-2-1, 13 KOs) retained his WBC super middleweight title against Sakio Bika when a head butt stopped the fight. The fight was a technical draw after Bika's head butt in the fourth round opened a cut under Beyer's right eye and swelled it shut. Bika is entitled to a rematch after the head butt was ruled accidental.
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One of the world's best pound-for-pound boxers — and certainly the best super middleweight — is Joe Calzaghe. Calzaghe, #10 on Blog and Weave's Top Ten Pound-for-Pound rankings, is 41-0 with 31 knockouts and is making his HBO debut on July 8.
The only problem is, with two months to go, an opponent has yet to be determined.
ESPN.com's Dan Rafael has the low-down on who may face Calzaghe and who he should face.
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I really loved the Rocky franchise (except for the disaster that was Tommy Morrison and Rocky V), but when rumors started a year or so ago that another film starring Sly Stallone was in the works, I was not looking forward to it. What was Rocky Balboa going to fight, Parkinson's disease?
However, when I checked out the film's page at IMDB.com, I was actually quite pleased. In the list of credits, some of boxing's biggest names are mentioned. First off, Antonio Tarver makes his movie debut when he plays Mason "The Line" Dixon, which is one of the worst names I've ever heard but he brings some credible boxing skills to the big screen, something most boxing movies lack.
Also appearing are commentators Max Kellerman, Brian Kenny, Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant. Both Dan Rafael and Bert Sugar also appear, each credited as "Reporter." Check out a few production stills that have come out.
