De La Hoya to announce his boxing future Tuesday

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer

VEGAS (AP)—If Oscar De La Hoya had dodged Manny Pacquiao’s punches as well as he deflected questions about his future Friday, the next step in the Golden Boy’s boxing career wouldn’t be in doubt.
De La Hoya will announce whether he’ll fight again on Tuesday afternoon— and not a moment earlier, he insists—during a news conference in Los Angeles at Staples Center, where a statue of him stands watch outside.
During a lengthy chat on the day before his promotions company stages Winky Wright’s middleweight fight with Paul Williams, De La Hoya insisted he has firmly made up his mind about his future. Yet boxing’s most popular fighter is still thinking about both courses of action, with compelling arguments both for retiring and for staying in the ring.
“My decision is solely based on how I feel, not on how (business partner) Richard (Schaefer) feels, and not on how my wife feels,” De La Hoya said. “I’ve had input from tons of people. Obviously I’m going to pay more attention to people who are closest to me, but I literally was asking people in the street: ‘Should I retire or should I continue?’ It was split.
“‘Enjoy your family.’ That was my No. 1 response from most people.”
Judging by the scattered boos greeting De La Hoya during his duties as a promoter in San Jose and Las Vegas in recent weeks, many fight fans apparently hope Pacquiao put him into retirement. The Filipino pound-for-pound king stopped De La Hoya after eight rounds Dec. 6 in a thorough thrashing.
The loss was De La Hoya’s fourth in his last seven fights, and he hasn’t beaten a truly daunting opponent in several years. De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) seems well aware of his limitations, yet he still hasn’t quenched the competitive fire that drove him to win Olympic gold and enough title belts to cover both of his outstretched arms.
Although retirement seems logical for a fighter who had long vowed to quit in late 2008 before hedging his intentions, some boxing observers also wonder whether De La Hoya-the-promoter can allow De La Hoya-the-fighter to retire.
He is his company’s most valuable asset, with every fight generating multiple millions in revenue and providing an undercard showcase for his top young fighters. Golden Boy Promotions sits with Bob Arum’s Top Rank atop the sport, yet Golden Boy’s most marketable fighters—De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Sugar Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez—are all in their mid-30s or older.
“There’s no pressure whatsoever,” De La Hoya insisted of his business concerns. “Golden Boy Promotions is a machine on its own. It’s a company that is paving the way towards the future of the sport, and we don’t need the Hopkinses or the Mosleys or the De La Hoyas to rely on.”
De La Hoya can’t explain exactly why he looked so bad against Pacquiao, although he claims he lost a surprising amount of muscle mass while making the 147-pound weight limit. He still hasn’t watched the fight again, saying he has it on TiVo, but can’t bring himself to push “Play.”
Although De La Hoya says he had no power behind his punches at the slim weight, he walked around Mandalay Bay on Friday weighing just 152 pounds.
“If I’m weighing 154 up in that ring, I can be a beast,” he said, his eyes flashing at the thought. “I’m not trying to be 152. I’m eating great. I just lost a lot of muscle mass. Something went wrong (against Pacquiao).”
De La Hoya insists he’s wary of sticking around his sport too long. He has contemplated the cautionary tale of Brett Favre, who ruined a graceful end to his career in Green Bay for one tedious campaign with the New York Jets.
“If I did decide to retire, I’m content with my career,” De La Hoya said. “I’m content with what I’ve accomplished. As an athlete who’s very competitive, you always want more, but in the back of your mind you start thinking about all the wins and what you’ve accomplished for the sport. That’s what makes it so difficult. You think, ‘I can still do this.”’

GARCIA TO FACE NEW OPPONENT

Humberto Tapia 143.5 lbs.

Photos by Marlene Marquez
Golden Boy Promotions hard hitting undefeated Jr. Welterweight prospect, Danny "Swift" Garcia (11-0, 7 KO's), was scheduled to fight Puerto Rico's Edwin Algarin, but will now face Humbero Tapia who hails from Tijuana Mexico. Both fighters made weight today as Garcia tipped the scales at 143lbs while Tapia weighed in at 143.5lbs. Garcia vs Tapia will take place at the Mandaly Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas NV, on the Winky Wright vs Paul Williams card set to take place this Saturday, televised live on HBO.Tickets for the explosive matchup, priced at $300, $200, $150, $100 and $50 are now on sale and available for purchase at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (702) 745-3000. Tickets also will be available for purchase at http://www.mandalaybay.com/ or http://www.ticketmaster.com/.Wright vs. Williams, a 12 round middleweight bout which is presented by Golden Boy Promotions, Goossen Tutor Promotions and Winky Promotions and sponsored by Southwest Airlines. The bout will air live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00pm ET / 7:00pm PT.

Mario Serrano
Publicist ~ Shelly Finkel Management
http://us.mc376.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=boxingpublicist@aol.com
(408) 607-5756

Wright vs Williams in bout of much-avoided boxers

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP)—When Paul Williams tells the sad, frustrating story of his last few years in boxing, it’s clear he feels like he’s on the same lonely career path traveled by Winky Wright about 10 years ago.
Almost everybody thinks Williams is one of the most impressive fighters in boxing, and absolutely nobody wants to let him prove it on their skulls. From welterweight to middleweight, the top fighters won’t take his calls.
But it’s tough to blame them. Williams’ 6-foot-1 frame, seemingly effortless ability to switch weight classes without losing power, and a much smaller man’s mobility make him an awful matchup for a champion hoping to keep his belts.
While others move up the boxing ladder to big fights and bigger paydays, Williams (36-1, 27 KOs) has been working his way through second-tier bouts on undercards and at Indian casinos, even after beating Antonio Margarito two years ago.
“I’m tired of calling out guys and asking for the biggest fights,” Williams added, the frustration evident in his tone. “If they want me now, they’re going to have to call me out from now on.”
That’s because when Williams called Wright, somebody finally picked up the phone. Their middleweight matchup happens at Mandalay Bay on Saturday night.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity that Winky’s giving me,” Williams said. “If I wasn’t fighting him, I don’t know if I’d be fighting at all. I know what he’s gone through, because I’ve gone through the same thing.”
Although the 37-year-old Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) had multiple reasons for taking a tremendously tough comeback fight, he sympathizes with Williams’ frustration. He fought mostly overseas for several years in his 20s, when he was perceived as a nightmare matchup for any quality 154-pounder with the sense to avoid his defensive prowess and sneaky power.
“Like Paul said, it’s tough when nobody wants to fight you, and you see all these other fighters getting fights,” Wright said. “I know how Paul feels about being avoided. We’ve got two fighters here that are grateful to fight each other. … It’s always frustrating when you can’t get a fight, especially when you see the best fighters in your weight class avoiding you like the plague, avoiding you by any means necessary.”
Rising heavyweight Chris Arreola (26-0, 23 KOs), touted by his promoters as the first Mexican-American with a good shot to become heavyweight champion, will meet Jameel McCline (39-9-3, 23 KOs) in the co-main event of the HBO card.
Wright’s nearly two-year absence from the ring wasn’t entirely because he couldn’t find a fight. After his upset loss to Bernard Hopkins in July 2007, Wright took an extended break to raise his newborn son and enjoy the life of a retired star. He often could be found on the casino floor on the night of a major fight, but he claims he was much more eager to be in the ring.
When Wright finally got serious about continuing his career, he claims nobody wanted a piece of him except Williams.
“I’m glad I’ve got a great opponent,” Wright said. “It’s hard to get up for a fight when you’re fighting a nobody, when there’s a chance you might not win. Paul brings that excitement to the fight. I know he wants the opportunity, and I’m glad to find a young fighter with heart who’s willing to get out here and fight and get what he wants.”
The matchup is intriguing for more than the matchup of two fighters passing each other on their lonely career paths. Wright’s defensive skills, if they haven’t rusted during his absence, will get a brutal test from Williams, who’s likely to pepper him with something like 100 punches per round.
Wright and Williams clearly appreciate each other for the opportunity to headline a Las Vegas card—Williams’ first main-event fight in boxing’s capital city. At Friday’s weigh-in, they both laughed when lining up eye-to-eye—or eye-to-chin, given Williams’ height advantage.
They even shared a quick hug. It’s a big change from Wright’s last weigh-in, when Hopkins shoved him in the face and instigated a scuffle that cost him $200,000 in fines, but undeniably sparked interest in the pay-per-view card.
Neither man was up for any such shenanigans. They’ve worked too hard for too long to endanger the rewards they’ll finally get a chance to claim Saturday night.
“If you’re a fighter, that’s what you do,” Wright said. “You’ve got to come in and fight the best, and my whole career I’ve tried to fight the best. I’m putting my money where my mouth is. I didn’t come out and fight another guy who’s been out for two years.”

AP Interview: Joe Frazier still simmering over Ali

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP)—Muhammad Ali described his third and final fight with Joe Frazier as “death, closest thing to dyin’ that I know of.”
Frazier recalls their brutal matchup outside Manila as something much less grandiose.
“We just did our job,” he said.
The two great heavyweights always have been the ying and yang of boxing. Why should things change nearly 35 years later?
Now 65 and walking with the use of a cane, the slightly stooped Frazier reflected on the iconic fight in Quezon City in 1975 during a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press. He also talked about the contentious relationship between the starring characters, which is the subject of the new HBO documentary “Thrilla in Manila” premiering Saturday night.“I don’t think Manila was my greatest fight,” Frazier said forcefully.
He ticks off several others in vivid detail, from the Golden Gloves to his gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, to the “Fight of the Century”—when he beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in 1971 to retain the heavyweight title.
“The greatest fight was ’71, when we were all undefeated,” he said. “There was more money, more people. I don’t know why they make this one out to be the biggest fight.”
When it comes to his longtime foil, Frazier is sympathetic to the suffering Parkinson’s disease has caused Ali. But as a Christian, Frazier said, he isn’t surprised by it, either.
“I’m sorry that he is the way he is, but I didn’t have too much to do with it. It was the good man above,” Frazier said. “Maybe I did have a little to do with it, but God judges, you know what I’m saying? We don’t have the power to judge that the man has above.”
Frazier believes that Ali’s arrogant boasts of “I am the greatest!” were “a slap in the Lord’s face,” and that he did the same to his family when he changed his name from Cassius Clay to reflect his Muslim beliefs.
“I respect him as a guy who did a fine job in the fight game,” Frazier said. “I don’t think he really loves me. I didn’t like nothing he done, you know?”
That lingering tension can be traced to their epic trilogy, which turned former friends into enemies and culminated with an event that became as much about politics as prizefighting.
Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos actively sought their 1975 bout to divert attention from the social turmoil that was raging in his country, and promoter Don King—ever one to put on a spectacle—consented to holding the fight at the Araneta Coliseum.
It was the rubber match between two bigger-than-life heavyweights on the decline, Ali having beaten Frazier in their 1974 rematch. Following that bout, the tongue-whipping Ali regained the title by beating George Foreman in Zaire, the famed “Rumble in the Jungle.”
Frazier was hanging on for one more shot at the title—and one more at Ali.
The animosity that grew over the pair’s first two fights reached a climax when, after the Philippines bout was announced, Ali pulled out a black rubber gorilla and famously launched into a poem: “It will be a killa and a chilla and a thrilla, when I get the gorilla in Manila.”
“He kept saying, ‘Joe Frazier, I’m going to whup you,”’ Frazier recalled, still pained by the race-baiting attacks. “I said, ‘Alright, I’m going to wrap your butt up.’ People loved him on the basis of his noise.”
The fight was scheduled for 10:45 a.m. to accommodate television in the United States, and the morning broke hot and humid. Thousands of people packed the arena, filling even the aisles, and for 14 rounds the two titans clashed— Ali winning the early rounds, Frazier asserting himself over the middle rounds.
Ali staggered Frazier in the 12th, then again in the 13th, one clean punch knocking his mouthpiece into the crowd. Frazier’s left eye was swollen shut, his right eye closing. Even though the scorecards were virtually tied, and against Frazier’s objections, his trainer Eddie Futch called a stop to the fight.
After throwing his arms up in celebration, an exhausted Ali collapsed to the canvas.
Ali later tried to make amends, calling the mocking use of a gorilla a promotional ploy, and said if “God ever calls me to a holy war, I want Joe Frazier fighting beside me.”
But the wounds ran deep, and while the two men have alternated apologies with attacks over the years, their relationship is still raw.
“I don’t mind people want to think Muhammad is the greatest fighter around,” Frazier said. “Everybody wants to make him great because of his mouth, that he was the best. He was good, but that doesn’t make him great. I proved that.”
While the aftermath of a career spent inside the ring left Ali a broken man physically, it left Frazier broken financially.
He lost much of his hard-won fortune in real estate dealings gone awry, and gave away untold thousands of dollars, generous to a fault. While contemporaries like Foreman and Larry Holmes—and yes, Ali—are living comfortably, Frazier has only a humble Philadelphia apartment.
He hangs around the gym and spends time with young fighters, but he’s no longer interested in the sport at its highest level. There are too many so-called champions in too many weight divisions, and the heavyweights—long considered the most glamorous—have become a joke.
The sport’s popularity has waned considerably from the days of his historic battles with Ali, when the “sweet science” was forefront in newspapers and the American psyche. Now, boxing has become a niche sport followed mostly by the devoted.
“It just doesn’t interest me anymore, the guys aren’t exciting anymore,” Frazier said, while holding out hope that its luster might one day be restored.
“Sure it bothers me. I’m going to wait until (President Barack) Obama gets a little quiet in Washington, and then I’m going to see if he has a meeting with me, or take a few guy with me, and seen and be heard about it.
“Let’s see if we can get this back to where it needs to be.”
Perhaps back to where it was in 1975.