Manuel Quezada Weighs in at 230 Ready For New Opponent

WBC CABOFE CHAMPION

MANUEL "EL TORO" QUEZADA TAKES ON NEW OPPONENT JEFF BROWNFIELD
WEIGH-INS

QUEZADA (230 LBS) VS BROWNFIELD (208 LBS)

Q & A with Manuel Quezada
By Anson Wainwright ~ 15rounds.com

Tomorrow night in Lemoore, Ca Heavyweight Manuel Quezada 26-4(16) looks to add another win to his increasingly impressive resume. He'll be matched over 8 rounds with journeyman Jeff Brownfield. Having started his career going 11-4 in his first 15 contests it looked as though Quezada was going nowhere anytime soon. However in his next 15 bouts he's gone 15-0. Quezada 31, seems on the cusp of a big fight with one of the leading big guys and hopes that this marking time fight will keep him in good shape and active (Imagine that from a Heavyweight!?!) until his opportunity comes along. Here's what Quezada had to say.

Hello Manuel, welcome to 15rounds.com
Anson Wainwright - In your last fight you stopped Eric Boose in five rounds, what can you tell us about that fight? How do you view that performance?

Manuel Quezada - It was one of my better performances. The last time we fought I won a unanimous decision. This time around I got the KO. I wanted to come out and let me hands go and that was the difference. Since then I've improved my game tremendously. I feel I'm ten times better than I was back then.

Anson Wainwright - Your on a very good run now, you've gone 15-0 since you last lost back at the end of 2005. How have you developed as a fighter since then?

Manuel Quezada - When I first started boxing, I really didn't take it that seriously. I knew I was better than my record showed. So I started getting good sparring and made the move to start training in LA. My timing was getting better and I started to sit on my punches more. That was the difference. Continue Reading...

Mario Serrano
Publicist ~ Tachi Palace Casino
boxingpublicist@aol.com
(408) 607-5756

Haye hopes to revitalize heavyweight division

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sport Writer

NEW YORK (AP)—One of heavyweight boxing’s harshest critics could end up being its savior.

His name is David Haye, and although he has virtually no following in the United States—what heavyweight does these days?—he’s well enough known in Europe that 47,000 tickets were sold in the first two days for his June fight against IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Haye combines the knockout power of a young Joe Frazier with the bravado of a young Muhammad Ali, his mouth usually moving just as fast as his hands. He was the undisputed cruiserweight champion before moving up to heavyweight, where he quickly lined himself up for a shot at the long-reigning champion.

A shot at putting some drama back in a stale division, too.

“It’s up to me to come in and shake it up,” Haye said, spicing up his description of the heavyweights with some choice expletives. “Nobody knows what the hell is going on in this division, ever since Lennox Lewis hung it up.”

That said, about the only thing Lewis and Haye have in common is that they’re Brits.

Lewis, who retired in 2003 after stopping Vitali Klitschko in Los Angeles, chose his words carefully and never got too riled up. He was a model of English etiquette, the noble champion with a big following who left a gaping void in the sport when he walked away in his prime.

The 28-year-old Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) speaks without a censor, sometimes without thinking. In just a matter of weeks he’s gone from relatively unknown challenger to the big reason more than 60,000 are expected at Schalke’s soccer stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on June 20.

At news conferences from Germany to London to New York’s Times Square, where he met with reporters Thursday, Haye has been wearing T-shirts that depict him standing in the ring with the dismembered heads of Klitschko and his brother, WBC champion Vitali—promotional ploys intended to get under the champion’s thick skin.

“It’s for shock,” Haye said, rocking back in a chair. “Twenty years from now, they’re not going to remember the T-shirt. They’re going to remember how I destroyed Wladimir Klitschko in Germany in front of 60,000 of his fans.”

The needling has evidently been working.

The usually mild-mannered Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) has taken offense at the grisly T-shirts. The only time he’s been this upset before a fight, he confided, was back in 2001, when Klitschko knocked out Derrick Jefferson to defend his title the same weekend as his birthday.

“He said my birthday party was going to be a funeral party. That really upset my brother,” Klitschko said, smiling at the memory. “But he paid the price for it.”

Klitschko is smart enough to understand the marketing element to the sport, that it sometimes takes over-the-top publicity stunts to drum up intrigue. It’s one of the reasons the two fighters also planned a trip to the top of the Empire State Building for photo ops.

The pensive champion thinks the big-punching Haye has gone too far, though, and for the first time Klitschko can remember he is predicting a knockout. In the 12th round, so that he can punish the young challenger as long as possible.

“I think David Haye is an immature fighter and person,” Klitschko said. “I’ll make sure David Haye, after the fight, is going to eat his words. Then he’s going to eat his T-shirt with the words on it.”

Unbeaten "Cobra" Froch risks title against Taylor

MASHANTUCKET, Connecticut (AFP) - Undefeated British super middleweight champion Carl Froch will defend his crown for the first time on Saturday against former undisputed middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor.

Froch, an Englishman from Nottingham nicknamed "The Cobra", carries a 24-0 record with 19 knockouts into his showdown with US star Taylor, 27-2 with one drawn and 18 knockouts, for the World Boxing Council title.

"I want to show the doubters. I want to make a statement," Taylor said. "This is a comeback fight for me and will probably be remembered by the outcome. It's the kind of fight I need."

Froch, whose only prior fight outside England was in 2005 in cinematic wonderland Hollywood, took the title last December in his hometown with a 12-round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Canadian Jean Pascal.

"Jermain seems very confident, talking about being back and number one, but make no mistake - this is my belt. I'm the champion. I'm undefeated," Froch said. "Only a few warriors have been able to go the distance with me.

"Come Sunday morning, Jermain Taylor will be disappointed that he doesn't have the belt. I'm showing the Americans what "The Cobra" is made of."

Taylor claimed the undisputed middleweight crown with a 2005 split-decision victory over Bernard Hopkins and defended the title with three triumphs and a draw before being stopped by countryman Kelly Pavlik in 2007.

Taylor lost a unanimous decision in a 2008 rematch and moved up to super middleweight, defeating compatriot Jeff Lacy last November to book his first title bout in his new weight class against Froch.

"I have found the hunger again and it took fighting Carl for the belt to get it back," Taylor said. "I'm more focused on boxing because I don't have to worry about making weight. If I catch him, he's going to sleep."

Valuev-Chagaev fight set for Helsinki

FRANKFURT (AP)—The WBA heavyweight title fight between Nikolai Valuev and Ruslan Chagaev on May 30 will be held in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

Sauerland Promotions said Thursday the fight will be staged at the Hartwall Arena.

Chagaev won the WBA version of the heavyweight title by beating Valuev in Stuttgart on April 14, 2007. He had to pull out of a rematch twice because of a ruptured Achilles’ tendon and was declared “champion in recess” by the WBA. Because of his status, he has to fight Valuev by the end of June.

Valuev won the vacant title in August by beating John Ruiz, then defended it in December against former champion Evander Holyfield.

“The day has come to settle the score,” Valuev said. “I have been waiting for two years to make amends. Only a victory over Chagaev can put my mind at rest.

“Now is the time to end all this confusion. There will only be one WBA heavyweight champion after May 30 and that will be me.”

Chagaev won a technical decision over Carl Davis Drumond on Feb. 7, in the Uzbekistan-born heavyweight’s first fight in more than a year.

Chagaev was ahead of Drumond on points when the bout was stopped after the sixth round because of a cut over Chagaev’s swollen left eye.

Chagaev’s record is 25-0-1, with 17 KOs. Valuev is 50-1, with 34 KOs.