By Jim Amato
There are strong indications that Don King is going to match Vitali Klitschko against former champion Hasim "Rock" Rahman sometime in May. Rahman may be the best fighter Vitali has yet to face.When motivated Rahman can be a very dangerous adversary.This could be the hardest fight of Vitali's career. On the other hand an impressive win by Vitali against one of the two men who defeated Lennox Lewis may draw Lewis out of retirement.
I like Rahman's chances especially if he is in peak condition. I hope he trains hard because more then likely this will be his last shot. Still it makes me worry a bit about a Rahman victory when I remember "Rock" was defeated by John Ruiz.
Nevertheless if this fight does come off it should give us a better gauge in determing if Vitali is the real thing.
Former multiple world champion Hector Camacho Sr. age 42 has been arrested in connection of the theft of computer equipment in Gulfport. When police went to Camacho's hotel room in Biloxi, Miss. they found an amount of the drug Ecstasy. Camacho was taken into custody.
The one time "Macho Man" was still an active fighter. His last fight was in March of 2004. In his prime he has lost only to the best boxers of his generation. His first loss was to rugged Greg Haugen. He was then defeated by Julio Cesar Chavez, Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Along the way he has defeated Sugar Ray Leonard, Vinny Pazienza and Roberto Duran on two occasions.
Hector also holds victories over Edwin Rosario, Howard Davis Jr., Boza Edwards, Freddie Roach, Rafael Limon, Jose Luis Rameriz and Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. We are talking about possible Hall Of Fame credentials here.
Hector lost on a seventh round technical decision to Chris Walsh in April of 2003. His overall record is 78-5-2 with 38 KO's. He has never been stopped.
He wasn't John Garfield but Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini gave a solid effort in the lead role of the remake of the boxing classic, "Body And Soul". Surrounded by a solid supporting cast, Ray was able to occasionally rise to the occasion but in the end the movie just lacked something. Maybe it was just a mistake to try to out do the outstanding original. Ray and company were just not able to pull it off.
There was some fine performances in the movie. Michael Chiklis of "The Shield" fame was outstanding as boxer Charlie Davis' (Mancini) long time friend.
Joe Mantegna was excellent as the powerful and ruthless promoter. Rod Steiger gave his usual top flight performance as the head trainer of Davis. All and all the movie was unspectacular. There were some funny moments and some powerful moments but not enough to carry the whole picture. It is worth watching once and the filing in your collection.