NY’s "Laugh Factory" hosts former champ’s press conference.

By Mike Indri
Retired Boxers Foundation
 
Where more appropriate to hold a press conference, alerting the boxing media that Ike Quartey will be a featured attraction on the Jermain Taylor vs. Bernard Hopkins II "No Respect" undercard, than a joint adorned with wall-to-wall posters of Rodney Dangerfield?
 
Both Quartey and his promoter Lou DiBella, president of DiBella Entertainment, emphatically noted that although Tuesday’s press conference was held at the renowned Laugh Factory Comedy Club in New York City, this was no laughing matter.
 
"This night (Dec. 3rd - at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas) continues the comeback of Ike Quartey.  The comeback continues," stated DiBella.

The affable DiBella then announced that his fighter will be facing Carlos Bojorquez (25-7-6, 21 KO’s) in a 10-round televised junior middleweight bout.
 
Quartey (36-2-1 with 30 KO‘s), after losing close decisions to Oscar De La Hoya in 1999 and Fernando Vargas in 2000, abruptly retired from boxing and returned to his native Accra, Ghana.
"The way Ike left boxing left a real bad taste in his mouth," noted DiBella.
 
After close to five years of inactivity Quartey realized he needed to return.  "I am back to cement my legacy, to win a world championship," noted the former World Boxing Association welterweight champion, adding "I’m not back for the fame or money, I am doing it because I love boxing."
 
January 14, 2005 marked the first fight in Quartey’s comeback. 

As if facing a fighter as dangerous and destructive as Ike "Bazooka" Quartey wasn’t difficult enough, a gutsy Clint McNeil (15-6) encountered an insurmountable task; trading punches with "Bazooka" at the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex in Accra, Ghana, where Quartey is treated like a hero and the fight was proclaimed a national event!

The game McNeil, a lifelong resident of Meridian, MS., was dropped in the seventh round and knocked down twice in the eighth, before the referee wisely halted the bout.

Quartey’s last fight (6/15/2005) was to be much more difficult.  Against former two-time world champion Verno Phillips (38-9-1, 20 KO’s), Ike was getting as much as he was giving.  Knocked down in the ninth round, Quartey was forced to reach down and come up big in the tenth and final round; and "Bazooka" delivered.  Winning round ten on all three judges scorecards enabled Quartey to garner a well earned unanimous decision victory. 
 
Beating Bojorquez, who didn’t survive six rounds with the aforementioned Phillips (TKO’d 6) in 2004, is the next step in Quartey’s plan to be fighting for a world title in the not too distant future.

"I’m going to prove this comeback is for real, and on Dec. 3rd I’m going to knock this guy (Bojorquez) out to prove it," stated Quartey, who then proclaimed, "Then I want my rematch with Vargas or De La Hoya!"
 
Like the good promoter that he is, Lou DiBella reminded those in attendence the real reason for Quartey’s reaffirmed love affair with the sweet science.

"Ike didn’t come back to fight Carlos Bojorquez or Verno Phillips, he wants to fight the best in the division and show he is the best 154lb. fighter in the world."

Seldom at a loss for words, the likable DiBella (who also promotes Jermain Taylor) closed the show, "It looks like Oscar will be fighting Mayorga and Mosely is set to fight Vargas; if anyone falls out Ike is ready to step in, and,"  added the ex-HBO boxing guru, "After Taylor beats Hopkins, and Ike knocks out Bojorquez, we are going to call out De La Hoya!"
 
The December 3rd Taylor vs. Hopkins II HBO Pay-Per-View fight card ($49.95), along with the Quartey vs. Bojorquez bout, will feature a unification super bantamweight championship match between WBC Champion Oscar Larios (56-3-1, 36 KO’s) and IBF Champion Israel Vazquez (38-3, 27 KO’s).  This bout also serves as the rubber match in a slugfest of a trilogy which saw Vazquez knockout Larios (KO 1) in 1997 and Larios come back to hand Vazquez his last defeat (via TKO 12) in 2002.