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On Friday night at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, once-beaten junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara scored a destructive 1st round TKO over former title challenger Ronald Hearns.
The training camp for junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley is starting to heat up. On June 9th, Bradley moves up to the welterweight division when he challenges WBO champion and Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Speaking to Bradley’s trainer Joel Diaz at length recently, I was able to get some insight on how things are shaping up at their Palm Springs, California headquarters.
At the Beau Rivage Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi, undefeated middleweight prospect J’Leon Love scored a 3rd round knockout over South Florida’s Ibahiem King to improve his record to 11-0 with 7 knockouts.
If ever there was a man who has studied Manny Pacquiao from top to bottom, it very well may be respected Mexican trainer Nacho Beristain. Between May of 2004 and November of last year, Beristain led his prized pupil Juan Manuel Marquez into battle with Pacquiao on three separate occasions, with all of the contests being extremely competitive. And despite an overall 0-2-1 tally against Pacquiao, there are those who feel Marquez is well within reason for his belief that he won every bout.
While covering the Brandon Rios-Richard Abril event at the Mandalay Bay this past weekend, I saw a face that looked a little bit familiar. Having grown his hair out noticeably since his last ring appearance a few months back, it took me a minute to spot former junior featherweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., but he seemed as upbeat as possible when approached. Vazquez showed serious grit on February 4th in his bout with Fil-Am star Nonito Donaire in San Antonio, Texas. Despite being rocked in the third round and dropped in the ninth, Vazquez dug down and gave a great account of himself over the second half of the fight, ultimately losing a split-decision.
Over the past few weeks I have gotten to know middleweight prospect J’Leon Love pretty well. Training at the Mayweather Boxing Club and having served as a chief sparring partner for Floyd Mayweather Jr. ahead of his May 5th bout with Miguel Cotto, it has been easy to spot Love’s desire towards his craft and he has a modest nature about him that beguiles his 24 years old age. Love will look to improve upon his 10-0 record with 6 knockouts as he will be fighting this Friday night at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi on the non-televised undercard portion of the Showtime-televised doubleheader headlined by former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor facing off with unbeaten Caleb Truax. And while it would be easy to assume that Love would be in with a soft touch at this point in his career, there was something about his scheduled opponent that immediately caught my eye.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. was again the talk of the town on Saturday night as his presence was felt heavily on the first 24/7 Mayweather-Cotto episode on HBO. Mayweather faces Miguel Cotto on May 5th inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada and anyone wanting an intimate look at each man’s camp can tune-in to the upcoming 24/7 episodes during their scheduled times.
Word is that WBA featherweight champion Celestino Caballero will be back in Las Vegas sometime tomorrow to start gearing up for his next training camp. This will mark the sixth camp that the lanky Panamanian will be working with head trainer Jeff Mayweather, as ‘Pelenchin’ is coming off of a dominating twelve-round decision on December 31st in Satoshi Hosono’s hometown of Kanagwa, Japan.
While covering the Brandon Rios-Richard Abril pay-per-view event this past weekend, I again crossed paths with featherweight contender Miguel ‘Mikey’ Garcia. Mikey was in town to show support for Rios, who is trained by Garcia’s older brother Robert and who he has trained alongside in the past.
Sitting at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas as he was moments away from boarding a plane to head back to his adopted home of Miami, Florida, interim WBA lightweight champion Richard Abril was a man with mixed emotions on this Monday afternoon.