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Former junior middleweight champion Winky Wright has become a believer. After picking Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto to beat Pacquiao, and watching Pacquiao batter both fighters - Wright is no longer picking against the Filipino icon. Wright admits to Michael Marley of The Examiner how wrong he was by picking Cotto to knock Pacquiao out.
WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik makes his return on December 19 in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. Pavlik defends his title against heavy underdog Miguel Espino. Finally recovered from a staph infection on his left hand, Pavlik is taking his return very seriously and moved the training from camp Youngstown to Las Vegas.
WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley is on a mission to clean out the welterweight division. He feels that he started the process with his dominating knockout of Antonio Margarito at the start of the year. On January 23, he faces undefeated WBC champion Andre Berto in a unification bout. He plans to fight at welterweight for another three to four years and his goal is to beat every major name at the weight.
Over the last few months, WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan has been involved in a domestic back and forth war of words with WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch. There appears to be a lot of tension between the two. Froch has taken some direct shots at Khan over his performances and stature. Khan believes the feud has to do with jealousy on the part of Froch.
Juan Manuel Lopez is expecting a very tough fight when he moves up to featherweight to face WBO champion Steven Luevano on January 23. Luevano feels that Juanma's camp is underestimating him but the Puerto Rican fighter appears to be taking the fight very seriously.
WBO/IBF/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has kicked WBA champion David Haye to the curb. During a recent Sky Sports interview, Klitschko refused to discuss the possibility of a future unification scrap with Haye. Klitschko is still upset over Haye's withdrawal from their planned June fight. Haye later withdrew from a September clash with older brother WBC champion Vitali Klitschko. Haye claimed a back injury in the Wladimir withdrawal and said the Klitschkos were making unrealistic demands that forced him to withdraw from the fight with Vitali - and then accept the Nikolai Valuev bout.
The negotiations for Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. are underway. Top Rank's Bob Arum and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer [acting for Mayweather] are not providing any details until the deal is done. Arum did reveal to the Las Vegas Review Journal that his Monday meeting with Schaefer went well and they plan to negotiate further during the week. Arum is confident the deal with get done for a tentative date of May 1.
Former champion Edgar Sosa had surgery in Mexico on Tuesday afternoon for injuries that he suffered during the two round TKO loss to Rodel Mayol from last Saturday. Sosa lost his WBC junior flyweight title to Mayol after being battered against the ropes in the second round, which led to the ref jumping in to stop the contest. During that second round, there was a bad clash of heads that sent Sosa down and opened up a cut on his cheek. He was stopped not long after the doctor resumed the fight.
WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward is not going to stop with his big title win over Mikkel Kessler. He wants every major title in the super middleweight division. Last Saturday, Ward upset the odds and battered Kessler for an eleven round techincal decision. Ward is involved in Showtime's ongoing Super Six tournament. So is WBC champion Carl Froch. Ward wants a crack at Froch's belt. He also wants a crack at the other two titles, which are held by fighters who are not in the tournament - IBF champion Lucian Bute and WBO champion Robert Stieglitz.
The fight negotiations for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Manny Pacquiao have just started and every major venue is putting in a bid to host the event. One city making a major play to host the event is New Orleans. Bill Clinton's former consigliere James Carville has spoken to Top Rank's Bob Arum and HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg about bringing the fight to the New Orleans Superdome which could seat around 70,000 for the fight.