598 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Ryan Maquinana byline.
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Lightweight contender Ray Beltran has inked a promotional deal with Top Rank, according to his manager, Steven Feder. The signing was a foregone conclusion, as talks between Feder and Top Rank had been brewing for weeks. Beltran (28-6, 17 KOs) has won three straight bouts and will contend for a piece of the lightweight title against Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KOs) in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sept. 7.
Super middleweight champion Andre Ward explained the reasons behind his recent arbitration dispute with promoter Dan Goossen on HBO’s The Fight Game Saturday night. Ward had called for an emergency hearing with the California State Athletic Commission last Tuesday as he was seeking a release from his contract with Goossen, his promoter since 2004. However, on Friday, the commission ruled in favor of upholding the contract and the extension Ward signed in 2011. “I simply want my co-promoter Antonio Leonard, who has been my co-promoter since 2008 when he bought out Square Ring, Roy Jones’s company, and my trusted advisor and manager [James Prince], who frankly I’ve known long before I ever met Dan Goossen, to be at the negotiating table and in the room talking to the network and helping to negotiate my fights,” Ward said.
Brandon Gonzales spoke to BoxingScene.com/CSNBayArea.com following his controversial draw with Thomas Oosthuizen last Saturday on HBO. Gonzales (17-0-1, 10 KOs) entered the super middleweight tilt with Oosthuizen (21-0-2, 13 KOs) a lightly regarded underdog, but the Sacramento, Calif., native shed his relative obscurity with a solid performance that had most observers pegging him the winner after 10 rounds. This writer agreed with HBO unofficial scorer Steve Weisfeld, who had Gonzales ahead 96-94.
WBO middleweight titleholder Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin fired back at Abel Sanchez, trainer of fellow 160-pound kingpin Gennady Golovkin, regarding his controversial comments regarding the state of the division. “I had to laugh at those remarks from Abel,” Quillin told BoxingScene.com Thursday afternoon. In a recent interview, Sanchez responded to the news that Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez was targeting an October return for Quillin, who could possibly make the second defense of his belt against Daniel Jacobs (25-1, 22 KOs).
Frank Espinoza, manager of featherweight titleholder Abner Mares, discussed his fighter’s potential Aug. 24 matchup with Jhonny Gonzalez. “First of all, Abner will fight anybody,” Espinoza told BoxingScene.com. “When you get to this level, you have to fight guys like Jhonny Gonzalez, an ex-two-time champion.” After amassing belts at bantamweight and junior featherweight, Mares (26-0-1, 14 KOs), from Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., made his 126-pound debut in May, impressively stopping Daniel Ponce de Leon in the ninth round. If the deal is finalized, he will make his first defense against Mexico City’s Gonzalez (54-8, 46 KOs), who once possessed Mares’s belt before losing it to Ponce de Leon last September.
Frank Espinoza, manager of former two-weight world titlist Vic Darchinyan, made the case for his fighter to earn a rematch with reigning Fighter of the Year Nonito Donaire. “Vic’s been in there with the best fighters in the world in the lower weight classes,” Espinoza said. “He’s got a new team with Espinoza Boxing and the Top Rank banner. He’s very popular in both Australia and the United States, and based on how good he’s looked lately, he wants revenge. He wants to avenge his loss to Donaire, and this is his motivation right now.”
Earlier on Tuesday, BoxingScene.com’s Rick Reeno reported that a federal court ruled to void James Kirkland’s contract extension with Golden Boy Promotions. Kirkland’s co-manager, Cameron Dunkin, commented on the matter. “I think it’s really wrong with everything they did to help him get James out of jail,” Dunkin told BoxingScene.com. “Golden Boy and Oscar [De La Hoya] treated him well. In the end, that’s a decision that he’s going to have to live with.” Dunkin shares managerial duties with attorney Mike Miller, and according to the veteran handler, the pair will seek to have Kirkland continue to honor his contractual agreement with them.
Yvon Michel, promoter of newly crowned light heavyweight world champion Adonis Stevenson, advised BoxingScene.com/CSNBayArea.com that in the event a fight with Bernard Hopkins cannot be made, that he would be willing to do a two-fight deal with super middleweight king Andre Ward. Stevenson (21-1, 18 KOs) stunned the boxing world with a one-round knockout of reigning 175-pound boss Chad Dawson (31-3, 17 KOs) last Saturday in front of his hometown fans of Montreal. “Adonis’s first wish would be to fight Bernard Hopkins, and if that’s not feasible to make that fight, his second wish would be to fight Andre Ward,” Michel said. “Everyone is aware Ward is looking for an opponent that he hasn’t fought. He tried to fight [Julio Cesar] Chavez Jr., or Carl Froch, but Froch seems to be busy somewhere else, so he’s desperate to sign a quality opponent.”
By Ryan Maquiñana - James Page, who once held the WBA welterweight title, was arrested Monday morning for allegedly robbing eight banks over the past three months in his native San Francisco Bay Area. According to an FBI statement obtained by the Bay Area News Group, authorities had given Page, from Pittsburg, Calif., the nickname “The Button Down Bandit” for his preference of wearing collared long-sleeve shirts during the heists.
Lightweight contender Raymundo Beltran advised BoxingScene.com that he has added strength coach Angel Heredia to his team. “Memo won’t be handling my nutrition or my supplements, just strictly strength and conditioning,” Beltran (28-6, 17 KOs) said. Beltran, who fights out of Phoenix, Ariz., is aware of the controversy surrounding Heredia and his checkered past distributing steroids to Olympic track stars like Marion Jones. However, Heredia has since claimed to have turned over a new leaf, resurfacing to work with fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez, who knocked out Manny Pacquiao last year.