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'Bazooka' Quartey ready to launch another comeback
Thursday, October 2, 2008 | Print Entry
Posted by Dan Rafael
Another long Ike Quartey layoff is about to end.
The former welterweight champ's career has been littered with long periods of inactivity, most notably the five years -- 2000 to 2005 -- that he didn't fight while building his fortune as a businessman in Ghana.
His latest layoff has lasted almost two years since he lost a lopsided decision to Winky Wright in December 2006, when he moved up in weight for a big payday in a fight he had little chance to win. Since then, I have been regularly asked by the Fight Freaks about when he might fight again, or if he would ever fight again.
Now we all have the answer.
Quartey's promoter, Lou DiBella, who first got to know Quartey when he was an emerging star in the mid-1990s (when DiBella was running HBO boxing and gave him a shot on the network), told ESPN.com that Bazooka was planning another comeback.
DiBella said that Quartey's comeback will take place in December in South Africa. DiBella said he's been discussing the fight with South African promoter Branco Milenkovic, who has a card scheduled for Dec. 5 featuring a junior bantamweight title eliminator between South Africa's Evans Mbamba and Devid Lookmahanak of Thailand.
"Ike wants to fight and Branco and I have been working out the details," DiBella said. "We'll be speaking again on Friday."
Quartey, who turns 39 next month, plans to fight at about 150 or 151 pounds, DiBella said, "with the idea of his next fight at 147, and then he can fight people between 147 and 154, welterweight or junior middleweight. But he's not going to fight again at 160 like he did with Winky."
Before the loss to Wright, Quartey was on the losing end of a terrible decision against Vernon Forrest in August 2006. Since then, Forrest has gone on to win a junior middleweight title, lose it to Sergio Mora and then dominate Mora to regain the title in last month's rematch.
"Ike has been smiling about the success Vernon has had because he knows he beat Vernon," DiBella said. "Vernon's success is one motivation. But Ike knows he needs to get the rust off, which he'll do in South Africa."
After that, he said Quartey would like to return to the U.S. for a bigger fight. Maybe there is one more big one left for Quartey, a one-time pound-for-pound list entrant who has been involved in exciting fights and faced several top opponents, including close decision losses to Oscar De La Hoya (in a welterweight championship fight) and Fernando Vargas (in a junior middleweight title fight) when they were in their primes.
"I've had some conversations with Top Rank and Golden Boy about maybe doing something with them," DiBella said. "Once Ike is back with a 'W,' I'll talk to them about what fights we can do together that make sense."
Thursday, October 2, 2008 | Print Entry
Posted by Dan Rafael
Another long Ike Quartey layoff is about to end.
The former welterweight champ's career has been littered with long periods of inactivity, most notably the five years -- 2000 to 2005 -- that he didn't fight while building his fortune as a businessman in Ghana.
His latest layoff has lasted almost two years since he lost a lopsided decision to Winky Wright in December 2006, when he moved up in weight for a big payday in a fight he had little chance to win. Since then, I have been regularly asked by the Fight Freaks about when he might fight again, or if he would ever fight again.
Now we all have the answer.
Quartey's promoter, Lou DiBella, who first got to know Quartey when he was an emerging star in the mid-1990s (when DiBella was running HBO boxing and gave him a shot on the network), told ESPN.com that Bazooka was planning another comeback.
DiBella said that Quartey's comeback will take place in December in South Africa. DiBella said he's been discussing the fight with South African promoter Branco Milenkovic, who has a card scheduled for Dec. 5 featuring a junior bantamweight title eliminator between South Africa's Evans Mbamba and Devid Lookmahanak of Thailand.
"Ike wants to fight and Branco and I have been working out the details," DiBella said. "We'll be speaking again on Friday."
Quartey, who turns 39 next month, plans to fight at about 150 or 151 pounds, DiBella said, "with the idea of his next fight at 147, and then he can fight people between 147 and 154, welterweight or junior middleweight. But he's not going to fight again at 160 like he did with Winky."
Before the loss to Wright, Quartey was on the losing end of a terrible decision against Vernon Forrest in August 2006. Since then, Forrest has gone on to win a junior middleweight title, lose it to Sergio Mora and then dominate Mora to regain the title in last month's rematch.
"Ike has been smiling about the success Vernon has had because he knows he beat Vernon," DiBella said. "Vernon's success is one motivation. But Ike knows he needs to get the rust off, which he'll do in South Africa."
After that, he said Quartey would like to return to the U.S. for a bigger fight. Maybe there is one more big one left for Quartey, a one-time pound-for-pound list entrant who has been involved in exciting fights and faced several top opponents, including close decision losses to Oscar De La Hoya (in a welterweight championship fight) and Fernando Vargas (in a junior middleweight title fight) when they were in their primes.
"I've had some conversations with Top Rank and Golden Boy about maybe doing something with them," DiBella said. "Once Ike is back with a 'W,' I'll talk to them about what fights we can do together that make sense."
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