Ten years ago today: Oscar De La Hoya scrapes past Felix Sturm in Las Vegas

A decade ago today, Oscar De La Hoya, the number-one star and Box Office draw of the sport, fought a then largely unknown Felix Sturm in what was “The Golden Boy’s” first fight up at middleweight.

For De La Hoya, the fight, held at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, was supposed to be a high-level “warm up” for an assault on world middleweight king Bernard Hopkins’ belts (B-Hop defeated Robert Allen on the same card that June night in 2004), but the fight turned out to be much more than that.

Challenging the 20-0 German for the WBO belt, De La Hoya came in looking overweight and sluggish and he came within a whisker of paying the price and blowing the Hopkins mega-match. Sturm may have been unknown, but he had behind him a superb amateur career and he unveiled his skills against the 36-3 superstar who, at age 31 was six years his senior. Sturm boxed behind his superb left jab, out-punched De La Hoya, marked him up around the eye and generally appeared to boss the fight.

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Kings of the Ring: A Conversation with Mike Tyson and Larry Holmes at Turning Stone

VERONA, NY (June 4, 2014) — Turning Stone hosted “Kings of the Ring: A Conversation with Mike Tyson and Larry Holmes” today to promoted this week’s ESPN Friday Night Fights (see fact sheet below), promoted by Iron Mike Productions, at the resort casino in upstate New York.

Longtime sports columnist for the Syracuse Post-Standard and Syracuse.com, Bud Poliguin, served as the moderator, asking the two Hall of Famers and world heavyweight champions a series of questions, before the floor was opened for the many fans in attendance to ask Tyson and Holmes questions.

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Press Conference: “Knockout” Reality Show Finals with Floyd Mayweather Sr.

NUVOtv’s “Knockout” will broadcast from Casino Miami Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida on Saturday June 7, 2014. “Knockout” is a tournament-style reality series wherein young boxers are trained by world-renowned trainers Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Ruben Guerrero and Yoel Judah.

Scheduled televised fights include:

Dennis Douglin (16-3, 10 KOs) vs. Charles Whittaker (40-15-2, 24 KOs) (10 Rounds)
Azea Augustama (16-1, 9 KOs) vs. Cory Cummings (17-5, 13 KOs) (8 Rounds)
Ahmed Elbiali (4-0) vs. Yuwshua Zadok (2-1-1) (4 Rounds)

Douglin, Augustama and Elbiali all made brief statements, as did Floyd Mayweather Sr.

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Kali Meehan Beats Sprott To Win Super 8 Heavyweight Tournament

Quarter Finals:
1/Anthony Nansen (4-2, 1 KO) W 3 (unanimous) Hasim Rahman (50-9-2, 41 KO)
2/Brice Ritani Coe (4-2-1, 3 KO) W 3 (split) Alonzo Butler (30-3-1, 22 KO)
3/Kali Meehan (39-5, 31 KO) W 3 (split) Hunter Sam (10-3-2, 4 KO)
4/Michael Sprott (41-21, 17 KO) W 3 (majority) Martin Rogan (16-6, 8 KO)

Quarter Final summary:

It was sad to see shell of Hasim Rahman sleepwalk through three rounds. Local Anthony Nansen (30-5 as a Kick Boxer) was able to move around and out score the 41 year old former heavyweight champion of the world. Rahman, inactive since a two round knockout at the hands of Alexander Povetkin for the WBA belt in September 2012, tried and edged the second, but it just wasn’t there, his right hand repeatedly missed the mark or caught gloves as the Kiwi circled away. Eastside’s score: 29-28 Nansen.

In a close bout, Brice Ritani Coe showed the benefits of working in Las Vegas sparring countryman Joseph Parker and other notable big men to take the points over American Alonzo Butler whose work rate and conditioning let him down.

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Golovkin vs. Geale: Saturday, July 26 Live on HBO

NEW YORK CITY (June 3, 2014) Boxing’s fastest rising star, Middleweight World Champion, GENNADY “GGG” GOLOVKIN will battle two-time world champion DANIEL “The Real Deal” GEALE in his triumphant return to ‘The Mecca of Boxing”, Madison Square Garden SATURDAY, JULY 26 and televised Live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT., it was announced today by K2 Promotions and GGG Promotions in association with Gary Shaw Productions and Grange Old School Boxing.

Headlining the sensational “G4” boxing extravaganza, Golovkin will defend his World Boxing Association (‘WBA’) and International Boxing Organization (‘IBO’) titles against Geale in the scheduled 12-round main event. Golovkin was recently elevated to “Super Champion” status by the World Boxing Association.

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Richard Schaefer leaves Golden Boy Promotions

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, has resigned from the company as of today. This was no surprise as Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya had recently bumped heads over the issue of mending the fence with Top Rank. De La Hoya was in favor of patching things up with Bob Arum and Top Rank, whereas Schaefer was against it.

Schaefer had been with Golden Boy Promotions for 12 years and was a huge part of the company’s success. De La Hoya had the name, but Schaefer did a lot of the hard work in putting cards together and signing high quality fighters.

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Floyd Mayweather Junior’s planned June trip to U.K shelved due to visa issues

Those U.K fans who were excited about meeting superstar Floyd Mayweather Junior during his planned speaking engagements this week will be disappointed, Jeff Powell of The Mail has reported, as the series of dates, planned for this month, have had to be scrapped due to unspecified visa complications encountered by Mayweather.

Fans, who had parted with as much as £200 to meet and greet the undefeated great, were to have met Floyd in Bolton (Amir Khan’s home town), Leeds, London and a number of other locations throughout the U.K. But it’s been reported that Mayweather’s attempted flight to London has been met with the visa problems.

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Groves’ Style Like a Toddler With a Loaded Diaper

The title seems to be a foul, a low blow, hitting a man when he’s down. But, it’s not intended to be. No one is questioning Groves’ heart or effort. Honestly, though, all you parents and grandparents out there must certainly understand the reference. You’ve seen your bow legged little scamp ambling around with a full load. The little cuties exhibit awkward movements, which makes them look a little discombobulated.

It is just an observation about a fighter’s peculiar style, one that would seemly tire a fighter. It requires a fighter to be in an awkward position. It’s an unnatural posture, accentuated by the oversized trunks. Couple that with legs wide spread, too wide for graceful movement. Then throw in a humped back, with shoulders hunched forward and you’ve got Groves. If he was any thinner, you could put a woman’s wig on him, and you’d swear he was a dowager.

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Carl Froch believes the sport is flying after amazing Wembley night

Carl Froch says his fantastic KO win over George Groves at Wembley Stadium connected by EE has still not sunk in – and The Cobra is urging British boxing to capitalise on its greatest night.

Froch secured back to back wins over Groves and retained his WBA and IBF World Super Middleweight titles again with a stunning eighth round knockout, in front of 80,000 fans at the national stadium live on Sky Sports Box Office.

The Nottingham star penned his finally fight diary entry in the Evening Standard today reflecting on the biggest night of his career, and confirming that while he will bide his time over his next step, he has the itch to go over to Las Vegas and sample the bright lights.

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Froch v Groves II – Postscript

Someone once described boxing as show business with blood. Joe Frazier’s take on it was perhaps more to the point. “Boxing is the only sport where you can get your brain shook, your money took, and your name in the undertaker book.”

How to place boxing as a sport in the second decade of the 21st century? Whenever we take a measure of ourselves and society today the word civilized automatically springs to mind – and yet, interrupting this smug belief in our own sophistication, up pops a sport like boxing to remind us of the uncomfortable truth that barbarism still has its place.

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