Police needed to calm nerves at Bellew-Cleverly press conference; McGuinness vs. Gaudet on 10/22; Mendez wants rematch against Salgado

Police were called out to today’s heated head-to-head press conference between World Boxing Organization (WBO) World Light-Heavyweight Champion Nathan Cleverly and challenger Tony Bellew in Cardiff.

Cleverly and Bellew meet in a big “Battle of Britain” at the Liverpool Echo Arena on Saturday 15th October, but it wasn’t the boxers trading punches early!

Cleverly’s father and trainer Vince got into a row with one of Bellew’s entourage in the press conference room while the boxers were doing their one-on-one interviews.

Vince was raging when he thought one of Bellew’s team was making fun of him and had to be restrained from going over to him.

At one point the volatile trainer was punching himself in the face while a shocked Nathan was speaking to TV crews.

Calm was restored when a unit of police officers’ arrived on the scene and spoke to both parties.

Nathan said, “I was a bit taken aback by what was happening and tried to keep focused on my interview,”

“I didn’t see what happened to make my dad go off like that, but he’s a passionate person and he probably got a bit over excited,”

“You’d expect this sort of stuff to happen at an American press conference with Floyd Mayweather’s dad or something, but not in Cardiff”

“Bellew could cause trouble in an empty room, but he’s got a whole lot of trouble with me on October 15th now.”

Bellew said, “My team were behaving themselves, it seems to me that Cleverly’s dad was trying to rattle us ahead of the fight,”

“I was doing interviews when a saw a load of coppers burst into the room and I thought it was a wind up at first as part of the publicity then I realised it was serious,”

“It was all sorted out calmly and I finished my interviews and we all drove back to Liverpool,”

“At the end of the day it’s me and Nathan who are going to be fighting, he won’t be able to call the police to help him out and this has just made me more determined to win that world title.”

This will be the last time that Cleverly and Bellew will see each other again until the week of the fight.

Last week Bellew provoked the unbeaten Welshman at press conference in Liverpool when he stuck his head into Cleverly’s during the head-to-head photos.

And in May the pair got into an explosive slanging match at a press conference in London when Bellew was going to step in to fight Cleverly when then WBO World Champion Juergen Braehmer failed to arrive.

McGuinness-Gaudet Headlines Canadian Showdown on October 22

TORONTO (September 12, 2011) – The much-anticipated Canadian showdown between undefeated World Boxing Association (“WBA”) No. 11-rated Logan Cotton McGuinness and former world title challenger Benoit Gaudet will headline a rivalry show, presented by Hennessy Sports in association with Interbox and United Promotions, on Saturday night, October 22 at The Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.

The pair of Canadian combatants has been on a collision course for nearly two years, since the younger McGuinness established himself as a legitimate national prospect. The stacked McGuinness-Gaudet card features many of the leading prospects in Canada.

“We’re thrilled that the McGuinness-Gaudet fight is finally happening,” promoter Adam Harris (Hennessy Sports) said. “We’ve worked very hard to put Logan and Gaudet in the ring together because Canadian fight fans have been clamoring for this match-up. Without question, we know that this is the stiffest test of Logan career to date, as well as a boxing fans dream match between a skilled boxer and pressure fighter. It’s going to be a great fight.”

McGuinness (15-0-1, 7 KOs), fighting out of Orangeville, Ontario, is a hot prospect who has been the North American Boxing Association (“NABA”) Lightweight Champion for the past 13 months, but the Irish-Canadian will abdicate his belt in order to challenge Gaudet for the vacant NABA super featherweight title.

The 31-year-old Gaudet (24-2, 10 KOs), of Quebec, owned the NABA super featherweight crown in 2007-2008, and is a past Canadian lightweight champion. In 2009, Gaudet was stopped by defending champion Humberto Soto in their World Boxing Council (“WBC”) super featherweight championship match, which was the co-feature on the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton mega-fight card..

Unbeaten Columbian welterweight Samuel Vargas (7-0-1, 1 KO), fighting out of Mississauga, Ontario, faces outspoken Montreal favorite Ahmad Cheikho (6-3-2, 5 KOs) in the 8/10-round co-feature. The relentless, pressuring Vargas has been inactive since February due to an injury and recovery, while Cheikho finds himself in a crossroads fight.

In a six-round bout, former Canadian amateur standout Ibrahim “Firearm” Kamal (4-0, 4 KOs) plans to continue his perfect pro streak against TBA, while a pair of Ontario lightweights – Jeremy Abbott (2-2, 1 KO) and Harrison McBain (3-3-1) – throw-down in an expected 4/6 round war.

Also fighting on the undercard in four-round bouts are Ontario fighters Dillon Carmen(1-0), a heavyweight prospect, light middleweight Brandon “Bad Boy” Cook(2-00, 1 KO), and super featherweight Natasha Spence (2-0-1, 2 KOs). All fights and fighters are subject to change.

Tickets, starting at $30.00, may be purchased at the Hersey Centre Box Office, or through Ticketmaster at 416.872.5000 or ticketmaster.ca.

Go on line at www.HennessySports.comfor more information McGuinness and the Oct. 22 show.

TEAM MENDEZ WANTS REMATCH IMMEDIATELY WITH SALGADO

New York, NY – (9/12/2011) – This past Saturday, DiBella Entertainment’s super featherweight contender Argenis Mendez traveled to Mexico to take on Mexico City-native Juan Carlos Salgado for the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) super featherweight championship. The fight saw terrific action from both boxers and was close, but the general consensus was that Mendez had done more than enough, and definitely more than Salgado, to pull out the decision victory. However, Salgado, the hometown favorite, was awarded the decision. ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael noted, “Salgado pulled this one out, but it certainly wasn’t easy and, frankly, it was close enough that giving the decision to Mendez would have been fine. Had the fight been on his turf, he might have gotten the call.”

While Team Mendez admits the fight itself was close¸ there was a number of questionable calls and non-calls made by the referee throughout the 12-round contest that certainly affected the outcome.

Salgado repeatedly hit Mendez behind the head with rabbit punches during the contest, and, although he was warned a number of times, at no point did the referee deduct a point. On the other hand, in the fifth round, a point was deducted from Mendez for the same infraction, without any previous warnings being made to the fighter.

In addition to the rabbit punching by Salgado, the fighter was also allowed to excessively hold at different points during the fight, especially in the 12th round after being knocked down and hurt very badly by Mendez. The excessive holding by Salgado allowed him to finish the fight and win the controversial decision by scores of 115-110, and 114-112 twice.

Give the controversy and circumstances of the fight, Team Mendez is asking for an immediate rematch. If an immediate rematch is not granted, Team Mendez hopes that they will at least retain their top position in the IBF ratings, so that a rematch with Salgado can be made in the very near future.

Promoter Lou DiBella added, “A rematch between Salgado and Mendez would be a terrific opening fight for Boxing After Dark or Showtime. If Gamboa is really moving up to 130 he will need quality opposition and a real champion to face.”