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Boxing Memorabilia Canelo Stand Alone

Canelo by Richard T. Slone

Official artwork of Richard T. Slone available now at www.FightMuseumLV.com

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Five questions that will be answered by UFC 152

by Maggie Hendricks

Finally, we have a fight week after way too long of a break. Jon Jones is putting his belt on the line against Vitor Belfort, a middleweight. It’s not the fight we want, but it’s the fight we get. Here are a few questions that will be answered by Saturday night’s fights in Toronto.
What does changing an opponent on short(ish) notice do to Jon Jones? If there has been one hallmark of Jon Jones’ career, it’s been good preparation. In every title defense, he has shown a complete knowledge of his opponents strengths and weakness. He then exploited those weakness for a win. This is why he wouldn’t take Chael Sonnen on short notice. With Belfort, he had about a month to study up which is a shorter time than usual. If he’s not prepared, the champ could end up beating himself.
Will Michael Bisping or Brian Stann be the (maybe possibly could be) next middleweight contender? UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva’s next fight will be against Stephan Bonnar, but beyond UFC 153, he needs a new opponent. This could be decided with the Bisping/Stann match-up … perhaps. If Silva decides he wants to fight only Georges St-Pierre or light heavyweights with middle names that start with a Q or take six months off, the Stann/Bisping winner could be left in the cold.
Can the flyweights steal the show? Joe Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson’s bout to decide the inaugural flyweight champion was the headliner before the cancellation of UFC 151. Though they’re not the main event of the night anymore, but that doesn’t mean the 125-lbers won’t be the stars of the show. The little guys tend to bring exciting fights. That should be no different on Saturday.
Does Matt Hamill still have it? It’s been more than a year since Hamill ended his career — for the first time — with a loss to Alexander Gustafsson. He’s back after a brief retirement, but will he still have the fire to get it done in the Octagon? He’ll have a chance to show it against Roger Hollett.
Will fans tune in? UFC 152 was solid before the Jones/Belfort bout was cut together and pasted onto the poster. But people’s response to the cancellation of UFC 151 was angry. It’s possible the anger will carry over and keep fans from spending $54.95 on Saturday night.

Jon Jones jokes about relationship with UFC, refrains from ugly response

by Kevin Iole

TORONTO – He’s won world title fights in the most spectacular fashion imaginable against some of the meanest, nastiest, baddest men in the world.
Jon Jones has, at 25, and in a little more than a year as the UFC’s light heavyweight champion, established himself as one of the elite fighters in mixed martial arts history.
He hasn’t hit so much as a speed bump in his career in the cage.

Jon Jones attends the UFC 152 Press Conference ahead of his fight vs. Vitor Belfort. (WENN.com)Thursday, though, had the potential to be a career-defining day for him. This was the day when he would finally face the public and would be forced to answer the question that has been the biggest story in the sport for the last month.
On Aug. 23, Jones opted not to fight Chael Sonnen in the main event of UFC 151 when original opponent Dan Henderson injured a knee. No sort of finagling, demanding, pleading, coddling or badgering by UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta or UFC president Dana White could force him to change his mind.
“I’m a huge fan of being prepared,” Jones said. “I’m a gigantic fan of being prepared. I ultimately believe being prepared leads to making the fight look easy. You do your homework, you pass tests. It’s as simple as that. To go back to the Chael Sonnen situation, I wouldn’t have been able to do my homework and it wouldn’t have been a smart decision.”
So, Jones passed on the situation. When White couldn’t find a suitable main event on just eight days’ notice, he was forced to cancel the card at a cost of at least $20 million to the company.
White was irate and didn’t hide that he placed most of the blame on Jones for the cancelation. The public sided definitively with White and painted Jones as the UFC’s biggest heel.
Jones got his first real opportunity to plead his case on Thursday at the final news conference to promote his match on Saturday against Vitor Belfort at the Air Canada Center in the main event of UFC 152.
Over the past month, Jones was vilified as a selfish, egotistical phony who was out of touch with the people who helped him become rich and famous.
That person, though, was not present at the downtown sports bar where the UFC made the final push for ticket and pay-per-view sales for Saturday’s card.
Jones came to the news conference needing to do something dramatic. What he did while sitting behind a microphone answering questions was every bit as dominant in its way as what he did while battering Mauricio “Shogun” Rua en route to taking the light heavyweight title at UFC 128.
Jones hit a massive grand slam at a time he needed one most.
Asked how he felt about fighting in Canada, Jones beamed that toothy grin of his and said, “Even if I get booed, I’m still happy to be here. I’m going to put on the best show I can for you guys, for sure.”
He made his case logically and passionately. He was deferential when he needed to be, but he was far from a pushover.
White was missing, but his presence loomed large over the proceedings. The minute the news conference was opened for questions, Jones was put on the spot. He was asked to describe his relationship with White.
When he wants to be, Jones can be disarmingly charming. After he beat Rua at UFC 128, he delighted the crowd by animatedly describing the way he’d run down a mugger a few hours before the fight.
He used his story-telling ability Thursday to quickly cut the tension.
“I hate him,” Jones said of White, feigning anger. “I hate him. Hate everything about him.”
He then folded his arms across his chest, leaned back in his seat and animatedly nodded his head.
A few seconds passed before he started to laugh and speak again.
“Nah, I’m joking, man,” Jones said. “Dana White’s awesome. You know, I’ve said before, Dana White is a passionate guy. … When he’s upset with you, he’s going to be passionate. I forgive Dana White for any insults he might have given me. I’m looking forward to talking to him and just moving forward.
“I’ve said this before, but me and Dana White are both ambassadors of this great sport. The two of us not being on the same page really makes no sense for anyone. I really want to get this sport as far as possible and get the word out, and I think working along with Dana and the UFC is a great way to do that.”
He related a story about how he’d struggled with everything that was thrown at him and how his girlfriend’s mother told him to use adversity as an opportunity to grow.
“Right now, I’m on top of a lot of things,” Jones said. “I’m doing a great job as a parent, a great job in my business and I’m doing really well with my performances, training really smart and everything.
“I believe I’ve grown from all of it and I appreciate all the curveballs life has thrown me.”
Jones, though, wasn’t a pushover. He didn’t apologize meekly, and he pushed back at White and Fertitta several times, albeit respectfully.
He apologized to those who purchased tickets to UFC 151 in Las Vegas, many of whom had non-refundable airfare and so were forced to fly to Las Vegas with no fight to see. But he never wavered from the “I did the best thing for my career,” position.
“I’m hoping that at the end of the day, the fans start to open up their minds about the situation and realize that I’m not a UFC executive,” Jones said. “I have absolutely zero power to cancel an event.
“At the end of the day, being a world champion, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this.”
He was honest and said he wasn’t sure if he’d have taken the fight even if White and Fertitta had told him they’d cancel the card if he did not.
He made light of Sonnen and noted he didn’t feel Sonnen has knockout power and was a less-threatening opponent than Belfort. Jones said he could defend a double-leg takedown, in a nod to Sonnen’s success against middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
But he wouldn’t take the blame for the cancelation of the show or for his decision.
He said he hoped he helped make his fellow fighters aware that they have rights. While he didn’t say so directly, he was intimating that he proved a fighter could stand up to White, refuse to be bullied and still have a viable career in the UFC.
“Being the champion, it means more to me than any fan,” Jones said. “It means more to me than it means to Dana White. If I would have somehow lost that fight, Dana wouldn’t have lost a night of sleep over it. Life would have gone on. … Ultimately, why wasn’t it a good enough card? Why wasn’t it a great card? Why did it have to get canceled? I watch bar fights. I love fights, no matter what level it is.
“I think it was more of an insult to the other fighters on the card that, pretty much it was like saying they weren’t good enough to host the card without me and Dan Henderson. I think that was more of an offensive thing. They should be mad at the superiors, not me.”
Whether Jones did enough to win back the favor of the fans is a question only time can answer.
Jones, though, did a brilliant job of advancing his cause on Thursday. He positioned himself as a charming innocent who had the wherewithal to refuse to be bullied.
Unquestionably, skeptics will remain. And should he lose on Saturday, there will be a portion of the fan base that celebrates.
But needing something dramatic to repair his image, Jones belted it out of the park.
If he beats Belfort on Saturday, he’s going to leave Canada with not one, but two major wins under his belt.

As Manny Pacquiao nears decision on opponent, Timothy Bradley says Pacman is ‘scared’

by Kevin Iole

Timothy Bradley won a split decision over Manny Pacquiao on June 9 (AP)Almost every move Timothy Bradley has made in the aftermath of his hotly disputed split decision win over Manny Pacquiaoon June 9 in Las Vegas has been the wrong one.
His decision to call out Pacquiao on Wednesday, with Pacquiao only days away from choosing his next opponent, only adds to the list of his strategic errors since the bout.
In a decision that outraged millions around the world and prompted the Nevada attorney general to conduct a review of the bout, Bradley won a split decision over Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on June 9 to claim the World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
Perhaps never in boxing history has a win hurt a man more. Even Bob Arum, Bradley’s promoter, was outraged at the call. Upon the bout’s completion, he raced over to reporters at ringside and railed at the call.

Can you believe that? I had it 10-2! After I got into the ring after the fight, I went over to Bradley and said ‘You did very well.’ He said, ‘I tried hard, but I couldn’t beat the guy.’ This is crazy. You talk about killing boxing? All three scorecards you throw out.

Arum demanded Nevada attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto conduct an investigation, particularly since most people believed Pacquiao had won going away.
The WBO, which sanctioned the fight, ordered a review and determined that Pacquiao deserved to win. Masto, in a letter to Arum, said she was unable to discover any evidence of malfeasance.

Displeasure with the subjective decisions of sporting officials is not a sufficient basis for this office to initiate a criminal investigation. Unless evidence beyond mere displeasure is forthcoming, this matter will be considered closed. While there may be strong disagreement with the decision, the exercise of professional judgment by individuals officiating at a sporting event is not by itself a criminal violation.

Timothy Bradley called Manny Pacquiao (R) “scared” on Wednesday (AP)In the days after the fight, Bradley was largely silent, refusing nearly all interviews. At a time when it would have been important for him to get his side of the story out, Bradley chose, repeatedly, not to talk.
But with Pacquiao closing in on a decision, Bradley for some reason changed course.
On Wednesday, only days after Arum returned from a visit with Pacquiao in the Philippines, Bradley called out Pacquiao and suggested to reporter Leighton Ginn of the Desert Sun, his hometown newspaper, that “a lot of people on that side are scared.”
Pacquiao is essentially choosing between Juan Manuel Marquez, with whom he has fought three extraordinarily close fights, and Bradley. Arum said that Pacquiao will make up his mind later this week or over the weekend and that he would likely make an announcement next week.
Bradley tried to nudge Pacquiao in his direction with an ill-advised shot at the Filipino superstar. The last thing Pacquiao is — the last thing any professional boxer is — is afraid. Yet, that was the way Bradley tried to make his case for a rematch.

To be honest with you, I think a lot of people on that side are scared. He couldn’t knock me out with two peg legs. Me healthy, I’m going to beat him worse.

Bradley injured both of his feet in the fight, including a break of the left foot, and attended the post-fight news conference in a wheelchair.
Pacquiao will fight again on Nov. 10 in Las Vegas at the MGM, Arum said. Pacquiao is balancing how badly he wants to avenge the defeat against how much more money he’d make by fighting Marquez a fourth time. Pacquiao’s third fight with Marquez in November 2011 sold about 1.3 million pay-per-view units. The Pacquiao-Bradley fight did slightly more than 900,000.
Bradley’s bon mot in Pacquiao’s direction is unlikely to sway Pacquiao’s decision in a positive manner. However, it could have the effect of Pacquiao determining he doesn’t want to give Bradley another payday.
Large segments of the fan base have said they’ll never buy another fight again. Fans often make that emotional kind of comment in the aftermath of a decision they disagree with, but if Bradley lands the rematch, it is likely that sentiment would bubble up again.
Despite the win, Bradley isn’t dealing from a position of strength. His belt is essentially meaningless, given that the majority of the world believes Pacquiao won.
Calling Pacquiao “scared” did nothing to enhance his odds of landing the fight. At this stage, if something won’t improve your odds, don’t do it.
If I had to guess, I’d guess Pacquiao is leaning toward Bradley, despite the fact that the revenues from the two fights would suggest Pacquiao would make far more money in a rematch with Marquez.
Regardless of who he fights, though, Arum said Pacquiao has committed to conducting his entire training camp in Los Angeles. In recent fights, he’s done half in Baguio in the Philippines and the other half in Los Angeles