By Manny V. - 1. Kelly Pavlik has announced that he will be moving up to 168 pounds and will not exercise his rematch clause with WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.  Instead HBO is reportedly greasing the wheels for him to face Super Middleweight Champion Lucian Bute.  For Pavlik, that would be like running from the fox to the wolf.  Both Martinez and Bute are fast moving southpaws with enough ability to box circles around the slow moving Pavlik; except Bute has an even bigger punch.  If Pavlik were to face Bute and lose, that could be the end of a fighter some called the “savior to boxing”.

2.  Now that Sergio Martinez is freed up, many have suggested he get in the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr.  Read on for more….

By Manny V. - Israel Vazquez sat down for a one on one interview with Liverpuncher.com  He spoke to us about his upcoming fight with Rafael Marquez.  Some topics he touched on were the state of the featherweights including fighters like Juan Manuel Lopez, plus what he felt was the difference in beating Marquez the last time.  In part 2 of the interview, he tells us who he wants next, his thoughts on Pacquiao vs Mayweather, and the blood testing issue...stay tuned!  Read on for the interview transcript...

Amir Khan was simply too big, too strong and too skilled for Paulie Maligniaggi tonight as he scored a 11 round stoppage over Paulie Maligniaggi.  Khan won nearly every round using the same straight jab, right hand combination.  He outboxed Maligniaggi and overpowered him.  At the end of the fight Khan called out Marcos Maidana, who many insiders said he was ducking.  Paulie simply didn’t offer enough power to keep Khan off him and was punished for it every round.  Read on for a round by round coverage and final thoughts…

In a young lion vs old lion match up it was no contest for the young man.  Victor Ortiz put on a very good performance winning nearly every round of the fight.  Nate Campbell simply did not let enough punches go and Ortiz had too much power and movement for the older former champion.  Campbell's plan was to tire Ortiz out using pressure and making the young fighter spend himself, and there were glimpses of Ortiz getting tired near the end.  However, Campbell simply didn't land enough in the process to facilitate a win.  Below is a round by round reaction to the fight plus some final comments.

Round 1: Victor Ortiz starts off fast moving side to side lateral movement landing combinations as Campbell chases.  Campbell with his hands high blocking and chasing Ortiz.  Ortiz lands a right hook then pushes Campbell which causes him to touch the caves with his gloves at the end of the round.  The referee scores it a knockdown. Round to Ortiz  Read on for more…

 

Kermit Cintron is appealing the ruling made in his recent fight against Paul Williams.  He wants to overturn the split decision on the grounds that the judges were incompetent and that the California doctor did not allow him to get up after he fell out of the ring in the fourth round. 

 

The doctor who stopped the fight has claimed that Cintron said he could not continue while Cintron maintains that he wanted to fight but was not allowed to get up because the doctor told him he might have a "punctured lung".  Its a case of Cintron's word against the doctors and the California athletic commission will hear the case on July 26. 

 

Since this fight was a part of the fantasy league, it will remain in "Pending" status until the California Commission makes a final ruling on the appeal.  Some of you may remember there was a similar appeal in the Nate Campbell vs Tim Bradley fight last season that was overruled.  So this time we want to wait for a final decision.

Three-time World Champion ISRAEL “MAGNIFICO” VAZQUEZ, two-division World Champion RAFAEL MARQUEZ participated in a media conference call to discuss their upcoming fights on Saturday, May 22 at STAPLES Center on Showtime.  The fight is in the fantasy league so be sure to get your predictions in before fight time. 

Liverpuncher.com caught up with Israel for a one on one interview which we will post very soon.  Here’s what the fighters had to say on Tuesday:

ISRAEL VAZQUEZ

Is it an advantage to have fought three times before?  Read on for more…

By Sal V

Manny Pacquiao wins election for seat in congress.  Many athletes have entered politics in the past.  Kevin Johnson formally of the Suns and Cavs is now the mayor of Sacramento for example.  Never have we seen an athlete while still at the top of game throw his hat in the political arena until now.

Manny Pacquiao is indeed a champion of the people but not just in the boxing sense.  He hopes to make everyday lives of his countrymen better.  Winning a political battle was not very different from winning a fight in the ring.  He went up against the billionaire Chiongbian family that has been ruling the area for nearly 30 years….that is until

Leonard Ellerbe confirmed that the Shane Mosley vs. Floyd Mayweather fight sold a whopping 1.4M pay-per-view buys according to a report from AOL Fanhouse.  This means that Floyd Mayweather will earn $40 million for the fight - one of the highest grossing paychecks in all of sports today.  This paycheck, combined with what Mayweather could earn in a match up with Manny Pacquiao later this year would most certainly make “Money” Mayweather number one on Forbes list of highest paid athletes of 2010.

  
Comparatively, Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey sold 700,000 pay per view buys earlier this year.  However Clottey was much less popular than Shane Mosley.  Nonetheless, these pay-per-view buy rates will be used by Team Mayweather and Team Pacquiao during negotiations of a possible match up between the two fighters.

 

Where are the MMA critics that said boxing was dead?  Anyone else notice that the UFC decided to stage their event 1 week after Mayweather vs Mosley?  Last time they made the mistake of going head to head with Mayweather vs Marquez and the UFC buy rate suffered as a result.