Ringside With Raymundo: Ward No. 2 Until He Shows Desire For No. 1

ward5 On a chilly Saturday night in Ontario, California, the No. 2 boxer in the world made his return and cemented his status near the top of the fight game with an oftentimes roughhouse outing against a willing yet limited challenger in Edwin ‘La Bomba’ Rodriguez.

A decently filled Citizens Business Bank Arena was treated to more than decent action in the lead up as Jonathan Arellano traded leather with Charles Huerta in an entertaining back and forth that saw the hometown Arellano take home a decision nod and Sergio ‘The Latin Snake’ continued to extend his relevance in the sport with a knockdown and a stoppage win over Milton Nunez.

Yet all eyes were on the main event as Ward was making his return after a ring absence of over one year.

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Bob Arum: “It’s Going To Be Like Hagler-Hearns”

arum45 This is OK in an event in the United States. But we’re going to throw huge security around this, because this is not something that is appreciated by the Chinese. I think, that with all this undercurrent that’s going on, it’s going to be like Hagler-Hearns,” Arum recently stated in response to the scuffle between Freddie Roach and camp Rios.

The animosity between the camps has been there since the day the fight was signed. Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza working against each other is an ingredient that is bound to create heat. Not only that, but Brandon Rios himself has been on the defense/offense, showing his strong dislike of the fact that many boxing fans as well as media members have already written him off as nothing more but a sleep chosen for slaughter.

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Has Freddie Roach’s plan backfired?

Manny Pacquiao’s hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach would have liked nothing better than to see dissension in the ranks at Camp Rios. Freddie hoped the likelihood of that happening would increase dramatically with the addition of Alex Ariza to the team. Freddie made headlines when he fired Ariza from the Pacman team. Freddie explained Ariza was a disruption to training activities, a troublemaker who couldn’t get along with anyone.

An interesting point about this whole mess seemed to be that Manny expressed no dissatisfaction with Ariza; although, he did feel he had to honor Freddie’s wish and agree to Ariza’s dismissal. Therefore, Ariza got the heave ho. Soon after, Ariza latched on to the job of training Brandon Rios for his big fight against Pacquiao. When Freddie got the news, he apparently thought (and hoped) Ariza would have a disruptive influence with the Rios Team.

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Anthony Dirrell Ready For Bika on Dec. 7 on SHOWTIME

bika33 NEW YORK (Nov. 20, 2013) – Unbeaten Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell, who is no stranger to overcoming adversity, finally gets his crack at a world title when he challenges defending champion Sakio Bika for the WBC Super Middleweight Championship on Saturday, Dec. 7, live on SHOWTIME (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The quadrupleheader, headlined by an all-Brooklyn bout between former world champions Zab “Super’’ Judah and Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi, is the first of back-to-back blockbuster events promoted by Golden Boy Promotions live on SHOWTIME. On Saturday, Dec. 14, in another four-fight telecast on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®, rising superstar Adrien Broner will defend his WBA Welterweight Championship against dangerous, hard-hitting Marcos Maidana in the main event.

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Roach and Alex Ariza Make Pacquiao vs. Rios a Personal Affair, Adding Fuel To The Fight

By now, most boxing fans have already heard of, or seen the video where Freddie Roach gets kicked by Alex Ariza in the midst of Roach arguing with multiple members of camp Rios over gym time.

The scuffle was aggressive in nature, with not only name calling, but race as well as Roach’s Parkinson’s disease used as verbal weapons. Alex Ariza went farther than most would, not only kicking Freddie Roach but also mimicking his speech stutter.

Roach and Ariza never worked together in harmony, and their professional relationship also ended in a bad fashion. Words were said, and there was an abundance of finger-pointing coming from both sides.

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Tyson vents his Fury: announces his retirement from boxing!

Remember when, after his awesome KO win over Michael Spinks, an upset Mike Tyson told the media at the post-fight press conference that he may well have fought his last fight and was retiring due to his general disgust at the way the media types had treated him? Of course Tyson never meant it, even if he was angry at the time.

Well, another fellow named Tyson who has not been altogether happy lately, namely Tyson Fury, has also announced his “retirement” from boxing. The word retirement has the speech marks surrounding it because no-one really believes or takes seriously the announcement Fury has made via Twitter, yet who knows for absolutely sure?

Fury, no doubt disgusted at his big money fight with rival British heavyweight David Haye having been cancelled twice, wrote:

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Chisora vs Pala on Nov 30 at London’s Copper Box Arena

Dereck Chisora will now face the hard-hitting Ondrej Pala on Saturday 30th November at London’s Copper Box Arena.

The Finchley puncher headlines the multi-title show alongside Nathan Cleverly challenging for the Commonwealth Cruiserweight title, plus London stars Frank Buglioni and Bradley Skeete both in title action, live and exclusive on BoxNation (Sky Ch. 437/Virgin Ch. 546).

Chisora’s original opponent, Italian Matteo Modugno, was forced to withdraw from the fight over the weekend because he broke two ribs in sparring.

The 29-year-old European Champion believes that the heavy-handed Pala, who hails from Prague in the Czech Republic, will provide a much harder test than Modugno.

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Froch vs. Groves: The Case for George Groves

In the lead up to what promises to be a classic contest, George Groves has been impressive. In fact it’s hard to think of a fighter imbued with as much self belief and confidence as he is right now. It is even more impressive when you consider he is about to step into the ring in the biggest and most important fight of his life in front of a packed Manchester Arena with millions more watching on pay per view against as formidable opponent as Carl Froch.

Groves believes he can win this fight and so do I. He believes he has the attributes to do so and so do I.

What are those attributes?

Terrific handspeed and accuracy: power (15 KOs in a 19 fight unbeaten record tells no lies): excellent lateral movement: the ability to throw shots from different angles: ring awareness: the discipline to box to a gameplan, as demonstrated against James De Gale when he defeated him over 12 rounds in 2011. Perhaps most important of all, he is superb when boxing off the back foot.

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Rashidi Ellis: An Up and Coming Prospect

The up and coming orthodox welterweight pugilist, “Speedy” Rashidi Ellis is one of the best prospects to come out of New England in the last couple of years and his outstanding amateur success has him poised to accomplish significant achievements in the near future.

“I`ll be a world champion in a couple of years because I`m extremely confident in all my skills especially my speed and defense which is good enough to compete with anyone and with additional fights, I`m only going to get better,“ said Ellis.

Ellis is getting a great deal of publicity due to his stellar amateur success. He recorded an impressive 60-11 record against really good competition. This year, he won a Silver Medal at the Independent Cup in the Dominican Republic, losing a close bout to Cuba`s Roniel Iglesias, a gold medalist in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

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George Groves: I am a nightmare for Carl Froch

George Groves believes he has the measure of Carl Froch ahead of their clash for Froch’s WBA and IBF World Super Middleweight titles at the sold-out Phones 4u Arena in Manchester on Saturday (November 23), live on Sky Sports Box Office.

Unbeaten Groves fights in his first World title contest in the North West, as Froch dons the gloves for his 11th fight in a row with a coveted strap on the table. ‘The Saint’ has been bullish in the build-up and has been awarded victory by many in the verbal battle between him and the champ – and the popular Londoner says the time is right for him to defeat Froch.

“This is the fight I have always wanted,” said Groves, speaking at his public work-out at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush. “I respect Carl Froch for achieving what he has in the sport, and I know he’s a tough fighter, but I also believe he is beatable and that I have the style to cause him nightmares.

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