Boxing Rumors (Maybe Hidden Truths) 3/14/08

1. Who said trash talking does not work? It appears Mikkel Kessler will be fighting Edison Miranda on May 24 at a venue to be announced on Showtime. It was said Kessler turned the fight down on at least two occasions in the past. Then Miranda started trash talking Kessler. Now it is said the fight will now happen. Hopefully this is a lesson to Ricky Hatton who continues to say as long as Junior Witter talks trash about him he will never fight Witter. Sometimes the best way to shut the bully up is to take it straight to him and whoop his a$$, if you can LOL.

2. The Carlos Quintana-Paul Williams rematch is getting closer and closer to becoming complete. It could come as early as May 24 on HBO, however Quintana prefers the fight to be more in the mid to late June range. HBO and Showtime both have interest in showing the fight so it will be televised, but the date and network need to be worked out.

3. In a slight contrast to rumor #2, it has been mentioned that HBO and Showtime will once again collide with fights on June 7 this time. HBO is going to televise a tripleheader on June 7 with Kelly Pavlik-Gary Lockett as the main event, Daniel Ponce De Leon-Juan Manuel Lopez, and Andy Lee-Marco Antonio Rubio. Showtime has moved Vernon Forrest fight against Sergio Mora from May 10 to June 7 and is going to pair it with Carlos Quintana-Paul Williams rematch to form a doubleheader. Should be interesting to see which rumor is right, #2 or #3!!!!!

4. It appears that Paulie Malignaggi will be fighting his contractual mandatory rematch against Lovemore N'dou on the undercard of Ricky Hatton-Juan Lazcano on May 24 in England. If Hatton and Malignaggi both win they will then fight each other in the fall in the United States. As far as the May 24 date, Golden Boy is still trying to work out those fights being televised. However at this time it appears if it is televised in the United States it will not be on HBO or Showtime.

5. The Lightweight Title eliminator between Zahir Raheem and "Kid Diamond" Almazbek Raiymkulov for April 18 on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights is OFF!!! The IBF, which was going to sanction the fight as their eliminator, decided not to after Kid Diamond did not go to the doctor to clear up an old medical suspension. Since Kid Diamond missed the deadline to qualify for the fight, Raheem's camp is now trying to talk to Ali Funeka of South Africa about fighting. Funeka is next in line on the IBF rankings. The winner would become the mandatory for newly crowned Lightweight Champion Nate Campbell.

6. Markus Beyer won an 8 round UD today in Germany to set up a potential fight with Roy Jones Jr. Jones Jr. was at the fight and said he is looking to possibly do some business with Beyer in Germany. Should be interesting to see if Roy Jones Jr. will indeed fight outside of the United States. As many know, since Roy Jones Jr. got robbed of a decision in Seoul Korea in 1988 of his well deserved Gold Medal, he has had no desire to fight outside of the US.

7. Miguel Cotto weighed 159 pounds at his 30 day weigh in. Cotto as you know will be defending his WBA Welterweight Title on April 12 against Alfonso Gomez. Be sure to check out The Buildup on http://www.alfonsosgomez.com/.

8. Peter Manfredo Jr. got back in the win column tonight beating Shane "The Irish Hitman" Benfield via 6th round TKO. Manfredo's body attack took a toll on Benfield and the fight was stopped at 2:30 of the 6th round.