Boxing Rumors (Maybe Hidden Truths) 5/27/08

1. Don King won the purse bid from the WBO to stage the Nate Campbell-Joel Casamayor fight. The winning bid was $1,220,000 and the purse is supposed to be split 50/50 instead of the traditional 80/20 in favor of the champion. King has stated the fight, if signed, will take place on August 27 in either England, Florida, or Las Vegas. Golden Boy put a bid of $571,000 for the fight. Pretty weak bid futher showing they really did not want the fight to take place. The WBO gave Don King until May 29 at 4pm EST to send the contract to Golden Boy. All parties must have the contracts signed and the WBO must have receive the signed contracts no later than June 3 by 4pm EST. If Campbell does not sign the contract then Casamayor would become full WBO Lightweight Champion. If Casamayor does not sign, then Campbell would be free to make an optional defense while the next mandatory challenger is determined. This should be interesting.

2. More details on David Haye signing with Golden Boy. Haye signed a 5 year exclusive contract with Golden Boy Promotions for his fights in the United States and Golden Boy will be the co-promoter for his fights in England. Haye will fight under his own promotion company Hayemaker Promotions in England. Haye also signed a deal with Setanta Sports that will air four of his fights plus six other fights, which one will be a British Title bout, under his Hayemaker Promotions banner. The deal with Setanta will run through 2009. Haye's next four fights are supposed to be staged at the O2 Arena which is owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group. AEG recently purchased a minority stake in Golden Boy Promotions. Whew, big business here.

3. Paulie "Magic Dumbass" Malignaggi has reportedly completely shaved his hair off. As you should already know, he fought with braided hair extensions until his corner cut them off Saturday. Apparently Paulie shaved his hair Monday night and went to the doctor to check out his hand on Tuesday morning. He believes unless something really horrible is going on with his right hand, he should still be ready to fight Ricky Hatton in November.

4. If Paulie Malignaggi cannot fight in November, there is someone else ready to take his spot against Ricky Hatton. That fighter is newly crowned WBC Junior Welterweight Champion Timothy Bradley. Bradley defeated Junior Witter earlier this month. As you already know, Hatton has been avoiding Witter like he had the Ebola virus. Hatton could fight Bradley and if he won, Hatton would get the WBC belt. Hatton has never held the WBC belt, which is probably the most respected belt of them all.

5. Jean Pascal has pulled out of his June 6 ESPN2 fight against Fulgenicio Zuniga with a shoulder injury. The fight is supposed to be rescheduled in July or August.