Boxing Rumors (Maybe Hidden Truths) 6/16/08

1. Vernon Forrest said Sergio Mora was not going to fight Shane Mosley next and he meant it. So now Mosley's camp is in talks with Don King about a fight with Ricardo Mayorga. Mayorga's name is come up a lot more than he has as of recently. He has been mentioned for a fight with Pavlik and Mosley. However the fight with Mosley seems to be the one most likely to happen in possibly October or November.

2. Talks have already began for Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto. Of course the talks will become serious after Cotto-Margarito assuming Cotto wins. If Cotto loses, the fight with De La Hoya will probably not happen.

3. Also Golden Boy is trying to get a possible Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik fight going. Not sure why because Hopkins does not need to fight a young guy like Pavlik at this stage of his career. Plus Bob Arum has stated guys like Hopkins, Roy Jones Jr, and Felix Trinidad need to go ahead and retire for good. So not sure if a Hopkins-Pavlik fight will really happen, but you just never know in boxing.

4. Mikkel Kessler said if Joe Calzaghe does not want to fight Kelly Pavlik, he will. Kessler, who has a fight for the vacant WBA Super Middleweight Belt this weekend, says he would like to fight Pavlik for his first defense of the title this fall. Kessler is assuming he wins the the belt this weekend.

5. Bob Arum has said that Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy has contacted him about possibly having Manny Pacquiao fight Ricky Hatton in November. Pacquiao has stated repeatedly the past few weeks he wanted to fight Hatton. Pacquiao however has a fight against David Diaz for the WBC Lightweight Title on June 28. If he wins and looks good then he would want to possibly move up to 140 to fight Ricky Hatton. Hatton has a November fight scheduled with Paulie Malignaggi. Arum said step aside money would be offered to Malignaggi if the fight happens between Hatton-Pacquiao. However I am not so sure that Malignaggi will go for that. It is my understanding that the Hatton-Malignaggi fight is already signed and just waiting on finalized date and location. This could be very interesting.