Though it's pretty late in the game for this to suddenly become a factor, Peter Quillin tells The Boxing Lab that Winky Wright has requested extra drug testing for their June 2 fight, which will air on Showtime. Quillin has accepted the request, and USADA will oversee the testing.

To date, USADA has done only Floyd Mayweather's fights in boxing, so this will be something new for them. Other fights with extra drug testing in the States have gone through VADA, which has recently led to canceled fights when Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto failed drug tests.

Continue reading this post »

Timothy Bradley faces Manny Pacquiao on June 9 in Las Vegas, live on HBO pay-per-view, in the biggest fight of the 28-year-old American's career to date. In the weeks leading up to the fight, we'll have Q&A sessions with the fighters, courtesy HBO. Here's Bradley's second entry. See Also: Bradley's best and worst memories in boxing and Bradley on what he does away from boxing.

* * * * *

How does it feel getting this fight after being criticized for not taking the Amir Khan fight. Did you know this fight was coming at the time? Where you willing to take all that negativity just to get this fight with Pacquiao?

"In boxing criticism is part of the game. You hear it before, during and after very fight. I have learned to let it roll off me like water off a duck's back. Experience told me that the timing for the Amir Khan fight was wrong. I had already fought and won two world title unification fights against Kendall Holt and Devon Alexander. Both were big victories but because of the timing of when they took place I didn't realize the full financial potential that I feel I should have.

Continue reading this post »

Juan Manuel Marquez will return to the ring on either July 21 or 28 in Mexico, in a fight promoted by Zanfer, as his July 14 date at Cowboys Stadium has been officially scrapped.

BoxingScene.com has quotes from Bob Arum on why the fight fell through, and it's really pretty simple: Marquez wanted big money to fight someone like Mercito Gesta, who has no name value in the States yet, in a fight that most likely would have badly bombed at the massive football stadium and on pay-per-view. Because Top Rank didn't have a southpaw for him -- negotiations for a fight with Zab Judah fell apart when Judah felt lowballed -- they tried to offer him Brandon Rios and Erik Morales.

Marquez, though, is firm about fighting a southpaw in July, as he is confident he'll be landing a fourth fight with Manny Pacquiao late this year. So Arum has bailed on the Marquez business, at least for now, and it's hard to blame him.

Continue reading this post »

Everyone is back on level terms as a new season of pick'em action starts this week.

For those that haven't played before, welcome to the best pick'em game going. Please join right in and start playing (just make sure to check out the rules - we promise they are very simple).

An explanation of how to fill out your selections appears at the bottom of this post - please follow these instructions as it makes it easier for us to tabulate the results quickly each week.

Topping the bill for week 1 are a pair of the world's best 168lb fighters, with unbeaten southpaw Lucian Bute traveling to Nottingham for a showdown with Super-Six runner-up Carl Froch. As there isn't too much else happening in the boxing world this weekend, we've thrown an over-under in as well for this one.

The show's main supporting bout has promising Carl Frampton taking on Raul Hirales of Mexico in a 12-round super-bantamweight clash.

An interesting Friday Night Fights match-up rounds out this week's action, with Alisher Rahimov taking on Ji-Hoon Kim in Missouri.

You can check out last season's final standings here.

Let’s get to the week 1 line-up…

Continue reading this post »

It was a big day for fight announcements, as we previously mentioned the Khan vs Garcia and Mitchell vs Banks double-header set for July 14, plus the finalization of Canelo Alvarez vs Paul Williams for September 15. Top Rank has also gotten into the act, setting a card for July 7 at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., with the returns of Nonito Donaire and Brandon Rios in a pair of fights that should guarantee action, and one that could be incredibly risky.

BoxingScene.com reports that the card was headed to either June 30 or July 7, but with Khan taking July 14, July 7 is the likely date.

Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22 KO) will officially move up to the 140-pound division to face Mauricio Herrera (18-2, 7 KO), who lost to Mike Alvarado on April 14 in an early Fight of the Year contender.

Though it's a good matchup action-wise, reality is likely that Herrera will again find himself overpowered in much the same way he was against Alvarado. Rios needs kind of a rehab win right now, though, following his robbery win over Richard Abril, so the fight is entirely understandable, and if he does win impressively, it's certainly no stretch to think that Rios would face Alvarado next in a fight that could be truly incredible.

Continue reading this post »

RingTV.com reports that Amir Khan will face Danny Garcia on July 14, live on HBO, and that the co-feature bout will pit Seth Mitchell against Johnathon Banks in a heavyweight fight that should have plenty of action.

Khan (26-2, 18 KO) and Garcia (23-0, 14 KO) have been rumored to be headed for a showdown since Khan's May 19 fight with Lamont Peterson was scrapped, with only Erik Morales rumored as another possible opponent for Khan, which never seemed all that serious.

Garcia, who holds the WBC junior welterweight title, said he would only fight Khan if it were a unification bout. Khan and Golden Boy are trying to get the WBA and/or IBF to return the titles he lost to Peterson in December, a win now tainted by Peterson's admission of taking testosterone pellets before the bout.

Nothing official has been stated by any of the sanctioning bodies, but given the WBC's habit of making up rules as they go, it wouldn't be surprising to see Garcia given an exemption and allowed to skip a mandatory title defense against Ajose Olusegun, who has been waiting since September of last year, months before Garcia dethroned Morales.

Continue reading this post »

Canelo Alvarez will be facing Paul Williams on September 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions saying the fight is "done," and that both Showtime and HBO will have the opportunity to make offers for the pay-per-view event.

Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO) is coming off of a destruction of veteran Shane Mosley on May 5, while Williams (41-2, 27 KO) last fought on February 18, easily routing Nobuhiro Ishida on Showtime.

Unlike past situations where we've heard that both networks could bid on a PPV or other major fight, Showtime may actually have a serious chance at landing the fight this time.

Continue reading this post »