Greene out of Jan. 17 fight, HBO looking for replacement
Queens fighter "Mean" Joe Greene (pictured, courtesy Sky Sports) is out of a scheduled fight on January 17 against Sergio Martinez, which was to be the co-feature to Andre Berto-Luis Collazo on HBO. The unbeaten Greene is currently suffering from kidney stones, and despite a desire to fight anyway, promoter Lou DiBella and doctors have strongly advised Greene to fight, and thus he will not.
The 22-year old Greene was taking a massive step up in competition, going from fighting the likes of Joshua Okine and Jose Miguel Torres to Martinez, a world-ranked competitor who stole the show on HBO's last "night of the prospects" offering when he thoroughly dominated the rugged Alex Bunema.
According to Dan Rafael, ESPN first tapped 154-pound titlist Daniel Santos on a deal to fight over the divisional weight limit in a non-title bout, but even though promoter Don King was OK with it, Santos balked at having to get ready for a fight on just ten days' notice.
HBO is now looking at 27-year old Anthony Thompson, whose career has stalled a bit after back-to-back controversial losses to Yuri Foreman and Ishmail Arvin, and 37-year old ex-titleholder Travis Simms, who hasn't really fought since a July 2007 loss to Joachim Alcine. Simms did fight last August, but against a total tomato can at a Radisson Hotel in South Carolina.
Comments
Sadly
I think either AT or Simms would be a more competitive fight than Greene (although both would probably be much more boring). Greene gets some hype, but in my honest opinion he’s just not that good.
Vogt early, Vogt often.
by Brickhaus on
Jan 8, 2009 9:01 AM EST
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I agree with you Brick…
I am excited to see Martinez again.
by Zocalo on
Jan 8, 2009 3:32 PM EST
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