Evander Holyfield-Sherman Williams Goes to a No-Contest
Evander Holyfield became a Twitter trending topic tonight, but didn't win a fight or anything. The 48-year-old former undisputed champion of the world went to a no-contest with Sherman "The Tank" Williams in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The fight was stopped due to a clash of heads that opened a cut over Holyfield's eye, and after three rounds, he said he couldn't see. Holyfield was reportedly hurt in the third round on body shots from Williams.
Their records remain the same, as Holyfield is still 43-10-2 (28 KO) and Williams is 34-11-2 (19 KO).
McDonnell Tops Jamoye in Friday War
European bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell (16-2-1, 7 KO) took a majority decision victory over Stephane Jamoye (19-2, 9 KO) in Doncaster on Friday, with the fight earning rave reviews. I didn't catch it, but BrianBrock did, and here are some of his thoughts I'm going to steal out of the fight preview thread:
I don’t think this was an example of (home cooking), (McDonnell's) clearly got every single close round, but there we go. When he needed to win the 12th, I think he got that one clearly enough with no favors, so he deserved it. And it was not looking good at all for him after the first two rounds – Jamoye came at him like a whirlwind, beating him to the punch and quite frankly looking a couple of classes above him. He badly hurt him in the second round and he did awesome to even make it close from there, as Jamoye never stopped coming. And while he should have had a point deduction earlier, the ref was brave to do it in R11 (just when I was thinking he wouldn’t do it that late in a close fight).
I'm sure the fight will make its way to YouTube soon enough.
Jean Pascal's Future, and the Rematch Dilemma(s)
The headaches continue with the light heavyweight championship of the world, as nobody really knows right now what exactly Jean Pascal will do next. The WBC has ordered a rematch with Bernard Hopkins. The WBC belt, along with the legitimate championship from Ring Magazine, is held by Pascal. But there is still that pesky contractual obligation for a rematch with Chad Dawson. Lem Satterfield from FanHouse has this from Dawson's promoter, Gary Shaw:
"My reaction is that we have a contract, and that the WBC can rule whatever they want. It doesn't over rule the contract that I have with Yvon Michel. Yvon Michel is a gentleman and I believe that he will honor our contract. I'm not going to go on record with anything other than that," said Shaw.
"Except that I will say that I trust Yvon Michel, and I believe that I have a solid contract for a rematch with Jean Pascal," said Shaw. "I have a long-standing relationship Yvon Michel. Yvon has always been a gentleman. He called me today ask me for the dates that they're willing to do the fight, and I have sent a letter off to HBO requesting those dates."
The WBC is adamant about Pascal-Hopkins II, but Shaw isn't buying in. Michel, for his part, says that HBO is "the trigger" here. If they buy Pascal-Dawson II, that's the fight that will be next, it appears. If they don't, Michel says they'll talk with the Hopkins camp.
Well we had about four months of a new real champion before the nonsense set in.
After the jump, odds and ends featuring Saul Alvarez, Bradley-Alexander and David Lemieux, and an open letter from DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley's manager following a supposedly controversial loss in Argentina to Lucas Matthysse.
Odds and Ends
A March 5 fight between Saul Alvarez and European welterweight champion Matthew Hatton has been signed and announced officially, as expected. The fight will be at the Honda Center in Anaheim and will headline HBO Boxing After Dark. There is talk that James Kirkland could also fight on the show, but there's been a lot of talk about James Kirkland fighting on shows, so don't count your chickens and all that. In a Golden Boy press release, the fighters unveiled such exciting stock thoughts as Alvarez's "I know he's hungry, but I want it more" and Hatton's "I've paid my dues and now I'll show my skills to the world." I suppose the world is America, and as an American who has watched Hatton's last four notable fights live, he is a major underdog for a reason.
Timothy Bradley and the WBC have kissed and made up, so the WBC junior welterweight title will be on the line next Saturday when Bradley faces Devon Alexander. As Bradley had vacated the WBC title before, the so-called "sanctioning body" was going to declare the title (currently held by Alexander) vacant if Bradley had won the fight. But it's up for grabs for everyone, so that means these two fighters will give their hard-earned money to Jose Sulaiman's alleged "sanctioning body" for the right to claim a trinket one of them might well give away in the near future.
Dan Rafael has reported that a deal has been reached for the fight between David Lemieux and Marco Antonio Rubio, with April 8 in Montreal as the date and location. It's a title eliminator and will headline Friday Night Fights on ESPN2. Don't miss that one, and don't blink, because Lemieux can end fights at any minute.
Nathan Cleverly still doesn't know who he'll be fighting next.
Corley's Manager Cries Foul: Open letter to boxing world from Egis Klimas
What happened last night to my fighter, former world champion DeMarcus "Chop Cop" Corley (36-16-1, 22 KOs), in Argentina against Lucas Matthysee (28-1, 26 KOs) was a travesty. He recently fought Marcus Maidana in Argentina and lost without any complaints, but last night was an outright injustice and another black eye for boxing.
Everything was totally unacceptable from the very beginning. DeMarcus arrived there early Tuesday morning, attended a press conference the following day, and weighed-in Thursday. We were informed just a couple days before DeMarcus Corley left for Argentina that the fight was for the vacant WBO Intercontinental super lightweight title. We didn't have any problems with that at all, but I was very surprised that the WBO approved these two fighters, who both lost their last fights, to fight for the title.
At 6 AM Friday morning, the morning of the fight, Corley was suddenly awoken and taken to the hospital for medicals, including an EKG and brain scan, and he didn't get back to the hotel until 2 PM. Three hours later and without any rest, ‘Chop Chop" was taken to the arena. He was there three days and nobody said anything to him or our team about him needing medicals, not until the morning of the fight, and he obviously didn't look sharp in the fight because of all the running around he had to do. Why did they wait?
Granted, "Chop Chop" didn't look good. He took a knee after a body shot for a legitimate knockdown but he wasn't hurt. My biggest concern came in the seventh round, when he was hit with a blatant low blow, but the referee did nothing, not even a warning. Matthysee then delivered multiple low blows, illegal hits to the back of the head, pushed "Chop Chop" down a few times -counting them as knockdowns -- and even hit him on the top of the head when he was down. In any other country this would have led to a disqualification, no questions about that, but the referee didn't issue a warning, never mind deduct a single point.
We ended-up unfairly losing by eighth-round technical knockout. The referee was totally unprofessional and we have no clue what the WBO supervisor was watching. We are looking into filing a complaint with the Argentine Boxing Commission against the show promoters (Golden Boy Promotions and Aranobox) and petitioning the WBO to review the action; ultimately overturning the outcome and, at the very least, rule the fight a no-contest.
I am writing this letter to the boxing world not only to protect my fighter, but because I'm also disappointed by how poorly it affects the sport of boxing.
In addition to Corley, Klimas manages a number of Eastern European and Russian boxers, including rising star and former Russian National Team member, undefeated light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev (12-0, 10 KO's), top featherweight prospect Evgeny Gradovich (8-0, 6 KO's) and Donatas Bondorovas (11-1 3 KO's) who is fighting tonight in the opening bout on the Evander Holyfield-Sherman Williams pay-per-view card.
Egis Klimas
Manager, DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley