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- Might Danny Green be next for Roy Jones Jr.? Seconds Out is reporting that Green is about to announce a deal to fight Jones in late 2009, and that he'll appear on the undercard of Jones-Lacy. If this is true, it's actually quite a step up for Jones. Green was recently a light heavyweight titlist, and has actually beaten some decent fighters. If Jones is able to beat Green, it proves that (sadly) he's still a top 10 fighter in the light heavyweight division, even if he's no longer able to hang with the top dogs.
- Freddie Roach will be training two-time Cuban gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux. Evidently, the two just met up and clicked. With style taken into consideration, I actually liked the idea of Pernell Whitaker training him better, but obviously Roach is the hottest trainer out there right now, and the fact that Roach was willing to take him on only a fight into his career speaks as to his potential.
- Javier Castillejo has finally retired. Castillejo actually had a hell of a career, but at 41 years old, he had hit the end of the line, losing to Sebastian Sylvester by brutal knockout, and drawing against Spanish light middleweight champ Pablo Navascues. Castellijo captured titles in both the junior middleweight division and middleweight division, with his best work coming in the early aughts, leading up to his defeat at the hands of Oscar De La Hoya. His best wins came against Felix Sturm, Roman Karmazin and Keith Mullings, and his highest profile losses were against De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Sturm in a rematch and Laurent Boudouani.
- Speaking of Sebastian Sylvester, he'll be facing LaJuan Simon on the Arthur Abraham-Mahir Oral undercard. Simon gave Abraham some problems in Abraham's last fight, although I think that was probably a stylistic issue as much as anything. As a more pure boxer, Sylvester should be able to handle Simon. Hopefully Simon's able to build himself a name in Germany at least, because he sure as hell isn't doing that in his home country.
- Hall of Fame inductions are this weekend. I have no complaints with the boxers making it in - Lennox Lewis (duh), Orlando Canizales (longest bantamweight title reign ever) and Brian Mitchell (a bit more borderline, but well deserving, even if I think some others like Nigel Benn might have deserved it more). But the IBHOF needs to get a grip on letting in promoters. This is getting like the baseball hall of fame, which has let in pretty much every commissioner, even the horrible ones. Akihito Honda is a legend in Japan, and he's done a lot for boxing there, but much like a lot of other major promoters, it's questionable about whether he's done the sport more harm than good. Then again, Don King, Mogens Palle and Frank Warren are already in, so I guess it's not really decreasing the quality of the promoters in the Hall.
- Speaking of silly Hall of Fame decisions, the Hall of Fame tonight is honoring the "rising stars" in the sport. I have no fricking idea how they picked the people for this one, or what the hell their definition of a rising star is. I think they just wanted to honor anyone who would show up in Canastota, which is a good 2 hour drive from the nearest major airport. The honorees - Paul Williams (OK, although I think he's kind of established by now), Lucian Bute, Andre Berto, Kevin Johnson (uh), Kermit Cintron (is he either rising or a star?) and Deontay Wilder (a bit early, you think?).