Tavoris Cloud Possible for 6/25 Card
Never say Don King doesn't put his heart into his fight cards on the occasion he promotes them these days. With King co-promoting the June 25 HBO show from St. Louis featuring his fighter Devon Alexander against Golden Boy's Lucas Matthysse, King is doing his usual job of sticking decent fights or at least decent fighters on the undercard, even without TV. On the one hand you can argue he should get his fighters more TV dates, but most of these fights are really FNF-level, and FNF has a tight budget, so it's probably not realistic. At any rate, the guys fight. I wish King would do more webcasts. That was a fun idea while it lasted.
Anyway, before I get too far off track, MaxBoxing.com's Steve Kim says that Tavoris Cloud could be in line to fight on the show, possibly against mandatory challenger Yusaf Mack.
New Main Event for April 29 Friday Night Fights
With Victor Cayo pulling out due to injury and Tim Coleman refusing to step in on short notice to face Lamont Peterson, the April 29 edition of Friday Night Fights has been recast at the top with a junior middleweight main event, according to Dan Rafael.
Carlos Molina (17-4-2, 5 KO) returns to the ESPN2 airwaves after his very impressive performance against Erislandy Lara on March 25. In that fight, Molina returned from a near two-year absence to force a draw with the heavily favored Cuban. Now just a month later, he'll face Allen Conyers (12-4, 9 KO). I'm not going to lie and say it's some great fight, because it absolutely isn't, but it's good to see Molina back in the ring so quickly and getting another shot on TV so soon, too.
But there juuuust might be a chance that this is a trap fight for Molina. Conyers is 34 years old and was stopped in a one-round firefight with James Kirkland on ShoBox back in 2007, but he did knock Kirkland down way back when, and knocked him down for real. 10 months later in September 2008, he was stopped in five by rugged Said Ouali, and he exited the sport before returning in January of this year, knocking down previously-unbeaten prospect James de la Rosa three times en route to a 10-round unanimous decision on the Bradley-Alexander undercard at the Silverdome.
If Molina isn't 100% ready, there's a chance he can get caught here. Conyers has absolutely nothing to lose and does pack a punch, and that kind of guy can be dangerous.
Cedric Kushner Recovering After Surgery
Bad Left Hook wants to send our best wishes to Gotham Boxing promoter Cedric Kushner, who is recovering from spinal surgery in New York right now. Kushner was once one of the top promoters in the sport, but like many has been phased out in an era dominated by The Big Two on U.S. soil, Top Rank and Golden Boy. Most recently, Kushner has promoted David Tua's recent string of fights.
After the jump: Link Parade! and the Song of the Day.
Link Parade!
- Dan Rafael draws comparisons between Victor Ortiz and Vitali Klitschko. Hey, I thought it sounded bonkers, too, but give it a read. He's got some very good points.
- Manny Pacquiao worked out -- and Don Rickles was there.
- Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Hasim Rahman's shocking knockout of Lennox Lewis. After this made the rounds on Twitter and came to his attention, Lewis spent the next two hours reminding people of the rematch.
Song of the Day
O.V. Wright's "I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled and Crazy."