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It's late! It's late at night! So here are some late night things for you to discuss now, if you're a night owl and/or insomniac, or tomorrow morning, or whatever. Some of you are even in foreign lands, so your time is very different than what my time is. Technically, this is still Sunday night, too, since it's just past 11:50 pm EDT, so it's in on time, you guys. That's all that counts.
Mike Jones MIA report
Mike Jones hasn't fought since Randall Bailey smashed his nose into a bloody mess June 2012 on the Pacquiao-Bradley undercard. When you take into account how much has changed in boxing since Pacquiao-Bradley, that makes it seem like even longer than a 14-month layoff.
Russell Peltz gave BoxingScene.com an update on the 30-year-old fighter (?), which is basically that Jones is still not fighting and has turned down offers to face Ray Narh and Kell Brook, the latter being what led us to Brook vs Senchenko for October 26.
Probably time to just let Jones (26-1, 19 KO) stand as a memory. Whatever it is, the guy doesn't seem to want to fight.
Daniel Ponce De Leon, Pablo Cesar Cano return on Sept. 21
Former super bantamweight and featherweight titleholder Daniel Ponce De Leon will be back in action on September 21 in Mexico, with Pablo Cesar Cano also to be featured on the card. Ponce De Leon last fought on May 4, getting stopped by Abner Mares on the Mayweather-Guerrero undercard. He's hoping to stay at 126, but that will depend on Golden Boy giving him a crack at the winner of the August 24 fight between Mares and Jhonny Gonzalez, the fighter Ponce De Leon beat last September to win the WBC featherweight belt, which he lost to Mares. If not, he'll go to 130.
Badou Jack's trainer wants Sakio Bika
Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, the trainer for Badou Jack, wants the 15-0 prospect to face WBC super middleweight titlist Sakio Bika next, and not Marco Antonio Periban, which was proposed for the Mayweather-Canelo undercard. Everyone wants Bika, as it seems almost all the fringe contenders out there at 168 think they can snatch an easy world title facing the rugged Cameroonian. Jack, 29, just got past Farah Ennis in a 10-round snoozer on ShoBox a couple of weeks ago, and he struggled about a year ago with Alexander Brand, and wasn't really lightning against Don Mouton, either.
If you ask me -- and I note with some dismay that you did not -- Bika is beyond Jack at this point, and Badou may not really wind up being a legitimate contender at any time. I just haven't seen anything about him that makes me think this is a guy destined for great things. I could be wrong. It's been known to happen.
Here's Webster.