Boxing News

With the dignity and class of a champion, this past weekend's world title challenger to Arturo Gatti, Jesse James Leija will retire from boxing. Leija was knocked out in the fifth round of his challenge to Gatti for the WBC light welterweight title and it will be his last in professional boxing. Leija is now thirty-eight years of age but can truly boast

to have been in with the best of his time having fought and beaten Azumah Nelson for the WBC super featherweight title. In addition, Leija also fought Oscar de la Hoya, Shane Mosley, Kostya Tszyu, Juan Lazcano, Ivan Robinson, Francisco Bojado, Gabriel Ruelas and Mickey Ward. With a final tally of forty-seven wins against seven losses, two draws and nineteen knockouts, Leija leaves us but will be remembered as a champion and a true competitor.

Two-time WBC lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo vs. IBF lightweight champion Julio The “Kidd’’ Diaz.

Unbeaten IBF super middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy vs. once-beaten IBU Intercontinental super middleweight champion Rubin “Mr. Hollywood’’ Williams.

Saturday, March 5, 2005, At 10:30 PM ET/PT From Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

A pair of potentially explosive match-ups will be shown during SHOWTIME’s Free Preview Weekend when two-time time World Boxing Council (WBC) Champion Jose Luis Castillo takes on his International Boxing Federation (IBF) counterpart, Julio “The Kidd’’ Diaz, in a world unification lightweight fight and undefeated Jeff Lacy risks his IBF super middleweight crown against once-beaten Rubin “Mr. Hollywood’’ Williams on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING Saturday, March 5. The world championship doubleheader, which will be co-promoted by Top-Rank, Inc., and Gary Shaw Productions, LLC, will start at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast). More...

Hi boxing fans and thank you for visiting SaddoBoxing.com today. For the current or former boxers among you as well as those of you who are avid fitness enthusiasts, you should be checking out our ask the trainer board in the forum. Hot topics in the ask the trainer section at the moment include our members discussing their experiences in sparring and fighting, what moves they have learned from actually being in the ring in tough situations. Do you have a punch you need to learn the proper technique for, or perhaps you keep getting caught with a particular shot in sparring. Chances are that our regular contributors in the ask the trainer section will have the answer for you. From technique to nutrition, weights to aerobics and everything inbetween, you'll find it all in our ask the trainer section. Just click on FORUM on the top left of your screen, register yourself under your own user name and add your voice to these discussions.

Scott Harrison is not content with his performance against Victor Polo and has vowed to fight his most recent challenger again in order to set the record straight. Harrison risked his WBO featherweight title in a match with Polo who was the mandatory challenger. It appears that the majority of the boxing

world underestimated Polo, including Harrison who struggled to reach a draw in his latest defense. Polo told the BBC, "I thought I won by eight rounds and that was a worse decision than against Chacon, I want a rematch in Las Vegas." Harrison simply stated, "I will beat him next time around and I thought I had won this time as well by at least two rounds." Talk of Harrison's impending move into the world elite levels against the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera may well be muted now as a rematch with Polo could be on the cards. More to the point, boxing fans are asking themselves just how competitive Harrison could be against the best in the world after his latest performance.

Mark May 14th on your calender as The Boxing Ministry has their annual awards banquet. This year the Ministry will honor the great former WBC light heavyweight champion, Hall Of Famer Matthew Saad Muhammad. Also tenetively slated to be on hand is WBA welterweight champion Jose Rivera. This talented champion sports an impressive 37-3-1 record with 24 big KO's. Rivera hopes to soon meet and defeat unbeaten mandatory challenger Thomas Damgaard. If successful Jose will find himself in middle of a very interesting mix at 147-pounds. Now that Oscar de la Hoya and Shane Mosley are coming back down to welterweight. Rivera hopes to land a huge money fight with one or the other. More...

The World Boxing Association has notified Team Ruiz that James “Lights Out” Toney (68-4-2, 43 KOs) is the mandatory contender for WBA heavyweight champion John “The Quietman” Ruiz (41-5-1, 28 KOs). Realizing that Ruiz owed a mandatory defense, Team Ruiz

had inquired about the WBA’s mandatory contender, and its official ruling for Toney was dated January 20, 2005. Ruiz’ promoter, Don King Productions, was ordered by the WBA to commence negotiations with Toney’s promoter, Goosen Tutor, in order to reach an agreement to stage the bout. If an agreement is not reached within twenty days of the order (February 9, 2005), Ruiz-Toney will go to purse bid and all bonafide promoters will be notified of the process.

The WBO light flyweight championship clash between champion Nelson Dieppa and challenger Alex Sanchez ended in round eleven last night when Dieppa launched a huge right hand that decked Sanchez for the full count. The fight was held in Bayamon in Puerto Rico. In worrying scenes, Sanchez had to be taken from the ring to the hospital via medical assistants on a stretcher and no official word has been given at this time as to his current condition. Look for Dieppa to be involved in future fights against the other light flyweight champions including: Victor Burgos of the IBF and Jorge Arce of the WBC. The WBA light flyweight championship is currently vacant.

Injin Chin, the powerful WBC featherweight champion from Korea maintained his status as one of the featherweight divisions top names with a unanimous decision win over Tommy Browne today in Seoul. Chi was too much for the Australian challenger over the distance

and the win is Chi's thirtieth against two losses, one draw and eighteen knockouts to his credit. After an unsuccessful challenge to former WBC featherweight titlist Erik Morales a few years ago, Chi managed to impress the boxing world with his toughness and relentless style. His next chance came against England's Michael Brodie for the vacant WBC title, but the fight ended in a scoring controversy when Chi was at first awarded the title on points and then a re-count meant that the fight was officially decalred a draw. In the rematch with Brodie, Chi left no decision for the judges to make and powered into Brodie, stopping the Manchester man in seven rounds.

In his second defense of the WBC light welterweight championship, Arturo Gatti delighted the crowd at Bally's in Atlantic City by knocking out Jesse James Leija in the fifth round. Gatti used his skills to begin with but the Gatti of old returned before long and Leija found himself on the deck

in the fifth, he got up but was put down again and counted out. The win preserves the possibility of a summer spectacular against Floyd Mayweather Jr. No official word has been given on this fight but it is a hot possibility and already being advertised by HBO. The only stumbling block at present appears to be Gatti's reservations about whether or not the trouble-prone Mayweather will be able to keep himself out of jail in order for the fight to happen. As always, we will keep you updated to developments in this situation as they happen.

IBF light middleweight champion of the world Kassim "The Dream" Ouma retained his title tonight in Atlantic City. Ouma was victorious in the all-African championship clash against Kofi Jantuah who suffered his second defeat. Jantuah started as he meant to go on by throwing his heavy artillery, but the champion was soon able to assert himself and begin to fight his fight. Ouma's toughness and persistence eventually wore the challenger down and Ouma successfully makes his first defense of the title.

The final scores were: 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110 all in favor of the champion, Kassim Ouma.

Tonight in Bayamon in Puerto Rico, Eric "Little Hands of Steel" Morel defeated Juan Alfonso Keb Baas by wide margins over twelve rounds. Morel returned to Bayamon, the site of his defeat at the hands of Lorenzo Parra and the loss of his WBA flyweight championship. Morel first won the title in the year 2000 with a decision win over former champion Sornpichai Kratchingdaeng and defended it several times before losing it in Puerto Rico. Inactive for over a year, Morel finds himself back in the win column.

Stay tuned for more fight night results coming soon.

In a heavyweight attraction on the undercard of tonights Gatti-Leija card in Atlantic City, contender Malik Scott moved his record to twenty-one wins without a loss when he decisioned journeyman David Bostice over eight rounds. Bostice had shared a ring with notable heavyweights such as Jeremy Williams, Lou Savarese and even former WBO world champion Wladimir Klitschko before Klitschko won his world title. Scott fights out of Philadelphia and was a fighter of note as an amateur before turning professional in the year 2000. The win over Bostice could be described as Scott's highest profile win to date as he has built a record upon the usual suspects, fighters such as Louis Monaco, Ken Murphy and Otis Tisdale. Is Scott a serious future contender? We will keep you updated.

I am very pleased to announce that we are not yet at the end of January and already we have managed to achieve more registered members in this single month than in any other to date. At this time, 242 boxing fans from around the world have chosen Saddoboxing.com as their site for the latest news, on behalf of all of the team I would like to thank you all for choosing us and extend a warm welcome. The forum, as always is full of new faces making themselves known and we are more than happy to see you all there. Here's to more and more record-breaking months as the year progresses.

I remember when I was a relatively small child, back when Tyson ruled the roost, and a new Rocky movie was never far away. Even back then, as I watched Rocky and Ivan Drago pummel each other, I was fully aware that what I witnessed on screen was a virtual caricature of the real thing. Quite simply, it didn’t, nor would it ever, happen that way. Wouldn’t it be cool if it did, though? I can only imagine that Arturo Gatti had that very thought in mind as he set out on his chosen path. As I sit here, my mind trying to isolate one early highlight that epitomizes Gatti, it occurred to me: should Hollywood see fit to film a Gatti biopic, how could a director pull it off without the ring action appearing gratuitous in the extreme? Indeed, your typical Gatti fight makes Rocky vs. Clubber Lang look like a “chess match.’ But I digress. There is one fight that I always come back to when I think of Gatti: his fight against Wilson Rodriguez. This fight will tell you everything you need to know about Gatti: it has drama, bloodshed, all out action and some more drama, just for good measure. For those of you who haven’t seen it, I’m sorry I can’t go into more detail. If I did, this piece would snowball into an epic of sorts. And I think that’s more of my writing than anyone can take, myself included. More...

Veteran campaigner Jesse James Leija has become something of a party crasher of late. In his undisputed light welterweight title challenge to Kostya Tszyu, he almost ruined Tszyu’s homecoming to Australia with a neat early rounds display of educated boxing and moving. Victory against Tszyu was not to be, making the coup de grace of Leija’s spoiling antics his great win over young sensation Francisco Bojado. Clearly, bringing Leija in as the “opponent” is a risky tactic and one that may not pay off for Arturo Gatti in only his second defense of his WBC world championship. A Gatti win will set the stage for a magnificent showdown between him and Floyd Mayweather Jr. who recently dusted Henry Bruseles in eight rounds to preserve the possibility of the superfight. Will Gatti elect to box conservatively as has been his preference of late, or will the Gatti of old surface and thrill us with another “no guts, no glory” performance? If Leija has one more trick in the bag at his advanced age, Gatti may struggle regardless of which one of his fighting personas emerge. On the under-card, Kassim Ouma will defend his IBF light middleweight title against Kofi Jantuah. Ouma dominated Verno Phillips to claim the title while Jantuah’s one punch KO of Marco Antonio Rubio caused a considerable stir. It should be a great night of boxing, and the Saddoboxing.com writing team has weighed in with their picks for the action once again. More...

The title for this motion picture has eerie overtones. The great Salvador
Sanchez made a cameo appearance in this film. Shortly afterwards, he lost his
life in an a tragic crash. This may well have been his last fight. The movie
was dedicated to Salvador. Sadly we will never know how great he would have
become. The eighty-five minute movie was released in 1982. Ex-football star turned actor Fred "The Hammer" Williamson co-stars with underrated actor Ruben Blades. Blades does a fairly good job of portraying an up and coming fighter with a nose for trouble. His gambling pushes him into debt with the Mafia, and from there, no one can help him. Blades character finally gets into the ring to face the champion who happens to be the Sanchez character. It is worth seeing the bizarre events and twisting, turning plots that lead up to the "last fight." For what I assume was a lower budget movie, it is worth the watch. Don King, Don Dunphy and Jose Torres also make cameo stints as well as a young Anthony Sirico of Soprano's fame.

Jim Amato can be reached at jimsboxing@zoominternet.net

Merely hours away from the Gatti-Leija event being televised by HBO tonight, we bring you the official weights of the main event participants and those of the chief support attraction.

The main event sees Arturo Gatti put his WBC light welterweight title on the line against Jesse James Leija.

Both fighters weighed in precisely at the 140-pound limit.

In the chief support bout, IBF light middleweight champion Kassim Ouma lays his title on the line against Kofi Jantuah in an all-African title bout.

Ouma weighed in at 152-pounds while Jantuah was one pound heavier at 153-pounds.

Further to the exclusive interview brought to you by this site last week, Rubin "Mr. Hollywood" Williams punished Aaron Norwood for ten full rounds in taking a decision win, moving his record to twenty-six wins against one loss. The best news was yet to come for Williams though as it has been revealed that he is indeed set to face IBF super middleweight champion of the world Jeff Lacy on March 5. Our very own Patrick Gibbons reported that Williams was waiting to hear of Lacy's decision from his team's proposal for the fight and now it has been accepted. Lacy was set to face Danny Batchelder but now that fight has been scrapped in favor of a fight with Williams. We will keep you updated to the news in this story as it develops.

WBC flyweight champion Pongsaklek Wongjongkam defeated his latest challenger, Noriyuki Komatsu in Japan by a stoppage in the fifth round. The champion showed much of his impressive arsenal in making his latest defense, dropping the challenger on several occasions and cutting him with his sharp and powerful punches. Komatsu had no answer to the champion's onslaught and fell to his second defeat. Wongjongkam gathered his fifty-fifth win and sent out a warning message to any and all challengers that he intends to be the WBC flyweight champion for some time to come.

Having just witnessed one of the poorest displays of Scott Harrison’s career, I feel dejected, almost let down by what I have just seen. It was a draw on my card, but it could and should have been a much more satisfying result. The fifth round was Harrison’s best of the fight and, rather ironically, almost led to his downfall. Polo, had the round gone a minute longer, would most likely have been stopped, as Harrison rained heavy shots down on the Colombian’s granite chin. Fortunately for Polo, the bell rang and he was the recipient of what should have been a brief reprieve. As they came out for the sixth, it was evident that Harrison had put rather more energy into his earlier fusillade than should have been the case. By now, he looked sluggish, arm weary and altogether off the pace. As the rounds came and went, Harrison was doing enough to nick the odd round, but looking decidedly unimpressive in doing so. Also evident was Harrison’s stamina, or lack thereof, so often the key to his success. From my point of view, the problem appeared to be that Harrison’s rigid style does not allow for him to adapt to certain situations. In this case, he couldn’t take a break for a round and get his second wind. Harrison continued to move forward, throwing punches that lacked any real intent, taking more energy-sapping shots in the process. In my eyes, the draw was the correct result. It was close, too close, but I feel Harrison did enough to retain his title, if only just. More...