© Jim Everett / Saddo Boxing

This Saturday night Emanuel Augustus will step into the ring at Madison Square Garden for the first time in his career to fight on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones, Jr. He will face local New York favorite Francisco Figueroa 19-2 (13) as a late replacement for Figueroa’s original opponent Gavin Rees who pulled out of the fight last week due to a broken nose.

Augustus 38-29-6 (23) has one of the most deceiving records in the sport of boxing and has made a career out of taking fights on short notice. He has had his share of being on the wrong side of bad decisions and losing close battles, but win, lose or draw he is always entertaining. Floyd Mayweather was quoted as saying, “Augustus was the toughest opponent that he has faced in his career.”

In 2001 Augustus received the honor of Ring magazine’s “Fight of the Year” for his battle with Micky Ward in which over 2000 punches were thrown during the fight in back and forth action. Although the fight was very close Ward received a unanimous decision.

The most heinous decision he received in his career was his 2004 split decision loss to Courtney Burton. In the fourth round Augustus landed two solid body shots that put Burton on his knees which the referee ruled a low blow and provided Burton with five minutes to recover. More...

There were two fight cards of consequence this weekend Down Under and we start on Friday's action in New South Wales where there was a high level cruiserweight clash in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown.

WBO Oriental Champion Lawrence Tauasa, 30-5-1 (17), won the 14th of his last 15 bouts and picked up the vacant PABA belt in the process by knocking out visiting Bolivian slugger Saul Farah, 32-6-2 (26), in the third round.

Farah, who saw an eight fight win streak go down the tubes, had failed to make weight, coming in eight pounds over the 200 pound cruiserweight limit and was unable to take possession of the titles had he won.

The hyper-busy South American had fought just two weeks ago in Bolivia and was engaging in his seventh bout this year after participating in 15 matches in 2007. More...