Thursday, a Las Vegas Justice of the Peace reset the date of Floyd Mayweather Jr.?s hearing on felony domestic violence charges to April 28 ? two days after ?Money Boy? is scheduled to appear on an unrelated misdemeanor battery charge stemming from his altercation with a security guard. While the chances of Mayweather actually doing the 34 years he could potentially face if convicted of the felony rap are pretty minimal, it should be self-evident that each of these delays and complications lessens the chances of his actually getting back into the ring anytime soon, which, given Money?s age and inactivity, could in turn mean, well, ever. …
Last night?s HBO doubleheader at Foxwoods may have been the first big New England show of 2011, but it won?t be the last: As anticipated in this space several weeks ago, promoter Lou DiBella confirmed Friday that WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto?s April 16 defense against Kansan Victor Ortiz will take place at the Mashantucket, Conn., casino.
Berto-Ortiz will be part of a split-feed doubleheader that night, sharing the HBO telecast with Amir Khan?s WBA 140-pound defense against Northern Ireland?s Paul McCloskey from Manchester, England.
Corner-less Diamond
When last night?s ?Diamond Elite? card was first announced, it was duly noted that three of the four principals were trained by the men who finished first, second and third in the balloting for the 2010 Trainer of the Year Award, making it doubly ? no, triply ? ironic that none of that trio actually worked the corner in the two televised fights.
Trainer of the Year Freddie Roach (trainer of Craig McEwan) and third-place finisher Emanuel Steward (Andy Lee) had long since been ruled out; Roach is in camp with Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines, where he is prepping the world?s top boxer for his May 7 fight against Shane Mosley, while Steward was in Las Vegas last night, working the corner of WBA junior middle champ Miguel Cotto for his Showtime bout against Ricardo Mayorga.
Then at Wednesday?s press conference in Connecticut, Sergio Martinez? trainer Gabriel Sarmiento dropped the bombshell announcement that he would, for ?personal reasons,? be sitting out the middleweight champion?s fight against Ukrainian Sergiy Dzinziruk.
Although no elaboration was provided for Sarmiento?s mysterious defection, it has been our experience that these ?personal reasons? often have dollar signs attached to them. In any case, having left his fighter high and dry on three days notice, Sarmiento?s place as the chief second in Martinez? corner went to his brother, Pablo Sarmiento. The lead spot in Lee?s corner went to Steward?s nephew and aide-de-camp Javon Hill, who has taken over for Steward when similar conflicts have arisen in the past.
Mass. back in action
Massachusetts, which ran just two professional cards in all of 2010, will play host to two of them in the next few weeks. It begins with promoter Jimmy Burchfield?s show at The Royale (formerly The Roxy) in Boston on Wednesday night, when Joe Gardner of Woonsocket, R.I., will defend his New England light heavyweight title against Lowell veteran Joe McCreedy. In the co-feature, Micky Ward?s nephew, Sean Eklund, meets Pawtucket, R.I.-based Eddie Soto in a six-round welterweight bout. For more information, phone 401-724-2253.
Then on April 9, Jimbo Isperduli has a card at the Worcester Palladium featuring a pair of comebacking locals. Former WBA junior middleweight and welterweight champion Jose Rivera ends a two-and-a-half year layoff to fight Alaskan-born, Colorado-based Abel Perry, while in the co-feature, 41-year-old Everett cruiserweight Rich LaMontaigne fights for the first time since his 2005 TKO at the hands of Enzo Maccarinelli in Wales when he meets local Adam Harris. For ticket information, phone 800-477-6849. …
Unbeaten Manchester, Conn., featherweight Matt Remillard has been working out in New Jersey under new chief trainer Mike Skownowski in preparation for his toughest career test to date, against fellow unbeaten Mikey Garcia on HBO?s March 26 ?Boxing After Dark? card at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. Remillard?s new promoter has made no ironclad promises beyond saying that there are ?title shot implications? for the Remillard-Garcia winner, presumably against the winner of the Yuriorkis Gamboa-Jorge Solis IBF title bout that is the main event of Top Rank?s ?Featherweight Fury? card that evening. …
Joe DiGuardia?s April 22 card at the Mohegan Sun will be headlined by junior middleweights Delvin Rodriguez of Danbury, Conn., and Mexican Michael Medina, but many boxing writers are eagerly anticipating an undercard bout in which DiGuardia?s publicist, Kevin Rooney Jr., will make his pro debut. Rooney has something of a boxing pedigree ? his father, Kevin Rooney Sr., was a junior welterweight of some note before becoming the most successful of Mike Tyson?s trainers. (And later the trainer of Cranston, R.I.?s Vinny Paz.) Rooney Jr. boxed in last year?s New York Golden Gloves, and has been the chief publicist for DiGuardia?s Star Boxing for the past three years. His friends In the Fourth Estate will be wishing him well ? while no doubt nourishing fantasies seeing some of Rooney?s colleagues follow his lead. (Imagine a ?Contender?-type reality series in which all the participants were boxing PR men!)
Alvarez needs proof
Saul Alvarez, the 20-year-old redheaded Mexican wunderkind who last weekend won the 154-pound title the WBC had lifted from Pacquiao, is a youngster of indubitable gifts and promise, but before we join Golden Boy Promotions, the WBC and HBO in slobbering all over him, we?d like to see him beat an opponent a bit more formidable than Matthew Hatton. …
Despite last week?s announcement that a Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye fight is ?99 percent set,? you might not want to run out and buy a plane ticket to Germany just yet. Somehow we keep hearing about these Klitschkos fighting Haye and Tomasz Adamek, but by the time they actually get into the ring, it always turns out to be some other opponent. …
Samuel Peter, the ?Nigerian Nightmare,? will fight Finland?s Robert Helenius April 2 in Germany. A week later, Adamek meets Goody Petronelli-trained Irish heavyweight Kevin McBride at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Happy birthday, Sebastian Gauthier.
