Not too long ago we heard some news from the Pacquiao camp that they couldn’t come to an agreement on a fight with Mayweather and they needed to find another fight for later this year.  Mayweather has denied being involved in any negotiations…now we hear from Ross Greenburg (HBO sports president) said he was in negotiations with both sides and couldn’t come to an agreement.  Why is the Mayweather camp lying?  I think Mayweather is a bitch, plain and simple.  I hope this fight happens and I hope Pacquiao kicks the living hell out of him.  I’d pay the 50 buck ppv and hope for a 34 second knock out.

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Floyd Mayweather is a bully, one neatly wrapped in a cut 5-foot-8, 147-pound package. Like most bullies, Mayweather is intimidating. He sends promoters, managers and networks cowering in the corner with the mere threat of withholding his services. He holds the boxing world hostage by saying he will take his gloves and go home unless the fight isn’t when he wants, where he wants and at what weight he wants. He perpetuates a lie — like the one about his advisor, Al Haymon, not being involved in negotiations with Manny Pacquiao — because he is confident in the fact that no one in the industry will stand up to him.

Well, someone finally did. Late Monday night, HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg — the man in the middle of this mess — issued a statement. In the statement, Greenburg confirmed what everyone in the world already knew. Yes, there had been negotiations. No, there will not be a fight between the two biggest names in the sport this year.

“Fights like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao are significant because of these fighters’ ability to connect with sports fans around the world,” said Greenburg. “It’s unfortunate that it won’t happen in 2010. I had been negotiating with a representative from each side since May 2, carefully trying to put the fight together. Hopefully, someday this fight will happen. Sports fans deserve it.”

Mayweather’s team issued a series of swift denials. But it is preposterous to suggest that Haymon, Mayweather’s chief negotiator and the man Mayweather praises for his work at every … single … press conference would be involved in any kind of talks for a Mayweather fight without Mayweather’s express approval. Greenburg has no reason to lie. Haymon has a large stable of clients that include Andre Berto, Paul Williams and Chris Arreola. But Mayweather is Haymon’s golden goose. He brings home the biggest paycheck. And to believe Haymon pretended to speak on Mayweather’s behalf for two months — two months — strains credulity to Avatar-like levels.

It didn’t happen. Mayweather knew exactly what Haymon was doing, just like Leonard Ellerbe and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer did. Ellerbe is Mayweather’s mouthpiece. He’s a good man, one well-liked in the industry. But as sycophants come, he may be the definition. He parrots everything Floyd says — “All roads lead to Floyd Mayweather” — to the point where it almost doesn’t matter who says it. The words are the same; the voices are just different.

Schaefer’s stance is even more baffling. Schaefer, too, is well-respected in the industry and has advanced boxing as much as anyone with his innovative marketing strategies. But by backing Mayweather and denying any negotiations took place, he not only is calling his boss Oscar De La Hoya a liar — De La Hoya, remember, went on Univision last month and said the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations were “very close” to being completed — but he’s calling every journalist he has spoken to on the subject a liar, too.

Sure, Schaefer has offered a firm “no comment” when asked about negotiations, but his words have been laced with hints that there was indeed something to comment on. Earlier this month, after Arum told SI.com that a deal had been struck, I called Schaefer looking for confirmation. Again, he said he had no comment. But he later announced, somewhat triumphantly, that I should tell Arum that he had “won the shut-up contest.”

Shut up about what, exactly? Right.

The truth is Schaefer and Golden Boy have attached themselves to Mayweather because his affiliation with the company is one of the few assets keeping it viable. Click on the fighters page on Golden Boy’s website and check out the four faces highlighted at the top. De La Hoya is gone, Bernard Hopkins should be and Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez are one bad loss away from potentially following them out the door.

They have a heavyweight champion (David Haye) who won’t fight anybody. They have a former middleweight champion (Winky Wright) who won’t either. There is talent at junior welterweight (Marcos Maidana, Victor Ortiz, Amir Khan) but not enough to carry the company. No, Golden Boy needs Mayweather and to cross him would burn a very lucrative bridge. And they are not going to do it.

Meanwhile, Mayweather sits back, content to amuse himself by working Ellerbe and Schaefer like puppets. He’s comforted by the $65 million he earned in his past two fights, the kind of cash that reinforces the fantasy that he’s the G.O.A.T … when the reality is that he has yet to even prove he is the greatest of this time. He had a chance to cement that legacy this year by following up a win over Mosley with another over Pacquiao.

He passed.

But like it was with LeBron James, it wasn’t so much the decision as how the decision was delivered. Coldly, and littered with a whole lot of lies.

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Tito Ortiz Arrested for Domestic Violence

Originally posted 59 minutes ago by TMZ Staff

TMZ has learned Tito Ortiz was just arrested for felony domestic violence at the home he shares with Jenna Jameson.

We’re told when cops arrived at the couple’s home in Huntington Beach, CA — Jenna Jameson had “visible injuries.”

We’re told someone called 911 today at 9:53 AM and reported a “disturbance.”

Tito is currently in custody and on his way to a Huntington Beach jail in Orange County, CA.

Tito and Jenna are not married — but they have twin boys together.

Story developing …
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/04/26/tito-ortiz-arrested-for-domestic-violence-jeanna-jameson/#ixzz0mEk3PVLK

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Robotic victory over nobody won’t make Walker somebody in MMA

Yet, he’s trying to make himself seem like “somebody” for ripping on Walker.

I don’t quite understand what this guy expected out of walker’s debut.  He’s 47 freekin years old just giving it a go.  I’m sure he made a bit of cash for it…but beyond that I would think it’s more about an athlete challenging himself at an advanced age.

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There is an interview on ESPN that you can watch here.  (it’s embedded below, but that doesn’t work for rss guys)  He was apparently on the verge of wearing a colostomy bag, ending his career and radically changing his life.

He apparently has no sign of anything going on right now.  Test after test has shown him fine.

I’ve heard from a source that would know…there is a good chance he’ll be at Max Fights 8 on 1/23/10 in Fargo here.  He won’t be fighting…but should be there.

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Manny Pacquiao’s promoters said his prospective bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. was dead late Wednesday night after a mediation session failed to resolve the fighters’ differences over drug testing, scrapping what was likely to be the richest fight in boxing history.

The bout was slated for March 13 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, but Top Rank said it couldn’t reach an agreement with Golden Boy Promotions, which represented Mayweather in the negotiations, after nine hours of mediation Tuesday and more discussions Wednesday.

Although neither side was allowed to publicly discuss the specifics of their dispute, Mayweather apparently balked at a hard-fought compromise in the testing issues first raised by the former welterweight champion.

“I knew this was going to happen,” said a weary Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter. “You had to play it out.”

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe didn’t immediately return phone messages.

The promoters went into the lengthy mediation Tuesday to resolve their differences over drug testing for the fight. Both sides claimed every other detail for the fight had been decided, but Mayweather had demanded random blood testing in addition to unlimited urine testing, with Pacquiao balking at the stringent requests.

The fighters’ representatives apparently thought they had a compromise after the mediation. The promoters were widely expected to formally announce the bout Wednesday — but subsequent discussions with Mayweather during the day led Top Rank to declare the fight canceled.

Arum was left fuming by Mayweather, who fought for Top Rank for several years.

“I’ve been saying this for years: He’s a psychological coward who doesn’t want to fight anybody who has a chance of beating him,” Arum said. “He walked away from a rematch with Oscar (De La Hoya) that would have paid him a fortune because De La Hoya held him close in the first fight (in May 2007).”

After stellar pay-per-view numbers from their previous fights, both Pacquiao and Mayweather likely stood to make more than $25 million from the welterweight bout. Mayweather returned to the ring after a 21-month absence in September with a victory over Juan Manuel Marquez, while Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) pounded Miguel Cotto in November for his 13th straight victory since 2005.

Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) initially appeared eager to fight Pacquiao, widely thought to be the sport’s pound-for-pound champion with his string of dynamic victories during Mayweather’s aborted retirement. Both fighters quickly agreed to the initial points of a deal, with the fight scheduled for March so it wouldn’t interfere with Pacquiao’s run for political office in the Philippines.

But Schaefer then infuriated Top Rank by refusing to travel to Dallas for a meeting with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who offered to pay lavishly to hold the fight in his opulent new stadium. Schaefer’s actions, apparently at Mayweather’s behest, meant the fight went to the MGM Grand in Mayweather’s adopted hometown with no real competition.

After Mayweather went public with his requests for drug testing that went beyond the standards of the Nevada Athletic Commission, Pacquiao complicated the negotiations by filing a lawsuit last week alleging Mayweather and most of his camp’s key players defamed him by falsely accusing him of using performance-enhancing drugs. Those confrontations led to the mediation, which apparently produced a solution acceptable to everybody — except Mayweather, according to Arum.

Arum said there’s “no chance ever of salvaging it for March, no chance for it ever to happen.” He plans to propose a mid-March bout with 154-pound champion Yuri Foreman to Pacquiao, who could become a champion in his eighth weight class.

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I had heard previously that Pacquiao has some phobia or something about his blood being drawn.  I don’t know if there is evidence of blood draws for this purpose affecting an athletes training and/or preparation, but if it’s in his head that it does in inevitably will.  When I first heard this story I thought there was an obvious reason he doesn’t want it drawn so close to the fight…but after looking in to it, he is wide open to having it drawn -immediately- after the fight.  I’m not all up on what kinds of things athletes use that are illegal, or how they leave the system.  Maybe there is something he might use to help him train but will be purged from the system before they expect the final draw…or maybe he is just that concerned about having a blood draw for some other reason.

In either case, having the fight not happen for this reason is really stupid.  This is the first Boxing match in a long ass time that I am looking forward to seeing.  I think Pacquiao needs to give in a little on this, and Mayweather needs to give in some as well.  Checking him right after the fight should be good enough to see if there was something in him for the actual fight, and checking him a week or 2 before hand should take care of training with something in his system.

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Dana White: Brock Lesnar May Never Fight Again

Posted Nov 16, 2009 2:50PM By Ray Hui (RSS feed)

Filed Under: UFC

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UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is suffering with something related to an intestinal disorder and will probably require “major surgery,” UFC president Dana White said in a report Monday on TMZ.

Lesnar, who twice pushed a fight back recently due to a bout with mononucleosis, is facing a far more significant illness that is potentially career-threatening.

“There’s a possibility Lesnar will never fight again,” White told TMZ.

White plans to have Lesnar transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for further diagnosis and treatment.

During the UFC 105 post-fight press conference, White declined to specify Lesnar’s illness to respect the star’s privacy, but did state that Lesnar neither has cancer nor AIDS.

Lesnar was scheduled to defend his belt against Shane Carwin at UFC 106 on Nov. 21 but the fight was postponed when Lesnar came down with mono. Both fighters received bout agreements for UFC 108 on Jan. 2, but that was postponed indefinitely earlier this month when Lesnar remained unfit to train.

“I can’t really talk about it right now, but he is in rough shape. He’s in really bad shape,” White said Saturday. “I’m actually probably going to fly to go see him, and we’re going to probably have to do some stuff to take care of this guy. He is not well, and he’s not getting any better.”

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In a major blow to the Nov. 21 UFC 106 card in Vegas, the heavyweight championship bout between titleholder Brock Lesnar and challenger Shane Carwin has been scrapped.

Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Lesnar withdrew Monday from the main event due to an illness that has sidelined him from training for over three-and-a-half weeks.

“He said he’s never been this sick in his life,” UFC president Dana White told Yahoo! Sports. “He said it’s been going on for a long time and he just hasn’t been able to shake it.”

At the time of the report, White said he was uncertain if the Lesnar-Carwin fight will be postponed or if Carwin will receive a new opponent on the card.

An hour after the report was published, Carwin said on his Twitter that his manager is telling him that the fight will be postponed until Jan. 2, which is the UFC 108 date at the MGM Grand.

With less than a month away to find a new headliner, the light heavyweight battle between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz could be shifted to the main event.

UFC 106 Fight Card:

Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
Karo Parisyan vs. Dustin Hazelett
Amir Sadollah vs. Phil Baroni
Ben Saunders vs. Marcus Davis
Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt
George Sotiropoulos vs. Jason Dent
Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira*
Brian Foster vs. Brock Larson*
Fabricio Camoes vs. Caol Uno*
Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann*

*not yet officially announced

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I’ve been on wax in the past saying that MMA needs to get rid of all these different regional promotions.  Naturally no one is going to want to do that, too much money changing hands right now to think about it.  IMO to be considered a legitimate sport you can’t just have your contract fighters going after each other, it has to be a “sport wide” title.  If you keep up with these separate promotions you never truly break away from the WWE type mentality.  Add to that the potential to over saturate the market with ppv’s and it is going to be the downfall of MMA.

I also think within the next 5 years there is the potential for the fighters to unionize.  I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it will add some friction between the “owners” and the fighters plus there is the potential for a work stoppage.  From what I’ve seen of the UFC contracts, they seem quite bias towards the company.  I’m all in favor of the guys getting their brains bashed in being the ones taking home the lion’s share of the profits.

MMA and the UFC in particular have kind of impressed me over the years.  They seem to be taking a mix of WWE style sports entertainment and handling it like a legitimate prize fighting promotion.  For whatever reason it appears to be working for them.  I just don’t see this as a long term recipe for success, like the centuries of boxing.

The only draw back to MMA (or caused by MMA) is the impact it seems to have had on boxing.  For years people have been saying that the high contracts in other professional sports have been drawing the poor kids that would have grown up in a boxing gym over to other avenues of professional sports.  With the NBA, NFL and MLB taking on black athletes to the point where the “minority” athlete is in the majority for those leagues boxing has seen a decline in the fighters coming up.  I don’t think it’s over all popularity took too much of a hit till MMA burst on to the scene though.  Suddenly people could see more “brutal” fights (I don’t think MMA is actually less brutal tbh) inside of a cage…which seems a bit savage in it’s own right.  It’s a real shame too.  I don’t think the best MMA fight ever will match the intensity and beauty of boxing.  I think the point of entry as far as skill level is concerned to be semi-successful in MMA is higher than in boxing, but I think the skill required to “master” boxing is significantly higher than MMA.

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