To generate some notice for their title fight, James Toney and John Ruiz did what boxers do to stir things up. Push a little, shove a little and shout at each other and their trainers.
With the help, of course, of Don King, who had the appropriate line to end Tuesday's promotional news conference/faux altercation: "We ain't gonna have a fight tonight for free."
The actual fight will take place on April 30 at Madison Square Garden when Ruiz, the WBA heavyweight champion, defends his title against Toney, who has held middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight titles.
PHOTO: EPA
It was cobbled together to replace Vitali Klitschko's WBC heavyweight title defense against Hasim Rahman, which was supposed to be held that night but was called off because Klitschko pulled a thigh muscle.
That fight probably will be rescheduled for June 18.
So the Garden finally agreed to take Toney and Ruiz on the cheap -- so little money is on the table that the fight is being shown without pay-per-view, almost unheard of for a heavyweight "championship."
"These guys aren't making any money for this," King said. "It's for the honor of being able to start unifying the heavyweight title."
The shoving came after a tape summarizing all the names, faces and fights that King has been involved with, and speeches from all involved.
It came when Toney and Ruiz's trainer, Norman Stone, exchanged words across the podium, and the fighter began approaching Stone. Stone isn't new at this -- on Nov. 13, when Ruiz beat Andrew Golota, he threw a punch at Golota's trainer and then was ejected for throwing tape at the referee.
King, naturally, played the referee, getting himself between the two. Ron Scott Stevens, New York's boxing commissioner, stepped to the microphone and said such doings would not be tolerated in his state.
King returned to pump up the fight, which demonstrates the low esteem to which the heavyweight division has fallen.
Suspended heavyweight Joe Mesi plans to attend a hearing next month to determine whether he can resume fighting a year after sustaining a head injury.
Mesi (29-0), formerly the WBC's top-ranked contender, has been suspended indefinitely pending a review of his medical records since bleeding on the brain during a victory by unanimous decision over Vassiliy Jirov in Las Vegas in March 2004.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS