Don King, on Mike Tyson


"Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?
He went to prison, not to Princeton."



"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music
and the dancers hit each other."

Monday, May 27, 2013

WATCH CNN DOCUMENTARY FEATURING MANNY PACQUIAO IN FULL

The CNN Freedom Project documentary, "The Fighters," which recently debuted on CNN International, is now available online, in its entirety. 
Two years in the making, CNN had exclusive access to Fighter of the Decade and recently reelected Congressman Manny Pacquiao and activist Celia Flores-Oebanda, following their dramatic battle against sex slavery as they try to save the children of the Philippines who have become victims of human trafficking.

 Warning:  Due to the graphic nature of the following content, it may not be suitable for all viewers. Watch here: cnn.com  

Saturday, May 25, 2013

KO SEQUENCE

News Photo: George Groves of England catches Noe Gonzalez of…
News Photo: George Groves of England knocks out Noe Gonzalez…



Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: George Groves of England knocks out Noe Gonzalez of Uruguay during their International Super Middleweight bout at the O2 Arena on May 25, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)
Date created: 25 May 2013


http://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/george-groves-of-england-catches-noe-gonzalez-of-uruguay-to-news-photo/169481023

Game Changer


Pacquiao-Arum tandem could break all pay-per-view records

By Leo Reyes



The upcoming fight between eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios in Macau, China, could eclipse all past pay-per-view (PPV) records in boxing history.

The fight, scheduled for Nov. 24, targets the huge Chinese market as well as the regular PPV market in the US.

Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum, who owns Top Rank Promotions of the US, has been successful in breaking into the huge Chinese market with his initial venture featuring the professional boxing debut of Zou Shiming, China's most popular amateur boxer and Olympic gold medalist.
Shiming fought Mexican Eleazar Valenzuela last April 6 in Macau, winning his first fight as a professional boxer via a unanimous decision. The weekend event also featured former WBA flyweight champion Brian Viloria vs. Juan Francisco Estrada in the main undercard.
The initial success of Arum's market debut in China, must have pushed the Hall of Fame promoter to further explore what appears to be the world's biggest market for sports, particularly boxing.

On Nov.24, Arum will validate his initial success story in China with a powerhouse show featuring the world's most popular boxer, Manny Pacquiao, who will face a top fighter Brandon Rios. The main event will be supported by a powerhouse undercard, featuring the Penalosa brothers of the Philippines.
The 81-year-old boxing promoter could be looking at the growth of smartphones and tablets ownership in China which has reportedly surpassed the US figures. Tempo reported that "China has surpassed the US as the leading smartphone market this year with an estimated 250 million active accounts."
Assuming Arum gets 20 percent of the number, he could end up with 50 million subscribers and assuming further that he charges only $5.00 each, he could make $250 million in revenues from the fight.
This figure is unprecedented in boxing history. The biggest figure for a PPV fight was recorded in 2007 in a fight between Floyd Mayweather vs.Oscar de la Hoya which generated just about 2.4 million buys for revenue of $130 million.
Even if Arum gets just a little over 10 percent of the number of smartphones and tablets holders, he still ends up surpassing the the Mayweather- dela Hoya number without even counting the PPV proceeds for the US sales.
If these figures are validated on November 24, Pacquiao will have his biggest payday in his entire career. There are reports that Arum will guarantee Pacquaio his usual fee which is in the vicinity of $20-$30 million. But his share in the PPV proceeds will most likely be more than double his guaranteed purse, making him this year's world's highest paid athlete.
To drum up the promotions for the fight, Arum is starting early in July to sell the Macau fight to potential ppv buyers in China and in the US.
A three city tour has been scheduled in China to include Beijing,Shanghai and Guangzhou while a similar tour will take place later in the US mainland.
This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com


Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/350701#ixzz2UMUqJBRy

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/350701



Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Former NFL player: Boxing is safer than football by Martin Rogers






Former NFL lineman Ray Edwards (right) is 4-0 in his professional boxing career. 

(Minnesotaboxing.com)The colorful characters that occupy boxing's heavyweight division have a wide range of reasons for entering the harsh world of the fight game. Ray Edwards might be the only one to do so because he thought it would reduce his chances of getting injured.
Edwards, who spent seven seasons in the NFL playing defensive tackle with the Minnesota Vikingsand Atlanta Falcons, now makes his living squaring off against huge men intent on punching him in the head as frequently as possible.

Yet Edwards is adamant that the brutal and unpredictable nature of pro football makes his new career choice a safer option with a bigger long-term upside than putting himself on the line inside the gridiron.

"It might sound crazy to some people but for sure I believe boxing is a safer sport than football now," Edwards told Yahoo! Sports. "Football is the only sport that is 100-percent injury prone.

"[In football], you don't know what is coming, where you are going to get hit, how you are going to get hit," he continued. "You play for a long time, chances are you are going to tear your MCL or ACL. You can break your leg, snap your femur, break your arm, break your neck."

But what about boxing?

A glance at the battered faces of post-fight combatants tells only part of the story of a sport where inflicting pain and damage with the fists is an intrinsic facet of any contest.

However, while Edwards respects and understands the risks posed by his new profession, from his point of view, those dangers are more acceptable than those NFL stars face every week.

"In boxing you know where the hits are coming from – it is the guy stood in front of you," Edwards said. "In boxing you might break your hand or break your nose and if you get knocked out you can get a concussion. But also, the referee is right there and you are more protected. In football, you never know. The game moves at such a pace that you might never see it coming.You can get hit when you are completely defenseless." 

Football's dangers have never been more in the spotlight, and with all factors considered, some doctors are open-minded to the theory that it may be even more dangerous than boxing.

"I would have to agree that boxing is a more controlled environment," Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, director of the nationally recognized Michigan NeuroSport program at the University of Michigan, told Yahoo! Sports. "It is an individual sport and you see what is in front of you. Medical personnel is right there at ringside and can stop a fight, you have one medical professional who has his eyes on the two fighters at all times.

"In boxing the risk of concussion and head trauma is obviously very high but that is only one area of risk," Kutcher continued. "For sure, the rest of his body is going to prefer boxing to playing football, where the range and severity of the potential injuries is virtually without limit."

Edwards signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Falcons in 2011, but was released in November 2012 after struggling for playing time. He says he's invested wisely enough to be able to live in comfort for the rest of his life and his foray into boxing is motivated by a desire for competition, rather than fiscal incentive.

He has fought four times as a pro – he's 4-0 against the likes of Nick "Turbo Tax" Capes and Cory "Spare Tire" Briggs – and insists he has no plans to return to football even if an NFL team came waving a lucrative contract in his direction.

"There is some faulty thinking there," said Dr. Anthony Alessi, a leading neurological expert who has served as a ringside physician for Connecticut boxing bouts for the past 17 years. "In football, accidents and injuries are a byproduct of the game, but the main objective is to get the ball over the line and score points.

"In boxing, the object of the sport is to neurologically impair your opponent, to injure their brain in some way to stop them from performing. It sounds graphic, but that is effectively what you are looking for – a knockout."

Countless former fighters continue to suffer from dementia pugilistica, a direct result of taking repeated blows to the head, which includes symptoms such as slurred speech, loss of memory, declining mental ability, tremors and coordination issues.
Yet football has it own problems. The NFL is facing more than 200 legal cases brought by more than 4,000 former players accusing the league of hiding the dangers of head trauma. And a recent story in the Washington Post highlighted the plight of former NFL Man of the Year Reggie Williams, who has been financially crippled by a series of medical problems that require daily treatment, 24 years after the end of his playing career.

The level of health care support given to former players is a particular sticking point for Edwards, who claims the league's policies do not go far enough in caring for players of yesteryear. Those factors – combined with the obscenely brief shelf life of a pro football player (3½ years) – was a critical reason behind his transition to boxing.

"The average career of an NFL player depends on your position, but it can be as short as three and a half years," Edwards explained. "Then you have still got the rest of your life.

"In boxing, Floyd Mayweather has been at the top for 16 or 17 years, and guys like Bernard Hopkins are still going even into their late 40s. I am 28, but by staying as disciplined as I am and maintaining my condition I can have a long and successful career in this."
Edwards admits he still has a long way to go before he achieves his goal of shaking up the heavyweight division. But even at this infant stage of his new career, he has stirred up a thorny talking point – across two sports.


 
 





 

A New Way to Care for Young Brains



By BILL PENNINGTON


BOSTON — The drumbeat of alarming stories linking concussions among football players and other athletes to brain disease has led to a new and mushrooming American phenomenon: the specialized youth sports concussion clinic, which one day may be as common as a mall at the edge of town.

In the last three years, dozens of youth concussion clinics have opened in nearly 35 states — outpatient centers often connected to large hospitals that are now filled with young athletes complaining of headaches, amnesia, dizziness or problems concentrating. The proliferation of clinics, however, comes at a time when there is still no agreed-upon, established formula for treating the injuries.

“It is inexact, a science in its infancy,” said Dr. Michael O’Brien of the sports concussion clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We know much more than we once did, but there are lots of layers we still need to figure out.”

Deep concern among parents about the effects of concussions is colliding with the imprecise understanding of the injury. To families whose anxiety has been stoked by reports of former N.F.L. players with degenerative brain disease, the new facilities are seen as the most expert care available. That has parents parading to the clinic waiting rooms.

The trend is playing out vividly in Boston, where the phone hardly stops ringing at the youth sports concussion clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital.

About three miles away, at Boston Children’s Hospital, patient visits per month to its sports concussion clinic have increased more than fifteen fold in the last five years, to 400 from 25. The clinic, which once consisted of two consultation rooms, now employs nine doctors at four locations and operates six days a week.

“It used to be a completely different scene, with a child’s father walking in reluctantly to tell us, ‘He’s fine; this concussion stuff is nonsense,’ ” said Dr. William Meehan, a clinic co-founder. “It’s totally the opposite now. A kid has one concussion, and the parents are very worried about how he’ll be functioning at 50 years old.”

Doctors nationwide say the new focus on the dangers of concussions is long overdue. Concerned parents are properly seeking better care, which has saved and improved lives. But a confluence of outside forces has also spawned a mania of sorts that has turned the once-ignored concussion into the paramount medical fear of young athletes across the country.

Most prominent have been news media reports about scores of relatively young former professional athletes reporting serious cognitive problems and other later-life illnesses. Several ex-N.F.L. players who have committed suicide, most notably Junior Seau, a former San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots star, have been found posthumously to have had a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

State legislatures have commanded the attention of families as well, with 43 states passing laws requiring school-age athletes who have sustained a concussion to have written authorization from a medical professional, often one trained in concussion management, before they can return to their sport.




Dr. Rebekah Mannix, an emergency room physician and a concussion researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, works at the front lines of the new world of youth concussion management. Mannix had a concussion while playing college rugby in 1989. After visiting a nearby hospital emergency room, she recalled, she received little guidance about what to expect next — and there was no specialized center to visit if typical concussion symptoms like a headache, nausea, amnesia, fogginess or dizziness persisted.


Nearly 25 years later, much is still unknown about the roughly four million concussions diagnosed annually in America (millions may go undiagnosed). And even with the increased attention to the injury, modern concussion treatment has become a mix of practices derived from prevailing wisdom and experience, limited clinical science and common sense.

“Head injury in general is a strangely archaic field,” Mannix said. “There is no predictability. I cannot say to patient A, ‘You are going to be fine in a week.’ I cannot say to a patient B, ‘You are going to be really sick for three months.’ ”

There is no test or procedure, for example, to verify whether a patient has had a concussion. It is a diagnosis based on a doctor’s examination, observation of symptoms and understanding of the incident that led to the injury.

Brain scans can look for bleeding, but they do not identify a concussion, and they come with risks.

Talking parents out of unnecessary brain scans and repeatedly informing them that a high percentage of concussions will not cause lingering symptoms may be the best medicine given by concussion doctors. They say it is the best way to assuage the panic they hear in the voices of parents and patients.


Dr. Cynthia Stein at the Boston Children’s clinic. Among the things Stein routinely explains to patients is that pro football players like Junior Seau may have taken thousands of hits to the head in youth leagues, high school and college — in addition to 10 or more years in the N.F.L. It’s not an appropriate comparison. Our patients, if their concussions are managed properly, are going to heal on their own. The body knows how to take care of itself.”

But complicating the care is the belief that the recovery time for younger concussion patients will be longer.

“A concussion might be the only injury where the younger you are, the longer it takes to get better,” Stein said.

But there is no wall chart or medical textbook that says just how much rest or inactivity...

The lack of guidelines frustrates athletes and their parents, and can confound doctors. In this setting, determining when a young athlete is ready to return to a contact sport, or to school for the mental rigor of regular class work, becomes a highly nuanced, open-ended calculation.


In keeping with its scientifically indefinite nature, concussion management has few collectively recognized, widely acknowledged tenets. But if there is one that is accepted with only a modicum of enduring debate, it is the understanding that athletes who have had a concussion go through a period shortly after the injury during which they are especially vulnerable to catastrophic injury if subjected to another blow to the head. In the worst case, known as second-impact syndrome, it can be a fatal combination.

The chief goal of youth concussion clinics, and the chief purpose of the widespread concussion-related state legislation, is to protect those susceptible to repeat concussions in this period of vulnerability. But no one knows just how long or short that period is.

One of the most commonly known treatment protocols is cognitive rest, which often means avoiding mental stimulation like video games, television or situations with bright lights or loud noises for an extended period after the injury. It is sometimes referred to as the “two weeks lying in a cool, dark room” therapy. Like so many things in concussion management, it has been supported by anecdotal case studies but is unverified by standardized clinical trials.

At the clinics in Boston and at others nationwide, determining how much activity and stimulation are appropriate, and how soon to introduce them after a concussion, is now done on a case-by-case basis. 

There is evidence that certain step-by-step treatment schedules have been successful, but therapies considered standard two years ago — like two weeks in a cool, dark room — are being challenged.

Inside the Boston clinics, in consult, a team of neurologists, sports medicine and rehabilitation specialists, physical therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists may determine a recommended course for a single patient.

The nationwide proliferation of youth sports clinics is a reaction to a health care demand. But are the clinics also profit centers?

Meehan, of Boston Children’s Hospital, responded similarly, saying that if the clinic was good for business, it was principally because of the good will it brought the institution.

Interviews with directors of youth concussion clinics nationwide produced a consensus that the clinics were not significant moneymakers because they were not procedure driven, meaning that they do not typically lead to expensive imaging tests or operations. Instead, they tie up doctors in lengthy, multifaceted patient consultations.

Most clinic patients go to the clinics because they are referred by their pediatricians, their primary care physicians or the doctors attending to them during an emergency room visit. Emergency room visits by children and adolescents with brain injuries have increased by more than 60 percent in the past eight years, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some concussion specialists working at clinics said they believed the facilities would be more prevalent in 5 or 10 years, with a clinic perhaps located near every medium-size city in the country.

If the widespread anxiety about concussions is diminished in time, if the frenzy that doctors describe abates, there could be other outcomes as well, like a better understanding that a concussion in a school-age athlete is not necessarily a pathway to the kind of dementia found in some aging N.F.L. players.



 






Read More:

Source:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/sports/concussion-fears-lead-to-growth-in-specialized-clinics-for-young-athletes.html?src=recg







Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Sergio Martinez vs Julio Cesar Chavez jr



Published on Mar 12, 2013
 
15.09.2012 Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA WBC middleweight title klitschko floyd mayweather carl froch sergio martinez mike tyson julio cesar chavez roy jones lennox lewis saul alvarez tomasz adamek juan manuel marquez кличко andre ward kelly pavlik bernard hopkins gennady golovkin nonito donaire adrien broner david price tony thompson tim bradley provodnikov manny pacquiao

An upcoming book by former mob lawyer turned Mayor of Las Vegas

Any fan of Boxing that likes the literature of the sport like Fat City wil llook forward to reading this book... It will be full of great anecdotes told by a real life character who has seen it all in the Las Vegas boxing scene.




Ex-Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman tells all in upcoming book

An upcoming book by former mob lawyer turned Mayor of Las Vegas Oscar Goodman provides an inside look at some of the boxing world’s greatest characters and their legal battles. “Being Oscar: From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas, Only in America,” which will hit stores on May 21, gives a firsthand account of Oscar’s work and personal relationships with boxing legends including Larry Holmes, Frans “The White Buffalo” Botha, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson as well as the legendary promoter, Don King.
In a chapter titled, “Heavyweights I Have Known,” Oscar describes such incidents as:
*Oscar receiving an urgent 2am phone call from Don King and Larry Holmes. They needed Oscar to rush out to meet them in a hotel/casino, where he drew up an agreement on a napkin and had them sign it right there.
*Mike Tyson hired Oscar to defend him after Iron Mike famously bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear
*Oscar foiled then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to get Larry Holmes to testify in Don King’s fraud investigation
*Joe Louis’ presence at a trial helped Oscar’s client get a reduced sentence because the judge was a huge fan of the boxer who asked Oscar to get him an autograph
*Oscar helped Frans Botha beat a steroids charge and keep his heavyweight title

“I’d been a boxing fan since I was a kid in Philadelphia,” says Oscar. “One of my earliest memories is watching a boxing match between Jersey Joe Walcott and Rocky Marciano. So I found it both fascinating and rewarding to work with some of the greats of the sport.”
In “Being Oscar,” Oscar Goodman recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. Written with co-author George Anastasia, one of the most respected crime reporters in the country, Oscar candidly reveals never-before-disclosed details of his 35 years of service to a Who’s Who of mob bosses such as Meyer Lanksy, and Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro in Vegas, Nick Civella, Vinny Ferrara and Phil Leonetti. Being Oscar takes the reader on a tour through organized crime’s inner sanctum and into the courtroom, where Oscar

  • argued cases about government wiretapping, 
  • an impeachment of a federal judge before the United States Senate, 
  • a drug dealer charged with assassinating a federal judge, and 
  • the infamous “Black Book,” an exclusion list that banned targeted individuals from entry into the casinos. 


And while he represented some of the most notorious mobsters in the country, Oscar says it was “the guys in white hats” who were the ones he saw breaking the law in almost every case.

“Being Oscar” also follows Oscar’s three terms as mayor of Sin City, detailing his revitalization of the downtown district and also his many outlandish media battles and political tussles.

“Being Oscar” will hit bookstores and online outlets this May 21.







Source:  http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/196670-196670#more-196670





Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Former Dallas Cowboy Daryl Johnston and his experience with concussions


 

Former Dallas Cowboy Shines Light On Brain Injuries

Credit Lauren Silverman
 
Former Dallas Cowboy Daryl Johnston spoke about his experience with concussions at the Center For BrainHealth.
 
Former Dallas Cowboy Daryl Johnston is using his fame shine a light on brain injuries in sports. He says all athletes should get a baseline assessment test before playing sports, and is working with the Center for BrainHealth in Dallas to promote awareness. 
  • The KERA radio story.
Daryl Johnston played 11 seasons – or nine years – as fullback for the Cowboys. It’s impossible to know exactly just how many hits to the head he’s taken. Still, Johnston says he was more worried about the concussions he suffered as a rambunctious little boy than as an offensive blocker.

Johnston first came to the Center for BrainHealth, he says, because he wanted to be proactive and find out if he had damaged his brain on the field, or off.  

So last year Johnston, along with more than 30 other ex-players, participated in a study looking at the long-term effects of concussions.

It showed a higher incidence of depression for players – roughly twice the national average. Several former players also had signs of cognitive impairment.

Johnston’s brain scan came back normal, but he’s recruited others, like former teammate Cooper Gardiner, to come in for an evaluation and neurological tests.

Concussion Myths & Facts:

The Center’s Medical Director, John Hart Jr., has led multiple studies involving ex-NFL players, including Johnston.

He says there are three main findings in his most recent concussion research.  
  • Not everyone who plays sports and gets a concussion ends up with a cognitive problem later on.
  • The number of concussions a player has had can’t tell you whether or not that person will have cognitive decline or dementia.
  • Depression among former players does correlate with concussions. Hart says this is a depression not characterized so much by crying and sadness, but more by negative thinking and even suicidal thoughts. 

Changing Rules & Cultures:

Dr. Hart emphasized that everyone reacts differently to concussions. Just like with the flu, some people recover in a day, others may end up in bed for weeks. 

He says in the future concussion treatment will have to be more personalized. Different guidelines for different players, sports, even for different positions on the field.


But rules and brain tests won’t be enough to change a culture that trivializes brain injuries. As a Fox sports commentator, Daryl Johnston says he makes sure not to make light of a serious head injury by using throwaway words – like 'ding' – to describe hits to the head.

"If you hear 'traumatic brain injury' instead of ‘he got his bell rung,’ you’re starting to shift people’s thought process on what the injury actually was.”

Johnston hopes that shifting the culture around concussions on the football field will trickle down -- to the courts, arenas, gymnasiums, and backyards across the country.