Miguel Cotto-Sergio Martinez, it’s about respect

Miguel Cotto-Sergio Martinez, it’s about respect
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
March 13, 2014

LOS ANGELES – Both Sergio Martinez and Miguel Cotto seemed ready to the press tour behind them and begin training at Wednesday’s final press conference to promote their June 7 middleweight championship.

The theme of the bout, which takes place at Madison Square Garden and will be televised by HBO pay-per-view, appears to be about respect.

Martinez feels disrespected that he’s being billed second and had to make a number of concessions at the negotiation table when he’s the middleweight champion (the lineal champ recognized by THE RING magazine, not just a beltholder). Cotto feels as though he earned that position at the table having taken his lumps as the B-side to both Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

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Bits & Pieces: Provodnikov likely to go without Roach

Bits & Pieces: Provodnikov likely to go without Roach
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
October 17, 2013


At Ruslan Provodnikov's media day at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood a few weeks ago, the esteemed trainer told RingTV.com that he'd be in the corner on fight night against Mike Alvarado. The fight takes place on Saturday night in Broomfield, Colorado, close to Alvarado's Denver home. HBO will televise.

“Manny [Pacquiao] has given me permission to go,” said Roach, referring to the fact he'd have to leave Pacquiao's camp in the Philippines in order to make it out to Denver for the fight.

“I'm going to be able to make the fight by a little bit and then I'll have to leave right away. I don't know exactly how that is going to play out yet.”

Reports since have indicated that Roach will in fact not be in the corner on fight night and that Provodnikov will instead have assistant Marvin Somodio working the corner on fight night.

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More humble, maybe, but still the same Mayweather

More humble, maybe, but still the same Mayweather
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
September 4, 2013


It’s true that ever since he served his 87-day jail sentence, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has seemed much more humble.

For his fight this past May, Mayweather was more accommodating to the media than most veterans ever recall him being. That has carried over to his fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, which takes place next Saturday.

But whatever gains have been made in humility, there are still remnants of the old Mayweather. During his media day in August, he took his time getting a haircut before jumping into the ring for his workout. On Wednesday’s conference call, he held things up for about fifteen minutes, and then dropped off the call a number of times while answering a question. He also took off a few minutes early after Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe claimed his phone had died.

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Cotto-Rodriguez agreed to in principle, manager says

Cotto-Rodriguez agreed to in principle, manager says
Mark E. Ortega
July 18, 2013
RingTV.com


The proposed Oct. 5 fight between Miguel Cotto and Delvin Rodriguez has essentially been agreed to by both sides, according to Rodriguez's manager A.J. Galante.

"Delvin's promoter, Joe DeGuardia, and I, have an agreement in principle with Cotto's people," Galante told RingTV.com on Wednesday evening.

"We are working on finalizing the documents. It's not 100 percent, but I would be surprised if it's not done by the weekend. But I stress that it is not 100 percent done yet."

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Cotto plans ring return later this year

Cotto plans ring return later this year
Mark E. Ortega
RingTV.com
March 1, 2013

LAS VEGAS – In attendance at Thursday's press conference for the Showtime-televised WBA lightweight title tilt between Richard Abril and Sharif Bogere on Saturday was three-division titleholder Miguel Cotto.

Cotto was there in support of his two fighters, junior middleweight Jorge Melendez and lightweight Jeffrey Fontanez, who will appear on the Showtime Extreme portion of the Abril-Bogere undercard.

Cotto recently revealed that he plans to fight three more times before calling it a day as a fighter and focusing on his family. RingTV caught up with Cotto as well as his attorney Gaby Penagaricano prior to the press conference to touch on a few subjects.

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Obscure Offerings: The Cotto-Mayweather Edition

Obscure Offerings: The Cotto-Mayweather Edition
Mark E. Ortega
Queensberry-Rules.com
May 4, 2012

This weekend, as with two or three weekends of the calendar year, boxing will be king. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is back in the ring, on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, and in against a fighter familiar with the big stage in Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto, who will be defending his alphabet title at junior middleweight against Floyd, catchweights checked at the door.

The only time the sport seems to be good enough for watercooler talk at the office in the States is when Floyd or Manny Pacquiao find themselves in the news or in the ring. With Floyd, his life outside the ropes has kept the sport afloat with the casual fan thanks to his impending jail sentence, as well as his sucker punch victory over Victor Ortiz last September and the follow-up post-fight interview low blow to the venerable Larry Merchant, who threatened Floyd that if Frank Sinatra were still crooning, he'd have his foot planted up the Las Vegas based star's ass.

You'll find this fight as well as the entire undercard covered elsewhere here at TQBR. The purpose of this piece is to clue you in on some of the action taking place on the more obscure side featuring some promising fighters who hope to make some sort of splash of their own. In today's saturated world of titleholders, there are a heavy number of trinkets at stake this weekend that will go largely disregarded. It doesn't mean that there aren't some quality fights taking place that may be worth a stream or a YouTube find following Saturday night's main festivities.

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"No Doubt" in Trout

"No Doubt" in Trout

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

June 9, 2011

If you asked even the most hardcore of boxing fan what important junior middleweight bout is happening in Mexico this weekend, the likely response would be “The Canelo fight is next weekend I thought?”

It's hard to blame any astute fight aficionado for getting it wrong; the WBA junior middleweight title tilt between the defending Austin “No Doubt” Trout [22-0, 13 KOs] of Albuquerque, New Mexico and hard-nosed David “The Destroyer” Lopez [40-12, 23 KOs] of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico has flown under the radar as it won't appear on American television until a week later, which coincides with the HBO broadcast of the WBC junior middleweight title fight between emerging Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Brit Ryan Rhodes in an expected packed house in Jalisco, Mexico.

Harris looks to right the Vicious Vivian Express

Harris looks to right the Vicious Vivian Express

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

April 6, 2011

It doesn't seem that long ago that “Vicious” Vivian Harris looked to be one of boxing's brightest young emerging talents, having lifted his first world title at just 24 years of age with a resounding second round stoppage of Diosbelys Hurtado to claim the WBA 140-pound championship back in October of 2002. Now Harris [29-5-1, 19 KOs] stands at the crossroads of his career against Golden Boy Promotions prospect Jessie Vargas [14-0, 7 KOs] in the headlining bout of a Telefutura Solo Boxeo televised card from Primm, Nevada this Friday.