'Rampage' Jackson considers Boxing career after UFC

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson would like to remind fans that the UFC isn't the first major promotion he's fallen out with.  "I'm a fighter," he said. "I fight everything. That's my problem. I don't win all my fights; I fight everything. I just say, 'You know what, forget it.'"  Seven years ago, he said as much to PRIDE, which at the time was a major competitor to the UFC and a platform that made stars out of fighters like him.  Jackson felt disrespected by the now-defunct promotion and in 2006 signed with the World Fighting Alliance. So began a new chapter in his career.

Now on the verge of starting another, Jackson believes he's burned his bridge with UFC parent Zuffa, which acquired his contract after the WFA quickly went belly up.  Jackson (32-10 MMA, 7-4 UFC) and Zuffa have publicly agreed that his final octagon appearance comes on Saturday at UFC on FOX 6, which takes place at Chicago's United Center. In a FOX-televised co-main event, he meets Brazilian standout Glover Teixeira (19-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC), whom he was originally slated to face this past October at UFC 153.  Jackson said with the right offer, he could transition to another MMA promotion or to the boxing ring.  "I think I can bring to boxing what they're lacking right now," he said. "All we really have is (Manny) Pacquiao and (Floyd) Mayweather, in my opinion. We don't have any (Evander) Holyfields and Mike Tyson right now. I think I can bring that type of energy to boxing."

But there are more than a few MMA observers who think Jackson's recent gripes are merely a ploy to ink a better contract. After all, money heals all wounds in combat sports, right?  "I don't think there's anything that they could do now," Jackson said. "I've given them chances. I don't want to badmouth them. (UFC President) Dana (White), once upon a time, gave me a big break and he helped me out when he first purchased my contract. But it's no secret, ever since I did 'The A-Team' movie and I didn't fight Rashad Evans in Memphis, we've had a bad relationship."  This past week, Jackson complained that the UFC had blocked him from wearing Reebok inside the octagon on Saturday. But today, he downplayed the effect of the decision. (The promotion later said it was open to working with the apparel company.)

Mayweather plans to fight Robert Guerrero

Unbeaten fighter Floyd Mayweather likely will return to the ring after a one-year layoff on May 4 in Las Vegas against fellow American Robert Guerrero, the Los Angeles Times reported.The card would also feature Mexico's undefeated Saul "Cinnamon" Alvarez, who many expect will face Mayweather later this year if both are triumphant in May. Golden Boy Promotions chief executive Richard Schaefer told the Times that a deal could be set this week to send World Boxing Council welterweight champion Mayweather, 43-0 with 26 knockouts, against Guerrero, 31-1-1 with 18 knockouts. Alvarez, 41-0 with one drawn and 30 knockouts, would defend his World Boxing Council super welterweight crown against Austin Trout, Alfredo Angulo or James Kirkland, according to the report.

Filipino star Nonito Donaire, promoted by Bob Arum, and Mexico's undefeated Abner Mares, signed with Golden Boy, are in talks for an April 13 super-bantamweight unification bout, according to the report. Mares is 25-0 with one drawn and 13 knockouts while Donaire is 31-1 with 20 knockouts. Unbeaten American Tim Bradley is in talks to defend the World Boxing Organisation title he took from Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao last year, the Times said, with undefeated Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa as the likely opponent in suburban Los Angeles. AFP

Camacho will fight Taylor at Wembley

‘Macho Man’ Camacho faces fellow unbeaten cruiserweight China Clark for the English belt while ‘Crash Bang’ Taylor (7-0-1) meets Liam Shinkwin (5-0-1) for the Southern Area lightweight title on a crunch night of action in the capital. While Taylor is in sunny Spain in a training camp with stable mates Darren Barker, who tops the bill, and Lee Purdy, who battles Carson Jones for the IBF International welterweight title, the news that Camacho would fight Leeds’ Clark for the English strap has given the 27-year-old a huge boost in the gym.“When Eddie said I would have an English title fight on March 9 my eyes just lit up, I was so happy,” said Camacho. “I was expecting to go through the titles starting with the Southern Area title but the English title is much bigger. Anybody who wants to go and fight for the British title has to go through the national title first so once I have the English title they will have to come and fight me for it. “The best title domestically is the British title and the English title has come earlier than I planned and that is fantastic. I said when I turned professional that I wanted to make my mark on the cruiserweight division and this is all part of the plan. “I believe I have earned this. I have proved that I can blast people, I can go through a hard battle like I did with Hari Miles and I have shown that I can take a punch as well.

“The stage just keeps getting better and better. Boxing for the English title at Wembley Arena on a bill with all the Matchroom boys is going to be great, I can’t wait.” Title fights for Camacho and Taylor appear on a stacked undercard of huge fights for Barker and Purdy, a rematch of the tasty Southern Area light welterweight title bout edged by Danny Connor over Chris Evangelou when the pair clashed in September. Betfair Prizefighter champion Larry Ekundayo, unbeaten Islington middleweight John Ryder and former Team GB star Martin J. Ward are also in action in fights to be announced soon.

Bob Arum vs Oscar de la hoya

Boxing promoters can make or break a career. They are the ones who schedule fights, handle negotiations and decide which fighters deserve a shot at the next level and those who don't.   If you're in, it can be a tremendously lucrative relationship, if you're out, it can go sour really, really fast.  Just as promoters can make fights happen, they can also prevent them from happening. Cross-promotional fights have always been something of a tricky business in the sport.   Each company looks to protect their big moneymakers and would rather see them lose to someone in their stable, who can then be marketed, than to a rival fighter.  The two biggest dogs in the yard of boxing promotion these days are Bob Arum's Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions.

Between these companies are the biggest stars in the sport including Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez and Nonito Donaire.   But unfortunately for boxing fans, the two companies simply do not, and will not, get along.   Fights between fighters on opposite sides of the promotional war have become a virtual impossibility. The bad blood that runs here is deeper than traditional rivalry and has already contributed to the derailing of several high-profile fights.  None, of course, have been bigger than the long talked about, but to this date never fulfilled, dream match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.  While the promotional rivalry is not the only cause, though it's a large one, the lack of this fight being made in the past four years is a stain for the sport.The money and hype for boxing it would've generated would've likely surpassed record numbers and provided the sport with the type of huge, transcending event it's lacked in recent years.  But short of this superfight, it seems that the effect on the sport of the rivalry has been a bit overblown.  The main source of acrimony between the companies stems from the personal relationship between the two main men behind each company. Simply put, Arum and De La Hoya don't like one another, and that is not likely to change any time soon.  The rivalry stems from when De La Hoya was a fighter, and promoted for much of his early career by Arum, and the two had a highly publicized and ugly split.

Both sides leveled accusations against the other, including charges of racism and throwing fights, that have remained a toxic impediment to this day.

Bernard Hopkins is still world class at 48

No professional athlete, let alone a boxer, can last for 24 years at the pinnacle of the business without great genes, good fortune and a competitive streak that runs deeper than any normal person could possibly understand. Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins turned 48 on Tuesday, the same day he announced he would fight Tavoris Cloud on March 9 in Brooklyn, NY, for a 175-pound title. The bout with Cloud will come nearly two full years after Hopkins set perhaps the most unbreakable record in sports when he became, at 46 years, four months and six days, the oldest world champion in boxing history. But if, as expected, Hopkins beats Cloud, he will regain a world title at 48 years, one month and 23 days.

Hopkins' training discipline is legendary. When he was released from a Pennsylvania prison in 1988 after serving a bit more than five years on a strong-arm robbery conviction, he vowed he would never go back and would turn his life around. He has done each, and actually has been on the good side longer than he was on the bad side. It is his disdain for losing, though, that drives him to greatness at even such an advanced age. He dropped a majority decision to Chad Dawson last April in a highly competitive fight. It was an extraordinary performance by a 47-year-old against one of the sport's young elites, but Hopkins took no joy in coming close.

"That was so tough for me to take that I didn't have sex with my wife for six months," Hopkins said. "I didn't want to do anything. It's just a thing where, I hate to lose. I hate to lose at anything. I'm a guy who is very competitive. To lose, to me, is devastating. It was especially so knowing I could have done things I had worked on and trained for." He's one of the great fighters of this, or any era, and has accomplished more than he had any reason to believe when he lost his pro debut a month before George H.W. Bush was elected president. He concedes he's no longer the athlete he once was and has to make concessions to his age. As he plowed through his 30s and rolled past his 40th birthday, he growled at anyone who would suggest he may be limited by his age. He openly admits that he isn't the same physically, which makes his success in the ring all the more remarkable.

I was close to taking my own life, admits Ricky Hatton

Ricky Hatton has revealed just how close he came to committing suicide during his three-year retirement from boxing.  The 34-year-old said his girlfriend often had to prise a knife from his hand as depression took its toll on his life.  Hatton, who has had well-publicised battles with drink, drugs and depression after his loss to Manny Pacquiao in his last fight since May 2009, will return to the ring against Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Senchenko next month.  He told Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme: “I was near to a nervous breakdown, depression, suicidal. Most mornings my girlfriend would have to come downstairs and take a knife out of my hand. I had a knife at my wrists, I was in a really bad way, just hysterically crying for no reason.

“I’ve always liked a little bit of a drink, but my drinking had gone way off the Richter scale, I was having blackouts.  “And even if I was stone cold sober I was trying to kill myself. The real lowest point was when my little girl came along, who is one-year-old now. Hatton’s sonCampbell had the misfortune to see his dad in such a bad way, I am not going to do it any more to my kids and I’m not going to put my family though it any more.”  Hatton claims his life now is “really rosy”, but admitted in his eyes he was returning to the ring “ashamed” and as a “failure”.
“I feel sad because I feel ashamed of myself,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how many people say, ‘Ricky, everyone has problems and you got beaten my (Floyd) Mayweather (Jr) and Pacquiao who are the two best fighters of our generation, you did the country proud’.  “That’s very kind of people to say, but they don’t have to deal with this little fella who sits on my shoulder every day telling me that I’m a failure and I’ve let my family and my fans down and British sport, British boxing down. I feel a failure and it doesn’t matter how many people say, ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself’, that’s how I feel and that’s how I’m coming back. I feel I’ve got to redeem myself.
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Vitali Klitschko Enters Parliment

Vitali Klitschko, the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, is about to engage in a different kind of fight.  He is set to enter Ukraine's parliament as a lawmaker and the head of the UDAR party, following Sunday's parliamentary elections. UDAR stands for Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms. The word also means “punch” in Ukrainian.  The over 2-meters-tall athlete conducted a campaign in which he was critical of corruption and cronyism in the government of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych. Klitschko said after preliminary voting results that he would join the opposition alliance.

Klitschko is not an entire newcomer to the political process. He has twice staged unsuccessful runs to become the mayor of Kiev. In a statement on his website, he says he has entered politics because he wants to help his country “toward a better future.” He says his country continues to lag behind its Eastern European neighbors. Ukraine is the second largest nation after Russia to emerge from the former Soviet Union.  Klitschko is only the fourth boxer – besides Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis – to win a heavyweight belt for the third time.