Former Eminem protege disses Manny Pacquiao in lyrics -- Examiner

By Marv Dumon, Examiner.com

Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9", otherwise known as Ryan Montgomery, recently dissed boxing king Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2) on the rapper's just released Bar Exam 3 Mixtape.

In one of his lyrics from the mixtape:

I've got a hustler flow
For $50 mil [million]
I will drink Manny Pacquiao's blood
And watch my muscles grow
You b****!

The lyrics imply Pacquiao's blood contains steroids.

The rapper, known for his earlier association with Grammy Award-winning Eminem, also dissed rising hip hop star Drake in the same song.

Eminem, otherwise known as Marshall Bruce Mathers III, is the best selling recording artist of the decade of the 2000s, having sold over 80 million albums worldwide.

Eminem, who is also from Detroit, took Royce da 5'9" earlier in the decade as a protege, but the latter never broke into mainstream awareness.

Pacquiao has never failed any drug tests, and filed a defamation lawsuit against Golden Boy Promotions and the camp of his main rival Floyd Mayweather, Jr alleging false accusations of performance enhancing drug use.

Pacquiao's spotless medical record, however, have seen recent fighters such as Puerto Rican Kermit Cintron, Britain's Ricky Hatton and David Haye, and Americans Paulie Malignaggi and Nate Campbell as either doubting the Filipino's recent phenomenal ring success and / or calling for more stringent drug tests prior to fights.

Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr (41-0) was recently interviewed by MTV, together with rapper 50 Cent.

Mayweather expressed his concerns over 50 Cent's recent extreme weight loss in which the latter reportedly lost about 56 lbs in nine weeks. The rapper's weight loss was aimed for a role in an upcoming movie "Things Fall Apart" in which 50 Cent plays a cancer-stricken football player.

Additionally, Mayweather disclosed that it is better to execute running routines in the streets as opposed to doing it on a treadmill.

50 Cent went from around 220 lbs to about 160 lbs in a little over two months by going on a strict liquid diet. According to fellow rapper Lloyd Banks, 50 Cent stored and consumed dozens of Icee drinks as food substitute.

Additionally, Mayweather disclosed that it is better to execute running routines in the streets as opposed to doing it on a treadmill.

50 Cent went from around 220 lbs to about 160 lbs in a little over two months by going on a strict liquid diet. According to fellow rapper Lloyd Banks, 50 Cent stored and consumed dozens of Icee drinks as food substitute.

Sugar Ray Leonard visits Montreal

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard visited Montreal and signed memorabilia for fans. Montreal was the site of Leonard's historic showdown with Panamanian Roberto Duran, which Leonard lost by a 15th round decision. Leonard entered the fight at 27-0 while Duran sported a 71-1 record.

Asked by a reporter what Leonard thought of Floyd Mayweather, Jr, the boxing legend replied "I already knocked out his father."

Source: examiner.com

Nevada, USADA meeting is first step in a renewal of talks for Pacquiao-Mayweather -- 15Rounds

By Norm Frauenheim, 15Rounds.com

The silence isn’t exactly deafening. But it is encouraging. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer isn’t saying anything at all. Bob Arum is commenting only on location- location- location, which was one piece of real estate agreeable to all before negotiations for Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. got messy enough to demand that everybody go straight to drug testing.

It even looks as if Mayweather has sidestepped questions about Pacquiao by saying he has retired all over again. Yeah, right. Believe that one and you’ll believe British Petroleum’s early assertions that spewing oil from the Gulf of Mexico’s sea floor was as easy to fix as a leaky toilet.

After a noisy and abrupt end to talks late last year, the absence of chest-thumping, defiant headlines is as good a place to resume as any. The mystery is whether there been any substantive talk at all about a proposed fight on Nov. 13 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand or Thomas & Mack Center.

The guess here: Not much.

But the beginning, a, potential foundation, of a deal looks to be in the works where it should have been all along:

The Nevada State Athletic Commission.

On Wednesday, the Commission heard from U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, former chief U.S. Olympic Committee medical officer Dr. Robert Voy, commission physician Dr. David Watson and others about random blood testing, the deal breaking issue in December.

Then, the Commission got about as much respect as a tar ball when Mayweather suddenly demanded Olympic-style testing and Pacquiao balked. Despite the Nevada’s agency’s regulatory duties, it didn’t appear to have much of a role months later in the USADA-supervised blood-testing before Mayweather’s victory over Shane Mosley on May 1. Mayweather and Mosley were represented by the same entity, Golden Boy, instead of feuding promotional concerns.

There was progress in Mosley-Mayweather, perhaps, because the random testing went on with few complaints from either fighter. But it will never work in negotiations between Top Rank-promoted Pacquiao and representatives for Mayweather without a supervisory agency that so far only conducts urine testing.

It will be very hard – make that impossible — to put together a deal without a buffer between USADA and Mayweather, whose demand initiated talk ,if not momentum, for Olympic style testing in boxing. If Mayweather can take himself – retire his mouth – from the process long enough for he Nevada Commission to make some kind of accommodation with USADA, then there’s chance.

Some of what was said Wednesday was intriguing. In boxing circles, random blood testing for a variety of drugs is often described in terms that make it sound unbeatable. Voy pointed out that it is not.

Testing for human growth hormone (HGH), he said, is unreliable and impractical. For anybody who has spent times at the Olympics, those are two words often used at pool side during the swimming or at the track between heats.

Instead of guarantees, there are only suspicions.

But a framework for blood-testing sanctioned by the Nevada Commission could create a springboard for negotiations between Arum and Schaefer, Pacquiao and Mayweather. The meeting Wednesday was only a beginning. Between Arum and Schaefer, Pacquiao and Mayweather, there is no room for compromise over the method or the timetable or even the concept. We already know that.

However, Pacquiao has said he would be willing to undergo a blood test within two weeks of opening bell, or within the reported window when HGH can still be detected.

Pacquiao has shown signs that he willing to compromise. But he also has shown that he will just say no to demands from Mayweather or Schaefer or Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe.

For now, he must like what he is hearing.

Or not hearing.

Source: 15rounds.com

Manny Pacquiao: Serving the People or the Pugilist? -- Ringside Report

By Daniel “Tex” Cohen, Ringside Report

I don’t really like politicians.

I know that statement is a bit prejudiced in its absolutism, but I figure that I may as well be up front about my own biases. Politicians have to contort their image and their intentions into something twisted and ugly to win races. While businessmen focus on making money and journalists focus on getting stories, politicians focus on getting votes.

And fighters? They focus on getting wins.

Manny Pacquiao is both a fighter and a politician. I don’t think Pacquiao has necessarily been beaten into a man with no morals in higher office in the Philippines. In fact, I think he is just the sort of revolutionary political figure that could take a small, impoverished country and inspire it to a higher level. At least, I hope that he is.

Even Mayweather fans should hope he can help people, right?

The question is whether or not Manny the Politician can still be Manny the boxer. And that is a very, very big question.

There have been athletic politicians before.

In America, Senator Jim Bunning had a long baseball career before giving Washington, DC a go. Bill Bradley was a heck of a basketball player before winning a senate seat and running for President, prevented from the highest perch in the primary phase by former Vice President Al Gore. Former action hero and body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger took the opportunity to defeat the corrupt Grey Davis and his crony Cruz Bustamante in a crippled California during a particularly unusual recount scenario more than five years ago.

Hell, even President William Howard Taft used to be a pitcher. Coincidentally, Taft was also Governor General of the Philippines, but that’s neither here nor there.

What I wonder about is whether or not I will like the political Manny Pacquiao as much as I like the pugilistic one. Manny the fighter speaks with his fists and has picked up enough English along the way to express the obscure remaining part of the story.

Pacquiao is damn near a mythical creature, almost a super hero that shows up to give his foes what-for from time to time just to show that he’s still around.

Frankly, I always like Batman better than the commissioner. I don’t think I’m alone in that.

The other obvious question is whether or not Pacquiao can actually properly perform his duties as a public servant and still continue to fight. The crime rate in his home country is zero during his pay per views; Theoretically, the best way for him to serve the public is to never stop fighting.

Of course, the people would eventually get tired of the fights (never mind the fact that fighting every day is impossible). Yet there is a small, underlying truth to the idea that politics may not be the best avenue for Pacquiao. He has never been a particularly impressive speaker.

He has provided no real reason to think he is particularly excellent with budgets or public services.

I don’t know what he thinks of foreign policy, the future of Asia, or the economic system that would best suit his people.

Frankly, there is little to nothing aside from his natural fighting ability and the popularity that has come with it that would tell me he can do the job of public service.

Mind you, that is not to say he can’t do it.

Pacquiao is clearly a “winner”, and outsiders from unusual sources tend to be the kind of politician (if there is any) that I like. I just haven’t seen any evidence as of yet that Pacquiao can do the job.

I applaud the Boxing media that have asked if Pacquiao can continue to fight effectively while he is in office. However, if Manny has overplayed his hand and cannot perform both duties, his failure as a fighter will mainly affect him and his family.

Sure, there are those that would lose spirit if they saw their man lose, but the welts, bruises, cuts, and monetary losses incurred would be in the possession of Pacquiao himself.

I wonder about the more significant question: Can Manny serve the people while he is still strapping on a pair of Boxing gloves?

If Pacquiao fails as a fighter, he runs the risk of getting knocked out. If he fails as a Congressman, he runs the risk of getting his country knocked out.

You wonder why I don’t like politicians…

Source: ringsidereport.com

Dana White on Chuck Liddell’s return, blood testing and Mauricio Rua’s surgery -- Las Vegas Sun

By Brett Okamoto, Las Vegas Sun

VANCOUVER — The UFC is in Vancouver, Canada, for the first time in company history after a long period of negotiating that nearly saw the deal fall through because of high demands placed on the organization by the host city.

Eventually everything came together and UFC president Dana White took center stage Thursday at GM Place for the pre-fight press conference leading up to Saturday's UFC 115.

White is known for sitting down and shooting straight answers to any questions the media may have leading up to an event. Here are a few highlights from Thursday's chat.

Mauricio Shogun Rua has knee surgery again

White confirmed reports that newly crowned light heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua has had to undergo knee surgery for the second time in two years.

The procedure apparently has gone well in Los Angeles, and Rua now will spend the next five weeks rehabbing the injury in Las Vegas, according to White.

It was reported that Rua had injured the left knee prior to taking the belt from Lyoto Machida at UFC 113, a report the UFC refused to confirm.

White stuck with his story that Rua suffered the injury during the Machida fight and not before — however, he wasn't very convincing.

"He needed it after the fight," said White, with a grin. "He got hurt in the fight."

White not ready to take UFC to NFL and MLB stadiums

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has made it clear he intends to take boxing matches outside of the traditional confines of Las Vegas.

In March, Arum took his prized fighter Manny Pacquiao to Dallas Cowboys Stadium and recently held a fight between Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman at the new Yankee Stadium.

White was impressed by the show in Dallas but not nearly as much by the one in New York. He went on to add that the only place he has a strong desire to take the UFC to right now would be Fenway Park, because of its smaller size.

"I didn't think that (New York) show looked good on TV," White said. "With the amount of people they had, they could have done it at (Madison Square Garden). That place looked enormous, and it looked more than half-empty.

"I like smaller venues. I just don't want to lose that experience you feel when you go to a live event."

White to his fighters: Leave drug testing to the commissions

White publicly has given his opinion on several occasions that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is wrong in demanding Manny Pacquiao undergo Olympic-style blood tests in their proposed fight.

So, of course, White was a little disgusted when UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck recently said in an interview he would like to implement blood tests for his next fight against Georges St. Pierre, which is expected to happen in December.

Currently, the Nevada State Athletic Commission requires fighters to undergo urine tests, not blood tests.

According to White, what's good for the commissions is good for him.

"I think that's what an athletic commission is for," White said. "The athletic commissions have been around for a long time. When fighters start talking about other guys being drug tested? Shut up. Worry about you.

"It's been a long time since somebody tested positive for steroids. When we first took over, guys were popping here and there and I said, 'You have to be a moron to do steroids in this sport.' It's just dumb."

White went on to say that the UFC actually brings in DEA agents to talk to fighters about the consequences of taking steroids.

Cro Cop in surprisingly good mood

The usually subdued Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic has been noticeably upbeat headed into his co-main event fight against Pat Barry at UFC 115.

During Thursday's press conference, Filipovic cracked a couple of jokes that had everyone laughing — something that surprised White even more because of the fact that "some things" have happened to Filipovic that White wouldn't elaborate on.

"It's crazy he's in good spirits," White said. "He's gone through some things since he's been here that nobody knows about. It's nothing that will affect the fight, but it's awesome he's in such good spirits."

Filipovic is in the last fight on his UFC contract and when asked if the UFC would want to keep him around, White was vague, although he did say a win over Barry would be highly impressive.

"I have a lot of respect for Pat Barry," White said. "Pat is a very motivated, tough guy and if Mikro beats him it's interesting."

Chuck Liddell was a zombie

Back when the eleventh season of 'The Ultimate Fighter' went into production, Tito Ortiz dropped a bombshell on MMA media when he announced that Chuck Liddell was a recovering alcoholic.

Both Liddell and White responded by saying the claim was completely false, however White did admit Thursday that biggest factor in Liddell's fall from the top of the light heavyweight division was his partying.

White said Liddell has earned the right to get back into competition since making changes to his lifestyle and actually credited his appearance on 'Dancing with the Stars' as what sparked his comeback.

"It's going to be something interesting to see on Saturday," White said. "Chuck Liddell was a zombie, man, literally walking around like a zombie. You can't go out and party every night, roll into camp for four weeks and come out and fight.

"This guy took a lot of time off, which I'm usually not a big fan of because ring rust is real, but Chuck Liddell needed that time off. As goofy as this sounds, that time on 'Dancing with the Stars' was good for him. He started getting in shape for that show and has continued up until now.

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or brett.okamoto@lasvegassun.com.

Source: lasvegassun.com

Ricky Hatton accuses Manny Pacquiao of taking PEDs; Questions Manny's 'cleanness' when they fought -- Examiner

By Rick Rockwell, Examiner.com

Retired boxer, Ricky Hatton has made some major waves over the last few days with his 'shouts' from the sidelines. Hatton publicly attacked Manny Pacquiao's integrity by questioning Manny's success against him in their fight last year.

In fact, Hatton goes as far as insinuating that Manny has cheated to get where he is in the sport of boxing. Is this the talk of a sore loser? Let's examiner further:

Olympic-style drug testing

“I could have had those rules, but I wasn’t bothered. Maybe in hindsight, I should have done I must admit, I fancied my chances against Manny." Hatton, The National

In hindsight, you shouldn't have taken the fight. In hindsight, you weren't as good as the hype. This hindsight game is fun. In hindsight, perhaps you should have not taken Manny Pacquiao so lightly. In hindsight, maybe Ricky Hatton was taking PEDs to cut weight. Have you seen how big he gets when not training? Hey Ricky, the hindsight game goes both ways.

Manny's recent fights

"A few years ago he was getting knocked down by little men like [Juan Manuel] Marquez, then all of a sudden he is knocking out Oscar de la Hoya, myself and [Miguel] Cotto, who are powerhouses in comparison." Hatton, The National

It wasn't like Manny KO'd Cotto and Oscar in one punch. He broke them down over the fight with speed, superior conditioning, and an unrelenting volume of punches. But in Hatton's case, Manny Pacquiao KO'd him in one punch. Perhaps, Ricky Hatton didn't have the chin that Oscar, Juan, and Cotto have. And just because Juan and Manny go toe-to-toe doesn't mean it will happen with every fighter that Manny faces. Some fighters just match up better than others....

Ricky Accuses Manny

“It is a little bit strange. He could be on what Floyd is accusing him of [performance-enhancing substances], or it could be that he is just a great fighter who has improved. We will never know.” Hatton, The National

If we are going to sit here and question Manny's integrity then we might as well question every fighter's integrity over the last decade because any fighter could have beat a urine test. Maybe Ricky Hatton was on PEDs when he fought Floyd Jr and got off when he faced Manny.

Maybe Hatton was on PEDs until fought Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. Perhaps, that's the reason why Ricky was undefeated. Sitting here and accusing someone without proof is a waste of time and an insult. Ricky needs to enjoy retirement and quit causing a raucous just to get attention.

Predictions for fight with Floyd and Manny

“I think Floyd is too good defensively. He is so hard to hit, and I think he might ultimately just have a few too many tricks up his sleeves for Manny. I think they are both greats, no matter what they do now. Whoever won a fight between the two of them would become an all-time great.” Hatton, The National

I don't think Floyd Jr has anymore tricks up his sleeve. If you ask Freddie Roach, he's tell you that Floyd has lost a step and has become 'flat-footed'. I don't necessarily agree with Freddie but I do think Manny is faster than Floyd at this stage in their careers. And I do think that if Manny can get Floyd Jr in the same predicament that Shane Mosley got him in during the 2nd round of their fight, then I believe Manny will finish him off. And for the first time in this entire interview, I agree with Ricky. The winner would become an unquestioned all-time great.

Source: examiner.com