Manny Pacquiao's Mindstyle P.O.P. toy figure to be released at San Diego Comic-Con -- Examiner

By Dennis "dSource" Guillermo, Examiner.com

Manny Pacquiao's highly sought out toy collectible figurine will finally be launched to the public during the Comic-Con festivities at the San Diego Convention Center, July 22-25 (Preview Night, July 21).

The first 500 figures were pre-ordered and sold out but the public will get a chance to cop the limited collector's item toy when it releases only at the San Diego Comic-Con.

The vinyl action figure is part of MINDstyle's P.O.P. (Pride Of the Philippines) collection. The toy features artistic and cartoonized features of the Filipino boxing idol who is also widely considered as the world's best fighter for his ring exploits.

Black Eyed Peas front man Will I Am together with rapper Lupe Fiasco are two of the first people to get their hands on this figure which was released on a limited basis.

For for details, visit MINDSstyle @www.MINDstyle.com

A special release party is scheduled on the 22nd of June at Bar Ninety, 804 Market Street (8th&Market) from 9pm-2am.

Source: examiner.com

Re-cork the champagne, Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao is far from a sure thing -- Grand Rapids Press

By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press

The sports world has become so besotted with the intoxicating thought of Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao that the possibility it might not happen -- again -- has been set aside for a fortnight or so.

Perhaps, within the next week, Mayweather will leap forward and exclaim that Nov. 13 is fine by him, the money is right, drug-testing terms are right, just show him the dotted line to sign.

Las Vegas will go giddy. The fight will be on. And boxing will become the center of the sports universe during the penultimate month of the year.

Yes, that very well could happen.

No, it isn't a given.

Last week, Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, said his side had agreed to all of Mayweather's terms for the biggest fight in boxing and one of the biggest potential events in all of sports.

Jubilation took hold.

This, despite the fact we know little about what terms Arum referred to -- those in place last December, which Mayweather steadfastly has said no longer are applicable, or a new set of terms?

This, despite absolute silence from the Mayweather camp about what its plans are, save for the Grand Rapids native's unspecified plan to take some extended time away from boxing after his May 1 win over Shane Mosley.

This, despite a deadline set for next week by the Pacquiao camp for Mayweather to accept or reject the cloudy terms, for a fight date likewise set by Pacquiao.

Absolutely, cooler heads and common sense could lead to boxing's biggest possible event after a similar proposal failed last winter.

But first, a couple irrefutable facts.

One, among boxing powerbrokers Mayweather least wants speaking on his behalf, Arum and Oscar De La Hoya top the list. So it was interesting that the only two people who have said much about Mayweather-Pacquiao talks are Arum, in his statement last week, and De La Hoya, who last month told a Spanish television network that an agreement was near, then said he was misquoted. In a taped television interview. Really, Oscar?

Both statements generated a flurry of Internet traffic in the never-ending effort to generate pennies-per-click revenue streams but, as yet, no signed contract.

Arum said the purse split would be 50-50, a term to which Mayweather adamantly has said he will not agree.

Then again, wink wink, in pay-per-view boxing, 50-50 does not equate to an even split. There can be extreme disparities in television proceeds, depending upon how percentages are set. And while there is always a minimum threshold of sales that must be reached before those percentages take effect, there also can be a maximum threshold at which one party has his take substantially reduced or eliminated.

And what about Olympic-style drug testing, the issue that scrapped their proposed March fight? In the failed talks last winter, Mayweather's last offer was a 14-day cutoff before the event, during which there would be no pre-fight blood testing. But Mayweather has been earnest since then in saying that offer no longer applies.

Arum said Pacquiao has agreed to all of Mayweather's demands. But which demands -- the old ones, or the new ones?

The mid-July deadline for a decision, four months before the fight date, is sensible.

In the next few days, we should learn whether the excitement of the last week was equally well-reasoned.

Unequivocally, the Mayweather camp never expected the Pacquiao camp to make this fight for November. It expected Arum to frame this so it appears Pacquiao was forced to find a backup plan because of Mayweather's reluctance, then have the Filipino star fight either Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto instead, both of whom Arum promotes.

If it goes down that way, there will be plenty of finger-pointing from both sides.

All we know with certainty is that a decision is forthcoming, and the only one who possesses any more inside knowledge than that is named Floyd Mayweather.

E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo

Source: mlive.com

Do Trainer's Legal Woes Delay Mayweather-Pacquiao? -- FanHouse

By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse

Although Manny Pacquiao has agreed in principle to put his WBO welterweight (147 pounds) belt on the line against Floyd Mayweather, and has given his unbeaten counterpart until July 15 to mid-July sign for their bout, Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, isn't sure that Mayweather's final decision will be that simple.

For if Mayweather agrees to face Pacquiao on the proposed date of Nov. 13, there is a chance that he would have to do so without his uncle and longtime trainer, Roger Mayweather, in his corner.

Roger Mayweather, goes to trial on Aug. 2 in the Clark County District Court in Nevada and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of allegedly choking and assaulting female boxer Melissa St. Vil while training her nearly a year ago in Las Vegas in August.

Needless to say, if convicted, Roger Mayweather could spend at least a few months, if not more time, behind bars.

"I'm just saying that I would think that a lot of the problem is Roger's status. I don't know for sure, and nobody's told me this," said Arum. "But I would believe that he's concerned about Roger's availability and what Roger's status would be."

The agreement between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions reportedly contains conditions pertaining to Mayweather's demand for a random drug testing protocol and a tentative agreement on a 50-50 split of the purse.

Arum declined to discuss purse-split negotiations, but he told Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times that Pacquiao has agreed to submit to random pre-fight blood tests up to 14 days before a fight with Mayweather, a bout that is tentatively slated for Las Vegas.

"We don't care who's doing the test. They [United States Anti-Doping Agency] stopped taking blood 18 days before [Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley], so that shows they can do it and be fine," Arum told the Los Angeles Times.

"If there's information that emerges in the final 14 days, we can go to the [Nevada State Athletic] Commission and ask for more tests," said Arum. "We can work it out. No one's looking to pull any fast ones."

If Mayweather-Pacquiao is not made for the fall, said Arum, "we would go ahead and try to make a fight maybe in May" against Mayweather.

In the meantime, Arum said he would try to put Pacquiao in against either Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto, the latter being a rematch of Pacquiao's November, 12th-round knockout for the WBO welterweight (147 pounds) title.

"I know that Manny would have a problem fighting if [trainer] Freddie Roach were not available, so we're just waiting to see," said Arum. "That would be up to Floyd whether he wants to do the fight this year or next year."

Source: boxing.fanhouse.com

Antonio Margarito to Attempt to Regain Boxing License Friday -- FanHouse

By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse

Former world champion Antonio Margarito, whose boxing license was revoked in California following an illegal hand-wrapping scandal, will appear before a five-member panel of the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Friday in Las Vegas in an attempt to regain his status to fight in the United States, his promoter, Bob Arum, confirmed to FanHouse.

ESPN's Dan Rafael initially reported the situation.

The 32-year-old Margarito (38-6, 27 knockouts) is coming off of May's 10-round, unanimous decision over Roberto Garcia in a junior middleweight (154 pounds) clash that was fought in Mexico, which licensed him for the bout.

The performance ended a more than one-year ring absence for Margarito, who had been suspended by the California State Athletic Commission after a ninth-round knockout loss to Shane Mosley in January of 2009 dethroned him as WBA champion.

Margarito's ring exile stemmed from the discovery by Mosley's trainer, Naazim Richardson, that the Mexican's fist wrappings included a plaster-like substance that was subsequently removed and confiscated prior to the fight.

"Antonio is well-represented, and he's going to present his case to the Nevada Commission, and hopefully, they will see it his way and give him a license," said Arum. "I think that he's been out for more than enough time."

Margarito's suspension ended on February 11.

Margarito claims no knowlege of the wrappings, instead blaming his trainer, Javier Capetillo, for the illegal substance in his gloves -- even amid speculation that Margarito's gloves may have been loaded against vanquished rivals such as Kermit Cintron and Miguel Cotto, whom Margarito beat savagely and bloodily before scoring knockouts.

"He's [Capetillo] the one that wrapped the hands. So he's the one who does the job," Margarito has told FanHouse. "All that I do is put my hands out there so that he can wrap them, and that's what I did."

Nevada State Athletic Commission director Keith Kizer could not be reached. But in April, Kizer told FanHouse that Margarito had a number of options.

Initially, Kizer said that Margarito should return to California to re-apply for a license before attempting to fight anywhere in the United States, although Texas had indicated a willingness to allow the former champion to fight there.

"Margarito could come to Nevada today, apply for a license, and I could give him a license administratively, but I'm not going to do that," said Kizer. "He would have to be placed on our agenda, and that would be up to our chairman. She could put him on it right away, or she could make him wait a while."

According to the ESPN report, Margarito's request is the last of the 32 items on the agenda.

If Margarito is licensed, Arum said that he could eventually match Margarito against Manny Pacquiao in November or Cotto, the newly-crowned WBA junior middleweight titlist, in December.

Pacquiao, however, is in negotiations for a potential bout against Floyd Mayweather that could happen in either November of May, Arum said.

"I would have some questions that he would need to answer from me," before granting Margarito a license, said Kizer. "And if he doesn't answer them truthfully, then I would recommend not granting a license to him."

Margarito has fought in California more than a dozen times during his career, but was not granted a license to return to the ring for the undercard of Pacquiao's March 13, unanimous decision victory over Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium. He would have fought Carson Jones (26-7-1, 15 KOs).

Arum said then that he believed that Margarito's next fight "will be in the United States," mentioning that he hoped "to get Margarito licensed in various states, as he should be," such as "Nevada, or Texas, one of those places."

In another development, Kizer also told FanHouse that he believed that Margarito did not have loaded gloves during his 11th-round knockout of Cotto -- as many have speculated -- for the WBA welterweight title in July of 2008 at the MGM Grand.

"I know that he wasn't rigged during the Cotto fight because we had our inspectors check him out and everything, as did Cotto's people. He was fully checked out. One of our referees, Jay Nady, was back there, we had our inspectors back there. Cotto's guy was back there. They all checked him out and everything was fine," said Kizer, referring to Margarito's fight prior to the one against Mosley.

"They felt the hand wraps and everything, and we have an inspector who I've seen check the hand wraps before, and he checks them out thoroughly," said Kizer. "He watched the hand wraps that night. If you don't have experienced inspectors, you can probably slip something through."

Source: boxing.fanhouse.com

Bob Arum: Uncle's legal troubles might keep Floyd Mayweather from fighting Manny Pacquiao this fall -- Grand Rapids Press

By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press

Boxing promoter Bob Arum, who last week said Manny Pacquiao had agreed to all of Floyd Mayweather's demands for a fight between boxing's top two performers, speculated Tuesday that the biggest hurdle to such a fight could be timing.

Arum said he wonders whether Mayweather, the unbeaten Grand Rapids native, might eschew a proposed Nov. 13 fight until the fate of his uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, is decided.

Roger Mayweather is scheduled to go on trial next month in a battery case involving a female boxer he once trained.

"The big issue is, does Floyd want to fight this year or next year," Arum said.

Arum said that issue was not broached during the recent negotiations but refused to disclose what was.

"I'm not talking about what we were discussing," he said.

Both sides are under a self-imposed gag order not to discuss any potential negotiations.

Arum declined even to disclose with whom he was negotiating. Talks last year between Top Rank president and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer failed, as did further talks between two other representatives of those companies.

There has been some speculation that Arum might have negotiated directly with Al Haymon, the Mayweather business adviser who does not speak to the media. Arum has spoken heatedly and pointedly in the past about Haymon's ability to operate and negotiate at the highest levels of boxing without being formally licensed.

Arum has refused to negotiate with Haymon in the past, but when asked Tuesday if the negotiations with Mayweather precluded him from dealing directly with Haymon, he replied, "No."

"If I ever made that statement (about not negotiating with Haymon), I never said 'never,' " Arum said.

The Pacquiao side has set a mid-July deadline for Mayweather to answer its final offer for the proposed November fight.

"We want an answer by mid-July, whether to fight or not fight," Arum said. "Without setting a hard and fast deadline, we want to know by the end of next week."

E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo

Source: mlive.com

Fights loom for Margarito if reinstated -- ESPN

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

Former welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito, who was barred from boxing in the United States after having his license revoked in California last year for his role in a hand-wrapping scandal, will seek a license from the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Friday.

Margarito's request for a license is the 32nd and final item on the commission agenda for the regularly scheduled meeting.

"We have him on last because that will be the longest part of the meeting," commission executive director Keith Kizer told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

According to Kizer, Margarito filed the paperwork for a license June 18 when Dan Pancheri, the lawyer for Las Vegas-based promoter Top Rank, dropped off Margarito's application, an updated medical report and a 5½-page explanation from Margarito explaining his side of things about what happened in California.

"He's going to have to answer some tough question here," Kizer said. "He has to be here in person. It's a heavy burden for him to satisfy, but it's his burden to meet. He'll have to explain anything the commissioners want to ask him about. I assume the commissioners will ask him a lot of questions. Some may be easy, some may be hard, but the burden is solely his."

Margarito was widely regarded as the No. 1 welterweight in the world when he faced Shane Mosley on Jan. 24, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Mosley dominated Margarito and knocked him out in the ninth round in an upset to claim the title.

However, in the minutes before the fight, drama had unfolded in Margarito's dressing room. It was there that Mosley trainer Naazim Richardson objected to the way Margarito's left hand had been wrapped.

California officials eventually cut off the wrap to check it and discovered an illegal pad coated in a plaster-like substance, which had obviously escaped the notice of the commission inspector who oversaw the wrapping procedure. When the wrap on Margarito's right hand was also cut off for examination, an identical illegal pad was also discovered.

Margarito's hands we re-wrapped and he went on to lose the fight. Three weeks later, Margarito's claim of ignorance at a hearing was rejected by the California State Athletic Commission and he had his license revoked in a 7-0 vote, as did trainer Javier Capetillo.

The revocation effectively banned them from boxing in the United States for at least a year, after which time they were eligible to reapply to any commission in the nation.

During the layoff, Margarito cut ties with Capetillo. Top Rank attempted to get Margarito licensed in Texas so he could box on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey undercard at Cowboys Stadium in March, but didn't follow through because of the red tape involved and the short time frame.

Instead, Margarito (38-6, 27 KOs) returned on May 8 in his native Mexico, where he was licensed with a rubber stamp, and outpointed Roberto Garcia in a junior middleweight bout.

Now, Margarito, 32, is seeking a license in the United States, where the biggest money fights loom. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he could face Miguel Cotto in a rematch of their epic 2008 welterweight title fight, in which Margarito stopped Cotto in the 11th round, or Manny Pacquiao in the event a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. is not finalized.

"I really believe he should get his license in Nevada," Arum said. "He and his attorney will present the reasons and the Nevada commission will decide. We went to Nevada because that's where we are planning for him to fight. If it's not against Pacquiao in November, it would be against Cotto in December.

"I'm optimistic the Nevada commission will do the right thing, but I haven't talked to anyone on the commission, not one person, and neither has [Top Rank president] Todd [duBoef]." Arum said they are approaching the Nevada commission now so they don't have to rush like they had in Texas earlier this year.

"If Floyd elects not to step up to the plate and fight Pacquiao and Pacquiao elects to fight Margarito, if that happens, we need to make sure Margarito has a license," Arum said. "You can't go to Pacquiao and see if he will fight Margarito if the guy doesn't even have a license. So we are doing this now instead of rushing around at the last minute."

The five commissioners will question Margarito about whatever they want, Kizer said.

"This is not that different from other situations where people had things in their past that the commission wanted to ask them about before deciding about a license," Kizer said. "We did it with people like Mike Tyson, Zab Judah and Roger Mayweather, who had all been disciplined in Nevada. Margarito's situation was in California, but we have the same rules as they do. Margarito was revoked, and after a year you are free to apply anywhere. He sat out for [more than] a year, and now he can reapply."

As executive director, Kizer could have granted a license to Margarito on his own, but because of the high-profile nature of the scandal, he said he wanted the matter to go before the commission.

"They have full discretion and jurisdiction," he said. "I know there will be a lot of people on both sides. If they do grant him a license, there will be a lot of people yelling, 'They're crazy for giving him a license.' And if they don't, there will be a lot of people yelling, 'They're crazy for not giving him a license.' They'll be criticized either way, so they don't have to worry about it. The five commissioners will listen to what he has to say and make the decision."

Dan Rafael covers boxing for ESPN.com.

Source: sports.espn.go.com

Promoter: Pacquiao is "all in," waiting to hear from Mayweather -- Los Angeles Times

By Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times

Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, said Tuesday that the Filipino fighter has made a significant concession on a pre-fight drug screening plan with Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s camp, adding Pacquiao is "all in. He's agreed to what they're demanding."

Arum declined to discuss purse-split negotiations but he said Pacquiao has agreed to submit to random pre-fight blood tests up to 14 days before a fight with Mayweather. The bout is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 13, most likely in Las Vegas.

In negotiations that extended into early this year and ultimately crumbled over the drug-testing dispute, Pacquiao declined to give a blood sample closer than 24 days before the fight, a stance affirmed by an independent mediator but rejected by Mayweather.

Pacquiao went on to defeat Joshua Clottey by a lopsided decision in March, and Mayweather easily defeated Shane Mosley in May. A fight between the 2008-09 fighter of the year Pacquiao and unbeaten Mayweather could emerge as the most lucrative in the sport's history.

"We don't care who's doing the test," Arum said. "They stopped taking blood 18 days before [Mayweather-Mosley], so that shows they can do it and be fine."

However, Mayweather's camp has not signed off on Pacquiao's concession.

Arum says Mayweather is still deciding whether or not he wants to fight this year. The sticking point could be the legal situation of Floyd Jr.'s uncle and trainer, Roger Mayweather, who faces a coming trial date for allegedly attacking a female boxer last year. Arum said he believes "we'll have to fish or cut bait by the end of next week."

"It's imminent," Arum said. "I don't think Manny would fight without [his trainer] Freddie [Roach]."

One alternative could be Mayweather employing the training services of his father, Floyd Sr., who has trained Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, among others.

Regarding the drug testing, Travis Tygart, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency whose organization oversaw independent drug testing of Mayweather and Mosley's blood and urine samples, said an important distinction in the Mayweather-Mosley testing is that both fighters had agreed to be subjected to blood draws up until fight night.

"There was no restriction on when or how we could test," Tygart told The Times on Tuesday. "We did not need to draw blood two weeks before the fight for several reasons, including the number of blood samples we'd already taken, the samples we were able to save, and the fact that no other information had been given to us that would lead us to test again.

"We always consider an athlete's training when we test."

That last point is an important consideration for the Pacquiao camp, who have said the fighter feels weakened after giving blood.

Tygart declined to discuss his involvement in the Mayweather-Pacquiao talks, but he highlighted why he believes it's important for fighters to let the testers set the ground rules of who gets tested when.

"We didn't need to test [Mayweather or Mosley for blood in the two weeks before their fight], but we could have, and that's an important deterrent," Tygart said.

Arum said, "We're saying the same thing, that if there's information that emerges in the final 14 days, we can go to the [state boxing] commission and ask for more tests. We can work it out. No one's looking to pull any fast ones."

Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com