Ricky Hatton Targeted In Brit Paper Sting -- The Sweet Science

By Michael Woods, The Sweet Science

Ricky Hatton, the immensely popular lunchpail hitter from England, was caught in a filmed sting by the newspaper "The News of the World" snorting multiple lines of what the paper described as cocaine.

The video comes off as a pathetically lurid takedown of the boxer, as the voiceover narrator self righteously declares what a shock the site of the boxer, who has been on hiatus as he contemplates whether to glove up again, will be to fans who see him snorting lines of powder.

One can sense the veiled glee in the narrator's voice as he does a play by play of the Hitman, age 31, going to town with a rolled up piece of paper and powder.

Here's a quote from the paper: "A friend who witnessed the former world champ take SEVEN lines of coke in a Manchester hotel said:

"If he carries on he'll kill himself. I'm really, really worried for him."

The footage was taken in a hotel, during a night of partying, two weeks ago, allegedly.

A woman described as a "fellow fighter," one Emma Bowe, rats the Hitman (45-2; last fought in May 2009, KO2 loss to Manny Pacquiao) out. "I'm only talking about this because Ricky is a danger to himself. If he carries on like this he'll kill himself. I'm really, really worried for him, especially if he tries to make a comeback in the ring as he's hinted - he could have a heart attack."

That's one way to stage an intervention if you're worried about him. Help a nosy newspaper sting the guy, Emma. No word on if she was compensated for her efforts...

She said she'd hung out with him before, and that he'd had coke on him then too. Of course, that developement crushed her world. "I was dumbstruck and felt bitterly disappointed," she told the paper. "Ricky was my hero and to see him abusing drugs was such a letdown. He was a real role model, I didn't expect that of him."

She didn't share with the paper, or the paper didn't share with readers, what if anything she ingested on that night, or give any hint if there was any romance with Hatton, who has a fiancee.

Tough spell for UK fighters on hiatus who are keen on sniffing uplifting powder. Joe Calzaghe, the Welsh ex champ, was also stung by the same news operation, in March. Calzaghe said reporters posed as reps from a Russian bank and broke down his guard. "I very much regret my occasional use of cocaine in what have sometimes been the long days since my retirement from the ring," he said after. "I am fully aware of the bad example it sets to other people and particularly to youngsters and I apologise to my family, friends and fans."

Source: thesweetscience.com

Klitschko rolls again, stops Peter in the 10th -- Yahoo! Sports

By Steve Cofield, Yahoo! Sports

Samuel Peter promised he would do what he couldn't back in 2005 against Wladimir Klitschko. He was kidding himself. Peter was a shell of what he was back in his first fight against the current heavyweight champ. Peter was out gas by the third round and served as a heavy bag for 10 rounds. After absorbing a ton of hard jabs and with his face puffed up, Peter finally ate a fight ending uppercut. The Nigerian fell to his back and the fight was over at 1:21 of the 10th. Klitschko successfully defended his three heavyweight title belt in Frankfurt, Germany.

Klitschko (55-3, 49 KOs) wins his 14th straight fight and second against Peter. When they met in 2005, Peter actually dropped Klitschko three times but lost a 114-111 unanimous decision. Tonight, he was never in the fight.

"I thought I boxed really well," said Klitschko. "He obviously pressured me early on with that left hand. I though I dominated in the end. It was a comfortable win for me. I certainly enjoyed it."

ESPN's Teddy Atlas had it 90-81 heading to the 10th as did Yahoo! Sports' boxing expert Kevin Iole. Klitschko landed 142 punches over nine-plus rounds at a rate of 28 percent. Peter landed just 35 punches the entire fight and only nine of those were jabs. Klitschko's set up the devastating beating by doubling and tripling his jab. He nailed Peter with 53 jabs.

Peter's gameplan was bizarre. He made himself an easy target by coming straight forward. Once he got inside, Peter, a solid power puncher, chose to wrestle instead of throwing short punches. By the ninth round, referee Robert Byrd refused to break up the fighters, telling them to fight out of the clinch. He even approached Klitschko's corner before the tenth to tell the champ that he needed to throw more punches and get himself out of the clinch.

Klitschko also got the same message from his trainer Emmanuel Steward, who implored his fighter to finish the fight. Klitschko listened. He let his hands go and jumped back from Peter, who appeared ready to fall flat on his face from exhaustion.

The Ukranian pounded away and finally landed an uppercut that put Peter (34-4, 27 KOs) flat on his back.

The 34-year-old champ retains his IBF, WBO and IBO title belts. He did so in front of 40,000 fans at Commerzbank Arena. Dignitaries in attendance included German tennis legend Boris Becker and Klitschko's Hollywood girlfriend Hayden Panettiere.

Source: sports.yahoo.com

Former World Champion Ricky Hatton 'filmed snorting cocaine in 10-hour drink and drugs binge' -- Daily Mail

By Daily Mail Reporter, DailyMail.co.uk

Former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton has been filmed apparently taking cocaine in a ten-hour drink and drugs binge.

Hatton, an MBE, was secretly recorded snorting seven lines of the illegal drug in a Manchester hotel room.

The 31-year-old is clearly seen taking a wrap from his shoe, pouring the white powder it contains onto a table top, then snorting the contents.

Hatton, who lives with his fiance Jennifer Dooley in the city, was filmed for the News Of The World two weeks ago by his friend Emma Bowe, 29.

Irish national senior women's boxing champion Bowe told the tabloid she flew from Dublin to Manchester to attend a cage fighting event with Hatton.

She claimed he spent the night in her hotel room, where she said she witnessed him snorting cocaine.

'He laid out three huge lines, really industrial quantities,' Bowe said. 'I watched him all the time.

'He went to the dressing table and cut them up with a credit card, really fat lines of coke.

'Then he rolled up a £20 note, put it up his nose and snorted up three lines of cocaine one after the other.'

She also claims she witnessed Hatton drank several shots of Sambuca, 11 pints of Guinness, four shots of vodka and two glasses of wine.

The claims are sure to humiliate Hatton, who was said to be planning a comeback and renewed his boxing licence in July.

Having made more than £30million in his boxing career, father-of-one Hatton does not need the money.

But Britain’s most popular boxer was said to be embarrassed by the manner of his last defeat, a two-round knockout against Manny Pacquiao in Vegas last year.



Source: dailymail.co.uk

Floyd Mayweather Jr's stormy week goes from bad to worse -- Guardian

By Giles Richards and Toby Moses, Guardian.co.uk

While rape charities and the UK press have been busy condemning David Haye after he claimed his fight against Audley Harrison would be "as one-sided as a gang rape", the US fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr has been doing his best to lower boxing further into the gutter. Not only is he being investigated by police over allegations of assaulting his former partner and swiping a mobile phone, but the row over his racist tirade towards the boxer widely considered the best in the world, Filipino Manny Pacquiao, refuses to die down.

There is little love lost between the two fighters, as they've so far failed to agree on a date to fight. That they might meet was clearly in Mayweather's mind, however, in a recent online video.

"I'm on vacation for about a year," Mayweather said. "As soon as we come off vacation, we're going to cook that little yellow chump. We ain't worried about that. So they ain't gotta worry about me fighting the midget. Once I kick the midget ass, I don't want you all to jump on my dick. So you all better get on the bandwagon now... Once I stomp the midget, I'll make that motherfucker make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice." He then referenced previous claims of drug use saying: "Don't worry, we'll kick 'Poochiao' ass. He's gonna take the urine and blood test," and concluded: "This motherfucker's name is Emmanuel. He got a fake name, taking power pellets."

The inevitable furore followed as did an apology, of sorts. "There's nothing but love in my heart... The only thing I want to say is, if anybody who was affected by what I said the other day, I apologise as a man. I apologise." However, The National Federation of Filipino American Associations joined the fray, denouncing the "racist and homophobic rant" which "crossed the line of decency and respectability" and dismissed Mayweather's apology.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao tried to play it all down. Writing his column for the Filipino boxing site, Philboxing.com, he wryly noted that he was pleased at the publicity Mayweather was creating for his upcoming fight with Antonio Margarito. Then, addressing the issue with a level-headedness entirely at odds with Mayweather's rant, he refused to respond to racial slurs with "violent and disrespectful statements" and offered "forgiveness and repentance".

Comentators everywhere had already condemned Mayweather but, aptly, it fell to ESPN's Jeff MacGregor to sum it all up with the phrase: "He's a bum."

It seems the only person left in Floyd's corner is rapper 50 Cent, who took to Twitter to defend the boxer from the assault allegations. "Another case of angry baby mama wanting money... She's claiming he hit her but has no bruises," tweeted "Fiddy". Fiddy's version of what happened to provoke the argument: Floyd "just asked her why the house was so dirty".

Mayweather is due to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court on 9 November.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Mayweather's latest blunder says it all -- 8CountNews

By Brad Cooney, 8CountNews.com

Pacquiao is bad for boxing? Pacquiao is a sinner? Pacquiao needs to do right for boxing? Are you kidding me? This is the garbage that a few boxing scribes out there are publishing on the front pages of boxing websites. The attacks on Pacquiao from one site in particular are pathetic at best. It's like they don't have anything else to write about. Manny Pacquiao the last time that I checked doesn't have a history of beating up women, and stealing. The last time that I checked, Manny Pacquiao has never been arrested on drug charges, and he's never been one to rub his money in the faces of those who do not have money. On the contrary, Pacquiao gives back and he has a history of helping people that are in need.

Now let us look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. Love this guy or hate this guy, he is a boxing icon. This is unfortunate because an icon in any sport is the face of that sport. Thankfully boxing does have Pacquiao's face on the top as well, so that is some saving grace, but Floyd's face is there too. Floyd Mayweather has recently been accused of beating up his ex girlfriend. He was was later arrested for stealing her cell phone, and his mug shot was plastered all over the web. Floyd has had a horrible few months in the media and he brought it on all by himself.

Pacquiao has been under attack because he accepted the fight against Antonio Margarito. Let us look at this. Manny has gone on the record in the past a few times expressing his desire to fight Margarito. This is not something new that he just made up. Manny has always wanted to fight him, and now he has his chance. The questions that have been directed at his decision ask, why? Margarito as we all know by now was caught trying load up his gloves. He was punished for it, and now he has been granted a license to fight again by the state of Texas. Those who oppose this fight believe that it's Manny's moral responsibility to not give Margarito this opportunity because of what happened in the past.

I pose this question to those who feel compelled to continually bash Pacquiao for accepting the Margarito fight.

1- Let's say a man gets into a fight on a street somewhere in New York. The man who starts the fight is arrested for assault, and serves a year in jail. When the man serves his punishment and is released from jail, should he be allowed to work again? The answer is yes. Pacquiao has been accused of being "greedy" for taking the payday and the fight Vs. Margarito. Personally I do not feel as if Margarito should be allowed to fight again. But the commission in Texas thinks otherwise, so legally Margarito can fight. Pacquiao would much rather have fought Floyd Mayweather, but obviously that is not an option now. It's not Pacquiao's fault that the big Floyd fight isn't happening, nor should Pacquiao be held accountable and or judged by anyone for accepting the fight Vs. Tony Margarito. Blame the commission in Texas and blame Floyd Mayweather, but don't blame Manny Pacquiao. This is a business, and Manny made a business decision. Trust me, a lot of the money that he will make fighting Margarito will go to good causes.

Source: 8countnews.com

Boxer could face license questions -- Las Vegas Review-Journal

By STEVE CARP, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

If Floyd Mayweather Jr., had a fight scheduled in the coming weeks or months, his latest brush with the law might be an issue.

However, with the undefeated welterweight not planning to return to the ring anytime soon, there's no need for the Nevada Athletic Commission, or any other regulatory body, to immediately deal with him. But Mayweather likely will be asked about his most recent arrest when it comes time to apply for a new boxing license.

Mayweather, 33, was arrested Friday on grand larceny charges related to Thursday's domestic violence complaint by Josie Harris, his ex-girlfriend.

Mayweather last fought May 1, beating Shane Mosley in a 12-round bout at the MGM Grand Garden to improve to 41-0 with 25 knockouts. His boxing license in Nevada expires Dec. 31 and licenses must be renewed annually. But since he has no intention of using his license the remainder of 2010, his arrest is a non-issue for the commission at this time.

Mayweather was offered an opportunity to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13 in Las Vegas. But he declined, claiming he was taking a break from boxing.

The same can be said of the NAC's lack of action regarding last week's video rant against Pacquiao. Mayweather launched a 10-minute verbal assault on Pacquiao on the UStream Web site, pelting him with racist and homophobic slurs. While some members of the commission expressed disgust, they didn't plan to take any action.

Keith Kizer, executive director of the NAC, said Friday that he'll "continue to monitor the situation and see how the legal process plays out."

In its list of richest and powerful sports athletes of 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked Mayweather No. 2 behind golfer Tiger Woods, at $65 million. While boxing officials may not act on Mayweather's recent transgressions, corporate America has not stood idly by. Both AT&T and Reebok have dropped him as a product pitchman. Both said they had cut ties with Mayweather prior to his UStream appearance.

In addition, Mayweather has been publicly denounced by the NAACP and the National Federation of Filipino American Associations for his hateful diatribe against Pacquiao, who is from the Philippines and currently serves as a congressman there.

Mayweather isn't the only one in his family dealing with the law. His uncle and chief trainer, Roger Maywheather, 48, faces trial Oct. 25 in Clark County District Court on a 2009 felony battery charge from an alleged attack on Melissa St. Vil, 26, a female boxer he once trained.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913.

Source: lvrj.com