In Boxing News: Judah Ready, O’neil Bell Has Plenty, Steroids In Nevada & More

In Boxing News: Judah Ready, Bell Has Plenty

Tonight Zab Judah faces Carlos Baldomir on Showime (9pm). George Willis of the NY Post says Judah understands 2006 could be the year he becomes a star, the year he takes his place among boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighters, the year he goes from making decent money to crazy money. I’m focused and I’ve got my mind right. I know what I want to do. There’s not a boxer in my division or in boxing that’s going to do what I’m going to do in 2006 given the right opportunities, said Judah. Judah also told Showtime in the buildup to the fight that he has already signed a contract to face Mayweather, but it is Mayweather who is stalling. Referring to Baldomir, Judah said he respected his opponent’s record, especially his five straight wins coming into the bout, but ended by asking Baldomir: I got all of Brooklyn behind me, what you got?

The highly anticipated co-feature on tonight’s Showtime card pits O’Neil Bell against the rugged Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a column on Bell’s relationship with his trainer James Plenty: James Plenty was a short-timer as a pro fighter and a lifer as a boxing prop, having trained a succession of fringe pugs and near misses. The other was 23, a career 1-1 fighter who was 50-50 to go either way. O’Neil Bell, the UPS driver turned fighter, was as blank a canvas as could be found in the splatter of this sport.

In the buildup to the Jan. 21st showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales, Pacquiao continues to get a lot of press in his native country. However, Morales remains unimpressed: They say they’re going to be more aggressive. Well, good luck to them. The problem is they have me in front of them and I don’t back down. They talk and talk. Let’s see if they can execute all those things they talk about.

The Associated Press reports that, Judd Bernstein, a lawyer who has sued Don King several times – and cost him millions of dollars – has moved to the other side of the ring and gone to work for the boxing promoter. The switch has left Burstein happily praising a man he had once villified as a cancer on boxing. No need to make any comment beyond what Burnstein himself surmises: This is a business where nobody’s going to win awards for conduct. It is a world where loyalty is almost a four-letter word. It’s a sport I love but it’s a cesspool.

Kevin Iole, in the Las Vegas Review Journal, sheds light on the steroid policy in Nevada and says toughening the steroid policy would make boxing and fighting fairer and safer for all. Iole also reports that the doctor who attempted to tamper with the scales as Jose Luis Castillo weighed in for his bout with Diego Corrales had his cornerman’s license revoked this week by the Nevada Athletic Commission.

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