In Boxing News: Mike Tyson Unmasked, De La Hoya Wants Mayweather, Mundine-Green & More

In Boxing News: Mike Tyson Gets Unmasked

Ray Emery‘s Mike Tyson goalie mask had a shelf life of one NHL game. The (National Hockey League’s) Ottawa Senators backup goalie wore the mask in a 5-0 home loss to Boston on Monday night, then decided to drop it Tuesday. A huge boxing fan, Emery also had masks that featured former middleweight champ Marvin Hagler and Jack Johnson. The hockey Senators’ braintrust suggested to Emery that the artwork might not been seen as politically correct by all, given Tyson’s past outside the boxing ring. Too bad, if you ask me. For pure first impressions, I always liked Bryan Hayward of the Sharks’ Great White design, or the understated classic, Gerry Cheevers’ ‘stitches’ mask. But if Emery pulls out the Jack Johnson or Marvin Hagler, it gets installed right at number one on the all-time NHL goalies mask list – without a doubt. (Let it not be said we’re one dimensional here at The Sweet Science. It’s not all uppercuts and End-Swells.)

Oscar De La Hoya wants this to be his last year in boxing. And he wants to go out with a bang, writes Mathew Aguilar. After facing Ricardo Mayorga, De La Hoya wants one more big fight before he retires – Floyd Mayweather Jr. If he can beat Mayweather, it would cement De La Hoya’s status as one of the best fighters of his generation, suggests Aguilar. It also would produce some drama: Mayweather’s father, Floyd Sr., is De La Hoya’s trainer.

Australian boxing fans face a television blackout of the $5.5 million Anthony Mundine–Danny Green showdown at Aussie Stadium, a move aimed at ensuring Australia’s most eagerly anticipated bout is watched by one of the largest crowds in modern boxing history. It’s an interesting bout that pits the hard-slugging Green against the flamboyant, trash-talking, Mundine. A genuine two-sport athlete, Mundine also played rugby league in Australia: It’s personal for me. He stands for the system, I stand for the grass-roots fella – I stand for the guy who faces adversity every day. I’m not a corporate kind of guy, I’m an Aboriginal Muslim. They don’t want to get behind me and never have. That’s why in my rugby league days I talked the way I talked and walked the way I walked because they never gave me my just dues.

I wrote here yesterday about the controversy surrounding Irish lightweight Michael Gomez‘s weekend loss and subsequent retirement. Gomez has spoken out in an attempt to clear the air: My whole career has been surrounded in controversy so I suppose I should have expected that my retirement would be no different. It was all very simple, I just came to a decision in there that I need to retire from boxing full stop. I could have been out walking the dog or out shopping with my kids it just happened that I came to the decision that my career was finished in the ring.

Finally, there’s an added attraction in Detroit over Super Bowl weekend. The public will be able to see the Kronk gym this week during tours which run from from 1-6 p.m. The tours started Monday. Emanuel Steward expects hundreds of people to take advantage of the opportunity.

(As always … more Boxing News Links at TheSweetScience.com)