Rabbit Punches 03.15.09: Mosley, De La Rosa, Castillo and More
Posted by Ryan Bates on 03.15.2009
Mosley on vacation, Castillo injured and Bute winning in Montreal.
No one's safe from rabbit punches!
With the weekend here, it's time for another edition of Rabbit Punches - It's like "The Soup"... if "The Soup" were boxing-flavored!
Juan Manuel Lopez and Gerry Penalosa met this week for a press conference for their April 25th HBO bout. Lopez came smartly dressed in a crisp suit, and in Gerry Penalosa's place… North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il.
James De La Rosa, an unbeaten welterweight out of Texas, slammed also-unbeaten Mike Jones, the Philly welterweight taking a lot of notice, on an enemy website, saying that De La Rosa would fight any welterweight out there. Jones' managers said they had tried to get De La Rosa in the ring twice. De La Rosa responded by saying, "Uh… no… I… uh… meant the rapper Mike Jones. I needed a new cuddle buddy."
Shane Mosley has been in Australia singing the praises of Australian boxing, including Vic Darchinyan, Michael Katsidis, and Anthony Mundine. Many think it was the incredible recent performances they put on, but we at Rabbit Punches have learned that it was actually the further point away from Jin Mosley possible.
Reports say that the demand for Oleg Maskaev's fight against Rich Boruff is so large that the Head of State of the Republic of Mordovia reported that "five large screens throughout the city of Saransk" just so everyone can see the fight. Maskaev indeed is an idol in the bout location of Mordovia, which has a population of less than the entire state of Rhode Island.
Lucian Bute whooped up on Fulgencio Zuniga on Saturday night in Canadialand, stopping him at 2:25 of the fourth round. In a post-fight interview, Bute said, "Wow, that almost took as long as the whole twelfth round against Liberado Andrade."
Jose Luis Castillo has been dumped from the "Tijuana Thunder" card, citing a lesion to his Achilles heel, according to fightnews.com. Hey Fightnews! People don't have Achilles heels! It's a myth, and an idiom, but not an actual body part! We have Achilles tendons, maybe that's what you meant? Or have we blown the cover on Jose Luis Castillo not making weight again, hmmmmmm?
Speaking of "Tijuana Thunder," the Upgrade of the Week award goes to Alejandro "Terra" Garcia. It would appear to be a downfall, since he has also been removed from the dark undercard, and placed in a bout one week earlier against Miguel Espino. However, this moves his fight from a bullring in Tijuana to the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, CA. Remember, Alejandro, boxing first, bunnies second.
Z Gorres was victorious on Saturday against Roberto Leyva in a bantamweight bout in the Philippines. Leyva, after the fact, said, "Oh yeah? Well, he's still only worth 8 points in Scrabble!"
Arthur Abraham won a wide unanimous decision against Lajuan Simon in Germany on Saturday. Reception for the fight was relatively low, however, considering that Abraham's opponent's name was NOT Kelly Pavlik.
Amir Khan beat Marco Antonio Barrera via a technical decision on a cut suffered in the first round. Doctors looked at the cut on the fourth round, which at this point looked like a bloody version of Lake Erie, but didn't stop the fight, which would have led to a no-contest. Yet just a few minutes later, the fight was sent to the cards due to that cut. Just another example why ring doctors should not originally be pulled from the proctology field.
