Greek pugilist Mighty Mike Arnaoutis (18-2-2, 9 KOs) is making his first USBA title defense on Friday, May 9, 2008 at Bally's Atlantic City against undefeated Lanardo "Pain Server" Tyner (19-0-0, 11 KOs). Tyner is coming off a first round KO win over Victorio Abadia by body shot on February 1, 2008 at The Palace in Auburn Hills.

Mighty Mike Arnaoutis won his alphabet title in a fight against former kick boxer Harrison Cuello on March 6, 2008 in New York. Arnaoutis was coming off two back-to-back losses, a loopsided loss to Kendall Holt and a controversial loss to Ricardo Torres.

Not only am I perfect but I am Greek too. That's the tagline on Mighty Mike Arnaoutis' website. Perhaps it was Arnaoutis' hubris that caused him to lose those two bouts. Hubris is known to lead to ones downfall.

I think Arnaoutis learned a lesson from his two losses. Arnaoutis' victory over Cuello was impressive and dominate. A match-up that looked competitive on paper looked like a one-sided schooling of Cuello. Arnaoutis was relentless. He fought hard the entire bout. Arnaoutis says "My destiny is greatness." Maybe it truly is or is it just hubris talking?

In a fight dubbed the "Knockout Kings" on April 23, 2008 at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, Juan Urango lived up to the billing by knocking out Carlos Wilfredo Vilches in the 4th round with a big right hook. The punch was so powerful that it spun Vilches' head around 90 degrees before he hit the canvas with a loud thud.

Doctors immediately rushed into the ring. There was no need for a 10 count as Vilches lay motionless on the canvas. It was several minutes before Vilches was able to get up off the deck.

Juan Urango KOs Carlos Vilches

Vilches never saw it coming...

It's only April and we already have two knockouts that are definite candidates for Knockout of the Year. The first was Edison Miranda's spectacular knockout of David Banks in the 3rd round at the Hard Rock Live on January 11, 2008. And now we have Juan Urango's devastating knockout of Carlos Vilches in the 4th round at the same venue.

Joe Calzaghe will have to watch out because Bernard Hopkins will use more than his gloves in the ring during their fight Saturday, April 18, 2008 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hopkins will headbutt, hit low, hold, tie up, use his shoulders and elbows. If Calzaghe gets aggravated by Hopkins' dirty tactics it could cost him the fight because a mad fighter is not a good fighter.

Hopkins will resort to dirty tactics to win a fight by blatantly headbutting to change the course of a fight. A cut eye can do that. Look what happened to Winky Wright. Hopkins will say it was accidental. That it happens with southpaws and orthodox fighters. (Calzaghe is a southpaw too just like Winky Wright.) But the fact is that it's part of Hopkins game plan.

Hopkins knows he has to neutralize an outside fighters jab, to close the distance and not allow them to win by boxing. Hopkins will hold, hold and tie up, hold and maul bordering on grappling. His fights can be very ugly and frustrating for his opponent and fans.

Referee Joe "Firm But Fair" Cortez will be the third man in the ring for the Hopkins-Calzaghe fight. He also refereed the Mayweather-Hatton fight. Cortez did not allow Ricky Hatton to hold in his fight with Mayweather. Whenever the fighters got in close Cortez immediately jumped in and broke up the action which suited Mayweather, an outfighter. Cortez claimed that his actions were justified in that Hatton's holding and hitting was illegal. So, if Cortez allows Hopkins to hold and hit in this fight with Calzaghe suspicions of Cortez being biased against Brits would once again arise.

But there is another twist. Hopkins who has lodged several complaints against Cortez in the past and even had him removed as the referee of his fight with Tito Trinidad in 2001 has been unusually quiet about Cortez being selected referee. This makes one wonder if Golden Boy Promotions whom Hopkins is vice president of has Cortez in their pocket.

Since Don King helped put together the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, Africa with Video Techniques in 1974 his foray into the boxing world as a promoter has been unstoppable. Dubbed the Rumble in The Jungle the Ali-Foreman fight on October 30, 1974 was televised via satellite from a third-world shit-hole country overcoming overwhelming technological odds. The fight was seen by one billion people worldwide.

Always one to be involved in firsts, now Don King is launching his own TV network via the Internet, DonKingtv.com. On Thursday, March 27, 2008 Don King will live-stream the entire Spinks-Phillips fight card online for free at DonKingtv.com. The webcast begins with the first bout starting at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM PT. The main event featuring Cory Spinks vs Verno Phillips will start at 7:30 PM PT /10:30 PM ET.

Big Show-Mayweather Wrestlemania 24 Weight-in

At Wrestlemania 24's official weigh-in Mayweather weighed in at 159 pounds and Big Show weighed in at 441 pounds. That's a whooping 282 pound difference! That's a huge amount of mass for Mayweather to try to neutralize. Wonder how Mayweather is going to get inside to break Big Show's jaw like he says will do?

Big Show vs Mayweather Weight-in

Big Show throws Mayweather out of the ring. Looks like Floyd hurt his elbow.

Floyd breaks Big Show's nose!

How will Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr fight Paul "The Big Show" Wight on March 30th at Wrestlemania 24? WWE superstar Big Show is 7 feet tall and weighs about 400 pounds. Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather Jr is 5 feet 8 inches tall and fights between 147 to 154 pounds. In boxing and wrestling you are usually matched up with an opponent of your same weight. Big Show outweighs Mayweather by about 250 pounds and is also over a foot taller. In boxing the shorter boxer must get inside without getting hit and stay inside. In wrestling the shorter wrestler needs to get in to reduce the leverage of the taller opponent. Big Show being taller has a reach advantage. He's also a lot stronger so he can use his strength to bully and push Mayweather around. Mayweather being shorter is a smaller target and can move faster. In boxing Mayweather's a defensive fighter who likes to stay on the outside and is known to be a backpeddler. So in order for Mayweather to avoid being a victim of Big Show's signature chokeslams he's going to have to use his footwork and hope the ring is really big. Just makes me wonder how this storyline will be played out.

In the past couple of years the only other Greeks I have seen fight in the US were Michael Katsidis one of NEP Boxing's fighters, a Greek boxer from Australia and Mike Arnaoutis from Athens, Greece who boxes out of Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the 1920s through 1940s you had Greek American Theodore "Anton the Greek" Antonopoulos, George Theodoratus, middleweight contender Steve "Golden Greek" Mamakos and 1941 National Boxing Association World light heavyweight champion Anton Christoforidis who were quite popular here.

Ringside seats for the Klitschko-Ibragimov fight at Madison Square Garden are priced from $300 to $1000 on the primary market. It was a different story for the last fight at The Garden. Ringside seats for the Trinidad-Jones fight were priced up to $15,000.

When I first saw the prices I thought this must be a typo. $15,000? Someone obviously added an extra zero by mistake. Having worked in the ticket industry for years and attending all the big fights in Las Vegas I had never seen ringside seats priced that high on the primary market.

Larry Merchant mused. "I think it's a gag. Not the whole ringside section is going for $15,000, just the front row, then $10,000 for the second row. Maybe he'll get some Wall St. types who will pay it, but it is P.R., something King is good at.

Does trying to cash in on nostalgia ring a bell? Apparently super salesman Don King got Madison Square Garden to pay $8,000,000 for the fight. They're taking a bath right now. The crowd ended up only 12,162, well short of The Garden's 20,000 seating capacity due to the exorbitant ticket prices as MSG tried to recoup their site fee.

Obviously sanity prevailed regarding the Klitschko-Ibragimov fight. Ticket prices are fairly reasonable. Granted neither boxer has a following like Tito Trinidad enjoyed but one could argue for higher ticket prices in that the outcome of this fight is actually very meaningful.

Edison Miranda now fighting at 168 in the super middleweight division has his power back. On Friday, January 11, 2008 at the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, Miranda sent former Contender contestant David Banks through the ropes with a devastating right hand. Banks ended up tittering precariously suspended on the ropes on his back with his shoulders touching the ring apron looking as if any moment he would end up falling head first onto the scorekeeper's table. Somehow Banks managed to pull himself back into the ring as the referee counted him out. Dazed and on rubber legs Banks staggered towards his corner on the brink of hitting the canvas a second time when a stool was shoved under him.

Miranda KOs Banks In 3rd Round

Big punching Edison Miranda ends the fight in a final destructive manner. Definitely candidate for knockout of the year.

Make sure to listen to Ricardo Lois host of Boxing Confidential Radio as he discusses Boxing Confidential's plans to create a new sanctioning body with John Chavez who made the controversial announcement on January 8th on BC's site.

An independent boxing sanctioning body that didn't line their pockets with blood money from boxers. Could that ever be a reality? I think so. John Chavez over at Michael Marley’s Boxing Confidential just announced that Boxing Confidential plans to start an independent sanctioning body that will transform the sport of boxing. If any one else told me they planned to start a boxing sanctioning body that would be better than the rest I would smirk and think to myself "Oh great, another blood sucking money hungry group to add to the alphabet soup." But this time I didn't laugh. I yelled "Alright!" and thought to myself "Its about time."

Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true. I had hoped that the Mayweather-Hatton fight would end by knockout because I knew if it went to the scorecards that the judges would give the decision to Mayweather. But unfortunately it was Ricky Hatton that got KO'd. What a shock. I didn't think Mayweather had it in him. He hadn't won a fight by knockout since 2005. As the "The Hitman" said 'What a fluke."

Mayweather-Hatton fight day is finally here. At 6:00 PM the televised Mayweather-Hatton card starts. I won't be in Las Vegas this time or paying to see the fight on pay-per-view either because after the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight I vowed never to spend another dime watching Pretty Boy fight again. Mayweather's contentment with jumping in to throw a punch then back peddling and running for 12 hours isn't worth the price of a ticket or pay-per-view to me. This time I will watch the fight for free at the local pub. So, if referee Joe Cortez doesn't let Ricky his fight and Ricky doesn't score a knockout and the fight goes to the score cards and the judges give the decision to Mayweather I won't feel totally ripped off. I really hope I am wrong. I hope it's an action packed fight with Ricky allowed to fight inside without Cortez's interference and Mayweather not running and that the fight is won by knockout so the judges don't get to decide the winner.