Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto bout lined up for Yankee Stadium

Just came across this article for Miguel Cotto's next bout. Read on:

Officials with Top Rank Boxing have reached a preliminary agreement with the Yankees to stage the WBC 154-pound title match between champion Yuri Foreman and former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium on June 5.

Carl Moretti, Top Rank vice president of boxing, said last night that, after weeks of negotiations, a deal had been agreed to with the Yankees and that Top Rank was working on the logistics for the fight, which will be broadcast on HBO.

"We have a preliminary agreement with them. Nothing has been signed or finalized," Yankees COO Lonn Trost told The Associated Press, calling the deal subject to approval from team higher-ups. "We do plan, if things go well, to have it on June 5."

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was the last man to stage a fight at the old Yankee Stadium, a heavyweight match between Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton in 1976.

Moretti said the stadium will be scaled for 30,000 seats, configured near the short porch in right field. There will be seats on the field, with ringside tickets priced at $400. The lowest-priced tickets will be $50.

One of the logistical problems is the construction of the ring and a canopy over it. Top Rank won't be allowed to set up the ring and the canopy until after the Yankees finish a day game to wrap up a three-game series against the Orioles on June 3. Moretti said that will present a time crunch.

"We're still looking at the logistics and the cost that are involved in the construction and setting up the ring and the canopy (in a short time frame)," Moretti said.

Arum has become enamored of big stadium fights. He is promoting a March 13 welterweight match between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey at the massive Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex. More than 30,000 tickets have already been sold for that fight and Arum said last week that it could draw over 40,000 fans.

A longtime Giants season-ticket holder, Arum is also eyeing a fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Yuriokus Gamboa at the new Meadowlands stadium in 2011.

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Manny Pacquiao, preparing for Joshua Clottey bout, leaves nothing to chance - latimes.com

Here's an article about Manny's prep for Clottey

The adulation for Manny Pacquiao is growing by the day. On his cellphone Wednesday, promoter Bob Arum was told 2,000 more seats were sold, meaning 38,000 tickets have been bought for Pacquiao's world welterweight title fight against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

This is the disparity boxing creates. Future glory and perhaps a fifth straight Pacquiao knockout, televised to the world and shown to the Dallas masses in person and on the 160-foot-wide high-definition screen above the ring, await. But this also requires the grunt work that Pacquiao performs religiously, as he did Wednesday.

"There's no such thing as an easy fight," Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said about Clottey.

The resounding theme of that message — don't let up — has been long embraced by Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 knockouts), who has devoutly followed Roach's directions at the gritty Wild Card Gym in Hollywood to become the fighter considered the best in the world.

How? Two important disciplines stick out. Pacquiao's attention to rapid and balanced footwork causes opponents to repeatedly lament after their defeat that they never saw a decisive punch coming. And Pacquiao, a southpaw, has labored to perfect a right-handed punch few others can match.

"His overall movement — I've never seen a fighter develop their ‘other' hand to the extent Manny has," Arum said. "At this point, his right is as good as his left. You think he's going to jab, and he throws a hook off the jab."

Pacquiao's willingness to learn has led to his sensational run of accomplishments — the seven weight-class world titles, TKOs in three of his last four fights (against David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto) with the 2009 knockout of the year against Ricky Hatton thrown in. He works unflinchingly in and around Wild Card, wrapping his hands in a stifling hot closet, jumping rope for hours, running so long on the concrete of Hollywood that he's recently developed shin splints.

"Everyone thinks he wins because of his hand speed, but it's his foot speed," Roach said. "You have to make both feet work together. His hands and feet are in balance, and that's the difference between him and so many others. It started coming together before the Diaz fight [in June 2008]. We work on patterns, drills, and by the fight most people don't know what's up. He's at the point now where it's all just about reactions, no thinking."

"It makes a good balance," Pacquiao said Wednesday. "It's been a good strategy."

Pacquiao said he's embraced that extra work dating to 2006, when he beat Erik Morales by 10th-round TKO.

What the public gets treated to now is the fine-tuning.

"Manny and Freddie are the best [fighter-trainer] combination, better than [ Muhammad] Ali and [Angelo] Dundee," Arum said. "Ali got to a point where he knew it all, and quit listening. Manny still listens."

See more from here: Manny Pacquiao, preparing for Joshua Clottey bout, leaves nothing to chance - latimes.com

Manny Pacquiao will not take Joshua Clottey lightly

See this article on Manny's prep against Clottey:


It's not the fight most wanted to see, and many casual sports fans probably don't know much about this guy who's stepped into Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s void to fight Manny Pacquiao.

Understandable. So much about why that mega-bout crashed over a drug-testing dispute, with $25-million guarantees to each fighter, is head-scratching.

Time, then, to bring some simple reasoning to the sport now as fight week arrives for Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey on Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The soundest logic says the man considered the best boxer in the world will have his way against the African challenger.

Any reason to think differently? A letdown? A visit to Pacquiao's Hollywood gym brings an onslaught of rebuttals from those asked if the Filipino superstar has shown any sign he's blowing off the threat of this lesser-known opponent.

"I wish we were fighting Mayweather this time, the way Manny has worked," Pacquiao's conditioning trainer, Alex Ariza, said.

A gym regular said he saw Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 knockouts) unleash a barrage of two dozen unanswered blows to respected veteran sparring partner Steve Forbes.

"I hear Vegas has the over/under for rounds at 10," said Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, who has been so sharp in projecting his prodigy's latest conquests of Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. "I'll take the under. We've watched a lot of tapes on Clottey. He's predictable. Manny will be the first to stop him."

Clottey, a 32-year-old native of Ghana and current resident of the Bronx,  is 35-3 with 21 knockouts, and his lone losses have come to world champions: Carlos Baldomir in 1999 (controversial disqualification); Antonio Margarito in 2006 (close decision); and Miguel Cotto (close decision) in in June, his most recent bout.

Pacquiao watched Cotto-Clottey from ringside, scouting Cotto before beating him by 12th-round TKO in November. In Clottey, Pacquiao will be fighting a second consecutive true welterweight who has victories over the accomplished Zab Judah (a world title fight) and the late Diego Corrales on his resume. Clottey performed strongly against Cotto, but oddly stopped asserting himself in the final rounds.

"Clottey, he's a good defensive fighter," Pacquiao said. "He's bigger than me [by 2½ inches, with a three-inch reach advantage], so I've had to study his style and maybe he's trying to learn some new techniques. But from what I've studied so far, I think he's a good formula for me. I'm still sure he's studying different techniques he can try against me."

And how's that going?

"It is not easy. [Pacquiao's] good, but I tell people I'm going to beat him," Clottey said. "They don't believe me, but I'm a confident guy and I will keep my word. I will make him think a lot in the ring because of my defense. … I believe in my defense. He's going to throw a lot of punches. I'll block nine out of 10."

Clottey has been groomed in Ghana by impressive countrymen, including the tough Ike Quartey. Like Pacquiao, he came from a poor family and hawked goods on the street, including fish, oranges and bananas.

So is Clottey bound to frequently go into a self-made shell, stalling as he did late against Cotto? Clottey says he won't, wanting Pacquiao to stay cautious of the size advantage and punching power that is considered by some to be suspect. Clottey's last true knockout was in 2004, at a club show in Laughlin, Nev.

"What about mine?" Clottey asked of his punches.

Roach has openly said, "We don't know what Clottey has. We're concerned with his uppercut and hook, but we'll keep Manny out of that pocket."

Pacquiao, guaranteed $12 million plus a pay-per-view cut for this fight, has some bigger days ahead of him this year, including his campaign for a congressional seat in the Philippines, along with the expected resumption of talks with Mayweather.

Clottey, meanwhile, wants to keep logic thrown out the window. He never expected to get this fight and was negotiating for a bout against 154-pound champion Yuri Foreman when notified that Mayweather was out and he was in.

"I'd like to think good things come to good people," Clottey said. "We'll see. I know he's a good fighter. If he hits me, and I don't feel his punches, I'll jump on him. If I do feel them, I'll just have to hit him more."



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