LEMIEUX VS. N'DAM FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES, PHOTOS

MONTREAL(June 19) - Eye of the Tiger Management (EOTTM) and Golden Boy Promotions, in association withEvenko, King Sports Worldwide, andVideotron, held the final press conference on Thursday, June 18 for the vacant IBF World Middleweight Championship between hard-hitting Quebecer David Lemieux and number one contender Hassan N'Dam to take place on Saturday, June 20 at the Montreal's Bell Center.

 

Camille Estephan, Founder and President of Eye of the Tiger Management, Oscar De La Hoya,Founder and President of Golden Boy Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions Partner and Future International Boxing Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Golden Boy Promotions Eric Gomez, and Vice President of Operations of King Sports Paul Cain, were all in attendance.Below is what they had to say:

 

DAVID LEMIEUX, IBF Middleweight Title Contender:

 

"I wouldn't say I'm overconfident, I'm well aware of who I'm facing. There's no such thing as overconfidence, at least not in my way.

 

"There were certain things I wasn't able to do that I can now. I had a certain way of fighting, there were certain things missing, and now I can say that I am a complete fighter.

"My style's different and my determination's different. I believe I have more abilities than N'Dam does and I'll show that. Just keep watching and you'll see.

"My defense is my offence. Sometimes I take risks ... for the fans."

HASSAN N'DAM, IBF Middleweight Number One Contender:

 

"This is what I say to David Lemieux, you can study me, but you don't know what I am bringing to the ring. You might get Muhammud Ali in the first round, Sugar Ray Leonard in the second, Floyd Mayweather in the third, but when you get N'Dam, he will be the hardest boxer you have ever faced.

 

"We are very excited about the fight, because we are coming in prepared and ready to take home the belt."

 

CAMILLE ESTEPHAN, President of Eye of The Tiger Management:

 

"I would like to welcome our partners Oscar De La Hoya , Bernard Hopkins, Eric Gomez from Golden Boy Promotions, they are part of our family.

 

"Golden Boy and Eye of the Tiger are cut from the same cloth; we care about the fighters and our fans. We want to give the fans the best fights possible, give them the best of ourselves."

 

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, Founder and President of Golden Boy Promotions:

 

"It's a great honor to be here today and be part of what we call history in the making. A world title is up for grabs and you have the best possible contenders fighting for it.

 

"David Lemieux is a tremendous power puncher.  He is an all-around skillful fighter who will come with everything and put everything on the line to make his hometown proud.

 

"Hassan N'Dam is a Hungry and a lion, who is ready and prepared and knows what is a stake when he faces David on June 20."

 

BERNARD HOPKINS, Future Hall of Famer and Golden Boy Promotions Partner:  

 

"This event is historic; this title has been owned by the legends of yesterday and now these fighters are picking up a piece of history and build their own legacy.

 

"The middleweight division is one of the most exciting divisions in the sport. Fighters can punch like heavyweights and have the speed of the lightweights. You have the best of world worlds."   

 

ERIC GOMEZ, Senior Vice President of Golden Boy Promotions:

 

"We are very excited leading up to this event, thank you to all the media for attending, having you here today proves how important boxing is in Montreal.

"We have two tough contenders; a former world champion is Hassan N'Dam, who is a dangerous fighter. He can box he can, he can punch, he and do it all.

 

"Hometown hero David Lemieux is a hungry fighter who has wanted the title since he was a young boxer."

 

PAUL CAIN, Vice President of Operations at King Sports:

 

"N'Dam is completely ready. Lemieux will definitely get a boxing lesson. He's prepared. I don't think Lemieux will beat him.

 

"We came here for no money, but I think they like drama. Every fight I've been with them, there's always been some kind of drama."

Jhonriel Casimero leaves for Thailand

 

[caption id="attachment_5801" align="alignnone" width="720"] Photo grab from Casimero's Facebook account[/caption]

Light flyweight titlist Jhonriel "Quadro Alas" Casimero leaves for Thailand on Friday for his upcoming fight against flyweight titlist the slick Amnat Ruenroeng on June 27.

Casimero (21-2, 13KOs) will challenge Ruenroeng's flyweight title at the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium in Bangkok Thailand.

Casimero has been training in the US for two months in preparation for his challenge to Ruenroeng.

The undefeated flyweight title holder Ruenroeng (15-0, 5KOs) of Thailand is fresh from his decision victory over Chinese Olympian Zou Shiming in his previous fight in Macau.

Video: Wilder stops Molina in Round 9

Deontay Wilder knocks out Eric Molina, retains heavyweight title

Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33 KO's) scores four knock downs en route to a stoppage win over a very game Eric Molina (23-3, 17 KO's) in Birmingham, Alabama. He successfully defended his heavyweight title he took from Bermane Stiverne early this year also via knockout.

Wilder scored knockdowns once in Rounds 4 and twice in Round 5 and ultimately stopped Molina in Round 9. The official time of the stoppage 1:03 in Round 9.

Wilder caught Molina towards the ropes with a vicious left hook, in the final seconds of the round that sent Molina crashing to the canvas. He missed a big right hand while Molina was on his way down to the canvas. If that shot landed, the fight could have been stopped from there.

Molina survived the 4th round obviously hurt. In the succeeding round, Molina landed some significant shots that backed Wilder momentarily. But Wilder floored him again twice in the fifth stanza.

Molina got up gallantly from those two knockdowns and managed to hang a little longer tiring the champion a little bit. But in Round 9 referee Jack Riess had seen enough after Wilder put down Molina again with a right hand. Riess did not manage to count and stopped the contest to save Molina from further beating.

Wilder could be facing mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin in his next fight.

Name Game

Sometimes the sport of boxing is very difficult to fathom. It is a dynamic sport. It is one of the oldest form of combat sport yet continues to evolve.

What I don't understand is the way how managers and promoter evolve in their business approach. They evolve in such a way that they will experiment different kinds of business strategy to maximize generation of money. It might not bad to the boxers who risk their lives every time they step inside the ring because the bigger the money the bigger their purses might be.

But blatantly changing the family name of the boxers to the name of their manager or promoter for is not acceptable in my opinion. This is for the purpose of branding their businesses. And making the fighters like walking merchandise advertising their promotional outfit.

I'm 100 percent in agreement with respected journalist Ronnie Natanielsz position on this issue. It is the right of every one to keep his name. We as human beings are being identified by our name. Changing our name to something else to look like a merchandize with the branding of its promoter/manager is an outright insult.

I'm ranting precisely about Mr. Naris Singwancha.

Naris Singwancha believes in branding his boxing promotional company by affixing his name on the fighter's name he promoted. The move also is being supported by Boxrec.com, a popular boxing website. There were many fighters out there in Thailand that have their promoters/managers name on their fighters. But it seemed this practice is not supported by Boxrec in the Philippines.

Imagine if Manny Pacquiao is promoted by Singwancha early in his career. So we have a very popular boxer Manny Singwancha. So how that sounds? It clearly stripped Pacquiao's Filipino identity. I'm sure there's no Filipino that has a surname Singwancha in the Philippines.

This practice is very rampant in Thailand. There's 3K Battery, CP Fresh Mart, Singwancha and many others. If this practice is allowed in Thailand let it be there in Thailand. But don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting this practice anywhere. Singwancha might be helping Pinoy boxer to excel in the sport of boxing but stripping their family name is worse than stripping their world championship. And in fact they aren't yet champions.

Although it seemed Mr. Singwancha was not able to put his name officially to his Filipino promoted fighters. But in a Ronnie Natanielsz' report on Philboxing, Singwancha's names was affix in one of his Filipino promoted fighters who fights on Friday that coincide with the Philippines Independence Day. Singwancha became the last name of Ardie Boyse in a fight poster.

Imagine if this practice becomes an accepted norm and all Bob Arum's fighters will have a surname of Arum. Imagine how many boxers have family name Arum? Or what about Top Rank? Worse! What about Oscar's Golden Boy Promotions. Then we have Saul Golden Boy Promotion. What a name! All fighters in one promotion can be mistaken as all relatives.

Imagine Al Haymon doing the same strategy. He pits his in-house fighters in almost all his boxing card on PBC. So how many cards having billing Haymon vs. Haymon?

Look: Miguel Cotto's reaction on a possible GGG showdown

Miguel Cotto wipes out power-drained Daniel Geale

Even how impressive Miguel Cotto's performance in defending his middleweight crown against Daniel Geale on Saturday night on HBO, the weight issue always casts shadow on his impressive knockout victory. Cotto stopped the totally weight-drained Geale after scoring two knockdowns in Round 4.

In the fourth round Cotto (40-4, 33KO's) landed a crisp left hook spot on the chin of Geale (31-4, 16KO's) who dropped his guard during the exchanges. Geale went down hard with his back flat on the canvas at around 2:43 mark. Geale was able to beat the count and continue. But at around 1:44 mark, Geale went down again after a series of punches to the body from Cotto landed. The referee had seen enough and waive the fight off 1:28 mark in the fourth round.

The drama prior to this fight is the 158 lbs catch weight that Cotto imposed against Daniel Geale, a legitimate middleweight . Cotto is the so-called lineal middleweight champion. He is the man who beat the man at the division wherein the suppose weight limit is 160 lbs.

Many question about the catch-weight specially on Cotto because the 158 lbs limit will give him advantage. We all know why Cotto wanted the catch-weight. He's not a middleweight. He's even small at junior welterweight. And Cotto admitted right away when Max Kellerman asked him if he's a middleweight during the interview.

"My weight yesterday was 153.6 pounds. Do you think I'm a middleweight? I'm not," says the four division champion Miguel Cotto. He sounds sarcastic but really honest.

Well, my only concern is that, Miguel is not a middleweight period. He admits that he's not a middleweight. I think it's better not to hold the championship that long. It's better to relinquish it and let the real middleweight fight for it. I think it's unfair for the legit MW's to challenge Cotto on catch weights and look like zombies during the weigh-in.

It seems he wanted the Canelo fight next and I think it will happen at 154 lbs, which Cotto makes the weight without any problem. And if he wins or losses, he can still take on Gennady Golovkin after that defending his middleweight crown. But please... I don't like the fight happening at 155 lbs catch-weight!

Do you think it's fair to legit MW's for Cotto to held the MW crown and defending through catchweights below the MW 160 lbs limit?

Marvin Sonsona decisions Jonathan Arellano

It was thought to be a stay-active fight for Marvin Sonsona but became a tough test. Sonsona was in a tough 10-round fight against Arellano (15-6-2, (3KO's) for their featherweight match at the StubHub Center. He won a very close fight with one judge scored the bout even 95-95, and the other two 96-94.

Sonsona (20-1-1, 15KO's) last fight was exactly one year ago in the under-card of Miguel Cotto, who defended his title against Geale on HBO, versus Sergio Martinez. It is safe to say that ring rust could be attributed to his struggling performance against a perceived easy stay-active fight.

Well, a win is a win and the 24 year old former world champion who is now trying to keep his career eyeing for another title in the next couple of fights.

Weights: Cotto 153.6, Geale 157

We all know why Miguel Cotto imposed catch-weight in defending his lineal middleweight crown. He's not a middleweight. His weight on last night's weigh-in did not even reach the super welterweight limit. He weighted in 153.6 lbs for Saturday night's HBO card.

It just happened that Cotto (39-4, 32 KO) fought a shot, if not totally handicap, the then lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. Martinez fought with two bad knees and Cotto knocked him out.

To compensate the size disadvantage Cotto wanted Geale (31-3, 16 KO), a legit MW, to work harder to 158 catch-weight, which Geale did. He weighed 157, a pound under the contracted weight. We have a fight as agreed.

But if Cotto not able to compete legit MW contender he better relinquish the title. GGG wanted to be called the middleweight champion. But Cotto took the MW crown hostage and wanted to defend it in the super welterweight limit.

This is really absurd. The middleweight champion of the world defending the crown weighing even below the super welter limit.