Random boxing news.

[Afterglow]

Spinks to fight Bundrage in St. Louis

Junior middleweight titlist Cory Spinks, who has not fought in more than a year, will make his mandatory title defense against Cornelius Bundrage on June 12.

Spinks will fight in his native St. Louis for the fifth time in his last seven fights when he faces the former star of "The Contender" reality series at the 10,600-seat Chaifetz Arena on the campus of Saint Louis University.

"My title is not leaving St. Louis," Spinks said Wednesday at a news conference announcing the fight. "I guarantee I will be undefeated for the rest of my career. When I get done with Bundrage, I'll fight anyone: Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Paul Williams, Shane Mosley -- you name it, I'm ready."

Spinks, the former undisputed welterweight champ and son of former heavyweight champ Leon Spinks, had been scheduled to meet Bundrage on March 26 in Las Vegas on an ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" card. However, the card was canceled a week before the fight because of promoter Don King's issues with the main event, a vacant cruiserweight title bout between Steve Cunningham and Matt Godfrey.

King was able to reschedule Spinks-Bundrage at Chaifetz Arena, which will be hosting a boxing card for the first time since it opened in 2008. No TV plans were announced, but King spokesman Alan Hopper said King is considering offering it on his Web site, www.donkingtv.com, as he has done with other cards.

Spinks (37-5, 11 KOs), who will be fighting for the first time since he claimed a vacant 154-pound belt by outpointing St. Louis rival Deandre Latimore on a split decision in April 2009, has been training in Vero Beach with new trainer Buddy McGirt, the former two-time world champion.

"It's been great being trained by future Hall of Famer Buddy McGirt. It was time for me to move on to a new trainer and I'm very happy about it," said Spinks, who parted ways with longtime trainer and manager Kevin Cunningham. "You will see the best of the old Cory Spinks and the best of the new. I guarantee the boxing fans of St. Louis that I'm going to put on a spectacular show."

Said McGirt, "I don't have a lot of work to do with Cory. He has lots of talent and my job is to remind him of that. His natural abilities are such that if he is performing at his best, he's tough to beat. My goal is to get him to that top tier."

Bundrage (29-4, 17 KOs), of Detroit, gained fame during the 2006 season of "The Contender" but scored his most significant victory in 2008 when he won a unanimous decision against former titleholder Kassim Ouma.

Bundrage's last bout in June, a title eliminator against Yuri Foreman, ended in a three-round no decision after Foreman was badly cut by an accidental head butt. Rather than seek a rematch, Foreman went in another direction and claimed one of the belts from Daniel Santos last fall. With Foreman opting for another fight, Bundrage, who is trained by Hall of Famer Emanuel Steward, became Spinks' mandatory challenger.

Spinks said he will make the fight a more crowd-pleasing bout than he typically puts on -- he's more of a hit-and-run fighter with superior defensive skills than a slugger.

"I'm going to attack more. I'm going to beat him up a little bit," Spinks said. "You'll see a much meaner Cory Spinks. Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage has sniffed out the wrong guy. I'm a bomb and it's going to explode on June 12."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5185070

[Afterglow]

Former featherweight champ honored

CANASTOTA, N.Y. -- Danny "Little Red" Lopez was slow and deliberate in his acceptance speech, unlike his demeanor in the ring as a champion featherweight. Longtime Associated Press boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. wasn't so fast for a change.

Being immortalized can have that effect.

Lopez and Schuyler were among 13 men inducted Sunday into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, capping their impressive careers.

"Getting inducted is a big honor, getting the ring and the whole shot," said Lopez, who fashioned a 42-6 record with 39 knockouts in a 10-year career. "I felt much better winning a fight in the ring, but this is comparable to it. Pretty close."

Other living inductees were: light flyweight champ Jung-Koo Chang, the first South Korean boxer to make the Hall of Fame; manager Shelly Finkel; referee and commissioner Larry Hazzard; German promoter Wilfried Sauerland; and matchmaker Bruce Trampler.

Posthumous honorees were: light heavyweight Lloyd Marshall; featherweight champion Young Corbett II; lightweight champion Rocky Kansas; heavyweight contender Billy Miske; Paddington Tom Jones, whose 20-year career began in 1786; and broadcaster Howard Cosell.

Although it didn't end in a knockout, Lopez's victory over Davey Kotey for the 1976 WBC featherweight championship remains one of his signature moments in the ring. It came in Kotey's homeland of Ghana in front of a crowd of 122,000 fans -- still the second-largest crowd in the sport's history.

Lopez, who worked in a pizza parlor and baby-sat for his brother before turning pro in 1971, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated during his heyday and was amazed to see so many copies of the magazine again during induction weekend.

"I think I'm outdoing the swimsuit edition," he said with a laugh.

Schuyler covered more than 300 world championships for AP and figures he was ringside for about 6,000 fights.

Among his favorites were the first and third Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fights, Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle" against George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns, Marvelous Marvin Hagler-Roberto Duran, and the 1976 Olympic finals in Montreal, where the United States won five gold medals and beat the Cubans head-to-head three times.

"Boxing was and always has been a writing sport. If you can't write about boxing, you should be selling shoes," said Schuyler, who earned the nickname "Fast Eddie" because of his rapid dictation from ringside during his career from 1970-2002. "I want to share this award with my father, who was the finest newspaperman and the finest man I've ever known.

"Now I'm a boxing fan right back where I started. It's forever," Schuyler said. "Someday my grandson can come up here and see it."

Cosell, who died in 1995, was not at the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" or the "Rumble in the Jungle," yet he was a champion of the sport. He stood by Ali when Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title and forced into a three-year retirement because of his refusal to serve in the military in Vietnam.

"The boxing world was very good to us," Colin Cosell said in accepting the award for his grandfather. "With his trademark modesty, I'm sure Howard would say he was very good to the world of boxing as well -- tongue in cheek, of course.

"We're humbled and thankful to know that the work that he loved doing continues to be recognized, and thanks to the International Boxing Hall of Fame his legacy lives on."

It was a landmark day for the family of Miske, who fought Jack Dempsey in 1920 while suffering from Bright's Disease (a disease of the kidneys). Despite being bedridden, Miske also insisted on one final fight in 1923 -- and won it -- when he had only weeks to live so he could buy Christmas presents for his kids and a piano for his wife.

"It is a great honor for the Miske family," said the fighter's grandson, Bill Miske. "We've been waiting for this for a number of years and it finally came to fruition. We're thrilled."

Induction week customarily attracts some of boxing's biggest names, and Sunday was no exception. Former champions Carmen Basilio and Billy Backus, who grew up in Canastota, shared duties of grand marshal for the annual parade, and thousands of fans cheered the likes of Gene Fullmer, Ken Norton, George Chuvalo, Leon Spinks, Nino Benvenuti, Vito Antuofermo, Buster Douglas, Livingstone Bramble, Lou Duva, and Bob Arum.

The day left a lasting impression on Chang.

"From now on, Canastota is my hometown," he said through a translator. "I'll come back every year."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5282517

[Afterglow]

Ibragimov wins via unanimous decision

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Timur Ibragimov won a convincing unanimous decision over former WBC heavyweight champion Oliver McCall on Tuesday night.

Ibragimov, of Uzbekistan, was the busier and more accurate fighter throughout the 12-round fight. Ibragimov won 117-111 on two judges' scorecards and 119-109 on the third.

The bout was McCall's first since his arrest on drug possession charges Feb. 13 in Fort Lauderdale. McCall had been scheduled to fight in a previous card at the Hard Rock Live Arena in Hollywood three days after his arrest.

McCall (54-10) connected early with a left jab to the head, but Ibragimov stepped up his punch output in the second round with rights to McCall's head.

In the third, Ibragimov (28-2-1) remained the busier fighter with rights to the head.

Ibragimov, weighing 229 pounds, enjoyed another solid round in the fifth, landing left jabs and rights to the head. McCall, who is 256 pounds, scored with a strong right to the head late in the round, but it was not enough to offset the busier Ibragimov.

McCall, 45, found the range in the sixth and seventh and connected with rights to Ibragimov's head. However, Ibragimov continued to set the pace and managed to score lead rights into the final rounds.

McCall ended Lennox Lewis' first reign as heavyweight champion with a second-round knockout victory in September 1994. After a successful defense against Larry Holmes in April 1995, McCall lost the title against Frank Bruno five months later.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5291173

[Afterglow]

Casamayor, Guerrero to face off

When lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez and former titleholder Juan Diaz meet July 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in a rematch of the 2009 fight of the year, they will have a strong supporting cast on the undercard.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who vowed when the fight was announced in May to deliver a worthy undercard for the $49.95 HBO PPV show, believes he has done that with the addition Wednesday of a junior welterweight fight between Joel Casamayor and Robert Guerrero, both former two-division titleholders.

Casamayor-Guerrero, a scheduled 10-rounder at a maximum contract weight of 139 pounds, rounds out the four-fight telecast that will include Marquez-Diaz II, 2009 ESPN.com prospect of the year Daniel Jacobs facing Russia's Dmitry Pirog for a vacant middleweight title and a lightweight bout between former two-division titlist Jorge Linares and perennial contender Rocky Juarez.

"I made a promise to the 'Fight Freaks' that this would be a freak card and I think I've delivered that," Schaefer told ESPN.com. "I love Casamayor against Guerrero. It's a big step up for Guerrero and a big opportunity for Casamayor. It's one of those true crossroads fights. We have Linares-Juarez done and we have Jacobs fighting an undefeated fighter for a world title. I think the rematch of the fight of the year has become more than just that. I think it's going to be the night of the year."

Schaefer had been working on Casamayor-Guerrero for a couple of weeks. The Guerrero camp was on board, but the talks were tabled when Casamayor emerged as a possible opponent for junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan, whom Golden Boy also promotes. Khan was considering a summer fight in England, but when he decided to wait until later in the year for his next bout, the Casamayor-Guerrero talks resumed.

"We are finalizing the contract, but we have an agreement by e-mail and have agreed on all the deal points," Schaefer said.

The 38-year-old Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KOs) is a former lightweight and junior lightweight champion. Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), 27, is a former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist who recently moved up to the lightweight division. Now, he'll be adding a few more pounds to accommodate Casamayor, who has fought only once since losing the lightweight title on an 11th-round knockout to Marquez in September 2008. In his one bout since, Casamayor, a 1992 Cuban Olympic gold medalist who later defected, won an eight-round decision against Jason Davis in November fighting as a welterweight.

"Joel is a veteran and he wanted a bigger fight. He wanted Khan," manager Luis DeCubas Jr. told ESPN.com. "But if it's not Khan, he'll fight Guerrero. I think we're in a different league than Guerrero. Robert is a great young fighter, but he's never been in there with anyone like Joel. He's real green. We'll go through Guerrero first and then we'll go get Khan or (junior welterweight titleholder Timothy) Bradley, or anyone else."

Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs), of Gilroy, Calif., returned from an eight-month layoff for an eighth-round knockout of Robert Arrieta in a lightweight fight on April 30. He had been out of the ring while caring for his wife, Casey, who is battling leukemia but is doing better.

New York's Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs) and Pirog (16-0, 13 KOs), whose fight was made earlier this month, meet for the 160-pound belt recently stripped from Sergio Martinez.

Golden Boy signed Venezuela's Linares (28-1, 18 KOs), a former featherweight and junior lightweight titleholder, with much fanfare last fall, but in a fight already scheduled before he signed, Linares lost his 130-pound belt when Juan Carlos Salgado knocked him out in the first round in October in a major upset.

Linares rebounded with a more-difficult-than-expected majority decision win against Francisco Lorenzo in March to set up the July fight, his first in the United States since a 2007 featherweight title bout.

Houston's Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KOs) faces perhaps his last chance in a significant fight. The 2000 U.S. Olympian, who is 0-5-1 in world title bouts at featherweight and junior lightweight, has lost two in a row and is 1-3-1 in his last five fights.

"I think to have Linares back [fighting in the U.S.] and fighting a credible opponent like Rocky, I think it's a big test for Linares, and it's high noon for Rocky," Schaefer said. "It's a very interesting matchup."

In the main event, Mexico's Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KOs), coming off a decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September, returns to defend the lightweight title against Diaz (35-3, 17 KOs), who is coming off a decision loss to Paulie Malignaggi in a December junior welterweight bout.

In February 2009, Marquez went to Diaz's hometown of Houston and knocked him out in the ninth round of a bloody brawl that was widely acclaimed as the fight of the year, including by ESPN.com, Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5294212

[Afterglow]

Huck to make fourth title defense

Cruiserweight titlist Marco Huck will make his fourth defense against American Matt Godfrey on Aug. 21 in Erfurt, Germany, promoter Sauerland Event announced.

"Godfrey is a tough fighter, but he will not get my title," Huck, 25, said. "I want to keep impressing the fans all over the world and I am determined to put on a spectacular performance against Godfrey."

Godfrey, of Providence, R.I., will be the third American opponent in a row for Huck, who knocked out Adam "The Swamp Donkey" Richards in the third round in March and stopped Brian Minto in the ninth round on May 1.

Godfrey, 29, is getting a title opportunity just a few months after he had a March fight with Steve Cunningham lined up for a vacant belt on ESPN2 and in the United States. However, Godfrey (20-1, 10 KOs) withdrew about a week before the fight because it had been briefly called off before being moved to a new venue.

Godfrey pulled out because he said he missed a couple of days of training, believing the fight was off. Now, he's headed for Germany, where he suffered his only defeat, a unanimous decision to Rudolf Kraj in a 2008 title eliminator.

Huck (29-1, 22 KOs) hopes to defend his title against Godfrey and move on to an eventual rematch with Cunningham, who recently became his promotional stablemate after signing with Sauerland.

After Godfrey withdrew from the vacant title bout, Cunningham wound up facing Troy Ross for a belt and stopped him on cuts on June 5 in Germany. During his first title reign, Cunningham handed Huck his only professional loss, a 12th-round TKO in a 2007 title bout. Now that Cunningham and Huck are with the same promoter, there is a greater likelihood of an eventual rematch.

"I hope we will meet again at some point down the road," Huck said. "There is still something that needs to be settled between the two of us."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5292999

[Afterglow]

Martinez stays at middleweight

Sergio Martinez has made his decision. He is staying at middleweight.

Martinez won the middleweight championship on April 17 in Atlantic City, N.J., by outpointing Kelly Pavlik with late-fight surge. But Martinez was also a reigning junior middleweight titlist when he challenged Pavlik, and the rules of boxing's sanctioning organizations prohibit a fighter from holding belts in multiple divisions.

Martinez had already been stripped of the WBO's middleweight belt on May 29 because he had not yet told the organization of his decision. Faced with a deadline from the WBC, whose belts he held in the 160- and 154-pound divisions, Martinez made his decision on Wednesday, informing the organization via e-mail that he would keep the middleweight title, Sampson Lewkowicz, Martinez's adviser, told ESPN.com.

"Sergio didn't like to do it, but he gave up the junior middleweight title," Lewkowicz said. "He's fought twice at 160 pounds and he built up muscles. He thought maybe he will have to sacrifice too much to be at 154 again."

At middleweight, Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KOs) also holds the Ring magazine title as well as the lineal championship. If a major fight presents itself, promoter Lou DiBella said Martinez would consider dropping down to defend his title at a catch weight between 155 and 160 pounds.

"By keeping the middleweight title, he would also have an ability to drop down to fight a big fight at a catch weight," DiBella said. "He bulked up for Pavlik and he knows his body. He said he would have a problem going all the way down to 154 and there is no mega fight for him in that weight class. If there is an economic reason to go down as low as 155, he'd probably do it, but he's a middleweight now."

As a middleweight, Martinez is 1-1, beating Pavlik for the title and losing a majority decision to Paul Williams in December in one of the most action-packed fights of 2009, a bout many observers thought could have gone either way.

There was another reason for Martinez's decision to vacate the junior middleweight title rather than the middleweight championship.

Martinez, 35, who lives in California, is from Argentina, whose greatest fighter was Hall of Famer Carlos Monzon, the longtime middleweight champion in the 1970s.

"What Sergio told me was that he preferred to stick at 160 because he wants to follow in the footsteps of his great idol, Monzon," Lewkowicz said. "It means a lot to him to have the same title as Monzon and there is more prestige he believes in being middleweight champion than in the junior middleweight division."

Martinez won the WBC's vacant interim title at junior middleweight with an eighth-round knockout of Alex Bunema in 2008 and defended it once when he was given a draw against Kermit Cintron in a February 2009 fight most believed Martinez had won easily. After the murder of titleholder Vernon Forrest last summer, Martinez was elevated to full titleholder. But he went up to middleweight to face Williams in a nontitle bout before making a defense.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5294834

[Afterglow]

Shaw's jr. welterweight proposal nixed

Promoter Gary Shaw likes the idea of tournaments in boxing. That is why he is one of the promoters of Showtime's critically acclaimed Super Six World Boxing Classic, the six-man super middleweight tournament that includes, Andre Dirrell, whom Shaw promotes.

Besides the 168-pound super middleweight division, the 140-pound junior welterweight division is one of boxing's deepest and Shaw promotes titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr., who is widely regarded as the No. 1 fighter in the weight class.

So Shaw, while touting Bradley's July 17 HBO debut against Luis Carlos Abregu in a nontitle welterweight bout, revealed on a media conference call that he had pitched HBO on a junior welterweight tournament.

While the network, which is deeply involved in the weight class, liked the idea, Shaw said it was shot down by Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes three of the fighters who would have potentially been involved, titleholder Amir Khan of England, lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico [who would move up in weight] and interim titlist Marcos Maidana of Argentina.

"I was up at HBO this week, unbeknownst to anybody," Shaw said. "I offered to do 140-pound tournament with Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Amir Khan, and if Marquez beats [Juan] Diaz [on July 31], he could be in the tournament as well."

Shaw later suggested that Maidana could also be a possibility.

"I suggested that we have a press conference and we pull names out of a bottle," said Shaw about a blind draw. "If we pulled [unified titlist] Devon Alexander, then we fight Devon. If we pull Amir Khan, then we fight Amir Khan or Marquez or any other 140-pound that they want to put in there.

"Timothy Bradley will fight anybody, and, to Devon Alexander's credit, he'll fight anybody. But it's the [others] that wouldn't fight."

Shaw said HBO wanted to match Bradley and Alexander after they have their upcoming fights, Bradley on July 17 and Alexander in a title defense against former titlist Andreas Kotelnik on Aug. 7. Shaw preferred either pulling random names for the matchups or having the Americans fight the others first.

"I said to them, 'Why should two undefeated Americans fight one another?' Let each one of them fight one of the international fighters and then the winners will meet," Shaw said. "And then if you do a press conference and you pick a [ball] out of a hat or a bowl or whatever the device is, it would gain great interest.

"I said if you want to add more interest to it, give $500,000 to the winner of the tournament strictly for the fighter, not for the manager, not for the team, not for the promoter. The bonus check right to the fighter. And, they liked my ideas. The problem is, Amir Khan, obviously doesn't like the idea and I would assume Golden Boy doesn't like the idea too. But we would do it and Devon Alexander would do it."

Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer, who has a tremendous amount of money invested in the division, said they have other plans for Khan, the linchpin of any tournament because of the money he generates in England, and didn't need a tournament.

"We are lining up some pretty big fights for him, including the winner of Marquez-Diaz or potentially Maidana or Michael Katsidis," Schaefer said, adding that Khan would be ringside to scout Marquez-Diaz II in advance of a fight in November or December. "These are exciting fights. That is the direction we want to go. But eventually the fights [with Bradley and Alexander] will happen."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5299050

That would have been fun.

[Afterglow]

Mayol, Nino both ready for rematch

When junior flyweight titlist Rodel Mayol of the Philippines and Mexico's Omar Niño met in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Feb. 27, the fight ended in bizarre fashion with Mayol retaining his belt but leaving the ring on a stretcher. The bout was declared a three-round technical draw.

Late in the third round, Niño (28-3-2, 11 KOs) cracked Mayol with a low blow and as the referee was moving in to call a timeout, and had grabbed Niño's right arm to pull him away, Niño unloaded a left hook that knocked out Mayol (26-4-2, 20 KOs).

Now, they will meet again in Queretaro, Mexico, on Saturday in the main event on "Top Rank Live" (Fox Sports en Espanol, 10 p.m. ET), and Niño is determined to reclaim the belt he held briefly in 2006 after upsetting Brian Viloria.

"I am going to take what is mine and this time nobody will stop me," Niño said. "We are training hard, we know Mayol's weakness, and this time there will be no excuse. I will be the winner. I will try to make it by KO because I do not want surprises in the point issue. There must be no doubt."

After Niño defeated Viloria to claim the belt four years ago, he fought to a draw with him in an immediate rematch to retain the title. However, Niño failed a post-fight drug test. He was stripped of the belt and the result was changed to a no decision.

Now he has another chance.

"I want to recover the green and gold [WBC belt] and return it to Mexico," Niño said. "We are sure this will happen. We can't fail in our country again. We have to knock out [Mayol], clearly be the winner."

Mayol, who will be making his second title defense, won the belt from Edgar Sosa on a second-round knockout in November. Then came the technical draw with Niño.

"I am more than ready," Mayol, a Manny Pacquiao protégé, said of the rematch. "I prepared myself much better than the last time with Omar. I am desperate to climb [into] the ring and show everybody why I am the champion. I did not want that end. I was winning the fight but the Mexican gave me an illegal punch to my body and then to the face. I was helpless. Fortunately, the referee [stuck] to the rules."

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5297519

[Afterglow]

Rahman posts 4th-round TKO over Miller

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Hasim Rahman stood in his corner victorious and also philosophical about how far along he might be in his bid in making one last heavyweight title run.

A puffy right eye and needing four rounds to score a technical knockout of Shannon Miller on Saturday night provided the two-time former champion a reminder that he still has some work to do.

"This is just what I needed to let me know that if Hasim Rahman of old wants to resurface, I've got to do a lot more," Rahman said. "I've got to get back to basics first."

After taking last year off, Rahman (47-7-2) won for the second time in three months by beating Miller (16-5-0) in a fight that was stopped by referee Charlie Fitch 1:37 into the fourth round of a fight scheduled to go 10 rounds.

The end came when Rahman hit Miller with a left jab and followed with a strong right that sent his opponent tumbling into his own corner at the Niagara Falls Conference Center.

As Miller was attempting to get up, his corner asked Fitch to stop the fight after watching their boxer get sent to the mat for a fourth time.

Rahman was left unimpressed. He was unhappy to be left partially blinded with what he said was either a punch or a thumb that caught him in the eye. And there were also the few times he was tagged by the gutty Miller, including a solid right that stunned Rahman midway through the first round.

"I would never have gotten hit with any shots if I had listened to my corner," Rahman said, noting he might have been too overconfident. "Fortunately, this didn't upset anything. I'm willing to fight next month and I'll be 100 percent better."

The fight was Rahman's second since a seven-round TKO loss to Wladimir Klitschko in December 2008. At 37, "The Rock" began his comeback in March, when he scored a first-round TKO over Clinton Boldridge. He's determined to make one more title run and hoping to land a rematch against Klitschko as early as next year.

Though Rahman has his concerns, Miller was left a believer.

"Hardest puncher I've faced," Miller said, outside his locker.

Miller said two of the four times he was knocked down were simply due to the force of Rahman's blows. The other two times, he acknowledged being knocked woozy.

With his right eye beginning to swell and a nasty scrape on his left shoulder, Miller said his confidence grew when he struck Rahman in the first round.

"When I hit him, it was, 'Hey, all of a sudden something good could happen here," Miller said. "Hey, I tried."

After a relatively slow start, Rahman began taking control late in the first round. Using a left jab to set up his right hand, Rahman knocked Miller to the mat for the first time in the final 10 seconds of the first round.

His second knockdown of Miller was the most impressive.

Miller was knocked woozy midway through the second round when he was tied up in the corner and took four straight rights from Rahman. Miller recovered to get back into the middle of the ring only to be caught by a left jab to the chin that sent him tumbling into the ropes and to the mat.

Rahman credited his opponent for continuing to get up.

"It definitely says something about him, because some of those shots were clean," Rahman said. "I joked with the referee, 'Did he count to 10?' But obviously he didn't have to count to 10 because Shannon wouldn't allow that."

In the co-featured event, former Canadian Olympian Donald Orr (15-1) had his undefeated record broken in a bloody eight-round loss to John Mackey of Montgomery, Ala., in a middleweight fight. Mackey (12-5-2), who won by a majority decision, took control early and eventually opened cuts over both of Orr's eyes early in the seventh round.

Two judges scored the fight 77-75 in Mackey's favor, while the other scored it a draw.

Orr, who fought at the 2000 Sidney Games, showed plenty of fight by spending the final two rounds trading heavy punches while wiping blood out of his eyes.

Someone to keep an eye out for is welterweight Hastings Bwalya, of Zambia, who earned a TKO win over Milwaukee's Matt Ellis. Bwalya (4-0), who represented his country at the 2008 Beijing Games, is a hard puncher and thoroughly dominated Ellis (1-2) with several blows -- including a hard right-left combination that stunned his opponent -- before the fight was stopped 1:21 into the second round.

Light heavyweight Lionell Thompson (3-0), from nearby Buffalo, N.Y., got the crowd on its feet by using a solid left hand that knocked Milwaukee's Jessie Lewis (0-2) halfway through the ropes to score a TKO 2:48 into the first round.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...ory?id=5306845

[Afterglow]

Ward retains belt in decision over Green

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Andre Ward 's game plan was to stay close to Allan Green to negate the dangerous left hook. When Green obliged by spending most of the night against the ropes, Ward was eager to take advantage.

Ward thoroughly dominated the tough-talking Green to clinch a spot in the semifinals of the Super Six tournament, winning by unanimous decision Saturday night in the first defense of the WBA super middleweight title.

"This means a lot to me," Ward said. "I couldn't get caught up in the first defense too much mentally. Now that it's over with, I'm ecstatic I was able to defend this belt one time. I feel like a real champion now."

Ward advanced to the final four of the modified round-robin tournament with one round to go. He won all 12 rounds from the three judges in front of his hometown crowd in Oakland. Ward won the title last November when he beat Mikkel Kessler in the first round of the tournament.

Green (29-2) lost in his first fight since replacing an injured Jermain Taylor in the tournament. He still can advance to the semifinals by winning in the third round against Kessler.

Green was upset that he wasn't included in the original field of the tournament and questioned Ward for postponing the fight earlier this spring because of a right knee injury. But he couldn't back up his bold prefight talk once he got into the ring.

"Sometimes it looks easy but it's never easy," Ward said. "I have a lot of respect for Allan Green. He told me afterward that he had a lot of respect for me. Prior to the fight I didn't see it that way."

After a feeling out process in the first round when both fighters went long stretches without even attempting a punch, Ward took over with a few strong left hands.

Ward backed Green into the ropes early in the third round. That is where the fighters spent much of the rest of the fight, with Green backed into the ropes and Ward delivering punches from close range.

"It ended up being more of an inside battle than we expected," Ward said. "Before the fight, he was making comments about me not being an inside fighter, never throwing body shots. Man I'm thinking, 'That's my game. Does this guy watch any of my fights?' When he wanted to stay there and fight inside I was very happy about that."

Green connected on few punches and at times appeared to be just holding onto Ward to stand up. Ward delivered a couple of big blows in the seventh round at the ropes and the referee asked Green if he was OK after the round.

Green lasted all 12 rounds, but needing a knockout to win late he had little left. The fight ended with Ward connecting again near the ropes. Ward's only regret in the fight was being unable to score a knockout, which he said became tough when Green only tried to stay up in the later rounds instead of going for the win.

"It's hard to knock a guy out who has made up his mind that he's not going to get knocked out," Ward said. "That's what kind of happened tonight."

Green went to the hospital after the fight to get stitches, missing the post-fight news conference. He told Showtime that he was weakened by going through three training camps since December.

"I had to stop running about three weeks ago because I was feeling so weak in training camp," he said. "I wasn't feeling right, and I knew coming into this fight that I wasn't feeling my best. Andre Ward showed me a lot of things that I know about, a lot of things I can deal with, but a lot of things I couldn't react to because I was feeling extremely weak. I'm not trying to take anything away from him, that's just how I felt."

Green's promoter, Lou DiBella, praised Ward after the fight.

"Two fights in a row dominating some of the best fighters in his division," DiBella said. "I don't think there's any doubt the favorite in the Super Six is the man to my right."

Green had won six straight fights, with his only career loss coming three years ago against Edison Miranda in a middleweight fight. Ward beat Miranda by a unanimous decision last year.

Ward's final fight in the round-robin stage of the tournament will come against Andre Dirrell, who was on hand to watch his friend's latest win. Ward is assured of a spot in next year's semifinals but can clinch the top seed with a win.

"I knew it was going to be a clinic," Dirrell said. "If Allan didn't bring damage to Andre Ward early then he wasn't going to do it at all. After the fourth round, I knew it was going to be a wrap."

The Super Six was designed by premium cable network Showtime to feature six of the best 168-pounders in the world, with each guaranteed three fights and earning points based on their outcome. The four participants with the most points would advance to seeded semifinals, with a championship bout scheduled for next year.

The fans in Oakland liked almost everything they saw in the fight, except for an appearance by former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell. The fans booed Russell as he walked to his seat in the eighth round, still upset over three failed years as Raiders quarterback that ended with his release last month.

Russell, wearing an Alabama Crimson Tide hat and jacket, was booed again loudly as he left the arena after the fight.

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