Julio Cesar Ortiz

Saul Alvarez to fight Alfonso Gomez

LAS VEGAS -- Junior middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Mexico's most popular fighter, got a nice 21st birthday present this week: The confirmation that he will make his second defense against former "Contender" star Alfonso Gomez at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 17 -- the weekend of Mexican Independence Day.

While Alvarez-Gomez will headline a card at the Staples Center, the fight will be televised as part of a split-site pay-per-view show on which Floyd Mayweather's return from a 16-month layoff to challenge welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz will headline a card -- and the HBO PPV telecast -- at the MGM Grand.

"It's going to be an historic pay-per-view. It will be an amazing experience because the fans at Staples Center will be able to see the live feed from Las Vegas and also see Canelo Alvarez fight live that night, and the people in Las Vegas can see the live feed from the Canelo fight in the Staples Center," Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com.

"You're going to have two HBO crews and they'll give it back and forth between L.A. and Las Vegas. It's going to be great," said Schaefer, who is in Las Vegas promoting Saturday's Amir Khan-Zab Judah junior welterweight title unification fight.

Schaefer said the telecast will open in Las Vegas, where 22-year-old junior welterweight prospect Jessie Vargas, a Mayweather protege from Las Vegas, will fight an opponent to be announced in a 10-rounder. Vargas (16-0, 9 KOs) opened eyes when he scored a sensational second-round knockout against veteran Walter Estrada on July 8.

The show will stay in Las Vegas for the next fight, the previously announced junior welterweight bout between Mexican star and former three-division champion Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KOs), who will face England's Anthony Crolla (21-2, 9 KOs).

After Morales-Crolla, the action will shift to Los Angeles for the Alvarez-Gomez fight before returning to Las Vegas, where Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) will make his first title defense against Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs).

"To be able to see Mayweather-Ortiz and then add to that Erik Morales and Canelo Alvarez against Alfonso Gomez, and a young and emerging fighter who is tremendously talented in Jessie Vargas, it's sort of like a little bit of everything on this pay-per-view," Schaefer said.

"You can go to the fight at the Staples Center for as little as 50 bucks, which is the price of a closed circuit ticket (to see the pay-per-view view in Las Vegas). So you could see the pay-per-view on the big screen at Staples plus see Canelo Alvarez. That's a pretty good deal, isn't it?

Is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. afraid of Marco Antonio Rubio?

First he wrote an open letter asking the champion if he was going to avoid him and asked if that was true because it was not possible to believe. Then he started to challenge him and now he has even stated that Chavez Jr. is afraid of him.

Professional boxing is a business as we all know, and we also know that you can not protect any fighter for too long before the fans start to look away searching for another fighter who will fight dangerous opposition instead of spoon fed boxers. It has become boring to hear that Chavez Jr. could fight a big name and then just a week later you hear that the fight won’t be done. The image of a fighter is based on his performance inside the ring; promoters can not convince even casual fans that a fighter is great if first the fighter do not prove it inside the ring.

Chavez Jr. size at fight night gives him the edge over many middleweight contenders, and that allows him to level his lack of power, speed or good defensive skills; He does have a great chin and is brave and determined; but if he is not able to improve his defensive skills he might not have a long boxing career.

Rubio is a good boxer; he has a lot of experience, in a title elimination bout he upset and TKO7 promising young contender Lemieux in David´s home town. Lemieux dominated the first rounds but was not patient or well advised on his corner and burned his power too early and at the end “Veneno” out work him and took advantage of the flaws in David´s defense.

Neither Chavez Jr. or Rubio can be considered as the top three middleweight boxers, and both could have a good chance to win the fight, problem for Marco is that he could end up loosing if the fight goes to the judge cards as the Zbik fight proved.

Chavez Jr. should know better, he should know already that to become the best and to be remembered as one of the best fighters of his era he needs to do what his father did, and that is to fight against the ones who are considered to be the best contenders or fellow division champions, or at least never avoid a dangerous rival not even the ones who are better skilled, faster or more powerful; do you remember Edwin Rosario or Meldrick Taylor fights against Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.?

The son of the legend will never reach the boxing level of his legendary father and he better not mislead himself believing that he will, and there is no shame on that because his father is a hall of fame member and is considered to be the best Mexican fighter ever. But being Chavez Jr. a Mexican fighter he should know very well what is it that characterize the boxing style of these ring warriors; he is sure proud of his predecessors and will never try to bring shame on the tradition of the Mexican fighters who never quit no matter what happened during the fight, I guess you can ask Margarito about that issue. He better prove that he does not care about how good his adversary is because he will find a way to defeat him. He was raised by a champion who never backed out against no one, who always gave his best effort and leaved everything he had inside that ring before someone had to stop the fight; just like that sad day when the old lion Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. was simply knocked out by a much better young lion Kostya Tszyu. There is no shame in loosing when you take a fight and prove that you will do everything you can do to win.

Homem : paso a paso

Contra terror in Nicaragua, report of a fact-finding mission, September 1984-January 1985

Latino athletes

Love in a global village, a celebration of intercultural families in the Midwest

Case concerning military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America)