On November 12, 2011 at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, superstar and eight division World Champion Manny Pacquiao will fight three division World Champion Juan Manuel Marquez in a third mega fight between them. The first fight was so explosive that Pacquiao knocked down Marquez three times in the first round! It looked like Pacquiao was going to win by a blowout, but that was far from the truth…Marquez got up all three times to fight back, which ended in a draw.

Many boxing fans thought Marquez pulled out a win, but the second fight was just as explosive as the first one. There was a lot of back and forth but they gave it to Pacquiao by decision – in my opinion, it should have been a draw.

In this third fight on November 12^th, Marquez is going to come at his best – not to mention he is going to move up in weight to fight Pacquiao. However, I do believe this fight has the making of fight of the year, and I think Pacquiao has risen to another level of boxing excellence. He has shown over the past couple of years a growth that has surpassed Marquez. With that being said, I pick Pacquiao by a late knockout!

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum isn’t intimidated by the competition he’s about to face from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In its new deal with FOX, the UFC plans to air its first free event on Nov. 12 at 9PM EST; Arum is promoting an HBO PPV card in the same timeslot. But, many spectators are asking if pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s welterweight title battle against Juan Manual Marquez is enough to keep combat fans tuned in. The Pacquiao versus Marquez fight will be their third meeting in a long-awaited showdown.

This past Thursday, FOX and UFC announced a seven year, $100 million annual deal to bring the mixed martial arts phenomenon from Spike and Versus to the FOX family of network channels. FOX’s UFC event may be in the same timeslot as the Pacquiao vs. Marquez bout, but UFC officials claim their event will be over before the starting bell in the boxing ring.

FOX – which already airs sporting events such as the Super Bowl and World Series – airs in over 100 million homes and carries four events per year; its UFC event is the first. Arum isn’t getting his feathers ruffled by the competition and he actually thinks it will help the pay-per-view event:

“I think it helps it because there will be a lot of talk about it, and people who follow boxing and love boxing are gonna vote with their dollars,” he said. “We’re going to rally the base. We’ve got all the Democrats and Independents. They’ll all be watching boxing.”

Arum also thinks its “not an accident” that FOX scheduled the UFC event at the same time; in his opinion, FOX can use the deal with the UFC to pressure cable operators to carry UFC programming on smaller networks, such as Fuel.

For more on Bob Arum’s take on competition from FOX and the UFC, read the original ESPN article here: http://es.pn/mXyEFp.

You don’t need to spend $$$ for a gym membership and fight traffic to get there seven days a week in order to keep up a healthy productive workout.  You can use everyday items and your natural body weight to accomplish everything you need from home.  Here are five ways to get in shape without spending a ton of money and without wasting gas:

1. Jump Rope – its easy & it burns mega calories.  Start off by jump roping just 2 minutes every day, and work up to five minutes.  That much time jump roping is equivalent in calorie burn as running three miles.

2. Pushups – they’re great for  your arms and chest area! Start off by doing as many as you can to failure, and then do three sets of it.  Follow this with three sets of classic sit ups and three sets of crunches.

4. Jogging – try jogging around the block four times a week.  Build slowly until you reach three miles total – have that as your goal.

5. Stretching. Always stretch before you work out to loosen your muscles & prevent injury.

As “Blockbuster” season rolls in – as everyone knows summer is generally one of the best times of year for new releases – I thought it would be fun to share my favorite boxing movies with fans.

Hollywood has always been good about releasing one stellar boxing movie every few years, for some reason this theme (underdog takes all) never seems to get old.

Please roll out the red carpet for….

1. 1976 – “Rocky”

Sorry to be so obvious, but this series starring Sylvester Stallone is perhaps the most notable in boxing movie history.

2. 1980 – “Raging Bull”

Ahh, one of my favorite actors, Robert Deniro, serves up some serious punches in this popular 80’s flick.

3. 1992 – “Someone Up There Likes Me”

This is actually one of my all-time favorite movies starring fan and salad dressing favorite, Paul Newman.

4. 2001 – “Ali”

Need I say more?

5. 2005 – “Cinderella Man”

This was a beautifully told story about the struggles of a boxer and his family during the Great Depression….with a good ending!

6. 2011 – “The Fighter”

Oscar nominated movie, starring Christian Bale – who WON the Oscar for his role – was one of the hottest movies of 2011 and captured non-fight fan hearts everywhere.

So, whether or not you are a fight fan….boxing movies are always entertaining and are always good for a dose of inspiration! Let me know if you agree with my picks?

This Saturday May 7th at the sold out MGM Grand Arena eight-division World Champion Manny Paquiao (52-3-2,38kos) will defend his WBO welterweight title against three division champion Sugar Shane Mosley (46-6-1,39kos) live on PPV Showtime.

I had the pleasure of watching and hanging out with Manny Paquiao at the Wild Card Boxing Gym this past Monday & let me tell you Manny looked great! He’s in tremendous shape – speed, power, everything!  What impressed me was his stamina: he just kept on going & going non-stop from beginning to end.  This is going to be a great fight. If the right Mosley comes to fight it could be an upset.

My prediction: Manny stops Mosley in the later rounds….Enjoy it while it lasts!

A San Diego boxing gym serves kids who are at risk by showing them how to fight for what they believe in and win! Be sure to watch this exciting and moving video!

World Middleweight Champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (47-2-26 kos) scored an impressive eight round knockout over the previously unbeaten WBO Jr. Middleweight champion Sergei “Razor” Dzinziruk (37-1-23 kos). The epic fight took place Saturday night at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Martinez put on a beautiful boxing show against Dzinziruk; throughout the whole fight he showed great speed & confidence… not to mention power. He dismantled his opponent round by round in order to score the knockout!

Martinez is now calling upon elite fighters to step up and fight. These elite fighters include Manny Pacquiao, WBA champion Miguel Cotto, and Floyd Mayweather. I am sure that Sergio has the ability to come out the winner against all of them.  Martinez is quickly becoming a rising star in the boxing world and definitely one of my favorite fighters.

On the same night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Puerto Rican WBA super Welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (36-2-29 kos) and Ricardo Mayorga (29-8-1-23 kos) went head to head in front of 7,427 boxing fans. I was really excited to watch this fight because I knew that each fighter had similar style…which leads to a grand old slugfest!

My Friend Cotto stuck to his game plan with very accurate punches leading to a late knockout in the last and final round in order to retain his WBA title. Cotto is a humble man and a great fighter. I have never witnessed a boring fight when he’s in the ring.

Congratulations to a weekend of great champions!

-Ricky

Miguel Acosta vs. Brandon Rios was an exciting fight to see for the WBA lightweight title 135lbs. I watched the fight this past weekend on HBO, which took place in the city of sin – Las Vegas!

To the fight! This was a stellar fight by far and even before it started I knew it was going to be a fight to remember. Acosta  (28-4-20kos) a WBA lightweight champion was defending his WBA title for the forth time against the hard punching Rios (27-0-1-20kos).

Some say they that style makes the fight, I usually would agree with this but it changed when Rios dropped a stunning right hand hook to end the fight and capture the WBA lightweight title. Beforehand Acosta was giving Rios what I would call a “boxing clinic demonstration,” his phenomenal boxing skills became apparent even as he hurt Rios throughout the fight.

To give Rios credit, he did take all of Acosta’s shots and weathered the storm in order to really rally in the later rounds. When Rios knocked Acosta out in round ten it was an exciting moment.  I would have to say that I am a huge fan of Rios’s toughness…and the fact that he has a good strong chin! For anyone who is a fan of boxing, this is undoubtedly a must see fight!

-Ricky

The rematch between the WBO 108lb champion Giovanni Segura and former champion Ivan Calderon will be held on April 2^nd in Acapulco, Mexico. In the past fight, Segura handed Calderon his first loss & took his WBO title away by knockout in the 11^th round. Before the knockout, the fight was an amazing blockbuster every single round. I would have to say that it was an all around very tactical fight. Segura landed some crippling shots to the body, which ended the fight by a knockout.

My prediction is that this will be a spectacular fight in the Junior Fly weight division. This weight class tends to not get much attention because the weight class of 108lbs is pretty small.

I am confident that when these two “little giants” clash, it will be like watching Middle Weights fight.  My fingers are crossed because I am pulling for my good friend Ivan Calderon from Puerto Rico. Hopefully he will win back his WBO title. I am excited and cannot wait for this rematch fight to happen!

-Ricky

Last weekend Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander went head to head with both of their Jr. welter weight championships on the line. Bradley, the WBO champion and the WBC champion, Alexander, are both undefeated fighters, so someone had to go!

It seemed as if Bradley came to fight, while Alexander came to score points. Bradley was definitely the better fighter and of course deserved the unanimous decision he received. However, the ending was incredibly unsatisfactory because after eight rounds of boxing it was an accidental head butt that brought the fight to an end.

Alexander received a deep gash over his eye and the judges went straight to the scorecards after eight rounds.  Bradley unanimously won on all the judge’s scorecards. The fight left me disappointed because my expectations for two undefeated fighters clashing to protect their title was a little more exciting in my imagination.

However I do give credit to Bradley for making the fight exciting with his aggressive style throughout the fight. Hopefully there will be a rematch due to the head butt!

-Ricky