TIM DAHLBERG
TIM DAHLBERG
AP Boxing Writer
LAS VEGAS — George Foreman was in a few big fights in his time, including one he’d rather forget against Muhammad Ali.
He sees some similarities to the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle when he thinks about Floyd Mayweather Jr. taking an unbeaten mark into the ring against Manny Pacquiao.
“It brought back old memories I thought I’d put to rest,” Foreman said. “Especially with the big fight with Muhammad Ali in Zaire and what it felt to be the one guy who knows what it’s all about to be undefeated and fighting for the championship of the world with a guy who has been beaten more than once.”
Foreman was undefeated and a huge favorite against Ali, who scored one of the most memorable upsets in boxing history when he stopped Foreman in the eighth round of their title fight.
“I’ve been knocked off the pedestal,” Foreman said. “I’ve been a fighter who’s been defeated.”
Foreman believes Mayweather might find out that feeling Saturday night when he meets Pacquiao in boxing’s richest fight ever.
“I think Mayweather will come on late but because it starts slow it will be too later,” Foreman said. “If you’re looking for some good judging, this will be won by Manny Pacquiao by a single point.”
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Evander Holyfield scored the biggest win of his career in the MGM Grand arena when he beat Mike Tyson in 1996, returning to the same arena the next year to beat Tyson in the infamous “Bite Fight.”
The former heavyweight champion will be an interested spectator Saturday night when he educates a fan about the finer points of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s fight with Manny Pacquiao.
Holyfield auctioned off a seat on the floor next to him at the fight on behalf of CharityVision, an organization that fights blindness in developing countries. It brought a $40,100 winning bid from an unnamed winner.
“I should have good seats,” Holyfield said. “The winner can sit with the Real Deal and anything he wants to ask I will tell him how it is from my perspective.”
Holyfield said he wasn’t picking a winner in the fight, but was happy both were getting big paydays.
“I know Pacquiao is going to fight the same way but I don’t know who is going to be the strongest when it happens,” he said. “Everybody says Tyson hits hard but what happened when he hits someone like me and I don’t go anywhere? I see the same sort of thing here in this fight.”
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The purses aren’t the only thing big about the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight.
The broadcasting team for the pay-per-view will be bursting at the seams.
HBO and Showtime, which are teaming together to broadcast the fight, are fielding a combined crew of a dozen on-air personalities to share the duties Saturday night from the MGM Grand hotel arena.
HBO’s Jim Lampley will do the blow-by-blow, with analysis from Showtime’s Al Bernstein. Roy Jones Jr. will also be ringside as a color commentator, while Jim Gray will interview Mayweather and report from his dressing room and Max Kellerman will do the same for Pacquiao.
The unofficial scorers will be HBO’s Harold Lederman and Showtime’s Steve Farhood, while Jim Brown, Paulie Malignaggi and former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis will host the broadcast from an upstairs booth.
Finally, Michael Buffer will be the ring announcer for Pacquiao and Jimmy Lennon Jr. will do the honors for Mayweather. So fans will get both Buffer’s “Let’s get ready to rumble,” and Lennon’s “It’s … showtime!”
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Nearly 13 years ago, a little-known champion from a boxing outpost got the chance to fight on one of the biggest pay-per-view shows of this century, and he stepped into worldwide stardom with a dynamic performance.
Manny Pacquiao did it on the undercard of Lennox Lewis’ victory over Mike Tyson, and Vasyl Lomachenko is thrilled to have the same opportunity before Pacquiao takes on Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night.
When millions tune in to the most anticipated boxing show in recent years, the first fight they’ll see is a title defense by Lomachenko, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine who won the WBO featherweight belt in just his third professional bout last year.
Lomachenko is a gifted multisport athlete and a vicious puncher widely considered the greatest amateur boxer of his generation. He’s still learning the pro game and adjusting to life on the West Coast, but he has already attracted a devoted following that will explode if he thrashes Puerto Rico’s Gamalier Rodriguez at the MGM Grand Garden.
“It’s an opportunity for millions of people to see what I can do,” Lomachenko said Thursday through his manager and translator, Egis Klimas. “It’s always good when you know people have confidence in you and want to see you fight.”
Top Rank boss Bob Arum eagerly bestowed his company’s only spot on the Mayweather-Pacquiao pay-per-view card on Lomachenko (3-1, 1 KO), who signed a new five-year promotional contract with Top Rank on Thursday.
“Lomachenko has a kind of talent that people in professional boxing have not yet seen,” Arum said. “As great as he was in the amateurs, he’ll be an even better pro. People ask me, ‘After Floyd and after Manny, who are the next big superstars in boxing?’ I know that Vasyl Lomachenko will be a big, big superstar.”
Promoter hype aside, the 27-year-old Lomachenko appears to have many qualities necessary to make the Pacquiao leap, from his hand speed and brilliant athleticism to a winning smile and ring charisma.
Mark Taffet, who runs HBO’s pay-per-view division, remembers Pacquiao’s second-round knockout of Jorge Julio at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee, as a star-making moment.
“I don’t think it’s lost on Team Lomachenko, the parallels and the similarities that this night will offer them,” Taffet said. “I hope we’re around for the ride.”
Lomachenko appeared on the world boxing scene during his 2008 trip to Beijing, where he drew world champion Albert Selimov in his first fight. Lomachenko battered the Russian for four rounds with a daredevil flair that immediately established him as an amateur star.
He was barely touched on the way to a gold medal and the Val Barker Trophy as the Beijing tournament’s top fighter. He turned down professional offers in Europe and stayed in the amateur ranks for four more years, winning two more world championships and a second gold in London.
When Lomachenko and his father interviewed promoters in 2013, their demands weren’t about money: They wanted a world title shot in his first pro fight. Top Rank won the worldwide derby to sign Lomachenko, and he moved to Southern California to prepare for a featherweight title shot — albeit in his second bout.
But Lomachenko got a boxing education from veteran Orlando Salido, who battered him with questionable punches and used numerous cagey tricks to eke out a split decision.
Three months later, Lomachenko fought Gary Russell Jr. for the vacant WBO title and dominated, winning by majority decision. After defending his title last November on the undercard of Pacquiao’s victory over Chris Algieri, he seized this showcase spot against Rodriguez, who has won 17 straight fights over the past five years.
Lomachenko has a wife and two children back home in Ukraine, but he mostly refuses to discuss his nation’s political turmoil, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Oleksandr Usyk, Lomachenko’s good friend and fellow Olympic gold medalist from London, is a native of Crimea who has refused to take Russian citizenship while pursuing his own promising pro career.
“What I’m worried about, I worry about the people in my country,” Lomachenko said when asked about his professional concerns. “I worry about people who are dying, innocent people who are dying. That’s what I’m worried about. I’m not worried about the politics (of boxing).”