Category Archives: News

Manny Pacquiao Doesn’t Face Juan Manuel Marquez Again? What? Instead…

Earlier today, Kevin Iole tweeted out breaking news about the next Manny Pacquiao fight.

Pacquiao vs. Rios

That Rios would be Brandon Rios, fresh off his loss to Mike Alvarado.

Later, his story came out about the fight, including that it will be in China.

With Rios’ style, this could be a super entertaining and explosive fight. It may also not last that long.

It’s Being Reported That Reid Flair Has Passed Away Today

The Wrestling Observer posted earlier today that there are reports that Reid Flair, son of Ric Flair, passed away today. Reid was working in Japan recently.

There isn’t much information out there yet, but we’ll add some details when they come out.

Updated: 5:44PM PST
An update came out about the death of Reid Flair and it sounds like Ric was the one who found Reid unresponsive in his hotel room this morning.

Mick Foley’s WWE Hall Of Fame Inductor Is…

Via WWE.com

Via WWE.com

Earlier on Twitter today, Mick Foley teased that he would announce who would be inducting him into the WWE Hall Of Fame. He called it, “The Decision” as a take off on LeBron James’ ESPN TV show. He announced it on his son, Mickey Foley’s YouTube page. (Also on that same YouTube page are videos of Mickey and Hughie doing trampoline wrestling.)

Mick Foley’s Tales From Wrestling Past – Storytelling Excellence

GG & MickMick Foley has always been a great storyteller — both in a wrestling ring and in book form. Starting with his first autobiography, “Have A Nice Day”, the stories he told were so good that I always wondered what they would sound like if he read them aloud. On Thursday night at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco, that wonder became reality.

As a longtime Mick Foley/Cactus Jack/Mankind fan (and hey, Dude Love has always been good with me), I had to check him out. The great Cactus Jim of this very website and my friend Tommy Walton came as well. Before the show, I spotted Dave Meltzer who came with former Bay Area WWF ring announcer Stu Ganz and they sat near us. I got Dave’s ear about what was going on in wrestling and MMA. If you are a wrestling or MMA fan and get a chance to talk shop with Dave Meltzer, like the Nike slogan says, “Just do it.” I always have a great time when I get a chance to talk to Dave and he’s always obliged, no matter how annoying us wrestling fans can be.

Before the show, Foley held a meet and greet. He mentioned later in the show that he usually does them after the show, but he had a red eye to catch. He had some old school Cactus Jack t-shirts for sale and some photos to sign, but I just took a picture with him as you can see above. Cactus Jim did the “Bang, bang” pose, but I wanted the later Foley pose which was the culmination of a dramatic promo that ended with a “Yeah~!” and a thumbs up.

I wouldn’t necessarily categorize Foley as a standup and I don’t think he would either. The guy who came on before him, Sal, is a standup. Sal told quick hitting jokes with definitive punchlines and he moved quickly. He told a very funny joke about Hulk Hogan’s sex tape that Foley said he would later steal for sure. Continue reading

HBO Boxing Severs Ties With Golden Boy

Via Bleacher Report

Via Bleacher Report

Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports broke the news that HBO Boxing has parted ways with Golden Boy Promotions. This comes on the heels of Floyd Mayweather’s decision to leave HBO for Showtime. Mayweather isn’t on the GBP roster, but he works very closely with them when it comes to fight promotion.

From HBO Sports President Ken Hershman:

In order to achieve our goal of the best fighters in the most compelling matchups, we’ve decided to focus our efforts and resources on those strategic relationships where we better share common goals and business philosophies.

It’s no coincidence that former Golden Boy legal counsel Stephen Espinoza now runs Showtime boxing.

One of the main questions unanswered is now that HBO isn’t working with GBP, will they only work with Bob Arum’s Top Rank, or will other shows that were predominantly on secondary networks like Epix and Wealth TV be bought up by HBO?