EYE ON THE RING

YOU SCORE THE FIGHTS

Men have been boxing in Olympic Games since as early as 688 BC according to Wikipedia. Centuries later—this summer—women's boxing will appear for the first time as an Olympic event in London.

The International Boxing Association has announced that the uniform will potentially be, wait for it, skirts. The AIBA says: "...skirts help differentiate" the women from the men. Fans can't tell the difference? The long hair and sports bras up top aren't enough?

Before deciding it's all too silly to pay attention to, take a moment and imagine fighters urged to wear something that marked them by race instead.

I love this kid. He's great in the ring, and he's great behind a microphone:

In case you missed it, here are two must-see videos from this past weekend in the boxing world, both in and out of the ring.

First, here is Adonis Stevenson stiffening Jesus Gonzales in what is sure to be on the shortlist for KO of the Year. The vicious left lands at the 1:24 mark in the video:

Second, there's the disgraceful brawl that occurred during the post-fight press conference for Klitschko-Chisora. David Haye, who was there to try and bait Vitali into a fight, ended up drawing Chisora off the podium at which point things went completely and utterly out of control:

Some have suggested this was a publicity stunt that got out of hand, although the altercation strikes me as being deadly serious. The call for Haye versus Chisora just got a lot stronger.

At today's weigh-in for tomorrow's heavyweight clash between Vitali Klitschko and Dereck Chisora, "Del Boy" surprised everyone by slapping his opponent square in the cheek with an open right palm during the staredown after the weigh in. For what it's worth, we suspect that with his slap, Chisora may have put himself in an even greater world of hurt tomorrow night in Germany.


See the fan cards: Vitali Klitschko vs Dereck Chisora

With the exception of the Big Fight not happening, 2012 is shaping up to be an excellent year. In the past two weeks, we've had Mayweather-Cotto, Pacquiao-Bradley, and the rescheduled Ortiz-Berto rematch all announced, and now, May 19, Lamont Peterson will be defending his two 140 lb. belts in a rematch against Amir Khan. The first fight was a barnburner that could've gone either way, and I can't see how the rematch will be any different (other than the absence of a potentially biased referee and a mystery man in a hat).

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Top Rank has selected Timothy Bradley as Manny Pacquiao's next opponent. The fight will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on June 9.

It was announced today that Floyd Mayweather has chosen Miguel Cotto as his next opponent for his May 5 date at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The fight apparently will take place at the full super welterweight limit of 154 lbs., and Cotto's WBA belt will be up for grabs.
Update: Golden Boy Promotions has confirmed Canelo Alvarez will appear in the co-feature, opponent TBA.

The highly anticipated rematch between Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto has been postponed indefinitely due to Berto suffering a ruptured left bicep while sparring. This is the second time Berto has injured this bicep, and he was rumored to be having surgery today to fix it. Ortiz has already thrown his hat in the ring for Floyd Mayweather's May 5 MGM Grand date. But does anyone want to see those two get it on again after that first debacle?

Bernard announced via his Twitter account today that the mandated rematch against Bad Chad Dawson would take place April 28 in Atlantic City. He also stated that the fight would be on regular HBO, and not HBO PPV like the first debacle, which is rumored to have sold only in the neighborhood of 40,000 buys (very likely making it the least successful HBO PPV telecast ever).

Antonio DeMarco vs. Michael Katsidis is being rumored as the co-feature.