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Floyd Mayweather Jr. — who has won six professional world boxing championships in five different weight classes — has taken home the ESPY for “Best Fighter” in 2008, toppling UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and others for the honor, according to ESPN.com.
Boxers Joe Calzaghe, Holly Holm and Kelly Pavlik were also up for nomination.
Mayweather (39-0) recently retired at age 30 after defeating several of the top competitors alive in the sport today, including Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Zab Judah, Jose Luis Castillo (twice) and others. He has teased with a possible move to mixed martial arts several times within the past 12 months.
However, it’s highly unlikely that he makes the jump anytime soon.
The ESPY, which stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly,” is ESPN’s annual awards show that recognizes the best in sports. As one person recently put it, the ESPYs are to sports just like the Grammy Awards are for music or the Academy Awards are for movies.
St. Pierre has won nine of his last 10 fights against several of the best in the business such as Matt Hughes (twice), Matt Serra, Sean Sherk, Josh Koscheck, BJ Penn and others. He is just the third mixed martial artist to earn a nomination — Randy Couture and Rampage Jackson were considered last year, however, both fell short.
Top middleweight contender Yushin Okami has suffered another hand injury — this time in training — and will more than likely be unable to challenge 185-pound champion Anderson Silva anytime soon, according to MMARated.com.
“Thunder” initially broke his hand against Evan Tanner at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” — a fight the Japanese import won via crushing knockout. There’s currently no word on whether or not this is a fresh break or if he re-aggravated the existing damage.
The tentative plan was to pit Okami against Silva as soon as UFC 88: “Breakthrough” on September 6 if the “Spider” escaped his non-title light heavyweight fight tonight with James Irvin injury-free. Patrick Cote would then take on the winner of that match in late 2008.
Now it seems that the “Predator” may have leapfrogged Okami — the last man to deal Silva a loss (albeit disqualification — for a chance to next take on the feared Brazilian striker.
Good luck, Patrick.
It is Friday at my first UFC and it is weigh-in day.
Like a moron, I forgot to shut off my phone and it was ringing at 6:30 a.m. Las Vegas time. If you have ever had to cut weight then you know that this is the one day that you want to sleep in. It isn’t because of how you feel … it is because the temptations are there when you are awake.
I tried to go back to sleep but it didn’t work. So I got up and had a tiny protein drink just to get that acid feeling out.
At 8:45 a.m. I went down and picked up my fight shorts from the front desk that were dropped off by my marketing manager. Then it was off to meet with Burt for the pre weigh-ins at 9 a.m. I tipped the scale at 177 pounds this morning, which wasn’t too bad. Kevin [Burns] was actually the exact same weight and Burt started giving us crap about working out together.
This is the time that they also check your shorts and sponsors to make sure that they are okay. Then it was back to Kevin’s room to hang out before it was time to cut weight. The reason that we went there was the fact that he doesn’t have any food in his room and I do.
Plus, it is easier to suffer together rather than alone.
Props: Boston Herald
Quoteworthy:
“My thoughts on Fedor are what they’ve always been: he hasn’t fought anybody since 2005. He hasn’t proven himself and he hasn’t fought the best. It’s 2008, and he hasn’t fought anybody good since 2005. I don’t consider him one of the best heavyweights in the world…. Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He might end up going down in history as the best fighter ever.”
Dana White has put his faith in UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva to anchor UFC Fight Night 14 tomorrow night on Spike TV. Meanwhile, Affliction MMA has Fedor Emelianenko headlining its first-ever pay-per-view (PPV) event just up the dial. Will the fighters step up to the challenge or will one (or both) disappoint their respective employers? We’ll finally find out in less than 24 hours. It’s almost time to let it all play out LIVE … and it can’t come soon enough.
“Our plan is to do three events, and if we’re successful with those, then we’ll continue and go from there. I’m in business to make money, not lose money. We’ll see how it goes.”
– Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio tells the Chicago Sun-Times that his upstart promotion could call it quit after three shows if the profits aren’t living up to expectations. It took the UFC — the top organization in the business — several years to begin making money. In addition, other promotions such as Elite XC and the IFL, which have been around much longer than Affliction, have yet to turn profits. There is literally a lot riding on the “Banned” debut tomorrow and the next to shows if Atencio sticks to his guns.
Aleksander Emelianenko was not cleared by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) earlier today on the eve of his scheduled fight with Paul Buentello because he did not meet the mandatory medical licensing requirements.
Affliction MMA, which will stage its first-ever event dubbed “Banned” tomorrow at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., was left with the difficult task of finding a suitable opponent to replace the Russian on super short notice.
And MMAmania.com has learned that early UFC veteran and mixed martial arts journeyman Gary ‘Big Daddy’ Goodridge has answered the call.
Goodridge — who was also an arm wrestling world champion in a prior life — has dropped his last two bouts. In fact, he has lost three of his last five contests. However, he does have experience and some skills to make this fight interesting.
Let’s just hope the 42-year-old has been training and isn’t just being peeled off his couch.
UPDATE: The fight is now OFFICIAL … Affliction confirmed the news in a recent press release.
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