XTRA Sports Radio

Rich's Musings

          Looking forward to Saturday night's Arturo Gatti-Jesse James Leija fight in Atlantic City. Should be terrific action. Both guys are serious warriors with plenty of skills. No ridiculous posturing, trash-talking, goofing off. Just fighting, with an emphasis on the word "FIGHT". While I favor Gatti, it would be a mistake to count out Leija, who continues to put up big performances, especially when he's not supposed to win. Great one on the undercard too. Kassim Ouma defending his 154-pound title against Kofi Jantuah. I'm picking an upset in this one, looking for Jantuah to be outboxed early, but come on late and beat Ouma. However, my radio show producer James "Flames" Wimberly, the "Doctor of Style", insists Ouma is the one who will get his hand raised.

         I don't think last week's Floyd Mayweather demolition of Henry Bruceles proved a thing. Floyd is a great fighter though. He just needs to fight major opponents, not journeymen. He for sure matches up with anyone in the 140-pound division, which is teeming with talent. Just look at all the names in that division: Kostya Tszyu, Rickey Hatton, Arturo Gatti, James Leija, Vivian Harris, Miguel Cotto and Mayweather.

        I was truly distressed to hear that negotiations collapsed for the proposed Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo fight. There were a myraid of reasons, and in the end, SHOWTIME executive Jay Larkin pulled the plug, feeling they'd run out of time to properly market and promote the bout. I think executives at Mandalay Bay probably were feeling the same. There's a lot of finger-pointing going on in this one. I suggest reading Steve Kim's account at www.Maxboxing.com for the real blow-by-blow as to what went down. It appears however, that Castillo will still fight on March 5, while Corrales just rusts away on the sidelines.........I think Shane Mosley has made a terrible mistake by changing trainers again. Mosley was a markedly improved fighter against Winky Wright with Joe Goossen in his corner. However, the Mosley camp decided it didn't want to come down off the hill at Big Bear, to Goossen's gym in the San Fernando Valley for the next training camp. Goossen was not about to move his whole operation up to Big Bear, so the Goossen-Mosley pairing is over for now. Shane should look at what happened to Michael Nunn, Lance Whitaker and Joel Casamyor after they left Goossen......Big fights abound for the next few months. We get one here in L.A. on February 19, when Bernard Hopkins defends his undisputed middleweight title against worthy challenger Howard Eastman of Britain. On March 19 inVegas, its Erik Morales against Manny Pacquaio, which is a can't miss classic. May 14 is the proposed date for Felix Trinidad-Winky Wright, which will be a most interesting battle between two real professionals.