The Philippines Rocky Fuentes of the famed ALA Gym of respected boxing patron Tony Aldeguer has  won the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation flyweight  title with a majority decision over defending champion  Masafumi Okubo of Japan  at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

Japanese judge Kazunobu Asoj scored the fight 116-114 for Fuentes, Filipino judge Ben Necessario had the No.1 rated challenger the winner 115-113 while Australian judge Brad Vocale scored it even at 114-114.

With the win Fuentes improves to 25-6-2 with 15 knockouts while Okubo drops to 16-3-1 with 5 knockouts.

The 29 year old Okuba had successfully defended his title three times after winning the crown by a twelve round unanimous decision over Korea’s Jin Ki Jung on April 14, 2008.

In his last defense on May 2, 2009 Okubu scored a 7^th round TKO over Yuchi Eausampan  after earlier retaining his crown with a unanimous decision over Filipino Jojo Bardon. He kept the title with a 3^rd round technical decision in a fight against Yssuto Aritomi  on August 16, 2008.

The 24 year old solidly built Fuentes was coming off a 3^rd round TKO over Pit Anacaua last January 17 after earlier scoring a 2^nd round knockout over Allan Ranada on June 27, 2009

“Fighter of the Decade” and pound-for-pound superstar Manny Pacquiao is so eager to get on with his WBC title defense against former champion Joshua Clottey at the fabulous Dallas Cowboys $1.2 billion state-of-the-art stadium that adviser Michael Koncz says “too bad the fight is not tomorrow.”

Pacquiao and some 40,000 fight fans who are expected to kick-start Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ stadium into the mainstream of big-time boxing and what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum believes will become the “Mecca of boxing in this centur will have to wait until Sunday, Manila Time,  to get “The Event” underway.

Koncz who appeared to feel a little more relaxed after attending to the needs of Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee and the room assignments of an entourage of some 160 people who were ferried aboard a specially chartered “Air Pacquiao” jet from Los Angeles to Dallas told us that “everything is going fabulous. Manny had a media workout where there was an overwhelming turnout.”

He said Pacquiao “is in fine shape and Freddie (Roach) had to pull him back in training but he went jogging and is looking really good.” Koncz said Pacquiao is “enjoying himself in Texas and the people are very hospitable.

However, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has shown a little concern over whether Clottey, the big, strong challenger from Ghana will be as hospitable in the ring as he is friendly and respectful outside.

Although he is confident they have studied Clottey and know how to capitalize on his flaws Roach is concerned about the Ghana fighter’s penchant to use his head when he fights on the inside.

Roach noted that “sometimes he (Clottey) uses his head and if you fall into the pocket with him, his best punch is an uppercut and his second best punch is a head-butt.”

To Roach there’s an obvious answer.”We are going to fight him at a distance and not stand in front of him” he says,  pointing out that “if you stand in front of him you’re an idiot. We are not going to do that. He’s not going to be able to find us.”

Conditioning guru Alex Ariza said earlier that Pacquiao’s bothersome left leg had healed completely and there was no cause for concern which means that the Pacquiao will use his incredible speed, quick in and out and lateral movements to the full and pepper Clottey with punches from all angles.

The Pacquiao-Clottey fight card will be carried on a “live” basis on a number of pay-per-view outlets and on television by Solar Sports including the “Mecca of Philippine sports and entertainment – the Araneta Coliseum where huge, four-sided screens provide the ambiance of almost being at ringside in Dallas.

The fights will also be carried in all Robinson, SM and Rockwell Cinemas and numerous other venues, restaurants, bars and clubs around the country. Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim will also provide “live” telecasts in venues in each of the congressional districts in Manila, free to the public.

Former Philippine super flyweight champion and Philippine Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion Eric “The Maverick” Barcelona has lost in a ten round bout against undefeated former Japanese bantamweight champion Kohei Oba in a fight card at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya.

A veteran for his 28 years of age, southpaw Barcelona fell to 51-17-4 with 19 knockouts while the undefeated 25 year old  Oba who is ranked No. 3 by the WBC  improved to 27-0-1 with 11 knockouts.

All three judges scored the fight for Oba who won by margins of 97-93, 97-94 and 97-95.

Oba had previously won the Japanese bantamweight title with a unanimous ten round decision over Masayuki Mitani on February 24, 2008 and has made five successful title defenses, Oba was making his first ring appearance after relinquishing his title at the end of last year.

A report from Japan said that while Oba used his quickness to launch a solid body attack against Barcelona and caught the Filipino southpaw on occasions with his right uppercut he didn’t hurt Barcelona who is known to be a tough fighter who hasn’t lost a single bout by knockout.

Barcelona has faced some of the toughest fighters in the division including South Africa’s Simpiwe Vetyeka and countrymen Diosdadi Gabi who has returned to train at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym and is looking to make a comeback and Z “The Dream” G ores whose career was tragically ended following brain surgery last November after a smashing win over Luis Melendez of C olombia.

Barcelona was coming off a 7^th round TKO win over Greg Mangan last February 2.

Nicknamed “Tensai” or “Genius” by the Japanese boxing media, Oba is regarded as one of Japan’s top prospects . One report said that newly-crowned OPBF bantamweight champion and former world flyweight champion Malcolm Tunacao was present during Oba’s post-fight interview and rematch between the two was announced.

Tunacao is the only fighter Oba failed to beat when he drew with the Filipino in his first reign as OPBF champion.

Japanese judge Kazunobu Asoj scored the fight 116-114 for Fuentes, Ben Necessario had the Filipino the winner 115-113 while Australian judge Brad Vocale scored it even at 114-114.

With the win Fuentes improves to 25-6-2 with 15 knockouts while Okubo drops to 16-3-1 with 5 knockouts.

Filipino flyweight Rey Migreno may earn a shot at WBA champion Daiki Kameda (16-2, 11 KO’s) if he beats Thailand’s former world champion Denkaosan Kaovichit in Uttaradit, Thailand on March 26.

Denkaosan on the other hand hopes to win over Migreno and earn another crack at Kameda whom he defeated to win the title in a majority decision on October 6, 2009 before losing the title in a twelve round unanimous decision to Kameda in Kobe, Japan in a rematch last February 7.

Thai media quoted Denkaosan’s promoter Niwat Laosuwannawat as saying Denkaosan is still rated No. 2 and can exercise his right for a third fight which Niwat hopes to stage in Thailand at the end of the year.

However, everything depends on the outcome of the fight against Pan Asian Boxing Association champion Migreno, the 23 year old Filipino who won the title with a 3^rd round knockout over Ponluang Sor Tanapinyo in Sara Buri on December 31, 2009.

Niwat was quoted as saying “Although this is a PABA match, we are planning to propose to the WBA that they allow the winner to challenge Daiki Kameda in accordance with our rights.”

The Thai promoter added “Therefore, if Denkaosan is able to win this bout, he will gain an opportunity to reclaim his world title, but should he fail Migreno will instead get the world title chance.”

Denkaosan said he did not have much time for training but would not underestimate the Filipino.

He also said he did not accept his earlier defeat to Kameda and would like to have another rematch, which would become the third fight for him and the Japanese.

Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao looked flawless in his final workout at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles on Monday before taking the flight to Dallas, Texas aboard a specially chartered plane along with his charming wife Jinkee and a planeload of 160 people.

Pacquiao and his entourage arrived in Dallas late at night with the passengers thrilled at the special touch where Pacquiao’s photo and logo were on the seats as well as the cups in flight. The plane was chartered by Pacquiao.

Pacquiao and Jinkee checked in at his spacious suite at the Gaylord Hotel and according to ABS-CBN’s Dyan Castillejo who was with the team said Pacquiao was “really excited.”

She quoted trainer Freddie Roach as saying that after four rounds of sparring with Raymund Beltran and some furious flurries on the punch mitts before leaving for Dallas, that Pacquiao was “the best I’ve ever seen him.”

Castillejo reported that Pacquiao was “aggressive and sensational on the punch-mitts” and by all accounts looked ripped and ready for the performance of his life against the backdrop of the fantastic, state-of-the-art  $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium of owner Jerry Jones who is determined to make it the “Mecca of Boxing” in this decade.

Roach indicated he and conditioning expert Alex Ariza had to on occasions hold Pacquiao back because he “didn’t want to burn him out.” Roach said that he “normally averages 150 rounds of sparring but will average around 100 rounds for this fight.”

The celebrated trainer revealed that the more he watched Ghana’s former world champion Joshua Clottey as well as Pacquiao “the more confident I get that Manny will be the first person to knock Clottey out. I like Clottey, he is a nice kid and I don’t want to talk trash about him,  but its just my feeling and I am very confident in my fighter.”

Roach said Pacquiao has studied the game-plan and “he knows how to fight this guy . He’s watched the tapes now, not just 30 seconds when he gets bored and walks away. He  sees the effect.”

Clottey who arrived ahead of Pacquiao looked comfortable as he checked out the ring at the Gaylord Hotel where a fight card in which Filipino boxers Richie Mepranum and Dennis Laurente will see action on the eve of “The Event” headlined by Pacquiao vs Clottey where two more Filipinos - Eden Sonsona and Michael Farenas will be on the undercard.

Clottey didn’t seem bothered by Roach’s prediction of a knockout win by Pacquiao, believing in his own ability to take a punch. Clottey remarked “I have a good chin and we African fighters take a lot of punches but I have a good chin. I never expect myself to get in the ring to get knocked out. I never expect that. No.”

Clearly the big, tough and strong Clottey’s fight plan is to use his size to overcome the smaller Pacquiao who may well enter the ring on fight night giving away at least ten pounds in weight to the challenger who some expect to come in around 160 pounds although his trainer Lenny De Jesus told us he wants to send Clottey into the ring at around 155 pounds.

However, Clottey seems to have other plans and while predicting a “tough fight for both of us” he added “I will be stronger than him because after the weigh-in I am going to eat and I am going to blow up.”

Clottey said he hasn’t felt better and “this is the best I felt. It started when I went to Africa where I was training on the beach. I came to America, went to Florida and we went to the beach all the time. So I was training a lot.”

 Clottey’s manager Vinny Scolpino and trainer de Jesus who worked in Pacquiao’s corner for six fights and ended his ties when Shelly Finkel took over as Pacquiao’s promoter,  both realize that Clottey probably lost a fight he should have won against Miguel Cotto because he didn’t throw too many punches in the last two rounds which is something they say they have corrected.

Scolpino noted that tings changed during training camp and Clottey “is throwing more punches and combinations and knows he has to let his hands loose in there” even as he indicated they were happy seeing the change in his work on the mitts.

Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told ABS-CBN  in an interview that  they are not underestimating Clottey and that “Manny is not taking it  lightly.” Koncz said all these years they had gone through the same routine of press conferences, interviews and media workouts but this time he hadn’t “seen him (Pacquiao) so excited  when we were Dallas at the stadium. At least five times a week he’s telling me about the stadium so he’s very excited about that. He knows this is the first boxing match there and its important to make a big showing.”

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who was on hand in Dallas to welcome Pacquiao conceded that while Pacquiao is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world he will be facing “what may be his toughest, toughest test when he takes on Clottey who is a really rugged, tough welterweight that most fighters are afraid to fight. Clottey comes to fight.”

Jerry Jones says he’s a true contender

By BARRY HORN / The Dallas Morning News

It started with a chance question back in September. Jerry Jones had gassed up his private jet and flown to New York to appear on Joe Buck’s talk show on HBO. The topic: owning a professional sports franchise in a struggling economy.Back in the green room later while the likes of Joe Namath and Dan Marino and Curt Schilling were chatting with Buck on camera, Jones and Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, made small talk. Then Greenburg, who worked with Jones through two Cowboys appearances on the training camp Hard Knocks series, popped a big question.

“Would the Cowboys Stadium landlord be interested in possibly hosting a fight?” asked Greenburg, whose network is a heavyweight in the boxing world.

It would not be a match between up-and-comers or faded stars like Evander Holyfield, who three years earlier had attracted 9,000 paying customers to American Airlines Center. It would be a bona fide bout between two of the sport’s brightest lights – Manny Pacquiao, considered by most experts to be the best fighter in the world, and Floyd Mayweather, a legitimate, undefeated contender for the title.

The game begins

Jones, whose boxing background was limited to promoting a pre-Cowboys 1984 cruiserweight fight back home in Little Rock that drew an announced crowd of 2,500 lost souls, fought to contain his enthusiasm. Some of the very first architectural renderings for his Cowboys Stadium included a boxing blueprint that featured the ring set smack dab on the star at the 50-yard line.

Of course, there were a couple of roadblocks. Pacquiao still had to win a November fight, and lots of other places, including Los Angeles’ Staples Center, New Orleans’ Superdome, New York’s Madison Square Garden and Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Hotel, were interested in what would be boxing’s biggest fight of 2010.

Jones could do nothing to help Pacquiao’s ring fortunes against Miguel Angel Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but while that was going on, he managed to piece together a bid for Pacquiao-Mayweather. He began to make inquiries, using contacts made with the Cowboys and the NFL. He came up with a dollar figure he was certain would beat the other contenders. It didn’t hurt, Jones said, to have inside information detailing potential rival bids.

And so, soon after Pacquiao disposed of Cotto on Nov. 14, Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, opened an e-mail that contained Jones’ bid for a potential March 13 Pacquiao-Mayweather bout.

“Jerry said he was in for $25 million,” Arum recalled as he lovingly repeated the dollar figure over the telephone. “And he said he could go higher if need be.”

Consider that the largest site fee to date is believed to be the $18 million that brought Oscar De La Hoya-Mayweather to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2007.

“That told me right there that Jerry was ready to compete,” Arum said. “Dallas, Texas, was suddenly a heavyweight contender in the world of boxing.”

Jones said he never hesitated to offer $25 million.

Jones believed the mega-fight could ultimately attract the same kind of 100,000-plus crowd to his stadium that the NBA All-Star Game brought last month.

“I don’t want this to sound wrong, but we write checks like that around here all the time,” Jones said while sipping iced tea in his Valley Ranch office last week.

The offer, however, was not enough to entice Mayweather. His handlers preferred Las Vegas, where fight plans died when he insisted he would fight Pacquiao only if there were Olympic-style drug testing, an unusual condition. A retired federal judge tried to mediate a solution.

In the end, Mayweather, who has won his last five fights in Las Vegas, decided he would be better off fighting past-his-prime 38-year-old Shane Mosley at the friendly confines of the MGM on May 1.

Undaunted and still intrigued with the publicity a major fight could bring his stadium, Jones lowered his sights. Arum came up with the credible if unspectacular Joshua Clottey of Ghana to challenge Pacquiao of the Philippines. Jones, who calls Pacquiao “a sexy draw by himself,” lowered his site fee guarantee to $7 million.

It’s about the stadium

HBO hung in and will offer the fight Saturday on pay-per-view in the United States. The rest of the world will watch on free television.

“I am certainly a fan of boxing,” Jones said. “But that is not what this fight is about. This is a very logical way to introduce our stadium to the world and lift its aura.”

Jones is serious about aura and dollars. He needs big events for his big stadium. He is eager, he reiterated several times in an hour-long conversation, to challenge Las Vegas for fights.

The desert town, backed by high-roller dollars, has long established itself as the big-fight boxing capital of the world. California and Texas may put on more boxing shows every year than Nevada, but no one matches Las Vegas for high-dollar bouts.

Casinos use fights to attract gamblers. Most of the expensive ringside seats are handed to wealthy customers, who in turn pay for the privilege at craps tables or poker rooms or by busting at blackjack. It is a tried-and-true formula that has worked for decades.

Atlantic City, using the same schematic, tried and failed to challenge Las Vegas. Madison Square Garden, saddled with an oppressive New York tax structure, has been unable to compete. Stadiums like the Superdome and Alamodome have tried big fights, but in the end, promoters found New Orleans and San Antonio, with relatively small populations, unable to regularly support boxing.

Eight of the 10 mega-fights that have drawn the highest pay-per-view audiences have taken place in Las Vegas. A dozen of the top 15 were fought in Las Vegas.

“I can compete with Las Vegas,” Jones said. “I can hold my head up high, keep my credibility and say that.

“I can and I will.”

If Richard Sturm considers Jones a worthy competitor, he isn’t saying. Sturm is the executive who books fights for the MGM Grand hotel, where the arena comfortably seats 17,000 and has become the top fight site in Las Vegas. Sturm’s public relations representative, who asked if his boss might see sample questions, was unable to get him to return phone calls.

Arum, who lives and runs his Top Rank boxing promotions company in Las Vegas, assured that his hometown has taken notice of Jones and takes him and his stadium seriously.

“Not only can Cowboys Stadium compete, it can beat Vegas,” Arum said.

Home-field advantage

Jones believes his stadium’s seating capacity, its ambiance and its heavyweight video screen combined with North Texas’ growing population – which includes a large Hispanic demographic that embraces boxing – are his aces in the hole.

HBO’s Greenburg calls Cowboys Stadium “a potential Woodstock for sports,” equating big fights with major events like NCAA Final Fours and NBA All-Star Games.

“Put on a quality event and people will come,” he said.

Arum and Jones preach that the sheer number of seats at Cowboys Stadium offsets the tonier price of seats in Las Vegas.

“It’s simple math,” Arum said. “And watching replays on the big screen during the fight is something that has to be mind-boggling. … Anybody misses anything, and believe me that happens even at ringside, and there it will be replayed bigger than life.”

For Pacquiao-Clottey and its heavily Hispanic undercard, Cowboys Stadium has been configured for 45,000 seats. More than 35,000 tickets have been sold. That’s a big number for boxing in Texas, where day-of-the-event ticket sales traditionally are huge.

Mega-fights, matches between two high-powered boxers, don’t come along every year. But competitive fights that include at least one big-name boxer are relatively plentiful. Jones said he thinks he can host “three to five fights” a year.

Arum said talks already are under way for a bye-week fight at Cowboys Stadium during the football season.

Arum and Jones agree that they will both make money on the first fight card at Cowboys Stadium.

“Even if we didn’t make a dime,” Jones said, “in the context of exposure worldwide for our stadium and opening it up to the small guy who can’t buy Cowboys tickets, this will be a successful promotion.”

Workouts open to the public

Boxers Manny Pacquaio, Joshua Clottey and Humberto Soto will hold workouts free to the public this week in advance of Saturday’s card at Cowboys Stadium.

The workouts will take place at the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Grapevine. On Monday, Clottey will work out at 1:30 and Soto at 2:30 p.m. Pacquiao will work out at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Pacquaio and Clottey meet for the world welterweight championship in Saturday’s main event. Soto meets David Diaz for the WBC lightweight championship in an undercard bout.

Female boxer, flyweight Keisher “Fire” Mcleod-Wells will return to the ring on March 31^st at BB King Blues Club and Grill in Times Square, New York City.

The talented 32 year old McLeod-Wells will be featured in a card that will be promoted by Dibella Entertainment titled “ Broadway Boxing.” It will feature promising New York fighters.

Optimum Sports Agency’s Claire Young informed us that this will be Mcleod-Wells’s first bout since her controversial majority decision loss to the undefeated Laura Ledezma  in her backyard of Panama.

Manager Damon de Berry says “It has been a frustrating time for Fire as I have had difficulties getting bouts and finding suitable opponents willing to face her.” The highly decorated amateur boxer has not fought now for 6 months and is looking forward to getting back into the ring on March 31^st.

Since her last bout there has been a change in her team also, with training duties now resting with trainer Marcos Suarez. “Marcos has really helped, I feel as if I am improving all the time” says Fire.

However, no opponent has been named as yet.

For years, Manny Pacquiao has possessed the ability to paralyze a nation, to freeze 96 million Filipino citizens and hypnotize them with every punch. Yet, his influence grows. He forced Oscar de la Hoya to quit. He destroyed Ricky Hatton in two short rounds. He systematically dismantled Miguel Cotto. On Saturday, the fighter regarded as the best pound-for-pound in the world returns to the ring against Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium to defend the WBO world welterweight title. The Philippine Islands make up only a portion of the Pacquiao universe. “I am expecting a lot of Mexican fans to be at the fight,” Pacquiao said during a teleconference. Pacquiao, 31, reigns as the boxer of this generation, dabbles as a singer, aspires to be a political candidate and continues to grow in popularity, whether with Mexican fight fans or the late-night television crowd. Boxing society has evolved to a point where race doesn’t matter as much as the individual fighter’s ability to induce a thumping heartbeat and uncontrollable screams pleading for a knockout. “PacMan” provides just this with fists that fly like uninhibited falcons, feet that glide like a marble on ice and a willingness to fight as if he wore an invulnerability cape. Fort Worth boxing trainer Vincent Reyes serves as an integral part of both the Mexican community and the local boxing scene. “He’s beat the top Mexican fighters and the Mexican fans like a crowd pleaser,” Reyes said. “He’s certainly a crowd pleaser. He’s not boring. The Mexican fans want action and that’s what he gives.” George Rincon holds a Texas State Golden Gloves championship and at 18 sits fully entrenched in pop culture awareness. The Hispanic fighter and his father both appreciate the pure fighting skills Pacquiao exhibits and consider him the fighter of this generation. In fact, the boxing community thought it laughable that Tiger Woods, a golfer, was named the “athlete” of the decade. The notion that someone in a non-contact sport, who demands complete quiet, doesn’t worry about opposition hindering his efforts and walks during his competition is simply ridiculous. “I believe in boxing you have to be tough,” Rincon said. “When you say you are a boxer, that’s saying a lot. When you say you are a boxer, you are a true athlete.” Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum said having Hispanic fighters on Saturday’s undercard helps sell the bout locally. However, he suggested the Mexican population has embraced Pacquiao because of his accomplishments. Pacquiao became the first fighter in history to win seven world titles in seven weight classes. “Our goal when we started with Manny was to break him out from the Filipino base that he had,” Arum said. “We were able to pick up millions of Hispanic fans and we have broken him into the general conscience of the people around the world. “He is truly a crossover star. How many fighters of our time go on Jimmy Kimmel Live and go on Good Morning America and have a big article coming out in Time magazine? I think that is saying something.” Something else to be said is that Pacquiao plans to run for Congress in the Philippines with campaigning beginning on March 26. If he wins, it certainly will force him to split time between political service and jumping rope, working the speed bag and knocking people out. “After the fight I will go back to the Philippines and start campaigning,” Pacquiao said. “It is going to be busy. I want to pass some bills that will be good for the livelihood of the people there and education for the children.”