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BEVERLY HILLS >> Manny Pacquiao figures to go down as an all-time great prize-fighter, so it’s always a big deal when there is a news conference for one of his upcoming bouts. It was no different Thursday when Pacquiao and welterweight champion Jessie Vargas got together at the Beverly Hills Hotel to promote their Nov. 5 title fight at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. However, the most intriguing aspect that came out of the proceedings was not what the fighters think of one another. ...

LAS VEGAS — Bob Arum expected Terence Crawford to beat Viktor Postol on Saturday night. When it happened, he was still speechless. “I’m not talking to you guys anymore,” Arum told writers after Crawford took Postol’s WBO light-welterweight championship and kept his own WBA version. “From now on I’m Al Haymon. I’m putting everything on Twitter.” Arum isn’t really Al Haymon, one of his three main promotional rivals in the fight game and a confirmed Invisible Man. And “anymore” probably doesn’t mea...

[email protected] CARSON >> Muhammad Ali would have stood and applauded like everyone else at StubHub Center on Saturday night, even though it was nothing he would recognize. Stick and move? No, stick and stick and stick again. Float like a 2-by-4, sting like a crowbar. The WBC super-featherweight championship fight had everything. Everything but resolution. Orlando Salido and Francisco Vargas had punched themselves beyond exhaustion, pushed everyone in the joint to heaven. But the...

[email protected] CARSON >> Muhammad Ali would have stood and applauded like everyone else at StubHub Center on Saturday night, even though it was nothing he would recognize. Stick and move? No, stick and stick and stick again. Float like a 2-by-4, sting like a crowbar. The WBC super-featherweight championship fight had everything. Everything but resolution. Orlando Salido and Francisco Vargas had punched themselves beyond exhaustion, pushed everyone in the joint to heaven. But the...

CARSON >> His 36 minutes of fame await him Saturday night, in the StubHub Center stadium that has become boxing’s leading Punch Bowl. Orlando Salido has fought professionally for 20 years. He has lived just outside the frame, spotted only by the boxing freaks who are drawn to fists that work nonstop. Here, he becomes a main-event, HBO fighter. Everybody else on the card is a prelude to Salido and Francisco Vargas, who is risking his 130-pound WBC title. The only thing that can submerge thi...

The first thought after Manny Pacquiao’s performance this past Saturday was he shouldn’t retire. Following his 12-round unanimous decision over Timothy Bradley in their rubber match at MGM Grand in Las Vegas that included two knockdowns of Bradley — one legitimate, one not so much — Pacquiao said he was indeed hanging up his gloves. Pacquiao said, “I committed to my family” when one reporter pushed him on the subject afterward. Another asked him straight out if his family wants him to retire mor...

Manny Mota has been in uniform and on the field during the Dodgers’ series against the Arizona Diamondbacks this week. While that might not seem like a big deal — Mota has wo the Dodgers’ uniform as a player or coach for 48 seasons — it’s a noteworthy change. The Dodgers quietly moved Mota off their major league coaching staff in 2013, when he joined the club’s Spanish-language radio team on a more regular basis. Mota is still listed as a broadcaster in the club’s media guide and contributes reg...

LAS VEGAS - Manny Pacquiao proclaimed at the outset of the promotion for his third bout with Timothy Bradley that it would be the final fight of his fine career. By the time the fight arrived, he indicated he wasn’t so sure. What he didn’t want to do was retire, then come back, like so many fighters have done. Chances are, to retire or not retire would depend on how he looked Saturday against Bradley, who was desperate for a true victory over Pacquiao after being gifted one by the judges in thei...

The boxing community wasn’t happy with Manny Pacquiao’s welterweight title fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May. Pacquiao entered with an old rotator cuff injury that got worse during the fight, and he lost a lopsided decision on the scorecards. He’s all better now. He proved it during a recent media workout at Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. “We did two rounds of mitts and all he did in those two rounds of mitts is just blast me with his right hook,” trainer Freddie Roach said. “I mean, over a...

HOLLYWOOD — Manny Pacquiao sat in his dressing room at Wild Card Gym, where he’s trained by Freddie Roach. He was reminded Roach once helped him get out of a contract with his former promoter, Murad Muhammad, in 2005 after a heated dispute. “That’s what I like about Freddie, he defends his fighter in situations like that,” said Pacquiao, who Saturday will tangle with Timothy Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) a third time in the welterweight main event at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on HBO pay-per-view). This...

Will he or won’t he? That was the tone of a conference call hosted by Manny Pacquiao, his promoter Bob Arum and his trainer Freddie Roach on Friday moing. Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) on April 9 will take on Timothy Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) a third time at MGM Grand in Las Vegas (on HBO pay-per-view). Pacquiao, 37, told Arum at the outset of this promotion he will retire after this fight. Arum has said all along he won’t advertise the fight that way because during his 50 years of promoting, he’s se...

INDIO — Timothy Bradley paused for a second, then gave the answer that was not so surprising. It doesn’t matter that he has won titles in two weight classes, that he is 11-1 in world-title fights, that he has just one loss in 35 professional fights and could one day be considered for the Inteational Boxing Hall of Fame. None of that will mean as much if he doesn’t get a consensus victory over Manny Pacquiao when they tangle a third time April 9 in the welterweight main event at MGM Grand in Las ...

Promoters aren’t happy unless they’re exaggerating. But Feando Beltran wasn’t far off when he said this week that Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido are “two of the best warriors that we have from Mexico.” The are the epitome of a Mexican fighter, and area fans got some good news this week when it was announced they will tangle June 4 at StubHub Center for Vargas’ super featherweight world title (on HBO). StubHub has hosted some terrific, hard-hitting slugfests over the years. This figures to b...

Promoters aren’t happy unless they’re exaggerating. But Feando Beltran wasn’t far off when he said this week that Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido are “two of the best warriors that we have from Mexico.” The are the epitome of a Mexican fighter, and area fans got some good news this week when it was announced they will tangle June 4 at StubHub Center for Vargas’ super featherweight world title (on HBO). StubHub has hosted some terrific, hard-hitting slugfests over the years. This figures to b...