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PROMO

http://www.boxingscene.com/cano-officially-rejects-joan-guzman-who-eyes-khabib--55792

Quillin psyched for Oct. 20 at Barclays
By Michael Woods | ESPNNewYork.com Aug 21 [1]

REPORT

Another big step for Danny Garcia
Junior welterweight titlist caps possible 2012 fighter of the year campaign
By Dan Rafael | ESPN.com Updated: October 22, 2012, 3:34 PM ET[2]
Rafael's remarks: Most of the drama surrounding this rematch had nothing to do with the actual fight. 
It was mainly focused on Morales' two failed U.S. Anti-Doping Agency drug tests, which showed that 
he had traces of the banned weight loss aid clenbuterol in his system. Garcia asked for the random 
testing leading up to the fight, and when Morales' tests came back positive, he claimed he had eaten 
tainted beef at his Mexican training camp. Morales passed a third drug test after he arrived in New 
York, but the fight was still in limbo for a couple of days. Eventually, it went on with the blessing 
of the New York State Athletic Commission and Garcia, who decided the night before not to fight but 
woke up Saturday and decided to go through with it after a talk with his mother (not to mention 
considering the prospect of losing out on a career-high $1 million payday).

In March in Houston, Garcia scored a clean decision win against Morales, dropping him in the 11th 
round to win a vacant title. It had become vacant because Morales failed to make the 140-pound limit 
and was stripped, leaving it available for only Garcia to win. So when Garcia was deciding whether to 
go through with the second fight, it had to have crossed his mind that he would be facing a guy whom 
he had already beaten quite convincingly. The rematch was set because Morales had a rematch clause -- 
one that allowed Garcia an interim bout, which he took in July and knocked out Amir Khan in the 
fourth round of an upset to unify belts.

The question for many going into the rematch with Morales was not whether Garcia would win, but 
instead would he be able to beat Morales, the 36-year-old faded legend and former four-division 
titleholder, even more decisively the second time around? You bet.
Garcia, 24, of Philadelphia, blitzed Morales in maybe the best performance of his career on the card 
that opened the new $1 billion Barclays Center for boxing and headlined a Showtime quadrupleheader 
that returned world title boxing to Brooklyn for the first time in 81 years. Garcia overpowered the 
slower Morales. He won the first two rounds with ease and then badly hurt Morales in the third round, 
first with a right hand that Morales acknowledged with a nod and then with another brutal right hand 
to the chin at the end of the round. It shook Morales so badly that he almost went down, and then he 
walked to the wrong corner after the round ended.

Then came the crusher in the fourth round -- a picture-perfect, full-force left hook that Joe Frazier, 
the ultimate Philly fighter, would have been proud of. It landed so cleanly that Morales nearly spun 
all the way around before dropping like a rock. He came to rest with his body hanging over the bottom 
ring rope, half in the ring and half on the apron. Referee Benji Esteves didn't bother to count and 
called it off at 1 minute, 23 seconds. Garcia may never throw a better punch for the rest of his 
career. Morales was down for a couple of minutes. His obvious Hall of Fame career is clearly finished 
in terms of major fights, and Morales seemed to realize that. He said he planned to take a farewell 
fight in his hometown of Tijuana, Mexico, where he will probably be matched with a tomato can. But 
after so many years in the spotlight and so many major fights -- including his memorable trilogies 
with Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao -- it's time for him to exit the stage and await his 
Hall of Fame call.

Garcia, meanwhile, put the finishing touches on a campaign that puts him in the running for a fighter 
of the year award. In 2012, he has the two wins against Morales (including a knockout of the year 
candidate) and the upset knockout of Khan. Helluva year for a top young fighter who continues to 
improve and who probably isn't yet in his prime.

Paulie Malignaggi W12 Pablo Cesar Cano Retains a welterweight title
Scores: 114-113 (twice) Malignaggi, 118-109 Cano
Records: Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KOs); Cano (25-2-1, 19 KOs)
After Amir Khan stopped Malignaggi in the 11th round in their May 2011 junior welterweight title bout, 
many left Malignaggi's career for dead. He was in a 2-3 rut and moving up in weight to tangle with 
bigger fighters. But Malignaggi, who never gave up on himself, won three fights in a row to earn a 
shot at welterweight titlist Vyacheslav Senchenko of Ukraine. In April, Malignaggi went to Ukraine as 
the mandatory challenger -- and as a considerable underdog -- and pulled the upset by stopping 
Senchenko on cuts in the ninth round. That set the stage for his first title defense in his hometown 
of Brooklyn on the inaugural card at the new Barclays Center.

Malignaggi, 31, hadn't fought in Brooklyn since his 2001 pro debut. He was matched with Cano, 23, a 
rugged fighter from Mexico with an ultra-aggressive style. Cano turned in a spirited effort in a 10th
round TKO loss to Erik Morales in a 2011 vacant junior welterweight title bout and claimed an interim 
belt in July. But the weight was a problem, so Cano moved up to 147 pounds to challenge Malignaggi. 
But Cano then failed to make the welterweight limit, coming in at 147.8, meaning he couldn't win the 
title. He also had to pay Malignaggi $50,000 out of his $150,000 purse as further punishment. But 
because of the WBA's bizarre rule, Malignaggi couldn't lose the title. So it would go down as a 
defense in a win, but he would keep the belt in a loss, instead of it going vacant.
Rulebook aside, Malignaggi and Cano put on a fun fight. Cano plowed ahead for all 12 rounds while 
throwing heavy shots. The flashy Malignaggi played to the crowd and peppered Cano with a lot of shots 
that had little steam on them. Still, one of them managed to open a bad cut over Cano's left eyebrow 
in the second round. Cano has been cut before, so this was nothing new, and his corner did a good job 
to keep it under control and avoid a stoppage.

Malignaggi started well, but Cano came on very strong in the middle and late rounds. In the 11th, Cano 
landed a nice right hand to knock Malignaggi down. Another big right hand badly rocked Malignaggi at 
the end of the round. Power shots were the name of the game for Cano, who was credited by CompuBox 
with landing 165 of his 378 power shots (44 percent; CompuBox defines a power shot as anything other 
than a jab) while Malignaggi's landed only 57 of 179 power shots (32 percent). Cano's punches were 
cleaner and more effective, but two of the judges liked Malignaggi's greater activity and gave him the 
decision. Although many thought Cano did enough to merit the decision, judge Glenn Feldman's lopsided 
scorecard for Cano seemed out of line.
Malignaggi should consider himself lucky to escape with the split decision victory, even though his 
title wasn't in danger. Now he will sit back and see how former champ Ricky Hatton performs in his 
return. Hatton, who stopped Malignaggi in the 10th round of a 2008 junior welterweight championship 
fight, is coming out of a 3½-year retirement to face Senchenko on Nov. 24. If Hatton wins, it's likely 
that he will next challenge Malignaggi for his belt. Although the first fight was a one-sided Hatton 
victory, the rematch would be a big fight, with England's extremely popular Hatton going for another 
title.

Peter Quillin W12 Hassan N'Dam Wins a middleweight title Scores: 115-107 (three times)
Records: Quillin (28-0, 20 KOs); N'Dam (27-1, 17 KOs)
There were four world title bouts on the card, but this excellent battle stole the show as Quillin and 
N'Dam slugged it out, to the delight of the crowd. N'Dam, 28, a native of Cameroon who lives in France, 
got a career-high $400,000 to come to the United States to make his first title defense against Quillin. 
N'Dam won an interim title in May and was supposed to face full titleholder Dmitriy Pirog. But Pirog 
accepted another fight and was stripped of the belt, and N'Dam was elevated to full titlist. Gotta give 
him credit for going on the road for such a tough fight in his first defense against Quillin, whose 
profile has grown thanks to his two previous wins -- a June domination of former undisputed junior 
middleweight champ Winky Wright, whom he sent into retirement, and a sixth-round knockout of Craig 
McEwan last November.

Quillin, 29, who is Cuban, was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., but moved to New York as a teen and has 
lived in Brooklyn and Manhattan, so he had the crowd on his side. He wound up giving them something to 
cheer. Although Quillin knocked down N'Dam six times, this had to be the toughest fight ever in which a 
guy scored six knockdowns, because N'Dam never gave up. He went down twice in the fourth round (and it 
could have been four times in the round, but referee Eddie Claudio ruled two of them slips), twice more 
in the sixth round and, finally, twice more in the final moments of the 12th round. N'Dam was hurt and 
shaky, but Quillin couldn't finish him off. It almost came back to haunt him, because N'Dam had success 
in the middle rounds and put some punishment on Quillin. But Quillin took the shots and, thanks to his 
knockdowns, had the clear edge on the scorecards to win the world title he had dreamed of.
N'Dam has a rematch clause in his contract, but Quillin will be allowed an interim defense first. 
When the rematch happens, it will be worth watching because it's hard to imagine it not being another 
exciting fight.

Devon Alexander W12 Randall Bailey Wins a welterweight title Scores: 117-109, 116-110, 115-111
Records: Alexander (24-1, 13 KOs); Bailey (43-8, 37 KOs)
Bailey and Alexander were originally supposed to have fought Sept. 8 in the main event of a Showtime 
card, but Bailey sprained his back and the fight was postponed for six weeks and added to the Barclays 
undercard. Considering how the fight played out, we might have been better off had Bailey-Alexander 
never been rescheduled. The fight was truly awful and had the crowd booing early and often.
Bailey, 38, of Miami, was making the first defense of the vacant title he won in June with a booming 
11th-round knockout of Mike Jones. In that fight, Bailey, who can barely move in the ring anymore, 
landed only two punches of any significance, a right hand in the 10th round to drop Jones and another 
right hand in the 11th to knock him out. Other than that, Bailey did absolutely nothing and was way 
behind before the knockout.

Against Alexander, Bailey, a former junior welterweight titlist and perhaps boxing's best one-punch 
knockout artist, was even worse, turning in another absolute stinker of a performance that, this time, 
his massive right hand couldn't save. Alexander was content to box, move, jab and hold -- basically 
do anything to avoid the right hand, Bailey's only prayer to win. Alexander, 25, of St. Louis, took a 
few decent rights but never the big one, enabling him to cruise to the win. The fight was so bad that 
even referee Arthur Mercante Jr. seemed irritated by the lack of action, calling timeout in the sixth 
round to deduct a point from both fighters for excessive holding. Just how bad was it? CompuBox has 
tracked punch statistics for 27 years, covering thousands of fights. Bailey made it into the record 
book for landing only 45 punches (out of 198 thrown), the fewest ever landed in a 12-round fight that 
CompuBox has tracked.

Alexander, a former junior welterweight titlist, won his third belt in two weight classes and set 
himself up for bigger business. Bailey, at his age and given his recent unwatchable fights, may 
retire. Big opportunities are unlikely to come his way considering his fights stink and he is so 
dangerous when he lands.
Daniel Jacobs KO1 Josh Luteran Middleweights Records: Jacobs (23-1, 20 KOs); Luteran (13-2, 9 KOs)
If you can't root for a guy like Jacobs, you must have no heart. The 2009 ESPN.com prospect of the 
year is a former standout amateur who looked like a rising pro star. In July 2010, he got a shot at 
a vacant middleweight title on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II undercard against Russia's 
previously unknown Dmitry Pirog. Jacobs was a big favorite but got knocked out in the fifth round. 
Still, it was a setback Jacobs might have learned from, and he returned to score a pair of easy 
knockout wins.

But then came the news that he had a large cancerous tumor wrapped around his spine. He was rushed 
into surgery and, for a time, was paralyzed. He nearly died, and doctors told him he might never 
walk, much less box, again. But Jacobs, 25, fought as hard as he could and survived. Not only did 
he walk again, he returned to the gym and was able to make a triumphant comeback after 19 months 
out of the ring. And when Jacobs came back, he was able to do so in front of his cheering home 
crowd in Brooklyn as a major part of the opening of the new Barclays Center, where Jacobs figures 
to fight regularly (his promoter, Golden Boy, has a deal with the arena to put on regular shows).
Sure, Jacobs was matched softly against Luteran, 26, a club fighter from Blue Springs, Mo., so a 
win was expected. But just the mere fact that Jacobs made it into the ring, be it against a club 
fighter or a champion, is an inspirational story. Jacobs, looking fit and strong, seemed to soak 
in the entire experience before crushing Luteran. Jacobs connected with a right hand to the head 
followed by a left hook to the chin that sent Luteran crashing to the mat, where he hit his head 
hard, for the clean knockout. Referee Eddie Cotton immediately stopped the fight at 1 minute, 13 
seconds. Jacobs dropped to his knees in brief prayer and then jumped on the ring ropes and shouted 
to the crowd, "I'm back." It was enough to make a grown man cry.

Luis Collazo W 8 Steve Upsher Welterweights Scores: 80-72, 79-73, 77-75 Records: Collazo (32-5, 16 
KOs); Upsher (24-2-1, 6 KOs)
The Brooklyn-born Collazo held a welterweight belt in 2005 and 2006 before losing it on a 
controversial decision to Ricky Hatton. Collazo also lost a highly controversial decision to Andre 
Berto in a 2009 title fight. After a long layoff, Collazo then won two fights in a row before being 
upset by Freddy Hernandez last October, getting knocked down and losing a decision on the Bernard 
Hopkins-Chad Dawson I undercard.
Collazo returned Saturday after another long layoff, which included shoulder surgery, as one of 
several New York fighters helping to open the Barclays Center for boxing. He and Upsher, 27, of 
Philadelphia, treated fans to an excellent scrap. They fought toe-to-toe for long stretches and 
mixed in some nice boxing that seemed quite competitive. The judge who scored it a shutout in favor 
of Collazo was very generous, although Collazo clearly deserved the victory. If he can be a little 
more active, there's no reason why Collazo wouldn't belong in the mix for another title opportunity 
in the weight class, perhaps in an all-New York showdown with his buddy, titlist Paulie Malignaggi.