BOXINGTALK'S WEDNESDAY MAILBAG
By G. Leon

Whatup GLeon, Loving the interviews with Andre Berto. I wanted to get your opinion on a fight that I would love to see sometime down the road: Berto against James Kirkland. Each of them in fast and aggressive and gets hit a little bit too easily. It would be a barnburner for as long as it lasted. I like Kirkland in the fight just because he's a little bit bigger, but I wanted your thoughts on how it would play out. Also, do you see it happening in the future?

Leon's Response: Glad you enjoyed the interview with Berto. He's been a fixture on Boxingtalk ever since I interviewed him after his loss in Athens. Berto and Kirkland is not realistic at this point. Berto is fighting at welterweight and he's been groomed accordingly by HBO. It's just a matter of time before he gets a big fight, he just needs to make sure he's ready to deliver when he does.

Come on G Leon Oscar looked awesome in that fight u got to admit  if he can pop that jab against Floyd like he did against Forbes¸ Floyd is done he is a safety first fighter and doesn’t throw enough punches Oscar can win the fight by just jabbing him to the head and body then throwing one or two sets of combinations and all floyd will do is ball up into a his defensive stance and not be busy enough he will run out of rounds and lose the fight ….G Leon im so confident that if Oscar keeps 30-40 hard fast jabs on him he will beat him that I would bet everything I have my home my houses my saving acct. everything on Oscar

Leon's Response: I'm not counting Oscar out against Floyd, but by no means am I picking him. Though he won every single round on my card, I honestly didn't see enough to make me pick him over Floyd.

What's up G!! As usual when I have a boxing question on my mind I have to go to the guy with who can answer it better then anyone in the business. Your like  the Wizard of Oz of boxing... but any way, After watching the Oscar De La Hoya fight I have seen a pattern in all of Oscar's fights since the Felix Trinidad fight. Oscar always tries to close the show by standing right in front of his opponents. He may be tired, he may be getting beat to the punch or he might flurry as he did to Steve Forbes but Oscar is always right there. I almost feel that he is fighting the ghost of himself  that ran away from Trinidad and gave away the biggest fight in his career. Ever since the Trinidad fight De La Hoya has been trying to gain respect either by fighting hard right in front of his opponents down the stretch of a fight or taking on the best fighters. I have an idea for his "Exit Strategey", fight Trinidad in december. I know Trinidad ate himself up to light heavy and Oscar starved himself down to welterweight but I'm sure they could meet at a catch weight around 158. Its the only fight that matters for both of them and it would make a ton of money. I know there is a million reasons it should not happen but there are just as many good reasons that it should. If fans start the drumbeat and get people talking about it , who knows maybe it will happen.

Leon's Response: While I appreciate the kind words, may I remind you the Wizard of Oz was a fraud. At this point of his career, De La Hoya's respect is fully intact. De La Hoya's December fight isn't even worth discussing at this point because if Floyd Mayweather Jr stops him, Oscar will go on suspension and there will be no December fight. If Mayweather wins impressively or Oscar gets cut or injured, there will be no December fight. Too much between the cup and the lip on Oscar's December fight. Let's wait for the formal announcement of the Mayweather rematch on September 20.


Papa Trinidad has said to the PRico's newspaper that Tito wants to fight with fighters that truly inspire him to train.  The name that consistently comes out of his mouth is Bernard Hopkins.  Now I know that BHop would kill Tito in a rematch.  However, for both fighters the fight would be a great payday.  Correct me if I'm wrong but at this time there is no other fight that is more lucrative for Hopkins than a rematch with Trinidad.  The same goes for Tito.   Furthermore, Hopkins can retire in glory after he kicks Trinidad's ass one more time.  It would be a glory farewell fight and he would leave the sports with a big win (not with a loss to Calzaghe).  For Tito, he has a slight near to nothing chance to winning and if he does, he would feel redeemed.  It's obvious that the loss that he regrets the most is the one to Hopkins.  I'm seeing things from a business point of view and for me, the fight makes the most sense for both fighters at this time of their careers.  What do you think Greg?    Wil.

Leon's Response: Trinidad-Hopkins is a fight that people would always buy, but if you're Tito do you agree to fight Hopkins before a De La Hoya rematch became an impossibility?

Hey G, did they take you up on your Verno Phillips offer, or do they  think that Verno is to 'small potatoes' and too dangerous?

Leon's Response: If they're considering the WBO champ at 154, there's no way Verno is too small potatoes. I've known Winky for over six years and he's not scared of anybody and obviously he and I have already talked about the fight. It's just a matter of the networks wanting the fight, which if they're going to consider the WBO champ at 154, I'm pretty confident they're going to be considering Verno.

What’s up G, why is it that Vernon Forrest expects Verno and Alcine to unify the titles before he looks at unification? Vernon Forrest must be a very important person in his own mind, I wish I knew why. Winky Wright had two victories over Sugar Shane Mosley, just like his boy Vernon, those victories don’t make you a superstar. They earn you recognition, if you follow them up with a domination of another HOF’er then you’ve made it. But when you follow up by getting your ass kicked twice by a pub brawler, spending years away from the sport due to damage inflicted by the pub brawler, just to come back and get beat up by a semi-retired fighter in Ike Quartey (remember I’m like Bernard, I watch fights and don’t need a paid off official to tell me what I didn’t see), that doesn’t exactly spell the makings of a superstar.............Brad, Australia

Leon's Response: Vernon Forrest is definitely an important person in his own mind and in case you didn't know he's a very good friend of mine. Obviously as Verno Phillips rep, there's nothing I'd rather see than a Forrest unification bout. But it's a discussion that Forrest will not entertain unless he were fighting for the other two titles on one night. He still believes that he takes the lion share of the money agains the Phillips-Alcine winner and he definitely does, however the Alcine people have no interest in fighting Verno right now. They'd rather make their mandatory, so it simply becomes a matter of making the best business decision for my champion while Forrest preps himself for Sergio Mora.

G,  the Berto interview was an insta-classic.  Keep him on the front page and you keep holding the mic.  My gripe is with the Arum.  If he goes through with the Pavlik/Lockett and Pavlik/Rubio matches this year I'll start calling the "Dodgefather".  We gave him a pass on almost getting Alfonso Gomez killed, but I really hope he just forgot to take his Metamucil this week.  Keep the heat on Dodgefather.  -Tyler 

Leon's Response: Glad you enjoyed the Berto interview, he'll be on the front page on a regular basis. The Dodgefather, I like it. Maybe he'll get a Dodge/Chrysler commercial out of it. Trademark it now, LOL.

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