COUNTDOWN TO JONES-TRINIDAD PREMIERES THURSDAY, JAN. 10 ON HBO AT 9:00 P.M. ET/PT

COUNTDOWN TO JONES-TRINIDAD PREMIERES THURSDAY, JAN. 10 ON HBO AT 9:00 P.M. ET/PT

HBO Sports is presenting a thirty- minute special analyzing the upcoming HBO Pay-Per-View showdown fight between future Hall of Fame prizefighters Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad. The intriguing 170-pound bout between two of boxing’s most compelling superstars of the past decade is set for Saturday, Jan. 19 New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The special 'COUNTDOWN TO JONES-TRINIDAD, ' which will feature fighter profiles, expert analysis and forecasts for the showdown in New York, will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 10 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.



Felix Trinidad of Puerto Rico brings a 42-2, 35 KOs record in the meeting with Roy Jones, who sports a 51-4, 38 KOs mark. The two have compiled a staggering list of accomplishments in their ring careers winning world titles in a host of weight classes and have been two of the sport’s most popular figures outside the ring.


The countdown special will also be available to HBO ON DEMAND subscribers 24 hours a day from Friday, January 11 through Monday, January 21.


Additional HBO replay dates:

Friday, January 11 @ 7:30 am

Saturday, January 12 @ 5:30 am, 10:30 am and 12:40 pm

Sunday, January 13 @ 7:30 am

Tuesday, January 15 @ 10am and 11pm

Thursday, January 17 @ 7:30 pm

Friday, January 18 @ 1:30 pm and 10:30 pm


Additional HBO2 replay dates:

Monday, January 14 @11am and 6pm

Thursday, January 17@11:30pm

Saturday, January 19 @10:30am

All times are ET/PT.
Alan Hopper
Don King Productions

LAMONT AND ANTHONY PETERSON WIN EASILY TO REMAIN UNBEATEN on SHOWTIME at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Biloxi, Mississippi

BILOXI, Miss.– Brothers Lamont and Anthony Peterson of Washington, D.C., kept their undefeated records and hopes for a world title shot in 2008 in tact with convincing victories Friday in the co-featured bouts on ShoBox: The New Generation at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

A doubleheader promoted by Prize Fight Boxing aired on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast).

Lamont Peterson, 23, and 14 months older than Anthony, improved to 24-0 with 11 knockouts with a unanimous 10-round decision over previously undefeated Brazilian Antonio Mesquita. Peterson outboxed and outpunched Mesquita (34-1, 27 KOs) to triumph by the scores of 100-89, 99-90 and 98-93.
Lamont Peterson outboxed and outfought previously undefeated Antonio Mesquita to capture a unanimous 10-round decision Friday on SHOWTIME.
Photos: Scott Foster/For SHOWTIME




Anthony Peterson upped his record to 26-0 with 19 knockouts with an eighth-round stoppage of Cuba’s Jose Izquierdo. He dropped Izquierdo (16-2-1, 13 KOs), a late substitute for Guadalupe Rosales, three times – once in the seventh and twice in the eighth. The bout was stopped at 2:54, shortly after the last knockdown.

Anthony Peterson overcame a fast start by late substitute Jose Izquierdo to register three knockdowns en route to an eighth-round knockout Friday on SHOWTIME.
Photos: Scott Foster/For SHOWTIME




“I thought I executed my game plan to perfection and managed to keep my poise and remain patient even though it was obvious that Mesquita was doing everything he could to get me to exchange and fight his fight,’’ said Lamont Peterson, a junior welterweight who is ranked No. 3 in the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and No. 6 in the World Boxing Association (WBA).

“Honestly, I don’t think I lost a round. He did a lot of complaining but I think he was frustrated because he could never catch me.’’

Mesquita, of Las Vegas, Nev., by way of Guaruja, Brazil, had a point deducted in the final round for hitting after the break.

“He was faster than I thought and I could never really catch him like I wanted,’’ said Mesquita, who was unable to connect with his vaunted right hand with any consistency. “But the scoring was way out of line. I know I won some more rounds.

“The ref took a point from me at the end but he should have been taking points from Peterson for all the head butts. I kept trying to tell the ref to watch for his head coming in, but he never did a thing.’’

A lightweight who is ranked No. 1 in the WBO, No. 4 in the World Boxing Council (WBC) and No. 12 in the International Boxing Federation, Anthony Peterson was well ahead on the judges’ scorecards entering the eighth round of his fight.

Peterson did not appear to be dominating, however, particularly in the opening four or five frames.

“It was a good victory for me. I always felt I was in charge,’’ Peterson said. “The guy was determined and a little awkward, but I made the adjustments I had to make. Fighting a last-minute sub, I didn’t really know what to expect. But I got the job done, which is what counts. I am ready to fight next whoever they put in front of me.’’

Izquierdo, a Cuban who lives in Chihuahua, Mexico, took the match on a few days’ notice after Rosales became ill. Izquierdo came out determinedly and was competitive during the first five rounds.

“I felt good,’’ he said, “but I am very disappointed. I felt I was fighting two guys in there – my opponent and the referee. I must have been hit at least six times in the back of the head, but the ref never did anything. That is what made me go down. I was off balance. I was never really hurt by his punches.’’

Popular play-by-play announcer Nick Charles and expert analyst/boxing historian Steve Farhood called the action from ringside. The executive producer of ShoBox is Gordon Hall with Richard Gaughan producing and Rick Phillips directing.

Friday’s bouts will re-air this week as follows:

DAY CHANNEL

Saturday, Jan. 5, at Midnight ET/PT SHOTOO

Monday, Jan. 7, at 10 p.m. ET/PT SHO EXTREME

Tuesday, Jan. 8, at Midnight ET/PT SHO EXTREME

Thursday, Jan. 10, at 11 p.m. ET/PT SHOTOO

Tonight/Saturday, Jan. 5, Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi defends his IBF junior welterweight title against No. 1 ranked contender and mandatory challenger Herman “The Black Panther’’ Ngoudjo on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast).

ShoBox returns Friday, Feb. 1, at Grand Casino Hinckley, in Hinckley, Minn. In the main event, undefeated junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo (11-0, 8 KOs) faces Ricardo Cortes (22-1, 15 KOs). In a battle of unbeatens in the co-feature of the Gary Shaw Productions, LLC-promoted event, Mickey Bey Jr. (9-0, 6 KOs) meets Juan Castaneda (12-0, 9 KOs) in an eight-round super featherweight bout.

For information on Showtime Sports, including exclusive video, photos and news links on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING and EliteXC mixed martial arts telecasts, please go www.SHO.com/sports.

About ShoBox: The New Generation

Since its inception in July 2001, the critically acclaimed SHOWTIME boxing series, ShoBox: The New Generation has featured young talented fighters matched tough. The ShoBox philosophy is to televise crowd-pleasing and competitive fights while providing a proving ground for willing prospects determined to fight for a world title. The growing list of fighters who have appeared on ShoBox and advanced to garner world titles includes Leonard Dorin, Scott Harrison, Juan Diaz, Jeff Lacy, Ricky Hatton, Joan Guzman, Juan Urango, David Diaz, Robert Guerrero, Kelly Pavlik and Malignaggi.

OBAMA TSUNAMI

OBAMA TSUNAMI

“The political earthquake on January 3, 2008 in Iowa, America’s Buck-Eye state resulting from the Democratic Party Caucus may have generated an Obama Tsunami.” These were the words of Keisha Morrisey a life long Harlem resident and former candidate for the New York State Assembly in 2002 and New York City Council in 2003.

Former candidate Morrisey, now a boxing and fighting sports reporter and public relation professional popularly referred to in the boxing game as El Boxing Empress” predicts that an Obama Tidal Wave will overtake the walls of the Black political gate keepers and drown conventional wisdom.


Ms. Morrisey was among a group of her hip-hop generation peers who watched the unfolding Iowa caucus results in a private venue. Morrisey said, “Well I guess that the results in Iowa answers the question about the impact of the Oprah factor and also settles the question as to the prospect of new young voters turning out at the polls.”

The decisiveness of Senator Obama’s victory over Senator Clinton and the rest of the field of impressive Democratic Party political timber in all demographic categories suggest that a paradigm shift may have occurred. Moreover, there is an emerging sensibility in virtually all segments of society that a Black America can in fact be elected. Accordingly, many analogies are being advanced to rationalize, justify and predict the probability of Obama’s ultimate victory.

Author and political analyst Gary James said, “Presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Black Swan.” James was referencing a recently published book entitled “A Black Swan” written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. A Black Swan as defined in the book is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. For example, the astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11.


James said, “The profundity of black swans is that they change the way people look at the world. Black swans underlie almost everything about the world from the rise of religions to current events. The Obama Black Swan analogy is an unfolding phenomenon that may ultimately and substantially settle some outstanding social and political questions relative to race in America.”

James continued, “It is often posited by some Black folk that white America refuses to deal with the ‘race question’ or white America would never elect a Black man to be President of the United States. However, as a practical political matter the results of the Iowa
Democratic Caucus, with its 96 percent white population may have spoken without equivocation for white America at large.”

What appears to be emerging is an Obama national intergenerational grassroots political movement with far reaching impact particularly as it relates to the future of conventional Black political leadership and civil rights orthodoxy. Should Obama win in New Hampshire and Michigan his campaign would have transcended the realm of political probability and entered the dimension of political quantum physics which may potentially transform America and the world.

The formidable Clinton political machine may be outmatched by the new political mathematics heralded by the ubiquitous Barack Obama organic movement. Should the Obama political phenomenon continue to crescendo until Super-Tuesday on February 5, when New York and other big states hold their primaries, a new political dispensation may merge with the unfolding first decade of the 21st century.

Whatever the outcome of the titanic battle for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination between the forces of the Clinton and Obama political machines, Americans and in deed the world are riveted to the process and any conceivable end result is at this point mathematically possible.

In any scenario, New York politics particularly relative to the Black community will forever be changed following the February 5 ‘Super Tuesday’ primary election. While most prominent Black elected officials and the civil right leadership have lined up behind the Clinton political machine, there is an emerging groundswell of Obama support being crystallized by a list of elected officials lead by New York State Senator Bill Perkins and the grassroots community inspired by Rev. Conrad Tillard.


Longtime political activist Alton Chase said, “Current anecdotal information suggests that the New York Democratic primary election is a dead heat between Clinton and Obama. Should Obama win decisively in New Hampshire as his 10 point lead in the New Hampshire poll indicates that New York may be the last stand for the Clinton political magic.

James concluded, “The Obama 21st century campaign strategy is based on an eyes and ears approach, while the Clinton strategy is organized around the traditional mouth and hands campaign style… Now will the real first Black American President of the United States please step forward.”
CONTACT: Gary James
ConsultingGary@netscape.net