FanHouse GaryShaw

Perhaps Glen Johnson's best attempt at head-games during the buildup to Saturday night's 175-pound rematch with IBO titlist Chad Dawson is his refusal to admit defeat.

The facts are that Johnson was not only judged the loser of their first light heavyweight clash in April of 2008 by scores of 116-112 on all three cards, but that the decision was rendered before a partisan crowd in Miami -- not far from the native Jamaican's current home in Hollywood, Fla.

But Johnson's insistence that he was "robbed" clearly rankles Dawson's promoter, Gary Shaw, and if nothing else, has Dawson so chagrined that he has vowed to turn up the heat when they face off at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn., near the champion's hometown of New Haven.

It appeared that the setting could not have been better on that final day of May, when 26-year-old Alfredo Angulo seemed to be on the verge of a transitional moment in his young professional boxing career.

For not only did the 154-pounder boast a spotless record at 15-0 with 12 knockouts, but the Mexicali, Mexico, native had steamrolled his way through 11 consecutive knockouts entering that junior middleweight bout at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

Angulo's opponent was Kermit Cintron, an ex-welterweight (147 pounds) champion who was just two bouts removed from a sixth-round knockout loss to former titlist Antonio Margarito.

Among the motivations for Joseph Agbeko entering Saturday night's defense of his IBF, 118-pound title against Yonnhy Perez is his desire to achieve the greatness of two of his African predecessors.

Like Agbeko, a 29-year-old bantamweight titlist, Ghaninan legends such as three-time champion Azumah Nelson and former belt-holder Ike Quartey, hail from the city of Accra. Nelson excelled as a featherweight (126) and super featherweight (130), and Quartey, as a welterweight (147).

Nelson and Quartey have made appearances at Agbeko's training sessions, encouraging him during his quest to be considered among the sport's best fighters, pound-for-pound.

A year ago, Gary Shaw was promoting Kimbo Slice as the next big thing in mixed martial arts, while UFC President Dana White was mocking Kimbo as a street fighter with no athletic skill. What a difference a year makes.

Now White has given Kimbo a spot on The Ultimate Fighter, and Shaw told FanHouse Tuesday that he's shocked and disappointed, because Shaw was hoping to promote Kimbo as a boxer. But Shaw also said that he considers Kimbo a friend, and that he gives White credit for making a smart business move by hiring a fighter who, in Shaw's words, has the it factor. The full interview is below.

---

---

In November 2007, Gary Shaw, then the president of EliteXC's live events division, said that he believed Kimbo Slice could become the first man to hold a major heavyweight boxing and MMA title simultaneously.

Slice, last seen losing to Seth Petruzelli in 14 seconds in the final EliteXC show last October, is reportedly set to make his boxing debut later this summer, however, don't expect him to be chasing an MMA strap any time soon.

Two days after telling the Miami Herald that a boxing career is in Slice's future, Shaw told FanHouse on Thursday that the former street-fighting star is no longer contractually tied to Strikeforce, the San Jose-based organization who purchased Slice's contract, along with 41 other EliteXC fighter contracts, earlier this year.

After washing out as a mixed martial arts fighter and taking the EliteXC organization down with him, Kimbo Slice is turning to boxing.

Gary Shaw, the promoter who brought Kimbo to EliteXC, told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that Kimbo (real name: Kevin Ferguson) will make his pro boxing debut as a heavyweight some time late this summer. The date, venue and opponent are all to be determined.

While watching the Antonio Tarver vs. Chad Dawson boxing match on HBO this weekend, I couldn't help but notice a very familiar logo smack-dab in the middle of ring: "Blood, Sweat & Bling," it read.

I knew I had seen this logo before, but it took me a while to actually figure out where. Then, as I noticed boxing promoter, Gary Shaw, pictured right, sitting ringside next to his son, Jared, who appeared to have been shouting instructions at Dawson every moment of the fight, I remembered why that logo looked so familiar.

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson may be ready to give up mixed martial arts and take up boxing.

Now that Kimbo Slice has been exposed as a fraud and EliteXC has gone out of business, we can all look back and chuckle at the way promoter Gary Shaw tried to build Kimbo up. I just came across this video, which appears to come from around the time of Kimbo's May 31 fight against James Thompson:



"Kimbo Slice is not a star, he's a superstar," Shaw said. "When you get to see him, you touch him, feel him, smell him, know him, you know he's a superstar. He has that certain something that certain athletes have that others don't, that Tiger Woods has, that Michael Jordan has, those are the athletes that Kimbo is. He's a tremendous athlete, he's a complex person, he can fight, he's up for the challenges. He's truly a superstar."

EliteXC brought mixed martial arts to the masses by televising five fights on CBS Saturday night. But while the show was a ratings success, many MMA fans have criticized it.

Some fans say the fights were stopped too early. Some fans say the main event between Kimbo Slice and James Thompson was more freak show than fight. Some fans say the quality of the action was inferior to the quality of fights that UFC puts out.

So was the EliteXC show good for the sport? I interviewed EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw on Monday, and that was my first question.