Report: Manny Pacquiao signs with promoter Al Haymon

Manny Pacquiao is making some major changes to his business team.

Boxing Scene’s Rick Reeno reported on Thursday that Pacquiao has signed with promoter Al Haymon. Haymon is a promoter, also viewed by some as a manager, who is best known for advising Floyd Mayweather Jr. and founding PBC – Premier Boxing Champions.

Pacquiao long had been promoted by Top Rank’s Bob Arum, trained by Freddie Roach, and his business manager was Michael Koncz. He has made major changes by ending his business relationship with all three.

Pacquiao reportedly signing with Haymon could bring him closer to a rematch with Mayweather. Pacquiao has long sought a rematch with Mayweather, saying as much in July. Last month, Mayweather said he and Pacquiao would fight again.

Before getting a rematch with Floyd, Pacquiao may have to win a different fight first.

Spin.ph reports that Pacquiao will likely face Adrien Broner in January in a fight co-promoted by Pacquiao and Mayweather. They say Pacquiao, who beat Lucas Matthysse in July, wants to fight a few more times before potentially retiring.

Pac-Man, 39, is 60-7-2 with 39 wins by knockout.

Showtime boss says Floyd Mayweather is ‘deadly serious’ about Pacquio rematch

Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently announced that he is coming out of “retirement” once again for a rematch against Manny Pacquiao, and there is plenty of skepticism over whether the fight will actually happen. That was to be expected, but someone who knows Floyd quite well insists the undefeated champion is not messing around.

Stephen Espinoza, president of programming for Showtime Sports, told TMZ over the weekend that Mayweather is “deadly serious” about fighting Pacquiao again.

“I haven’t spoken to Floyd,” Espinoza admitted. “I know he is deadly serious about it. He is very, very serious about wanting to fight from everything that I’ve seen and heard. Manny Pacquiao is serious about it as well.”

Espinoza said it would be difficult to work out all of the details of the fight before the end of 2018, but he believes the rematch will take place at some point in the near future. He added that he understands why there was skepticism about whether Mayweather was serious because of the way he announced he is planning to fight Pacquiao, but that is simply Floyd’s marketing style.

There had been talk about Mayweather only doing promoting work for Pacquiao’s next fight, but as of now it sounds like he wants a rematch. When you can make the kind of money that Mayweather and Pacquiao would make from fighting again, it’s hard to turn it down.

Mike Tyson says UFC 229 chaos was crazier than his riot

Few people in history were part of bigger pay-per-view spectacles than Mike Tyson, and even he thinks what happened at UFC 229 on Saturday night in Las Vegas was crazy.

Khabib Nurmagomedov beat Conor McGregor in their UFC lightweight championship fight with a choke in the fourth round. After McGregor tapped, Khabib climbed out of the cage and went after McGregor’s team, seemingly as revenge for their bus stunt in April.

While Khabib had created a major distraction outside the cage, a member of his team climbed into the cage and started taking cheap shots at a defenseless McGregor.

What did Tyson think about it? He called it crazier that his fight riot.

Watching the @TheNotoriousMMA vs @TeamKhabib fight. Unimaginable never thought it would go down like this. Crazier than my fight riot.

— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) October 7, 2018

You may recall what happened during Tyson’s second fight with Evander Holyfield. The fight was stopped early after Tyson was disqualified for infamously biting off part of Holyfield’s ear. Things got wild in the crowd after the fight ended prematurely.

Tyson was part of another chaotic ending after his controversial win over Razor Ruddock in 1991.

You know things are really wild when Mike Tyson is calling out your behavior.

Conor McGregor says he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather again

Conor McGregor has a big fight coming up on Saturday but also has his eye on a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

McGregor joined “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” on Monday and said that he would like to face Mayweather again. He is open to either an MMA fight or boxing rematch against Mayweather, but he made it clear that he will not agree to a modified rules MMA fight.

“If [Mayweather] has the bottle to come over and deal with this, like he said he has, let’s see what happens. I would also like to box him again. Everything is being discussed. Every rule set. If it’s not an MMA bout, then I don’t want to know. It’s either a straight MMA bout or a straight boxing bout. If they come looking for modified rules, I would rather just box the kid again. If you don’t want to deal with it, then don’t deal with it and stop going on like you’re doing,” McGregor told Helwani.

In the meantime, McGregor has a much bigger task ahead. He is set to face Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 for the lightweight championship. Khabib is 26-0 and may be McGregor’s toughest opponent yet.

After his fight with Khabib, McGregor says he has given consideration to facing Anderson Silva. He also says he would like to complete his trilogy with Nate Diaz at some point.

McGregor and Mayweather fought in Aug. 2017, with Floyd winning by 10th-round TKO. McGregor hung tough for such a challenging fight in his pro boxing debut, though Floyd may have carried the fight into later rounds to give viewers a better show. The fight had 4.3 million pay-per-view buys, second only to Floyd’s fight with Manny Pacquiao. A rematch would probably not sell quite as well, though it would do plenty of buys thanks to the popularity of both fighters. Mayweather said earlier this year that he was training in MMA, but we have our doubts about him stepping into the cage without modified rules.

Victor Ortiz fight canceled following rape charge

Boxer Victor Ortiz’s scheduled fight will not go ahead after he was arrested on rape charges.

Ortiz was slated to face John Molina Jr. on Sunday in Ontario, Calif., but Molina announced Wednesday that the fight, at least against Ortiz, will not happen as scheduled.

.@johnmolinajr135 announces on his Instagram that the fight with Victor Ortiz is officially canceled. His post seems to indicate the show will carry on without him. https://t.co/APL6L5qeSn

— Mark Ortega (@MarkEOrtega) September 26, 2018

The company promoting the fight card later sent an email confirming that Ortiz was no longer on the card. They also said Molina, Jr. “will be rescheduled to return to the ring soon.”

You can read the details of the charges against Ortiz here. It seems unlikely he’ll be fighting for quite some time, at the bare minimum.

Boxer Victor Ortiz facing multiple sexual assault charges

Boxer Victor Ortiz turned himself into police on Tuesday and is facing multiple charges of sexual assault, according to the Oxnard Police Department.

Ortiz, 31, is facing three charges of sexual assault, including forcible rape, for a crime allegedly committed in March.

According to a release from the police department, a woman contacted Oxnard police on March 19, 2018, to report that she had been sexually assaulted inside a residence in Oxnard, Calif. She identified the suspect as Ortiz, a former Oxnard resident, who now lives in Tarzana, Calif.

The Oxnard Police Department’s Family Protection Unit took over the case and investigated for several months before presenting to the Ventura County’s District Attorney’s Office. An arrest warrant was issued for Ortiz, who turned himself in on Tuesday afternoon. He was booked for forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, and forcible digital penetration. Ortiz’s bail was set at $100,000.

Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs) has held boxing titles at the light welterweight and welterweight classes during his career. Known for his fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana among others, Ortiz was set to face John Molina Jr. on Sunday. The boxer has appeared as a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars” and has three acting credits in movies.

Anthony Joshua has eyes on Deontay Wilder fight next

Anthony Joshua is still eyeing a fight with Deontay Wilder after continuing his undefeated ways on Saturday night.

Joshua beat Alexander Povetkin via 7th-round TKO at Wembley Stadium in London to improve to 22-0 with 21 knockouts. Though his nose was bloodied early in the fight, Joshua came on strong in the 7th, dropping Povetkin once and then finishing off his wobbly opponent soon thereafter.

In his post-fight interview with DAZN, Joshua said he wanted to face Wilder next.

"This is chapter 2."

So what's next for @anthonyfjoshua?

"My number one would be @BronzeBomber. That's it." https://t.co/j4BIUf4XnH pic.twitter.com/XkXfJ8c6ii

— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) September 22, 2018

Joshua has four heavyweight title belts and is viewed by many as the top heavyweight in the world, with Wilder being his best challenger. Wilder is 40-0 with 39 knockouts and holds the WBC heavyweight belt, though his critics question the level of competition he has faced. He can answer many of those questions with a win over Tyson Fury on Dec. 1.

Joshua and Wilder were involved in fight negotiations this year that fell apart, so getting them together in the ring will not be easy. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn even mentioned a second fight with Dillian Whyte as a potential backup plan if the Wilder fight does not materialize.