Filed under: Boxing Video, FanHouse Exclusive

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Effi Schneider once sparred with a newly-turned-pro, Oscar De La Hoya, and he has the video to prove it. A former professional fighter, Schneider left his family and friends in Israel in the early 1990's to pursue his career. He wound up in East Los Angeles, where he trained with young fighters such as De La Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley.

 

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Filed under: WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, HBO, Showtime, IBO

ARLINGTON, TEX -- During January's kickoff ceremony for the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight slated for this Saturday at The Dallas Cowboys' Stadium, team owner, Jerry Jones, gave Pacquiao jersey No. 3; Clottey was given No. 13.

That number, by the way, just so happens to be the same as the date of Saturday's bout, which could just work out to be Clottey's lucky day.

"You know, it's a wonderful jersey. I have a friend who always uses No. 13," said Clottey on Wednesday during a press conference for Saturday night's fight. "It's not bad luck. You know? I don't know anything about bad luck."

But by now, you've heard it all before -- the many travails of Clottey's boxing career which threatened to keep him a relative unknown destined for opponents' status rather than a man who may now be on the verge of superstardom.

There are the losses to former world champions, Carlos Baldomir, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, respectively, having to do with a mysterious head butt disqualification call, two hand injuries in a fight that he led, and a disputed decision even as the winner's face looked as if it had gone through a meat grinder.

There was Clottey's giving up the IBF welterweight (147 pounds) title he won against Zab Judah to take the Cotto fight, which, as mentioned earlier, he lost.

Top Rank Promotions publicist, Lee Samuels, described distraught Clottey as having a look of "Utter despair" following that June loss to Cotto.

And even after that, there were two lucrative bouts with world champion and former world champion, Shane Mosley, and, Carlos Quintana -- each of which fell through.

"When we were going to do the Clottey-Shane Mosley fight last December at the Staples Center, everybody was talking about how tough and how close of a fight that was going to be," said Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, which promotes Clottey (35-3, 20 knockouts), standing in the lobby of the Gaylord Texan Hotel, in Grapevine, Tex. "And believe me, as I'm standing here with you, it was going to be a close fight."

 

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Filed under: WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, HBO, Showtime, IBO

Ukrainian-born, 38-year-old nearly 6-foot-8 WBC heavyweight champion, Vitali Klitschko, will defend his crown against 31-year-old, Polish-born, nearly 6-3, Albert Sosnowski of Brentwood Essex England on May 29 at Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, his promotional company, K2 announced on Tuesday.

Klitschko (39-2, 37 knockouts) is coming off of December's unanimous decision over 30-year-old American contender Kevin Johnson (22-1-1, nine KOs), of Atlanta, whom Klitschko simply outworked over the course of 12 rounds.

In facing Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KOs), Klitschko will be making the fourth defense of the belt he earned with an October, 2008, eighth-round knockout of Samuel Peter -- this after having been out of the ring for four years.

 

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Filed under: WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, Boxing Video, HBO, Showtime, FanHouse Exclusive, IBO

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.


Cheerleaders, fans, members of Team Pacquiao were all on hand at a private terminal at LAX where Manny Pacquiao boarded a Starflite charter plane with 170 of his close associates. In this exclusive FanHouse video we talk to Manny moments before he leaves Los Angeles heading to what might be his last fight.

 

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Filed under: Boxing Video, FanHouse Exclusive

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Freddie Roach says Manny Pacquiao is top shape. We caught up with the legendary trainer as he was about to board a charter plane to Dallas. We also hear from Pacquiao what are his birthday wishes for his boss.

 

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