Plenty of Fight Left in Mayweather

There he was, standing on a stage in the Coral Reef Lounge of the Mandalay Bay Hotel after Friday’s weigh-in, dancing to the rhythmic taunts of defiant, flag-waving Mexican fans, a smile on his face, seemingly not a care in the world.

Yet only one day earlier, World Boxing Council lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. was so angry that he’d refused to attend a news conference to promote tonight’s title fight against Jose Luis Castillo at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

“I don’t want to do negative interviews,” Mayweather said Friday, unwilling to revisit Thursday’s absence. “I’m just looking to be around positive people and doing positive things.”

In fact, however, Mayweather, who weighed 134 to Castillo’s 135, is frustrated because he has not achieved the prominence once predicted, he has never made the astronomical sums routinely earned by Oscar De La Hoya, financial king of the non-heavyweights.

Mayweather’s first fight against Castillo, last April, produced yet more frustration, even though Mayweather took Castillo’s title. Mayweather, after struggling at times, won a unanimous decision. He later said he had torn his rotator cuff on the last day of training camp, but kept that secret. So Mayweather (28-0, 20 knockouts) wanted another shot at Castillo (46-5-1, 42). Then the rematch, originally scheduled for October, was postponed because of tendinitis in Castillo’s left ankle.

More frustration for Mayweather.

Now, more of the same for the man who calls himself the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. HBO has decided Mayweather’s fight is not even the main event. His will be the semi-main, to be foIlowed by a heavyweight bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Jameel McCline.

HBO, though, has made the right call. The Klitschko-McCline fight is more intriguing. Wladimir and his brother, Vitali, are poised to burst into the top of the heavyweight division, but they haven’t fought the level of opposition that would prove they belong there.

Ukrainian natives who had been living in Germany for seven years before moving to the United States, the Klitschkos have 72 fights between them and have won 70 of those.

Wladimir is 39-1 with 36 knockouts, his lone defeat coming on an 11th-round technical knockout by Ross Puritty in 1998. Vitali is 31-1 with 30 knockouts. He lost to Chris Byrd in 2000 on a ninth-round TKO.

Vitali will get his big test next spring when he fights heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

Wladimir’s test tonight looms as his biggest. In the last 18 months, McCline (28-2-3, 16) has beaten Michael Grant, Lance Whitaker and Shannon Briggs.

McCline weighed in at 263 for tonight’s match, Wladimir at 240.

Worth the Weight?

Roy Jones, who seems to enjoy sparring with the media almost as much as he enjoys sparring with opponents, appeared delighted to prove the skeptics wrong, participating in an announcement that he would be stepping up from light-heavyweight to heavyweight, after all, to take on World Boxing Assn. titleholder John Ruiz March 1 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.

Many in the media had doubted Jones would move up, perhaps because he has been talking about it for years without following through.

Even this time, talks with promoter Don King dragged on and on before a tentative agreement was reached earlier this week.

“I just wanted to make sure I was being treated fair,” Jones said in explaining the delay.

Ruiz isn’t convinced he and Jones will actually step into the ring.

“There’s now a 60% chance it will happen,” he said. “Before, there was a 0% chance.”

Comeback of the Week

When De La Hoya tossed out the name of International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight champion Winky Wright as a possible opponent, Bob Arum, De La Hoya’s promoter, erupted.

“Belt, shmelt, Forget Winky,” Arum said. “A fight against Oscar would be totally and completely unsalable.”

Fred Sternburg, Wright’s publicist, responded in a release heralding, for some unknown reason, the celebration of Wright’s 31st birthday with the following phony quote attributed to Arum: “Birthday, shmirthday. Winky’s birthday is just now unsalable.”

Now We Know

Last month’s Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward rematch was a disappointment to all but those in the Gatti camp because it failed to equal the first fight in terms of fury and intensity. Gatti won decisively, after having lost the first fight last spring.

The Ward camp, hoping for a rubber match, says the reason Ward faded as the fight progressed was because of a blow behind his left ear, delivered by Gatti in the third round.

“There was quite an impact to the inside of Micky’s ear,” said Dr. Stephen Margles after examining Ward. “It upset his equilibrium and made it much harder for him to be balanced. It’s like coming off an amusement ride. You get dizzy and stagger around like a drunk.”

Still, Gatti-Ward II got an 8.6 rating on HBO, 18% higher than the 7.3 for Gatti-Ward I.

Quick Jab

De La Hoya will be appearing today from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Stevenson Middle School, 725 S. Indiana, East Los Angeles, to hand out Christmas toys to 4,400 needy kids.