Philippine Sports News and Updates

MANILA, Philippines – Undefeated American fighter Floyd Mayweather, Jr. said he is not anxious about preserving his unblemished win-loss record against countryman Shane Mosley, with less than a week before they battle it out on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Of course it's a great thing to be undefeated… But I don't consciously think about it when I'm preparing for the next fight,” he said in a Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) article by Steve Carp.

Mayweather, who has a 40-0 record (with 25 knockouts), said his perspective on maintaining his record is different.

“I don't think about the 0,” he noted. “I think about winning. Everything takes care of itself if you win.”

However, his father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr., thought otherwise.

“No one wants to lose their 0. I'm sure he thinks about it, and it motivates him. Fortunately for my son, it's so far, so good, and I don't see anyone taking that 0 away from him,” Floyd Sr. said.

Reigning World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight super champion Mosley, who has 46 wins (with 39 KOs) and 5 defeats, vowed to hand Mayweather his first career loss.

MANILA, Philippines - Without a talented foreign reinforcement in sight, Smart Gilas Pilipinas faces the specter of playing without a naturalized player in the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup next month and the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China this November.

RP’s Serbian coach Rajko Toroman said he is preparing the Nationals for the possibility of playing All-Filipino in both the 21st FIBA-Asia Champions Cup in Doha, Qatar and the Asiad without saying they’re giving up on their import hunt.

“We’ll play All-Filipino in Guangzhou if we don’t find an import in time,” said Toroman, who steered the Iranians to the 2007 FIBA-Asia Championship in Tokushima, Japan and the 2008 Beijing Olympics before accepting the RP coaching job.

Smart Gilas manager Frankie Lim, however, stressed he’s not giving up and is currently persuading some prospects in the Euro League to fill up the team’s need for an imposing big man.

“We’re not giving up, we’re doing all we can to find one,” said Lim.
If they couldn’t find an import before the Champions Cup slated May. 22-30, Toroman said they might tap a Serbian instead – 6’10” Milan Vucicevic.

CARACAS - Venezuelan world lightweight boxing champion Edwin Valero committed suicide on Monday in his prison cell, the day after being arrested over the murder of his young wife, police said.

Valero, 28, who hanged himself by making a rope out of his clothes, was apparently still alive when guards found him but died shortly after arriving at hospital from asphyxiation.

The boxer was detained on Sunday after confessing to murdering his 20-year-old wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera de Valero, in a hotel room overnight in the northern Venezuelan city of Valencia.

Local media reports said Valero's wife had been stabbed several times.

Valero had already been arrested at the end of March for suspected aggression towards his wife and had spent time subsequently at a psychiatric clinic. He was also accused of assaulting his mother and sister in 2007.

MANILA, Philippines - Sta. Lucia Realty bungled a won ballgame in regulation play but went back to work in overtime to salvage a 106-98 win over Air21, 106-98, in the 2010 PBA Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum last night.

Anthony Johnson matched a PBA career-high 43 points, pumping back life into Sta. Lucia’s bid with an 11-point cluster in extension play.

Johnson personally bucked Air21’s never-say-die stand, enabling the Realtors to check a three-game slump before the coming PBA All-Star Week.

Kelly Williams dished out a double-double game with 17 points and 14 rebounds and Ryan Reyes had his own solid showing with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds as Sta. Lucia notched its second win in four starts.

Unable to complete what could have been a big come-from-behind win, the Express slid farther down the chart with a 1-5 win-loss record.