A few days ago Sultan visited Red Square wearing a USA track suit. Moments after entering he was confronted by Kremlin workers lugging bags of Russian clothing gear who insisted that he change into their nation’s colors . . . I guess none of them noticed the ticket checker at the Kremlin entrance who was wearing a New England Patriots baseball cap . . ..
Moscow traffic makes the LA Freeway at rush hour look like the Indy 500. There are between 10-12 million Muscovites-and 4 million cars. Drivers park everywhere and anywhere, including on the sidewalk. One individual parked in the right lane of a three-lane highway. . . . Amazingly enough horn blowing is rarely heard . . .
As four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (42-8-2, 27 KOs) approaches this Saturday’s heavyweight championship bout with WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov 21-0, 17 KOs) at the Khodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia, a big questions looms about how much Holyfield has left in the tank after twenty three years as a professional boxer. Holyfield, 44, though he’s not fought as many bouts as many younger fighters, such as Wladimir Klitschko, his bouts have been much tougher, the type in which he’s stood in front of his opponents and traded shots for round after round. Along with his many wars, you have to factor in his advanced age which makes him one of the oldest heavyweights to challenge for a title since George Foreman accomplished the feat in the 90s. 
WBO super bantamweight Daniel Ponce De Leon (33-1, 30 KOs) destroyed a weaker Reynaldo Lopez (28-5-2, 19 KOs), stopping him in the 5th round on Friday night, at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. De Leon pounded away at the thirty-three year old Lopez for five rounds until knocking him out with two consecutive left hands in the fifth, which sent Lopez to the canvas. He gamely attempted to rise but was only able to lift his head up off the canvas, because his body wouldn’t respond. Up until then, Lopez was seldom able to mount much of an offense of his own, mostly because he was so preoccupied with dealing with the incoming fire from the hard-punching De Leon, who rarely left off the gas pedal for more than a few moments of each round.
Welterweight prospect Andre Berto (19-0, 16 KOs) will meet up with experienced fighter David Estrada (21-3, 12 KOs) for the NABF welterweight title on Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Considered one of the top prospects in the welterweight division, Berto has breezed through his first 19 fights in an effortless fashion. showing brilliant handspeed and extraordinary power as he’s knocked out sixteen of his foes during that time. 
WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) has been heated all week long leading up to Saturday’s fight with #1 challenger Kelly Pavlik by the many fans and sports writers that have brushed off his career and given him slim chance at winning. Most of the criticism has been centered around Taylor’s lackluster performances against Cory Spinks, Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright and Kassim Ouma, who Taylor struggled against. Though Taylor defeated Spinks, Ouma and Hopkins, he looked almost uncoordinated as if he didn’t know how to box properly despite his quick reflexes. 
By Sasha “Kozlov” Baranov: With a little more than a week to go between World Boxing Council interim heavyweight champion Samuel Peter’s (28-1, 22 KOs) bout with Jameel McCline, I thought it would be interesting to consider what Peter’s chances would be like in a rematch with IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs). In that bout, fought on September 24, 2005, Peter knocked Wladimir down on three separate occasions and had him on the verge of being stopped in the bout. However, two of the knockdowns were the result of illegal rabbit punches to the back of Wladimir’s head, and thus should have been negated by referee Randy Neumann. Wladimir was guilty of his own issues as well by continuously clinching Peter whenever the Nigerian fighter got in close. 
Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev (46-1, 34 KOs) makes his first appearance since losing his heavyweight title to Ruslan Chagaev on April 14th when he takes on undefeated Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-0, 19 KOs) at the EWE-Arena, in Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany. Both fighters are 34, although Bergeron has faced exclusivly soft opposition in his native Canada. Valuev is in the rebuilding stage of his career after losing a controversial 12-round majority decision against Chagaev, a bout in which Valuev appeared to tire badly in the latter rounds of the fight.