Oscar de la Hoya (38-3, 30 KOs) wants to get back in the ring in early 2008 against a fighter that “doesn’t run,” he says, possibly taking a swipe at Floyd Mayweather Jr., who recently defeated De la Hoya by 12-round split decision in May 2007, in a fight that Mayweather employed his usual hit and run fighting style, causing De la Hoya to become very frustrated late in the fight as he attempted to engage him. De la Hoya, 34, plans on moving back down to the welterweight division, fighting there for the first time in seven years since beating Arturo Gatti in 2001.
It’s unclear why De la Hoya has opted to move back down to the welterweight division, but one can only guess that it’s because he has his eye on someone in particular, likely Kermit Cintron or Ricky Hatton. Though Hatton fights as a super lightweight, he has formerly fought as a welterweight, albeit not very effectively, for a short period of time and would have no qualms about gaining a little weight to fight De la Hoya at that weight, especially if it meant that he was going to get a huge mult-million dollar pay day in the process. His reputation, however, will be a little tarnished by them, considering that Hatton will have already fought – and lost badly – to Mayweather by then, but that matters little to most of the public, who don’t care how many times some of their heros lose.
In the lead up to WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe’s (43-0, 32 KOs) mega bout with super middleweight champion (WBA & WBC) Mikkel Kessler (39-0, 29 KOs), Calzaghe had been prematurely discussing plans for fighting either the winner of the Kelly Pavlik vs. Jermain Taylor or leaving the super middleweight division altogether and fighting Bernard Hopkins at light heavyweight. However, one thing that seems odd about the whole thing is his presumption that he’s in fact going to beat Kessler. 
Former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev (46-1, 34 KOs) is set for his comeback fight against unbeaten Canadian Jean-Francois Bergeron (27-0, 19 KOs) on September 29th at the EWE-Arena, in Oldenburg, Germany. Valuev, 34, lost his WBA heavyweight title against challenger Ruslan Chagaev by majority decision in April 2007, a fight in which many people felt that Valuev had done more than enough to get the victory. 
WBC light-welterweight champion Junior Witter (35-1, 20 KOs) defends his title on Saturday, September 7th, against challenger Vivian Harris (28-2-1, 18 KOs) at the Doncaster Dome, in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. Witter, 33, looks to be in for a real dog fight, considering the mostly soft opposition that he has fought this far in his 10-year career, consisting mostly of European fighters not in the class of Harris, 29. One of the few good opponents that Witter faces in his career, Zab Judah, knocked him out in the 12th round in June 2000, after building a commanding lead up to that point in the fight. 
WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev (34-5, 26 KOs) will be making his 2nd title defense on October 6th when he meets up with Nigerian knockout slugger Samuel Peter at Madison Square Garden, in New York. Maskaev, 38, is on a 12 consecutive win streak, dating back to February 2003. Previous to that, Maskaev had been plagued by chin problems, causing him to lose a string of vicious knockout losses to hard-punching – and severely limited – Kirk Johnson, Lance Whitaker and Corey Sanders between 2000-2001.
In the past few days, I’ve read countless reports from posters in various boxing site forums about the outcome of the WBO light welterweight championship bout between title holder Ricardo Torres (32-1, 28 KOs) and #1 challenger Kendal Holt (22-2, 12 KOs), most of which is centered on the fact that the figh was stopped too soon in the 11th round, suggesting that Holt should have been permitted to continue fighting longer by referee Genero Rodriguez. 
Four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (42-8-2, 27 KOs) is poised to win his fifth heavyweight title next month when he travels to Moscow, Russia to take on undefeated WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov (21-0, 17 KOs) on October 13th. Never mind that Holyfield, 44, has done little to deserve a shot at the title since making his comeback to boxing following a two-year suspension by the New York State Athletic Commission due to “diminishing skills” following three consecutive losses to Chris Byrd, James Toney and Larry Donald. 
Undefeated middleweight John Duddy (21-0, 16 KOs) will return to the boxing ring on October 20th when he fights in Dublin, Ireland against an un-named opponent. Duddy, 28, was born in the UK, but has Irish ancestry, has fought most of his career in the United States, where he resides in New York City. Earlier this year, Duddy decided on traveling to Ireland, where he has hopes on winning a European title, and hopefully along the way built up a large fan base in his native country. In his first bout in Ireland, Duddy struggled badly in the process of stopping Italian Alessio Furlan (19-8-5, 8 KOs) in the 10th round on July 14, 2007. It was a harsh greeting for Duddy, who had hoped to have an easy time beating the unheralded Furlan. 
According to the latest boxing news from New Zealand’s Sunday News, former heavyweight challenger David Tua (48-3-1, 40 KOs) could possibly land a title shot against IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs) as early as the beginning of 2008. The arrangement involves some legal issues apparently between Tua’s promoter Cedric Kushner and Wladimir Klitschko’s promoter Shelly Finkel. By Wladimir choosing to fight Tua (currently ranked # 12 in the WBC), Kushner would drop the lawsuit, the New Zealand Sunday News reports. 
Unbeaten junior middleweight prospect James Kirkland (20-0, 17 KOs) knocked out Mohammed Said (21-6-1, 14 KOs) in the 2nd round on Saturday night at the Emerald Queen Casino, in Tacoma, Washington. Kirkland knocked Said down twice in the first round, and then a final time in round two. Said wasn’t able to beat the count on after the 3rd knockdown.