It's only the middle of February, but already we've seen some stories in the world of boxing that will raise more than an eyebrow.
There have been fighters in trouble, both familiar names as well as some less known, in negative headlines.
Let's take a look at some of Boxing's top stories of the young year:
In January, Mike Tyson pleaded not guilty in a Scottsdale, Arizona court to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence of drugs.
This would fall under the category of familiar ring names in trouble.
Tyson was picked up with several bags of cocaine and admitted to police that he uses the drug "every chance he gets." Yet he pleaded not guilty.
Tyson voluntarily entered a rehab shortly after, citing nothing more specific than "several addicitons."
Just another page in the whacky world of Iron Mike.
On the comeback trail, former WBC heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko announced his comeback, two years after an injury to his right knee forced his retirement.
An advisor for Klitschko said that the knee has healed, and that Klitschko will face Oleg Maskaev in Moscow on April 21.
Time will tell just how well healed that knee is.
Wladimir Klitschko, IBF and IBO heavyweight champ and younger brother of Vitali, announced that he will defend his titles against American Ray Austin in Mannheim on March 10.
Klitschko, who last fought on Nov. 11 when he stopped Calvin Brock in the seventh round in New York, is 47-3 with 42 knockouts, and Austin is a respectable 24-7.
Klitschko won the IBF and IBO titles last year with a technical knockout of Chris Byrd.
Former WBC heavyweight champ Hasim Rahman announced in January that he was going to fight Sinan Samil Sam in May in Turkey.
Sam is the third-ranked heavyweight, as well as the WBC's international champ. Rahman, who hasn't fought since losing his WBC title to Oleg Maskaev last August, is ranked fourth in the world.
This could be a good one, with two of the four highest-ranked heavyweights in the ring together. Not exactly Ali-Frazier, but it has the makings of a good match, nonetheless.
Perhaps the marquee matchup of the first half of the year will pit Oscar De La Hoya against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on May 5.
De La Hoya has fallen under heavy criticism in recent years by losing some tough fights, so he'll once again be looking to disprove the naysayers who say that yet again De La Hoya is overmatched.
Initially, there were questions of who would be De La Hoya's trainer. Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Jr.'s dad, has been training Oscar since 2000.
All questions were answered when it was announced that De La Hoya was going in a different direction for the fight, opting to hire Freddie Roach.
Hopefully, this fight will be entertaining and live up to its handsome payday.
Aside from Tyson, there have been several other arrests of boxers this year. Former WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison was arrested on drug charges in Scotland. Harrison has had a history of problems, mostly alcohol-related, and he was stripped of his world title in December after bowing out of a title defense.
Harrison claimed it was due to a medical problem, and he is now banned from fighting by the British Boxing Board of Control.
Mexico's WBC light-flyweight champ, Omar Nino, was stripped of his belt when he tested positive for methamphetamines.
Due to Nino's clean record, it is not believed that the positive result was Nino's willfull and knowledgeable doing, and after the No. 1 and 2 challengers fight for his vacant belt, Nino will be able to contend to regain the belt.
During the first week of February, former world welterweight champ Ricardo Mayorga was arrested in Minagua, Nicaragua, for fraud charges.
Can any of these guys just behave themselves??
As we continue down the police blotter, world cruiserweight champ O'Neill Bell was arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon while training for a fight in Big Bear City, California. This one falls under the heading of strangest crime, if not funniest.
Apparently, while running through the woods with his training partner, Bell was upset at something that his partner, 37-year old Larry Slayton, had said to him that day, so he flung a hatchet at him. It seems that Bell had the hatchet to protect the two fighters from bears (hence the name of the town) while they were running through the woods.
Big Bear is a popular training facility outside of Los Angeles.
As the boxing world turns... can't you just see it?
Back to comebacks. "Sugar" Shane Mosley, the lightweight champ from a decade ago, is back in the ring at age 35.
Mosley looked very sharp in his victory over Luis Collazo, his most recent win in his quest to fight again.
The win could make Mosley a welterweight champion once again because the WBC billed it as an eliminator to the title held by Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Mayweather vacates the title to fight Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, it will revert to Mosley.
The final comeback fighter of mention is former heavyweight champion and fan favorite, the earless Evander Holyfield.
Holyfield, 44, has had a couple of fights in his bid for a comeback, and he won them both.
In his first fight, he knocked out Jeremy Bates in the second round in Dallas last August. In November, Holyfield won a decision over Frez Oquindo.
Now he has announced that he will fight Vinny Maddalone on March 17.
Those living in the Capital District of New York will remember Maddalone from his fight against area heavyweight Shannon Miller last summer at the Saratoga Springs City Center, which he won.
Apparently, the shananigans are not limited to the ring participants, as seemingly now the antics have flowed over into the first row...behind the microphone, to be exact.
Longtime ABC and HBO TV announcer Jim Lampley was arrrested last Friday in San Diego for violating a temporary restraining order filed by a former beauty queen.
Lampley, 57, faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the charge, a misdemeanor.
In January, there was a police report for domestic violence. 28-year old Candice Sanders, Miss Califonia U.S.A. 2003, claimed that Lampley attacked her in her Encinitas apartment on New Year's Eve, which led to Lampley's arrest and the restraining order.
Sanders also claimed that Lampley had been drinking and smoking marijuana before the attack.
We'll keep an eye on this one, too.
So, as we see, although we are barely six weeks into the new year, there's never a dull moment in the world of boxing.
Stay tuned for the results of the upcoming fights that were mentioned, as well as the jail sentences.
There have been fighters in trouble, both familiar names as well as some less known, in negative headlines.
Let's take a look at some of Boxing's top stories of the young year:
In January, Mike Tyson pleaded not guilty in a Scottsdale, Arizona court to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence of drugs.
This would fall under the category of familiar ring names in trouble.
Tyson was picked up with several bags of cocaine and admitted to police that he uses the drug "every chance he gets." Yet he pleaded not guilty.
Tyson voluntarily entered a rehab shortly after, citing nothing more specific than "several addicitons."
Just another page in the whacky world of Iron Mike.
On the comeback trail, former WBC heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko announced his comeback, two years after an injury to his right knee forced his retirement.
An advisor for Klitschko said that the knee has healed, and that Klitschko will face Oleg Maskaev in Moscow on April 21.
Time will tell just how well healed that knee is.
Wladimir Klitschko, IBF and IBO heavyweight champ and younger brother of Vitali, announced that he will defend his titles against American Ray Austin in Mannheim on March 10.
Klitschko, who last fought on Nov. 11 when he stopped Calvin Brock in the seventh round in New York, is 47-3 with 42 knockouts, and Austin is a respectable 24-7.
Klitschko won the IBF and IBO titles last year with a technical knockout of Chris Byrd.
Former WBC heavyweight champ Hasim Rahman announced in January that he was going to fight Sinan Samil Sam in May in Turkey.
Sam is the third-ranked heavyweight, as well as the WBC's international champ. Rahman, who hasn't fought since losing his WBC title to Oleg Maskaev last August, is ranked fourth in the world.
This could be a good one, with two of the four highest-ranked heavyweights in the ring together. Not exactly Ali-Frazier, but it has the makings of a good match, nonetheless.
Perhaps the marquee matchup of the first half of the year will pit Oscar De La Hoya against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on May 5.
De La Hoya has fallen under heavy criticism in recent years by losing some tough fights, so he'll once again be looking to disprove the naysayers who say that yet again De La Hoya is overmatched.
Initially, there were questions of who would be De La Hoya's trainer. Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Jr.'s dad, has been training Oscar since 2000.
All questions were answered when it was announced that De La Hoya was going in a different direction for the fight, opting to hire Freddie Roach.
Hopefully, this fight will be entertaining and live up to its handsome payday.
Aside from Tyson, there have been several other arrests of boxers this year. Former WBO featherweight champion Scott Harrison was arrested on drug charges in Scotland. Harrison has had a history of problems, mostly alcohol-related, and he was stripped of his world title in December after bowing out of a title defense.
Harrison claimed it was due to a medical problem, and he is now banned from fighting by the British Boxing Board of Control.
Mexico's WBC light-flyweight champ, Omar Nino, was stripped of his belt when he tested positive for methamphetamines.
Due to Nino's clean record, it is not believed that the positive result was Nino's willfull and knowledgeable doing, and after the No. 1 and 2 challengers fight for his vacant belt, Nino will be able to contend to regain the belt.
During the first week of February, former world welterweight champ Ricardo Mayorga was arrested in Minagua, Nicaragua, for fraud charges.
Can any of these guys just behave themselves??
As we continue down the police blotter, world cruiserweight champ O'Neill Bell was arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon while training for a fight in Big Bear City, California. This one falls under the heading of strangest crime, if not funniest.
Apparently, while running through the woods with his training partner, Bell was upset at something that his partner, 37-year old Larry Slayton, had said to him that day, so he flung a hatchet at him. It seems that Bell had the hatchet to protect the two fighters from bears (hence the name of the town) while they were running through the woods.
Big Bear is a popular training facility outside of Los Angeles.
As the boxing world turns... can't you just see it?
Back to comebacks. "Sugar" Shane Mosley, the lightweight champ from a decade ago, is back in the ring at age 35.
Mosley looked very sharp in his victory over Luis Collazo, his most recent win in his quest to fight again.
The win could make Mosley a welterweight champion once again because the WBC billed it as an eliminator to the title held by Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Mayweather vacates the title to fight Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, it will revert to Mosley.
The final comeback fighter of mention is former heavyweight champion and fan favorite, the earless Evander Holyfield.
Holyfield, 44, has had a couple of fights in his bid for a comeback, and he won them both.
In his first fight, he knocked out Jeremy Bates in the second round in Dallas last August. In November, Holyfield won a decision over Frez Oquindo.
Now he has announced that he will fight Vinny Maddalone on March 17.
Those living in the Capital District of New York will remember Maddalone from his fight against area heavyweight Shannon Miller last summer at the Saratoga Springs City Center, which he won.
Apparently, the shananigans are not limited to the ring participants, as seemingly now the antics have flowed over into the first row...behind the microphone, to be exact.
Longtime ABC and HBO TV announcer Jim Lampley was arrrested last Friday in San Diego for violating a temporary restraining order filed by a former beauty queen.
Lampley, 57, faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the charge, a misdemeanor.
In January, there was a police report for domestic violence. 28-year old Candice Sanders, Miss Califonia U.S.A. 2003, claimed that Lampley attacked her in her Encinitas apartment on New Year's Eve, which led to Lampley's arrest and the restraining order.
Sanders also claimed that Lampley had been drinking and smoking marijuana before the attack.
We'll keep an eye on this one, too.
So, as we see, although we are barely six weeks into the new year, there's never a dull moment in the world of boxing.
Stay tuned for the results of the upcoming fights that were mentioned, as well as the jail sentences.
