To the right, observe the blurry cover of the September issue of Ring magazine, where I have my first full-length feature after penning a couple smaller items. (It’s blurry because I hyper-inflated a super-small image from the table of contents.) My understanding is that the issue has already hit some mailboxes, so I feel obligated to command you to run out and buy three copies, then write a letter to Ring about how it was your favorite article ever. It’s about an increase in the amount of boxing broadcasts in 2010, a topic that originated in a discussion here with friend of the site willfrank. But it’s also about 3-D boxing. Yes, 3-D boxing.
Self-promotion completed, I must insist we get to the Quick Jabs. I insist! Because I’m in a bossy mood. Besides the headline, we visit once more with Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao because the “deadline” is today, the Klitschkos vs. HBO and boxing’s ugly 2010, among other topics.
Quick Jabs
Okey-dokey, here’s the latest on the welterweight megafight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. The Mayweather side isn’t acknowledging anyone or anything, although Dan Rafael reports that “it’s believed” HBO’s Ross Greenburg is acting as a go-between with Pacquiao promoter Top Rank and Mayweather adviser Al Haymon. Meanwhile, Mayweather himself is celebrating his ESPY and holding scavenger hunts, which is of course exactly what we want him to be doing instead of signing a fight with Pacquiao. Top Rank boss Bob Arum is all up in the press like you wouldn’t believe, talking up the negotiating deadline of midnight Pacific, and Top Rank even has a countdown clock on its website. Along the way, Arum keeps mentioning what Pacquiao might do next, like maybe fighting Antonio Margarito. My reading of this is that Arum knows the fight isn’t happening and is using the headlines Mayweather-Pacquiao would generate to draw some additional attention to Pacquiao’s next move. There does appear to be a critical mass of people arguing Mayweather should just accept the damn fight, with even Mayweather cheerleader Lyle Fitzsimmons saying it’s overdue. I don’t want to defend Mayweather on this, because I’m sick of the excuses on all sides, but everyone seems to have bought into the Arum story that both sides have agreed to a deal and all Mayweather needs to do is sign. I’m unconvinced — I think there might be an issue with the defamation lawsuit by Pacquiao against the Mayweather camp, among the issues Arum cites as to why Mayweather might not sign, like the possibility of his uncle/trainer Roger going to jail or Mayweather wanting to take the rest of 2010 off, not to mention the possibility that all the old terms Pacquiao agreed to are no longer acceptable to Mayweather after his big-money win over Shane Mosley. And you can dismiss Mayweather’s argument about the lawsuit all you want, but people in boxing or in the regular world don’t usually do much business with one another when there’s a lawsuit on the table. And, of course, fight negotiation “deadlines” are about as sturdy as a house made of pudding. But I don’t think the fight happens. Not now, not ever. I’ll be back tonight or tomorrow morning to elaborate if I’m right about “now,” especially if I can get to my computer for Arum’s media call at 3 a.m. ET…
Out of nowhere 12 days after the Greenburg interview where he explained HBO’s lack of interest in Wladimir Klitschko-Alexander Povetkin, and with several Klitschko officials having responded in the interim, another Klitschko camp member now alleges that HBO had promised to air Klitschko-Povetkin and now the Klitschkos wanted nothing to do with the network. I’d be inclined to think this was a bunk allegation, since the heavyweight champions’ people might have brought it up before now, but an HBO spokesman wouldn’t answer a question directly about it. I’m not sure what to make of it at all, actually, since this particular Klitschko camp member contradicted what all the others said about how it’s HBO’s money and they can spend it how they like and we’ll talk to them later for later fights. But pissing matches are always just swell to behold in boxing. We simply don’t get enough of them these days…
It’s too early to call it a trend, but between the stacked Golden Boy card July 31 and the increasingly stacked Don King card Aug. 7, we’ll be getting some good undercards in the span of a few weeks, as opposed to one or fewer a year. No, not much of anybody wants to watch the junior middleweight title bout between Cory Spinks and Cornelius Bundrage announced for the card this week, but you can’t deny it’s a significant bout that DKP is adding to the junior welterweight headliner between titlist Devon Alexander and Andreas Kotelnik and light heavyweight title bout between Glen Johnson and Tavoris Cloud. Someone out there want to make the third one the charm?…
I’ve been straight-up morose about boxing’s 2010. Ring’s Eric Raskin offers the theory that it’s a “rebuilding year,” where things will be set up for 2011. I can’t at all say I share his outlook, because I’m pessimistic about any number of big fights EVER happening (up to and including the coveted featherweight bout between Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa that’s been endlessly pushed back) but if you’re the kind of person searching for reasons to be optimistic, Raskin has the treasure you seek…
Ah, at long last, super middleweights Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham have set aside their feud about where they’ll fight and it’ll be in Monaco Oct. 2, per a news release. Was that so freaking hard? Before that happened, though, Froch got in a good line about Abraham’s promoter, Kalle Sauerland: “His birth certificate is an apology from the condom factory.” OK, it’s a one-liner he didn’t invent, but I hadn’t heard it, so I loved it. Froch: Petulant ass, excellent trash-talker, exciting fighter…
Steve Kim revealed an interesting reason junior bantamweight Nonito Donaire might have fought in the southpaw stance last weekend — he has a problem with his hip. That’s worrisome. Orthodox Donaire is far more dangerous than southpaw Donaire…
There have been a couple different storylines about this weekend’s fights that I’m dubious of, even though reliable reporters have transmitted them. (I’m not gonna link to every single one, so you’ll have to trust me.) One: Timothy Bradley is taking a “dangerous” fight at welterweight by battling Luis Carlos Abregu, because not much else was available to him. I actually am of the mind that Abregu isn’t remotely dangerous to Bradley and in our site’s Prediction Game, not a single person has picked Abregu for the upset, so I’m not sure why several people are saying the fight is dangerous. Yes, Abregu can punch, but I bet by the end of the fight we’ll be able to count the number of times he connects cleanly on one hand. Furthermore, Devon Alexander was very much available to Bradley, so there was person who would have been a significantly better opponent than Abregu, in fact THE best opponent Bradley could have taken. Two: Welterweight Zab Judah appears to have “matured.” It’s true that he’s got a new promoter, new trainer and hasn’t had any legal run-ins for a while, but the last couple times I’ve seen Judah in the press before this week he was demanding fights with Oscar De La Hoya and other ridiculous things (as if De La Hoya would come out of a two-year retirement to fight Judah, of all people). Count me as skeptical that he’s “grown up.” But the Real Housewives of New Jersey will be attending his fight, per a news release. Not kidding, from a news release:
“A host of celebrities plan to turn out for the event, including ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ favorites Teresa Guidice [sic] and Jacqueline Laurita, who plan to sit front and center for the big event.”
(This shouting housewife who’s on a TV show famous for its shouting housewives, Mrs. Laurita, loves the new, more mature Zab Judah.)
