Via ESPN man Dan Rafael’s pictures from the weigh-in, middleweight champion Sergio Martinez doesn’t look so swell for tomorrow’s bout with Paul Williams. His expression appears pained; his skin, sweaty and discolored. At least, to me. Eyewitnesses to the weigh-in, including Rafael himself and Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, said he didn’t look too drained. Martinez came in half a pound under the limit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything good or bad — Antonio Margarito was a pound or two below the limit against Shane Mosley last year, which some took as a sign that he overworked in a panic to get below 147 pounds.
Some brief Quick Jabs to tide us over until tomorrow night:
Quick Jabs
Bernard Hopkins has once again played black supremacist, saying pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao wouldn’t beat a black fighter. Hopkins also said once of himself that he would never lose to a “white boy” like Joe Calzaghe (he did) and after beating Kelly Pavlik, told him he’d be a better fighter if he learned how to fight like a black person. This might be a play to goad Pacquiao into facing Hopkins’ pal Mosley, but the fact remains that Hopkins gets a pass when he makes racial remarks like this that no white person would ever get. If I said, “Hopkins could never beat a white guy,” or “Hopkins is OK, but he needs to fight more like a white guy,” I’d be run out of town on a rail. Never mind that there’s really no such thing as a black “style,” unless you think Paul Williams fights like Winky Wright and both of them fight like James Kirkland. And while this whole “Pacquiao never fought a black guy” comes up a lot, he has fought black guys (Joshua Clottey) and if you draw the distinction Hopkins does about black American fighters, really the only guy who fits that description and was worth a damn that Pacquiao COULD have faced that was definitively better than any opponent he actually faced was Nate Campbell, a better lightweight than David Diaz. When he fought Miguel Cotto, maybe Shane Mosley was a better choice, but not DEFINITIVELY so. HBO’s Harold Lederman had the best reaction: When, he asked, will Pacquiao stop avoiding Jewish fighters?…
When I saw that Ring promoted Pacquiao in its welterweight rankings after Pacquiao beat Margarito last weekend, my first reaction was that it was goofy. When I saw their explanation — that Pacquiao was a welterweight at 144.5 pounds even though Margarito was above welter at 150 pounds, I thought it was less goofy. Overall, if I was the one deciding, I’d decide against it. But it’s not as crazy as it sounded at first…
It’s not at all conclusive, but at least one boxing writer says in this thread he’d heard from a “source close to the Margarito camp” that at least part of it was true: a possible answer to what was going on with Margarito and the Hydroxycut/coffee cocktail…
Both Justin Bieber and Harry Potter (OK, actor Daniel Radcliffe) have said it’s time for Floyd Mayweather to fight Pacquiao. When you’re getting called out by tween icons, things are rough for a prizefighter…
Bieber and Potter aren’t the only childhood-affiliated figures throwing boxing for a loop these days. Elmo — of Sesame Street — is the reason junior welterweights Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander aren’t fighting in Scottrade, although the fight will tentatively still be in St. Louis. It makes sense from the standpoint of where the fight can draw a crowd and make people the most cash, but if I was Bradley, I’d want some kind of guarantee of a neutral location for the rematch in the event of a close decision. Also, the Showtime bantam tourney is headed to Tacoma, Wash., FYI, although I’m not sure why…
Two past Super Six contestants have taken hits to their reputation in the last couple weeks. Super middleweight Allan Green filed a protest of his loss to Glen Johnson, citing rabbit punches, and he really shouldn’t have — the knock on Green is that he’s a flaky talent who makes excuses when he loses, and the chances of winning this protest are so minimal as to make it so the only thing Green likely gets from this is that the negative perception of him is more deeply ingrained. And Andre Dirrell’s truthiness took a hit when he declared on Twitter this week that he was targeting a return to the ring in March. Remember, his illness was supposedly career-threatening, and just a couple weeks ago, he said on Fight Camp 360 that he couldn’t fight, at the earliest, until he’d been symptom-free for three months — and as of that episode, he had symptoms that very day. So either Dirrell is fooling himself and being overly optimistic or his symptoms have cleared up a very short time after he pulled out of the tournament. Combined with other statements from his team on that episode of the show (although not his inability to remember the name of his doctor – the weird-sounding “Dr. Shaw High” or what have you, when his promoter is named Gary Shaw; in fact, the Detroit Free Press has quoted the doctor in question, Dr. Shah), the Dirrell-is-faking case has been getting stronger. It still doesn’t fully explain why he’d walk away from a big payday and maybe several, but the suspicion becomes more justified with each of these fishy bricks in the wall…
Mosley voluntarily dropped his defamation lawsuit against Victor Conte this week. I’m guessing the “I knew I was taking performance-enhancing drugs” testimony undermined his case. He also says he’s a promotional free agent, which appeared to upset his partner at Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, at least judging by these remarks. Then his ex-wife shows up at a Golden Boy show, and Golden Boy official Eric Gomez refers to her as “Jin Gomez.” Huh…
Golden Boy has secured yet another exclusive deal for its fights, this time with the network Televisa. The output deal with HBO, the Brooklyn deal, TeleFutura’s Solo Boxeo, Fight Night Club — Golden Boy has really nailed down some of these things. I honestly don’t have a problem with Golden Boy flexing its muscle, in theory. But now that the muscle is flexed, it’s really overdue for the quality of the bouts to improve. Very few TeleFutura bouts have been worthwhile; Fight Night Club is a club show that hasn’t lived up to even its meager promise; the output deal with HBO creates an incentive for worse, not better, fights. If it’s going to secure all these television slots and venue dates, Golden Boy has to deliver a quality product if it wants the sport to grow. Maybe they know they get money/ratings out off people who will watch any boxing that’s on — hardcore fans like me, and, presumably, segments of the boxing-mad Hispanic audience that it’s reaching via TeleFutura and Televisa — but Golden Boy has often commendably focused on expanding the audience for pugilism. Short-term gain can undermine long-term gain, as the people who run boxing have proven time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. With Golden Boy an increasingly powerful force, they are more and more a major slice of “the people who run boxing,” and they need to buck these destructive trends.
