The holiday this weekend and the chaos of Atlantic City last weekend has us behind on some of the latest news tidbits and fights in the works, but we’ll get caught up, just you watch.
It starts with the above video, a dynamite knockout from last weekend that was overshadowed, naturally, by Sergio Martinez’ knockout of Paul Williams. Belated thanks to friend of the site Pretty Toney for sharing it. After the video it moves to, mainly, the stuff in the above headline, but also Kelly Pavlik’s latest sad career (and life) turn, Floyd Mayweather’s latest sad career (and life) turn, plus some feuding between Golden Boy and Shane Mosley.
Quick Jabs
Finally, we now know without a question that former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik is having alcohol abuse problems. The rumors had been out there for forever, but with Pavlik checking into rehab, we have the sad, undisputed truth. It’s a familiar story of the man who became too famous too fast, and couldn’t deal with it too well. As a Pavlik fan, albeit an increasingly frustrated one, this news saddens me. I liked him as a boxer and I liked what I knew of is personality. And I hate to talk about him in the past tense, but his manager said Pavlik might never fight again. I want him to get well for my selfish reasons, because I’m a boxing fan who thinks a healthy Pavlik is good for the sport, but as a human being you hope he fixes this…
Mayweather’s implosion is a source of less woe for me, to the point that this Michael Buffer line after Manny Pacquiao beat up Antonio Margarito is too comedic not to pass along: “That’s the kind of performance that could make Floyd want to go to jail”…
If you haven’t seen Thomas Hauser on Pacquiao-Margarito, get thee to SecondsOut right now. It’s one of his best ever pieces on a single fight. I could listen to trainers Freddie Roach and Naazim Richardson all day. And I like that he pointed out that people of “good faith” could differ on Margarito. If only more people had read that line before the bout…
Even if 30,000 people paid to watch Pacquiao’s debut at junior middleweight, as opposed to 70,000, it’s still a success. But the 9,700 comp tickets handed out is almost more than the number of people who saw the last two big fights in Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined. That’s a lot, lot of tickets to give away. And Jerry Jones might have lost some money on the fight this time around, so one wonders if Cowboy Stadium will be hosting another boxing match anytime soon…
As disappointing as the live gate was for Martinez-Williams II, ESPN’s Dan Rafael reported this week that the battle for Martinez’ middleweight crown was the second-highest viewed HBO fight of the year. Some of that no doubt piggybacked on the lead-in from Pacquiao-Margarito, but it goes a ways toward countering my worry what the hell is wrong with boxing fans who didn’t want to go see Martinez-Williams II in person…
By contrast, Jean Pascal-Bernard Hopkins in Montreal nearly sold out in two days, according to a news release this week. I know Canada is a nice fight location these days and Pascal took his stardom there to another level when he claimed the light heavyweight championship from Chad Dawson, but a Hopkins fight selling 15,000 tickets? And Martinez-Williams II and Juan Manuel Marquez-Michael Katsidis for Marquez’ lightweight crown both doing about 5,000 each, and God knows how many comps? I’m not sure any sense can be made of all this, collectively…
The Golden Boy-Shane Mosley feud has gotten a bit more vocal of late. Golden Boy boss Richard Schaefer went back at the welterweight partner into the company, suggesting that Mosley is under contract, contrary to Mosley’s claim that he’s a free agent. And he points out that Mosley has made a ton of money and gotten a lot of big fights under Golden Boy, which is true. That doesn’t mean Golden Boy can get fights done with Top Rank, though, whether Top Rank is more to blame for that or not, and it remains true that if Mosley wants a fight with Pacquiao, he’s better off as a free agent, even if in name only…
Sad about boxer Christy Martin, too. Deadspin’s headline says it best: “Boxer Shot And Stabbed By Husband So Burglar Sees perfect Chance To Strike.”
