Somehow I overlooked that fine illustration of Floyd Mayweather being frightened by prison food several days back when it appeared in The Las Vegas Review Journal. Only when I was tweeted it by @LoNeRaNgEr100 did I notice it, so we made it the boxing tweet of the week over at our Facebook page. I have mentioned our Facebook page, no? Today we had a poll and stuff. Please, go like us. It’s getting ugly, me soliciting in this manner. The best way to measure a man’s worth in raw numbers, not the motion of his ocean, and while we do not take for granted what love you’ve given us, we want more, more, more.
In this edition of Quick Jabs we’ll hit the subjects in the headline, but also touch on the latest performance enhancing drug news as well as Nevada’s investigation into the fishy result for Timothy Bradley-Manny Pacquiao. Then, a few hours later, we’ll be back with Round and Round to discuss some fights in the works. So soak this in now, and return in a bit to see discussion of some related news in a follow-up bloggy post.
Quick Jabs
Bob Arum hinted at a Showtime/Top Rank feud recently, but even more recently it went nuclear. Check out all the cross words here. About the only thing they agree upon is that things aren’t so lovey since Showtime cast its lot with Canelo Alvarez for his Sept. 15 show, over Top Rank’s own plan for that date with their own middleweightish Mexican superstar, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. on rival HBO. I don’t know who’s to blame most; in one corner, you have Arum, the Top Rank boss who’s feuded with nearly everyone in boxing at some point. In the other corner, you have new Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza who has been accused of coziness with Top Rank rival Golden Boy and might still be learning the delicacies of managing a relationship with the temperamental Arum. If you look at what each of them say about the other side, it’s clear somebody’s lying in their somewhere, and my inclination based on track record to date is to suspect it’s Arum; that is, unless they produce these e-mails they say they have, thereby proving their side is right. Anyway, it’s never a good idea for one of boxing’s biggest promoters and one of boxing’s biggest networks to be squabbling like this. And it adds a rift that could lead to yet more excuses for fights not being made…
Whatever happened to adviser Al Haymon by way of his (modest) power dip over the last couple years, he’s really restocked the cupboard in 2012. The latest additions to his roster are junior middleweight Erislandy Lara and junior welterweight Josesito Lopez, the latter of whom is signed up for that very big fight in September with Caneo Alvarez that is one of the main ones we’ll discuss in Round And Round. By my count, that’s six signings so far this year. Ascertaining who exactly is and who exactly isn’t a current Haymon client is a difficult task absent calling up every single fighter, so following is a list of Haymon clients as they seem to currently stand, with accompanying notes in some cases. Note which of them have been on what networks and who are with which promoters: Floyd Mayweather, Devon Alexander (new in 2012), Erislandy Lara (new in 2012), Josesito Lopez (new in 2012), Gary Russell, Jr., Sakio Bika, Chris Arreola, Antonio Tarver, Keith Thurman, Jermain Taylor, Austin Trout (new in 2012), Paul Williams (whose career almost certainly ended this year in a motorcycle accident), Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Peter Quillin (new in 2012), Seth Mitchell, Rico Ramos, Omar Figueroa (new in 2012), Anthony Dirrell, Andre Berto, Fernando Guerrero, Ron Hearns (unconfirmed), Naim Terbunja, Chris Pearson, Librado Andrade, Enrique Ornelas, Denis Douglin and Audley Harrison (was at one point, probably is no longer). Compare that list to the stable of the next most populous roster of clients belonging to Cameron Dunkin, a boxing manager proper…
Good investigation of that Bradley decision win over welterweight superstar Pacquiao, Nevada attorney general! If they had said, “Hey, there are no credible allegations of criminal activity” and refused to look into it at all, I would’ve understood. But Arum has a very, very good point otherwise: They did interview someone, and they interviewed referee Robert Byrd, who had no role in the decision, but didn’t interview the judges, who did. At least they hit up the Gaming Control Board and the Nevada State Athletic Commission, too, but this doesn’t strike me as much of a “review,” even, without the judges. Oh well. It’s not like I had high hopes that there’d be some deep investigation anyhow…
Let’s talk performance-enhancing drugs, in three parts. Part #1: Junior featherweight Nonito Donaire complained of leg cramps after his most recent fight. When fighters under the guidance of strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza complained of leg cramps (namely Pacquiao and the aforementioned Chavez), Victor Conte hinted darkly on Twitter of a possible connection to PEDs. Donaire is under the guidance of Conte. Conte has blocked me on Twitter, so I guess he’s not as accountable and willing to confront criticism as he’d have you believe, but I haven’t seen Conte hinting darkly about leg cramps and PEDs this time. And, yes, it’s good that Donaire is doing random drug testing year-round, but it’s also a bit of a conflict of interest to have Conte on his team when Conte is an adviser to the outfit doing the testing, VADA. This isn’t me accusing Donaire of anything. I have no reason to believe he’s on anything, and hope he isn’t because I like him a great deal. It’s only to point out once more that Conte’s shadow is a long one, and his reborn, angelic schtick is a bit problematic in yet more ways. (One more note: Arum recently said, when discussing Donaire’s drug testing regime, that “I have heard, just like you have probably heard, where people have paid money to get exemptions for people that have tested positive.” We haven’t all heard of this actually HAPPENING. The only thing we’ve heard of is Golden Boy explicitly saying that such a thing didn’t exist.) …
PEDs, part #2: It would be better for all involved if something more than state commission testing was to be used for the fight between middleweight champ Sergio Martinez and Chavez Sept. 15, but it won’t be, per Tuesday’s news conference. That’s too bad, although it’s understandable that the fighter with the least monetary leverage (Martinez) wasn’t able to impose his will in this area on the bigger money-maker (Chavez). The reason it’s too bad is because there is legitimate reason to be suspicious of Chavez, that being that he has previously tested positive for a banned substance, among other fishy circumstances. I’m not endorsing these suspicions of Andy Lee or his trainer Emanuel Steward, but they are yet more anecdotal fuel for the fire. This quote is particularly worrisome, from Steward, referencing the heavyweight champ: “As Andy said, ‘I’ve boxed with Wladimir Klitschko many times; for this fight I boxed with guys 180 pounds. His strength was going like he was almost a 500-pound man.’ Based on that and some of the other things I am beginning to see, I realize that there may be something going on that I don’t know of”…
PED, part #3: Other positive tests, some rumored and some confirmed, are flourishing of late. This piece focuses on British light heavyweight Enzo Macarinelli and his rumored positive test, but some of the others are confirmed. Another Brit boxer, heavyweight Ali Adams, also recently tested positive, which roped in Brit heavyweight Dereck Chisora in a tangential way. And I overlooked this test of heavyweight Monte Barrett until recently, although the “unsanctioned” circumstances are curious. P.S. Poor Barrett, per the video below.
