I used to watch “Press Your Luck” when I was younger, but I only recently learned of the Michael Larson “scandal.” Fascinating stuff.
It relates to boxing matches in the works because beep-boop-beep-bop-beep is how it goes until it stops, and hopefully you don’t get a Whammy. After an early 2012 filled with Whammys, there are few waaahwoos left on the schedule. Usually matchmaking starts to slow down around this time of year because it takes a few months to promote a fight properly and there’s often an unofficial schedule break in late December and most of January, but things are still going relatively strong. Besides the men in the headline, we discuss options, non-options or done deals for Sergio Martinez, Andre Ward, Mikey Garcia, Devon Alexander and others.
Round And Round
Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez is sounding skittish notes about a rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., primarily because the talk of it that it would be in Cowboys Stadium, and the Texas jurisdiction has been on the permissive side (or if you care to be generous, sloppy side) with the antics of Junior. I’m guessing right now Martinez feels like he has some negotiating leverage and is going to try and maximize it: Chavez and his crew want the rematch, but Golden Boy is talking about throwing Saul Canelo Alvarez at Martinez and Floyd Mayweather might be out there for Martinez, or Miguel Cotto. So if they don’t do the Chavez fight, they have options, and might try to squeeze a bit extra money out of the Chavez side because of it.
One thing that won’t happen is Martinez-Andre Ward. Everybody involved with that potential fight agrees: Martinez won’t go above 160, Ward won’t go down to 160 and as a full-blown super middleweight, doesn’t even sound like he wants to go to a catchweight. So, while it was neat to talk about for a little bit, further wasting of breath is just that: a waste of breath.
Gennady Golovkin’s team has been talking about options for the middleweight, including Martinez (doubtful, given the above list of money men Martinez could face) but also Daniel Geale, Dmitry Pirog and Peter Quillin. Quillin might be the most interesting in a way because of his speed and Golovkin’s lack of it. But Quillin is doing all right under adviser Al Haymon and doesn’t need to go the high-risk route. Geale and Pirog, anyway, should be interested, and both are good options.
Tossed aside in the Manny Pacquiao sweepstakes, Timothy Bradley is now looking at a rematch with Lamont Peterson Dec. 15. I don’t have much use for that fight, especially if it’s at welterweight rather than junior welterweight. Peterson is going to a purse bid for his junior welterweight strap against Zab Judah, and Judah might be in the running for Bradley, too. It’s not that Bradley-Peterson is objectionable, but any combination of those three men doesn’t titillate me, with Peterson-Judah about the best match-up of the names.
The Nov. 10 HBO doubleheader with featherweights Orlando Salido and Mikey Garcia joining up with junior middleweights Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara is reportedly a go. It’ll be head-to-head with Showtime’s junior featherweight offering, Abner Mares-Anselmo Moreno. This is like a mini-version of last weekend, only inverted, with Showtime now putting on the better single fight and HBO offering a better multi-fight option, at least for the time being.
We thought it might happen, but the homeless Devon Alexander-Randall Bailey welterweight fight just found a home Oct. 20 on the Barclays card. That’s a pretty well-packed card now.
Talks continue for Adrien Broner’s move up to lightweight to face Antonio DeMarco, with a date of Nov. 17 held on HBO for Broner. DeMarco’s team is saying they won’t put up with any Broner weight antics: They’ll just plain walk away rather than be bought into an over-the-weight bout. I hope they mean it. I want to see Broner-DeMarco, but I’d be just as satisfied watching Broner get zero dollars because he didn’t make weight.
After an unsatisfactory conclusion to their fight last weekend, featherweight Jhonny Gonzalez wants a rematch with Daniel Ponce De Leon. Good for him. I stand by what I said earlier this week: I’m fine with a rematch, but would also be fine with something else entirely, given that their styles didn’t mesh until late in the bout.
There was talk that Mercito Gesta might face Miguel Vazquez now in what would be a long-awaited step-up for the Filipino lightweight, but instead there was a purse bid for Vazquez’s belt and he’s going to face Marvin Quintero Oct. 27 in a so-so fight.
Back and forth it went, whether junior featherweight Rafael Marquez would fight Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr., Oct. 6, but now it’s off seemingly for good with Jonathan Oquendo stepping in for Marquez. That’s too bad.
Junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade won his latest non-fight Thursday and now is calling out Serhiy Dzinziruk. Such a strange choice of someone to call out. Dzinziruk’s good, but he’s coming off a performance that leaves few if any enthusiastic about seeing him again, and I doubt he’s high on HBO’s list of people they want to air. It makes sense somewhat as a step-up fight for Andrade, but commercially I don’t get it.
(Round And Round sources: BoxingScene; RingTV)
