When in doubt, we visit our friends over at Reddit’s boxing forum and always find some kind of gem. That’s a chart for Floyd Mayweather fights. Check out the Miguel Cotto result, by the way.
Also in this edition of Quick Jabs, beyond the headline — Roc Nation Sports, Al Haymon, Adrien Broner, Martin Scorcese and more. Let’s dive in:
QUICK JABS
If ever anyone was convinced Floyd Mayweather’s drug testing demands for Manny Pacquiao were sincerely based on cleaning up the sport, then what to make of reports that he’s involved with controversial strength and conditioning coaches Memo Heredia and Alex Ariza? We haven’t seen aspects of this confirmed by the Mayweather camp, so this is caveated on the reports being true: Mayweather himself once suspected Ariza of supplying Pacquiao with illicit enhancements, and Heredia’s past as an admitted performance enhancing drug cheat means he warrants at least the same level of skepticism as the likes of Victor Conte (and Memo’s work with Juan Manuel Marquez warrants particular skepticism). It’s caveated further by Memo saying that Ariza sought out his advice only, although Memo also keeps talking up Mayweather’s promotional company TMT as though he’s affiliated in some other way? Memo has argued Mayweather needs to up his punching power, so that’s why he’s offered a hand, in his own words; he’s not the kind of guy that a reformer would enlist, is all. Maybe Mayweather could stick to just chopping wood as a means of enhancing that power?…
At any rate, it’s been decided that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is handling Mayweather-Paquiao drug testing. USADA is far from perfect, and overall the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association is better in my view, but there’s not a vast world of difference. USADA’s handling of Danny Garcia-Erik Morales, where the fight happened even after a positive test, doesn’t seem to be a factor this time, as Lance Pugmire has reported that the fight won’t go forward if that happens here. This $5 million penalty idea from Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz seemed more to me like an inept proposal than the “bribe to allow me to ‘roid” it’s been interpreted as by some, and irrelevant anyway, because it’s not how it’s going to be handled and who the hell would be giving Pac his ‘roids? Some of the candidates are apparently in the opposite camp…
HBO’s Mark Taffet believes Mayweather-Pacquaio can break the pay-per-view buy rate record on May 2. It’s a possibility, maybe even a probability. A pessimistic take depends on if the price really does get up to $100, as some have suggested it might. That price would drive a lot of people to have group gatherings, more even than usual, and that’s going to drive down the overall rate more than it otherwise would…
The “Premier Boxing Champions” takeover has expanded to another outlet as a result of the long-rumored ESPN deal coming to fruition, with an add to ABC as part of that deal. That now means PBC will air on ABC, CBS and NBC, among others. There’s no way this isn’t costing a ton of money for Al Haymon, and it keeps getting harder to figure out how he makes it all back. That the ratings are good might not be enough; the Spike ratings for the last PBC main event averaged 1 million, which is about as much as any other kind of routine boxing broadcast does on HBO, and not that big an audience for non-boxing programming…
That brings us to the ratings for Sergey Kovalev-Jean Pascal (light heavyweight), which were a little better than the HBO norm: It averaged 1.2 million, rounded up. HBO has done some creative things to stay in the game under the Haymon assault, first on Showtime and now there and everywhere else, too. Guys like Kovalev and Gennady Golovkin are doing well in the ratings despite lacking a traditional ethnic U.S. fan base by staying busy and just being awesome to watch…
And another note on those two men: 1. Kovalev is in talks for a new deal with HBO, which is understandable, but hopefully it wouldn’t get in the way of a much-desired fight against champ Adonis Stevenson, whose relations with HBO are very poor. 2. Golovkin is pining for an array of names, and all of them would be great. It’s hard to figure how the dangerous middleweight gets Pacquiao, Mayweather, Cotto, Canelo Alvarez, Peter Quillin, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. or super middleweight champ Andre Ward. Ward had at one time appeared the most makable, but Ward’s camp is sounding less interested in that fight these days…
As for middleweight champ Cotto, he’s now with Roc Nation Sports. Some took this as some kind of betrayal of Top Rank, but Cotto has been a promotional free agent for a while and it’s not the first time he’s strayed from that relationship. What Cotto gets out of this is some promotional alliance for his own stable of fighters, and presumably a pretty high purse guarantee, as Roc Nation seems to be offering those around. We’ll see if Roc Nation can make a big fight for him or Ward going forward, and if they run into the same problem Haymon might face vis-a-vis the cost of doing business vs. options for return on investment…
One guy who would be a good, actually possible Golovkin opponent is David Lemieux, except he’s now in a promotional tug of war between Golden Boy and Group Yvon Michel. Just what Golovkin needed: Another potential opponent who might turn from potential into unlikely…
The aforementioned Chavez is now with trainer Joe Goossen, who has talked up Chavez’s discipline in advance of his next light heavyweight fight. Goossen is, of course, an excellent coach, and it would be nice to see Chavez actually buckle down on his career. He’s a popular fighter, and often a fun one, who has been slowed by a lack of devotion to said career…
If you missed it, our Alex McClintock wrote something for the Guardian about the death of boxer Brayd Smith, and why a ban is not the answer…
Junior welterweight contender Broner can’t stay out of trouble with the law dogs for very long, can he? Still confused why we just learned in March about a drunk driving charge that dates back to January…
Mike Tyson, the biopic, directed by Martin Scorcese? This movie could break all records for curse words spoken during a single film.
