Boxing News Thread

[2-0-Sixx]

Some quick news since the site went down:

-Victor Ortiz had his hearing yesterday and Nevada issued a ONE TIME license to fight Berto. The Fight is on. In a comical twist, Roger Mayweather was to attend the hearing to plead to the commission to DENY victor his license, however he showed up three hours late, only to tell reporters, "What?! They didn't ban that motherfucker!?"

-At the same hearing, Nevada suspended Joel Casamayor and revoked his boxing license for testing positive for marijuana in his previous fight against Timothy Bradley.

-Undefeated Middleweight Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin is set to fight Irish Andy Lee on the undercard of the Sergio Martinez vs Matthew Macklin undercard on March 17th.

-JuanMa Lopez vs Salido II is set for March 10th, in Puerto Rico.

-Bam Bam Rios says he can still make 135 pounds for one more fight. He said he'll ONLY fight at 135 for Gamboa and hopes to be made for March of 2012. Rios said he never had a nutritionist or a conditioning coach in the past and lost the weight on his own, that has changed and he has now hired a conditioning coach to monitor his weight and diet. He said he'll have no problem making 135 for Gamboa, but only Gamboa, if not he's going to 140.

 

[RM211]

lol @ 3 hours late...is floyd sr. training berto for this fight? or is he just pissed off still cuz of what happened with ortiz and floyd jr.?

 

[2-0-Sixx]

just being a dick lol

 

[heyzel]

offer this week, probably, and then we’ll look at the money.”

I for one would love to see 31-year-old Bute, 30-0(24) and 34-year-old Froch, 28-2(20) get it on. I’m pretty sure the fight would be exciting, and I’m also of the belief that the fight would be close enough and competitive enough to warrant a rematch. Froch has had trouble with movers, but in a rumble, like the ones he had with Jean Pascal and Mikkel Kessler, “The Cobra” has proven he can war with anyone. I can see Bute and Froch having such a war. Both men are tough and durable, therefore aside from a body shot KO, I don’t see a stoppage.

The only other problem I can think of is that the first fight could be so damaging, so draining to both men, that they would not have too much left to offer in a return a mere three or four months later. But style-wise there is no doubt: Froch Vs. Bute would be a FOTY candidate. The winner - if there is an outright winner who picks up two victories (and in all honesty I can picture these two being tied up at 1-1 after the smoke has cleared) - would be a massive star of the division.

Bute missed out on The “Super Six” Froch did so well in, but “Le Tombeur” is close to engaging in a Mano-a-Mano mini-tourney with “The Cobra!”
Article posted on 13.01.2012

 

[heyzel]

Pacquiao wants a 50-50 deal before he’ll agree to fight Mayweather
January 12th, 2012

By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao wants a 50-50 deal of the revenue before he’ll accept a fight against WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a fight in May.

Pacquiao also wants the fight to take place at the end of May, not on May 5th when Mayweather already has said he’ll fight. Pacquiao wants to squeeze out a little more cash by having the fight take place at the end of the month when supposedly his promoter will finally have a 45,000 seat arena.

Pacquiao told Philstar.com “There’s no problem with me as long as it’s a 50-50 split.”

Does Pacquiao deserve a 50-50 deal? You would think that given his poor performance against Juan Manuel Marquez last November, his share should be downgraded to 40% automatically from that fight.
Pacquiao doesn’t say why the temporary makeshift arena can’t be done by May 5th. With big money flowing into this fight from sides and the Las Vegas economy down the tubes, you would think they could hire enough workers to have the temporary arena created by May 5th, can’t you?

I smell game playing by Bob Arum and duck job coming. Mayweather has to report to jail on June 1st to start serving his 90 day jail term, so if you force the guy to fight on May 26th, which is the last Saturday in the month, that only gives Mayweather five days to recover from that fight before he has to start his jail term.

Mayweather will likely be distracted if he fights on May 26th, thinking about he has to start serving his sentence. I bet that has a lot to deal with Arum wanting the fight to take place at the end of the month rather than on May 5th. Force the fight until the last second and hope to get a small advantage out of it against a worried Mayweather

 

[heyzel]

Arum wants Mayweather to make a deal with him
January 12th, 2012

By Chris Williams: Bob Arum is looking to put together a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in late May. However, Arum wants Mayweather to contact him so that he can try and make a deal to guarantee Mayweather’s purse.

Apparently, Arum doesn’t think Golden Boy Promotions can do this for Mayweather, so he wants to cut a deal with him to where he’ll guarantee Mayweather’s purse but for a small profit.

Arum told Philstar.com “It will be late in May. But the problem remains the same in that no one from Mayweather’s side would guarantee his purse. I can only guarantee Manny’s purse, but if Floyd wants to make a deal with me then I’m open to that. I can guarantee his purse but I then will have a share in his revenue. That’s why we need to hear from him.”

I don’t think Mayweather will go for that in a million years to have Arum sharing his revenue. That’ like something out of bad movie. Arum says things that sometimes aren’t true and I would be surprised if Golden Boy couldn’t guarantee Mayweather’s purse, but if they can’t, Mayweather won’t likely have any interest in letting Arum cut in his money.

Pacquiao is saying he wants the fight but he’s now asking for a 50-50 cut of the revenue. This comes after Pacquiao had previously said he’d take less than a 50-50 deal. Not sure what made him change his mind but I don’t think he deserves it. Just based on that very questionable decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in his last fight, I don’t think Pacquiao is on the same level as Mayweather. Marquez was easily beaten by Mayweather two years before that.

Arum still wants a temporary 45,000 seat outdoor arena built for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. It looks as if he now believes it can be created by late May instead of in June, which is some of the baloney that’s been shopped around. The MGM Grand, the place that Mayweather has already booked for May 5th, holds slightly less than 17,000 fans. Arum wants to get as much as they can out of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, and you can’t blame him for that.

Pacquiao and Mayweather figure to make $50 million each off of this fight, which a mind boggling number. That’s a lot of cash and it could wind up even more than that depending on how well they market this to catch as much attention as possible.

 

[heyzel]

Mayweather says he only wants Pacquiao
January 13th, 2012

By Chris Williams: WBC welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he’s only targeting Manny Pacquiao right now and nobody else. In an interview at fighthype.com, Mayweather states that he doesn’t want Saul Alvarez, Miguel Cotto or a rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez.

Mayweather says he only wants Pacquiao and is wondering why the Filipino star is ducking him so badly. I wonder why as well. Just look at the way Pacquiao has been constantly using Mayweather’s name for the past two years by name dropping all the time.
Mayweather said this at fighype.com “I want him [Pacquiao]. I only want one person.”

It’s sad that Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum don’t seemingly want the fight. Pacquiao is talking out of both sides of his mouth, saying one thing that sounds as if he wants the Mayweather fight , and then coming back with how can’t fight Mayweather unless the 45,000 seat arena is created. I mean, come on what is that? Isn’t he supposed to be for the people and not just trying to squeeze every penny out of something?

The people want the fight now and there might be next time for these two guys. Pacquiao is slipping as a fighter and got a gift decision in his last fight, and the legs are gone to the point where Pacquiao resembles a plodder. He needs to agree to take the fight now before someone beats him and is actually given the win. He lost last fight against Marquez.

Mayweather said his management are probably looking someone else for him to fight on May 5th, but he still says he prefers the Pacquiao fight.

Mayweather also said that he could be fighting Cotto or Alvarez next. That’s excellent news because either of those fighters would be someone Mayweather could substitute in place of the Pacquiao fight and maybe even better fight from them than the Filipino at this point. Those guys can still move and aren’t stuck with legs that can only plod. They’ll give Mayweather some problems.

 

[heyzel]

WBA orders immediate Khan vs. Peterson rematch
January 13th, 2012

By Scott Gilfoid: Things are slowly turning around for Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s). On Thursday, the World Boxing Association reportedly ordered an immediate rematch between Khan and IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s) in response to an expensive appeal that Khan’s promoters Golden Boy Promotions filed with the WBA and IBF after Khan was beaten by Peterson on December 10th by a 12 round split decision in Washington, DC.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO, Richard Schaefer, told RingTV “I just received, a half an hour ago, a letter from the WA on their official decision that they are going to order an immediate rematch. I think that its the fight decision and I hope that we can get the rematch done.”

Golden Boy asked for the appeal because of what they felt were scoring issues, a referee that they felt unfairly deducted points from Khan for shoving, and scoring problems. They also took issue with the “Mystery man,” Mustafa Ameen, who was seen sitting and chatting with the WBA supervisor Michael Welsh during parts of the Khan-Peterson fight.

They felt that taken as a whole, there was enough suspect problems that the fight should be overturned with the results changed to ‘No decision” and Khan given his IBF & WBA titles back, as well an immediate rematch ordered. Golden Boy and Khan didn’t get the no contest, but they have received the immediate rematch orders for Peterson.

The International Boxing Federation will be meeting next week to decide the fate of the Khan appeal on January 18th. There’s a chance that they’ll also order an immediate rematch as well.
So how does this affect Peterson? Probably not a whole lot; He only has two options available to him: a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao, which probably won’t happen, and the Khan rematch.

Peterson was always going to have to come back to fight Khan anyway, and all the appeal did was force what was going to happen anyway with all likelihood. Golden Boy wasted their money, Khan got a bad name, and he’s still not the champion. I can’t think of a stupider thing to do than to file an appeal on the back of that loss. I wonder who dreamed up the idea for that one.

Khan looked good in the first two rounds of the fight, showing incredible hand speed, combinations and foot work. However, after the 3rd, Khan started to fall apart under the pressure from Peterson and couldn’t handle his inside attacks. Khan soon after started shoving Peterson constantly, pulling down on his head every chance he could get and putting him in headlocks that often turned Peterson’s face a bright red from the pressure that Khan was using around his throat with his arm.

The referee asked Khan to stop pushing Peterson, but Khan was having none of it. He just kept shoving over and over again until he lost a point in the 7th round from the frustrated referee. The point deduction didn’t change a thing with Khan, as he kept shoving Peterson around the ring like an MMA fighter rather than a boxer.

There’s pushing that it’s allowable but Khan was taking it to another level and using the pushing as an actual tool instead of a rare thing. Khan shoved in place of an inside game and the referee could see what Khan was doing and wasn’t going to turn a blind eye to the blatant fouling from Khan. After more warnings, the referee took a second point off from Khan in the 12th round for more pushing.

Did that stop Khan from pushing? Nope! He went right back to it and continued to push until the final bell. The reminded me of the Showtime bout between Abner Mares and Joseph Abeko where the referee kept warning Mares to stop throwing low, but the warnings had no effect on changing Mares’ behavior. He went right on fouling until the end of the fight. The same with Khan; He continued to shove until the end of the fight and was the loser.

 

[heyzel]

Mike Jones vs. Randall Bailey going to purse bid on 1/24
January 12th, 2012

By Allen Fox: Unbeaten #1 IBF/WBO welterweight contender Mike Jones (26-0, 19 KOs) and #2 IBF contender Randall Bailey (42-7m 36 KO’s) will be fighting for the vacant International Boxing Federation welterweight title in 2012.

Neither of their promoters was able to reach an agreement on Thursday. As such, the fight will go to purse bid on January 24th. Jones, 28, is backed by Top Rank, while the 37-year-old Bailey is promoted by Dibella Entertainment and will be the ones bidding on 1/24.

Jones has been fighting as a pro for the past six years and most recently defeated Sebastian Lujan by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in a IBF welterweight title eliminator bout. It was one of Jones’ better performances with him winning by the lopsided scores of 118-110, 119-109 and 119-109.

Bailey, a former WBO light welterweight champion, is a 16-year pro who has faced many of the top fighters in the sport over the years. His best wins have come against guys like DeMarcus Corley, Jackson Osei Bonsu and Rocky Martinez. He suffered a very questionable loss to Herman Ngoudjo in June 2007, and was worn down and stopped by Juan Urango. Bailey has devastating one-punch power early in his fights but tends to wear down if his fights go into the second half.

Bailey will have to try and get to Jones early if he’s to have any chance at winning the fight. Although now a welterweight, Bailey is still more of a light welterweight and was a lot more dangerous at that weight than he is at 147.

Jones is a decent fighter but hardly a world beater. He’s going to be okay as long he’s kept away from good fighters like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Victor Ortiz, Andre Berto or Saul Alvarez. Once his promoter Bob Arum puts him in with any of those guys, Jones will lose and lose badly.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Alexander-Maidana, Broner-Perez Face To Face, for Feb 25th HBO card

 

[heyzel]

Roach: Pacquiao will fight Peterson or Bradley next
January 13th, 2012

By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach openly admits that Pacquiao will be fighting someone else in his next fight in June and not Mayweather. Roach doesn’t do the selection of who Pacquiao fights, but he thinks it’s going to be Timothy Bradley or Lamont Peterson who get the call for the fight and not Miguel Cotto or Juan Manuel Marquez.

Roach told Dan Rafael of ESPN “My theory of what’s going to happen is Mayweather will fight someone and Pacquiao will fight Lamont Peterson or Bradley and in November they’ll finally fight each other.”
That sounds more like Roach’s preference than any kind of inside knowledge of what’s going on. Bob Arum does the selection for Pacquiao and he’s obviously not going to share that information with Roach until he’s ready to go public with it.

Roach hopes the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will happen in November but I don’t see anything that will be any different than it is now. Arum could have made the fight now but instead chose to match Pacquiao with one of four guys that he’s itching to put him in with.

After Pacquiao’s fight in November, there will still be three guys that Arum hasn’t matched Pacquiao up with from his list and you can guess Arum will keep putting off the Mayweather fight until all three of the remaining fighters have been put in with Pacquiao. I have my doubts that Arum will match Pacquiao with Mayweather at that time because Arum likes to fight the same guys over and over again, so we could see Pacquiao fight Cotto for a third time and also see him against Bradley and Peterson again.

Mayweather is still saying he only wants to fight Pacquiao but he’s being pretty much ignored by Arum, who will likely will be making his announcement for Pacquiao’s next opponent next week or sooner. It won’t be Mayweather and it sure won’t be Mayweather next November, not when there’s still more guys on Arum’s list for Pacquiao to fight.

 

[heyzel]

Mayweather seeking investors for Pacquiao fight
January 13th, 2012

By John F. McKenna (McJack): Top Rank CEO Bob Arum acknowledges that he does not fully understand the current situation with World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) but he stated that Floyd is seeking investors for a possible Mega fight with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s).

Arum was quoted in the Manila Standard saying:

“I know he’s meeting with this group that said they would guarantee” the funds needed for the biggest fight in boxing history.

“Let’s see what happens, but this investors group has money.”

Arum has already said that he would guarantee Pacquiao’a purse for such a fight but that since Mayweather has no promoter he would have to come up with investors who are willing to guarantee his purse.

Arum also believes that Mayweather’s recent comments to the media, is merely posturing on Mayweather’s part. The Top Rank promoter also believes Floyd’s actions served the purpose of helping to hype the fight.

Referring to the Mayweather camp discussing Miguel Cotto as a possible May 5 opponent for Floyd, Arum said:

“They are just floundering around. They are not going to get him.”

Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz contradicted the assertion that the Pacquiao camp had previously agreed to May 5 as a date for the Pacquiao – Mayweather fighting saying that they had never agreed to that date.

Koncz acknowledged that he had met privately with Mayweather at his Las Vegas Gym several weeks ago but did not disclose what was discussed at the meeting.

Arum has said on several occasions that he thinks the more likely time frame for a Mayweather – Pacquaio fight is the November time frame which would afford both fighters the opportunity to have a tune up fight. It is still not known who Mayweather or Pacquiao will fight in the spring, although several names are being tossed around for both fighters.

In Mayweather’s last fight he scored a 4th round KO over Victor Ortiz last September. In that fight Ortiz appeared to self destruct when it was evident that he was being totally outclassed by Floyd and illegally head butted him. After the head butt Mayweather delivered the KO punches while Ortiz held his hands down at his sides after time had been called back in.

Pacquiao won an extremely controversial decision over his long time nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez in November. Most boxing observers felt that Manny lost that fight.

 

[heyzel]

Arum expects Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul Alvarez fight announcement to be made in one or two days
January 13th, 2012

By Allen Fox: Bob Arum is hopeful that the mega fight between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. can go ahead for November this year, but not now. He sees too many things getting in the way of the fight right now and prefers to wait until the end of the year before he matches his star against Floyd.

Arum told the Manila Bulletin that he expects an announcement to be made from Golden Boy Promotions in one or two days for a fight between Mayweather and WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) for May 5th.

Arum told the Manila Bulletin “I am not going to lose sleep over this. “ Arum had made a number of statements about when the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight could be made, saying in June initially and then changing it to the end of May. He later said the fight can’t be made until June 9th due to the time needed for the 45,000 outdoor arena to be assembled.

Arum is still considering which of four fighters – Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Lamont Peterson and Miguel Cotto – to put Pacquiao in with in June. It seems pretty clear that Arum isn’t eager to make the Mayweather fight right now because he’s not willing to put Pacquiao in with Mayweather on May 5th, the date that Mayweather wanted.

Mayweather and Pacquiao will be meeting tomorrow for their final talks to consider the Filipino star’s next opponent. It’s likely that the two will agree on either Cotto or Marquez, as both fighters would potentially bring in a lot more money than Peterson or Bradley.

Pacquiao and Arum want to maximize the money made and the best way to do that is for Pacquiao to fight the biggest names available. Bradley and Peterson are not in the same league as Marquez and Cotto are in terms of bringing in boxing fans for PPV.

 

[heyzel]

Schaefer: People need to understand that Arum doesn’t want the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight
January 14th, 2012

By Chris Williams: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is fed up with all the different excuses Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum is making for why he can’t make a fight between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Recently, there was talk that Top Rank didn’t know who to contact to start negotiations, there needing more time to have an outdoor stadium built, Pacquiao having a cut that won’t be healed until June, Mayweather not having someone that will guarantee his purse, there not being enough time to properly promote the fight before May 5th, and Mayweather possibly not getting his boxing license from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

That’s six (6) excuses right there from Arum for why he can’t make the fight with Mayweather. It’s pretty said when you think about it, and very sad for Pacquiao if he’s interested in fighting Mayweather. I mean maybe Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight him and is cool with Arum steering him towards easier opposition.

A disgusted Schaefer told RingTV “People should realize that this guy [Arum] doesn’t want to do the fight. You never know what he’s going to say. With all this other bulls*** that he’s coming up with, it’s just one excuse after another; it’s investors and then it’s an outdoor stadium and then it’s the cut and then it’s Mayweather has nobody to guarantee him the money, and what the hell is he talking about?”

Schaefer laughed when he heard how Arum’s people didn’t know who to contact to start negotiations. He thought that was a pretty weak excuse, but he said they need to call him. But it’s something you don’t even need to tell a major promoter like Arum because he’s experienced enough to know who to contact to arrange a fight with Mayweather if he wanted the fight.

What’s especially sad is how boxing fans got really excited about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight possibly getting made this time after Mayweather had his 90 day jail term delayed until June 1st, but only to see Arum make excuses why he can’t match his fighter Pacquiao up with Mayweather by May 5th. Too many excuses from Arum.

 

[heyzel]

Alexander – I’ll be stronger at 147 for Maidana fight
January 14th, 2012

By Jim Dower: Former IBF/WBC light welterweight champion Devon Alexander (22-1, 13 KO’s) has struggled in his last three fights to try and get wins. Luckily for him, he’s fought two of three fights at home and won both of the home fights by questionable decisions.

Alexander blames the bad performances on having problems making the 140 pound weight limit, which is why he’s moved up to welterweight for his fight against Marcos Maidana (31-2, 28 KO’s) on February 25th at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri. The 24-year-old Alexander feels like he will no longer be plagued by low energy like he was in his last three fights against Lucas Matthysse, Timothy Bradley and Andriy Kotelnik.

At Friday’s press conference, Alexander said “These last few fights at 140 pounds were hard for me to make weight. I’m going to be stronger and faster at 147.”

I don’t know about being faster, but I expect Alexander to be a little stronger and hopefully he won’t run out of gas after the 7th round like he’s been doing in his last three fights. What he says could be true about him being weakened from tying to stay under 140lbs, but he could find out that he fades just as he did before.

If you look at Alexander’s resume before he started having stamina issues three fights ago, Alexander was facing pretty weak opposition that didn’t have the talent to really pressure him.

In all that time, Alexander only fought one fighter you could consider a threat to him and that was Juan Urango. Alexander stopped him in the 8th round and he didn’t to worry about a lot of pressure in that fight because Urango wasn’t putting a ton of pressure on Alexander. Things changed for Alexander when he fought Kotelnik in August 2010. Suddenly, Alexander was taking heat and he didn’t react well to it at all, tiring out and taking a lot of shots. He won the fight by a hometown decision but not too many people believe he deserved it.

Maidana is a slow fighter that has problems cutting off the ring on quicker guys. However, Maidana never stops coming forward and his pressure has a way of getting to his opponents late in the fight. We saw that with his fight against Amir Khan where Maidana had Khan exhausted and hurt in the last three rounds. Maidana also wore down Victor Cayo and Victor Ortiz, stopping both of them.

 

[heyzel]

Khan: I’ll be ready to fight Peterson in April or May
January 14th, 2012

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan (26-2, 18 KO’s) got what he was looking for by the WBA with them ordering a rematch between him and IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KO’s).

This was in response to Khan’s appeal made to the WBA and IBF. We’ll be hearing from the IBF next week about whether they’ll order a rematch and/or change the result of Khan’s loss to a no contest. If that’s the case, Khan will get the IBF belt back, but will still be out the WBA strap.

Khan told Sky Sports News “Normally I would give myself a 10 week training camp. I think the fight [Khan-Peterson rematch] could happen round about mid-April or May. We’ll be more than ready.”

Khan seems to be calling the shots. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? If Peterson still has the belts, how is that Khan is telling when and where the rematch will take place? I think Khan is having a hard time adjusting to the fact that he’s just a challenger now and not a champion. I think he needs to understand that he’s just a contender. Khan acts as if they stripped Peterson of his titles and gave them back.

Khan really doesn’t care too much about the belts themselves. What he’s looking for is to avenge his loss to Peterson and prove that he’s the better fighter. Khan didn’t prove that last December. What Khan proved was that he couldn’t take Peterson’s pressure and didn’t have any skills to fight on the inside. Khan lost the fight by a 12 round split decision but he feels he was the better man and only lost because of the referee, judges and the mystery man. It sounds like a fighter that can’t accept reality, doesn’t it?

Khan’s future as a potential mega star rests with the Peterson rematch. If Khan loses the fight, he can forget about fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. That fight won’t happen ever. By the time Khan beats two or three year’s worth of fodder opponents supplied to him by Golden Boy, Mayweather will be long gone in his retirement.

 

[heyzel]

Atlas: Arum is the one stopping the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight from happening
January 13th, 2012

By Chris Williams: ESPN2 analyst Teddy Atlas puts the blame for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight not being made squarely on the shoulders of Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, who Atlas feels doesn’t want to make the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight because it doesn’t benefit him to do so.

Atlas said this about Arum on tonight’s Friday Night Fights, as quoted by fighthype.com: “Arum doesn’t want the fight to happen right now because it’s going to cost him $120 million dollars, especially when you have a fighter like Pacquiao who can go and he can make $25 million dollars fighting other guys and you don’t have to pay that much for the opponent. That allows the promoter, who happens to be, you got it, Bob Arum, to make more money, to have more margin to make money. It’s about making money to Mr. Arum…He can make more money if he doesn’t have to pay $60 million to both fighters.”

Wow! Atlas isn’t the only one saying that Arum doesn’t want the fight. Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, also is complaining that Arum doesn’t want the fight and is coming up with excuses for why it can’t happen.

Arum says that Pacquiao’s cut won’t be ready by May 5th, and neither will an outside 45,000 seat arena. Both of those excuses are very hard to believe, but especially the makeshift temporary arena. You would think if they were to hire some extra bodies they could easily have the arena built by May 5th, don’t you think? I think it comes down to Arum not ready for the fight to happen.

Eventually, I think he’ll go for it after Pacquiao starts losing to people and fans stop caring about his fights as much. He’ll need Mayweather just to make a buck, but as long as Pacquiao is able to bring in big paydays of $25 million, I can’t see Arum allowing him to fight Mayweather and risk having it all put to a stop. Atlas is looking at it in one area where he sees Arum not wanting to share the money one fight. But I think it’s more than just that. I think Arum doesn’t want the money well to run dry on him if Pacquiao gets humiliated by Mayweather the same way Juan Manuel Marquez was when he fought Mayweather. I think Pacquiao can come back but it might take him a couple of years to get back to where he is now and he might slip a notch or two by that time an start losing even against the Top Rank stable fighters that Arum has been steadily feeding Pacquiao for the past few years.

 

[heyzel]

Saul Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight being negotiated?
January 14th, 2012

By Dan Ambrose: A fight between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez and WBA champion Miguel Cotto is reportedly being negotiated according to Ringtv. This runs counter to whats being reported about Manny Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee, saying that Pacquiao will be fighting Cotto next. But you know how rumors go.

This is interesting news because Alvarez was thought to be the leading candidate for WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight on May 5th. If this fight were to come off, it would mean that Mayweather will be fighting someone not prevision mentioned unless Manny Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum want to take the fight with Mayweather next. Robert Guerrero has already been ruled out by Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer as a potential opponent for Mayweather Jr.

Cotto is also one of the candidates for a fight with Manny Pacquiao in his next fight in May or June. However, it could be that Cotto isn’t happy just waiting around and is actively looking for a fight. He’s a free agent now and only fights with Top Rank in a fight by fight basis. In the past, Arum has been open to the idea of seeing Cotto fight the 21-year-old Alvarez, even though he’s promoted by Golden Boy.

Alvarez would be a very dangerous opponent for Cotto because he’s got heavy hands, excellent boxing skills and can defend himself. At 5’9″, Alvarez is a slightly taller than the 5’7″ Cotto, but doesn’t balloon up as much as after he weighs in for his fights. Alvarez could have too much youth and power for Cotto and we could see Cotto take another beating. I would be surprised if he took this fight because Cotto hasn’t fought a really dangerous without some kind of physical affliction and/or old age since his fight with Manny Pacquiao in 2009.

 

[bigface]

Alexander-Maidana, Broner-Perez Face To Face, for Feb 25th HBO card

I want to call it right now. I have both Broner and Devon winning by KO.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Why does broner look like a middleweight?