I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But it turns out that’s exactly what I was when I phoned one Freddie Roach on his cell phone on January 18th in New York, where he was preparing junior middleweight Roman Karmazin for his bout the next night at Madison Square Garden against Alex Bunema.
A short time earlier, the story had broke that Oscar De La Hoya would be fighting three times in 2008 and he would have Floyd Mayweather Sr. back in his corner.
And how did Roach find out about all this?
“From you,” he would tell me with a chuckle at his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood this past Tuesday afternoon.
But there was no killing of the messenger; in fact, Roach, as usual, took things with great aplomb.
“They told me that no decision was made yet. And that’s what they said yesterday (Monday), so I’m really not worried about it. I got Pacquiao getting ready for a big fight so I’ve got to concentrate on that,” he would say.
While all the details – from the opponent, to network commitments and venue – are being finalized for Oscar’s May appointment, it seems almost inevitable that Mayweather would return to Oscar’s corner. In a rematch that is not being universally accepted, the storyline of father and son is just too juicy to pass up, it seems.
“I’d be a little disappointed because I like working with Oscar,” Roach would say. “I thought we had a good camp together last time and I think it would be better because we got more time to know each other. It’s just really hard to get to know each other in just an eight week period. But I enjoyed working with him. So if he chooses the other guy, that’s his loss.”
Roach said he last talked to De La Hoya, “About seven days ago. He just said he’s going to start conditioning in Puerto Rico.”
When Maxboxing was able to reach Mayweather on Friday, he would say of the situation, “Well, as of now, I’m just going to say that he did call me and asked me to train him.”
De La Hoya and Mayweather are scheduled to go at it again this September. When they first met last May, the elder Mayweather sat ringside as a somewhat neutral observer whose ticket and room to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas was paid for by De La Hoya.
“Little Floyd out-smarted him,” he says of the initial encounter. “Little Floyd beat Oscar, I think Oscar even knows that.”
Senior had demanded a $2 million fee to work against his son last year, which is part of the reason why he didn’t get the gig. But he has no regrets.
“No, I don’t regret it,” he swears. “As a matter of fact, if things ain’t the way they’re supposed to be, hey, I’m a man of principle, I stand behind my word. Money don’t make me. I make money.”
Last year, in one of the episodes of 24/7 on HBO, it seemed as though there was a chance at some reconciliation in the Mayweather family as the father dropped in on some of his son’s early workouts before Roger Mayweather was released from prison.
“What family!?!?” screeched Mayweather, incredulously, at the thought. “Look, let me tell you something man, ain’t no good in him at all, man. There’s no good in him at all, my son. There’s nothing bad for me to say because he’s still my son. He’s my blood man, but hey, it’s just a sad situation with him. He’s got money, he’s got a big head and the wrong direction. No family ties, no nothing now.”
Asked if he’s surprised that the divide between the two seems even greater than ever, he answers, “Like I said before, none of this stuff was my fault in the beginning. First of all, how in the hell are you going to turn your back on the man that did everything for you? If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t be there. And it has nothing to do with Roger or anything because Roger has been out here (in Las Vegas) for 30 years. My son is only 30 years old. So who trained him? We all know.
“So with somebody like that you gotta be cold-hearted. Not only that, it’s not like I’m a stranger, I’m his f**kin’ daddy!! What’s wrong with him? Something got to be wrong with him. Seriously wrong.”
The father believes his son has surrounded himself with nothing but ‘yes-men’.
“He’s got this guy running his business, Leonard Ellerbe. He’s so far up Floyd’s ass, you can’t even shove him off.”
OK, back to the actual fight in the ring. Does Mayweather believe that if he had been in Oscar’s corner that night he would’ve beaten his son?
“I can tell you this right here, from what I seen, I thought I could’ve made it happen. But y’know what? It might happen this time,” he would say with his typical confidence. But he says if he does prepare De La Hoya, he wants it done his way. “That’s why we had problems for the Mayorga fight, I had to take over the camp because I got tired of all this this s**t, seeing Oscar getting tired, huffing and puffing. Hey, he did it with Bernard Hopkins, he did it with Sturm. All these fights should’ve been easy for Oscar.”
He says this is a bigger issue to him than his compensation.
“My thing was if Oscar wants me to train him – I’m going to be the boss, I’m going to run everything,” he states. “I’m not going to sit back here and have somebody making me look bad with some s**t somebody else did. All that stuff man is behind me now. If I’m going to run the camp, I’m going to run the camp my way. And then you’ll see the results.”
If it were up to him, Camp De La Hoya would move 3,000 miles west back to some familiar haunts.
“My thing is, I prefer to be – and wherever they choose to have it is fine – but myself, I would rather have the camp in Big Bear,” said Mayweather. “As a matter of fact, Oscar said that we are going to train in Big Bear anyways. But I think that’s the best way because there are a lot of things that can be better up there and a lot of things we need to be doing. We need an environment like that.”
Which would be in stark contrast to sleeping with his wife in a nice warm comfortable bed and waking up in his mansion with a cappuccino machine at his disposal.
“Whatever the case may be, she might be the boss or whatever, it ain’t no sitting with wives, none of that s**t with me, man,” he would say. “None of that’s going on. I mean, there are some things he did that I object to and I’m going to definitely object to that. Because I’m not going to have that, where somebody comes back on me and tells me about what I did. Now, if you just straight up get beat, that’s a different story.”
Mayweather and Roach don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but they do agree that having a stay-busy contest coming into the return bout with ‘Money’ is the prudent decision.
“It’s funny,” said Roach, “that’s what I asked for the last fight. I said, ‘can we have a tune-up fight first?’ Because it’s very hard to stay sharp without activity. So I think it’s the best thing in the world for Oscar and I think it’ll help him be sharp for the fight.”
“I think that’s good for him,” Mayweather would agree. “I’d like him to fight before he fights Floyd again. I think he should’ve been fighting more. When he fought a year apart in the fights that he won and even the fights he lost, he fought courageous. Imagine how it would have been if he was active? So he’s never really been what you call an active fighter in a long time. This game right here, you can’t lay around and think you can just come out and beat good fighters like that.”
Looking forward, Roach says, “If I’m in it, that would be great. I’d be happy to work with Oscar again. But if not, he thinks the other guy is better or can be better for TV because of the Mayweather storyline, it would be better for 24/7 and sell the fight, that’s fine. I know me and Oscar got along well and I think I did a good job last time. I did the best I could and I think we fought a pretty good fight. I think Oscar can fight a better fight and I discussed that with him.”
And when will Mayweather and De La Hoya speak next?
“I don’t know man, I talk to Oscar whenever there’s a fight pretty much. And I don’t have a problem with that. I know when he calls me it’s about business. So let’s get down to business and that’s it.”
DUELING DATES
April 12th will be a busy one for boxing, as both HBO and Showtime will be televising some interesting doubleheaders.
HBO will be showcasing the welterweight division, with WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto facing Alfonso Gomez and the rematch between Kermit Cintron and Antonio Margarito for the IBF belt in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The light heavyweights will be featured on Showtime as WBC kingpin Chad Dawson faces the always rugged Glen Johnson in Tampa, Florida, and promoter Gary Shaw has informed Maxboxing that a bout between IBF titlist Clinton Woods and Antonio Tarver is basically a done deal.
Alright, folks, if you could only watch one show on that night (but of course my advice is to watch all the boxing you can), which telecast would you tab?
While I like what both HBO and Showtime are offering, I do think Showtime’s two bouts have a chance to be very competitive, while Cotto-Gomez looks to be a tune-up bout that the Puerto Rican should win rather handily. Showtime’s card features four fighters that are all consensus top five 175-pounders.
But I can’t lie, I’ll probably be in Atlantic City that night. C’mon folks, you just knew I was going to be with ‘the Tijuana Tornado’.
POVETKIN
I don’t think Alexander Povetkin was really that impressive in beating Eddie Chambers this past weekend in Germany. But there is something to be said about being able to pull out a win when you don’t have your best stuff. Down the stretch, Povetkin simply wanted it more than Chambers and dug down much deeper. Chamber simply had no sense of urgency despite his corner exhorting him to give more effort.
But while Povetkin earned the top spot in the IBF after winning this elimination bout, he shouldn’t be thought of as a boxer that is the top contender for Wladimir Klitschko, but a fighter who at 15-0 has notched some impressive victories early on in his career but still needs much more seasoning.
ATLAS SUSPENDED
Boxingscene.com has been all over the brewing situation going on at ESPN2, where color commentator Teddy Atlas has been suspended for this upcoming broadcast over an off-the-air confrontation with ESPN’s boxing czar Doug Loughrey over allegations of favoritism being given to certain promoters.
Much has been said and speculated within the industry, all I have to add to it at this point is that those disgruntled promoters, the ones who feel they are being victimized or exploited, need to start speaking up and fight for their rights and not just hide behind Atlas, who really shouldn’t be in a position to fight their battles.
From what I’m told, ESPN is taking this situation very seriously (as they should) and are reaching out to various promoters to get their input. Will they finally raise their voices? And do they have legitimate gripes? We shall see.
It’ll be interesting to see how this works out. But I’m pretty sure this is the last thing ESPN wanted after the fiasco that was Bob Yalen.
WHITE SHADOW
I recently watched the two-part episode of ‘the White Shadow’, where Coach Reeves goes to his 20th high school reunion and stays with his father, on NBA-TV (where yes, they show reruns on a regular basis.)
It’s still some of the best television I have ever seen. From Reeves’ irascible father telling him why he wanted to have a last sandwich with him (‘Because I’m dyin’!!!), to him telling his son how much he meant to him, the duo making peace and then the last hug at the airport knowing they would never see each other again as Reeves heads back to Los Angeles and Carver High, it’s all poignant stuff that I think many of us can relate to in our own lives in some ways.
It’s too bad this series lasted only two seasons.
FINAL FLURRIES
I think twins Carlos Ivan and Juan Carlos Velasquez both looked impressive in improving to 6-0 this past Friday night on Telefutura, but shouldn’t the twins just go by Carlos and Juan to avoid the confusion?….I like what I’ve seen of middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs, who improved to 2-0, on the same card, but I’d like to see him in with somebody with at least a pulse….Is there a worse basketball player per dollar than the Lakers Kwame ‘Scissorhands’ Brown? Let’s see, he has bad hands, not that athletic, no post moves, can’t finish, and basically the lowest basketball IQ in the league (in other words, he’s basically dumb). And to think, he was traded for Caron Butler. It makes me want to cry….I recently viewed the recent title defenses of WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev and IBF jr. featherweight tilist Steve Molitor, and I’ll say this for both southpaws, they may not be the best in their divisions, but they are tough outs. Chagaev is a rugged and tough plugger, while Molitor is a well-school crafty boxer….So who will replace Atlas alongside Joe Tessitore this Friday?….Speaking of Roach, I know it’s early, but this is the most focused and energized ‘Pac Man’ I’ve seen in quite some time…..
