I woke up on Sunday morning to find press releases sent out by ace publicists Fred Sternburg and Bill Caplan announcing that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been scratched from his upcoming bout this Saturday (my guess is he pulled a rib cage muscle attempting to do his first ever sit-up) but that ‘Latin Fury 10’ would go on in Mexico without him. If anything exemplifies what has taken place recently in boxing, it’s this. Headliners pulling out of fights, and a spate of lower level pay-per-view shows that constitute much of the recent boxing schedule as the premium networks are in a self-induced seasonal hiatus.
Cue ‘Bananarama’, because it’s been a cruel summer indeed.
Since June 13th, when Miguel Cotto defeated Joshua Clottey at Madison Square Garden in New York, HBO has done exactly one broadcast (June 27th, featuring Marcos Maidana-Victor Ortiz) and will not be back until August 22nd. Showtime was dormant from late April till July 11th (when Joseph Agbeko held off Vic Darchinyan) and their August 1st show featuring a pair of jr. welterweight title fights will make up the rest of their summer schedule.
And you thought only school teachers got the summer off.
But this recent run has been defined by the fights that didn’t take place as scheduled, starting with the highly anticipated grudge match between WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and the mouthy David Haye, who suddenly felt sharp pains in his back as Setanta Sports was collapsing. This past weekend was supposed to mark the return of Floyd Mayweather against Juan Manuel Marquez in a pay-per-view event that dozens of fans were anticipating. Since his mysterious injury – which I believe was suffered when he got a kick in the ribs after seeing how ticket sales were going for July 18th – has since healed up, that card has been moved to a more accommodating date of September 19th.
Otherwise, you can begin to count down to NFL exhibition football (Hey, training camps are opening up in a week or two), because when it comes to boxing, not much is really going on right now. It says something about the current state of things when the most notable occurrence of this period was Showtime’s announcement of their ‘Super Six World Boxing Classic’ that will pit the games premier super middleweights against each other in a round-robin format. But alas, that isn’t slated to kick off till the autumn months.
There used to be a time – albeit, long ago – when the summer months were by far my favorite as a kid. I’m sure that being off from school had a lot, if not all, to do with that sentiment, along with the weather in Southern California, of course. Now as an adult, well, these months between June and August represent the bridge months between the NBA playoffs, big fights and then football season and marquee boxing resuming. As for the warm climate, well, I live in Los Angeles, so I get to wear shorts and sandals nine months out of the year to begin with.
Take away the occasional fight like Antonio Margarito-Miguel Cotto (which took place in late July last year) and these really are the dog days of summer. It’s an unwritten rule of the boxing business with promoters, networks and Las Vegas casino resorts that the summer months are a no-man’s land for big fights. Viewing levels are down across the board, people go on vacation (those who can actually afford them, now) and it’ simply too damn hot in Vegas at that time.
But I wonder, in a period where there isn’t much going on in sports except the daily grind of the baseball season, is it time for a philosophical change in regard to this period? Think about it, it’s not as if boxing fans want a break from boxing; to the contrary, if boxing fans had their druthers, there would be a fight on every single weekend. And with the current economy, staying at home to watch fights is a much more affordable outlet than a week long stint in the Bahamas. Also, if 2009 has taught us anything, even as average citizens struggle to make ends meet, you put on a compelling fight and price it fairly, the masses will show up if you bring the fights to them.
Just think about who your ticket sellers are in North America currently: Manny Pacquiao, Juan Diaz, Kelly Pavlik, Lucian Bute and Cory Spinks, among others. Do you really believe that their fans are any less inclined to show up to their fights just because it’s the summer? Fight fans, and fans of specific fighters, are followers of the sport 365 days out of the year. They will watch boxing at any time. This is what they love to do. Why not take more advantage of this stretch of time?
While it’s true that your biggest pay-per-views will always perform better in the fall than the preceding months, from a premium cable network’s viewpoint, perhaps it’s time to start rethinking the paradigm when it comes to their programming schedule. Would you rather go up against a weekend that features Dodgers-Padres, Twins-Tigers and an occasional tennis or golf tournament or weekends that feature Florida-LSU, Texas-Oklahoma, USC-Ohio State and the monolithic NFL? Say what you want, but baseball, the grand ol’ game, is past its time as America’s favorite sport. It’s football, the college and pro variety, that is now this country’s pastime.
But anyway, wake me up when it’s September. That’s when the fun begins (As a kid, I never thought I’d say that).
SHAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!!!
I read with great amusement the latest press release from Shane Mosley, which, once again, was sent out sans Golden Boy Promotions involvement, stating that he is now willing to go down to 140-pounds to face Manny Pacquiao. My initial reaction was, ‘Wow, Shane is good, but can he really box with one leg cut off?’ But seriously, come on, would it even be healthy for him to try and cut down so low?
OK, Shane, I know you’re probably not in the mood to listen to any more Koreans (and I can’t say I blame you), but I say this with nothing but goodwill and your best interests in mind – you gotta move on from sounding desperate, or some would say downright delusional. You have a better chance at moving up to 200-pounds and getting a fight with one of the Klitschkos.
Why not put the pressure on your partners to make a fight with Floyd Mayweather, since ‘Needs Money’ has stated that he doesn’t think he will come to an agreement to face Pacquiao as long as Bob Arum is involved. Shane, you deserve better, you’ve done a lot for the sport and took on all comers, guys that otherwise wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity for stardom if you didn’t step up and face them. I get all that.
But it’s time to move on. This isn’t going anywhere.
LOWBALL?
The amount being offered to WBC welterweight titlist Andre Berto is being reported at sites like Boxingscene.com and sources I’ve talked to at being right around $750,000, with HBO’s license fee being in the $3 million range.
Berto’s camp is adamant in stating that they will not take less money than they have for a Mosley fight (certainly his most challenging to date) than they have for recent bouts versus the likes of Juan Urango and Luis Collazo. Fair enough, I can understand that sentiment. Why should they get a haircut for facing a future Hall-of-Famer? It’s perfectly logical.
But here’s my thought – and this is no knock on his promoter Lou DiBella and advisor Al Haymon, whose job it is to secure for their fighters the biggest rewards for the least amount of risk – just why in the world was Berto receiving paydays above $750,000 to begin with? I mean, it’s not like he’s facing ‘Murderers Row’. To the contrary, he’s fought exactly one world-class 147-pounder during his run on HBO – his ratings haven’t exactly broken any Nielsen records and it’s not like he’s playing to packed houses.
So while you overpay for these rather non-descript affairs like Collazo and Urango, the real price you pay is that sometimes it becomes a great hindrance in making the real fights. Just how many times have you heard (or at least I’ve been told this) from folks associated with HBO, ‘Well, we can’t make this really good fight because this fighter would have to take less money for those other bad fights he had.’ What’s funny is that HBO acts as if they’re the victim, when in essence, they created this climate.
Keep writing those exorbitant checks to boxers to face hand-picked foes in half-empty ballrooms that seat 2,000 people and then try and make the bouts that people want to see later on; what will often take place is what’s going on with Mosley and Berto.
From Mosley’s perspective, why should he take less or the same amount that he got for thrashing Antonio Margarito back in January? For which he received around $2 million. And in this instance, while not a bona-fide ticket seller, isn’t he the marquee name in this potential matchup? Doesn’t he actually deserve the lion’s share of the pot?
It’s a mess alright. But a mess created by a network who oftentimes bids against itself (with disastrous results), enables those who aren’t really promoters, and for some reason or another, rewards those who can’t sell tickets.
And you wonder why they run out of money so quickly?
As for Berto, hey, I congratulate him. He’s got a good thing going, why stop facing the Urangos of the world if you can get paid in excess of $750,000 every time out?
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
I didn’t have the most exciting Saturday night. I watched some DVD’s of recent championship fights and made my newest cassette tape mix of 80’s songs for my Walkman while watching those bouts. Yeah, I know this doesn’t say a lot about my social life, but it was a productive evening nonetheless.
I saw welterweight Selcuk Aydin stop Jackson Bonsu in nine. Aydin is a non-stop pressure fighter and he just wore out the usually durable Bonsu with his two-fisted attack. Then I saw Cristobal Cruz retain his IBF featherweight belt against Jorge Solis. Both men gave it their best effort but this wasn’t exactly Barrera-Morales in terms of skill. I actually thought that Solis may have pulled it out, but point deductions for low blows hurt his cause.
Elio Rojas won the WBC version of the featherweight crown by easily outpointing Tak Aoh in Japan. Rojas gave a great example of how lead right-crosses can be so effective versus southpaws. Rojas is a pretty solid fighter. Then I saw Gabriel Campillo upset Hugo Garay for the WBA light heavyweight title, not sure if it was for their real, interim, super, deluxe, ordinary, grand, exalted or emeritus version of the belt, but I do know that this was a really good fight. Campillo was backed up early by the hard-charging Garay, but around the middle rounds, it was Campillo that was coming forward and landing combinations from his left-handed stance. Over the last four to five rounds of this heated contest, Campillo would dig down deep and outwork Garay to earn a hard-fought 12-round majority decision.
Now, while I was watching all this, I was able to put parts of the Karate Kid soundtrack, Prince, Survivor, Depeche Mode and Phil Collins on a 60-minute Maxell tape.
Yeah, laugh all you want, but nobody will be getting a better workout than Steve W. (for Workout) Kim as he listens to ‘You’re the Best Around’, ‘Pop Life’, ‘Eye of the Tiger’, ‘Easy Lover’ and ‘Blasphemous Rumors’.
STING RAY
Got an email on 4th of July from an old Montebello High classmate and baseball teammate Ray Maldonado (good left-handed bat and ambidextrous like no other) reaching out to me and wanting to pick my brain about the boxing business. He wants to get into managing fighters. I’ve already given him my soundest advice – save your money and your sanity, don’t get into this crazy racket.
But he seems hell bent on doing it. And he says he’s got the next great heavyweight, some guy who’s 37-years old (yeah, I know, I know). But he was a good friend and more importantly, hit well over .400 for us our senior campaign.
One thing I’ll never forget is that knowing that I was a San Diego Padre fan, he used to call me ‘Gwynn’, which was quite the insult to one of the great hitters of all-time but I certainly enjoyed it. Hey, 19 is Mr. Padre as far as I’m concerned and he’ll always be my favorite baseball player alongside Steve Garvey.
He’s living now in San Diego and doing quite well (hey, that Montebello diploma takes you places), he even married a Korean gal (now, that I really would’ve warned him about) and he called to ask if I knew of any trainers in his city.
I told him, “Ray, there’s two things that San Diego doesn’t have: that’s good trainers and a good major league baseball team.”
He got quite the kick out of that one, he must’ve laughed for at least 30 seconds. Yeah, I wasn’t much of a line drive hitter but I got a million one liners. Some are even funny.
FINAL FLURRIES
I think Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. is coming along pretty well….So without Yuriorkis Gamboa and now, Chavez, is Saturday’s pay-per-view show called ‘Urbano Blight’?….Anyone see WBA bantamweight titlist Anselmo Moreno? I’ve viewed his last few fights and I don’t want to go all Kellerman here, but he is a bit Pernell Whitaker-ish. The bantams have quite a trio of belt-holders in him, Agbeko and Hasegawa….Did you know that the Karate Kid soundtrack does not have ‘Cruel Summer’. Yup, I had to buy the greatest hits of ‘Bananarama’ to get that song. And by the way, you know who you are, but somebody will be getting what they were promised by ol’ Steve F.E. (for FedEx, as I deliver) Kim….Tweet me at Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
