As much as I lambaste and lampoon those Golden Boys, it cannot be said that their PPV TV under cards are really any worse than the usual crapola Top Rank and others offer.
Dreck is dreck is dreck and, in recent years, boxing has totally gotten away from the dreamy era when Don King was loaded five and sometimes six but always four mouth watering world title bouts on one of his SET (Showtime Event Television) cards.
They can say what they want about DK, who may be sputtering to the finish line now, but he offered the boxing consumer sizzle and a steak and then loaded up with delicious sides to make a pugilistic plate well worth the TV tariff.
I’m talking about the cards which were filled with Julian Jackson, Terrible Terry Norris, a young Felix Trinidad, Simon Brown, Gerald “Gman” McClellan, and Ricardo Lopez.
King’s typically massive PPV shows of that era were chock a block with Hall Of Famers. And he wasn’t afraid to go overseas to put a fearsome McClellan in with an awesome Nigel Benn.
But we can’t live in the past. As faithful commentator Bernie Vee often notes, “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.”
So let’s focus on the present and the near future which means the Juan Manuel Marquez-Floyd Mayweather show Oscar de la Hoya and associates are staging Sept. 19 in Las Vegas.
They should call Juan Ma-Money May “Survival of the Fittest” because it is knocking PPV heads with Dana White and his UFC 103 card from Dallas.
Expect no dullness from Dallas as the UFC card is characteristically loaded with tough matches.
And so now, I come to praise Golden Boy for taking extreme measures in extreme circumstances.
GBP is actually trying to juice up the JMM-PBF undercard with bouts in which the winner is not predetermined, in which it’s not some shining prospect toying with some hobo off the streets of Indiana (no offense, D’Source). (The Naptown slugger, btw, has a column on how UFC is as serious as a heart attack about sqaushing GBP.)
The Goldens are least giving unbeaten Danny Jacobs something of a test at the Learner’s Permit level anyway by matching him with seasoned vet Ishe Smith. This is a safe risk since Ishe hits about as hard as Yo Paulie Malignaggi.
If Jacobs can’t get past Smitty, the Goldens will advise him to find new employment.
But now they are trying to put a good lightweight bout between Vicente Escobedo against the always entertaining Aussie Michael Katsidis. Katsidis takes punches in bunches and only marches forward.
They are also talking about a decent super middleweight bout between up and down Allan Green and rugged journeyman Sakio Bika.
Try as he might, Bika just can’t seem to break through the curtain to the A level but I do know his Mikkel Kessler, among others, has never been keen to fight him. As Kessler told me, sparring with Bika is no day at Bondi Beach in itself.
Mayweather and Rampage. (AP Photo)
So, for a change, I hurl a bocquet rather a brickbat at the Golden windows.
Keep trying, boyos, because the White Man is not satisfied with putting you out of the MMA business (with Golden partner Affliction folding its tent).
What the UFC seeks now is total victory over Oscar and company.
UFC wants to crush GBP like Manny Pacquiao crushed Oscar.
Golden Boy may be doing the right thing only out of necessity but I applaud them for fighting back against the UFC monster.
It’s about time Oscar showed competitive fire outside the ring.
The enemy within may be Bob Arum and Top Rank but, if I were Oscar, it’s the enemy without who would be my biggest fear.
