Over the weekend an agreement was reached by Golden Boy Promotions and DiBella Entertainment to stage the rematch between Juan Diaz and Paulie Malignaggi on December 12Th. Diaz had won a controversial unanimous decision in August in Houston, Texas and this time around the fight would be placed in Chicago and be a co-promotion between the two companies. But while the promoters had agreed on the deal, the two fighters hadn’t.
On Tuesday afternoon, Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy CEO, told Maxboxing,” I actually just got the word, I was on the phone and Eric Gomez( Golden Boy’s matchmaker) just heard from Willie Savannah that they turned it down.”
Savannah, is the manager of Diaz, who confirmed this news. ” I turned down the money,” he said. Most likely, both Diaz and Malignaggi will sit out the rest of 2009.
Sources tell Maxboxing that with this fight becoming a co-promotion that there were simply too many hands in the cookie jar to satisfy everyone’s demands with HBO putting up a $750,000 license fee. Now, the show must go on and the rush is on to find another main event for this ’Boxing After Dark’ telecast.
” Now, I’m going to be talking to HBO,” said Schaefer, who has something in mind.” There’s another fight that we’re looking at, which everybody likes and that would be ’the Ghost’ Robert Guerrero against Rocky Martinez.” This jr. lightweight unification tilt would be preceded by the return of Victor Ortiz.
B-HOP VS. RJ
One fight that looks like will become a reality is the long overdue rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones in 2010.
” Both fighters signed an agreement which basically stipulates that they will fight each other sometime during the first quarter of 2010,” explained Schaefer.” The contract stipulates, as well, that it’s subject to both of them winning their respective bouts on December the 2ND. We all know that Roy Jones will be fighting in Australia against Danny Green. Bernard wants to do a fight, as well, and we are currently working on trying to lock in a venue and an opponent. My feeling is that I should probably have something later on this week where we have all these different pieces locked in.
” Generally speaking, the idea would be for Bernard, 45-years old, to fight again in Philadelphia, which will probably be the last time he’ll be fighting live in Philadelphia. Sort of as a homecoming and celebration of his amazing career.”
When asked if this tune-up would be televised, Schaefer answered:” Based on early indications, yes there will be( television). I don’t have any specifics, yet. But I want to finalize negotiations, first.”
But why this fight? Wasn’t this last relevant in say, oh, 2003? Schaefer says that the decision to make this bout was done the ’American Idol’ way.
” We actually put up some on-lie polls and overwhelmingly, 60-to-70-percent of the people want to see Bernard fight Roy Jones and Roy Jones fighting Bernard. There is something intriguing there when you have two Hall-of-Famers fighting each other and you have two guys where there is so much bad blood that exists between the two guys.”
Schaefer believes that boxing’s version of ’Grumpy Old Men’ can sell.
” It really reminds me- and we’ve done a lot of promotions- but the only time I can really think where we promoted the fight with that kind of bad blood, genuine dislike is when it was De La Hoya-Vargas. I sense that. Neither guy wants to give up an inch and this is going to be a very interesting promotion, to say the least. So I’m actually very excited about it.”
While observers believed that this pay-per-view event- which will most likely take place in late February- was headed to Atlantic City, it could be headed for the desert out west.
” Where I think the fight should be, the fight should be in Vegas and I’ll tell you why, people say,’ Oh, great East Coast fight.’ I really think Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones they are global stars and this is not an East Coast event, this is an event, period,” Schaefer stated.” This is an event which will have the global interest and I think this is the kind of headliner which I would love to take to Las Vegas.”
MID-WEEK FLURRIES
A new name that has come up as a possible opponent for Joshua Clottey is Kendall Holt. Honestly, I’d rather see him face Carlos Quintana, who’s a legitimate welterweight….On the day before Pacquiao-Cotto in Las Vegas, Filipino welterweight, Mark Melligan will face Michel Rosales at the Mandalay Bay. This show will be televised by TV Public Accezteca….Jr. middleweight Vanes Martirosyan will appear on the December 19Th edition of ’Latin Fury’ in Mexico….Recommended viewing: ’Full Color Football- History of the AFL’, a five-part documentary that runs every Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Showtime…..If you’re experiencing technical difficulties with our website, please feel free to email me at [email protected]….Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing….
