Another one bit the dust last night in Tokyo. Another Golden Boy – promoted fighter that is. What does Golden Boy have left to serve up to its HBO partners? How many more servings of Roberto Guerrero can we stomach? Heck, they might not even have him anymore according to a California Court.
For the record, last night Velezuelan Jorge Linares (Co-promoted by Golden Boy and Japan’s Teiken Promotions) was KO’d in a little over a minute before a stunned crowd by a Mexican contender named Juan Salgado.
Why a Mexican and a Venezuelan were fighting for the World Boxing Council 130 Championship in Japan I’ll save for another day.
Oscar De La Hoya will never run out of fighters to fill the time on all the HBO shows he has. But the fighters now all seem to be coming off of losses and making comebacks. That’s not deserving of prime time programming.
Are these guys prospects or projects?
Let’s take a partial look at the Golden Boy roster of active fighters:
The veterans such as Oscar himself and Ricky Hatton were both destroyed by Manny Pacquiao.
Juan Manuel Marquez dominated by Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Then rattle off youngsters Guerrero, Victor Ortiz and Linares as recent losers.
Houston’s Juan Diaz won his last fight but should be ashamed because Paulie Malignaggi people are about to force a rematch.
Rocky Juarez can’t have any serious TV value and he’s coming off a loss to Chris John.
Maybe Golden Boy has grown too big, too quickly and is moving in too many directions for its own good.
Golden Boy needs to develop fighters themselves starting at amateurs just turning professional. Not just win them in court rooms or in arbitration hearings.
Golden Boy seems to be big in finesse but small in developing its own home – grown talent such as say, Top Rank.
HBO needs to give it’s dates to several promoters because then the competition between the promoters will be intense and the public will get the best fights that can be made. It’s called “Free Market System.”
Let’s see what happens.
