Boxing fans these days usually get a good main event, and not much more. Reporters on media row are often heard saying, “What a lousy undercard.”
But Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer this week couldn’t say enough about what they have put together underneath the July 31 rematch between Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Their first fight, a ninth-round TKO win for Marquez, was voted Fight of the Year by several entities.
Perennial contender Rocky Juarez (28-6-1, 20 KOs) will take on former world champion Jorge Linares (28-1, 18 KOs) in a 10-round lightweight bout and former world champions Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs) and Joel Casamayor (37-4-1, 22 KOs) will tangle in a 10-round junior welterweight fight.
In the semi-main event, Daniel Jacobs (20-0, 17 KOs) and Dmitry Pirog (16-0, 13 KOs) will duke it out for a vacant middleweight world title.
De La Hoya and Schaefer boasted about these support bouts, and also talked about why it has been difficult to give fans more events that are solid from top to bottom.
“When we were putting together this event, we knew Marquez vs. Diaz II was a sure-fire Fight of the Year candidate,” De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions, said Wednesday. “Then we said, `Why not go one step further and pack this card with three more fights that have the potential to do what Marquez and Diaz did in 2009?’
“This is without question the most stacked pay-per-view card we have ever put Advertisement Replay Video
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on and the fans will love every minute of it.”
Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, said this is indeed the best undercard the company has staged during its nine-year existence.
“With Marquez and Diaz, we knew we had the Fight of the Year again,” he said. “Now we have the Night of the Year.”
HBO will distribute for $49.95.
Schaefer admitted he has been guilty of contributing to the lousy-undercard syndrome. But he said there is more to it than meets the eye.
“When you have pay-per-view cards where you have two promoters involved, unfortunately often the undercard becomes a matter of splitting the spots and matching fighters from the respective stables,” he said.
This card has one promoter – Golden Boy.
“When you do a card, which is all Golden Boy in this particular case, then you sort of like don’t have to get approval from other promoters and things like that,” Schaefer said.
“You really sort of can use your best efforts to put together the best possible card, and I think that’s the result we see here.”
De La Hoya got patriotic.
“America was built on freedom, right?” he said.
A reporter told De La Hoya he sounded like fellow promoter Don King with that comment.
“Well, Golden Boy had the freedom of putting on a spectacular show and come July 31 we’re going to give you fireworks,” De La Hoya said. “As long as we can have the freedom, as long as we can make sure that we’re putting our fighters and we’re matching them up against hard, tough competition, we’re going to see some great cards.”
Speaking of King, Schaefer remembered the days when King put on terrific through-and-through shows.
“Love him or hate him, I have to say long before I was involved in boxing I used to have a little place out in Palm Springs and used to be watching the fights, and that was in the mid-80s, and Don King used to put on these great, great cards,” Schaefer said.
“And I think people, fight fans, still talk about those cards. And if we can go back to these cards, which really wasn’t the main event – but it was just an event top-to-bottom, the kind of fights you just wanted to see – then I think that’s maybe a way boxing is going to evolve and, hopefully, be able to bring new fans.”
De La Hoya and Schaefer were reminded that sole promotion or co-promotion, the powers that be have to come up with a way to make solid undercards the norm, rather than a rarity.
They agreed, but again insisted the only way they can almost guarantee that is if Golden Boy flys solo. Budget beefs often pop up in a co-promotion, and De La Hoya said he took the money-was-no-object approach to this card.
“… We cared about how much bang you are going to get for your buck,” he said.
Jacobs is an exciting fighter and has all the tools. His fight with Pirog could be tremendous.
Juarez, 30, has fought for world titles five times, but is 0-4-1. A win over Linares could earn him another shot. Linares, 24, lost his junior lightweight title via first-round TKO loss to Juan Carlos Salgado last October and is 1-0 since.
Guerrero, 27, last year gave up his junior lightweight belt to be with his wife, Casey, who is battling leukemia. He came back as a lightweight in April, and is moving up one more weight class to meet Casamayor, a former two-division champion. Casamayor is 38, but still dangerous.
Good undercard, but not spectacular.
Shaw wonders, why not Pacquiao-Bradley?
It was reported by YahooSports.com this week that the major issues surrounding a highly anticipated fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Nov.13 have been resolved.
This, according to Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, who said the ball is now in Mayweather’s court.
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, on Wednesday said “no comment” when asked if this is true. Schaefer, who heads the Mayweather side of the negotiations, on Friday said there is “nothing to report.”
Arum said recently he can’t wait much longer for an accord to be reached because a fight of this magnitude needs a good three months to promote.
If it doesn’t get made, Arum said Pacquiao will likely fight either Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto, both of whom are also promoted by Arum.
This does not sit well with Gary Shaw, who co-promotes junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley. Shaw would love to pit the exciting Bradley against Pacquiao, but Arum said Bradley would not generate enough pay-per-view buys to cover Pacquiao’s minimum guarantee – which Arum said is considerably more than $10 million.
Shaw said it’s something else.
“What Bob should have told you is he prefers to fight his fighters against his own fighters, so if one gets knocked off, he’s got the other fighter,” Shaw said.
“Why is he talking about a rematch against Miguel Cotto or a fight against Antonio Margarito, who isn’t even licensed?
“He is not talking about fighting other fighters. There would be a lot of interest in a Bradley fight, but I can’t make Bob fight my fighters.”
(Margarito is still not licensed in the U.S. after having his license revoked after being caught with illegal hand wraps prior to his fight against “Sugar” Shane Mosley in January 2009).
Arum scoffed at Shaw’s comments. He said those criticizing him must realize that it’s all about Pacquiao’s hefty paydays.
“That’s the only problem,” Arum said. “Otherwise, why would we care about a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight? We care about it because it’s a huge fight.
“It’s not that we limit Pacquiao to our fighters. We limit him to fighters who are able to generate pay-per-view buys. And Bradley can’t right now. He can’t now because Gary has never promoted him right. There is a difference in promotion.”
Etc.
Victor Ortiz is one of the fighters being considered for the Sept. 18 undercard at Staples Center featuring “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora in the junior middleweight main event. Ortiz (27-2-1, 21 KOs), of Ventura, has gone 3-0 with two knockouts since being stopped in the sixth round by Marcos Maidana in June 2009 at Staples Center. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a fast-rising and highly popular junior middleweight from Mexico, is already slated to fight on the card. Mosley-Mora was sealed Wednesday. … Ulises Solis (30-2-2, 21 KOs) of Mexico will take on countryman Eric Ortiz (31-10-3, 20 KOs) in the flyweight main event tonight from Reno, Nev. The Top Rank Inc. card will be televised by Fox Sports Network. … John Molina (20-1, 16 KOs) of Covina will headline Friday’s ESPN2 card when he tangles with Hank Lundy (18-0-1, 10 KOs) in the lightweight main event from Lincoln, R.I. … Mike Jones (21-0, 17 KOs) and Irving Garcia (17-4-3, 8 KOs) will square off in the 12-round welterweight main event Friday in Atlantic City (on Showtime).
