The first bout between Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales was the 2000 Fight of the Year. The third was the 2004 Fight of the Year.
But if Top Rank chairman Bob Arum is serious, the only time Barrera and Morales will be nose-to-nose in a boxing ring any time soon will be when they appear together at Mandalay Bay on May 6 to receive an award at the Boxing Writers Association of America’s annual dinner.
Arum said he plans to negotiate a rematch for Morales with Manny Pacquiao rather than Barrera because he believes it will perform better on pay per view.
“The Filipinos add a huge twist to this equation,” Arum said of the pay-per-view sales.
The third Barrera-Morales fight was at the MGM Grand on Nov. 27, two days after Thanksgiving. The fight sold between 300,000 and 310,000 on pay per view, Arum said.
Morales-Pacquiao was in the same arena March 19 and sold between 350,000 and 360,000, Arum said. The ratings of the delayed broadcast of the pay per view were better for the Pacquiao fight than for the Barrera fight.
“The delay on HBO for Pacquiao had a larger-than-usual audience,” Arum said. “So many people watched that fight and are still talking about it. The delay for Morales-Barrera was nothing out of the ordinary. Having the fight on Thanksgiving weekend was not the best time, but my analysis is that everybody who watched Morales-Barrera watched Morales-Pacquiao, plus we added the Filipinos.”
There is a battle going on in Pacquiao’s camp between promoter Murad Muhammad on one side and co-managers Shelly Finkel and Nick Khan, and trainer Freddie Roach on the other.
Roach flatly accused Muhammad of stealing money from Pacquiao. Roach said that when Pacquiao fought a tuneup in the Philippines in December, he negotiated a purse with Arum in which Pacquiao would get a $1.75 million guarantee and 40 percent of the pay-per-view profits for fighting Morales.
But Roach said Muhammad coerced Pacquiao into signing with him, telling Pacquiao, according to Roach, that he wouldn’t fight again on HBO were he not to be aligned with Muhammad. Pacquiao signed, but then later hired Finkel and Khan.
“Murad Muhammad is a magician,” Roach said. “He makes Manny Pacquiao’s money disappear.”
Muhammad denies stealing from Pacquiao and takes credit for Pacquiao’s popularity. He said Roach is upset because he is fearful of losing control of the fighter.
“Freddie Roach doesn’t know enough about his own job to be worrying about doing someone else’s,” Muhammad said.
Arum said if Pacquiao’s legal situation is clear, he will attempt to arrange a rematch with Morales. But he said he was not going to get into the middle of the dispute.
“The last thing I want is to be involved in something like that,” Arum said.
? DIAZ CUT — WBA lightweight champion Juan Diaz was cut on the left eyelid during the first round of sparring Saturday with Ramiro Cano and was forced to withdraw from his title defense against Ebo Elder next Saturday at Caesars Palace.
Houston ophthamologist John Webb said “multiple sutures were inserted.”
The Diaz-Elder fight was replaced on the pay-per-view card with a bantamweight bout between Raul Martinez (7-0, six knockouts) and Larry Olvera (5-3-2, four KOs).
? MESI HEARING — The first step toward heavyweight contender Joe Mesi’s return to the ring will be in a conference room in Las Vegas on Monday.
Mesi will seek to have a medical suspension lifted that was imposed upon him by the Nevada Athletic Commission after his March 13, 2004, fight with Vassiliy Jirov at Mandalay Bay. Because of the Nevada suspension, Mesi is effectively suspended from fighting in the United States because the federal Professional Boxer Safety Act requires states to honor each other’s suspensions.
Mesi was knocked down twice by Jirov and was on the verge of being knocked out when the bell rang to end the fight, though Mesi won a decision. A subsequent post-fight MRI revealed what might be a subdural hematoma, or bleeding on his brain.
Mesi engaged in a lengthy battle with the commission over access to his medical records. The commission had requested all of Mesi’s records, but Mesi initially refused to comply.
He relented last month, however, and the commission’s medical advisory board, which will conduct Monday’s hearing, finally received all documents it requested.
The board, which is comprised of chairwoman Dr. Margaret Goodman, Dr. Al Capanna, Dr. Todd Chapman, Dr. Jeffrey Parker and Dr. Anthony Pollard, will hear Mesi’s evidence and have the ability to ask questions of Mesi and his witnesses.
It will make a recommendation to the commission, which will consider the matter in an upcoming meeting. The commission is not bound by the board’s recommendation.
? NO GOLDEN ERA — Heavyweight contender James Toney got agitated when he was asked if boxing can return to the glory days it had in the 1980s. Toney, who will challenge Las Vegan John Ruiz for the WBA championship on April 30 in New York, said the caliber of boxing today is not as bad as has been portrayed.
“(Former heavyweight champion) Larry Holmes did not have anybody in his era,” Toney said. “Anybody he had was old and decrepit. Now, we have the young fighters today. It all starts April 30. We have a great fight at Madison Square Garden. James “Lights Out” Toney, the one and only, is coming and I am going to take over.
“Bottom line. Everything else will fall in place. Now for you so-called boxing experts, I bet 95 percent of you never put any gloves on in the ring and you all have got no business to be talking about boxing.”
? SHOWTIME IN THE A.M. — The June 4 super lightweight title fight in Manchester, England, between champion Kostya Tszyu and hometown hero Ricky Hatton will be shown live in the United States on Showtime.
In order to do that, the fight will not begin until after 2 a.m. Sunday in England. Jay Larkin, the executive producer of Showtime’s boxing telecasts, said ratings are off sharply when there is a delayed broadcast.
The unbeaten Hatton is beloved in Manchester and the 18,000-seat arena was sold out in less than three hours.
“They would have sold out 60,000 seats,” Larkin said.
In order to prevent fans who have been drinking all night from causing a disturbance, alcohol sales will be halted at 11 p.m. inside the arena. No one will be permitted to enter the building after that time and ticketed fans who leave won’t be readmitted.
