That light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal?s Canadian promoter, Yvon Michel, had made a major miscalculation was revealed when the World Boxing Council opened the envelopes in Mexico City on Feb. 16: Golden Boy Promotions, representing Bernard Hopkins, tendered a purse bid just north of $1.9 million and will be the lead promoter of the May 21 rematch between the two boxers. Michel, whose interests were represented by American agent Don Majeski, had offered $1.75 million, which was enough money to show that he was serious, but short enough to indicate that Michel had underestimated what GBP was willing to invest to call the tune in a fight that is nonetheless likely to wind up taking place in Canada.
While all common sense would argue that Montreal?s Bell Centre is the logical site for the bout, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer promptly threw a red herring into the mix. In an interview that day his favored conduit, ESPN.com?s Dan Rafael, Schaefer made this fairly absurd suggestion:
?As Bernard has said, he is willing to go back to Canada, assuming that it?s neutral officials. Bernard was very impressed with the fan support he got in Quebec City. By the end of the night the crowd was cheering, ?Hopkins! Hopkins!? So he has no problem going back to Canada, but it has to be neutral officials. If not, the fight will take place in the United States.?
The clear-cut implication was that the draw verdict in their Dec. 18 fight was the result of some malfeasance on the part of the officials. In point of fact, only referee Michael Griffin and one of the judges that night were Canadians. Griffin is a top-flight referee and his conduct of the bout was above reproach. Another judge was Belgian and the third American.
Schaefer isn?t such complete a boxing neophyte that he doesn?t know there?s no way in the world the Quebec Boxing Commission would cave in to his demand for four neutral officials. Nor is he so stupid as to think that there?s a jurisdiction in the United States, particularly, Nevada, that would agree to it for the same reason. The best he could hope for either place would be a referee who was neither American nor Canadian and a multinational slate of judges ? pretty much the same composition as the tribunal that worked the December fight in Quebec City. Which is to say, at least one Canadian judge if the fight were there, and at least one Nevada judge if it were in Las Vegas.
This might be partially traceable to the Schaefer?s cultural heritage. He comes from Switzerland, a country deeply committed to the principle of neutrality as long as it doesn?t involve somebody?s bank account. What Schaefer is actually asking for in this case isn?t neutral officials, but American officials.
What is most annoying about the Golden Boy demand is that it implicitly suggests that having neutral officials, or at least a neutral referee, is some sort of high-minded principle to which Hopkins has previously subscribed. The truth of the matter is that going back to 1993, B-Hop had fought an opponent of a different nationality on 10 occasions, and the total number of neutral referees in those fights was exactly zero. American referees worked each and every one of them ? even Bernard?s 1994 draw with Segundo Mercado, a fight that took place in Ecuador. …
The cozy nature of Golden Boy?s relationship with the WBC was underscored a couple of weeks ago when the organization, after stripping Manny Pacquiao of recognition as its 154-pound champion, rubber-stamped Golden Boy?s request to make Saturday?s Saul Alvarez-Matthew Hatton fight in Anaheim, Calif., for the vacant title. Alvarez (35-0-1) is still only 20 years old and might be title-worthy, but the idea of lightly tested Brit Hatton (41-4-2) fighting for a title lifted from Pacquiao must have left them laughing even in the pubs of England.
New England fight fans may recall that five years ago Hatton fought on the undercard of brother Ricky?s bout against Louis Collazzo. His opponent, a 9-6 New Hampshire-based Mexican named Jose Medina, was about as safe as the matchmakers could find and still have a pulse. Medina had lost two of his previous three, and the one he?d won was against Holly Elliott, who had won just one of his last 12. That night at TD Garden, Medina nearly wrecked the set-up, and Hatton had all he could to hang on to win a split decision. Now he?s fighting for a world title on HBO.
A WBC cornucopia
What?s the WBC going to start naming its belts once it exhausts the Periodic Table of Elements? It?s hard to keep track of them all, but as far as we can tell, only the vacant ?diamond? belt and Sergio Martinez? ?emeritus? middleweight title will be on the line in his March 12 fight against Sergiy Dzinziruk at Foxwoods. No title will be at stake in the Andy Lee-Craig McEwan co-feature (at least not yet), but last week the promoters announced that the principal off-TV fight between unbeaten Dominican prospect Javier Fortuna and his North Carolina opponent Derrick Wilson will be for the vacant WBC featherweight ?Youth? championship. The most curious aspect of this development is that the title in question is in fact not vacant, since it is one of the very few among this cornucopia of essentially meaningless titles that has been actively defended. When Juan Antonio Rodriguez stopped Ariel Vasquez in Mexico City last month, he was defending the Youth title he won in April 2010 for the sixth time in nine months. You have to wonder whether anybody has even bothered to tell Rodriguez that he?s been stripped, let alone the reason for it. …
News Item: Oscar De La Hoya to visit troops on USO Tour to Middle East. (Due to security reasons, the countries and tour dates cannot be released at this time.)
Haven?t the troops suffered enough already? …
Still presumably basking in the afterglow of tonight?s Academy Awards ceremonies, Lowell?s Micky Ward will be a special guest of the promotion at Foxwoods on March 12.
Dorchester?s Kevin McBride, whose split decision in a three-round bout against Franklin Ogobi was his only win over the past five years, sounds as if he may have gotten his signals crossed with his hypnotist. In Newark, N.J., last week to hype his role in Tomasz Adamek?s pre-Klitschko-to-be-named-later tuneup on April 9, had some strange things to say:
?This is a great opportunity, for me to show the world I?m a bigger man.? (The world already knows that; the 6-foot-6 Clones Collossus weighed 287 for each of his last two fights.)
?You know, Pope John Paul II, I hope you don?t mind,? he added, ?but I?m gonna take the title from Tomasz Adamek.? We imagine the late pontiff, who died in in 2005, is beyond caring, but someone should probably have whispered in McBride?s ear that Adamek doesn?t have a title to take. …
Happy birthday, Barry McGuigan.
