GL: We’re just days away from the eagerly anticipated Pacquiao-Marquez rematch, Unfinished Business. Can you give us some thoughts on the main event, as well as the undercard? “Today was the final press conference, it was extremely well attended. We had nineteen cameras there, which shows you the tremendous interest this fight has received from the media and fans from all over the world. If you check the online polls, and you ask the fight fans, which the response was sometime last year, what would be the fight you would like to see? Many of them, most of them said the fight they wanted to see was Pacquiao-Marquez. There are three days to go for an amazing showdown, the anticipation is great. The venue is sold-out, everything is going extremely well, both fighters are in great shape. For each one, it’s about pride, it’s about country, and it’s about winning. It’s going to be one of those fights you just don’t want to miss.”
GL: Juan Manuel Marquez clearly gave Pacquiao a tougher fight than Marco Antonio Barerra did, and he clearly gave him a tougher fight than Morales did the second and third fights. With that being said, why do you think Marquez is going to be able to walk away the victor on Saturday night?
Golden CEO: First of all, he surely did give him a tougher fight. That’s why it was ruled a draw. You had an equal number of the members of the press that thought Marquez should have been the victor. It was Pacquiao that took four years to put the rematch together, here it is. I talked to Oscar, and I asked him his opinion. He feels the old saying that styles make fights, if you look at the style, certain fighters have other fighter’s numbers. What is meant by that, is that there are certain styles out there that make it difficult for a fighter to adjust, to win against, as in Juan Manuel Marquez. If you take the first round away, he dominated the next eleven. For a fighter to dominate 11 rounds against Manny Pacquiao, that’s not something that happens by coincidence. That’s something which is a matter of styles matching up. We think that Juan Manuel Marquez really is the total package. He’s exciting, he can bang, he can go toe-to-toe, he can box, he just is an amazing fighter. He is a fighter that has been waiting all his life for this opportunity. He’s always been in the shadow of Barrera, and Eric Morales, both of whom were dominated by Pacquiao. Here he is in that unique situation, he has a unique opportunity to really not just get even with Barerra and Morales, but to step out of their shadow, and to prove that if he wouldn’t have had the kind of opportunities that Barrera and Morales had in the last ten years, his career would have taken a different path as well. Here it is, all coming down to one night March 15th on HBO PPV. See Juan Manuel Marquez. Can he capture that opportunity at that moment, and show the world, and his native Mexico, and the many Mexicans that will be watching and cheering for him? Can he show them, what he’s all about? It’s really coming down to that one night.
GL: After Saturday night’s event, the next event that you’re involved in is the Casamayor-Katsidis, which will determine who the logical challenger to the new WBO and IBF lightweight champion. What are the chances of the Casamayor-Katsidis winner fighting Nate Campbell next?
Golden CEO: We’re not really going to look at that, because each of these fighters is focusing on winning a fight. I know both Casamayor and Katsidis are, so it would be a disrespect to say what I think is going to be next. That would be a dangerous thing. We’re going to say that I think it’s going to be a great fight, a very meaningful fight. Who would have thought we’d have shakeups at lightweight? It’s significant because if the winner of this fight challenges Nate Cambell, the winner of that fight will be the linear lightweigh champion of the world. Meaning they’re going to have a much sought after belt of the unified champion. That’s what’s going to be at stake, I’m sure that Nate Campbell would love to add that belt to his collection. I know that he has called, he wants to make the fight.
GL: Nate Campbell, Joel Casamayor, and Michael Katsidis are all warriors. I’m sure as fighters, they would all love to fight each other. I think it might come down to whether or not Don King Productions, and Golden Boy Promotions can do business together.
Golden CEO: Don King hasn’t been receptive in recent meetings, like when we tried to put the Mosley-Mayorga fight together. I think he and Mayorga were sitting on the sidelines, while they could have had a fight with Sugar Shane Mosley. We’ll see, I understand that Don King was looking out for Mayorga to get him the biggest and best payday. He thought what we offered wasn’t sufficient, and I think the same here. The winner of Katsidis-Casamayor is going to go for what the biggest payday is. I’m not sure if the biggest payday is going to be with Nate Campbell, maybe it is.
GL: Might their biggest payday be with Juan Diaz, who I understand is very close to signing with Golden Boy?
Golden CEO: It really depends. If you are the promoter of Michael Katsidis, and of Joel Casamayor…
GL: I imagine you think the biggest payday would be with Ricky Hatton, your other Golden Boy client.
Golden CEO: Why do you think all the fighters are coming to Golden Boy? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why? It’s not because of Richard Schaefer’s blue eyes, it’s because they make the most money with us. Ricky Hatton, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar, Bernard, Shane, Marco, and Juan Manuel, all of them made the most money. Do you know why that is? I take it upon myself as a fiduciary responsibility to the fighters, who have a very limited timeframe of making a living fighting in the ring, that they deserve the biggest purses. The prudent thing to do for these fighters, talking about Katsidis and Casamayor, is to see what is the liklihood of getting a fight with Ricky Hatton done. What is the liklihood of getting a fight with Manny Pacquiao? I’m sure that everybody would agree that these are the biggest potential showdowns after that fight. If you move off of that, then you have Nate Campbell, and you have Juan Diaz, and I frankly don’t know which one is the bigger fight.
GL: When is Juan Diaz signing with Golden Boy?
Golden CEO: Don’t ask me.
GL: I know it’s coming soon. Winky Wright has made it clear to me that he’s working co-opertively with you, as he has been, as it relates to his next fight, and Team Winky and Golden Boy Promotions are willing to offer Kelly Pavlik a career high payday to fight him is his backyard. I understand that it’s not likely to happen, because Pavlik is going to be fighting the softer touch, Gary Lockett, at Madison Square Garden on June 7th. Can you give us some thoughts on that situation, and do you think that Pavlik should be fighting Winky next?
Golden CEO: I definitely think that Pavlik should be fighting Winky next. For whatever reason Top Rank, Bob, doesn’t want to have any part in making a Winky fight. We can’t make him take a fight, I think the offer Winky made was very generous. I’m never going to hear anybody, and I mean nobody, tell me again about Winky turning down fights. Winky wants to do the right thing, he wants to be fair. He recognizes that at this point, if he wants to get a showdown with Pavlik, he has to show some flexibility with the purse. Just like Juan Manuel did with this weekend with Pacquiao. He showed that he is really ready and willing to fight these guys for less money, and in their own backyard. I don’t think it gets much better than that, for whatever reason Pavlik doesn’t want to do that. What can you do? We’ll be having conversations with HBO, for a potential show with Winky Wright and Felix Sturm, or Winky and Arthur Abraham. We’re having conversations in that regard. One thing, Winky never ever turns down anyone because he doesn’t want to fight them. It is unfortunate, the other way around you really can’t say that. In his entire career, everyone tried to avoid him, very few fighters stood up. They knew, and still do know, that this is a very dangerous opponent. The ones who stepped up were Hopkins, Trinidad and Mosley. You have to respect them for having the guts to stand up against this guy, and I don’t think that Kelly Pavlik wants to be in that category.
GL: Speaking of Bernard, April 19th, The Battle of the Planet, how excited are you about that event? It’s Golden Boy’s first event at Planet Hollywood.
Golden CEO: That fight is really bigger than the planet. We called it Battle of the Planet because of course it’s at the fabulous Planet Hollywood Resort, here in Las Vegas. It really has stepped up in becoming a major player in the game of boxing. I’m very excited about it, tickets are selling fast. A lot of fans from England, of course, are anticipating that great fight. I know Bernard is training in Los Angelas, with Freddie Roach and Naseem Richardson, and his team there. He feels very comfortable there, and then there’s Joe Calzaghe and this is his big moment and his big opportunity. He’s not just coming to the United States to fight anybody he’s coming to fight the man who is Bernard Hopkins. You have to hand it to him for coming across the pond to the fight the best, The Executioner.”
GL: How long are you expecting the De La Hoya-Forbes tickets to last?
Golden CEO: “The first say we sold like 18,000. I haven’t checked recently because I’ve been busy with this fight. We anticipate a sold out crowd at the soccer stadium and it’s going to be history. It’s going to be part of a three day weekend of boxing in Los Angeles. There’s going to be the boxing writers dinner which will be available to the public to attend that dinner. A lot of the stars in boxing will be there and it’s going to be a great night and Thursday really starts the festivities. Then on Friday at the Tennis Staidum at the Home Depot Center we’re going to have a card on Telefutura, where we will showcase some of the rising Hispanic stars on a special event for Solo Boxeo. Immediately after that there will be a concert with emerging Mexican artists performing from there. The next day will be the De La Hoya fight and we’re going to have some exciting news as it relates to the undercard and then we anticipate Oscar and Forbes stepping in the ring around 7:30 on May 3. It’s going to be historic for Oscar to fight in front of his hometown and live on HBO again. It’s going to be an amazing weekend.
GL: Closing thoughts?
Golden CEO: “We’ve just done May 3 and I would like to end maybe May before I give you my closing thoughts. We’re going to have a fight that will officially be announced this weekend, and this is a fight that has fight of the year written all over it and that of course is Sugar Shane Mosley vs. Zab Judah. That’s going to be rounding off our May on May 31st at the Mandalay Bay. Indeed boxing is alive and well and there’s a lot of exciting events being presented by Golden Boy in the first half of the year and I’m sure we’ll be just as busy in the second half. So keep reading Boxingtalk.com for all of the latest and like we’ve always said, we’re here to make the best fights and that’s the best fighting the best.”
