Unfortunately, Bob Arum didn’t deliver on his promise to have a ’spectacular’ undercard to this Saturday nights pay-per-view show from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that features Manny Pacquiao’s challenge of WBO welterweight champion, Miguel Cotto. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will be allowed to continue to feast on a diet of hand-picked Midwestern foes, as he faces Troy Rowland. And the bout between Daniel Santos and Yuri ’Boreman’ figures to be a game of tag where you wont be able tell which guy is ’it’. But there is one saving grace to this line-up.
And that’s the fight that will kick-off the broadcast, which is the welterweight tussle between Alfonso Gomez and Jesus Soto-Karass. This figures to be an old-fashioned Mexican war.
” Well, if it comes down to that, I’m ready,” said Gomez, laughing at the thought.” I’m not shy of doing it. I have 20-something fights that prove it. But this time I’m going to try to fight a smart and intelligent fight. We know that Karass is going to come forward, throw a lot of punches to the liver and to the head. So I’m going to try to work on the angles, moving my head and using jabs. But like I told you, if it comes down to going toe-to-toe if I have to, I don’t shy away from those things.”
With both boxers being based out of Southern California, they are familiar with each other, having moved around the ring a few times.
” We sparred together a few times, maybe like three times,” he recalled.” And I felt like I was beating him in sparring, not that sparring really matters, it’s the fights that really count. But from what I can see, I feel like this could be like all those fights in sparring, where I kept my cool, I kept my jab going, try to give him angles. Hopefully, it’ll end up being like that in the fight.”
For this fight, Gomez made the decision to have his training camp in Oxnard, California. Bottom line, he needed an opportunity to sleep peacefully in the evening hours.
” We’re staying over here with Robert Garcia at the Robert W. Lewis Gym. My dad said, ’Son, you gotta go to camp.’ Because since I had a daughter a few months back, it kinda kept me up at night, the crying and the feeding. So Gary Gittelsohn set up this camp over here with Robert and I couldn’t be happier.”
Gittelsohn, his manager says he has never seen his fighter so intent on the task at hand,” Yes, and I say that unequivocally. I’ve never seen him more focused, I’ve never seen him participate with greater vigor in any camp. It’s been a great camp, he distanced himself from all distractions that he would ordinarily have at home. He’s gone to live in Oxnard, he’s had terrific sparring. His father, who is his chief trainer, has had great assistance in helping him prepare and strategize for the fight. I really, really like what I see.”
While in the 805, he lives a rather spartan existence at the Casa Villa Mar- not exactly the Four Seasons.
” It doesn’t matter,” says Gomez,” what matters is we’re away from home, the distractions and concentrating on a very important fight, looking my best.” It’s an old cliche’ you hear over and over, boxers saying that they are in the best shape of their lives, but Gomez swears it’s true.” I feel great, I’m training very hard. I’m actually building some muscles that I’ve never had before.”
Whoa, does that mean Gomez, who likes his six-packs, has a six-pack?
” Well, it looks like it,” he says with a laugh.” You’re going to be seeing it on the 13Th, the day of the weigh-in. So for the first time I’m going to have a six-pack and just more than anything else it’s the hard training and the concentration for this fight.”
Gomez last fought in late August in Honolulu, Hawaii, blowing out Raul Munoz in less than a round underneath Brian Viloria’s defense of his IBF jr. flyweight title. While at Viloria’s victory party, he promised that he would make a quick return to the gym as the Soto-Karass fight was impending.
” I gave myself one week. The fight in Hawaii was a round, I didn’t get hit, I didn’t get tired, I didn’t get bruised, no cuts, no nothing. So it was just a matter of relaxing a few days so I didn’t burn out my body and piss out the tequila we had over there and I just came right back to it. I feel ready, I feel happy, especially because this is a very motivating fight. So I was very happy to get back to the gym,” he says.
It’s a fight that Gomez pushed for. While Gittelsohn was a bit reluctant at first to pull the trigger on this bout, he was convinced by his client to put their names on the dotted line. The respected manager explains,” Look, to distill management into the least common denominator, you always want to take the least amount of risk for the greatest reward. However, there comes a point, especially in this sport, when you have to assume greater risk in order to get to the next step and become a star and really achieve greater rewards. Alfonso, did that in connection with the Cotto fight and he’s now regrouped, re-committed himself and now he’s ready to take on a great challenge in what figures to possibly be the fight that steals the show that night against Soto-Karass.”
Thus far, Gomez, is best known for being on the original season of ’the Contender’, defeating Arturo Gatti in what was his last professional outing and getting stopped by Cotto. The fight on Saturday night, though, is the biggest and most important night of his career as far as he’s concerned.
” Every fight is very important. When you win a fight it’s a step closer to the championship, you go up higher in the rankings. But definitely when you lose a fight, you go back many, many fights. So this fight is important as those fights, but I gotta say this fight is even more important because it’s going to be seen by a broader audience on pay-per-view, the biggest card of the year,” explained Gomez.” Also, we are both looking to fight for a world title. He looks like he’s ready and I feel like I’m ready. So the winner of this fight is definitely a step closer to a world title fight. So it’s very, very important for me to showcase my skills and beat Karass.”
The former ’Contender’ looks to be a real contender. A victory over the hard-nosed Mexican stamps him as such.
” I just see myself being closer to being a bigger household name. A lot of people know me but I’m looking to be known more,” he says.” More than anything, I’m looking to accomplish that dream that I started 18 years ago- have a world tile around my waist. I’m still fighting for it, I’m still training hard for it and it seems like as the years go by, I get more mature and taking the sport more seriously.
” So I guess it’s all about timing. The time is now.”
BATTING ORDER
I know by know that you guys know how I feel about this undercard and my strong disagreement I had with Arum regarding the addition of the Foreman fight. Hey, it’s his card, he can do whatever he pleases. But it’s interesting to note, that while Pacquiao is the recipient of unprecedented coverage, I haven’t yet seen the deluge of coverage from the Jewish media outlets that Arum spoke off, when adding the future Rabbi to this card.
But that’s not my main gripe, anymore. I’ve been told that the pay-per-view card will start with Gomez-Soto-Karass, followed by the Foreman-Santos bout and then, believe it or not, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. as the semi-main before Pacquiao and Cotto get at it. Yeah, I know why Chavez Jr. is being slotted here, he brings a lot of interest in the Latin/Mexican demographic, but geez, he’s fighting another guy he should blow out easily. Gomez and Soto-Karass( who last I checked are also of Mexican heritage) is the consensus choice to be the best undercard bout of this night( by far), don’t they deserve to play in front of as many people as possible?
Let’s be honest, this isn’t the UFC, for the most part, venues at boxing cards- especially big pay-per-view events- don’t get filled up till about 30 minutes before the main event. Around 6:00 pm, Pacific time on Saturday night, much of the Grand Garden Arena will be empty. Which is a shame. This figures to be an entertaining slug-fest and what better way to set the atmosphere to perhaps the most anticipated fight of the year than an old-school donnybrook between two guys who will leave it all out there?
Seeing Chavez blow out more cannon fodder really is the calm before the storm.
THE GHOST
Word is that Top Rank plans to have Kelly Pavlik- who really has disappeared like a ghost in 2009- make his return on December 19Th at the basketball arena of Youngstown St. University against Miguel Espino. It would be part of a split-site pay-per-view show that would have Chavez Jr. in Mexico.
Pavlik, was originally scheduled to have faced Paul Williams on December the 5Th in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before lingering problems with his staph infection on his left hand forced a post-ponement of that fight.
HAWAIIAN PUNCH
So what about Gittelsohn’s other client, IBF jr. flyweight titlist, Brian Viloria?
He says his return to the ring will take place,” January 23rd, and he will be fighting Juan Carlos Tamara and that is the IBF mandatory fight.”
This bout will take place in Manila, according to Gittelsohn.
PRICK
OK, I mentioned in my last ’flurries’ that Cotto may have been flipping through a porn mag while at the airport on the last episode of ’24/7’ on HBO. Well, I’ve been informed by more than a few of my great readers that ’PRICK’ is actually a magazine dedicated to tattoo’s, not booty. But c’mon, it was easy to think that, I mean, look at the title- prick. Y’know, well, didn’t you think it was also a, uhhhh, never mind…..
I just wanted to apologize for besmirching the reputation of Cotto and I will now precede to get my mind out of the gutter. ( I suggest that Chipp7, who got me into this fine mess, do the same.)
FIREPOWER FLURRIES
I’ll say this right now, Alfredo Angulo should no longer be relegated to opening act status to Chad Dawson. Yes, Dawson is more skilled, but it’s ’Perro’ that brings fun and excitement to the dance….So did Larry Johnson tweet anything regarding his release from the KC Chiefs. I would have tweeted: ’ Free at last, free at last!! Good God almighty, I’m free at last! LOL’….Every time I think of Youngstown St. I think of Miami Hurricane transfer JC Penny, the former running back- and yes, that was his real name. He was a good solid back-up to the likes of Melvin Bratton and Warren Williams at ’the U’ in the mid-80’s…..I’m working on getting Bob Arum and Freddie Roach on this weeks edition of ’the Main Event’….Will Allen Iverson, ever get it?….Kobe Bean Bryant, right now, is playing as well as ever. His first summer off in several years really shows…..Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at [email protected]…..Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
