While there was plenty of boxing taking place this weekend with shows being broadcast on Showtime and HBO and all across the globe, ESPN2, which was to have highlighted the bout between Steve Cunningham and Matt Godfrey for the vacant IBF cruiserweight title, instead went dark. There would be no ?Friday Night Fights? on the network as planned.
Simply put, as Cool Hand Luke might say, what we had here was a failure to communicate.
When Don King- who won originally won the purse bid to stage this fight back in mid-December- put out a press release on March 17th, stating that this show was canceled, as he was unable to come to terms with ESPN, it was believed that the fight was finished for the time being. However, two nights later, as Sechew Powell and Deandre Latimore fought on ?Friday Night Fights,? it was announced on that broadcast that the fight had been salvaged by the network and would take place in Chicago on the original date of March 26th.
It was news to John Scully, the trainer of Godfrey, who was watching the telecast.
“For the first three seconds I said to myself, ?Wow, they didn?t even tell ESPN the fight?s off?? That?s the first thing that popped into my head,” said Scully, who was of the belief the fight was scrapped completely. “Wednesday, we found out that the fight was off. It was off. And I asked, ?It?s off? It?s dead in the water?? They said yes.” Originally, the Godfrey camp was misinformed by the IBF that the fight would go back to purse bid and rescheduled. From that point, Godfrey broke training. “Matt not only missed the training and the running and the spectacular sparring we had lined up on Thursday; he also spent three days emotionally coming down from weeks and weeks of being in an intense mode of getting ready to fight. It?s like popping a balloon and taking all the air out and then trying to pump it up with a hole in it, in [the] span of five minutes. You just can?t do it. Matt Godfrey spent 72 hours thinking the fight was off.”
Scully is a former fighter himself, who believes that for a fight of this magnitude, a boxer?s psyche has to be honed and sharpened continually, like a knife before going into battle. Beyond the physical loss of three days in the gym, just as important to him, is losing momentum in building that mental mindset.
He says those who doubt that process “have never done that. Like, if they did it, they?d go, ?Whoa, it?s a big difference, here.? That?s a huge difference. Again, I have enough respect for Steve Cunningham to say, I don?t want to go through that freakin? nightmare. It?s like telling a guy he failed an AIDS test and you let him dwell on that for a week. And then you tell him a week later, ?Ah, man, we made a mistake.? Well, you just took 20 years off his life. That sounds crazy, but I?m telling you, a fighter will tell you, that?s what it?s like.”
Godfrey is promoted by Classic Entertainment Sports, which is led by Jimmy Burchfield, who released a statement late last week that read in part:
?As far as the details of this fight are concerned, I immediately contacted Matt?s manager, Bret Hallenbeck, after Don King postponed the March 26 fight and we called the IBF office together on a conference call to ask what the next step would be,? Burchfield explained. ?We were informed by an IBF official that the second-bidder?s check (Main Events) had been returned and that the entire process would have to be repeated. Another purse bid would be held for the fight and the winning bidder would have up to 90 days or sooner to place the fight. When Godfrey?s manager informed Matt of the situation, he immediately broke camp (leaving Connecticut to return home to Rhode Island). Later that day, I received a call from that same IBF official explaining that a mistake had been made. Main Event?s check hadn?t been returned and it was still in the IBF?s office. Main Events would be the promoter. I then received a call from Main Event?s attorney, Pat English, saying there was a chance they could salvage the fight in time for March 26. I called Godfrey?s manager to explain the new developments and he decided that, unless the deal was made 100 percent, he wouldn?t tell Matt anything more. I understood. I had been told it was 95-percent done but, to my disappointment, I wasn?t directly involved in any discussions with ESPN or where the fight was to be held.”
This begs the question, if Godfrey?s camp knew that there was such a high probability that this fight could be saved, why wasn?t the fighter notified of this? Hallenbeck says he was leery of this process from the very onset, when King and Main Events were the only two promoters to bid on this bout.
“I didn?t have a comfort level then, of why Kathy Duva would purse bid a fight between Godfrey and Cunningham when she had no interest in either one of them. No investment in either one of them,” he said. But the practice of outside promoters bidding on fights is actually rather common. As long as they pay the $3,000 fee to become an eligible IBF promoter and put up the deposit (which is non-refundable), they are free to participate in any purse bid. Also, according to Duva, their bid- which was just above $50,000 (to King?s bid that was around $65,000)- was done in conjunction with CES to protect their fighter, as they split the $5,000 deposit to the IBF. Boxers can lose their titles and rankings when nobody bids on their fights. And in instances where there is just one bidder who shows up, it?s common practice for promoters to bring two envelopes: one for a real bid and another one with the minimum amount (which is determined by weight classes).
Duva told Maxboxing this agreement emanated from the negotiations between Tomasz Adamek and Jason Estrada (another CES client), and she had hoped originally to put Godfrey-Cunningham on the undercard that same date, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey (Perhaps the question of why CES just didn?t bid on the fight themselves, for a fighter they dubbed ?The Captain of Team CES? in that same press release is a question that should be asked at another time).
But Hallenbeck says he kept hearing rumors of discontent between Cunningham and King (which is well-known throughout the industry) and was troubled by the changing dates of the fight, as King asked for more than one extension to place this contest. The lack of a set venue and television deal also troubled him. Then when the IBF reversed course and changed their stance on the fight not having to go up for purse bid, again, he had had enough. By coming in second place in the purse bid, Duva had the right to stage the fight within 90 days. An option she decided to exercise.
“Well, when it looks like sh*t, smells like sh*t and feels like sh*t, I don?t need to taste it to know it?s sh*t,” said the discerning Hallenbeck, who also manages featherweight contender Matt Remillard. “When you have a person who has no interest in anybody, [and] all of a sudden becomes the purse bidder and bringing the fight to Chicago with the IBF, against everything you?ve been told for the last 24 to 48 hours in the whole 90 days waiting for this fight, it didn?t sound good to me. It didn?t sound right.
“I don?t care if it was three hours or 24 hours; I had heard enough to say, ?Listen, stop, I want to think about this. I am not going to tell Godfrey and have him come back to camp in 24 hours. When you tell me there?s a contract in hand, you let me know,?? added Hallenbeck. ?Well, I?m sitting at a fight in Rhode Island and a reporter taps me on the shoulder and says, ?ESPN just announced you guys are fighting.? That?s not going to happen under my watch with either Remillard or Godfrey. It?s just not going to happen.”
Now, sanctioning bodies have been known to make up the rules as they go along, but in this instance, this particular clause is clearly stated in the IBF rules (http://www.ibf-usba-boxing.com/userfiles/File/Rules%20Governing.pdf) in sections 10 F and G, that state: “In the event the winning bidder defaults under D or F, the bid falls to the next higher bidder” who then has 90 days to make the fight.
But that still doesn?t convince Hallenbeck that everything is on the up and up.
“As bad as everyone wants to talk about Don King, I have more respect for him than the bullsh*t Kathy Duva?s pulling. Everybody wants to talk about how ESPN stepped up to the plate, was going to have this fight happen. Well, why didn?t they step up to the plate and put some more money at the fight? Why didn?t they do that?” asked the manager, who seems to be misguided in his venom. At last check, King kept delaying this fight and eventually defaulted on it. Duva tried her best to keep it going. As for ESPN, well, they were in fact going to put up significantly more money into the license fee to keep this fight alive in Chicago and were willing to incur expenses not usually allocated in their budget. But Hallenbeck also asks, “Was Kathy Duva behind the distraction of King not being able to put this fight together because she was negotiating with Steve Cunningham?”
Which is also another dubious claim since Cunningham isn?t exactly a Manny Pacquiao-type draw and the reality is that Cunningham?s contract ends at the end of the month with DKP. In a standard purse bid contract, contract extensions and the like, are prohibited. Cunningham was walking away from King, regardless, after this contest.
Duva, who admits to having an interest in working with Cunningham in the near future, had made her intentions very clear from the beginning. She told Maxboxing, “Originally, when we heard that he [King] defaulted on the fight, we immediately got in touch with the IBF to let them know we were going to be interested in taking it over. According to the IBF rules, when the promoter who wins the purse bid defaults, then the second place bidder takes over the fight. So we immediately made sure that everybody understood that our intention was to exercise those rights. Our first idea was to put the fight at the Prudential Center for some time in June. So I made calls to see if he would get a date that was available. I called ESPN to see if they were still interested in buying the fight. When I spoke to Doug Loughrey (who runs ESPN?s boxing franchise), he got back to me right away. He originally called and said he was interested and, a little after that, he called and said, ?I might be able to salvage this by putting it on [8 Count Productions President] Dominic Pesoli?s card that he had already scheduled for Friday in Chicago. Would you be willing to work with us to make that happen?? I later learned that he had received an email from Jimmy Burchfield suggesting that they find another show to put it on, on Friday. His fighter was still going to be training and that he was ready to go. He didn?t want to waste the eight weeks of training and the expense and all that has gone into it. So I contacted Cunningham?s manager and I let them know that there was maybe a one-percent chance that the fight might still happen on March 26th and perhaps he should stay in camp and keep training.”
This is ironic since the fighter that was told there was a ?one-percent chance? of this fight taking place actually stayed in camp. The side that was informed that there was a much higher probability of the fight coming off seemed to keep their fighter in the dark. That?s mystifying and maddening on many levels.
“Meanwhile, we let Jimmy Burchfield know what was happening and from that point on, I went back and forth with ESPN; we let the IBF know we were negotiating, that this was possible,” continued Duva. “I negotiated with ESPN to get as much as we could to cover the costs. We got just enough to cover the costs. The Illinois Athletic Commission got involved; very quickly they swung into action because they had deadlines that had passed and they were willing to waive all that. The IBF got involved; they were looking into officials they could appoint that could get there fast enough.”
According to Duva, things moved quickly. “At the close of business on Thursday, we pretty much had everything in place. But we were waiting on ESPN?s attorney?s approval. I found out at 10:30, Friday morning that ESPN?s attorneys did, in fact, approve this. We were a go. At 11:00, the IBF declared Don King officially in breach and the fight was officially ours. By 12:00, both fighters? camps had a bout contract to look at. We had a contract going out to Dominic Pesoli, outlining our work with each other.”
At that point, all the logistical entanglements from booking flights, hotel rooms and appointing officials for the fight were being worked out. “It was absolutely beautiful how every single little contingency was covered in the space of a few hours. Everybody was doing their jobs. We were so proud of ourselves,” said Duva, laughing. “Because in the end, Loughrey said to me, ?If you could put this off ?til July, that would be good, but it would really be the right thing for the fighters to let them fight now.? And he was right and in the end, that was pretty much what governed our decisions those few hours.”
Duva has no idea why Godfrey was kept out of the loop. She says she had been led to believe that Burchfield was on board. “He told Loughrey, ?Everything?s fine; don?t worry about it.? There?s an email to Lindsey Tucker [of the IBF] saying ?Everything?s fine.? So I have to believe that, at this point, Jimmy believed everything was fine.”
According to her, Burchfield was supposed to have dinner with his fighter on Friday night, to inform him on the situation.
“So he had to have told his fighter at noon, when he made this meeting, the reason for the meeting. Which means he had hours before dinner to train. Again, they had to have known; why was Jimmy meeting with them? I know he met with them that evening,” stated Duva. “He called Vinny Pazienza to go meet with them because Vinny was there to tell the famous story of how he was sick before he fought Greg Haugen.”
Who knows if this powwow took place? But what?s clear is that Godfrey had halted training for his shot at the title. Scully makes it clear; the decision to pull out was not his. “From what I understand, it was Bret saying, ?I?m going to do what?s best for the fighter.? I assume Bret talked to him.” When he?s asked if he wishes they were told that there was a very good possibility of this fight still taking place on the 26th, the trainer answered, “Well, I?ll put it this way, apparently Steve Cunningham- from what I?ve read from him directly- he knew the situation from the get-go. He kept training as if nothing was changed. I certainly wish we had gotten the same information.”
Scully says he felt Godfrey was having a strong camp, peaking at the right time, ready to defeat Cunningham and win his first major championship. “On my end,” said Scully, “and what I know of Matt, there?s no way in the world he didn?t want this fight to happen. There?s no way.”
There were strong indications last week that Godfrey would not only lose his shot at the IBF belt, but would be completely dropped from their rankings. Godfrey, was ranked number three (with Cunningham the top-rated contender, the second spot being vacant) coming into last weekend. Last Tuesday, the IBF ordered negotiations to begin between Cunningham and the fourth-ranked challenger, Troy Ross.
“Under the rules, if he [Godfrey] didn?t take the fight, we move onto the next guy. And Troy Ross was the next guy,” said Tucker, the IBF championship chairman, who found Godfrey?s decision head-scratching.” I found it very strange. I mean, because this guy had been training from what we hear, about seven or eight weeks and there was constant discussion about the fight because at one point, it was going to be on the 19th [of March] in Florida; then when King got the ESPN date, everybody was elated because the Florida date didn?t have TV. So they were going to get a lot of exposure. Once that fell out, Main Events, the second bidder, was able to secure the same date. For some reason, you?ll have to ask Godfrey. We couldn?t get him to agree to the fight after that.”
As for Godfrey?s future prospects, Hallenbeck says, “Well, I have to leave that up to Jimmy Burchfield, his promoter. I clearly can?t go out there and negotiate fights for him as the manager. We gotta rely on Jimmy Burchfield to do what he needs to do to make it right.”
But he?s steadfast in the course they have taken.
“I?ll live with my decision. I?ll deal with it.”
FINAL FLURRIES
Loughrey declined to comment on this story, but they did release this statement to Maxboxing: “We worked diligently with the IBF, Kathy Duva and Dominic Pesoli to bring the Godfrey/Cunningham fight to Chicago on the original scheduled date of March 26. Unfortunately, the Godfrey camp chose not to continue with the fight and now ?Friday Night Fights? will return on April 2 with Delvin Rodriguez vs. Mike Arnaoutis at 9 PM Eastern.”…Is it just me, or did you also question why the Nevada State Athletic Commission allowed a fighter (in Joan Guzman) to weigh more than nine pounds over the contracted weight and still allow him to fight the next evening? Has the NSAC just completely packed it in?…Marcos Maidana is a hard-hitting, fun fighter, but I didn?t see a guy that could defeat a Tim Bradley or Devon Alexander…Folks, it doesn?t matter if Andre Dirrell was acting or not (I certainly think he wasn?t), hitting an opponent while he is obviously down is something you can get disqualified for…The bright side is, at least this time around, Abraham?s brother didn?t kick anyone in the head while they were down…Thus far, while the ?Super Six? has had some bumps in the road, I think the fights themselves have been pretty eventful…Is Tom Izzo of Michigan State the most underrated coach in all of sports?…Any questions or comments can be sent to [email protected] and you can follow me at www.twitter.com.stevemaxboxing. Also, you can join our new Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing
