Promoter Bob Arum says he has a gag order in place regarding publicly discussing the details of a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight negotiations.
I’m hoping the media, although one has already blown it, informally has a gag order on a headline screaming “It would be good for boxing.”
As I have previously written, “If something were to be good for boxing, it would have happened by now.”
It would be nice for the fight to happen, but I’m not desperate for it. And you shouldn’t be either.
As you already know, boxing and boxers will break your heart if you let them.
I’m more concerned about the garbage that was served up by HBO last Saturday via the Paul Williams vs. Kermit Cintron fight.
Cintron is not an exciting fighter and he’s a bad luck fighter pulling everyone around him down. No pun intended.
Now, Williams looked awful also, and he speaks so poorly that it’s hard to promote this guy. He’s a left-handed unexciting counter-puncher. He just moves up the ratings like a Chad Dawson, by attrition, not skill. I mean he was rated too high to begin with in my opinion.
And now these guys have no where to go but to fight for mythical pound for pound titles and are visually unwatchable.
I don’t want to blame HBO, but the cable giant won’t respect the sanctioning bodies rankings and it can’t play matchmaker by itself or we get Williams vs. Cintron and now we get a Williams vs. Cintron rematch in about 90 days or both of these guys are informally “owed” an HBO fight that fans have to suffer through.
I spent several days in Hollywood last February at the Wild Card Gym watching Pacquiao train and associate with the locals and it breathed new life into my interest in boxing.
I watched “The Event” between Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey from Cowboys Stadium from a ringside ticket and it was a thrill.
I took a friend who was so excited by Pacquiao vs. Clottey that he flew out to Las Vegas and sat row 2 for Mayweather vs. Mosley and now says he reads my column but I don’t believe him.
Anyway, when you say something is good for boxing, such as a megafight, it’s pandering. It’s because you don’t know what else to say.
The promoter has enough motivation to make the best fight he can.
The promoter puts on the best undercard he can unless other fighters are under contract and tied up to another promoter and he’s stuck with whatever he is stuck with and he goes to the sanctioning groups to come up with creative interim titles.
Horrible undercards are obvious when seen but sometimes the reason why isn’t as obvious.
It’s my opinion that horrible cards such as Williams vs. Cintron will do more to harm the future of boxing than a megafight not being made right away if at all.
Remember Marvin Hagler vs. Sugar Ray Leonard was to have happened in 1982. However Leonard retired and Hagler kept fighting and in 1987 Leonard came back and the fight was one of the better promotions of all time and the five-year delay only served to keep the fight warm.
