our weekly random thoughts ?
? With a Yuriorkis Gamboa-Elio Rojas featherweight unification bout under discussion to headline HBO’s July 24 “Boxing After Dark” card from The Palms in Las Vegas, how about this for the ultimate sanctioning body insanity and the perfect potential scenario to illustrate how these bloodsucking organizations make stuff as they go along in an effort to keep lining their pockets:
Chris John is the WBA’s so-called featherweight “super champion,” a title originally created, the WBA said, in order to give a unified titleholder an additional six months to make a mandatory defense, from 12 months to 18. (In reality, we all know it’s just a way for the WBA to collect more sanction fees by having multiple titles in the same division.) At some point, the vulgar WBA gave up on the unified aspect of creating “super champions” and just began designating them on a whim. That’s why such fighters as John, Andre Ward and Felix Sturm are WBA “super champions” even though they have not unified belts. Gamboa is the WBA’s “regular” titleholder. That means the winner of a potential Gamboa-Rojas fight would be the unified WBA/WBC titlist and, by definition, make him a WBA “super champion.” Oh, what an absolutely delicious quandary! Would the WBA elevate the winner to super duper champion? Would John become the super super champion? Oh, the possibilities! Isn’t it sheer madness?
On that note, this is my dream: To become a unified super duper regular intergalactic undisputed silver interim diamond champion emeritus in recess twice removed.
? Top Rank met with HBO not all that long ago to talk about some fights for the summer. One was Gamboa against Celestino Caballero, an outstanding featherweight bout, which was ticketed for the July 24 card. HBO made a legitimate offer for the fight (between $650,000 and $750,000) and Top Rank then made a half-hearted effort to make it, even admitting to me that what was offered to Caballero and promoter Lou DiBella was probably not enough to get the fight done (about $250,000). So be it, but Top Rank’s Bob Arum is now telling people that Caballero priced himself out of the fight, which is simply not true (shocking, right?). The reality is that Gamboa and Top Rank simply don’t want to make the fight right now. They know how tough of a fight it is. Top Rank wouldn’t even give HBO a number that it needed to get for the fight after telling the network that the initial offer wasn’t enough. Now it looks like Gamboa may instead face titlist Rojas now that Rojas’ promoter, Don King, has apparently backed off his silly demand for a 50-50 split.
? One of the most depressing things in boxing history: Shamefully, Jose Sulaiman is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He should be kicked out for crimes against our sport.
? Manny Pacquiao was recently treated for an ulcer in the Philippines. I think if the Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight isn’t put together soon, I’ll need treatment for one as well.
? For those disappointed in the anti-climactic Rafael Marquez-Israel Vazquez IV, which obviously didn’t come close to living up to its three predecessors, just go back and watch DVDs of their first three mind-blowing battles and stop complaining.
? By the way, I think a Juan Manuel Lopez-Marquez featherweight title fight could be made into a pretty big event. It’s a classic Puerto Rico versus Mexico rivalry fight.
? As exciting as the junior welterweight division is at the top with standouts such as Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley Jr., Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana, there are two exciting and undefeated guys on the way up who I think could add some depth to the division. I’d love to see Ruslan Provodnikov and Mike Alvarado square off on a “Boxing After Dark” card.
? David Haye against Audley Harrison? If the fight is made, please pass the vomit bag.
? Aren’t things just more interesting when Zab Judah has a fight coming up?
? I’m pretty intrigued by the Alfredo “Perro” Angulo-Joachim Alcine fight that has been put together for HBO’s July 17 undercard.
? For those crying that Abner Mares was robbed in his bantamweight title shot against Jonnhy Perez by being given a draw, put a sock (or glove) in it. If you think Mares won 115-113, like most people seem to have had it if they thought Mares was indeed the winner, you can’t complain. Two judges had it 114-114 (like I did). That’s a one-round difference in a close fight. That was what this was: A close fight. Not a robbery. There’s a difference.
? During his 14-year pro career, Danny Romero (45-5-2, 38 KOs) won flyweight and junior bantamweight titles and was one of the best in the business among the smaller-weight fighters. Romero, 35, whose last fight was a victory in 2006, is staying involved in the sport on the promotional end. The Albuquerque, N.M., native is trying to build his promotional company, Danny Romero Productions, and has been doing club shows in his hometown, including working with Golden Boy on a recent “Friday Night Fights” card. I like Romero’s attitude toward the business. “I am still trying to put my company on the map of boxing,” he told me recently. “Some of the fighters that are on my cards have bad records but fight like hell. So they will put on a great local show.” He said he brings the same vigor to promoting that he brought to his championship career. “Now [I’m] trying to do the same as a promoter and to give up and coming youth, or the one boxer that never got the opportunity, to feel what I felt when I became a champion,” he said. “I am going to keep boxing alive here in Albuquerque.” I certainly wish him well.
? Paging Zsolt Erdei.
? Here’s hoping junior flyweight titlist Giovani Segura fights again soon. No little guy is more exciting.
? Happy birthday on Thursday to two of boxing’s most helpful public relations people, Golden Boy’s Monica Sears and Alex “Yanksalex” Dombroff of DiBella Entertainment. They often make my life easier. And happy birthday on Friday to veteran Star Boxing matchmaker Ron Katz, one of the best in the business and the biggest “American Idol” fan in boxing.
? DVD pick of the week: It never gets old and I might consider watching it daily if I had the time. Simply, it is one of my all-time favorite fights. It was March 18, 2006, in the outskirts of Paris where France’s Mayhar Monshipour and “The Sith Lord,” Somsak Sithchatchawal of Thailand, waged the fight of the year, one of the best fights of the decade and one of the most action-packed fights I have ever seen. Sithchatchawal dropped Monshipour in the first round and the action never relented. The ninth round was the round of the year, and in the 10th, Sithchatchawal stopped Monshipour to win a junior featherweight title in an all-time classic.
