Promoter Bob Arum was back at his Las Vegas headquarters Friday after having met with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Wednesday in Texas.
The two discussed the possibility of holding the proposed Nov.13 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
Arum, speaking by telephone, did not want to go into specifics about their conversation.
“We had a very, very good meeting,” said Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter. “But I don’t want to discuss anything about it until after the Margarito thing in California.
“And then we’ll announce the venue and the press conference schedule. I don’t want to disrespect anybody or anything. California is going to decide on Wednesday and then whichever way California decides, various state commissions will decide whichever way they think is best.”
Margarito will be in front of the California State Athletic Commission on Wednesday. He will be attempting to get another license after his was revoked in February 2009 after he was caught with plaster inserts in his hand wraps prior to his fight with Shane Mosley that January at Staples Center.
Arum’s first choice for Pacquiao-Margarito is the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But when Margarito tried to get a license there last month, he was told he needed to go back to California.
Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said that didn’t necessarily mean California had to grant Margarito a license in Advertisement
order for him to get one in Nevada. The Nevada commission just wanted to see him first go in front of the commission that punished him.
Arum said a week ago the Texas commission already has told him it would license Margarito whether he gets his license back in California, or doesn’t.
One thing is certain, Arum said.
“This fight will come off,” he said. “Guaranteed.”
Even though Arum previously said Cowboys Stadium is the front-runner, expect him to go back to Nevada if California grants Margarito a license Wednesday.
Nevada would then almost assuredly do the same, and there still is no better place for a super fight than Las Vegas.
It’s not the fight Arum and everyone else involved wanted. That would have been Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather Jr., which would likely have broken pay-per-view and live-gate records.
But a second round of talks did not bear fruit.
Instead, Arum is going with a fight that is bound to be met with some resistance within the industry.
Rival promoter Oscar De La Hoya has been very outspoken regarding Margarito. De Le Hoya believes Margarito should be banned for life for his attempt to enter the ring against Mosley with loaded gloves.
De La Hoya is not the only one, but perhaps the most vocal.
Arum, however, continues to point out that it was never proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Margarito knew his wraps – applied by trainer Javier Capetillo, who also lost his license – contained the inserts.
Several high-profile trainers recently went on record as saying they are not convinced a fighter would be able to tell if his wraps were tainted in this manner. Several fighters have said over the past 18 months they would know.
An area trainer, who requested anonymity, said this week that out of curiosity he performed an experiment on one of his fighters. He said he simulated the best he could what was found in Margarito’s wraps and inserted them into his fighter’s.
He said his fighter told him he could not tell there was anything abnormal in the wraps.
All that said, Arum is not worried about any negative publicity a Pacquiao-Margarito fight might receive in this regard.
There is something else that is drawing the ire of scores of posters on the Internet.
Pacquiao will be trying for yet another title in another weight class. He has won major-sanctioning-body titles in five weight classes, and has beaten two people’s champions in two more – giving him championship-like success in seven divisions.
But his victory over Miguel Cotto for a welterweight title was at a catch-weight of 145 pounds – two under the limit. The fight with Margarito – for a vacant super welterweight title – will be at a catch-weight of 151, three pounds under the limit.
This is not cool. If Pacquiao and his team want to make history, they should do it at full weight.
Welterweight is 147 pounds. Cotto should have been allowed to weight 147. Super welterweight is 154, so Margarito should be able to weigh 154.
But because Pacquiao has come up from such smaller weights, Arum doesn’t want to take a chance on Pacquiao losing to guys who have always been bigger.
If Arum is concerned Pacquiao won’t be able to hang with Margarito at 154, then they should fight a non-title fight at 151 – not a title fight.
Arum counters, saying that in one of their fights, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns fought at a catch-weight of 162 for a super middleweight title, that limit being 168.
Good for them. That doesn’t make it right.
A weight limit is a weight limit.
Alexander-Bradley bout appears set for January
Barring any last-minute road blocks, it appears a junior welterweight title unification fight between Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley for January will be made.
“It should be finalized next week,” said Alex Camponovo, matchmaker for Thompson Boxing Promotions, which co-promotes Bradley along with Gary Shaw Productions.
Prior to Alexander’s successful title defense against former champion Andriy Kotelnik this past Saturday, it would have been difficult to pick a winner between Alexander and Bradley.
But Alexander – coming off an impressive eighth-round TKO of former champion Juan Urango – appeared vulnerable against Kotelnik, who has medium speed but often found Alexander a very hittable target.
“He got hit with everything,” Camponovo said Thursday.
Alexander won by three scores of 116-112, which seemed off as the fight appeared very close. Afterward, Alexander said he had “an OK performance for me. I am my own toughest critic.”
If Alexander can be hit by someone whose speed does not match Bradley’s, it would seem Bradley might be a good bet to retain his title and take Alexander’s two belts
when they tangle.
Alexander’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, said his fighter had “an off night” against Kotelnik. If that’s the case, Alexander picked a strange time to be less than his best.
Here Alexander was, fighting on HBO, with a fairly big money fight against Bradley lurking in the background.
It would seem that would be enough to make Alexander highly motivated to be focused and sharp as a tack.
Instead, he looked very beatable.
During an interview with veteran boxing writer Lem Satterfield, Cunningham said Alexander may have been a bit overwhelmed at fighting in his hometown of St. Louis.
“And this was his first time ever fighting at home as the champion,” Cunningham said the next day. “I think his nerves got to him a little bit. … It tightened up his muscles.”
Or, he was exposed.
Etc.
Chad Dawson will challenge Jean Pascal (25-1, 16 KOs) for his light heavyweight world title tonight in Montreal in Pascal’s home province of Quebec, Canada (on HBO). Dawson (29-0, 17 KOs) has formerly held two of the major championship belts. He relinquished them rather than fight mandatory challengers not coveted by networks in fights that would have paid Dawson less money than he received for fighting other opponents. Dawson, 28, is ranked No. 5 by Yahoo.com, which has arguably the best pound-for-pound poll out there. It is voted on by nearly 40 boxing journalists across the globe. … Incidentally, Manny Pacquiao reclaimed the top spot in that poll after having been bumped to No. 2 by Floyd Mayweather Jr. after Mayweather’s victory over Shane Mosley in May. Mayweather is now No. 2. … Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27 KOs), who beat Chris Arreola in April in Ontario, will take on Michael Grant (46-3, 34 KOs) in the main event a week from tonight at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (on Integrated Sports pay-per-view).
