If the cancellation of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.?s fight last Saturday deterred you from ponying up the $44.95 to pay for the rest of the Top Rank-promoted card, you missed a hell of a show.
After Nonito Donaire reassured the boxing world he was worthy of his spot among the top five fighters in the sport with a dominant stoppage of Wladimir Sidorenko, WBC lightweight champion Humberto Soto defeated Urbano Antillon in a hellacious battle of attrition that many appreciative fans have pegged ?Fight of the Year.?
Following the victory, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum proposed a two-stage, single-elimination lightweight tournament where Soto, 54-7-2 (32), would defend his title against Brandon Rios, 26-0-1 (19), with the other semifinal featuring Antillon challenging IBF 135-pound titlist Miguel Vazquez.
While in theory, such fights would be barnburners to the hardcore fan?s delight, the question remains whether they would be worth the warrior?s time at this stage of his career. Honestly, if he were to beat Rios and face the winner of Vazquez-Antillon, how much money could Soto really make from those two bouts when compared to the other options at 135 and up?
Having been passed over for a shot against Manny Pacquiao in the past, Soto?s current prospects for bigger paydays lie in a unification bout with Juan Manuel Marquez or television-friendly names like Michael Katsidis, Robert Guerrero, or even Juan Diaz. So what?s stopping these fights from airing on Home Box Office?
A TALE OF TWO PROMOTERS
With his all-action style, voluminous accuracy in a phone booth, and distaste for clinching, Soto would seem a shoo-in to be the next Mexican star to grace the airwaves on HBO. I can?t remember ever using a Humberto Soto fight as an excuse to take a bathroom break from press row. So what exactly has he done to offend the boxing gods?
It?s a classic case of guilt by association.
Carthage vs. Rome. Montagues vs. Capulets. Top Rank vs. Golden Boy.
For one, Soto has been a victim of matchmaking and the disdain for co-promotion in this current landscape. Take the example of Rocky Juarez, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist who has fought under the umbrella of Golden Boy, Top Rank?s archrival.
While Golden Boy has had a recent de facto monopoly on HBO dates, minus Pacquiao, Juarez has faced a virtual ?who?s who? of the lower weight divisions on the premium cable network?s cards the last four years: Marco Antonio Barrera twice, Jose Hernandez, Jorge Barrios, Chris John twice, the resurgent Jason Litzau, and Jorge Linares (at lightweight). This doesn?t even include Rocky?s lopsided loss to Juan Manuel Marquez that aired on Showtime.
Incredibly, Juarez received a grand total of six televised fights even after dropping consecutive decisions to Barrera. In all, with HBO dollars lending a helping hand, Juarez went 2-5-1 in that stretch.
On the contrary, aside from three separate instances where he was buried in the early timeslots of HBO pay-per-view undercards featuring Pacquiao, the Top Rank-promoted Soto hasn?t fought on the network in a regular telecast since Nov. 17, 2007, when he was clearly outpointed by then-WBO 130-pound champ Joan Guzman on ?Boxing After Dark.?
That?s not to say that the native of Los Mochis hasn?t clawed his way back into the fold. Since the loss to Guzman and a questionable disqualification defeat to Francisco Lorenzo (which he later avenged), ?La Zorrita? has reeled off ten consecutive victories and annexed two belts against opponents with a combined record of 278-31-6.
Oh yeah, in his American TV debut, Soto outclassed the heavily favored Juarez by unanimous decision in 2005 on?you guessed it?regular HBO.
Think Soto would have relished the chance at just one of the guys in the parade of name fighters that Juarez received? More importantly, think he would have fared better?
I think so.
However, lacking an incentive to cooperate due to their acrimonious relationship with Golden Boy, Top Rank was forced to fight fire with fire without the backing of HBO. They held their own pay-per-view shows featuring their own fighters in defiance, which is one of the main reasons why you got shows like Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey, Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito, or the ?Latin Fury?/?Pinoy Power? series.
Unfortunately, as a trickle-down effect, Top Rank shoved undercard fights like Soto-David Diaz or Soto-Benoit Gaudet down the customers? throats. Basically, they were able to keep the matchups under one banner or found grateful opponents who were more than happy to participate.
Of course, the collateral damage is felt by the fans, who become disenchanted with stale matchups. And fighters like Soto have their primes wasted in the morass of something that has nothing to do with the purest aspect of competition. Instead of the best fighting the best, we are treated to a turf war between promoters and subsequent in-house cards.
Even worse, in addition to Soto?s lack of HBO exposure hurting his marketability, his reputation as a high-risk, low-reward opponent has botched big bouts with fighters in his own stable.
Once upon a time, Arum mentioned Soto as a fallback option for Pacquiao but three years filled with higher-profile opponents, four weight classes, and millions upon millions of dollars later, those days are but whispers in the wind.
A SUGAR-FREE SITUATION
Thanks to the ?Pac-Man,? Andre Berto and adviser Al Haymon?s sweetheart deal with HBO notwithstanding, Top Rank has become the place to be for fighters in the 147-154 pound range to pad their bank accounts as of late. But the same could be said for Golden Boy from 126-135 for the reasons given above.
Unfortunately for Soto, he?s not in a scenario like the current one involving Shane Mosley, who has chosen to break away from Golden Boy and deal with Top Rank to possibly secure an April pay-per-view date with Pacquiao.
Mosley is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and, as far as the financial aspect of the sport is concerned, a known commodity to the casual fan, unlike Soto. As a result, despite his recent lackluster performances against Floyd Mayweather and Sergio Mora, he has become the front-runner to challenge Pacquiao next.
(Whether I?m a big fan of the prospect of this fight occurring is another story. But I digress.)
Furthermore, as Mosley admitted himself at the press conference following Pacquiao?s win over Margarito, he?s in the twilight of his career. ?Sugar? Shane seemed unconcerned about the repercussions of making a fight independent of Golden Boy; worse comes to worst, a comfy retirement waits around the corner.
In contrast, Soto?s a man on an island. Without the bargaining leverage of being a household name in America, unless he wants to burn a few bridges by jumping ship, he?s locked into his deal with Top Rank. He can?t threaten retirement either because he hasn?t received a previous payday to warrant such a move, from a strategic standpoint. In other words, Soto is at the mercy of both his promoter and the big networks to give him a palatable deal that will work.
HBO TO THE RESCUE?
Arum has called HBO?s bluff several times, holding his own pay-per-view cards when the network eschewed Top Rank?s proposals.
Considering his latest ?Lightweight Final Four? idea, I think HBO has a golden opportunity to put the pressure on other promoters to cooperate. By airing Soto-Rios and Vazquez-Antillon and touting the winner to face one of their regular house fighters, the network can send a message that the promotional in-house round-robins that have plagued the sport will come to an end.
Maybe instead of crossroads-type fights like Juan Diaz-Katsidis where both guys were coming off losses, HBO would deliver to its subscribers the best and freshest lightweight matchup left in Marquez-Soto. Rather than two unnecessary bouts between Chris John and Rocky Juarez, HBO could facilitate the process to make Golden Boy and Top Rank consolidate John?s WBA featherweight belt with Yuriorkis Gamboa?s.
Until then, the outlook for Soto is murky at best. Suppose HBO rejects Arum?s plan and ?La Zorrita? beats both Rios and the winner of Vazquez-Antillon on Top Rank PPV. Now Soto would be left with few options for big bouts at 135 pounds, since Golden Boy handles Marquez, Juan Diaz, Katsidis, and Guerrero. Unless the two promotional juggernauts call a truce to their cold war, it?s unlikely a deal will be done.
He could move up to junior welterweight and pursue the loser between Gary Shaw-promoted Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander, a Don King signee. While the winner supposedly gets whoever emerges victorious between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana, whoever comes up short in January could look to bounce back on a ?Boxing After Dark? date against an opportunistic Soto.
Zab Judah is another option; he?s coming off a controversial win over Lucas Matthysse on HBO and is signed with Main Events. Universum-promoted Andriy Kotelnik did enough to earn another date after going tooth-and-nail with Alexander in August but he?s coming off consecutive losses.
Other than that, Soto has another tall order to secure an HBO fight at 140. Khan, Maidana, Matthysse, Paulie Malignaggi, and even Victor Ortiz, who seems to be getting one last marketing push from the network, are all Golden Boy fighters.
It would seem like the next logical option would be a matchup with fellow stablemate Mike Alvarado but he?s been engrossed in legal problems while flirting with welterweight in his past few fights.
If all roads dried up, would Soto seriously consider breaking bread with Golden Boy at a discount just to fight on HBO? I don?t think it will ever get to that point.
Based on recent trends demonstrating the power of co-promotion (Martinez-Williams II on HBO, the ?Super Six? on Showtime), I?m optimistic that HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg, Senior VP of PPV Mark Taffet, and Senior VP of Programming Kery Davis will eventually warm to the idea when discussing the distribution of future TV dates.
Then again, I also once had faith that Mayweather and Pacquiao would agree to terms by the end of 2010 (Happy New Year!).
Humberto Soto deserves one more shot to make a real name for himself on HBO. Time will tell if the network gives him his just due.
Ryan can be reached at [email protected], on Facebook at facebook.com/rmaq28, or on Twitter at twitter.com/rmaq28.
