While I was caught up in the festivities of last weekend’s ‘Action Heroes’ card inside of the MGM Grand, I ran across my respected colleague Doug Fischer. Having covered the West Coast beat for several years now, Fischer made a name for himself at MaxBoxing earlier the decade before crossing over to RingTV a few years back and he can always be found covering the scene in Las Vegas and Southern California.
With a few minutes to spare before Marcos Maidana, Erik Morales and the other pugilists from the card had arrived I had a quick talk with Fischer on some pivotal upcoming fights in the sport such as this weekend’s Andre Berto-Victor Ortiz welterweight title bout, the May 7th Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley clash, and the rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
Fischer also elaborated on the current feud taking place between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, Nonito Donaire’s current promotional drama, just how much Floyd Mayweather needs a Pacquiao fight before he retires, and who we can expect from this generation of stars to carry the torch.
In his own words, this is what Fischer had to say…
Disliking a Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch… “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. If I am managing Cotto, I don’t like that fight because it’s still a risky fight and you don’t get a whole lot of credit if you beat Margarito. Sure, there is this personal factor, this revenge factor that this guy who beat you may have been cheating. He may have loaded his wraps, we don’t know. I’m sure this is the sentiment out there. I’m sure, as a fighter, that’s what Cotto believes. Fighters, when they lose, it can’t be because they got beat, there has to be another reason. And he boxed so well in that fight. If I was managing him I would look for higher-profile fights.”
A punishing style… “Margarito still has a difficult style for him and it’s a punishing style. I’m not one of these guys who hates Margarito and wants to see him get chewed up in all of his fights. I think it’s a punishing fight for both guys. Margarito has a couple steps, Cotto has been looking sharp and I’m sure he wants to put a beat down on him. Margarito finds a way to get his licks in. Even in a one-sided fight against Manny Pacquiao, he found ways, he those moments where he got those body shots in and he got those uppercuts in there. That was a physical fight for Pacquiao. Even though he won every round and put a horrible beating on Margarito.”
Ruining both fighters… “I just feel that Cotto’s had a lot of tough fights. He’s had shootouts with Ricardo Torres. The fight with Margarito was incredibly grueling. Joshua Clottey was a tough fight. Who knows how much he has left? Another tough fight with Margarito, what it basically could do, in effect it could ruin both fighters, to where ‘that’s it’. You know they are going to fight afterwards but they would never be the same. They’re never going to be on the level where they were at. And I always hate to see that.”
Shane Mosley’s chances against Manny Pacquiao… “I think it’s a mismatch at this stage. of their respective careers. Pacquiao is on top of his game and Mosley clearly isn’t. He looked great against Margarito but he didn’t look great against Ricardo Mayorga in his previous fight. And his previous fight before the Mayorga fight he lost to Cotto. I think the Cotto fight was really the last time he looked good against an opponent who wasn’t tailor-made for him. He looked great against Margarito but Margarito had a horrible camp and was very weak from making weight. And stylistically was tailor-made for somebody like Mosley.”
A faded fighter… “In 2010 Mosley had the look of a faded fighter. The reflexes weren’t there. He saw what he had to do but he couldn’t do it. Against Floyd Mayweather and against Sergio Mora. I thought he lost to Sergio Mora. I didn’t mistake his activity for achievement. He didn’t hurt Mora until late in the fight when Mora was tired. And he wasn’t able to put any kind of damage on a guy who shouldn’t be in his class if he’s anywhere close to his prime. So I don’t think the fight is a competitive one but that doesn’t mean it won’t be entertaining.I think Pacquiao can make the fight entertaining as he wants it to be. It can be entertaining for as long as it lasts.”
How much each man needs Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather to happen… “For Pacquiao, not for his fans, his dedicated fans, the Filipino fans, they’re going to back him no matter what. But for hard core fight fans, American fight fans, there is something missing from his legacy. If there was one thing where you could say ‘Well, he didn’t do this’, it would be the Mayweather fight. Likewise for Mayweather, if Mayweather never fights again there will be a lot of criticism for him for not taking the fight. If you get in there and you beat Pacquiao there would be a very quick revisionist history. Every boxing writer who said Pacquiao was the fighter of the last decade would say ‘We got it wrong’. That’s the way you do it and if he doesn’t do it it is going to be a blotch on his record.”
Blown away by Nonito Donaire’s stoppage of Fernando Montiel… “I was blown away. I thought that he would beat Montiel but I thought he would have to fight for that victory. I thought maybe a late stoppage; but to blast him out in the second round with a single punch, in effect, he exceeded my expectations and he exceeded a lot of expectations. It the was the kind of performance where everyone says ‘You are one of the best fighters in the world. You are an elite fighter’.
A tragic situation for Donaire… “To not capitalize on that momentum is tragic. When he had lost so much of his career anyways being stuck on going from Gary Shaw to Bob Arum then from the way Arum was promoting him for two years, just sticking him on these Pinoy Power independent pay-per-views and not having him fight in California. He had already lost a lot of momentum and he immediately regained it after knocking out Montiel and to not capitalize on that because of legal issues is just tragic I think.”
For the sport… “For Donaire and for the sport. I hope, that whatever happens, if he is stuck with Arum, that he is willing. That he just doesn’t want to sit it out because there are good fights to be made there within the Top Rank stable. He could go up to featherweight and face Yuriorkis Gamboa or Juan Manuel Lopez in super fights that the fans will clamor for and support. And whoever wins those fights is a star.”
When Pacquiao and Mayweather walk away… “I think it’s going to hit the sport for about a year or two but there are people who are in position to take over. Like in the immediate, right now, and he only has a few more years because he’s up there in age, Sergio Martinez is ready to be the man. Then you have Nonito Donaire. If Gamboa and Lopez ever fight, whoever wins that fight, that guy is going to be a star. Particularly if Lopez wins, he’s going to be the next Puerto Rican star for a couple of years. It’s important because that empowers boxing on the East Coast. When he fights in New Jersey and he fights in New York City. He’s going to bring 10,000 or 15,000 or 20,000 against a really notable opponents. And he’s an exciting fighter so that’s a good thing. Brandon Rios is an exciting fighter. We’re going to get a good two to three years out of him. We’ll see what happens between Berto and Victor Ortiz on Saturday.”
Proving ground for Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz… “I think it’s a very dangerous fight for Berto. Because he’s undefeated and he has the belt right now. People don’t really respect Ortiz so if he beats Ortiz they are like ‘Yeah, well Ortiz has no heart and he already lost’, but the fact of the matter is, he’s the biggest, strongest, hardest punching guy that Berto’s ever faced. Berto’s never faced a puncher.You could say that Juan Urango was a puncher but Juan Urango was slow as molasses. And very predictable. And not as big as Victor Ortiz. Ortiz is dangerous. And you know what? Berto can be caught. He’s an aggressive guy who has certain technical flaws that leave him open. He can beat hurt and he can be clipped. He has been hurt by lesser punchers. Guys like Luis Collazo, caught him with that left in the first round. Collazo isn’t a killer finisher and he isn’t a puncher. Ortiz is a puncher but we don’t know if he is a killer finisher. He hasn’t shown us that in a while. That’s his proving ground.”
The effects of the Top Rank-Golden Boy feud… “It’s terrible for the sport. I mean, think of the fights that could be made, starting with Pacquiao-Mayweather. And then you go just down the line, fights like Brandon Rios against Marcos Maidana or Juan Manuel Marquez or against Michael Katsidis. There are these fights that are can’t-miss fights that are awesome that aren’t going to happen because these guys can’t get along. And obviously it cripples the sport. It’s far worse than any other ill in boxing, promoters not willing to work with one another and having animosity and suing each other and quibbling over everything.”
