There?s something irresistible about boxers like Peter Manfredo Jr., an endearing quality you just don?t see much in athletes from other sports.
Manfredo is as blunt and plain-spoken an athlete as exists in professional sports. On Saturday, he?ll challenge Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the World Boxing Council middleweight championship in an HBO bout televised live from Reliant Arena in Houston.
Chavez, of course, is the son of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., one of the greatest fighters of all time and an icon in Mexico. Because of his famous father, Chavez Sr. has been given opportunities not afforded to other boxers with far more talent.
Sergio Martinez won the WBC middleweight title in the ring when he defeated Kelly Pavlik. But when his mandatory challenger was Sebastian Zbik, HBO officials told promoter Lou DiBella and manager Samson Lefkowicz that they had no interest in televising a Martinez-Zbik fight.
Now, Martinez is one of the elite fighters in the world, ranked No. 3 pound-for-pound in the Yahoo! Sports ratings, and would have manhandled Zbik, so it?s hard to rip HBO for not wanting to show that.
So when Martinez passed on Zbik because of HBO?s reluctance to finance the fight, the WBC stripped Martinez, and Zbik won a match for the interim belt. HBO then quickly arranged a bout between Chavez Jr. and Zbik. Chavez rallied down the stretch to win and became the WBC champion.
There would be no such accommodation made for a guy like Manfredo, who holds a full-time job in Providence, R.I., as a laborer.
