Little Mario Rodriguez is having himself a very fine 2012. First he took out Gilberto Keb Baas, who recently had lost to Adrian Hernandez but still was a bigger name than anyone Rodriguez had faced. Then, this weekend, little Mario scored a super upset stoppage win over Nkosinathi Joyi, considered the best man at 105 pounds and a fighter with pound-for-pound talent. Armed with an Upset of the Year contender and a win over another quality contender, one more big victory to close out 2012 could put Rodriguez near the top of the Fighter of the Year sweepstakes (h/t on a modfied version of that thought: Ryan Songalia).
I hope you all have been having a relaxing Labor Day weekend. I also hope you have “liked” our Facebook page by now. This past week, we posted some exclusive news — replies from the International Amateur Boxing Association’s (AIBA) Sebastien Gillot to my inquiries RE: the story discussed here, about how boxers from the World Series of Boxing are finding themselves in a situation they said they didn’t expect with their amateur/pro status. There’s no substitute for TQBR proper, but our Facebook page is a good outlet for alerts, news tidbits, videos, the boxing tweet of the week and more.
For Quick Jabs this holiday weekend, we’ve got the subjects in the headline, plus some more weekend results, and a tiny bit more besides.
Quick Jabs
Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions says he is confident that Mayweather will keep doing business with GBP. He cited a combination of friendship and Mayweather making a ton of cash with GBP. Left unsaid? Mayweather and 50 Cent, who’s running the upstart TMT Promotions, might be feuding because 50 banged Mayweather’s wifey. Nuh-uh, no he di-int. This video is the gist of the “evidence”…
In other Mayweather news, his pal did get convicted of shooting at someone that Mayweather had a dispute with back in 2009, and has been sentenced to two to five years in jail. The nerve of the po-po, going after Mayweather and/or his crew on various allegations of criminal activity that Mayweather and/or his crew have viewed as witch hunt, then finding kangaroo courts to convict them of multiple felonies…
In other GBP news, GBP boss Oscar De La Hoya thinks it’s a conflict of interest for AIBA to have a pro wing. And it probably is, despite what Gillot told me. It’s also probably a slight conflict for GBP to have pro dates for amateurs it hasn’t signed yet. Enough of a conflict, actually, that the promised October card or even December card might not actually happen, by the sound of things — and maybe, maybe, that’s why De La Hoya is annoyed about what AIBA is up to…
Mary Kom, India’s Olympic boxing hero, is getting the Bollywood treatment. Good for her. I hope it features at least one cameo from Benny Lava. Welterweight Mike Jones is trying to split from promoter Russell Peltz for some reason. Since we haven’t heard Jones’ side of the story (and nobody’s heard from him at all, apparently) I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but my early inclination is to agree with Peltz himself. It’s hard to imagine what more Peltz could’ve done for Jones, getting him coveted spots on big-time pay-per-views despite little fan interest in Jones himself. Could Peltz have somehow gotten fans more interest in Jones? I dunno. But at some point, the boxer has to shoulder some of that responsibility. I guess there’s also just a chance that Jones wants to head to TMT, since that’s the assumption for a number of fighters fleeing their promoters right now…
