Bits & Pieces
By William Trillo
Time and time again and I get to the end of yet another week and I have a fistful or more of bits that end up going into Never Never Land. In lieu of that unfortunate circumstance, here are some of this weeks bits & pieces. Aren’t you lucky?
Go East Young Man
Depending on what side of the fence you are sitting on, Golden Boy’s three year deal with Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment is either good timing, bad timing. The pact that will put 12 Golden Boy shows a year in the new Barclays Center, home of The New Jersey Nets, comes literally on the heels of the promotional companies 90 day suspension in New York for what has been called an honest clerical error by some and a half million dollar dog and pony show by others.
Whatever the case may be, any East coast promoter who made their bones back east while the west coast born and raised Oscar was still a young 130 pound Champion must be livid.
It’s hard to blame them. A lot of these guys gave their “heart and soul” to New York and the city of Brooklyn only to have them ripped out in the blink of an eye.
Speaking Of The $500,000 Discrepancy…
I spoke to Nate Campbell this week, one of the parties in the missing 500k Golden Boy suspension. When I asked Nate about the missing money and the $125,000 he was paid Campbell said, “You want to help me? Make them change The Muhammad Ali Act. That’s how you can help me!”
I guess Nate’s suggestion is to somehow force the promoter to let the fighters know the amount of money in the kitty before they settle on a purse.
In a perfect world this would be great Nate, unfortunately we are living in the world of boxing and things like good faith and a clear conscience are often very hard to come by.
Klitschko vs. HBO
The reports from this week make it perfectly clear, the headlines that read HBO dumps the Klitschko’s is very inaccurate. The truth is HBO had no contract with the brothers in place so there was no technical “dumping”. All that happened is HBO has decided to pass on yet another Klitschko fight, this time Wlad vs. Povetkin in September. From the looks of things the Klitschko’s have had it and it is likely they will no longer be doing business with HBO anytime soon. At this point it’s futile to argue with HBO’s Ross Greenburg who appears to have dug his heels in pretty firmly on this topic.
Here are a couple facts that make me think he and HBO have made a huge mistake:
1. When Vitali fought Chris Arreola last year that fight had some 2.1 million viewers which was more than any other televised boxing event they had last year. Floyd Mayweather replay lead in or not, those numbers are hard to ignore, especially when given the fact HBO did no 24/7 type advertising for Klitschko vs Arreola.
2. HBO’s poster boys for the next great American Heavyweight, Chris Arreola and Eddie Chambers both got destroyed by the Klitschko’s and are relegated to ESPN 2 & “never to be heard from again” respectively.
Decisions! Decisions!
Top Rank has a Floyd countdown clock spinning on the front page of their website for all the world to see they have given Floyd until today to decide whether or not he is going to fight Manny Pacquiao in November.
Give Floyd Mayweather credit for keeping Bob Arums word that there would be no negotiating through the media for this fight, he is the only one involved who kept that “gag order” promise.
Super Six In Monaco?
I don’t remember the last time Monaco held a title fight but thanks to some 11th hour negotiations the Super Six is still clinging to life support as Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch say they will take care of their business there. Not that I am trying to be a pessimist here (yeah right), but I still think Carl Froch is looking for a way out in this one.
Who Are You Picking? The Sequel
Now that Juan Manuel Lopez has successfully defended his crown again, we are assured that he will be taking on Rafael Marquez in Las Vegas on September 18th with the WBO Featherweight title on the line. Rumor is Vic Darchinyan could also appear on this card in a title scrap of his own. All this will be shown on Showtime for FREE.
4 hours away in a little town called Los Angeles, Shane Mosley will take on Sergio Mora in some catch weight bout that at the end of the day won’t amount to a hill of refried beans, (No Mexican Independence Day Pun Intended). On that card will be Victor Ortiz in a bout against Vivian Harris who recently was KO’d in 4 rounds. Also on the card is Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a fighter Richard Schaefer has said could sell out the Staple Center on his own. For Golden Boy Promotions sake Richard had better hope that prognostication comes true because if he thinks a fighter who has never been a ticket seller approaching the end of his career vs. a glorified local fighter is going to put butts in the seats he may be gravely mistaken. Oh by the way, this card is a PPV event!
For those of you who won’t have tickets to attend these September 18 events in person, which boxing show will you be tuning into to that night?
Who Are You Picking?
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Bob Arum is always trying to make the mayweather camp look like the bad guys. He is the one who said not to go to the media and there are reports coming out of Pac man camp everyday. All Arum does is put one of his fighters against another. (pac clottey, Pac cotto, Margarito Cotto) Now if the floyd fight falls through he wants to do a cotto rematch or a margarito pac fight. Its a joke there are a lot of none Arum fighters out there but there never brought up as a possible. He left Cotto out to dry after the Margarito fight and puts together fights that make him lots of money but leave one of his fighters career in trouble. WHAT A SNAKE.