Bad Left Hook

Mayweather vs Cotto: Canelo Alvarez Says He's Got a Deal to Face the Winner

2012-02-15T04:19:41Z

Canelo Alvarez, who faces Shane Mosley in the main undercard bout of the Mayweather vs Cotto show on May 5, says he has an agreement in place to face the winner of the main event, but that he doesn't expect it will happen until 2013.

From notifight.com, via BoxingScene.com:

"The condition to fight in a preliminary [position to] Mayweather - is that I would face whoever wins. If Mayweather wins, [the fight] won't happen until next year because he only fights once per year and he has to go to jail for three months, so it wouldn't happen until 2013," Canelo said.

"I placed that condition in and I have every intention to follow through on this. I initially didn't want appear as a co-star. I preferred to fight on another day and another place. I was told that Mayweather also wants to fight with me and that I would be next, so we agreed to [be the co-feature]."

So let me put this in bold, underlined, and italicized letters so we all get this over with right now:

FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR AND MANNY PACQUIAO ARE NOT GOING TO FIGHT IN NOVEMBER. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS FOR THE COMING MONTHS. NOBODY IS REALLY PLANNING ON THAT FIGHT HAPPENING.

OK, with that out of the way, a couple things about this:

I'm certain it's true. I just don't know why it wouldn't be, especially if it's not mandated that it must happen this year.
Clearly, Floyd Mayweather plans to fight once this year, against Miguel Cotto on May 5. He's busy after that and likes to rest between his fights anyway.
Obviously, everyone is planning on Mayweather winning, since Alvarez doesn't seem that concerned about facing Cotto.

It's not a bad idea, either. I mean, why not? He's a big star, he's a good fighter, and obviously he has to keep winning if he's going to get the fight -- I mean, surely that's part of the deal, too.

So if he beats Mosley and Mayweather beats Cotto (the two expected outcomes on May 5), then maybe we'll get Mayweather vs Canelo in May 2013. It seems right.

In a perfect world, if those two results do come to pass, I really would still like to see Canelo fight Cotto next. There will still be money in that. Or, you know, some other legit guy at 154. The Kirkland-Molina winner, Austin Trout, someone else. Just not Jose Luis Castillo or Sergio Mora on Mexican Independence weekend.

Juan Manuel Marquez Says He Will Retire at the End of the Year

2012-02-15T03:35:02Z

Mexican boxing superstar Juan Manuel Marquez says he has plants to retire from the ring at the end of 2012, with or without a fourth fight against Manny Pacquiao -- but he's definitely hoping to take one final shot at his Filipino rival.

From Ernesto Castellanos and Miguel Rivera:

"My plans are already set. This is my last year in boxing, and if the fight with Pacquiao gets done, the that's great, but I will not wait around until he chooses to do it. If we fight, fine. Otherwise, my retirement has already been decided."

It's a logical stance from a veteran fighter who realizes his age and doesn't want to go forever. In other words, it's a fairly unusual stance -- at least for now, anyway, as boxing retirement talk comes and goes with the changing of the seasons.

Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO) lost a hotly debated majority decision to Pacquiao in November, a fight that many felt he deserved to win. And it's certainly not a majority or anything like that, but there are people who out there who truly believe Marquez should be 3-0 against Pacquiao, rather than the 0-2-1 the records state.

Either way, though, he's going to retire as Manny Pacquiao's all-time greatest rival. Over 36 rounds of action in 2004, 2008, and 2011, the two could hardly be separated on the scorecards, with the all-time tally for the official judges over three fights being Pacquiao: 1,024 vs Marquez: 1,017. It really just does not get any closer than that. It's mind-boggling how even they've been over three fights, in three very different times for each man, in three different weight classes, with nine different judges.

Marquez says he's still targeting a fight with David Diaz in April as his next outing, but the date has apparently changed from April 14 to April 21 (it started as a March 17 fight), which would conflict with Golden Boy's planned show in Mexico City featuring Abner Mares. After that, there's been persistent talk that he'll fight July 14 at Cowboys Stadium, but that appears to be more a pipe dream than anything, as there just aren't any suitable opponents for him in that type of show, or at least there don't appear to be at the moment. (Brandon Rios says he'll take it, but that might not be doable with the schedule the way it is, as Rios is expected to fight on April 14 on HBO.)

Boxing Enters Somewhere Behind Golf: Fixing the Sweet Science's Irrelevance in the American Sports Culture

2012-02-15T02:52:19Z

James Foley returns to Bad Left Hook tonight with a look at where the sweet science stands in the American sports culture.

Boxing entered 2012 somewhere behind golf, auto racing and poker (gasp!) on the American sports hierarchy. Okay, poker's not really a sport (neither are the other two), but the point is, the sweet science has seen better days. Once upon a time, the heavyweight champion of the world was the most famous athlete on the planet. Now it's "some dude from somewhere who I think was dating that chick from Heroes."

Anyone go into work on December 12th and catch the buzz from that fabulous Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson fight? Me neither. If you asked the crowd whether they'd seen it, you'd likely have been greeted with uncomfortable silence and a few awkward stares. "What is that, some UFC thing...? Nah, I don't watch that crap." "No, it's boxing." "Oh....well, I don't watch that either."

(Note-the dated reference to the Khan fight belies the fact that I started working on this two months ago. Relax.)

More people in the U.S. have heard of the 200th best guy in the National Football League than the 3rd best fighter in the world. Kris Humphries is a better known athlete than Andre Ward. And by the way, that was true before Mr. Humphries had anything to do with the lovely Ms. Kardashian and her sumptuous rump. Boxing is a niche sport, followed avidly by just a tiny fraction of the population. So-called major fights are being watched by well under 1% of the country. As boxing fans, we're all 1%ers baby! Unfortunately, we're not powerful enough to warrant protests...well, until the day society decides to outlaw this brutal pastime.

Obviously we would all like to see the sport grow and gain back even a fraction of the viewership it once had. In many ways, I'm not sure it's possible. There are so many other sports-entertainment options these days and there are a good number of our fellow human beings who simply find combat sports rather distasteful and always will. Some people find boxing boring. And millions of people tune in to watch cars drive around in a circle for four hours every whatever-day-that-shit-happens-‘cause-I-don't-really-know. There's no accounting for taste. But I still believe there's a massive market out there that would follow boxing, if it weren't so difficult to follow. Here's a few of the roadblocks facing the potential boxing fan:

Scheduling

Major fights are typically on Saturday nights, with a rare Friday night offering. Either way, those are the two prime weekend nights. What is the main demographic for sports? Young men. What do young men tend to do on weekend nights? Go out drinking with their boys and chase after young women. Why the hell would you showcase your product on the two nights of the week least likely to have your target audience sitting in front of a television set?

Now some might be saying, that's not true, what about guys with girlfriends or wives, or non-drinkers? Even worse! Try selling that explanation to your girlfriend. "Uh...I'm gonna be indisposed this weekend because I've got to watch a fight." See how far that flies. You might get a couple get-out-of-jail-free cards and probably end up using them on the big pay-per-view events, often major letdowns that make you wonder why you even bother. And of course when epic bloodbaths like Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto or James Kirkland-Alfredo Angulo are going down on regular HBO, you'll be completely oblivious since you're at "couple's night", playing Trivial Pursuit sipping Malbec wondering why no one's gotten a new Trivial Pursuit set since 1989. Then you'll reflect at the end of the year and say "I used to like boxing, but it kinda sucks nowadays" based on the sample size of Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather-Ortiz.

Massive gaps between fights

Promoters and networks are always looking for boxing's next star. A talented prospect may fight five or six times a year, sometimes more often. Then he becomes a contender, right on the cusp of that big "championship" opportunity, the breakthrough everyone was hoping for. Then he falls off the face of the planet.

Because you certainly can't risk a young, talented fighter actually losing a fight until there's a massive payday involved. Not with so much riding on the prospect of that undefeated record and flawless pedigree. So until there's a good deal worth the risk, the fighter is inactive. A Chad Dawson fight is not a season of The Sopranos. I'm not gonna wait a year to find out what happens next. Well sure, I will, because I'm a fanatic. But it's ridiculous to expect the general public will develop any kind of a relationship with a fighter if they do happen to be home on a Saturday night and catch one of those infrequent appearances.

Does it really take ten weeks to train for a fight? Do fights require multi-month promotional tours? Do they really? Because that's what promoters tell us? The television networks have created a monster by grossly overpaying guys to be on their airwaves and creating an inflated market value for fighters that couldn't draw ten of their cousins to watch them fight Kimbo Slice in their backyard. HBO only has so much money and so many time slots in a year.

A fighter who makes six or seven figures to fight on the network often finds himself in this predicament: wait six to nine months to get another similar payday or take an interim fight for far less money where a loss would cost you that next big coup. Some fighters, like Andy Lee, take the risk and fight hapless opponents in small venues for a fraction of what they make on HBO. These are stay-busy fights. But most fighters who have been on the big networks, who are winning, won't fight without them. This system is at least partly responsible for the long layoffs that I think make it hard for new fighters to connect with audiences. A fighter looking spectacular goes a long way. Frequency might be even more important.

Not knowing who's the best

For a long time, I argued that it didn't matter to casual fans that there were four sanctioning bodies awarding so-called "championships". I thought people would mostly just want to see good fights and not really care about the fact that something like twelve out of the seventeen weight classes have vacancies when it comes to legitimate champions. But after a certain number of times finding myself saying stuff like "well, he's the #1 fighter but not the champion" and "he's a champion, but not the champion" and "er...well, boxing doesn't really work like that", it became obvious to me that in fact, this is a point that turns off a lot of potential fans.

I could go on and on but I don't want to completely slaughter everyone's buzz by running through the laundry list of things that have tarnished our fair sport. The truth is, I dug up this half-written skeleton of an article and basically said "F*** it....let's gitter done!" and at some point realized why I never finished it in the first place.

Because where do you even start? How do you tell a guy "you should fight every three months, and if the network won't televise it, screw ‘em, put it on yourself. Forget the fact you'll be taking a 98% pay-cut and risking a ton of money if you lose." How do you reconcile guys like Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez fighting for ten grand each on ESPN while Tim Bradley and Devon Alexander make seven figures fighting on HBO? I understand Bradley-Alexander was a bigger fight (in theory)...but 100 times bigger? How can you dare suggest that maybe only big-time events should be on Saturday night and smaller fights (including about 75% of what passed on HBO last year) would be better served on a Tuesday or Thursday? And certainly it's unfair for me to decree that the lone mandate of the powers that be (promoters, networks, alphabets etc.) should be making the best fights with the goal of one champion in each weight class, when that would run counter to the very purpose of some of those institutions existence.

Alphabets obviously don't want a unified champion. Promoters exist to make themselves and their fighters the most money possible. Networks are the only group with any real motive to want the best fights and they rarely put their foot down to make it happen. The relationships are so entrenched, the system so embedded, things aren't likely to change anytime soon.

All that said, I still do everything I can to encourage people to follow boxing, spreading the word on good fights and preaching the high quality of the product at its very best. Boxing is not dead or dying. But as long as more people are watching the World Series of Poker than would have watched the Ortiz-Berto rematch, something's not right with this picture.

Michael Oliveira vs Acelino Freitas: Big Brazilian Fight Appears Likely For May 19

2012-02-15T01:24:42Z

Corey Erdman reports this evening that a big Brazilian clash between Michael Oliveira and Acelino "Popo" Freitas is looking very likely for a May 19 date in Rio De Janeiro, with a custom outdoor venue possible.

Oliveira (17-0, 12 KO) and Freitas (38-2, 32 KO) have been talking about a domestic clash for a while now, and it might mean something to casual Brazilian fans, but in the real boxing world, this fight is a farce and an absurdity. Let us count the reasons why.

Michael Oliveira is a middleweight. Acelino Freitas was, at his best, a super featherweight, and retired as a lightweight in 2007.

Acelino Freitas retired in 2007. Just in case that didn't stick a second ago. And Freitas was really never himself after his 2004 TKO-10 loss to Diego Corrales. It's been almost a decade since he was considered in his prime.

At 36 and fighting at least 30 pounds over his actual fighting weight, Freitas would be doing this for God knows what reason. There are a few possibilities:

To give the rub to Oliveira. It wouldn't surprise me to see Freitas show up, box a few rounds, and retire in his corner and pass the torch to Oliveira all "officially" and crap. People like dumbass things like that.
To make a few bucks. Popo's gotta eat.
For shits and giggles, I guess.

Oliveira fought on Saturday in Ontario, and was lucky to get out with a win over a journeyman opponent. As I said then and have said before and will say again, he's a fun fighter to watch and he really does come to fight, but he's got no future as a contender. His upside is becoming a noted TV fighter anywhere but Brazil, where he is a legitimate star. In other words, he might be better off fighting retired old super featherweight icons at home than facing middleweights, however mediocre, elsewhere.

Maidana vs Alexander: Maidana's Team Requests and Receives Post-Fight Drug Testing Stipulation

2012-02-15T01:04:07Z

Marcos Maidana's manager Sebastian Contursi has asked the Missouri State Athletic Commission to include post-fight drug testing as part of Maidana's February 25 bout against Devon Alexander, and Alexander's team had no qualms with accepting the stipulation, reports BoxingScene.com's Osman Rodriguez.

Maidana (31-2, 28 KO) is going on the road to face Alexander (22-1, 13 KO) at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, the hometown of Alexander. In his past two fights against Andriy Kotelnik and Lucas Matthysse, Alexander received some questionably favorable judging and came out on the better end of both fights.

This is likely influenced by the recent situation in Texas, another state that doesn't actually require post-fight drug testing, which in this day and age is absurd for any commission.

In San Antonio on February 4, quite a stink was raised after the bout when Marco Antonio Rubio's team expected drug testing with their fighter and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, but the Texas commission and the WBC did nothing, and then spent days fumbling about for a reason that happened.

Over a week removed from the incident, and you'll notice that situation has died down, as I said it would. It will be ultimately swept under the rug, more likely than not, like 95% of these controversies are in boxing.

To be clear, this is not any extra special, USADA/VADA-type drug testing. This is, as I understand it, just the regular old urinalysis and the like, the same outdated drug testing everyone does.

Mayweather vs Cotto: Shane Mosley Tells Floyd Not to Overlook Cotto

2012-02-14T19:00:28Z

Only a handful of fighters have shared the ring with both Floyd Mayweather Jr and Miguel Cotto. One of those men is Shane Mosley, who will feature on the undercard against young Mexican titleholder Canelo Alvarez. And he tells BoxingScene.com that Mayweather had better be ready for a fight when he faces Cotto on May 5:

"Cotto is no slouch as well. Cotto can fight as well, and Mayweather better take him very seriously. It's a great fight. Floyd has the better boxing skills, but Cotto is no slouch. If you take Cotto for granted, then something else can happen and he could be the victor of that fight. I think that matchup is a great matchup. I think it’s a great fight."

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO) and Cotto (37-2, 30 KO) will fight at the 154-pound limit on May 5, for Cotto's WBA "super" title. It will be just the second time that Mayweather, who turns 35 on February 24, has fought beyond the welterweight division.

Mosley lost a very competitive, memorable fight to Cotto back in November 2007, and about three years later was blown out by Mayweather at the MGM Grand. He fought both men at their best, or at least very close to their best -- before they started any notable decline, at the least. I would say that the Cotto who fought Shane Mosley was truly as good as Miguel Cotto got.

But Shane probably knows better than to have any true concern over Mayweather not being prepared. If Floyd showed up not at 100% on May 5, it would be the first time he's done so. There are valid reasons to wonder if he might be distracted, with his jail surrender date coming in June, but it's tough to imagine Floyd not being focused on a fight. It's what he lives for. It's where he validates himself and can truly shrug off any critic or "hater."

He'll be ready for Miguel Cotto.

Pacquiao vs Bradley: Video Interview With Timothy Bradley

2012-02-14T18:00:53Z

Here's a video chat interview recorded yesterday with Timothy Bradley and The Desert Sun, his hometown paper which suddenly has become one of the most important newspapers in the boxing world as Bradley has signed to face Manny Pacquiao on June 9.

Timothy Bradley

"I got the news through my manager Cameron Dunkin. He called my wife and I on the phone and he said that Manny chose us to fight. After we got off the phone with him, I just hugged my wife and we had some joys and we had some laughs. ... One o the thoughts was this is what I've been waiting on my whole career. Another thought is is, like, OK, now this whole Amir Khan thing is overshadowed for good now. ... I'm up for the challenge. I've been chasing this guy for the last three years now. I think that my team and I, we made the right choice in going with Top Rank. We knew what we needed to do and we got it done. Now we're fighting Pacquiao. Long, long time coming, man. 18 years of my life to get to this point. Now I'm getting a shot at the throne. The number one position in the game. So I'm very happy."

Judah vs Paris Undercard: Tomasz Adamek, Siarhei Liakhovich vs Bryant Jennings Confirmed

2012-02-14T17:10:08Z

After receiving word this morning from our friends at Boxingnews.pl that Tomasz Adamek would indeed be fighting on March 24 in Brooklyn, Main Events has confirmed the news via their Twitter account this morning. The show will air live on the NBC Sports network.

I guess this means that Adamek is back with Main Events (at least in some capacity) after a brief flirtation with leaving them behind led to nothing happening. Adamek sounded pretty confused about what he was doing just a few days ago, saying he would not be fighting in March.

Adamek (44-2, 28 KO) is coming off of a loss in September to Vitali Klitschko. He's got no opponent named yet, but it's expected to be a tune-up fight, which is what Adamek has mostly done in his heavyweight run, if we're honest.

Also confirmed for the card, which will be headlined by the Zab Judah vs Vernon Paris bout, is another heavyweight bout between Siarhei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KO) and Bryant Jennings (12-0, 5 KO).

This is an interesting step, and frankly a bit unexpected. Jennings defeated Maurice Byarm in the late-replacement main event on the first Main Events show on NBC Sports on January 21. Liakhovich was part of the originally scheduled main event, where he would have faced Eddie Chambers, but that fell apart when Chambers pulled out. Liakhovich was, uh, not happy.

Matching Jennings, 27, against the veteran Liakhovich, who looked rejuvenated last year in a gutsy loss to Robert Helenius, is a legit step for the Philly prospect. It'll be nice to see what he has, and if Liakhovich's bounce-back was real or an illusion. It's a good fight, and frankly it's a really nice card.

The only downside will be that it's running opposite an HBO card, featuring Erik Morales vs Danny Garcia and James Kirkland vs Carlos Molina. The good news is there's a lot of boxing that night, and good matchups across the board. The bad news is that you can only watch one live. It could be worse.