The Latest Boxing News
Now that it is signed, the talk on whether the fight between WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather and WBO 147 pound champion Manny Pacquiao will ever be made can be put to rest with them both now signed to face each other two months from now on May 2nd, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Instead, we can now focus on the particulars, and who has the actual advantage once they collide in the center of the ring.
Selan B. (Phoenix, AZ): You made a point on FaceBook the other day about the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight that I’d like you to revisit. Could you elaborate on your thoughts regarding the magnitude of this fight and the legacy of the fighters?
Vivek W. (ESB): In a nutshell, when we look at this fight, this is an event on the scale of nothing we’ve ever seen before, and arguably, nothing we will ever see again in this lifetime. Some have noted that the fight is “a few years too late”. My response is that the fight has reached this apex as a result of the fact that it did come this late. When this bout was initially proposed, the fighters were looking at proposed purses in the $30M dollar range. Floyd Mayweather found a way to land a deal that nets that every night out. When he said he wanted $100M for this bout, we said he was “talking stupid”. He now stands in place to earn a hair below that mark ($180M approx).
Unfortunately, PBC hoped for a barn burner with Molina. Instead the flames were doused when Molina failed to press the fight as promised. He impressed no one except for Referee Robert Byrd, who early on warned him to keep his head up. Molina’s style was head down, eyes closed, throwing wild right hand swings. He impressed no one, including the crowd.
WBA 147lb champion Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) gave Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-3-1, 18 KOs) a methodical beating in winning a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in their fight on NBC in the Premier Boxing Champion series at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored the fight 120-107, 118-109 and 118-108. Guerrero was cut over his left eye and knocked down in the 9th round after getting tagged hard by a left hand from Thurman.
In the 3rd, Thurman and Guerrero rammed heads with each other, leaving Thurman was a big goose egg on the left side of his forehead.
Ever since the positively earth shaking news that Floyd Mayweather is to fight Manny Pacquaio, fight fans around the world have been residing in some blissful parallel universe.
It is finally on. Two of the best to have ever done it will fight on May 2nd of this year. Let us all rejoice. Let us praise the fighters for overcoming the many obstacles facing them to make this momentous fight happen. Let us enjoy the build-up to what will be a classic fight.
And also, let us stop the bull.
Even though this fight is guaranteed to be one of the biggest in history, there are many reasons to temper your anticipation. This is not to say the occasion won’t be epic and that the fight will not be exciting, as the former is certain and the latter is fairly likely. However, there are certain factors that simply cannot be overlooked that decrease the magnitude of this fight.
Fans sold out the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angles for tonight’s inaugural “LA Fight Club” card from Golden Boy Promotions. Many of the prospects featured in this series will be LA based fighters and they bring their friends and family with them. It all makes for a great “club” type atmosphere at the venue, with passionate fans cheering for the representatives of their neighborhoods. Although there were eight total bouts on tonight’s card, three were nationally televised on Fox Sports 1, with a swing bout just missing the broadcast.
Photo © (top) Christopher Smith; (bottom) Daniel Kucin, Jr. | Illustration – Paul “Paparazzi” Jones
On March 14, super lightweight prospect Mike “Yes Indeed” Reed (12-0, 6 KOs) takes his unblemished record back to the nation’s capital where he headlines a Keystone Boxing card at the Sphinx Club in Washington, DC.
At just 22 years old, Reed has a ton of upside and he is coming off a 6-0 campaign in 2014. To cap off his win streak, Reed earned a unanimous decision victory in November over ¬previously unbeaten Oscar Valenzuela (8-1-1, 5 KOs) at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Because Reed’s bout was part of Top Rank’s card featuring WBO Titlist Terence Crawford’s (25-0, 17 KOs) near shutout of Raymundo Beltran (29-7-1, 17 KOs), the DC product received some well-deserved exposure that he intends to build on starting with his fight next Saturday.
The 2015 Boxcino Tournament continues to the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, PA on Friday, April 10th. The show is promoted by Arthur Pelullo’s Banner Promotions and will be broadcast live on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The first round featured four-six round bouts in the Jr. Middleweight and Heavyweight divisions, which will now increase to two-eight round bouts in each division. The winners will advance to the 2015 Boxcino Finals on May 22, 2015 – at a time and place to be determined.
Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions on NBC brings boxing back on free television with the winners likely to get a bump in terms of overall marketing reach and the potential viewership. All four fighters in the co-main events will face a crossroads in their respected careers. Two promising young boxers face two veteran fighters that have already been through the ringer a time or two.
Al Haymon will of course have a plan to feature the newly crowned Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder on NBC but the favorites for this Saturday night’s card are crucial to the success of the PBC on NBC as well. Adrien Broner being a full fledge named fighter in the sport and a young counterpunching knockout artist who remains unbeaten in 25 fights Keith Thurman.
By Seamus Raftery: While I was watching a short documentary recently on the career of heavyweight great Smokin’ Joe Frazier a comment by boxing journalist Thomas Hauser jumped out at me. Speaking of the famous third bout in the series between Frazier and his arch nemesis Muhammad Ali, Hauser suggested that while both men were slightly past their primes, on that day in Manila “their downward curves intersected at just the right point”. The result was one of the most celebrated fights in boxing history.
At a time when the boxing media and fans of the sport are fixated on the long awaited clash between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather I couldn’t help but think about the parallel.
While the majority of the boxing public are overjoyed by the recent announcement there are a few who feel these modern greats have left it too late. In fact even the exhilarated fans and scribes are probably in agreement but are merely determined to remain optimistic, and are just happy that it came together at all. It is, after all, still a fight between the two best welterweights in the world, at the very least.