12.01.07 – By Michael Marley, Boxingconfidential.com: Fearless Frank Espinoza, one of boxing’s most aggressive managers, is the kind of guy who would try to throw a lamb chop past a starving wolf. That is how FF rolls and handles his boxing business. But he is also a savvy guy and he lives by the credo of getting his fighters the biggest reward for the least risk. But sometimes he bends his formula…
In putting his WBC super bantamweight king Israel Vazquez into the ring (Showtime, April 7) against bantamweight ruler and supreme puncher Rafael Marquez, Espinoza called an audible. In this dream fight of the top two guys at 118 to 122 pounds, FF and Israel take the biggest risk for the biggest financial reward. This is mano a mano at its best.
“We don’t have the bottom line, the contracts from our guys (Golden Boy, Sycuan) yet,” Espinoza told Boxingconfidential.com by phone from LA. “But we want Israel to fight Rafael and it seems his team wants it also. The public wants this kind of fight. You got two Number One guys in their divisions going at it. They will collide head on in there. Neither guy is gonna have to go look for the other and, if it is as great as I think it will be, maybe the public will demand they do it again. This fight is a golden rule fight where both sides can make some gold and the winner is a true superstar.”
Espinoza emphasized that he expects a big bucks purse but underlined that this is the only fight that really gets Israel’s juices flowing.
“That’s why, after the way Israel beat Jhonny Gonzalez, we told Golden Boy we weren’t keen on Ponce De Leon. That’s a small money situation and not a great matchup in styles. The fight with Rafael is going to be a wild one.”