Featured Articles
The Options For Manny Pacquiao
When Top Rank announced that they had signed an agreement with Manny Pacquiao to extend their promotional agreement through the end of 2016, a collective groan was heard throughout the boxing community.
The ink drying on the contract signaled what could likely be the last window to a potential Mayweather-Pacquiao fight being slammed shut. Not that the extension was the only mitigating factor that has prevented the pugilistic money bonanza from taking place. But the dream that Pacquiao would take the Miguel Cotto free agent route in order to land the Mayweather fight before both fighters backslid into a pool of deterioration appeared to be within the realm of possibility.
So now that the Mayweather-Pacquiao hopes have gone up in a cloud of smoke (again) and boxing scribes have resuscitated an already dead and buried horse only to beat it again, a bigger issue is now revealing itself.
Who the hell is left for Manny Pacquiao to fight?
Looking into the crystal ball, the immediate future holds a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. It’s a big money fight considering that the words “knocked out” accompany Google searches for Pacquiao thanks to Marquez’ decimation of the Filipino the last time they encountered one another in 2012.
But then what?
The bigger issue that the house that Bob Arum is holding together on the shaky legs of aging fighters is the lack of intriguing opponents for Pacquiao to fight. The fact that a fifth fight with Marquez has even come into play as the primary option is bad enough. But you will be hard pressed to find a name among Top Rank’s welterweights that the general public will not meet with a shrug of indifference aside from Ruslan Provodnikov. If you look at the top ten welterweights and junior welterweights, you’ll see that they are either Al Haymon fighters, Golden Boy fighters, Showtime fighters or a combination of all three. At 140, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse and Adrien Broner would all be formidable opponents if it wasn’t for the fact that they live on the other side of the fence. The same can be said for Marcos Maidana, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman and Amir Khan at 147. If Pacquiao were to carefully venture to 154, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez could be a massive fight if he was an Arum guy. But, alas, he’s not.
So what does this leave Manny Pacquiao with?
He already beat up Brandon Rios. Mike Alvarado – who split a pair of fights with Rios – was thoroughly outclassed by old man Marquez. He’s beaten Timothy Bradley once officially, although it should be twice. And…that’s it.
That is really it. More importantly, there are no young welterweights on the horizon that could rise up to the challenge. Terence Crawford and Yuriorkis Gamboa are two potential names that could eventually end up with a Pacman fight. However, Gamboa’s horrible business sense and the fact that Crawford could walk into a room and nobody would have a clue who he is areboth problematic .
And considering that Pacquiao is no longer the one-sided draw like that Mayweather fellow – who has set himself up with an intriguing rematch with Maidana due to the madman’s strategy or simply overlooking him the first time around – Top Rank has one hell of a task on their hands when it comes to generating casual fan interest. The moment Pac hit the deck against Marquez, the invincible aura that made him must-see television whether he was fighting a man, a Scooby Doo van or a tomato can were all shattered.
The pay per view returns on his last two fights – Brandon Rios and Timothy Bradley – were disappointing with Rios selling 500k and Bradley hovering around 750k. The gate on his rematch with Bradley ended up being his lowest in years. Arum won’t admit it, but he certainly is panicking. Without another marquee name in his stable to match Pac with, those PPV numbers could continue to drop.
The problem with Pacquiao is that he’s not nearly as polarizing as Mayweather and no longer pummels his opponents beyond recognition. This version of Pacquiao who hasn’t knocked out an opponent in nearly five years (Cotto in 2009), just isn’t the same contradiction of Bruce Banner outside the ring and The Incredible Hulk inside the squared circle that was intriguing on so many levels. He is in dire need of a dance partner and Top Rank doesn’t have very many to offer now and the future is looking bleak as Pac’s career begins its slow stroll down the highway of retirement.
Bob Arum needed Pacquiao to agree to an extension so he could continue cultivating the market in Macau and ensure that his cash cow didn’t join the superfriends over at Showtime. Pacquiao didn’t need to sign with Arum. The more intriguing options for opponents are over at the house that Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya built and is in a state of flux and becoming a free agent would have sent a jolt into boxing fans. Can you imagine the dialog on social media regarding Pacquiao’s next move? Mayweather wouldn’t be able to use the lines drawn in the sand as an excuse.
Even if the Mayweather fight didn’t happen immediately, the depth of talent across the tracks would breathe new life into Pacquiao’s career. Wouldn’t you like to see Pacquiao vs Broner as a precursor to Pacqiuao-Mayweather?Pacquiao-Khan could be an international blockbuster as well. A showdown with Keith Thurman would have every purist giddy with the inevitable war that would take place. There are multiple paths away from Top Rank yet only one now that he has opted to stay. If the most captivating fight after Pacquiao-Marquez 5 is Pacquiao-Marquez 6, well, we’re screwed.
Remember when Arum was campaigning for fight fans to boycott Mayweather-Maidana due to the perceived lopsided odds? He may soon have to consider boycotting his own fights if something doesn’t change soon.
Hale is: Writer/Video Content Producer For Jay Z’s LifeandTimes.com
Editor-In-Chief Of KnockoutNation.com
Contenido Video Producer Para 2DopeTV ( 2DopeBoyz.com )
Featured Articles
Boxing Trainer Bob Santos Paid his Dues and is Reaping the Rewards
Bob Santos, the 2022 Sports Illustrated and The Ring magazine Trainer of the Year, is a busy fellow. On Feb. 1, fighters under his tutelage will open and close the show on the four-bout main portion of the Prime Video PPV event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jeison Rosario continues his comeback in the lid-lifter, opposing Jesus Ramos. In the finale, former Cuban amateur standout David Morrell will attempt to saddle David Benavidez with his first defeat. Both combatants in the main event have been chasing 168-pound kingpin Canelo Alvarez, but this bout will be contested for a piece of the light heavyweight title.
When the show is over, Santos will barely have time to exhale. Before the month is over, one will likely find him working the corner of Dainier Pero, Brian Mendoza, Elijah Garcia, and perhaps others.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) turned 28 last month. He is in the prime of his career. However, a lot of folk rate Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) a very live dog. At last look, Benavidez was a consensus 7/4 (minus-175) favorite, a price that betokens a very competitive fight.
Bob Santos, needless to say, is confident that his guy can upset the odds. “I have worked with both,” he says. “It’s a tough fight for David Morrell, but he has more ways to victory because he’s less one-dimensional. He can go forward or fight going back and his foot speed is superior.”
Benavidez’s big edge, in the eyes of many, is his greater experience. He captured the vacant WBC 168-pound title at age 20, becoming the youngest super middleweight champion in history. As a pro, Benavidez has answered the bell for 148 rounds compared with only 54 for Morrell, but Bob Santos thinks this angle is largely irrelevant.
“Sure, I’d rather have pro experience than amateur experience,” he says, “but if you look at Benavidez’s record, he fought a lot of soft opponents when he was climbing the ladder.”
True. Benavidez, who turned pro at age 16, had his first seven fights in Mexico against a motley assortment of opponents. His first bout on U.S. soil occurred in his native Pheonix against an opponent with a 1-6-2 record.
While it’s certainly true that Morrell, 26, has yet to fight an opponent the caliber of Caleb Plant, he took up boxing at roughly the same tender age as Benavidez and earned his spurs in the vaunted Cuban amateur system, eventually defeating elite amateurs in international tournaments.
“If you look at his [pro] record, you will notice that [Morrell] has hardly lost a round,” says Santos of the fighter who captured an interim title in only his third professional bout with a 12-round decision over Guyanese veteran Lennox Allen.
Bob Santos is something of a late bloomer. He was around boxing for a long time, assisting such notables as Joe Goossen, Emanuel Steward, and Ronnie Shields before becoming recognized as one of the sport’s top trainers.
A native of San Jose, he grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood but not in a household where Spanish was spoken. “I know enough now to get by,” he says modestly. He attended James Lick High School whose most famous alumnus is Heisman winning and Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim Plunkett. “We worked in the same apricot orchard when we were kids,” says Santos. “Not at the same time, but in the same field.”
After graduation, he followed his father’s footsteps into construction work, but boxing was always beckoning. A cousin, the late Luis Molina, represented the U.S. as a lightweight in the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, and was good enough as a pro to appear in a main event at Madison Square Garden where he lost a narrow decision to the notorious Puerto Rican hothead Frankie Narvaez, a future world title challenger.
Santos’ cousin was a big draw in San Jose in an era when the San Jose / Sacramento territory was the bailiwick of Don Chargin. “Don was a beautiful man and his wife Lorraine was even nicer,” says Santos of the husband/wife promotion team who are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Don Chargin was inducted in 2001 and Lorraine posthumously in 2018.
Chargin promoted Fresno-based featherweight Hector Lizarraga who captured the IBF title in 1997. Lizarraga turned his career around after a 5-7-3 start when he hooked up with San Jose gym operator Miguel Jara. It was one of the most successful reclamation projects in boxing history and Bob Santos played a part in it.
Bob hopes to accomplish the same turnaround with Jeison Rosario whose career was on the skids when Santos got involved. In his most recent start, Rosario held heavily favored Jarrett Hurd to a draw in a battle between former IBF 154-pound champions on a ProBox card in Florida.
“I consider that one of my greatest achievements,” says Santos, noting that Rosario was stopped four times and effectively out of action for two years before resuming his career and is now on the cusp of earning another title shot.
The boxer with whom Santos is most closely identified is former four-division world title-holder Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. The slick southpaw, the pride of Gilroy, California, the self-proclaimed “Garlic Capital of the World,” retired following a bad loss to Omar Figueroa Jr, but had second thoughts and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak. “I’ve known him since he was 15 years old,” notes Santos.
Years from now, Santos may be more closely identified with the Pero brothers, Dainier and Lenier, who aspire to be the Cuban-American version of the Klitschko brothers.
Santos describes Dainier, one of the youngest members of Cuba’s Olympic Team in Tokyo, as a bigger version of Oleksandr Usyk. That may be stretching it, but Dainier (10-0, 8 KOs as a pro), certainly hits harder.
This reporter was a fly on the wall as Santos put Dainier Pero through his paces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) at Bones Adams gym in Las Vegas. Santos held tight to a punch shield, in the boxing vernacular a donut, as the Cuban practiced his punches. On several occasions the trainer was knocked off-balance and the expression on his face as his body absorbed some of the after-shocks, plainly said, “My goodness, what the hell am I doing here? There has to be an easier way to make a living.” It was an assignment that Santos would have undoubtedly preferred handing off to his young assistant, his son Joe Santos, but Joe was preoccupied coordinating David Morrell’s camp.
Dainer’s brother Lenier is also an ex-Olympian, and like Dainier was a super heavyweight by trade as an amateur. With an 11-0 (8 KOs) record, Lenier Pero’s pro career was on a parallel path until stalled by a managerial dispute. Lenier last fought in March of last year and Santos says he will soon join his brother in Las Vegas.
There’s little to choose between the Pero brothers, but Dainier is considered to have the bigger upside because at age 25 he is the younger sibling by seven years.
Bob Santos was in the running again this year for The Ring magazine’s Trainer of the Year, one of six nominees for the honor that was bestowed upon his good friend Robert Garcia. Considering the way that Santos’ career is going, it’s a safe bet that he will be showered with many more accolades in the years to come.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong
Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong
There’s not much happening on the boxing front this month. That’s consistent with the historical pattern.
Fight promoters of yesteryear tended to pull back after the Christmas and New Year holidays on the assumption that fight fans had less discretionary income at their disposal. Weather was a contributing factor. In olden days, more boxing cards were staged outdoors and the most attractive match-ups tended to be summertime events.
There were exceptions, of course. On Jan. 17, 1941, an SRO crowd of 23,180 filled Madison Square Garden to the rafters to witness the welterweight title fight between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. (This was the third Madison Square Garden, situated at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, roughly 17 blocks north of the current Garden which sits atop Pennsylvania Station. The first two arenas to take this name were situated farther south adjacent to Madison Square Park).
This was a rematch. They had fought here in October of the previous year. In a shocker, Zivic won a 15-round decision. The fight was close on the scorecards. Referee Arthur Donovan and one of the judges had it even after 14 rounds, but Zivic had won his rounds more decisively and he punctuated his well-earned triumph by knocking Armstrong face-first to the canvas as the final bell sounded.
This was a huge upset.
Armstrong had a rocky beginning to his pro career, but he came on like gangbusters after trainer/manager Eddie Mead acquired his contract with backing from Broadway and Hollywood star Al Jolson. Heading into his first match with Zivic – the nineteenth defense of the title he won from Barney Ross – Hammerin’ Henry had suffered only one defeat in his previous 60 fights, that coming in his second meeting with Lou Ambers, a controversial decision.
Shirley Povich, the nationally-known sports columnist for the Washington Post, conducted an informal survey of boxing insiders and found only person who gave Zivic a chance. The dissident was Chris Dundee (then far more well-known than his younger brother Angelo). “Zivic knows all the tricks,” said Dundee. “He’ll butt Armstrong with his head, gouge him with his thumbs and hit him just as low as Armstrong [who had five points deducted for low blows in his bout with Ambers].”
Indeed, Pittsburgh’s Ferdinand “Fritzie” Zivic, the youngest and best of five fighting sons of a Croatian immigrant steelworker (Fritzie’s two oldest brothers represented the U.S. at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics) would attract a cult following because of his facility for bending the rules. It would be said that no one was more adept at using his thumbs to blind an opponent or using the laces of his gloves as an anti-coagulant, undoing the work of a fighter’s cut man.
Although it was generally understood that at age 28 his best days were behind him, Henry Armstrong was chalked the favorite in the rematch (albeit a very short favorite) a tribute to his body of work. Although he had mastered Armstrong in their first encounter, most boxing insiders considered Fritzie little more than a high-class journeyman and he hadn’t looked sharp in his most recent fight, a 10-round non-title affair with lightweight champion Lew Jenkins who had the best of it in the eyes of most observers although the match was declared a draw.
The Jan. 17 rematch was a one-sided affair. Veteran New York Times scribe James P. Dawson gave Armstrong only two rounds before referee Donovan pulled the plug at the 52-second mark of the twelfth round. Armstrong, boxing’s great perpetual motion machine, a world title-holder in three weight classes, repaired to his dressing room bleeding from his nose and his mouth and with both eyes swollen nearly shut. But his effort could not have been more courageous.
At the conclusion of the 10th frame, Donovan went to Armstrong’s corner and said something to the effect, “you will have to show me something, Henry, or I will have to stop it.” What followed was Armstrong’s best round.
“[Armstrong] pulled the crowd to its feet in as glorious a rally as this observer has seen in twenty-five years of attendance at these ring battles,” wrote Dawson. But Armstrong, who had been stopped only once previously, that coming in his pro debut, had punched himself out and had nothing left.
Armstrong retired after this fight, siting his worsening eyesight, but he returned in the summer of the following year, soldiering on for 46 more fights, winning 37 to finish 149-21-10. During this run, he was reacquainted with Fritzie Zivic. Their third encounter was fought in San Francisco before a near-capacity crowd of 8,000 at the Civic Auditorium and Armstrong got his revenge, setting the pace and working the body effectively to win a 10-round decision. By then the welterweight title had passed into the hands of Freddie Cochran.
Hammerin’ Henry (aka Homicide Hank) Armstrong was named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990. Fritzie Zivic followed him into the Hall three years later.
Active from 1931 to 1949, Zivic lost 65 of his 231 fights – the most of anyone in the Hall of Fame, a dubious distinction – but there was yet little controversy when he was named to the Canastota shrine because one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had fought a tougher schedule. Aside from Armstrong and Jenkins, he had four fights with Jake LaMotta, four with Kid Azteca, three with Charley Burley, two with Sugar Ray Robinson, two with Beau Jack, and singles with the likes of Billy Conn, Lou Ambers, and Bob Montgomery. Of the aforementioned, only Azteca, in their final meeting in Mexico City, and Sugar Ray, in their second encounter, were able to win inside the distance.
By the way, it has been written that no event of any kind at any of the four Madison Square Gardens ever drew a larger crowd than the crowd that turned out on Jan. 17, 1941, to see the rematch between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. Needless to say, prizefighting was big in those days.
A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
To comment on this stoty in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
Jai Opetaia Brutally KOs David Nyika, Cementing his Status as the World’s Top Cruiserweight
In his fifth title defense, lineal cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) successfully defended his belt with a brutal fourth-round stoppage of former sparring partner David Nyika. The bout was contested in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia where Opetaia won the IBF title in 2022 with a hard-earned decision over Maris Briedis with Nyika on the undercard. Both fighters reside in the general area although Nyika, a former Olympic bronze medalist, hails from New Zealand.
The six-foot-six Nyika, who was undefeated in 10 pro fights with nine KOs, wasn’t afraid to mix it up with Opetaia although had never fought beyond five rounds and took the fight on three weeks’ notice when obscure German campaigner Huseyin Cinkara suffered an ankle injury in training and had to pull out. He wobbled Opetaia in the second round in a fight that was an entertaining slugfest for as long as it lasted.
In round four, the champion but Nyika on the canvas with his patented right uppercut and then finished matters moments later with a combination climaxed with an explosive left hand. Nyika was unconscious before he hit the mat.
Opetaia’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants Opetaia to unify the title and then pursue a match with Oleksandr Usyk. Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, a Golden Boy Promotions fighter, holds the WBA and WBO versions of the title and is expected to be Opetaia’s next opponent. The WBC diadem is in the hands of grizzled Badou Jack.
Other Fights of Note
Brisbane heavyweight Justis Huni (12-0, 7 KOs) wacked out overmatched South African import Shaun Potgieter (10-2), ending the contest at the 33-second mark of the second round. The 25-year-old, six-foot-four Huni turned pro in 2020 after losing a 3-round decision to two-time Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov. There’s talk of matching him with England’s 20-year-old sensation Moses Itauma which would be a delicious pairing.
Eddie Hearn’s newest signee Teremoana Junior won his match even quicker, needing less than a minute to dismiss Osasu Otobo, a German heavyweight of Nigerian descent.
The six-foot-six Teremoana, who akin to Huni hails from Brisbane and turned pro after losing to the formidable Jalolov, has won all six of his pro fights by knockout while answering the bell for only eight rounds. He has an interesting lineage; his father is from the Cook Islands.
Rising 20-year-old Max “Money” McIntyre, a six-foot-three super middleweight, scored three knockdowns en route to a sixth-round stoppage of Abdulselam Saman, advancing his record to 7-0 (6 KOs). As one can surmise, McIntyre is a big fan of Floyd Mayweather.
The Opetaia-Nyika fight card aired on DAZN pay-per-view (39.99) in the Antipodes and just plain DAZN elsewhere.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
The Ortiz-Bohachuk Thriller has been named the TSS 2024 Fight of The Year
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
For Whom the Bell Tolled: 2024 Boxing Obituaries PART ONE (Jan.-June)
-
Featured Articles1 week ago
R.I.P. Paul Bamba (1989-2024): The Story Behind the Story
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Lucas Bahdi Forged the TSS 2024 Knockout of the Year
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Oleksandr Usyk is the TSS 2024 Fighter of the Year
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
For Whom the Bell Tolled: 2024 Boxing Obituaries PART TWO: (July-Dec.)
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Steven Navarro is the TSS 2024 Prospect of the Year