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MORE MERCHANT: Larry on Money-Manny, Haymon Takeover

He remains skeptical, does Larry Merchant, that MayPac gets made. But, he admitted to me, his main source of lowdown on whether Money-Manny gets made is Dan Rafael. In other words, he’s as beholden to sources who are either slightly in the dark about what might go down, or not inclined to share their true leanings, as the rest of us…
The former keyboard tapper who became a fixture in the A analyst seat at HBO told me that he thinks it a real possibility that The Fight turns out to be an anti-climax, and thinks it possible that we’ll have spent all these years obsessing about something which turns out to be something not so special. The back and forth, the showmanship, the speculation and subterfuge, all that stuff is basically posturing, he told me, some of it bragging, in a “mine is bigger than yours” way, and proving, on the part of Mayweather, that he’s so the A side that he can dictate most all terms.
Merchant admitted that he’s of late been more focused on the 25th anniversary of the Tyson-Douglas shocker, when a man assumed to be a speedbump on the Tyson road to all-time invincibility shredded the script, and beat down the bully. He talked about a charity event to take place in Columbus, Ohio, Douglas’ old stomping grounds, and doing a video hit for HBO to reminisce about the shocker scrap.
I wished Merchant a happy birthday, his 84, on Feb. 11, and then we talked some about the Haymon takeover. I asked if he thought the “boxing is back” narrative has merit, or is being force fed on usâŠ
He’s open to that plotline, he said, but the proof will come when we learn how many eyeballs are being drawn to those NBC shows, and how many sponsors and revenue sources Haymon can lure to keep the massive roster of boxers and growing infrastructure afloat.
“If Deontay Wilder and one or two others can get to a point where they are building up American fighters, that could be a component of success,” he said. A solid rumble could be a potent attraction on a Saturday night, which is sort of a TV wasteland on the nets, and Haymon could be hitting on the right time to build buzz, Merchant said.
Can he market boxing as a “special event,” Merchant wondered, and if yes, he could capture those casuals that we haven’t been getting as we’ve been hiding all the quality tangles behind premium cable and PPV pay wall for the last couple decades.
“I’m as curious as the next guy to see how it turns out,” the Brooklyn native told me.
Merchant said boxing’s down period came about partially at least because many folks didn’t trust the integrity of the product. Don King was seen by so many as a malevolent marionette, “pulling strings,” and thus sponsors didn’t shy away from boxing, they sprinted.
“They didn’t want to be associated with it,” he said.
In my mind, heck, with all the bad ink NFLers get, should it be that hard to build up our brand by focusing on the majesty of the action, and the sturdy bodies and souls of the athletes who engage in the most difficult sport known to man?
“I assume Al Haymon is smart, and has tested his concept,” the analyst finished. Me too..I don’t assume that because others couldn’t or wouldn’t attract sponsors to the product, that that will always be the case. I can find a hundred men and women of integrity and heart and immense soul to help build a brand in the sweet science, and we in the sport have shot ourselves in both feet for too long by tearing down, and dissecting the evils and ills in the sport, instead of building up and sharing the obvious upsides to the sport and its practitioners.
Larry fans should keep an eye out for cruise ship listings. What? Why? Because, he told me, he’s set to maybe do a lecture series on a cruise, talk sports, talk Muhammad Ali, share his love and passion for this theater of the unexpected we all hold so dear.
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Gerald Sinclair Watches Over the Mayweather Boxing Club, a Las Vegas Landmark

It isnât a stretch to say that the Mayweather Boxing Club is a Las Vegas landmark. Regardless of oneâs feelings toward Floyd — and he certainly has his detractors â the man transcended his sport like no other boxer of recent vintage. According to Forbes, which publishes an annual list of the worldâs highest-paid athletes, Floyd Mayweather Jr is one of only three athletes to surpass one billion dollars in career earnings, putting him on the same lofty pedestal as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods â this despite the fact that Floyd competed in what has been characterized as a dying sport while attracting comparatively little money in commercial endorsements.
The word landmark conveys the thought of an edifice that is architecturally impressive. The Mayweather Boxing Club certainly isnât that. It sits in a one-story complex of small businesses that take up a full block in an older section of Chinatown which in Las Vegas isnât a residential neighborhood but an ever-sprawling stretch of Spring Mountain Road that runs west of the Strip for roughly a mile, a string of Asian-owned businesses, predominantly restaurants and massage parlors. The Mayweather gym sits in the back of the complex facing away from the street.
Itâs easy to miss it if one is heading there for the first time (itâs helpful to have a car equipped with a GPS locator) but yet tourists often find their way there and that is another defining feature of a landmark.
When entering the gym, itâs likely the first person that one will see is Gerald Sinclair. He co-manages the gym along with his brother John and Cornelius Boza-Edwards, the former world super featherweight champion who engaged in some of the most exciting fights of the 1980s.

Gerald Sinclair
The Mayweather Boxing Club opened in 2007. Sinclair, 56, was there from the beginning when the facility was roughly half its current size. He grew up in Hudson, New York, a city named for the river that borders the town on the east. Before moving to Las Vegas, he worked as a fork lift driver in a warehouse.
Sinclair was induced to come to Las Vegas by his sister. She is Floyd Mayweatherâs mother. Floyd is Geraldâs nephew. Itâs all about family at the Mayweather Gym. Floydâs father of the same name and his uncle Jeff are fixtures there, as was their brother, the late Roger Mayweather, the best of the three fighting Mayweather brothers.
This reporter has never been in a boxing gym that didnât have colorful posters of old fights tacked to the wall. The Mayweather gym is no exception but all of the oversized posters, all 15 of them, are of Mayweatherâs fights. (Needless to say, he won them all.) His face appears on other insignia, including a large banner above a row of folding chairs. There are two regulation-size boxing rings, 11 punching bags of various descriptions clustered in a nook and some of the standard exercise equipment, all indicative of the fact that this is a place to work up a sweat, but the Mayweather Boxing Club is also a little museum of sorts, a paean to the splurgy proprietor who once sported the nickname âPretty Boy.â
Some boxing gyms â Abel Sanchezâs compound in Big Bear comes quickly to mind â are off-limits to outsiders. The Mayweather Boxing Club is welcoming (which isnât to say that a busload of fans would be welcome; it wouldnât).
âWhen we opened the place,â says Gerald Sinclair, âFloyd came to us and said if fans want to come in and look around, go ahead and let them.â
While we were there the other day, an older man with a Spanish accent appeared in the doorway and sheepishly inquired if he and the people in his party could come inside and give it a quick look-see. âBe my guest,â said Sinclair, whereupon the visitor left and returned with his wife and another couple that he had left waiting in the car.
Sinclair says if the man hadnât happened to mention that there were other people in his party, that he would have likely brought it up. âWe have had guys who came by and left their wife and kids outside in the car and I told them to please invite them in. I know this place is a slice of history. We donât exclude anyone.â
A tourist giving the gym a gander invariably takes a few selfies and then comes the million-dollar question: âIs he here?â A selfie with Floyd would be a prized souvenir.
No, heâs never there, or almost never there. On the rare occasions when he does pop in during normal business hours, he arrives unannounced, usually with a bodyguard. Floyd Mayweather Jr, who is known to hop in one of his private jets and fly halfway around the world on a whim, lives in a different universe than the denizens of the gym that bears his family name.
Although also rare, a visitor has a better shot of bumping into a celebrity. Eddie Murphy, Christine Aguilera, Maria Carey and P Daddy have walked in the door, as have many prominent athletes including Mike Tyson.
When Tyson appears, itâs old home week for Gerald Sinclair and his brother. During his amateur days and in his early days as a pro, Iron Mike resided in Catskill, living with his trainer Cus DâAmato in the large Victorian home that DâAmato shared with the sister of a sister-in-law. Catskill and Hudson are separated by only 12 miles. Sinclair remembers young Tyson turning up at some of his softball games. Mike made a big hit with the folks running the snack bar, covering the tab of kids hovering around him at the refreshment stand.
A number of boxers from overseas have worked out at the gym while visiting Las Vegas. For some novice boxers, a trip to the Mayweather Boxing Club is a rite of passage. (A stranger in town for a convention or trade show can also use the facility if it isnât too crowded. There is a day rate for these situations, and the visitor must sign a waiver absolving the club of any liability should he get hurt.)
The Mayweather Boxing Club is now back at full steam after being closed to the general public for several months because of Covid-19. For a time, it was effectively the private gym of Gervonta âTankâ Davis and his team. Everyone who was there while Tank was preparing for his Oct. 31, 2020 date with Leo Santa Cruz, was required to get tested twice a week. There were no hiccups.
âAs a boss, Floyd has been very generous to me,â says Sinclair. Thanks to Floyd, he got to see a part of the world that he never would have gotten to see. Floyd invited him along when he flew to Tokyo for his exhibition with Tenshin Nasukawa. Prior to this, Sinclairâs lone trip outside the United States was a trip to Tijuana.
Sinclair has picked up a new skill since leaving New York. Heâs frequently the go-to guy when a boxer at the gym needs his hands wrapped. Itâs not as simple as it looks, thereâs an art to it, and Gerald learned at the feet of the master, Rafael Garcia Sr, who encouraged his interest. Garcia passed away in November of 2017 at age 88, leaving a hole in the hearts of the extended Mayweather family that burned wider when his fellow traveler Roger Mayweather joined him in the afterlife.
The United States has housed several iconic boxing gyms over the years. A short list would include Stillmanâs Gym in mid-Manhattan, the Main Street Gym in downtown Los Angeles, the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach, and the Kronk Gym in Detroit. The Mayweather Boxing Club is destined to eventually join that hallowed roster.
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Avila Perspective, Chap.131: âBoo Booâ Andrade, Carlos Gongora and More

Avila Perspective, Chap.131: âBoo Booâ Andrade, Carlos Gongora and More
Do not confuse skill with athleticism.
Fans and many journalists often erroneously label a fighter with lightning speed, power, and a good jab as a skilled fighter when they are really, simply physically gifted athletes.
A truly skilled fighter can fight nose to nose with another and you canât touch him, but he can clobber you. That is skill. They donât need to run around the boxing ring at full flight mode. They can fight you straight-up.
One fighter Demetrius Andrade seems to finally be proving his skill-level after years of relying on mere athletic prowess.
Andrade (29-0, 18 KOs) defends the WBO middleweight title against Great Britainâs Liam Williams (23-2-1, 18 KOs) on Saturday April 17, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
The undefeated southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island makes his fourth defense of the title he won in 2018. He formerly held the WBO super welterweight title too.
âYouâre going to see the same you always see from me – a solid game plan, dominance, landing big shots, an all-around great performance and giving people what they have been missing, the sweet science,â said Andrade whose nickname is âBoo Boo.â
Because of his past reliance on athleticism, many possible foes simply avoided confrontations with Andrade in the prize ring. Who wants to step into a boxing ring and watch another fighter touch you with a jab and zip around the boxing ring? Fans donât want to see it either. They want to see a fight, not a dance.
In his last defense Andrade was seen exhibiting inside fighting skills when he dispatched Luke Keeler by technical knockout in the ninth round in Miami. It was a display of straight-up fighting not often seen when the Rhode Island boxer performs.
Is this the new Andrade at age 33?
Williams, who hails from Wales, is nicknamed âthe Machineâ but lost twice to Liam Smith in two very close bouts. Those are his only defeats.
âIâm super confident and I donât think thereâs any way that he beats me. I think I can knock him out,â said Williams.
Andrade laughs at Williamsâ comments.
âThey call him âThe Machineâ, but when I am done with him, heâll be âThe Rust Bucket,â claims Andrade.
Williams feels its time to expose Andrade.
âI donât think he has the same intensity as me,â said Williams. âI wear my heart on my sleeve. I can punch harder than him. I have a better engine than him. Iâm going to bring it all on the night and I donât think he has the answers.â
Andrade expects the same results.
âLiam is not going to stop my train,â said Andrade. âI expect him to bring the fight because this is his opportunity, but at the end of the day heâll be able to say, âI lost to Demetrius Andradeâ.â
Gongora
IBO super middleweight titlist Carlos Gongora (19-0, 14 KOs) makes his first defense of his fringe world title against American Christopher Pearson (17-2, 12 KOs) in a battle between southpaws in the semi-main event at Seminole Hard Rock.
Ecuadorâs Gongora was a last-minute replacement and upset Kazakhstanâs heavily favored Ali Akhmedov by knockout in the last round of their title fight last December. He also became his countryâs first world title-holder.
Pearson enters the boxing ring after a similar feat. He was a late replacement when he met the favored Yamaguchi Falcao two years ago at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. He out-fought the Brazilian with a gutsy performance that convinced Golden Boy Promotions to sign him.
Gongora and Pearson both have much to prove.
Sunday
Thompson Boxing Promotions returns with one of its star prospects Ruben Torres (14-0, 10 KOs) who faces Diego Contreras (11-3, 5 KOs) in a super lightweight main event at Omega Products International in Corona, California. The fight card will be streamed on www.ThompsonBoxing.com and on its Facebook and YouTube.com pages.
Fights to Watch
Fri. 6 p.m. ESPN+ Miguel Vazquez (42-10) vs Isai Hernandez (10-1-1).
Sat. 11 a.m. ESPN+ Danny Dignum (13-0) vs Andrey Sirotkin (19-1).
Sat. 12 p.m. DAZN Demetrius Andrade (29-0) vs Liam Williams (23-2-1).
Sat. 5 p.m. FOX Tony Harrison (28-3) vs Bryant Perrella (17-3).
Sat. 6 p.m. TrillerFightClub.com (ppv) Regis Prograis (25-1) vs Ivan Redkach (23-5-1).
Sun. 2 p.m. ThompsonBoxing.com (free) Ruben Torres (14-0) vs Diego Contreras (11-3).
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Tank Davis and the Charlo Twins Featured on the Loaded Showtime/PBC Schedule

Tank Davis and the Charlo Twins Featured on the Loaded Showtime/PBC Schedule
PRESS RELEASE — SHOWTIME Sports and Premier Boxing Champions today unveiled a loaded five-month boxing schedule of nine high-stakes world championship events beginning Saturday, May 15, live on SHOWTIME. The schedule delivers two events per month through August. Thirteen matchups have been announced thus far with no less than seven world title fights, and 12 fighters defending undefeated records. The lineup features many of boxingâs best young fighters taking on career-defining challenges in their primes. All fights on the schedule will take place before a live audience, keeping with applicable local COVID-19 safety protocols.
The sizzling summer run features the dynamic Charlo twins as undefeated electrifying champion Jermall Charlo defends his WBC middleweight world title against Juan Macias Montiel in a special Juneteenth homecoming in Houston on Saturday, June 19, live on SHOWTIME.
The following Saturday, June 26, unbeaten Mayweather Promotions star Gervonta âTankâ Davis moves up two weight classes for a chance to become a three-division world champion when he takes on fellow undefeated champion Mario Barrios for his super lightweight world title in what will be Davisâ second pay-per-view showdown.
The next month, WBC, WBA and IBF 154-pound charismatic world champion Jermell Charlo looks to make boxing history when he takes on WBO junior middleweight world champion Brian Castaño in a mega-fight to crown the first four-belt 154-pound world champion.
The SHOWTIME boxing schedule features eight editions of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING and one premier SHOWTIME PPV event, all presented by Premier Boxing Champions:
- MAY 15 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
- Luis Nery vs. Brandon Figueroa, WBC Super Bantamweight World Title Fight
- Danny Roman vs. Ricardo Espinoza Franco, Super Bantamweight Fight
- Xavier Martinez vs. Abraham Montoya, WBA Super Featherweight Fight
- MAY 29 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
- Nordine Oubaali vs. Nonito Donaire, WBC Bantamweight World Title Fight
- Subriel Matias vs. Batyrzhan Jukembayev, IBF Super Lightweight Title Eliminator
- JUNE 19 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXINGÂ
- Jermall Charlo vs. Juan Macias Montiel, WBC Middleweight World Title Fight
- JUNE 26 â SHOWTIME PPV
- Gervonta Davis vs. Mario Barrios, WBA Super Lightweight World Title Fight
- Erickson Lubin vs. Jeison Rosario, WBC Junior Middleweight Title Eliminator
- JULY 3 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
- Chris Colbert vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa, WBA Super Featherweight Interim Title Fight
- JULY 17 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXINGÂ
- Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castaño, Undisputed IBF, WBA, WBC & WBO Junior Middleweight World Title Unification Fight
- AUGUST 14 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
         Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. John Riel Casimero, WBO Bantamweight World Title Fight
     AUGUST 28 – SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
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- David Benavidez vs. Jose Uzcategui, WBC Super Middleweight Title Eliminator
- SEPTEMBER 11 â SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
- Stephen Fulton, Jr. vs. winner of Nery-Figueroa, Super Bantamweight World Title Unification Fight
âHigh-impact, meaningful fights amongst many of the biggest names and brightest stars in combat sports. That is what SHOWTIME promises and that is what we are delivering,â said Stephen Espinoza, President, SHOWTIME Sports. âWith an opportunity to crown an undisputed world champion at 154 pounds, a highly anticipated super bantamweight title unification, a stacked pay-per-view showdown and more than a dozen fights between 118-168 pounds, SHOWTIME is presenting boxingâs best young fighters, all daring to be great by putting their world titles and undefeated records on the line.
Editorâs Note: This press release has been edited for brevity.
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