The Hauser Report: A Night at the Fights at Barclays Center

It’s an old story. A man has three or four mistresses, spreads himself thin, and tells each of the women that he loves her. Despite evidence to the contrary, each of the women believes that the man loves her best.

Right now, Al Haymon is romancing Showtime, Fox, Barclays Center, several other venues around the United States, and more than a hundred fighters. It’s an interesting balancing act that continued to unfold on the Showtime Championship Boxing card televised from Barclays Center on March 2.

In recent years, Barclays has established a credible boxing franchise, in large part by casting its lot with Haymon. On September 6, 2018, it announced that it had become “the official east coast venue” for Premier Boxing Champions (Haymon’s primary promotional vehicle) and the exclusive New York City venue for PBC fights. As part of the deal, Barclays will host a minimum of eight PBC fight cards per year.

Meanwhile, on December 14, 2018, it was announced that Brett Yormark (CEO for BSE Global, which oversees Barclays Center) would head an advisory board devoted to “PBC marketing, branding, and growth initiatives.”

But in recent months, Barclays hasn’t hosted the kind of match-ups that boxing fans have come to expect. One year ago – on March 3, 2018 – an excited crowd saw Luis Ortiz do battle against Deontay Wilder. On Saturday night, Ortiz fought Christian Hammer in a half-empty arena. It was the twentieth boxing telecast from Barclays Center for the Showtime-CBS-Haymon combine and one of the least attractive.

As expected, the fighters in the blue corner won all six undercard bouts.

Then Bryan De Gracia (24-1-1, 20 KOs) of Panama fought Eduardo Ramirez (21-1-3, 8 KOs) of Mexico for something called the WBA “gold featherweight championship.” For eight rounds, Ramirez seemed more committed to, and adept at, evading punches than landing them. De Gracia wanted to engage, but Ramirez had enough skills to neutralize his clumsy lunging assault.

Then De Gracia got sloppier. Maybe it was lack of respect for his opponent. After all, Ramirez had been running for most of the fight and had recorded only eight KOs in 25 previous outings. Regardless, one minute 52 seconds into round nine, De Gracia lunged once too often and Ramirez landed a hellacious right uppercut that put him on wobbly legs. If De Gracia had gone down, he might have had time to recover and regain control of his senses. But he stayed on his feet, which enabled Ramirez to pound him some more.

With 54 seconds left in the stanza, De Gracia fell into the ropes with his butt landing on the bottom strand. At that point, referee Benjy Esteves could, and should, have called a knockdown. Instead, he let the action continue before halting the proceedings at the 2:10 mark.

Next up, Ortiz (30-1, 26 KOs), now 39 years old, stepped into the ring to face Hammer (24-5, 14 KOs, 3 KOs by).

Ortiz is a product of the Cuban amateur system. His signature victories were knockouts of Bryant Jennings in 2015 and Tony Thompson one year later. Hammer, who was born in Romania and now lives in Germany, is a high-level club fighter. When a world class fighter meets a club fighter, the world class fighter can be expected to win.

Hammer fought bravely, gave a good account of himself, and landed more lead right hands than he should have. He also took Ortiz’s punches well, but he took too many of them. And he was handicapped by the fact that he appeared to not know how to throw a jab.

Ortiz – a 12-to-1 betting favorite – was the more polished, stronger fighter. He fought sluggishly at times but moved inexorably forward. Both men tired down the stretch with Ortiz prevailing on the judges’ scorecards by a 100-90, 99-91, 99-91 margin.

In the main event, Erislandy Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs) challenged Argentina’s Brian Castano (15-0, 11 KOs).

Lara, age 35, was born in Cuba and now lives in Houston. Like Ortiz, he was a much-decorated amateur and is a world-class boxer. At one point, he held the WBA 154-pound title, which he lost last year to Jarrett Hurd. But Lara was defeated by Paul Williams (an unjust decision) and Canelo Alvarez in addition to his loss to Hurd and was held to a draw by Carlos Molina and Vanes Martirosyan. The most impressive win on his resume was a 2013 decision over Austin Trout.

Castano is the phony WBA 154-pound “champion,” having decisioned someone named Cedric Vitu for a belt in March 2018. Hurd is the real WBA 154-pound champion.

Lara has slowed in recent years. Castano was the aggressor throughout the bout and came on strong at the end to sweep the last three rounds on each judge’s scorecard en route to a 115-113, 113-115, 114-114 draw.

“Branding,” Charles Jay once wrote,” goes beyond mere name recognition. Branding is a promise. It’s something that the brand stands for, what the consumer can depend on.”

Right now, PBC, Showtime, and Barclays have some decisions to make regarding the quality of their brand.

The two most attractive PBC fights on the calendar so far this year have been the January 19 match-up between Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner in Las Vegas (on Showtime PPV) and the scheduled March 16 bout between Errol Spence and Mikey Garcia in a Dallas suburb (on Fox-PPV). Fight fans would be better served without the pay-per-view price tag attached to these fights.

Meanwhile, no one knows with certainty what Deontay Wilder will do next. Showtime and Barclays have suggested that they’ll host Wilder vs. Dominic Breazeale on May 18. That would be an exciting night of boxing. Wilder-Breazeale on Showtime PPV would be less enticing for boxing aficionados. Or Team Wilder might find a way to bypass Breazeale and fight a less threatening opponent.

And let’s not forget; until February 19, Showtime and Barclays thought that Wilder would be fighting Tyson Fury at Barclays Center on May 18 on Showtime Pay-Per-View.

Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / SHOWTIME

Thomas Hauser’s new email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – Protect Yourself at all Times – was published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism.

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