Odds and Ends: Studio Fights, Mayweather Gym notes, Adrien Broner and More

Odds and Ends: Studio Fights, Mayweather Gym notes, Adrien Broner and More

Back in the day when folks watched boxing on little black-and-white TVs and boxing aired in primetime several nights a week, Nat Fleischer said he could envision the day when fights were held in a TV studio without a live audience. Small fight clubs were then falling by the wayside, attendance was plummeting at the larger arenas, and everyone blamed television for giving away the product for free.

It’s turns out that Fleischer, who died in 1972, was prophetic. However, he certainly didn’t foresee the circumstances that may rumple boxing into a studio sport during these trying times.

In a conversation with the hosts of a daily boxing show on SiriusXM radio, Bob Arum acknowledged that he has been talking to the Nevada Athletic Commission about staging fights in a studio. For this to happen, said Arum, everyone allowed on the premises – the fighters, cornermen, officials, TV production crew, etc. – would first have to be tested for the coronavirus.

ESPN, noted Arum, would be amenable because at the moment the network is in desperate need of content. And boxing, more than any other major sport (and we don’t count snooker or darts, both popular in the UK) can be squeezed into a very small space such as a TV studio.

One fight that may be “studio-ized” is the match between IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and mandatory IBF challenger Fanlong Meng. Scheduled for March 28 on ESPN, the bout was headed to Quebec City, Canada, but orphaned when the provincial government instituted a temporary ban on gatherings of over 250 people. Meng is from China, but has been training in New Jersey and hasn’t been back to his homeland since the epidemic hit.

The April 25 fight between IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue and WBO title-holder Jphn Riel Casimero may also be studio-bound if things haven’t loosened up by then. The Top Rank promotion was announced for Mandalay Bay, an MGM property on the Las Vegas Strip. (There is a TV studio in the new state-of-the-art UFC headquarters in Las Vegas. Whether the organization would rent it to Top Rank is another story; Arum and Dana White haven’t been on the best of terms.)

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The Mayweather Gym was unusually quiet when we peeked in on Friday afternoon. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are the days set aside for sparring and these are usually the busiest days of the week.

We also looked in on Thursday and when we were there Floyd Mayweather Sr. was working the pads with a cute little girl that I guessed to be about nine years old. She was delivering fast combinations and her punches had some mustard behind them.

Layla McCarter was also there working the speed bag. She had a date vs. TBA for promoter Steve Forbes at the Clackamas Armory outside Portland, Oregon, on April 5 but that event has been scrapped by gubernatorial decree. McCarter last fought in January of last year. Finding opponents has been tough. Despite her advancing age, none of the good boxers from 135 to 147 want to get in the ring with her.

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While we’re on the subject of women’s boxing, there was a big upset on Saturday at an Olympic qualifying tournament in London. Belgium’s Delfine Persoon (44-2 as a pro) lost a close decision to Nikoleta Pita of Greece.

Persoon fought Katie Taylor last June at Madison Square Garden underneath Joshua-Ruiz I. All four meaningful belts in the lightweight division were at stake. Persoon out-landed Taylor in a humdinger of a fight but came out on the short end of a majority decision. In many quarters and especially in Belgium, the verdict was viewed as a heist.

Persoon started slowly against the unheralded, 22-year-old Pita and it cost her. Pita won the first two rounds on four of the five scorecards and won a 4-1 decision. Persoon will get another chance to secure a berth in Tokyo at the Last Chance tournament scheduled for May 13 in Paris.

By the way, the 35-year-old Persoon isn’t the oldest woman in the tournament. That honor goes to Finland’s Mira Potkonen, a 39-year-old mother of two who won bronze at the 2016 Games. Potkonen, a lightweight, will be in action Tuesday against Caroline Dubois, the 19-year-old sister of fast-rising heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois. Caroline has never lost, but this is her first tournament at the senior level.

The London qualifying tournament is an 11-day event, but what are the odds that it will be allowed to run its course? The Americas qualifying tournament, which would have included Team USA and the always formidable Cuban team, was called off. It was slated to begin in Buenos Aires on March 26.

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Has any boxer ever had a more apt nickname than Adrien “The Problem” Broner?

More details have emerged regarding Broner’s arrest this past Friday evening in Miami Beach. According to TMZ, which received a copy of the police report, Broner was found passed out behind the wheel of a Rolls Royce SUV which was stalled in a traffic lane with the engine running. The boxer failed a field sobriety test and was arrested for DUI.

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