Between his legislative duties back in the Philippines and hamming it up with Will Farrell and Jimmy Kimmel, you have to wonder how much Manny Pacquiao could be focused on Antonio Margarito and Saturday’s WBC light middleweight title fight in Dallas. Normally the Pac-Man’s biggest boosters, trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum admit that Pacquaio has not had the best of training camps. Roach, in fact, told the Associated Press that this was the worst camp of Pacquiao’s career.
Some of that can be blamed on the boxer’s May election to the Philippine congress
, and the resultant demands on his time. Roach said his new political life has even caused physical ailments.
, and the resultant demands on his time. Roach said his new political life has even caused physical ailments.
“He has a foot problem, and that’s because he wears dress shoes too much,” Roach told the AP, pointing to a heel injury that curbed Pacquiao’s running.“I know his mind is off the fight. I know his mind is somewhere else, and that’s because of politics,” Roach said. “If there are no more challenges out there after this fight, this could be it. If Floyd (Mayweather Jr.) doesn’t come to the table, I don’t know what’s going to challenge him. He loves his other job, and he might be done with this one.”
All warning signs aside, the Filipino dynamo, nevertheless, remains a solid 9-2 betting choice.
The ins and outs
Say what you will about Pacquiao’s focus, or lack of it, at least he’s fighting Saturday, which is more than you can say for Kelly Pavlik. Less than a week after affirming his new commitment to the sport over lunch with several boxing writers in New York, the former middleweight champion pulled out of his scheduled co-featured bout againt Brian Vera. The official explanation was a rib injury, but when grilled by ESPN’s Dan Rafael about the possibility of Pavlik’s long-rumored alcohol problems contributing to his withdrawal, manager Cameron Dunkin replied “I can’t say for sure. I wasn’t there.”
Pavlik had been mentioned as a possible 2011 foe for IBF super middleweight champ Lucian Bute. That clearly is not going to happen. Bute was the odd man out when Showtime initially picked its “Super Six” candidates for its super middleweight tournament, and his presence on HBO gave that network a big leg up on its rival. But instead of signing the Quebec-based Romanian to a deal that might have maintained its edge, HBO may have committed a long-range miscalculation in passing on last month’s defense against Jesse Brinkley. Bute-Brinkley might not have been an HBO-worthy matchup, but showing it might have been a small price to pay to hang onto Bute.
Given the out, Bute went ahead and signed a three-fight contract with Showtime. The arrangement would apparently place Bute’s progress and what’s left of the Super Six progress on independent tracks, with the winner eventually meeting Bute, probably in 2012.
We won’t even attempt to analyze HBO’s motives in this scenario, but it’s safe to say that were Bute a Golden Boy client, not only would his mandatory against Brinkley have been televised, the network would have had him locked up for the next five years.
Middle muddle
At the World Boxing Council convention in Cancun, Mexico, last week (ever notice these reports never begin “at the World Boxing Council convention in Pittsburgh?”), Los Bandidos convened their General Assembly to clarify the status of several championships: Sergio Martinez’ Nov. 20 middleweight rematch against Paul Williams has been designated a “voluntary title defense,” subject to several seemingly contradictory conditions, to wit: “A final eliminator was ordered to determine the mandatory challenger between David Lemieux of Canada and No. 4 ranked Marco Antonio Rubio of Mexico. WBC silver champion and No. 1-ranked Julio Cesar Chavez of Mexico has the option to make a mandatory challenge against the winner of Martinez-Williams, in which case the winner of Lemiuex-Rubio would become the next mandatory challenger.”
Got that? It gets even better with regard to the super middleweights, where, you recall, the title became available when Mikkel Kessler retired on medical grounds, blowing up his scheduled September defense against Allen Green and delivering a body blow to Showtime’s tournament. We already knew that the WBC’s 168-pound belt would be on the line in the Nov. 26 Arthur Abraham-Carl Froch bout, but in Cancun, Kalle Sunderland, who promotes the WBC “emeritus” champion, informed the convention that “Kessler’s temporary retirement is due to an injury to the ligaments that control the movement of his eye that will heal only with six to nine months of rest. Sauerland also said that Kessler will be ready to challenge for the WBC title once the injury has healed.”
In addition to conferring expected title status on Pacquiao-Margarito in Texas, the WBC Board of Governors also decreed that the Dec. 18 Jean Pascal-Bernard Hopkins will not only be for its world championship, but for the WBC’s diamond belt as well.
Cross promotion
You may recall that promoters Leon Margules and Mike Acri had scheduled back-to-back cards Nov. 19 (in Framingham) and Nov. 20 (Uncasville, Conn.). The two have now consolidated their resources for a single show at Mohegan Sun on the latter date. The revamped card features a trio of undefeated boxers on top, with former lightweight champion Paul Spadafora (44-0-1) facing Argentinian junior welterweight Diego Jesus Ponce (19-5) in the main event and Connecticut featherweight Matt Remillard (22-0) vs. an unnamed opponent and Framingham 140-pounder Danny O’Connor (13-0) vs. Mexican Humberto Tapia (15-15) in the two principal supporting bouts.
Not that the transition was entirely voluntary. Margules had envisioned a “wall-to-wall” promotion at town-owned Nevins Hall in Framingham, where, he said, he had been assured that a one-night beer-and-wine license would not be a problem.
The posters already had been printed and the tickets on sale when the selectmen denied approval of the one-night license. Then, belatedly noting that tickets for the 1,500-seat building seemed to be moving briskly, Margules said Framingham attempted to retroactively slap a 10 percent “surcharge” on ticket sales. When Margules balked at this, the demand was revised to a “request” that he was to voluntarily make a $2,500 donation to the local Police Athletic League.
The promoter said he was prepared to comply with even that request until Framingham dropped the other shoe by turning down his request to operate concessions in any form in the town-owned building, where, they pointed out, “there are already vending machines.”
“That’s when I finally pulled the plug” said Margules. The show would have been Massachusetts’ third and final pro boxing show in all of 2010.
Margules said he then struck the deal with Acri to put O’Connor on the Mohegan Sun card. . . .
USA Boxing’s New England championships, which kicked off with last night’s quarterfinals at the Portland (Maine) Boxing Club, continue with the semifinals Saturday, with the championship finals set for Nov. 27. Former heavyweight champion James “Buster” Douglas will be a special guest at the finals. Winners move on to the regionals at Lake Placid; the next step a berth in the National Championships in Colorado Springs, where winners advance to the Olympic Trials. Tickets are on sale at Bruno’s Restaurant in Portland. For info, go to portlandboxingclub.org or phone 207-761-0975. . . .
Friday night’s show in Lincoln, R.I., marks the first New England appearance in move than two years for headliner Peter Manfredo Jr., who meets Colombian journeyman Jhon Berrio in the main event of Jimmy Burchfield’s “Homecominng King” card at the Twin River Event Center. The card will also showcase a couple of young prospects - Providence fireman Eric Estrada, a 2-0 cruiserweight, vs. Tobias Rice, and New Bedford junior welterweight Johnathan Vasquez (2-0) vs. Georgian Ernest Butts III. For more info, phone 401-724-2253. . . .
Happy birthday, Hasim Rahman.
Source: bostonherald.com
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