Snips and Snipes

A new year and plenty to look forward to with the Super Six hotting up, David Haye in line for a shot at Vitali Klitschko and plenty of big fights in every division. Boxing often seems to be reeling, but it is a regenerative sport. There are always big fights and new fighters coming over the horizon, and long may the cycle continue.

The biggest fight of 2010 now looks to be dead. The representatives of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao were unable to agree a deal on testing even after mediation. It seems incredible that either fighter would walk away from $25 million, and a fight which would be a defining one for two men who already accepted as greats. It would not have been unexpected if money had proved the stumbling block, but testing! I do not know why Mayweather wanted to insist on a regime of testing over and above those called for by Nevada, particularly as the choice of Las Vegas as the fight venue was made by his camp. However, for him to be willing to walk away from the table over the matter was either stupid brinkmanship or a very real concern over a level playing field. Equally for Pacquiao to refuse tests that are standard for every Olympic athlete, and which Mayweather was willing to accept, and even reportedly to have refused a compromise solution, seems unbelievable.

There have been allegations that Pacquiao’s team, in emails leaked to the New York Daily News, asked what the penalty would be if someone gave a positive test result and whether the results of a positive test could be kept secret. These alleged leaks prove nothing, and only the parties involved know why this deal was not done. They each lose approximately $25 million and an opportunity to raise the level of their reputation to a new height, and we lose a fight that could have been one of the greatest in boxing history. Like any boxing fan I am p****d that we are not going to see this fight, but what p****s me most is that I do not even know who to blame. Mayweather says he will still fight on March 13, but no opponent has been named. Pacquiao is moving on to fight Judas Clottey - big deal! If he beats Clottey easily it proves nothing, but if he struggles or loses, and Clottey is a tough guy on his day, then Mayweather holds all of the cards.

The year ended on a sad note with the death of two major fight figures from the past, Terry Lawless and Henk Rhuling, and in January we lost former world title challenger Luis Federico Thompson. Terry was at one time the leading manager in British boxing. He managed fighters such as John Stracey, Mo Hope, Jim Watt and Charlie Magri, Frank Bruno, Mark Kaylor, Kirkland Laing, Sylvester Mittee, Horace Notice, Jimmy Anderson, Jimmy Flint and many others. He deserved a medal for managing Kirkland alone, but he helped so many to achieve much more than they seemed capable of. Although a hard task master, who never accepted anything but the best from his fighters, he and his wife Sylvie, who survives Terry, cared deeply for every one of their fighters and I send Sylvie my deepest sympathy.

As an example of how high a standard Terry set I can remember being at ringside for a John Stracey fight. John was winning easily and coasted through a round in the middle of the fight. When he returned to the corner Terry tore into John for lack of effort for the whole minute of the interval. When the bell sounded John stood up turned to Terry and said, “When the bell sounds for the end of this round I am going back to the other corner, they have to be nicer to me than you!" John went on to win a world championship - and that attitude, of accepting nothing but the best, is why Terry produced champions.

Henk was a character. I often met him at ringside in London. He was a familiar figure with his jovial manner and big cigar, but Henk could be ruthless. For many years he was Dutch boxing. He kept boxing alive there and among those he managed were European Champions Fighting Mack, Rudi Koopmans, Alex Blanchard, Pedro van Raamsdonk and Eddie Smulders, he worked with Rudi Lubbers, who fought Muhammad Ali, and helped guide many others to the top. He managed and promoted for over 50 years, was a very skilled cutman and smart agent, and worked with all the mayor promoters in Europe, the USA, South Africa and South America. A true man of boxing. RIP Henk.

Thompson was a legend in South America boxing. Born in Panama, he turned pro in 1948 and won the national lightweight title. He then moved to Argentina and was a top attraction there. He won the South American and Argentinian welterweight titles and beat world rated fighters such as Don Jordan, Gaspar Ortega, Jorge Fernandez and Cirilo Gil. He drew with Benny Paret in a non title fight, but lost on points to Paret for the world title in 1960 and retired in 1963. He had 177 fights, only Andres Selpa of South American fighters had more, and ended with a 148-15-14 record.

There could be another black eye for boxing on its way. The WBO light-heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer was in court last week charged with allegedly beating up a woman in a bar. Braehmer has already spent a spell in jail and if he is found guilty he could be looking at around 18 months inside.

The bad news continued with the death in Puerto Rico of the father of Miguel Cotto. He died of a heart attack at the age of 57. It continued a run of blows for Miguel with a pending legal action over his falling out and fight with his uncle and legal action by a Venezuelan woman of alleged sexual harassment. Let's hope his luck changes soon as Miguel has said this will be his year as a fighter.

I have genuine fears for the Frans Botha vs Evander Holyfield fight in Uganda. The announced postponement did not surprise some of my Swedish colleagues and the conflicting reasons given for the postponement were cause for concern. Claims that they hope to get an attendance of 80,000 seem wildly optimistic to me and even then without a major TV backer it will struggle to be profitable. This is not Forman vs Ali, but a couple of fortysomething fighting for a very minor title.

Frenchman Souleyman M’Baye gets his “pound of flesh” from his court settlement with the WBA. It appears that the former WBA light-welter champion will fight Antonin Decarie for the “interim” WBA welter title in France in the spring. A much better welter title fight being mooted is Jan Zaveck defending his IBF title against Rafael Jackewicz.

Also in the spring, the disgraced Antonio Margarito is looking for a return to the ring in March. By then he will have completed his 12 month suspension imposed by the Californian Commission after he was caught with a foreign substance applied to his hand bandages prior to his fight with Shane Mosley.

Those of a certain age - and there are not too many of us left - will remember a Basque stone lifting champion Jose Manuel Ibar “Urtain”. Back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s he was featured on the front page of Ring Magazine as he won his first 31 fights by KO/TKO. Many of the opponents would disgrace the description of opponents. However in April 1970 he kayoed Peter Weiland to win the European title (Peter always wore a wig into the ring and then took it off before the fight began). In his second defence in November 1970 Henry Cooper stopped the wild and crude Spaniard to lift the title. He regained the title in 1971 by stopping Jack Bodell, but lost it in 1972. He fought on actually beating some decent opponents such as Richard Dunn, Jan Lubbers and Dante Cane before retiring in 1977 after another unsuccessful shot at the European title. When he started out he was almost ridiculed because of his lack of technique and his stone lifting claim to fame. Well at the end of last year in Valencia, Spain, an attempt was made to unveil another “Urtain”. This one was Norwegian Arid “Hulk” Hogan. Arid weighed 122kgs, that’s about 20 stone in old money, and stands about 6’4”. His claim to fame is as a strongman who has lifted weights of 400kgs. He duly kayoed one Pavel Dolgovs in one round, but looked even cruder than the young Urtain. Let’s hope he just goes away.

It seems that not everyone is a boxing lover. There was talk of the State of Western Australia putting up some money to get Danny Green home advantage for the proposed fight with Bernard Hopkins. However, the State Events Agency have poured cold water on the idea, so if the fight comes off then Danny will have to go to the USA.

Could Tim Bradley be a modern day Carlos Palomino? Carlos came here as a practically unknown rank outsider to challenge John Stracey - and won. He then grew into the title with subsequent performances earning a place in the Boxing Hall of Fame. Tim was in the same position when he came here to face Junior Witter and has grown in stature ever since. He and his manager are a couple of real gentlemen so I will pleased if it ends up that way.

I saw that Gavin Rees was playing down the possibility of his getting a shot at WBC light-welter champion Devon Alexander. It is the decent thing to do as Gavin was only rated No 34 in their last ratings, and he would have to be No 15 to fight for the title. However since then he won the “Prizefighter” tournament. However, since none of the others in the tournament are in the WBC top 40, it would be difficult to jump him 19 places on that basis. Difficult, but not impossible.