Snips & Snipes

So, instead of Pacquiao vs. Mayweather we will get Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey and Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley. Down the line the hope is that Pacquiao vs. Mayweather will still happen, but nothing is certain in boxing. Clottey is no pushover, as Zab Judah found out, but on form Pacquiao must be a heavy favourite. Mayweather should beat Mosley, but again nothing is certain in boxing.

 

It is ironic that the drugs testing is not a problem with Mosley, after all Shane did admit to taking performance enhancing drugs, but stated that at the time he was not aware that what he was being given was a banned performance enhancing drug. Unlike Pacquiao, Mosley has agreed to the drug testing regime insisted on by Mayweather, so the fight is on for May 1 in Las Vegas.

 

Naturally Edwin Valero is looking to move up to light-welter with a view to a bout with Pacquiao. Now that would be something.

 

All of those fights have to be more attractive than Bernard Hopkins against a very shot Roy Jones in Las Vegas on April 3. It amazes me that anyone would even think of buying this fight after Jones was blitzed in one round by Danny Green in December. Damaged goods just does not even begin to describe the once great Jones. I guess some people will buy anything with a label, no matter how shoddy.

 

It also looks as though we are back to the old heavyweight roundabout. Nikolay Valuev loses to David Haye, so naturally that qualifies him to challenge Vitali Klitschko in Gelsenkirchen on May 29 for the WBC title. Valuev loses, and gets the fight that Haye wants - only in boxing could this happen.

 

Other major fights signed up include Kelly Pavlik defending his middleweight titles against Argentinian Sergio Martinez in Atlantic City on April 17, Lucien Bute defending against Edison Miranda in Montreal on April 14, and Gavin Rees victim Souleymane M’Baye fighting unbeaten Canadian Antonin Decarie for the vacant interim WBA welterweight title in Levallois on April 10.

 

M’Baye gets this fight as part of a settlement in a case he brought against the WBA. As we know there is nothing wrong with the real WBA champion, Shane Mosley, or the secondary champion Vyacheslav Senchenko, so the interim title is suddenly there to help solve a legal wrangle. It is difficult to think of a single instance now where the interim title is used for the purpose it was originally introduced, namely to keep a title active whilst the champion is out with a long term injury.

 

Also on the cards is Miguel Cotto challenging Yuri Foreman for the WBA light middle title in New York in early June, and Nkosinathi Joyi challenging Mexican Raul Garcia for the IBF strawweight title in South Africa on March 26. Cotto has announced that he is going into promoting in a big way and obviously sees himself as another Oscar De La Hoya. Joyi is a very talented young fighter and a win for him would not really be an upset even against unbeaten southpaw Garcia.

 

It is difficult to see how the WBC can justify having Cuban Odlanier Solis at No 2 in their ratings as he never fought anyone in their top 40, and his best win was a stoppage of oldie Monte Barrett (but then they have Ray Austin No 1!). Solis is supposed to fight Costa Rican Carl Davis Drummond in defence of his WBC International title in March, but that depends on the outcome of a charge against Drummond in California of allegedly carrying a concealed weapon.

 

On the plus side the talented Cuban former amateur star Guillermo Rigondeaux donated his purse from his fight against Adolfo Landeros to the ”Children of Haiti Fund”. A nice gesture. Rigondeaux looks the nearest thing to a certainty for a world title in 2011.

 

The IBF have stripped Panamanian Celestino Caballero of his super bantamweight title for failing to enter into negotiations/ purse offers for a defence against Takalani Ndlovu. Caballero still holds the WBA title-or does he? He is no longer a double world champion and therefore can’t be a “super champion” and there is already a secondary champion, so in theory he has no title. What a mess they have made of our sport.

 

Gabriel Campillo found out that it is not a good idea to defend your title in another country when the local guy you are fighting is also the promoter. The Spaniard retained his WBA light heavyweight title on a controversial decision over Beibut Shumenov. However, allegedly, the promoter (Mr Shumenov) refused to pay him until he got his return fight, which he duly won.

 

It was different with Evander Holyfield. Evander demanded 10% of his purse for fighting Frans Botha in Uganda be paid into an escrow account in advance. When it did not turn up the fight was off. If they could not raise 10%, what chance did they ever have of paying the full purse? Then confusion started as the original Swedish promoters paid advance money to Joey Abell to fight Evander in Uganda. Evander’s team, and Botha, and the WBF (ederation) denied all knowledge of the Abell fight and insisted that Evander would fight Botha in Las Vegas. However, promoter Don Elbaum was talking about a Holyfield vs. Abell fight on March 27, but some sources give February 27. Evander has a date pencilled in for April 24 in Las Vegas, presumably with Botha, but nothing is signed yet.

 

All this for a fight for a nothing title between a 47-year-old former legend who has not won a fight since 2007 and a 41-year-old who in his last fight could only manage a draw with a guy with an 8-1 record. Some people will buy anything - or have I said that before?

 

Every time you turn around another son of a famous boxer is fighting in Mexican rings. We now have Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Omar Chavez, the sons of the great Julio Cesar. We have Jorge Paez Jr., Carlos Zarate Jr., Alfonso Lopez, the son of Ricardo Lopez and Mauricio Pintor, the son of Lupe Pintor, German Torres Jr. and this month Guty Espadas Jr. tries to regain the WBC featherweight title he held back in 2000/2001. Don’t put your daughter on the stage obviously does not cut it in Mexico.

 

Two bits of news that slipped passed me at the time. The first was an announcement that the IBF, WBA and WBC leaders had met in Cancun to discuss uniting, cooperating and working together. Oh yeah, that’s about to happen - I don’t think! None of the leaders of those bodies is ever going to voluntarily share power with anyone. It holds out the mirage of having one world champion, or some standardisation on ratings, and that would work against the commercial interests of each of those bodies. They all do some dumb things sometimes, but they can all recognise a suicide pact when they see it. Nothing will come of it, that I guarantee.

 

The other news was that the Boxing Promoters' Association in America was creating a judicial over-sight process to review inept judges. I will believe that might happen the first time I hear a promoter agreeing that his fighter lost a fight that went to a close split decision. Scoring in boxing is comparable to the way a beauty contest is judged. “That’s the way I saw it,” can be either an honest response, or a cop out for bias or incompetence, but the sport has no way establishing or measuring that. It is not unusual for there to be a six, eight or even more points difference between the scores of two judges watching the same fight. There was an eight points difference between the judges of the second Campillo vs. Shumenov fight and a six points difference in the Adamek vs. Estrada fight. The idea will never get anywhere because every State Commission will jealously guard their own right to be the judge of the judges.

 

Texas seems to be a bit of a wild card amongst US Commissions. They allowed Edwin Valero to fight there despite his being under suspension in New York and now the State is being talked about as the site for the comeback fight of Antonio Margarito. There seems to be some resistance to Margarito fighting again in the States, even after he has completed his suspension, so it might be difficult to stop him legally.

 

South Africa lost one of its best young boxers with the death of Mlungisi Dlamini in a car crash. Dlamini, 27, was WBF and IBO lightweight champion and unbeaten with 21 wins and a draw. His career suffered a hiccup when he was trying to establish a base in Australia but was involved in a brawl at a hotel there in 2007. However, he returned to South Africa, and got his career back on track and seemed to have a great future. Such a tragedy.