Snips & Snipes 5th May, 2010

Because this is not a weekly column I have not had a chance to comment on the death at the age of 28, and at his own hand, of Edwin Valero. I remember getting my first view of him on a DVD and thinking that he was just a wild swinger with a big punch and no defence, and would soon be found out. Well 27 fights and 27 wins by KO/TKO later he was still swinging wildly, still had the punch, and I had found out that I had underestimated him. The sheer ferocity of his attacks overwhelmed most opponents, but when I saw him take on a genuine world champion such as Vicente Mosquera, and climb off the floor to batter the resistance out of the classy Panamanian, I realised he was special.

 

 We will never know how good he might have been. We can only speculate over fights against men such as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr-even if you don’t think he would win, you would be guaranteed fireworks. His career was held back by the metal plate he had inserted in his head after a motorcycle accident in 2001, which eventually led to his being banned from fighting in the USA. I am sure this was an element in his descent into drugs and depression. However, boxers are also human beings, and as with Carlos Monzon, who also murdered his wife, you can idolize them as boxers but not as human beings. Valero had previously been arrested on charges of physical abuse to his mother and his sister as well as his wife.

 

The real tragedy of the Valero case is not what a loss it was to boxing but the loss to the two orphaned children left behind when Valero murdered his wife and hung himself in his cell.The WBC has promised to take an interest in the care and upbringing of Valero’s children and that is a wonderful gesture by the sanctioning body.

 

Still on the WBC, they have never had any qualms about mixing boxing and politics. In response to a change in the immigration laws in Arizona, which are viewed by these bodies, and some others, as being anti immigrant, the WBC, along with the Association of Mexican Commission have decreed that no WBC title fights will take place in Arizona and no Mexican fighter will fight there. Unlike the stance on apartheid this will have a much less dramatic impact as Mexico is alone in imposing any ban, and the only people to suffer will be any Mexican boxer who fights regularly in Arizona, and any promoter there who relies on Mexican fighters for his shows. Also, unlike South Africa, these new regulations are introduced by the democratically elected State Government of Arizona-as is their right.

 

If Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao do not come to an agreement then I can see us being led into a series of fights of secondary interest. The same old names will crop up as the search goes on for someone to fill the other corner. For Mayweather there has been the suggestion of new middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, and for Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito. However it is a bandwagon everyone wants to jump on. The winner of Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto, Tim Bradley, Nate Campbell, Andre Berto and others. The problem is that only big names are acceptable and there are not too many around right now. What we want is Mayweather vs Pacquiao, but with Mayweather continuing to insist on the blood testing regime, it is not going to happen, as Pacquiao could not climb down now without losing a whole lot of face.

 

I have heard it alleged that not only did the Evander Holyfield vs Frans Botha fight lose money, but that the WBF are still waiting for their sanctioning fee. I guess that the WBF saw it as a big prestige fight for them and forgot to insist on the fee being paid up front. Prestige is fine, but it is money that pays the bills.

 

It is a worrying sign when an outfit as big and influential as Klaus-Peter Kohl’s Universum has to think about getting out of promoting. They no longer have a TV contract, and without that they cannot afford to promote. That is the “poisoned chalice” of big fat TV contracts. Promoters build their structure around the financing that TV provides and pay purses which bear no relation to gate receipts. Without that TV money, and having to rely on gate receipts, promoters cannot afford to pay the sort of purses that fighters become accustomed to.If Universum cannot land a TV contract then their future seems to lie in managing boxers. Then the question arises of who will provide the promotions to keep their large and expensive stable busy.

 

Universum have names such as Ruslan Chagaev, Juergen Braehmer, Zsolt Erdei, Vitali Tajbert, Sebatian Zbik, Denis Boystov, Alex Alexeev etc. on their books, and these are world class fighters who will not fight for peanuts. It is a big problem for Universum and a bad sign for boxing.

 

Another shake-up on the promotion front has seen the Klitschko brothers break with the K2 East Promotions group. This was set up jointly between the Klitschko’s and Ukrainian businessman Vadym Bukhalov. There is uncertainty over whether the team of top boxers there such as Zaurbek Baysangurov, Yuriy Nuzhnenko, Vyacheslav Uzelkov etc. are under contract to the Klitschko’s or Bukhalov. The split came after Bukhalov, reportedly hard hit by the recession, refused to let the Klitschko’s buy him out, but it looks a messy affair and again, as with Universum, there are some very important boxers involved.

 

Still on the subject of promoting, the group who were originally organizing the Holyfield vs Botha fight for Uganda are obviously very determined to blow their money. Their aim is to still put on a show in Uganda but featuring Joey Abell against Alfred Cole in June, a re-run of their six-two minute round fight in Sweden in 2008. Let’s see, that’s a guy who is going nowhere (Abell), against a guy who at 46, is nowhere now, and has not been anywhere significant in boxing since 2008 (Cole). Oh they will be beating down the doors to get into that one in Kampala. Joey, Alfred -take my advice, insist on a straight purse and not a percentage of the gate money, and make sure you get paid in advance.

 

As far as I know the fight in Kampala is not for a title and that is very remiss of the promoters. There are so many titles out there they should be able to find one. Take the case of the fight between DeMarcus Corley and Jermaine White in Washington on May 29. This will be for the vacant UBO world light welterweight title. “Chop Chop” is 5-9 in his last 14 fights, including losing his last two. White is 4-4 in his last eight fights, being stopped in three of those fights. In my faintly remembered youth this would have warranted an eight round bout status somewhere down a small hall show, now it is a twelve round “world” title fight. Remind me why boxing is so much better now that the old days-I keep forgetting.

 

They are going to need to reinforce the floorboards at the boxing hall at the River Cree Casino in Canada in July. The main event there will pit 6’8” tall, 255lbs Tye Fields against former Canadian champion, 6’7” tall and 279lbs Ray Olubowale. This is billed as being for the Canadian Professional Boxing Council title. This is not the Canadian Professional Boxing Federation title that Olubowale once held but a new organisation which has grown because the casinos refuse to work with the CPBF unlike the USA where they have agreements with the local Commissions. In addition there is now a separation between the CPBF Commissions, who run boxing in Canadian States (except Ontario which has long since declared UDI-Unilateral declaration of Independence and does it’s own thing) and a new body set up to administer Canadian titles. Just more confusion.

 

The shenanigans by the WBA actually managed to get worse. I pointed out that Don King’s fighter Kali Meehan had actually climbed the WBA heavyweight ratings during almost 20 months of inactivity. Well with the retirement of John Ruiz the WBA finally elevated him to No 1 in time for his eliminator with Ruslan Chagaev. I am truly surprised that the managers of some of the boxers who have been screwed in this action do not go to court to get the WBA to explain how they can order interim matches if a champion is inactive for a couple of weeks, but let a fighter inactive for almost 20 months climb to the No 1 spot. It stinks. Why is there never a whistle blower around when you need one?

 

At least the WBA are consistent. The fight for the vacant WBA interim cruiserweight title in July-yes the WBA has finally noticed that their champion Guillermo Jones has been inactive for 19 months-will be between No 5 rated Firat Arslan-a Universum fighter-and Frenchman Steve Herelius, rated No 4. Not a bad fight actually, and Arslan is the natural pick as he has been inactive for - 19 months! Did I hear you ask-what about the three fighters rated above them? Now you are being sensible, so you obviously know nothing about boxing.

 

Still on the subject of actions by the sanctioning bodies, it would be interesting to hear the explanation from the WBO as to how they come to rate Brian Minto. Minto went from No 5 heavyweight down to No 5 cruiserweight just in time for them to approve his challenge to Marco Huck. The only problem with that is that Minto has never in his whole career fought inside the cruiserweight limit. What a farce.

 

The Super Six competitions is making life difficult for the two champions not in it. Both IBF champion Lucien Bute and WBO champion Robert Stieglitz are finding it difficult to get meaningful title fights against the opposition left over. Bute’s management claim to have had an offer for a unification match turned down by Stieglitz. Bute is due to make a defence in Romania on July 24 but has no opponent lined-up. Jesse Brinkley and Sakio Bika meet in an IBF eliminator in May, but neither would then be ready for a July fight. You can understand Bute’s team wanting to fight Stieglitz as anyone holding both the IBF and WBO titles would be in a very strong bargaining position when the Super Six is over.

 

For those interested in money the WBA announced the outcome of a recent set of purse bids for their titles. A joint bid from Epic Sports management and Top Rank won the rights to promote the fight for the vacant secondary WBA middleweight title between Anthony Mundine and Gennady Golovkin with a bid of $1,210,000. The bout will go in July and the purse split will be 50-50. The other fight on the table was Daiki Kameda’s defence of his flyweight title against former champion Takefumi Sakata. This was won with a bid of just $315,000 with the champion entitled to 75% of the purse. This seems amazingly small to me, but promoters and managers in Japan work so closely together in a way that would be unthinkable elsewhere, that it makes me wonder if there really is any competitive bidding for their big fights.

 

Former world light welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu is not looking to make a return to the ring, but is sensibly using his fame to generate some useful cash. A German watch manufacturer has designed and is marketing a limited edition watch in Kostya’s name. Having retired after his loss to Ricky Hatton in 2005 Kostya splits his time between Australia and Russia. In Russia he is working with the government on schemes to help underprivileged children. However there is a Tszyu in boxing as his teenage son recently won the New South Wales and Golden Gloves titles. You might say he is one to “watch”.