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Boxing News Thread
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Marquez Will Always Trouble Pacquiao, Says Chargin
SAN FRANCISCO--No less a sagacious, perspicacious boxing oracle than 83 years young Don “War A Week” Chargin finds it ironic that Mexican ringmaster Juan Manuel Marquez is exiting, stage left, from Golden Boy Promotions to insure that he does nail down a historic third fight against Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao.
Chargin, the wily, six decades promoter who works out of his seacoast home in Cambria, said it was his friends at Golden Boy who demanded big money for a third fight with Pacman for the slick counterpuncher who has given Pacquiao so many in ring problems.
“Bob Arum just laughed at Golden Boy when they rightly demanded financial fairness for Marquez against Pacman and now it looks like Marquez is going off the reservation to Top Rank to make sure he gets the third match against Manny. Marquez handles his own business but I doubt he can be very demanding with Arum,” Chargin said Saturday morning after his Pinoy prospect Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta went through tired, old Genaro Trazancos like the proverbial hot knife through butter.
Gesta, lightweight southpaw slugger from Cebu, improved to 21-0-1, 11 knockouts in beating the faded Mexican journeyman for the second time in as many years. The doctor halted the bout, before a lively throng of 1,200 fans at historic Longshoremen's Hall on a miserably rainy night, after three rounds.
Still, despite his misgivings about Juan Ma turning his back on the Golden Lads named de la Hoya and Schaefer, veteran Chargin concedes Marquez-Pacquiao III is both commercially viable and will be a competitive match just like their first two brawls.
“Yes, that is certainly an easy fight to sell to the public, there is an appetite there to see Manny and Marquez do it again, I get that.
“Both of their fights were good fights with an element of controversy to each,” Chargin said. “Juan Ma will always be competitive and difficult for Manny because of his style. It's just in how they match up.”
Chargin's comments are timely given Arum's recent proclamation that if Pacquiao handles Sugar Shane Mosley on May 7, his November foe could well be Juan Ma if Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still not eager or otherwise available.
As far as Work In Progress Gesta, Chargin will upgrade the opposition and keep the lefthanded former Muay Thai boxer active but he does not plan to abruptly jump him from high school to graduate school.
“All in good time for Mercito,” Chargin said. “The kid is 23, not age 33, so there is no extreme rush here. You will see tougher guys fighting him as we move along. But the goal is to have him completely ready for a world title challenge when that opportunity comes. He's being moved at precisely the proper pace. This isn't my first rodeo.”
SAN FRANCISCO--No less a sagacious, perspicacious boxing oracle than 83 years young Don “War A Week” Chargin finds it ironic that Mexican ringmaster Juan Manuel Marquez is exiting, stage left, from Golden Boy Promotions to insure that he does nail down a historic third fight against Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao.
Chargin, the wily, six decades promoter who works out of his seacoast home in Cambria, said it was his friends at Golden Boy who demanded big money for a third fight with Pacman for the slick counterpuncher who has given Pacquiao so many in ring problems.
“Bob Arum just laughed at Golden Boy when they rightly demanded financial fairness for Marquez against Pacman and now it looks like Marquez is going off the reservation to Top Rank to make sure he gets the third match against Manny. Marquez handles his own business but I doubt he can be very demanding with Arum,” Chargin said Saturday morning after his Pinoy prospect Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta went through tired, old Genaro Trazancos like the proverbial hot knife through butter.
Gesta, lightweight southpaw slugger from Cebu, improved to 21-0-1, 11 knockouts in beating the faded Mexican journeyman for the second time in as many years. The doctor halted the bout, before a lively throng of 1,200 fans at historic Longshoremen's Hall on a miserably rainy night, after three rounds.
Still, despite his misgivings about Juan Ma turning his back on the Golden Lads named de la Hoya and Schaefer, veteran Chargin concedes Marquez-Pacquiao III is both commercially viable and will be a competitive match just like their first two brawls.
“Yes, that is certainly an easy fight to sell to the public, there is an appetite there to see Manny and Marquez do it again, I get that.
“Both of their fights were good fights with an element of controversy to each,” Chargin said. “Juan Ma will always be competitive and difficult for Manny because of his style. It's just in how they match up.”
Chargin's comments are timely given Arum's recent proclamation that if Pacquiao handles Sugar Shane Mosley on May 7, his November foe could well be Juan Ma if Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still not eager or otherwise available.
As far as Work In Progress Gesta, Chargin will upgrade the opposition and keep the lefthanded former Muay Thai boxer active but he does not plan to abruptly jump him from high school to graduate school.
“All in good time for Mercito,” Chargin said. “The kid is 23, not age 33, so there is no extreme rush here. You will see tougher guys fighting him as we move along. But the goal is to have him completely ready for a world title challenge when that opportunity comes. He's being moved at precisely the proper pace. This isn't my first rodeo.”
Arum wants to match Mike Jones against Berto, but will have to settle for less
By Dan Ambrose: Bob Arum is frustrated after watching his unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones (24-0, 18 KO’s) defeat Jesus Soto-Karass (24-6-3, 18 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jones dominated Soto-Karass, cutting him up and winning by the scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111.
Arum feels that Jones should now be getting a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto instead of having to wait longer to face him. It’s interesting that Arum is aiming Jones for Berto instead of his own fighter Manny Pacquiao, who holds the WBO welterweight belt. By doing this, Arum is potentially limiting his future opponents for Pacquiao should Jones beat Berto.
It doesn’t sound like a smart move on Arum’s part unless he has no plans on ever putting Pacquiao in with the dangerous Berto. Arum might also think that Berto will beat Jones in an exciting fight, and that will make a fight between Pacquiao and Berto a bigger option in the future. I tend to believe that Arum has no plans on ever putting Pacquiao in with the speedy and dangerous Berto, and doesn’t mind if Jones faces him. It probably doesn’t matter because Jones looks far too slow and robotic to beat a fast puncher like Berto.
I’m no fan of Berto, but he looks a level above Jones, judging how he looked in beating Soto-Karass last night. Arum needs to cool out for a while about trying to put Jones with Berto, and instead try at least to get him in with IBF title holder Jan Zaveck or Vyacheslav Senchenko, the WBA welterweight champion. Those guys aren’t popular fighters, but at least those would be good stay busy fights and Jones could pick up a paper title while he waits for Berto to face light welterweight Victor Ortiz in April.
By Dan Ambrose: Bob Arum is frustrated after watching his unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones (24-0, 18 KO’s) defeat Jesus Soto-Karass (24-6-3, 18 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jones dominated Soto-Karass, cutting him up and winning by the scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111.
Arum feels that Jones should now be getting a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto instead of having to wait longer to face him. It’s interesting that Arum is aiming Jones for Berto instead of his own fighter Manny Pacquiao, who holds the WBO welterweight belt. By doing this, Arum is potentially limiting his future opponents for Pacquiao should Jones beat Berto.
It doesn’t sound like a smart move on Arum’s part unless he has no plans on ever putting Pacquiao in with the dangerous Berto. Arum might also think that Berto will beat Jones in an exciting fight, and that will make a fight between Pacquiao and Berto a bigger option in the future. I tend to believe that Arum has no plans on ever putting Pacquiao in with the speedy and dangerous Berto, and doesn’t mind if Jones faces him. It probably doesn’t matter because Jones looks far too slow and robotic to beat a fast puncher like Berto.
I’m no fan of Berto, but he looks a level above Jones, judging how he looked in beating Soto-Karass last night. Arum needs to cool out for a while about trying to put Jones with Berto, and instead try at least to get him in with IBF title holder Jan Zaveck or Vyacheslav Senchenko, the WBA welterweight champion. Those guys aren’t popular fighters, but at least those would be good stay busy fights and Jones could pick up a paper title while he waits for Berto to face light welterweight Victor Ortiz in April.
Arum gushing about Donaire, thinks he can win titles at 122 up to 130
By Chris Williams: Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum was all grins after his fighter Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) stopped WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel in a 2nd round last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Arum, who also promotes Manny Pacquiao, sees great things in Donaire after doing little with him for the past three years after his win over Vic Darchinyan.
Sadly, this was Donaire’s first big fight since 2007, and it’s incredible that he had to wait this long to finally get put in with someone that boxing fans actually care about. Donaire did his part, stretching Montiel with a hard left hook to the head in the 2nd. Montiel got up but was stopped immediately after getting hit with two more shots from Donaire.
Arum, ecstatic about possibly having another Manny Pacquiao-type fighter in the making, said this in an article by Nick Giongco at the Manila Bulletin: “He can win the 122 (super-bantamweight) title, go up to 126 lbs (featherweight) and 130 (super-featherweight).”
Arum might be right about that, but he may have to pick and choose the weaker champions at featherweight to get Donaire to win a title at featherweight because there are some quality fighters at that weight. Donaire can probably win a title against one of the weaker champions in the featherweight and super featherweight divisions if Arum carefully matches Donaire the same way that he’s matched Pacquiao against some of the guys he’s faced for titles. Who knows? We may see the ugly catch weight rear its ugly head if Donaire starts to get more popular. He may be able to use his popularity to get one of the featherweights or super featherweights to meet him at a nice catch weight so there’s a weight handicap for him. In that respect, I can see Donaire then taking after Pacquiao and becoming a smaller version of him.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum was all grins after his fighter Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) stopped WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel in a 2nd round last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Arum, who also promotes Manny Pacquiao, sees great things in Donaire after doing little with him for the past three years after his win over Vic Darchinyan.
Sadly, this was Donaire’s first big fight since 2007, and it’s incredible that he had to wait this long to finally get put in with someone that boxing fans actually care about. Donaire did his part, stretching Montiel with a hard left hook to the head in the 2nd. Montiel got up but was stopped immediately after getting hit with two more shots from Donaire.
Arum, ecstatic about possibly having another Manny Pacquiao-type fighter in the making, said this in an article by Nick Giongco at the Manila Bulletin: “He can win the 122 (super-bantamweight) title, go up to 126 lbs (featherweight) and 130 (super-featherweight).”
Arum might be right about that, but he may have to pick and choose the weaker champions at featherweight to get Donaire to win a title at featherweight because there are some quality fighters at that weight. Donaire can probably win a title against one of the weaker champions in the featherweight and super featherweight divisions if Arum carefully matches Donaire the same way that he’s matched Pacquiao against some of the guys he’s faced for titles. Who knows? We may see the ugly catch weight rear its ugly head if Donaire starts to get more popular. He may be able to use his popularity to get one of the featherweights or super featherweights to meet him at a nice catch weight so there’s a weight handicap for him. In that respect, I can see Donaire then taking after Pacquiao and becoming a smaller version of him.
Witter beaten by Lupo: Is Junior’s career over?
By Sean McDaniel: Former WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-4-2, 22 KO’s) may be on the brink of retirement after losing a 10 round unanimous decision to Romanian Victor Lupo (19-1-2, 9 Ko’s) on Saturday night at the Hershey Centre, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Witter just couldn’t get things going in the fight and faded badly late when he ran out of gas and began to take a lot of head shots from Lupos. The final judges’ scores were 97-92, 96-94 and 95-95. Witter lost a point for holding after he ran out of gas.
Granted, this was Witter’s first fight since being stopped by Devon Alexander in August 2009, but Witter looked poor even in the early rounds of the fight. Witter is now fighting at welterweight and he doesn’t seem nearly as effective at this weight compared to when he was fighting as a light welterweight.
Witter says he can’t make light welterweight anymore without great struggle, so he doesn’t have a lot of choices. It’s difficult seeing Witter making any kind of impact at welterweight and he doesn’t have the ability to get back down in weight to light welterweight.
I don’t see much choice in the matter for Witter but to retire unless he’s okay with struggling and losing to fighters like Lupo. They get a lot better than this guy. If Witter can’t beat Lupo, then he’s going to be losing more and more in the future. As long as Witter is okay with that.
By Sean McDaniel: Former WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-4-2, 22 KO’s) may be on the brink of retirement after losing a 10 round unanimous decision to Romanian Victor Lupo (19-1-2, 9 Ko’s) on Saturday night at the Hershey Centre, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Witter just couldn’t get things going in the fight and faded badly late when he ran out of gas and began to take a lot of head shots from Lupos. The final judges’ scores were 97-92, 96-94 and 95-95. Witter lost a point for holding after he ran out of gas.
Granted, this was Witter’s first fight since being stopped by Devon Alexander in August 2009, but Witter looked poor even in the early rounds of the fight. Witter is now fighting at welterweight and he doesn’t seem nearly as effective at this weight compared to when he was fighting as a light welterweight.
Witter says he can’t make light welterweight anymore without great struggle, so he doesn’t have a lot of choices. It’s difficult seeing Witter making any kind of impact at welterweight and he doesn’t have the ability to get back down in weight to light welterweight.
I don’t see much choice in the matter for Witter but to retire unless he’s okay with struggling and losing to fighters like Lupo. They get a lot better than this guy. If Witter can’t beat Lupo, then he’s going to be losing more and more in the future. As long as Witter is okay with that.
Donaire says the left hand he hit Montiel with was the hardest punch he ever threw
By Jason Kim: Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) blasted out WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 KO’s) in a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. While the 31-year-old Montiel was stopped on his feet by referee Russell Mora at 2:25 of the 2nd round, it was the knockdown that Donaire landed in the 2nd round that has boxing fans talking and wondering how Montiel was able to get back to his feet after such a huge blow.
Donaire landed a perfectly timed left hook to the head of Montiel moments after he had landed a right hand of his own. Montiel’s punch was much harder and left Montiel on his back with his legs in a brief spasm.
After the fight, Donaire had this to say about the punch that he hit Montiel with, according to fightnews.com: “I was so surprised he got up. I put everything behind that punch. It was the hardest one I ever threw on my life.”
Whether that’s true or not matters little. What matters is that the punch was hard enough to put Montiel down and it finished him. Montiel did get up, but he was out on his feet when the action resumed. All Donaire had to do was move forward and tap Montiel two times with a combination and then referee Mora stopped the bout. It was lucky for Montiel that Donaire didn’t connect cleanly with either of those last two shots because Montiel would have been flattened again if Donaire had landed cleanly.
With this win, it’s unclear whether Donaire will stay at bantamweight or whether he’ll move up in weight to try and take on the winner of the clash between WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jorge Arce. That’s about the only interesting fight for Donaire at super bantamweight. Donaire needs to take that fight and quickly move up to featherweight to go after Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Those two would be very tough opponents for Donaire because they can both
By Jason Kim: Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) blasted out WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 KO’s) in a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. While the 31-year-old Montiel was stopped on his feet by referee Russell Mora at 2:25 of the 2nd round, it was the knockdown that Donaire landed in the 2nd round that has boxing fans talking and wondering how Montiel was able to get back to his feet after such a huge blow.
Donaire landed a perfectly timed left hook to the head of Montiel moments after he had landed a right hand of his own. Montiel’s punch was much harder and left Montiel on his back with his legs in a brief spasm.
After the fight, Donaire had this to say about the punch that he hit Montiel with, according to fightnews.com: “I was so surprised he got up. I put everything behind that punch. It was the hardest one I ever threw on my life.”
Whether that’s true or not matters little. What matters is that the punch was hard enough to put Montiel down and it finished him. Montiel did get up, but he was out on his feet when the action resumed. All Donaire had to do was move forward and tap Montiel two times with a combination and then referee Mora stopped the bout. It was lucky for Montiel that Donaire didn’t connect cleanly with either of those last two shots because Montiel would have been flattened again if Donaire had landed cleanly.
With this win, it’s unclear whether Donaire will stay at bantamweight or whether he’ll move up in weight to try and take on the winner of the clash between WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jorge Arce. That’s about the only interesting fight for Donaire at super bantamweight. Donaire needs to take that fight and quickly move up to featherweight to go after Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Those two would be very tough opponents for Donaire because they can both
Bradley tells Khan to stop running
By William Mackay: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) gave a glimpse of his next fight when being interviewed by HBO last Saturday night at the Nonito Donaire vs. Fernando Montiel fight at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, saying that he’ll be fighting WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) on July 23rd in Las Vegas, Nevada. Where things got kind of weird is when Bradley “Hopefully I get Khan in the ring with me, so Khan stop running, Man. It’s time to get it on. Stop running Amir Khan.”
I’m no fan of Khan, but I don’t think for a second he’s running from Bradley. Khan is merely taking a tune-up fight on April 16th against little known, weak-punching, slow-handed Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s). I don’t see this as Khan running at all. I think Khan is just looking to get an easy payday so that he can milk his WBA belt with an easy win because he almost got knocked out in his last fight against Marcos Maidana.
Khan could have fought Breidis Prescott to try and avenge his defeat, but instead chose to fight McCloskey, a fighter that few boxing fans know of outside of the UK, and fewer still wanted to see Khan fight this guy. Khan obviously is looking to avoid facing another big puncher, and that’s why this guy was chosen. They wanted to face a contender in the light welterweight, but most of the contenders can punch a little. McCloskey can’t and the best part of all, the WBA has given him an inflated #5 ranking despite the fact that he’s never faced anymore in the top 15.
By William Mackay: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (27-0, 11 KO’s) gave a glimpse of his next fight when being interviewed by HBO last Saturday night at the Nonito Donaire vs. Fernando Montiel fight at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, saying that he’ll be fighting WBA Super World light welterweight champion Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KO’s) on July 23rd in Las Vegas, Nevada. Where things got kind of weird is when Bradley “Hopefully I get Khan in the ring with me, so Khan stop running, Man. It’s time to get it on. Stop running Amir Khan.”
I’m no fan of Khan, but I don’t think for a second he’s running from Bradley. Khan is merely taking a tune-up fight on April 16th against little known, weak-punching, slow-handed Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KO’s). I don’t see this as Khan running at all. I think Khan is just looking to get an easy payday so that he can milk his WBA belt with an easy win because he almost got knocked out in his last fight against Marcos Maidana.
Khan could have fought Breidis Prescott to try and avenge his defeat, but instead chose to fight McCloskey, a fighter that few boxing fans know of outside of the UK, and fewer still wanted to see Khan fight this guy. Khan obviously is looking to avoid facing another big puncher, and that’s why this guy was chosen. They wanted to face a contender in the light welterweight, but most of the contenders can punch a little. McCloskey can’t and the best part of all, the WBA has given him an inflated #5 ranking despite the fact that he’s never faced anymore in the top 15.
Donaire to stay at bantamweight for one more fight, likely face Mares-Agbeko winner
By Dan Ambrose: Newly crowned WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) will be sticking around the bantamweight division for at least one more fight to take on the winner of the Joseph Agebeko vs. Abner Mares bout. For Donaire, this would be a unification bout, as Agbeko currently holds down the IBF bantamweight title and if Donaire can beat the winner of that fight, he would have three of the four bantamweight titles.
That will likely be the last fight for Donaire at bantamweight because it’s not worth it to go after WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno because he isn’t as well known nor as respected as Mares and Agbeko are. Beating one of those guys will get Donaire much more respect that beating a guy like Moreno, who is a virtual unknown among casual boxing fans in the U.S. The Ageko vs. Mares fight takes place on April 23rd.
Donaire and his promoter Bob Arum will give it a shot to try and take on the winner of that fight. If it doesn’t happen, then there won’t be any point in Donaire sticking around any longer at bantamweight because the division is completely devoid of stars. Fernando Montiel was really the only guy, and Donaire stopped him in the 2nd round last Saturday night. At super bantamweight, the division is just as barren of stars.
There’s WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., and that’s about it. He’s not a star in the U.S, so it’s questionable whether this fight is even worth pursuing. IBF champion Steve Molitor is popular in Canada but he already got exposed by Cellestino Caballero in the past. It wouldn’t be interesting to see Donaire fighting a guy that lost so easily to Caballero. Guillermo Rigondeaux, the former Cuban Olympic Gold Medalist, would be a great fight but he doesn’t hold down a title. Arum likes to put his fighters in against champions and can’t see him wasting time putting Donaire in against a non-champion like Rigondeaux, even though he’s probably the best fighter in the division by far.
By Dan Ambrose: Newly crowned WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) will be sticking around the bantamweight division for at least one more fight to take on the winner of the Joseph Agebeko vs. Abner Mares bout. For Donaire, this would be a unification bout, as Agbeko currently holds down the IBF bantamweight title and if Donaire can beat the winner of that fight, he would have three of the four bantamweight titles.
That will likely be the last fight for Donaire at bantamweight because it’s not worth it to go after WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno because he isn’t as well known nor as respected as Mares and Agbeko are. Beating one of those guys will get Donaire much more respect that beating a guy like Moreno, who is a virtual unknown among casual boxing fans in the U.S. The Ageko vs. Mares fight takes place on April 23rd.
Donaire and his promoter Bob Arum will give it a shot to try and take on the winner of that fight. If it doesn’t happen, then there won’t be any point in Donaire sticking around any longer at bantamweight because the division is completely devoid of stars. Fernando Montiel was really the only guy, and Donaire stopped him in the 2nd round last Saturday night. At super bantamweight, the division is just as barren of stars.
There’s WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., and that’s about it. He’s not a star in the U.S, so it’s questionable whether this fight is even worth pursuing. IBF champion Steve Molitor is popular in Canada but he already got exposed by Cellestino Caballero in the past. It wouldn’t be interesting to see Donaire fighting a guy that lost so easily to Caballero. Guillermo Rigondeaux, the former Cuban Olympic Gold Medalist, would be a great fight but he doesn’t hold down a title. Arum likes to put his fighters in against champions and can’t see him wasting time putting Donaire in against a non-champion like Rigondeaux, even though he’s probably the best fighter in the division by far.
Roy Jones Jr. Pairs Donaire With Mayweather, Pacquiao
By Lem Satterfield
Last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) captured the WBO and WBC bantamweight titles with a stunning two round knockout of Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 knockouts). It was the Filipino fighter's 25th straight victory and 10th knockout in his past 12 fights at the Mandalay Bay in an HBO-televised thriller.
Former four division champion Roy Jones Jr., who was serving as an HBO analyst for the fight, was very impressed. Not since six-time champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KOs) and eight-division, WBO welterweight (147 pounds) Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs), had Jones witnessed such beautiful skill and ferocity, all at once.
"Nobody else comes close to Pacquiao, Mayweather and Donaire. Mayweather would be No. 1 if he was active. Pacquiao is up there now," said Jones. "And then there's this kid. All three of them are pound-for-pound. It ain't about a popularity contest. It's about who does the job. This kid do the job. I see this kid doing some special things that not many fighters can do
By Lem Satterfield
Last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) captured the WBO and WBC bantamweight titles with a stunning two round knockout of Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 knockouts). It was the Filipino fighter's 25th straight victory and 10th knockout in his past 12 fights at the Mandalay Bay in an HBO-televised thriller.
Former four division champion Roy Jones Jr., who was serving as an HBO analyst for the fight, was very impressed. Not since six-time champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KOs) and eight-division, WBO welterweight (147 pounds) Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs), had Jones witnessed such beautiful skill and ferocity, all at once.
"Nobody else comes close to Pacquiao, Mayweather and Donaire. Mayweather would be No. 1 if he was active. Pacquiao is up there now," said Jones. "And then there's this kid. All three of them are pound-for-pound. It ain't about a popularity contest. It's about who does the job. This kid do the job. I see this kid doing some special things that not many fighters can do
Montiel Suffers a Fractured Jaw, Eyes Super Bantamweight
By Alfredo Jaime Gómez, notifight.com
Los Mochis, to undergo thorough medical examination.After his loss, he was taken to the hospital where the injury was diagnosed. Montiel returned to his hometown of Los Mochis to undergo a thorough medical examination.
A former flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight champion, Montiel is now looking to move up in weight unless he's able to secure a rematch with Donaire. Montiel appears to be taking the loss well and plans to return to the ring as soon as possible.
"This is boxing, sometimes you win or lose. A loss will not end my career. I was careless and lost," said Montiel
By Alfredo Jaime Gómez, notifight.com
Los Mochis, to undergo thorough medical examination.After his loss, he was taken to the hospital where the injury was diagnosed. Montiel returned to his hometown of Los Mochis to undergo a thorough medical examination.
A former flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight champion, Montiel is now looking to move up in weight unless he's able to secure a rematch with Donaire. Montiel appears to be taking the loss well and plans to return to the ring as soon as possible.
"This is boxing, sometimes you win or lose. A loss will not end my career. I was careless and lost," said Montiel
What HBO Should Do Now – Part One
By Thomas Hauser
Eight years ago, I wrote an article entitled What’s Going on at HBO? In part, that article read, “Boxing at HBO is at a crossroads. There's an axiom in the sweet science that, if a fighter isn't getting better, he's getting worse. And the same might be said of those who televise fights. To a degree, HBO is living off the good will that attaches to the HBO brand. And because HBO sets the standard, if it gets sloppy it will allow everyone else's standards to drop.”
Four years after that, in 2007, I wrote, “This is a watershed moment for HBO Sports. And it comes at a time when HBO can no longer take its favored position with boxing fans for granted. Until recently, there was a presumption that, if a fight was on HBO, it was worth watching. That's no longer always the case. The powers that be at HBO have to sit down with a blank piece of paper and ask themselves, "What do we want HBO Sports to look like five years from now?” And when they do, they should examine the underlying philosophy that drives their boxing program.”
Since then, I’ve remained an admirer and also a critic of HBO Sports. Among the points I’ve made are:
(1) HBO Sports should televise better fights.
(2) Rather than pre-select “stars,” HBO Sports should let stars emerge from exciting competitive match-ups.
(3) HBO Sports has been bidding against itself and overpaying for fights.
(4) HBO Sports should stop tilting the playing field in favor of certain promoters and managers. In recent years, that tilt has been toward Golden Boy and Al Haymon.
(5) HBO Sports should reserve the HBO-PPV label for special events and give pay-per-view buyers better undercard fights.
(6) The HBO Sports announcing teams (which are crucial to branding its boxing program) should be revamped.
(7) HBO Sports needs to eliminate the arrogant condescending attitude that several of its key executives manifest toward the boxing community.
(8) The decision-makers at HBO Sports have to immerse themselves in the boxing community and become better informed with regard to boxing matters.
These things didn’t happen. As a result, HBO Sports let its subscribers, Time Warner’s shareholders, and boxing down.
Recent events have been extremely discouraging to the many people who have worked so hard over the years to build HBO Sports. The announcement that Manny Pacquiao is leaving the network to fight Shane Mosley on Showtime Pay-Per-View has led to serious soul-searching at the highest levels of HBO. But Pacquiao-Mosley is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a growing understanding, as evidenced by years of declining ratings, that the problems at HBO Sports go far beyond one fight.
The key players at HBO Sports are Ross Greenburg (president), Kery Davis (senior vice president for sports programming), Mark Taffet (senior vice president for sports operations and pay-per-view), and Rick Bernstein (senior vice president / executive producer).
Their future and the future of HBO Sports will be determined by three men.
Bill Nelson is HBO’s chairman and CEO. Richard Plepler is HBO’s co-president. Michael Lombardo is president of HBO programming.
Greenburg reports to Lombardo. Above that, the chain of command runs through Plepler to Nelson. Sources say that Ross did not inform Nelson, Plepler, or Lombardo that HBO was in danger of losing Manny Pacquiao until it was too late for HBO to marshall its resources and make a proposal that would be competitive with Showtime and CBS.
Other sources say that Nelson, Plepler, and Lombardo have decided that HBO will remain involved with boxing on a longterm basis and that they are committed to restoring excellence to HBO’s boxing brand.
In furtherance of that goal, Plepler and Lombardo have embarked upon a fact-finding mission. When it’s complete, Plepler (with significant input from Lombardo and subject to Nelson’s approval) will decide who is best qualified to run HBO Sports in the future. All other HBO Sports personnel decisions will flow from that choice.
No final decision has been made yet with regard to Greenburg’s future. But a number of leaders in the boxing community have said privately that, if Plepler and Lombardo ask for their opinion, they will tell them that both Greenburg and Davis are better suited for positions other than the ones they currently hold.
“The handwriting is on the wall,” says one person with knowledge of the situation. “It’s more than handwriting; it’s graffiti. Ross and Kery are on a very small island and the water is rising. I’d be very surprised if either one of them is with HBO Sports six months from now.”
Commenting on another person’s job performance is a serious matter. But it’s a responsibility that resides with the media at appropriate times. Time Magazine and CNN (which, like HBO, are components of the Time Warner empire) critique the performance of government officials and corporate executives on a regular basis. HBO Sports grades the performance of fighters and others in the boxing industry all the time; often harshly.
Certainly, a journalist has the right to critique the leaders of HBO Sports.
For far too long, the people running HBO Sports have been like trust fund babies with a constant flow of budget money from above who aren’t in touch with the financial realities of the boxing industry. There has been a collective failure to identify, acknowledge, and take responsibility for problems. As one industry veteran notes, “They’re like guys at a very exclusive country club. They sit around enjoying the good life, telling each other what a wonderful job they’re doing, and nothing that goes wrong is their fault.”
When Roger Goodell was interviewing for the job of commissioner of the National Football League, he gave the owners this piece of advice: “Change before you’re forced to change.”
The leaders of HBO Sports have been slow to change. Indeed, because HBO Sports was so successful during the last two decades of the twentieth century, they’ve resisted change in the new millennium. And they’ve seemed oblivious to the decline of HBO’s boxing franchise. The problem isn’t that HBO lost Pacquiao-Mosley. The problem is everything that led to the loss of Pacquiao-Mosley.
Ross Greenburg took over the helm of HBO Sports ten years ago. During his tenure, HBO has turned a deaf ear to large segments of the boxing community. In July 2008, when Bob Arum was raising some of the same issues he has raised during the past year, HBO issued a statement that read, “We've grown weary of Bob Arum’s tirades against HBO Sports. They are foolish, unproductive and marginal in accuracy.”
In recent weeks, Arum has been cast as Moses leading boxing out of bondage into the promised land with Greenburg playing the role of Pharoah. It’s not that simple. Arum is far from perfect and Greenburg has redeeming qualities. But Arum is able to see beyond his own personal preferences, and Greenburg seems to have difficulty doing that.
“Ross personalizes everything,” says a former HBO employee. “He doesn’t understand that what appeals to him doesn’t necessarily appeal to HBO’s subscriber base. Ross likes baseball, so he thinks that everybody likes baseball and he won’t run boxing against the baseball playoffs. There are run-of-the-mill college football games that do better ratings than the baseball playoffs.”
Also, there are times when Greenburg allows his personal feelings to override sound business judgment.
“Ross has stopped speaking to me altogether,” Arum said in 2008. “He won’t take telephone calls from me anymore because he’s mad that I’ve criticized him. I’ve called him five or six times in the past few weeks, and he won’t return my calls. That’s not how a responsible television executive behaves. It’s worse than unprofessional. It’s fucking moronic. I’m supplying Manny Pacquiao, Kelly Pavlik, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito. None of them are tied to HBO, which means they can bolt at any time. Ross might despise me. But doesn’t he have an obligation as the head of HBO Sports to talk with me? Don King and I were mortal enemies at times, but we always talked. [Former HBO Sports president] Seth Abraham was pissed off at me more times than I can count, but we always talked. Even when Seth and I were fighting, he’d pick up the phone and call to say ‘congratulations’ after a great fight.”
“Ross made it personal with Bob,” says someone who knows both men well. “His approach was, ‘Hey; let’s dump all over the promoter who has the best, most marketable fighter in boxing because he has nowhere else to go.’ That’s not a very good strategy.”
“You can like Bob Arum or not like Bob Arum,” says another industry insider. “But Bob has one of the longest-running relationships that exists between a supplier and HBO. Not just HBO Sports; all of HBO. Bob has supplied HBO with more fights than any other promoter. If you add up the revenue from pay-per-fights-over the years, HBO has made more money with Bob than with any other promoter. And look what Ross has done to that relationship.”
Greenburg’s first response to the loss of Manny Pacquiao should have been to sit back and reflect on the question, “What did we do wrong?” But people who’ve worked closely with him say that he has difficulty admitting to having made a mistake. Being stubborn in the face of a contrary reality is rarely a virtue. The Bourbon Kings (who were known for their stubbornness) ruled France from the late-sixteenth century until the French Revolution. Talleyrand said of them, “They have learned nothing, and they have forgotten nothing.”
For the past decade, like its Emmy-award-winning Sports of the 20th Century series , HBO Sports has often seemed to be rooted in the past.
More significantly, Greenburg and the business of boxing are a poor fit.
Lou DiBella (who was the point person for HBO’s boxing program during the glory years) observes, “Other networks have been heavily into boxing in the past, and other networks will be heavily into boxing in the future. But their sports departments haven’t been built on boxing. Boxing is the core of HBO Sports. Not documentaries; not Real Sports. Boxing.”
Eight years ago, I wrote, “Seth Abraham was a forceful advocate for boxing within Time Warner. Greenburg is a great producer. But Greenburg doesn't know the sport of boxing, the business of boxing, or the players in boxing the way Abraham did. Nor is he expected to be as strong an internal advocate for the sweet science. Boxing might well be just another sport to him; something to be thrown into the mix.”
“You need a boxing guy to run boxing at HBO,” Bob Arum said in 2008. “Not a bunch of TV guys who think they know boxing. The biggest problem with Ross, far worse than his personal animosity toward me and one or two other promoters, is his lack of knowledge and lack of interest in boxing. Ross was a good producer, but that doesn’t qualify him to be the head of a major department at a major premium network. I’m sorry to say it, but Ross is ill-equipped for the job and he’s certainly ill-equipped to run HBO’s boxing program. If someone has no understanding of boxing and no love for the sport, he gets hooked on names he’s heard of, even if those names belong to fighters who are way past their prime or could never fight to begin with. That’s why you see so many horrible fights and so many of the same tired old faces on HBO. Make up a quiz about boxing and give it to all the executives who’ve been involved in buying fights for the television networks over the past ten years. I guarantee you; Ross would come in last.”
Years ago, Seth Abraham reflected on the first professional fight he ever saw. At the time, he was a young man working as a special assistant to Bowie Kuhn (then the commissioner of Major League Baseball).
“There was nothing remarkable about the fight, but I found it thrilling,” Abraham recalled. “I'd seen countless fights before on television. But sitting at this one, I was struck by the realization that every other sport has some type of time frame; either a clock or a given number of innings or whatever. And a fight can end at any moment. I suppose that's obvious, but it was an epiphany for me and the excitement of that night stayed with me. A year later, I went to HBO, believing that boxing had all the elements of great drama and great television.”
But that drama often seems lost on Greenburg, who has made delay telecasts an integral part of his programming philosophy. Here, Arum observes, “The whole idea that it doesn’t matter if people watch a fight live because we’re showing it on tape and we count the cumulative total from all of the telecasts and re-telecasts is nuts. The whole point of watching a fight is that you can’t take a break like you do if you’re watching the first quarter of a football game. Because if you do, when you come back, the fight might be over. To watch a fight when you already know the result takes most of the excitement and drama out of it. Can you imagine someone saying, ‘I’m not watching the Super Bowl live. I’ll watch it on tape a week later.’ You can’t have a major sport like that.”
Greenburg’s critics also point to numerous missteps which were avoidable.
For example, in 2008, I wrote, “HBO is on the verge of signing a longterm output deal with Golden Boy. The proposed deal is, by definition, for fights and fighters unknown. It would undercut HBO’s leverage in future negotiations with Golden Boy because the promoter would already have certain dates, which in and of itself is a major negotiating point.”
In the same article, Seth Abraham was quoted as follows: “It’s hard to believe that HBO would commit to buying a specified number of fights from Golden Boy for a specified number of dollars over a [longterm] period. Teddy Brenner once said, ‘Fights make fights.’ How could you know what fights and fighters you’re buying?”
Greenburg finalized the output deal with Golden Boy. It’s now widely acknowledged (even within HBO) that it was a huge mistake.
Prior to that, in 2006, Greenburg vetoed a deal that would have had HBO, in effect, partnering with Versus and using the cable network (which is part of the Comcast empire) as a development ground for HBO fighters. An opportunity for synergy with a network that’s seen in tens of millions of homes was lost.
In 2009, Ross nixed a proposal that HBO bring boxing’s leading promoters together for a “summit” to discuss the sport’s problems.
And over the years, Greenburg has evinced a sense of entitlement that has soured a number of people in the boxing and entertainment industries.
A case in point –
Last year, Jim Lampley proposed that HBO work with his production company on an unscripted documentary-reality series about trainer Freddie Roach. Greenburg turned the project down. The following recitation of what happened thereafter has been pieced together from multiple sources.
Ted Chervin is the head of worldwide television at ICM (one of the largest and most influential talent agencies in the world). He’s also Lampley’s agent. Chervin was instrumental in eliciting an offer for the Freddie Roach project from AMC. In May 2010, Greenburg was given one last chance to pick up the project and declined. Thereafter, the deal with AMC was finalized.
In October 2010, Manny Pacquiao arrived at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles to begin training with Roach for his November 13th fight against Antonio Margarito. HBO’s 24/7 production team was there. At that point, HBO executive producer Rick Bernstein called Nick Khan (who works for Chervin and is Roach’s agent) and told him, “Our camera crew says there’s an AMC crew there. They have to leave.”
Khan said that the AMC crew had every right to be there.
Five minutes later, Greenburg called Khan, demanding, “How dare you do a show like this? You’re shutting that AMC project down now [expletives deleted].”
Khan told Chervin about the conversation, including the fact that Greenburg had referred to the two of them as “morons.”
Ted Chervin is a former assistant United States attorney, who made his name in legal circles by prosecuting organized crime figures (including members of Colombia’s Cali drug cartel). He didn’t like being called a moron.
Chervin instructed Khan to have the 24/7 crew thrown out of the gym.
Soon after, Arum and Top Rank president Todd DuBoef called Khan and told him, “This puts us in a difficult spot. We have a contract with 24/7. We’d take it as a personal favor if you let them back in the gym.”
Khan called Bernstein and said that, as a courtesy to Top Rank, the 24/7 crew would be allowed in the gym when Pacquiao was there. He also telephoned Greenburg and told him that, if Ross didn’t apologize to Chervin, Ted would complain about the incident to Richard Plepler.
Greenburg called Chervin, apologized, and asked, “Is it all square between us now?”
Maybe it is; maybe it isn’t.
Ross’s righthand man on boxing matters is Kery Davis. Like Greenburg, he declined to be interviewed for this article.
Davis had a hard act to follow. As I wrote in 2003, “Lou DiBella essentially ran HBO Boxing for Seth Abraham on a day-to-day basis. He was proactive when it came to the sport. He loved the fight world. He understood, cared about, and subordinated his life to boxing. He also operated in a very personal way with everyone from the media to the fighters themselves. DiBella constantly bounced ideas off people and solicited their advice. He fought to change HBO from a network that showcased its stars in mismatches in order to groom them for pay-per-view events to a network that put fighters in tough and stood by them when they lost as long as they lost with honor. He championed the lighter-weight fighters; a commitment that's paying dividends now in the form of Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales, and Marco Antonio Barrera. And he was up-front with his feelings about corruption in the sport. To a degree, his passion for cleaning up the sweet science inoculated HBO against some of boxing's broader scandals.”
DiBella had his flaws (as all of us do). “He ruffled feathers in-house,” I wrote. “There were times when he upstaged some of his compatriots and neutered others. Because boxing at HBO was enormously successful under his watch, the powers-that-be gave him wide latitude. But now that DiBella is gone, there appears to be a new attitude at HBO. Kery Davis is the new ‘boxing guy’ at HBO. Davis comes out of the music business and appears to lack DiBella's passion for and knowledge of the sport. Whenever there was a [pay-per-view] fight in Las Vegas on a Saturday, DiBella was likely to be in attendance at the ESPN2 card the night before. Kery is more likely to be enjoying a leisurely dinner. Davis may well grow into his role. But right now, he doesn't have the personal rapport with fighters, managers, and the media that DiBella enjoyed.”
“Part of Seth’s genius,” says a longtime HBO employee, “was that he let Lou be Lou. Part of Ross’s problem is that he lets Kery be Kery.”
Davis has voiced anger that I’ve questioned the practice of HBO Sports executives not staying at the host hotel for certain fights and, instead, staying at more luxurious accommodations away from the action. My own view is that corporate employees are entitled to travel in comfort. But when HBO Sports pays for one of its executives to be on-site for a fight, the purpose of the trip is not eat expensive dinners, play golf, and hang out at the best hotel in town with friends.
I might add that Time Magazine, CNN, and other Time Warner subsidiaries appropriately criticize the extravagant perks given to management at Wall Street brokerage houses and other corporate executives.
Also, Davis is enormously engaging and charming when he chooses to be. But a lot of people in the boxing industry feel that he acts disrespectfully toward them. A small example: there was a time when Kery was said to have a policy of not returning telephone calls from Internet writers because of their lowly position. If Dana White had adhered to that policy, UFC might not exist today.
More important, a promoter who does business regularly with HBO says, “A lot of us don’t feel that we can rely on what Kery tells us. Sometimes that’s because he’s telling the truth as he sees it and then Ross undermines him. And sometimes it’s because – let’s put it this way – Kery equivocates.”
But the heart of the matter is that, in recent years, HBO has televised too many mediocre fights. “Kery is in a job where he has to know boxing,” the same promoter notes. “And he doesn’t. He doesn’t know what will make for a good fight and he certainly doesn’t know which fighters have the potential to become stars. Kery knows music; he has passion for music; he respects music people. But he doesn’t get it when it comes to boxing. Kery should be in the music business, not in boxing.”
Bob Arum sounded a similar theme last year, when he opined, “Kery isn’t a boxing guy. To do that job, you have to love boxing and be part of boxing and get boxing. Kery has no feel for the sport. He would dispute that, but I’ve been in boxing for a long time and I know what I’m talking about.”
It’s time for a change in leadership at HBO Sports. That isn’t something I write lightly. As noted earlier, commenting on someone else’s job performance is serious commentary. I’m mindful that people’s livelihoods are at stake; just as they’re at stake every time that HBO Sports makes a decision regarding which fights to buy and how much to pay for them.
Ross Greenberg and Kery Davis make decisions every day that affect the trajectory of people’s careers.
Last year, HBO Sports dismissed Lennox Lewis as a commentator on Boxing After Dark. The decision wasn’t motivated by personal ill will. Rightly or wrongly, there was a judgment that Lennox wasn’t performing up to par. Very few jobs come with lifetime tenure.
“The solution is simple,” says one observer of the unfolding drama. “It's fixable, but not by the incumbents. HBO Sports reminds me of an overfunded incompetently-run sports franchise. Omar Minaya with the Mets and Isiah Thomas with the Knicks are examples of executives who were continually outmaneuvered by guys who had much smaller budgets but knew what they were doing. Just as in other sports, you hire a new general manager and a new coach and get to work.”
“If you’ve gone from being the unquestioned leader in boxing to a floundering giant, you’ve fucked up,” says a promoter who has done business regularly with HBO. “They’ve taken the premier franchise in boxing and turned it into an ordinary product. It’s like when the New York Yankees went from the greatest dynasty in baseball history to just another team. The Yankees came back, but it took new leadership.”
There are people who think that Ross Greenburg and Kery Davis have done a good job. Their opinions should be given the same careful consideration as those voiced above.
As for the other leaders of HBO Sports; Mark Taffet is respected in the boxing industry. He’s comfortable communing with the powers that be. And when HBO has a big pay-per-view fight, he spends as much time in the media center as many of the writers. He’s studying, exchanging ideas, and learning because he views it as part of his job.
“Taffet is a politician,” Bob Arum said two years ago. “But at least he’s a bright politician.”
Rick Bernstein’s tenure as executive producer has been more problematic.
The HBO Sports production team has many advantages, including the platform and money to do virtually anything it wants as it relates to boxing. It has better access to the athletes it covers than the producers of almost any other network sports department. It also has the services of some enormously talented people like director Marc Payton and creative young producers (who haven’t been given the opportunity to fully show what they can do). There is a technical support staff comprised of people who are as good, if not better than, any of their industry counterparts.
But in recent years, HBO Sports programming has lost its edge. It has become formulaic. It’s far less innovative and daring now than the documentaries produced by Sheila Nevins (president of HBO Documentary Films), not to mention such offerings as Boardwalk Empire. It has become tired and less appealing to young viewers, who will make up the next generation of premium-cable subscribers.
That’s also true of HBO’s boxing telecasts, which have gotten stale. Last year’s fights at Cowboys Stadium and Yankee Stadium saw some interesting innvovations; particularly with regard to lighting. But those were largely the work of the promoter.
Rick Bernstein’s defenders say that he hasn’t been allowed to deviate from certain templates that Ross Greenburg has set in stone. One assumes that Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo will explore the matter.
All of this prompts the question of, “Who will lead HBO Sports and its boxing program into the future if Ross Greenburg and Kery Davis are replaced?”
The role of HBO Sports president will be more complex in the future than in the past because HBO’s boxing program will face competition from multiple networks and alternative media platforms; not just Showtime.
The next president of HBO Sports has to appreciate the fact that boxing has been the anchor of HBO Sports for decades. If he intends to continue on that course, he must clearly communicate this fact, both internally and externally.
Because of boxing’s primacy, he should be grounded in boxing, not just sports, and understand the strength of the brand of boxing.
He must be a visionary leader with the ability to plan for the future.
Once the blueprint for the future is fashioned, he must have the ability and credibility to sell the new HBO Sports to the boxing community, hotel-casinos, other potential sites, sponsors, and the media.
He must understand that ratings (which are a measure of subscriber satisfaction) are more important than Emmys.
He must be a good administrator who knows how (and to whom) to delegate authority.
He must put his own personal comfort aside and get on a plane to close a deal when necessary.
He has to listen to people carefully enough to understand their point of view and accept the fact that his own personal preferences for programming might be different from those of HBO’s subscribers.
His conduct must be such that he restores morale and a sense of pride where it has been lost.
He must realize that he is not the star. He is occupying a position of power in a fiduciary role to benefit others; not just himself.
The new president of HBO Sports will be chosen before the point person on boxing is selected. A National Football League team doesn’t hire a new head coach and tell him who his offensive coordinator will be.
The number-two slot (HBO’s “boxing guy”) isn’t just a matchmaking job. The person who fills it needs a passion for boxing and an understanding of what makes an entertaining fight. It’s imperative that he (or she) have respect for fighters and all of the other “boxing people” he comes in contact with in the performance of his duties. He also has to be able to transition back and forth between the boxing world and the corporate environment of HBO and understand the profit-and-loss end of the business. He needs negotiating skills and an understanding of the legal environment that he’s operating within. People can like him or not like him, but they have to be able to trust his word. He can’t play favorites.
No one can learn the boxing business in six months or a year. It takes at least five years of close study. Even then, a person needs an aptitude for it. Given the current crisis at HBO, both positions have to be filled by people who can hit the ground running.
Ideally, HBO will have a new team in place and be ready to act decisively in the market place by May 8th (the day after Mosley-Pacquiao). Given the realities of today’s world and the detailed nature of the study that Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo are undertaking, that might not be possible.
By Thomas Hauser
Eight years ago, I wrote an article entitled What’s Going on at HBO? In part, that article read, “Boxing at HBO is at a crossroads. There's an axiom in the sweet science that, if a fighter isn't getting better, he's getting worse. And the same might be said of those who televise fights. To a degree, HBO is living off the good will that attaches to the HBO brand. And because HBO sets the standard, if it gets sloppy it will allow everyone else's standards to drop.”
Four years after that, in 2007, I wrote, “This is a watershed moment for HBO Sports. And it comes at a time when HBO can no longer take its favored position with boxing fans for granted. Until recently, there was a presumption that, if a fight was on HBO, it was worth watching. That's no longer always the case. The powers that be at HBO have to sit down with a blank piece of paper and ask themselves, "What do we want HBO Sports to look like five years from now?” And when they do, they should examine the underlying philosophy that drives their boxing program.”
Since then, I’ve remained an admirer and also a critic of HBO Sports. Among the points I’ve made are:
(1) HBO Sports should televise better fights.
(2) Rather than pre-select “stars,” HBO Sports should let stars emerge from exciting competitive match-ups.
(3) HBO Sports has been bidding against itself and overpaying for fights.
(4) HBO Sports should stop tilting the playing field in favor of certain promoters and managers. In recent years, that tilt has been toward Golden Boy and Al Haymon.
(5) HBO Sports should reserve the HBO-PPV label for special events and give pay-per-view buyers better undercard fights.
(6) The HBO Sports announcing teams (which are crucial to branding its boxing program) should be revamped.
(7) HBO Sports needs to eliminate the arrogant condescending attitude that several of its key executives manifest toward the boxing community.
(8) The decision-makers at HBO Sports have to immerse themselves in the boxing community and become better informed with regard to boxing matters.
These things didn’t happen. As a result, HBO Sports let its subscribers, Time Warner’s shareholders, and boxing down.
Recent events have been extremely discouraging to the many people who have worked so hard over the years to build HBO Sports. The announcement that Manny Pacquiao is leaving the network to fight Shane Mosley on Showtime Pay-Per-View has led to serious soul-searching at the highest levels of HBO. But Pacquiao-Mosley is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a growing understanding, as evidenced by years of declining ratings, that the problems at HBO Sports go far beyond one fight.
The key players at HBO Sports are Ross Greenburg (president), Kery Davis (senior vice president for sports programming), Mark Taffet (senior vice president for sports operations and pay-per-view), and Rick Bernstein (senior vice president / executive producer).
Their future and the future of HBO Sports will be determined by three men.
Bill Nelson is HBO’s chairman and CEO. Richard Plepler is HBO’s co-president. Michael Lombardo is president of HBO programming.
Greenburg reports to Lombardo. Above that, the chain of command runs through Plepler to Nelson. Sources say that Ross did not inform Nelson, Plepler, or Lombardo that HBO was in danger of losing Manny Pacquiao until it was too late for HBO to marshall its resources and make a proposal that would be competitive with Showtime and CBS.
Other sources say that Nelson, Plepler, and Lombardo have decided that HBO will remain involved with boxing on a longterm basis and that they are committed to restoring excellence to HBO’s boxing brand.
In furtherance of that goal, Plepler and Lombardo have embarked upon a fact-finding mission. When it’s complete, Plepler (with significant input from Lombardo and subject to Nelson’s approval) will decide who is best qualified to run HBO Sports in the future. All other HBO Sports personnel decisions will flow from that choice.
No final decision has been made yet with regard to Greenburg’s future. But a number of leaders in the boxing community have said privately that, if Plepler and Lombardo ask for their opinion, they will tell them that both Greenburg and Davis are better suited for positions other than the ones they currently hold.
“The handwriting is on the wall,” says one person with knowledge of the situation. “It’s more than handwriting; it’s graffiti. Ross and Kery are on a very small island and the water is rising. I’d be very surprised if either one of them is with HBO Sports six months from now.”
Commenting on another person’s job performance is a serious matter. But it’s a responsibility that resides with the media at appropriate times. Time Magazine and CNN (which, like HBO, are components of the Time Warner empire) critique the performance of government officials and corporate executives on a regular basis. HBO Sports grades the performance of fighters and others in the boxing industry all the time; often harshly.
Certainly, a journalist has the right to critique the leaders of HBO Sports.
For far too long, the people running HBO Sports have been like trust fund babies with a constant flow of budget money from above who aren’t in touch with the financial realities of the boxing industry. There has been a collective failure to identify, acknowledge, and take responsibility for problems. As one industry veteran notes, “They’re like guys at a very exclusive country club. They sit around enjoying the good life, telling each other what a wonderful job they’re doing, and nothing that goes wrong is their fault.”
When Roger Goodell was interviewing for the job of commissioner of the National Football League, he gave the owners this piece of advice: “Change before you’re forced to change.”
The leaders of HBO Sports have been slow to change. Indeed, because HBO Sports was so successful during the last two decades of the twentieth century, they’ve resisted change in the new millennium. And they’ve seemed oblivious to the decline of HBO’s boxing franchise. The problem isn’t that HBO lost Pacquiao-Mosley. The problem is everything that led to the loss of Pacquiao-Mosley.
Ross Greenburg took over the helm of HBO Sports ten years ago. During his tenure, HBO has turned a deaf ear to large segments of the boxing community. In July 2008, when Bob Arum was raising some of the same issues he has raised during the past year, HBO issued a statement that read, “We've grown weary of Bob Arum’s tirades against HBO Sports. They are foolish, unproductive and marginal in accuracy.”
In recent weeks, Arum has been cast as Moses leading boxing out of bondage into the promised land with Greenburg playing the role of Pharoah. It’s not that simple. Arum is far from perfect and Greenburg has redeeming qualities. But Arum is able to see beyond his own personal preferences, and Greenburg seems to have difficulty doing that.
“Ross personalizes everything,” says a former HBO employee. “He doesn’t understand that what appeals to him doesn’t necessarily appeal to HBO’s subscriber base. Ross likes baseball, so he thinks that everybody likes baseball and he won’t run boxing against the baseball playoffs. There are run-of-the-mill college football games that do better ratings than the baseball playoffs.”
Also, there are times when Greenburg allows his personal feelings to override sound business judgment.
“Ross has stopped speaking to me altogether,” Arum said in 2008. “He won’t take telephone calls from me anymore because he’s mad that I’ve criticized him. I’ve called him five or six times in the past few weeks, and he won’t return my calls. That’s not how a responsible television executive behaves. It’s worse than unprofessional. It’s fucking moronic. I’m supplying Manny Pacquiao, Kelly Pavlik, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito. None of them are tied to HBO, which means they can bolt at any time. Ross might despise me. But doesn’t he have an obligation as the head of HBO Sports to talk with me? Don King and I were mortal enemies at times, but we always talked. [Former HBO Sports president] Seth Abraham was pissed off at me more times than I can count, but we always talked. Even when Seth and I were fighting, he’d pick up the phone and call to say ‘congratulations’ after a great fight.”
“Ross made it personal with Bob,” says someone who knows both men well. “His approach was, ‘Hey; let’s dump all over the promoter who has the best, most marketable fighter in boxing because he has nowhere else to go.’ That’s not a very good strategy.”
“You can like Bob Arum or not like Bob Arum,” says another industry insider. “But Bob has one of the longest-running relationships that exists between a supplier and HBO. Not just HBO Sports; all of HBO. Bob has supplied HBO with more fights than any other promoter. If you add up the revenue from pay-per-fights-over the years, HBO has made more money with Bob than with any other promoter. And look what Ross has done to that relationship.”
Greenburg’s first response to the loss of Manny Pacquiao should have been to sit back and reflect on the question, “What did we do wrong?” But people who’ve worked closely with him say that he has difficulty admitting to having made a mistake. Being stubborn in the face of a contrary reality is rarely a virtue. The Bourbon Kings (who were known for their stubbornness) ruled France from the late-sixteenth century until the French Revolution. Talleyrand said of them, “They have learned nothing, and they have forgotten nothing.”
For the past decade, like its Emmy-award-winning Sports of the 20th Century series , HBO Sports has often seemed to be rooted in the past.
More significantly, Greenburg and the business of boxing are a poor fit.
Lou DiBella (who was the point person for HBO’s boxing program during the glory years) observes, “Other networks have been heavily into boxing in the past, and other networks will be heavily into boxing in the future. But their sports departments haven’t been built on boxing. Boxing is the core of HBO Sports. Not documentaries; not Real Sports. Boxing.”
Eight years ago, I wrote, “Seth Abraham was a forceful advocate for boxing within Time Warner. Greenburg is a great producer. But Greenburg doesn't know the sport of boxing, the business of boxing, or the players in boxing the way Abraham did. Nor is he expected to be as strong an internal advocate for the sweet science. Boxing might well be just another sport to him; something to be thrown into the mix.”
“You need a boxing guy to run boxing at HBO,” Bob Arum said in 2008. “Not a bunch of TV guys who think they know boxing. The biggest problem with Ross, far worse than his personal animosity toward me and one or two other promoters, is his lack of knowledge and lack of interest in boxing. Ross was a good producer, but that doesn’t qualify him to be the head of a major department at a major premium network. I’m sorry to say it, but Ross is ill-equipped for the job and he’s certainly ill-equipped to run HBO’s boxing program. If someone has no understanding of boxing and no love for the sport, he gets hooked on names he’s heard of, even if those names belong to fighters who are way past their prime or could never fight to begin with. That’s why you see so many horrible fights and so many of the same tired old faces on HBO. Make up a quiz about boxing and give it to all the executives who’ve been involved in buying fights for the television networks over the past ten years. I guarantee you; Ross would come in last.”
Years ago, Seth Abraham reflected on the first professional fight he ever saw. At the time, he was a young man working as a special assistant to Bowie Kuhn (then the commissioner of Major League Baseball).
“There was nothing remarkable about the fight, but I found it thrilling,” Abraham recalled. “I'd seen countless fights before on television. But sitting at this one, I was struck by the realization that every other sport has some type of time frame; either a clock or a given number of innings or whatever. And a fight can end at any moment. I suppose that's obvious, but it was an epiphany for me and the excitement of that night stayed with me. A year later, I went to HBO, believing that boxing had all the elements of great drama and great television.”
But that drama often seems lost on Greenburg, who has made delay telecasts an integral part of his programming philosophy. Here, Arum observes, “The whole idea that it doesn’t matter if people watch a fight live because we’re showing it on tape and we count the cumulative total from all of the telecasts and re-telecasts is nuts. The whole point of watching a fight is that you can’t take a break like you do if you’re watching the first quarter of a football game. Because if you do, when you come back, the fight might be over. To watch a fight when you already know the result takes most of the excitement and drama out of it. Can you imagine someone saying, ‘I’m not watching the Super Bowl live. I’ll watch it on tape a week later.’ You can’t have a major sport like that.”
Greenburg’s critics also point to numerous missteps which were avoidable.
For example, in 2008, I wrote, “HBO is on the verge of signing a longterm output deal with Golden Boy. The proposed deal is, by definition, for fights and fighters unknown. It would undercut HBO’s leverage in future negotiations with Golden Boy because the promoter would already have certain dates, which in and of itself is a major negotiating point.”
In the same article, Seth Abraham was quoted as follows: “It’s hard to believe that HBO would commit to buying a specified number of fights from Golden Boy for a specified number of dollars over a [longterm] period. Teddy Brenner once said, ‘Fights make fights.’ How could you know what fights and fighters you’re buying?”
Greenburg finalized the output deal with Golden Boy. It’s now widely acknowledged (even within HBO) that it was a huge mistake.
Prior to that, in 2006, Greenburg vetoed a deal that would have had HBO, in effect, partnering with Versus and using the cable network (which is part of the Comcast empire) as a development ground for HBO fighters. An opportunity for synergy with a network that’s seen in tens of millions of homes was lost.
In 2009, Ross nixed a proposal that HBO bring boxing’s leading promoters together for a “summit” to discuss the sport’s problems.
And over the years, Greenburg has evinced a sense of entitlement that has soured a number of people in the boxing and entertainment industries.
A case in point –
Last year, Jim Lampley proposed that HBO work with his production company on an unscripted documentary-reality series about trainer Freddie Roach. Greenburg turned the project down. The following recitation of what happened thereafter has been pieced together from multiple sources.
Ted Chervin is the head of worldwide television at ICM (one of the largest and most influential talent agencies in the world). He’s also Lampley’s agent. Chervin was instrumental in eliciting an offer for the Freddie Roach project from AMC. In May 2010, Greenburg was given one last chance to pick up the project and declined. Thereafter, the deal with AMC was finalized.
In October 2010, Manny Pacquiao arrived at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles to begin training with Roach for his November 13th fight against Antonio Margarito. HBO’s 24/7 production team was there. At that point, HBO executive producer Rick Bernstein called Nick Khan (who works for Chervin and is Roach’s agent) and told him, “Our camera crew says there’s an AMC crew there. They have to leave.”
Khan said that the AMC crew had every right to be there.
Five minutes later, Greenburg called Khan, demanding, “How dare you do a show like this? You’re shutting that AMC project down now [expletives deleted].”
Khan told Chervin about the conversation, including the fact that Greenburg had referred to the two of them as “morons.”
Ted Chervin is a former assistant United States attorney, who made his name in legal circles by prosecuting organized crime figures (including members of Colombia’s Cali drug cartel). He didn’t like being called a moron.
Chervin instructed Khan to have the 24/7 crew thrown out of the gym.
Soon after, Arum and Top Rank president Todd DuBoef called Khan and told him, “This puts us in a difficult spot. We have a contract with 24/7. We’d take it as a personal favor if you let them back in the gym.”
Khan called Bernstein and said that, as a courtesy to Top Rank, the 24/7 crew would be allowed in the gym when Pacquiao was there. He also telephoned Greenburg and told him that, if Ross didn’t apologize to Chervin, Ted would complain about the incident to Richard Plepler.
Greenburg called Chervin, apologized, and asked, “Is it all square between us now?”
Maybe it is; maybe it isn’t.
Ross’s righthand man on boxing matters is Kery Davis. Like Greenburg, he declined to be interviewed for this article.
Davis had a hard act to follow. As I wrote in 2003, “Lou DiBella essentially ran HBO Boxing for Seth Abraham on a day-to-day basis. He was proactive when it came to the sport. He loved the fight world. He understood, cared about, and subordinated his life to boxing. He also operated in a very personal way with everyone from the media to the fighters themselves. DiBella constantly bounced ideas off people and solicited their advice. He fought to change HBO from a network that showcased its stars in mismatches in order to groom them for pay-per-view events to a network that put fighters in tough and stood by them when they lost as long as they lost with honor. He championed the lighter-weight fighters; a commitment that's paying dividends now in the form of Naseem Hamed, Erik Morales, and Marco Antonio Barrera. And he was up-front with his feelings about corruption in the sport. To a degree, his passion for cleaning up the sweet science inoculated HBO against some of boxing's broader scandals.”
DiBella had his flaws (as all of us do). “He ruffled feathers in-house,” I wrote. “There were times when he upstaged some of his compatriots and neutered others. Because boxing at HBO was enormously successful under his watch, the powers-that-be gave him wide latitude. But now that DiBella is gone, there appears to be a new attitude at HBO. Kery Davis is the new ‘boxing guy’ at HBO. Davis comes out of the music business and appears to lack DiBella's passion for and knowledge of the sport. Whenever there was a [pay-per-view] fight in Las Vegas on a Saturday, DiBella was likely to be in attendance at the ESPN2 card the night before. Kery is more likely to be enjoying a leisurely dinner. Davis may well grow into his role. But right now, he doesn't have the personal rapport with fighters, managers, and the media that DiBella enjoyed.”
“Part of Seth’s genius,” says a longtime HBO employee, “was that he let Lou be Lou. Part of Ross’s problem is that he lets Kery be Kery.”
Davis has voiced anger that I’ve questioned the practice of HBO Sports executives not staying at the host hotel for certain fights and, instead, staying at more luxurious accommodations away from the action. My own view is that corporate employees are entitled to travel in comfort. But when HBO Sports pays for one of its executives to be on-site for a fight, the purpose of the trip is not eat expensive dinners, play golf, and hang out at the best hotel in town with friends.
I might add that Time Magazine, CNN, and other Time Warner subsidiaries appropriately criticize the extravagant perks given to management at Wall Street brokerage houses and other corporate executives.
Also, Davis is enormously engaging and charming when he chooses to be. But a lot of people in the boxing industry feel that he acts disrespectfully toward them. A small example: there was a time when Kery was said to have a policy of not returning telephone calls from Internet writers because of their lowly position. If Dana White had adhered to that policy, UFC might not exist today.
More important, a promoter who does business regularly with HBO says, “A lot of us don’t feel that we can rely on what Kery tells us. Sometimes that’s because he’s telling the truth as he sees it and then Ross undermines him. And sometimes it’s because – let’s put it this way – Kery equivocates.”
But the heart of the matter is that, in recent years, HBO has televised too many mediocre fights. “Kery is in a job where he has to know boxing,” the same promoter notes. “And he doesn’t. He doesn’t know what will make for a good fight and he certainly doesn’t know which fighters have the potential to become stars. Kery knows music; he has passion for music; he respects music people. But he doesn’t get it when it comes to boxing. Kery should be in the music business, not in boxing.”
Bob Arum sounded a similar theme last year, when he opined, “Kery isn’t a boxing guy. To do that job, you have to love boxing and be part of boxing and get boxing. Kery has no feel for the sport. He would dispute that, but I’ve been in boxing for a long time and I know what I’m talking about.”
It’s time for a change in leadership at HBO Sports. That isn’t something I write lightly. As noted earlier, commenting on someone else’s job performance is serious commentary. I’m mindful that people’s livelihoods are at stake; just as they’re at stake every time that HBO Sports makes a decision regarding which fights to buy and how much to pay for them.
Ross Greenberg and Kery Davis make decisions every day that affect the trajectory of people’s careers.
Last year, HBO Sports dismissed Lennox Lewis as a commentator on Boxing After Dark. The decision wasn’t motivated by personal ill will. Rightly or wrongly, there was a judgment that Lennox wasn’t performing up to par. Very few jobs come with lifetime tenure.
“The solution is simple,” says one observer of the unfolding drama. “It's fixable, but not by the incumbents. HBO Sports reminds me of an overfunded incompetently-run sports franchise. Omar Minaya with the Mets and Isiah Thomas with the Knicks are examples of executives who were continually outmaneuvered by guys who had much smaller budgets but knew what they were doing. Just as in other sports, you hire a new general manager and a new coach and get to work.”
“If you’ve gone from being the unquestioned leader in boxing to a floundering giant, you’ve fucked up,” says a promoter who has done business regularly with HBO. “They’ve taken the premier franchise in boxing and turned it into an ordinary product. It’s like when the New York Yankees went from the greatest dynasty in baseball history to just another team. The Yankees came back, but it took new leadership.”
There are people who think that Ross Greenburg and Kery Davis have done a good job. Their opinions should be given the same careful consideration as those voiced above.
As for the other leaders of HBO Sports; Mark Taffet is respected in the boxing industry. He’s comfortable communing with the powers that be. And when HBO has a big pay-per-view fight, he spends as much time in the media center as many of the writers. He’s studying, exchanging ideas, and learning because he views it as part of his job.
“Taffet is a politician,” Bob Arum said two years ago. “But at least he’s a bright politician.”
Rick Bernstein’s tenure as executive producer has been more problematic.
The HBO Sports production team has many advantages, including the platform and money to do virtually anything it wants as it relates to boxing. It has better access to the athletes it covers than the producers of almost any other network sports department. It also has the services of some enormously talented people like director Marc Payton and creative young producers (who haven’t been given the opportunity to fully show what they can do). There is a technical support staff comprised of people who are as good, if not better than, any of their industry counterparts.
But in recent years, HBO Sports programming has lost its edge. It has become formulaic. It’s far less innovative and daring now than the documentaries produced by Sheila Nevins (president of HBO Documentary Films), not to mention such offerings as Boardwalk Empire. It has become tired and less appealing to young viewers, who will make up the next generation of premium-cable subscribers.
That’s also true of HBO’s boxing telecasts, which have gotten stale. Last year’s fights at Cowboys Stadium and Yankee Stadium saw some interesting innvovations; particularly with regard to lighting. But those were largely the work of the promoter.
Rick Bernstein’s defenders say that he hasn’t been allowed to deviate from certain templates that Ross Greenburg has set in stone. One assumes that Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo will explore the matter.
All of this prompts the question of, “Who will lead HBO Sports and its boxing program into the future if Ross Greenburg and Kery Davis are replaced?”
The role of HBO Sports president will be more complex in the future than in the past because HBO’s boxing program will face competition from multiple networks and alternative media platforms; not just Showtime.
The next president of HBO Sports has to appreciate the fact that boxing has been the anchor of HBO Sports for decades. If he intends to continue on that course, he must clearly communicate this fact, both internally and externally.
Because of boxing’s primacy, he should be grounded in boxing, not just sports, and understand the strength of the brand of boxing.
He must be a visionary leader with the ability to plan for the future.
Once the blueprint for the future is fashioned, he must have the ability and credibility to sell the new HBO Sports to the boxing community, hotel-casinos, other potential sites, sponsors, and the media.
He must understand that ratings (which are a measure of subscriber satisfaction) are more important than Emmys.
He must be a good administrator who knows how (and to whom) to delegate authority.
He must put his own personal comfort aside and get on a plane to close a deal when necessary.
He has to listen to people carefully enough to understand their point of view and accept the fact that his own personal preferences for programming might be different from those of HBO’s subscribers.
His conduct must be such that he restores morale and a sense of pride where it has been lost.
He must realize that he is not the star. He is occupying a position of power in a fiduciary role to benefit others; not just himself.
The new president of HBO Sports will be chosen before the point person on boxing is selected. A National Football League team doesn’t hire a new head coach and tell him who his offensive coordinator will be.
The number-two slot (HBO’s “boxing guy”) isn’t just a matchmaking job. The person who fills it needs a passion for boxing and an understanding of what makes an entertaining fight. It’s imperative that he (or she) have respect for fighters and all of the other “boxing people” he comes in contact with in the performance of his duties. He also has to be able to transition back and forth between the boxing world and the corporate environment of HBO and understand the profit-and-loss end of the business. He needs negotiating skills and an understanding of the legal environment that he’s operating within. People can like him or not like him, but they have to be able to trust his word. He can’t play favorites.
No one can learn the boxing business in six months or a year. It takes at least five years of close study. Even then, a person needs an aptitude for it. Given the current crisis at HBO, both positions have to be filled by people who can hit the ground running.
Ideally, HBO will have a new team in place and be ready to act decisively in the market place by May 8th (the day after Mosley-Pacquiao). Given the realities of today’s world and the detailed nature of the study that Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo are undertaking, that might not be possible.
Montiel says his pride was hurt more than anything from loss to Donaire
By Dan Ambrose: Losing to Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) wounded WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel’s pride more than the pain from having his right cheekbone fractured by Donaire’s powerful left hand that knocked him flat in the 2nd round.
In an article at examiner.com, Montiel said “It has hurt my pride the most. I sacrificed a lot in training, but people know boxing like that. You have to live through the good times and the bad.”
Indeed, Montiel, before his loss to Donaire, had beaten fighters like Hozumi Hasegawa, Martin Castillo, Reynaldo Hurtado and Z Gorres. But it was Montiel’s turn for him to lose. He just didn’t seem ready for the kind of power and speed that Donaire was showing him last Saturday night. Montiel needed more of a game plan because it was painfully obvious in the 1st round that Donaire was too fast for him. Montiel needed to set traps more and not just look to punch with the quicker Donaire.
Montiel is going to meeting with his promoter to see what direction to take. The chances of a rematch with Donaire aren’t very good because of how one-sided the fight was. Montiel says he wants to move up to super bantamweight. He might do well at that weight, but he’s not going to get another chance at Donaire unless he’s willing to keep moving up in weight from division to division to try and get another fight with him. At 5’4″, it’s doubtful that Montiel will have the size to go beyond the super bantamweight division without taking more losses.
By Dan Ambrose: Losing to Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) wounded WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel’s pride more than the pain from having his right cheekbone fractured by Donaire’s powerful left hand that knocked him flat in the 2nd round.
In an article at examiner.com, Montiel said “It has hurt my pride the most. I sacrificed a lot in training, but people know boxing like that. You have to live through the good times and the bad.”
Indeed, Montiel, before his loss to Donaire, had beaten fighters like Hozumi Hasegawa, Martin Castillo, Reynaldo Hurtado and Z Gorres. But it was Montiel’s turn for him to lose. He just didn’t seem ready for the kind of power and speed that Donaire was showing him last Saturday night. Montiel needed more of a game plan because it was painfully obvious in the 1st round that Donaire was too fast for him. Montiel needed to set traps more and not just look to punch with the quicker Donaire.
Montiel is going to meeting with his promoter to see what direction to take. The chances of a rematch with Donaire aren’t very good because of how one-sided the fight was. Montiel says he wants to move up to super bantamweight. He might do well at that weight, but he’s not going to get another chance at Donaire unless he’s willing to keep moving up in weight from division to division to try and get another fight with him. At 5’4″, it’s doubtful that Montiel will have the size to go beyond the super bantamweight division without taking more losses.
Montiel to get plastic surgery to fix a hairline fracture in right cheekbone
By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel is to undergo plastic surgery to repair a hairline fracture of his right cheekbone he suffered when he was tagged by a powerful left hook by challenger Nonito Donaire last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The the punch thrown by Donaire knocked Montiel flat and created a huge dent in the side of Montiel’s head. It looked as if it had partially created a hole in the side of Montiel’s cheek.
Donaire said this on his facebook page: “I want to give up two things to Gold: My win last night and also Montiel’s speedy recovery for his zygomatic bone fracture and reconstructive surgery. He can help us both.”
Montiel, to his credit, got up from the knockdown but he was quickly overwhelmed as Donaire landed a fast one-time that caused the referee to halt the fight.
Montiel was never able to get his offense in gear because the fight was over too quickly before he was able to land any of his big power shots. Donaire appeared to hurt Montiel in the opening round after tagging him with a hard left and right hand. Montiel stayed on his feet but he was forced to back up and regroup. It wasn’t a good sign for what was to come later in the 2nd.
By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel is to undergo plastic surgery to repair a hairline fracture of his right cheekbone he suffered when he was tagged by a powerful left hook by challenger Nonito Donaire last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The the punch thrown by Donaire knocked Montiel flat and created a huge dent in the side of Montiel’s head. It looked as if it had partially created a hole in the side of Montiel’s cheek.
Donaire said this on his facebook page: “I want to give up two things to Gold: My win last night and also Montiel’s speedy recovery for his zygomatic bone fracture and reconstructive surgery. He can help us both.”
Montiel, to his credit, got up from the knockdown but he was quickly overwhelmed as Donaire landed a fast one-time that caused the referee to halt the fight.
Montiel was never able to get his offense in gear because the fight was over too quickly before he was able to land any of his big power shots. Donaire appeared to hurt Montiel in the opening round after tagging him with a hard left and right hand. Montiel stayed on his feet but he was forced to back up and regroup. It wasn’t a good sign for what was to come later in the 2nd.
Sturm wants unification bout with Zbik
By Jason Kim: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (35-2-1, 15 KO’s) is looking to get a unfication bout against WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 KO’s) for his next fight. This would be an all German fight, as both Zbik and Sturm fight out of Germany. However, Zbik, 28, is considered a paper champion by many boxing fans because of the way that Zbik was given the WBC title after the World Boxing Council stripped WBA champion Sergio Martinez, gave him the title as Emeritus champion, and then handed the title to Zbik without a fight.
The theory was that the WBC was doing this to help set up a fight between Zbik and unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. But if Zbik takes on Sturm, it will ruin the Chavez-Zbik fight and put Chavez Jr. in the position where he might have to take on the tougher Sturm if he wants to pick up the WBC title. I don’t think for a second that Zbik will beat Sturm. He doesn’t have the power and his offense is too basic for him to beat a jabber like Sturm.
Sturm had this to say in an interview with fightnews.com: “We hope to make an annoucement in couple of weeks. Sebastian Zbik was recently awarded the WBC belt. I’m sure that would be a great fight and I believe he wants to do it. A title unification between two Germans would be historic.”
Ideally, it would be better if Sturm chose to fight a better champion than Zbik, someone like WBO middleweight champion Dimitri Pirog or Sergio Martinez with his Emeritus status. Martinez is considered the best fighter in the middleweight division, and the fact that Sturm isn’t mentioning him or Pirog is really telling.
Stum has a reputation for facing the lesser threat while the WBA champion. He seems to be continuing with that trend, as last weekend Sturm defeated #12 ranked Ronald Hearns, a fringe contender, rather than a more dangerous top contender. As it was, Sturm took a pounding from Hearns and ended up with a swollen face and busted lip from Hearns. For his part, the light hitting Hearns’ face was badly swollen up from Sturm’s jabs. The fight was close for the first four rounds with Hearns jabbing Sturm repeatedly in the face and landing nice body shots. Sturm began to walk Hearns down starting in the 5th, nailing him with power shots and hard jabs. Hearns continued to fire back with jabs of his own but he began to get beaten up. In the 7th, Sturm walked Hearns into a corner and nailed him with a big right hand that hurt. Instead of covering up, Hearns stood with his guard down while they were in close, appearing to look as if he thought they were about to clinch. However, Sturm followed up with another big right hand against the defenseless Hearns and the shot knocked Hearns off balance and close to falling. The fight was then stopped, as Hearns looked badly hurt.
By Jason Kim: WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (35-2-1, 15 KO’s) is looking to get a unfication bout against WBC middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik (30-0, 10 KO’s) for his next fight. This would be an all German fight, as both Zbik and Sturm fight out of Germany. However, Zbik, 28, is considered a paper champion by many boxing fans because of the way that Zbik was given the WBC title after the World Boxing Council stripped WBA champion Sergio Martinez, gave him the title as Emeritus champion, and then handed the title to Zbik without a fight.
The theory was that the WBC was doing this to help set up a fight between Zbik and unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. But if Zbik takes on Sturm, it will ruin the Chavez-Zbik fight and put Chavez Jr. in the position where he might have to take on the tougher Sturm if he wants to pick up the WBC title. I don’t think for a second that Zbik will beat Sturm. He doesn’t have the power and his offense is too basic for him to beat a jabber like Sturm.
Sturm had this to say in an interview with fightnews.com: “We hope to make an annoucement in couple of weeks. Sebastian Zbik was recently awarded the WBC belt. I’m sure that would be a great fight and I believe he wants to do it. A title unification between two Germans would be historic.”
Ideally, it would be better if Sturm chose to fight a better champion than Zbik, someone like WBO middleweight champion Dimitri Pirog or Sergio Martinez with his Emeritus status. Martinez is considered the best fighter in the middleweight division, and the fact that Sturm isn’t mentioning him or Pirog is really telling.
Stum has a reputation for facing the lesser threat while the WBA champion. He seems to be continuing with that trend, as last weekend Sturm defeated #12 ranked Ronald Hearns, a fringe contender, rather than a more dangerous top contender. As it was, Sturm took a pounding from Hearns and ended up with a swollen face and busted lip from Hearns. For his part, the light hitting Hearns’ face was badly swollen up from Sturm’s jabs. The fight was close for the first four rounds with Hearns jabbing Sturm repeatedly in the face and landing nice body shots. Sturm began to walk Hearns down starting in the 5th, nailing him with power shots and hard jabs. Hearns continued to fire back with jabs of his own but he began to get beaten up. In the 7th, Sturm walked Hearns into a corner and nailed him with a big right hand that hurt. Instead of covering up, Hearns stood with his guard down while they were in close, appearing to look as if he thought they were about to clinch. However, Sturm followed up with another big right hand against the defenseless Hearns and the shot knocked Hearns off balance and close to falling. The fight was then stopped, as Hearns looked badly hurt.
