| 29 May 2010
Yesterday, I visited Goochland, Va. It's named after Sir William Gooch, a contrast I enjoy -- the dignity of "Sir William" and the 7th grade nickname quality of "Gooch." I attended a high school graduation where the class of 2010 totaled two people. (The class of 2012 will be half that.) It was a Christian school, so after we pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, we pledged allegiance to the Christian flag, then the Bible. Before the speeches began, we heard songs about Jesus, and about hunting. I learned a lot about the school during the ceremony -- that a student brought an animal he shot to dissect in science class, and that there were formal debates about the Civil War in English class, and the student asked to defend the North was bitter about it.
I say none of this to poke fun. The ceremony was frequently touching, and I was quite proud of my dear cousin on her graduation day. But it's a different world than D.C., and I had to share it with someone, in case it might be as eye-opening and informative to you as it was to me.
Nor does this have anything to do with boxing. The rest of this column does.
Round And Round
The “gag order” on Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao didn’t last long. Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum couldn’t resist a little posturing when he noted that the previous hurdle for making the welterweight megafight, Mayweather’s demand that Pacquiao undergo blood tests for performance-enhancing drugs up to 14 days before the bout, had been crossed. Arum said more, too. Pacquiao himself has been talking some smack, and his team keeps saying that if Mayweather wants better than a 50-50 split, the fight will never happen. If the idea was to keep egos from flaring in advance of negotiations, mission not accomplished – although Arum, when last asked, offered a no comment, so maybe he’s back on message. This will not last. The “gag order” survived 10 days before Arum broke it. (Then, incredibly, he lectured Pacquiao's team members for talking about the negotiations, per BoxingScene. I guess they don't teach logic at Harvard Law School.)
Featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, as we mentioned earlier this week, will not be fighting Celestino Caballero. From all the reports, it sounds like Gamboa's team is more to blame than Caballero's. You know what's interesting about this? It was so ballsy for Gamboa to wanting to fight Caballero to begin with, but now he comes off looking a bit more cowardly than if he had never mentioned the guy's name. The likely replacement for Gamboa is Elio Rojas, a good fight for Gamboa nonetheless. Meanwhile, Arum wants Juan Manuel Lopez to fight Rafael Marquez before the end of the year, but Marquez promoter Gary Shaw has other plans that feature putting Marquez and Vic Darchinyan on a doubleheader in September on Showtime, with the idea being to match those two later.
When Jorge Arce suffered a cut in sparring, he triggered a little bantamweight feeding frenzy to replace him as Eric Morel’s opponent on June 26, and a few ripples in the division. Nonito Donaire offered his services, and so did Michael Domingo. Morel reportedly declined both, saying he wanted to fight Arce when he got better. Donaire did some turning down of his own, saying he didn’t want to fight Hernan Marquez on July 10 on Showtime, because Marquez just lost to some Filipino prospect, so what does that prove? Good point. Maybe Donaire is wising up to the fact that his promoter, Arum, is going to milk him endlessly against crappy opponents unless he stands up to him. Fernando Montiel did the same thing when he flew to Japan to fight Hozumi Hasegawa against Arum’s wishes. Who’s Arum talking about Montiel fighting next? Donaire or Darchinyan, the latter of whom Arum couldn’t come to an agreement for a fight with Donaire. There’s absolutely no reason Donaire-Montiel shouldn’t be a fairly automatic fight to make. Arum is maddening.
Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has turned down Alexander Povetkin’s demand that he take Olympic-style drug tests in the lead-up to their fight. Klitschko said there’s already drug testing required, and there’s been no problem with drug testing regimes under which he’s come up clean. This more advanced drug-testing thing – it’s got some good aspects, but it’s also the case that it stands a risk of becoming a frequent hurdle for making fights. I want the sport to be clean, but I’m not sure I want the ultra-highest level of drug testing if it means more fight negotiations collapsing. It also leads to another level of impossible posturing; the person who asks for the testing gets to say he just wants to clean up the sport, while the person turning it down gets to say the other guy is trying to find a way out of the fight. That’s what Klitschko is saying here. As for Klitschko-David Haye -- Haye has turned his attention to Audley Harrison, a fight that will probably make some cash in the U.K. but I expect would be a total mismatch.
Junior welterweight Amir Khan’s next fight might be against Joel Casamayor, according to his promoter, Golden Boy. Michael Katsidis is still in the running according to his promoter, but it's gotten confusing. Katsidis’ team was making threats about how he would knock out Khan, and that same team said Khan doesn't want the fight. Also, it's unclear that Katsidis has changed his mind about wanting to wait for the winner of Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II at lightweight.
Junior featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux is a sure thing talentwise, but he's got some serious drama outside the ring, with his manager and promoter feuding and his departure from trainer Freddie Roach. But once it gets settled, the reported plan is to fight Reynaldo Lopez, then see about getting in line for an interim title shot against Ricardo Cordoba. I'd love to see Rigondeaux-Cordoba.
When Zab Judah returns July 15 on Friday Night Fights, his likely opponent will be Jose Armando Santa Cruz, at 142 or 143 pounds. Judah says he wants to fight at junior welterweight, but he keeps not fighting at junior welterweight. Judah says he wants a big money fight, but he keeps taking fights for peanuts. His new promoter is Main Events. Maybe they can teach him how money works.
Paulie Malignaggi says he’s going to move to welterweight. OK; that won’t keep him from becoming an “opponent,” (his fear at junior welterweight) by itself, unless he somehow lines up a fight with titlist Jan Zaveck or something. But he also says he’s going to fight in Italy. Well, he could dominate there, cuz they don’t have a boxing scene. Something about a brash New York Italian kid heading back to his roots… is Paulie modeling himself after Michael Corleone?
(Round and Round sources: The Sweet Science; BoxingScene; ESPN)
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