Not exactly ’Murderers Row’ admittedly, but the type of matchmaking intended to properly nuture a young fighter like Jones. When you ask his handlers to describe the year, there is a common theme.
" It’s been frustrating," admitted Peltz," between the Larry Mosley fights, Mike actually having to cancel out once because off the neck and back injuries and the signature fight with Gutierrez, him hurting his back. We’re not turning anybody down, we’re not running from anybody. It just seems it’s the other way around. We’ve maintained our world ranking, maybe we dropped a few spots but I think the people out there are finding out who Mike Jones is."
His manager Doc Nowicki, echoes those thoughts," Frustrating. As a matter of fact, very frustrating. He had an injury, a few of his opponents, they had injuries, we couldn’t get the right fights we were asking for, tried to get on TV. Noboby wants to fight him, none of the big names showed any interest, at all. They were putting the squeeze on Russell,’ How much of the kid are you going to give me?’ Russell and I have been working very hard to bring him up the right way, not rush him, season him and get him the right experience that he needs. We’re very close, now. We don’t want to be squeezed out."
But Jones himself, is philosophical about his 2009.
" Unpredictable," is the way he describes it." Things happen and the change of opponents, that’s just the game. But it’s just unpredictable, I’d just describe it like that." Asked if he was feeling any frustration, he answered," Uh, not really, I could go down that road and get frustrated but I just go in the gym and work as hard as I can."
Like his job working the forklift at the local Home Depot in Philly, he just punches the clock and gets to the task at hand. The late pullouts don’t even faze him." I don’t even think about that, I don’t go far as to say that they’re scared or whatever. I don’t say that, hey, things happen. You go through injuries, as well as I went through injuries when I was about to fight one time. So I don’t think about that."
Currently, his mark stands at 18-0 with 15 KO’s. Granted, he is still unproven, but he’s also very promising. He’s a tall, well-built fighter with good speed and jolting power in both hands. You’d think by this stage of the game he’d be a television staple. Yet for some reason, Peltz and Jones, are on the outside looking in.
" There’s a lot of personalities involved, I’m trying to iron things out at ESPN and I’ve actually got dialogue with them and we’re going over some opponents. I’m taking it for either January or February," said Peltz, who’s had his battles with the four-letter network." Kathy Duva has a couple of options, fighting at the Prudential Center underneath Tomasz Adamek off American-TV and then coming back underneath Adamek on HBO in April. There’s some other things out there."
In the past Peltz had made his intentions very clear of not giving up any shares of Jones to any promoters who could perhaps grease the skids in their attempt to get on one of the premium cable networks. But Peltz does have a close working relationship with Duva and Main Events. He says of the possibility of perhaps working with that company," If it makes sense for me, if it makes sense of Main Evetns and most importantly, if it makes sense for Mike, there’s a lot of irons in the fire, right now and I want to see which one is the best move."
But perhaps there has been a silver lining to what took place this year, Jones, himself, was beset by physical ailments, from a pinched nerve in his neck to a slightly torn left-bicep. For the most part he just fought through his injuries.
" I can fight hurt, but I found out I can fight injured also- but I wouldn’t recommend it, fighting injured" said Jones, laughing." It’s really tough to fight injured." When asked if this effected his punching power, he answered," It depends, it effects me a lot when my left is hurting because I can’t set it up. People see it coming and I can’t set it up."
Now, Jones says," I feel good, I’m healthy, about as healthy as I’ve been in a long time. I feel strong."
In an age when young boxers can’t see the trees through the forest, Jones, is the anomoly. Not only has he stayed patient, he’s also shown admirable loyalty. Peltz announced that he has just re-signed Jones to a three-year contract extension. Hold on, is this guy the last loyal fighter in the world?
" I hope not," said Peltz, laughing loudly at the thought." I hope not, geez, that would be terrible."
But he is a breed apart. Just think about it, how many blue-chip prospects have day jobs, nowadays?
" He is," confirmed Nowicki." As far as the job, he would love to just train full-time, but he knows that’s right around the corner because when we start getting the bigger fights, he’s going to want to train all the time. Right now, he does that right now because he wants to keep himself busy and get a little extra money. He has two daughters that he absolutely loves. He does the most that he can for them. He’s very unique, he’s genuinely a nice person, he only wants to do the right things. He never would offend anybody, he just wants to be world champion and he doesn’t hang out with the wrong element to put him in bad situations. He’s doing all the right things to become the right person. Which he is, to become a world champion."
When asked about his gig at Home Depot, he states," It’s coming, it’s steady."
The paycheck doesn’t hurt right?
" Yeah," he says, with a slight chuckle.
Right now, he’s boxing best young fighter who hasn’t gotten a chance to make his mark- like an Antwon Smith has in recent outings- but he could be the sports best kept secret.
" I consider myself very dangerous, but yeah, basically the best kept secret," Jones agreed." I don’t think people really know me like the premiere fighters out there. They don’t really know me. So when they do go up against me, they’ll be very surprised at what I can do in there."
BIG STAGE
The secret is now out, if Manny Pacqiuao- featured on this weeks edition of Time Magazine( and on the cover of the Asian edition) beats Miguel Cotto on November 14th, then there is a very good possibility that his next outing could take place at the Dallas Cowboys new billion dollar palace in mid-March.
I’m told that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who is always keen to the idea of marketing his new palace and putting on big events, is very high on the idea and is personally getting involved to try and make this a reality, from what I’m told. Also, HBO, is said to be behind this idea. It looks like Juan Manuel Marquez is the front-runner to face ’the Pac Man’ in this slot.
On the flip-side, if Cotto comes out victorious, then Bob Arum would love to put his next fight at the new Yankee Stadium. Yeah, yeah, I know, Arum has been ’the boy who cried stadium fight/Macau’ for awhile now, but let’s think positively. Either event would be great for the business of boxing. I’ve always contended that one of the reasons why boxing has lost a great deal of its public appeal and coverage in the past couple of decades is that the sports biggest events have been ripped out of major metropolitan cities and into casino’s in either Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
Putting major fights in major league facilities like Cowboy Stadium and/or Yankee Stadium is bound to get expansive coverage and unlike many other marquee fights, the average fan wouldn’t be priced out of the event.
The ’Lone Star’ state is found of saying that they always do things bigger in their state and it’s hard to disagree. Back in 1993, at the Alamadome in San Antonio, over 63,000 fans were in attendance when Pernell Whitaker took on Julio Cesar Chavez and then in 1998, when Oscar De La Hoya took on his WBC mis-mandatory, Patrick Charpentier, 48,000 fans packed the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
After drawing about 14,000 fans for his bout against Jorge Solis back in 2007 at the Alamodome on a small independent pay-per-view show, I’d love to see what Pacquiao could do now( provided the price-points are reasonable) in the near future.
KENNEDY
When I asked Peltz what was the latest with his bantamweight prospect, Teon Kennedy, he told me," He’s fighting for the vacant USBA super-bantamweight title on November 28th at the Blue Horizon against Francisco Rodriguez, who’s 14-2 out of Chicago and the winner of that fight gets a top-15 ranking by the IBF."
WEEKEND FLURRIES
The Lakers are winning, but they are finding out just how good and valuable Pau Gasol, really is....It will be interesting to see just how many folks turn out to the XL Center to see Chad Dawson against Glen Johnson.....Seriously, ’Community’ on NBC is pretty good. I mean, Chevy Chase is back to being funny, again....’30 for 30’ on ESPN continues to deliver. ’Without Bias’ about the tragic cocaine overdose of Len Bias was solid. In my opinion, Bias had Jordan-esque talent. Yeah, he was that good....This weeks edition of ’
the Main Event’ features ’RA the Rugged Man’ and Glen Johnson....Any questions or comments, email me at
k9kim@yahoo.com....
Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.....
