Which would be a shame. The brutal reality is that for both Vazquez and Marquez this is by far the most competitive and lucrative fight these two can engage in after the meat grinder they put each other through. Yeah, sure they can face the likes of Celestino Caballero, but really, from a stylistic and financial standpoint, does that make sense for either boxer?
You’d like to see guys like this get all the money they can- and let’s be real, neither guy has much time left- but unfortunately this fight isn’t worth what it once was with the protracted delay after the classic rubber match. The fight has lost some of it’s value in the eyes of the network, unfortunately.
All roads should lead back to each other. But will one side drive off a cliff?
SOLD OUT
According to promoter Bob Arum, the November 14Th promotion between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand is now a sell-out.
" Absolutely, you call them, there’s not one ticket left," he told Maxboxing, on Wednesday morning." Not one. Sold...completely... out. I mean, we’re going crazy, we got a list of 100 names of people that want tickets and we don’t have any."
And no, Arum isn’t logging on to Stubhub.com to fill these requests.
" Hey, I don’t know, it’s not my problem. Everybody had an opportunity to buy tickets. The peopled that snoozed, lose’d."
The Grand Garden Arena is configured for 16,500 seats and the gate receipts will hover around $9 million.
" I defy anybody to call the box-office and buy a ticket," said an enthused Arum, who later on that day had to go over to the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, for Pacquiao’s media day." I got the box-office report this morning. Yesterday we had five $1,000 tickets left and yesterday they picked them all up."
As for closed-circuit venues in Las Vegas next week, Arum said," We have 22,000 seats, we’ve already sold close to 4,000."
CLOTTEY
So what’s going on with Joshua Clottey, who was supposed to face Carlos Quintana on December 5Th before that whole date was pulled from Top Rank by HBO after Kelly Pavlik pulled out his fight against Paul Williams?
His manager, Vinny Scolpino admitted," We’re just in a holding pattern waiting for Top Rank to come up with something. We’re trying to push for like a Mosley but Mosley doesn’t know if he’s fighting Andre Berto yet, that’s still up in the air and they’re kinda waiting on after the Pacquiao-Cotto thing finishes off. So everythings in flux."
In other words, Clottey is waiting on Mosley, who’s waiting on Pacquiao-Cotto.
" They haven’t made the Berto fight with Mosley and Richard Schaefer is over in Germany with Valuev-Haye and says that if he doesn’t get confirmation on Berto, he’s going to insist that Mosley go with Clottey. And that’s the holding pattern," said Arum. Clottey and Mosley were originally scheduled to face each other on HBO on December 26Th at the Staples Center.
So is Shane waiting around to see what happens on the night of November the 14Th?
" I have no idea what Mosley is doing, waiting around or not, I know he was committed to a Berto fight, but Berto- someone put a bug in his ear- is not satisfied with the money, even though it’s enormous money," said Arum." So Mosley would be ready to commit to Berto. I don’t know what he’s going to do now, the fights a week-and-a-half away, y’know, if I were Mosley, I would do nothing and wait till it shakes out.
" I mean, it’s not like waiting for a month, it’s waiting for ten days."
CHI-TOWN
On Monday, it looked like the rematch between Juan Diaz and Paulie Malignaggi was headed to the desert of Las Vegas. By Tuesday night, a deal had been reached to bring it to Chicago and the UIC Pavilion.
" Because we really couldn’t finish a deal in Vegas and then basically to launch a promotion in Chicago, we had to get moving," said Lou DiBella, who promotes Malignaggi." With a huge, huge Italian population and a huge Mexican population, using the help of Dominic Pesoli, who’s a good local promoter there, there’s a lot of interest in Chicago and time to launch a proper promotion."
The question is, are there any Italians and and Mexicans in ’the Windy City’ who actually care about Malignaggi and Diaz?
ESPINOZA BOXING CLUB
The new generation of boxers that Espinoza is developing- Carlos Molina, Ronny Rios and Luis Ramos- had a productive and active 2009, now they look ahead to 2010.
" All three will most likely be fighting in January. I understand that the Club Nokia will be going forward with 12 shows( next year), I also understand that Fox Sports Net will be televising those shows. I’m looking forward to to the beginning of next year. We did keep them active last year, so it’s time for them to have a little rest, enjoy Thanksgiving and enjoy Christmas and then get ready for the new year."
And bantamweight Abner Mares, could be right on the brink of a title shot.
" Abner, is an exceptional fighter, I think he’s a future world champion. Abner is now rated number two in the world by the WBC. It’s my understanding that at the convention that it was noted by the WBC that Hozumi Hasagawa was going to move up after his December defense. Which would leave the number one( Simpiwe Vetyeka) and Abner, number two, for the vacant title. So I’m really excited about that because I think the WBC is the most prestigious belt of all."
FALL CLASSIC FLURRIES
Just recently viewed the whole bout between British middleweights Ryan Rhodes and Jamie Moore. It was quite the scrap, that saw Rhodes turn it around in the seventh frame with a right hook on the button. Up to that point, Moore seemed to be chopping him down....I can only guess that Chris Arreola’s reaction was to the WBC suspending him for his outburst on HBO after his loss to Vitali Klitschko in September, was something like this: F**k that!!!....RIP to Lou Filippo, a true boxing lifer and more than that, a very good man....I was told that heavyweight Alexander Povetkin will take a stay-busy fight on December the 5Th....So one of the reasons why Nicolas Cage is broke is because he bought two islands? I guess this man really is an island unto himself. Two, actually...Folks, ’Friday Night Lights’ is back on DirecTV 101. My only complaint? Lyla Garrity has moved on. C’mon, you couldn’t give her a red-shirt season?....The latest edition of ’
the Main Event’ features ’RA the Rugged Man’ and Glen Johnson....Any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at
k9kim@yahoo.com....
Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.....
