Will November redeem 2010 for boxing?
It may be slow going for boxing fans until the beginning of November. From then until now, HBO, the self-acclaimed “Heart and Soul of Boxing” will show a meager one televised card. But aside from Yuriorkis Gamboa-Orlando Salido and Brandon Rios-Anthony Peterson, the broadcast company is sleeping silently. Showtime, as well, has seen boxing commitments jeopardized with the postponement of Juan Manuel Lopez-Rafael Marquez (originally Sept. 18), and Mikkel Kessler dropping out the ‘Super Six” tournament. That would have featured a September 25 bout against Allan Green.
This is the bad news. The better news is that November looks to be coming in strong, with the big boy promotional companies, Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, leading the way Sure, they may not be doing business with each other, but the main thing is that fights are being made amongst stables and sometimes outside of them too.
Lopez-Marquez has been newly slated for November 6, starting things off on the right foot. Lopez is 29-0 with 26 KOs, and the younger of the two, while Marquez (39-5, 35 KOs), representing Mexico, will look to win the WBO featherweight title. Lopez is the young bee here, and many think he has yet to be truly tested. Marquez, while older, will be relying on his formidable hitting power. Chances are this be a very entertaining match up.
On Golden Boy’s side, CEO Richard Schaefer said recently that his team is trying to finalize a card on Nov 6 as well, including Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and James Kirkland. Austin, Texas, may turn out to be the city of the future card.
But these cards are still bush berries compared to Nov 13, of course, when Manny Pacquiao is expected to teach alleged cheater Antonio Margarito a boxing and ethical lesson in Texas. The match will be on PPV on HBO. Bob Arum has been touting as many as 70,000 people coming to watch the fight. He explained his rationality in the following terms: "Remember, let’s start with 700,000 [pay-per-view purchases] that I did for Clottey [...] I just think that with a ‘24/7,’ that we didn’t have for the Clottey fight, we have the fight in the middle of the football season, which we didn’t have before [...] Third, Margarito’s track record on pay-per-view that Clottey didn’t have and, four, Margarito has a huge Hispanic following and Clottey had none. That’s how I evaluate it. That’s how I work my numbers."
No arguing with Arum. Finally, Nov 20 is the working date for a rematch between Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez, a bout that’s bound to be as intense as it is entertaining. The last time these two met, Williams took a close decision. In just the first round the action went from Martinez hitting the canvas, to Williams hitting it seconds after.
Nov 27 has also been put forth as a date for a bout between Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis. Last week Marquez announced his decision to stay fighting at lightweight as opposed to moving up to junior welterweight, where Amir Khan would have been a prospective opponent.
"He just thinks that, at this point, he prefers—and his trainer, as well—to stay at 135 pounds," Schaefer said. "He doesn’t rule out that later on, maybe, sometime next year, to move to 140. And I do think that Juan Manuel could be effective at 140 but he doesn’t want to be pressured now into losing his belts; he has the WBO and WBA and Ring magazine belts.” Schaefer continued: “He said, ’Look, if I have the opportunity to defend that, I want to do that. I took care of my mandatories and then I can take care of that in November.’ He didn’t feel it was necessary or beneficial to his career or his pocketbook, to tell you the truth, to go and be pressured into the 140-pound weight class."
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