Where's McNulty when you need him?
The rumors have been flying around for days, but now it seems like all that is left to be decided is the venue for the Oscar De La Hoya/Floyd Mayweather rematch. The date is going to be either the 13th or the 20th of September, with the Home Depot Center, the MGM Grand and Dodger Stadium all in the running as possible sites.
Bob Arum is the one who first leaked word of this abysmal development when he went public a few days ago to say that his fighter Miguel Cotto definitely would not be facing Oscar in May, because Oscar/Floyd II is nearing completion and Cotto did not figure in either fighter's plans.
So what then does the future hold for Cotto? Margarito? Paul Williams? Not so fast smart guy. Try Alfonso Gomez. Or such is the rumor right now.
You know, much as it pains me, I can't really blame Cotto. He had a hell of a 2007, fought Zab and Shane back to back, and that Shane fight was brutal. He's earned himself a soft touch, no doubt. You have to imagine that Arum is thinking, all right, the two big bucks are off the range for the time being, so let's pass the time and shoot ourselves a little skeet. I'll say one thing for that Contender crap - it definitely gives the real dudes a lot of easy-money bouts to take in between their fights against, ahem, actual contenders.
As for Oscar/Floyd II... man it's bad news. It's funny, because that first Oscar/Floyd bout was the fight that "saved" boxing, and here, to my mind, the rematch is putting it right back in the gutter. There's absolutely no reason for it but money and cynicism and cowardice. The first fight was okay but not great. Certainly no one in their right mind came out of that thing with a burning desire to see them do it again. Floyd and Oscar both know that - EVERYBODY knows that - and yet there's only one other viable opponent for either of them who's remotely in their stratosphere money and talent-wise, and that guy unfortunately is not going to break any PPV records although he certainly might break their ribs.
So after mulling over the options for a while - Oscar considering the possibility of trying to make 147 for Hatton or getting his beautiful smile ruined by Cotto, Floyd considering the possibility of spending the next six months laying around Renzo Gracie's trying to figure out how to break an arm-bar - the light-bulb finally struck. I guess we should have seen it coming. "Hey, Oscar, it's Money... yeah yeah, all good, how you?... yeah... so anyway remember that fight we had last year where we made like a jazillion dollars for a glorified sparring session? Remember that shit? Yo let's do that again."
Meanwhile, as I write this, the first "big" fight of 2008 is just days away - Roy v. Tito in the War to Settle the Score or whatever bullshit Don King is calling it. I tell you, I'm feeling a little like the beat cops on The Wire. That magical stretch throughout the fall and winter of last year had me thinking that a new day was dawning out there in the game. But here it is, the new year, and we're just back out on those same old corners doing the dirt.
posted by Large at 12:09 AM
14 Comments:
I don't see how this makes sense for Mayweather. The only result that would benefit him is a knockout.
If it is another Money with the shoulder roll taking pot shots with Oscar throwing tons wild punches just for the sake of it, this fight will suck. It will also take away some of the aura the Floyd has built up after flooring Hatton.
Is he ducking Cotto, or is Cotto just not enough of a "draw"?
This is the safe way to cash in. Sucks for real fight fans who want to see the 2 best fighters settle it though
You nailed it - this is shameless commerce. No one was satisfied with the fight - including the fighters. Objectively, it's a reasonably compelling matchup but not for all of the hype it's going to receive. Hopefully, they'll have a decent undercard this time so I'll have an excuse to watch.
Obviously, Cotto is the guy Mayweather should be fighting. Mayweather's already beaten DLH and Cotto beat the man who beat DLH twice (though I thought DLH shaded Mosely the second time around).
I also agree though, that Cotto needs a break. I thought it was ambitious for him to fight Mosley coming off of a hard fight with Judah. He pulled it off - he deserves an easy one.
Guys like Paul Williams, Antonio Margarito, Kermit Cintron and Josh Clottey will have to be content fighting each other and hope that the guy who emerges from their pack can get a shot at Cotto. I don't think Floyd will fight much after beating Oscar again. Maybe he fights Cotto if Cotto is still unbeaten - but after that I'd be surprised to see "Money May" in the fight game - boxing or MMA.
Whoa. I thought you didn't have HBO.
I wonder what will happen if this fight does not live up to the financial expectations. Everyone seems completely confident in its success, which is sometimes a precursor for failure.
Luke -- I think its that Cotto is not enough of a mainstream draw. He's not a "name" outside of the boxing world (like DLH) and he's not a drunken Mancunian who makes for good pre-fight TV (like Hatton.) He's just a quiet, ruthless dude.
Floyd has a couple options right now:
1.) Fight DLH. Make a shit-ton of money. Win easily, in a boring fight.
2.) Fight Cotto. Make a ton of money, but nowhere near the amount in a DLH rematch. Draw mediocre PPV's (by 2007 standards, anyway.) Get challenged much more than in a DLH fight.
3.) Fight MMA.
Can't blame Money for taking the easy way. Just gotta hope that, after this abortion of a fight goes down, that Cotto has built up so much juice that Money CAN'T avoid that fight.
Luke -- I think its that Cotto is not enough of a mainstream draw. He's not a "name" outside of the boxing world (like DLH) and he's not a drunken Mancunian who makes for good pre-fight TV. He's just a quiet, ruthless dude.
Floyd has a couple options right now:
1.) Fight DLH. Make a shit-ton of money. Win easily, in a boring fight.
2.) Fight Cotto. Make a ton of money, but nowhere near the amount in a DLH rematch. Draw mediocre PPV's (by 2007 standards, anyway.) Get challenged much more than in a DLH fight.
3.) Fight MMA.
Can't blame Money for taking the easy way. Just gotta hope that, after this abortion of a fight goes down, that Cotto has built up so much juice that Money CAN'T avoid that fight.
I hope they're just floating this as a trial balloon, and when it gets universally shot down they'll do something else, but we'll see. I think Cotto/Gomez is worse, but Cotto at least has more time to waste. Why not fight Margo or Clottey? Those fights are easy to make and he'd be a huge favorite and get more respect?
I'm always about athletes getting there money, but the Floyd/Oscar fight offers nothing. I mean, if Floyd actually lost I'd think he did it just for a rubber match. And since when do they schedule fights nine months in advance. It's ridiculous. Blech. He should fight Mosley if they want to wait for Cotto to get bigger, Mosley's rep is still strong enough that it means something and it would get nice ppv I think.
Still, boxing is still doing great; already we have marquez/vasquez, Hopkins/Calzaghe, Pavlik/Taylor, Pacqiao/Marquez. Every single big fight has been made, except the biggest.
"fortune favors the bold..."
Virgil
El Mero, you are exactly right - money and ease both beckon Floyd to take the Oscar fight. Also, Floyd has made it clear (after all the retirement talk) that he's taking the first half of '08 off, and I think he's earned that (I also think, as I said, that Cotto has earned an easy payday a la Gomez and I don't fault him at all for taking it).
I also think the fight financially will do fine - no one is expecting it to top Oscar/Floyd I, and the bad press that the fight will get in the boxing universe will not make much impact on the sports world at large. One thing you learn quickly when writing about the fight game - the boxing fraternity is utterly irrelevant to the larger media universe.
I think there's only one reason for Floyd to fight Cotto, and it's a compelling one. As I pointed out today over at The Sporting Blog, a Floyd/Cotto would be the first legitimate PFP showdown since either Oscar/Shane I or Pernell/Chavez. These types of fights are historical moments - they don't come around very often. This is the high point of Floyd's career - he's certainly fought bigger fights juice-wise than a Cotto bout, but he's never fought a more important fight boxing-wise. Plus, as he makes abundantly clear with almost every word out of his mouth, he does not need money.
The only way that I think we ever will see Floyd/Cotto is if there is enough of an outcry to make Floyd believe that NOT fighting Cotto will leave a black mark on his record, because I do think he cares about such things. At this point, I think he feels like Cotto is a minor player and that no one will care if he ignores him. If that perception changes, then it will happen. And that, I suppose, is up to Cotto. You're right on that, El Mero, mos def. Cotto has to get big enough so that Money can't afford to ignore him anymore. Unfortunately, I can't see how he's going to do that without a De La Hoya bout.
RIP bobby fischer
The greatest legend ever out of Brooklyn...you can say Biggie, Jay-Z, Starburry, but they all have one that they must bow to...Bobby Fischer. Holla!
Fischer does not merely outplay opponents; he leaves them bodily and mentally glutted. Fisher himself speaks of the exultant instant in which he feels the 'ego of the other player crumbling.'
– George Steiner
“I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.”
-Bobby Fischer
When you play Bobby, it is not a question if you win or lose. It is a question if you survive.
– Boris Spassky
Fischer is the profoundest student of chess who ever lived. He reads incessantly, forgets nothing, turns knowledge into action with monstrous precision and ferocity.
– Brad Darrach
Chess demands total concentration and a love for the game.
– Bobby Fischer
All I want to do, ever, is just play chess.
– Bobby Fischer
Psychologically, you have to have confidence in yourself and this confidence should be based on fact.
– Bobby Fischer
I played chess before I got into poker a lot and for a long time. I even played for my college team.
http://joaquinochoa.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_archive.html
Don't mean to plug my blog but I have some posts for those playing poker that you might like when it comes to Bobby.
It is a shame he became such a loon at the end of his life.
Hopefully fischerandom (Chess960) keeps his real legacy alive.
Large-
Is there anyone out there who could build up Cotto to the point that Money can't turn down the fight? Let's assume that Cotto-DLH doesn't happen...what fight (or series of fights) is going to push Cotto from "Star amongst Fight Fans" to straight-up STAR?
Dudes, I wrote a little obit for Fsicher over at the Sporting Blog today.
El Mero... Pacquiao? He wants to jump in weight and fight superfights, or at least that was the rumor when Pac/Oscar was in the running. Hard to imagine putting his money where his mouth is on that for Cotto, though.
Cotto's problem is that, though he utterly destroys motherfuckers, he doesn't do it with one punch. So the only thing that I can imagine right now is a Corrales/Castillo situation, which I could imagine going down between Cotto and Margarito. That would be a fairly major fight, probably PPV at this point, and I could see it being that Chico/Castillo type of war that is just so uber-violent that it makes a crossover name for both guys.
On that score, you know, Gomez isn't a terrible make for Cotto. That Contender thang is bigger to a lot of people than actual boxing.
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