Neither can I. If he does, my money would be on Haye. I think Haye has too much experience at present
Next Saturday sees what many have labelled as the latest installment in the WBC's never ending history of blatant bullshit, when their version of the Welterweight title, a crown vacated by Floyd after casting off his groin protector for the final time, is put up for the taking. The fight brings together two fighters with decent resumes, the former WBC and WBA World Lightweight Champion Danny Garcia, and former IBF Featherweight Champion Robert Guerrero. On paper you's say, fair enough, but fans are up in arms, suggesting that better rated fighters deserved a crack at the title. Amir Khan is the No1 ranked fighter, but he's been made the mandatory to the winner. Garcia is No2 while Guerrero is No6. Shawn Porter, Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto are all ranked above Guerrero. BoxRec list Kahn, Garcia, Guerrero, Porter, Peterson and Berto as all being managed by Al Haymon who won the purse bid for this fight. He aslo "owns" Thurman, Maidana, Spence and Alexender. I guess he can do what ever he pleases in the Welterweight scene, seeing as he holds all the cards. Garcia gets $2,000,000. Guerrero gets $1,250,000.
And surprise, surprise, GGG is having trouble finding somebody to fight in Madison Square Garden on April 23. It looks as though the Billy Joe Saunders thing isn't about to pan out, and now IBF Mandatory, Tureano Johnson has passed on the offer. He cites an arm injury.
Just came across some interesting stuff on Pay Per View figures. I don't know if in the case of a "legend" and a fighter of a lesser note, how the split happens, or whether the name fighter gets to demand all of it. I can't say how things panned out between Mayweather and Pac, but in the article that I've just read, the only mention of a ppv payout in the Pacquiano - Bradley bout, is all about Pac. The disclosed sums state that Pac gets a promised $20,000,000 with $2,000,000 up front. Bradley gets $6,000,000. The only mention of the ppv says that if they can get 800,000+, Pac gets an extra $10,000,000. No mention of an extra payout to the Champion Bradley.
That'll be because it wouldn't be pay per view without Pacman and given its allegedly his last fight as well people are more likely to buy it for him
Bradley would be fighting on Dave TV like David Haye if it wasn't for Paquiao. From what I remember reading I think Mayweather got a 60/40 spilt in his favour when he fought Paquiao.
I read a piece on Freddy Roach. He said in the lead up to the fight, Pac asked Freddy to join him in the gym office to chat about Freddy's cut from the bout. Freddy said. "Shouldn't we get the lawyers in?" Manny wanted to do a gentleman's agreement. He asked Freddy how much he wanted, but Roach couldn't bring himself to put up a number, so asked Manny to say what he was worth. Freddy didn't say how much he got paid, but he was astounded at the generosity of Pacquiao. And it was all done on a hand shake.
Yeah think it was 120m for Mayweather and a measly 80m for Paquiao. To put it onto context the bum who David Haye beat got 200k. That's still not to bad either for a 2 minute beating and a sore head for a few days.
Next Saturday night in the Bell Centre in Montreal, WBA, IBF, & WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Sergey Kovalev climbs into the ring for a second time against former WBC & IBO Champion Jean Pascal. The pair last met back in March of last year when the Krusher, while leading on all three cards, stopped Pascal in the eight in what turned out be be a torrid old affair. In his defeat, after being dropped for the first time in his career, Pascal became only the second person to take Kovalev so far into a fight. Since then, Pascal has enlisted the help of six time trainer of the year Freddy Roach, in his efforts to redress the imbalance. It probably won't make too much difference. Neither Kovalev nor Pascal had ever met challengers of the depth they faced that night in March, but Kovalev was supreme.The son of mother Russia monstered the man from Haiti. Early betting has Kovalev at 1-12 and Pascal at 25-2. In an interesting sidelight to this bout, Pascal has come on all a sweat with indignation at Kovalev's apparent racial stance in the past. He's using it as a spur for the fight. At a time when he and his management were hotly in pursuit of the WBC Champion Adonis Stevenson, Kovalev tweeted a picture of him pointing and smiling at a picture of a monkey's head photo shopped onto Stevenson's torso, that was on a t-shirt being worn by a child. The caption read. "Adonis looks great!!!" I'm not too sure it's such a great plan though as Kovalev seems to have taken it personally. He's stated that he wants to dish out some real pain and finish Pascal's career. Quality Light Heavyweight fights are thin on the ground, so if their first clash was any indication, we could be in for another explosive exchange.
Pascals a good fighter- certainly showed form that stands up and pays a compliment to Carl Froch. This Kovalev has looked a beast- Nathan Cleverly reckons he's another level completely.
I just hope that the big fights get made in the division. Would like to see Kovalev taking on Artur Berterbiev at some point. The Stephenson unification fight is the one most people want to see but the one that I'm most looking forward to and one that's looking like it actually could happen is Kovalev vs Andre Ward. Ward hasn't had the fights he should have due to a combination of injuries and promotional disputes but if he can stay injury free then this fight could get made for later this year. For what it's worth in my opinion Ward wins. With regards Saturday's fight I think Kovalev will win again but I thought in the last fight he showed some defensive frailties against Pascal. I like Pascal his fight with Froch was reminiscent of Benn/Eubank.
I did some reading today on the Stevenson - Kovalev fiasco. Seeing that Kathy Duva has Kovalev tied to HBO and Stevenson is in with Al Haymon, that fight is not even close. Lucky for Stevenson I think. Beterbiev is also in the same boat, being a Hayman fighter. And I have to wonder about Ward's chances against the Krusher. He's not been too busy of late. Kovalev is running out of quality people to fight.
As good as Kovalev is, and thats very very good. Andre Ward is something very special. Its such a shame that he's been so inactive as the boxing public have missed out on seeing a fighter who could potential be one of the best the planet has ever seen. I honestly believe that there isn't any boxers around that would beat Ward, GGG and Mayweather included
A bit of promising news on the Ward front. Looks like a bout with WBA 6, WBC 8, Sullivan Barrera of Cuba might just be on the cards on March 26. It will be an HBO affair so maybe a clash with Kovalev might be somewhere on the horizon. Now that would be something else.
You'd have to wonder why the hell Kovalev is hanging out with Kathy Duva? I just found out than when he put the WBA, IBF & WBO belts on the line against Bernard Hopkins last November, his cut came to $500,000. After taxes and payments to his manager and trainer, he cleared about $125,000. James DeGale is said to have received more than $2,000,000 when he fought Lucian Bute, and Billy Joe Saunders has said he'd fight Golovkin if he can get $6,000,000. And Kovalev clears $125,000? Maybe HBO have paid him serious sign on cash, but if they have, it would want to be huge, or I'd be giving Kathy the arse.
Ward is absolute quality. He was easily the best Super Middleweight and dominated the Super6 with victory over Froch. GGG could have some big fights if he made the transition to Super Middle. De Gale and Ward would both make great viewing against GGG as they've l got fast hands, although Ward is now on the light heavyweight scene? On a side note, anyone see the press for Frampton v Quigg? Barry Mcguigan has about as much sense of humour as a tin of tuna. I do think Framptons got all the tools to take the belts though. Hope it's close though and that there's a cracking rematch in Belfast to follow.
It would be interesting to hear the opinions on the future of George Groves. He got his career off to a blinding start, running his record to 19-0-0 before he ran into Carl Froch. He dropped back to back title shots against the great man, being stopped both times. He then scored a couple of lack lustre wins before being beaten in a split decision when challenging for Badou Jack belt. He's only 27, but there's talk that those two beatings he took at the hands of Froch might have taken it's toll on him mentally. Between those two fights, he consulted a sports psychologist to help his head. He should have an easy night of it on the weekend against Andrea di Luisa, but if he's forced to work, what kind of future does he have?
