Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

Let’s Get This Party Started
↵The 2009 boxing schedule sees its first major fight hit the ring tomorrow night in Biloxi as Brooklyn-born Luis Collazo challenges Andre Berto for Berto’s WBC welterweight title. The fight will be televised on HBO’s Boxing After Dark.↵↵This is about as good as a B.A.D. can be, an undefeated, budding star in Berto who already holds one of the major belts at 147 taking on a rough-and-ready customer in Collazo who has been in the ring with some of the biggest names of the sport, and in my humble opinion actually managed to beat one of those big names (Ricky Hatton, who was given a gift decision over Collazo in his HBO debut on American soil).↵

↵↵It’s possible to say that Collazo is the best fighter that Berto has faced in his young career, although that would be something of a slight to Stevie Forbes, who Berto decisioned in an impressive performance this past September. Either way, Collazo will be an important measuring stick for Berto as he climbs the all-important ladder of boxing’s Q factor rankings. ↵

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↵↵The point being that if Berto wants to prove that he is worthy of that level of competition, he needs to do more than beat Collazo – he needs to do it convincingly. And while Luis isn’t an A-list talent, he’s not far away from the game’s upper echelon. He’s a southpaw who is sneaky-fast, fundamentally sound, and hard as nails. If he comes into this thing loaded for bear, he could definitely force Berto to reach deep to pull out the W. It’s an early-season treat to whet our appetites for next week’s early-season feast, another welterweight title fight between two giants at 147, Margarito and Mosley.↵

↵↵Off Again On Again Off Again
↵Earlier in the week, it was reported that Manny Pacquiao had acquiesced to a 50-50 earnings split with Ricky Hatton and that their scheduled May 2nd bout in Vegas was back on after a brief period in which Pac Man’s team was saying 60-40 or no fight. ↵

↵↵Now it once again appears that the fight is stalled due to Pacquiao’s insistence on a 60-40 split. This is in direct conflict with his promoter, Bob Arum, who has been reassuring everyone who would listen this week that 50-50 was a fair division of resources and that once he explained it to Manny, the fighter would understand.↵

↵↵Evidently, the fighter does not understand. In an article in today’s Manila Bulletin, Pacquiao is quoted as saying that he’s standing firm on his 60-40 position. For their part, Hatton and his handlers have been strident since the beginning that this was a 50-50 affair or it was no go. ↵

↵↵You have to wonder how long this thing will drag out. My position always has been that Pacquiao and not Hatton has the most to lose here, because I believe that Pac Man will have a relatively easy time in beating Hatton and make a fortune in the process, and where there aren’t that many mega-fight options out there for Pacquiao right now, Hatton can fill a soccer stadium in England any time he chooses. ↵

↵↵Then again, the recent news that Floyd Mayweather is in deep to the IRS may have given Manny a big chip to throw on the table, because if Floyd needs money as he appears to do, then the quickest way he could get it, and get a lot of it, would be to sign on the dotted line for a fight with Pacquiao, at which point Manny might be more than happy to walk away from Hatton altogether.↵

↵↵The Most Interesting Make of the Week
↵Without question, the week’s most interesting fight announcement was the news that Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera will fight England’s Amir Khan on March 14th in the U.K. Barrera is attempting to make it back to world-class status after retiring in the fall of ’07, while Khan saw his status as an up-and-coming phenom leveled this past September when he failed to last longer than a minute of the first round with Colombian Breidis Prescott.↵

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↵↵Since that fateful evening, Khan faced the Irish lightweight Oisin Fagan in December and knocked him out in two. But the general consensus was that it would be a while until you saw Khan in a high-stakes fight after the devastation that he suffered at the hands of Prescott.↵

↵↵So much for that theory. It’s back into the deep end of the pool for young Amir as he prepares to face one of the most decorated fighters of his generation, the former titlist in four weight divisions, Barrera.↵

↵↵It’s hard to know what to make of this fight, because it’s hard to know what, if anything, Barrera has left to offer. But though I’m not sure that it’s the wisest move for Khan to be put in with such a savvy veteran as Barrera at this vulnerable point in his career, from a fan’s perspective, this is a brilliant bit of matchmaking. You wouldn’t expect either man to be able to generate so much drama right now, and yet this bout sees both sides pushing all their chips to the center of the table. If Khan beats Barrera and looks good doing it, he’s a rising star again and the Prescott debacle is behind him. Meanwhile, Barrera’s comeback bid would be effectively over. But if Barrera beats Khan in convincing fashion, he’s back in the big-time mix and undoubtedly would see his name batted around for a marquee fight later in the year. A loss for Khan, however, so soon on the heels of the Prescott loss, might see his career end before it ever got off the ground. ↵

↵↵In other words, this thing is an unexpected smorgasbord for sweet scientists, a fight with a lot of tasty variable in which both principals are laying it all on the line. To that, what else can you say but “yeah cheers, mate, yeah cheers.”↵

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