Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

I’ve already stated my case right here at TSB for the epic potential of tomorrow night’s Miguel Cotto/Josh Clottey clash, so in today’s boxing notes I’m going to take a quick tour around the laboratory of the sweet science and see what else the sport has cooking at the moment. ↵
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↵Was David Haye’s Injury a Wounded Bank Account?↵
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↵There’s a report over at Boxing Scene today outlining a conspiracy theory that’s floating around about David Haye’s decision to pull out of his scheduled June 20 fight with Wladimir Klitschko. According to the theory, Setanta Sports, the main purveyor of televised boxing in Great Britain, is about to go bankrupt.
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↵Haye has a contract with Setanta to televise his fights, and because he reportedly stood to make no money from the German gate or television rights in the Klitschko fight, his primary source of income was going to be his take from Setanta. And with Setanta in such a precarious financial state that it was unclear whether they could even manage to air the fight, Haye fabricated an injury … or so goes the theory. I don’t know enough about the vagaries of British sports television to comment, but I will say this: There always was something very sketchy about a tweaked back (injured during shadowboxing no less) putting a stop to a fight that Haye had been clamoring for months as if his life depended on it. The guy seems too vain, brave and crazy to have suddenly caught himself a case of the willies. That it was money motivating the situation makes perfect sense. ↵
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Mayweather/Pacquiao Drama Continues ↵
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↵The negotiation for the Pac Man/Floyd fight already feels like it’s been going on for years … and they haven’t even started negotiating yet! Floyd still has to beat Juan Manuel Marquez, for Pete’s sake. And yet the barbs between the two camps fly on almost a daily basis. No one involved with either fighter seems to miss a chance to take a swipe, veiled or forthright, at the other man, no matter what the context. My favorite recent example of this was when Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, in response to a report that Pacquiao had said he is now only interested in Mayweather for his next fight, slickly restated the case thusly: “I agree with Manny about wanting to fight Mayweather Jr. That’s the easiest fight out there. Among the top guys, that’s the easiest fight.” Sure, Freddie, exactly … that’s why Pacquiao wants Floyd. Beccause it’s going to be so easy. ↵
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↵Meanwhile you have Roger Mayweather, Floyd’s uncle and trainer, scoffing at the idea that Pacquiao should even be allowed in the ring with Floyd, you have Floyd himself insisting that unless he gets a bigger piece of the split there will be no fight, and you have Bob Arum stating categorically there will be no fight … and meanwhile there’s Manny sitting on his emperor’s throne in the Philippines saying, “Bring me Mayweather.” Just wake me when they’ve made this thing. … ↵
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↵Floyd Vies for a Cabinet Post: Secretary of Cash Money? ↵
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↵Speaking of Floyd, did you see where he personally invited President Obama to come see him fight Marquez on July 18? Likewise has Marquez invited the Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, to attend the fight. Of course, neither man will show. The President at a big-time fight in Vegas? That just isn’t going to happen, ever. But I wonder if Obama would even watch Floyd/Marquez on the tube. I have no knowledge of his inclinations when it comes to the fistic arts. ↵
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↵The Possibility of Pavlik vs. Froch Generates Zero Buzz ↵
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↵Bob Arum went on Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour and floated the idea of middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik facing super middleweight champ Carl Froch some time in 2010. It was a tease that was met with a mighty gaping yawn from the media. Oh, woe is Pavlik, and woe is the sport of boxing, when a single (albeit, humiliating) loss dooms a former A-list name to near extinction. Granted, England’s Carl Froch, despite his thrilling, last-second stoppage of Jermain Taylor in April, is still not a fighter who gets the juices flowing here in the States. Maybe an ultimate showdown with Pavlik would change that, however, because a Pavlik/Froch fight promises to be a VERY bloody, brain-damaging affair of the kind that turns belt-holders into attractions. ↵
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↵On paper, you would think the tilt leaned in Pavlik’s direction in a fight with Froch, and yet, presuming the fight would be at 68, given what happened to Pavlik the last (and only) time he’s ventured north of the middleweight limit, one has to wonder if Kelly will have the pop to finish Froch. Let us not forget that in his last two fights Froch has eaten one decapitating haymaker after another from Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor and kept coming like some pale, punch-drunk version of the Terminator. And on that note, I raise the imaginary pint of lager to the proposition that this fight gets made, and also to the hope that when it does, it gets a little love from the fight game’s notoriously fickle punters and pundits.↵