Let
me make this clear; I understand why Shane Mosley is getting the assignment of
facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on the Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto undercard, May
5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He's a recognizable name to the
general public and even in his currently depleted state, he is much more
valuable than the likes of Delvin Rodriguez, Austin Trout and Cornelius
Bundrage. As I tweeted, the casual fan’s reaction is, “Oh, hey, Shane Mosley is
on this card!” The hardcore fan is more along the lines of, “UGH… Shane Mosley
is on the show?!”
Golden
Boy Promotions has every right to do this. But like much of the public, I have
every right to not like it.
I
mean, this is almost as if GBP said, “OK, we'll see your Tim Bradley-Joel
Casamayor and raise you Alvarez-Mosley.” Now it looks like Peter Quillin will
be matched with Winky Wright. Yeah, if there was ever a card that needed a “Hot
Tub Time Machine,” this is it. Based on the reaction I've seen on Twitter, it
proves my theory that while the general public only cares about the main event
of a pay-per-view card, the hardcore followers are the only ones that truly
care about the undercard. And I've said before, 98 percent of your sales (if
not more) are predicated on the main event. You could put Terry Norris on
against Simon Brown in a rubbermatch (not to give them any ideas) and this show
will not suffer financially. For all the outrage and talk of boycotting this
show because of this undercard, Mayweather and Cotto are brands that sell,
regardless.
But
the issue here is how, in the past, Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya have
pointed fingers at Bob Arum for his cards (justifiably so in certain cases) and
how they are doing things a different way for the betterment of boxing. Just
look up some of the past comments from Oscar (his Twitter feed is a hoot) [Editor’s note: I wouldn’t know. I’ve been
blocked] on Mosley before he faced Manny Pacquiao last year. Basically,
Oscar said Mosley was a shot fighter (which, of course, was preceded by Arum
thrashing Mosley for his putrid outing against Sergio Mora prior to tabbing him
to face the “Pac-Man” last year. I mean, the back-and-forthing on Mosley
between these two factions is like a tennis match where each side is taking
shots at the “Sugarman” like a Penn).
In
the past, Arum gave us such farces as Butterbean and Mia St. John and shoved
Yuri Foreman down everyone's throats. Now, Golden Boy is giving us Senior
League Boxing. I wonder; what would De La Hoya tweet if Mosley were paired with
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. instead of “Canelo”?
It'll
be interesting to see what Top Rank does for its June 9th card,
given that while I think Tim Bradley is a real fight for Manny Pacquiao, there
is still a bit of an exposure gap for the “Desert Storm.” I think it would
behoove them to put on a representative undercard for whoever might be on the
fence in purchasing this show. Whatever fights they do put on, I think Golden Boy would be best not to throw any
Everlasts in their direction.
What
do they say about living in glass houses?
I'm
not saying what they're doing is any worse but it's clear; it's not really any
better either.
