Under the previous regime at HBO,
it was rare that boxing would even be scheduled in the month of
October. The belief was that the baseball playoffs overshadowed
everything else in the sporting universe. But now that a Yankee fan is
no longer in charge over there (honestly, I’m not sure which ball club
Ken Hershman supports), HBO has put together a very good looking
doubleheader in conjunction with Top Rank that will see Nonito Donaire face Toshiaki Nishioka in a junior featherweight clash with a co-feature that looks to be a can’t-miss matchup in Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado on October 13th. Talk about a fall classic.
Yeah,
most boxing fans would be willing to forgo the divisional playoffs for
this show, held at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
Todd
duBoef, president of Top Rank told Maxboxing on Monday, “I just think
that it was done hand-in-hand with HBO. They wanted a big event for
October and obviously with some of the younger, more talented guys in
different divisions, we wanted to put them in solid fights. And when we
talked about putting all these guys together on one show, it was, ‘Wow,
this could be incredible.’ Rios and Alvarado in themselves are guys that
can garner their own dates at this point; they both have that telegenic
style and they’re both in a position where…listen, if they can put on
an incredible performance, they’re both going to win. And with Nonito,
he’s fighting probably one of the established 122-pounders in the
world.”
One
of the best things you can say about this show is that either bout
makes a strong case for being that night’s main event on HBO. But you
get the sense that Rios-Alvarado has the makings of possibly being
another Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo I. But duBoef says, “I
think it’s different; I think they’re both in different places in their
careers. This is a really interesting fight and I think a lot of it is
it goes out to those guys who want to be fighters and want to go out
there and put on great performances and give it their all and fight the
highest caliber. Brandon’s obviously struggled with the 135-pound weight
class and to go to 140 is obviously a big step and one of the most
feared guys at 140 is Alvarado. And it became one of those things where
they both saw a great opportunity for each other to shine.”
As
for Donaire, whose last three fights have been relatively unimpressive,
it’s a chance to reestablish his brand. The public reaction is that
they prefer the match-up to Nishioka over Jorge Arce, who was originally
slated to face the “Filipino Flash” in this slot.
“I
don’t think it’s a better opponent or worse opponent; I think there are
no such things,” reasoned duBoef. “I think there are no such things;
they’re both good prizefights and you hope that the styles and the
match-ups work out well and unfortunately for that date, we couldn’t
make a Donaire-Arce fight work under these terms and Nishioka had been
out there saying he really wanted to fight Donaire and Donaire did want
to fight Nishioka. They had been talking about it and it was something
where the timing worked out well for that fight to get hatched.”
As
for the selection of the venue, duBoef said of the Home Depot Center,
“I think you still deal with a very large Filipino base out of the
Carson area. I think it’s the second largest in California behind that
pocket out of the San Francisco area and then you obviously have Rios
that has a large Southern California contingent from Oxnard. I think
those people who are big fight fans and those people - and we’ve seen
everybody talk about it on social media - that want to see terrific
match-ups. It’s a big hotbed. Southern California is a wonderful hotbed
for fight fans and I think it makes a lot of sense there.”
TIX
Top
Rank is still working out the details for the press conference to
officially kick off this promotion. As for ticket prices, duBoef
remarked, “I think we’re talking possibly your top price being 150
[dollars].”
Yeah,
I know it’s an outdoor venue and anything can happen in terms of
weather (I still remember it coming down hard the day of the Vic
Darchinyan-Cristian Mijares fight in November of 2008) but I don’t care
if there is monsoon or a hurricane; I’ll be there on press row ready to
see this fight card. I would be like the bishop in “Caddyshack” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r95a3p8Os-w).
EMAIL
Another
thing that they do well is incentivize the fighters to really go for
exciting fights with the bonuses. Take Joe Lauzon...he makes 18/18 per
fight (18k for showing up, 18k if he wins...all fighters also get
"discretionary bonuses" but this is what’s reported). Joe and Jamie
Varner won "fight of the night" for a $50k bonus, and Joe won
"submission of the night" for another $50k bonus. So he walked away
from this fight with $136k. If you’re an MMA fighter and you fight 3 or
4 times a year, your income is based on your performance for both
victories and creating great stylistic, fan friendly fights. Anyways,
great column, and I hope boxing fans realize that there is a younger
generation that has grown up with the idea that both boxing and mma are
legitimate but different combat sports. There really shouldn’t be any
animosity between the two. Trust me, I don’t want you out there
covering MMA, but I think the moral of the story is that people like to
watch fighting. Hope all is well otherwise...
Duly noted...
HARD KNOCKS FLURRIES
WealthTV
(which I don’t know if I even have) will be televising the September
8bout between Tomasz Adamek and Travis Walker from the Prudential Center
in Newark...The special edition of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” on
Sept. 13th will feature Jessie Vargas versus Aaron Martinez
with Luis Cruz in the co-feature. Also on this card is Terrance
Crawford, Mikael Zewski and Andy Ruiz at the Hard Rock Casino in Las
Vegas...The IBF junior middleweight eliminator between Gabriel Rosado
and Charles Whittaker has ended up on the NBC Sports Network “Fight
Night” telecast on September 21st...There’s a possibility
that Mercito Gesta could be challenging IBF lightweight beltholder
Miguel Vazquez on the Manny Pacquiao undercard on November 10th.
“We’re ready to go,” says Gesta’s trainer/manager Vincent
Parra...Seriously, wasn’t this the year to do “Hard Knocks” with the
Jets? That team is one big soap opera...Speaking of HBO, “24/7” for
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Sergio Martinez debuts on Sept. 1st at
11:45 p.m., ET/PT, which will be a great nightcap after watching
‘Bama-Michigan and Clemson-Auburn...Guillermo Jones will be a manager,
according to FightNews. I assume he will keep his clients a bit more
active than himself...“T.O.” in Seattle? Get your Sharpies,
ready!...Someone needs to tell Penn State to just let it go and move on...
...
