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On the night of
May 3rd in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather will be making his bi-annual
money grab, subsidized by the CBS Corporation. Any day (or week) now,
Mayweather will announce who his dance partner will be and recently asked who
the public wants to see him face next between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana (because
Mayweather always gives the public what it yearns for - among those eligible by
being associated with Golden Boy Promotions/Showtime, of course).
Voting can be
done at MayweatherPromotions.com (mayweatherpromotions.com/fan-vote/)
and as of Thursday afternoon, “Chino,” coming off his big victory over Adrien
Broner in December, was holding a slight lead (yahoo.com/-maidana-holds-slim-lead)
after certain precincts reported Khan took the slightest of leads. Yeah, I'm
assuming the bandwidth in the U.K. is superior to that of Argentina but will
this be boxing's version of “Dewey Defeats Truman”?
Oh, yeah, this
just has the makings of the closest and most contentious vote since the 2000
presidential election. The only thing missing would be “hanging chads” and Jeb
Bush (of course, there are those cynics who believe that it’s all just a sham
and it's going to be Khan regardless. But I refuse to believe Mayweather would
ever engage in such lowdown chicanery).
But between the
two available candidates anointed by Floyd, who is the superior choice? Well,
there's no doubt who's more deserving.
It's Maidana, who had a banner 2013 in which he stopped Josesito Lopez and
solved “The Problem.” As for Khan, he struggled mightily against Julio Diaz and
then backed out of a scheduled fight against then-IBF welterweight champion
Devon Alexander to essentially secure his future payday - and chin - versus
Mayweather. While it's hard to debate any of this - and Maidana is certainly a
fighter’s fighter if there ever was one and the overwhelming choice of the
hardcore fan in the States - there's a huge difference between being someone
who deserves the fight and being the better or more intriguing fight for a
particular boxer and certainly being a better business proposition.
Yeah, Khan has
been inactive and has a track record of being chinny but we've already seen
Mayweather in with slower fighters who don't bring much quickness to the table.
Yeah, Maidana is heavy-handed; problem is he's also heavy-footed and you figure
Mayweather would just skate around him all night. For all his flaws - and he is
fatally flawed in many ways – Khan does have length and quickness. When was the
last time we saw “Money” face someone with his athleticism (yeah, I know; I
know. He got stopped by Breidis Prescott) or the last time we saw Mayweather
have to chase or stalk his opponent (hey, you don't have to remind me of the
Danny Garcia fight) or score a clean, legitimate knockout?
Let's make this
clear: as of this moment, Maidana is clearly the superior fighter to Khan.
However, the pay-per-view business is, well…just that: business. Mayweather
would be the substantial favorite over either guy (or really, anyone between
140-147 pounds) and it says here there would no real difference in pay-per-view
sales between Khan and Maidana as the B-side in this equation. But the U.K.
foreign market is much more lucrative than Argentina’s, which is what Khan
would bring with him.
Meanwhile, as
this proposition gained steam, it certainly became a mud-slinging campaign that
would make veteran senators blush in embarrassment. On Twitter, Maidana (@ChinoMaidana)
and Khan (@AmirKingKhan) engaged in a heated back-and-forthing reminiscent of
the memorable 2010 battle at the Mandalay Bay. It was 140 characters of fury capped
off by Maidana challenging Khan to a rematch on May 3rd. Pretty
soon, other boxers like Keith Thurman and Paulie Malignaggi got into the fray
and it became boxing's/the Twitterverse’s version of the “Royal Rumble.”
Khan, whose
hubris borders on delusional at times, tweeted the day before that if
Mayweather faced Maidana, he'd be facing Khan’s “leftovers,” which happens to
be a favorite line used by Mayweather himself. Of course, some could state Khan
is then Prescott or Garcia “leftovers.”
(On Wednesday
evening, this non-partisan scribe with no horse in this race was accused by
Maidana - or whoever is running his Twitter account - of “campaigning” on
Khan's behalf after a few retweets that seemed to endorse Khan's case for the
fight. Just for the record, the Kimster's official endorsement for the May 3rd assignment goes to write-in candidate (and no, there is no write-in option),
Erislandy Lara, the talented Cuban who holds a major belt at 154 and is coming
off a whitewash of Austin Trout. He's the Ron Paul of this thing and quite
frankly, has about the same chance of ever facing Mayweather as a third-party
candidate has of ever winning a presidential election.)
Mayweather, a
marketing genius in many ways, once again struck gold. As this was the topic in boxing on the same day Manny
Pacquiao and Tim Bradley were concluding their media tour for their April 12th rematch in New York City. But he also may have put himself in a bit of a no-win
situation here. The reality is there will be a sizable number of fans who will
be displeased by whomever he faces next. This “vote” (or whatever it is) just
accentuated that. It highlights a fundamental flaw in the current business and
in the deal he has with Showtime in which the talent pool of available opponents
is significantly shrunken due to the lingering “Cold War” between Golden
Boy/Showtime and Top Rank Promotions.
By the way, has Mayweather
stated he will actually fight whoever
wins this “election”?
TNR
Here's the
latest episode of “The Next Round” with Gabe Montoya and Yours Truly:
Here's the iTunes
app for “TNR”:
SPORTS ON EARTH
Here's my latest
contribution to SportsOnEarth.com on what really is on the line for Pacquiao as
he rematches Tim Bradley on April 12th:
MUCH-NEEDED
RAINY FLURRIES
It was announced
that the March 8th pay-per-view card featuring Saul Alvarez-Alfredo
Angulo will be available for viewing in movie theaters...Sorry, I have no
interest in the George Zimmerman-DMX freakshow (and I have very low standards
as most of you know)...I plan on watching about no minutes of the Winter
Olympics...I thought the Miami recruiting class was very good but not great.
Simply missed too many elite guys and had a few key defections late when it was
all said and done…
I can be reached
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