MONICA SEARS, PUBLIC RELATIONS COORDINATOR, GOLDEN BOY ENTERTAINMENT: Thank you, everyone, for joining us today on the second call on our weekly series leading up to the "World Awaits" May 5th Super Fight. I would like to turn the call over to Golden Boy Promotion's CEO Richard Schaefer.
RICHARD SCHAEFER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS: Thank you, Monica. Welcome, all, to our second call of The World Awaits. Everybody is talking on May 5th. The whole world will be watching De La Hoya versus Mayweather.
On today's call we have Golden Boy Matchmaker Eric Gomez, who will discuss and announce the under card for May 5th.
We have as well Rocky Juarez, one of the best featherweights in the world today, an amazing young man, who had two great fights against Barrera in the first, where he very, very narrowly missing the victory. We at Golden Boy, of course, are extremely happy to have Rocky part of the Golden Boy stable and family, and we have very big plans for him.
We have as well Scott Ghertner, Senior Vice President of the MGM Mirage, who will be discussing the odds of the fight and the changes which have occurred over the past few weeks with these odds.
Following these three guests, we will have a question-and-answer session, where all of us, including myself, are happy to answer any questions you might have.
But before we start, I would like to give you a brief update related to the fight. Today, we have the mandatory 30-day pre-fight weigh-in, which will take place under the supervision of the WBC in Puerto Rico for Oscar and Las Vegas for Floyd. This will happen in about three hours, and we will send out immediately a media alert informing you on what the respective weights are.
Today, Shane Mosley has arrived as well in Puerto Rico at camp to help Oscar prepare for his fight. Shane, by the way, will be on the call next week with his report from camp and how everything is going.
As we know, HBO is preparing a groundbreaking documentary series called 24/7, which is a four-part series airing in the best time slot on HBO on Sunday night following the new season – final season of Sopranos and Entourage, which is at 10:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Times. The first part will air on Sunday, April 15th. So, that's in a week-and-a-half. And what I hear is simply incredible.
Don't miss, by the way, this weekend when HBO will air during the Calzaghe versus Manfredo fight, a three-minute piece, sort of whetting everybody's appetite as it relates to that amazing documentary series.
I hear that the contrast between these two camps is absolutely incredible and amazing, sort of like good guy versus bad guy. It's just – I think, the stuff which is going on there is going to have everybody looking forward even more to the fight.
I'm happy to announce as well a great event, which will kick off this super weekend of boxing on Friday night, May 4th, following the weigh-in – immediately following the weigh-in, which will take place at 2:30 from the MGM Grand Garden. We will have a special edition of Telefutura Solo Boxeo. It will start at 5:00 p.m. from the MGM Grand, and we called it Fiesta Boxeo because it will have a lot of fun elements – mariachis, special autographed memorabilia stands, games, sponsor integration, and so on.
And it will feature the world championship fight between a fighter who is today considered to be the best at the lower weight classes, and that's WBO World Champion and Ring Champion as well at the 108-pound weight, Hugo Cazares from Mexico.
And here are some more news related to that show. On the same card, a fighter who by many experts was compared to Oscar, he has power, charisma, and he will make his long-awaited return to the ring and has already been in some pretty big fights. And, yes, he is Francisco Panchito Bojado. Shelley Finkel who is Panchito's manager and advisor, is pleased to have Panchito join the Golden Boy family.
Without further adieu, I would like to introduce Scott Ghertner, Senior Vice President of MGM Mirage, who will give us an update on the odds. Please, Scott.
SCOTT GHERTNER, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MGM MIRAGE: Thank you. Thank you to all the media who have joined us today.
On behalf of Robert Walker, our MGM Mirage Race and Sports Book Director, who apologizes that he couldn't make it today to speak to you, I will provide you with the current odds as well as the opening odds on the fight.
The opening odds back when we announced it our press tour in February – our nationwide press tour in February – Floyd Mayweather was a minus – was a little over two-to-one favorite at minus 220, and Oscar was the slight underdog at plus 180. What that means is that Floyd was a little more than a two-to-one favorite or basically that Oscar was a two-to-one underdog.
Currently the current odds at all of our MGM Mirage race and sports books the odds have come down a little, which means that people are making their early bets on Oscar. Floyd is now still a two-to-one favorite by minus 210 and Oscar is at plus 175.
A couple of quick notes relative to the odds, Robert did mention to me that he really has never seen this much action so far out prior to a fight. Obviously we've got about a month to go, a little over 30 days, until the fight. And he's never seen this much action wagering on a fight since really the Tyson-Holyfield days of the late '90s.
Additionally, we've received a number of five figure bets already. We made no six figure bets yet, which I'm sure we will anticipate a lot more action the week of the fight as more fans and the family and friends of everyone come into town into Las Vegas.
So, MGM Mirage is anticipating a great week of wagering. And, again, right now Floyd is a little more than two-to-one favorite and minus 210, plus 175. The week of the fight, if not sooner, Robert will also put up the odds and post odds of will the fight go the distance or specific round categories as well, and other various props related to the fight.
If anyone has any questions and would like to interview Robert, as he is our main spokesperson with regards to the odds and all of the wagering taking place on the fight and any other events that we host or any events in which you can place a wager, I will be able to take all requests for Robert and arrange an interview with him.
RICHARD SCHAEFER: Thank you Scott. Talking about the MGM Mirage, just a quick update on the closed circuit as well. We have over 10,000 seats sold already, which is a new record as well because usually closed circuit seats, which at $50 apiece, are sold till like last minute, the week or the weekend of the fight. We have 22,000 seats available right now in Las Vegas. We think that these 22,000 seats will be sold out. And so, please make your reservations.
And what I want to make sure as well is that we actually – let you know that we currently are talking with the MGM Mirage group to potentially make more seats available for closed circuit as well.
Now I'd like to turn it over to Eric Gomez, the matchmaker from Golden Boy Promotions, who is going to announce the complete under card for this fight.
ERIC GOMEZ, MATCHMAKER, GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS: Thank you, Richard. Thank you all for being on the line for this press call.
In the co-feature we have a young man that we're very excited, as Richard stated earlier, to be with Golden Boy Promotions and part of our family, and that's Ricardo Rocky Juarez, who will be in the co-feature. He is going to be fighting out of Chicago Jose Hernandez.
Jose Hernandez is well known in his last bout he fought on HBO After Dark. And he knocked out a very good prospect in Jason Litzau. And now he's got a bigger test against Rocky Juarez.
Myself personally, I've been scouting Rocky since amateur days – since he was an amateur before the Olympics. And he was an excellent amateur and he's a very excellent pro now. And his only loss is – if you see Rocky's record, he only has three losses. One was a very close fight, questionable, and the other two were to the great Marco Antonio Barrera.
And we're happy to be working with Rocky. And we want to get him back to where he belongs, and that's to be a world title contender. So, he's going to be fighting against Jose Hernandez, who's a very interesting fighter himself. He only has three losses himself. And we feel that this is going to be a very, very exciting fight due to the styles.
Rocky is an act fighter. He comes to fight. He comes forward, throws lots of punches. He has a similar style. He comes to fight and he makes very exciting fights.
Opening up the pay-per-view Rey Boom-Boom Bautista – Rey Bautista – who's undefeated, ranked number one in the world with a WBO at 122 pounds. And he'll be fighting the number two guy in the world, Sergio Medina, who's also undefeated 28-0. And that fight will be an eliminator for the WBO 122 pound title. So, the winner will be facing the world champion at this point, who is Daniel Ponce De Leon.
Rey Bautista – many of you have heard of Rey Bautista. He's another very exciting fighter. A similar style to Rocky Juarez, where he comes forward, throws punches. He's a young kid. He's only 20 years old. But the kid already has a big following in the Philippines. He fought in the Philippines, and I was privileged to be there at the fight where we had over 20,000 people that went to go see him in an outdoor stadium. So, he's made a name for himself in the Philippines and he's going to be facing obviously the toughest guy in his career, Sergio Medina.
Sergio Medina is another young kid out of Argentina who is ready to de-throne him, de-throne him and take him out of that number one spot and become the mandatory for Daniel Ponce De Leon.
So, we have a great under card, which will be televised. It starts at 6:00 P.M. West Coast and 9:00 P.M. in the East Coast. And we feel that these fights are going to be very, very exciting leading up the main event, Oscar De La Hoya versus Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Thank you, guys.
RICHARD SCHAEFER: Before I'm going to turn it over to Rocky, I would like to mention as well on behalf of Rocky's manager, Shelly Finkel's on the call. So, if any of you has any questions afterwards for Shelly.
But this is actually the first fighter we are signing – Golden Boy is signing with Shelly. And I'm really happy the relationship over the past months I was able – privileged to develop with Shelly. I really – it's a pleasure to work with Shelly. He is a pro. And I know that this is the first of many fights that we will sign together. And I really appreciate the friendship and strategic alliance we have formed with Shelly.
Rocky Juarez is really one of those new fighters which really is in the ring and outside the ring. He's just an amazing guy. An exciting fighter, great personality, has obviously the Olympic background with a Silver Medal he won in the 2000 games, two very, very close fights with Barrera. And we really have great plans for him. We think that in many ways Rocky will become one of these few fighters which are going to carry the sports once some of the legends are going to retire from this sport.
And we have for this year laid out the path for Rocky, obviously with being on the De La Hoya card, getting the tremendous worldwide exposure, which is associated with that. But then we have – because of all these fighters we have in the featherweights, we have penciled in for Rocky for later on this year if everything goes well on May 5th a world title fight. And we hope, we are convinced, that Rocky Juarez will become a world champion very soon.
It is a pleasure for me now to introduce to you Rocky Juarez.
ROCKY JUAREZ, BOXER: Thanks, Rick. It's a pleasure to be working with Golden Boy and continue working with Shelly. We've been working together since my first professional bout since 2001. And it's a pleasure to be on the Golden Boy team. They offered me the best contract and I'm going to do the best in my ability to perform and do the best as I can.
RICHARD SCHAEFER: Great. Thank you.
Now I'd like to open it up for any questions you might have to any one of the participants of today's call.
OPERATOR: Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you do have a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad at this time.
Our first question is coming from Alex Stone. Please go ahead.
ALEX STONE: How you doing, Rocky? You said – they said that if you win on May 5th you're going to be looking for a world title fight. Which one of the champions do you plan on going after?
ROCKY JUAREZ: Well, whoever they put me up against. I'm definitely – I believe this is going to be the interim title for the WBO, if I'm not mistaken, against Chris John from Indonesia. If not, whichever champion at 126 pounds I'll be definitely willing to take on. I'm just definitely looking forward to May 5th, being on a great card, and on the De La Hoya-Mayweather card, where it was until yesterday I found out from Shelly Finkel that I was going to be the co-main event, which made me very excited to be a co-main event of a great fight, actually De La Hoya and Mayweather.
But I'm definitely looking forward to May 5th against Jose Hernandez. I've been training real hard and I'm ready to go.
ALEX STONE: All right. And even though he doesn't have a belt, would you consider going after Manny Pacquiao?
ROCKY JUAREZ: Well, at which weight? I always told Shelly I'd be willing to fight whoever. When they gave me the opportunity – when I was signed with a different promoter and they gave me the opportunity to fight Marco Antonio Barrera at 130 pounds I was willing to move up to 130 pounds and face him for the fact that I know in my ability and my confidence that I work hard, I train hard, I fight hard and I always say, like every other fighter says, in order to be the best you have to compete against the best out there and earn your respect.
Yes, I'd be willing to fight whoever – Pacquiao. I always told Shelly I'd fight whoever put me in to and I'll fight him.
ALEX STONE: That's very respectful because even though he doesn't have a belt he's considered one of pound for pound best in the world. So, that's good to know. Thank you.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Roman Modrowski with "Chicago Sun Times". Please go ahead.
ROMAN MODROWSKI, "CHICAGO SUN TIMES": Hi, Rocky. Can you just talk a little bit about what you know about Jose and his style and what kind of fight you expect?
ROCKY JUAREZ: Well, I expect a great entertaining fight. When they announced that I was fighting Jose Hernandez, the name came up right away. The fight with him and Jason Litzau went – showed the heart and determination to say he was never out of the fight. He was losing the fight in the beginning of the fight. He always came forward, showed a lot of heart, showed a lot of guts, and fought it hard.
And all that prospered in the late rounds, where he finally knocked out Jason Litzau, I believe, in the eighth or ninth round.
So, when they announced that I was fighting Jose Hernandez I knew this was a tough opponent. And I believe I've seen some of his recent fights – other fights where he always gives good, exciting fights. He never gives up. He trains hard. You can see from his conditioning and – he always comes and fights.
ROMAN MODROWSKI: Thank you.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Robert Morales with "Los Angeles Daily News". Please go ahead.
ROBERT MORALES, "LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS": Hey, Rocky. How you doing today, man?
ROCKY JUAREZ: How's it going, Robert?
ROBERT MORALES: Good. I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Thank you.
Listen, in regards to the two fights with Barrera, the first fight we know there was some controversy, a little bit of controversy with the scoring. At the end of the day he got a narrow decision. It was very close. There were a few guys that thought you had won. A few guys thought Barrera had won. So, it was one of those fights.
The second fight Marco really, I guess, goes the smart route and kind of stays away from you and really doesn't give you a chance to fight him.
Do the circumstances surrounding those two fights still kind of stick in your claw a little bit?
ROCKY JUAREZ: Well, not so much. Losing two fights in a row was basically one of my hardest things to take in as a pro throughout my career. And the fact that I came back and fought him – I knew who (ph) on Telefutura and won in the fifth round knockout. Basically it made it at ease. I had to be able to take it a loss as a fighter and just move on.
I'm fortunate to say that I've been blessed that I wasn't hurt in the two Barrera fights where I think one thing that benefited from the Barrera fights was I gained the respect of fans, the Mexican fans, the Latinos, to go up against a great legend like Marco Antonio Barrera and give him a great fight. And it showed throughout the second bout that he went the easy route, where everyone expected a great, entertaining fight, a great even better fight, where it became a hit and run fight, where the fans were very disappointed.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad at this time.
Our next question is coming from Michael Hirsley with "Chicago Tribune". Please go ahead.
MICHAEL HIRSLEY, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Yes. Rocky, it seems like we're taking you back to some of your past fights. But you had a very exciting fight in Chicago a couple years ago against Umberto Soto, whose career has done quite well since then.
Do you ever think about a rematch with him, or are you sort of looking past that kind of a fight?
ROCKY JUAREZ: No, definitely. I always look past. I mean, I think a fighter who loses a close fight which he feels in his heart that he could have won if he fought the right style, that's the way I feel against Umberto Soto. Umberto Soto fought perfect – to me, a perfect fight. And I give him a lot of respect for that fight. It was a good entertaining fight. Not too many people knew of Umberto Soto.
The fact that I was supposed to be fighting for the championship of the world against Injin Chi two weeks out, they changed it, and I had to fight Umberto Soto. Umberto Soto was ranked number two in the world by the WBC. I was ranked number one. So, he fought a great fight. I do – excuse me, I do always think about having a rematch against Umberto Soto in the future.
MICHAEL HIRSLEY: I guess that is something that possibly might be with both of you who are looking for a title this time around.
ROCKY JUAREZ: I believe – doesn't Umberto Soto have a title?
MICHAEL HIRSLEY: Yes, that would be a title fight, right?
RICHARD SCHAEFER: He's not yet. He's not yet. He doesn't have a title, no. He's ranked number three – number two by the WBC at 130 pounds.
ERIC GOMEZ: He was an interim champion at 126, and he moved up to 130 now. And he's not a champion anymore.
MICHAEL HIRSLEY: I see. But, still, you guys are about at the same level of top level contenders.
ROCKY JUAREZ: Yes. I look at Umberto Soto. I mean, I think after that loss to Umberto Soto and the way he's been running over his opponents in the past – just recently, I mean, I think a lot of fighters feel that, man, this guy he beat Rocky Juarez, gave Rocky Juarez a hell of a fight, and he's running over to his opponents like nothing. He's a fighter not to be reckoned with.
So, I believe Umberto Soto and I are going to be the future of boxing.
MICHAEL HIRSLEY: Thanks very much, Rocky.
ROCKY JUAREZ: Thank you.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Marcus Stark with Long Beach Eye. Please go ahead.
MARCUS STARK, LONG BEACH EYE: Excuse me, everybody, I've got a bad throat, so I've got to keep it short.
Eric, is there truth to the rumor that Shane Mosley is going to fight Ricardo Mayorga?
ERIC GOMEZ: That he's going to fight with who?
MARCUS STARK: Ricardo Mayorga?
RICHARD SCHAEFER: No, there's no rumor to that.
ERIC GOMEZ: No, no, no, there's no truth to that rumor.
MARCUS STARK: OK. How difficult was it for you – how challenging was it for you to put together the fight card?
ERIC GOMEZ: To put together the fight card?
MARCUS STARK: Yes.
ERIC GOMEZ: Well, basically the fight with Rey Bautista was very easy because it was number against number two, and it was very simple. And, likewise, with Rocky Juarez, like Richard said, Shelly Finkel's the professional and he's very good to work with. And Shelly said, "Hey, whoever you guys feel that he should fight we're on. I mean, Rocky doesn't run from anybody. He'll fight anybody." And that was the case. We were thinking of two opponents. And Jose Hernandez was one of them, and we chose him.
RICHARD SCHAEFER: I think – you know what I would like to add as well is obviously Oscar's mandate was when you put the under card together to really find a way to expose and introduce some of these young kids which really are, in our opinion, the future of the sport of boxing to the world. And when I say to the world it's exactly because this fight is going to be shown in an amazing 176 countries all over the world.
And so, to have a Rocky Juarez on there and to have a Rey Bautista on there saying these are two names which we have great hopes for and which, in our opinion, will be the future superstars of the sport.
ERIC GOMEZ: Another thing to add is also the Rocky that fought against Marco Antonio Barrera and the Rocky that fought against Umberto Soto that's the old Rocky. This is a new, improved Rocky, and he showed it in his last fight. He's got a new trainer in his corner in Ronnie Shields. Ronnie Shields is one of the best trainers in the United States, if not the world. And that's very important to bring up as well.
Rocky – maybe he can speak for himself, but I saw some things in Rocky's last fight that he didn't do in the Barrera fight. And when he fought in last fight on Telefutura, he was able to cut off the ring. He was very sharp. He looked very strong. And I think that those are things that he's been working on in the gym with Ronnie Shields. You can see the difference already. So, I think this is a new stage in Rocky's career. And we're going to do our best to get him where he has to be, and that's to a world title.
OPERATOR: There appears to be no further questions. I'll turn the floor back over to Mr. Richard Schaefer for any further or closing remarks.
RICHARD SCHAEFER: Great. Thank you so much and we're looking forward to having you on the call next week. As I said, Sugar Shane Mosley will be on and we'll be talking about his – give us a camp update and how sparring is going in Puerto Rico.
The following week we will have the trainers on. I think that's going to be very entertaining with Roger Mayweather and with Freddie Roach as well. And so, I look forward to talking to all of you next week.
