By Robert Morales
Richard Schaefer was in attendance at Abel Sanchez's state-of-the-art boxing gym in Big Bear Lake, Calif., on Wednesday for Oscar De La Hoya's media day. De La Hoya, of course, is there training for his Dec. 6 fight with Manny Pacquiao on Las Vegas.
No sooner did Schaefer walk in than he was asked about the status of the proposed title bout between his fighter, "Sugar" Shane Mosley, and welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, who is promoted by Bob Arum.
Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, told us a week ago that Mosley and Golden Boy had agreed to terms. Arum said the money was good for both sides and that he expected Margarito in his Top Rank Inc. offices in Las Vegas the latter part of the week. But there was no Margarito.
Margarito then was scheduled to come in either Monday or Tuesday of this week. Again, he was a no-show. And Schaefer said Wednesday that even Arum can't get in touch with Margarito.
"I just got off the phone with Bob," Schaefer said about 1 p.m. Wednesday, as about 75 members of the media waited to speak with De La Hoya. "He said he left six messages for Margarito and (Top Rank president) Todd duBoef left him two text messages."
Schaefer said he found it amusing that Margarito had been popping off about Mosley, and now he is nowhere to be found.
"He was saying, 'He (Mosley) is probably pissing his pants now that I have accepted the fight because he is afraid of me,' "
Schaefer said, quoting from a story he said he read on the Internet weeks ago. "Well, I just talked to Bob Arum about it and everybody is looking for Margarito.
"So I'm asking everyone if you can please put Margarito's picture with your stories, 'Where is Margarito?' I'm talking to people in charge of the milk cartons. They are going to put his picture on the milk carton."
Eric Gomez, Golden Boy matchmaker, has talked with Mosley in recent days.
"He's ready to get his camp going," Gomez said. "He's excited. He says, 'This is what I want.' And he says, 'This is the style I'm used to fighting. I've been fighting Mexicans all my life.' "
If Margarito is playing a game to get more money, he should consider the current state of the economy. If he doesn't, he could end up like Winky Wright, who has not fought in nearly 16 months.
Wright is finally scheduled for a fight Dec. 4 against the dreaded Michi Munoz.
If and when Margarito-Mosley gets done, it would be held Jan. 24 in Las Vegas.
When Angelo Apeaks, People Listen
There are great trainers, and there are GREAT trainers. Angelo Dundee is all that. Dundee, hired as a strategic advisor by De La Hoya, was on hand Wednesday. He was glowing about De La Hoya as well as the rather comfortable gym Sanchez - a trainer and construction contractor - built.
Dundee was first asked what he thought about all those who say that De La Hoya is taking on a guy who is much too small for him. De La Hoya has had nine fights since mid-2001. Seven were at junior middleweight, two at middleweight. Pacquiao has had all of one fight at lightweight with everything else at an even lower weight.
"I hope he (De La Hoya) is not listening," Dundee said. "It's a tough fight. This guy (Pacquiao) is a machine, aggressive. Before I came on board I told everybody Oscar will beat this guy because of what he learned as a kid fighting all those tough guys. He fought a lot of tough guys from Mexico. And it was a learning experience, so he knows how to fight aggression."
Even though De La Hoya is known to get tired in the later rounds, Dundee said he was astounded by the way De La Hoya goes about his business, and that he looks like he could fight 20 rounds.
"He's got plenty of stamina, good conditioning and he loves to train," Dundee said. "He loves the gym. He does what he likes, so it's a rarity. I had never seen him train before, but I see he enjoys it. And he's got a smile on his puss. Boxing needs him. We need him."
Dundee was stoked Wednesday. He said he has had a blast talking boxing with De La Hoya's chief trainer, Nacho Beristain, against whom Dundee has worked many times. Dundee said he was also more than a little pleased about Sanchez's new gym, which opened in September 2007. It is complete with a 39-foot by 40-foot room for the ring and assorted equipment, a large weight room complete with treadmills and two televisions and yet another smaller room with a jacuzzi. And it's beautiful. From the outside, it looks like a home, not a gym. There are also two large houses in which the boxers live while they are training.
"I know Abel as a trainer and he's a friend," Dundee said. "And I knew when I came into the gym, I said, 'Somebody knows boxing in this gym.' It's a tremendous gym. It's got everything necessary for a fighter."
As Dundee was about to get bombarded by other friends and reporters, he doled out one last plug for De La Hoya-Pacquiao.
"I'm looking forward to this fight," he said. "It puts icing on the cake for boxing this year. It's sincere, and it's honest."
Lopez in The House
Actor/comedian George Lopez, a friend and golfing buddy of De La Hoya's the past six years, was present Wednesday. He, too, talked about why he believes De La Hoya-Pacquiao is going to be a fight to remember. Of course, he's an actor, so he can pull it off even if he doesn't believe it. After saying how competitive the fight will be because Pacquiao is "a strong fighter," Lopez couldn't help but come with the comedy.
"I just hope I don't get too drunk like I did with the (De La Hoya)-Mayweather fight so I can remember it," he said.
Black-eyed Oscar
De La Hoya was sporting a blackened right eye Wednesday, but he said it was not done by Victor Ortiz, contrary to reports that Ortiz had been beating up De La Hoya during sparring.
Ortiz is indeed gone from the camp. According to De La Hoya, he wanted to train at home in Oxnard for family reasons, one of which is that he takes care of his younger brother.
De La Hoya did, however, intimate that Ortiz was somewhat of a handful.
"He did put his hands on me, I have to admit," De La Hoya said. "But I put my hands on him, too."
Taylor Ready For More
Jermain Taylor sported a record of 25-0-1 with 17 knockouts heading into what would be back-to-back fights with Kelly Pavlik. Although the first of Taylor's two victories over Bernard Hopkins was controversial in that most experts thought Hopkins won, he still had two wins over Hopkins.
One could even say that Taylor's draw against the aforementioned Wright was a gift, but he was still very much in a fight against an opponent who has given most of his own opponents fits.
For the most part, Taylor had everything going his way. Then Pavlik took his two middleweight world title belts via seventh-round technical knockout in September 2007. Pavlik would win again with a unanimous decision over Taylor the following February at the catch-weight of 166-pounds.
Suddenly, nobody was talking about Taylor. He was the forgotten man.
"That's what happens when you lose two fights back-to-back," said Taylor, who Saturday will take on former super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy in a super middleweight title elimination fight at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. "Everybody likes a winner. I can come back and win two fights back-to-back, then everyone will be talking again about how good Jermain is doing. It comes with the territory and I understand that."
So does losing. Unless you are Rocky Marciano, Joe Calzaghe or Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"Of course I was disappointed with the defeats," Taylor said this week. "But that comes with the territory. A lot of great fighters have had defeats. But I take nothing away from Kelly."
What Taylor did do was take time away from the game. When he steps into the ring Saturday, it will have been one day shy of nine months since his second loss to Pavlik.
"This was the longest time I had been off as a pro and it did me a lot of good," Taylor said. "I was able to reflect and I needed the rest. I'm a lot more focused and determined to get back on top."
Taylor, incidentally, indicated he wasn't astonished at the schooling Hopkins doled out to Pavlik in their fight in October won handily by Hopkins.
"I picked Hopkins to win because of his experience and preparation," Taylor said. "But I also said he had to fight the perfect fight to win and he did."
Vazquez-Marquez IV Update
As he said he would do, Frank Espinoza had a chat with promoter Gary Shaw while both were at the Nov. 1 super flyweight title unification fight between Vic Darchinyan and Cristian Mijares in Carson, Calif.
Espinoza, who manages Israel Vazquez, said he spoke with Shaw about a fourth fight between Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, who is promoted by Shaw.
"There was some small talk regarding that," Espinoza said. "And I know that's a fight we're definitely interested in. But nothing really came out of it. We talked about it and he wanted to get a feeling of what I felt.
"Certainly, there are other things involved that we have to negotiate. We have to sit down with our promoters and Gary and work this thing out."
Vazquez is co-promoted by Sycuan Ringside Promotions and Golden Boy.
One of the things that needs to be worked out is the financial compensation. Espinoza said there were some numbers thrown around, but he would not talk about them on the record. He did make it perfectly clear, however, that the fight won't happen if Shaw insists on an even split of the money. After all, Vazquez is 2-1 against Marquez and he holds the 122-pound championship belt.
"I feel that winning two out of three means something and I feel Vazquez being the champion, he is entitled to more," Espinoza said. "We feel that we are entitled to a bigger purse than he is. Israel deserves it."
Interestingly, Espinoza said that there has been a clamoring of sorts for a fight between Vazquez and super flyweight Jorge Arce, who would have to move up seven pounds to 122.
"He's certainly in the loop of things," Espinoza said of Arce.
"The amount of people that have e-mailed me, fans, say that they're interested and would like to see that. About 75 to 80 percent who write to me would like to see an Arce-Vazquez fight. They love that fight, people want to see it. But it all goes back to the numbers again and how much revenue we can make."
Espinoza said he has not talked to Arum, who promotes Arce, about this fight.
Meanwhile, Espinoza confirmed a recent story that appeared on the internet that had Sycuan Promotions matchmaker Sean Gibbons reporting from the WBC convention in China that Vazquez was recovering from surgery on a detached retina. Espinoza, however, did not want to get into any specifics in that regard.
"He had a successful operation and we are looking to get back into the ring in early 2009," is all Espinoza would say on the subject.
Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, ESPN.com, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and BoxingScene.com
