By Jake Donovan
A month ago, this was supposed to be the boxing weekend that helped end the first quarter of 2010 with a bang.
There’s still plenty to take in on over the course of the next 48 hours, with broadcasts airing on HBO, Showtime, Pay-Per-View, Fox Sports and of course all available online streams.
What’s lacking, however, is a sufficient Friday night primer.
ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights usually fills that void, from early January to Labor Day, anyway. It was their March 26 edition that was supposed to have this weekend blow away all others to date this boxing season. Major alphabet title fights were slotted for both ends of the televised doubleheader in a rare scenario of a Don King fight card airing on the Deuce.
All of it was too good to be true, and you know how those fairy tales always end.
While boxing fans rack their brain trying to figure out on Saturday what to watch, what to Tivo and what to search for online later in the weekend, they have one more day to sort out their itinerary, since stateside offers absolutely nothing on Friday night.
Finger pointing was offered in all directions, beginning with whom was to blame for the original card failing to remain intact. Had promoter Don King and the ESPN2 brass squared things away when they were supposed to, Cory Spinks would be defending his alphabet title against Cornelius Bundrage, while Steve Cunningham and Matt Godfrey would be throwing down in a rare stateside-televised cruiserweight title fight.
Instead, Spinks will encounter an all-too familiar scenario in recent years – an inactivity period of more than a year. The second-generation prizefighter has managed a meager five fights in the five years that have followed his losing the undisputed welterweight crown to Zab Judah.
His last ring appearance was against cross-town St. Louis rival Deandre Latimore, which came last April on Showtime. The fight was entertaining throughout, as was the last time he punched for pay, which was 13 months prior in a controversial points loss to Verno Phillips.
The planned alphabet title defense against Bundrage has already been postponed twice, this time with no replacement date immediately in sight. Chances, he’s looking at a third straight year of just one ring appearance.
Cunningham is another fighter who has been forced to come to grips with the hurry up and wait policy that comes with fighting under the Don King Productions banner.
The former cruiserweight titlist has appeared on American airwaves just once in a career closing in on ten years in service. That one fight was a doozy, even if in defeat, dropping a heartbreaker to Tomasz Adamek in a war that made everyone’s High Honorable Mention list for the best fights of 2008.
Sadly, the fight marked his only ring appearance of that year, having wasted away on the sidelines for nearly 50 weeks before vying for the vacant lineal cruiserweight championships.
Despite the strong showing, little network interest was offered for a return go, nor was King in a hurry to provide an opportunity for the former Nayy sailor, who is easily one of the classiest gentlemen in the sport.
Failure to secure a much-desired rematch with Adamek forced Cunningham to look elsewhere. Opportunity landed when he was matched against former titlist Wayne Braithwaite in a sanctioned title eliminator bout. Cunningham won the hard-fought battle with room to spare, but was forced to sit and wait for the next move to be made.
That bit of good news (relatively speaking) came when Adamek opted to vacate his title late last year in favor of a campaign at heavyweight.
Though attempting to break free from his promotional contract (which expires this weekend), Cunningham was forced to accept being tied for one more fight to King, who won the purse bid for the planned fight with Godfrey.
No sooner than the date was secured did Cunningham – always in tip-top shape – bolt for training camp in Big Bear, He remained in camp even after word leaked out that his fight with Godfrey was on the verge of being canceled.
Cunningham was informed that the original plan – which called for the fight to take place in Las Vegas – was officially scrapped, but the Philly native continued to train as he held out hope that the bout could be salvaged.
Off to the rescue came Kathy Duva, whose Main Events promotional company was the second highest bidder in the aforementioned purse bid for this fight, which meant the rights defaulted to their company once King failed to deliver on his promised date and location.
The only problem was, while Duva and the ESPN2 brass were racing against the clock to save the fight, Team Godfrey decided to shut down. Much speculation was made over who was to blame for the New England-based cruiserweight contender breaking camp.
An e-mail was sent out last week to various media members by trainer John Scully, himself a former light heavyweight contender, disputing the on-air claim last Friday that the fight was still on. In the note, Scully explained that Godfrey had stopped training since last Wednesday, which was the day his team was told the fight was canceled.
The part that was never relayed back to them was that the Las Vegas location was out, but greater efforts were being made to find a new home, even if it meant Main Events paying out of pocket just to keep alive the fight.
One was found in Chicago, thanks to 8 Count head honcho Dominic Pesoli, who enjoys an excellent working relationship with Duva (and really with just about everyone else in the industry) and was willing to step up and help out an old friend.
Had things worked out as discussed in the backup plan, Cunningham-Godfrey would’ve served as the new main event for an otherwise untelevised card Pesoli still has scheduled for tonight.
That plan was shot to sunshine the moment Scully became the bearer of bad news – and unwillingly throwing all of Team Godfrey under the bus in the process.
A press release was issued yesterday, explaining the situation from the perspective of Jimmy Burchfield, a New England promoter under whose Classic Entertainment and Sports (CES) banner Godfrey fights.
The attempt made by Burchfield was to dismiss the notion that they were to blame for the cancellation of the fight. However, in the end, it only confirmed the breakdown in communications both within camp, as well as dialogue with Main Events and ESPN2.
What was never mentioned to either of the latter two companies was that Team Godfrey was of the belief that the fight was off unless a there was a deal 100% in place to proceed.
Burchfield claims in the statement that he was aware – from the outside looking in since, for whatever reason, he wasn’t involved in the discussion between Main Events and ESPN2 - of the deal being roughly 95% done, which was just short of what Team Godfrey wanted to hear.
Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.
That proved to be the difference between Cunningham receiving the rare opportunity to fight on American airwaves and being forced to deal with yet another lengthy period of inactivity.
It’s the difference between Godfrey participating in his first major title fight and being shoved to the bottom of the queue, as he was since dropped from said alphabet rankings altogether.
And when all is said and done, it becomes the difference between taking in an intriguing night of ESPN2 Friday Night Fights and instead being left with a Friday Night that’s far too light.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .