by David P. Greisman
The shoulder injury that sidelined Mike Perez for his heavyweight bout against Bryant Jennings also led to the cancellation of the entire May 24 card in Corpus Christi, Texas, meaning middleweight contender Matthew Macklin would no longer be facing former titleholder Daniel Geale on that date.
The news of Perez’s injury was announced May 9. On May 11, a report mentioned that Geale is now in negotiations for a July fight with 160-pound world titleholder Gennady Golovkin.
And that led Macklin to float a conspiracy theory:
“Very strange how Chavez vs GGG fight falls through, Geale vs me is off. 24 hours later Geale [is] in talks to fight GGG in July on HBO Boxing,” Macklin wrote in a series of tweets, which I’ve slightly edited solely for cosmetic reasons.
“All I'm saying is GGG is promoted by K2 [Promotions]. GGG needs an opponent for July with no Chavez fight. Perez also promoted by K2 on HBO Boxing. Jennings & Geale both [are] promoted by Gary Shaw. GGG is HBO Boxing’s poster boy in need of a credible opponent for his July date now [that the] Chavez fight has fallen through. My fight with Geale is off, then less than 24 hours later it's confirmed negotiations for a fight with GGG! Do the math.”
Macklin, 31, lost to Golovkin via a body shot knockout in the third round of their June 2013 bout. He returned in December, outpointing Lamar Russ on HBO to move to 30-5 with 20 knockouts. He is promoted by DiBella Entertainment.
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
