By Jake Donovan
It was the fight boxing fans wanted when first rumored a few months ago, and a fight in which everyone involved stepped up to make a reality.
Former three-division champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley was aboard from jump.
Current top welterweight Antonio Margarito liked the fight, but also wanted what he believed to be fair market value.
HBO obliged, which brings us to this upcoming weekend and boxing’s first big event of 2009, which airs live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California (Saturday, 10PM ET/7PM PT).
Questions surrounding the fight range from intangibles all the way to historical significance. Some are open to debate for the moment, others will continue beyond the final bell, regardless of winner. The rest will have to be answered on Saturday evening.
The matchup alone generates mouth-watering interest, given the fighter’s respective styles. The way the sport has traveled in recent years, such a fight would’ve required a two-show buildup, which is to say that both sides would receive high-profile showcase fights early in the year, most likely against soft opposition, before colliding later in the year.
Instead, boxing bucks one recent trend and renews another: cutting right to the chase and beginning the year with a bang.
It only makes good business sense to ride year-ending momentum to maintain a seamless transition at the start of a new year. The key is not just in the matchup, but also its presentation. The back end of a calendar year is usually loaded with no fewer than two notable pay-per-view events, followed by the holidays. The start of the New Year would be a good time to reward boxing fans while simultaneously allowing them to recover financially.
Translation: give us what we want – and can afford.
Such a practice may seem foreign today, given what’s been provided in the past several Januarys. But once upon a time, it was a frequent enough occurrence to where it was regarded as the rule rather than the exception.
In 2001, it was Floyd Mayweather Jr beating on Diego Corrales to remove all doubt as to who was the world’s best junior lightweight, in a fight talked about beforehand by the hardcore as well as the casual boxing fan. Credible wins over Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez and Jesus Chavez followed to round out what in many other years would be regarded a Fighter of the Year worthy campaign
A year later, Acelino Freitas and Joel Casamayor collided on Showtime in a bout designed to help fill the void left behind after Mayweather’s defection to the lightweight division. Frietas outlasted Casamayor to take a close, controversial decision, but the fight was upended on the relevance scale just two weeks later. Vernon Forrest’s stunningly dominant upset of then-undefeated lineal welterweight king Sugar Shane Mosley became the latest water cooler talk – two high-profile fights, before anyone even saw February.
Forrest was again involved in a January table settler a year, this time on the wrong end of an upset knockout loss at the hands of Ricardo Mayorga. Though Forrest was already the lineal champ going into the fight, Mayorga’s win would set eventually lead to total unification of the “big three” alphabet titles, even if such honors landed in the lap of Cory Spinks.
Still, the January collision gave Mayorga enough time to grant Forrest a mandatory rematch and still finish out 2003 with a third significant fight.
HBO the network would remove itself from the table setting business in 2004. It was the first of five consecutive years in which the month’s non-PPV centerpiece attraction involved a house fighter receiving a five-star payday in a one-star matchup.
Arturo Gatti was the beneficiary of the month-ending time slot for three straight years, gaining wins over the likes of Gianluca Branco, Jesse James Leija and Thomas Damgaard. The Leija win came one week after Floyd Mayweather Jr received a similar showcase in an even worse mismatch versus Henry Bruseles, with the back-to-back Saturday scheduling designed to hype up their June ‘05 pay-per-view collision.
Gatti’s 10th round knockout over Damgaard was packaged with an exclusive replay of Manny Pacquiao’s own 10th round stoppage of Erik Morales in their pay-per-view rematch the week prior. Pacquiao-Morales II was the closest HBO would come to presenting a January fight that would raise the bar for the rest of the year to follow, but at a much costlier price, namely the $44.95 price tag accompanying the event. The fight set the table for a different type of trend for 2006, in which HBO would offer more pay-per-view events than in any other calendar year.
Fortunately for boxing fans, Showtime provided a kick-ass start to the year. Two lineal titles were at stake in their opening telecast of 2006, both of which resulted in major upsets. O’Neil Bell rallied back from an early deficit to stop Jean-Marc Mormeck to lay claim as the world’s best cruiserweight, less than an hour before Carlos Baldomir caught Zab Judah at his most lethargic, outworking the brash Brooklyn bomber to snatch the welterweight crown.
Unfortunately for boxing fans, Showtime only boasts roughly half of the subscription base of HBO. It’s why it takes for something remarkable to occur on the network – like Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo I or the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez trilogy – to make a major impact beyond the sports hardcore.
By comparison, when HBO tries and fails, the entire boxing world feels the pain. When at its best, everyone’s talking boxing.
This weekend is an example of boxing at its best.
That the fight is on regular HBO as opposed to pay-per-view shouldn’t serve as cause for celebration. Doing so is only a reminder of how far our standards have fallen, to where boxing fans should be thankful for not being completely ripped off.
What should be celebrated is that we can begin the year with a noteworthy enough fight to where its appeal isn’t limited to just the hardcore fan. Margarito comes into this weekend riding by far the biggest win of his 15-year career (TKO11 Miguel Cotto) and at the height of his popularity. Not only was the Cotto fight one of 2008’s best, but at 450,000 buys was the third highest-viewed pay-per-view boxing event of the year.
Mosley is much close to the twilight of his career than his prime, but still remains at age 37 one of the most dangerous welterweights in the world. His literal last-second knockout of Ricardo Mayorga last September showed flashes of brilliance, as well as a hint of the explosive mix of speed and power that once upon a time defined his career.
It was also tough to watch in spots, save of course for the dramatic ending. Not to mention that, having struggled with a badly faded Mayorga coupled with his advanced age, a cash out bout should be explored sooner much rather than later.
To his credit, Mosley comes into this weekend with the belief that not only is retirement not an option, but neither is losing. So much, that if the Margarito fight didn’t pan out, he was prepared to instead challenge for undefeated Andre Berto’s alphabet title.
On the other side of the coin, Margarito could’ve easily approached the start of 2009 with a screw-the-pooch mentality. Rumored for the moment is a potential summer rematch with Miguel Cotto. Promoter Bob Arum has repeatedly insisted that should both sides agree, the return go happens regardless of what goes down this weekend.
It was perhaps with that fight on the backburner that Margarito decided to force HBO’s hand in making this fight. The bout originally called for purse parity, with both sides to each make $2 million or so. Margarito wondered aloud why he should agree to a 50/50 split when he’d easily rate as the A-side of the fight. He brings the hardware, as well as the crowd, with a sold out Staples Center or something close to it anticipated this weekend.
Everyone sat down, reasonably discussed what was available for the fight, and came to the conclusion that there was just cause to crack open the emergency fund if it meant getting both sides to sign on the dotted line.
With that moment, boxing’s first super fight of 2009 was born. And early enough in the year to where boxing fans have 11 remaining months to anxiously hope for more of the same, rather than looking to February or even later for their sport to entertain them.
AND YET, THE STANDARDS ARE EVEN HIGHER
A postscript is required, if only to avoid the inevitable smart-ass remarks wondering if last week’s offering wasn’t taken into consideration.
Heading into last Saturday’s bout between Andre Berto and Luis Collazo, not very much was expected beyond Berto facing the toughest test of his career, and the winner possibly becoming a worthy challenger for the victor of this weekend’s offering.
Instead, the one-bout telecast served as the ultimate primer to this weekend’s highly anticipated clash. Berto was forced to dig deep, sweeping the championship rounds to rally from a deficit on two cards and take a close, if not contested, unanimous decision. Both fighters repeatedly hurt the other in a fight that featured several shifts in momentum and very few lulls.
Not only was it enough to warrant a rematch, but also to where anything other this weekend providing a fight – or performance – for the ages can be considered a letdown.
That said, Berto and Collazo surpassed expectations – by a lot – in a fight that was otherwise offered as a suitable introduction to 2009. Perhaps there are those in the industry who greater anticipated last weekend’s fight than the one this Saturday. Chances are, their last names are anything other than Berto, Collazo or DiBella, with everyone else in the industry having pegged this weekend around which to rearrange their collective social schedules.
WHAT TRULY IS AT STAKE THIS WEEKEND?
Hopefully by now, everyone has read the fantastically written piece offered by my respected colleague and dear friend Cliff Rold, detailing the relevance of this Saturday’s welterweight clash. The article, which was published last Thursday, went into great length to discuss whether or not the vacant welterweight crown should be up for grabs.
For those who haven’t yet read, shame on you – but here’s a chance to make amends, as the link is provided here: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=17891
I’ll provide the abridged version in the form of my unwavering support for his proposal that a Margarito win begins a new lineal welterweight title reign. A Mosley win, does not.
If you don’t agree and are wondering why further explanation has yet to follow, it’s because I’m waiting on you to first read Cliff’s article. Those who’ve read, feel free to debate away.
A RING-ING ENDORSEMENT (SOMEWHAT)
It’s also worth saying that The Ring deserves credit, not condemnation, for both leaving the decision in the hands of its Ratings Advisory Panel, and also not declaring by default this weekend’s fight as one for their vacant title.
The magazine has received criticism in the past for its haste in filling title vacancies with victors in #1 vs. #3 matchups. Most notable among them:
- Vitali Klitschko named their heavyweight champion after stopping #3 Corrie Sanders, even though their #2 heavyweight Chris Byrd owned a win over the Ukrainian;
- #1 Joe Calzaghe’s shutout over #3 Jeff Lacy declaring him their super middleweight champion, even though it could be argued then and has since been emphatically proven that their at-the-time #2 Mikkel Kessler was the far more difficult road to travel en route to super middleweight supremacy.
Even more so in recent years has been the accusation of their shown blatant favoritism toward the promotional company who also happens to sign their paychecks, Golden Boy Promotions.
If such were the case, then they’d rush to make the same exception for this weekend’s fight, since Margarito is rated #1 and Mosley, a Golden Boy fighter and shareholder, is #3. They could’ve easily ignored Mosley’s 12-round loss to #2 Miguel Cotto in November 2007, and instead held out hope that their title somehow winds up “in house.”
Instead, they took the democratic approach, to which their final decision should be respected, even if one with which you don’t agree.
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .
