By Jake Donovan
With barely a bat of their collective eyelashes, the members of the Nevada State Athletic Commission agreed to allow history to repeat itself. The panel voted unanimously in favor of allowing Golden Boy Promotions to host its December 13 show at the Mandalay Bay, with the motion passed during the commission’s monthly agenda hearing Monday morning in Las Vegas.
The decision means that Vegas will once again play host to dueling cards featuring Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions—this time, with Golden Boy involved in both shows.
Headlining the officially greenlighted card at Mandalay Bay is a welterweight crossroads bout between Amir Khan and Devon Alexander, both of whom are promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
The bout wil air on Showtime, with Khan the last remaining Golden Boy fighter exclusively under contract with the network. In supporting capacity, super welterweight title fight between defending titlist Demetrius Andrade and Jermell Charlo, both of whom are unbeaten. Charlo fights under the Golden Boy Promotions banner, through adviser Al Haymon; Andrade is co-promoted by Banner Promotions and Star Boxing.
Also on the show, unbeaten welterweight Keith Thurman returns for the first time since April, as he takes on Leonard Bundu.
Meanwhile less than two miles down Las Vegas Blvd., Tim Bradley also returns for his first fight since April, a points loss in his rematch versus Manny Pacquiao. Looking to bounce back from his first defeat and the end of his title reign, the sculpted Californian takes on Argentina’s Diego Chaves in a 12-round welterweight bout headlining at The Cosmopolitan, in a bout that headlines an HBO-televised tripleheader.
Also on the show: Matt Korobov and Andy Lee meet for a vacant middleweight belt; and unbeaten Jose Benavidez faces Mauricio Herrera in a 12-round super welterweight clash, the second significant matchup between Top Rank (Benavidez) and Golden Boy (Herrera) since Hall of Fame entrants Bob Arum and Oscar de la Hoya vowed earlier this year to once again do business together.
de la Hoya promised to attend both shows, which—geographically—isn’t much of a struggle as the two venues are roughly five minutes apart.
The previous instance of dueling shows in Vegas came at the height of boxing’s Cold War between the companies, and in fact the starting point of Golden Boy shifting its key players from HBO to Showtime. The pair of major Vegas shows on Sept. 12, 2012 came as the result of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez insisting on owning the weekend, with their respective promoters vying for a coveted HBO PPV slot.
HBO sided with Top Rank and Chavez Jr., as the then-unbeaten middleweight faced then-World middleweight champion Sergio Martinez at the Thomas & Mack Center. Golden Boy wound up taking Alvarez to Showtime, where his eventual bout with Josesito Lopez topped a televised quadrupleheader at the MGM Grand.
Despite splitting the audience, both events proved to be a huge success at the box office, with roughly 30,000 paying patrons packed the two venues.
Chavez Jr. lost nearly every round versus Martinez, but scored a dramatic 12th round knockdown only for the defending champion to bravely rise from the canvas and rally strong in a three-minute frame recognized as 2012’s Round of the Year. The fight resulted in Chavez Jr’s first loss—and a post-fight drug test popping him for marijuana use nabbing a suspension and a hefty fine for his second failed test—but also saw his value as a viable draw, with the event registering 600,000 PPV units sold.
Alvarez—at the time an unbeaten 154 lb. titlist—had a much easier night at the office, tearing through Josesito Lopez in five one-sided rounds in their alphabet title fight. The card topped a four-fight extravaganza airing live on Showtime opposite Martinez-Chavez Jr., drawing over 1 million viewers, good for Showtime’s highest rated show (at the time) since Bernard Hopkins’ 12-round draw versus Jean Pascal in their first fight nearly two years prior.
Despite the commercial success enjoyed by both events, the Nevada State Athletic Commission—then headed by Keith Kizer—swore to never again allow two major events on the same night. The commission office was emptied out, with all hands on deck split between the two shows.
Of course, it’s a new day in office in Nevada, with Bob Bennett now in charge. The matter of approving Golden Boy’s request for an event was lumped in with seven other budget items during Monday’s hearing, which—from a boxing standpoint—was highlighted by the pending status of heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz, who was issued a temporary suspension following his testing positive for a banned substance following his Sept. 11 1st round knockout win over Lateef Kayode.
The commission approved Top Rank’s request to host its December 13 event, during their previous monthly agenda hearing in September. That meeting was dominated by the sideshow created by Floyd Mayweather, who along with adviser and Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe was asked to explain recent events going on their gym and in their presence—including sparring sessions featuring 31-minute rounds, and the recreational use of marijuana by members of Mayweather’s entourage—as depicted on Showtime’s All Access series.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as the Records Keeper for the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and a member of Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
