By Dr. Peter Edwards
We are back once again with a brand new edition of Who's Hot and Who's Not for the month of March. If you have any suggestions for the next edition of Who's Hot and Who's Not, please send them via the BoxingScene Feedback option.
Who's Hot
Hasim Rahman - In the last few weeks we have seen Gatti-Mayweather and Klitschko-Byrd fall apart due to financial disputes. Rahman decided to step up instead of stepping aside. Initially, Hasim Rahman refused to take the bout with Vitali Klitschko if he did not receive more money for the bout. King, tried to sweeten the pot by offering Rahman over $2 million and Hasim still refused to take the fight. Don just about had enough of Rahman and decided to bring in top contender Monte Barrett to take Rahman's place against Klitschko. After hearing the news that Don was bringing in another fighter to face Vitali, he suddenly had a change of heart. Rahman decided to step back from his $4 million dollar demand and take only $150,000 dollars more. It's a damn shame that the sport of boxing has come to this, champions chasing challengers to fight them.
Mike Tyson - He seems to be more focused to make a comeback then I've ever seen him to be in the last few years. Jeff Fenech seems to have stirred the desire of Tyson to take one last shot at glory. We have to see exactly how much of the 80's Mike Tyson is left in the new millennium version. The best days of Tyson are long behind him, let's see what he can do with some of the pretenders that walk around calling themselves champion.
Jeff Lacy - This man is the super middleweight version of Arturo Gatti. The super middleweight division has been a dead division for over ten years. The last meaningful fight was Roy Jones Jr. vs. James Toney in 1994. This man is making 168 the place to watch because of his hit and get hit style. Lacy doesn't just beat opponents, he walks right through them. Lacy says "fans come to see action and I give them action". Not only does he love to go toe to toe with every opponent in his path, he is willing to fight anyone. Lacy has made it clear that he wants Joe Calzaghe in December, he wants middleweight king Bernard Hopkins and even light heavyweight Glen Johnson. A few more fights and this guy will be the next boxing superstar.
Who's Not
Floyd Mayweather - Mayweather sat on his ass since May of 2004 waiting for a shot against Arturo Gatti and blew his chance at a huge pay per view fight. Forget who gets the bigger split, you NEED this fight bad. Mayweather may be the number two pound for pound fighter in the world, but he can't draw fans to an arena if he gave the tickets away. Mayweather needs an opponent like Gatti to establish his name to a pay per view audience and get some much needed new fans. Newcomer Miguel Cotto can sell out an entire arena in Puerto Rico and Mayweather cannot produce a sellout in his own hometown. Floyd needs to put his financial pride to the side and take this fight at any cost.
Main Events - They have a part to blame in the Gatti-Mayweather negotiations as well. Gatti is their biggest moneymaker and they are protecting him at all costs. I have no doubts about Gatti's willingness to fight all comers, but his promoters block off any meaningful fight and throw him in with journeymen or overmatched fighters. Gatti has not fought a top rated opponent in years, not because he ducked them, but because his promoters want to milk every last fight that they can out of him. Now Main Events has a serious dilemma, Gatti has to fill his May date with a meaningful fight because it's getting to the point where the fans will not accept anything less, even from Gatti.
There were plenty of fans heated over the fact that Gatti even fought Leija, most fans accepted the fight as a tuneup for Mayweather. The names of Cotto and Vivian Harris have been thrown around as Gatti opponents for May, but I don't see either happening. Both of those fighters stand a very good chance of beating Gatti and both fighters are worth far less then a fight with Mayweather. Mayweather may be the lightest puncher of all the top guns at 140 pounds, but worth the most cash to fight. Hopefully his promoters see the light and get Gatti a top rated opponent for his already set May fight date.
Evander Holyfield - Still making noise about coming back to fight, please retire already. This guy is one of my most favorite fighters and he is ruining his career. This guy is not fighting for the money, unlike most fighters, this guy saved his bucks and is financially set for life. Evander keeps coming back because of foolish pride, he wants to fight because people say he doesn't have the goods anymore. Foolish pride is going to get Evander hurt. There are plenty of hungry fighters out there that would want to get a name like Evander Holyfield on their fight resume. One of these young lions coming up is going to really putting a beating on Holyfield. It's Evander's choice if he wants to keep fighting, but he is throwing away his health and tarnishing his career in the process.
