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ESPN.com
by Dan Rafael
• Remember that proposed welterweight showdown between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and "The Contender" star Alfonso Gomez, which was planned for late March on HBO and then was pushed back to late April? Forget about it. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who handles Chavez, decided against the fight after seeing how much money he could make by putting Chavez on pay-per-view. Arum said Chavez's win against Ray Sanchez two weeks ago generated 70,000 subscriptions with almost no advertising. So rather than match Chavez with the dangerous Gomez in a fight HBO won't break the bank for, Arum is going back to PPV. He said Chavez will headline a card Feb. 9, possibly against Jose Celaya, and that he will keep Chavez busy on PPV roughly every other month before looking at 2009 as his breakout year. Arum said he would put the much-discussed Martin Castillo-Jorge Arce junior bantamweight showdown on the Feb. 9 undercard, but Castillo manager Frank Espinoza hasn't agreed to it yet. He told ESPN.com that he isn't happy about the fight being moved to a show partially controlled by Fernando Beltran, the co-promoter of Arce and Chavez. The bout originally was slated for HBO when Chavez-Gomez was being planned for March. Then it was shifted to the Feb. 16 Pavlik-Taylor II HBO PPV undercard. Espinoza wants it on the Pavlik-Taylor card because he believes the playing field is more even in Las Vegas than in Mexico, where Beltran is powerful, and because being on the the Pavlik-Taylor card will bring Castillo greater exposure.
by Dan Rafael
• Remember that proposed welterweight showdown between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and "The Contender" star Alfonso Gomez, which was planned for late March on HBO and then was pushed back to late April? Forget about it. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who handles Chavez, decided against the fight after seeing how much money he could make by putting Chavez on pay-per-view. Arum said Chavez's win against Ray Sanchez two weeks ago generated 70,000 subscriptions with almost no advertising. So rather than match Chavez with the dangerous Gomez in a fight HBO won't break the bank for, Arum is going back to PPV. He said Chavez will headline a card Feb. 9, possibly against Jose Celaya, and that he will keep Chavez busy on PPV roughly every other month before looking at 2009 as his breakout year. Arum said he would put the much-discussed Martin Castillo-Jorge Arce junior bantamweight showdown on the Feb. 9 undercard, but Castillo manager Frank Espinoza hasn't agreed to it yet. He told ESPN.com that he isn't happy about the fight being moved to a show partially controlled by Fernando Beltran, the co-promoter of Arce and Chavez. The bout originally was slated for HBO when Chavez-Gomez was being planned for March. Then it was shifted to the Feb. 16 Pavlik-Taylor II HBO PPV undercard. Espinoza wants it on the Pavlik-Taylor card because he believes the playing field is more even in Las Vegas than in Mexico, where Beltran is powerful, and because being on the the Pavlik-Taylor card will bring Castillo greater exposure.
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