Tweet
No wonder Bernard Hopkins isn't in a rush to fight Chad Dawson. Being told to split 3 million is a disgrace for someone in his position.
Interview from b o x i n g t a l k is below:
Greg Leon: Tell us about the uncoming fight between Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson.
Gary Shaw: "It's very exciting. I believe that Timothy Bradley is going to win, because he's been in deep, he's been in with better competition, he's in his home base, and I just think he's the better fighter. If you ask me, I'm talking as his promoter, I see this as a very tough fight, I see it as an exciting fight. I don't know that someone should be favored by any huge margin over the other."
"Both fighters know each other from the amatuer days. Barry Hunter is an excellent person in Lamont Peterson's corner, and Bradley has Yoel Diaz. You have two great minds, two trainers, and two fighters who are ready to go to war on Saturday. Darchinyan-Rojas, Darchinyan eats up Mexicans, we'll see if he can keep that streak alive. He's coming off of a loss from Agbeko, a fight the he should have won, as Yonnhy Perez proved. He's got some proving to do again with the WBC and the WBA world titles at stake."
GL: Timothy Bradley has won his significant fights at 140 pounds, based on his speed advantages over the opponents. Against Peterson, that advantage is not so drastic, if at all. Does that make Peterson the most dangerous opponent that he's faced thus far, in your opinion?
Gary Shaw: No, I think Kedall Holt may have been more dangerous, because he can punch. Look, Bradley went to England to win his title. Bradley went to Mississippi, and then to Canada to defend his title. He's had to face adversities that I don't think Peterson has faced yet. Now, Peterson is going to have to dig deep, and he's going to have to face adversity fighting in Tim's home palace. I don't think the speed will have anything to do with the winner of this fight, not at all.
GL: With Darchinyan, it seems that everytime he takes two steps forward, he takes three steps back.
GS: (Interrupting) The funny thing is that everytime he takes three steps back, he comes back better than ever. He'll do this once again. When he got knocked out by Donaire, he came and went through really top notch fighters. Maybe he was getting carried away again, and he fought a dumb fight against Agbeko. One that he admits that he didn't fight a smart fight. Let's see what happens Saturday night.
GL: We all know that you were very opposed with Darchinyan having a rematch with Donaire for personal reasons. Do you have a similar feeling with Agbeko, or is the Agbeko rematch one you would approve?
GS: I would approve it, but first we want to fight Donaire. We want to see. They were on the offensive, with everybody talking about Donaire and Darchinyan. Now we want to do the fight, let's see if they want to stand up and fight, or if they want to run. I'm on record at the WBA convention, I asked them to rule that Donaire and Darchinyan go into a purse bid, as soon as this fight is over on Saturday night. Bob Arum knows that I want to fight Donaire. You haven't been reading anything yourself about Donaire wanting to fight Darchinyan. They're talking about fighting everyone but Darchinyan. If they feel that they want to do that rematch, let's do that first.
GL: Chad Dawson recently had a clean cut, big win over Glen Johnson. Do we have any idea of when we can expect Chad back in?
GS: HBO is talking about Chad for April. We're going to sit by and watch who wins the Pascual-Diaconu fight. Obviously, Bernard Hopkins is never going to fight Chad Dawson. Each time it's a different reason. He was on ESPN as a host, and he said, "I'll fight the winner of Dawson-Johnson." Now Chad is either not tall enough, not fast enough, or not marketable enough, or whatever. I love Hopkins, I think he's a legend, and I have a great relationship with him, and I have a lot of respect for him, but if he's still talking about fighting Roy Jones Jr., he's delusional. Now he's talking about fighting at heavyweight, or going down to 168 pounds. I'd have more respect if he just said, "Look, I'm not fighting Chad Dawson. He's too young, he's too big, he's too strong, and he's too good." That would be fine. Don't get on ESPN and tell the world I'm fighting the winner of Dawson-Johnson, and then start talking about cruiserweight, heavyweight, super middleweight, come on.
GL: Based on my conversations with Hopkins, reading between the lines, it seems clear to me that he's displeased with what number they're talking about for the fight. Do you concur with his position, or do you think there's enough money in the fight that all parties should be satisfied?
GS: It would be wrong of me to answer that question, and it's a good question, because I have no clue what HBO offered him for the fight. They haven't given me an offer for the fight.
GL: My understanding is it's a 3 million dollar package for everyone to split.
GS: I would find that hard to believe that it's only worth 3 million. You can't tell me that they're offering Pavlik and Williams 3.7 million, and offering Hopkins 3 million. I don't know where you're getting our number.
GL: Last time I checked, Al Haymon didn't represent either guy, so it is possible.
GS: I can't comment. Again, if Bernard really wants to fight, or if I'm supposed to be talking to Richard, I'd be more than happy to go to HBO with them and see how much money we can get, and what kind of split we can do. I'd be very dissapointed if 3 million was the number. That's an unfair number for Bernard Hopkins, period, and definitely an unfair number for Chad Dawson, and a collosal unfair number for Hopkins-Dawson.
GL: We recently broke the news of your aquisition of Salvatore Sanchez II. Can you give us some thoughts on that?
GS: He's the spitting image of his uncle. It's unbelievable, they look like twins. We want to move him slowly, and get him more noteriety here in the United States. For those that are real fight fans, will of course remember his uncle, the great Salvatore Sanchez, who's a Mexican legend. We also signed Lenny Zapavina, we call him Lenny Zapper, out of Australia. He looks just like Kostya Tszyu, including the hairdo. He fights like Arturo Gatti, he's Italian like Arturo. Arturo Gatti is his idol, and from what I'm told by people in Australia, he fights like Gatti. He's coming here, and he's fighting on the undercard here this Saturday. I'm really excited to see him.
GL: Is there any idea of what Angulo's next move is?
GS: Angulo is also supposed to fight in April, however, I'm working on something special right now with HBO. We won't know anything for the next 7 to 10 days. I'm also working, and haven't totally closed, I don't want to give the date or anything yet, but Demarco Valero. Which will be a spectacular 135 pound fight between the champion and the interim champion.
GL: Will it be on Showtime?
GS: Yes, it will be on Showtime.
GL: In March?
GS: Earlier.
GL: February?
GS: That's earlier than March.
GL: Closing thoughts.
GS: I hope that we can really make Hopkins and Dawson. I hope that Bernard will want to do the right thing for boxing, and for himself. He always has the option of not fighting anymore. He can go down to Australia and fight Danny Greene, and see if he can last more than 222 seconds. As usual, I thank you for putting us on **********, I thank the fans for following GSP, and following our fighters.
Interview from b o x i n g t a l k is below:
Greg Leon: Tell us about the uncoming fight between Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson.
Gary Shaw: "It's very exciting. I believe that Timothy Bradley is going to win, because he's been in deep, he's been in with better competition, he's in his home base, and I just think he's the better fighter. If you ask me, I'm talking as his promoter, I see this as a very tough fight, I see it as an exciting fight. I don't know that someone should be favored by any huge margin over the other."
"Both fighters know each other from the amatuer days. Barry Hunter is an excellent person in Lamont Peterson's corner, and Bradley has Yoel Diaz. You have two great minds, two trainers, and two fighters who are ready to go to war on Saturday. Darchinyan-Rojas, Darchinyan eats up Mexicans, we'll see if he can keep that streak alive. He's coming off of a loss from Agbeko, a fight the he should have won, as Yonnhy Perez proved. He's got some proving to do again with the WBC and the WBA world titles at stake."
GL: Timothy Bradley has won his significant fights at 140 pounds, based on his speed advantages over the opponents. Against Peterson, that advantage is not so drastic, if at all. Does that make Peterson the most dangerous opponent that he's faced thus far, in your opinion?
Gary Shaw: No, I think Kedall Holt may have been more dangerous, because he can punch. Look, Bradley went to England to win his title. Bradley went to Mississippi, and then to Canada to defend his title. He's had to face adversities that I don't think Peterson has faced yet. Now, Peterson is going to have to dig deep, and he's going to have to face adversity fighting in Tim's home palace. I don't think the speed will have anything to do with the winner of this fight, not at all.
GL: With Darchinyan, it seems that everytime he takes two steps forward, he takes three steps back.
GS: (Interrupting) The funny thing is that everytime he takes three steps back, he comes back better than ever. He'll do this once again. When he got knocked out by Donaire, he came and went through really top notch fighters. Maybe he was getting carried away again, and he fought a dumb fight against Agbeko. One that he admits that he didn't fight a smart fight. Let's see what happens Saturday night.
GL: We all know that you were very opposed with Darchinyan having a rematch with Donaire for personal reasons. Do you have a similar feeling with Agbeko, or is the Agbeko rematch one you would approve?
GS: I would approve it, but first we want to fight Donaire. We want to see. They were on the offensive, with everybody talking about Donaire and Darchinyan. Now we want to do the fight, let's see if they want to stand up and fight, or if they want to run. I'm on record at the WBA convention, I asked them to rule that Donaire and Darchinyan go into a purse bid, as soon as this fight is over on Saturday night. Bob Arum knows that I want to fight Donaire. You haven't been reading anything yourself about Donaire wanting to fight Darchinyan. They're talking about fighting everyone but Darchinyan. If they feel that they want to do that rematch, let's do that first.
GL: Chad Dawson recently had a clean cut, big win over Glen Johnson. Do we have any idea of when we can expect Chad back in?
GS: HBO is talking about Chad for April. We're going to sit by and watch who wins the Pascual-Diaconu fight. Obviously, Bernard Hopkins is never going to fight Chad Dawson. Each time it's a different reason. He was on ESPN as a host, and he said, "I'll fight the winner of Dawson-Johnson." Now Chad is either not tall enough, not fast enough, or not marketable enough, or whatever. I love Hopkins, I think he's a legend, and I have a great relationship with him, and I have a lot of respect for him, but if he's still talking about fighting Roy Jones Jr., he's delusional. Now he's talking about fighting at heavyweight, or going down to 168 pounds. I'd have more respect if he just said, "Look, I'm not fighting Chad Dawson. He's too young, he's too big, he's too strong, and he's too good." That would be fine. Don't get on ESPN and tell the world I'm fighting the winner of Dawson-Johnson, and then start talking about cruiserweight, heavyweight, super middleweight, come on.
GL: Based on my conversations with Hopkins, reading between the lines, it seems clear to me that he's displeased with what number they're talking about for the fight. Do you concur with his position, or do you think there's enough money in the fight that all parties should be satisfied?
GS: It would be wrong of me to answer that question, and it's a good question, because I have no clue what HBO offered him for the fight. They haven't given me an offer for the fight.
GL: My understanding is it's a 3 million dollar package for everyone to split.
GS: I would find that hard to believe that it's only worth 3 million. You can't tell me that they're offering Pavlik and Williams 3.7 million, and offering Hopkins 3 million. I don't know where you're getting our number.
GL: Last time I checked, Al Haymon didn't represent either guy, so it is possible.
GS: I can't comment. Again, if Bernard really wants to fight, or if I'm supposed to be talking to Richard, I'd be more than happy to go to HBO with them and see how much money we can get, and what kind of split we can do. I'd be very dissapointed if 3 million was the number. That's an unfair number for Bernard Hopkins, period, and definitely an unfair number for Chad Dawson, and a collosal unfair number for Hopkins-Dawson.
GL: We recently broke the news of your aquisition of Salvatore Sanchez II. Can you give us some thoughts on that?
GS: He's the spitting image of his uncle. It's unbelievable, they look like twins. We want to move him slowly, and get him more noteriety here in the United States. For those that are real fight fans, will of course remember his uncle, the great Salvatore Sanchez, who's a Mexican legend. We also signed Lenny Zapavina, we call him Lenny Zapper, out of Australia. He looks just like Kostya Tszyu, including the hairdo. He fights like Arturo Gatti, he's Italian like Arturo. Arturo Gatti is his idol, and from what I'm told by people in Australia, he fights like Gatti. He's coming here, and he's fighting on the undercard here this Saturday. I'm really excited to see him.
GL: Is there any idea of what Angulo's next move is?
GS: Angulo is also supposed to fight in April, however, I'm working on something special right now with HBO. We won't know anything for the next 7 to 10 days. I'm also working, and haven't totally closed, I don't want to give the date or anything yet, but Demarco Valero. Which will be a spectacular 135 pound fight between the champion and the interim champion.
GL: Will it be on Showtime?
GS: Yes, it will be on Showtime.
GL: In March?
GS: Earlier.
GL: February?
GS: That's earlier than March.
GL: Closing thoughts.
GS: I hope that we can really make Hopkins and Dawson. I hope that Bernard will want to do the right thing for boxing, and for himself. He always has the option of not fighting anymore. He can go down to Australia and fight Danny Greene, and see if he can last more than 222 seconds. As usual, I thank you for putting us on **********, I thank the fans for following GSP, and following our fighters.
Comment