Official Boxing Thread
- Thread starter FJP
- Start date
I've never heard of Otto Wallin until today.
He's ranked IBF #11 and WBA #4 (whatever that means)
3 of his last 4 opponents have been complete stiffs.
ESPN has got to demand better names.
This is absurd.
He's ranked IBF #11 and WBA #4 (whatever that means)
3 of his last 4 opponents have been complete stiffs.
ESPN has got to demand better names.
This is absurd.
So the Tyson Fury "Bum of the Month" tour continues. But I'll watch it if its on free TV.
That motherfuker fleeced the hell out of ESPN for that deal didn't he?
Shit is so blatant, its laughable.
That motherfuker fleeced the hell out of ESPN for that deal didn't he?
Shit is so blatant, its laughable.
You would think that with the ratings sucking on his first ESPN fight they would get him a bum with a bigger name.
From Lance Pugmire @ The Athletic
That legendary smile, the cool charm and the ability to speak enthusiastically about projects have helped Oscar De La Hoya transcend from his formidable feats as a 10-time boxing champion into the most successful fighter-promoter in the sport’s history.
It won Canelo Alvarez over, hastened the Mexican’s rise as a household name in the U.S. and persuaded those directing the sports streaming service DAZN to align last year with Alvarez for 11 fights in a record $365 million investment.
But now, a day after the IBF stripped Alvarez of his third middleweight belt because of failed talks between De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions team and the promoter for mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko, no one is smiling, the charm has evaporated into sourness, and those involved are wondering if De La Hoya will emerge from the mess as a man of substance or be exposed as superficial.
“This is an insult to boxing and, more importantly, an insult to boxing fans of the world,” De La Hoya said in a prepared statement of Alvarez’s being stripped by the IBF. “ … I plan to aggressively consider all legal actions possible.”
The reaction was perfectly aimed at a general sports audience surprised that a respected champion would be penalized for not fighting an opponent only one fight removed from losing to the same fighter Alvarez just conquered on May 4.
But it downplayed the extra effort that the sport demands from all, including De La Hoya and his team, to examine and respond to the fine print.
The crux of the ongoing Alvarez ordeal swings on De La Hoya’s promise, in a signed contract between Golden Boy and DAZN, that Alvarez would fight Golovkin in September — on the Mexican Independence Day weekend that has routinely generated wide national boxing viewership.
Yet, De La Hoya was reportedly lax in allowing Golden Boy’s deal with Alvarez to slide without inserting such binding (and perhaps confrontational) language that also ordered a September fight with Golovkin, creating a conundrum exacerbated by Alvarez’s rivalry and deep disdain for Golovkin after their 2017 draw, Golovkin’s shredding of Alvarez over two failed drug tests and Alvarez’s narrow 2018 victory by majority decision.
Even though Alvarez and DAZN Executive Chairman John Skipper maintain friendly communication, Alvarez, by denying a Golovkin fight, let De La Hoya twist nakedly in the wind in front of DAZN and compromised what Skipper maintains should operate as a “relationship … of trust.”
In an interview I did with Skipper while reporting for the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, he told me of DAZN’s union with Alvarez and De La Hoya: “If we each don’t want to do something, the outcome is stalemate … it’s mutually assured destruction if we don’t make it work.”
But Alvarez was miffed not just at Golovkin. He’s fumed at De La Hoya and Golden Boy President Eric Gomez for promising the Golovkin fight to DAZN, and he was chafed after learning from a report that DAZN had agreed in its deal with Golden Boy to pay De La Hoya’s company around $90 million over five years for the rights to broadcast 10 other non-Canelo Golden Boy fight cards per year.
The industry is rife with talk of a fraying connection between Alvarez and De La Hoya following the bond tied to Alvarez’s rise as a world champion, and through the past defections from Golden Boy of several prominent fighters managed by Al Haymon in 2015.
While De La Hoya’s been through rehab and absent around his offices over the years, according to employees — also missing some recent Golden Boy cards in Southern California — he’s cultivated young talent like popular prospect Ryan Garcia, 154-pound champion Jaime Munguia and unbeaten welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr., who headlines a DAZN card Aug. 10 in Texas.
Collecting the DAZN funds to promote those other than Canelo — even if De La Hoya would’ve struggled to collect that sum if it weren’t attached to the cachet of his marquee fighter — shouldn’t be viewed as a sin by Alvarez, given their journey to these heights, many in the business say.
De La Hoya did not immediately respond Friday to questions about this story directed to two Golden Boy Promotions spokesmen.
Skipper, the former head of ESPN, defended De La Hoya’s presence as the company leader.
“I was in business with Oscar at ESPN and it was an excellent experience, and today I’ve had a good experience with Oscar at DAZN,” he said. “He’s never shied away from tough conversations. He’s always available if I need him.”
Yet Derevyanchenko promoter Lou DiBella has chastised De La Hoya on Twitter for his neglect in not responding to a ticking clock from May 4 until early July that would’ve allowed WBC and WBA champion Alvarez to retain the IBF belt by applying for an exception based on a deal to unify against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade.
An earlier effort to stage an Alvarez fight against light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev sloppily fell apart because Kovalev couldn’t withdraw from a commitment to fight in his native Russia against Anthony Yarde.
De La Hoya’s team also showed no interest, DiBella said, in negotiating for the Derevyanchenko fight until the night before the last of the 30 days before a purse-bid deadline, and Golden Boy wasn’t even registered with the IBF to make such a bid before later declining to pay $7 million to Derevyanchenko for a bout that also would’ve saved the belt with a likely Alvarez victory.
Negotiating with DiBella, while Derevyanchenko managers Keith Connolly and Al Haymon monitored, Golden Boy’s Robert Diaz offered $5.5 million for the bout, according to an industry source unauthorized to discuss financial terms publicly.
“I have no animosity toward Oscar De La Hoya or Golden Boy, nor have I insulted the offer they did make,” DiBella said. “I get a little irked, however, when I see these statements, threats and quotes acting like anyone else did anything inappropriate. I don’t like the mischaracterization of reality.”
Derevyanchenko is negotiating toward an Oct. 5 title fight against former IBF champion Golovkin on DAZN at Madison Square Garden. He’s positioned to earn at or near the $7 million De La Hoya rebuffed.
Industry skepticism remains about Alvarez’s interest in unifying against Andrade, with one insider pointing out “they didn’t think about (the unification) until just a few days ago, as a way to keep the belt. They may not even want it now.”
As of Friday afternoon, Alvarez has not said “yes” to a fight Skipper labels “very acceptable to us.”
Skipper is holding an Oct. 26 card — likely in Las Vegas — for an Alvarez-Andrade bout that DAZN would show after the conclusion of World Series Game 4.
“Canelo has been our rainmaker to date, and he’s been a pleasure to work with,” Skipper told The Athletic on Friday. “The two fights we’ve done with Canelo have generated a dramatic number of subscribers — I can say that the majority of our subs have come from the Canelo fights. We want, of course, for Canelo to be involved in bouts that have enormous public interest, and we believe the Andrade bout qualifies as that.”
In the meantime, Skipper and DAZN find themselves on a high-wire situation in which they’d be empowered to enforce the contract with Golden Boy. They’re not ambivalent, but they’re also experienced enough to understand that with nine fights remaining on Alvarez’s contract, maintaining a strong relationship with “the rainmaker” is the soundest way to proceed.
“You have to keep the greater good in mind, which is Canelo and Golovkin to continue fighting for us and everybody working hard together,” Skipper said. “Obviously, Canelo is the boxer who can drive more subscriptions than anyone else in the business right now, and we are very happy with his two fights. We know a rematch with Golovkin is the bout of the greatest interest to fans and will, therefore, drive the most subscriptions.
“But we and Golden Boy and Canelo and Golovkin are all in this together, and we’ve all got to come to an agreement about date and time and venue and circumstances.”
The negotiations are likely to be grueling, and after the drama of the recent months, the most defining of Oscar De La Hoya’s promotional career.
That legendary smile, the cool charm and the ability to speak enthusiastically about projects have helped Oscar De La Hoya transcend from his formidable feats as a 10-time boxing champion into the most successful fighter-promoter in the sport’s history.
It won Canelo Alvarez over, hastened the Mexican’s rise as a household name in the U.S. and persuaded those directing the sports streaming service DAZN to align last year with Alvarez for 11 fights in a record $365 million investment.
But now, a day after the IBF stripped Alvarez of his third middleweight belt because of failed talks between De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions team and the promoter for mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko, no one is smiling, the charm has evaporated into sourness, and those involved are wondering if De La Hoya will emerge from the mess as a man of substance or be exposed as superficial.
“This is an insult to boxing and, more importantly, an insult to boxing fans of the world,” De La Hoya said in a prepared statement of Alvarez’s being stripped by the IBF. “ … I plan to aggressively consider all legal actions possible.”
The reaction was perfectly aimed at a general sports audience surprised that a respected champion would be penalized for not fighting an opponent only one fight removed from losing to the same fighter Alvarez just conquered on May 4.
But it downplayed the extra effort that the sport demands from all, including De La Hoya and his team, to examine and respond to the fine print.
The crux of the ongoing Alvarez ordeal swings on De La Hoya’s promise, in a signed contract between Golden Boy and DAZN, that Alvarez would fight Golovkin in September — on the Mexican Independence Day weekend that has routinely generated wide national boxing viewership.
Yet, De La Hoya was reportedly lax in allowing Golden Boy’s deal with Alvarez to slide without inserting such binding (and perhaps confrontational) language that also ordered a September fight with Golovkin, creating a conundrum exacerbated by Alvarez’s rivalry and deep disdain for Golovkin after their 2017 draw, Golovkin’s shredding of Alvarez over two failed drug tests and Alvarez’s narrow 2018 victory by majority decision.
Even though Alvarez and DAZN Executive Chairman John Skipper maintain friendly communication, Alvarez, by denying a Golovkin fight, let De La Hoya twist nakedly in the wind in front of DAZN and compromised what Skipper maintains should operate as a “relationship … of trust.”
In an interview I did with Skipper while reporting for the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, he told me of DAZN’s union with Alvarez and De La Hoya: “If we each don’t want to do something, the outcome is stalemate … it’s mutually assured destruction if we don’t make it work.”
But Alvarez was miffed not just at Golovkin. He’s fumed at De La Hoya and Golden Boy President Eric Gomez for promising the Golovkin fight to DAZN, and he was chafed after learning from a report that DAZN had agreed in its deal with Golden Boy to pay De La Hoya’s company around $90 million over five years for the rights to broadcast 10 other non-Canelo Golden Boy fight cards per year.
The industry is rife with talk of a fraying connection between Alvarez and De La Hoya following the bond tied to Alvarez’s rise as a world champion, and through the past defections from Golden Boy of several prominent fighters managed by Al Haymon in 2015.
While De La Hoya’s been through rehab and absent around his offices over the years, according to employees — also missing some recent Golden Boy cards in Southern California — he’s cultivated young talent like popular prospect Ryan Garcia, 154-pound champion Jaime Munguia and unbeaten welterweight Vergil Ortiz Jr., who headlines a DAZN card Aug. 10 in Texas.
Collecting the DAZN funds to promote those other than Canelo — even if De La Hoya would’ve struggled to collect that sum if it weren’t attached to the cachet of his marquee fighter — shouldn’t be viewed as a sin by Alvarez, given their journey to these heights, many in the business say.
De La Hoya did not immediately respond Friday to questions about this story directed to two Golden Boy Promotions spokesmen.
Skipper, the former head of ESPN, defended De La Hoya’s presence as the company leader.
“I was in business with Oscar at ESPN and it was an excellent experience, and today I’ve had a good experience with Oscar at DAZN,” he said. “He’s never shied away from tough conversations. He’s always available if I need him.”
Yet Derevyanchenko promoter Lou DiBella has chastised De La Hoya on Twitter for his neglect in not responding to a ticking clock from May 4 until early July that would’ve allowed WBC and WBA champion Alvarez to retain the IBF belt by applying for an exception based on a deal to unify against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade.
An earlier effort to stage an Alvarez fight against light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev sloppily fell apart because Kovalev couldn’t withdraw from a commitment to fight in his native Russia against Anthony Yarde.
De La Hoya’s team also showed no interest, DiBella said, in negotiating for the Derevyanchenko fight until the night before the last of the 30 days before a purse-bid deadline, and Golden Boy wasn’t even registered with the IBF to make such a bid before later declining to pay $7 million to Derevyanchenko for a bout that also would’ve saved the belt with a likely Alvarez victory.
Negotiating with DiBella, while Derevyanchenko managers Keith Connolly and Al Haymon monitored, Golden Boy’s Robert Diaz offered $5.5 million for the bout, according to an industry source unauthorized to discuss financial terms publicly.
“I have no animosity toward Oscar De La Hoya or Golden Boy, nor have I insulted the offer they did make,” DiBella said. “I get a little irked, however, when I see these statements, threats and quotes acting like anyone else did anything inappropriate. I don’t like the mischaracterization of reality.”
Derevyanchenko is negotiating toward an Oct. 5 title fight against former IBF champion Golovkin on DAZN at Madison Square Garden. He’s positioned to earn at or near the $7 million De La Hoya rebuffed.
Industry skepticism remains about Alvarez’s interest in unifying against Andrade, with one insider pointing out “they didn’t think about (the unification) until just a few days ago, as a way to keep the belt. They may not even want it now.”
As of Friday afternoon, Alvarez has not said “yes” to a fight Skipper labels “very acceptable to us.”
Skipper is holding an Oct. 26 card — likely in Las Vegas — for an Alvarez-Andrade bout that DAZN would show after the conclusion of World Series Game 4.
“Canelo has been our rainmaker to date, and he’s been a pleasure to work with,” Skipper told The Athletic on Friday. “The two fights we’ve done with Canelo have generated a dramatic number of subscribers — I can say that the majority of our subs have come from the Canelo fights. We want, of course, for Canelo to be involved in bouts that have enormous public interest, and we believe the Andrade bout qualifies as that.”
In the meantime, Skipper and DAZN find themselves on a high-wire situation in which they’d be empowered to enforce the contract with Golden Boy. They’re not ambivalent, but they’re also experienced enough to understand that with nine fights remaining on Alvarez’s contract, maintaining a strong relationship with “the rainmaker” is the soundest way to proceed.
“You have to keep the greater good in mind, which is Canelo and Golovkin to continue fighting for us and everybody working hard together,” Skipper said. “Obviously, Canelo is the boxer who can drive more subscriptions than anyone else in the business right now, and we are very happy with his two fights. We know a rematch with Golovkin is the bout of the greatest interest to fans and will, therefore, drive the most subscriptions.
“But we and Golden Boy and Canelo and Golovkin are all in this together, and we’ve all got to come to an agreement about date and time and venue and circumstances.”
The negotiations are likely to be grueling, and after the drama of the recent months, the most defining of Oscar De La Hoya’s promotional career.
so basically Oscar did both DAZN and Canelo dirty. Promised DAZN a 3rd GGG fight without even telling canelo about it Oscar just had the money in their eyes and were willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Backstab the only fighter keeping your brand alive
Oh damn so that's what happened? I saw the storylines but I haven't been following what's going on.
Only thing I'm trying to hear from Canelo is he's negotiating a potential fight with Charlo or Andrade. Mexican Independence Day is happening without a big boxing event this year thanks to him and his shenanigans.
Yep. That deal was predicated on Canelo fighting GGG. When that fight didn't come to fruition there was no one for Canelo to fight that would justify the hefty price tag.
What big name at middleweight that is signed to DAZN or Top Rank that can draw numbers? They'd have to sucker some welterweight to come up like they did Khan or work on building up a name for him to knock off. But it's apparent they suck at doing that. They can't even promote Canelo right.
Now that I think of it, if there was no promotional issues what is the biggest name they could get Canelo to fight?
Now that everybody’s attention is starting to focus on the heavyweight division again they will draw out the top fights. They will bleed this thing dry. Don King and Bob Arum did this very thing and it was very bad for the sport. That’s one of the reasons MMA/UFC is so big. Folks got tired of the bullshit.
I see boxing hasn’t learned. They are going to try this shit again. The thing is Wilder is 34 years of age. He is the main draw but ain’t nobody going to fight him accept Fury (who knows when that fight will happen again). They ain’t about to let Ruiz, who holds all the belts accept the WBC, fight Wilder. Ruiz is 29, but I don’t see him retaining any of his belts so he will fight mandatory’s on each belt and lose each one and further stop anyone of unifying the titles again anytime soon. So will have a bunch of bs fights, meanwhile Wilder will age out of the ring and Fury who is only 30 will unify all the belts again at the age of 35. Long and short this is the next five years of the heavyweight division. Fuck all!
Good post kirkout. But why wouldn't Ruiz and Wilder fight to unify? They are both PBC fighters. Then all the belts would be under one guy on PBC...that sets up the big fight with Joshua to see if he can get all the belts...wouldn't that fight be the biggest fight in boxing? Am I missing something here?
You are looking at it from a rational point of view, behind the scenes there is still major corruption in these boxing organizations.
Because Ruiz is not a big enough name. They want that unification fight to have a bigger name for Wilder. Whether we like Fury or not the man can promote himself. AJ and Ruiz are too nice.
Fury is the best thing to happen to Wilder because it creates an opponent that people will question if he can beat and he can talk shit.
Going back to that Athletic article on Oscar/Canelo, Oscar got a $90M/5 year deal for non-Canelo cards. $18M a year for 10 cards, the purses on those cards he's been putting on so far have been like $200k in total purses. DLH eating like crazy off of Canelo name without Canelo getting a cut of that $90 mil. Take away Canelo and Golden Boy doesn't even have a better roster than Lou Dibella and no way in hell would Dibella be able to get DAZN to cough up $90M
Remember when Oscar started GBP back in the early 2000s he was saying that his purpose was to bring respectability to promoting and fairness to boxers.
Now he’s doing the same shit he frowned upon when he was a fighter.
Now he’s doing the same shit he frowned upon when he was a fighter.
that was a BS stoppage
Wow. Didn't expect to see that shit. lol
Yooooooooo
I could've lost a lot of money on this nigga. lol
I could've lost a lot of money on this nigga. lol
Yeah man Browne looking like that last fight was a fluke.
This man letting Pascale do him in...Pascale? Pascale? lol
Man shout out to Pascal.
I had 0% faith in him.
I had 0% faith in him.
These cats throwing leather