The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of January 19
What an interesting week in boxing!
Deontay Wilder became the first American to hold a share of the heavyweight championship since Shannon Briggs in 2006, beating Bermane Stiverne by unanimous decision to win the WBC title on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
What does the win do for the Alabama native and the newly revitalized heavyweight division as a whole?
Next we topple the huge amount of earthshaking news from the boxing world that surfaced over the past week.
Manny Pacquiao has reportedly agreed to terms for a long-awaited superfight with pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, but will it finally happen this time?
Or are boxing fans once again the foil for a bad joke?
What the heck went wrong with the widely anticipated Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez middleweight showdown?
Will Al Haymon's new boxing series bring the sport back to the masses?
Can Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado deliver the goods in the third contest of their epic rivalry?
Finally, who makes the most sense for Bernard Hopkins as he zeroes in on a final fight?
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week of Jan. 19.
Are We Being Punked on Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Again?
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The Mayweather vs. Pacquiao saga took another interesting twist on Tuesday when veteran boxing scribe Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports reported Bob Arum’s claim that Pacquiao had agreed to terms for a May 2 bout between the pound-for-pound icons.
The terms reported, which are as of publication the only word on the matter, as neither Mayweather nor his team have commented, are seemingly generous to boxing's No. 1 draw.
Mayweather would receive 60 percent of the purse to Pacquiao's 40 percent. The fight would be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Floyd's home away from home, and would take place on Cinco de Mayo weekend. Both fighters would be subject to USADA random drug testing.
All of those represent varying levels of concessions by Pacquiao's side to Mayweather, and barring this all being a facade, it seems to put the ball in Mayweather's court to make the fight.
ESPN.com's senior boxing writer Dan Rafael tweeted his skepticism about the fight coming off, crediting HBO, Showtime/CBS, Arum and Pacquiao for doing all they could but maintaining he doesn't believe the fight will happen.
Boxing fans have, unfortunately, been down this road countless times, only to have the the fight snatched away at the last second like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football in the Peanuts series.
Would anyone be surprised if that's exactly what happens again?
What to Make of Cotto-Canelo Falling Apart?
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WBC and lineal middleweight champion Cotto will not face Canelo in a widely anticipated fight on May 2.
Lem Satterfield of The Ring Magazine first reported the news on Saturday, quoting Golden Boy Promotions’ CEO Oscar De La Hoya as saying that a final deadline had passed without Cotto accepting terms and that they were moving forward. That was later confirmed by Cotto's representatives.
Canelo agreed to the fight in early December, but Cotto’s camp long maintained that they were weighing all available options before settling on his next foe. Those were believed to include not just Canelo, but also WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, former welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley and pound-for-pound king Mayweather.
This is a truly shocking development, given the state of negotiations and the natural marketing points available for a fight featuring a Puerto Rican legend against a rising Mexican star on a Mexican holiday weekend.
So why did this happen, and what happens next?
Cotto is his own boss. He doesn’t like people dictating terms to him. Sergio Martinez called him a “diva” during negotiations for their middleweight championship fight last June, and he probably didn’t take kindly to Canelo goading him by questioning his commitment to upholding familial and national pride.
He’s never been a ducker, so you’d have to expect he’s hoping for something bigger, like Mayweather, should a Pacquiao fight not get finalized.
Cotto has a sterling reputation, but only Floyd or a showdown with Golovkin would give him a pass for skipping a Canelo clash. Someone like Andy Lee just wouldn’t cut it.
Canelo, on the other hand, will still fight on May 2, likely against either James Kirkland or middleweight puncher David Lemieux, who signed with Golden Boy on Saturday.
Neither of those are the fights that he or his promoters wanted, but they’ll have to do given this shocking development.
Is the Next Great American Heavyweight Finally Here?
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Yes.
Need more?
Deontay Wilder proved that he wasn't a one-trick pony on Saturday night. We knew he could punch, but his solid boxing fundamentals, ability to adapt in the face of a foe who didn't crumple under his power and stay within himself showed that there's more under the hood of this car than just power.
Oh, and apparently he can take a punch, because Stiverne cracked him good a few times and didn't get a ton of return on his investment.
Obviously the return of a heavyweight title belt to American shores is a big deal. The realm of the big boys has been a dead zone in the eyes of U.S. fans for the better part of a decade, with legitimate champion Wladimir Klitschko content to keep the remaining belts hostage in Germany.
Klitschko is an all-time great, and it's not his fault that the division around him hasn't produced much in the way of serious challengers, but it's definitely good for everyone that he's not the only heavyweight people are talking about.
Wilder immediately becomes a mega-star and establishes himself as the undisputed top challenger to the Ukrainian's long reign of dominance. His belt is significant for the fighter and his fans, but we all know who the real champion is until he loses or calls it quits.
Klitschko vs. Wilder for all the marbles would be the biggest heavyweight fight in years.
It needs to happen before the end of the year.
And, once it does, we can only hope the heavies stay relevant and don't fade away again.
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Will Al Haymon's Boxing Series Revitalize Boxing?
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Thank you, Al Haymon.
The reclusive uber-manager is bringing boxing back to the mainstream, announcing a deal last week in New York City with NBC Sports to televise his new series, Premier Boxing Champions. The agreement includes five cards to be televised by NBC on Saturday nights, six on Saturday afternoons and nine in prime time on NBC Sports Network.
Kicking off the new series, which is sure to put significant pressure on boxing’s heavyweight networks HBO and Showtime, will be a pair of high-level cards featuring significant fights.
Robert Guerrero and Keith Thurman will meet in a welterweight contest on Mar. 7 in Las Vegas. The main support bout on that card will feature former three-division champion Adrien Broner taking on tough-as-nails John Molina.
The second card, slated for April 11, will feature unified light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in a catchweight bout with titlist Lamont Peterson. Why a catchweight? That's a good question, and it does take some zing off the fight, but it remains a solid, meaningful fight.
Whether or not these type of high-level matchups featuring big-name fighters remains the norm is yet to be seen.
Haymon has a massive stable of fighters—over 150—including some of the biggest names in the sport, but he’s frequently been accused of soft matchmaking and not without some validity.
The early returns on this new project are good, and these are the type of fights, with the type of exposure, that brings new fans to the sport.
So, thank you, Al Haymon.
But, please keep it up.
Can Rios-Alvarado 3 Deliver?
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Rios and Alvarado will meet on Saturday night at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, in a rubber match to settle their epic feud.
The two engaged in a pair of Fight of the Year contenders at junior welterweight—Rios won the first by knockout and Alvarado evened the score with a narrow decision in the rematch—and you can expect more fireworks in this decisive battle.
You’d never know that the two men are such good friends outside of the ring, with the way they ferociously attack each other once the bell rings, but respect for the game and desire to put a stamp on the feud are powerful motivators.
But don’t delude yourself. This fight isn’t just about settling a score.
Both men badly need this win in order to continue pressing forward in their careers and avoid falling into the dustbin of faded veterans that litters boxing’s middle-to-upper tier.
Rios, a former lightweight titlist, has lost two of his last three fights, and the lone victory came via disqualification against Diego Chaves in a fight he was losing.
Alvarado has dropped three of his last four, including a brutally one-sided beating from Ruslan Provodnikov that cost him his world title and a boxing master class from Juan Manuel Marquez.
Yes, this is about proving who is the better man in the rivalry, but the stakes are significantly higher than just that for both guys.
Who Will Be Bernard Hopkins' Final Opponent?
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Hopkins ain’t done yet.
The former undisputed middleweight and light heavyweight champion celebrated his 50th birthday last week, maintaining that he still wants one more fight before calling an end to an historic career built on otherworldly longevity.
“I want to fight one fight at 50 but I want it to be a meaningful fight," Hopkins said, per Rafael. "I'd rather it be a championship fight and I'd like it to be done in a timely fashion, hopefully before June.”
Shortly after dropping a shutout decision and his two 175-pound titles to Sergey Kovalev in November, the Alien shocked some observers by declaring that he wanted one more fight against a dominant champion from a lower weight class.
It seemed that he was referring to undefeated Kazakh wrecking ball Golovkin, although that fight seemed unlikely then and even more so now.
So whom could Hopkins face that presents a credible challenge—he refuses to go out on a small fight and become a “circus act”—and a world title opportunity?
Rick Reeno of Boxingscene.com reported on Thursday that Carl Froch, the IBF and WBA “regular” super middleweight champion, could fit the bill perfectly.
The Brit has been locked in negotiations for a Las Vegas showdown with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., but the ongoing legal battle with Top Rank has complicated chances of finalizing that fight.
Froch is widely believed to be considering retirement if a Vegas headlining opportunity doesn’t come to pass, and Hopkins could fit into that void.
Froch would get his showcase moment in the Nevada desert, and Hopkins would find himself in a winnable fight that could allow him to retire at 50 as a three-division champion.
It’s a win-win.
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