Calling Fact or Fiction for the Biggest Rumors in Boxing
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will finally meet in a hotly anticipated superfight before the end of 2015.
Or they won't.
Depending on who you believe, we're almost there, or we've never been further away.
That's the nature of the rumors, innuendos and speculation that often fuel the fires of professional prizefighting.
Will they, or won't they?
Who will fight whom?
When will it happen?
Here we take a look at some of the biggest and most significant rumors and speculation floating around the sport and assess whether they are facts or fictions.
Trust us on this stuff—we're usually right at least half of the time.
Mayweather and Pacquiao Will Fight on May 2: 404 Error Not Found
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We've definitely reached the saturation point when it comes to Mayweather vs. Pacquiao negotiations, rumors and conversations. Call it the demands of a 24/7 media culture or just plain blind hope, but this horse has been beaten and beaten and beaten to death.
Seriously, is there a single person who hasn't had enough already?
Stories fly out every day of the week in boxing's ultimate reality series that has taken on the feeling of one of those "how do you keep an idiot busy?" jokes. It's either close or light-years away. They've reached agreement on key points, or they've never been further apart.
It doesn't matter who you blame at this point.
Blame Mayweather.
Blame Pacquiao.
Blame Bob Arum.
Blame the cosmic boxing gods.
Nobody has clean hands, and they've all contributed to allowing this fight to become little more than a cruel joke trotted out occasionally to raise the hopes of fans before ultimately crushing them.
That's why, until this fight is signed, a press conference is held, the gloves are laced and we hear the bell ring for Round 1, you shouldn't believe it.
Even then it's plausible that you've fallen asleep or fallen so far into the rabbit hole that you can no longer decipher real from fake.
Fact?
Fiction?
How about who cares until it's done?
Amir Khan Is a Viable Opponent for Miguel Cotto: Fiction
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Amir Khan is desperate for a high-profile fight.
Really, really desperate.
After spending a year of his career big-game hunting Mayweather only to come up without the catch, Khan has since stated a desire to face Pacquiao, per ESPN.co.uk's Nick Parkinson, and now even middleweight champion Miguel Cotto.
Cotto, who jumped up from 154 pounds to dominate Sergio Martinez last June and capture the lineal and WBC Middleweight Championships, is in need of an opponent for the spring after negotiations with Canelo Alvarez failed.
Khan would fulfill the need for a name opponent, but he’s not credible due to his size. The 5'9" Brit is a former 140-pound champion who has only fought twice as a welterweight. He’s never been north of 147 pounds and doesn’t have the size to compete at middleweight.
You can stick this one firmly in the fiction drawer.
Cotto is more likely to seek out a fight against someone like Timothy Bradley, himself a smallish welterweight who would be undersized now that Andy Lee, a 160-pound belt holder, has signed on to defend against Peter Quillin.
That’s really not a great fight either, but given Cotto's and Bradley’s common link to Top Rank, it makes sense. The fight should be easy to cobble together without too much difficulty.
Canelo Will Fight Cotto This Year: Likely Fact
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Miguel Cotto seemed a lock to face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in May before negotiations suddenly and without explanation fell apart near the finish line according to Boxing Scene (h/t the Latin Post).
The development was a head-scratcher, but Canelo and his team immediately picked themselves up, dusted off and secured a fight with erratic but dangerous slugger James Kirkland.
Assuming Canelo gets by that fight—he should, but if Kirkland shows up in the right frame of mind he could be trouble—and Cotto gets past whoever he settles on fighting in the spring, you should expect these negotiations to fire up once again.
It’s fiction that these two won’t settle their differences in the ring before the end of the year.
Oscar De La Hoya is already looking forward to it, per Miguel Rivera of BoxingScene.com, telling Erika Montoya it is a fight “the fans want to see” and a “logical” one for both fighters.
It’s a fact that the Golden Boy will try again in the near future, and it should get done. There’s too much money and one of boxing's greatest national rivalries at stake for it not to happen.
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Leo Santa Cruz Ducked Guillermo Rigondeaux: Fact
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Leo Santa Cruz said he wanted the fight according to Sky Sports.
Oscar De La Hoya said he was in negotiations for the fight.
Al Haymon said no way.
De La Hoya, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, grew tired of his inability to secure Haymon’s blessing on a super bantamweight unification fight between Santa Cruz and Guillermo Rigondeaux and sold the Mexican’s contract to the reclusive manager.
Rigo’s manager, Gary Hyde, didn’t mince words, telling Luke Furman of BoxingScene.com that Santa Cruz was a “coward” who “ran for cover to Al Haymon” once it became clear the fight wouldn’t happen.
You know what they say, right?
When it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck.
And this looks like a pretty blatant duck by both Santa Cruz and Haymon.
De La Hoya, in comments to Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com, said it was pretty clear that Santa Cruz and Haymon didn't want the fight.
"I was negotiating with Rigo's people on making Leo Santa Cruz vs. Rigondeaux - because that is the fight that the fans want to see and that's the fight that apparently, or supposedly, that Leo Santa Cruz had been asking for. We had a buyout clause in our contract with Leo Santa Cruz. And what happened? They executed the buyout and they bought us out - because they don't want that fight to happen
"
Santa Cruz is a huge talent with a big personality, but the soft opponents Haymon has fed him are stunting his development in a big way. Manuel Roman and Jesus Ruiz had no business in the ring with him, no less on high-profile stages, and his next opponent better make up for it.
Otherwise he runs the risk of developing a reputation as a fighter who avoids big challenges.
So, fact on Santa Cruz ducking Rigo.
And fact on his reputation taking a serious hit.
Bernard Hopkins Will Face Carl Froch: Fiction
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It seemed like a perfectly logical idea.
Future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins wanted one last significant fight against a champion from a lower-weight division before calling it a career.
Carl Froch wanted to headline at least one showcase event before hanging up the gloves. Originally it was believed he wanted a Las Vegas main event but, as he told the Nottingham Post (h/t Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com), would be content with a stadium gig in his hometown of Nottingham.
With Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. locked in a thorny lawsuit with his current/former—depending on which side you believe—promoters at Top Rank, Hopkins seemed a logical fight.
He’s a legendary name, remains a draw and would generate plenty of interest for his last fight and world-title challenge.
Both men initially expressed an interest in the fight, but Froch’s recent statements to BBC Sport (h/t Reeno) indicate that this fight is more fiction than fact.
Froch, who as recently as last week expressed a desire to face Hopkins, suddenly shifted his tune, saying “it is not particularly a fight I get too excited about."
Hopkins didn’t take too kindly to the shifting tone, accusing Froch of looking for the easy way out.
“He says it's a lose-lose situation. But he's in a lose-lose situation if he fights somebody that we know he can beat. I don't think anybody, at least I think, is picking Chavez to beat Carl Froch. Carl Froch is looking for the easy way out,” Hopkins told Reeno.
That’s just Hopkins doing what he does best. He’s messing with Froch’s head and trying to force his hand. Whether or not it works?
It doesn’t seem very likely at the moment.
Boxing Will Soon Have One Champion Per Division: Fiction
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Boxing has a ludicrous amount of champions.
There’s really no other way to say it.
The proliferation of sanctioning organizations, which make money by charging fighters fees to defend and challenge for belts, has completely watered down the concept of world champion.
Many weight divisions have no less than four men who can claim to be world champion, and some—because designations of interim and super world champions have become so popular—have even more.
Ronnie Nathanielsz of BoxingScene.com reported in January that the presidents of the WBC, WBA and IBF—three of the four main sanctioning bodies—had scheduled meetings to devise ways to move toward one world champion per weight class.
That's a great idea, and they may genuinely try to find ways to make it a reality. But ultimately this will prove to be fiction.
There’s just way too much money to be made for an organization by calling one guy a regular world champion, another a super world champion and yet another an interim world champion.
Three sanctioning fees instead of one?
It’s a good business model, even if it’s not good for the sport as a whole.
Matthysse vs. Provodnikov Will Be the Fight of the Year: Fact
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Lucas Matthysse.
Ruslan Provodnikov.
Do you really need anything else?
The Machine and the Siberian Rocky are inching closer to a March fight that has all the trimmings of a guaranteed Fight of the Year contender. But it won’t be for the faint of heart.
Matthysse is an aggressive former interim junior welterweight champion with devastating punching power. He’s scored 34 knockouts among his 36 wins, and his most recent fight was a bloodletting war-of-attrition victory over John Molina.
Provodnikov is a freak of nature. He’s a scary dude, and you have to wonder what must go through the mind of the unfortunate soul who has to stare across the ring before the bell and see him looking back.
Assuming the fight comes off, which seems nearly guaranteed for late March at either the StubHub Center or MGM Grand in Las Vegas according to World Boxing News (h/t SB Nation), it will be the Fight of the Year—but it will also likely shorten or end a career.
There won’t be a whole lot of technique here.
Just a couple of big punchers trading leather in a phone booth until one—or both—can’t stand any longer.
Great television?
Yes.
The Fight of the Year?
Yes.
Fit for public consumption?
Hide your young ones, and get ready for an evening of primal violence.
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