The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of May 15
Deontay Wilder was set to do battle with Alexander Povetkin Saturday in Moscow with the WBC Heavyweight Championship hanging in the balance, but the fight has been postponed, per WBC president Mauricio Sulaimon.
ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reported on Friday that Povetkin had failed a pre-fight drug test the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) administered on April 27. The test showed trace amounts of meldonium—a recently banned substance known for increasing stamina.
We'll break down all the information you need to know about this now-postponed fight.
Next, we turn to the recent ridiculousness that is a potential Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight.
All that, plus the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan pay-per-view numbers, whether or not Khan is up to his old trick by not wanting to fight Kell Brook and Terence Crawford's PPV debut against Viktor Postol.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week!
Will Wilder-Povetkin Even Happen?
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Wilder was set to defend his WBC Heavyweight Championship Saturday night in Moscow against mandatory challenger Povetkin, but it appears the fight will not happen.
Rafael tweeted on Sunday that the fight appears to be off, providing more details: "Wilder and his team were supposed to board a flight from England, where he has been training, to Moscow at 8 a.m. ET. They did not board and are making plans to return to the United States, although they still have not heard from the WBC."
Rafael reported on Friday that Povetkin had failed a pre-fight drug test the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) issued on April 27. The test showed trace amounts of the recently banned substance meldonium in the fighter's urine sample.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned meldonium as of January 1 because it increases blood flow and oxygen distribution to increase stamina.
Vadim Pushkin of BoxingScene.com provided information from Povetkin's promoter Andrey Ryabinsky in which he claimed on Twitter that the amount of substance was so low it could be within the legally allowed limits. According to Pushkin, "Povetkin's team openly admit that the boxer had previously taken meldonium as recently as last fall," before WADA banned it.
VADA reports, obtained by Rafael, state Povetkin tested negative for the substance in VADA-conducted testing on April 7, April 8 and April 11. The positive test took place on April 27, which, per Rafael, indicates the substance was taken sometime between the failed and positive tests.
Rafael also reported the WBC has received statements from both teams, and president Mauricio Sulaiman, who has been in the forefront of efforts to clean up the sport through stringent drug testing, announced via Twitter that the fight has been postponed.
Could Mayweather-McGregor Happen?
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I loathe to touch this topic with a 10-foot pole, but I am also conscious that you can't purport to talk about boxing's hottest storylines while ignoring one that's garnered this much attention. What are the chances of Mayweather and McGregor ever engaging in hand-to-hand combat inside a ring?
Can we say less than zero?
Which, now that this prognostication is floating around the Internet, virtually guarantees it will happen.
Mayweather and McGregor are two smart businessmen. That's why we're having this ridiculous conversation in the first place. In that sense we're the suckers P.T. Barnum used to always talk about making his living from.
This is fantasy stuff.
It's good bar conversation, and maybe one day you can settle it in a video game, but it's utterly divorced from reality, since the problems are numerous and difficult to solve.
MMA or boxing?
Mayweather spent a career limiting his risk, so the idea that now, at age 39, he'll jump into the cage is ludicrous.
Would the UFC, which stands to make a good deal of money off McGregor despite his recent defeat, allow him to participate in a sport where he'll have a significant disadvantage?
Will it happen? Highly, highly doubtful.
But that's not going to stop people from talking about it until you're sick of hearing it, which we already are.
What to Make of Canelo-Khan PPV Numbers?
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Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya told Rafael that the Canelo-Khan HBO PPV totaled "around" 600,000 buys on PPV. It's worth noting the numbers are not close to being finalized, and that truly accurate counts have become as guarded as nuclear codes these days.
De La Hoya also dispelled rumors and insinuation that the fight bombed at the box office, something which, if true, would certainly put a damper on crowning the cinnamon-haired champion boxing's new PPV king.
That would be a rather large blow to that marketing tool.
According to Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com, "Numbers from legitimate sources reported to various outlet—though none willing to go on the record (including those who've responded to requests from BoxingScene.com)—have the four-fight PPV event selling anywhere from 390,000-600,000 units."
The former, obviously, would be what Oscar is trying to dispute, but the latter would be a decent job for an event few wanted and most labeled a predictable mismatch.
Khan's name was never even floated as a potential foil for Canelo—a kind-of middleweight who holds the lineal title and the WBC's green belt.
His ability to take a punch, particularly from a larger man, didn't generate much fan buzz for the fight, which was seen as a test of the Mexican's solo drawing power rather than his boxing prowess.
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Is Amir Khan Back to His Old Tricks?
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Khan deserves a ton of credit for daring to be great and taking on the bigger Canelo in the first truly significant fight that came his way.
Just don't expect him to fight Brook—the IBF welterweight champion in what would represent a hugely meaningful all-Brit fight that would likely do huge bank at a stadium across the pond.
Ever, if you believe his words.
"Basically, I don't like him, and I'm not going to give him the fight." Khan said, per PA Sport (h/t ESPN) now that his middleweight business is over and a return to welterweight looms. "I respect him, he's got a world title, but I want to fight the biggest names."
Khan has said he only has a few fights remaining in his career. He spent several years taking lesser challenges while hoping to land Mayweather and later Manny Pacquiao, but he came up short in each of those attempts and built some bad will with the boxing community.
Whether or not the good vibes he earned by taking a risky fight will be zapped by his continued insistence that he won't fight Brook (which most would probably agree could be the most lucrative and makeable fight available for him) remains to be seen.
Khan is currently the mandatory challenger for WBC welterweight champ Danny Garcia.
Garcia scored an upset knockout of Khan in a 2012 140-pound unification bout, so a rematch would obviously provide some juice for the fans and both fighters.
If he can't score Garcia, Khan mentioned Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley and, here we go again, Pacquiao as possible future opponents. Let's hope he actually fights one of these guys and doesn't return to his old tricks of just talking and talking and talking.
Can Crawford-Postol Sell on PPV?
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Bob Arum sure hopes the answer to the above question is yes.
Crawford and Postol are the two best fighters at 140 pounds. Both men have won all 28 of their professional fights and hold world championships, but neither has ever appeared on a PPV platform, much less in the headlining slot.
So that makes this event, priced at a modest $49.99 ($10 more for high definition), a really tough sell.
Rafael reported Arum needs to sell about 75,000 PPVs in order to break even on the money he had to lay out for the matchup to even happen.
Normally this is the type of fight that would take place on regular HBO, but for budgetary reasons at the network this year, Arum was forced into a corner. Either not stage the fight, which is significant and pretty close to evenly matched, or put it on a pay platform and assume the risk.
Crawford is frequently mentioned among the sport's top pound-for-pound fighters, and Postol represents his toughest and trickiest challenge. The Ukrainian champion scored a significant upset over Lucas Matthysse last October and possesses significant height and reach advantages.
On HBO this is a must-see fight, but the question is whether or not fans will be willing to part with some extra cash to see it, especially in the post Mayweather-Pacquiao era where PPV numbers are down across the board.
It's not an easy sell.
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