Saul Alavarez On The Offense
TIME FOR FLOYD MAYWEATHER & MANNY PACQUIAO TO STEP ASIDE!
San Francisco, CA– As I sit with MacBook in lap, I’m in a quagmire when it comes to writing either boxing or MMA. Too many hot topics to write about, while at the same there is the fear that somebody will beat you to the story. So, what’s a guy to do? The headline gives it all away, but if you’re not catching on, the next big fight of 2012 will not involve either Manny Pacquiao or the man that would “own” him if they did fight, Floyd Mayweather. The fight that has the telephone lines between boxing’s powerbrokers, excluding Don King, Boob Arum or Gary Shaw, the top dog in the new generation of boxing shot callers Richard Schaffer of Golden Boy Promotions will be dealing directly with Miguel Cotto Promotions and the HBO PPV suits to insure that Saul Alvarez will be defending the WBC 154 lb. laurels against the man that gave Floyd Mayweather a good fight Saturday night, Miguel Cotto in September.
Miguel Cotto Wants Alvarez
SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT BEFORE GOING ANY FORWARD
For those that thought the Mayweather-Cotto fight was close, you’re either Puerto Rican like Cotto, a member of the Klu Klux Klan, or you don’t know the criteria in scoring professional boxing. For those of that don’t know the exact method of scoring a fight, I’ll break it down for you. 1) Clean punching. 2) Effective Aggressiveness. 3) Defense. 4) Ring Generalship. That being the way professional boxing is scored, if you can sit there with a straight face and say that Cotto was superior in any of these four categories, your nose is growing like Pinocchio. There is no getting around it, Mayweather was by far the superior fighter Saturday evening.
MEXICO VS. PUERTO RICO FIGHTS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MONEYMAKERS!
Seeing I go back to fights like Salvador Sanchez’s win over Wilfredo Gomez in 1981, that means I’ve got tenure on 99% of the guys writing today as well as most of you great readers. It was a night you’ll never forget that was proceeded by Gomez weighing 130 lbs. for a 126 lb. title fight at 8 AM that morning. After a few hours of drying out in a sauna, Sanchez, the WBC and the Nevada Athletic Commission allowed the fight to go on a 126 lb. title fight even thought I’m told Gomez got below 128 1/4. This was indeed a strange scenario seeing Gomez went to bed within a whisker of 126 lbs. the night, this according to the honorable World Boxing Organization President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel.
MAY NEVER KNOW WHAT GOMEZ DID BETWEEN 10 PM & 8 AM
Gomez, considered the greatest 122 lb. champion in history, seeing fighting at super bantamweight, he went like 35-0, 33 KOs before moving up to 126 lbs. to fight Sanchez. The real big fight for Puerto Rico’s Gomez was his destruction of Mexican and World 118 lb. champion Carlos Zarate. Many of Gomez’s wins at 122 were against marginal fighters, but the KO of Zarate was a “benchmark” moment for Gomez. After getting a facial bone broken in the first round supposedly from a Sanchez right, Gomez tried for eight rounds before the late Sanchez put Wilfredo’s undefeated mark six feet under with a TKO 8. From that point forward, Gomez was never the same. Sanchez, who was said to be the original blood doper, this by a high-ranking member of the WBC hierarchy, died about a year later when he was rushing back to training camp in the early morning after what could best be described as a “booty call.”
SANCHEZ HEADED FOR ARGUELLO SHOWDOWN
Driving at a high rate of speed, said to be in excess of 85 or 90 MPH, Sanchez, the once beaten WBC featherweight (126) champion who was supposed to meet the late great Alexis Arguello of Nicaragua at 135 in either his next fight or the one after that, rear ended a truck carrying live chickens to market and died if not on impact, shortly thereafter. This only proves that men will jump through just about any hoop to have sex.
THEY CALLED IT “THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE GIANTS”
Back to the Sanchez-Gomez fight, the crowd in the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion, which in the mind of many fans and media members alike, was the greatest boxing arena ever. The rabid and split 50-50 down the middle of crowd Mexican-Puerto Rican fans had a battle of the bands pre-fight. The Mexican Mariachis were on one side of the ring, while a Salsa band from Puerto Rico was belting out tunes 20 or so feet apart!
MGM GRAND ALREADY LIKELY SITE FOR SEPTEMBER CLASH
While it appears the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be the venue, that’s only because the Mandalay Bay Events Center is about 5,000 seats smaller and is controlled by the same corporation that has the MGM Grand. With the aforementioned Caesars Palace out of the fight game, the Las Vegas economy hurting financially, Steve Wynn’s Mirage Hotel disinterested in resenting boxing, not only is the MGM Grand the biggest “Sin City” venue, but it has the deepest pockets.
OUTDOOR FIGHTS ARE HISTORY!
The days of outdoor fights in Las Vegas, be it Mike Tyson fights at the Las Vegas Hilton, Larry Holmes-Michael Spinks at the Riviera Hotel, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns or Marvin Hagler headlining at Caesars are dead, just like fights like the Buster Douglas-Evander Holyfield scrap the Mirage are history, thus the MGM Grand is the only venue that really works. The Thomas & Mack Arena on the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) campus is dead except for college basketball and an occasional professional wrestling match or concert.
NOT PICKING A WINNER, JUST LETTING YOU KNOW!
Although Saul Alvarez is a 2 1/2 to 1 favorite over Cotto in the mind of this handicapper, it is not my intent to predict a winner, my job here is to let you the boxing fan what time it really is! By the way, who do you like, Alvarez or Cotto?
Pedro Fernandez