A bonus dose this week of random thoughts …
• The news that junior welterweight champ
Ricky Hatton hired
Floyd Mayweather Sr., the self-described greatest trainer of all time, didn't come as much of a surprise because the pairing had been in the rumor mill for weeks. But now that it's official that Mayweather will take over Hatton's camp and replace the fired
Billy Graham heading into a Nov. 22 fight with
Paulie Malignaggi, I think it can be helpful for Hatton. But that is only as long as Mayweather can come to grips with the fact that Hatton won't be able to do everything Mayweather wants him to do. Hatton is what he is, and no matter what Mayweather does, he's not going to change him. There is one area, however, where Mayweather can definitely help, and that is on defense, where Hatton is, to be kind, a bit challenged.
I do find it rather intriguing that Mayweather signed on to train the man who was once knocked out by his estranged son,
Floyd Mayweather Jr. But what is even more interesting is what the pairing with Hatton means for Mayweather's status as the trainer of
Oscar De La Hoya, who happens to be Hatton's promoter and his obvious huge opponent next year should he beat Malignaggi and De La Hoya defeat
Manny Pacquiao. It seems unlikely that with Mayweather planning to train Hatton for a Nov. 22 fight that he can also be in a training camp with De La Hoya, whose fight with Pacquiao is on Dec. 6, just two weeks after Hatton's fight. Unless Hatton elects to train in the United States and De La Hoya is willing to share, how can that possibly work? De La Hoya is not one to share trainers, either. Remember when De La Hoya fought Mayweather Jr.? His trainer for that fight,
Freddie Roach, left his regular stable of fighters back in California to spend about two months exclusively training De La Hoya in Puerto Rico.
My educated guess is that Mayweather, who reunited with De La Hoya for his bout with
Steve Forbes in May, will once again be out as De La Hoya's trainer, like so many others have been, and that the Golden Boy will align himself with somebody else. Hey, maybe
Roger Mayweather is available. If De La Hoya and Big Floyd indeed split, it will just add another wrinkle to a possible De La Hoya-Hatton fight down the road. Oh, the drama.
• How sweet is it that Versus is staying in the fight game? After the network's deal with Top Rank expired recently, there were many in the business who thought Versus would abandon live boxing, especially since it had picked up "The Contender." Thankfully, that is not the case. With as many as six more shows slated for the rest of the year, it will definitely help fill the void left when ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" ends its run for the year this week. The first three Versus cards -- the first on Sept. 25 featuring welterweight titlist Paul Williams (in a middleweight bout) and heavyweight contender Cristobal Arreola in separate fights, an Oct. 23 show headlined by a featherweight title bout between legitimate top-10 guys Orlando Salido and Cristobal Cruz, and a Nov. 13 card headlined by third-season "Contender" winner Sakio Bika against Peter Manfredo Jr. -- are far superior to the Tye Fields-infested Top Rank shows. Wouldn't it be great if a fight like Steve Cunningham's cruiserweight title defense against Tomasz Adamek, which does not have a home on HBO or Showtime, also wound up on Versus this fall?
• If the junior bantamweight unification fight being discussed between
Cristian Mijares and
Vic Darchinyan actually gets made, I will be very, very happy. I am overjoyed to hear that Showtime is interested and trying to come up with a date and some cash for the fight, but confused and dismayed to hear that HBO has zero interest. This is a true fight fans' fight that matches exciting, charismatic titleholders in a unification fight. How could HBO not be interested in that, especially when it's the kind of fight that won't break the bank in terms of cost? When it comes to the smaller weight classes, Showtime gets it. HBO just doesn't.
• I thoroughly enjoyed watching tiny
Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon retain the world junior flyweight title by outclassing crybaby
Hugo Cazares via seventh-round technical decision last Saturday. Calderon is so darn good at his craft and he wasn't boring against Cazares either, like he has sometimes been in the past. Not only can Calderon fight, but he's also a class act. Last week, when I was interviewing Calderon for a story on the fight, his cell phone dropped out just before I was about to wrap things up. I tried to call him back but the call wouldn't go through. No big deal, I figured, since we were just about done anyway and he had been pretty talkative. So I was quite surprised when the next morning, Calderon called me back to apologize for what had happened and to ask if I needed anything else. That is not typical fighter behavior, especially when he was just a couple of days away from the biggest fight of his career. A fantasy match I would have loved to see is Calderon against Hall of Famer
Ricardo Lopez, one of my all-time favorite fighters, at either strawweight or junior flyweight, where they both were the best of their day. As great as Lopez was, I'm not sure who would win.
• How about this featherweight fight in about a year:
Juan Manuel Lopez, a reigning junior featherweight titlist who will obviously move up eventually, against the electrifying
Yuriorkis Gamboa? This is the sort of stuff I think about daily.
• So much for
David Tua's self-proclaimed comeback. The heavyweight puncher fought three times in 2007 (albeit against extremely soft opposition) and insisted that he was going to remain active and pursue important fights. Guess what? He's a few days short of one year of inactivity and has turned down repeated offers to fight Arreola on HBO. As
LL Cool J once rapped: Don't call it a comeback. In Tua's case, it isn't a comeback. He's 35 now and hasn't fought a meaningful fight since getting a gift draw against
Hasim Rahman in March 2003.
• Guys who are in the middle of long layoffs with nothing scheduled who I wish would get in the ring already:
Jorge Linares,
Robert Guerrero and
Jean-Marc Mormeck.
• And what about
Devon Alexander, the 15-0 junior welterweight prospect promoted by
Don King, if you call what King has done with his career promotion? I don't. I call it letting a top talent rot on the vine. Alexander, who turned pro in 2004, is 21 and needs to fight often, certainly more often than the two fights he's had this year (in January and March). He should have had 15 fights by mid-2006. He and trainer/manager
Kevin Cunningham are frustrated and I don't blame them. The kid has potential to be a significant fighter in the division and a hometown in St. Louis itching to buy tickets to see one of their own in a meaningful fight. Remember, this is a city that will get behind its fighters. How else to explain a crowd of more than 20,000 for a
Cory Spinks fight a few years ago? Alexander deserves better than what he is getting right now, which is a whole lot of nothing.
Dan Rafael
