LAS VEGAS -- Just hang around the media center at any big fight and talk to the movers and shakers in the room and there is plenty to be learned. Here are some of the things I heard in the press room for Saturday night's Ricky Hatton-Paulie Malignaggi fight at the MGM Grand:
• Those who have read or heard that
Andre Berto-
Shane Mosley fight was a done deal for HBO's Jan. 24 main event need to get better sources. Yes, the fight is a serious possibility now that
Antonio Margarito has refused to fight Mosley. However, there are major issues with the Berto fight that
Lou DiBella, who is here as Malignaggi's promoter, is trying to work through in numerous meetings with Golden Boy CEO
Richard Schaefer (Mosley's promoter) and HBO's
Kery Davis. If Berto takes the fight, he will likely have to give up his WBC welterweight belt because he has a mandatory due against Luis Collazo. Berto doesn't want to do that. Collazo promoter Don King won't allow Berto to take an optional fight, according to DiBella. On top of that, the money for Berto -- probably about $850,000 to him -- isn't so overwhelming that he is rushing to give up his belt. The reason is because Berto can instead face Collazo on Jan. 17 on HBO's "Boxing After Dark" and make probably in the $650,000 neighborhood for a fight in which Berto would be a bigger favorite than against Mosley. DiBella doesn't seem gung-ho to make Berto-Mosley, despite HBO's relentless pressure. So "The DiB" told me he's more or less washed his hands of it and will leave the decision up to Berto and manager
Al Haymon.
• With the Berto fight on very shaky ground, Schaefer has been looking at other possibilities for Mosley and said he spoke to
Jeff Wald of Tournament of Contenders about a Mosley-
Sergio Mora fight. However, it's a non-starter because HBO will not buy that fight.
• Schaefer and Davis also spent time huddling about a March "Word Championship Boxing" main event that would match lightweight world champion
Juan Manuel Marquez against former titlist
Juan Diaz. That's a terrific fight, and both sides are hopeful they can get it done.
Willie Savannah, who manages Diaz, is here, and he told me he likes the fight for his guy and they'd like to make it happen. Schaefer told me that the Marquez side will also take the fight. However, like almost all fights, there are questions about the money. HBO isn't going to pay in the $3 million-plus range it could take to get the fight done. Schaefer is going to have to be creative and convincing with his fighters. In our economy, the fighters and their promoters and managers are going to have to understand that they need to be realistic about purse expectations. Still, I hope that fight happens.
• One week after super middleweight
Jermain Taylor defeated
Jeff Lacy, DiBella, Taylor's promoter, is already exploring Taylor's next fight. He and Taylor would love to land a
Joe Calzaghe fight, but that is a little pie-in-the-sky right now. The DiB said one option is to fight the Dec. 6 winner between
Jean Pascal and
Carl Froch, who fight for one of the belts Calzaghe vacated. However, the other possibility is what really intrigued me. The DiB told me he had reached out to the handlers of titlist
Lucian Bute in Canada about a Bute-Taylor fight. Now that would be interesting, especially if the fight were in Montreal, where Bute is hugely popular and draws giant crowds. HBO would have interest in that fight.
• With so many fights being worked on and fights on the schedule, Schaefer was fielding all sorts of phone calls. One of the messages he received was from
Don King, who apparently has been calling him all the time. The reason? King is trying to sell Schaefer on a trio of rematches:
Bernard Hopkins-
Felix Trinidad, Marquez-
Marco Antonio Barrera and
Nate Campbell-Diaz. Schaefer said he'd be interested in making Campbell-Diaz II if he can't make Marquez-Diaz. However, the other two fights are more King fantasy than reality. Schaefer said that HBO has zero interest in the other two and that Hopkins and Marquez are not interested in rematches of those one-sided fights they won either.
•
Shelly Finkel is in town because some of his young kids are on the card --
Danny Garcia,
Hylon Williams and
Adrien Bronner. Finkel, who represents heavyweight titleholder
Vitali Klitschko (as well as unified titlist
Wladimir Klitschko) told me has begun negotiations with Arena-Box's
Ahmet Oner for Vitali's mandatory defense against
Juan Carlos Gomez. Finkel said they need to wrap up talks by mid-December or face a purse bid, but he was confident they would make a deal. Once they made a deal, the fight likely will take place in March or April, Finkel said.
• Light heavyweight titlist
Chad Dawson and manager
Mike Criscio were chillin' in the press room for a while Friday and sat down with a few reporters to talk about what Dawson wants to do next. Dawson said his two preferred fights are against Calzaghe or Hopkins, but he wants to face Calzaghe more. "I want the Calzaghe fight. That's a big fight for me," Dawson said. "Bernard Hopkins also. Those are the two big fights for me. Either one." Dawson said he would go to Wales if that's what was necessary to fight Calzaghe. "In a heartbeat, I would go to Wales. I want to go over there and beat him."
Dawson also said something else pretty interesting -- that the contract he signed to fight
Antonio Tarver in October didn't have a rematch clause. Criscio backed that up. It's interesting because Tarver has said that his contract did have a rematch clause and he's talked about doing the rematch. Understandably, Dawson isn't interested in a rematch of a fight that he won easily, especially with bigger names out there for him. This could get a little messy.
Dawson also said he would consider going down to 168 for a meaningful fight. He said weight was not an issue. When the subject of Taylor came up, he said he'd certainly be interested in the fight. DiBella, who had sat down at the table at that point, said in a very colorful manner that the fight would never happen and then gave one of his crazy loud laughs that make him sound like
The Count from Sesame Street. The DiB is smart and knows Taylor would have a ton of trouble with Dawson, so don't count on seeing that fight.
Dan Rafael
