Superfighter too good to be true? Probably is
Hype, hyperbole and hot air in boxing? What else is new?
So it came as little surprise this week during a teleconference to announce the Superfighter tournament that organizers tried to make their event sound like the greatest thing for boxing fans since YouTube.com.
Minus the overstatements and exaggerations, here is the Superfighter lowdown: It's an eight-man heavyweight tournament in which the fighters will box four-round matches in a single-elimination tournament lasting about four hours. The winner supposedly will receive $5 million of the $6.5 million prize money.
Although there have been at least two previous postponements of the tournament, the latest announcement is that the pay-per-view event -- they want $49.95 for it! -- will take place at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 2 (Dec. 1 in the United States).
Superfighter creator Stephen Duval, an Australian entrepreneur, used phrases like "revolutionary new concept," "high intensity" and "complete sports package" to describe the event. He also announced the eight fighters slated to participate, although it would have been nice had he actually told the truth.
The lineup, Duval said, would feature top heavyweight contenders Samuel Peter and Calvin Brock, along with former titlists Chris Byrd and Oliver McCall; cruiserweight world champ O'Neil Bell; former cruiserweight champ Juan Carlos Gomez; and heavyweight contenders Jameel McCline and Tye Fields. Sinan Samil Sam was announced as a reserve in case anyone dropped out, which happened almost immediately.
The announcement of Peter and Brock, the two most highly regarded fighters among the eight and clearly the contenders who could help sell the event the most, was met with immediate skepticism.
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| Peter |
Peter has a rematch with James Toney slated for early January or February, and Brock is challenging titlist Wladimir Klitschko on Nov. 11, just three weeks before the tournament.
Sure enough, the announcement of both was bogus.
The day after Duval's announcement, Dino Duva, Peter's promoter, and Ivaylo Gotzev, his manager, issued a statement saying that Peter had no intention of participating.
"We have read recent media reports that the Superfighter tournament representatives have announced Samuel Peter's participation in December," Duva said. "We regret that the Superfighter representatives have erroneously mentioned Samuel's participation. It is not happening."
In Brock's case, the announcement caused much wrangling behind the scenes. Klitschko promoter K2, which is promoting the Klitschko-Brock fight, and HBO were both upset because they felt an announcement that Brock would participate would interfere with their ability to promote and market the Nov. 11 bout.
Brock did have a contract to participate in Superfighter, but there was language freeing him in the event that he received a title shot. Superfighter organizers quickly issued a statement retracting their announcement that Brock would fight in the tournament and admitted that he has been "released by the Superfighter organization to take his shot at the traditional title."
Duval has promised at least some of the participants mid-six-figure appearance fees, to be paid in advance, just to show up.
Duval, who hopes to extend the concept to other weight divisions, tried to dress up the event by hiring former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis to help promote the tournament and work as a broadcaster.
"Nothing compares to Superfighter," Lewis said in a bit of an overstatement. "It is a condensed, action-packed boxing spectacle, and I am convinced the Melbourne event will unleash a new chapter in boxing history."
Duval also said the tournament had endorsements from the four major sanctioning organizations, as if that is supposed to be viewed in a positive light.
There will be some rules tweaks in the tournament. For example, the fighters will wear 12-ounce gloves instead of the usual 10-ounce mitts. The scoring also has been changed from the traditional method used in boxing to an open scoring system that rewards aggression.
The three ringside judges will use keypad computer technology to score the fight according to the impact of the blow. As they award points, all judges' scores will be seen in the arena and on the telecast. At the conclusion of the round, a fourth "supervising" judge will award an "intensity" point to reward the boxer whose intensity is judged highest. That score remains undisclosed until the end of the bout. Points will be cumulative over four rounds, with the highest point scorer declared the winner.
Single-night heavyweight elimination tournaments have been tried before and never amounted to anything. There was Cedric Kushner's "Fist Full of Dollars" tournament in Atlantic City, N.J., a couple of years ago and a mess of a 16-man tournament held in 1995 in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Despite considerable hype and promises, neither lived up to its billing.
Now we have Duval, another big dreamer trying to reinvent the wheel.
"We want Superfighter to transform boxing and take it to the masses," he said.
Don't believe the hype.
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| Morales |
Morales has struggled mightily to make 130 pounds in recent fights, so why not use the mandated weight check as an opportunity to promote his Nov. 18 (HBO PPV) rubber match with Manny Pacquiao?
Morales (48-4, 34 KOs), who worked for months with a fitness trainer in Los Angeles and then brought him to his training camp in the mountains north of Mexico City a few weeks ago, faces Pacquiao (42-3-2, 32 KOs) for a WBC regional junior lightweight belt in Las Vegas.
"Not only am I am on weight, but I feel stronger than ever," Morales said at a news conference at a Mexico City hotel before stepping on the scale.
Promoter Top Rank billed the open weight check as a way for Morales to prove "to the media and the world that he is not only in great shape, but that he means business as he prepares for 'The Grand Finale!'"
Promoter Bob Arum said that Morales' problems in recent fights have stemmed from poor conditioning and unsupervised weight loss.
"I really believe the reason for his poor performances has been the conditioning," Arum said. "I really believe that. His conditioning will be absolutely spectacular for this fight. If Erik loses, it won't be because of his conditioning. He will have lost because the other guy is too good."
Besides being more comfortable than he has been in a long time as he comes down in weight, Morales is also more comfortable in the gym now that he has brought a familiar face back to his corner -- his father, Jose Morales.
Jose trained Erik for his entire career until they parted ways following the Morales' upset decision loss to Zahir Raheem in September 2005.
In his next fight, Morales trained with Jose Lopez Sr. and suffered his only career knockout loss in his rematch with Pacquiao. Now, Jose Morales is back at the request of his son.
"He said he felt more comfortable with his father there with him in the gym," said Morales publicist Ricardo Jimenez. "He said, 'We know each other so well, we don't even have to talk in the gym. He can just give me a look to let me know if I am doing something right or wrong, and I will know what he means.'"
Morales and his father reunited a few weeks ago, just before Erik left the Los Angeles fitness facility to open his training camp.
"Erik asked him if he would come back and his father said, of course, he would," Jimenez said.
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| Chavez |
Chavez's withdrawal has left Golden Boy scrambling, although interim featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Marquez is the likely candidate to headline the card in the wake of Saturday's fight with Jimrex Jaca being canceled because of Jaca's visa issues. Junior welterweight contender Demetrius Hopkins probably will fight in the co-feature.
HBO typically wants its "BAD" cards set at least 30 days in advance.
One possibility Golden Boy explored for the main event was to move Hopkins, the nephew of Bernard Hopkins, up to the main event to fight newly crowned titlist Junior Witter of England. However, according to Golden Boy, that plan failed to materialize because Witter is nowhere near weight and is nursing a sore shoulder.
Then Golden Boy tried to match Hopkins with another newly crowned junior welterweight titleholder, Souleymane M'Baye of France, but that quickly went nowhere.
There was even talk of a possible junior featherweight unification fight between recognized champion Israel Vazquez and titleholder Celestino Caballero, who won his belt Oct. 4 in Thailand via fourth-round knockout of Somsak Singchachawan.
Although Caballero co-promoter Warriors Boxing said he could be ready for the fight, the quick turnaround would be too much for Vazquez, who is coming off a brutal 10th-round comeback TKO victory against Jhonny Gonzalez on Sept. 16.
"Let's settle it where it should be settled, in the boxing ring. I don't know why Joe continues to call out Roy Jones, [Bernard] Hopkins and these other guys. He should want what the fans want, which is that he and I get it on. Joe knows in his heart that he cannot beat me."
