LAS VEGAS – Frank Espinoza isn’t from Switzerland, but the manager might wish he was in the Alpine nation known for neutrality Saturday night instead of a ringside seat at the MGM Grand.
Espinoza won’t be able cheer.
Or boo.
Espinoza will be hamstrung from one corner to the other, tied down by contractual obligations and personal loyalty to both Abner Mares and Daniel Ponce De Leon in a featherweight fight on Showtime’s pay-per-view card featuring Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Robert Guerrero.
“It’s a very awkward situation,” Espinoza said. “I’ll be in the ring prior to the fight, but I won’t walk with either of them or visit either in their dressing rooms. I’m as neutral as I can be.
“I’m close to both of the guys. I love them like my own sons. I just want them to both come out healthy. I’m not happy they’ll be punching each other.”
In other words, Ponce De Leon said, the fight could be harder on Espinoza, a longtime Los Angeles manager, than either of the fighters.
Neither Ponce De Leon nor Mares dared to guess who Espinoza was picking or even how their mutual manager thought the fight might end.
“He’s picking a trilogy,’’ Mares joked.
Espinoza will have the winner, Ponce De Leon said.
“He’s going to keep one champion in the company,’’ said Ponce De Leon, who holds the World Boxing Council’s version of the 126-pound title. “And it’s going to be me.’’
Mares and Ponce De Leon promised that the scorecards won’t be even. But their paychecks are. In a sure sign that Espinoza isn’t playing favorites, he negotiated $375,000 for each in a Golden Boy Promotions bout initially proposed for April 20 at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
“They’re fighters, but they’re both businessmen, and they both wanted to fight,” Espinoza said. “Fighting on this platform, Cinco de Mayo, millions of people watching two warriors, showcasing their talent. There’s no losers.
“Boxing needs the best fighting the best. I know I could’ve gone a different direction. But I got them the most money they could get from a fight now. I did my job as a manager.”
Espinoza is not the first to manage fighters in the same bout. After all, boxing has seen it all, done it all ad nauseam. A parachutist – Fan Man – dropped into the ring like the 82nd Airborne Division during the middle of an Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe rematch. Mike Tyson dined on a Holyfield ear.
But this time history doesn’t figure to repeat itself. Espinoza doesn’t have to be told about the Carlos Zarate-Alfonso Zamora Jr. bantamweight fight in April, 1977 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
Manager-trainer Arturo Hernandez worked for both Zarate and Zamora Jr. But neutrality had more holes in it than Swiss cheese for Hernandez. He played favorites. He worked the corner for Zarate, who won a fourth-round knockout. But Zarate’s victory and Hernandez’ role in it enraged Zamora’s father, who was in his son’s corner.
It’s hard to see exactly what happened in some old video on You Tube. Let’s just say that Alfonso Zamora Sr. went Ruben Guerrero, Robert’s father and trainer who became a breakout star Wednesday with insults gone viral of Mayweather during a formal news conference.
Zamora Sr. walked across the ring and kicked below – way below – the belt line, according to a couple of ringside observers, Hall of Fame promoter Don Chargin and longtime publicist Bill Caplan, who still wince when recalling a moment more than 36 years ago. Let’s just say it was beyond a low blow. It was obscene.
And, Espinoza said, Zamora Sr. kicked “more than once.’’
Neutrality, no matter how difficult, figures to be a lot less painful.
