By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – There’s not much left to say, so Sergey Kovalev probably said it best by not saying much at all.

One word across the front of Kovalev’s cap might have summed it up best Thursday at a contentious news conference when promoters, managers and trainers exchanged insults the way Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will for the next couple of months. More on them later.

WAR in white letters stood out boldly on a Kovalev cap that, appropriately enough, was black. The Russian picked the right color for the role he has in his rematch Saturday against Andre Ward in an HBO pay-per-view bout at Mandalay Bay. He’s the bad guy, perhaps by choice or maybe because he remembered the red cap with the same word stitched in gold that Marvin Hagler wore for his legendary victory over Thomas Hearns more than 32 years ago.

Whatever the motivation, Kovalev declared his intent with silence both ominous and perhaps deadly. He skipped a session with a handful or reporters before the formal news conference. His promoter, Kathy Duva of Main Events, and his manager, Egis Klimas spoke for him.

“He is stressed out,’’ Klimas said. “…He came here to fight, not talk.’’

Duva said Kovalev was like a tiger, pacing back and forth up in his hotel room. Klimas said Kovalev had grown restless at endless rounds of interviews conducted in English instead of his native Russian. It’s also no secret that he just doesn’t like Ward or anybody else around the light-heavyweight champion who took his titles in a hugely controversial decision last November. The tension between the two is evident and it adds an intriguing element to a rivalry as genuine as it unappreciated.

Kovalev appears to dislike Ward so much that he doesn’t even want to be in the same room with him for long. At least, the Russian didn’t hang around Thursday. He showed up for the news conference with a scowl that seemed to say that the message on his cap was dangerously real.

When it was his turn to speak, he thanked his promoters and Mandalay Bay. Then, he looked to his right and at Ward, who was appropriately dressed in good-guy white.

“I’ve already said enough,’’ Kovalev said as he then pointed at Ward. “And, you, be prepared.’’

Ward didn’t like what he heard. Or saw. His rhetorical counter was immediate.

“Don’t point your finger at me,’’ said Ward, who showed up for his session with reporters before the news conference.

Kovalev turned his back on him, walked off the stage and out of a room adjacent to the Mandalay Bay Events Center, site for Saturday night’s fight.
What happened next was predictable. The news conference turned into a Kovalev roast.

Kovalev calls himself Krusher. Ward manager James Prince had fun with that.

“Usher,’’ Prince said.

Prince also suggested Kovalev was rude.

“I don’t know how they act in Russia, but we don’t act that way in the USA,” he said.

Without Kovalev at the end of the news conference, there was no ritual, nose-to-nose pose for the cameras. With the mounting tension, you can only wonder what might happen when the two are asked to face each other in a pose for the photographers after Friday’s weigh-in.

The bumpy news conference was just another chapter in in the overall tension between the Ward and Kovalev camps. Duva and Klimas say that Kovalev has been doing the lion’s share of promotional work.

“On this, Sergey does not think Ward is doing enough,’’ Klimas said. “Ward has a sugar daddy who pays him $7 million for this fight. Sergey is earning every single penny. He is promoting this fight as much as he can.’’

But Roc Nation, Ward’s promoter, argues that Main Events hasn’t done its share.

“I find it is odd that they comment about it,’’ Roc Nation’s Michael Yormark said. “They haven’t done anything to promote this fight.’’

The build-up this week for the rematch has also been lost amid all of the hype over the announcement Wednesday that Mayweather will fight Conor McGregor, a UFC star, in a Nevada-sanctioned boxing match on August 26 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in a Showtime PPV spectacle.

“It is also a kick in the teeth, at least to me personally, in terms of the circus they announced yesterday. That’s been on the front page of
everything. That’s a little discouraging.’’

Meanwhile, Yormark opened the news conference by saying that Kovalev-Ward is “not the money-grabbing spectacle that will play out later this year.’’

No, it’s not. Ward-Kovalev 2 includes heightening tension and mounting stakes. It’s real as a fight can be. About that – and perhaps only that, there’s no disagreement.

By Norm Frauenheim–

One is portrayed as scary and angry, yet Sergey Kovalev has a keen sense of humor with an engaging ability to deliver one-liners as though they were jabs.

The other is seen as stubborn and aloof, yet Andre Ward talks about home, controversy and maturity like a philosopher willing and ready to adjust his thoughts as though they were tactics.

Contradictions abound in a rivalry as fascinating as it is unappreciated. There is mutual respect for the dangerous skills that each possesses. There is mutual contempt for what one thinks he has heard and seen from the other.

All of that and so much more were abundantly evident in back-to-back conference calls this week, first with Kovalev on Tuesday and then Ward on Wednesday in the buildup for their light-heavyweight rematch on June 17 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

They are picking up where they left off after Ward’s victory over Kovalev in November. The decision was unanimous in name only. It angered Kovalev.

Yet in one of the surprising twists to the rivalry, it also won the Russian some fans he might not have had if not for the outrage expressed by so many after scores — 115-113 on all three cards — were announced.

Mention Russia in the United States these days and a lot of people think collusion. Mention Kovalev and lot of people think People’s Champ.

“Even in America, boxing fans of Ward text me by Facebook, by Instagram, by social media that I won the fight,’’ Kovalev (31-1, 26 KOs) said Tuesday during a call when he cracked wise, saying Adonis Stevenson fights only Uber drivers and other guys he can beat. “They right now are going to support me in (the) next fight.’’

In the immediate wake of the November bout at Vegas T-Mobile Arena, social media became a noisy megaphone for those fans who thought the judges had colluded. It was surprising, even suspicious enough to wonder if both fighters got robbed.

Only 160,000 were reported to have bought HBO’s pay-per-view telecast. But the social-media reaction was huge, seemingly much bigger than the PPV number. It was as if everybody had watched. In a hackers’ world, there are many ways not to pay anymore. But that’s a story for another day, perhaps the day when HBO’s PVV results for the June 17 rematch are reported.

For now, the lingering outrage from November’s bout is a source of motivation for Ward, who might find himself in a curious position before opening bell next week. Ward is the last American to win an Olympic gold medal —at the 2004 Athens Games. Yet, he might not be the fans’ favorite in his home country in the rematch because of controversial scorecards in the first one.

“I enjoyed my victory just like I would any other victory,’’ said Ward, whose unbeaten record (31-0, 15 KOs) matches the playoff mark of his hometown Golden State Warriors as they go into Friday’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals against Cleveland. “People have to understand that anytime there’s a close decision, you’re going to have opinions either way. I’ve never refuted the fact that it was a close decision. But all those out there that say that it’s some home cooking, they’ve got to remember that I’m not, you know, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

“You can’t just highlight that side of it. You got to highlight the people that also felt I deserved the victory and (that it) was a tremendous comeback. It doesn’t take a close decision to get criticism. I’ve shut guys out for 12 rounds and got criticism. So you become immune to it after a certain period of time.’’

Philosophical about it, too

By Norm Frauenheim-

They are dangerous men moving in opposite directions. It was inevitable perhaps that their paths would cross in a fight with no title at stake, yet everything else at risk.

“This was a very easy fight to make,’’ Showtime executive vice-president Stephen Espinoza said Thursday in announcing Mikey Garcia-versus-Adrien Broner on July 29 at a venue still undetermined.

It was easy for all kinds of reasons. In a bid to enhance his pound-for-pound credentials, Garcia was looking to unify his lightweight title, maybe against Jorge Linares or Terry Flanagan. But they had other ideas. There were no options. But there was Broner.

“I haven’t fought anybody else who has been champion in four divisions,” Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) said during a conference call after the junior-welterweight bout was announced. “That’s a big accomplishment in itself there. That’s what I mean. There is no one else available who has that resume.’’

Broner was — is – at a point of no return in a quest to regain relevance. He has won titles at super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight and welterweight, but his recent record includes criminal charges and jail time.

“I’ve gotten older and I’m getting more wise,” Broner said. “I’m more mature. This next half of my career, I’m just focusing more on doing everything the correct way. The first half, I tried to do everything my way. It worked, but I could have been better.

“So, I want to try to do everything correctly.”

That Broner will attempt to do that in the ring instead of the Department of Corrections is an acknowledgement that his career – his life — is at a crossroads.

Against Garcia, however, he has taken on a steep challenge. Broner’s identity as the self-proclaimed “Problem’’ began to come apart in the wake of a crushing loss to Marcos Maidana in 2013. Maidana’s relentless aggression and power fractured the noisy confidence in a fighter who liked to say that his initials, AB, meant About Billions. About Bail, too.

The bragging and insults are gone. At least, they were Thursday. A quiet Broner was quick to praise Garcia, whose star has been ascending ever since his scary knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin on Jan. 28 in Las Vegas.

“Everybody is a puncher,’’ Broner said. “It all hurts. I don’t want to be hit, and I don’t care if it’s Paulie Malignaggi or Marcos Maidana.’’

At his best, Broner figures to be a lot harder to hit than a Zlaticanin ever was. What’s more, Broner is bigger. He fought as a welterweight. Broner’s size and athleticism promise to be a challenge for Garcia, who will be fighting at 140 for the first time. Yet, there are questions about whether Broner can in fact make the weight.

Broner lost his junior-welterweight belt on the scale before facing Ashley Theophane 14 months ago. He failed to make weight and went on to win by TKO.

In his last fight, Broner a split-decision winner at welterweight against Adrian Granados on Feb. 18. The weight was increased to 147 pounds a couple of weeks before opening bell because Broner was having trouble cutting weight.

Espinoza said Thursday that the deal included penalties for not making weight. But he would not divulge details. Don’t worry, said Broner, who promised to make the contracted weight.

“This fight gives me a reason to make 140 pounds,’’ he said. “I’ll make the weight no problem, just like when I fought for the title. I’ll make the weight easy.”

Making weight, however, might be his only victory, said Garcia, whose chances at facing Vasyl Lomachenko in an eventual pound-for-pound showdown might be determined by how he does against Broner (33-2, 24 KOs).

“He loses,’’ the unbeaten Garcia said. “He has lost. I don’t lose. I don’t believe anyone around my division can beat me. I believe I’m the better fighter.”

By Norm Frauenheim-

Then, there were two. Options for the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez fight appear to be Las Vegas or Dallas. Sounds simple enough. Just follow the money.

But that old formula might get a little complicated because of politics. Like so much else during this polarized era, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ bid to stage the Sept. 16 fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., coincides with an increasingly contentious debate over immigration.

The day after the long-awaited fight was announced in the wake of Canelo’s beat-down of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at Vegas T-Mobile Arena on May 6, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 4 into law in a ceremony on Facebook Live.

Media reports refer to the bill as a “sanctuary cities ban.” Increasingly, however, it is being compared to another law, Arizona’s SB 1070, the 2010 legislation that required police to stop, question and, if necessary, detain people of being in the country illegally.

It was condemned for encouraging racial profiling. It was called the “Show Me Your Papers Law.’’ The same label has been applied to the Texas version, which mandates criminal and civil penalties for a failure to enforce SB 4, which goes into effect on Sept. 1.

It’s hard to know how the mounting controversy might affect negotiations for the fight. But the SB 1070 precedent indicates it will. Anger at the Arizona legislation resulted in direct hit on boxing in the state, where the sport has a long history. When the Arizona legislature passed the bill, the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) reaction was immediate.

The Mexico City-based WBC, then under late President Jose Sulaiman’s leadership, immediately condemned SB 1070. There were headlines in websites and newspapers that the WBC would ban boxing in Arizona for a law it compared to apartheid. For a while, Mexican fighters continued to cross the border and fight in the state, mostly at small casinos on Native American land near Tucson. No ban could really be enforced.

But damning publicity did real damage. It scared Mexican advertisers and television networks. At the height of the Arizona controversy, they stayed away from Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal’s home state. Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Ray Leonard, Bernard Hopkins, Salvador Sanchez, Julio Cesar Chavez, George Foreman and Sonny Liston fought in Arizona, but the ring lights went dark for a couple of years because of SB 1070.

A month after Arizona passed the bill, Top Rank moved a card featuring then Phoenix prospect Jose Benavidez Jr., a former 140-pound champion, from Chandler, Ariz., to Chicago because Tecate and Azteca TV didn’t want to do business in the state.

For the next several months, boxers, media and promoters condemned SB 1070. Canelo promoter De La Hoya, of Golden Boy Promotions, called it racism.

“When that Arizona law went into effect, they weren’t really thinking about ‘This is meant for the European immigrants or this is meant for the Asian immigrants,'” De La Hoya told 15 Rounds before a Juan Manuel Marquez victory over Juan Diaz on July 31, 2010 at Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. “You know? And so, to a certain extent, I call it racism. I really do.”

De La Hoya, whose parents also came to the U.S. from Mexico, said he couldn’t do business in Arizona unless the law’s controversial elements were repealed.

In the seven years since its passage, the law has been amended. Arizona’s political climate has changed. Controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County (Phoenix) was voted out of office in a landslide. Just this week, they began tearing down Arpaio’s notorious jail, Tent City.

Meanwhile, boxing has returned to the state. Golden Boy staged an ESPN-televised card in Tucson on May 18. It plans to promote another one at Casino Del Sol on July 29. Top Rank featured Oscar Valdez Jr. in Tucson in 2015 and has talked about bringing him back for a defense of his WBO featherweight title. Valdez, a two-time Mexican Olympian, went to school in Tucson.

Arizona’s dormant boxing market is beginning to get beyond SB 1070. But the controversy is still there, loud and clear and perhaps magnified by the state that seems to make everything bigger. Dallas, the city that calls itself the Metroplex, is a finalist to stage GGG-Canelo. In a video bid for the bout, Jones said: “The idea of Canelo and GGG fighting before 100,000 screaming Hispanic Mexican fans is exciting.’’

A fight just 15 days after SB 4 goes into effect, however, makes it problematic. There are bound to be calls for a boycott of Texas by Latino leaders. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) will meet in Dallas for three days next month, June 22-24. If the fight isn’t already on the agenda, it probably will be.

De La Hoya could make a statement and just decide to take his business to Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. But there might be a statement in bringing Canelo-GGG to Dallas, too.

De La Hoya has already addressed opposition to President Donald Trump’s plans for a border wall with advertising for Canelo-Chavez Jr. that included video of both fighters crashing through an imaginary wall.

GGG-Canelo is more than just a big fight. It’s a big platform. If a crowd of 100,000 shows up for the bout, AT&T would be a city in its own right for one night. Maybe, a sanctuary city.

By Norm Frauenheim-

TUCSON – He has a famous name. He has fast feet. And faster hands. Patience isn’t the first thing anybody sees in Diego De La Hoya.

Erik Ruiz never saw it at all. Ruiz only saw incoming hands and agile feet, all traveling at an inexhaustible rate that De La Hoya sustained for 10 rounds Thursday night in winning a one-sided decision at Casino Del Sol in an ESPN televised bout.

It was the kind performance that seemed to eliminate the need for much talk about what might await De La Hoya (18-0, 9 KOs). A 122-pound title fight involving one of boxing’s best-known names would be easy to put together. Easy to sell. But Diego De La Hoya is in no rush.

“I’m 22,’’ he said after scoring a near shutout of Ruiz on a card staged by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Showdown. “I’m having fun.’’

While Diego De La Hoya had fun, Ruiz only got dizzy.

With cousin Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy watching from ringside, Diego darted in, darted out. His jabs flowed, one after another, like water out of a high-pressure hose. He circled tirelessly in an orbit that kept him out of range from Ruiz’ power.

Only midway through the fight did Ruiz strike with a big right that rocked De La Hoya. His reaction was a smile. Yeah, he was having fun. Lots of it.

“I also was smiling because I felt confident,’’ said the fighter who lives in Mexicali. “I knew I had done the work. I had sparred with bigger guys, guys with more power.’’

If there’s a question about Diego De La Hoya, it’s his power. At 22, however, he figures to get stronger, strong enough perhaps to have a lot more fun for a very long time.

In a co-main event, super-middleweight D’Mitrius Ballard avoided upset, but not controversy.

Ballard, a Golden Boy prospect from Temple Hills, MD, scored a second-round knockdown and then survived one right hand after another to escape with a close decision over a relentless Adrian Luna.

Luna, a late stand-in, was as surprising as he was unknown. In the end, a capacity crowd of 2,000 chanted his name as if the Mexican fighter was from Tucson. After it was over, those same fans booed the scorecards – 95-94 on two and 97-92 on the third.

In the end, however, the judges decided that Ballard (17-0, 12 KOs) had done enough – just enough – by flooring Luna (18-5-1, 11 KOs) with a counter left midway through the second.

Meanwhile, Luna might have done enough to ear a ticket back to Tucson. Golden Boy and Showdown announced that they would promote another ESPN card at Casino del Sol on July 29

BEST OF THE UNDERCARD

The card got an early start with a quick finish. Julio Franco (10-, 6 KOs), a Robert Garcia-trained super-flyweight from San Antonio, opened the show. It took him 40 seconds to end it with a left hook for a stoppage of Marco Sanchez (9-5-2, 4 KOs) of Mexico.

THE REST

Roberto Manzanarez (35-1, 28 KOs), a lanky lightweight born in Phoenix and now living in Mexico, used his reach and agile feet to score a unanimous decision over Erick Martinez (13-7-1, 7 KOs), also of Mexico.

Los Angeles junior-welterweight Jonathan Navarro (9-0, 5 KOs), another Garcia-trained fighter, had power that echoed through the Casino Del Sol ballroom and overwhelmed Ricardo Fernandez (3-5-4) of Mexico throughout a six-round decision as punishing as it was one-sided.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Gennady Golovkin is landing endorsements at the rate he scores knockouts. Everything from the Apple Watch to Nike’s Jordan Brand is on a lengthening blue-chip list that says a lot more about his potential crossover appeal than a spot in any of the pound-for-pound rankings.

He is becoming an international brand. His familiar acronym identifies him, quickly and simply. But it could also say something about where he’s going. That’s GGG, Gennady Going Global.

His emergence has been marked by diligence, patience and some frustration. But now this son of a Kazakhstan coal miner is at the doorstep of his biggest moment on Sept. 16 fight against Canelo Alvarez.

He talked about it at Mandalay Bay, in a suite high above the runaways at Las Vegas McCarron Airport, to me and the Los Angeles Times Sunday on the morning after he joined Canelo in the ring to announce the bout in the wake – and we do mean wake – of Canelo’s blowout of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at T-Mobile Arena.

Golovkin looked out at the horizon. The view was unlimited, a little bit like what GGG could suddenly see in his own future.

“Wow,’’ he said. “This is my dream.’’

Boxing has a way of turning dreams into nightmares, of course. But Golovkin projects a quiet – call it understated – charisma that seems to say no moment is too big.

“This is boxing and business,’’ he said in a matter of fact tone.

The deal for the Canelo bout had been foremost on Golovkin’s mind for years. But there were always delays, loopholes, explanations and excuses. There were so many that GGG said, yeah, he was beginning to give up hope it would ever happen.

About 10 days ago, however, the deal was done.

“Finally — and I say that with an exclamation point,’’ said Tom Loeffler of K2, which promotes Golovkin.

The long, often exasperating trail to a deal might have been met with a couple of days of celebration in some corners. But not in Golovkin’s quiet corner. About 12 hours after the announcement, GGG was happy and impressed with Canelo’s dominance of Chavez Jr.

In a sport so known for trash talk, Golovkin is the polite kid next door. He’s 35 with the smile of a 10-year-old. The difference, of course, is that he can knock out just about any other kid in any other neighborhood in the world.

He spent much of last Sunday talking about Canelo and their similar styles, so alike that there is already talk about a rematch or two. It’s a little early to speculate on that. But it is an element, one of many, that makes the September bout so intriguing.

“I know his style, he knows my style,’’ Golovkin said. “I think he brings something new in September and I bring something new. It will be war. We both respect boxing.’’

There are already signs that the bout will do good business. According to media reports Thursday, HBO’s pay-per-view sales for Canelo-Chavez Jr. will do at least as well as Canelo’s victory over Miguel Cotto in November 2015. That one did 983,000 buys. HBO and Golden Boy Promotions are still counting. They are hopeful it hits the one million, a milestone.

Whatever the final tally, it’s a promising sign that GGG-Canelo will exceed one million and perhaps approach 1.5 million. Amid rampant theft of pay-per view telecasts and public exasperation with the PPV model, that’s big.

Expect a summer full of promises, rumors, changing odds and everything else that goes along with a hyperbolic sales pitch. Until then, however, Golovkin will be at home in Los Angeles, following his 8-year-old son in a youth hockey league.

He’ll begin training in July in Big Bear, the mountaintop camp east of Los Angeles. But, first, there’s a trip back to Kazakhstan in June for the 2017 World Expo in the city of Astana. He will be Kazakhstan’s spokesman.

“He’s become the most famous citizen of Kazakhstan, erasing the image of Borat,’’ Loeffler said in a reference to a 2006 film, a so-called mockumentary.

Borat was a laugher. But nobody is laughing much about Kazakhstan anymore, at least not since GGG became a well-known trademark and a feared fighter.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – There were no upsets on the scale. No penalties, either.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. lost the pounds and saved himself a lot of money Friday on the eve of his 164.5-pound fight against Canelo Alvarez Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

The fighter known for his failures on the scale made it with half-a-pound to spare. Both were at 164 even.

“I’m happy he made weight,’’ Canelo said.

Probably not as happy as Chavez Jr. He would have been $1 million lighter if he had even come in at 164.51 pounds, according to a penalty clause in the contract. That’s a lot of dough for a fraction of excess flesh. But this is boxing, prize fighting. The idea is to keep the wallet fat.

According to purses filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Canelo is guaranteed $5 million. Chavez Jr.’s guarantee is $3 million. But the guess is that both will collect much more by the time undisclosed percentages of the pay-per-view television money. There are also deals with Mexican TV that were not included in the numbers filed with the Commission. According to a variety of sources with camps, Canelo could wind up with $20 million. For Chavez Jr., the final take could be as much as $8 million.

It depends on the number of paying customers for HBO’s pay-per-view telecast (6p.m. PT/9 pm ET).

It’s hard to guess, especially amid today’s technology and all the ways there are to steal a telecast. But within the MGM Grand, the bout’s host casino, there was a growing buzz for a fight between the redheaded Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) and the son of a fighter with a name as iconic as any in Mexico.

Odds favoring Canelo have stayed at about 5-to-1 throughout the last week at books up and down the Vegas Strip.

They are based in part on Canelo’s stubborn consistency and record, which includes bouts against some of the elites in the game. Canelo appears to be getting better. When the fight with Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) was announced, it was seen as a way for Canelo to finally make the jump from junior-middleweight to middleweight (160) for an anticipated showdown with Gennady Golovkin.

That’s still the Golden Boy Promotions’ plan, perhaps for September, although there’s some talk that Canelo might fight Canadian David Lemieux before he takes on GGG. It’s no coincidence, perhaps, that Lemieux is on the undercard against Mexican Marco Reyes.

With the stakes as big as they are and a Mexican fan base divided just about down the middle between Canelo and Chavez Jr., every word and move has been analyzed and over-analyzed, interpreted and misinterpreted. At Friday’s weigh-in, it was all about body language.

Chavez Jr.’s thin upper body looked like it could be a very big target for Canelo punishing array of combinations. Then again, there was some talk that Canelo came into the weigh-in too heavy. He has been most effective in his career when he tips the scale at 155. He was heavier at this weigh-in than ever. The guess is that he will be heavier, anywhere from 170 to 180, at opening bell. Will the added weight make him slower? Could the extra pounds result in fatigue if the bout goes into the later rounds?

Meanwhile, Chavez Jr. wouldn’t say how much heavier he expects to be at opening bell. The best guess was that he would be between 175 and 180 pounds.

“I want to push him, impose my size on him,’’ said the 6-foot-1 Chavez Jr., who is four inches taller than the 5-9 Canelo. “That’s my strategy.’’

Maybe, it’ll work. On one scale of expectations, he’s already ahead of the game.

LAS VEGAS – The end was abrupt and unceremonious. Yuriorkis Gamboa quit on his stool after seven rounds. His comeback was over. Maybe, a once promising career was too.

Gamboa (26-2, 17 KOs), a former IBF and WBA featherweight champion, looked all of his 35 years, suffering knockdowns in the third and fourth rounds in a stunning loss to Mexican lightweight Robinson Castellanos (24-12,14 KOs) Friday night at the MGM Grand.

Gamboa, who recently signed with Golden Boy Promotions, flashed some familiar footwork and counter-punching power in the first two rounds. In the third, however, he dropped his hands and Castellanos capitalized in the round’s closing second, dropping the Cuban with a straight right hand.

During the first minute of the fourth, Castlellanos again dropped his hands and Castellano’s again took advantage of the moment, this time dropping him with long right.

Gamboa, a gold-medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, appeared to regain his composure and mobility late in the fifth and again in the sixth. After the seventh however, he went to his corner and seemed to almost collapse on his stool in exhaustion.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – A Mexican Boxing Hall of Fame should be named after Nacho Beristain. If Julio Cesar Chavez is the national face of the game, Beristain is its architect.

From Ricardo Lopez to Juan Manuel Marquez, Beristain has been in a Mexican corner for about half a century. He’s strategist and tactician, disciplinarian and father figure.

But can he make a difference for the son of a father whose scarred face and intense eyes are a defining part of the Mexican legend?

In the build-up for the son’s 164.5-pound bout against Canelo Alvarez Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, here’s been a lot of talk about a different, more mature Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He’s taken on more responsibility. He’s a dad with a 3-year-old daughter. He’s given up the slacker ways that so exasperated anyone who thought he would have some of dad’s trademark toughness.

The story about Chavez Jr., the changed man, inescapably leads to Beristain. The trainer’s stubborn adherence to a Spartan regimen was thought to be a true test of whether Chavez Jr., would finally rise to a role he presumably inherited from his famous father. With Beristain, the world and Mexico would finally learn whether Junior was born to be a fighter.

“Beristain has the character to train me,’’ Chavez Jr. said after arriving in Las Vegas for the HBO pay-per-view bout.

The suggestion is that Freddie Roach was the wrong trainer for Chavez Jr., who came and went on his own accord in a regimen with roadwork that might have included a few late-night laps around a couch in a Vegas condo before a loss to Sergio Martinez.

But there’s more to it than that. Beristain’s name, international reputation and fierce pride were also a way to prevent his father from interfering. It was Bersitain’s camp, high in the mountains near Mexico City.

Midway through training, Chavez Jr. told Beristain that he wanted to leave the mountains a little earlier than planned and move his training to Vegas. Beristain reportedly looked at him and said: Go ahead, but you’ll go without me.

Chavez stayed on the mountaintop, far from curious media and a meddling dad.

“I’ve learned a lot from my father, but he’s not the trainer,’’ Chavez Jr. said.

The best guess is that Chavez Sr. won’t be anywhere near his son’s corner Saturday night. Instead, Chavez Sr. said this week, he’ll be working as a television commentator. That could prove to be a tough gig if the 5.5-to-1 odds favoring Canelo are accurate.

Then again, Chavez Jr. might have a better shot without his father’s demanding voice in his ear between rounds. But even one of the most respected voices in the world might not be enough. Beristain is a great trainer, but that doesn’t make him a miracle worker.

“Beristain will not make any difference,’’ said Rafael Mendoza, a former Mexican journalist and Hall of Fame manager who was Canelo’s first pro advisor.

In the end, Mendoza, of Guadalajara, said it’s all up to how hard Chavez trained and how hard he is willing to fight.

At 31, it’s hard to break old habits. Chavez Jr. has 53 bouts on his pro resume. But Canelo has a big advantage in world-class experience, including a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. What more, Canelo had a long and varied amateur career. Chavez Jr. fought as an amateur only twice, bout against Jorge Paez Jr.

There’s an argument that Beristain’s smarts and world class experience in the corner can make up for what Chavez never learned as a teenager.

“This is very different,’’ Beristain said Thursday. “I’m training a fighter for the first time against the guy everybody says is Mexico’s best fighter.

“But, yes, I’m confident we can win.’’

Then, Beristain went on to say: “For us, this is going to be the night of the witches.’’

He didn’t explain what he meant. But there were plenty of interpretations up and down press row. To wit: Chavez Jr. is cursed, or else he’ll need a witch to beat Canelo.

By Norm Frauenheim

LAS VEGAS – The sunglasses could have used a couple windshield wipers. They were that big. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. hid behind them, a little bit like a guy trying to shield himself from the sight of an imminent collision.

Chavez Jr., foresees something else, of course. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here talking about how and why he expects to upset Canelo Alvarez Saturday in a HBO pay-per-view fight about Mexico, history, tradition, a father and a son.

“I came here to win, not just fight,’’ Chavez Jr. said before a formal news conference Wednesday.

The betting odds suggest there might be some rose-colored lenses in those glasses. Canelo was a 5-to-1 favorite late Wednesday to win the 164.5-pound bout at T-Mobile Arena

It’s impossible not to see how big a role the father and the son have in the event. This fight might not have happened at all without their name. Chavez Sr. stirs up memories and passions of a nation that identifies with his stubborn toughness. They see the son and remember the father against Meldrick Taylor, Hector Camacho and Edwin Rosario. He was a hard man, an undisputed tough guy. Next to Hugo Sanchez, a soccer star in the 1980s, there is no bigger sports name in Mexican history.

Canelo recalls meeting the famous dad when he was a 16-year-old kid in Guadalajara. Julio Sr. encouraged him to work hard. Did Canelo get his autograph?

“No,’’ Canelo said with a smile Wednesday.

Ten years later, the 26-year-old Canelo intends to get something a lot more significant. He intends to claim the Chavez legacy as a Mexican icon. He intends to put it in his name. Make it his own.

Only the son can stop him.

There’s huge pressure in that, especially for a son who exasperated his father’s fans with haphazard training, an inability to make weight and disappointing performances. For the son, the Canelo bout represents a last stand of sorts. He doesn’t think so. At least, he doesn’t during the final days before opening bell. After all, there’s pressure enough in trying to deal with Canelo’s punishing combinations.

“Both of us have a lot of pressure,’’ said Chavez Jr., who said he was at 168 pounds Wednesday.

His dad’s legacy, he said, would stand alone, no matter what happens Saturday. But it’s hard to separate the legacy from this fight. Subtract it, and you lose the drama that is inherent to a bout that has become an event. The bout at catch-weight doesn’t need a title belt. It’s got a legacy that is almost like a family heirloom for the father who created it and passed it on to his son.

“His fans, I think, are his father’s fans,’’ Canelo said during a conference call 10 days ago.

The fans were there Wednesday, chanting “Julio, Julio.’’ It was hard to tell whether the chants were for Junior or Senior. Still, there were moments at the news conference when it looked as if the father was feeling more pressure than the son.

“A very, very tough fight,’’ Julio Sr. said with unblinking eyes that flashed like flint off coal.

Maybe, he was just acting like a nervous little-league parent. But some of that old edginess was evident in the father. Throughout the formal news conference, he chewed on his lower lip. He pulled on his eyebrows as if he were about to pull them off. He looked as if he wanted to fight. Almost as if he were ready to fight.

After all, it’s his legacy, one with a fate that now rests in his son’s unproven hands.

By Norm Frauenheim-

The looming spectacle of 90,000 people at London’s Wembley Stadium Saturday for Anthony Joshua against Wladimir Klitschko is a sure sign that heavyweight boxing hasn’t gone the way of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Heavyweight power frightens and fascinates. Always has. Always will. Yet, I still wonder whether it will ever capture worldwide attention the way it did for so long. From Jack Johnson to Joe Louis to Muhammad Ali to Mike Tyson, there was always a heavyweight who dominated an era with power or personality or controversy or all of the above.

In part, Joshua-Klitschko is being sold as the genesis of a new era, The Joshua Era. Maybe. I’m a little skeptical on that one. It’s still hard to judge the 2012 Olympic gold medalist. He’s powerful, but has yet to display the fluid delivery of punches and the agile footwork that identified so many of the great names in heavyweight history.

Klitschko has done enough to have his signature on his own era. The numbers are astonishing. He held a world heavyweight title for nine years, seven months and seven days, second only to the aforementioned Louis.

But mention the Klitschko era to just about anybody and – fair or not — they’ll tell you it was forgettable. It was, I think, because Klitschko simply couldn’t find an American rival. He tried, but that business partner just wasn’t there. No rival simply meant there was no reason to watch. Klitschko couldn’t draw in the U.S. He began to fight primarily in Europe. In the U.S., he became a footnote. The American focus was on Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

The closer we get to Saturday’s opening bell, the less certain I am that Joshua wins. He’s favored. I’m still picking him, picking youth to prevail over age. Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) is 27 and Klitschko (64-4, 54 KOs) is 41. Enough said.

But I’ve seen old heavyweights rediscover a younger self in big fights. In terms of the Wembley crowd and worldwide attention, none is bigger than Saturday. Klitschko, who looked finished in losing to Tyson Fury 17 months ago, has never lost successive fights. He’s very capable of springing a surprise over the untested Joshua

Even if Joshua loses, however, he wins a rematch – and there are 90,000 reasons to do one. If not Saturday, Joshua will be the face of the heavyweight division sometime in 2017. Then what?

In a conference call Wednesday, Joshua talked about fighting in the U.S.

“I’ve made sure I fought some Americans on my way up, so we could get a buzz out there,’’ he said from London. “But I think I have to come out there for a fight for sure. That’s important.

“America is the mecca of boxing. If we can cross over into the States and keep the fan base in the UK, I think we’ve cracked it. That’s mega stuff. That’s global boxing. You’ve got a big guy, heavyweight with a name that’s easy to pronounce and speaks English well.

“I can relate to the U.S. market. All I have to do is get out there, show them what my trade is and hopefully they’ll appreciate it and hopefully we can start talking about setting up major fights and bringing the same attention in the UK to the U.S. That would be phenomenal.”

Deontay Wilder is the big guy he mentioned. It’s no coincidence that Wilder will be at ringside, doing Sky Sports commentary for a fight that can been seen live on Showtime (4:15 p.m. ET/1:15 p.m. PT). Wilder has a title (WBC). He’s a good talker. He has great power. He’s likable. But there are persistent doubts about his overall skill. Maybe, he gets better. If he doesn’t, however, there just aren’t many other American heavyweights in line behind him. Name one.

As I write this, I’m listening to the first day of the NFL Draft. It occurs to me that if Joshua had been born in the U.S. instead of the UK, he would have gone in Thursday’s first round, probably as a defensive end. All of America’s potential great heavyweights are in the NFL these days. Wilder had dreams about playing for his hometown Alabama Crimson Tide before he turned to boxing because he just didn’t have the athletic skill to play for college football’s perennial powerhouse.

I’m not sure the heavyweight division can ever be what it once was without a viable American in the business equation. Maybe, I’m wrong. Maybe, Joshua will prove me wrong. But he needs an American to help him do that. There’s only one and that’s Deontay Wilder. Otherwise, The Joshua Era could be about as forgettable as the Klitschko era.

CARSON, Calif. – It was tactical. It was punishing. It was exhilarating. And exhausting.

In the end, Oscar Valdez Jr., did it all and endured it all, relying on wits, stubborn poise and educated footwork in the beginning and inexhaustible guts in the end for a signature victory over tough and powerful Miguel Marriaga Saturday night at StubHub Center.

Valdez (22-0, 19 KOs) tested himself repeatedly and perhaps in ways he didn’t have to in retaining his WBO featherweight title with a 119-108, 116-111, 118-109 decision.

“Oscar made it a little harder on himself than he needed to, but he’s fighter at heart,’’ his trainer, Manny Robles, said.

It’s that heart that delivered a statement Valdez wanted to make. Before opening bell, Valdez said he was as good as Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton, Gary Russell Jr., Abner Mares and the other elites at the top of the featherweight division. After his stirring triumph over Marriaga (25-2, 21 KOs), they’ll have to make room him at the head table.

For most of nine rounds, Valdez’ sustained a tactical brilliance that kept Marriaga chasing, yet mostly missing with a powerful right hand. It was in the 10th that Valdez began to walk straight into harm’s way. Marriaga landed that right. Off-balance, Valdez countered with quick left that knocked down Marriaga.

The round ended with one wild exchange after another. Both fighters walked back their corners, looking dazed and exhausted. But it continued in the 11th. When the bell sounded for the 12th, Valdez walked out to meet Marriaga. He said something before the first punch was thrown.

“I told him this is a great fight and let’s finish it with great round,’’ said Valdez, the –two-time Mexican Olympian who was born in Nogales and went to school in Tucson.

That’s what they did with punching exchanges that brought a StubHub crowd of more 5,000 to its feet. After it was all over Marriaga walked over to Valdez as he wearily stood in the middle of the ring doing interviews.

“You are a great champion,’’ Marriaga said as he also said thanks. “You’re a great fighter.’’

An elite one, too.

Gilberto Ramirez wins dull decision in comeback

Gilberto Ramirez needed test drive. It wasn;t exciting. Then again, a test drive isn’t supposed to be. In his first fight in a year, he just wanted to test his healed right hand and put himself back in the mix.

Mission accomplished.

Ramirez (350-, 24 KOs) scored a unanimous decision over Max Bursak (33-5-1, 15 KOs) , retaining his WBO super-middleweight title in his first defense.

“Who’s next? Ramirez said after a dull 12 rounds.

Jessie Hart said he should be. Hart approached press row and yelling:

“It’s got to happen now! We can’t wait. We’re both in our prime. Jesse Hart wants Gilberto Ramirez now.”

Ramirez says he’d like a fight Gennady Golovkin.

“I want to prove myself as a pound-for-pound fighter,’’ he said.

Technically, Stevenson does what he has to in debut decision

There were boos. There was blood. There might have been an injury. Welcome to the pros, Shakur Stevenson.

Within just five rounds, Stevenson got an introduction to what every professional sees throughout a career. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist from Newark emerged with the victory everybody expected. But it wasn’t exactly pretty. It goes into the book as a technical unanimous decision over Edgar Brito (3-3-1, 2 KO)

There wasn’t anything technical about Stevenson’s superior hand speed or Brito’s edgy toughness. Both were there, obvious from the beginning and jarring midway through the fight. In the third round, Stevenson had his back on the ropes. Brito , a Phoenix featherweight, lunged, leading with his head. It was intentional and – karma-like — it only bloodied Brito, who was left with a long gash above one eye.

Before the scheduled sixth and final round, it was suddenly over. Ring physician Dr. Eddie Hernandez looked at the blood poring into Brito’s right eye and ended it amid grumbling from a surprised StubHub crowd. There was no doubt on the scorecards. Stevenson won every round.

“It was great work,’’ said Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who signed Stevenson a few months ago in what was hailed as promotional coup. “He did what he had to. He’ll get better.’’

On Stevenson manager Andre Ward’s report card, the debut rated an A.

What was unclear, however, was whether Stevenson hurt his left hand. He shook it over the last rounds as if the hand was hurting. He danced around questions about whether he had in fact sustained an injury during a night that will probably be remembered as a learning experience.

Magdaleno impressive in first defense

First, there was the evidence. Then, there was the promise.

Jessie Magdaleno delivered both, including a right and left, in scoring a second-round stoppage of Adeilson Dos Santos on the pay-per-view opener of a Top Rank produced card.

“I’m going to be a champion for a very long time,’’ Magdaleno (25-0, 18 KOs) said after retaining the WBO’s 122-pount belt in his first defense.

There were no arguments, especially from Dos Santos (18-3, 14 KOs), a Brazilian who went down midway through the second from long right hook and for the last time from a left uppercut to the chin at 51 seconds of the round.

Who’s next? Anybody with a belt, Magdaleno said.

Magdaleno’s most-wanted list appears to be topped by Guillermo Rigondeaux, the Cuban who has bored everybody who has watched him and beaten everybody who has faced him.

Best of the Undercard

Junior-welterweight Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Uzbekistan, had never fought as a pro. Never won as a pro. Gaibnazarov, who signed with Manager of the Year Egis Klimas, also says he had never been knocked down. Let’s just say he made a quadruple debut Saturday.

Gaibnazarov answered his first pro bell, hit the canvas for the first time seconds later, got up for the first time and went on to claim his debut victory with a crushing knockout of Puerto Rican Victor Vazquez (7-3, 3 KOs) at 1:28 of the second round.

The Rest

Russian welterweight Alexander Besputin (7-0, 5 KOs) won every round, for a one-sided scorecard victory over Colombian Breidis Prescott (30-10, 20 KOs), known as the “Khanqueror” in better days. Since he exposed Amir Khan’s chin with stunning stoppage in 2008, Prescott is 10-10.

Russian junior welterweight Maxim Dadashev (7-0, 6 KOs), another prospect on Klimas’ deep roster, threw a left-handed shot that echoed through a still-empty StubHub Center, knocking Bilal Mahasin (9-4-1, 1 KO) onto his back and out of consciousness at 2:09 of the third round.

Mexican Mahonri Montes (31-6-1, 20 KOs) scored fifth-round knockdown that proved to be the pirvotal difference in a wild, split decision over Francisco Santana (24-6-1, 12 KOs) of Santa Barbara, Calif., in the final bout on the non-televised part of the card.

By Norm Frauenehim-

CARSON, Calif. – Oscar Valdez Jr. has a belt, but that’s just a fraction of what he is seeking. He wants to be acknowledged as the best, both by rivals and fans.

A second defense of the WBO’s featherweight title Saturday night on a Top Rank pay-per-view card (6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET) against Miguel Marriaga at StubHub Center represents a timely chance for Valdez to prove a point.

Despite his title, Valdez has yet to win the kind of respect given Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton, Gary Russell Jr. and Abner Mares.

“I want to make it clear that I’m the best featherweight in the world,’’ said Valdez (21-0, 19 KOs), who made weight at 125.6 pounds Friday. “I want that belt to mean something. Other featherweights call themselves world champions. That bugs me.”

Valdez, a Mexican Olympian who went to school in Tucson, faces perhaps his toughest test against Marriaga (25-1, 21 KOs), a Colombian who was at 125.4 pounds Friday. Marriaga’s lone loss was to Nicholas Walters. Among featherweights without belts, Marriaga is the best contender, says Valdez trainer Manny Robles.

“He’s the consensus No. 1,’’ said Robles, who worked Marriaga’s corner in a TKO victory over Chris Martin in Santa Monica three years ago. “But Oscar is too quick for him. Oscar wants to unify the titles. He’s ready for the big fights.’’

The Top Rank card also includes 122-pound champion Jessie Maldonado (24-0, 17 KOs) against Adeilson Dos Santos (18-2, 14 KOs) of Brazil and super-middleweight champ Gilberto Ramirez (34-0, 24 KOs) against Maxim Bursak (33-4-1, 15 KOs) of the Ukraine in title fights. Maldonado tipped the scales at 121.8 pounds; Dos Santos was at 121.2. Ramirez weighed in at 167.8 pounds; Bursak was at 167.4.

Shakur Stevenson, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist, will also make his pro debut at featherweight. He weighed in at 124.8 pounds. Opponent, Edgar Brito (3-2-1, 2 KOs) of Phoenix, was at 125.0.

By Norm Frauenheim

CARSON, Calif. – An old union card is little bit like a driver’s license for Manny Robles. It’s how he identifies himself.

Robles is a carpenter, Local 409.

These days, he’s busy, building champions like Oscar Valdez Jr. and Jessie Magdaleno in a southern California gym not far from where they will defend their respective titles Saturday night at StubHub Center.

For now, Robles has put down the hammer. But like that union card, it’s always there if Robles needs it. It represents an enduring fundamental, a timeless skill he learned from a late dad who gave his son a trainer’s know how as though it were an old tool.

Robles watched his dad, Manny Sr. as he worked with junior-featherweight great Israel Vazquez, super-flyweight champion Martin Castillo and middleweight champ Reggie Johnson. He also fought a little, or at least until his dad told him he might be better off in some other line of work.

Robles listened, then learned carpentry. He liked working with his hands. But he also thought that maybe he could teach fighters how to use theirs.

He remembered something he heard from the late Chuck Bodak, a legendary cut man who hung out at his dad’s gym.

“You’re a teacher, not a coach,’’ Robles said Bodak told him repeatedly.

Robles, a student too, never forgot the refrain.

He has applied it to Valdez (21-0, 19 KOs), who faces a dangerous challenge from Colombian Miguel Marriaga (25-1, 21 KOs) in the main event of a Top Rank-produced pay-per-view card (6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET, $44.95) in a second defense of his WBO featherweight title.

He used it to re-energize Magdaleno ((24-0, 17 KOs), who will defend the WBO’s 122-pound title against Brazilian Adeilson Dos Santos (18-2, 14 KOs) after taking it from Nonito Donaire in a stunner last November.

For Robles, the task has been a holistic one. Discipline, diet and routine are all part of it, of course. But there’s family, too. He says he has worked to be the father that his own dad was.

“It’s more than just trainer and boxer,’’ Robles said. “It has to be.’’

It’s an approach that has begun to win over like-minded fighters in a business so often known for fierce independence. Super-middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez and his trainer Hector Zapari joined Valdez and Magdaleno for workouts at The Rock gym in Carson.

On a loaded card that also includes 2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson in his pro debut, Ramirez (34-0, 24 KOs) faces Max Bursak (33-4-1, 15 KOs) for the WBO title he won in a decision over Arthur Abraham a year ago.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum calls them Three Amigos. It’s a reference to a 1986 film, a comedy.

For Robles, it’s probably more like My Three Sons, a television golden oldie. For him, boxing and family have always been inseparable.

The two have guided him through tough times. There was a period after his dad died in 2007, he said, when life was a struggle.

“I lost my dad, I lost my mom, I lost my job,’’ he said. “I was leaving in a one-room place. It was tough, real tough.’’

But there was boxing, including another fundamental about what to do when you get knocked down. Get back up. Robles has done that. Repeatedly he says.

“You start over, start over all over again,’’ he said.

He did, working with amateurs. He even coached Sri Lanka. Yeah, Sri Lanka has a boxing team. Surprised me, too.

Along the way, Robles saw a young Mexican who shares some of his roots. Robles immigrated to the US with his dad from Mexico when he was a kid.

So did Oscar Valdez Jr. He was born in Nogales, Mexico, just on the other side of the border, south of Tucson. As a kid, he moved to Tucson where he went to school and began to box. He returned to his birthplace in his early to mid teens.

Robles recalls seeing him for the first time in fighting for Mexico at tournaments from Milan to Brazil.

“Because of my background, I’ve always been split, cheering for the Americans and the Mexicans,’’ Robles said. “I was in the crowd for the 2009 World Championships, cheering for Oscar. I think that was the first time he saw me. He waved at me. Gave me a thumbs-up. That was also the year he lost to Vasyl Lomachenko.

“Then I was even in the opposite corner from him at a 2012 Olympic qualifier in Brazil, coaching Joe Diaz for the American team. Diaz beat Oscar that day. Today, he jokes with me about that one.’’

For years, they had been circling one another, exchanging greetings from afar in 2009 and competing against each other three years later. Nearly three years ago, the circle was joined.

Top Rank asked Robles to work Valdez’ corner for his 12th pro bout for a minor title in Phoenix on an Iron Boy Promotions card in July 2014.

“I said sure, but I didn’t expect it to be more than that,’’ Robles said. “I was subbing for a coach who couldn’t be there because he was sick or injured. I said sure, and I really didn’t expect anything more than that.’’

Valdez won a decision, one of only two on his record and the first after beginning his pro career with 11 straight KOs.

“Then I got a call,’’ Robles said. “It was Oscar. He said he wanted me to be his trainer. He told me he thought I was the perfect fit.’’

The decision was simple. Perfect, too.

By Norm Frauenheim

“No,’’ Canelo Alvarez said Tuesday when asked if his bet still stood for his May 6 bout at Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. “His dad didn’t let him.’’

Father knows best.

Increasingly, it is beginning to look as if all bets are off for a fight that in the beginning appeared to be a tune-up for Canelo’s possible showdown with middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin later this year.

But the Canelo-GGG possibility has been shoved into the background amid emotions unleashed by a match-up that unlocks Mexico’s fierce pride in a long and rich boxing tradition. No major title is at stake. It’s being fought at a catch-weight, 164.5 pounds. It shouldn’t matter. But it does. Does it ever.

“Titles are very important to me, but this is above that,’’ Canelo said during an international conference call. “This goes above a title, any title. It’s for honor, for pride.’’

It’s also for money, which is the reason father and Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez pulled that bet off the table. The Nevada State Athletic Commission probably would have declared it illegal anyway. But Chavez’ dad acted quickly to ensure his son gets something for all his work in a bout that many believe his son can’t win.

But perceptions are changing about a pay-per-view event battling to become a fight, the reverse perhaps of the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward rematch on June 17. Kovalev-Ward II looks to be a fight struggling to become an event. More on that at a later date.

The surprise in this corner — and a few others — is how Canelo-Chavez has captured so much attention on so many different levels. It has even taken on a political edge in an ad that takes on President Donald Trump and his controversial plan for a wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/exclusive-boxing-promo-features-mexican-fighters-busting-through-trumps-wall/

In terms of place, Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium would be more appropriate. Imagine a crowd that would rival the record 132,274 fans for the senior Chavez’ second-round stoppage of Greg Haugen in 1993. But dollars still rule and never more so during a time when the Cinco de Mayo celebration has become a big winner for the Vegas economy.

The fight at Vegas’ T-Mobile is a business decision, yet also an opportunity for advertisers, marketers and opinion makers. It’s a chance to make a big statement on a stage that seems to be getting bigger all the time. Even Canelo promoter Oscar De La Hoya is surprised.

“In terms of the event, of how big it is, I cannot remember a fight against two Mexicans that has created so much interest, anticipation,’’ said De La Hoya, who predicts the bout itself will prove to be as dramatic as Erik Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera. “So this is probably the biggest boxing event with two Mexican fighters.’’

It will, perhaps, because it’s been simmering, off and on, for most of the last decade. Over the last couple of years, however, it was virtually forgotten by fans weary of Chavez Jr. He failed to make weight. He failed drug tests. He looked like a failure in quitting after nine rounds against light-heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara in 2015.

“Everything’s possible in boxing,’’ Canelo said when asked if he could make Chavez Jr. quit too. “And as the great Bernard Hopkins once said: ‘Once a quitter, always a quitter.’ So anything’s possible.’’

Oh yeah, Canelo doesn’t like Chavez Jr. Feigned dislike is part of any promotion, but this time it is intense, genuine and mutual.

It is as simple as Canelo’s dismissive remark about Junior’s dad canceling the bet. From this corner, it was Canelo’s way of saying there’d be no fight if it weren’t for the legendary dad and his unshakable hold on the loyalty of so many Mexican fans.

“As a person, you know, I don’t know him well, but just from what I hear from his actions and all, it’s like a guy that just doesn’t sustain what he says,’’ Canelo said. “You know, he just says a lot of things. It’s almost like he’s a little kid.

“Look, my fans are there. My fans know that I started from nothing, from the bottom up, from zero, and have worked my way up with a lot of sweat and sacrifices.

“He has his fans, as well. But I think a lot of his fans are more his father’s fans than his. His fans follow his father, what his father says, because he’s shown a lot of ups and downs in his career. He, himself, has not had a real disciplined career. He is not a role model for the young children and the young fighters.’’

But boxing has never been about role models. It’s often about the underdog, battling back from impossible odds and adversity. Chavez Jr. is that underdog, although he put himself there by squandering all of his inherited advantages. Nevertheless, there’s an appeal in that, especially among Mexican fans who identify with the underdog.

There’s also a sense that he inherited some of the lightning his father had in his hands. That kind of power is hard to squander. There’s an astonishing moment in 2012 when Chavez Jr. overcame a listless 11 rounds and nearly knocked out then-middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in a final round as wild as any in boxing’s crazy history. Martinez survived for a one-sided decision, but he was finished as a fighter. He fought two more times and after a loss to Miguel Cotto, he retired in 2014.

It’s a reason, perhaps, to think Chavez Jr. has a chance, a puncher’s chance and just another compelling reason for the unexpected buzz.

By Norm Frauenheim

There are more great anniversaries than great fights these days.

The latest is the 30-year anniversary of Sugar Ray Leonard’s controversial decision over Marvin Hagler.

The debate rages on and on over the three decades since the legendary middleweight clash in an outdoor ring on a back lot behind Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace on April 6, 1987.

Generations of young fighters hear it and probably wonder what in the hell these old guys are talking about. For the record, I’m one of those old guys. Yet, I sympathize with those younger fighters. On a day when Don Rickles – another legend from the 1980s — died, we must sound like a bunch of hockey pucks.

I confess, there are moments when boxing resembles an old man with only memories to sustain him. It was only a few weeks ago that Leonard’s welterweight stoppage of Thomas Hearns in 1981 was recalled in the promotional build-up to Keith Thurman’s decision over Danny Garcia on March 18.

It was unfair to Thurman and Garcia to suggest that their fight could ever be the second coming of Leonard-Hearns. It wasn’t, of course. Only a fool would have thought it might be.

That said, legends remembered are one way of keeping a troubled sport alive. A legend forgotten is just an eroding antiquity, an ancient ruin from a bygone time.

If not exactly healthy, boxing is hardly bygone. Fact is, it’s thriving in some places. To wit: The UK.

A crowd of 90,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium is expected for heavyweights Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua on April 29.

Please-please-please, hold all the parallels to Joe Louis-Max Schmeling, Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier and Ali-Foreman. Within the ring, Klitschko-Joshua won’t be that. Not even close. But that anticipated crowd at Wembley adds up to interest still lively as ever. Done right, there’s still nothing like a good fight.

Bob Arum knows that better than anyone. That’s why I applaud him for remembering Leonard-Hagler the way he has over the last week. Sure, there’s self-interest in the scheduling. He’s a businessman, after all.

He talked about his Hagler-Leonard memories last week during a conference call that helped promote an April 22 card at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. It features emerging featherweight champion Oscar Valdez Jr., super-middleweight champ Gilbert Ramirez, junior-featherweight champ Jessie Magdaleno and Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson in a pro debut.

Then, there was a news conference for Vasyl Lomachenko’s next title defense on Thursday, the same day as the Hagler-Leonard anniversary.

In Lomachenko, Arum has a fighter whom he says has Ali-like skills. Translation: Lomachenko, who faces Jason Sosa Saturday night (HBO 10 pm ET/PT) in Oxon Hill, MD, could be a key to restoring the business. On a historical day, Arum introduced a fighter who he thinks can make history, maybe even repeat some.

On the call with Valdez, Ramirez, Magdaleno and Stevenson, there was a different tactic. Arum was both boxing promoter and history professor. Hagler-Leonard happened before the four twenty-something fighters were born.

Arum asked each to watch and score the fight. The exercise was intriguing, mostly because it brought to life a debate lively then and lively now. Valdez scored it 115-113 for Hagler, favoring Hagler’s aggression. Ramirez and Stevenson scored it 115-113 for Leonard, both favoring Leonard’s quickness. Magdaleno had it for Leonard, 116-112, also favoring Leonard’s overall skill and speed.

“Hagler-Leonard,’’ Stevenson said, “that was a great era but now it’s our turn to begin our own legacy and create our own era where we have fights like that down the line. I can’t wait for that to happen.’’

Throughout the call, Arum never predicted that Valdez, or Ramirez, or Magdaleno, or Stevenson would lead boxing back to a future defined by late journalist and author George Kimball’s Four Kings – Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Roberto Duran. That would have been unfair to the young fighters. It would foolhardy for the promoter.

At the end of the call, I asked if Ramirez thought he could hang with them. Ramirez, nicknamed Zurdo, was no longer on the line. But Arum was. He immediately jumped in, calling out Gennady Golovkin.

“He doesn’t have to worry about hanging with those guys,’’ Arum said. “The fight Gilberto wants, if he is successful on April 22, is GGG and I would agree to take that fight winner-take-all. I think Zurdo destroys Golovkin the same way that he destroyed Arthur Abraham.”

I asked if Arum agreed with those who argue that the years have begun to catch up with GGG, who turns 35 on Saturday.

“Yes we all do, even me,’’ Arum said. “I’m 85 and showing my age. But, yeah, sure he is. There’s no question. There’s a great A.E. Housman poem, To An Athlete Dying Young. An athlete’s life is relatively short.’’

But the memory of him can be very long if the business reminds the athletes after him of everything he made possible.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Pound-for-pound, it might be the most overrated argument in the debate business. Who is No. 1? Who’s No. 2? Who cares? Most of these guys won’t fight each other any way. But it’s still a way to fill the dead time and there’s been plenty of that since the top of the argument, Roman Gonzalez, lost a controversial decision.

In a subsequent rush, ratings have been re-evaluated and redone. Everybody seems to have a new No. 1 and it’s not Gonzalez. No surprise there, although it seems unfair to end Gonzalez’ unprecedented reign after a decision roundly ripped by the same people who run the various rankings.

To rip Gonzalez’ loss to Thailand’s Srisaket Sor Rungvisai as a scorecard robbery and then to yank him from the top spot only seems to compound the crime. It’s as if Nicaraguan – the smallest fighter to ever occupy No. 1 — was only there for as long as it took to sort out a noisy version of musical chairs.

Gennady Golovkin is No. 1 in some. Andre Ward is favored in others. Prodigy Vasyl Lomachenko gets the nod in a few. But, come on, shouldn’t No. 1 just be left vacant? That’s the choice here. Nobody has really made a decisive claim on the spot that Floyd Mayweather Jr. once owned.

I understand why Gonzalez is no longer atop the debate. For him, the trend has been problematic. The flyweight great has struggled at junior-bantamweight. But there’d be no argument here or anywhere else if the decision March 18 had gone his way at Madison Square Garden a couple of weeks ago when he got up from a first-round knockdown. Gonzales was the Lord of the Flies when he ascended to No. 1 when Mayweather retired. Yet with one lousy loss, his pound-for-pound run suddenly has a fly’s life span??? In fairness to him and his still-dynamic skillset, it’s reasonable to vacate the spot and give him a chance to regain it in a Rungvisai rematch that would be judged alongside performances delivered by GGG, Ward, Lomachenko and few others.

GGG remains unbeaten, yet his recent performances against Kell Brook and then Danny Jacobs, also at Madison Square Garden a couple of weeks ago, left questions, not unlike those asked about Gonzalez.

GGG is considered a small middleweight. He looked as if he often struggled in winning a decision against a bigger Jacobs. Can he adjust? He might have to against a bigger Canelo Alvarez. If – if, if, if — there is a GGG-Canelo fight in September, it’ll be one piece in the pound-for-pound puzzle.

Another one would be Ward-versus-Sergey Kovalev in a rematch, possibly on June 17. Ward won a decision over Kovalev in November. It was unanimous on the scorecards and unanimously controversial among fans. It was 114-113 on all three cards. Had two of the judges scored it for Kovalev instead, the Russian would be the undisputed No. 1. Instead, there’s Ward, the pick in some ratings despite suffering a second-round knockdown. Like Gonzalez, Kovalev deserves a rematch in a sequel with more pound-for-pound implications now than there were in November.

Then, there’s Lomachenko. He’s the provocative pick for No. 1. Publicists and writers, alike, portray the two time Olympic gold medalist from the Ukraine like a magician, Houdini in boxing gloves. Maybe, but Houdini’s pro resume is hard to judge. He only has eight bouts, including a loss to Orlando Salido.

Lomachenko is intriguing. But his pound-for-pound credentials are still to be tested, perhaps by Mikey Garcia, who has 28 more fights and no losses on a record that represents just another compelling reason for a vacancy at the top of this pound-for-pound debate.

By Norm Frauenheim

It’s beginning to look as if Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor are just a few dancing bears away from reaching an agreement on whatever it is they intend to do in June, or September or, whenever.

All of the talk is creating its own momentum. Where there’s smoke, there’s cash these days and there should be enough of the latter to ensure that the spectacle will happen.

By all accounts, it’ll be a boxing match, although there are good reasons to think it’ll turn into something else.

It’s no secret that McGregor has no boxing experience, which is another way of saying he’d have no chance against the best boxer of the last decade. McGregor knows that. If he doesn’t, he’d find out soon enough.

At the very second he discovers he’s got no shot, the guess here is that he’d kick Mayweather in the head. McGregor gets disqualified and probably fined. But what would he have to lose? He’d still bank seven, maybe eight, figures and his MMA loyalists would love the crazy moment.

Yeah, it would be outrageous. But isn’t that a reason so many people are talking about it?

After all, Mayweather-McGregor wouldn’t be about sportsmanship. We aren’t talking about a gentle game of lawn croquet here, although their respective fans might watch even that. Who knows? McGregor might pick up one of those mallets and drop Mayweather faster than Victor Ortiz.

Truth is, it’s hard to know exactly what to make of Mayweather-McGregor. Neither fish nor fowl. More like fishy and foul.

From a boxing perspective, the real problem rests with Mayweather’s pursuit of legacy. It’s not about the cash. Mayweather is better at making money than just about anybody under the big top. Money is his nickname.

He’ll be remembered more for that than even his ample boxing skill. Still, legacy is important to him. If it weren’t, he wouldn’t be selling those T-shirts and caps bearing that familiar acronym, TBE – The Best Ever.

But it would be a cheap insult to history if Mayweather were allowed to go 50-0 – one victory better than Rocky Marciano’s iconic record – against a mixed-martial artist with no boxing experience.

If Nevada or New York or any other state agency sanctioned Mayweather-McGregor as a boxing match, the result – win, lose or draw – becomes a matter of record.

There’s already precedent for that. In an internet event on pay-per-view in Phoenix a year ago, Roy Jones Jr. added a victory and knockout to his record (65-9 47 KOs) in an Arizona-sanctioned boxing match against an MMA novice, Vyron Phillips, who told the AZ commission that he had boxed as an amateur.

McGregor, of course, says he will pull off a global shocker and knock out Mayweather. What else is he going to say? Other than his MMA loyalists, however, there is no argument in any language about McGregor’s chances. It’s zero, nada, bupkis.

It would be against Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, or Timothy Bradley, or Keith Thurman, or Shawn Porter, or Danny Garcia, or Errol Spence, or Kell Brook, or Amir Khan, or Jessie Vargas. Any of them would be a truer test than McGregor could ever be.

Come to think of it, all of them and more should sign a petition and deliver it to state commissions, asking that McGregor-Mayweather not be sanctioned as a boxing match.

License it for what it is: A big money-maker, but not a history-maker.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a many-sided fight, loaded with intrigue and potential for explosive surprises at just about every level. But will Gennady Golovkin-Danny Jacobs Saturday night sell?

It’s an HBO pay-per-view fight screaming for attention during the first week of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Although already perilously close to joining boxing at the sporting fringe from November through February, college basketball still comes off the edge and squarely into the spotlight for three weeks from mid March to early April.

It’s a spring rite, an annual fast break full of moms and pops with brackets in one hand and a few dollars to wager in the other. Office pools are everywhere and that means everybody is watching, especially during the first couple of rounds when big upsets are likely.

If you’ve ever been in Las Vegas for a fight during the first week of the NCCA tournament, you know what I’m talking about. The books are jammed. Lines stretch from the betting windows almost out on to The Strip with people wanting to bet on the next Cinderella. A very good fight might be at the casino’s arena that Saturday night. But nobody knows about it.

In America’s virtual village, Golovkin-Jacobs, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, is that fight. Looks to be good, could be great. Jacobs is a terrific story. He beat cancer and he’s been beating everybody in front of him ever since.

Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) has been that force of nature, an unbeaten and unstoppable middleweight who hopes to pound out a legend the equal of any in a division with a rich history. His bout against Jacobs has been called a steppingstone to a bigger confrontation with Canelo Alvarez. Yet, Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) is a challenge – perhaps GGG’s biggest ever as he approaches another birthday. He’ll be 35 on April 8.

If the fight had been in mid-February or mid-April, it would have had a better chance at a solid PPV number. In an era of declining expectations, solid would mean anything from, say, 250,000 to 300,000. GGG’s pay-per-view sample is too small to judge. He has fought on PPV only once, against David Lemieux in October, 2015 in an HBO telecast that did a reported 150,000.

With the Canelo showdown still on the horizon and the compelling Jacobs story as part of Saturday’s promotion, there’s more reason to watch. But it happens on a day with second-round NCAA tournament games on CBS, TNT and TBS scheduled from noon (ET) to 9:30 p.m. (ET) and all without a PPV price tag.

The day’s final tournament game is scheduled a half-hour after the start of the PPV telecast of a card that includes pound-for-pound king and junior-bantamweight Roman Gonzalez (46-0, 38 KOs) against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (41-4-1, 38 KOs).

It’s a good card. Maybe great. On a day full of basketball for free, however, is it worth $54.99 for the standard telecast, $64.99 for high-def? After wall-to-wall hoops, I’m guessing a lot of casual fans will just pass and wait for the replay.

That’s unfortunate, especially for the under-appreciated GGG, Jacobs and Gonzalez.

GGG, who sells out arenas, draws a solid audience in non-PPV bouts. His victory over Kell Brook in September drew 843,000 for a London bout that happened earlier in the day in the U.S. His April victory over Dominic Wade at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., posted a biggie, 1.34 million.

Let’s assume Golovkin does the expected and beats Jacobs. If the victory is spectacular, yet the PPV number isn’t, it creates a potential complication for him in negotiations with Canelo, whose May 6 bout with fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. could be PPV blockbuster. Let’s assume Canelo does the expected and beats Chavez Jr., yet with a PPV number three to four times bigger than GGG’s number against Jacobs.

What should be a 50-50 fight, won’t be in terms of what Canelo says he’s worth. He’ll ask for the lion’s share of a 60-40 or 55-45 split. GGG, who has been the consensus champ at 160, wouldn’t be the first fighter to be insulted by that kind of proposal. He also wouldn’t be the first to walk away from the table, further delaying a fight the business desperately needs.

That begs a question: On a weekend dominated by attention on the NCAA tournament, why-oh-why is GGG-Jacobs on pay-per-view? That answer is a slam-dunk.

By Norm Frauenheim-

A couple of things didn’t happen during the last week, neither one much of a surprise and yet both significant for a sport that is either dying, or rebounding, or just going nowhere.

Item One: Nothing about Keith Thurman’s split decision over Danny Garcia last Saturday resembled Sugar Ray Leonard’s classic over Thomas Hearns in 1981. It was more like the Leonard-Hearns rematch in 1989. Don’t remember that draw? Neither does anybody else.

Item Two: Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan announced a fight in the United Arab Emirates and then found out a promised $38-million was, well, fake news. The real story: There was no money, no fight at all.

What to make of it?

Bottom line, there is no more lotto at the end of a boxing rainbow that appeared like an illusion in 2015 when Floyd Mayweather Jr. collected between $220-and-$230 million for a dull bout that netted Pacquiao a reported $180 million.

Promoter Bob Arum, who warned Pacquiao about another UAE tease, told the Los Angeles Times that the Filipino and advisor Michael Koncz “were talking to the wrong people.’’

Truth is, there are no right people anywhere – not in the UAE, or Dubai, or Vegas, or New York — willing to invest $38 million in a boxing card these days.

The business is starting over, which might be bad news for Pacquiao, a Filipino Senator who is generous to a fault and always looking for a way to fund his next political campaign.

He needs the money. That’s no secret. If the Senator is entering his prime as a politician, however, he’s past his peak as a fighter. No secret there, either.

Pacquiao, who was guaranteed $4 million for a victory over Jessie Vargas in his last bout, is caught in a changing market. The irony is that he helped fuel the astonishing run-up of purses that climaxed with his loss to Mayweather.

Now, however, there are younger welterweights willing to fight for a fraction of the wages he and Mayweather earned.

That brings us back to Thurman and Garcia. Each had career-high guarantees of $2 million for a CBS fight that generated big ratings in prime time. The audience averaged 3.74 million over the 12 rounds and peaked at 5.1 million.

The fight itself is hard to judge in terms of whether it won over some disaffected fans. There were no knockdowns. Over the final three rounds, Thurman played it safe, staying out of harm’s way. The split scorecards say that was a risky tactic. But, in the end, it worked for him.

The bigger debate is about whether the bout was another turn-off for casual fans. The guess in this corner: It wasn’t. There was no pay-per-view, a fee that almost ensures outrage if it isn’t a classic.

The parallel to the first Leonard-Hearns bout was an impossible reach. But it was free. It didn’t cost anybody $100 for the right to get bored and then angry, all in high definition.

In part, that was always Al Haymon’s plan when he introduced Premier Boxing Champions a couple of years ago. He foresaw that pay-per-view was killing the business. His validation rests in the numbers for CBS’ primetime telecast.

Mayweather-Pacquiao set a pay-per-view record. At its peak, the 5.1 million for Thurman-Garcia was bigger than the 4.6 million PPV number for Mayweather-Pacquiao.

Under the old PPV model, Thurman and Garcia would still be invisible to casual fans. They aren’t now. They are introducing themselves to a bigger audience and doing it for price that might sustain the business as it finally moves into the post Mayweather-Pacquiao era.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Boxing loves history. It remembers, yet it can’t repeat. Not yet, anyway. I’m not sure it has to. These days, just a good fight is enough. Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia Saturday in CBS prime time looks as if it fits the latter part of the bill.

With the year only a couple months old, it’s the best in 2017 thus far. It has a chance to be better than anything seen last year. History can wait, perhaps on a rematch in the evolution of a classic rivalry. Yet, the parallels are there, as irresistible as they are inevitable. In part, that’s why Sugar Ray Leonard will be there as a CBS analyst and a ringside symbol of what the sport would like to be all over again.

Thurman, the WBA’s welterweight champion, and Garcia, the WBC champ, are fighting for the same titles that were at stake when Leonard and Thomas Hearns battled each nearly 36 years ago in a September, 1981 bout that ranks among the all-time classics.

Changes since Leonard prevailed — retaining the WBA’s belt and taking the WBC’s version from Hearns in a 14th-round stoppage– at an outdoor ring behind Las Vegas Caesars Place and before a reported network television audience of 300 million – have forever altered boxing. There are countless titles and more television networks than acronyms. There are fewer fighters these days. More great athletes risk head trauma on the football field than they do in the ring anymore.

“Fortunately, I was in an era where there were just a lot of guys out there who were so talented,’’ Leonard said during a conference call before Saturday’s bout (PT 6-8 pm/ET 9-11 pm) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

For Leonard, there were so-so many, although it’s ironic that the rivalry with Hearns was a business partnership that fell short of its potential. They fought a second time, nearly eight years later in 1989.

But it was forgettable, a draw that left nobody interested in a third step of a trilogy. Still, there was Roberto Duran and Iran Barkley and Marvin Hagler and all of the other legends of that time. There were so many chances at creating legacies, and Leonard, Hearns, Duran and Hagler did exactly that.

There aren’t as many opportunities these days and perhaps the willingness to do so just isn’t there anymore. The game conducts itself according to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s business model: The biggest reward for the smallest risk. It worked for Mayweather, who fulfilled his Money nickname millions of times over. But it has created problems for fighters who might have had a better chance at a legacy for themselves in Leonard’s era.

“I always thought that we had to continue to raise the bar as a fighter, as a champion, and continue to fight better and better competition,’’ he said “When I was fighting, I swear, I wanted to be the underdog -psychologically, spiritually and mentally. If I wasn’t challenged, if I wasn’t considered somewhat of an underdog, I couldn’t perform the way I normally would. It’s what would get me going.’’

For Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) and Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) those kind of challenges loom in a bout that is only the third between unbeaten welterweight champions and the first since Felix Trinidad’s controversial victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 1999.

Thurman-Garcia is also intriguing for elements not reflected in their records. Thurman is a compelling personality. He is boxing’s enlightened warrior, a fighter who studies Eastern religions, plays music and talks philosophy.

He’s likable, the flip side to Danny Garcia’s offensive trainer and father, Angel, whose racial slurs at a news conference a few weeks ago left questions about whether the New York State Athletic Commission would license his to work the corner. It did, which adds a controversial edge. Will Angel’s presence put additional pressure on his son?

Danny Garcia is likable in his own way, but his father has turned him into the bad guy. Every great fight needs some good-and-evil, but Danny Garcia has been forced into an ill-fitting role by an offensive dad.

Meanwhile, the ever-poised Thurman has kept his cool throughout the race-baiting rhetoric from Angel Garcia. At opening bell, however, will he be motivated to make the son pay for what the dad said? There’s a danger in that, too especially against the counter-punching Danny Garcia, whose left is as lethal as any if it is allowed to land.

There’s potential on several levels for the kind of fight that Leonard experienced and endured.

“It is an out-of-body experience,’’ said Leonard, who on Wednesday picked Thurman to win. “It’s déjà vu. Like holy, I’m 60. It’s a kind of thing that is so special. It’s so rare of a unification. it seems like. It speaks volumes to me as far as the significance of it. And these guys, Keith and Danny, they know it.

“They realize it.”

Leonard has been there. Maybe, Thurman Garcia and will get there.

PHOENIX, Ariz. – BJ Flores is a good talker. He’s known for his commentary. But his identity is still on the dangerous side of the ropes.

“I just wanted to remind people that I can still fight,’’ Flores said.

That reminder was delivered definitively and with hands as fast as ever Saturday night at Celebrity Theatre on an Iron Boy Promotions card. Flores has moved up the scale, beyond 190-pounds and into the heavyweight division. Nobody will ever confuse Jeremy Bates with a heavyweight contender. He was more Butterbean than Anthony Joshua.

But it was a new beginning for Flores (33-3-1, 21 KOs), who blitzed Bates (26-19-1, 22 KOs) with quick combos, scoring two knockdowns for a first-round TKO victory in his heavyweight debut.

“I’m ready to go again, right now,’’ said Flores (33-3-1, 21 KOs), a former cruiserweight contender who hopes to answer another opening bell in May. “My hand speed is still there. I think that speed can give a lot heavyweights a lot of trouble.’’

Flores weighed in at 223 pounds. He said he wants to be even heavier next time around. But against whom? He’s not calling out Joshua or Wladimir Klitschko. He didn’t call out Deontay Wilder, who retained his WBC title Saturday with a stoppage of Gerald Washington in Birmingham, Ala. But he did mention Lucas Browne.

Meanwhile, more work at ringside commentary figures to be there for the fighter, who gained international prominence for his insight on NBC. If given a choice between another network job and a fight, Flores said he’d take the fight.

“Every time,’’ he said. “That’s what I do and I think I’ve still got a lot left in me.’’

On Saturday night, not even commentator could argue with that

In a co-main event, there was not much action. But there was a knockdown and one was enough for Phoenix middleweight Andrew Hernandez (18-5-1, 8 KOs), who scored it in the first round with an overhand right that dropped Siju Ade Shibaz (6-3, 2 KOs), also of Phoenix. Nine rounds later, Hernandez had a bloodied left eye, a victory by unanimous decision and the WBA’s national versions of the 160-pound title.

On The Undercard
The Best: Super-flyweight Luis Espinoza of Mesa, Ariz., has a prospect’s power in his hands, agile speed in his feet and a trainer with some world-class credentials. Add it all up and Christian Bartolini of Mexico never had had a chance.

Espinoza (6-0, 2 KOs), who had former Timothy Bradley trainer Julio Diaz in his corner, tagged Bartolini (1-3-1) with a short left – precise as it was powerful – for a fourth-round stoppage.

The Rest: Phoenix flyweight Adrian Servin ((3-0, 1 KO) struck early, held on late and prevailed at the end of a back-and-fourth four rounder for a unanimous decision over bloodied, yet resilient Jesus Godinez (0-1) of Mexico.

Junior-lightweight Viktor Slavinsky (1-0, 1 KO) traveled a long way from his native Ukraine. He didn’t forget to pack the power in his right hand. It rocked Mexican Oscar Quezada (3-8-1, 2 KOS) immediately and repeatedly, scoring a second-round stoppage in an impressive debut for Slavinsky.

Marine and combat vet Jamie Bojado (1-0, 1 KO) of Phoenix displayed some resilience, recovering from a head-rocking blow with two quick knockdowns for a first-round stoppage of El Paso welterweight Shem Prieto (0-1).

Another Ukrainian, junior-middleweight Yulian Tembotou ((1-0, 1 KO), dominated the Phoenix ring as though he were at home, landing a crippling body shot for a first-round stoppage of Brandon Davis (1-1) of Ohio.

Mesa junior-lightweight Jose Ibarra (1-0), capitalized on his power, scoring a unanimous decision of crosstown rival Joel Moran (0-1) of Phoenix.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Okay, we’ve all seen it. Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. shook hands on a bet that begs another wager.

Real?

Phony?

Promotional show?

Odds are, it’s the third – all for show. Odds are, neither fighter could afford the payoff. Let’s say the purses for their HBO pay-per-view bout on May 6 at Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena are close to what each fighter says they are – $24 million for Canelo and $6 million for Chavez.

Is either fighter going to throw away that kind of a guarantee on something as fickle as a lucky punch, or a lousy judge, or inadvertent slip on a slick stretch of canvas? Didn’t think so.

And what trainer, or manager, or bucket guy, or promoter, or gofer would continue working for a fighter who just bet his whole purse? These guys work for a living, too. They need their piece of the purse just to eat. They’ll get an attorney before they let this bet rob them of their livelihoods.

In the wake of their handshake in front of television camera at a Univision studio Wednesday in Mexico City, Chavez Jr. – of all people — sounded like the grown-up in what appeared to be a spontaneous moment brought on by Canelo’s sudden willingness to risk it all.

“Let’s see what the exact terms of the bet are going to be,’’ Chavez Jr. said through an interpreter who might have been a lawyer.

Meanwhile, Bob Bennett, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, sounded skeptical about the bet in comments to the Los Angeles Times.

“I’m not sure out deputy attorney general would even allow it,’’ Bennett told the Times.

At least, he wouldn’t allow it in Nevada. But who’s to say that they couldn’t live up to the handshake-seen-across-the world, days after the bout and after both have returned to Mexico?

The cynic in me says there are better bets on what really could happen.

To wit: There’s a pretty good chance that Chavez Jr.’s purse will be at least $1 million lighter on the day before opening bell. According to contract terms, he pays $1 million to Canelo for every pound he is over the 164.5-pound catch-weight. Chavez’ problems on the scale aren’t a secret.

To wit: There’s a pretty good chance Chavez Jr., a 4-1 underdog, gets frustrated late in a one-sided fight. With nothing to lose, he throws a low blow or an elbow, injuring Canelo in way that further delays the showdown with Gennady Golovkin. That’s a losing bet for a business that desperately needs Canelo-GGG in the wake of lousy 2016.

That said, Canelo-Chavez Jr. looks like a very good preliminary to this year main event. That handshake on a winner-take-all bet makes it all the more entertaining. It gets people talking about what they imagine boxing is all about.

Or should be all about.

Limbs are at risk. Their lives are at risk. But the money? Don’t bet on it.

PHOENIX, Ariz. – BJ Flores moves up the scale, from cruiserweight to heavyweight, in a fight to re-ignite his career Saturday night at Celebrity Theatre.

Flores, who is known for his insightful commentary as a boxing analyst for NBC, lost a third-round TKO in a bid for the WBC’s cruiserweight title to Tony Bellew in the UK on Oct. 15.

At 38, the former cruiserweight contender steps into the heavyweight ranks on the same day that WBC champion Deontay Wilder tries to regain momentum in his career against Gerald Washington in Birmingham, Ala.

Flores (32-3-1, 20 KOs), who lives in Chandler, Ariz., is scheduled to face Jeremy Bates (26-18-1, 22 KOs), a heavyweight from Charleston, W.V, who is coming off a loss to Oscar Rivas last June in Montreal.

Flores-Rivas is the main event on an Iron Boy Promotions card. Seven bouts are scheduled. First bell is scheduled for 7 p.m. (MST).

By Norm Frauenehim
Pound-for-pound recognition comes with a lot credentials. But it doesn’t pay the bills. In fact, it often makes a good payday harder to find.

Vasyl Lomachenko, whose rapid rise to pound-for-prominence is unprecedented, is finding out just how hard it can be.

During a conference call Wednesday for an April 8 title defense against Jason Sosa, Lomachenko, already a pound-for-pound contender after only eight pro fights, expressed frustration about the way potential fights fall apart. Why? His varied skillset is just too much of a risk for opponents looking for a way to get ahead.

“Other champions were running like rats from a sinking ship and not coming into the ring,’’ said Lomachenko, who will defend his WBO 130-pound at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, MD, in an HBO-televised bout. “Nowadays, it’s not about the sport. All of the boxers have become businessmen and they are looking just to get the money and not the glory.’’

There’s no protein in glory, of course. Prize-fighting – emphasis on prize – is strictly business, especially for aging fighters. Lomachenko was hoping for a rematch with longtime gate-keeper Orlando Salido, who beat the two-time Olympic gold medalist in the Ukrainian’s second pro bout in March 2014. But after 61 bouts, the 36-year-old Salido might be looking for more than just one more payday. A likely loss to Lomachenko in a rematch would probably mark the end of his chances at another good purse.

“Yes, I was a little disappointed,’’ Lomachenko said when asked what he thought of futile negotiations with Salido. “Ass far as I knew, everything was moving along and everything was agreed to. Then all the sudden, they turned around and said he wasn’t going to fight. But, you know, such is life.’’

The good news for Lomachenko is that his professional life is just beginning to unfold. For now, he’s at that never-never stage, a career step as inevitable as it feared for some of the best. Being feared also means you’re avoided. But there are ways out of the dilemma, especially for a 28 year-old fighter who still appears to be a year or two from his prime.

At a lanky 5-foot-6, Lomachenko looks as if he has room to grow up and out of the junior-lightweight division.

“If the thing is going to go like it is today — everybody running away and not fighting me — I will be forced to go to 135 pounds,’’ he said “I would hope that the guys at 135 would be standing up and coming to fight.’’

That brings us straight to a potential mega fight with Mikey Garcia, who came out of his frightening knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin on Jan. 28 with a third title at a third weight and his own share of pound-for-pound recognition. Would a Garcia-Lomachenko fight happen right away? Nothing ever does in boxing anymore. But Garcia sounds willing and Lomachenko’s current career path seems to make the bout more likely, perhaps early next year.

Garcia, who has added scary power to his brilliant tactical skill, has already achieved some of what Lomachenko is pursuing.

Lomachenko joked on the conference call that he doesn’t see a pound-for-pound contender when he looks in the mirror

“I am usually working on my hair at that moment,’’ he said.

When he does look at the 135-pound lightweight division, however, he sees himself at the top of the pound-for-pound debate.

“If you want to just talk regarding me as a pound-for-pound fighter, I would probably say that I will probably be the No. 1 pound-for-pound after I beat a couple of champions at 135,’’ he said.

From promoters to networks to fans, Lomachenko-versus-Garcia would look awful good in any mirror.

Attachments area

PHOENIX, Ariz. –Michael Carbajal has always been known best for what he did in Nevada. It’s where he staked his first claim on real fame. It’s fitting that he’ll be remembered there too when he is inducted to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honor, a real honor, to be voted into a Hall alongside the great, great fighters who fought in boxing’s mecca,’’ said Carbajal, who will be inducted to the Nevada Hall in a class that includes Thomas Hearns, Salvador Sanchez, Erik Morales, Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, Ken Norton, Lucia Rijker and Richie Sandoval.

Sandoval, a former bantamweight champ, talked Top Rank’s Bob Arum into signing Carbajal, a junior-flyweight. It was the first time Arum had ever promoted a fighter in one of boxing lightest divisions.

Carbajal’s most memorable moment came on March 13, 1993 at the old Las Vegas Hilton. That’s when he got up from two knockdowns, one in the second round and again in the fifth, to score a dramatic seventh-round KO of rival Humberto Gonzalez.

The victory earned him a rematch and $1-million paycheck, the first ever for s junior-flyweight. Gonzalez beat Carbajal in controversial decisions in subsequent rematches, the first in Los Angeles and the second in Mexico City. But the only one anybody remembers is that first one in Vegas on a memorable Nevada night.

Carbajal, now 49, had 53 pro bouts, winning 49 and losing four. He scored 33 knockouts, including a stoppage of Jorge Arce in his last bout in 1999. He is remembered as one of history’s greatest little guys, alongside Gonzalez and Ricardo Lopez. He was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., in 2006.

He won an Olympic silver medal for the United Staes at the 1988 Seoul Games. He continues to live in the downtown Phoenix home where he grew up. He works with kids at his Ninth Street Gym.

Carbajal and his fellow inductees will be honored at a dinner on Aug 12 at Vegas’ Caesars Palace.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Power speaks for itself. Find it, and a fighter doesn’t need words. He already has the singular answer for nearly every question. Just ask Mikey Garcia.

With one frightening flash of power a couple of weeks ago, Garcia ignited an interest in him that hadn’t really been there until he left Dejan Zlaticanin on his back, as lifeless as a flat board, under the ring ropes at Las Vegas MGM Grand.

Just like that, Garcia was somebody he had never been. He was scary, scary good.

The cognoscenti had always appreciated him for his tactical skill and evident smarts. Amid boxing’s chaos and carnage, Garcia was an example of an art form seldom seen in a scarred game sometimes called the sweet science. But an if or two were also attached to him.

He was too much the craftsman, a precise artist who could paint by the numbers as effectively as anyone. It was art all right, yet without the edgy anticipation that it could all end with one broad brush. Art is good in a museum, but it doesn’t do well on pay-per-view.

Garcia transformed himself from very good to potential stardom with a signature knockout of Zlaticanin in what had been considered a risky fight on the undercard of Leo Santa Cruz’ rematch victory over Carl Frampton.

Santa Cruz-Frampton was an entertaining bout, good enough to probably make a third one inevitable. A couple of days after, however, it had come and gone. But there is still talk about Garcia, whose knockout of Zlaticanin might be the biggest at the MGM Grand since Manny Pacquiao lifted Ricky Hatton off his feet and dropped him onto the canvas in a lifeless heap for several long moments in May 2009. Power has its own momentum, too.

There are stories and questions all over social media about who and what are next for Garcia, who won his third title in a third weight class in only his second bout since more than two years on the shelf during a contract dispute with Top Rank.

“I could get back very, very soon,’’ said Garcia, who is already back in top the 10 of the various pound-for-pound rankings. “I don’t want to wait.’’

Nobody else wants to wait either. Hopefully, he’ll get a chance this summer to unite the 135-pound title against the winner of Anthony Crolla’s challenge on March 25 of Jorge Linares, The Ring and WBA champion. There are also possibilities against WBO champ Terry Flanagan and Robert Easter Jr., the IBF’s belt holder.

But all of it sounds like a prelude to what could be one game’s next mega fight. Terence Crawford, the current champ at 140, has been speculated.

The other, Vasyl Lomachenko, is even more intriguing. In terms of style, Garcia-Lomachenko always has loomed as a chess match between two the game’s re-eminent masters. Garcia’s newfound power introduces a whole new element.

“I would definitely take on a challenge like that if he comes up to 135,’’ Garcia said after his victory over Zlaticanin. “He’s still at 130. If he decides to move up, we’ll talk. But it’s not up to me. It’s up to him to move up.’’

The good news is that Lomachenko is already thinking about a move to 135, according to his promoter, Bob Arum, who told ringtv.com Tuesday that he expects the two-time Olympic gold medalist to make the jump by the end of this year.

That begs another question. Would Arum, also Crawford’s promoter, be willing to do business with Garcia after the prolonged contract dispute? More good news. Arum told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that, yeah, he would.

“If the fight makes sense, then why not?” Arum said. “Whatever happened between Garcia and us is in the past. The one thing I have learned is to never hold grudges. If a fight with Lomachenko or Crawford makes sense, and if there’s a market for that fight, we would be open to it.”

Power is about business, too.

By Norm Frauenheim-
Abel Ramos is back on ShoBox Friday night on a card in Miami, Okla., for another chance at a minor belt he hopes will serve as a springboard into the mix for a world title.

This time ,it’s for a USBA junior-lightweight title against prospect Ivan Baranchyk (13-0, 10 KOs), a Russian living in Brooklyn.

“He likes to fight moving forward,’’ said Ramos, of Casa Grande, Ariz., south of Phoenix. “So do I.’’

In Ramos’ only defeat, the aggressive 130-pounder lost a ninth-round TKO to Regis Prograis, who won the NABF’s version of the belt and has since won two more bouts to remain unbeaten at 18-0, including 15 knockouts.

Ramos, who has won three straight since the loss, promises a violent collision. Baranchyk, nicknamed The Beast, promises something more.

“I will enjoy knocking him out,’’ he said.

Showtime’s ShoBox card is scheduled to begin at 10:05 p.m. ET/PT. Three fights are scheduled. A heavyweight bout featuring Lippe Morrison, the son of late heavyweight champ Tommy Morrison, was canceled. The unbeaten Morrison, who was scheduled for an eight-rounder against Daniel Martz, suffered a cut above his left eye in training.

By Norm Fraienheim-

Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko arrived in New York this week for a timely news conference that helped deflect attention on the bizarre circumstances that continue to unfold in the wake of Alexander Povetkin’s positive test for a banned substance in December.

The prospect of Joshua-Klitschko on April 29 in front of a projected crowd of 90,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium offers some hope in what looks like the most compelling heavyweight fight in years. The flip side is Povetkin, a mystery wrapped in a mess.

Two days after Joshua and Klitschko met the media at Madison Garden, there were reports from Russia that Povetkin’s B-sample came up positive for the PED that forced a cancellation of his Dec. 17 bout against Bermane Stiverne for the World Boxing Council’s interim belt in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

It’s hard to know what to make of the early reports from Russia. Donald Trump might believe them. Without some confirmation from The Associated Press or some other mainstream outlet, however, it’s wise to be skeptical. The test of the B-sample was conducted in Los Angeles. The original test was reportedly done on Dec. 6, presumably in Russia.

I tend to believe initial stories abut the B- sample, which confirmed that there were traces of Ostarine, a steroid, in Povetkin’s A-sample. Here’s why: Quotes defending Povetkin and questioning the integrity of the testing process from promoter Andrey Ryabinsky and a Russian lawmaker were included in reports about the B-sample.

It was as if they knew what the result would be.

Ryabinksy said Povetkin came up clean in “alternative tests” conducted in Lausanne. Somehow, this sounds like those “alternative facts” that Trump staffer Kellyanne Conway introduced to today’s Orwellian rhetoric.

Then, there was a reported lawmaker and chairman of a sports committee, Mikhail Degtyaryov, who was quoted as saying: “The provocation against Povetkin exposed the fragility and weakness of the anti-doping system.’’

The Russian lawmaker didn’t mention that other system, state-sanctioned doping, which The New York Times exposed in May 2016. Not even Vladimir Putin could completely deny that report. It resulted in a partial ban of the Russian track-and-field team at last summer’s Rio Olympics. Ramifications continue.

On the same day that there were reports from Russia about Povetin’s B-sample, Reuters reported that the International Olympic Committee stripped the Russian women of the 400-meter relay silver medal from the 2012 Olympics after Antonina Krivoshapka’s B-sample came up dirty.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/ioc-sanctions-three-athletes-anti-doping-breaches-092922488–oly.html

It’s impossible to separate Povetkin, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, from the rest of Russia’s sports system. I don’t know him. I’ve never met him. I liked his boxing skills and he might have beaten Deontay Wilder in Moscow last May. But that one got cancelled, too, when Povetkin tested positive for meldonium.

Regardless of whether he gets sanctioned or suspended, the best guess is that Povetkin will simply fade from the scene, forgotten amid all the attention on Joshua and Klitschko. The game will move on.

The question is whether Wilder can regain the momentum he had before the cancellation. It cost Wilder a reported $4.5 million and a lot more. In an effort to stay busy, he fought and beat Chris Arreola in July, but he suffered costly injuries to his right hand and biceps.

He’ll test the hand and arm in a Feb. 25 return against former football player Gerald Washington, who replaced Poland’s Andrzej Wawrzyk. Wawrzyk got bumped off the card because – yeah, you guessed it – he came up dirty in drug testing.

It’s fair to wonder whether Wilder would have beaten Povetkin in a Moscow victory big enough to put him first in line for Joshua. Could it have been Wilder at New York’s news conference instead of Klitschko? We’ll never know. Then again, we’ll never know a lot of things in a world growing curiouser and curiouser.

LAS VEGAS –Anybody for a trilogy?

It appears inevitable, a third step in a match of styles, personality and culture between two likeable featherweights who are even after two fights. It was hard to pick the winner in either.

But on the scorecards, Leo Santa Cruz has won one and Carl Frampton has won one. Each by majority decision.

Santa Cruz returned the favor Saturday night at the MGM Grand, winning 115-113 on two scorecards in a rematch of his narrow loss to Frampton last summer in Brooklyn for the WBA’s 126-pound title.

There was plenty of debate about the cards at ringside and in the ring in the bout’s immediate aftermath. There were questions about judge Burt Clements’ 114-114 score. There were arguments that the two-point margin on cards kept by Dave Moretti and Glenn Feldman should have been bigger.

There was consensus only in the middle of the ring. After the scores were announced, Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) and Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) embraced.

“They told each other: ‘Let’s do it again,’ ‘’ promoter Richard Schaefer said after a PBC bout televised by Showtime.

Will a third fight settle anything? Maybe. Maybe, not. Santa Cruz and Frampton always figure to be in fight too close to call. In the second bout, Santa Cruz looked more comfortable, perhaps because his father and trainer, Jose, was back and healthy after a bout with cancer that kept him out his son’s corner last summer.

“Before the fight I said I wanted revenge and I wanted to work hard,’’ Santa Cruz said. “I went to the gym and I worked hard and I did what I had to do.

“Carl Frampton is a good fighter. Let’s make it a third fight.’’

Frampton didn’t argue. Not about Saturday’s result or the call for a second rematch.

“I really think Leo deserved it,’’ Frampton said
“He told me what he was going to do. The brawler was out-boxing the boxer. My fault. I’m sorry. We will have to do it again. We have to do it again.

“He was very clever and he used his reach. I think he deserved it. I’m being honest. I think he deserved it. But it was a very good fight. I think I can perform slightly better. No excuses.

“Let’s do it again.

Santa Cruz was more effective with his punches. His timing looked a little sharper and his defense was as good as perhaps as good as ever. Still, Frampton was always there, changing up on his tactics from round to round, minute to minute.

There were no knockdowns, although Frampton slipped in the fourth. There wasn’t even a moment when either fighter appeared to be in real trouble. Instead, it was tactical, a chess match at almost every turn.

A crowd 10,085, including Floyd Mayweather Jr., loved it. The house sounded as if it was split, 50-50. There were the Irish fans who traveled from Belfast with song, beers and cheers for Frampton. On the other, there were the Mexican and Mexican-Americans who chanted “Leo, Leo.’’

They’ll be back for another go-round. It’s time to order up a trilogy.

Mikey Garcia has always been known for tactical brilliance, versatility and smarts. There’s something else now, too. He’s scary.

The fear factor in Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) struck suddenly and lingered long with a knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin in the third round of a WBC lightweight title fights before the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz rematch on Showtime Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

Zlaticanin (18-1, 11 KOs) came into the bout with a reputation for dangerous power. He was supposed to be the feared fighter. Turns out, he never had a chance.

After two-plus rounds of controlling pace and distance with a precise jab, Garcia turned him sideways with an uppercut, then stepped around and dropped him with a right that might be remembered 11 months from now as the biggest punch in 2017

Zlaticanin went down, under the bottom ropes, flat on his back and as motionless as a board for several long, scary moments. The ringside physician scrambled to revive him with oxygen through a plastic mask. For Garcia, jubilation at a big victory was suddenly supplanted by concern. He was worried and you could see it in his face.

Finally, Zlaticanin got to his feet and walked out the ring. The crowd was relieved and Garcia said it best with is first post-fight word.

“Thank God, he’s okay,’’ said Garcia, who has more than just ring smarts.

There was patience early and power in the end.

That proved to be the perfect combo for Ukrainian lightweight Ivan Redkach (20-2-1, 16 KOs), who controlled tempo for seven-plus rounds and finished Demond Brock with a lightning bolt of a counter left hand late in the eighth in the final fight on the Showtime Extreme part of the Santa Cruz-Frampton card Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

The left and a subsequent follow-up dropped Brock, who somehow managed to get up. But it was only a matter of time. Make that seconds. Redkach quickly attacked, forcing referee Jay Nady to end at 2:30 of the eighth.

David Benavidez took another step from prospect to contender.

A big one.

Benavidez, the younger brother of former junior-welterweight champion Jose Benavidez Jr., scored a powerful stoppage of Sherali Mamadjanov of Uzbekistan on the Showtime Extreme part of the Frampton-Santa Cruz card Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

Benavidez (17-0, 16 KOs), a super-middleweight from Phoenix, scored a first-round knockdown and then finished Mamadjanov (14-2, 7 KOs) with successive left hands at 1:04 of the second.

Scottish junior-welterweight Josh Taylor stayed unbeaten, yet not perfect.

Taylor, whose reputation for power preceded him, improved to 8-0, yet he had to settle for his first victory without a KO in a unanimous decision over Mexican Alfonso Olvera (8-2-1, 3 KOs), who withstood everything the Scotsman threw at him in the first televised bout on the Showtime Extreme part of the Frampton-Santa Cruz card Saturday at the MGM Grand.

Taylor’s feared left rocked Olvera in the fourth. The Mexican stumbled, but would not fall then or at any other time during the next four rounds.

Ledaun Barthelemy, a Mayweather Promotions prospect from Cuba and the brother of former lightweight champion Rances, continued to show promise, adding another victory to his unbeaten record (12-0, 6 KOs) with a unanimous decision over unknown Jesus Aguinaga (5-5-1) in a six-round featherweight bout.

Jose Santa Cruz was 2-0 Saturday before his son Leo even arrived at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for the main event against Carl Frampton.

Jerry Perez, a Jose Santa Cruz-trained featherweight from Harbor City, Calif., needed only 54 seconds to win his pro debut, a three-knocodwon wipeout of overmatched and overwhelmed Javier Cepeda (0-5) of Roswell, New Mexico.

Echoes, empty seats, Herbert Acevedo and Chris Singleton opened the show.

Four hours before the start of a Showtime telecast featuring a Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz rematch at the MGM Grand Saturday, Acevedo, a Los Angeles welterweight, prevailed, winning a six-round unanimous decision over Singleton of Baton Rouge, La.

Acevedo (13-2, 6 KOs) threw a short body shot, flooring Singleton (17-4-2, 8 KOs) in the second round. Singleton got up up and fought through the remaining four-plus rounds, yet could never overcome the early knockdown. The card’s opening bout might have been a good sign for Santa Cruz, whose father and trainer, Jose, was in the corner for Acevedo.

By Norm Frauenheim

LAS VEGAS – The dateline is accurate. But the feeling was something else. More like Belfast.

Carl Frampton’s fans, Framptonistas, were there, transforming a weigh-in Friday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a featherweight rematch Saturday with Leo Santa Cruz into a scene that resembled a Belfast pub at last call.

There are some conflicting numbers about just how many Belfast fans traveled the 4,896 miles to Las Vegas. One estimate put them at 4,000. There’s another one at 5,000. There’s a third at 5,500. Whatever it is, it had to surprise Santa Cruz, a Los Angeles resident who thought – perhaps hoped — he would be the crowd favorite.

Santa Cruz wasn’t in Brooklyn last July when Northern Irish fans jammed Barclays Center for Frampton’s victory by majority decision. If the weigh-in was any indication, Frampton is at home just about anywhere. Where ever he fights, Belfast follows.

There was no difference on the scale. Both featherweights were at 125 pounds. But on any scale that measures noise, Frampton was the deafening favorite. There were flags, chants, beer, beer and more beer. Did we mention beer?

A personal memory: A couple of years ago, I traveled to Belfast. After touring the city’s turbulent history and the wall that symbolizes what it citizens call “The Troubles,’’ I checked into a downtown hotel.

Some time in the early morning, I awakened by the sound of trash cans. After long night at a pub, some kids were kicking them down the street like soccer balls and screaming: “I’m effing Irish, so do something about it.’’

Those kids are here. Will it matter? Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) is a slight favorite in the Showtime televised bout (telecast begins at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST). Any edge might tip it one way or the other. For Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs), that could have meant a more favorable crowd. Without that, he’ll have to count on his father and trainer, Jose, who has recovered from the cancer that kept out of the corner last summer.

“It’s going to be another great fight, another hard fight,’’ Santa Cruz said moments after he stepped off the scale. “But we’re going to win.’’

The crowd booed.

Selby-Barros bout off the card

Lee Selby’s defense of his IBF featherweight title was cancelled because challenger Jonathan Barros failed to get licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The cancellation was announced during the weigh-in. No details were provided. According to various reports, Barros failed the physical, which includes eye and blood tests.

“I’m terribly sorry,’’ Selby, a Welshman, said. “I’m almost in tears.’’

Mikey Garcia makes weight for tough test

Mikey Garcia’s lightweight title is at risk against emerging Dejan Zlaticanin. Both were at 134.5 pounds Friday.

“I didn’t want to cherry-pick opponents,’’ Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) said. “I want to fight the best guys out there and he’s one of them.’’

Zlaticanin (18-0, 11 KOs) of tiny Montenegro is unknown among fans. But he promises that will change.

“After Saturday, you won’t have a problem pronouncing my name.’’ he said.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Family, Leo Santa Cruz said as he looked at Carl Frampton Thursday during a new conference for their featherweight rematch at the MGM Grand.

“He fights for his family,’’ Santa Cruz said. “I fight for mine. When you do that, you do it from your heart. That’s why this fight will be so good, better even than the first one.’’

It’s a sequel notable in part for what it is absent. There’s no malice in the build-up. Mutual respect can be hard to market. In social media clogged by angry words and noisy insults, it’s hard to get noticed these days. After a while, Conor McGregor and Donald Trump start to sound like the same guy. There’s always another insult. But there’s never a fight. Not a real fight, anyway.

But there will be one, another one, Saturday night between two fighters who seem to like each other almost much as they like to fight. Frampton and Santa Cruz will enter the ring for the Showtime-televised bout tied together by respect for each other and the craft they‘ve learned – Santa Cruz from his dad and Frampton from a Northern Irish heritage exemplified by his manager, Barry McGuigan.

The stakes have never been higher for either. For Frampton, it’s a chance for a Belfast kid to stake a claim on bigger money and international celebrity. For Santa Cruz, it’s a fight he hopes to win for a dad and trainer, Jose, who has beaten cancer. In the end, it’s family business for both.

Stakes means expectations — pressure, and perhaps more of that confronts Santa Cruz than it does Frampton, the favorite after his victory by majority decision in Brooklyn last July. Santa Cruz suffered his first loss without his ailing dad in the corner. There’s always a question about how a fighter reacts to his first loss. For Santa Cruz, his first fight after his only defeat includes his father, who sat next to him wearing a black cowboy hat during Thursday’s news conference. They looked inseparable, son-and-father, a relationship determined to re-prove itself as a winning combination.

Santa Cruz conceded he would have to do some things differently in the rematch. He said his roots as a Mexican fighter often lead him into a brawling style, all designed to please fans.

“This time, I have to use distance and my reach,’’ said the 5-foot7 ½-inch Santa Cruz, who holds a seven-inch advantage in reach over the 5-5 Frampton. “It’s important to go out and be smart.’’

But Frampton doesn’t foresee too much that Santa Cruz can change from the first 12-rounds.

“I think this fight can’t be much different than the last one,’’ said Frampton, a thinking man’ fighters who has stayed unbeaten with fast hands and unerring instinct to make the right adjustment at precisely the right moment in close bouts.

In part, Frampton has the edge in betting odds and perhaps confidence because there’s pressure on Santa Cruz to make the first adjustment.

“Leo Santa Cruz has lost his first fight,’’ Frampton trainer Shane McGuigan said. “I feel like he he’ll have to make the first adjustment.’’

The suggestion is that Frampton will have a counter. He always has. But the guess is that there will be more than just one. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for a rematch between a couple of craftsmen who know that each will need plenty of counters to continue that fight for family.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Frampton begins 2017 as the game’s most decorated boxer. From The Ring to ESPN, he’s the consensus Fighter of the Year. He’s the emerging star, unbeaten and among the world’s best featherweights after his narrow victory, a majority decision over Santa Cruz on July 30 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

“I would like a rivalry, where in 20, 30 years from now, people remember it,’’ Frampton told Mark Kriegel on Showtime’s digital series, THE REVEAL. “You always need a dance partner, and Leo Santa Cruz could be mine.”

That suggests a trilogy, which probably would mean a Santa Cruz victory in a dramatic rematch at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, site for a memorable rematch at featherweight won by Marco Antonio Barrera in a unanimous decision over Erik Morales on June 22, 2002 in the second step of their history-making trilogy.

Frampton, of course, has other ideas, all supported by a 23-0 record replete with examples of toughness and smarts. Bottom line:
The Belfast featherweight knows how to win.

His ascent to stardom might come with heightened expectations from his Northern Irish fans, but I get the sense he looks at pressure the same way Charles Barkley did. When the former NBA Most Valuable Player was with the Phoenix Suns, I once asked him about pressure and he told me: Pressure is for tires.

Apply that bit of philosophical punditry to Frampton, and you’ve got a fighter not easily distracted. There’s only the task directly in front of him, and that happens to be somebody he has already seen throughout a hard-fought 12 rounds.

The intriguing question is whether the Santa Cruz he encounters in late January will be different than the one he saw last summer. Santa Cruz has come through a personal trial. His beloved dad and trainer, Jose, was battling cancer before the July fight.

“It was hard, it was hard to train, to concentrate,’’ Santa Cruz told Kriegel. “I still went to the gym and trained, (but) I didn’t train as hard. I didn’t train as the other fights because my dad wasn’t there. My dad was going to chemo, he was going to radiation…I thought to myself, maybe tomorrow he won’t wake up.”

After the narrow defeat – his first in 34 bouts, Santa Cruz apologized.

“I told my dad, sorry,’’ Santa Cruz said during THE REVEAL interview. “I’m sorry we didn’t get the win and that I disappointed you. My dad told me, ‘that’s all right. You didn’t disappoint anybody. We’re going to get him in the rematch.’ ”

During a conference call Thursday, Jose Santa Cruz said he was back and healthy.

“I have been here for this entire camp,’’ Jose said. “It has been great with training and sparring. I believe me not being present for the last camp affected him.”

That potential difference is just one compelling reason for a rematch and maybe a rivalry.

By Norm Frauenheim-

The James DeGale-Badou Jack fight Saturday night is a good bout and perhaps the first step in an attempt to hit the reset button after a sobering 2016.

It’s no secret that there wasn’t much to celebrate in the bygone year. It’s hard to know if the business has hit bottom and can finally embark on a long recovery.

But at least that old calendar can be tossed and replaced with one that includes inevitable hopes for a renewal.

DeGale-Jack at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in a Showtime-televised 168-pound fight represents a beginning in a January that includes a terrific rematch of featherweight Carl Frampton’s decision over Leo Santa Cruz on the 28th.

A chance at gaining some momentum is there. The question is whether that’s enough to bring back some of the fans who raced for the exits in something of an exodus during the 20 months after Floyd Mayweather’s disappointing decision over Manny Pacquiao in May 2015.

It’s impossible to overstate the damage done by Mayweather-Pacquiao. Other than time, it’s not clear what can repair it. Just follow the money, always a reliable guide.

Forbes released a list on Tuesday, a projection of boxing’s top moneymakers in 2017. From one to 10, they are:

Canelo Alvarez, Andre Ward, Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, Pacquiao, Wladimir Klitschko tied at sixth with Anthony Joshua, Keith Thurman, Deontay Wilder, Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko.

Alvarez is at the top because he reigns as the game’s biggest draw based in part on a reported pay-per-view audience of 300,000 for his knockout of Liam Smith in September at Cowboys Stadium. There’s also promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s promise that Canelo will finally fight Golovkin next September.

For now, Canelo-GGG is seen as the bout that will put boxing back at one million on the PPV scale. The number means more than money. It represents relevancy.

In the larger sports market, boxing has been sliding toward irrelevancy at a perilous rate. Again, follow the money.

In Forbes’ last ranking of the world’s top 100 athletes for earnings from June 2015 to June 2016, three boxers were included – Mayweather at No. 16 with $44 million, Pacquiao at No. 63 with $24 million and Canelo at No. 92 with $21.5 million.

The retired Mayweather, No. 1 in three of Forbes’ last four lists, is there, mostly for the $32 million he collected for his last fight, a victory over Andre Berto in September 2015.

Pacquiao got $20 million for his rematch victory over Timothy Bradley in April 2016. Canelo cracked the top 100 for his purses against Miguel Cotto in November 2015 and Amir Khan in May 2016.

Here’s the question: Will any boxer be among the next 100 on the 2017 list Forbes is expected to release in June?

Doubtful. A blockbuster would have to happen during the next six months.

Joshua-Klitschko on April 29 at London’s Wembley Stadium? Maybe. The emerging Joshua figures to beat an aging Klitschko, but he might be a year away from entering the Forbes’ rankings.

A possible Canelo-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight in early May? It would be a moneymaker, especially among Mexican and Mexican-American fans. But it is way past due and would fall short of being Forbes’ worthy.

The best chance at restoring the relevancy defined by money appears to be in the June 2018 list, which would account for the promised GGG-Canelo showdown.

But even that hinges on bringing fans back into an increasingly empty tent. From this corner, the public appetite for a good fight is still keen.

But boxing has failed to provide it, hence all of the silly talk about Mayweather versus Conor McGregor, the mixed-martial arts megaphone who was at No. 85 on Forbes’ last list with $22 million.

If Mayweather-McGregor ever really happens, I’ll begin to believe some of those boxing obits. Mayweather-versus-McGregor would be a damning confirmation that boxing can no longer provide fights that the market place wants and will always want.

For now, the key is to show that the business can still deliver. That brings us back to the beginning, back to DeGale-Jack Saturday night in what could be the first fight in a much bigger one.