Dan Rafael chat wrap 3/27:
Mayweather-Pacquiao:
- He puts very, very little stock in Freddie Roach saying that one of his friends has a fighter from Mexico in Mayweather's sparring camp that has given Floyd that work for 2 straight days. He also does not know if Floyd makes his sparring partners sign gag orders from speaking out on what happens in Floyd's camps.
- The MGM will have hotel rooms set aside only for Media on May 2nd
- Showtime just announced a four-part series called "Inside Mayweather vs. Pacquiao." A docu-style series like 24/7 or All Access. Debuts April 18 after the Chavez-Fonfara fight. Final episode will be an epilogue and cover the fight and the aftermath.
- Says HBO has stuff planned. It won't be 24/7 and probably not even a series but at least 2 specials.
- Says "Mayweather-Pacquiao" is without question the richest fight in history in terms of economics. It is also by far the biggest fight of the generation and one of the top fights in entire history of boxing. That said, he believes that it is not the biggest fight ever in terms of significance or importance. Says a fight like Louis-Schmeling had huge politcal and cultural significance. Ali-Fraizer 1 same thing. Plenty of other fights same thing. Mayweather-Pacquiao is a massive, massive fight but it lacks the social and political element. It's really about the fight and the matchup and that's it. And it will generate sick money.
- Says tickets for closed circuit viewing shoulda been announced already. He would guess next week. CC tix were $50 when he first started on the beat and then some fights went up to $100. He thinks this one might be as much as $150 or $200.
- He's told by Tecate that will have some kind of rebate situation for the fight.
- Says who knows what will happen after May 2. He thinks there could be a rematch or both could retire. He does not think either will fight again in 2015.
- Says Mayweather has touched on it what he plans to do when he retires at times. He has spoken about remaining involved in boxing with Mayweather Promotions.
- Says hasnt gotten the impression that Floyd will be fighting with more strength and power. Says Floyd is who he is. He's not going to change much for this fight other than perhaps more focus and intensity.
- He's surprised that many of the details of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight have still yet to be announced (tickets, ppv cost, closed circuit tickets, etc).
- Thought the fight poster was decent. A little disappointing for a fight of this magnitude.
- Says as far as weigh-in's go, his understanding is that HBO and Showtime will both put on the same weigh-in telecast together but that ESPN will also do its own 30-minute live weigh-in broadcast from 5:30 pm ET to 6 pm ET, leading into SportsCenter. This is not official, just what he has been told the plan is.
- The PPV will begin at 9 pm ET.
- Says unlikely Mayweather vs Pacquiao is shown in theaters.
- Says it is not unfair at all that MGM is hogging all the closed circuit viewing. MGM is the exclusive outlet for the fight and has every right to make it available via closed circuit in Vegas exclusively at its properties.
The Rest of Boxing:
- He feels if the Stevenson side wins the purse bid, he could see it on either Showtime, or a PBC card on NBC in prime time. As far as Kovalev goes, if he is under contract to HBO (and he understands they are negotiating an extension) he would imagine his side would insist on his being allowed to fight on another network in the event their side lost a purse bid.
- Even though it would be a fun fight to watch, he doesnt care for a hypothetical Alfonso Gomez vs Brandon Rios fight.
- Says Cotto and his people are planning June 6 for his next fight, and being that K9 has been receiving interest from others (such as Top Rank for Bradley and Haymon for Charlo) Jorge Sebastian Heiland is in the mix for Cotto.
- Says a fight between Roman Gonzalez and "Gallo" Estrada can be on HBO. It just depends if the fighter camps want to make a rematch and if HBO wants to do it, which he would imagine they would if they're doing Gonzalez vs. Sosa.
- He had a lengthy talk with Yvon Michel, Stevenson's promoter, this morning. Adonis is NOT dumping the belt. Yvon said 100 percent they will participate in the purse bid and abide the outcome whichever side wins. He says Yvon said it several times.
- He says it's not really an issue that Roach trains both Provodnikov and Pacquiao for both their big upcoming fights within 2 weeks of each other. He says he has assistants that help. As for whether he will be in the corner on April 18 with Ruslan, he's not sure. If he isn't it probably would be his assistant Marvin, who was with Ruslan in Russia for his last fight.
- David Lemieux will fight despite the lawsuit against him by Yvon Michael. Yvon and Dan talked about that in their conversation today also. Yvon said he is not looking to stop the fight. He only wants the money he believes he is owed and not looking to stop the fight.
- He says even though Jo Jo is a very good boxer with skills, he fully expects Brook to win.
- He says Matthysse vs Provodnikov is the best pure fight on the schedule right now and he will be there ringside.
- HBO announced today that it will have a 2 Days special on Terence Crawford debuting on April 6 at 10:15 pm ET/PT in advance of Crawford's fight on April 18.
- Cotto is well within the rules and won't be stripped at this point for not defending THE RING/WBC Middleweight Championship.
- Doesnt think Willie Monroe could out box GGG.
- Only has mild interest in the James DeGale vs Andre Dirrell fight.
- Wont give any prediction for who wins Kov/Stevenson, because the fight is 6 months away, and they both have other opponents first.
- He suspects that part of the talks HBO are having with Cotto and his team are about what's next. If HBO is going to buy a lesser fight like Cotto-Heiland or K9 they have to get something to make it worthwhile to spend money on the lesser fight. Of course, a Cotto-Canelo fight is part of that conversation. He's told that parallel to the Cotto talks with HBO, the Cotto and Canelo sides are also engaged in talks about a September fight.
- He says Viktor Postol has an opponent for his next fight, just not signed yet...so it's not announced yet. Says he's fighting a bum next.
- Says even though Mayweather vs Pac and Bey vs Shafikov was made, he still doesnt believe that TR and TMT/Haymon will be doing business together on the regular.
- He's picking Russell to outbox Gonzalez and Charlo to outbox Martirosyan.
- As far as Kell Brook fighting either Floyd or Manny, he believes there is zero chance for this year. Says Brook is totally unknown in the US and probably not on either's radar.
- Doesnt think anyone cares about seeing a Mayweather vs Canelo rematch, because Floyd won every round against Canelo in a boring fight. Says it's pointless and not happening any time soon.
- Says no one is crazy to think Salido vs Martinez could challenge for FOTY.
- Thinks Josesito Lopez is a super nice guy, and a hard worker but at this point he can't be considered a serious contender at all. The win over Victor Ortiz aura he had has worn off.
- Doubts Broner vs Khan could be made for June 6th, but he'd love to see them fight.
- As far as he knows, Trout vs Mundine is not finalized.
- He hopes Kell Brooks puts on a show to keep us interested in seeing him again. And thinks a Brooks vs Khan fight would be great.
- Cotto's side is not talking about Khan. Dan does not think that fight will happen. Lot of issues there, including the Haymon/Roc Nation thing.
-Thinks with the way Wladimir keeps himself in condition and the fact that he takes basically zero punishment in his fights going back many, many years, he can still be very productive as champion into his 40s.
- Doesnt think Tyson Fury's size could give Klitshko problems.
- He says in regards to TR's plan to have the Bradley vs Bundrage fight in Mexico City, Arum told him that Bradley is known there and liked there because of his fights with Marquez and Pacquiao.
- There was some talk of Gamboa vs Linares and it fizzled. Gamboa was not interested, according to De La Hoya.
- As far as Chris Byrd for HOF...he thinks Chris Byrd was a terrific technical fighter who was routinely much smaller than his opponent. Says Byrd loved that and it got him excited to fight bigger guys. Says he accomplished a lot too, was a great guy, and great competitor but not HOF.
- Says the fact that K9 is in a "bidding war" for his services, shows you how weak the depth is and how rough the political climate is.
- He thinks Omar Figueroa, if his hands are OK, should handle Ricky Burns, who he thinks has seen better days.
- Doesnt rate Barthelemy's fight last night, because he fought a bum and did what he should do against a bum.
- He was also unimpressed with Lawson last night on FNF.
- Says he has quietly rooted against a fighter when he was covering a fight and was quietly giddy when the fighter got rocked or knocked out.
- Says if GRJ beats Gonzalez, he thinks he will wind up facing Abner Mares later this year which is an interesting fight.
- Picks Lennox Lewis in a hypothetical matchup of Lewis vs Ibeabuchi. Says Ibeabuchi was, in his view, wildly overrated. He thought Tua beat him, so his rep rests with a great KO of Byrd. Sorry, not enough for him to pick Ibeabuchi over an all-time great, who also happened to take Tua to the woodshed.
- As far as Kameda vs McDonnell goes, he was told by the WBO it will not recognize a unification with a fake secondary titleholder. The WBO considers Payano the WBA titleholder. It would approve that unification but not with the second-tier BS title.
- Thinks, based on their styles, both Dirrell brothers are a tough fight for GGG.
- Ray Beltran and Takahiro Ao will fight on May 1, at the Cosmo in Vegas in the first main event of Top Rank's new series on truTV, for the now vacant 135 WBO Championship.
- Was told Kell Brook seems to believe this leg is fine and he says there was not a problem with it in camp.
- Thinks the winner of Crawford vs Dulorme and the Prov-Machine winner will be next in line for a match with each other. Says it's a fight fans would want to see. It's a fight HBO would love to do and it would be ideal.
- Marco Huck's next fight in June will be a PBC fight and on US TV.
- Says Team Beterbiev has tons of belief in Beterbiev, who is a very, very experienced fighter from his amateur career. Says he is an older fighter and they feel it's the right step to put him in with Gabriel Campillo.
- There is a purse bid coming up for Lemieux-Ndam
- Couldnt care less about a potential Tarver vs Briggs fight.
- Says Demetrius Andrade is co-promoted by Star Boxing and Banner Promotions. They have offered him fights that have not been accepted.
- Even though he likes both Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker, for longtime upside he'd go with Joshua at the moment.
- He asked Stephen Espinoza about Showtime Boxing International becoming a monthly series. No plans for monthly now, but Showtime will use the series to pick up good Euro fights in need of a US outlet. It's basically the Epix model.
- Says Roc Nation is supposed to have a show next month, probably at one of the Connecticut casinos, but nothing has been announced yet
- Says Nicholas Walters is co-promoted by Warriors Boxing and Top Rank.
@ son of Goosen
McAdams
