LATIN FURY XLII

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., 34-0-1 (27), returns to the ring on Saturday night in Leon, Mexico against Jose Celaya, 31-3 (16), in a scheduled 12 round super welterweight bout. The fight is the main event of the latest “Latin Fury” PPV card promoted by Top Rank, and will increase your cable bill by $34.95.

I’m a longtime fan of the Top Rank PPV shows. They really do a great job with them and produce good, professionally executed entertainment, and have done surprisingly well with the PPV buys. The last Chavez fight garnered 70,000 such sales, which comes to about $1.25 million in revenue, a far better return for Top Rank than an HBO or Showtime engagement.

Yet, I have the feeling that this one is going to tank.

First of all, despite the Top Rank publicity machine who are second to none in the business, there’s just no “buzz” about this event. Nobody is talking about the card, and I haven’t seen very much reported about it to generate interest. It’s almost as if everyone is focused on the Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor rematch next week.

Chavez Jr. is an extremely likable and popular boxer because, depending on your outlook, 1) He has good genes and was born to fight, or, 2) He was fortunate enough to be the son of a legend.

Either way, his huge appeal is largely centered in Mexico and the Southwestern portion of the U.S. that has a large Hispanic population. In that last Latin Fury PPV, he fought Ray Sanchez Jr. in Sanchez’ hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is also a Chavez stronghold, drawing over 6,000 fans and those good PPV numbers after giving Sanchez The Big Build Up. Celaya is little known despite references to his being Chavez’ “biggest challenge,” (which isn’t saying too much), and he’s from Salinas, California, with no home court advantage.

Next, $34.95 is a bit stiff for this one, with few household names or meaningful fights on the card.

In addition to Chavez Jr. - Celaya for the WBC “Continental Americas Super Welterweight Championship,” also known as, “Fools Gold,” you have:

*WBC light flyweight titlist Edgar Sosa, 30-5-1 (16) vs. Jesus Iribe, 10-4-1 (6).

*Jose Luis Zertuche, 19-4-2 (14) vs. Marco Antonio Rubio, 38-4-1 (34) for the WBC “Latino” middleweight belt.

And lastly, * Bernabe Conception, 23-1-1 (13) vs. Juan Ruiz, 21-4 (6), for the NABF super bantamweight title.

It didn’t help that Jorge Arce, always exciting and a PPV undercard regular had to pull out due to injury. But honestly, I’m not intentionally being rude when I state that this is one sorry lot for $34.95.

This is particularly true since fans just purchased Roy Jones Jr. vs. Felix “Tito” Trinidad three weeks ago for $49.95. And Pavlik-Taylor, also for $49.95, is on deck for next week, and picking a winner in that one is like handicapping the democratic primaries.

Unless you simply prefer Chavez Jr. and the “Latin Fury” gang to the HBO premium cable offering of WBO welterweight belt holder Paul Williams defending his title against Carlos Quintana with Andre Berto vs. Michel Trabant on the undercard, or you’re such a hardcore fan that you just can’t say no to PPV, you might want to hold your $34.95 until next week. Then you’ll be able to enjoy beer and pretzels with your boxing. Or, you might even be able to restore the phone service that you lost after that last wave of PPV’s swept through.

Heavyweight Tommy Morrison is on the off TV portion of “Latin Fury,” in a four rounder against Matt Weishaar of Kansas, where word of Morrison’s 1996 positive HIV test must not be common knowledge. Not only that, but Morrison received poor reviews in his fight last year in West Virginia, which is off, off Broadway in boxing venues.

Morrison maintains that he has passed blood tests and is no longer HIV positive. Then his former agent dropped the news that the clean blood tests were fraudulent.

Morrison seems to have as much regard for health and safety as Joran van der Sloot. His definition of HIV is “Happy it vanished.” When the commission doctor asked if he was sure that the blood tests were clean, he replied, “I’m positive.”

Good grief! Morrison is not worth putting others at risk, not even for four lousy rounds. I’m sorry about his misfortune, but it doesn’t give him the right to endanger others.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

The Top Rank/VERSUS show this week featured young (25) jr. welterweight contender Kendall Holt, 23-2 (12) vs. trial horse Ben Tackie, 29-9-2 (17) at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. It was positively dreadful.

Holt has been the subject of a couple of articles here - one describing the deplorable conditions of his formative years and the character that he has shown to overcome such setbacks, and another that described Kendall and manager Henry Cortes’ version of the controversial events that resulted in his loss to Ricardo Torres for the WBO title.

In that fight, an unruly mob of 1,600 disguised as fans in Torres’ hometown of Barranquilla, with only four uniformed officers to control them, went out of control.

Holt was hit flush by a full beer can after scoring a knockdown in the sixth. Bottles of soda and water, ice cubes and other foreign objects were tossed into the ring. Holt’s feet were held at one point while in his opponent’s corner in the 11th round. In the same round Holt landed a short right that forced Torres through the ropes which he used to hold himself upright, and no knockdown was called. Both fighters were slipping on the drenched floor. Torres’ handlers were seen on the ring apron, grounds for disqualification. Then Holt was decked but rose and continued to fight yet shortly afterward the fight was stopped while he was attempting a punch.

Then those wacky, fun loving Columbians knocked over the VIP tables to storm the ring.

In short, it was out of control. The Holt team protested and appealed to the WBO and was shot down both times. He was ahead on two cards going into the final round. (Yes, the third judge was from Barranquilla.)

In Las Vegas Thursday, announcers Nick Charles and Wallace Mathews made the point before the fight that Holt couldn’t afford to fail if he was to continue his championship aspirations. That was the reason that he had signed with Top Rank - to provide such opportunities.

Tackie at 34 had never been stopped and had taken on all the best fighters of his era. But though he kept coming forward, he was no match for Holt’s speed and quickness and was outlanded 133 to 58. But Holt played it safe and methodically threw an economical 357 punches in the 10 round fight, as he continually moved and clinched.

Consequently, it was a snooze fest.

The crowd booed at the end of the fifth, possibly inspiring Kendall to land some good sharp shots in round six, showing his superior hand speed. But aside from those precious few moments, Holt was dominant but as Charles and Mathews pointed out, he showed that he wasn’t going to sell tickets with that style.

The crowd booed the majority decision for Holt by scores of 95-95, and 98-92 (twice). And they weren’t booing Judge C. J. Ross’ score of 95-95 either. Holt’s reluctance to pull the trigger had cost him the fan’s support.

It was a missed opportunity. Holt is ranked #2 by the WBO and desperately wants another shot at Torres. With any justice, he’d have already have had it. Now he’s going to have to earn it.