By Norm Frauenheim –

David Benavidez waited for weeks. He heard Canelo Alvarez say no, no and no all over again. He heard David Morrell say maybe later.

From Caleb Plant, he heard nothing.

Until Thursday.

Suddenly, the waiting game and all of its frustration ended. Plant announced on Twitter that he signed to fight Benavidez. It was a surprise, if only because Plant had quit talking about Benavidez.

For years, Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) and Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) exchanged trash talk. Then nothing, no mention at all of Benavidez from Plant after Plant’s stoppage of Anthony Dirrell on Oct. 15

The silence was almost newsworthy. It was as if Plant had joined the crowd that was running from Benavidez, boxing’s most avoided fighter since Antonio Margarito.

Turns out, however, the silence was simply business. Negotiations had been underway for at least a couple of weeks, in part because neither Benavidez nor his promoter-manager Sampson Lewkowicz wanted to fight Jose Uzcategui, who had already fallen out of a 2021 date because of a positive test for the potent steroid EPO.

Benavidez-Uzcategui talks had been reported. And perhaps that fight would have been an alternative if a deal couldn’t be made with Plant.

But it was also clear that Uzcategui was a fight that would have done nothing for Benavidez reputation. Nobody wanted to see it. Plus, there’s a risk in a stay-busy fight, especially against an opponent with a documented PED history.

The real talks were with Plant, the only fight that made any real sense for Benavidez and his emerging fan base. Benavidez quickly signed, according to his father and trainer Jose Benavidez Sr.

“David signed a few week ago,’’ Jose Sr. told 15 Rounds from Seattle where he and his sons have been living and training for the last few years.

Still, however, the unbeaten super-middleweight from Phoenix had to wait, wait on Plant. Finally, he signed Thursday.

“Plant wanted this, wanted that,’’ Benavidez Sr. said. “He wanted to use Rival gloves. He wanted the blue corner. He wanted to be the second guy to enter the ring. He wanted a 22-foot ring. I told him, look, we’ll fight you in a ring as big as the Dallas Cowboys stadium. Then, you’ll have plenty of room to run around.’’

Benavidez’ dad took the list of demands to his son.

“David just looked at me and said ‘Give him whatever he wants. I just want to fight him,’ ‘’ Jose Sr said.

Done deal.

It’s still not clear exactly when the fight will happen. Jose Sr. said a date within the first quarter of next year – January, February or March — looks likely. A neutral site is also likely. Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Dallas are possibilities, he said.

Phoenix is not on the list. After a hometown crowd erupted in a collective roar at Benavidez’ scary blowout of David Lemieux in suburban Glendale last May, it’s clear that the heartbeat of Benavidez’ fan-base is Phoenix. It would be tough for Plant to win a decision there.

It’s also a fan base that’s likely to follow Benavidez to where ever, whenever he fights Plant. The Benavidez family – David, former junior-welterweight champion Jose Jr. and Jose Sr. – are planning to move back to Phoenix.

“It’s time, time to come home,’’ Jose Sr. said.

Time, time to fight Plant, too.

Former Super Middleweight World Champion Caleb Plant announced on his verified Twitter account that he signed a contract to face David Benavidez for a fight that has been brewing for several years.

Plant indicated the fight will take place in 2023.

The bout is expected to be ordered by the WBC at their convention next week in Acapulco.

Jose Benavidez Sr. told 15rounds.com Norm Frauenheim that his son signed the contract weeks ago. He also said that the fight will take place no later than March. Three possible venues are Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Dallas.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Problem Child had a problem.

Had a solution, too.

Jake Paul found his power at a moment when it looked as if defeat was imminent, knocking down MMA legend Anderson Silva Saturday night in the final round of a closely-contested cruiserweight fight on Showtime pay-per-view at Desert Diamond Arena.

The knockdown, scored by  short right hand, was timely and critical to a Paul victory that is sure to generate some controversy. Paul (6-0, 4 KOs) was awarded a unanimous decision. 

Judge PaulCalderon scored it 77-74. Chris Wilson and Dennis O’Connell both had 78-73, all for Paul, the celebrity fighter, who is more of social-media phenomenon than he is proven prospect. 

The scorecard margins were big enough that Paul would have won even without the knockdown. But the first seven rounds appeared to favor Silva (3-2, 2 KOs), a 47-year-old Brazilian who was fighting as a boxer for only fifth time in his storied career.

“They’re going to find something to say,” Paul said. ” ‘Fight a real boxer.’ I tried. If I were walking on water, people would say that I can’t swim. There’s always going to be haters. There’s always going to be critics. It’s an everyday part of life if you’re doing something and being successful. I don’t worry about it.”

The argument with this decision will start with Silva’s hands. They were quicker. They were more precise. According to a ringside computer, Silva’s landed 31 percent of his punches. Paul landed 25 percent. Yet, Silva didn;t argue with the decision

“That’s the game,” Silva said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But nothing will change in my life. I’ll continue training hard because I’m born for this. Now, I go back home, continue training and see the next challenge.

“I think the judges got it right. Listen, it’s tough to come inside here and fight a young kid. I tried to do my best. I trained hard every day. Jake is better than me today. I don’t have anything bad to say about my opponent. I think everybody needs to respect this kid because he’s doing the best job.

The fight began with Paul doing what he does best. First he mugged for the cameras. Then, he stuck out his tongue. The show was underway. It’s what he didn’t do that suggested he might be in for a tough night. He kept his hands low and himself in peril.

Silva noticed. So, too, did just about everybody in a roaring crowd of 14,430 patrons. Paul was there, his face a moving target. It was an invitation to attack and Silva did. He rocked Paul with a left hook in the first round. He rocked him again in the second. Paul’s face began to show redness near both eyes. He looked surprised.

In the third, he began to look for a single knockout punch. Mostly, he would lunge and miss. But there were signs that the middle-aged Silva had begun to slow down. Paul was getting closer with every lunge, although Silva repeatedly mounted an assault during the closing seconds of every round.

In the eighth, however, he slowed down just enough for Paul to land a critical shot. It didn’t win the fight. On the scorecards, Paul had already won. But it gave him an argument in a scorecard controversy sure to continue.

Paul knows that. For him, there’s always another controversy.So, he moved on to the next one.

“This is just the start,” Paul said. “I want Nate Diaz. Canelo (Alvarez), you too. You guys said, ‘You can’t beat a striker, you can’t beat a legend like Anderson Silva.’ I just did it. 

“So, why can’t I beat Canelo?”
Trying to explain why he can’t is, well, just another Problem.

Ashton Sylve scores first-round stoppage

Ashton Sylve calls himself H2O. Maybe that’s because water has its own force. Once it starts moving, it can’t be stopped.

So far, neither can Sylve (8-0, 8 KOs).

It took the 18-year-old lightweight from Long Beach Calif. exactly 61 seconds to stop Braulio Rodriguez (20-5, 17 KOs), of the Dominican Republic, Saturday in the last fight before Jake Paul and Anderson Silva took center stage at Desert Diamond Arena .

One Sylve punch hit Rodriguez. A sudden left hit put Rodriguez down. Rodriguez slammed hs fist onto the canvas in frustration. Then, he tried to get up. But his sense of balance was gone. He stumbled one way and then another. It was over, Sylve a stoppage winner at 1:01 of the first round

Santiago wins rematch, Nieves quits after seventh round

It was dull. Decisive, too.

Mexican bantamweight Alejandro Santiago fought deliberately and did what he said would, forcing Antonio Nieves to quit after seven rounds in a rematch of their 2016 draw Saturday night at Desert Diamond Arena.

Santiago (27-3-5, 14 KOs) threw body shots while moving in and out tirelessly. Nieves (20-4-2, 11 KOs) never seemed to counter in any way. He simply wore out in a fight that Santiago promised would not go to the scorecards.

Le’Veon Bell runs into debut defeat

Former NFL running back Le’Veon Bell said a few days before his pro debut that boxing was tougher than football.

“In the ring, you’ve got no teammates,” he said.

Moments into his first pro fight Saturday at Desert Diamond Casino, Bel looked around as though he missed those teammates. Retired UFC star Uriah Hall, making his boxing debut at heavyweight, rocked him around like a linebacker. He landed jabs and body shots. At the end of the third, Bell looked stunned. He looked as if he needed a back-up.

But this is boxing. No backups and no breathers. For Bell, there was only a tough loss by unanimous decision, 40-36 on all three cards. 

Dr. Mike loses pro debut

Diagnosis: Mismatch

Dr. Mike Varshavski quickly discovered that the sweet science isn’t the medical science.

The practicing physician from New York got rocked repeatedly by a tough Chris Avila, who staggered  the good doctor with  right hooks and then stinging left hands Saturday on the first pay-per-view fight on Jake Paul-Anderson Silva card at Dester Diamond Casino..

Repeatedly, Avila (2-1), a cruiserweight from Stockton Calif., flashed menacing smiles at Varshavski. Every smile seemed to say: Welcome to my world.

In the end, Avila won a unanimous decision, 40-36 on all three cards. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Dr. Varshavski would fight again as a pro. He donated his entire purse, $175,000, to the Harlem Boys and Girl Club 

Jeremiah Milton silences the boos 

A stoppage was the only way to silence the boos.

Jeremiah Milton (7-0, 6 KOs) delivered it, a multi-punch silencer that turned boos into cheers with a fifth-round stoppage Quintin Sumpter (5-1, 4 KOs) in a heavyweight fight, the final bout Saturday before Showtime’s pay-per-view telecast of a card featuring Jake Paul-Anderson Silva at Desert Diamond Arena.

A growing crowd grew increasingly restless with Sumpter’s early tactics. Sumpter, of Pittsfield MA, would dance, mix in an occasional punch and then dance away. By the fourth, the crowd lost its patience. Boos filled the arena. In the fifth, Milton, of Las Vegas, finished it with successive punches to the temple that put Sumpter on the canvas. When got back onto his feet, he stumbled. At 39 seconds of the round, it was over — Milton a TKO winner. 

Shadasia Green marches on to an 11-0 record

Shadasia Green, tireless and powerful, continued on her march forward.

This time, Ogleidis Suarez was in her way. But not for long. 

Green (11-0, 10 KOs), a feared super-middleweight from Paterson NJ, walked her down and was about to walk all over her Venezuelan opponent until Suarez corner was left with only one reasonable option: Surrender.

Green was declared the winner after Suarez (3–5-1, 14 KOs) decided not to come out of her corner for the fifth round of a fight on the non-televised part of the Paul-Silva card.

Glendale’s Danny Flores wins sixth-round stoppage

It was a cross-town battle, Glendale’s Danny Flores against Phoenix rival Edgar Ortiz Jr..

Score one for Glendale.

Actually, the aggressive Flores (11-0, 3 KOs) scored often, rocking Ortiz (8-4-2, 4 KOs) repeatedly late in the third round and again in fourth and fifth of junior-featherweight bout on the non-televised portion of the Paul-Silva card. Early in the sixth, the unbeaten Flores applied the finisher, overwhelming a tiring Ortiz with a wave of punches. It was over, Flores a TKO winner, at 30 seconds of the sixth

Glendale junior-featherweight wins unanimous decision 

Adrian Rodriguez grew up within a couple miles of Desert Diamond Arena. He has walked around it. He’s done road work around it.

Saturday, he won in it.

Rodriguez (3-0), a young-junior featherweight, employed quick feet and quicker hands, scoring a one-side decision over Dominique Griffin (4-3-1, 2 KOs) of Irving,TX in a four rounder, the second bout on the Jake Paul-Anderson featured card. It was a shutout, 40-36,  on all three scorecards.

First Bell: Eliezer Silva opens Paul-Silva show with quick stoppage

It began with only echoes.

Los Angeles junior-middleweight Eliezer Silva (2-0, 1 KO) stated it off, landing a big punch that created a lot of echoes in an empty Desert Diamond Arena Saturday afternoon on the non-televised part of the Showtime pay-per-view card featuring Jake–Anderson Silva.

Silva caught Anthony Hannah, who had dropped his hands, leaving himself wide open for the shot that ended the matinee bout. Hannah (3-5, 2 KOs), of Augusta GA, crashed onto the canvas, prompting the referee to end it at 1:57 of the second round. 

By Norm Frauenheim –

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jake Paul jumped off the scale, flexed, screamed and then did what he does best.

He weighed in.

He’s been weighing in all week with an unvarnished rip of a business known for what it doesn’t do any more. It fails to deliver fights that matter. It stumbles, from week-to-week, from one round of exasperating news to another.

Terence Crawford won’t be fighting Errol Spence. Canelo Alvarez won’t fight David Benavidez. Anthony Joshua won’t fight Tyson Fury. Who knows about Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis?  Never-Never Land isn’t fiction. It’s boxing.

But the oft-criticized Paul (5-0, 4 KOs), dismissed as a YouTuber, is about to do what so many others in the waiting game won’t. He’ll fight Saturday at Desert Diamond Arena, facing 47-year-old mixed-martial arts legend Anderson Silva (3-1, 2 KOs as a boxer) in a Showtime Pay-Per View bout (6 pm PT, 9 pm ET/ $59.95) that’s another easy target for old-school critics.

It’s a gimmick, they say. It’s also a fight that doesn’t matter, they say, arguing that it doesn’t belong on a decent undercard. Maybe, it doesn’t. But there aren’t many decent undercards anywhere these days.

Paul thinks he knows why. And he’s not shy about saying why. He counters the criticism with plenty of his own. His featured fight against Silva on a hybrid card that includes boxers, MMA fighters, a former NFL running back and a practicing physician is a lot of things. Mostly, it’s a forum, another platform, for Paul. He’s using it to say what a lot of frustrated fans are thinking. He has turned it into his bully pulpit.

“Get these fights done,” Paul said at a news conference before making the contracted weight Friday morning at 186.5, a fraction of a pound heavier than Silva, who came in at 186.1 “Stop shooting yourself in the foot. Stop being greedy. Give people what they want. Don’t look at every term in the contract and try to change it.

“Just effing fight. You spar every day. Why not get paid effing tens of millions of dollars to do it in front of people? They’re very scared to risk their undefeated records, but boxing needs these big fights. Don’t let your manager stop you. Don’t let your promoter stop you.

“You gotta be in control.”

Today’s state of the boxing business is the flip side of control. It’s chaos. Paul also knows that movers-and-shakers, both in boxing and the UFC, don’t like what he’s saying. In effect, he’s telling the fighters to do more than take punches. He’s telling them to take control.

“It sucks for the fans,” Paul said exactly one week after the business was pushed to another breaking point with news that Crawford-Spence would not happen in 2022. 

“The fans are the ones that get hurt. And it’s bad. This is why the sport has gone to bad places before.

“It’s gone to scary moments where you think the sport’s going to wind up dying out, because big fights like this aren’t happening. Why didn’t we get Fury-Joshua? There’s so many instances where big fights could be made, and they’re just not.

“I don’t know what it is. No one will ever know, and that’s what’s frustrating.’’

The fighters staged a weigh-in for fans Friday afternoon. Here are the officlal weights from Friday morning for fighters on the PPV part of the card:

Lightweights Ashton Sylve (7-0, 7 KOs), Long Beach, California, 132.4 pounds versus Braulio Rodriguez (20-4, 17 KOs), Dominican Republic, 132.5 pounds.

Cruiserweight debuts: Uriah Hall, New York, 198.6 pounds versus former NFL running back Le’Veon Bell, Columbus, Ohio, 197.6 pounds.

Cruiserweight debut of Dr. Mike Varshavski (pro debut), New York,182.6 pounds, versus Chris Avila (1-1), Stockton, California, 183.3 pounds.

The non-televised part of the card is scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm (PT). It includes three Arizona fighters – Glendale junior featherweight Danny Barrios Flores (10-0, 2 KOs) against Edgar Ortiz Jr. (8-3-2, 4 KOs) of Phoenix and Glendale featherweight Adrian Rodriguez (2-0, 2 KOs) against Dominique Griffin (4-2-1, 2 KOs) of Irving, Texas.

By Norm Frauenheim –

GLENDALE, Ariz. – His reputation precedes him. So, too, does his nickname. Trouble is expected from anybody who calls himself The Problem Child.

Jake Paul’s reputation includes just about everything. He’s a promoter, puncher and a provocateur. Sometimes, he’s a potential union organizer. More on that later. Bet on it.

What he’s not, however, is a fool. Before he arrived in my home state, I wondered about that.

That prompted me to ask a question Thursday during the final formal news conference before his Showtime pay-per-view fight Saturday against mixed-martial arts legend Anderson Silva at Desert Diamond Casino.

As an old — very old — boxing writer, I’m new to the Paul story , which is full of inflammatory challenges and over-the-top bragging. Paul did some of that Thursday.

The pressure, he said, was all on him in his bid to beat the 47-year-old Silva.

“For sure I have more pressure on my shoulders,’’ Paul said. “Just being the ‘A’ side, and the amount of (bleep) I talk. I think the entire MMA community is waiting for me to lose. They want me to lose.

“I just have so many more big ideas and plans in this sport and I just plan on being here forever. This is the start of that, and the pressure is on.’’

That’s when I decided to ask a dumb question, one intended to be stupid. I was expecting a stupid, over-the-top answer. So much for expectations and reputations. Paul knocked it down, smartly and with a parting shot delivered like a punch line.

Paul had mentioned David Benavidez this week in one his many interviews, this one with DAZN. He is in Benavidez’ old neighborhood, after all. He is about to fight in the arena where Benavidez last appeared in a scary beat-down of David Lemieux last May.

Anyway, Paul said he wanted to promote Benavidez and then he explained how he would do it.

It was fanciful, of course. Benavidez already has a manager/promoter in Sampson Lewkowicz, who fought and won a battle with Top Rank to retain his rights.

It’s hard to foresee a time when Paul might promote Benavidez. But it’s no secret that the feared super-middleweight from Phoenix is having trouble finding anyone willing to face him. So, I decided to test Paul with a question, one as obvious as it was stupid.

If you can’t promote Benavidez, would you fight him?

Paul looked at me like I was Dana White.

“I’m not ready for that,’’ he said.

Then, I reminded him how hard it is for Benavidez to find opposition.

“Tell him he’s going to have to keep looking,’’ Paul said.

Smart, funny and not what might have been expected if you believed Paul’s portrayal in the media. He knows his career is still in the prospect stage. There’s frustration at the money and attention he generates. But he’s simply been smart enough to create his own celebrity through social media.

He has a profile and a punch in a business with many who have neither. Where will it all lead? Who knows? He has only five pro fights, all victories and four by KO. Silva is a risk, at least the oddsmakers think so. Some have favored the Brazilian, whose boxing record includes a victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Meanwhile, expect the unconventional Paul to move forward with more trash talk and ideas. One of them includes a bet with Silva. Paul said Thursday he’d do an MMA fight or kickboxing bout with Silva if Silva won Saturday.

If Paul wins, however, he said he wants Silva to help him create a union in a bid to get fighters more money and health care. At first, Paul said it would be a union for UFC and MMA fighters.

Then, he said “All fighters.’’

Silva reached across the podium and shook hands on a bet and an ambitious goal. He talks big. Thinks big, too.

By Norm Frauenheim

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission quickly cleared Anderson Silva to fight Jake Paul Thursday night, citing a review of recent medical tests and comments provided by Silva and his representatives.

It took the Commission less than 10 minutes to reach the decision at a meeting that was suddenly scheduled Wednesday amid questions about whether the 47-year-old Silva had been knocked out twice in training for a Showtime pay-per-view bout Saturday at Desert Diamond Arena.

“A fighter’s safety is always our priority,’’ Commission Chairman Scott Fletcher said. “But we peeled back the onion and determined that Anderson Silva is in shape and ready to fight.’’

Silva was granted an Arizona license in September. That’s when he reportedly was knocked out, according to quotes that appeared in MMA Weekly. However, Silva said in a statement Wednesday that he had been misunderstood.

Silva, a Brazilian whose first language is Portuguese, said he told the publication he had been knocked down, not out.

The Commission decided to schedule what it called a Special Meeting late Thursday after it was notified of the discrepancy this week before a public workout in front of Desert Diamond Arena Wednesday.

Commissioners Joe Pennington and Dr. Ara Feinstein both said they were initially concerned when they first learned about the discrepancy in quotes from Silva, a mixed-martial arts legend.

“I was extremely concerned,’’ Pennington said. ”But after reviewing all the medicals and other accounts, I’m confident he’s ready to fight.’’

Silva underwent an MRI this week, according to the Commission.

“The result was pristine,’’ said Fletcher, who watched and spoke to Silva at a news conference Thursday at Desert Diamond Arena before the Commission met.

MVP, Paul’s promotional company, and Showtime were confident that Silva would be cleared for the cruiserweight fight.

“Fighter safety is paramount to us as a network and hopefully to everybody who’s a principle in this sport,’’ Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports, said.  “The commission has a job to do and we respect their responsibilities. We certainly didn’t begrudge them their request for additional information.

“They had heard some things in the interview, which gave them concerns. They asked for additional medical information and exams. Thankfully, those came out clean and everyone has concluded, both the medical experts and the commission, that it’s fine to move forward with the fight. So, we’re happy that the process worked in all senses.

“They had a concern, we addressed it, medical experts weighed in and the fight is on.’’

By Norm Frauenheim-

GLENDALE, Ariz. – He rode in on a horse.

Maybe, it was a nod toward Arizona’s wild-west past. Or, maybe, it was his way of saying he was the cavalry, riding to the rescue in an attempt to save a battered game from a head-long gallop to its own demise. Or, maybe, an elephant wasn’t available.

Whatever it was, Jake Paul, an unconventional boxer, enlivened a traditional media event Wednesday with an unconventional entrance for a public workout a few days before his cruiserweight bout with UFC icon Anderson Silva Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view.

Paul had fun and a crowd of fans on a pavilion outside of the renamed Desert Diamond Arena west of Phoenix had some fun with him.

That’s not to say that Paul also didn’t do some business. He doesn’t just ride horses. He also has some horse sense. If his entrance was an acknowledgement of AZ history, his presence at the Glendale arena was also an acknowledgment of the state’s best-known fighter.

Paul mentioned David Benavidez, telling the DAZN Boxing Show he’d like to be his promoter. Why not? He’s in the neighborhood after all, talking, training and talking at an arena where Benavidez blew out David Lemieux in his last bout on May 21.

Benavidez grew up a few miles east of the arena, formerly known as Gila River. Metro Phoenix is the heart-beat of Benavidez’ emerging fan base. You could hear it, loud and clear, in his three-round demolition of Lemieux.

“David Benavidez,’’ said Paul, who promotes Amanda Serrano. “I think he’s big in the boxing world and he’s a superstar, he’s my favorite boxer, but he needs that push just like Amanda did into the mainstream.

“The kid needs to be on billboards, he needs to be on podcasts, he needs to be collaborating with influencers. He needs help making some content and getting some big sponsorships to get his name out there even more.”

Benavidez already has a promoter/manager in Sampson Lewkowicz. He’s also aligned with PBC. But that doesn’t stop Paul, whose opinions are part of the fun. Both are inexhaustible, always part of the show.

Paul’s tireless self-promotional skill has created a huge virtual universe. Not even Canelo Alvarez can ignore the reported social-media number – 20 million-plus You Tube subscribers. That’s enough to add a zero to even Canelo’s paycheck.

Thus far, however, Canelo has ignored, or at least eluded Benavidez, who is reportedly close to a deal for a fight with Jose Uzcategui in January,

Canelo said after his super-middleweight decision over Gennadiy Golovkin in a third fight in September that Benavidez’ resume doesn’t measure up.

“What has he done?’’ Canelo asked angrily.

He’s done more than Paul, at least he has in boxing terms narrowly defined by an unbeaten record, including a World Boxing Council title that was lost twice — first for a positive drug test and then on the scale.

Yet, Paul has an answer. He proposes to promote Benavidez  the way he promotes himself.

Put it his way: It’d be a wild ride. 

By Norm Frauenheim–

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission scheduled a meeting for late Thursday in the wake of conflicting reports about whether Anderson Silva was knocked out in training for his scheduled fight Saturday against Jake Paul.

The Commission scheduled the meeting Wednesday after news of the controversy broke during a public workout featuring both Silva and Paul on a pavilion outside of Desert Diamond Arena, site of the Showtime pay-per-view bout.

The meeting was announced by Commission Executive Director Danny A. Vella in a letter signed and posted on the Commission’s web site. It is scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm PT/9:30 pm ET.

The executive director is prohibited from commenting on the regulatory agency’s business. Comments to the media are handled by a public information officer assigned by the state’s Department of Gaming.

Silva, a UFC legend, is 47 years-old. His age means he is subject to additional vigilance by Arizona. Fighters older than 36 are required to disclose the last time they’ve been knocked out.

Silva, a Brazilian whose native language is Portuguese, denied in a statement Wednesday that he had been knocked out at all. He was quoted in MMA Weekly as saying he had been knocked out twice.  

“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things,’’ Silva said in the statement, “One, I was NEVER knocked out in sparring. I misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that occurs in sparring.

“Second, this sparring session I referenced was in early September. The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some reason, just released this week. So, it wasn’t recent.”

By Norm Frauenheim-

The outrage is predictable. Inevitable. Boxing loves its misery and more was delivered Thursday with news that Terence Crawford won’t be fighting Errol Spence Jr.

Not in November.

Not in December.

Not in February.

Sorry, if I don’t join the chorus of angry cries. I don’t care. Not anymore, and I suspect that feeling is more widespread than social media’s noisy outburst might suggest.

There was a desperate, last-chance hope attached to the prospect that Crawford-Spence would finally happen. The welterweight showdown was seen as a way to resurrect, if not save, the business.

But that dwindling light at the end of a long, futile tunnel was extinguished with ESPN’s report that Crawford will fight David Avanesyan on Dec. 10 in hometown Omaha.

“I don’t even know who (he) is,’’ Spence told the Dallas Morning News.

About that – and only that, there’s no debate. No outrage. Avanesyan is unknown. Then again, Crawford and Spence aren’t much better known among a crowd that hasn’t paid attention or a pay-per-view price-tag since Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

An eroding, hair-on-fire fan base can scream and yell, but the rest of the world isn’t listening.

It just doesn’t care anymore.

Indifference is the problem, or perhaps the epitaph.

Dylan Hernandez, the Los Angeles Times’ forthright and fearless columnist, generated some of the battered game’s familiar outrage in 2016 with last rites.

Boxing Is Dead, he wrote then.

Hard to argue with him today.

I’m not prepared to throw another shovel of dirt onto its remains. The game will continue, always in some form. After all, it’s already outlived most newspapers, a dying game if there ever was one.

Long after the newspaper industry prints its final edition, boxing will still be there, surviving on some forgotten street corner. Its inherent defiance is inextinguishable. But defiance isn’t a business model. The money is going, going, gone.

There’s a generation of boxers who grew up expecting Mayweather money. They have practiced Mayweather’s risk-to-reward formula. Mayweather left a model. Dollar-for-dollar, there’s never been anybody better. But the door to the vault began to close when he left the game.

He continues to collect bigger money than most in today’s generation in so-called exhibitions in Asia and the Middle East. His skills are eroded, but his name recognition is not.

Only Canelo Alvarez and Tyson Fury can rival his earning power. But Crawford and Spence, pound-for-pound contenders, have none of his notoriety. They’re skilled fighters. But skills don’t exactly pay the bills any more.

Crawford reportedly has signed a deal worth as much as $10-million to fight Avanesyan on a pay-per-view venture produced by BLK Prime, which is part of Endavo Media & Communications Inc., an Atlanta-based business.

Crawford’s deal in terms of percentages isn’t clear, yet. How much is guaranteed? How much is tied to the pay-per-view numbers? The bout’s price tag is $39.95.

Initial reports make it look as though it’s an investment in a future Crawford-Spence fight. Crawford was quoted as saying that Spence was still there, possibly in 2023.

“Once I’m successful against Avanesyan, my plan is still the same: Whoop Errol Spence’s ass,” Crawford told ESPN.

Trouble is, this fight is way past its due date. It should have happened five years ago. Crawford turned 35 on Sept. 28. His prime time is beginning to fall through the hour glass. More significant, perhaps, is Spence, who is already a big welterweight. He’s talking about moving up the scale.

“I got to talk to my manager but I already told them I’m at this weight too long,’’ the 32-year-old Spence told the Morning News.

Spence also tweeted that he had been fighting at welterweight for more than a decade.

“this sh!t ain’t easy or fun,” he tweeted.

Futile negotiations ain’t much fun, either.

BLK Prime, however, can only make its apparent investment in Crawford work if it can bring disaffected customers back into the PPV tent. The idea, perhaps, is to stage a bout or two against a couple of unknowns as a way to sell a possible past-due fight. The task is to introduce Crawford to the so-called crossover fans, who probably know a lot more about Jake Paul than they do Crawford.

But it’s a little late in the game to do that. It’s no secret that Top Rank grew frustrated with Crawford, still a free agent after he split and subsequently sued the promotional entity after his definitive stoppage of Shawn Porter last November.

Crawford’s versatile skillset hasn’t included much in the way of self-promotion. Maybe that changes. Maybe not. The question is how to awaken some interest, which wasn’t there for Crawford-Porter, a welterweight fight that would have sold itself in another era.

It did about 135,000 pay-per-view buys at $69.99, according to multiple media reports. That means it fell about 15,000 buys short of the 150,000 break-even point. despite a reported $2-million in ticket sales from a soldout crowd of 11,568 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

In other words, it was a bust, a financial loser. Crawford won an entertaining fight, stopping Porter in the 10th-round. But everybody else took a bath. Indifference is costly.

But the PPV model is still there. The question is whether anything has been learned from the Crawford-Porter lesson. Will it result in any substantive changes? Prompt any real moves?

“I might be moving up, I don’t know,’’ Spence said of a jump to junior-middleweight. “I might be moving up.’

Fans might have already moved.

Moved on.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It’s a comeback connected to a birthday.

Deontay Wilder turns 37 a week after his comeback Saturday night against former sparring partner Robert Helenius at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

The birthday on Oct. 22 will be a reason for Wilder to celebrate a second coming.

Or a cause to reconsider.

On the heavyweight calendar, 37 is still primetime. On the scale, heavyweights are bigger. On the clock, their careers last longer. But traditional measurements don’t take into account Wilder’s last fight.

It was brutal, violent in almost every way. At opening bell Saturday night (FOX PPV, 6 p.m. PT/9 pm ET) it’ll be 377 days since Wilder suffered three knockdowns in a loss to Tyson Fury in the third fight of a trilogy. It’s been called a classic, maybe because it was crazy. 

Surely, it was concussive.

Fury, who was on the canvas twice, has been in and out of retirement, ad nauseam, since he came back with a sixth-round TKO of Dillian Whyte on April 23 in London. He’s offered all kinds of explanations. 

The only believable one, however, is a concussion he said he sustained against Wilder. Both heavyweights suffered damage in a wild exchange of punishment that ended in the 11^th round.

Question is:

How much?

The last we saw of Wilder in the ring, his eyes were vacant as he fell face first onto the canvas. It’s a dramatic image that says Wilder suffered the most.

Then, he was an ex-champion. But not an ex-fighter, although he has since said he was “85-percent’ certain he would not be back until he saw a larger-than-life statue of himself last spring in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, his hometown. That’s when he decided to come back. But statues don’t get concussed. They don’t sustain enduring damage.

Against Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs), there figures to be an answer or at least an indication as to whether Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) did.

Or didn’t.

The fight is being portrayed as a triumphant return by a likable personality, known both for his right-handed power and fearless energy. He’s unpredictable and often controversial.

He says Saturday’s bout will mark the beginning of a comeback that he foresees lasting three years. He says he’ll retire at 40. He envisions a fight with Oleksandr Usyk, the compelling Ukrainian who beat Anthony Joshua for a second time in August. 

He even talks about a fourth fight with Fury. Guess here: His Hall of Fame resume is incomplete without a victory over Fury. To get in, he needs to beat Fury, who is 2-0-1 against Wilder.

A fourth fight isn’t impossible. Fury, recently frustrated at futile negotiations for an all-UK fight with Joshua, expressed his respect for Wilder this week.

But will he be the same guy? Some fights take a dangerous toll, aging a fighter beyond the number of his  birthdays. The brutality of the third fight with Fury might have eroded Wilder’s willingness to walk into harm’s way. 

But that won’t be evident until after he answers another opening bell. An imminent one. 

By Norm Frauenheim

The furor is familiar. So is the futility.

Nothing like a positive drug test to generate big headlines, especially in boxing at a time when big fights are more rumor than real.

It’s hard to know if Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford is on, off or just more talk. Spence suggests on Twitter Wednesday that the fight will still happen.

But the biggest welterweight bout in years has been on and off more often than Tyson Fury has been in and out of retirement.

The state of the game? Let’s just say it’s in a state of disrepair, which brings us back to the game’s only real news — the positive drug test that forced Conor Benn-versus-Chris Eubank Jr. off its scheduled date Saturday in London.

The fight, an Eddie Hearn-promoted exercise in nostalgia between the sons of fathers from a memorable UK rivalry in the 1990s, is off. Benn, a welterweight preparing to fight at 157-pounds, tested positive for something called clomiphene, reported to be a women’s fertility drug. (Insert lousy joke here.) The substance also is reported to increase testosterone in men. (Insert confusion here.)

It’s the confusion that reigns, of course. The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) “prohibited” the bout, saying it was “not in the interests of boxing” Wednesday following news of Benn’s positive test in the Daily Mail.

Injunctions were threatened. Contradictory statements delivered. Look for all of that to continue, ad nauseam.

For now, however, there’s no fight, although Hearn is reportedly shopping for a new date, new location and a commission known more for sports washing than regulation.    

Hearn contends that Benn has not been suspended. Benn, he says, tested positive only in the so-called A-sample. It’s not clear when results from a B-sample will be disclosed. Then again, it’s not clear whether there was – or is –a B-sample.

From A-to-Z, it’s a mess.

Another one.

At one level, it’s reminiscent of what transpired in a PED flap surrounding former junior-lightweight champion Oscar Valdez Jr. in September of 2021. He tested positive for something called phentermine, reported to be a stimulant that helps in losing weight. Valdez was allowed to fight, beating Robson Conceicao at a casino on Native American land near Tucson

But he fought only because of confusion over what qualifies as a PED and what doesn’t. It depends on location, location, location and acronym, acronym, acronym.

Both Benn and Valdez tested positive for substances banned by VADA. Both were positive in random VADA tests conducted weeks before the scheduled opening bell.

But the Valdez-Conceicao happened because the fight was regulated by the Pascua Yaqui, which adhered to a PED list and rules used by WADA not VADA. Only one letter separates the acronyms. But there’s a huge difference between the W and the V.

Phentermine is not illegal if not found on the day of the fight, according to WADA.

It is prohibited at all times by VADA.

Call it a loophole. Call it a devil in the details. Whatever, Valdez fought, amid a social-media outcry of condemnation directed at him and anybody associated with the Top Rank bout.

Now, there’s Benn-Eubank. The difference is that it’s not happening, at least not now. But the same sort of loophole remains. According to a deal between the two fighters, they agreed to non-binding VADA testing. VADA prohibits clomiphene. But the UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD), which tests for the BBBofC, does not.

Only the BBBofC, however, has final say-so on whether to proceed with the fight. It said no, unlike the Pascua Yaqui

The mystery is why this loophole still exists at all. During contract negotiations, shouldn’t the promoters and representatives of each fighter get together and agree on one testing authority – WADA or VADA or UKAD? Pick the acronym and abide by what it bans.

Close the loophole before the sport itself gets banned.

ReplyForward

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s hard to know what to make of reported pay-per-view numbers, especially during a streaming era when numbers are misrepresented or not reported at all and the theft rate might rival the buy rate.

But they continue to accumulate, fight-after-fight, like CompuBox’s punch stats, round-after-round, in a one-sided bout. They add up to a trend. And it isn’t pretty.

The business is losing, mostly because it doesn’t get it anymore. Latest example: Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius. It’s a pay-per-view fight.

Wilder created some controversy about 10 days ago when he told Boxing Scene he already belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Go ahead, argue about that one. But he doesn’t belong on pay-per-view. Not now, not on October 15 in his first bout since he was left on the canvas, a broken man, by Tyson Fury after 10-plus rounds of a violent beatdown nearly a year ago.

For most of the last year, there were doubts about a Wilder comeback, both in the public mind and his own. Even the winner talked about retirement. Then again, Fury talks a lot. There’s not much he doesn’t say. We’ve lost count how many times he’s been in and out retirement. He’s retired at lunch. He’s coming back at dinner.

But he did say he suffered a concussion against Wilder during their dramatic third date in Las Vegas last October. That’s believable. Nobody emerged from that heavyweight rematch unscathed. It’s a mark of just how violent it was. It’s also reason to proceed with caution.

In effect, Wilder, a former champion, is starting over. He says he decided to attempt a comeback after a statue of him was placed in front of a Tourism and Sports building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, his hometown. Move over, Nick Saban.

The statue is a symbol of who Wilder was. But it says nothing about who he is, post-Fury.

Tough fights come with a price, but not one that fans should have to pay in a first bout, a test run on whether a comeback is even viable. If it is – if Wilder doesn’t display symptoms of lingering damage against Helenius at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, then, yeah, it’s time to move back onto a pay-per-view stage and a comeback that would provide a further chance to prove the Hall-of-Fame claim.

But now, against Helenius, Wilder’s former sparring partner? Pay-per-view for a virtual sparring session? No way. PPV is a tag that says you’re proven, a commodity worth watching. The burden of proof is, first and foremost, what Wilder has to deliver against Helenius, a 38-year-old Finn and at best a mid-level challenger.

It should be an investment on what Wilder hopes will unfold in his comeback. Instead, he’s going straight to the pay window. In part, Wilder is selling his name recognition, which is lot more durable than chins, noses and brain cells in today’s version of the boxing biz. 

He’s also doing what other fighters are. FOX is charging $74.99, which is the same price it charged for heavyweight Andy Ruiz Jr.’s unanimous decision over Luis Ortiz on Sept. 5.

It’s not clear how Ruiz-Ortiz did on PPV. It’s not, probably because it wasn’t big. Boxcar numbers get reported. Small ones don’t, but increasingly they are part of the business plan. PPV is the persistent devil in the details of a bet on immediacy instead of the future. Fighters agree to a share of PPV receipts in an attempt to get the money they want.

But it’s a gamble, a risk to them. Remember the scheduled PPV fight between lightweights Tevin Farmer and Mickey Bey in Prescott Valley, AZ last August 12? It got canceled hours before opening bell because the money wasn’t there. That’s where this business model is headed.  

Above all, it puts the business at risk of losing more customers in an already eroding fan base.

More and more, a PPV tag is seen as a warning: Buyer Beware. Even Canelo Alvarez’ decision over Gennadiy Golovkin in a third fight on Sept. 17 left doubts about PPV. Arguably, Canelo-GGG 3 was the most PPV-worthy fight in 2022.

But reports indicated it failed to meet expectations for a long-awaited bout. DAZN’s PPV price for non-subscribers was $84.98, nearly a buck more than the Wilder-Helenius price tag.

It wasn’t long ago that the boxing biz declared that PPV is dead. Yet, it persists, a working definition of what Albert Einstein meant when he said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting it to be different.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It was thoroughly forgettable. Thoroughly predictable, too.

Nothing that happened within the ropes during Canelo Alvarez’ decision over Gennadiy Golovkin in a third fight registered much more than a yawn on the wow meter.

It was simply a sign that it’s time to move on.

Turns out, only that sign is important, despite over-the-top promises that were part of a tireless sales pitch before opening bell. 

Question is, will boxing heed its warning? Sometimes, the business is the last to know. Increasingly, it’s becoming evident that fans suspected the bout was over-hyped, over-due and over-priced for a trilogy between fighters who were over-the-hill.

That’s the unmistakable message in the pay-per-view numbers reported a few days after DAZN’s live-stream of the bout last Saturday at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

There’s some debate about the numbers, just as there was some disagreement about the scorecards (115-113, 116-112, 115-113) in favor of Canelo. Long-term, doesn’t matter. Feigned outrage about the scoring margins doesn’t change the result. Canelo clearly won.

The subsequent debate about the pay-per-view reports don’t matter, either. The trend does. To wit: The public appeal for the red-headed Canelo, Spanish for cinnamon, is beginning to look a little Oxidado, rusty.

Dan Rafael’s Fight Freaks Unite reported that the pay-per-view stream generated between 550,000 and 575,000 buys in the United States. DAZN quickly countered, issuing a statement saying that it generated 1.06-million buys worldwide. 

The numbers are hard to confirm, especially in a live-stream era when the theft rate probably rivals the buy rate. Then, there are questions about who’s counting. And how they’re counting. But there’s no argument about the trend. It’s down.

The first two Canelo-GGG bouts were televised by HBO Pay-Per-View. The first, a draw in 2017, was reported to generate 1.3 million buys, all in the United States. For the second, a controversial Canelo victory by majority decision in 2018, 1.1-million was reported, also in the United States.

By either report this week – US or worldwide, it’s down. The message: It’s time to move out of the Canelo business and back into the boxing business.

There’s a whole new generation of young, promising fighters, desperate to get a share of the attention and financial pie.

A face of that generation is David Benavidez, the unbeaten super-middleweight from Phoenix. Mention Benavidez, and Canelo sneers the way that proverbial old man might when he tells someone to get the hell off his front lawn.

Canelo complains that Benavidez has accomplished nothing. Eddie Hearn, Canelo’s promoter for the third GGG fight, says the same.

I’m not sure they’ve been listening to the fans, or a growing number of fighters and cornermen. From Paulie Malignaggi to Roy Jones Jr., the fight to see is Benavidez-versus-Canelo.

For now, at least, it doesn’t look as if that’s going to happen. Canelo beat a 40-year-old in GGG Saturday. GGG looked old, fought old. But the 32-year-old Canelo didn’t exactly fight like a young man, either.

His fatigue midway through the fight was oh-so evident. A younger man, a 25-year-old Benavidez, might have walked through him at that point. Come to think of it, so too would a younger Golovkin, say the GGG of 2017 or 2018.

Canelo already concedes he’s dealing with injuries. His knees are problematic enough to limit his roadwork. He underwent knee surgery. That might explain why he tires after four-to-five rounds. Now, he plans to undergo surgery for an injury to his left wrist.

From wrist to knees, he’s beginning to display the symptoms of his many years in the ring. He’s beginning to look like an aging fighter, no matter how old he is.

A year off might allow him to restore his knees, rehab his wrist.

Ii might allow him to rekindle his passion for the blood, bruises, wear and tear.

Then again, it also might just convince him to stay on the golf course, his latest passion.

Meanwhile, Benavidez has to fight. There are plans, father-and-trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. says, for him to fight three more times at 168-pounds, super-middleweight. Whatever the weight, he can’t wait on Canelo. He has to move on.

Boxing would be smart to move on with him. Current numbers say that’s where the future is.

LAS VEGAS — Only the argument continues.

A third fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena was supposed to settle it, once and for all. The third fight was way past its due date. Still, fans screamed for an answer. History begged for something definitive.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, it was more of the same. Twelve more rounds of no knockdowns. Twelve more rounds and three more scorecards. There have been 36 rounds in all. There was a controversial draw in the first one. There was a controversial majority decision won by Canelo in the second one.

In the third, not much changed. The scorecard margins were bigger. Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) won again, this time by two points on two cards (Steve Weisfeld and David Sutherland) and by four on the third (Dave Moretti).

The decision was unanimous for the first time. Yet, the margins were still close enough to argue some more. But that argument figures to out-live the rivalry. Time is putting an end to it. Don’t expect a fourth fight. For the record, Canelo had the edge, winning two-thirds of the trilogy

If there was any momentum in the rivalry, Canelo had it. At 32, however, he had time on his side.

At 40, GGG did not. For him, retirement is near. He had his moments in the third fight, especially in the later rounds. He backed up Canelo with solid jabs in the ninth and again in the 10th. But even that was almost predictable.

Canelo, the aggressor in the opening rounds, started to show some fatigue midway through the bout. His feet quit moving. GGG knew that would happen. The crowd expected it. It had already seen Canelo tire, especially in his loss by decision to light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol last May.

A subtle, yet significant, difference this time was that Canelo responded, fought back his fatigue, with a burst of energy and a couple of head-rocking combinations.

This time, he prevailed exactly at the same time he failed in May.

“The loss was good for me,’’ said Canelo, still the undisputed super-middleweight champion. “It made me humble. “I’m going to move forward. I’m going to get back at work on my legacy.’’

It was evident that the move forward will not include GGG (42-2-1, 37 KOs). After years of angry exchanges and insults, the two hugged after the scorecards were announced Saturday. It was as if they were saying goodbye.

“Thank you so much, I said to him,’’ said Canelo, who collected the lion’s share of a $65-million total purse.

When asked if there was finally peace between Golovkin and Canelo, GGG said: “Yes, 100-percent.’’

GGG, still the middleweight champion, also seemed ready to move on. There’s been talk of a retirement fight in Kazakhstan, his home country. There’s also a likely place in the Hall of Fame.

“I have a great plan,’’ GGG said. “I have a lot of appointments. Congrats today Canelo, congrats fans. Remember, I’m still champion at 160. I come back guys, I’m still champion. I want to shake hands with Canelo. If you don’t understand, you don’t understand anything.”

He shook hands. He also gained some hard-earned appreciation from a crowd that sounded hostile before the bout and throughout the early rounds

The chants started early. Ca-nel-o, Ca-nel-o. Me-he-co, Me-he-co. One sounded like the other. A man and his country, in sync in song and purpose.

Canelo started early, too, energized by a roaring crowd seemingly attached to him like the green, white and red on the Mexican flag

The opening bell sounded not long after some in the crowd booed the Kazakhstan anthem. Golovkin had to hear it. The echoes shook the building. But it was impossible to detect if they had any impact on GGG, a somewhat enigmatic edifice throughout his long career at the top of the middleweight division.

He made his ring walk through hostility, looking very much like prey headed to slaughter. But he endured Canelo’s early assaults and countered with some of his own late.

In the end, he survived and kept himself in an argument without an answer.

Or a clear-cut winner.

Jesse Rodriguez struggles, yet wins unanimous decision

Jesse Rodriguez promised super-stardom. The promise is still there. But for one night it went unfulfilled.

Nothing super about Rodriguez Saturday night.

He struggled throughout  a dull performance in a 115-pound title defense against Israel Gonzalez in the last fight before Canelo Alvarez-Gennediy Golovkin at T-Mobile Arena.

Put it this way: The super-fly champion was a super disappointment. Rodriguez survived, winning a unanimous decision over Israel Gonzalez by some questionable scores. It was 118-100 on one card. It was 117-110 on another. Only a 114-113 card appeared to be accurate.

Rodriguez (17-0, 11 KOs), a likable little guy from San Antonio and a leading contender Fighter of the Year, never had any of the stuff indicated by his nickname.There was no Bam. 

For a while, there was more bum than bam. 

Rodriguez was warned for one blow. He then was penalized one point for one that put Gonzalez on his hands and knees. In the eleventh, Rodriguez put Gonzalez (28-5-1, 11 KOs), of Mexico, down again. Video showed it was another low. But referee Kenny Bayless didn’t see it on a night when a couple of judges didn’t see much either.

Ali Akhmedov scores shutout decision over Rosado

Ali Akhmedov had it all.  There was precision. There was power. Put them together, and the result was a shutout.

Akhmedov (19-1, 14 KOs), Gennadiy Golovkin’s fellow Kazak, had all the points, too, winning every round in a one-sided decision over Gabe Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs) in the second fight on the DAZN pay-per-view card featuring Canelo-GGG 3. Rosado’s counter was only his toughness. It allowed the Philadelphia fighter to go the distance, 10 rounds. But there was nothing on his side of the judges’ cards.  

Austin Williams wins unanimous decision

Houston middleweight Austin Williams calls himself Ammo. He had just enough of it to score a unanimous decision over Kieron Conway to open the DAZ pay-per-view card featuring the third Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight Saturday night.

Williams (12-0, 10 KOs) scored a quick knockdown in the ninth round. It put him in control of an otherwise dull bout. Conway (10-3-1, 4 KOs), of the UK, didn’t have enough power to hurt Williams.He also lacked the kind of power he needed to keep Williams off of him.

Diego Pacheco scored fifth-round TKO

Call it the boom before the pay-per-view.

Los Angeles super-middleweight Diego Pacheco (16-0, 13 KOs) closed the non-televised portion of the Canelo-GGG3  show with the kind of finish that begged for an encore. 

Canelo promised a knockout. 

Pacheco delivered one.

He dropped Puerto Rican Enrigue Collazo (16-3-1, 11 KOs) onto the canvas in a knockdown that echoed throughout a mostly-empty T-Mobile Arena.  Seconds later at 2:29 of the fifth round, it was over, a fight stopped after it was evident that Collazo  had been left dazed and defenseless.. 

Lightweight Marc Castro scores scary KO

It was beautiful. Scary, too

Fresno lightweight Marc Castro (8-0, 6 KOs) delivered it — a right-uppercut — precisely and powerfully, knocking Kevin Montiel Mendoza (6-2-2, 3 KOs) flat on his back in dramatic a fifth-round KO in the third fight on the non-televised portion of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golvkin 3 card.

Mendoza remained motionless for several long moments as the ringside physician and his cornermen stood over him. Finally, he was helped to his feet and on to a stool, where he sat, also for several long moments. Then, Castro walked across the ring to make sure he was KO. That’s when Mendoza climbed to his feet and congratulated his powerful foe, a stoppage winner at 1:40 of the fifth.

Aaron Aponte and Fernando Molina battled to an eight-round split draw in a super lightweight contest.

In round two, Aponte dropped Molina with a left hook to the head. In round four, it was a combination that was finished off by a right to the head that put Molina on the deck.

Aponte is now 6-0-1. Molina is 8-0-1

Anthony Herrera won a five-round technical unanimous decision over Delvin Mckinney in a six-round super flyweight bout.

McKinney was cut and could not continue. Herrera won by scores of 50-45 on all cards.

Herrera is 3-0-1. McKinney is 4-4-1.

By Norm Frauenheim –

LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin kept their cool under a hot desert sun Friday afternoon at a staged weigh-in.

It was more concert than conflict.

More of a festival than a fight.

Hostility was only there in the eyes and the words exchanged after both fighters stepped off the scale, each a fraction of a pound lighter than the super-middleweight maximum for their third fight Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

At a weigh-in behind closed doors a few hours before the show on the plaza outside of T-Mobile, Golovkin was at a career-high 167.8 pounds. Canelo, the undisputed defending super-middleweight champ, weighed 167.4.

On the scale, their obligations were met. In the ring, their promises remain to be delivered in a long-awaited, long-overdue bout (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) that figures to be the final punctuation point to a contentious rivalry.

Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) has promised a stoppage. He says it will end within 12 rounds. The first bout in 2017 ended in a draw. The rematch in 2018 ended in Canelo winning a majority decision. Controversy has lingered ever since.

“Come on, if you guys are real boxing fans, you know who is the real champ,’’ said Golovkin (42-1-1, 33 KOs), a middleweight champion who is fighting at super-middle for the first time ever.

GGG has long argued that he won the first two. The question is whether he can deliver the proof. He’s 40, at least a couple of years past his prime. Canelo knows that.

At 32, Canelo is presumably still in his prime, although there were questions – still unanswered – left in the wake of only his second loss in his last outing against light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol.

He, too, has much to prove against a fighter who has angered him ever since he tested positive for clenbuterol before their 2018 fight. Canelo blamed the test on tainted beef.

GGG dismissed Canelo’s explanation, suggesting that was it was more like the manure produced by the beef.

Over the four years since their last fight, the two have never really settled the argument. It looks as if they’ll get a final chance to do so Saturday on DAZN pay-per-view ($64.99 for subscribers/$84.99 for non-subscribers).

A stoppage, perhaps, is the best way for Canelo to silence GGG, who says he saw nothing new in Canelo during their ritual face-to-face stare-down Friday.

“Maybe, he saw nothing new in my eyes,’’ Canelo said to a roaring crowd of his loyal fans Friday. “But he’ll see something new in the ring.’’

DAZN executives hope so. They have wanted the third fight for four years. They have invested in it heavily. The total purse is $65 million.  But there are questions about whether the fight is too far past its due date.There was a huge crowd on the plaza. for the staged weigh-in. As of Friday, however, the fight had yet to sell out.

By Norm Frauenheim–

LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez says he’s happy to be back on what he calls the path to greatness, a destination that suddenly grew elusive in a stunning loss to Dmitry Bivol four months ago.

It’s still there, of course. Canelo has always talked about greatness as though it’s his destiny. Bivol was just like that bumper sticker. Bleep happens.

Canelo intends to leave it behind and resume his march on history in a long-awaited and long-overdue third fight with Gennadiy Golovkin Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in a DAZN pay-per-view bout.

Everything seems to say that a victory over Golovkin will happen. GGG is 40, the same age Manny Pacquiao was when his career ended against late stand-in Yordenis Ugas a year ago. Canelo is nearly a 5-to-1 favorite.

Nobody gives GGG much of a chance. Then again, few would have ever guessed that Albert Pujols would be closing in on the 700-home-run milestone at 42-years-old either. Remember, bleep happens. Maybe, GGG channels Pujols and hits a homer here. But don’t bet on it.

Expect a Canelo victory. But greatness is different. It’s not an expectation. It’s an argument. At least, it is amid all the talk before GGG and Canelo resume their contentious rivalry.

Canelo, still boxing’s undisputed box-office draw, stirred up controversy about a month ago when asked if he would fight fellow Mexican Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez if Ramirez beats Bivol on Nov. 5.

“I don’t want to fight Mexicans,’’ Canelo said. “I represent Mexico.’’

The comment has been repeated and interpreted. According to one interpretation, Canelo was really saying he wouldn’t fight David Benavidez. The problem with that one is that Benavidez is Mexican-American. He’s from Phoenix. Over the last couple of years, Benavidez has emerged as the one super-middleweight fans would like to see fight Canelo.

But Canelo has moved on to other challenges against other 168-pound contenders, including Callum Smith or Caleb Plant or Billy Joe Saunders. He’s also moved up the scale, beating former light-heavyweight champ Sergey Kovalev and losing to Bivol. None of the moves have included Benavidez.

His comment about not fighting Mexicans, however, is just a further sign to Benavidez father-and-trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. that he never will.

Benavidez Sr. repeated what was said after David’s third-round blowout of David Lemieux last May in Glendale, Ariz. Then, Benavidez manager/promoter Sampson Lewkowicz told the media to forget about Canelo.

“Quit talking about David-versus-Canelo,’’ Lewkowicz said. “It’s fantasy.’’

In so many words, Jose Benavidez Sr. said the same thing four months later after a news conference Thursday at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

“It’ll never happen,’’ said Benavidez’ dad. who will be in Diego Pacheco’s corner for a super-middleweight bout against Enrique Collazo on Saturday’s undercard.

Then, Jose Benavidez had a lot more to say, suggesting that Canelo’s planned path to greatness can never happen without a fight against his son. The defining face of great in Mexican boxing is Julio Cesar Chavez.

Go to a barrio gym in Mexico or the United States. Chances are you’ll see at least one photo or poster of the legendary JCC. He’s the icon

“Julio Cesar Chavez became one by fighting everyone,’’ he said. “He fought Filipinos, he fought Americans. It didn’t matter. He fought everyone. Nationality didn’t matter. You only had to be a champion.

“There’s no other way to be great.’’

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s hard to believe anything Tyson Fury says these days. He’s the master of the rhetorical feint, an entertaining way of serving up distractions and misinformation. In Fury’s dangerous hands, it’s an art form.  

One minute he’s retired. The next, he’s not. One minute, he’s fighting Derek Chisora. The next, he’s not. It’s all nonsense, of course, from a heavyweight champion who either has too much time on his hands or just needs the attention. Whatever the reason, few are better at turning the ring into a personal stage.

Laugh at the punch lines. Suspend the believability.

The latest chapter in Fury’s ongoing routine involves Anthony Joshua. Fury has let everyone know that he wants to fight him, wants to fight him as soon as possible.

Of course, he does.

Joshua appears to be as vulnerable as ever in the wake of his second straight loss to Oleksandr Usyk, who won a split decision in a competitive rematch on August 20.

Other than the usual bruises, Joshua emerged from the loss in Saudi Arabia without any reported injuries.

But the absence of blood doesn’t mean there wasn’t damage to his confidence. Fury saw what everybody else did. He watched Joshua’s emotional meltdown in a bizarre exhibition immediately after the decision was announced.

He threw two of Usyk’s belts out of the ring. He grabbed the microphone and delivered a desperate plea, seemingly asking the crowd and television audience to believe in him. Joshua emerged from the loss unhurt. But it sounded as if his confidence was fractured.

Fury heard it. He also saw a fighter, still big and powerful, who had improved, perhaps because of new trainer Robert Garcia’s guidance. Joshua had Usyk in trouble throughout a dramatic ninth round.

In the wake of Usyk’s decision to not fight until early next year, Fury immediately turned to Joshua. Fury’s predatory instincts had to tell him the time was now. Fight him, finish him, before he has even more time to improve.

A result, perhaps, was sudden news that Joshua had agreed to a purse split for a fight projected for December 17. Forty percent for Joshua, 60 percent for Fury.

But Fury’s co-promoter Bob Arum isn’t buying.

“I really don’t think Joshua’s people are anxious to make the fight now,” Arum said to Sky Sports while in London for a Claressa Shields-Savannah Marshall/Mikaela Mayer-Alycia Baumgardner card postponed Thursday because of Queen Elizabeth’s death. “He’s come through a devastating loss and I think, conventionally, Joshua is going to want a couple of soft touches to get back in the swing of things.’’

It’s not exactly clear what — who – qualifies as a soft touch. Deontay Wilder is set to make his comeback from a devastating stoppage loss a year ago to Fury against Robert Helenius on October 15 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Wilder faces some of the same questions that Joshua does when step back through the ropes. Still, his singular power is there, hardly a soft touch. A young heavyweight, unknown and inexperienced, might pose the least risk for Joshua’s re-entry.

Whoever it is, Arum is betting it won’t be Fury. He dismisses talk from Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn that an agreement on the purse split is in place.

“Eddie Hearn is just talking.,’’ Arum said. “Eddie Hearn, if he wanted to make the fight, he knows me well enough and knows I’m over here.

“…We haven’t really heard from Eddie Hearn. He’s really good at making statements to the press and television. But he’s not – I don’t think – anxious to make this fight.

“I’ve been in boxing a long time and the fact that Eddie and Joshua would want this fight is, to me, incomprehensible. It makes no sense. If I’m wrong and they decide they want it, they know where to find us and call. Stop talking to the press and talk to us and see if we can put it together.”

Hearn, a longtime Arum rival, had his own take.

“I’m not quite sure what Bob Arum has spoken about,’’ said Hearn, who said he has had multiple phone calls and exchanged several e-mails with Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions, Fury’s UK promoter. ‘’AJ has just finished his fight with Usyk. He has a couple of bumps and bruises, nothing major.

“Queensberry have the date held of December 17, and that is our preferred date to make the fight. We’re in continued discussions.’’

With Fury in the mix, the only sure bet is that discussion will continue, ad nauseam.

By Norm Frauenheim–

Canelo Alvarez is fighting for Mexicans, but not against Mexicans.

That, at least, was the message he intended this week during a media workout for his approaching date with Gennadiy Golovkin on Sept. 17 in a third fight.

“I don’t want to fight Mexicans,’’ Canelo said. “I represent Mexico.’’

The comment to USA Today at his training camp in San Diego generated questions, if not exasperation, especially among fans who might be reaching into their closets to dust off old caps with the GGG logo done in Mexico’s green-white-and-red colors.

Canelo was responding to a question about whether he would fight fellow Mexican Gilberto “Zurdo’’ Ramirez if Ramirez beat cruiserweight champion Dmitry Bivol. On the scale of tough questions, this one wasn’t intended to be confrontational. It was a softball.

After all, Bivol beat Canelo. If Ramirez can do what Canelo could not, why not go straight to Ramirez in a fight that would be a Mexican blockbuster? It’s simple. Sensible. It also would be a further step toward an initial measure of redemption for Canelo after his stunning May loss to Bivol. He could beat the man who beat him.

What’s more, this is boxing. Not politics. It’s not as if Canelo is running for office. He’s only trying to get back into the pound-for-pound debate. The road back begins with an interesting fight against a bitter rival in a second rematch that could restore the historical momentum he had before the Bivol defeat.

He made the comment, of course, simply because he can. Follow the money. In the boxing business, that means follow Canelo. His minimum wage against Bivol was $15 million, plus a reported 70 percent of pay-per-view sales. He’s the draw, undisputed in every way. That figures to continue, especially if he’s able to make a statement with a definitive victory over GGG. Betting odds suggest that will happen.

Canelo is favored, minus-600, which puts his probability of victory at 85.5 percent. That’s one-sided enough to think that a knockout is likely. For Canelo, a stoppage is almost mandatory.

It would serve as the final punctuation to the skepticism that has circulated for years about the first two fights.

The first bout at middleweight was judged a split draw in September 2017. A year later, the second bout, also at middleweight, was judged to be a Canelo victory by the narrowest of margins. He won a majority decision.

But there was no end to the debate. It has raged on and at a level that forced a third fight. For whatever reason, the third is way past its due date. Still, it’s interesting, because the final say-so goes to the victor.

On paper, Canelo has all the advantages. At 32, he’s eight-years younger than the 40-year old GGG. He’s at his most comfortable weight, 168-pounds. GGG is moving up the scale. All the elements for Canelo to make a definitive statement are in place.

But he’s complicated it with his comments about not wanting to fight a fellow Mexican. Those words could create additional pressure. Suddenly, Canelo has a lot to prove. To himself. And to his fans.

He’s fighting to put some distance between himself and the Bivol loss. He’s also fighting an old rival, one who created his own niche among Mexican-American fans in Southern California before his first bout with Canelo.

In much of the pre-fight hype, GGG looks and sounds comfortable about his role.

“Many Mexicans love me and nobody in Kazakhstan loves Canelo,” GGG, a Kazak living in southern California, said a couple of weeks ago.

He has little to lose. He knows he’s close to retirement, and he’s said so.  An old warhorse, he still knows his way around the ring. It’s not clear how Canelo will react in his first fight after a one-sided loss to Bivol.

A tentative Canelo creates opportunities for GGG.

So, too, does a careless Canelo, whose recent comments create a potential distraction, one he can’t afford at a moment when he’s fighting to retain his pound-for-pound relevancy and his pay-per-view marketability.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Tyson Fury is a little bit like an ex-American president. He stays in the headlines.

Fury has been there, loud and profane, throughout a week that should belong to Oleksandr Usyk.

Usyk’s rightful chance to celebrate his brilliant ascendancy to the top of the heavyweight division has been stolen, first by the fighter he beat and then by the fighter he wants to beat, all within six days.

Anthony Joshua grabbed the microphone moments after he lost a split decision to Usyk in a rematch Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Joshua also tossed two championship belts out of the ring. They weren’t even his belts. They belonged to Usyk.

Somehow, Joshua thought he could trash somebody else’s property. Even Riddick Bowe knew better thirty years ago. In 1992, Bowe tossed the World Boxing Council’s belt into a garbage can in London. But it was Bowe’s belt to throw away. Ownership and sanctioning fees come with privileges. Bad behavior doesn’t.

Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn is defending Joshua, asking for understanding. That’s his job. Still, I can’t help but think that Joshua might have faced more than just criticism if his tantrum had played out in New York or Las Vegas instead of Saudi Arabia. Boxing is the flip side to politically-correct. It’s hard to regulate behavior.  

But if belts can be tossed out of the ring and into the crowd, what’s next? Stools and buckets? Hide the kids. If you’re seated in a ringside seat, wear a helmet.

A state Commission might issue some kind of censure, a warning to Joshua. But this was Saudi Arabia, a nation that is moving into boxing, golf and auto racing as a way to sports-wash — launder — its image. Nothing new about it. It’s been around since the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Boxing, however, is a risky way to get anything clean. The sport is a collection of great moments and Godfather moments. Still, it generates headlines and money. Enter Fury.

Within hours after Joshua’s tantrum, Fury was at the bully pulpit. He slammed Usyk’s victory, saying ad nauseam that he’s ready to come out of retirement. He’ll fight, he promises, only for half-a-billion. It’s not clear whether he’s talking about pounds or dollars. 

Whatever the currency, it’s astronomical, big enough to be prohibitive. Maybe, that’s the idea. I’ve long thought that Fury’s retirement is just more hot air from a gasbag looking for more attention.

But an impossible demand is one way for Fury to say no to the Usyk possibility. He repeated it Wednesday via social media.

“Hi guys, to all out there that want to make the fight, I’m gonna give you all seven days — till the 1st of September, to come up with the money,” Fury said on Instagram.  “If not, thank you very much. It’s been a blast. I’m retired.”

In a second post, he says, “Also, guys, I forgot to say, all the offers submitted must be to my lawyer, Robert Davies, in writing and with proof of funds. So, let the games begin.”

Safe to say, the head games are already well underway.

At today’s inflation rate, there’s no telling how much Fury’s half-a-bill will be worth. How ever many zeroes, it figures to be more than anyone will be willing to pay. Reportedly, the Saudis paid $150 million for the rights to Usyk-Joshua 2, a rematch of a Usyk victory in the UK about a year ago.

For as long as Fury’s demand makes the fight impossible, he can stay in the headlines with noise mocking Usyk. He calls him a “middleweight.” He says nobody knows who he is. He says he can’t pronounce his name. The lousy lounge act continues. Some of it is funny.

He told talkSPORT that he knows the Saudis have the money.

“They offered Tiger Woods $1 billion,’’ Fury said of the Saudi attempt to get Woods to join LIV Golf.

Then, he dismissed Usyk’s punching power.

“He couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding,’’ Fury said.

But talk won’t beat the unbeaten Usyk. There’s no doubt that the much-bigger Fury is the only fight Usyk wants.

“If I’m not fighting Tyson Fury, I’m not fighting at all,’’ he said while standing in the middle of a chaotic ring following his victory over Joshua.

Usyk also didn’t criticize Joshua. He stood there like a parent, watching Joshua with a look that was a mix of exasperation and disapproval. Joshua was more toddler than ex-heavyweight champ. It was hard not to cringe. But Usyk kept his poise, a great champion and a serious man. He has bigger fights. He returns to Ukraine and resumes the deadly fight against the Russians.

He’s a grown-up.

The heavyweight division could use one.  

By Norm Frauenheim –

Tyson Fury, lineal heavyweight champion and undisputed populist, is back. Correct that. He never left. He’s still at the proverbial pulpit, but more as a comedian than a bully.

He never retired, of course. We knew that. He knew that. But it was a show, a lousy lounge act full of one liners and rhetorical feints. Fury needs a microphone the way the rest of us need oxygen.

That’s why he’s so much fun. That’s why he’s so exasperating. That’s also why he gets away with it — all with a wink, nod and sometimes a few lyrics from Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie.

From this corner, he’s a better singer than a comedian. But he’s neither Frank Sinatra nor Richard Pryor. What he is — who he is — has never been in dispute. He’s a great heavyweight, as cunning and clever as any.

The good news: That’s a role he’ll continue to play. Actually, it’s the only news.

Amid a flurry of Fury one-liners this week, the only headline is further confirmation that Fury’s retirement was really a vacation. There’s only one reliable guide on Fury. To wit: As long as he’s talking, he’s still active. When he’s fighting — who he’s fighting — are questions without answers.

At least, there were no answers in headlines over the last few days that said Fury was wanted to fight Derek Chisora for a third time. Fury has already beaten Chisora twice. What’s to prove in a third?

A trilogy was news to Chisora. News, too, for co-promoter Bob Arum, who told Dan Rafael’s Fight Freaks to pay no attention. It was just another performance with the microphone from Fury, said Arum, who went on to say that Fury is waiting on the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony rematch a week from Saturday in Saudi Arabia.

That’s the smart thing, the only thing remotely believable. Between opening bells, however, Fury isn’t interested in believable. He just wants an audience, and he got one just as the media megaphone began to shift its attention to Usyk-Joshua 2.

Fury’s UK promoter Frank Warren also is confident he’ll fight again, although Warren’s tone isn’t as skeptical as the ever-forthright Arum.

“I speak to him all the time, Warren told Sky Sports. “If he wants to fight, he’ll fight. I’m not going to tempt him. Because if he needs that, then he shouldn’t be fighting.

“It’s got to come from him and his heart. Do I think we’ll see Tyson in a ring? I do because I think he’s a fighting man and I think he’ll miss it too much. The fans love him. He’s got a real rapport with the man on the street. He’s different class. And he’ll do what he wants to do.”

Warren knows as well as Fury that an all-UK fight between Fury and Joshua is a biggie. It would make some history and GDP-kind of money. But would is a key qualifier here. Yet, the fair-minded Warren doesn’t think Joshua can beat Usyk, a heavyweight every bit as cunning and clever as Fury. Usyk’s versatile skillset and genius ring IQ prevailed in an upset, a unanimous decision over Joshua last September.

“Against Joshua he looked different class,” said Warren, who watched Usyk in his first two dates at heavyweight in victories over Chazz Witherspoon and Chisora. “He didn’t use any of his physical attributes. I didn’t understand why.

“I felt that he would out-jab him or keep him on the end of the jab and let the right hand go. But he didn’t. He was getting out-jabbed by a smaller guy on the outside. I thought the only way Usyk was going to do any damage was to get underneath inside and work inside.

“But he didn’t have to do that. He was beating him on the outside. How do you fight him? I really do fancy Tyson to beat him.

“I think Tyson is a similar guy in some ways and a much, much bigger guy.”

That’s no punchline.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s been a summer about comebacks, which is another way of saying that it’s been mostly forgettable.

Maybe, the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch on Aug. 20 knocks out the doldrums. Maybe, it ends with something memorable in the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy on Sept. 17.

For now, at least, the season belongs to a power hitter in another arena. Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge’s bat is the only Big Drama Show.

As Judge moves ever closer to Roger Maris’ magical 61 homerun mark, boxing finds itself stuck in the waiting room. Plenty appears to be on deck, but in the here-and-now there’s only Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. 

ESPN reported in June that an agreement was close. Maybe it is. Maybe, Crawford and Spence are signing the contract as I write this. Maybe, it gets announced this weekend.  Maybe, maybe.

The sooner, the better, because the messy web of maybes has put the balkanized business and its suspicious fans on edge.  When ESPN first reported that a deal was close, talk was that the long-awaited welterweight fight would happen in October. Now, no news has pushed the speculated bout into November. Can the Twelfth-Of-Never be too far away?

It’s getting hard to remember when Crawford-Spence wasn’t a topic. It’s been in the public imagination for so long that the two welterweights have gone from early prime time into their 30s.

A whole new 147-pound generation is beginning to emerge. One of them, Vergil Ortiz Jr., will be back in the ring Saturday in his first fight in a year. Ortiz (18-0, 18 KOs), of Grand Prairie TX, is coming off a scary illness for a date against UK welterweight Michael McKinson (22-0, 2 KOs) in Fort Worth Saturday night on DAZN.

“Fortunately, time is on my side,’’ said Ortiz, who suffered from a debilitating condition apparently brought on by intense workouts.  “I’m only 24 years old, and at the same time, I don’t want to be wasting time. You know what that’s like. I should have fought three or four times already, and that’s time we won’t get back.’’

Time is what Crawford and Spence are running out of. Crawford is 34; Spence is 32. It’s no coincidence that one of the acronyms made the Ortiz-McKinson a title eliminator this week. Increasingly-impatient fans will watch in part to get an idea at how Ortiz might do against a Crawford or Spence.

Reasons are countless as to why there was still no Crawford-Spence deal as of Thursday. PIck one, pick-em all.

Crawford, at least, seemed confident this week that the fight will happen.

“Hopefully we can get that fight made down the line,” Crawford told FightHub on Wednesday. “Real soon, not down the line, and give fans what they’ve been looking for.

“We’re working to get it done for you all.’’

The apparent hurdle – surprise, surprise — is the size of the prize in this projected prizefight. In a welterweight bout some say could be the best since Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns, both Crawford and Spence want big money in what would be pay-per-view. They’re hoping for big guarantees. However, most of their money would likely have to come from a percentage of pay-per-view sales.

That’s the problem. Neither Crawford nor Spence have done big PPV numbers. Crawford’s impressive stoppage of Shawn Porter last November generated fewer than 100,000 PPV buys, according multiple reports.

That makes promoters and networks leery, especially during an era when theft of the PPV signal is rampant. It also leaves a question about whether there’s a sugar-daddy willing to step up with the kind of investment that can make it happen.

That’s exactly what transpired in 2015 when then-CBS President Les Moonves stepped up and brokered the deal that led to the revenue record-setting fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Can it happen again? No sign of it in July. But, maybe, there will be a home-run deal in August. At least, Aaron Judge is there and on a pace to prove that just about anything is possible.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a fight without all the belts and whistles. That’s what makes it interesting. There’s no confusion about what’s at stake in the Danny Garcia-Jose Benavidez Jr. bout Saturday night in Brooklyn.

The acronym guys, belts in one hand and a sanctioning fee in the other, won’t be there. Cast aside the promises from promoters who can’t keep them.  It’s just Garcia and Benavidez in a lonely fight to stay at the table.

For the loser, there’s an exit from the circus. For the winner, there’s another chance at a good payday. It is simple, a relief from a long summer full of muddled signs that it’s business as usual.

An example: A much bigger fight, Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin 3, approaches (September 17), yet there’s talk from promoter Eddie Hearn that a Canelo rematch with Dmitry Bivol might not be as immediate as it appeared to be after Bivol’s upset of Canelo in May. Belts and whistles, shoots and ladders. Confusion and chaos prevail.

But there’s no confusion surrounding Garcia-Benavidez at Barclays (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT). In a busier summer, it might have been a fight for a major undercard. But the clarity that defines this one makes it a main event. Both fighters bring faded names to the ring.

Garcia is a former junior-welterweight and welterweight champion. Benavidez is a former celebrated prospect still remembered for being the youngest national champion (16-years old) in the Golden Gloves fabled history. Garcia is fighting to further his claim on legacy with a bid at a third division title, junior-middle. Benavidez is fighting to re-discover a prodigy’s promise.

Each is motivated by different pasts.  But the story line is as clear as it is dramatic. Both are formers. Only one stays current.

Garcia’s accomplished resume makes him the favorite. So, too, does the site. The Philadelphia fighter is popular at Barclays.

“I’m just excited to be back at Barclays,’’ Garcia said Thursday at the final news conference. “…The Danny Garcia Show is back.’’

In his turn at the bully pulpit, Benavidez had a predictable counter.

“This is the end of The Danny Garcia Show,’’ Benavidez said.

Now 30, Benavidez understands the magnitude of the challenge that awaits him. He also seems to understand that Garcia, his trash-talking dad/trainer Angel and much of the boxing media see him as a steppingstone. Garcia’s resume suggests he’ll bury Benavidez.  Garcia is predicting a seventh-round stoppage of Benavidez, who grew up in a tough Phoenix neighborhood on the city’s sprawling westside.

 “Fourteen of Danny’s last 19 opponents have been world champions,’’ said Showtime sports executive Stephen Espinoza, who called Garcia’s resume Hall-of-Fame worthy.

But a resume can be one-dimensional. Garcia, the best 140-pound fighter in his generation about a decade ago, was vulnerable at welterweight. His three losses have all been at 147 pounds – Keith Thurman by split decision in March 2017, Shawn Porter by unanimous decision in September 2018 and Errol Spence Jr. also by unanimous decision in December 2020.

At 5-foot-10 ½, Benavidez is taller than Garcia, who is listed at 5-8. With a 71-inch reach, Benavidez , who is four years younger than Garcia, also has a two-and-a-half-inch advantage. Garcia reach is listed at 68 ½. Give or take, Benavidez has measurements comparable to Thurman, Porter and Spence. That resurrects an old question – also an old line – about Garcia. His stardom was stopped at welterweight. There’s a reason for weight classes.

Add Benavidez’ resume, which includes one – and only one – reason to think he can win. To wit: Nobody has fought Terence Crawford tougher than Benavidez, who lost by stoppage with 18 seconds left in a contentious fight in October 2018 in front of a roaring crowd in Omaha, Crawford’s hometown.

The unbeaten Crawford, who stopped Porter in November, might be able to further his claim on pound-for-pound supremacy in a potential showdown with Spence. Benavidez, who has fought only once since Crawford, looked terrible in a draw with unknown Argentina Emanuel Torres last November.

A hometown Phoenix crowd booed him. The crowd was right, Benavidez says. He calls his performance “trash.’’ He says it almost as if he is promising to emerge from the ashes the way the bird — the mythical Phoenix – does in his hometown’s official logo.

Says here, he has a real chance in the right fight at the right time. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Jose Benavidez Jr. was something of a prodigy. He was a 16-year-old national champion, the youngest ever in a Golden Gloves’ history that is a lot longer than any acronym. He started at the top, a mixed blessing.

A lot since then has been a chase to fulfill expectations, a long fight to prove that the initial promise was real.

He’s been engaged in that fight, one way or another, for most of the 14 years since the teenager from the streets of west Phoenix won that Golden Gloves title. It’s been hit, miss and messy. It’s an old story. Prodigies come, go, come back and then vanish. The burden of proof is hard to beat. Think of Francisco Bojado. Think of Frankie Gomez, who beat Benavidez as an amateur before disappearing in 2016 after going 21-0 as a pro.

But the fight goes on for Benavidez, now a 30-year-old father of three daughters and just days from facing Danny Garcia on July 30 at Barclays In Brooklyn in a junior-middleweight bout that puts both at a career crossroads.

For the accomplished Garcia, it’s about coming back at a new weight, this time in an attempt to eventually become a three-time division champion.

 For Benavidez, the stakes are clearer by multiples that add up to a sense of urgency. He’s fighting to prove he still belongs. The Showtime-televised date comes with a binary question. To wit: Still a contender, or just a tune-up?

The tune-up role has already been suggested, both in on-line media and by Garcia’s dad and trainer, Angel, who has never been shy.

“Jose Benavidez Jr. is not a skillful fighter,’’ Angel said Wednesday during a media workout in Philadelphia.  “He can’t fight going backwards.

“He doesn’t have any skill.’’

“He doesn’t dip. He doesn’t slip. He doesn’t duck hits. He just comes forward, I guess. I don’t know what they’re teaching him. I teach perfection. I don’t teach just going in and getting beat up.’’

After more than a decade in the noisy pro game, Benavidez has heard it all. Said it all, too.  Trash talk is just another lousy punch. Angel Garcia’s rip of Benavidez’ skill level, however, was a surprise. It was the very execution of skill that made Benavidez look like the best of a new generation in 2008. It was exemplified by the delivery of a long, precise jab.

Benavidez wasn’t angry at Angel Garcia’s rip. It would have been a surprise only if Angel Garcia had not said something intended to annoy or disrupt. He’s known for the pre-fight tactic. Good at it, too. But Benavidez didn’t take the bait.

Benavidez would only say that a forgotten prodigy’s skill will be there opening bell. He’s not intimidated by either Angel Garcia’s blunt rhetoric or Danny Garcia’s signature left hook.

“Like Angel said about me, I don’t see anything special about Danny, either,’’ Benavidez told 15 Rounds Thursday in his own counter during a media day from his dad’s gym in Seattle.

Benavidez said it in an understated tone. In part, perhaps, he knew not to get into a shouting contest with a master of the bottom-feeding art-form. But there was also a sense of confidence in Benavidez’ response. His career has taken unforeseen turns since the Golden Gloves peak. He won a fringe junior-welterweight title and appeared to be enroute to bigger ones. Then, however, he was shot in the knee on a Phoenix canal bank in August 2016. It looked as if his career was finished.

It’s a stretch to say that Benavidez had to learn how to walk all over again before he could fight once more. Still, it’s a pretty good way to describe what he’s trying to accomplish against Garcia, a 2-to-1 favorite.

Benavidez’ record since the shooting is hard to judge. The Pandemic is a further complication. He’s fought only four times since February 2018. In his last two dates, he looked like two different fighters.

Last November on a card featuring his younger brother and emerging super-middleweight star David Benavidez, Jose tried to bully Francisco Torres, an unknown Argentine, into submission. The fundamentals to his prodigious beginning were forgotten. He paid with a controversial draw booed by a hometown crowd in downtown Phoenix.

Three years earlier, however, the defining skills of a celebrated teenager were still there against Terence Crawford, feared then and feared now. Crawford, known for his ring smarts, was cautious throughout the fight. He finally finished Benavidez with 18 seconds left in a 12-round bout in front of a wild, pro-Crawford crowd in Omaha, his hometown.

Since then, the bout has been called Crawford’s toughest. Shawn Porter said repeatedly that it was the one fight he studied before his own loss to Crawford last November. Crawford, himself, says his toughest fight was a ninth-round TKO over Australian Jeff Horn.

Fair enough.

Fair, too, to also assume that Crawford, still No. 1 in many current pound-for-pound ratings, would never characterize his stoppage of Benavidez as a tune-up.

Benavidez suggests that Angel Garcia’s dismissive scouting report is based on what he saw of him against Torres. He further suggests that Garcia will see more of the fighter who challenged Crawford. He’s as blunt as Angel Garcia when asked about his performance against Torres.

“Trash,’’ said Benavidez, who has seen and heard enough of it throughout his many-layered career to know he’s had enough of it.

By Norm Frauenheim-

There’s life after the statue for Deontay Wilder, whose comeback plans are beginning to fall into place within just a couple of months after he was honored – cast in bronze – in hometown Tuscaloosa.

Wilder, The Bomber with Bronze in his nickname, liked what he saw in late May when his statue was unveiled in front of a sports and tourism building.

Tyson Fury might not recognize it. Fury knocked Wilder off his pedestal repeatedly, leaving the former heavyweight champion in an exhausted heap in the 11^th round of a wild rematch last October.

Wilder looked finished then. But that statue unveiled on a spring day in Alabama is upright, a symbol for how Wilder wants to be remembered.

A durable sign, too, for a comeback that is sure to follow.

Wilder said so then, amid festivities that included him hugging the life-size statue, which weighed in at a reported 830 pounds. On any scale, it was a lot heavier than the costume Wilder said wore him out in his ring walk to a stoppage loss to Fury in their first rematch in February 2020

“So many people telling me: ‘Come back, come back,’ ‘’ Wilder told reporters as he stood alongside his bronzed likeness. “So, I’ll say I’m back by popular demand. The business of boxing needs me.’’

Just how that comeback will proceed isn’t clear yet. But some possibilities began to emerge this week. Wilder manager Shelly Finkel started with the obvious — the August 20 rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia.

“Maybe the winner of Usyk and Joshua,” Finkel told Planet Sport, a Sky Sports partner.  “I don’t know what Fury is doing.’’

Fury is doing what he always does. He’s throwing rhetorical feints, saying one day he’ll fight if somebody offers him half-a-billion and then seemingly backtracking. He’s retired, he also says, because Wilder left him with bruises and concussions. It’s impossible to know exactly what his plans are. Chaos is his business plan. Put it this way: As long as he’s talking, he’s interested.

Meanwhile, there are questions about how fast Wilder, who will be 37 on October 22, should move in a quest to regain a title. His lethal right hand is still there, a drawing card and a powerful reason to still call him a contender.

“There’s only four real top guys in the heavyweights right now – Usyk, Joshua, Fury and Deontay [Wilder],’’ Finkel said

But the beating Wilder endured in October might have taken a psychological toll. A cautious beginning to the planned comeback might be the wise option. Derek Chisora wants a shot — and a payday — at Wilder. But Finkel said no to that one.

“Derek Chisora?’’ Finkel said. “He just edged (out) a split-decision over Kubrat Pulev. No way.”  

Fury co-promoter Frank Warren thinks Wilder already has somebody else in mind.

Robert Helenius, Warren says.

“Deontay is fighting in October,’’ Warren told TalkSport. “He’s coming back and they’re talking about him fighting (Helenius). That’ll be in (the United) States.’’

But there has yet to be any confirmation from Wilder, Finkel or Helenius’ management in Finland.

Whoever it is, expect somebody with Helenius’ journeyman-like credentials. A test-run before a real test.

Wilder, Warren said, “is coming off a bad knockout.’’

He is. But there’s a statue in Alabama that says he isn’t going away.

By Norm Frauenheim-

He’s a brother. He’s a dad. Jose Benavidez Jr. is a lot of things. These days, however, he’s a fighter in a battle to fulfill the potential that was attached to his future more than a decade ago.

Then, he was a kid with a jab, a fundamental impossible to ignore. It was pretty and precise. As an introduction, it was long and deadly, seemingly limitless in what it might do and where it might lead.

Then, it was a symbol, an 18-year-old prospect’s identity.

Now, it is what a 30-year-old father of two is fighting to recapture.

In about three weeks, Benavidez will get that chance against Danny Garcia in an intriguing bout – a crossroads fight for both – on July 30 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

For Benavidez, it’s a fight that comes with some urgency. He turned 30 in May. He’s fought only twice over years that shoved careers and ambitions into uncertainty brought on by the Pandemic.

He struggled in a draw against unknown Argentine Francisco Emanuel Torres in hometown Phoenix last November. Three years earlier, he fought fearlessly against the feared Terence Crawford, who finally stopped him in the final seconds of the final round.

Now, Benavidez re-enters the ring for a Showtime-televised bout after only two fights — and no victories – over the last three years.

His father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Jr., doesn’t have to be told his son is engaged in an unforgiving business, one dictated by an old line. To wit: What have you done lately?

Jose Sr. knows the counter has to be loud and definitive.

“We have to look impressive,’’ Jose Sr. told reporters in a recent Zoom session. “…At the end of the day, man, we need this fight in order to get back into the rankings, get back in boxing for Jose Benavidez Jr.

“We need to impress. We need to give it all. I guarantee you someone in this fight is going to get knocked out.’’

It’s an unambiguous message, one that includes pressure to deliver a knockout of the more accomplished Garcia, a former two-division champion who will be fighting at junior-middleweight for the first time.

Benavidez’ headlong pursuit of a knockout might have been the problem in his last outing on a card that featured his emerging younger brother, unbeaten super-middleweight David Benavidez in front of roaring crowd at the Footprint Center, the Suns home arena in downtown Phoenix.

Benavidez abandoned his signature punch. The jab wasn’t there, and neither was the gifted young prospect remembered by Phoenix fans. Maybe, it was forgotten over time and inactivity. Maybe, Benavidez thought he could simply bully the unknown Torres into submission. He couldn’t. He didn’t.

“No excuses,’’ Benavidez said after reviewing the film. “I looked bad. I tried to do too much and didn’t do enough.’’

It’s an assessment that suggests Benavidez has learned a lesson. Dad wants him to be impressive. But the son understands that happens only with the jab that identified him as such a prominent prospect in 2010.

“I’ve just got to stick to my game plan, stick to my tools and do what I do best: Work my jab,’’ Benavidez Jr. said.

No translation needed. He just needs to be himself.

“The knockout is going to come, on its own. The winner of this fight is going to go back up on the map.’’

For Benavidez, it’s a trip that will take him back to the punch where it all began.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Jesse Rodriguez storms into the headlines and pound-for-pound talk in about the time it takes to say his nickname.

Bam, he’s there.

His sudden emergence in the wake of a magnificent performance in a stoppage Saturday of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is stunning, yet not unprecedented.

He’s a little guy, near the bottom of a scale where weights and wages are light. Not much changes. But Rodriguez, still only 22, is poised to do exactly that. His thorough breakdown of an accomplished, yet aging Sor Srisaket, 35, in hometown San Antonio was a bold statement.

For those who didn’t know much about him, it was a crash-through-the door introduction. Bam, he’s impossible to ignore. For those anxious to know more, it was reason to look again at a career that promises so much more. Bam, his dimensions have a potential dynamic that defies boxing’s traditional measure.

On the historical scale, Rodriguez looks to be the best American at a lighter weight since Michael Carbajal. It was fitting five months ago that Rodriguez won his first significant title at the newly-named Footprint Center, an NBA arena within a couple of miles of roadwork from Carbajal’s home in downtown Phoenix.

Rodriguez beat Carlos Cuadras, skilled yet also aging (33), scoring a unanimous decision for a belt at 115 pounds. Depending on the acronym, it’s a division called super-bantamweight or super-flyweight. Super-fly works best here. Lord of the Flies, too.

Carbajal stayed at light-flyweight (108) throughout his Hall of Fame career which ended in 1999.  Why?  Follow the money. Nothing about that old axiom has changed. Rodriguez, also a former light-flyweight, moved up in search of bigger names and bigger paydays. Carbajal never had to. In the. He was the key the flyweight vault.

Over the last two-plus decades, however, a search for another great American flyweight – anther Carbajal – has been hit and miss. Mostly miss.

Those around Rodriguez – trainer Robert Garcia and promoter Eddie Hearn – have been cautious. They aren’t ready to proclaim him as the next in any line of succession. There’s talk about him going down in weight — to 112 — for another title, a resume piece that could augment marketability and his leverage at the bargaining table. Given his relative youth, that’s wise.

If you follow the money, however, it’s impossible to not arrive at Naoya Inoue, a former junior-flyweight champion who retained the bantamweight (118) title with a rematch stoppage of 39-year-old Nonito Donaire a Filipino and another former flyweight champ.

Junior-lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson was the first to mention Inoue on social media last week, saying that Rodriguez would beat the Japanese star in two years. The reaction was swift.

Be careful, don’t let Rodriguez get ahead of himself, skeptics said. Fight Roman Gonzalez first.

Gonzalez is the most decorated flyweight ever. The Nicaraguan became the lightest fighter ever to be No. 1 in respected pound-for-pound ratings. The Ring and ESPN put him on top after the then flyweight champion stopped Brian Viloria in October 2015. But Gonzalez’ reign was brief. He moved up in weight, a jump to super-fly that ended in a knockout loss knocked out by Srisaket in 2017.

Before the KO — Gonzalez’ first loss, there was talk of a fight with the emerging Inoue. First, however, negotiations stalled when Gonzalez said he wanted more money. Then, any chance at the proposed bout vanished with Gonzalez’ KO loss.

Now, Inoue is in just about the same position Gonzalez was five, six years ago. He’s No. 1 in The Ring’s current pound-for-pound rating. He’s No. 2 in ESPN’s edition. Meanwhile, Gonzalez is older (35) and vulnerable to being stopped all over again. Would Gonzalez risk fighting Rodriguez, even if he could?

Meanwhile, Inoue’s stardom is peaking. He’s seeking to enhance his international celebrity and affirm his pound-for-pound supremacy.

“I would like to thank all the media for paying attention, and I would like to have more exposure from the media in the future,’’ he said this week in a video address to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

He went on to say: “I’d like to have the fights that the No. 1-ranked boxer deserves.’’

That, he said, means unifying the bantamweight title. He also suggested it could mean another jump up the scale, this time to 122 pounds, junior-featherweight. But another jump in weight poses the risk that undid Gonzalez.

Instead, there looks to be a better opportunity down scale at Super Fly against Rodriguez. It might be the best way to move up the pay scale. Here’s why:

Inoue was guaranteed a reported $350,000 for his rematch with Donaire. His percentage of pay-per-view receipts were expected to boost his pay check to $500,000.

There were no reports on how much Rodriguez collected for his eight-round stunner of Sor Srisaket. Best guess, it was several numbers less than Inoue’s payday for the Donaire rematch.

That brings us back to Carbajal. Historically, he represents the financial record for reported purses in weight classes between bantam and minimum weight (118 to 105). He got a reported $1 million for his rematch loss to rival and business partner Humberto Gonzalez in a 1994 rematch in Los Angeles. Gonzalez got a reported $1-million for a third fight in Mexico City, also in 1994.

Roman Gonzalez’ biggest reported purse was $700,000 for a split-decision loss to Juan Francisco Estrada in 2021. Donaire, who had a $125,000 guarantee for the Inoue rematch, collected seven-figures twice in his long career. But both were at junior-featherweight (122 pounds). He got a reported $1.32 million for a loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013 in New York. In 2012, he got a reported $1 million for a stoppage of Jorge Arce.

Another move up in weight increases the risks that have already been there for Inoue. He suffered a fractured eye-socket in his 2019 Fight-of-the-Year decision over Donaire in their first meeting. Call it a warning. There’s also the clock. Inoue is 29. He’s in his prime. His chances will probably never be any better than they are right now against the emerging Rodriguez, still five-to-six years from his prime.

Do it now. Bam, it just makes too much sense.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a rematch full of role reversals. But one thing hasn’t changed.

The same question is there about Anthony Joshua, the underdog this time instead of the favorite, the role he surrendered in Oleksandr Usyk’s stunning upset by a one-sided decision last September.

The Usyk-Joshua heavyweight sequel, set for August 20 in Saudi Arabia, is intriguing at multiple levels. Usyk, fun and fearless, is a lot of things. He brawls, he boxes. He’s clever, he’s cruel. He has many faces, many styles. All of them have worked and the odds say they will again. Usyk is a 2-to-1 favorite in a rematch announced at a formal news conference this week in Saudi Arabia.

The key is Joshua. Can he change? Amend that. Can he re-discover the fighter he was four-plus years ago in a stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Then, Joshua looked like history’s next great heavyweight. Klitschko’s reign was historic for its duration and efficiency. But his efficiency was so reliable that it suffocated the fabled division. Joshua reinvigorated it with a dramatic performance in a fight that drew comparisons to the Ali era.

There were four knockdowns. Joshua scored one, got up from one and scored two more in an 11^th-round TKO of Klitschko in what was then a fight for the ages.  

But the excitement ended quietly not long after the last fan of a reported 90,000 exited Wembley after that memorable fight in April 2017. A forgettable TKO of Carlos Takam followed. Then, a forgettable decision over Joseph Parker. And another forgettable stoppage of Alexander Povetkin. There was talk that Joshua had suddenly grown tentative, seemingly a fighter who had left his aggressiveness in the ring during the up-and-down drama against Klitschko, then 41.

Then, there was Andy Ruiz Jr. in a stoppage stunner of Joshua at Madison Square Garden in June 1919. That’s when the doubts about Joshua went from a whisper to a shout. Joshua just wasn’t the same guy. The doubt is still there, loud and clear, despite Joshua’s careful decision over a woefully-prepared Ruiz about six months later, also in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua still looked tentative, despite a Ruiz who had partied himself out of heavyweight and into sumo. Joshua fought as though he was there only to win. What he needed, however, was an aggressive stoppage, a definitive statement in an answer to the questions.

Then, Joshua followed up with a stoppage, this time a ninth-round KO of Kubrat Pulev, who went into the ring with only 14 KOs in 28 victories. Pulev lacked heavyweight power. He couldn’t hurt Joshua.

But Usyk could and did so repeatedly in a unanimous decision that left Joshua looking confused and again – tentative – at Tottenham Stadium in London. The doubt persists.

The key, however, might be there in what is the most intriguing change made before the rematch. Robert Garcia will be in Joshua’s corner. Garcia is known for teaching aggressiveness to fighters in the middle weight classes. It’s all about pursuit, moving forward and fighting off the front foot.

He’s there to stop Joshua’s retreat.

That, however, figures to be a challenge, both for him and Joshua. Garcia is not known for his work with heavyweights. His career includes 14 world champions, but never a heavyweight champ. Joshua would be his first. He’s known for his terrific work with Mexican-American and Mexican fighters. From Antonio Margarito to brother Mikey Garcia, Robert Garcia’s aggressive philosophy is there, in tactics and demeanor.

It’s a Garcia trademark. But will it work with a UK heavyweight, who is bigger and maybe stronger than the multi-skilled Usyk?

“I started coming (to the UK) in December,’’ Garcia said this week during the newser “I’ve been coming back-and-forth to work with Anthony. I see a different Anthony now. The way he thinks, the way he talks, everything he’s practicing, everything he’s doing in the gym. I think he fought the wrong fight, and that’s the past. That happened already. 

“We’ll see who’s the better man. We’re going to do whatever it takes to win those titles back. I know he can do it. He’s the bigger man, he’s the stronger man, he’s got the reach advantage.

“So, we’re going to take advantage of all that. Come that day, I think without a doubt, we’re going to have a three-time heavyweight champion of the world.

“We’ve got to be prepared for everything. Usyk is a great fighter. He’s got skills. He’s got reflexes. He’s got accuracy. He’s got everything. I think Anthony has all the tools to beat him. We just have to do the things in the gym.” 

And in the corner for what might the story of the fight.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Tyson Fury is talking again. That, of course, would be news only if he had gone silent for, say, longer than a week or three. Put it this way: He’ll quit talking when the tide quits coming in.

He says he’s retired. He says he’s not. He mentions half-a-billion. He teases and taunts, insults and intrigues, lies and laughs We’ve yet to hear a few lyrics from Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie. But the beat goes on. The whole lousy lounge act is already unfolding.

It’s doesn’t matter what he says. What does matter is that he’s saying it, still saying it all. The heavyweight champ is back at the bully pulpit, which only means that another opening bell can’t be too far away.  

There’s an old line that a fight starts at the negotiating table. Fury is already negotiating.

The latest sure sign came in a tweet — a “QUICK MESSAGE…” — from Fury Wednesday.

“A quick message to let everybody know that I, The Gypsy King, am happily retired. But to get me out of retirement – considering I don’t need the money, I don’t need the aggravation – it’s going to cost these people half-a-billion.’’

QUICK REACTION: Gob-smacking, it’s not.

Nobody, including Fury co-promoters Frank Warren and Bob Arum, ever believed that retirement was anything more than a vacation. Fury promised he was done – retired – after his sixth-round stoppage of Dillian Whyte on April 23 in front of 94,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium.  Promises last about as long as noses in boxing, of course, They are there to be broken. Fury didn’t even let the seasons change before he started the talk that says he’ll fight again. He retired in early spring. He began signaling another fight before the official start to summer.

It’d be no surprise if Fury backed off his tweet in some way. Another great talker in another sport, basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, once said he had been misquoted in his autobiography, Outrageous. He even said that would try to ban the book, published in 1992. Barkley got away with it, because people like him. They love the self-deprecating humor, the edgy common sense. Same with Fury. He can say whatever he wants. It’s part of the act.

The question, of course, is the half-billion, which could move Fury into the exclusive fringe of the billionaire’s neighborhood, especially if the half-a-bill is paid in pounds instead of dollars. It’s clear that a couple of “the people” in Fury’s tweet are Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk. They’re expected to fight on August 20, at least so says Eddie Hearn, another talker, but no match for Fury.

Fury is already ripping Joshua, calling him a weightlifter among other things. He’s offered to help him in the rematch of Usyk’s upset of the fellow UK heavyweight last September. Then, when asked if he would attend the projected Usyk-Joshua rematch, Fury said he wouldn’t waste his time on “bums.”

The winning bum, of course, could be Fury’s partner in what might be the biggest payday in history. The aforementioned “people” in Fury’s tweet has to be the Arabs. They are the only people who can afford a tank of gas these days. The Usyk-Joshua rematch is expected to happen in the oil-rich state. If Fury changes his mind and decides to attend, maybe he can sit ringside alongside golfer Phil Mickelson, the face of the latest purchase in Saudi Arabia’s sports-washing enterprise.

“If you do get us a deal with these Middle East folks, can you at least get me free fuel for life?” Fury saId this week during a show hosted by Warren’s Queensberry Promotions.  “I’m paying a fortune on petrol.”

For now, he’s also doing a little gas-lighting, a traditional starting point in negotiations.

By Norm Frauenheim –

The shuffle continues. It never really ceases, mostly because the pound-for-pound game is only about opinion. It’s noisier than it has been in a while.

Upsets will do that, and there have been plenty in a debate heightened by the biggest one of all – Dmitry Bivol’s upset of consensus No. 1 Canelo Alvarez.

A month later, that stunner is still generating lots of revised ratings, all at the top of the scale. Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue, Tyson Fury. Take your pick. There’s no right or wrong here. No rules either. There’s just chaos.

From this corner, Crawford, still unbeaten, was No. 1 before Bivol-Canelo. Last November, the unbeaten welterweight strengthened his hold on this corner’s mythical No. 1 with a dynamic stoppage of proven Shawn Porter, who retired after the bout.

For Crawford to become the consensus No. 1, however, he still has to beat Errol Spence Jr. Amend that. First, he has to secure a deal, date and place for a showdown with Spence, who has his own pound-for-pound credentials and aspirations. Recently, there’s been a lot of talk that the fight will happen, perhaps later this year. That’s better than all the prior talk that it would never happen. Still, it’s only talk.

Maybe the shuffle at the top of the debate will serve as further motivation for a deal, a definitive fight that should have happened a couple of years ago. The clock is pushing it perilously close to past-due. Crawford will be 35 on Sept. 28; Spence is 32, about 10 months from his next birthday. It’s still a prime-time fight, but it won’t stay in that window much longer.

More urgent, perhaps, are the pound-for-pound contenders who figure to line up – week-after-week, fight-after-fight — for an opportunity to make their own claim on No.1.

Let’s just say it’s vacant and will stay that way for a while.

There’s Inoue, already a consensus top five, who can further his pound-for-pound argument next week (June 7 in Japan) against Nonito Donaire in a rematch (ESPN+) of their 2019 Fight of the Year. Guess here: The entertaining Inoue will do exactly that. Donaire is 40. His resiliency and energy will begin to fail in the later rounds     

Then, there’s Usyk, who is already at the top of some ratings. We’ll know soon enough if he belongs there. He’s working toward a summer rematch against Anthony Joshua. He scored a stunner — a decision as unanimous as it was skillful — over the bigger Joshua in September. Guess here: He’ll do it again, this time motivated more than ever to win one for his besieged homeland, the Ukraine.

Still, there was an intriguing addition to Joshua’s corner this week. The UK heavyweight hired Robert Garcia to be his trainer. Maybe, Garcia can restore Joshua’s aggressiveness. He’s been timid, a shell of the fighter who ended Wladimir Klitschko’s career

in April 2017.

Then, there’s Tyson Fury. The unified heavyweight champ says he’s retired. But there are tons of reasons, all fungible, to be skeptical. He just leaves a lot of money on the table if he walks away and stays away. Maybe, he’s waiting on Usyk-Joshua 2. Or, maybe, he’s just trying to distance himself from questions about his relationship with Daniel Kinahan, the alleged Irish gangster with documented links to boxing. US law enforcement is offering a $5 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Kinahan.

Then, there’s still Canelo. The Mexican, boxing’s biggest draw in the post-Floyd Mayweather era, can put himself back in contention and win back the support he had before his unanimous-decision loss to light-heavyweight champion Bivol. But that won’t be easy. Canelo, a golfer, is in the rough. Guess here: To reclaim the top spot, he needs two convincing stoppages, first of 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin in September in a super-middleweight bout in their third fight and then in a rematch against Bivol in early 2023.

This argument is just getting started.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It’s a fantasy.

That, at least, is how David Benavidez’ promoter described talk about any chance at a fight with Canelo Alvarez in the wake of Benavidez’ very real beatdown of David Lemieux.

“Quit fantasizing,’’ Sampson Lewkowicz told media about an hour after a violent third-round stoppage of Lemieux at a National Hockey League arena about seven miles from where Benavidez grew up in Phoenix. “There’s no way that Canelo is going to fight the People’s Champ.’’

There no quit in fantasy, however, especially after a dominant exhibition from 25-year-old super-middleweight that got a roaring crowd and Showtime audience fantasizing about just how good Benavidez might be a year, or two, from now.

Put it this way: A little bit of fantasy is a pretty good place to start thinking about negotiations. It’s also a subtle step away from the frustration that has dogged Benavidez throughout his noisy pursuit of a rich date with Canelo.

Benavidez’ victory over Lemieux a week ago at Gila River Arena in Glendale AZ was no surprise. The brave Lemieux, a former middleweight champion, was overmatched in every way. But Benavidez exceeded expectations. The bout was meant to showcase his potential. He did that and more. The clever Lewkowicz called him a People’s Champ. The Lemieux performance was full of more reasons to think he will be one. He’s getting social-media clicks. He’s doing numbers at the box office.

That’s more than fantasy. It’s momentum, which is something Canelo is trying to regain.

This week, Canelo decided to fight Gennadiy Golovkin for a third time instead of an immediate rematch of his stunning decision loss to light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol.

GGG was a business move, not surprising in the wake of disappointing reports about the DAZN numbers for the pay-per-view telecast of Canelo-Bivol on May 7. The PPV reports varied, but they fell nearly 300,000 short of the PPV sales — reported to be about 800,000 — for Canelo’s victory over Caleb Plant. Plant an American, was – still is — better known than the skilled Bivol, a mostly-unknown Russian.

GGG is 40. His skillset might have eroded, but his name recognition has not. People still know him for his first two fights with Canelo, both debatable. The first was a draw. The second was a majority decision, won by Canelo.

Now, questions follow Canelo as he goes into a decisive third fight with GGG. Was the Bivol loss just a bad night? Was the move from 168 pounds to 175 too much? Is he beginning to show signs of decline? They’ll all be there in September.

So, too, will Benavidez.

For now, Benavidez is first in line for Canelo. With the World Boxing Council’s so-called interim title, Benavidez is supposed to get a mandatory shot at Canelo, if and when the WBC ever orders the fight.

For the rest of this year, however, Benavidez-Canelo is fantasy. Lewkowicz is talking about Plant, Jarmall Charlo or David Morell, an emerging Cuban. perhaps in November. Whoever it is, it’s a fight that could further the fantasy. If Benavidez’ ascendancy continues, fans won’t quit thinking about it. More important, they won’t quit talking about it.

They’ll promote it in ways that Lewkowicz can’t. Could the fantasy become reality next year, say May 6 2023? It depends on Canelo’s performance against GGG. It depends on how Benavidez looks in November.

It also depends on whether Canelo in fact fights Bivol for a second time. He said this week he will. Maybe, a third GGG bout is a steppingstone toward regaining momentum and his pound-for-pound status.

But Benavidez believes that Canelo can’t ever beat Bivol. He says Canelo would lose a rematch. Then what?

“Then, he’s got nowhere to go,’’ Benavidez said before he bulldozed Lemieux. “He’ll have to come back down to 168.

That means me.’’

Fantasy meets reality