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An email sent out to various
members of the media on Thursday afternoon from ace publicist Fred Sternburg informed
us that a bout between Juan
Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado had been made for May 17th at the
newly-refurbished Forum in Inglewood, California. This bout will be fought at a
catchweight of 143 pounds.
Both Marquez and Alvarado
suffered losses within a week of each other last October. Marquez was outpointed
by Tim Bradley at the Thomas and Mack Center in Los Angeles and Alvarado was
hammered into submission by Ruslan Provodnikov in front of his hometown crowd
in Denver. It has the chance of being a fun scrap; just how competitive it will
be depends on just how much Alvarado has left of his legs and if he can
actually have a disciplined training camp (with that in mind, Alvarado was
reportedly going to prepare for this fight in Los Angeles, not the “Mile High City”).
Perhaps just as enticing as
this match-up for SoCal boxing fans is the Forum is once again hosting a major
fight card. Marquez made sense as the headliner of this event given he began his
career promoted by Forum Boxing.
Sternburg's email mentioned
that the winner of this contest would then face the victor of the April 12th rematch between Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao. At this point, you could hear a
collective groan from many fans who, at this point, are a bit sick of the
repetitiveness of the potential match-ups. If Marquez wins as expected, he will
face a guy he has either fought four times already or someone he juuuuust faced
back in the fall.
(And there is this fact:
Provodnikov yearned for a fight with Marquez but was rebuffed. Then Marquez
turns around and faces that exact same guy Provodnikov just knocked out. Yeah,
there's no other way to say it; he's taking the path of least resistance. In the
meantime, the “Siberian Rocky” will languish till June 14th and is
still looking for a dance partner. With this current scenario being set up by Top
Rank, it doesn't look like Provodnikov is in the mix to face either Pacquiao or
Bradley in 2014.)
This is where the “Cold War”
between Top Rank Promotions/HBO and Golden Boy Promotions/Showtime is again
rearing its ugly head.
Because under the current
climate, boxers like Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson aren't
even considered for this scenario. Under the pure context of being individual
fights, Marquez-Alvarado and Bradley-Pacquiao II are fine. They should provide
some entertaining moments and will do significant numbers.
It's what it might (again) lead
to that is unappealing to some.
SPORTS ON EARTH
Here's my latest
contribution to SportsOnEarth.com on Chinese heavyweight hopeful Zhang Zhilei
and Dynasty Boxing:
TNR
Here's the latest episode of
“The Next Round” with Gabe Montoya and Yours Truly:
And to download our app,
please visit:
Sergio Martinez-Miguel Cotto
tickets are going fast: http://www.maxboxing.com/news/promo-lead/get-em-while-you-can...Golden
Boy and Leija Battah Promotions are hosting back-to-back shows at the Alamodome
in San Antonio on April 17th and 18th...The Raiders sure
make some interesting moves; don't they?...Can't wait for the season premiere
of “Vice” on HBO...Really looking forward to ESPN’s “30 for 30” on the Big East
basketball conference. From about 1984 to 1989, I thought it was the most
compelling conference going…I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
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