This Saturday night from the
MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort (9:45 p.m., ET), rising junior middleweight Willie
Nelson makes his HBO debut versus Luciano Cuello. The first time the boxing
public got to see Nelson on a national stage, he was getting sent to the canvas
three times by Vincent Arroyo in April of 2011, his only career loss. At that
point, Nelson made two important moves: first from welterweight to his current
weight class and then from Cleveland to Youngstown, Ohio.
Since then, he has notched
four consecutive victories, the last three against a pretty solid list of
fighters in Yudel Jhonson, John Jackson (both who were undefeated) and Michael
Medina. He now holds the NABF 154-pound title and his poised for a major title
shot in a few fights.
“I think the biggest move
has been the move from Cleveland to Youngstown, switching trainers from my
amateur coach to Jack Loew,” Nelson explained to Maxboxing on Monday afternoon
via cell phone. “So I think that's the biggest change that helped me out.”
That loss to Arroyo, on “ShoBox,”
came when the freakishly tall Nelson (a lankly 6’3”) was still competing as a
welterweight.
“Actually, it was a
catchweight at 145; I believe,” he clarified. “I starved myself to make 145 and
then I actually came in at 143.7. I actually came in underweight and I was just
completely drained and I just didn't have nothing.”
In short, he looked hollow
and frail.
“That's pretty much what it
was besides the hook that he hit me with the second time he put me to the canvas
- that shot would've put anyone down, I think. Pretty much the two right hands,
they were like flash knockdowns. I just went down. I couldn't understand why.
I'd never been down before. I just didn't understand why.”
Soon he was packing his bags
and heading to the Rust Belt and a city best known for producing the likes of
Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Kelly Pavlik. He admits the move “was tough but,
then again, it wasn't because Cleveland and Youngstown are only an hour away.
So it was kinda tough leaving my family behind and moving out here - but really
it wasn't.”
While LeBron James may not
think so, Cleveland is still a major city. But Youngstown gave Nelson a certain
amount of privacy and focus he just couldn't get at home. Also, boxing in this
jurisdiction is still a big deal.
Nelson explained, “The
biggest difference is like Cleveland has their professional teams established.
They have their professional athletes already such as the Browns, the Indians,
the Cavaliers, so boxing sometimes gets overlooked - where in Youngstown,
they're either Pittsburgh fans or Cleveland fans. When a professional athlete
comes out that city, they can focus on them more and he gets more attention and
he won’t be overshadowed by any other sports.”
He adds, “I'm away from my
family, the problems that occur like with my family or anything. So if
something happens in Cleveland, I'm not there. I don't have to worry about it but
if I'm there, it's easy for someone to call me or just run around and do stuff.
It's a big difference as far as training because I could focus more.”
Loew knew he had a lot work
with when presented the opportunity to train Nelson.
“Absolutely, it helped
spending that time with Kelly Pavlik, with Kelly having that height and
everything and I just saw Willie fighting like a small fighter. Like you don't
get beat with a right hand fighting somebody 5’8”, 5’9” like he did against
Arroyo and I've known Willie since the amateur days and he's had so much
success, so much talent.”
And according to the veteran
trainer; it wasn't difficult to convince Nelson to migrate to Youngstown. “It
wasn't hard at all,” said Loew. “I think Willie was so used to success that
that loss on ‘ShoBox’ really triggered something and I just think he felt he
needed a change and the opportunity was there. It's only an hour away from his
kids in Cleveland and everything. So it wasn't a hard sell at all. He was
really anxious to come.”
With his lanky, long
physique, Nelson belongs at 154 and presents a match-up problem for almost
everyone in this division. Loew states, “I think with his frame, with the right
training, Willie can go anywhere from ‘54 to ‘68, one day.” And Nelson is itching
to face the best the junior middleweight class has to offer. “I do want to
fight more notable names, fight top guys. I'm pretty much tired of fighting
prospects or journeymen or anything like that. I want someone who's a household
name to fight, hopefully to get the win against them so I become a household
name. I'm going after the [Erislandy] Laras, the [Miguel] Cottos, [Saul]
Alvarezes; them guys I want. Anybody else I see as pointless in me fighting
because if I beat them, I'm supposed to.”
Right now, Nelson is still
building his case to even be in the discussion with those names. But at the
very least, he's got HBO interested. A strong performance on Saturday night and
he could become a regular on the network. A multitude of other boxers either
turned down this assignment or were not available. Eventually, the tough trialhorse
from Argentina was selected and approved by HBO.
“I don't know much [about
Cuello],” he admitted. “Most of his fights have been in Argentina. I know he
fought two world champions. From the fights I've seen, I know he's durable. As
the rounds go on, he gets stronger.”
At 26, the future seems
bright for Nelson, rated third at junior middleweight in the WBC (where Saul
Alvarez holds the belt) and has a record of 20-1-1 (12).
For Loew, its proof there is
life after “The Ghost.” Regardless of who comes through his gym doors in the
future, he will always be best known for being the original trainer of Pavlik, a
shooting star that burned out quickly. In many respects, it's vindication for
the trainer.
“Yes it is. It's been of
great gratitude working with Willie. Getting back to this level, y’ know,
getting to talk to my buddy, Steve Kim,” he said, jokingly. “But seriously,
when stuff like that happens, you know you're there again and believe me; I'll
be the first to admit it: I loved being on top of the world with Kelly. I loved
the big events. I thrive on stuff like that.”
It wasn't all that long ago
that Pavlik was the middleweight champion of the world and thought of as one of
the game’s biggest stars. He was the face of Youngstown and a legitimate draw
in Atlantic City (where casino bars ran out of beer on the weekends he
performed as his rabid fans left the kegs dry) and just like that...it was
over. The big paydays, the spotlight, being involved in the sport’s biggest
promotions were a not-so-distant memory.
From being on HBO to working
corners back on the club circuit. For a stretch, this guy, who, for years
subsidized his training career by laying concrete, was in the big leagues.
“Absolutely,” he said, “and
I missed the hell out of it and Willie's a fight or two away from that for
himself. I'm going to push his ass as hard as I can because I want to get back
there.”
The end of Pavlik's career
came with him training on the West Coast with Robert Garcia. As his life
spiraled out of control and his performances in the ring declined, it was the
original cornerman who was scapegoated. Loew admits, “It was tough and I didn't
have the luxury of guys like Freddie Roach and Robert Garcia, that have five, six,
seven HBO fighters. I had one guy that I was making a helluva living off of and
I took all the heat for everything he did outside the ring. It was extremely
frustrating. I couldn't let people see all the work I've done with all my other
fighters because I had Kelly. That was it. So everything he did wrong outside
of the ring, I took a bashing for it and it killed me and it killed my family.
“But it's just something I
went through.”
There was a lot of enabling
going on from everyone involved. Nobody is blameless here. The bottom line
is Pavlik was an earner and as one incident came upon another, excuses and
alibis were crafted on his behalf. Plus, too many trips to Betty Ford wouldn't
be conducive for his career; there was always a sense that Pavlik never made
the full commitment to his own rehabilitation.
It's puzzling; why couldn't
Pavlik - who meant so much to his region and the business - handle prosperity?
“This is the time right
here. We should've been fighting the Andre Wards, the [Carl] Frochs, the [Arthur]
Abrahams,” says Loew, the frustration in his voice palpable. “This is the time
when he should've been one of the biggest things out there right now.”
He makes it clear; the mere
pressure of being champion or the grind of being a professional prizefighter
and being the most recognizable face in his home city didn't bring about his
problems.
“I don't think it happened
overnight, obviously,” said Loew, who began training Pavlik from his very first
days in the amateurs. “It was his outside activities that has cost his career.
It had nothing to do with Kelly losing his greatness, how good he was but it's
everything he did outside of boxing that came crashing down on him. And I
warned certain people in our camp that it's going to catch up to us. Like I
said, it didn't happen when he was 27, 28, 29 years old. Our problems started
way earlier and like I said, I warned or tried to ask certain individuals, ‘Hey,
we gotta put a halt to this now,’ and it didn't happen. I think it had nothing
to do with Kelly's desire to box. It had nothing to do with his losing his
ability to box.
“Everything that happened to
Kelly up to this point has to do with everything outside of boxing.”
Now with Nelson, Loew is
determined to not let the same mistakes be made again.
“We all tried [with Kelly];
I don't think anything I could've done or anything I could've said or didn't
say or do would've worked. It was gonna happen. It happened but I did learn a
lot from that,” said Loew, who points out, “Willie Nelson is a totally
different type of a person. Listen, Kelly, made me a lot of money. I still care
very deeply about the kid but he has his problem and I took a bad beating over
those problems outside of the ring and I shouldn't have.
“But like I just said,
Willie Nelson is a whole different type of kid outside the ring. I couldn't
have asked more of Kelly inside of the ring and inside of the gym. Willie, like
I said, is one of those kids that does everything the right way. He loves being
in the gym; he's a gym rat. If I work one day and I can't make it to the park
when he runs, I don't question that. I know he did. Every kid is different. All
fighters have flaws. All fighters have vices outside the ring - it wasn't just
Kelly. A lot of these guys have a lot of those problems outside of boxing. This
is probably the easiest kid I've worked with.”
Loew jokes that Nelson has a
love of video games that borders on obsession. For now, Nelson is disciplined
and studious…but that's for now. What happens when the money rolls in?
“That's true,” Loew admits
but also points out that with Pavlik, money wasn't necessarily the root of all
evil. “Before the money rolled in, it was all there. It was all there written
in stone and nothing was done about it. I think that the money just enhanced everything
to that next level.”
Nelson, he believes, is cut from
a different cloth, one built for the long haul and one built to go all the way
and stay there for awhile.
“He's just one of those kids
like, ‘Wow, could it be this easy?’ But you're right; it does scare me
sometimes. I was so used to that phone call in the middle of the night, all the
trouble we had. Now, all of a sudden, I'm relaxed. It's great training this
kid. Like I said, I just hope everything continues well.
“This is one kid that really,
really deserves to make it.”
TNR
NEW YORK (June 26, 2013) – Last Saturday night’s
hotly contested Paulie Malignaggi vs. Adrien Broner Welterweight World
Championship fight attracted an audience of 1.3 million viewers, the
second-largest viewing audience for a bout on SHOWTIME since the network began
tracking individual fights in 2009.
The
average viewership for the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING televised
tripleheader—promoted by Golden Boy Promotions from Brooklyn’s Barclays
Center—was also the second highest average since Nielsen began separating
SHOWTIME from the networks’ multiplex channels in 2004.
In
the nearly 10 years since 2004, three of the top-four most watched SHOWTIME
CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING live telecasts have aired in the last seven months—[Miguel]
Cotto vs. [Austin] Trout, Dec. 2012; Malignaggi vs. Broner, June 2013; [Saul] Canelo
[Alvarez] vs. Trout, April 2013—marking an upward trend. The fourth was
Bernard Hopkins vs. Jean Pascal in 2010.
Further,
the top-four largest audiences for an individual bout on SHOWTIME have come in
the last 10 months—the aforementioned three plus Canelo vs. [Josesito] Lopez in
Sept. 2012.
The
surge in average viewership over the past two years represents an increase of
over 50% since 2011 with two consecutive years of double-digit percentage
gains. From 2011 through 2012, SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING ratings were
up more than 30 percent and from 2012 to present, including last Saturday’s telecast,
they are up 16 percent.
The numbers are impressive -
especially by Showtime standards - and it's clear that this network is
certainly on an upswing. To put this into perspective, when Broner fought Gavin
Rees back in February on HBO, he did so in front of 1.4 million viewers. HBO
still has a larger subscription base than Showtime and usually, their boxing
broadcasts play to larger audiences. But in this instance, Broner was able to
stay in the same Nielsen neighborhood.
Could this paradigm between
Showtime and HBO be shifting?
Or is this the ceiling in
terms of what Showtime does, ratings-wise?
And how will Showtime/Golden
Boy Promotions fare in the future with boxers not initially developed on HBO?
FOXWOOD FLURRIES
By the time you're reading this, I might
already be on the plane headed to the East Coast and eventually to Foxwoods for
this weekend’s card, which has a main event featuring Gennady “Goodboy”
Golovkin vs. Matthew Macklin...By the way, does the Foxwoods have a fitness
center? And do they charge for its use?...According to the state of New York,
the Adrien Broner-Paulie Malignaggi event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn
sold 8,902 tickets among 9,827 total tickets for a gate of $854,820...Remember
all the uproar over Rob Gronkowski caused by drinking too much beer in public?
With what's happened to the other then-Patriot tight end, that seems kinda
trivial; doesn't it?...So the Lakers have billboards begging Dwight Howard to
stay? That just looks desperate. Then again, maybe they are...It's been a
pretty good June on the recruiting front for Al Golden and the Miami
Hurricanes...