Welcome to another edition of Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack, a Thursday tradition from the boxing writer who pledges to issue at least a half-dozen Will Smith slaps at the Boxing Writers Association of America annual awards dinner– if he ever gets invited to one. This week, we have comments/questions regarding the 140 and 135 lb. divisions, Oscar De La Hoya’s grudges, and the contentious world of Kambosos-Haney.
140/135
Hi Paul.
Writing this email to reach the weekly mailbag, my topic now is 140 Pounds. There are a lot of guys that could make for pretty entertaining fights, and seeing how most of them are aligned with Top Rank, we might see them happen.
If I had to rank them it would be like this:
-Catterall
-Prograis
-Zepeda
-Ramirez
-Teofimo Lopez
-Gary A. Rusell
-Arnold Barboza
Who do you see as the better of them if they fight each other?
As for my new hope of fights at 135, I think it will all depend on if Tank ends up leaving PBC and Mayweather (Crossing my fingers). If he does, that opens up the door for Ryan Garcia or even whoever comes on top of the Kambosos-Haney fight…
Regards.
— Miguel Roa
Hey Miguel.
I think the 135-140 weight range is going to be real fluid for the next couple of years, with fighters moving up and occasionally down for big fights as they become available. I think we may see Ryan Garcia at 140 very soon. Haney may be there after his two Kambosos fights, win or lose, as well. So, at some point, we may have to lump all these names together to rank them.
Right now, with everyone staying put at their current weight class, I’d be tempted to rank Prograis above them all, at least for now– and assuming he stays sharp by being more active. Lopez is intriguing, assuming he can get his head and body together. Barboza and Russell are in the same boat– I still have to see more. I’m also still reserving judgment on Catterall.
For me, 135 is still the more intriguing division. Tank Davis vs. Lomachenko would be a true boxing fan’s dream fight, even though it’s unlikely to happen. You could take any of the top dogs at 135 and mix and match them for quality fights. The second tier of the division is also very good and could provide any number of quality fights.
Hopefully, boxing business doesn’t get in the way of boxing yet again.
Kambosos, the Diva vs. Haney?
Haney vs the so-called Spartan (like that means anytning) Kambosos
Hey Paul it’s been a minute! Hope all is well. I want to apologize beforehand for the long post. However, I must kill some narratives and get this off my chest. Let’s jump right in.
Wow, am I happy this fight is finally completed I THINK! Boxing is my second favorite sport. I absolutely love it. I consider myself a die hard fan. I have been against many people saying boxing is dying blah blah blah, you know all the old man talk (I am a millennial). However, this fight simply shows how bad boxing really is as a whole. Let’s dig deeper.
Ducking is a sin. And Kambosos will pay for his transgressions. Just as Loma was able to skip the line and fight for a belt after spending his prime in the amateurs beating up teens. He was led to the rugged part-time Uber driver in Salido and was beaten by the 14 loss fighter. Then he skips the line again and fights for a title right after. Then the WBC allows him to skip over Haney to fight Campbell. Fast forward, he drops the belt to avoid Haney, fights Lopez and loses. Lopez is ducking Haney, trying to price himself out then he gets beat. If Haney is such easy work and he’s feather fisted why is he being avoided so much? Insert a picture of Ryan Garcia. A man who asked to be removed from the mando postion in order to not face Haney. Unbelievable. I don’t want to hear about ticket sales or drawing power. Ryan Garcia has never made more than 250k for any fight. He’s also an absolute boxing non-draw. 12 and 13-year-old white and Hispanic girls don’t buy boxing tickets and they def don’t attend fights. Loma isn’t a draw, he sells no tickets and Lopez is worse. Haney is no Tank who outsells them all and makes more than all of them at 135, but Haney also makes more and sells more than the previous fighters I mentioned. I say all that to say this.
Kambosos turned into the diva he talked about when referencing Lopez. A 10M dollar purse demand for a guy that has never sold more than 3K tickets in his own country. All of a sudden he will pack a stadium now. Lol. Yea right. If Haney is supposedly not a draw and Kambosos can’t sell water to a man in the desert, there will be no sellout. To add he tried to duck Haney for undisputed. And fight Loma. Before this he tried to wait it out like a coward and there were whispers of the never deserving Ryan Garcia getting the fight. You have to be kidding me!
In a time where so-called fans complain about fighters ducking/avoiding and promoters and TV entities destroying fights, look at this. We have a nobody in Kambosos who can’t draw flies to crap demanding a 10M dollar payday. Now I’m not mad at him for getting his retirement fund together because after this fight I believe the non-skilled hustle guy will fade into obscurity. Floyd wasn’t even getting 10M when he was first considered p4p. Haney may as well be Canelo because 10M is what his opponents get. To add there is a rematch clause and if Haney wins the second fight is also in Australia. Haney is taking a pay cut making far less than he did for Linares for example and if he wins the first fight he is still the B-side monetarily for the second one. He even had to sign a 3-fight slave deal with ESPN and the racist Bob Arum. All this for a fight? Why no out cry about the diva Kambosos putting up so many roadblocks and obstacles. I’ll tell you. White privilege in the dirty sport of boxing. He did all this in hopes of Haney rejecting it. Kambosos hoped to run like a school yard girl to social media and claim Haney ducked him and didn’t want the fight.
But ducking is a sin, and as those before him he will pay for ducking. His 15 mins is up. There is nothing from a boxing perspective he does better than Haney. It’s funny when someone’s beats a fighter that’s in such high regard (Lopez who was always overrated and has serious flaws). He’s now the best thing since sliced bread. Hell, put Valdez in here with a win over Berchelt. A few months ago the hardest of hardcore fans knew little to nothing about Kambosos. Devin is going to pick him apart. Kambosos isn’t a legacy fight, but being undisputed is. This fight has replaced my future Spence-Crawford fight and has replaced my thirst to see Stevenson stop the drug cheat Valdez. I can’t wait for Haney to beat up Kambosos in Aussie land!
–Lawrence Westbrook
Hey Lawrence.
I get where you’re coming from, but I think you’re being a little harsh on Kambosos. I don’t think you would’ve seen anything different from any other fighter in the same position. Remember how “diva-ish” Teofimo got when he suddenly became top dog? When you get to the top, you’re going to be able to play that game and pick and chose your best career options. It just seems more abrasive when it comes from someone who came out of nowhere, all of a sudden, to become top dog shot-caller.
Just judging from the media attention he receives in his native Australia, Kambosos has become a big deal down under. I don’t think he’d be getting a $10 million, Australian purse (about $7.5 million USD) if organizers didn’t think he could turn a profit for them. Haney, by the way, is reportedly earning about $2.1 million USD for the Kambosos fight, which falls in line with what he generally makes as a WAY overpriced fighter, to be honest (actually, numbers are all over the place when it comes to how much he made at DAZN, with estimates ranging from a $1 million to $3 million per fight. Be wary, by the way, of any earnings figures you see tossed around online. Nobody but the fighter’s own management knows what they’re making. Sometimes even the fighters, themselves, are unsure as to the exact amount).
Honestly, not trying to be an ass here, but I think Kambosos is, arguably, a bigger draw right now in the US than Haney is. A lot of creative bean counting and tallying have gone into selling Haney as a draw, but real-world numbers tell another story. I’ve seen the live gate numbers and I’ve heard of his utter inability to draw subscribers. At millions per fight, DAZN was hemorrhaging money on the guy. I think that’s why Eddie Hearn and DAZN aren’t exactly crying about him signing with Top Rank and DiBella. I think Eddie Hearn’s game has been to let Haney go and see someone else build his star, then try to scoop him back up.
Competitively, his skills are obvious and I still think he has a massive up side, but his performances have been inconsistent at this latest step up of his career. I’m definitely not as high on him as I was a couple years back.
I’m not trying to crap on the guy. I’m just trying to put some perspective on a guy who’s starting to develop a Demetrius Andrade-type vibe to his career. Like Andrade, he BELIEVES himself to be a star and is being paid star money by dumb money marks, but in the real boxing world, he just doesn’t have the drawing power he needs to have leverage in negotiations. So, also like Andrade, he presents too much risk for too little reward.
THAT is the reason we’re seeing Haney take “regular” money and make concessions for what is believed to be a blockbuster in Australia and a fairly big fight in the rest of the world. Getting those belts will give him the leverage he needs to get bigger and bigger fights. He NEEDS this opportunity…and he needs to deliver.
As for the fight, itself? I said last week that, right now, I’m leaning towards Kambosos. Haney is a better fighter, but is he tougher? Will he be up to the task of fighting on such hostile territory? Can he get a fair shake? A lot will be working against him and he’ll need to fight a near-perfect fight with zero slip-ups. I don’t think he’s capable of that big showing just yet. I’m hardly saying he has zero chance, though. I say it’s probably 55-45 or 60-40 that Kambosos wins, but, of course, we’re more than two months out and I reserve the right to change my mind based on what I see leading up to fight night.
De La Hoya’s Self-Destructive Grudge
Oscar needs to get out of his feelings. It’s really starting to look bad. Whatever happened between GBP, Al Haymon and Stephen Espinoza probably isn’t worth Oscar gutting the careers of Jaime Mungia and Vergil Ortiz. Once Ryan Garcia grows out of that lightweight frame, he’ll become a victim of Oscar’s personal grudges from over a decade ago. Oscar has no mobility for any of his fighters between 147-160. The blowback from the Mungia v Charlo clash is just an embarrassment. Munguia deserves that title shot. But Oscar’s pride and vendetta won’t let him negotiate on the other side of the pay wall.
Maybe you can provide some clarity. Is what Haymon and Espinoza did to Oscar worst that what Eddie Hearn did to Oscar? Let’s be honest, Eddie Hearn took Canelo right from Oscar without flexing a muscle. Oscar is holding a grudge over spoiled milk. While he maintains a relationship with a network and promoter who took the cash cow and p4p king right from under his nose. You’re the boxing aficionado. Maybe you can make sense of this.
— Nail Rahman
Hey Nail.
I don’t know what goes on in Oscar’s head (and I’m damn grateful for that). I’d hazard a guess, though, that he sees the loss of Canelo as more of a Canelo construct than a Hearn scheme to steal Canelo away. That’s easier to stomach since, for a while, we all kind of saw the writing on the wall when it came to Alvarez leaving GBP.
What Oscar went through at the hands of Richard Schaefer (and to the benefit of Al Haymon) was much more humiliating, IMO. Oscar was pushed to invest so much money and energy into building fighters who, ultimately, were never even his. Schaefer hustled Oscar, who was hobbled by substance abuse issues, by keeping these guys independent while Oscar worked under the idea that they were under contract. Then, they all pretty much went elsewhere, leaving Oscar high and dry (no pun intended). That was cold.
But, you’re right. Holding on to that grudge may be hobbling his ability to do proper business for his fighters. Vergil Ortiz, especially, is going to need some PBC names to get titles and build his star power. Munguia missing out on Charlo is also a big loss.
Oscar letting personal problems get in the way of a good thing is no surprise, though. In the business arena, he’s always been his own worst enemy. He’s got some good people at the top of GBP, but his presence, because of his name value, is heavy in their affairs and he can (and will) bring down the ship if left to his own devices.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.