SNIPS AND SNIPES

Early TV figures for the return between Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley came up a bit short of their first fight. The first match saw 890,000 buys and the second somewhere between 750,000 and 800,000. Still good figures so Pacquiao still has some good cards in his hands when it comes to picking his opponent for the show in Macau on November 16.

Bradley has earned a lot of money but has received nowhere near the credit he deserves for his wins over champions /former/future champions in Miguel Vazquez, Junior Witter, Kendall Holt, Devon Alexander, Joel Casamayor, Pacquiao, Ruslan Provodnikov and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Good news for Top Rank that Pacquiao has renewed his contract with them with the new one running to the end of 2016, which I would guess would be until the end of Pac Man’s career. It puts a Floyd Mayweather fight a long way off and at best an unlikely prospect. Top Rank are also said to be near signing a new deal with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and no one is ruling out a fight with Gennady Golovkin later in the year.

A surprise announcement saw Sauerland Event confirm that they have signed George Groves to a promotional contract. That could be a very good deal for Sauerland if Groves beats Carl Froch on 31 May for the IBF title, but with his potential Groves is still a goods signing even if he does not get revenge against Froch.

Wlad Klitschko’s defence of his IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO titles against Kubrat Pulev in Hamburg on September 6 could be the most competitive he has been in since he regained the titles with a win over Chris Byrd in 2006. It will be his 26th world title fight and he has won 24 and lost to Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, with the Brewster loss in 2004 his last defeat.

The downside to having a non-Klitschko holding a version of the heavyweight title is that it lets Don King back into the picture. He was saying that a fight with Deontay Wilder did not have to be the next fight for Bermane Stiverne.

Now that’s interesting as Mauricio Sulaiman has poured water on Wlad’s aim to fight Stiverne to unify the titles saying it cannot happen at this time as Stiverne must defend against Wilder as mandated by the WBC. Years back King could twist the WBC around his little finger so it will be interesting to see if the WBC stick to their word or suddenly decide that Stiverne deserves a voluntary defence.

If it is to be a Wilder fight then King will almost certainly find himself in a bidding war for the fight and he will find the days when he had a cozy relationship with the big cable giants are a thing of the past.

If you don’t believe in magic ladders then you have not been following the way that Wilder suddenly climbed the WBC ratings. From first entering their ratings in December 2011 through to their July 2013 ratings his highest position was No 27 and twice during that periods he dropped out of their top 40 altogether. The WBC issued ratings on August 6 which had Wilder at No 34. They issued “corrected” ratings on August 9 which suddenly saw him appear at No 10.

The only possible excuse is that they were impressed with his win on 9 August when he halted Siarhei Liakhovich inside a round. Ok except that Liakhovich was not rated in their top 40. So you go from 34 to 10 for beating someone not in the top 40. In the September ratings he climbed from No 10 to No 3 without even having a fight.

He did beat Nicola Firtha in October but Firtha was not in the top 40 and he did kayo Malik Scott who was No 23 at the time. With Stiverne the champion and Arreola losing he is No 1. So he has gone from No 34 to No 1 without ever fighting a guy in the top 20 and with No 27 being the highest ranked fighter he has fought in his career. Why take hard fights when you can get to the top like this?

Unofficial reports say the Guillermo Jones’s B sample has proved positive for furosemide. His A sample showed a positive test and the B sample was tested at an independent laboratory in Switzerland. A World Anti-Doping Agency spokesman did not confirm the news but did say that if it was a positive test then Jones could be banned for life as he has tested positive on a previous occasion.

Former WBA .light middle champion Yuri Foreman suddenly announced his retirement even though he is supposed to fight Jorge Melendez on the Sergio Martinez vs. Miguel Cotto show on 7 June. He quoted his unhappiness with a contract he could not break free from. Despite this promoter Lou DiBella said he expected things to be sorted out and that Foremen would still fight on 7 June.

Another excellent EBU title fight was announced with unbeaten Brit Frankie Galvin challenging Leonard Bundu for the welterweight title on 1 August. Possibly in Wolverhampton. This will be Bundu’s sixth defence. The 39-year-old Sierra-Leone born Italian has a 30-0-2 record and won’t be anxious about fighting in Britain as he knocked out Lee Purdy in twelve rounds in London in December.

A good show is building for Carson, California on 21 June with Vasyl Lomachenko trying for the second time to win the WBO feather title with Gary Russell in the other corner, also Robert Guerrero facing Yoshihiro Kamegai and Devon Alexander taking on Jesus Soto Karass.

Hopefully the negotiations for Brit Paul Smith to fight Arthur Abraham can be concluded successfully as there are not many more chances to challenge the Armenian-born German. Abraham has said he will retire after just two more fights so get in while you can.

A big show in Pretoria South Africa on 6 June will see the return of former IBF super feather champion Malcolm Klassen as he meets fellow South African Jasper Seroka for the IBF international title, WBC No 3 cruiser Thabiso Mchunu faces Brazilian Julio Cesar Dos Santos again for an IBF International title, Danie Venter defends his WBFed cruiser title against Argentinian Santander Silgado and unbeaten cruiser prospect Kevin Lerena challenges Daniel Bruwer for the WBFed Intercontinental title.

Not all is going smoothly down in South Africa. WBA No 2 Ilunga Makabu is reported to have fled Rodney Berman’s Golden Gloves Promotion team despite moves to match him on 12 June show in Monte Carlo in a fight that would lead to a world title shot. Sounds like someone has been whispering in his ear. Whispered advice is usually bad advice.

The Monte Carlos show goes on with the fight for the interim WBA cruiser title between Mateusz Masternak and Youri Kalenga, Martin Murray against Max Bursak for the WBC Silver middle title, Hekkie Budler defending his WBA/IBO titles against Pigmy Kokietgym and with Thomas Oosthuizen also on the bill.

Apart from what is happening inside the ring-and in South Africa right now that is not a lot- the fight continues outside the ring with the administrative board Boxing South Africa (BSA) being dissolved with only two members of the previous Board surviving.

The Minister for Sport has declared that progress on a deal between the BSA and the South African Broadcasting Corporation on broadcasting rights has stalled due to an injunction taken out by promoter “Branco” disputing the BSA’s right to control the allocation of broadcasting rights.

He alleged that the promoter had gone back on a previous agreement whilst the subject, Branco Milenkovic, said that the minister’s claims were “far from the truth”. It does not help that BSA members have been shown in a very poor light when dragged into court by Milenkovic after slandering the promoter.

It also did not help that at the press conference where the Sports Minister blamed Milenkovic for their problems he could only remember his first name of “Branco”. Just how well briefed was he? The danger when politicians get involved in boxing is that they do not know how the sport works and targeting promoters is not the way to improve things. Too often politician’s just dip their toe in and make things worse. Some of them probably think that Top Rank is a film company, HBO is something you cure with deodorant and Oscar De La Hoya is a Latin American film award.

Here comes another flood of titles. The normally sensible NABF who have resisted the temptation to introduce Silver/Continental/Inter-Continental/Inter-inter Continental etc. have now introduced Junior titles. Only another 17 titles added to the hundred’s that are already floating around. Boxing has titles the way that Hamelin had rats, but no sign of a Pied Piper anywhere.

Amir Khan’s Foundation is actively planning to build an orphanage in Kashmir and a school in Sudan. Two excellent projects. Now if he can just get Floyd Mayweather in the ring think what the Foundation could do then. Come on Floyd it’s in a good cause.

The WBC have announced that they are working with UCLA to implement random drug testing. It is a step in the right direction but how random can it be? Surely they can only apply it to fighters who are preparing to fight for a WBC title.

I can’t imagine the testers turning up to test someone who is going to fight for an IBF title and since the WBC rate 40 fighters in every division and there are probably 50-100 different countries represented who is going to pay for or carry out a test on the WBC No 39 in Uzbekistan. A step in the right direction but difficult to see how practical it can be in a sport as diverse and fractured as boxing.

A flyweight punch fest to look forward to is the fight between Juan Francisco Estrada and Giovani Segura. These two are set to clash on September 5 for Estrada’s WBA and WBO titles and although Estrada is a slight favourite Segura has been in impressive form lately.
Preliminary talks have started for a unification match at cruiserweight between WBC champion Krzys Wlodarczyk and WBO champion Marco Huck. Nothing settled but Poland seems to be the preferred location.

When you fight someone as great as Muhammad Ali it is easy to be overshadowed. Before there was Muhammad Ali there was Cassius Clay and his brilliance as an amateur was shown when he played the starring role and won the Olympic gold medal in Rome in 1960.

The man he beat in Rome, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, had his moment of world wide fame-as a loser. Such a pity as the Pole was a very accomplished boxer who had been European champion at light middle, middle and light heavyweight. He was the favourite to beat the 18-year-old USA entry as he had vastly more experience, but could not match the super skills of Clay and lost 5-0. Ali invited him to London in the mid-1970’s for the premier of the film “Invincible” and presented Pietrzykowski with a gold disc.

The Pole thought it was plated, but it was the real thing so he sold it and bought a house. A practical man. He never did get an Olympics gold. He beat the great Laszlo Papp in a pre-Olympic tournament in 1956 but then lost to Pap in the semi-finals and had to settle for a bronze medal. He was Polish champion 11 times. He passed away on Monday at the age of 80. RIP Zbigniew.

A Filipino boxing hero also died this month. Anthony Villanueva won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. He was the first Filipino athlete to win a silver medal losing in the featherweight final to Russian Stanislav Stepaskin. He tried his hand in the movies and had a very brief fling with professional boxing but was not very successful.

When he fell on hard times he tried to sell his Olympic medal, but no one wanted to take it away from him and it ended up in the Philippines Sports Commission museum. He had suffered three heart attacks before succumbing. His was a real fighting family and his father Jose won a bronze medal at bantamweight in the 1932 Olympics. He actually finished third as they had box-offs for third place in those days. RIP Anthony.