Marquez makes strong case for third Pacquiao bout

LOOKING BACK...

If you haven't had a chance, find a way to watch the nine-round TKO win Juan Manuel Marquez recorded over rugged Australian Michael Katsidis on Nov 27. Doesn't matter how you find it. HBO on Demand it, YouTube it, download it. However you have to do it, find that fight, watch it and savour master craftsman Marquez in all his bruising brilliance.

Of course, Marquez did go down in the third round -- hard -- thanks to a Katsidis left hook, but his early vulnerability is part of what makes his fights so compelling. He hits the canvas early and when he rises he's usually more angry than hurt, and from there he blends technique with controlled rage and more than a touch of machismo to produce something special.

In 2004 Marquez survived three first-round knockdowns against Manny Pacquiao to rally for a draw, and Saturday night he regained his feet and his composure against Katsidis to conduct a clinic and offer emphatic proof that size only matters so much when you counteract it with skill.

You only needed to glance at the two fighters Saturday night to figure out which of the two men was stronger. Marquez, at 5-foot-7 looked like exactly what he is -- a smaller man who grew into the 135-pound division as he matured.

Katsidis, meanwhile, rippled with more muscles than you ever expect to see on a lightweight and entered the ring with the game plan his physique dictated. From the opening bell he pressed forward, muscling the smaller Marquez around the ring winging punches with his massive arms.

But while Katsidis was clearly the stronger man it became apparent, even after he scored a knockdown, that Marquez was landing more damaging blows, placing precise shots between Kastidis' arcing blows, bruising the Australian's face with head shots, deadening his momentum with hooks to the body.

By the ninth round Katsidis could only lurch forward while Marquez peppered him with lefts and rights, prompting referee Kenny Bayless to step in and stop the fight. The stoppage sealed the 52nd win of Marquez' career, cemented his status as one of the sport's premier counterpunchers, and proved that at 37 he remains a favourite against nearly any fighter in the world who faces him at 135 pounds.

LOOKING AHEAD...

Does that list of prospective opponents include current pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao?

Hard to say.

Just about every top fighter between 135 and 154 pounds wants the Pacquiao payday, but how many of them can make a matchup that's worth the Pac Man's time and effort?

Middleweight champ Sergio Martinez made plain his desire for a Pacquiao matchup after his one-punch destruction of Paul "The Punisher" Williams and conceivably could meet Pacquiao at junior middleweight, where Pacquiao is the WBO champ.

The the same titanic roundhouse left that felled Williams may also have convinced Pacquiao's camp to keep their man at welterweight and below.

 

When undefeated welterweight Andre Berto similarly starched Freddy Hernandez on the Marquez undercard, he too lobbied for a Pacquiao matchup and his résumé says he deserves one. But for all Berto's speed and strength he lacks the one key ingredient Pacquiao and his people need in a pay-per-view opponent.

Popularity.

It's not that anybody hates Berto. They just don't know who he is. Not even in his native Miami, where in April he defended his title against Carlos Quintana and donated the proceeds to Haitian earthquake relief.

Total paid attendance: 972.

Clearly he's not ready.

And with the Mayweather camp facing more showdowns in court than in the gym these days Marquez re-emerges as Pacquaio's most compelling opponent.

Granted, Katsidis doesn't offer anywhere near the speed or savvy Pacquiao does, but Saturday's win proved that Marquez isn't just comfortable counterpunching when he appears outgunned.

He's devastating.

And nearly three years after dropping a close split decision in a rematch with Pacquiao he remains the last opponent to seriously rattle the Pac-Man, a bit of unfinished business Pacquiao might want to settle for good.

Anyone who loves fights would drool over this one but we still don't know if it will come together, first because of the long-running beef between Golden Boy (Marquez' promoter) and Top Rank (Pacquiao's promoter).

The fact also remains that these two men compete two, and sometimes three weight classes apart and we don't know how much interest Pacquiao has in dropping back down to lightweight. Losing the weight should be easy for a fighter who has to force-feed himself to stay at welterweight, but he at least has performed spectacularly at higher weights. Marquez, meanwhile looked small and slow -- especially in contrast to Mayweather's mastery -- when he jumped two weight classes in September 2009.

But at 135 Marquez is still dynamite, and if he can manage to meet Pacquiao at lightweight he can provide something we haven't seen in a Pacqiuao fight since 2008.

Drama.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

Sizing up Rampage, the Prodigy and, ahem, "Mr. Wonderful"

Saturday night UFC 123 lands in metro Detroit -- I stress the "metro" because as a guy who spent six months interning at the Detroit News I can tell you the only thing Auburn Hills has in common with Detroit is that people in both places claim they're from the D.

I loved that the UFC brought their pre-fight events to Detroit's MGM Grand Casino, and staged public workouts at the Detroit Athletic Club. A beautiful show of support to a city that can surely use a boost.

But instead of staging the main event in downtown Detroit, where steam gushes from manhole covers, the People Mover moves next to nobody and where there's a massive statue of Joe Louis' right arm and fist, Saturday's card moves about 20 miles north to Auburn Hills.

A mild disappointment, but I digress.

I'm not here to talk about the land of Coney Islands and Kwame Kilpatrick.

I'm here to talk about fights -- three of them in particular -- and invite you guys to join the discussion.

1. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida

In 2006 or 2007 I would have chosen Jackson over any light heavyweight in the world but right now I don't know who wins this matchup of former 205-pound champs.

Nearly four years after strongarming his way to a UFC title Jackson's aura of menace still sells. More than just about any other fighter in the UFC Jackson looks the part of bad-ass street brawler, and still talks a great game.

But can he still back it up against top fighters?

Possibly.

You can attribute Jackson's lacklustre performance against Rashad Evans in May to the 40-plus pounds he gained while filming the A-team. Losing his gut essentially turned his training camp into a fat camp, so if he looked lost as Evans outworked him to win a dull decision it shouldn't surprise you.

But what if Jackson's problem is more fundamental than a few extra pounds?

Over Jackson's seven-fight run in the UFC we've seen him flatten every fighter who dared trade punches with him but struggle against fighters who refuse to meet force with force, losing to Forrest Griffin in July 2008 and again to Evans in May.

Machida's one-punch destruction of Evans proves he has the firepower to go toe-to-toe with the division's best, but he's far too tactical and technical to meet Jackson on Jackson's terms.

So how does the brawler turn Saturday's main event into a street fight? And if he can't do that how in the world does he win a decision.

I don't know if he can do either.

2. Matt Huges vs. B.J. Penn, Chapter III

These two are meeting for the welterweight championship of each other, I guess.

Otherwise, why fight?

To move closer to a title shot?

Does Hughes appear any closer to handling Georges St. Pierre now than he did three years ago, when GSP nearly wrenched Hughes' arm out of its socket in a submission win?

Like Hughes, Penn has a pair of losses to St. Pierre, each more decisive than the one before. And since dropping a second decision to GSP Penn has also lost twice to Frankie Edgar, placing him a long way from a title in two weight classes.

What can either man look forward to if he wins?

Another beating from GSP?

A late-career run as a welterweight gatekeeper?

Yet another rematch?

I understand that sometimes great matchups come in threes, and that a third bout should provide us with a winner for the Hughes-Penn series. But not all grudge matches need trilogies and this match holds about as much intrigue for me as Molitor-Ndlovu III.

3. Phil Davis vs. TIm Boetsch

One big issue with this light-heavyweight showdown.

Davis' name.

It's bad enough when MMA fighters co-opt boxing nicknames, as if Rashad Evans really deserves the title "Sugar."

Ugh.

But now MMA fighters are biting wrestlers too.

Memo to Phil "Mr. Wonderful" Davis: You better find a new handle quick, lest you wind up on the wrong end of a piledriver.

 

 Phil Davis, are you really ready to wind up six inches to a foot shorter?

Didn't think so.

So find a new nickname.

Please.

 Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

 

 

 

Mayweather next? Pacquiao wins biggest if they don't fight

Saturday night at Texas Stadium Manny Pacquiao faced the most daunting challenge of his career and conquered it with style.

You could argue (And I would -- loudly) that Antonio Margarito deserved neither the shot at the WBC super welterweight title nor the $3 million payday that came with it, not after attempting to enter the ring with with plaster-reinforced hand wraps for his January 2009 title bout with Shane Mosley, and not after the California commission shot down his attempt at reinstatement.

When Floyd Mayweather declined the opportunity to meet Pacquiao on Nov. 13 he gave Bob Arum (who promotes both Pacquiao and Margarito) the room to do an end run around the California commission's suspension, get Margarito licensed in Texas and give him the pay-per-view date with Pacquiao.

But even if Margarito's main event credentials rested on a flimsy premise -- specifically that he belonged in any ring after what he tried to pull against Mosley -- he presented a credible threat to Pacquiao. At 5-foot-11 he's huge for his weight class and has built a career on crushing smaller fighters' spirits with his concrete chin (and gloves?) and relentless pressure, and Saturday night he entered the ring with a 17-pound weight advantage.

Pacquiao still made him look like a sparring partner, survivng tense moments in the second and sixth rounds but overall dealing the bully a massive beatdown. Margarito left that bout with a career-high paycheque, a fractured oribital bone and swelling on his face that won't subside for days.

And Pacuiao left the ring with a world title in an unheard-of eighth weight class and a familiar question facing him:

Is Floyd Mayweather next?

The answer?

Who knows.

We asked the same question this time last year when Pacquiao dismantled Miguel Cotto, but after 11 months of bickering boxing's two brightest stars have sparred at the negotiating table still haven't squared off.

And that's a shame because before Saturday Mayweather was the only other fighter in the world with a legitimate claim to the pound-for-pound crown, and remains the only fighter alive with the skill set to cause Pacquiao problems. Pairing those two in 2011 would produce the most important fight of our generation and the biggest single sports event of the year.

But if it never happens I won't be surprised, and if Pacquaio's the one who refuses to fight I won't blame him.

It's not just because, after Saturday's lopsided win, Paquiao's legacy in more than set. With titles in eight world classes he doesn't need a Mayweather win to vault him into the all-time top 10.

Instead it's because if Mayweather is honest with himself he knows he needs to beat Pacquiao, both for the $50-million payout and to cement his status as the top fighter of his era. And the best way for Pacquiao to ensure a resounding victory over Money May -- and repay Mayweather for 11 months of insults, delays and drama -- is to never face him.

Not duck him.

Just leave him alone.

Move on to other things while Mayweather scrambles for a big payday and a career-defining win.

Saturday night HBO analyst Max Kellerman pointed out that Pacquiao absorbed more punches -- 229 -- than he normally does. Citing that stat compared Mayweather to a mid-1980s Ray Leonard, who had a standing invitation to face middleweight king Marvelous Marvin Hagler but waited for Hagler to endure grueling bouts with Thomas Hearns and John Mugabi before emerging from retirement to make the fight. 

But unlike Hagler, Pacquiao doesn't have to rally to salvage wins. He took punches because he always takes punches, but he's still winning by wide margins.

So instead, picture Mayweather as Leonard circa 1990, coming off a draw in a rematch with Hearns that most people felt he lost and looking to remain relevant with a big money bout against another old foe.

Hagler.

Leornard wanted Hagler to end his three-year retirment, but Hagler was happy doing what he was doing -- living in Italy and making straight-to-video feature films.

 

He stayed retired, and instead of another superfight Leonard settled for a February 1991 bout with Terry Norris, and absorbed more punches for less money than he would have against Hagler.

This isn't to suggest that Mayweather's skills are about to abandon him, or that Pacquiao should retire to concentrate on his singing career.

But Pacquiao has never had more clout than he has right now after thrashing Margarito, while Mayweather's declining profile is a fact he needs to face. 

Over the summer Pacquiao's camp decided to comply with Mayweather's request for Olympic-style drug testing and boxing fans worldwide thought the fight of the decade was finally on.

Yet rather than accepting the fight Mayweather let the opportunity lapse, refusing to explain the move and leaving his girlfriend to hint without elaborating that Pacquaio situation is more complex than it seems.

Instead of beginning training camp for a megafight Mayweather spent September butting heads with his ex-girlfriend, a confrontation that netted him nothing but a string of charges.

And instead of facing Pacquiao in the ring Mayweather blindsided him in a racist rant on Ustream.

As Mayweather's behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre the profile he gained by dominating Shane Mosley in May bleeds away, and so does the leverage he needs to compel Pacquiao to face him on fair terms.

Do you see Mayweather facing Paquiao for the short end of a 60-40 purse split?

Neither do I, but with their stocks rocketing in opposite directions Mayweather might need to accept it because he needs a win over Pacquiao to answer lingering questions about his ability to handle a hall-of-famer in his prime.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, knows his legacy is set, and could decide not to fight at all, leaving Mayweather with 40 percent of nothing.

Against a guy nicknamed "Money" what better revenge is there?

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

 

 

Velasquez' win is impressive, but not historic

So our planet has a new Baddest Man, and raise your hand if you were surprised at how thoroughly Cain Velasquez beat up on Brock Lesnar Saturday.

On one level it's never a shock when an MMA fighter loses, no matter how dominant he has been. Each trip to the octagon is fraught with variables, any one of which can lead to defeat for a seemingly indestructible fighter. That's why undefeated records and extended winning streaks are so rare in the sport, and why you'll never see an MMA version of Rocky Marciano.

Still, Lesnar was a heavy betting favourite heading into the fight and had scrambled up from the canvas to dispatch heavyweight powerhouse Shane Carwin in July, so to see him crumble so quickly against Velasquez was a mild surprise.

And Velsquez' win was significant. He didn't escape with a win via desperation submission the way Frank Mir did in Lesnar's MMA debut in 2008. He withstood Lesnar's bullrushes, survived a pair of takedowns and thrashed the biggest heavyweight in the UFC and the biggest name in the sport.

That's a huge deal.

But it's not historic.

Yes, I know Velasquez' victory makes him the first fighter of Mexican descent to claim the UFC's heavyweight crown, but that accolade alone doesn't make him a pioneer.

It's not like Mexican-American fighters are new to the sport or to the UFC, but as Velasquez prepared for last week's title shot the UFC for the first time appealed to a Mexican-American audience as part of its pre-fight hype.

The campaign also crossed the United States' norther border, and if you listened much to the FAN last week you probably heard the UFC radio spot emphasizing that Velasquez had a chance to become the first Mexican in the history of "fighting" to win a heavyweight title.

I won't argue with that.

The ad's use of the word "fighting" is meant to broaden the discussion beyond MMA, and indeed boxing has never had a heavyweight champ of Mexican descent. Former WBA heavyweight ruler John Ruiz has Puerto Rican roots, while Chris Arreola has Mexican blood and a big right hand, but a steadily expanding waistline and a knockout loss in his lone title shot.

So that leaves Velasquez.

His win on Saturday was entertaining as it was unpredictable, but I'm not the only one who can't quite co-sign on the attempt to package Velasquez as a barrier-breaker.

That he is the first person of Mexican descent to claim win a heavyweight title is a point of fact, but there's difference between the first to achieve a feat and a true pioneer,

It's called context.

The context here is that MMA as we know it has never had an explicit or implied colour or culture line.

Boxing geeks like me know George "Little Chocolate" Dixon as the Halifax native who became the first black fighter (and first Canadian) to win a world boxing title when he snatched the featherweight crown from Johnny Murphy in 1890.

A broader range of sports fans knows Jack Johnson as the first black heavyweight champion in history.

He's also a litmus test for the significance of Velasquez' win Saturday night.

The man Johnson defeated, Tommy Burns, was the first Canadian ever to win the world heavyweight title. That feat makes Burns a legendary figure in Canadian sport but lacks the broader importance of Johnson's win because Burns only ever had to face the man across the ring. Johnson, meanwhile, had to overcome rigid racial barriers and circumvent social norms just for the chance to challenge for the belt. 

Crossing the heavyweight division's colour line made Johnson a pioneer while Burns was merely the first to achieve.

See the difference?

Now fast-forward a century and ask yourself (WITHOUT googling or otherwise researching) who was the first black fighter to win a UFC crown?

Who was the first latino?

Who was the first non-white or non-anglo period?

The correct answer is: 

Who cares?

Few people that I know, mainly because it's tough to celebrate breaking a barrier that never really existed. It's not like the UFC ever had rules against non-white fighters, or even a Major League Baseball-style "Gentleman's Agreement." 

Competition in the octagon has always been wide open.

This doesn't mean the UFC has never had to wrestle with racial issues.

Early in the buildup to the May 29 clash between Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, commercials hyping the bout featured Jackson's promise to commit an act of "black-on-black violence" against Evans in the Octagon.

As if race-baiting is a selling point.

As if race-baiting is any less despicable when it's intra-racial.

And as if America's ongoing urban genocide is worth joking about, let alone marketing a fight around.

Justifiably, the UFC took some heat over the marketing tack they had taken and in turn narrowed the focus of the pre-fight trash talk they chose to highlight.

So yes, race pops up periodically in the UFC just as it does everywhere in (North) American life, but ethnicity has never defined or divided the sport the way it did boxing a century ago or baseball until 1947.

The UFC has only ever existed in an integrated age, with fighters of every ethnic background welcome to compete. And until UFC 12, when organizers wisely imposed weight classes, the UFC didn't even discriminate on the basis of a fighter's size. As long as officials thought you were qualified, anyone could fight anyone. Period.

This isn't to diminish Velasquez' achievement. Hats off to any man to flattens Brock Lesnar, and becoming the first heavyweight champ of Mexican descent is certainly noteworthy.

But a century after Jack Johnson it's just not historic.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 Rounds with Oscar De La Hoya

The Jean Pascal-Bernard Hopkins press tour arrived in Toronto this afternoon, and eventually the stories I filed from the news conference will appear online. Basically, they detail how Yvon Michel and Oscar De La Hoya plan to co-operate to bring big-time bouts to Toronto next year.

You'll remember from last week that Michel had hoped Toronto could host the Dec. 18 title clash between Pascal and Hopkins but couldn't overcome a triple-booked Air Canada Centre and a provincial commission that wasn't quite ready for such a big show so late in the year.

So Michel and De La Hoya are thinking 2011.

They're thinking HBO.

They're thinking Pay Per View.

We'll see.

 

(Yvon Michel on the left, Golden Boy right. This is what happens when taking pics with your Blackberry.)

But while we had De La Hoya here we managed to pull him away from the journalists and fans clamouring for his time, and even though he says he's finished in the ring he agreed to go 12 Rounds with Fighting Words.

Click below to hear the audio.

 

Download OSCAR12ROUNDS

Pascal-Hopkins comes to Toronto...sort of

The light-heavyweight title showdown between Montreal's Jean Pascal and future hall-of-famer Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins isn't coming to Toronto, but the trash talk will start here.

Oct. 19 the two fighters along with their promoters will hold a press conference in downtown Toronto (location still TBD), the first stop in multi-city press tour to hype their Dec. 18 title bout in Quebec City and a chance find answers to important pre-fight questions.

Like how sharp is Pascal's trash-talk game? 

We already know Hopkins is a master. In the buildup to his 2001 bout with Puerto Rican legend Felix "Tito" Trinidad, Hopkins threw the Puerto Rican flag at two separate news conferences...including one in San Juan. Can Pascal match that level of antagonism? Is it wise to even try?

And how will the Golden Boy like Toronto? 

As Hopkins' promoter, six-division world champ and crossover boxing star Oscar de la Hoya is tentatively scheduled to show up at the news conference, bringing his famous name and 100-watt smile, but hopefully leaving behind the outfit he wore in this 1997 fitness video.

  

Golden Boy cameos aside, there's good news for local fight fans.

Promoter Yvon Michel confirms the Pascal-Hopkins bout will be available on pay-per-view across Canada. 

I don't know what you guys did when Pascal took on Chad Dawson in August, but I bounced from bar to bar with the same result -- the fight's not on here, or anywhere else outside Quebec. Settled for Shoeless Joe's on Eglinton Ave. at Avenue Rd., where I watch west coast baseball, endured off-key karaoke and devoured a mountain of chicken wings while receiving round-by-round text message updates from friends watching on HBO in the U.S.

I guess that's somebody's idea of a successful fight night, but it's just not mine.

But Michel, who owns the Canadian PPV rights to the bout says he's already getting calls from sports bars nationwide about Pascal-Hopkins and so plans to make it available to as many Canadians as possible.

In fact, Michel originally intended to stage the entire card at the Air Canada Centre, just steps from where Tuesday's news conference will take place.

If you talk to enough boxing people you might have heard the rumour already -- that Michel and the ACC reached a deal to bring the show to Toronto but were undermined by the Ontario Athletic Commission. According to the rumour currently circulating, Athletic commissioner Ken Hayashi said no to the biggest title fight to (potentially) come to Toronto since Clyde Gray lost to Jose Napoles in 1973 because the Dec. 18 date conflicted with his vacation.

A juicy story for sure, and one that fits the popular idea that the commission isn't just incompetent and understaffed, but actually hates boxing...or MMA. 

Earlier this year we discussed how the provincial commission sometimes drops the ball in terms of matchmaking, in-ring safety and event planning, but to turn away this big of an event in favour of a vacation blurs the line between indifference and obstructionism and is a sexy enough scandal to land on the front page of the sports section.

If it's true.

But this story isn't.

Not quite, anyway.

Michel says he did in fact look into booking the ACC for Dec. 18 and learned that while the arena wasn't officially booked, organizers of another event had provisionally reserved the place for that night and were closing on a final booking. After informing ACC officials of his interest in the Dec. 18 date, Michel relayed his plans to athletic commissioner Ken Hayashi actually did Michel that he had planned a vacation for mid-December since no boxing events had been booked for that month.

So to that extent, the rumour is true enough.

But Michel says Hayashi quickly called him back and told him not to worry about vacation plans. If he wanted to host the fight in Ontario he could do it. With the ACC not quite free Michel considered the ScotiaBank Centre in Ottawa before finally deciding to stage the bout in Quebec City.

He insists, however, that the comission didn't interfere with his hopes to bring the fight to Toronto and that a major card at the ACC remains on his to-do list.

In the meantime, we'll have to settle for Tuesday's press conference and the verbal sparring that's sure to ensue.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter.

 

Molitor signs with (yet) another manager...yawn

The lede can almost write itself:

IBF 122-pound champion Steve (The Canadian Kid) Molitor has signed a contract with (insert manager/promoter) -- namely, American Cameron Dunkin, who now has 60 days to find Molitor a promoter.

If you feel like you've heard that story before, it's because you have.

You heard it in June 2008, when New Jersey-based promoter Murad Muhammad lured Molitor away from Orion Sports Management with a promises of a fat contract even though Muhammad owed money to just about everybody in boxing. That deal collapsed quickly and by August Molitor was back at Casino Rama, fighting under Orion's banner.

You heard the story again this past July, when Molitor signed a managerial contract with Toronto-based Misho Jovicevic.

Who?

Exactly. 

It never was clear how Jovicevic would advance Molitor's career, given that he had only one other client (Canadian heavyweight champ Neven Pajkic) and given Molitor had a world title and an experienced promoter and no need for a manager to find fights for him.

And we may never find out now that Molitor has hired yet another manager.

Nevertheless Molitor's promoter, Allan Tremblay, insists that the star of his stable isn't jumping ship, and that Orion is on-side with Dunkin's plan to find Molitor a promoter in the U.S.

Why?

Molitor-Ndlovu III, that's why.

In July 2007 Molitor scored an emphatic ninth-round knockout over South Africa's Takalani Ndlovu at Rama, defending his IBF title for the first time and kicking off a run of 10 straight bouts at Casino Rama.

In March Molitor met Ndlovu again and decisioned him over 12 rounds to reclaim the vacant IBF crown.

After those two wins -- the first dramatic and the second exponentially less so -- few people have much interest in one more Molitor-Ndlovu showdown.

Not the boxing public, who would rather see Molitor tackle new challenges.

Not Casino Rama, who will host their second-straight Molitor-free card Oct. 30.

And not Tremblay, who wants to arrange at least one more big payday for the 30-year-old Molitor. The idea of another Ndlovu bout doesn't excite him.

"It's an exceptionally difficult promotional sell," Tremblay said. "I can't put that fight on here for a third time. It's not the Vazquez-Marquez trilogy."

But Ndlovu won't go away. In September he won yet another IBF title eliminator, putting him in line for yet another shot at Molitor's title. As much as Molitor and his team would rather move on, he has to face Ndlovu first or or be stripped of his IBF title.

And where does Dunkin fit in?

Because this fight is virtually unsellable in Canada, Molitor's team has two options:

FIght in Ndlovu's hometown or hope a U.S. promoter wants to stage the fight.

And because Molitor has little interest in fighting in South Africa, the U.S. option rockets to the top of his management team's list, and Dunkin's job is to locate a promoter who wants to stage Molitor-Ndlovu III.

Tough sell.

The promoter wouldn't just have to pay the fighters -- Molitor pocketed roughly $100,000 for his title defenses at Rama -- but they would have to pay Tremblay for the right to promote a Molitor fight. That's a lot of cash to drop on a bout between boxers who are virtually anonymous to U.S. viewers. And the fight doesn't figure to provide much action, further damaging either fighter's chance to win new fans and diminishing any promoter's desire to bankroll the fight.

Dunkin's job, essentially, is to sell this fight to a skeptical promoter who must in turn sell it to an indifferent boxing public.

Good luck.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

 

Sonnen tests positive but will UFC take action?

So it turns out that middleweight contender Chael Sonnen had some chemical help when he nearly toppled Anderson Silva in August, his post-fight pee test coming up positive for abnormally high levels of testosterone.

If that news disappoints you, it's natural. Two decades after the Ben Johnson scandal in Seoul blew the cover off steroid use in high-level pro sports we'd like to think our athletes know better than to flout anti-doping, and each time we come across one who hasn't learned that lesson it stings a little. 

But if you're surprised when an athlete in any contact/collision/combat sport test positive you're naive.

Period.

If steroids help in baseball, they damn sure help in football, hockey, boxing and MMA.

So before we single out Sonnen as a maverick cheater lets remember that, as CagePotato.com points out, he's the latest in a long, long LONG line of MMA stars to flunk a doping test.

Yes I know technique is paramount and skills pay the bills, but supernatural strength and a heightened bloodlust can carry you a long way in the octagon.

A boost in testosterone fills both those needs nicely.

It's comforting to believe Sonnen is simply country strong and right-wing angry, but to learn that extra testosterone fueled his implacable rage and relentless ground-and-pound August 7 in San Jose makes perfect sense to me.

A great chin is one thing but Sonnen's absolute refusal to be hurt, or to slow down despite a busted nose that leaked like the Deepwater Horizon amazed me, and the doping revelation may help answer questions about how he pulled it off.

But it raises one more.

First, what does the UFC plan to do about drug cheats?

As for the first question, we know Sonnen faces a $2,500 fine 12-month suspension from the California State Athletic Commission but it's not clear whether the UFC plans to discipline him beyond that or to address the broader problem of doping in their sport.

Thanks to the UFC's incessant lobbying MMA is now legal and regulated in every major jurisdiction in North America besides New York State, but 17 years after the first UFC event the sport is working to dispel the notion that it's simply a human cockfight, still fighting to prove it deserves a place in the mainstream.

A soft stance on doping doesn't help that cause.

I reached out to UFC officials this morning and I'm still waiting to hear what they say, but looks to me like the current system is insufficient. Suspensions vary by commission, but a six or nine-month ban isn't much of a punishment for a fighter who only competes every four to six months anyway. It's more like a delay. You push back your next scheduled fight, serve your suspension, then move forward.

So I'm wondering if the UFC starts imposing doping penalties of its own, suspending fighters or even terminating contracts for flunking drug tests. 

Earlier this week the UFC released lightweight Efrain Escudero, who earned a contract by winning Season eight of The Ultimate Fighter but who had lost two of his last three fights, and had failed to make weight for his most recent loss.

A harsh reaction, for sure, but understandable. The UFC paid Escudero to perform, and when he didn't they tossed him aside.

This is a business, after all.

And because it's a business the UFC just might leave Sonnen alone. His impromptu stand-up routines coupled with his near-conquest of Silva make him way more marketable and much less expendable than Escudero. But if the UFC wants to make another huge step toward mainstream legitimacy it'll drop any fighter who flunks a drug test. If being a boring fighter makes you unfit to stay on the organization's payroll, so should cheating.

After all, this is a sport, too.

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

 

 

Couture destroys Toney -- and doesn't prove a thing

So Randy Couture steamrolled James "Lights Out" Toney at UFC 118 Saturday night, proving once and for all that an aging but proficient mixed martial artist is better at mixed martial arts than a boxer who is 18 years and 77 pounds past his prime.

And that's about all Couture's highly anticipated but hardly unexpected win proves.

Actually no.

It also proves that Toney, who hounded Dana White for the final three months of 2009 before finally receiving his shot in the UFC, probably should have started out in Strikeforce because they probably would have let him debut against a creampuff more suited to his (non-existent) MMA skills. I mean, Herschel Walker is 1-0 as an MMA fighter thanks to Strikeforce and Greg Nagy.

Either way, I'm hardly the only guy who figured Couture would take down and overwhelm the 42-year-old Toney without much time or effort. It doesn't take a visionary to foresee a wrestling expert and MMA veteran choking out a guy who has never grappled before.

The result was about as predictable as a showdown between Toney's willpower and the buffet table.

And it was about as significant as it was competitive.

Yes, Saturday night marked the first time we saw a big-name boxer take on a top-flight mixed martial artist in a near no-holds-barred fight, but the bout was far from a final referendum on which group of athletes is superior.

I doubt such a thing exists.

As I told friends on Twitter Saturday night, Toney facing Couture in the octagon is like the Pittsburgh Pirates meeting teem Pakistan on the cricket pitch.

Like Toney the Pirates have a glorious and well-documented past. Thirty-one years ago the Pirates claimed a World Series, giving the city of Pittsburgh six major pro titles (two World Series and four Super Bowls) in the decade of the seventies.

But like Toney they watch that glory fade a little every day, and while they still remain in the major leagues their performance, payroll and paid attendance slide steadily toward minor league levels.

Couture, meanwhile is like Pakistani cricket: not the same force as in the glory days (there's no replacing Inzimam Ul Haq), but they're still a world power, and way too strong for any minnow to challenge.

So expecting Toney to put in nine months of MMA training and give Couture anything resembling a tough fight is like asking Andrew McCutchen and crew to fly to Islamabad and go wicket-for-wicket with team Pakistan.

Wouldn't happen, and we know it because we realize that for all the similarities between baseball and cricket there's still a vast difference between the two.

Somehow we forget that when trying to compare boxing and MMA but as Couture demolished Toney Saturday night we all received an emphatic reminder.

If we really wanted to prove MMA fighters were superior to boxers in all aspects we'd have to arrange a rematch between Toney and Couture under the Queensberry Rules.

Of course, it's been discussed and of course, Couture is vowing never to enter a boxing ring with Toney.

After Saturday's fight he told reporters that if the two men ever boxed “James would probably knock me out in the first round.”

I don't know.

First round knockouts were never Toney's style (and yes, I feel comfortable discussing Toney's boxing career in the past tense). More likely he would pick Couture apart early and beat him down in the middle rounds. Either way, if Toney and Couture had met in a ring Saturday night Couture might still be on his back with the referee counting over him.

But they met in an octagon, which proves that Couture has learned a hard lesson about the fight game that still eludes Toney:

Never take a fight unless you know you can win it.

 

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Local pro Lowther looks to shine under Friday night lights

Rising lightweight prospect Omri Lowther is a huge fan of ESPN's "Friday Night Fights," and week after week he'd come home after a week of training turn on the TV and dream.

Month after month he'd watch other up-and-comers compete on the show and measure himself against them.

And year after year he would swear to himself that he wouldn't let one more season of FNF pass without finding his own place on the show.

For the first four years of his pro career he toiled in tiny venues, mostly across the southeast U.S., building a 14-1 record. He had build in impressive set of skills -- witness his 2007 demolition of the outclassed Omar Ballard -- but aside from a Shobox fight taken on two days notice he still couldn't find the spotlight.

 

 

But Saturday night the spotlight will find the Mississauga resident.

In Montreal.

Not only will he make his ESPN debut but Lowther headline the show's season finale, taking on fast-handed Philadelphia lightweight Hank Lundy in the main event. Whether Lowther, a transplanted Atlanta native who now lives and trains in Mississauga, can withstand the glare of ESPN's Friday night lights hasn't been proven.

But it's not like Lowther has a choice.

At 26 he's still a little young for a crossroads bout, but old enough to realize Saturday's bout can either set him up for stardom or set him back indefinitely.

"I'm pretty hot on the market but one loss can change all of that," he says."People are wondering, 'how good is this kid?' so I'm right on the threshold of great things happening. It's not a crossroads fight, it's a crossover fight."

The path to Saturday's main even was hectic but surprisingly short.

When ESPN decided to hold its FNF season finale on a Saturday in boxing-mad Montreal, the network also booked undefeated middleweight phenom David Lemieux for the main event. But when an injury sidelined Lemieux ESPN reached out to Lowther, whom they had been watching develop, and matched him with Edner Cherry, a rugged veteran who reliably brings action fights to FNF.

But Tuesday night Cherry's management informed ESPN that the fighter couldn't leave the U.S. because his green card had lapsed.

Big problem.

The last minute collapse of the main event for the season finale of your flagship boxing show is bad enough, but the timing of Cherry's withdrawal made things even worse because Saturday will be one of the busiest fight nights on the boxing calendar.

In Puerto Rico WBA/WBO light-flyweight champ and master technician Ivan Calderon defends his belt against Mexico's Giovanni Segura.

That same night in Argentina, junior welterweight buzzsaw Marcos Maidana takes on resilient journeyman DeMarcus (Chop Chop) Corley -- who Floyd "Money" Mayweather claims is the hardest hitter he ever faced.

And in the broader fight world, former three-division world champ and Hall of Fame trash-talker James (Lights Out) Toney makes his mixed martial arts debut, facing Randy Couture at UFC 118 in Boston.

This glut of alternatives would have made the ESPN show easy for fight fans to forget if the network couldn't come up with a competitive main event.

Enter Lundy, a southpaw from Philly who nearly derailed the highly-rated John Molina before folding in the 11th round of their ESPN-televised bout in July.

A slick boxer with some pop (10 KO in 18 wins) Lundy is the stylistic antithesis of Cherry, a straight-ahead plugger.

Yet Lowther says that with the help of trainer Chris Johnson he'll have a game plan tailor-made to handle Lundy.

"They're two totally different fighters but I have a lot of experience and Chris is an awesome trainer so the adjustment was really simple," he says.

Truth is, Lowther is accustomed to abrupt changes in direction.

Three months ago he was in Atlanta watching his career stagnate, struggling to work training sessions around his full time job as a warehouse supervisor but not getting any fights.

A decade earlier Lowther and Johnson had trained in the same Atlanta gym, Lowther as a teenage amateur and Johnson as a fringe contender seeking one last big fight.

When a subdural hematoma forced Johnson to retire from fighting he turned to training, and guided Lowther two a pair of wins during their brief time together.

"He had to work my corner for a couple of fights, and for a couple of fights it was Magic," Lowther says.

When Johnson returned to Canada he kept in touch with Lowther, and when he grew sick of watching the fighter spin his wheels in Atlanta he invited Lowther to move to Canada and train at his Mississauga gym.

Lowther made the move in June and by July he had already collected his first pro win with Johnson, a 5th-round stoppage of Isaac Bejarano in Cancun, Mexico.

His second assignment figures to be much tougher.

Lundy is hungry for redemption after fumbling away a potentially huge win on network TV last month, but the stakes are just as high for Lowther.

Adam Harris, head of Hennessy Sports Canada, the company that promotes Lowther, says a win here could make him a factor in a 135-pound division that, with the return of former champ Juan Manuel Marquez, is suddenly one of the hottest in boxing.

"This fight is pivotal for him," Harris says. "If he comes through this in style the doors will open wide for him."

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter