Golden Boy and HBO need to help develop fighters

By Boxing News - 03/12/2013 - Comments

linares234By Hector Gonzalez: Golden Boy and HBO need to think about long term longevity for boxing and stop thinking about quick money; By the way, these are not my words, Dana White the CEO of the UFC has the same critic about boxing.

He’s said several times that boxing’s problem is that it’s not investing in its longevity as much as it’s investing in 1-2 main attractions during the year while ignoring the potential talent that it has.

This is how Golden Boy and HBO are sabotaging boxing!

Jorge Silva: This fighter took on Japan’s best welterweight, Yoshihiro Kamegai. Jorge Silva managed to fight Kamegai to a draw. 2 months later Silva took on Alfredo Angulo in what was an extremely grueling fight. Silva lost the fight that night, yet showed great potential. He certainly demonstrated that he’s going to give the welterweight division a lot of problems very soon!

By the way Jorge Silva was only 20 years old at the time of these fights. He recently turned 21 a few days ago, my question to Golden Boy is why would you put a talented young kid of 20 years old with seasoned veterans when there are fighters who are very protected around the same age who don’t even show as much potential as this kid. In other words, why are you setting up this kid to lose knowing very well that he’s gifted, why not nurture his talent like is being done to other fighters such as Amir Khan or Adrien Broner.

Josesito Lopez: Over a year ago Lopez took on Jesse Vargas of Mayweather Promotions. Vargas was declared the winner but Lopez was clearly robbed. Lopez showed great potential in the 140 division. Lopez is then offered a fight with Golden Boys Victor Ortiz- we all saw what happened their, Lopez was suppose to lose that fight and instead ended up breaking Ortiz’s jaw. Golden Boy instead of giving him a fight with Khan, Garcia, Berto or Matthysse uses Lopez as bait and gives him a fight with Canelo at 154!? Why not think about the longevity of what Lopez is able to offer boxing. I can say confidently that Lopez vs anyone at 140-147 would be a great fight. Instead Lopez was set up to make the Golden Boy fighter in Canelo look good.

Pablo Cesar Cano: Cano had his first defeat against the veteran Erik Morales two years ago. He lost the fight and his belt in what was a stunt to make Morales, the legendary Mexican champion, to be the first Mexican fighter to win belts in 4 divisions. That’s great for Morales and all, but what about Cano- did I forget to mention that at the time the kid was only 21 years old. I agree that maybe because Cano was a belt holder then he should be fighting the best regardless of age, I agree to an extent, the problem is that it’s not consistent across the board- for example how come Khan, Broner, Canelo or Malignaggi are not fighting the best even though they are belt holders. Speaking of Malignaggi why was Cano forced to go up in weight to 147 to take on Malignaggi when Cano was a champion at 140 and to make matters worse, he then is robbed of a victory against Malignaggi.

HBO is making a similar mistake not necessarily by promoting fighters but by hyping up the wrong fighter. For example; take note on how much HBO was hyping Jorge Linares during the Demarco fight when it was Demarco who ended up scoring a TKO victory over Linares during that night. Again take note on how much Amir Khan was being hyped by the HBO during the Peterson fight when he in actuality lost the fight then again is being over hyped against Danny Garcia when it was Garcia who ended up KOing Khan within 3 rounds… These are examples of fighters who are being over hyped for the sake of making them big too quick, making the money to quick and disregarding the longevity of the sport.

I have a prediction of an over hyped fighter who is being hyped by HBO who will fall within 3-5 fights. Call me a hater, but Adrien Broner will face the same fate that Linares and Khan faced. It’s going to be at 140, it will be a fighter who could fight off the back foot like De Leon, has a strong body punch line Matthysse, Marquez, or Garcia.



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