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02/23/2009 Archived Entry: "Cotto, Pavlik and Boxing Economics"
Cotto, Pavlik and Boxing Economics
By Tom Donnelson
Friday night, Breidis Prescott showed the potential of a future champion. In a previous bout, Prescott stopped the future prince of the lightweight division, Amir Khan. Now he was featured on ESPN2 against Humberto Toledo, a veteran pugilistic. Prescott dominated Toledo and going into the last round, Toledo decided to go for broke or I should say, go for the big bite. In one clinch, he simply bit Prescott and that ended the fight on a disqualification. Sometimes, a fighter does stupid things in the ring and in the case of Toledo, he was just a couple of minutes of doing what Khan and 17 other fighters failed to do; finished the fight. Finished the fight and Toledo would have the opportunity to be featured as an opponent against other up and coming bout. Throughout the bout, he often took advantage of Prescott weakness like moving straight back as he nailed Prescott with overhand rights when the Columbian fighter retreated into Toledo wheelhouse. By being disqualified, he may have ensured that ESPN or SHO BOX would most likely never feature him. As for Prescott, he is a tall fighter with a power punch and good boxer skills. He still has much to work on but he has showed that he is a future star.
Yuiorkis Gamboa, a potential superstar, showed the validity of his nickname, the Cyclone, as he overwhelmed Walter Estrada in just 35 seconds. Gamboa is a exciting fighter with knockout power; but occasionally finds himself on the ground as he fights with a go for all broke style that leaves him open for counter punching.
As for the Saturday night fights, Kelly Pavlik came back from his only defeat with a beating of Marco Antonio Rubio. Pavlik backed his Mexician challenger by battering him with blows after blows. Rubio had no answer and in the eighth round, Pavlik trapped Rubio in the corner and unleashed with combinations starting with a right. The fight was stopped in the ninth as he continued pummeling Rubio.
Meanwhile, John Duddy decision Matt Vanda and as boxing writer Cliff Rold asked, “What was proved by beating Vanda?” It showed that Duddy could beat a opponent who is not elite fighter but at this point in his career, Duddy has to be more than an opponent beater; he must show that he can be an elite fighter. In the tenth round, Vanda scored with some nasty shots; showing Duddy that the move up the Middleweight ladder will become harder.
Miguel Cotto showed that there was life after losing to Margarito. Now that Margarito has been suspended for one year for being caught with illegal wraps, Cotto only lost looked less than a lost but a fight with many questions. Cotto let his hands go against the hapless Michael Jennings, his opponent for the comeback. Cotto dropped Jennings twice in the fourth round with ferocious body shots and one more time in the fifth round before the referee stopped the fight.
While UFC was featuring a seven bout match on SPIKE, the Pavlik-Cotto card was on PPV for 45 dollars. Both Pavlik and Cotto are stars but they have bigger fights coming up. This was not a PPV event but one deserving no charge. Both fighters were challenging fighters that were not in their league.
For Cotto, he has a shot for a Welterweight second chance against Mosley. This bout would be for the Welterweight title and if that doesn’t come off, there is Andre Berto. Bottom line, fans were denied a chance to see two stars make comebacks and set up bigger paydays. This is not a way to build fans loyalty and boxing could use a little more fan loyalty.
Pavlik fight showed that he learned a few things from his lost to Hopkins and he has two options. The first is to fight the popular Irish fighter John Duddy for big bucks and it is a fight that he would be favored. Or he could go for the real fight in the division, fight Arthur Abraham; who has but stated that he wants Pavlik and he would fight Pavlik stateside. This is the fight that would be an explosive big money exciting fight; one that would actually be worth a PPV price. Maybe HBO and the promoters would have been smarter to feature these fights on HBO and not the PPV site. More fans would have seen these fighters and given HBO a chance to promote these fighters while setting up an even bigger pay day. Sometimes, building an audience requires some sacrifice but those sacrifices will lead to bigger dollars and bigger audiences. Which should be the goal of the sport.
