Vinny’s Views: Adrien Broner AKA (A Baby), Oscar De La Hoya Games, Manny Pacquiao Robbed & More…

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By Vinny “Glory Days” Lucci

Shots Fired! There are enough bullets flying this week to warrant the use of Kevlar vests but with the way boxing fans are supposed to have hearts of stone when it comes to the absurd politics and business as usual Ringside Report will take care in discerning the directions in which they fly.

In May DAZN will be hosting it’s second of eleven bout contract with Saul Canelo Alvarez as he prepares to do battle in unification match against Daniel Jacobs with the fine print of contract just publicly coming to light. Golden Boy Promotions headed by Oscar De La Hoya will stop at nothing from obtaining every available advantage in securing a Sun Tzu type victory on paper.

(Every battle is won before it is ever fought.) With the blessings of the WBC, WBA, and IBF Oscar is enforcing a “rehydration clause” where both champions must weigh in May 4th the morning of the event, as well as the day before at 8 a.m. having rehydrated no more than ten pounds over the 160 pound middleweight limit. So, for every pound over 170, the offender will be fined three hundred thousand dollars!

There is so much irony here you could cast enough bullets to finance a war. Canelo has notoriously refused same day weigh in for years leaving HBO to speculate he hadn’t entered a junior middleweight bout under 170 plus pounds in years. He also turned his nose up in defiance of the WBC who helped nurture his career by making him “the” face of organization in his rematch with Gennady Golovkin. The IBF had dropped the rehydration clause after Jacobs refused weigh in for his historic bout with Golovkin in March of 2017.

Conversely it is Daniel who is a huge middleweight when fully hydrated within his 6’ frame allowing a transformation into a small cruiserweight over 175 pounds. The no shame, no blame theatrics of Golden Boy Promotions is the hopeful bliss that such restraints will hamper the IBF champion both physically and mentally.

For those of you who missed last week’s fight news Manny Pacquiao was robbed. No not of the Tim Bradley/Jeff Horn variety but his Los Angeles estate in Hancock Park was burglarized and ransacked while Manny was schooling Adrien Broner at the MGM Grand in Paradise Nevada. The champion won a UD over Broner who had a boorish temper tantrum after tallies were read. The scorecards of 117-111, and 116-112 (twice) clearly indicating the judges were bending over backwards to throw Broner a bone. Ringside Report had Manny pitching a shutout landing 112 punches to Broner’s 50. So where does this leave the “Legend” and the “Letdown?” Manny will continue to pursue a highly unlikely rematch with retired Floyd Mayweather, JR. or challenge the winners of IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence, JR. Vs Mikey Garcia and WBO champion Terence Crawford Vs Amir Kahn in what would surely make for exciting unification matches.

As for Broner who was asked by Jim Gray post-fight on Showtime PPV, “What will you do now as your last seven fights your record stands at 3-3-1?” Broner responded angrily, “Yeah but I’d be 7-0 against you!” Ringside Report would handicap such a series as even money. Because Broner’s big mouth always equals ratings no matter how poorly the performance look for Showtime to resurrect a skeleton in closet as a comeback vehicle in which to pretend he is still relevant in a never ending string of cross roads matches where he fails to impress.

Just when we thought we were rid of former WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders after he was stripped of his belt last year for testing positive for the banned drug Oxilofrine by VADA, the same WBO alphabet soup organization has installed him as mandatory challenger for new champion Demetrius Andrade. It’s a shame they have lowered their standards that significantly.

Last year Saunders and unidentified friends were filming themselves cruising for prostitutes and chastising drug addicts. Such abysmal behavior should have been cause for revocation of the title alone as he has become the poster boy for classless behavior of human depravity. In his last bout on December 22, 2018, Saunders fought an eight rounder against 41 year old Charles Adamu, 32-13, 25 KO’s winning by RTD 4. Billy Joe weighed in at 179 ½ lbs. bringing about his first win by stoppage in over three years.

While we are on the subject of mandated matches, The WBC Has just ordered Tony Harrison to defend his newly won belt against former title holder Jermell Charlo. In what was clearly the worst decision of last year Harrison was inexplicably awarded the 154 lbs. Junior Middleweight title. The scores of 116-112, and 115-113 (twice) was correct but was awarded to the wrong boxer. Popular belief that the judges got it wrong has put pressure on WBC to right the wrong and allow both boxers the opportunity to settle the debate. What’s infuriating is the lack of any substantial reprise to judges guaranteeing it won’t happen again.

If you haven’t found all this amusing you’ll at least chuckle at Paulie Malignaggi’s rather off beat candor when dissing MMA star Conor McGregor this past week via MMA News. (Behind the Gloves) If you are a hardcore fan you may recall McGregor hired the newly retired Malignaggi as a sparring partner to prepare for his upcoming media frenzied bout against Floyd Mayweather, JR. Paulie still possessed the daft moves to imitate the stellar defense of Mayweather, JR. but there was a heated debate concerning a trip to the canvas in which McGregor claims was a knockdown while Paulie let fans know he was tripped.

For some reason known only to God and McGregor the MMA star keeps bringing this past history back to forefront of media to which Paulie has retorted in part, “You know what I think? I’m starting to think this guy has a thing for me, you know what I’m saying? It’s kind of a weird vibe I’m getting from him; where it’s like, why do you want me to think about you so much when I don’t want to?”

From there the comments get allegorically accusatory and truly off color. For the sake of maintaining a certain level of journalistic decorum the quotes stops here but Paulie has stolen much of the boxing posturing around him this month.

Finally, as will happen on occasion a fan of Ringside Report recognized me last week and chatted up a boxing conversation which I could never pass on. Question propositioned was, “What do you hate most about boxing? My retort, “The haters.”

Stay tuned…

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