Billy's Boxing Blog

By William Trillo

As I opened my email on Monday morning I weeded through various press releases, notices that I had just inherited $50 million and proposals of marriage from 20 year old Russian women. As I sifted through the mess there was an interesting correspondence, the subject of which read; Interview Request MEL Magazine.

In the body of the email was a request to interview yours truly about the business side of boxing. The writer, Andrew Fiouzi, was writing an article for melmagazine.com and was looking for an “expert” to direct him accordingly. How he ended up on my doorstep is anyone’s guess but I was more than happy to oblige.

What’s the worst I could do? Stick my foot in my mouth? It wouldn’t be the first time….right?

After a couple of phone calls the interview with Fiouzi was “in the can” and all I could do now was wait for the article to post later in the week. I was hopeful the interview was helpful and that the article would be an interesting read… and it was. I think you will agree that the article is informative as well as interesting. Outside of a few bits the wound up on the cutting room floor Fiouzi made good use of the quotes I gave him.

Those bit’s you ask?

Oh you know, just the usual….for instance; How local promoters screw the beejeebers out of young up and comers by forcing them to sell tickets to the events, (upwards of 60 tix per promotion at $50 a pop), and then maybe paying the kid a paltry $1000, (do the math), and threatening not to pay the fighter if he doesn’t sell all the tickets. The last promoter who tried that crap damn near lost his license until he compensated the fighter for his night of work.

Or the one about the new breed of boxing Advisor/Manager who seems to be a nice guy by only charging 10% for his services. But the fact is said Advisor/Manager has a string of Puppet Promoters scattered across North America who act as promoters for him because it’s illegal to both manage fighters and promote them at the same time. The Adviser/Manager is well aware his team of Carnival Barker promoters he uses like to be the center of attention and are willing to sell their souls for peanuts just to get a little taste of the limelight. That normally leaves upwards of 20% or more of the purse for the “nice guy” Advisor/Manager to shove into his already overstuffed pockets. Again I implore you to do the math and then start humming a few bars of Alice Cooper’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”

But I digress.

Although I was a bit surprised Fiouzi wanted to talk to me, of all people, I was thrilled to give him the inside dope on the bizness of boxing…as I know it.

Please check out this link for the interview;
https://melmagazine.com/the-economic-breakdown-of-a-boxing-purse-who-gets-what-87d956d8ddaf

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com

By William Trillo

On any other day the media in attendance would be congratulating GGG for this truly prestigious honor. As Ring Magazine Editor In Chief Doug Fisher noted, it had been several decades since they bestowed this honor on a Fighter. That was 1993 when Pernell Whitaker was given the P4P belt. As a proud Golovkin received his award names like Hagler, Hopkins and Monzon were mentioned. Putting the Golovkin name in the same sentence with any of those greats spoke volumes; GGG is truly in an elite class.

But as 360 Promotions Chief Tom Loeffler said, “This is a media lunch to recognize Gennady as the Ring Magazine middleweight champion. It just happens to be that last week we made the deal to fight Canelo Alvarez.”

A truer statement could not be uttered. The packed room was happy to see GGG get that belt but more than that they wanted to hear what Golovkin had to say about the consummated deal that will put him back in the ring with Canelo this coming September.

Loeffler threw out a quick jab at Team Canelo when he noted, “We are having clenbuterol-free, VADA-approved steaks for this press conference.” In fact, the fare that was served to the media was all clearly labeled including the Filet Mignon Medallions.

The animosity is building early for this battle and by fight week the tension will be thick enough to cut it with a knife, count on that.

Not to go unnoticed during the day was confirming a rumor I stumbled upon that suggested Canelo has made it clear he does not want to share the same space with GGG during any of the upcoming press events. When I asked Loeffler about this he stated, “They won’t be in the same room at the same time leading up to it. During fight week, who knows? If we do a press conference that week, or when you do the weigh-in, however we do it these guys… (Shrugs his shoulders). I don’t know if it’s animosity but Triple G feels that Canelo has a lack of respect for what happened and Canelo doesn’t seem happy about what has happened and it has taken on a completely different tone for this promotion.”

So when Golovkin noted during the press conference, “I don’t think he (Canelo) can look me into the eyes”, not only should we take that literally but it appears Canelo has made sure that won’t happen.

Considering what transpired before the May 5th fight and the Canelo tests that came up dirty, costing everyone a whole lot of money, I was curious if Team GGG has anything in place in the contract that would protect them financially in case Canelo should happen to accidentally woof down another plateful of Clenbuterol laced Burritos forcing another unexpected suspension and end to the September rematch. Loeffler answered, “We haven’t even gotten that far yet, but I am sure there will be something in place because like Abel said, we were ready for May 5 for Canelo and now we are hoping everything works out so we can get these guys in the ring on September 15th. It’s not unreasonable to put something like that in the contract, of course it would have to be for both sides, but the burden is clearly on Canelo to make sure he is clean and eligible to fight on September 15th.

Going back to the first fight and everything that was said in the aftermath fans seem split down the middle as to whether or not Canelo was fighting dirty that night. I asked Loeffler if in hindsight Team Golovkin thought maybe Canelo may have been under the effects of something illegal that night. “I think there are a lot of suspicions,” quipped Loeffler, “not only on our team but in general. But we had to go by what the Nevada Commission investigation came up with. This time he is doing a lot of testing just like Triple G will be doing throughout their entire training camps.’

Switching back to the reason we were there, and that was Golovkin getting that Pound For Pound belt Loeffler proudly said, “It’s a great honor and that is why we are here. It’s a great turnout from the media. This is one of the biggest honors you can get in the sport of boxing. There’s a lot of politics involved in boxing with all the titles and all the sanctioning bodies, to get the Pound For Pound title from Ring Magazine is a huge honor for Triple G.”

It seems like less than two weeks ago Golovkin was getting stripped of one of his hard earned titles and was playing second fiddle to Golden Boy and their “put up or shut up” demands. Suddenly here we are less than 14 days later and not only does Golovkin have a brand new shiny and prestigious belt to wrap around his waist but he got the split he was looking for in a fight that is sure to be the blockbuster event of the year.

I’m not sure if Golovkin has time to hit the tables when he is in Las Vegas but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is one heck of a Poker player. Not only will he stand firm on his hand and not fold, but he has the guts to call your bluff while doing so. If he beats Canelo in September we might have to start calling him Gennady “Royal Flush” Golovkin.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

By William Trillo

As reported by Pound4Pound.com only moments after it became official, Gennady Golovkin & Canelo Alvarez will meet on September 15th at The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in a rematch of their controversial draw that left boxing fans wanting more.

The fight should prove to be a dramatic event for all parties concerned including the trainer of GGG, Abel Sanchez, whom we had a chance to speak to in regard to all things GGG.

Last week was a bit of a roller coaster for Team Golovkin. First the IBF stripped GGG of his title and soon thereafter GGG softened his stance on his money demands to fight Canelo. My knee jerk reaction was that it was a cause and effect situation but Sanchez said no. “The reason Gennady pulled back on his demands was the same reason that he agreed to fight Canelo on May 5th, “said Sanchez, “Gennady feels he owes it to his fans to be in the ring, he owes it to his fans to try to do as much as possible without hurting himself to make sure the fight goes off. He is trying to get himself in the ring as much as he can so the fans can enjoy him before he retires, he is 36 years old, it’s only three or four more years and them his time is finished.”

While all the posturing was going on Golden Boy was throwing out the name of Danny Jacobs as Canelo’s next dance partner, but I knew that was just the promoter playing poker. Everyone including Sanchez was calling that bluff. “They were just throwing the Jacobs name out there to feel the public out and get an idea of how the situation might play out,” exclaimed Sanchez. “They found out the fight the fans want to see is Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo. Gennady was always willing to try to do as much as he could without hurting himself to make this happen. But there comes a point when you have to have pride in what you do and not be pushed around. Gennady felt like he was being pushed around, being made the second banana. Gennady is the champion; he is the guy who fights clean, he is the man who beat this guy last time. A lot of the things are being said by some of the other organizations, and then there is some of the things that Canelo has not done to comply with them, things that everybody else does, that other fighters do…Golovkin takes this to heart basically saying, “Why are we all doing it and that Diva is not?”

Whatever the case may be, and whatever the final purse split is for the fighters, it’s a done deal now and in a few months boxing fans will get to watch these two settle the score. It appeared hopeless earlier in the day on Wednesday but as Sanchez noted,” As long as they were talking there was always hope. Now they have come to terms and the fans will get the fight they want and Golovkin can knock Canelo out once and for all or dominate him even more and they can put last September to rest.”

In regard to the IBF stripping his fighter Sanchez didn’t pull any punches. “It unfortunate these organizations have these agendas,” noted Sanchez. “Here we have a young man who is doing something that rarely is done, and that is being a unified champion. Terrance was one of them, Bernard Hopkins was another. I think they need to take things like this into consideration before stripping someone who is on a quest to be a unified champi9on like Gennady. It’s an unfortunate thing, they have a mandatory with a guy who has 12 fights. In his last fight he fought in an eight round fight off TV against a guy who was 22-23. It took him 6 rounds to knock this guy out! That you are stripping one of the greatest fighters of this era for a mandatory like that just does not make any sense to me. I wasn’t surprised they did this at all, they have agendas. It’s the pressure the get from other managers and other promoters to do an unthinkable thing like that. They are shortsighted.”

IBF belt or not, GGG vs. Golvkin will be the boxing event of the year, count on that. There is going to be a lot of talking going on between now and then. It’s safe to say feathers will get ruffled and feelings will get hurt before the September date, but when the bell rings for round 13 the only thing that will matter is who will be left standing when the dust settles.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

By William Trillo

As defined by Urbandictionary.com: your other left
Phrase meaning “right” for dumbasses that can’t tell the difference between left and right.

Once again the ineptitude of my peers reared its ugly head at the Crawford/Horn post fight press conference on Saturday night. During the Q & A with Crawford two of my esteemed colleagues made it pretty clear they haven’t the slightest clue when a fighter is fighting from the orthodox stance or attacking his foe as a southpaw.

The first question came from a relative unknown who asked why when Crawford’s trainer asked him to switch stances that he didn’t comply by switching from orthodox to southpaw. Crawford chuckled and then corrected the directionally challenged telling him it was the other way around.

A few moments later a similar question came from someone who thinks he is God’s gift to boxing journalism, that being Fat Dan Rafael. That’s right boys and girls, Mr. ESPN boxing himself doesn’t know left from right. When he made basically the same error as the other journalist Crawford smiled and corrected the misguided question. Rafael tried to get more from Crawford on his Southpaw vs. Orthodox strategy but it was pretty clear Crawford was just toying with Dan and not answering his questions. Heck, even Bob Arum joined in the fun as they made light of the situation. If Dan didn’t see he was getting mocked by Crawford and Arum…..well….he doesn’t know his right from his left…need I say more?

So, here we are with ESPN launching their new platform and their lead boxing journalist clearly has not a clue what he is talking about. Was it not for being spoon fed scoops because of that chair he plops himself down in Bristol, it’s doubtful this guy would get any run at all in the boxing world.

Moving on…. Haters already be hating on Crawford because of the inferior competition he took on Saturday night. And yes, Horn had no business being in the ring with Crawford with the simple exception that the man held a World Title Belt at 147 pounds and was the defacto reigning champion. It’s hard to blame Crawford or Bob Arum for that matter as “Bud” stepped up to 147 pounds and immediately made himself credible by dethroning Horn and staking claim to a 147 pound title. The mere fact that he holds one of those belts now instantly made him a very viable commodity in the welterweight division. Get over yourselves haters; Crawford is here to make some noise.

Something else Horn had no business doing was entering the ring to the same music that Gennady Golovkin has all but branded as his own. Hearing Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes as Horn walked out to battle rang very hollow, especially since most of us knew his performance was destined to be anything but Triple G-esque. In light of the events that transpired I think Horn would have been better served coming out to the Aussie classic Waltzing Matilda.

And last but not least, what was the story with security at The MGM on Friday before the weigh-in? I’m not sure what the Barney Fife dude at the door was all agro about but I was pretty sure he was getting ready to mace me down before I could get in the door to do my job. Really dude, I’m sorry you couldn’t pass the test to become a real police officer but I am pretty sure you could have found someone a little more dangerous than me to roust. Seriously…I was sure I was going to spend the weekend in the Las Vegas hoosegow. No doubt that would have pleased many of you…especially those of you that are 3 donuts short of 400 pounds.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing truth.