Brendan Flynn writes with a story concerning a near-miss in America’s creepiest public oedipal drama not involving the White House:
A potentially compelling story line of boxing’s biggest fight of the year has been squashed. Golden Boy promotions announced Freddie Roach will likely train Oscar De La Hoya for his upcoming (on May 5) bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (above) Yes, that same Freddie Roach who’s been guiding James Toney on his bloated heavyweight travails. Oscar has been trained by Floyd Jr.’s father for his past 9 fights. Mayweather Sr. promised he was the only guy who could provide a strategy to dismantle his son and was asking $2 million to train De La Hoya for the fight. To quote Don King, “Only In America.” But alas boxing, a sport basically on life support, blew it again when it came to creating intrigue. It likely won’t matter too much as Floyd Jr.(37-0), unquestionably boxing’s best pound for pound, and De La Hoya, boxing’s best ppv attraction, will still be the must see fight of the decade–a depressing thought in and of itself.
More detail from the worldwide leader here. Apparently this fight set a record for gate revenue by bringing in $19 million after selling out in three hours. Which is impressive, sure, but the Arcade Fire sold out their five New York City shows in 8 minutes a few weeks ago. My point being that the people at Merge, rather than De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, probably should’ve been promoting this one.