Serving up the controversy
Lopez-Alvarez bout almost lost to lure of a Vegas buffet
Posted: Wednesday November 25, 1998 09:13 PM
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Ricardo Lopez sports a record of 47-0-1 with 35 KOs Al Bello/Allsport |
By Evan Kanew, CNN/SI
One of the biggest little fights of the year almost never took place.
On the eve of his Friday November 13th rematch with WBC strawweight champion Ricardo Lopez, whom he had battled to a tough technical draw last March, Nicaragua's WBA 105-pound champ Rosendo Alvarez stood on the official scale more than three pounds over the division's limit. Hungry, dehydrated and worn out from cutting weight, Alvarez shrugged his shoulders took a drink and headed for the Las Vegas Hilton's buffet, effectively calling off the fight.
Promoter Don King, broadcast executives from Showtime and the Nevada State Athletic Commission went into overdrive to save the card. Alvarez was ordered to vacate his title. And after a negotiation with Lopez's father, Magdaleno, they believed the show would go on at a compromise weight of 115 pounds or less on the day of the fight.
At a special weigh-in at 1:30 p.m. on the afternoon of the fight, only hours before doors opened for fans, Alvarez came in at 114. Only now Magdaleno Lopez claimed he had only agreed to a compromise limit of 113 1/2 pounds. So the younger Lopez -- who for the record had made 105 the night before -- refused to weigh in and went back to his room, effectively calling off the main event once again.
According to a Showtime spokesman, it was the Nevada commission that saved the fight. Executive director Marc Ratner and commissioner Lorenzo Fertitta took a scale up to Lopez's room, woke the fighter from a nap and made it clear that, if he refused to get on, he would never work in their town again.
Lopez weighed in at 112. And that night, this pair of unexpected junior bantamweights engaged in an exciting fight for the minimum-weight titles. It was, in the end, worth the weight.
After 12 gritty rounds, a bloody Lopez secured his claim as the king of pugilistic Lilliputians with a split-decision. After the victory was announced, Lopez immediately relinquished the unified WBA/WBC 105-pound belts in the ring. King already has the fighters lined up for 108-pound championship tune-ups, with Lopez (47-0-1, 35 KOs) and Alvarez (24-1-1, 16 KOs) headed for a third showdown, at the heavier classification, next year.
Martin Shorted
And in other sports labor news... Christy Martin, who has fought against Don King almost as many times as she fought for him, is at it again.
After signing a historic contract with the promoter and fighting primarily on Mike Tyson undercards for the past three years, Martin changed the minds of many boxing businessmen about the marketability of women's fights. She became a Sports Illustrated cover subject, the first woman to fight inside Madison Square Garden's storied main arena and one of the best-paid undercard fighters in the sport. Managed and trained by her husband, Jim, she also has tried several times to leave the promoter who has maintained tight control over her career.
The latest King-Martin quarrel began earlier this month when she held out of a bout scheduled for the undercard of that ill-fated Lopez-Alvarez show. Martin called in sick, but was then seen at ringside of the main event, where she declined requests for interviews. The truth is, Martin simply went on strike that night.
According to my source -- who was unwillingly drafted as the messenger between King and the Martins -- she refused to enter the ring without a boost in her regular $100,000 per fight purse. Her reason: Because two scheduled 1998 fights had been canceled for reasons beyond her control. On March 3rd a Mexico City ordinance against women's boxing kept her out of the ring; and on June 6th, main event heavyweight Henry Akinwande tested positive for Hepatitis, scuttling an entire MSG fight card. To make up for those lost paydays, Martin demanded at least $150,000 to enter the ring on November 13th.
As of this filing, the women's boxing lockout was on Day 10 and counting.
Furious Pace
David Reid, the only 1996 Olympic gold medalist for the U.S., debuted against an undefeated veteran and as a pro has never fought an opponent with a losing record. He holds a junior-division belt and is well on his way to a major 154-pound title shot. Olympic bronze medalist Floyd Mayweather Jr. actually requested tougher competition after his promoter, Bob Arum, started him off slowly. And just 18 pro fights removed from Atlanta, the 21-year-old Mayweather now owns the WBC superfeatherweight championship.
Bronze medalist "Furious" Fernando Vargas becomes the next 1996 Olympian to challenge the conventional promotional wisdom that promising, young fighters should be coddled early in their careers. On December 12, at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Vargas challenges well-traveled veteran Yory Boy Campas (72-2, 62 KOs) for the IBF junior middleweight title.
I asked Vargas why his peers have chosen to fight tested veterans with winning records, rather than settle for few good paydays and pad their own records. "It's good to be careful, but you've got to take risks," he said by phone from his training camp in Big Bear, California. "Nothing's a sure thing. You could get knocked out fighting Joe Nobody. [But] If you keep fighting chumps, you don't learn anything."
Plus, added Vargas, who is 14-0 with 14 KOs, he wants to distinguish himself from the crop of safety-first champions whose names generally dominate pound-for-pound discussions these days. "If you want to be known as a great champion," he added, "you've got to step up to the plate and fight great competition."
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