Christian

Live Blog from New York City
Christian's Corner

May 14th


3:52 Pm

Hello Fans, its me again. I have been away for awhile and I hope everyone and anyone has been doing well in the time that I have been gone. I have much to blog on fans, the world of boxing has been full of stories and mishaps and over the course of this weekend I will be addressing many different issues and happenings around the sport. I will have the help of people within the boxing community so as we move about this weekend keep checking in with me for interviews and encounters that will be sure to take place. If you can read you know that I am currently in New York covering the Amir/Paulie fight. This mourning was crazy. I got a late start and had to drive almost 90 miles an hour to make it to the weigh in. While I was driving I was wondering if making the weigh in was worth the risk of being arrested for reckless driving. Now that I have returned to my hotel I can tell all of you that it was ABSOLUTELY worth the frantic drive. Over the course of the weigh in I conducted the usual interviews that Christians Corner does during such a proceeding and had some dope ass conversations with people within the sport. I will get to that later. Fans I just took part in the most chaotic situation I have ever been involved in as a writer, After the two weighed in they then turned to the press and posed for the cameras. Then came the stare down. During the stare down both fighters started talking mad shit really escalating the situation, then all hell broke loose when Paulie put his hands on Amir and called him a terrorist. Amir to my surprise had many fans there, I mean he was rolling deep, it was clear that the majority of these fans were of pakistan decent. They were chanting through out the weigh in and actually crowded press row as the weigh in began to get crazy, once Paulie called Amir that awful name Amirs fan rushed the stage, once that happend Paulie's people rushed Amirs fans and let me tell you. I counted about 50 to 60 people scrapping on stage, At that point one of Amir's followers accidently ran into to me, at the time however I did not know it was an accident and I turned around and threw his punk ass over a chair, He got up apologizing to me but at the time I did not want to hear it, There were no cops in the room to stop the melee and it lasted for much longer then it should have. Amir and Paulie were actually thrown off the stage. Amirs people grabbed he and Freddie Roach and ushered them to the distant corner while Paulie was dragged out of the room kicking and screaming. The fans and the media were in shock. I was pissed. The fan who hit me came up to apologize and I accepted his apology but what the hell was he doing? This is a weigh in, stupid bullshit like this is good for selling a fight but in the long run it is dangerous. I ran into NYPD on my way to the train and they informed me that they will have a big time eye on the event tom, much bigger then they had intended before this all took place. Lou Dibella was Ape shit, he ran around the room in wake of the incident cursing out anyone who was in his way, he even got buck with Richard schafer, Richard(who I interviewed) laughed through the whole thing and attempted to calm Lou down but Lou would have none of it, he was FIRED up dude. Lou gave me dap and a big smile a couple min later so I think he is over it but for awhile there unified I thought the fight may not come off. It was a heated situation. Anyway, I have some food to eat and I need to catch up on my sports center so check in with me a little later today for some interviews I conducted before the royal rumble, wait to you guys see my pictures of the rumble haha, Peace
C

5:49 Pm

How are the hawks going to fire coach Mike Woodson? They want him to make chicken salad out of chicken shit, That team was light years behind the Magic talent wise. Shamless, how is everyone? The encoder has just stepped out so now that I have some quiet allow me to describe my encounter with Nate Campbell. I will post the pictures shortly after this encounter, Man, Nate is just how I described him in my HBO blog. He is from the hood homey and he smells blood in the water. After our Photo op we got some questions in

How you feel Nate?

NC: I feel great man, Have not stepped under the lights since August..I am ready to get in there homey

Nate , I wrote in one my recent blogs that Victor is rough between the edges. He clearly does not like rough tough fights and I believe you are the perfectly wrong fighter to be fighting at this point in his career

NC: he is dog, money is sweet, I am going after this man

Good Nate. I picked you to win this fight, Don't let me down man, go get him

NC: You know what time it is, his heart ain't like mine, We all know what time it is


Nate is one of the few fighters that I can converse with like I do with my friends. I believe in him. I could be wrong but Victor is 2 fights removed from complaining about being hit in the face. That hurt him in many observers eyes including these. I interviewed Richard about this and as you will see unified this is an end all. I mean whoever loses may be in danger of losing their promotional contract. Stay tuned

I will be back shortly. I would like to carve some space in my live blog for the Kermit Cintron situation. It is driving me nuts. I have two friends named David fans. One's last name is Haney, the others last name is Burns. One of the Davids believe that Kermit jumped. The other David (The David who usually does not agree with me about anything in the sport of boxing and has an emotional relationship with Manny) still to this day will not concede that Kermit leaped. Between these two conversations I have much to say, I will halla

C

7:04 PM

Halla, This blog entry will serve as a catch up helping of sorts. I have been focusing so much on my project that I really have not had the time to spin the wheel on the different things that grind my gears. So unified champ, you know what grinds my gears? Kermit Cintron. He is the biggest phoney in any profession in any walk of life on the planet earth. I was already having an awful sat night, The power went out, My car was on the fritz, my saving grace seemingly is that World championship boxing would be coming through on the air waves. The fight began and I will admit that Kermit was fighting a better then expected fight. He really was. He was throwing sharp shots, he was connecting, and he was at the least fighting Paul straight up. I thought we were in for an interesting night. Paul appearing to realize that losing was a possibility if he kept fighting timid, he did what great fighters do, he stepped up the pace and began to find his stroke. The first time that Kermit got caught in an exchange he used Paul falling down to do a Mel Gibson through the ropes. My friend David(the burns one) texted me right after and said "HE JUMPED" I did not catch it until I saw the slow replay but there can be no doubt he did. he actually jumped like an olympic gymnast perfectly though the only transparent part of the ropes. It looked like the WWF where one of the guy throws himself out of the ring except its so over the top that even the loyal fans cringe. He then laid on his side acting like he had been sprayed with an AK-47. If I fall down during a game or fall into the crowd I get right up, By the time the doctor could get to me I am already on my feet. He WAITED for the doctor, did not move, refused to fight( Dr. Paul Wallace told the La times that Cintron refused to fight after being asked twice). Once he acted his way of the fight and knew that he would not have to get back in the ring he started to slam his fist on the gourney. Where was all that passion as soon as you fell lightly on a padded grass floor(Soccer stadium)? He broke out because he figured(and mabye rightly so) that he was winning the fight and he was sure he would be awarded a technical decision. I know for a fact Kermit knew the rule that no one else seemed to know, you know how I know that? He filed a protest before the fight on that VERY same issue. He waited until 3 rounds had passed, he waited until the fight was in the books, he saw his chance to get the heck out of the ring, and took it, He is a shame, everyone who is trying to say otherwise is playcating Lou Dibella, I LOVE LOU DUDE, he is my favorite promoter, however, Even Lou has to think in his heart of hearts that Kermit made a paycheck safety first move last sat, My friend david( the Haney one) and some others still try to make the argument that he did not jump...Come on now

C

May 15th

10:23 AM

Rise and shine fellas. It is a pristine day in North Jersey. As some of you know I live in the south but the air up here seems more cleaner and more crisp. I will be moving back to this part of the country soon enough. I want to continue to use this blog to give my take on what went down while i was away. I will also run my interview with Richard sometime after lunch so today should be worth the click. As many of you know Floyd Mayweather Jr continued to dominate the sport with a mind numbing performance at the expense of Shane Mosley. Floyd has been alot of his things over the course of his career, he has been swift, he has been flawless, and sometimes he has been eh. This was the first time that he truly looked scary. He took flush power shots from a bigger stronger man and turned into a fire breathing dragon. Manny(congrats on the election) had to be sitting over in General Santos city re thinking the things he has been saying about Floyd for the last 4 months. Many forget that Manny was doing all kinds of bullshit in the lead up to the clottey fight as it pertains to to Floyd. Mocking and imitating his style in camp, telling people that he badly wanted the Mayweather fight, telling people it would be an easy fight, telling the press that he believes Floyd is afraid of him. All kinds of stuff. Manny who is usually soft spoken had become a trash talker no doubt in part because Freddie Roach but the facts remain. Perhaps this was due to the fact that it was hard to take much away from Floyds performance against an overmatched JMM and Manny did not see anything that he saw as a true threat, or mabye Manny has really begun to believe he is one of the greatest fighters ever. Either way its academic because Manny realized on May 1st exactly what he is up against. He realized that he will enter the fight as an underdog, he realized that floyd is not soft, he realized that floyd can walk someone down while maintaining his defensive instincts and razor like counterpunching. Manny is much smaller then Floyd is, Physically Floyd will be the much stronger man and the smarter man ad the better pure boxer.. This is why Manny is opening as a clear under dog at the bookies. I was told by an insider at the weigh in yesterday that manny getting his ears boxed off is beyond possible, its likely. Manny's tone since May 1st has toned down quite a bit. He has gone from Macho man Randy Savage to Ghandi. Now he has to ask his mother if he is allowed to fight, thats his excuse. First the needles, and now mommey had to ok him to step back in a ring. Manny has bigger problems however. $ will be the biggest problem in this situation and Bob Arum Knows it. Bob all of a sudden does not want to upset the apple cart. The apple cart, the cash cow, is Floyd Mayweather. Bob hates floyd but he loves money. Thats why Bob has been very careful not to insult floyd through the media and refuses to speak about the fight which is a big change in diplomatic policy for Robert Arum. Floyd just brought in 80 million in TV revenue and untold millions in live gate and sponser ships. In over 6 PPV fights since 2005 Floyd has averaged 1 millions buys. So at the very least every time he fights the event is a blockbuster. On paper in floyds last two fights he has made more money the Manny has in his entire career. Thats a staggering statistic but a true one. Manny when HBO announced 1.4 millions buys for Mayweather/Mosley became the B side of the promotion. This is a huge problem because manny like Floyd has a huge ego and this will in all likely hood murder any chance that this fight actually happens. It will be impossible for Manny to realize that he is not the main attraction. Manny will be forced to take less then 50 percent to get the fight. He can not make 30 percent of the money fighting Margarito that he could make fighting Floyd The allure of the fight is everyone wanting to see if someone can beat floyd, thats the question, Floyd beating Manny will be expected and therefore does not contain any allure. The other thing that is grinding my gears is my fellow American writers. Paulie made an amazingly good point after the rumble yesterday to reporters. He pointed our that American writes love to hype foreign fighters. How true is that statement? Think about it Unified. Amir Khan has never fought anyone of note, not one soul, and this week he has been talking about wanting Floyd Mayweather Junior or a Manny clash by by the end of THISy ear. This is a fighter who has not even appeared in 25 professional fights or even been seen on the undercard of a major PPV but he wants to take on the best fighter in boxing. His arrogance and to some degree Manny'y behavior are a result of the American media siding with fighters who do not live here. Thomas Hauser wrote a piece bashing Floyd Mayweather last week but when he penned his post fight Manny article the spin was that Manny is everything that is right about boxing. If this fight does not happen floyds fellow country men will no doubt point the big finger at floyd and his character flaws and gloss over Manny's continued shady refusal. I will let the situation play off a little more but what I have read and seen in the last month is pissing me off and makes me ashamed of some of my fellow americans

C

1:22

The best showers are ones that take place after sleeping for the better part of the day. I am recharged and currently revisiting the live blog. Life is a funny thing. I almost skipped the weigh in because of the traffic and if I had made that decision I would have missed a riot, Loud dibella losing his mind, and a smooth interview with Ricahrd S. This was our second interview but it was Slightly different this go round because it was just me and him tucked away by the stage. At the Mayweather press conference there was 3 other writers ease dropping on the interview getting his answers to my questions. This time was more informational for me in terms of who Richard is from a personal standpoint. He is a kind chill man. In a world filled with the frugal Bob Arum and the wretched Don King Richard brings a Tamone and pumba attitude to the situation. He is also a master Sales man. Richard could canvas any apartment building in america and he would be able to sell his fights to every last resident, even if they don't like boxing. His mind seemingly is always on the next buck, I was happy to see him again(check the new album) this is a christians corner exclusive

Richard here we stand. arguably your hottest prospect makes his american debut, Madison SQ Garden, HBO, how big would you say this weekend is Richard?

RS: Its EVERYTHING. First impression is everything. He has super start qualities. His time is now and I believe he can do it

Richard, what happened on stage during stare down that precipitated the drama?

RS: I saw Paulie call Amir a terrorist, Amir took exception, and all hell broke loose

I could believe not it Richard, Totally uncalled for. Moving forward, What does tom mean for another one of your prospects. Victor has some unfinished business as well...

RS: totally. This is a crossroads fight for both fighters. This is BIG fight for victor. He needs to quiet the whispers. I believe he is ready, If he can win this fight I believe he will be a top 5 Jr welterweight.

Do you have a hand in the Wlad/Haye situation. Are you at the table on David Hayes side?

RS: No not this time. Adam Booth will be handling that

Richard has the boxing world in the palm of his hands. To me, and this is just me, Richard is the true mastermind of Golden boy promotions. Oscar has the name but so does George Forman on a line of grills. That does not mean that George is the engineer that keeps coming with new grills. Oscar is a puppet head, he does not have world class business acumen. He reminds me of Queen Elizabeth. Big name small stick. Richard made a very telling comment in the interview that I eluded to earlier. He called the co main event a cross roads fight. I do not agree with that, I believe each will get as least one more notable fight in the event of a loss for different reasons. Victor is so young, he has plenty of time to make his name provided he does not cop out of his career. Nate comes to fight, is 38 years old and has a name so that will always draw fighters trying to make a name for themselves. So if you look deeper what Richard means by cross roads fight is the loser will have that contract ripped up. Richard signs the fighters. Oscar is more of a talent scout who can make a recomendation. But at the end of the day Richard is Jerry Buss. His office is upstairs. He signed these two fighters and he has every right to release these two fighters, trust me, The loser of this fight(unless the fight off the wall two sided action) will not be on the Golden Boy promotions banner after this fight, I saw it in Richards face. Over and out

C

4:40 PM

Just to keep it real this may be my last entry before the fight. I need my 32 winks. It has been quite a relaxing day. I am excited for the fight and if yesterday was any indication I am not the only one. I will take Amir Khan by decision and Nate C. in an upset. One of the davids claims that I never make a solid pick on a fights, that I always sit on the fence. He is wrong. I picked Sergio Martinez to beat Pavlik 2 months before the fight. These are my best bets for tonights action due to what I have seen and heard since arriving in the city. Amir has way to much talent to let such a big chance fly by the waist side. In the co main event Nate simply is a different cut of cat then Victor. Yesterday at the weigh in Victor was not very enthusiastic about the honor of fighting prime time on HBO. He is spoiled. He was given everything before he won anything. I think he believes that he will be able to stop Nate early, what happens when he doesn't? Adversity Unified and we have seen how Victor performs under that specific climate.

I mentioned yesterday that Lou Dibella flipped his shit after the rumble. I posted the video link which unto itself is wild but I actually walked up on Lou after he went bonkers to get his thoughts on Amir Khan and company

LD: Fuck them, that kid will never be a star in america. He and his fucking crew come in here acting like animals and almost injured my fighter

Who started all of this

LD: They did, they bring a fucking student section in hear acting like a bunch of animals, Paulie brought his crew and thats it,

What now

LD: If one more thing happens I am pulling his ass out of the fight. One more fucking thing I am pulling the on the whole situation

Lou has a right to be mad. The weigh in was closed off from the public to start with. I among others were sent an email telling us the event was media only and someone in the media leaked the information to the general public and we got what we got. Amir's fans have every right to cheer for their guy, but they did not have the right to show up, they did not have the right to rush the stage and hurt people in the process, and in all honesty the lack of Police presence makes zero sense. If someone had pulled a gun there would have been no one to stop them. The hotel did nothing, they did not call the cops, they did not send in their own security , they just watched and laughed. I am off to bed, hopefully I will dream about Mayweather/Pacquaio and pretty ladies,

C

May 16th

10:30 PM

Home safe and sound. I pondered penning a weekend wrap up to explain what happened between my last blog entry and my arrival home here in fair VA. But I have now thought better of it. I want to go against the grain. This will serve as my post fight write up. This weekend will forever live in my memory as one of the craziest I have ever in my life lived. From Jackie to the Rumble there really never was a dull moment. I also got to throw back beers with the encoder which never fails to please. I left for the fight a little late, route 17 in New Jersey is an organized nightmare and it took me forever just to arrive at the Secaucus Junction. Then my train was delayed which meant I did not arrive at Madison Square Garden until 9:00 which was annoying, however, my timing bore some fruit. I was walking towards the media entrance when I ran into ESPN’S Brian Kenny. It was surreal because I have been looking at his face for most of my adult life every day on TV. Brian is a true boxing savant, he loves the sport, but only recently has he immersed himself in the subject matter. Our conversation was brief but comical

Brian, what’s up with that new commercial? I almost fell out of my chair when I saw it, did you and Floyd do both commercials on the same day?

BK: Actually Christian the heavy bag commercial was planned. We did that the weekend after Pacquaio fought Clottey. Floyd is a nice guy, we got into it during that interview but outside of that we have a good relationship. The speed bag advertisement was simply us screwing around, which just happened to be caught on tape

What did you think about the Mayweather/Mosley fight, I saw that you were in attendance

BK: Awesome fight Christian, I was so impressed with Floyd and his ability to come back from clean hard power punching. He really put a beating on Shane, It was a remarkable performance and elevated Mayweather to greater heights then he was already at and that is saying A LOT

What do you think about tonight?

BK: I think Amir will be too much

I wished Brian good luck and we went our separate ways. We actually didn’t though. Don’t you hate when you say goodbye to some one and then you see them 45 seconds later? That’s what happened to Brian and me. It was a little weird but we had a chuckle as we waited to for our credentials to be administered. I finally entered the press box 15 min later and I was just in time to see my friend Daniel Jacobs. If you remember unified champ he came through Christians Corner roughly about a month ago. I spoke with him a couple times through out the weekend and he told me again and again that he wanted to put on a good show in New York. He did just that. He murdered his man within one round and he did much to the delight of his supporters. He has star quality. He also is building a huge fan base in his Hometown. Daniel shot me a wink on his way to the dressing room and lipped the words “Who is next”. I smiled and motioned for him to call me sometime next week. If he does I plan to blog on that conversation as well as the conversation I had with Richard concerning the plan for Daniel as his career begins to progress.

I was shooting the shit with some of my friends from ESPN radio when a hand tapped me on the shoulder. I turn around and am confronted by an angry Kermit Cintron. Kermit much to my delight tuned into the live blog this weekend. The fact that Kermit Cintron was surfing to our fair site was a joyous revelation to me. The bad news was that I ripped him a new butthole earlier in this blog. I did a Kermit Cintron Blog a while ago, he remembered who I was and for whom I write. The conversation was intense but fuck it, it is what it is

KC: How you gonna write some bullshit like that? I am a phony because I fell out of the ring?

No Kermit, I called you a phony because to me and many others it appears you pulled an early check out last weekend. It appeared to me that you layed on the ground and waited for Medical assistance. That is not the actions of someone that “wants to continue”

KC: You are just like everyone else, I had the wind knocked out of me, it took me a second to get my breath and once I did that I was ready to go

Then how do you explain Dr. Phil Wallace’s comments to the LA times?

KC: I have no idea why he came out and said that

I do, he said it to set the record straight on his end, he is a doctor, His whole education is based on ethics and science. Men like that do not lie about situations that really have no value to their future one way or the other

KC: so your saying?

He had no reason to lie Kermit. I am saying that based on his testimony and the video footage it appears that that you pulled out of the fight when you had the chance continue

KC: That’s not true Christian, and that’s exactly why we are having a hearing on July 26th

What do you want out of this hearing , the court of public opinion can not be swayed by political machinations

KC: At the very least I want a draw, at the very least.

Well Kermit I am sorry if I offended you but I wrote what I wrote because that it what I saw, no hard feelings

KC: none here either

That was the first time I really got into it with a fighter. But given the activity of the weekend It does not come as a surprise. Right after me and Kermit broke conclave I headed back to the press box and took in the two main events. Victor looked like a talented fighter. Much better then I expected. Much better. He appeared to have great foot movement, he appeared in shape and ready for the task at hand, and most importantly he showed some confidence in the ring. Its about time. He still does not like getting too physical but I cannot have it both ways, he impressed and that’s it. Nate on the other hand looked old and tired. He showed more energy during our’ interview (see above) on Friday then he did in the ring. I was disappointed in his performance. It was also a boring fight. Very bland and not much drama. The main event was a different story though. The crowd was nuts. Nuts. I will post the pictures sometime this week but take my word for it Unified that was the loudest and most passionate crowd I have seen in the short tenure of Christians Corner. The fans from the UK were in soccer game mode and the fans from Brooklyn were chanting Paulies name from start to finish. It was electric when the fighters came out. That was shocking to me; this was not a landscape-shifting contest. This was a good solid fight between to respectable fighters with good names and good followings. I realized shortly after Amir’s entrance that he was the reason the fight had become an event. Amir is a star, I noticed how rabid his fans were at the weigh in but the fight itself was like a world cup semifinal. The crowd was out of their minds excited. I have never even seen Amir fight a full-length bout on TV let alone in person so I was eager to see what all the hoopla was about. I got an answer. This kid from Bolton England is the genuine article. I am not sure if he will be great, who could be sure of that, but I am sure that he is going to make some noise in this game for at least the next 2 or 3 years. He is a big time boxer puncher. He has height, excellent head movement, long arms, and sits on his punches. I was close to the ring Unified champ, his punches were crisp and accurate. Now lets keep perspective, Paulie’s power punches couldn’t break wind. He may need to think about another profession because he simply does not have the ability to truly hurt someone in the ring. I do not know what the problem is, I don’t know if he does not lift weights, or eat right, or even have some type of strength and conditioning coach. Either way he physically is the weakest fighter I have ever seen. It’s the truth. I spoke to Paulie on Friday, good kid and have interviewed him numerous times, but at the end of the day his mouth does not measure up to his personality in the ring. With that said, what did we learn about Amir Khan? I interviewed him so maybe I will blog on that in the future but in terms of what this means, it does not mean anything. It means he can fly out of Heathrow Airport and come here and stop an average fighter. It means that his handlers are good matchmakers. Amir told others and me that he wants Medina next. Please, if he wanted that fight he would have taken the fight in an effort to rid himself of have an interim titleholder who has a claim to the same belt he now holds. I did however get the sense from Amir and his handlers that there will be no tune-ups. Paulie was the tune up. I questioned one of his handlers about this when Amir let it slip that he may be fighting in England this summer. WHY? That tells me that they are going to stage a fight against a C list opponent and wait for the fall out from the Bradley and Alexander fights. There is no need for that. Stay in America, fight on HBO, continue to build momentum, and THEN take on one of those titleholders. We will see and maybe just maybe I will run my encounter with Amir Khan at some point in the future. I would also like to point out that Victor Ortiz would have been a much better match up for Khan and maybe could have beaten him however the always wise Richard S. saw that as to much of a risk and would prefer to keep success in house. This is Christians Corner…signing off
C