Sherdog Boxing: The Weekly Wrap

The boxing world is always interesting, and from former champions becoming government officials to Floyd Mayweather ironically and allegedly scamming a bunch of Nigerians, this week was no different. Here are the important boxing stories you need to know from this week.

Young featherweight and former Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery for his involvement in a Miami parking lot brawl. This will likely be nothing (does anyone remember Terence Crawford’s incident with a mechanic?) but for a young man who was developing an all-American boy persona complete with a winning smile and boyish charm, using your elite fistic prowess on some guys in a parking lot is not a good look.

Mayweather also found himself in some legal trouble this week. He is being sued by a Nigerian company called "Zinni Media" for $2 million. They claim they wired $210,000 to Floyd for a couple of appearances in Nigeria and Ghana, but that the former pound-for-pound king bailed on them and kept the money. If you think Floyd will just pay the money because he is so wealthy, I would encourage you to read Tim Keown's great 2012 piece from ESPN the Magazine about what happened when Floyd thought a member of his entourage may have stolen an $80,000 betting slip from him. Spoiler alert, he left it in the pocket an old pair of sweatpants, because of course he did.

Things went much better this week for another man that beat Manny Pacquaio, Erik Morales. Morales was elected to the Camara de Disputados, Mexico’s equivalent to the House of Representatives. He will represent District 07 in Tijuana, and will undoubtedly appear on John Oliver’s show for doing something stupid at some point in his political career.

Another Mexican warrior doing good things is Canelo Alvarez, who opened his own boxing academy in Mexico this week. Located in Zapopan, Alvarez hopes to not only help kids learn about how to handle themselves in the ring, but outside of it saying, "We will be a world-class boxing hotbed, I will put all of my professionalism in there so that children have all the necessary advice. It is important that we educate the children so that they know how to deal with the contracts that they may receive as fighters, so they know what to do when a promoter arrives, children must have that education," an interesting statement from a fighter often criticized (these days) for making, risk averse business decisions.

One bad business decision Alvarez made this week was to host a live-streamed press conference rather than meeting face to face with his Sept. 15 foe, Gennady Golovkin. With interest in their rematch waning after a PED (Clenbuterol) caused postponement, the press conference was a good chance to say something controversial and get the public excited about the fight again. Unfortunately, it was an uninteresting failure that Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole described by stating “Both fighters largely stared forward stone-faced, had little to say and what they did say was non-threatening. Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer, did his best to stir up controversy, but the fighters largely weren’t having it. The result was an hour that probably did precious little to hawk ticket sales, which is normally the point of these things.”

Maybe he’s not scared of the rematch falling short in PPV buys because when he was born, they were out of fear.

Speaking of disappointment, this week talks of an Anthony Joshua-Deontay Wilder fight fell through, with Joshua now facing Russian Alexander Povetkin on Sept. 22. Povetkin has lost only once in his pro career, to Wladimir Klitschko, and won the gold medal in the Super Heavyweight division at the 2004 Olympics, so this is by no means a bad fight, but it is simply not the heavyweight fight everybody wants to see. One of the good things about the match is that both fighters signed up for VADA testing, considering that Povetkin has tested positive for steroids in the past, and Anthony Joshua was once called "the steroid king" by Joseph Parker for his cartoonish physique. Joshua has signed on to fight twice this year in Wembley Stadium, with the hope being that he will face off against Anthony Joshua there in April.

One fight that looked like it would be in trouble, but was saved, was the welterweight match between Devon Alexander and Andre Berto. That fight was going to be on the undercard of Mikey Garcia-Robert Easter, but got moved to Aug. 4 when it will headline the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on Fox and Fox Deportes. A good fight being not only saved but moved to free TV is always a good thing in my book, and though these fighters aren’t as revered as they once were it should be a great match.

The World Boxing Super Series announced that they would be holding a tournament at bantamweight (118 pounds), and a surprising name has opted to join. Nonito Donaire, who has been fighting two weight classes above bantamweight, will return to the class for this tournament. Donaire is the fifth fighter to enter the tournament, joining Puerto Rico's Emmanuel Rodriguez who will fight Australia’s Jason Moloney, and Northern Ireland’s Ryan Burnett who will fight South Africa’s Zolani Tete. The Dominican Republic’s Juan Carlos Payano has also joined the tournament, though it is unclear who he will be facing. The biggest star that could potentially join the tournament is Japan’s Naoya Inoue, the undefeated “Monster” who has knocked out 14 of his 16 opponents. Reports state that his team is finalizing the deal to get him into the tournament.

And that’s about it from the boxing world. See you next week.