January 2008 Archives
Ringside seats for the Klitschko-Ibragimov fight at Madison Square Garden are priced from $300 to $1000 on the primary market. It was a different story for the last fight at The Garden. Ringside seats for the Trinidad-Jones fight were priced up to $15,000.
When I first saw the prices I thought this must be a typo. $15,000? Someone obviously added an extra zero by mistake. Having worked in the ticket industry for years and attending all the big fights in Las Vegas I had never seen ringside seats priced that high on the primary market.
Larry Merchant mused. "I think it's a gag. Not the whole ringside section is going for $15,000, just the front row, then $10,000 for the second row. Maybe he'll get some Wall St. types who will pay it, but it is P.R., something King is good at.
Does trying to cash in on nostalgia ring a bell? Apparently super salesman Don King got Madison Square Garden to pay $8,000,000 for the fight. They're taking a bath right now. The crowd ended up only 12,162, well short of The Garden's 20,000 seating capacity due to the exorbitant ticket prices as MSG tried to recoup their site fee.
Obviously sanity prevailed regarding the Klitschko-Ibragimov fight. Ticket prices are fairly reasonable. Granted neither boxer has a following like Tito Trinidad enjoyed but one could argue for higher ticket prices in that the outcome of this fight is actually very meaningful.
Edison Miranda now fighting at 168 in the super middleweight division has his power back. On Friday, January 11, 2008 at the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, Miranda sent former Contender contestant David Banks through the ropes with a devastating right hand. Banks ended up tittering precariously suspended on the ropes on his back with his shoulders touching the ring apron looking as if any moment he would end up falling head first onto the scorekeeper's table. Somehow Banks managed to pull himself back into the ring as the referee counted him out. Dazed and on rubber legs Banks staggered towards his corner on the brink of hitting the canvas a second time when a stool was shoved under him.
Miranda KOs Banks In 3rd Round
Big punching Edison Miranda ends the fight in a final destructive manner. Definitely candidate for knockout of the year.
Update on BC's New Sanctioning Body:
Make sure to listen to Ricardo Lois host of Boxing Confidential Radio as he discusses Boxing Confidential's plans to create a new sanctioning body with John Chavez who made the controversial announcement on January 8th on BC's site.
An independent boxing sanctioning body that didn't line their pockets with blood money from boxers. Could that ever be a reality? I think so. John Chavez over at Michael Marley’s Boxing Confidential just announced that Boxing Confidential plans to start an independent sanctioning body that will transform the sport of boxing. If any one else told me they planned to start a boxing sanctioning body that would be better than the rest I would smirk and think to myself "Oh great, another blood sucking money hungry group to add to the alphabet soup." But this time I didn't laugh. I yelled "Alright!" and thought to myself "Its about time."
Paul Malignaggi is fighting Cameroonian Herman Ngoudjo tomorrow night at Bally's in Atlantic City. It will be boxer against puncher. Malignaggi is a good counter puncher but his punches don't pack much power but they are accurate which can be just as effective as he proved when he knocked down Lovemore Ndou this past June. Ngoudjo is a busy puncher and a pressure fighter that could cause Malignaggi problems if Ngoudjo closes off the ring and doesn't let Paulie dance away. But Malignaggi is entering the ring with his confidence built up from his two recent wide spread unanimous decision wins since the beating he took from Miguel Cotto in June 2006. Malignaggi and Ngoudjo have been doing some pretty intense verbal sparring outside the ring leading up to this fight so if the action in the ring equals or exceeds it the fight will be good. If Malignaggi wins maybe he can get a big fight in 2008.
