No Holds Barred: Deontay Wilder, Eric Molina, The Heavyweights

(Wilder Photo Credit: Bill Hoffman)

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with heavyweight boxers Deontay Wilder and Eric Molina. Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs), who holds the WBC heavyweight belt, will face the huge underdog Molina (23-2, 17 KOs) in Birmingham, Alabama, headlining a card which will be televised live in the U.S. on Showtime.

We spoke with Deontay Wilder and Eric Molina on a media conference call last Wednesday.

While Molina is given almost no chance of defeating Wilder and this fight has been criticized by many, we discuss why these types of fights are typical in boxing, where there is no central governing body. We also discuss the future of the heavyweight division, including the top champion Wladimir Klitschko, undefeated fighters like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, and what appear to be plans to develop Wilder into a major star. We also discuss the resurgence of interest in boxing this year, how several recent televised mismatches have nonetheless drawn good TV ratings in the U.S., why major premium TV networks are essentially acting as promoters, and much more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com

Looks to be another great edition of No Holds Barred.

The main event is a big mis-match but the rest of the fight card on Showtime is pretty good. I'll be watching.

I don't get how Eddie Goldman can support Haymon and PBC.

PBC is the Zuffa-ization of boxing.

It reminds me of how everyone, including myself, was optimistic when Viacom took over Bellator and drafted in Coker.

Stu was the lone voice telling everyone it was a shitty deal.

Stu was right and we all were wrong.

And Bellator fucking sucks now.

It is still better than Zuffa merely on account of the commentary.

Than again, they are doing Kimbo-Shamrock. That is just awful.

I don't watch Bellator anymore. I also don't watch Zuffa anymore. I watch OneFC, usually. I watch boxing. But now, PBC is taking over boxing, and turning it in to shit. With shitty commentary, shitty match making, shitty production. They are also oversaturating the marketplace. In short, they are Zuffa-izing boxing.

Boxing is my first true love, and the only sport I still do love.

Al Haymon is taking boxing away from me now.

And Eddie Goldman is supporting this.

Spare me smug comments about how there are just as many mismatches elsewhere.

Respect my opinion, Eddie. That doesn't mean you must agree with me. I believe that I am right though, and that PBC is shit.

I do recall a NHB or two where Goldman was complaining about how sophomoric PBC is. I think he just enjoys the new accessibility that PBC brings to boxing.

PBC does have mismatches, and some bad matchmaking, but far fewer than HBO. Canelo-Kirkland and Cotto-Geale got good ratings but were mismatches. I don't "support" PBC but comment on how they have had many surprisingly competitive fights: Badou Jack beating Anthony Dirrell, James DeGale beating Andre Dirrell, the controversial draw between Robert Guerrero and Aron Martinez, and Jamie McDonnell defeating Tomoki Kameda come to mind. Even Khan-Algieri was closer than most thought. You cannot find that percentage of competitive main event fights on HBO or Showtime.

As for them taking over boxing, aside from Mayweather, who has his own promotional company and does not fight under the PBC banner, Haymon does not have any marquee names. His top fighters are Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia (who is going up to welterweight), and Adonis Stevenson. Good fighters, but not top ten p4p or huge stars like Canelo, Cotto, or Klitschko. So he hardly has a monopoly on talent.

Unlike the Zuffa pigs, Haymon works with many promoters: DiBella, the new TGB (formerly Goossen), DeGuardia, Matchroom from the UK, and even now Don King.

As for fighters' pay, his enemies in Golden Boy accuse him of overpaying the fighters! Of course, they say once they have their monopoly, the pay will come down. That's where the fighters need a union, and there is some murmuring of that, although faintly.

So I think they have helped invigorate boxing. Broner-Porter, on paper at least, is competitive. Of course, matches like Thurman-Collazo are not.

Their biggest problems are turning around this investment in buying time on so many networks and paying top fighters decently into a sustainable business. And they must use this platform and exposure to create real stars. I'm not sure they've succeeded in doing either so far, although they only have been at it a few months.

And as for creating their own UFC-style "league", if that is their intent, as their enemies like Golden Boy charge, they cannot succeed. Not only will they get busted or lose lawsuits, but it can't work in boxing because their competition is not a mobbed-up Pride or a bunch of smaller outfits, but established entities like Top Rank, Golden Boy, Klitschko's K-2, etc., not to mention HBO.

But I don't care that they are not highlighting the endless number of alphabet soup belts, like Top Rank, Golden Boy, and HBO and Showtime do.

Plus, Omar Figueroa-Ricky Burns was very competitive, and many (including me) thought Burns should have been declared the winner, but that was the doing of the the Texas 'commission' judges and ref Laurence Cole.

Now, Lara-Rodriguez was not nor could it have been competitive. And Beterbiev against late replacement Johnson was not competitive, either. But their track record is still better than HBO's main events.

Eddie Goldman made a good and detailed response, and there is nothing to fault him for on it.

Eddie Godman is a great guy, and ethical as can be.

I still do not like the direction boxing has moved in.

It is not produced for boxing fans these days.

Frankly speaking, I think that these days the attempt is to follow MMA and hiphop/pop music.

I watched the American broadcast of the Broner-Porter card. I turned on the American broadcast of the Ward card.

Then I realized that Sky Sports had a broadcast.

I watched that, and it was much more enjoyable.

For the record, living abroad, I have to be adept at patronizing various media sources in order to follow sports.

You see, I have a grade a satellite dish on my roof and paid subscriptions to various media outlets .

I like the Sky Sports stuff, too, but was reading that some British fans were complaining and wanted the HBO feed. HBO is about the worst of the major networks. Porter-Broner got decent ratings in the US, but I don't know if it advanced Porter, while it really hurt Broner. http://sportstvratings.com/pbc-boxing-primetime-nbc-overnight-down-4-from-april-11-telecast-and-26-from-march-7-premiere/2880/

I agree HBO isn't great. I'm an Al Bernstein guy honestly, as commentators go. I can't stand Max Kellerman. He is basically just like Joe Rogan with a less annoying voice. A pretender and a poser who is terribly biased and has no ethical standard.

I'm hoping for PBC to fail kind of. I can't stomach the notion of a professional boxing league. The problem is that the people who are in or out is subject to a decision on the part of an executive. That happens anyway, yes, and boxing has a tremendous amount of problems, yes. But converting a sport like boxing into a league institutionizes a lot of the problems.