Tag Archives: Vicente Escobedo

The unprofessional Adrian Broner vs. Vicente Escobedo

Posted: July 21st, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Boxing, Sports Blog | Tags: , , , , ,
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HBO and Golden Boy have put in a lot of marketing muscle behind Adrian Broner as he prepared to defend his title against Vicente Escobedo, a fighter who trains at the Indio Boys and Girls Club with Joel Diaz.

They believed Broner is going to be a star, so they put out various programing surrounding Broner, who is a curiosity right now. He’s a trash talker with flair, and has an impressive combination of speed and power. They set up Saturday’s fight in Broner’s home of Cincinnati with a national audience.

And he shows up 3 pounds overweight.

They’ve tried to give him a second weigh in to make weight, and he missed that one as well.

So Escobedo, as is his right, has refused the fight because he would be at a huge weight disadvantage for a bout that will be pivotal in his career. On the surface, the smart move for Escobedo’s career is to take a pass on the fight, as hard as it is because it is a world title fight.

This puts HBO and Golden Boy, who both have already invested a lot of money and resources into Broner, in a tough spot. Without the fight, HBO will have to cancel programming tonight. Both were attempting to throw a lot of money at Escobedo to get him to reconsider. The status of the fight was up in the air just hours before they were scheduled to go on the air. And Broner was trying to vilify Escobedo.

Uh, Escobedo was professional enough to make weight and not put everyone’s interest in jeopardy.

This will be a tough lesson for Broner. He’s shown to be undependable. There’s no guarantee he will live up to his hype until he’s tested. And if he can’t make weight for his big tests, would anyone want to invest six or seven figures on him? Broner appears to be a great talent, but one that needs to act professionally if he wants to be a professional.

Timothy Bradley, Vicente Escobedo and two Diaz brothers weigh in on Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz

Posted: September 20th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Boxing, Sports Blog | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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On Monday, I got a chance to talk to some of the local
fighters about Floyd Mayweather’s controversial victory over Victor Ortiz. Here’s
their takes on the fight.

 

Timothy Bradley: The WBO light welterweight champion said
Ortiz got things started with his head butt, and Mayweather’s retaliation was
fine.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,”
Bradley said. “Ortiz cheap shoted him, so there you go. He got knocked out. This
is a dirty business. That’s why they say protect yourself at all times.”

In fact, Bradley had a problem with Ortiz’s head butt,
where he essentially jumped into Mayweather’s chin. Ortiz was deducted a point,
which started the chaotic ending.

“They say I head butt? You don’t see
that in my fight,” Bradley said. “They call me the head butt king? Do you see
me do that? My head butts are accidental, that was deliberate.”

Bradley himself said he has a
problem with fighters touching gloves constantly during a fight.

“It’s no game in there,” Bradley
said. “I’m sick of watching all these fighters kissing opponents.”

 

Vicente Escobedo: The 2004 Olympian is
a Golden Boy Promotions fighter just like Ortiz and he was disappointed in how
the fight ended.

“It was controversial. I didn’t want
to see the fight end like that,” said Escobedo, who will fight Friday at
Fantasy Springs Casino against Rocky Juarez. “I’d like to see the fight go 12
rounds, or if it’s a knockout. For Mayweather to have a knockout like that, it
was a knockout, but it really wasn’t. I think there should be a rematch to make
it fair and see who the best is in that weight class.”

 

Antonio Diaz: While fans were
outraged by Mayweather’s sucker punch, Diaz said he was surprised Floyd showed
restraint.

“I’m surprised he waited so long to
retaliate,” Diaz said. “After the head butt, he could have done something. But
he stayed relaxed and found a way to get back, and he did it the legal way.

“If Victor didn’t make a dirty move, that
probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Joel Diaz: The trainer for Timothy Bradley
said everything that happened in the fight is just boxing.

“Everything that happened in the
fight, in the boxing world, was correct,” Joel Diaz said. “After the referee
said ‘go, go,’ you can’t walk in with your hands down. You can’t.”

The thing Diaz had the most trouble
with was the fact that Ortiz was trying to apologize a third time before
getting hit. Diaz thought the apologies were over the top.

“The apology doesn’t mean
(Mayweather) was OK with it,” Joel Diaz said. “He thought Mayweather was OK
with it, but he wasn’t. You can see bad intentions in Mayweather’s face as they
were coming close. He did what he had to do.

“If Mayweather was my fighter, I
would agree what he did. Ortiz got sucker punched. . As bad as it look, (Mayweather)
did it in a legal way. You can’t blame Mayweather for Victor trying to
apologize so many times when he already did it twice.”