The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of March 29

Kevin McRae@@McRaeWritesX.com LogoFeatured ColumnistMarch 29, 2015

The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of March 29

0 of 5

    Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

    Another interesting week has come and gone in the sweet science.

    Here we take a look at the latest legal battle between uber-manager Al Haymon and Golden Boy Promotions, Adonis Stevenson's upcoming network debut on Premier Boxing Champions and whether or not Nonito Donaire has the gas in the tank for one last run.

    We take some time to recap Kell Brook's impressive title defense across the pond on Saturday night and look forward to the potential for an all-Brit clash with Amir Khan.

    Spoiler alert: It ain't happening. At least not immediately, and it would seem the blame is easy to hand out.

    We'll also make something of an apology for getting it so wildly wrong on Gary Russell Jr., who blitzed through Jhonny Gonzalez on Saturday to win his first world championship.

    These are the hottest storylines in boxing for the week of March 29. 

Is Golden Boy's Lawsuit the Next Wave in Rivalry with Al Haymon?

1 of 5

    Harry How/Getty Images

    Back to court we go.

    Golden Boy Promotions filed suit late last week in Los Angeles against Gonzalez and his Mexican promoter Promociones del Pueblo, alleging, per BoxingScene.com, that the fighter and company conspired with Haymon to violate their exclusive right to promote his fights.

    The nuts and bolts of the lawsuit claim that Gonzalez, his promoters and Haymon refused to sign off on a fight with Russell Jr.—who thrashed Gonzalez on Saturday night—until they were able to freeze Golden Boy out of the process.

    Golden Boy inked a new contract with Gonzalez in December 2013 that was scheduled to last for two years from the date of the first fight of the deal or four fights, whichever one came first. The company alleges that Gonzalez and his promoters repeatedly rebuffed attempts to put together a fight with Russell in favor of lesser challengers because they were colluding with Haymon.

    This has the potential to turn into some complex, convoluted legalese. 

    Does Golden Boy have a case? 

    Who knows?

    High-priced men and women in suits will hash that out in the courts of Southern California.

    The more important takeaway here is that we've potentially entered into a new phase of the ongoing war between Haymon and just about everyone else in the boxing business who doesn't fall beneath his banner.

    Golden Boy was forced to cede a large amount of its stable to the reclusive manager—per the terms of its settlement with former CEO Richard Schaefer—and now appears determined to hold onto whatever name fighters it has left while rebuilding from the ground up. 

    And it's not going down without a fight, even if that's pretty much what Gonzalez did.

Can Adonis Stevenson Silence Critics Against Sakio Bika?

2 of 5

    Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

    Stevenson makes his Premier Boxing Champions debut Saturday night in prime time with a defense of the light heavyweight championship against Sakio Bika.

    First the good.

    Stevenson is a huge puncher who almost always produces dramatic endings to his fights. That's the type of style that you want to showcase on network television—this time on CBS—if you're looking to draw people to boxing. And he's personable and really seems to enjoy his craft.

    Now the bad: Why is Stevenson fighting Bika? 

    We're not even going to—once again—get into all the stuff about Stevenson not making fights with Sergey Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins or Jean Pascal, but let's just focus on Bika, at least for now.

    Bika is a former super middleweight champion who is known for his tough but ugly and mauling style in the ring. With all due respect to a former multi-time world champion who, incidentally, is one of the nicest guys you'll encounter in the sport, watching him fight is often a chore. 

    And it's not like the fans were jumping out of their seats in demand of this match, right?

    Hopefully, Stevenson is true to his word, and a win leads to a unification showdown with Kovalev before the end of the year. 

    Because this second-tier stuff is just getting tired.

    Still, given the business concerns, we're not exactly willing to hold our breath.

Were We All Wrong on Gary Russell Jr.?

3 of 5

    This is a mea culpa.

    Yours truly has frequently been critical of Russell Jr. 

    Not so much for his talent or skill—he's clearly loaded in both departments—but for the soft matchmaking that left him thoroughly unprepared once the challenge level was raised.

    Russell Jr. fell flat on his face when he faced Vasyl Lomachenko last June, but he put Gonzalez flat on the mat Saturday night to capture his first world championship in spectacular fashion. 

    Few people saw this one coming, and that's credit to Lomachenko for really putting it on a solid fighter and Russell Jr. for proving he has the goods in his next opportunity.

    Logic seemed to dictate that if anyone was going to win by a crunching knockout, it would be Gonzalez, a wily veteran known for his blistering power.

    But Russell's speed advantage was too large a gap to overcome.

    He popped in and out in the first couple of rounds, using his jab and fast combos to prevent Gonzalez from setting up his power or getting into any sort of offensive rhythm.

    Russell connected on a picture-perfect counter left hand near the end of Round 3 that put Gonzalez down and in serious trouble. If not for the bell, the fight might have ended right there.

    As it was, Gonzalez only bought himself two more knockdowns and a few extra seconds of punishment before referee Tony Weeks interceded to call a halt in Round 4.

    It was the definition of an impressive, critic-silencing win for Russell, who now carries the WBC Featherweight Championship into a division brimming with big-time talent.

    And few of us saw it coming, at least in this way.

What's Next for Kell Brook?

4 of 5

    Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

    Brook, the IBF welterweight champion who missed significant time after being stabbed last year, showed no ill effects from that serious injury and long layoff, dropping mandatory challenger Jo Jo Dan four times before he quit on his stool between Rounds 4 and 5.

    There was absolutely nothing close about this fight.

    Nothing.

    Brook is now set to move on to bigger and better things, including a potential blockbuster all-Brit showdown against former junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan.

    The crowd inside the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, England, was vocal about its desire for a Brook-Khan matchup, and you'd have to wonder why that won't come next.

    Except that it seems Khan doesn't want the fight, at least not at this time.

    Nick Parkinson of ESPN UK reports that Brook's promoter Eddie Hearn has Wembley Stadium on hold for a June 13 Brook-Khan showdown, but that the veteran matchmaker does not believe the fight will take place and is moving on with plans for Brook to face either Juan Manuel Marquez or Brandon Rios.

    Khan has been unsuccessful in pounding the pavement in pursuit of significant fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, among others, but he appears determined to continue down that path, which has gotten him nowhere.

    "That fight will happen, but right now I'm taking a different route. I'm focusing on the likes of Pacquiao, Mayweather...that level. I want to fight the elite guys in this sport. That fight [with Brook] can happen, but not yet though," Khan told Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com.

    Sometimes, you just wanna grab Khan and ask him what he's thinking. He's going to return to the ring in May against an opponent yet to be named, but it would seem that Chris Algieri remains a top contender.

    A fight with Brook might not provide him with the global cache of attention he's been trying to corner, but it would fill any number of major stadiums in England—Wembley, remember—and generate huge amounts of buzz and dollars.

    And where has the endless chasing of Mayweather and Pacquiao gotten him?

    Nowhere.

    It's time to move on and grab what's next, no?

Is There Anything Left in the Tank for Nonito Donaire?

5 of 5

    Jonathan Moore/Getty Images

    Donaire's rise to the top of the sport was almost as dizzying as his fall from grace.

    The 32-year-old Filipino was named ESPN.com's Fighter of the Year for a 2012 campaign that produced four wins, two world championships and a slew of knockdowns against high-level foes who were all present or former world champions. 

    But that's where the wheels came off the truck for the Filipino Flash.

    In 2013 he was dominated by Guillermo Rigondeaux before finishing the year with a come-from-behind knockout of Vic Darchinyan—whom he had blown out in their previous meeting—to salvage his career. He looked awful in that fight until the final round.

    The next year wasn't terribly kind either. 

    Donaire took a shady technical decision and a featherweight world title from Simpiwe Vetyeka—basically everything about that fight failed the smell test—before getting thrashed by rising star Nicholas Walters.

    There were calls for the former pound-for-pound entrant to hang them up after Walters blitzed through him, but he's elected to give it one more go.

    Donaire easily knocked out unheralded Brazilian William Prado in the second round on Saturday in his native Philippines.

    It's hard to discern much about Donaire's physical and mental readiness—he's looked gun shy and reluctant to engage since the Rigo defeat—from this fight, given the low-level opponent, but it should secure him at least one more chance at a significant bout.

    Whether or not that's a positive remains to be seen.

X