1. Pacquiao-Thurman Matches Broner Box Office
While his return to Las Vegas didn’t set a record, Manny Pacquiao’s win over Keith Thurman on July 20th saw a consistent trend for the Filipino senator.
First reported by Boxing Scene, 11,436 tickets were sold for the card at the MGM Grand Garden arena, for a live gate of $6,260,275 according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Event organizers issued 1,675 comp tickets for the event, for a total of 13,111 attendees, 1,245 short of the announced attendance of 14,356.
The numbers of last Saturday’s event are similar to Pacquiao’s January drubbing of Adrien Broner with 11,410 tickets sold with only 248 tickets comped for a gate of $6,000,032.
2. Dana Looks To Launch Zuffa Boxing This Fall
When Dana White took control of the UFC, the company went through a renaissance face. The Connecticut-born White is looking to do the same with boxing. Promoting fights under the UFC banner, White will be looking to bring ZUFFA Boxing to life come October.
According to The Athletic, Dana has hired a key player to run ZUFFA when it launches. The hire, not named, will help Dana decide fights to make, among other decisions, while the business gets off the ground. White is hoping to fix a “broken” boxing system, and ZUFFA is his answer.
3. Dillian Whyte Fails Drug Test
There has been a major setback in boxing’s heavyweight division, as Dillian Whyte has tested positive for a banned substance. According to Boxing Scene, Whyte tested positive on July 17, three days before his bout against Oscar Rivas. Whyte won that bout to become the interim WBC Heavyweight Champion.
The test was done by UK Anti-Doping and not by VADA. In the report, Eddie Hearn and the British Boxing Board of Control were aware of Whyte’s (26-1) results before the fight, but the board allowed the fight to go on. Under VADA rules, the WBC and Rivas’ camp would have been informed of the situation prior to the fight. Seeing how UK Anti-Doping does not follow that rule, the fight went on as planned.
Eddie Hearn went on Twitter after the news to state that both VADA and UKAD stated both fighters were clesn for their bout.
“Further to reports, I can confirm that both Dillian Whyte and Oscar Rivas were subject to extensive VADA and UKAD testing for their bout. Both fighters were cleared to fight by both bodies and the BBBofC.”
Georges St-Pierre will come back to the Octagon for one man and one man only, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
St-Pierre, who officially retired in February, told TSN this week that the current UFC lightweight champion is the only fighter he’d even consider facing in a return.
“A lot of people are attention seekers, they retire to come back and retire to come back,” St-Pierre said. “I’m not that type of guy. We tried to make that fight with Khabib and the UFC told us they had other plans. Khabib wanted the fight, I wanted the fight, but unfortunately it did not happen. That’s the reason why I retired.
“For me, it’s a lot more to lose than to win now and the most important thing for me is my health. I’m no longer, right now as I’m talking, pursuing my goal, which back in the day was to be the best fighter in the world. It was for many years and now it’s not my number one priority anymore.”
“If I have to pick whoever I want, I’ll pick the easiest fight possible and I’ll run away with the $50 million,” St-Pierre joked when a hypothetical $50 million fight against whomever he chose.
“If I want the legacy fight, Khabib is the man to beat right now. He’s the best fighter in the world right now to me. Undefeated and he hasn’t shown any kind of weakness. Nobody has ever come close to solving the puzzle, so that’s why it was very interesting for me.”
5. Bagel Boss Trains With UFC Stars
Earlier this month, a man inside a bagel shop went on a verbal tirade that would lead to him being speared by another frustrated customer.
This walking, talking, respect demanding meme was then christened the Bagel Boss, and given the glare of stardom the same way Antoine Dodson, Ken Bone, and others before him have become.
Chris Morgan, the Long Island man who told fellow customers to not yell at him because they were not his “father”, a deity, or “his boss,” would train with fellow Long Island natives Chris Weidman and Al Iaquinta on Tuesday.
Morgan, who has compared himself to the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, as well has a YouTube channel full of disparaging videos that ring similar to his bagel fueled rampage, called out fellow internet denizen, Logan Paul for a fight.
For those who are unaware, Logan Paul is in his early 20’s, in-shape, and has fought before, Mr. Morgan is or has done none of these things.