According to Dan Rafael's latest blog, Ricardo Mayorga is out of his scheduled Feb. 14 fight with Alfredo Angulo -- which was to headline an excellent tripleheader -- not because of weight issues or a camp injury or anything else like that. It's just about money.
Just like the time Mayorga attempted to pull out of his fight with Oscar de la Hoya because he was unhappy with a $2 million purse and wanted $8 million instead, Mayorga tried to squeeze more money out of promoter Don King, who has already fronted Mayorga $300,000, and will in time collect that money from the Nicaraguan brawler.
Rafael also says that Daniel Edouard is now the leading candidate to replace Mayorga against Angulo. Edouard makes for good fights, so I see no problem there.
Some quotes from the blog:
"This is typical of Mayorga," a calm King told ESPN.com. "He did the same thing with Oscar. He thinks he's playing a game. This is the way he operates. I just take it like it is. If he fights, he fights. If he don't, it ain't the end of the world. I know the beast I am dealing with."...
"Now we know why they call Mayorga 'The Matador.' He's full of bulls---," [Angulo promoter Gary] Shaw said. "This is as unprofessional as it gets. We don't hear he's pulled out from his promoter or manager [Carl King], just from everyone else in boxing. You have to wonder if he ever intended to fight at all. Mayorga didn't show at the press conference in Florida, and we have yet to see his mandatory 30-day weigh-in report from the WBC. Obviously, it wasn't a red cape he was waving, it was a red flag.
Have you ever reached that point with a fighter or any other athlete of whom you are a fan, where you just go, "Yeah, that's kind of enough for me"? I think I'm there with Mayorga. He made a lot of compelling TV and was in some pretty good fights, but enough's enough with him. I can't really consider myself a Mayorga fan anymore.
On a sort of similar note, Rafael notes that Mayorga will be lucky to ever get on HBO again, but I doubt that. Ricardo will get another chance when some fighter wants a name knockout victim.