Postponement, scheduling conflicts and cancelations now plague a once promising March 12 date at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut which, until days ago, was slated to host four fights headlined by one of the most intriguing match-ups of the year.
First it was reported that Keith “One Time” Thurman suffered a minor car accident which resulted in minor injuries and a postponement of his welterweight title defense against Shawn “Showtime” Porter. To make matters worse, the promoter of the card, Lou DiBella, recently informed ringtv.com that because of
To make matters worse, the promoter of the card, Lou DiBella, recently informed ringtv.com that due to a “scheduling conflict that couldn’t be resolved” the show was forced to be canceled. This is altogether disappointing news for fight fans hoping to see some kind of action on the March date.
DiBella went on to express his grief for the Mohegan Sun, which he called a great venue, for likely missing out on hosting one of the year’s biggest fights. Scheduled to appear before the main event was Gary Russell Jr. (26-1, 15 KO’s) who would have been defending his WBC featherweight title possibly against Patrick Hyland (31-1, 15 KO’s) of Ireland. Two more fights which are also set to be rescheduled include former two-division champion Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KO’s) against former three-division champ Fernando Montiel (54-5-2, 39 KO’s) as well as light heavyweights Edwin Rodriguez (28-1, 19 KO’s) and Thomas Williams Jr. (19-1, 13 KO’s).
Scheduled to appear before the main event was Gary Russell Jr. (26-1, 15 KO’s) who would have been defending his WBC featherweight title possibly against Patrick Hyland (31-1, 15 KO’s) of Ireland. Two more fights which are also set to be rescheduled include former two-division champion Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KO’s) against former three-division champ Fernando Montiel (54-5-2, 39 KO’s) as well as light heavyweights Edwin Rodriguez (28-1, 19 KO’s) and Thomas Williams Jr. (19-1, 13 KO’s).
So what is this “conflicting schedule” that prevented Showtime and DiBella from saving the card? According to the report on ringtv.com, DiBella said he thought the card was salvageable, “But various factors, including scheduling and programming issues, prevented the parties involved from doing so.”
This is strange only because before the aforementioned car-collision postponed the main event, the show seemed good to go. There were no previous reports of the card being in jeopardy because of possible scheduling issues. The whole main event was set in stone and only the undercard confirmation seemed left to announce, but ticket sales were going well, anyway. Perhaps the network felt the rest of the card was not worth showing without Thurman and Porter, or maybe these proposed undercards by ringtv.com and boxrec.com were not set in stone and one of the remaining name fighters as unavailable.
Now the refund process is set to begin for those who bought tickets in excitement only to be reimbursed for their hopes of seeing two prime, athletic, eager young men hack away at each other for competition’s sake.
It is easy to say that the parties involved should have just went on with the remainder of the card; that they should have just re-adjusted the price of the tickets and gave back the difference; but boxing is business, the “hurt business” and sometimes fighters are not the only ones who get hurt.
