Fans, boxing insiders say goodbye to 'Solo Boxeo'
Posted Dec. 19, 2008 at 01:03am
By Doug Fischer
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After eight years and 410 telecasts, Telefutura’s “Solo Boxeo” series is saying adios to fight fans Friday night.
The end of the weekly Spanish-language boxing show, which began on Univision in 2000 and moved to sister network Telefutura in January of ’02, was not a surprise to boxing insiders.
Some within the industry feared the show’s eventual cancellation after billionaire boxing enthusiast Jerry Perenchio sold Univision to an investment group in June of 2006 for a reported $13.5 billion. Many expected the popular, but costly series to be among the casualties of budget cuts the giant U.S-based company made as a result of this year’s slumping economy.
But everyone -- from the legion of fans who watched the show every Friday to the behind-the-scenes people who made it happen –- was sad to see Solo Boxeo go.
“It’s a very emotional thing, and it hasn’t even sunk in yet,” said Brad Goodman, a matchmaker for Top Rank. “I feel horrible about the situation. The show was a platform for our young talent, but it was also something we looked forward to every week.
“Me and (head matchmaker) Bruce (Trampler) enjoyed traveling to different towns every week and watching these kids develop, seeing how far they could go. But we also got to know and became very close to the Solo Boxeo production crew.
“I feel bad for (ring announcer) Lupe Contreras, (producer) Victor Bague, (commentators) Bernardo (Osuna) and Ricardo (Celis), and the others because those guys really loved boxing.”
Osuna, who will call his 400th consecutive show Friday night, says the passion the producers, production crew and on-air talent had for boxing is what made the series special.
“It’s been a labor of love and that’s part of the secret of our success,” said Osuna. “Ricardo and I are like two guys watching the fights at home. We just want to see a good fight. We get a little more into the background of the fighters and the analysis of the fight than your average viewer probably would, but the core of our commentary is that we’re two buddies enjoying the fights.
“We really became friends through this show and that’s what I’m going to miss the most, Ricardo and the crew. We became a family over the years. We spent 50 weeks out of the year traveling together, only taking off Christmas and Good Friday weekends. My producer (Bague) spent seven Thanksgivings on the road. Everyone who worked on the show cared about it.”
That passion translated into knowledge of sport and the desire to deliver quality fights to the loyal viewers of the series.
The producers knew who the up-and-comers were in the sport and did their best to showcase them in meaningful fights that developed their skills and gave them valuable national exposure, but they also recognized the hardnosed journeymen that are the backbone of the industry.
A prime example of the typical Solo Boxeo fighter is Friday’s main event, a 10-round junior welterweight bout between undefeated Mike Alvarado and tough veteran Miguel Huerta.
Alvarado (23-0, 16 knockouts), a 28-year-old Denver native who has fought on many Solo Boxeo cards, has gradually developed from a standout high school wrestler with very raw boxing talent to a solid prospect who is on the cusp of contender status. Tough fights on Solo Boxeo like his hard-fought eight-round decision over Carlos Molina last February and his seventh-round stoppage over fellow prospect Michel Rosales this past May have helped mold him into a real fighter.
Huerta (27-9, 18 KOs) is a grizzled, crafty veteran southpaw from Mexico who gives everyone a tough fight. He doesn’t have the glossy record of a prospect or contender, but on a good night he can beat one. Huerta has lost two of his last six bouts, a split-decision robbery to alphabet-ranked Almazbek Raiymkulov (AKA Kid Diamond) last June and a close nod to former titlist Javier Jauregui.
The fact that the Huerta’s Solo Boxeo main event with Jauregui was a competitive and entertaining fight was more important to the show’s producers than who won or lost, which is what set the series apart from other boxing programs, according to Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez.
“For matchmakers, Solo Boxeo was a dream,” said Gomez. “All they asked from us was to deliver competitive fights, and they trusted us to do so.
“They didn’t get involved in the matchmaking. They gave us the dates and they let us (the promoters and the matchmakers) run with it. I learned the game with Solo Boxeo because I had to put on good fights. I graduated to HBO-level matches because of this series.
“To know what Solo Boxeo was all about just look at the fights (hall of fame promoter/matchmaker) Don Chargin put on (the series). The fighters on his shows were not household names but the fights were incredible. The perfect example just happened last month with Tomas Villa and Rogers Mtagwa. Rogers has 12 losses. Tomas now has six losses. But that was a great fight, and sadly, it’s not the kind of matchup you would see on other networks.
“The other networks sometimes get a little too involved in the process and often they are just looking for names or the next star. I don’t fault them because I know they want good ratings, and they think that’s the best way to get them. But they’re not tuned into the styles of the fighters, which is why we often see bad fights on TV.
“The great thing about Solo Boxeo is that they didn’t care about the fighters’ records, or if they were well known, or how small they were; they wanted good matches and they trusted the boxing people to be able to come up with good, compelling fights.”
Although the series is known for competitive fights between lesser-known fighters, it should be noted that many of the sport’s biggest names, pound-for-pound-rated veterans and brightest talents –- Hispanic and non-Hispanic –- have been developed or showcased on Solo Boxeo.
Fernando Vargas, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik, Juan Manuel Marquez, Israel Vazquez, Fernando Montiel, Ivan Calderon, Julio Diaz, Jesus Chavez, Juan Manuel Lopez, Jhonny Gonzalez, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Oscar Larios, Steven Luevano and Martin Castillo are among the current and former titleholders who have fought on the series.
Alvarado, junior lightweight contender Urbano Antillon, bantamweight contender Abner Mares, junior middleweight prospect Vanes Martirosyan, welterweight prospect Mike Jones, 2004 Olympians Vicente Escobedo and Rock Allen, and flyweight slugger Giovanni Segura are among the young up-and-comers who owe some (or much of) their pro development to Solo Boxeo.
Most of the above mentioned fighters are or were promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions.
Top Rank started out as the main promoter for the series and has averaged 25 shows a year in recent seasons. The Las Vegas-based company has promoted around 200 shows during Solo Boxeo’s eight-year run. Golden Boy Promotions began its relationship with Telefutura four years ago, starting with four shows during the ’04 season, but worked its way up to 18 shows this past year.
Both companies, considered to be the top two in the U.S., will be hit hard by the loss of the series. The rest of the boxing industry will also feel the effects of the show’s absence, according to Gomez.
“The loss of the show affects the U.S. boxing scene very much,” he said. “Solo Boxeo was steady work for a lot of these fighters; not just the prospects and the former champs, but the opponents –- the Oscar Andrades and Fernando Trejos who always gave us a good effort because knew they had to keep in shape and be ready for that call that was going to come sooner or later.
“That was the great thing about a series that was on every week –- week in and week out -– it created a lot of work for a lot of boxing people: the booking agents, the matchmakers, the small local promoters, the trainers, everybody; it was very important for the industry. We could always count on Solo Boxeo.”
Osuna, who will move to the evening news sports segments on Univision’s Los Angeles affiliate station, is optimistic that the void created by the show’s absence will eventually be filled.
“It’s a temporary hit for the boxing public but someone will come along and take up the slack,” he said. “Will it be the same? I doubt it. I don’t know if we’re going to get a production crew who loved it like we did. I don’t know if anybody is going to want to do 50 shows a year. That’s a lot work and a lot of money to travel around that much, but good action is good action. As long as someone puts on good fights and does it right the sport will survive.”
Golden Boy Promotions is currently in talks with ESPN and the Versus network. Top Rank is rumored to be considering a series on Azteca America.
But for now, the employees of Top Rank, the promoter of Friday’s show, are focused on Solo Boxeo.
“We’re going to have a dinner with the whole production staff before the fights and a party with everyone after the show,” said Goodman.
Osuna says he is looking forward to sharing memories of the past eight years with co-workers and associates who have become lifelong friends, and hopefully calling the action to a good fight.
“We have a lot to be proud of,” said Osuna, who was the first Hispanic recipient of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Sam Taub Award for broadcasting excellence. “We did our part to put Latino boxing on the map in the U.S. and earn respect for Spanish-language broadcasting. We set a high standard and earned a special connection with our viewers. We became the face of boxing in the Spanish community and we received a lot of love from the fans, and that was a privilege that I’ll always be thankful for.”
