Did Ryan Garcia regain a sense of rationality?

Or maybe Jose Ramirez, his hunger?

Can Devin Haney do a blow?

And which version of Teofimo Lopez appears?

A really engaging Times Square card should give preliminary answers. But for me, the matter of the greatest consequence is about the guy that no one talks about: Arnold Barboz Jr.

Unlike his opponent, Lopez – who, when he is right, remains as electric talent as in all boxing – Barboza does not have much noise. He is not a social media star, he never even had a public crash. Actually, there is something like novel: only a warrior, although quite good-33 years and 32-0 years aged, absurdly slow for a shot in the title of world champion. The rules have changed since Barboz’s debut in 2013. Apparently, being a really good warrior is not good enough.

Despite this, the question that goes forward – especially in the case of the directors of this emerging TKO boxing league, head of UFC Dana White, President WWE Nick Khan (full disclosure: my former agent) and a guy with bankroll, Saudi financier Turki Alalshikhh – can this: can this change? Being a warrior is a lot of complex concert – you will finally risk your life – without having to be some provocate online. Is there a construction that simply allows good warriors to be good fighters, and from half of them, how inevitably happens, it appears occasionally?

In other words, can you make boxing again a sport?

“When I debuted,” says Barboza from El Monte, California, “” Social media were not even something. It wasn’t until 2020 that it began to change. ” In fact, Barboza was in a state of shot from the world champion in 2019, when the top-class promoter Bob Arum mentioned him as a probable opponent of the then Created Master-WBC Jose Ramirez. According to Ramirez, however, he went to Texas, added the title of Maurice Hooker to his collection, and Barboza went to the WBO route (preferred sanctioning body of the highest rank) in the pursuit of the belt.

Indeed, Barboza won some good fights for this purpose, recently annoying the English Southpaw Jack Cattell in Manchester, England. He is now a “momentary” champion, one of several allegedly prestigious WBO distinctions, which he won along the way, including the titles of “international” organizations and “international”. These secondary belts may seem to be nice trinkets – they certainly provide protection of the fighter from the sketch when he makes his ring – but even so interested in the observer like Arnold Barboza Sr., coach of his son and former manager, does not distinguish them. “For me they are all the same,” he says, referring to the usual sanctioning fee. “Three percent [sanctioning fee] bags. “

Sanctioning bodies – let’s explain that all of them – relate to payment for the game. Do you want to be a claimant? Ante up. Meanwhile, Barboza-the best guy for most of this decade and player No. 1 in WBO at 140 pounds from June 2023, he jumped through all rims that was required-if he passed a pretty good warrior from Chicago named Kenny Sims Jr., who was January 2022, per my sources, Barboza was in the ranking 3 by WBO in Chicago. Sims, like Barboza, was considered a warrior, though known at the time of the nervousness of Elvis Rodriguez. The problem was that Sims was not classified by WBO.

“I needed a guy from the best the best, which I still asked,” says Barboza. “What was that good for me?”

This is the dilemma of a warrior. Are you listening, TKO? Why should the ranking channelists divide 3% of their bags should risk all these years and all this money to fight guys who cannot bring them closer to the title?

This does not mean that Barboza is a duck. In addition to Cattell, his wins cover the former Master Ramirez, whom he defeated by a unanimous decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Tough and experienced Jose Pedraza; Then and equally complex Danielito Zorrilla; And especially difficult Hitter, also undefeated, and then at the threshold of the title, Alex Saucedo.

“It was my most complex fight,” admits Barboza. Underdog, Barboza, fell in round 7, but he still won a unanimous decision in a brutal fight. He says something about Barboz (and explains why guys are less than enthusiastically fighting him) that he often does not separate their opponents from their consciousness (only 11 KO), but he tests their body and soul.

Certainly, Saucedo, a terrifying blow, will never forget. Bleeding from the brain that suffered that night caused him to retire. “

So I call Saucedo, wondering if he has interest in the fans: Barboza, a warrior who defeated him, or Lopez, who could afford revenge.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I lost my interest in boxing a bit. I don’t see the same anymore.”

Bad blood with barboza? I’m wondering.

“Not at all,” he says. “I am very grateful that I left this business.”

Saucedo has two ecstatic children, 11 and 6, good construction work and a burden on the university course, which one day will allow him to become a project manager at workplaces. “Tell you the truth that I feel so bad that many of these guys are fighting now.” There is no stars, but fighters like him, Barboza or Sims. “Most of them just have to beg and beg, begging and begging.”

And publishing. “It’s about charisma, selling yourself,” he says with joy. “It’s social media,”. “

Admittedly, Saucedo did not have talent. On the other hand, he wasn’t alone.

“A bit amusing,” he says. “I remember they said the same about Crawford.”