Bar Mitzvah To Halt All This Boxing Mishigas At Yankee Stadium (UPDATED)

Earlier this month, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the NBA All-Star Game festivities were going to make the Super Bowl look like a bar mitzvah, a claim that seemed overzealous when he made it and still feels that way.

Cuban should have aimed lower than the Super Bowl; assuming you consider Yankee Stadium to be lower.

In an AP report from Tuesday, Jewish boxing champ (and soon-to-be-rabbi, a fact that will gain importance in about 10 seconds) Yuri Foreman is near an agreement to defend his welterweight title against Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium on June 5. But there’s a hold up. (there’s always a hold up).

 

Arum (right) and Foreman. No, not that Foreman. There's a different one.

“The Yankees want to make a deal, we know we can make a deal, they’re just working through a problem at Yankee Stadium,” fight promoter Bob Arum said. “But you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

 
“Obviously you can’t do that if there’s fights going on,” Arum said.
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 Arum is the promoter that orchestrated November’s Manny Pacquiao-Cotto fight (also the event at which Foreman gained his welterweight title), but he’s also part of the cluster that halted the proposed Pacquiao-Mayweather jr. fight that was to take place in May. So to assume that a boy becoming a man is enough to stop a title fight like this is not as silly as it sounds. Everyone felt they could work a deal on Pacquiao-Mayweather too.

The family renting out the stadium hasn’t been identified, but it’s safe to assume we’re not talking about a low-income bunch here. It’s not a far leap in logic to assume this family enjoys grand displays. Why not make the family part of the undercard?

At any rate, if nothing can be worked out at Yankee Stadium, Top Rank president Todd duBoef assured the public they have a back-up venue reserved for June 12. Pehaps you’re familiar with Madison Square Garden? Yeah. They occasionally host live events there.

Turns out, lounges in the House That Jeter Built has been partially rented out for a private bar mitzvah. Not only that, the center field scoreboard screen will be used for nearly 30 minutes to display this yingl’s boyhood pictures and mementos.

UPDATE: Jon Ballan, the lead bond lawyer for the financing of the $1.2 billion stadium, is the father of the boy celebrating his mitzvah. And it appears the Ballans have agreed to relinquish control of the center field screen. Fight on!

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Photos courtesy of Flickr

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Posted by on Feb 17th, 2010 and filed under Baseball, Boxing / MMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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