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Dunkin Goes Back At Papa Ali
We could get a Sadam Ali-Jessie Vargas scrap, but the site is an issue. Ali, a Brooklyner, scored a headliner date on HBO, Dec. 19. The cabler would televise portions of a card on that date, one promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy, at Turning Stone in Verona, NY.
Not so fast, friends; Vargas’ manager, Cameron Dunkin, told me he’s not keen on seeing a repeat of what he believes occured in Ali’s last fight. He tangled with Francisco Santana (in April), in Brooklyn, and Dunkin, a superstar manager in rebuild the empire mode after having his stash affected by Al Haymon’s incursion, thought the judges smiled too widely at Ali.
Ali’s pop, Mahmoud, told me that his kid is the A side, and c’mon now, Verona isn’t Brooklyn. He said that he thinks Dunkin is avoiding Ali, a skilled pugilist, and using the site as smokescreen. “He’s calling my guy a coward and he’s full of crap,” Dunkin told me. “He doesn’t want his kid fighting in LA, or Vegas or at StubHub. As for his kid being the A side, there is no A side in this fight. It’s two guys looking to get there…Anyway, my guy has been on HBO more, been in more big fights. We will fight in Virginia, in Boston, whatever.”