HBO W/O PACQUIAO

Wow, I mean.....wow.

The original title of this post was supposed to be "If HBO Passes on Pacquiao/Mosley...".  So far I haven't seen any details about the negotiations between HBO and Top Rank Promotions.  What I hoped would happen was HBO did not want to foot the bill for a '24/7' series and pay a license fee for what would likely be an uncompetitive fight.

The Boxing Universe isn't giving me much to work with here but now I have to look forward to...

-Fight Camp 360 on CBS.

-Pacquiao/Mosley commercials for the 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'Big Bang Theory' audience.

-The move that set this all in motion- Martinez facing a pure boxer in Sergei Dzinziruk.

Tonight's 'Friday Night Fights' even had a great start with good old-fashioned, two punches to land one, Mexican boxing proving too much for Mike Dallas Jr..

Boxing and the Free Market

Even after the market crashed around him in 2008, President Bush praised capitalism and the free market like they were the greatest thing since the red rubber multi-purpose ball.  In the following months, the bankers went to Congress, demanded some socialism for their industry and offered none as they continued to foreclose on properties.


If lawmakers paid more attention to the boxing world in the past 15 years, they would have seen that the unregulated, free economy is extremely beneficial to the very few who make it their life's work to consume; that it is a path towards self-destruction.


How is boxing like the free market?


I'll answer that with another question.  Who regulates boxing?  A federal agency?  Nope.  A state commission?  They dabble a bit but no.  A city manager?  He might expect tickets but still no. 


The WBC?  If you pay them they will call you champion or interim champion or champion emiritus or unified champion or diamond champion....let's see.......uh.....well if your check clears, you're a champion.  Back to the question, no, not the WBC, IBF, WBA, WBO, IBA, or whatever three letters you can put together. 


I hear boxing writers and commentators beg and plead for the marketplace to make the major decisions in boxing; to act as the market should act.  In the free market, it is the consumers who decide by making the purchase that will best suit them.  It is this action that is supposed to regulate the market.  

Don't like dolphins in your tuna?  Don't buy it and force the manufacturer to use dolphin-safe nets.  Tired of your Chevy breaking down every 5000 miles.  Trade it in for a Toyota.  If Chevy wants your business back, then they should stop fastening parts with bubblegum and paper clips.  Well, after decades of making Radio-Flyers with Chevy emblems, the marketplace decided no more and bought fleets of the Prius and the Corrolla.  Chevy could wither and die for all we care but wait....what?  The Fed is buying stock in GM in attempt to save the company that sells subpar products?    No kidding?  The Fed is bailing out the banks that acted in collusion to make bad loans and sell them off.  Now that's not capitalism...or at least not the way it should be.


If only those writers knew they were getting capitalism at its purest in boxing.  No regulatory bodies.  Commissions there to make sure that the boxers aren't bums off the street (insert Kimbo jab) and that they were following the Queensbury rules.  And the promoters, the manufacturers of fights, finding a way to ignore the needs of the sport and the desire of the fans.  Need to artificially raise the stakes on the fight?  Pay the WBC for the Super Duper Champion Belt.  Commissions giving you trouble?  Take the fight to another state or country and promise it will inject money to the local economy.


Now, promoters <cough..Golden Boy and Top Rank..cough..> have the ability to deliver a crummy product on a consistent basis to the point that we're starved.  So starved, that we're willing to swallow Pacquiao/Mosley and Julio Caesar Chavez Jr./ Tijuana Cab Drivers and Plumbers Local 218.


What will it take to turn the tides?  When I know the answer, you'll be the first to hear it.

David Meltzer, How Much Does Dana White Pay You?

• David Meltzer's Article- Another record year for UFC on PPV

God, I hate when MMA and boxing are in the same news article.  Even worse is when David Meltzer couldn't be objective if his life depended on it.  Let's start with the beginning- UFC HAS A RECORD YEAR ON PAY-PER-VIEW.  Good for them. NINE MILLION PPV BUYS?  Great.

boxers floyd mayweather jr. and manny pacquiao produced the two biggest individual pay-per-view events of 2010....

What was that? Couldn't hear you over the sound of Brock Lesnar's ego being stroked.  Meltzer seriously put the details of Mayweather and Pacquiao's achievements in the margins.

If you can't be objective, then say so.  I know I can't.  I tell everyone that the UFC is human cage-fighting that markets college wrestlers as blue-collar athletes for a white market but I would still never publish it as fact while minimizing their accomplishments. 

Weekend Reactions

• 'Friday Night Fights' Results 

Herrera Brothers, crack open a beer.  This next toast is for you.

Alberto Herrera was supposed to be filler for Demetrius Andrade's record.  Alberto was paid to make the Olympian, Andrade, look like a hot prospect but Herrera had the nerve to stay standing after Andrade hit him.  Herrera had the gall to take advantage of Andrade's wide-uppercuts and punch back.  By the end of the fight, which Andrade won on every scorecard, Herrera left Teddy Atlas nothing to comment on but Andrade's lack of technique.

Mauricio Herrera should have been too old, too light-handed and too straight-forward to be a threat to Ruslan Provodnikov, a boxer whose face I'd hate to see in a dark alleyway.  Instead, Herrera outboxed a guy who fights a street fight.  At the end of the night, the Herrera brothers moved me more than any of these "prospects" ever would.

At every boxing match I attended, the boxer who tried the hardest was the one who got the cheers.  Some of the more talented boxers don't have to try hard and that's their blessing but it will never win our fan favor.  Floyd Mayweather Jr. makes his fights look so easy; so non-competitive that it brings me images of my cat playing with a field mouse before the inevitable kill.  On the other hand, I can see the heart and soul Manny Pacquiao puts behind EVERY punch.  The thought of such a punch with that much weight paralyzes me in my chair every time.

'Friday Night Fights' returns

Ruslan Provodnikov and Mauricio Herrera will fight on the main event on the 13th season premiere of 'Friday Night Fights'.

To prepare for the telecast, Teddy Atlas has hired the services of Professor Henry Higgins and could have "danced, danced, danced all night".

Rabbit Punch Boxing 1.0 - A Call to Arms

• "Arum’s spin on Pacquiao-Mosley is pure garbage"- Kevin Iole, ESPN

• "Pacquiao-Mosley is an abomination and everyone knows it"- William Dettloff, Ring Magazine 

Pacquiao-Mosley is everything hardcore boxing fans deserve because we haven't done enough

We complain about intrusive referees and judges with cataracts.  What's the average age of judges these days?  I would bet money they could tell you where they were when President McKinley was shot.

It is unrealistic to expect Bob Arum, Richard Schaefer, and the rest of the boxing aristocracy to run things in our interest as long as they can count on us to shell out the $54.95 for pay-per-views.  A boycott will never happen when "Bingo" Bobs and "Tricky" Dicks know that we love the sport more than we hate the fights.  The boxing world will disappoint us until we become the commissioners that say Evander Holyfield has done enough; until we are the doctors that show mercy on the Shannon Briggs' and Antonio Margaritos; until we are the judges with scorecards that are not affected by hometown cheers.  Our love affair with the sport will be dysfunctional as long as we take and demand without reciprocating.  

I write.  This blog is my answer.  It is my way of inserting myself into the sport.  It's a small piece of real estate on the Internet that I will devote a lot my time to making big.

Tell me what you can do.