 2/13/06 - article by Howie Reed
TALKIN BOXIN
Feb 12, 2006
by Howie Reed
Now that Super Bowl XL is out of the way it's back to
the sport of boxing. Many younger fans of boxing are
now spending their time and money following the UFC. I
will admit straight away that I know next to nothing
about the UFC. I know it sells out here in Las Vegas,
is on Spike TV and has a loyal following. I could if
pushed recite a couple of names like Chuck "The
Iceman" Liddell and Randy "The Natural" Couture but
that's the extent of my knowledge. While driving
around in the "Chick Mobile", that would be a 1994 Red
Chrysler La Barron Convertible, I happened upon a
couple of the local "sports talk shills" talking about
the upcoming match between Liddel and Couture. They
were interviewer a third person who was extolling the
virtue's of UFC over boxing. "Ticket prices are more
reasonable. For this fight a ringside ticket is $200
dollars as compared to $500 to $1,000 dollars for a
heavyweight title fight, if you can get a ticket. If
you do attend a heavyweight title fight the chances
are that it's not going to be much of a fight."
The gentleman was right on the mark. Boxing for some
reason has priced themselves out of the "ordinary
sports fans market." One would suspect that like the
dog, they do so because they can. The "mystery third
person's" next comment showed that he doesn't
understand sports fans let along fans of UFC or
boxing. "That sport will never been great until the
fighters are paid more money and make the big sums.
These fights are selling out and someone is making big
money. Until it's the fighters the sport will never be
mainstream." "Mr. Third Man" you are full of bull. The
amount of money that an athletic makes has no
correlations to the number f fans that will pay to see
him perform. There is some evidence that the opposite
may be true. When baseball salary's first escalated,
with players whining that they were only making
$500,000 a year and their family's couldn't hardly
live, the fans responded with yawns and staying away
from games.
Every time there is a strike by players for more money
the sport suffers at the box office, Most in America
are tired of whining athletics that treat the ticket
buying public with distain. Mr. Third Man had best
take a deep breath and realize that if either Mr.
Liddel or Mr. Couture decided not to fight until they
got more money, someone else would be in their place.
Boxing has promoted it's boxers by bragging about the
money that "top" fighters make. These top boxers then
act like thugs and gang bangers while the former fans
of boxing stay away in droves. What boxing has lost is
the "home town hero" boxer. It's a method that worked
but was abandon when the sport eliminated the local
manager and promoter. Today's boxing promoters could
promote December 25th as Christmas. They instead run
to either HBO, Showtime or some Casino with their
stable of boxers and say "Give me money up front."
The "Home town" hero would still work but it takes too
much time, effort, intelligence and dedication.
Think I jest ? The Super Bowl was played last Sunday
in Detroit Michigan. One of the highlights of downtown
is the Joe Louis Arena. Also downtown is a large iron
fist which stands for all to see as the legend of Joe
Louis, a hometown guy. The night before the Super
Bowl 15,121 people paid to watch the 47 year old
Thomas "The Hittman" Hearns (61-5-1) TKO Shannon "The
Sandman" Landberg (58-11-2) at 1:35 of the 10TH
round. Let me repeat 15,121 [paid their way into the
Palace at Auburn Hills to watch 47 year old Thomas
Hearns. He's an old time hometown box fighter.
Contrast that with the empty seats that greeted
Bernard Hopkins when he fought in Philly ?
We all know that "Buffalo" Bob Arum decreed that he
would only match Mexican fighters in Las Vegas. Forget
for the moment that he has Mayweather jr.-Judah coming
up. Neither is Mexican or popular. Most saw on
Showtime when Judah fought in his "hometown" of New
York City he was only able to sell a little over 5,000
tickets. So much for the home town hero deal with
Judah. Let me digress here for a moment. I hate to
keep picking on Pal Jimmy Lampley but heck he says so
many stupid things that it's just too easy. In doing
weakly columns "easy' is good. HBO has two ppv's
coming up. One is Fernando Vargas-Shane Mosley and the
other Mayweather-Judah. Thank goodness they're keeping
these two dogs away from sports fans. Talking about
Vargas-Mosley, Lampley said, "Their legion of fans are
legend. Like Prince Nassem (that would be the
"Lop-Eared Camel Jockey" for those of you that have
forgotten) and DeLahoya." Excuse me ? The only fans of
Naseem were the poor Brits who were desperately
praying for a world class athletic and "whack jobs"
that strap bombs to there bodies hoping for an
explosion that will send them to the place with 71
Virgins.
Let me digress again but just for a moment. You may
have read about the riots in Denmark over cartoon's
printed in a local paper One had a drawing of a
oblivious Naseem fan in turban with arms outstretched
saying, "Stop the bombing...we've run out of virgins."
Now as Larry "The Cable Guy" says, "That's funny." I
love to disagree with Lamps but in all my years of
covering boxing I have yet to run into a boxing fans
that say's , "My favorite fighter is Shane Mosley." On
the other hand I have run into a lot of fans that
claim Fernando Vargas as "their fav". These people can
usually be recognized by a large number of tattoos
usually acquired in prison. As for fans of wither
Mayweather jr. or Judah, "Lamps you're telling
porky's."
If we take the "Mexican fighters" thesis of "Buffalo"
Bob Arum and Las Vegas the next likely place would be
El Paso Texas. Anyone catch the Saturday night fights
on Showtime from the campus of UTEP ? The latest in a
long line of great Mexican champions, one Jose Luis
Castillo, was suppose to fight a rematch with Diego
Corrales. Diego got hurt a few weeks ago so in stepped
Rolando Reyes (262-4-2). When the telecast came on I
though" "They must have pre tapes this opening cause
there is no one there." Wrong again. There were no
fans. How could this be ? A city that is not only more
than 50% Mexican but just across the border could only
draw a few fans to see two Mexican fighters ? They
knew what the promoters convinced Showtime not to
know, "This dog won't hunt." The fight itself ? Lousy.
Stinkeroo. It was fun to see the two promoters,
Buffalo Bob Arum and "Gas Bag" Gary Shaw, sitting
ringside smug in the knowledge that they again pull
the wool over the eyes of an unsuspecting Cable
Network.
Big congratulates to local Boxing scribe Kevin Iole
for being voted "Sportswriter of the Year in Nevada".
Good for him. Me ? I again finished listed under
"others". Bummer that. Iole is reporting the Buffalo
Bob Arum has reserved Sam Boyd Stadium (hone for the
UNLV Losing Rebel's Football) for September 16. He
plans on putting on the final leg of the
Pacquiao-Morales trilogy. Got to love the move. It's
back to the future and about dam time. These two will
pack the place which will be set up for 30,000 fans.
Great idea and good for you Bob Arum. When was the
last time that a fight was help in an outdoor stadium
? Not really sure but maybe it was June 13, 1998 when
Oscar DeLaHoya fought Patrick Charpentier at the Sun
Bowl in El Paso. Remember it well. There were a "mega
plethora " of young Mexican Senorita's with flashing
eyes and supple figures waving sign, " Oscar, I'll
have your baby". In those days they had a shot.
Probably one of the most overrated boxer in the world
is Ronald "Winky" Wright. He is living proof that
making money in the ring does not make one a star.
It's impossible to name one "great" Wright fight. He
can't sell tickets, he's boring to watch and has no
following to speak of. On the other end of the
spectrum is WBC/WBA/WBO middleweight champion Jermain
Taylor. He would be and is the anti-Wright. The number
#1 contender is Ronald "Winky" Wright. Taylor,
promoted by Lou DeBella, is more about winning fights
in the knowledge that the money will follow. Wright
was represented by ":Gas Bag" Gary Shaw. Last week
DiBella and Shaw agreed on term for the fight. The St.
Petersburg Times reports that Wright "balked" at the
deal. It was reported that after "balking" (base
runners will advance one base) Wright fired Shaw and
longtime advisor Jim Wilkes quit. The scoop is that
Wright and manager, unbeknownst to HBO or Shaw, were
meeting with Golden Boy Promotions. What a slug.
But upon further review the Wright Camp played "make
up" and the fight was back on. Well maybe not the
"Wright Camp" but Ronald his very own self. There are
a couple of takes on what happened for this sudden
chance of mind. The 100% accurate truth will probably
never be known. There are those out there that think
when the WBC called for purse bids a little bird
"splained" to Wrght that he would get 30% of the purse
bid rather than the 45% which had previously been
offered, accepted and then turned down,. Award winning
sports writer Kevin Iole has a different view. His
opinion, which is worth a hell of a lot more than
mine, is that the hero in this "drama" is HBO's sports
President Ross Greenberg.
"HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg took a look at a
guy who called himself a promoter but had no license,
no business plan, no finance capital, no
infrastructure, no fighters and, basically, no clue,
and showed him the door. Winky Wright, the brilliant
middleweight who along with welterweight Floyd
Mayweather Jr. is one of the two finest fighters in
the world, for some reason tried to scuttle a June 17
fight against champion Jermain Taylor. Promoter Gary
Shaw has been an outspoken advocate for Wright,
hammering at Taylor promoter Lou DiBella to make a
fair deal. To his credit, DiBella got to the
bargaining table and negotiated in good faith even
though his preference was to have Taylor defend his
crown in a lesser fight first." Reports had Wright
walking into Greenberg's office while DiBella and Shaw
were negotiating which would account for the "showed
him the door." Again being a minority voice calling
Mayweather jr. and Wright the two best fighters in the
world is a joke.
Kevin Iole reports a little detail on what happened.
"Shaw and DiBella had all but completed negotiations
when Wright showed up unannounced at Greenburg's
office last week and essentially killed the deal. He
said Shaw wasn't authorized to negotiate on his behalf
and wasn't his promoter. It was a curious statement,
since Wright had stood by quietly as Shaw negotiated
very publicly with DiBella. Shaw used the media to
pressure DiBella and help make his case. Wright knew
that, even sending Shaw an e-mail last month that
read, "You're my promoter for life, homey." Gotta love
the little Broke Back Mountian moment here. Iole
continues, "Apparently, Wright's idea of life is a
little different than 'til death do us part. Wright is
a congenial guy, but being congenial and athletically
gifted are a lot different than being ethical. That
darn ethics thing is where Wright comes up just a
little short." He's a bum. That's the story here.
Some may have missed the news reports that the FCC is
about ready to issue a report that Cable Systems could
charge less to their customers if the customer was
allowed to order channels "al la carte". This is a
reversal of a report that was issued last year. Why
the change ? It's the Government stupid. This ruling
may be a boom for boxing fans. One they'll be able to
order "single channels" that have boxing rather than
take the "gaggle" of channels that come bundled.
Secondly it will force "some" Cable networks to put
better fights on "free" or loose subscribers. Not
totally ignorant here as I spend some years in
television. As one that did that I know when a
network, Cable or otherwise, does something for the
"public" they do so for economic reasons. TV networks
are about making money.
It was elsewhere in the Iole column that I found,
"It's been a hectic six weeks for Greenburg, but he's
so far kept a promise he made in December when he said
he would strive to bring more major fights to HBO
instead of pay-per-view. He's done that, booking a
series of bouts that will air live on HBO: Hasim
Rahman-James Toney for a heavyweight title on March
18; Marco Antonio Barrera-Jesus Chavez for a
lightweight championship on March 25; Chris
Byrd-Wladimir Klitschko for another heavyweight belt
on April 22; and Taylor-Wright for the middleweight
title on June 17. Greenburg deserves kudos because at
least three of those bouts, if not all of them, would
have been on pay-per-view in 2005." Why did HBO and
Mr. Greenberg take this step to help the boxing fan ?
Cause Showtime forced their hand. Showtime stepped up
to the plate in presenting attractive fights the first
Saturday of every month on almost "free TV" HBO has to
compete or they're going to loose money. Top to bottom
their live fights in them last few years stink. A good
friend of mine who life's back east cancelled HBP for
that very reason. "Every time there's a decent fight
it's on pay-per-view." Before we build statues to
Greenberg let's open the window and get some fresh air
into the brain.
One guy that isn't either a "slug", "bum" or another
other derogatory term is former champ Wayne "The
Pocket Rocket" McCullough. Last week a column in the
local paper former McCullough trainer Freddie Roach
had asked him not to fight again and retire. Freddie
also indicated that he would not train McCullough for
any fight. McCullough as is usual with the classy ex
champ wrote a very respectful and thoughtful letter to
Roach in answer to the Iole column and a fax that
Roach send McCullough. "Dear Freddie: I would like to
respond to your most recent opinion given to me by
your February 3 fax and an interview you did with
Kevin Iole of the Las Vegas Review Journal this past
Saturday. First and foremost, I always respect the
opinions of people that have been fighters, and surely
one like you, who like many, many great fighters
throughout the years, have shed their blood in the
ring. However, for you to speak with such decisiveness
and certainty makes me believe your words come more
from the heart rather than the head." A brief time out
here. Am I the only one that finds pleasure in reading
a letter under a boxer's name that isn't full of
meaningless BS and smack talk ? Thought not.
"As you may not be aware, the question of retirement
and my family's well being, is one that is of the
utmost importance to me. So important that I believe
extreme measures were taken by the Nevada State
Athletic Commission to give them all of the medical
information necessary for their medical board to make
a decision based primarily on the actual facts of
determining a person's health. The Professor and Chief
of Neurosurgery at UCLA said I was in excellent
health, as did every other physician I was examined by
and as a result of medical tests I recently took.
Should all boxers be prevented from fighting because
there is an inherent danger to do so? Where does it
stop? Marco Antonio Barrera is a great example.
Would the metal plate in his head inspire you to write
him a note of retirement?." You might ask why
McCullough mentioned UCLA and their Chief of
Neurosurgery ? That University has been the recipient
of grants from many in boxing for research. The WBC
started the monetary donations a number of years ago.
"What should I tell my doctor? Thanks for giving me a
clean bill of health, but my ex-trainer doesn't think
I should fight anymore because of what happened to
him? Isn't each situation different and based on the
individual? I believe with the many successes you've
enjoyed as a trainer, and your willingness to discuss
any subject with the media, has allowed you the
ability to publicly express your opinion on some
issues without the benefit of facts or knowledge.
That same openness from you would confirm that for the
second Larios fight, you worked with me in Las Vegas
for a grand total of 3 DAYS -
even when I was in LA training, you weren't. Our
training and "get to know you time" together since
August 2004 has probably totaled 5 weeks. I've spent
more time with doctors, their tests and commissions to
MAKE SURE I'm healthy, so that when someone elicits an
opinion of retirement, I'm secured in the fact that
the criteria to box in the United States has been a
lot tougher for me than virtually any other fighter in
the world. But I've accepted it to make sure
commissions can make intelligent and informed
decisions rather than one with their feelings and
without the knowledge of the facts. In closing, I
wasn't thrilled nor in agreement with your comments,
but certainly appreciate your concern, as I do every
fighter that steps into that ring. But with safety
being my number one priority, I know that I'm fit and
healthy to continue in the sport I love and enjoy."
AND FINALLY. If the officiating at the biggest boxing
match of the year was as bad as last weeks Super Bowl
"Wing Bag" Senator John McCain would call for a
federal investigation. "Wind Baguette"(in Training)
Senator H. Rodhem Clinton would have issued a
statement. "It is disgraceful when we have children
starving in America, when a women's right to choose is
so important and in jeopardy and health insurance is
denied to all people to have the situation like the
one that developed in Detroit last week. It's time for
a change." But then we in boxing have never been so
bad or so consistent in officiating as the NFL during
their playoffs. All the apologist circled the wagon's
to prove to the sporting fan that "They could not
believe their lying eyes."
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