I have been an avid fight fan for over 50 years. I started watching fights with my father on early T.V,sponsored by now defunct beer companies such as Ballantine and Rheingold. Sometimes we listened to the prize fights on radio. Then came the close circuit fights. Years when you went to bars or clubs and paid to see the fights, but only major championship fights, the Ali fights. And then came cable. A major draw for me was that I could follow boxing on cable. There were regular fights on both Showtime and HBO and the big fights were on pay-per-view. As a boxing fan I signed up. Fight nights were at my house and I gladly paid.

But now there's been another change and not for the good of boxing or for the fans, but rather for pure greed. Now that HBO has a virtual monopoly on boxing through pay-per-view they should rename it pay-through-the-nose. Because that's what we're doing. They decide that a mediocre fight is a pay per-view fight. In recent months we've had Jones-Ruiz, Barrera-Kelly and coming up the ultimate rip-off De la Hoya-Campas. Oscar needs a tune-up fight and we have to pay? Then why do we pay to subscribe to HBO? Their 'Boxing After Dark' is the place for this fight.

Let's look back just 9 years ago when Yori Boy suffered his first defeat at the hands of the great Felix Trinidad. This was a pay-per-view event, held on 9/17/94; four championship bouts, four champs that laid everything on the line fighting worthy opponents. This was the roster: Trinidad-Campas with the IBF championship on the line, the WBC Super Featherweight Leija-Ruelas, the WBA Jr. Welterweight Randall-Coggi and that was the undercard! The main event: a Chavez-Taylor rematch for the WBC Super Lightweight Crown. That's a fight card any fan would gladly pay for now.

How can we get quality fights back? By not buying the rip off fights; on May 3 DON'T press enter! Send a message to the greedy cable company and the greedy fighters. Either give fight fans top ranked fighters challenging themselves against worthy opponents or our remotes will stay out of order.

4-25-2003

This page has been visited times.

Brought to you by Saratogamist copyright 2001-2003.