"Boxing is like dealing with a Ho..." Bernard Hopkins
Make no
mistake, we are under occupation and it isn't going to end
anytime in the near future. Projections for this recession are
dimly predicting hard times lasting into the year 2015, about
the same time we finally see Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. Every city
in the nation as well as in Europe is crawling with protestors
and the growing reality that the "game" (prosperity) "is" and
always has been rigged. Whether you think it is because of Wall
Street, the Rothschild Federal Reserve dynasty or the Real
Estate bubble, average people are in crisis and "above average"
people have every intent (and incentive) for keeping us there.
As consumers of a sport that may never be important enough for
Federal intervention we are more vulnerable than we ever were,
and there seems no recourse short of occupying Las Vegas.
Examine the way PPV's are priced and the amount of money
invested in providing a full night of entertainment and you see
the same type of exploitation from Boxing's "1%" (two elite
fighters the public knows, two promoters and one and a half
networks) that leave the sport with no middle class and an even
poorer fan base. Factor in sanctioning bodies (that I honestly
can't fault anymore in this climate; why not be a crook amongst
thieves?) and you have not only a recipe for disaster but worse -
long-term apathy.
Enter James Kirkland and Alfred Angulo before Top Ranks "One PPV
too many"
The
Mayweather vs. Ortiz numbers are "out," well at least according
to Golden Boy. Try $78 million dollars stolen from 1.2 million
homes; that's enough to pay off a ton of attorneys (helpful to
Floyd) and about 2 years of "enjoying my family" from the future
Hall of Famer. Before the paint dried on "protect yourself at
all times" Bernard Hopkins went sprawling onto the canvas
opening yet another timeless debate about who the "bitch" (is it
Chad?) is concluding in a "No Contest" and the return of
Bernard's WBC belt. Remember, your money wasn't (Floyd
Mayweather singing) "refundable" but Hopkins got his belt back.
Don't you wish you could tell your Cable subscriber the fight
was a No Contest? The truth is with HBO, Mark Taffet and the
Promoters from Hell behind the steering wheel of Boxing, we as a
consumer are "no contest" to the powers that be. We are funding
an enterprise with inflated prices and depressed quality. Before
the most oppressed sports fan in the world could catch his
breath HBO was pelting us with another wave of 24/7 in support
of the Pacquiao vs. Marquez trilogy. If my calculations are
correct James Kirkland and Alfred Angulo (combined) entered the
ring last Saturday night for less than what Marquez will make
this Saturday. What transpired between them was something they
should be proud of, something that should not have been
overshadowed by Floyd Mayweather's caddy announcing that he will
fight again. Their match-up was such a guaranteed barnburner
that Max "Let the Free Market work for the powerful" Kellerman
guilty-toned and all, opined it should morally have been a PPV.
No Max, morally it should be on free TV like this Saturday's UFC
Heavyweight Championship fight on FOX. What kind of balls would
it take for an HBO employee to tell us we should have seen such
a great fight for more pay? The way the system is currently
constructed we may not see Kirkland next year by way of
avoidance (courtesy Canelo Alvarez) or getting low balled. Do
any of us blame either guy for looking for a much bigger payday
after this? Golden Boy had no intention of giving us a Fight of
the Year; they were cashing Kirkland out to develop another
Mexican "property." Canelo Alvarez isn't being groomed for great
fights, certainly not crossroads wars like Angulo vs. Kirkland;
he's being groomed to top empty PPV bills and bilk a fan base
that gets paid by the hour. He, like so many other medium rare,
undeveloped "names" will call out Mayweather and Pacquiao; and
who can blame him? Ninety-percent of the payout for a PPV card
is doled out to the headliners. Who cares if you received a past
due notice because you have the idea that you will be treated to
a "night" of competitive Boxing.
So
shell-shocked, wracked the post-traumatic economic Stockholm
syndrome we actually go online to message boards viciously
arguing the merits of Mayweather and Pacquiao, both earning $70
million to fight - in their mid 30's. We can't see how Arum,
Golden Boy and HBO are sitting back and allowing us to drive
what's left of the Boxing economic train into a cauldron of
flames. We can't see that with no middle class, we are assuring
fistic Armageddon, we are so complicit we can't see our active
role in Boxing's first 100$ PPV with no undercard. While most of
the rich and notable in this country will see it as an event and
take in the fight live, those in the 99% -many who LOVE boxing-
will be watching Mayweather vs. Pacquiao in a house full of
people they sort of know. Talking heads on ESPN howl for this
fight because they want to go and hog up the credentials when
they haven't said a word all week about what happened in that
Cancun ring between Kirkland and Angulo. The mainstream sports
media wants an expensive one-night stand with our sport, and
when they sober up they'll go right back to their day jobs
denouncing our sport as dead. They aren't the 99%; they all work
for a monolith powerful enough to make a sport out of poker yet
constantly cutting the budget for Boxing.
"Boxing fans are savvy and sophisticated, they look at a fight
each fight on its own merit." Mark Taffet, HBO Sports
Cotto vs.
Margarito, lesser of many evils
Maybe
Taffet is right, because I must sit out Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3
based on the lack of merit. Both fighters are superior to Cotto
and Margarito but the December 3rd card top to bottom is more
consumer friendly. Brandon Rios is in tough with Brit John
Murray, despite his loss to Kevin Mitchell. Murray was chosen
because he's a rugged banger; Mitchell was too much of a
wildcard for Top Rank to risk Rios against a mover. Mike Jones
is in credible with Sebastian Lujan, given his massive frame you
never know when he may have made the 147 lb. limit one time too
many. Pawel Wolak vs. Delvin Rodriguez may threaten to be the
first match-up to enter TWO Fight of the Year candidates. Their
July 15th Friday Night Fights bout was an All-timer, the kind of
bout that underlines the proverb "Great fights don't require
Great fighters." Wolak vs. Rodriguez alone makes this PPV card
worthy of the format, my hope is they are incentivized for
taking the risk. Bob Arum recently (at an HBO presser
coincidentally) expressed his fetish for cross promotion on all
the "sister companies" under the CBS umbrella that carried his
Pacquiao vs. Mosley heist -and I find this ironic. If he had
the audience of Network TV for this circus why wouldn't he make
inroads that would return the sport to a wider audience? Why
would he do that? Why would he make his product more accessible
for less? Why burn his subscription pimps (I mean partners) at
HBO and Showtime. That would be counter capitalism... you know,
like paying American workers to make American products.
