When I started on Twitter, I envisioned it as a way of giving quick thoughts to readers of the blog in the right hand column, and little more. Then, mere months ago, very few boxers were on Twitter. Now, tons of ’em are, and more enlist every week. They are all of varying levels of worth, as you might expect. Some give you videos of them in the gym. Some joke around with fans. Some actually break news. One, um, let us know who his favorite porn star is. As such, Twitter is suddenly a whole different way to get information about the sport, however helpful or arcane. Thus, a guide to who in boxing is on Twitter and how they’re doing might in turn be helpful to boxing fans out there.
(I’d been thinking of doing a “boxers on Twitter” piece for a while, but, appropriately, someone I follow on Twitter — http://twitter.com/bartbarry — beat me to it. Still, our takes are a bit different, so I decided to go for it anyhow.)
Key: Candid – C (puts one’s personality on display); Funny – F (humorous); Interactive – I (does things to get followers involved, like videos, links, contests etc.); Prolific – P (posts frequently); Responsive – R (will talk to fans); Useful – U (conveys raw information of value, like date of next fight, whom one is sparring with, etc.)
For those who aren’t on Twitter yet, addresses are often given with the @ sign, but if you want to go to the sites below, just type in http://twitter.com, drop the @ and sign and substitute in a slash. So, Manny Pacquiao’s Twitter feed can be found at http://twitter.com/realmpacquiao.
Active Boxers
Manny Pacquiao @realmpacquiao: —
Manny’s new to this, and he’s busy with his 800 other jobs. So far, it’s not been spectacular, to say the least.
Floyd Mayweather @mayweathermania: C, F, R
As annoying as Mayweather is to me, he’s often amusing on Twitter. For instance: “Marquez says hes goin after my ribs but theres no weakness in MONEY MAY. Only ribs he’ll b diggin n2 will b at Outback after I take him down.” Also, he’s responded to others, but not me. My attempt to Rick Roll him was met with no answer.
Miguel Cotto @realmiguelcotto: C, I, R
Cotto, as exciting a fighter as he is, is just so boring sometimes outside the ring. He tried to make a joke once by posting a funny Photoshopped picture of him and Pacquiao. At least he gave it an effort.
Paul WIlliams @ppunisherwill: F, P, R
Williams is always “tryna” and “imma.” The Ghostbusters logos he put up after his fight with Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik fell through was amusing.
Nonito Donaire @filipinoflash: C, F, I, P, R, U
Probably in the top three best Twitter users amongst boxers. Really seems to enjoy interacting with his fans, and comes across as very authentic in so doing.
Andre Berto @andreberto: C, F, P, R, U
Highlight had to be his trash talk with the Cincinnati Bengals’ Chad Ocho Cinco. Berto’s one of the best, I think, with Donaire and Brian Viloria.
Brian Viloria @brianviloria: C, F, P, R, U
Dude’s just got a lot of personality.
Chris Arreola @theenightmare: ?
Not sure what’s going on here. His page seems to have disappeared.
David Haye @davidhayemaker: C, R, U
Daniel Jacobs @danieljacobstko: C, F, I, P, R
Roy Jones Jr. @royjonesjr: I, P, R
Jones is his usual bragging self on Twitter, but he has a bit more dimensions than he shows, thus he gets no “C.”
Zab Judah @superjudah: C, F, P, U
Oh man, Judah has the FUNNIEST Twitter feed. Sometimes he demands to fight Pacquiao (hilarious!), other times he offers to sell puppies (@adorablepups).
Tavoris Cloud @tavoriscloud: P, R, I
Joe Greene @greenjose226: C, F, R, U
You probably learn a bit more about Joe Greene than you want to know from his Twitter feed, like, say, who his favorite porn star is, but he’s always saying something funny. “Best buy has some good ass ac” was my favorite.
Vanes Martirosyan @vanesboxing: ?
This one seems to have disappeared, too.
Victor Ortiz @viciousortiz: ?
He’d had some stuff up before the Marcus Maidana loss about hanging out with MTV crews and so forth, but it’s all gone. Seems like they’re resetting the narrative for Vic.
Tor Hamer @torhamer: I, P, R, U
Peter Quillin @kidchocolate: C, F, R, U
Danny Garcia @dannyswift: I, U
John Molina @johnmolinajr @johnmolinaboxer: I, R, U
I’m not sure why there are two active feeds for Molina.
Raul Martinez @raulmartinez210: C, I, P, R
Charles Huerta @charleshuerta: C, P, R, U
You may be wondering how someone can be a C, but not an F. Here’s what I mean — I know a fair amount about what Huerta’s interests are, like Fight Night 4, and what he doesn’t like, such as parking tickets and dentists. He just isn’t particularly comedic to me.
Gato Figueroa @teamgato140: C, I, P, R
Joey Gilbert @joeygilbertinc: R
Audley Harrison @futurechamp @aforce2be: —
Two Twitter feeds, neither interesting in any way, really.
Boxing Figures
HBO @hboboxing: I, R, U
It’s hard for a network or promoter to show personality, per se.
Showtime @shosports: I, R, U
They go gangbusters for Strikeforce events compared to say, how they handled Joseph Agbeko-Vic Darchinyan. As a boxing fan, the inequity displeases me.
Top Rank @trboxing: I, P, R, U
The best of the promoters at using Twitter so far.
Golden Boy @goldenboyonline: —
I’m not even sure why they have a Twitter feed. It’s arguably amusing for how comically useless it is. Maybe it’s so they can ask, “Whos your favorite Harr Potter character?” (Seriously, they asked. Seems to be related to some ad campaign or something.)
Jin Mosley @jinbeautiful: C, I, P, R
Uh, I kind of feel like a voyeur for following Shane Mosley’s soon-to-be-divorced wife. She makes a ton of comments that seem to be slightly veiled insults about Shane. Also, she will not stop talking. One day she criticized Diddy for Twittering too much on the same day she posted 17 Tweets.
Joe Calzaghe @joe_calzaghe1: ?
He used to have a bunch of Tweets up, but as of this writing his page appears to have reset.
Buster Douglas @iambuster: C, I, P, R
Although he hasn’t responded to any of my Tweets. 🙁
Lennox Lewis @lennoxlew1s: —
He’s almost at bad as Twittering as he is at being a boxing analyst on HBO.
Fernando Vargas @elferoz: C, P, R, U
He’s still in the boxing biz so occasionally he passes along info about events he’s involved in, thus the U. But be prepared for lots of exclamation points and words in all caps.
(Note: I likely won’t be responding to comments on this post because of my vaca, but don’t let that keep you from leaving remarks and discussing amongst yourselves.)
