It’s obvious Amir Khan is aiming for bigger things! (I stole that joke straight from friend of the site Irvin Ryan.)
Salacious is fun, but when a model came forward nearly a month ago with allegations that the junior welterweight was sending her dirty text messages, I didn’t even blink. Hell, I didn’t even read the article. Let’s assume it’s true, and I honestly don’t know if it is: My thought was, so what if Khan wants to send dirty texts to some model, as long as it’s not rapey or stalky? (Crow alleges that it was creepy, but nothing worse than that.) But then, last week, I saw an article that mentioned her name — Leanne Crow — and HOLY COW. The picture at right is fairly mild for her, by the way.
Now that I’ve cheapened the blog with tabloid silliness, let’s get to some more substantial matters, like the items in the headline, a bit of Manny Pacquiao-related news, a pretty photo spread of Muhammad Ali and a movie executive produced by Lou DiBella. Once again, we’ll leave out the “fights in the works” stuff, Round and Round, and do it separately — probably Saturday.
Quick Jabs
Just the other day, we were discussing how lightweight Ali Funeka is one of the unluckiest fighters in the sport. He just got unluckier. The hearing in Nevada related to his positive test for a banned substance, a diuretic, got delayed a month. That means he’ll be waiting yet longer to figure out his next career step. Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director didn’t see anything unfair about this, but he didn’t explain. Is it because any suspension will start effective the date of the test? Still, it’d be nice if Funeka could get started on figuring out his next step and planning appropriately…
The WBC recently spent some time hounding the heroic and beloved Israel Vazquez, of all people. Compounding the offense is that they’re hounding him because he didn’t want a part of their idiotic “silver belt” for his featherweight fourquel with Rafael Marquez. Can we end the argument about whether to sanctioning organizations are good for the boxers? Maybe here or there, a belt comes with more money, but those belts dilute the sport and consequently the audience that pays boxers’ checks, and then there’s stupidity like this — constantly…
If you get a chance, check out this LIFE magazine retrospective of Muhammad Ali photographs, meant to commemorate an admittedly not-so-important anniversary. But whatever, it’s a good excuse. Not only are they beautiful, but the photographer, Neil Leifer, does a great job of explaining how he got the shots, what they meant to him and what they said about Ali…
Super middleweight Carl Froch hasn’t had much nice to say about former foe Andre Dirrell, but he conceded this week that Dirrell showed how Arthur Abraham can be beaten. He plans to mimic it some, but good luck on that — Dirrell’s spectacular speed and athleticism were crucial to the stick and move strategy, and Froch’s speed and athleticism are really only passable. Froch seems to recognize this; he says he will have to stand and brawl at points. And they still haven’t figured out where to put the fight, per BoxingScene. Froch wants it in his native Nottingham or America, although they wouldn’t sell many tickets for the latter. Abraham’s team says the fight will be in Europe, by contract. C’mon, Sweden was a good compromise, Froch. End the nonsense…
Below is a trailer for Love Ranch, which has a lot of boxing connections: promoter Lou DiBella was the executive producer, and it’s loosely based on the life of former heavyweight contender Oscar Bonavena. It’s not some vanity project either, obviously. It stars Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci, among others, and it’s directed by the director of “Ray.” The trailer genuinely entices.
You know, I’d thought about writing an article like this about the little factory of Examiner writers who pen adoring piece after adoring piece about pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, but someone beat me to it. I don’t agree with everything the writer said — for instance, I think Michael Marley is funny enough and gets enough legitimate scoops for me to overlook some of his sins — but the gist of it is true. It’s all so embarrassing. From Sunday through Thursday, one Examiner writer — Rick Rockwell — wrote 11 pieces about Pacquiao, and so far as I can tell he’s never published a critical word about Manny after writing what must be hundreds of Manny pieces. Most of his other pieces are about how much Floyd Mayweather sucks. And he’s not alone over at the Examiner, not by a long shot. Believe me, I get it: Pacquiao = traffic. But don’t make that your raison d’etre. It turns you into little more than a fluff girl. It’s enough to make me wish the Examiner stuff wasn’t even listed on Google News, because it encourages this kind of disgusting hero worship for cash, substance or critical thought be damned, and what most of these people do isn’t anywhere close to “news” or even “blogging.” It’s a fan club, in public…
I also haven’t read any of the articles about Pacquiao having an ulcer, either, because I like Manny and care about him but not to that level of triviality. But it is worth noting that Pacquiao’s tour of big network news programs continues in October or November to include “60 Minutes,” per BoxingScene. Maybe this time he won’t keep anyone waiting 16 hours…
The IBF has had a salacious leadership change. I’ll leave it to you to suss out who’s telling the truth about what happened, but this article will get you started with some of the most salacious stuff — allegations of improper payments to family members, the like — and from there you can decide how much more you want to find out. As I don’t care about the sanctioning organizations except for getting rid of them, I certainly don’t care enough to read every article about some power struggle there…
Check out this trash talk from heavy underdog Albert Sosnowski, going into a fight against heavyweight Vitali Klitschko: “I had a perfect preparation and came here to write history. Klitschko will regret giving me this chance,” Sosnowski said. “He has passed his zenith and there are many who fight like living sand sacks.” Either that’s some especially Polish insult, or it was mistranslated, or Sosnowski just delivered worse trash talk than a Klitschko, who employ as their favorite threat a promise to turn their opponents into a “pizza face”…
Fight Night Club verdict from Thursday: bantamweight Jose Navarro looked shaky in a unanimous decision win, albeit against a tough opponent, Benji Garcia; junior welterweight Frankie Gomez was a firestorm to score a 1st round KO, albeit against similarly green pro competition, sans the amateur credentials — Akeem Akinbode; junior lightweight David Rodela broke a two-fight losing streak by boxing more than brawling, but barely won a split decision over Eric Cruz…
Some people raised their eyebrows at the union of junior middleweight Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions to promote some fights in Puerto Rico. It didn’t surprise me much. I recall reading that Cotto and De La Hoya are friendly. Cotto’s promoter, Bob Arum, didn’t take it the wrong way, either. He said, per the link above about “60 Minutes,” that he’s promoting fights with Cotto’s company, too…
In other Arum news: Next week, the Friars Club is honoring him. I’ll be in town that week, but not that night, alas. I’d love to see what happens if someone — in the tradition of the club — says something about the hot-headed old coot that he doesn’t like. Of course, they’ll have to make it up to say anything negative about Uncle Bob. The Bobfather is angelic; there’s no incriminating material on him whatsoever. (wink wink)
