I’m not sure what’s going on in that picture, but I can surmise that Oscar De La Hoya is erotically feeding his company Golden Boy’s prized junior welterweight Amir Khan some cake, and that Khan’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza in the background is so disgusted by it that he’s on the verge of vomiting. I could be wrong, though. And ultimately, I must thank friend of the site jasonto for forwarding it to me, so that I might speculate recklessly. Fight News ran the original photo, so’s you know.
It’s not the only sexy aspect of this week’s Quick Jabs. Oh, it’s about to get sexy down below.
Quick Jabs
This weekend, light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins said he plans to wear trunks that read “45 years old” and “Sexy” on them for his fight with champion Jean Pascal, in an entertaining piece by Kevin Iole. (I told you it would get sexy.) I like so much about Hopkins, except than watching him fight. In some more sexy weekend pre-fight talk, middleweight Ricardo Mayorga said of his opponent Michael Walker: “I can see fear in his eyes. Your face looks like a beautiful Cuban woman, like the hookers down on 8th Street hear in Miami.” Wait, that’s not sexy. That’s — that’s just plain creepy, especially after Mayorga’s appearance in Wikileaks. Here is another worthwhile Wikileaks doc, by the way…
Sports Illustrated is finally putting boxing back on its cover, and the reason is the movie “The Fighter.” Hey, I’ll take it how I can get it. Eric Raskin puts the movie in excellent historical context here, by the way. Also, Eminem is going to star in a boxing movie. I guess after he made “Rocky For Rappers” aka “Eight Mile,” he wants to do the real thing. Again, I’ll take it. More boxing out there in pop culture is a good thing (like, for yet another instance of film/video-related boxing media — “White Collar Brawler” — getting a write-up in The New York Times)…
It gets better. Over the past couple weeks, there have been any number of signs that pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao is infiltrating yet more deeply into pop culture. Beyonce recently mentioned Pacquiao as one of her favorite athletes, which I first noticed this week when Larry Merchant pointed it out. When Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered a broken nose two Sundays ago, he said, “I look like I just went 12 rounds with Pacquiao.” On Pardon The Interruption this week, where a Pacquiao doll is a prominent feature of the set, a mere date switch for Pacquiao’s next fight warranted discussion. And The Atlantic dubbed Pacquiao’s 2010 one of the top 10 sports stories of the year. This is all extremely cool. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s nobody I’d rather have as the ambassador of the sport…
It’s not all tremendous news out there. John Chavez, of The Boxing Truth radio and assorted other outlets, produced a very thought-provoking write-up of the trends in HBO’s ratings and what might be done about them. It might be a touch depressing, but it is very worthwhile reading…
And this explanation from a producer of the “Fight Night: Champion” video game about why certain boxers no longer appear in the game is pretty damning. Let’s say I’m a boxer. Why, why, why wouldn’t I want exposure to the millions of people who play the popular boxing video game series but don’t watch boxing very often? I might like a little cash reimbursement, but I wouldn’t do any of the things the video game producer mentions. It’s marketing that money can’t buy. Who would have thought a video game would provide such a crystal clear insight into how short-sighted most boxing people are?…
Some leftovers from last weekend now. 1. I failed to mention in my Weekend Afterthoughts that the aforementioned Ariza and Marcos Maidana’s man Miguel Diaz nearly got into fisticuffs following Khan-Maidana. If you want to get caught up on the entire saga — which is entertaining in a junior middle school drama kind of way — check it out here and here. 2. I failed to pass along a quip from friend of the site stonemclean about welterweight Said Ouali’s ejection from the ring over the weekend. Clearly, he and Kermit Cintron — who also catapulted out of the ring this year — to have some kind of Royal Rumble-style “loser is the first one out of the ring” match. 3. David P. Greisman observed how HBO promised a 2010 highlight reel that it never delivered. Since I didn’t watch to the end of the broadcast, I didn’t notice. HBO shoulda given it. But hey, per friend of the site/contributor Paul Kelly, at least they gave us a 2011 calendar! 4. Lastly, Showtime passed along that bantamweight Joseph Agbeko loves to eat bananas before fights. Between the bananas, the birth name Joseph King Kong Agbeko and the ring walk last year where he wore an ape outfit led by a white woman who had him chained up, Agbeko is riding the line of unfortunate racial stereotypes just about as hard as anyone can ride them…
Top Rank’s Bob Arum recently attacked the finances of Golden Boy Promotions. Who knows if he has a clue what he’s talking about, but I thought it was notable that De La Hoya declined, with a sigh, to respond. I know that Golden Boy is the supposedly evil “establishment” promotional company and Top Rank is the supposedly rebellious outsider company, but between this, De La Hoya’s recent apology for criticizing Arum, Golden Boy’s willingness to let Juan Manuel Marquez be promoted by Top Rank for a fight and assorted other moves, it’s Golden Boy that is now doing everything it can to play nice with Top Rank. And it’s not even close…
Musical interlude: Boom-bap, featuring (sort of) Mitch “Blood” Green! Hat tip to jwarminsky on the track…
Thomas Hauser interlude: This week, the “best there is when he’s at his best” boxing journalist wrote a piece for The Sweet Science. If you’re tallying at home, here are the outlets Hauser has been writing for of late — HBO, Ring, BoxingScene, Maxboxing, SecondsOut and now the totally underrated TSS. I hereby formally invite Hauser to write for TQBR. He hasn’t written for a blog yet, and he might as well take over every other boxing media outlet, right?…
Talented junior lightweight Jorge Linares, still rebounding from last year’s upset 1st round knockout loss, reportedly wants to work with top trainer Freddie Roach. That sounds like a potent combination…
Floyd Mayweather, the boxer who only fights the law these days, has an arrest warrant floating around out there. He also has, as the headline might have tipped you off to, an arresting fiancee. I’d seen her before and thought her beautiful, but the below picture from Bossip/The Big Lead — to bring us full circle — takes the sexy cake.
