David O. Russell does good work (I just quoted I Heart Huckabees in this space recently, in fact) and this trailer for “The Fighter,” about Micky Ward, starts slowly and builds good momentum. Some of the remarks I’ve seen about it say it looks pretty standard for a boxing story, but if you know Ward’s tale, it’s not that way. The one thing about the movie that bothers me is that from what I can tell, is that it doesn’t include the Arturo Gatti trilogy, which is more dramatically interesting than most things in Ward’s life.
But that’s a topic for another day. For now, we have some Quick Jabs to jab.
Quick Jabs
Because of the nearly 30 years in jail on the other end of a conviction of Floyd Mayweather for his alleged assault and robbery of his baby momma, Josie Harris, there are now very serious questions about whether Mayweather will ever fight again. As I have no love for Mayweather the person — he’s a racist homophobe who’s already been convicted of beating up women, a bad sportsman, a hypocrite, etc. etc. — I could care less what happens to him away from the ring. But if it does go down that way, there will always be a part of me that wishes he could have stuck around long enough to fight Manny Pacquiao. Yet, I always knew he would implode, and to be honest, I never thought he’d fulfill his tremendous potential as a future all-time great…
By the way, Mayweather’s apology was not accepted by a Filipino group. It wasn’t very convincing, so I guess I can’t blame them…
As for C.J. Watson, the basketball player Harris allegedly said she was dating to inspire Mayweather’s attack, he says he wasn’t involved with her. To be honest, I’m not sure how TMZ came to think he was the C.J. that Harris was citing in the report. I read the initial police document and I didn’t see anyone say C.J.’s last name…
Oscar De La Hoya wants to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. If Oscar was Floyd, I’d have a joke about it being apropos that Floyd wanted to buy the Dodgers given all the dodging he did in his career, but Oscar really didn’t dodge many fighters in his career. Good luck, Oscar…
That silly Timothy Bradley/Gary Shaw dispute has apparently been resolved. The junior welterweight was wanting to test free agency and Shaw was wanting to remain his promoter, thus the standoff. But this compromise should allow Bradley to go forward with a January fight with Devon Alexander. Although Bradley was apparently of the mind that the combined $2.3 million he’d make for both fights wasn’t enough. Awful bold for a fighter who can’t sell out a couple thousand tickets near his hometown. (UPDATE: Or maybe none of the above is true at all.)…
Nor does Eddie Mustafa Muhammad expect to be booted as the trainer of light heavyweight Chad Dawson. I hope he’s right. I think it’s been a good pairing, and, as I’ve said before, Dawson needs a stable team after so many changes throughout his career…
Rodney King’s gotten downright weird. He’s marrying one of the jurors on his case and recently challenged Mike Tyson to a fight. PCP is a helluva drug. I’d link you to the Radar item on it, but it shuts down my browser every time I go to it. You can read up on your own if you want…
Panama Lewis, the disgraced, banned trainer of the Resto-Collins scandal, is going for a license in Texas. He must be thinking, hey, if they gave a license to one glove-loader in Antonio Margarito, why not another? I support his bid. We can maybe have one state where all kinds of cheating is allowed, for those boxing fans who can’t bring themselves to be offended by such things…
Light heavyweight Nathan Cleverly, who got a nice win over the weekend, also recently wrapped up his degree in “pure maths.” I love it. Let’s see if he solves the equation in the headline, though…
My boy Juan Manuel Marquez is becoming a boxing analyst for ESPN Deportes’ show Golpe a Golpe. Since he speaks no English or just refuses to, I have no idea what kind of talker he is. But if there’s anybody understands the sport of boxing, who can break down both the craft and the grit of pugilism, it’s this particular lightweight champion of the world…
Again, I tend not to care about boxers’ out of the ring peccadillos, but I hope semi-retired boxer Ricky Hatton’s publicized run-in with drugs doesn’t affect his ability to serve as a promoter. By some accounts, he’s shown some promise in that regard…
Junior welterweight Vivian Harris hasn’t had a good weekend. First he got knocked out by Victor Ortiz in a way that suggested he should retire, then a court intervened to hold his purse owing to a promotional dispute…
This could just be sour grapes over a loss to Wilbert Uicab, or it could be, as the team of flyweight Edrin Dapudong claims, a new way of cheating. You do wonder why the cuts were only on his arms. Either way, it’s weird.
