Maybe NBC didn’t recognize you as more than a “man on the street,” Evander Holyfield, in what has become a symbol of their much-criticized Olympics coverage, but you are a star in the TQBR world. We awarded you the boxing tweet of the week on our Facebook page for your entertaining/disturbing musings on… socks. You should go like our Facebook page, by the way. (Not just you, Evander. Everyone.)
We’ve been Olympic-heavy around these parts, and that won’t change until boxing in London wraps up; in fact, we’re preparing to double down on Olympic coverage. But we should visit with the pro game some, no? That’s what this edition of Quick Jabs is for, mostly. Other than Holyfield there and a bit on Team USA’s turning-professional situation, all of which is pro boxing related, we’ll stick to the professionals exclusively. We’ll discuss the topics in the headline, as well as Nonito Donaire’s movie star prospects, Amir Khan’s talk of switching trainers, HBO going all out on Andre Ward vs. Chad Dawson and more.
Quick Jabs
Let’s get the rest of the Olympic stuff out of the way first. Because amateur boxing officials are good at clearing everyone of wrongdoing, you’ll be comforted to know that the hubbub over Golden Boy Promotions declaring it would air Olympians-turning-pro on CBS is much ado about nothing and that nobody violated any of the esoteric rules involving the pro/amateur wall, according to AIBA. Let’s face it, though. You’re an Olympian. You hear that one promoter has a deal to air fights of recent ex-Olympians on network television. Why wouldn’t you sign with that promoter? No tampering by GBP was necessary; just a bit of smart strategery and coziness with CBS and its pay network, Showtime, to get the deal that makes it so you don’t have to talk anyone into joining your stable. And as I was just discussing with friend of the site the legend, Team USA has some appealing pro prospects. They mostly fight in a pro style, which is more exciting. Middleweight Terrell Gausha got ripped off in the fight where he was eliminated, but he did more for his pro career with his two fights than most amateurs could hope to, because he generated buzz for himself on the world stage. The Olympics aren’t all bad for America, then, whatever comes of our medal ambitions, even if our amateur system is flawed (it is) and a credible analyst talks about abolishing Olympic boxing altogether (I disagree, but that it’s come to such talk is evidence of how bad things are)…
Floyd Mayweather is out of jail, y’all! The welterweight superstar left Friday with 50 Cent, his possible future promoter, and they’re going up to their tree house like besties do and NO GIRLS ARE ALLOWED, which is just as well for the girls because Mayweather would probably just beat them up like he did to get to jail in the first place. As you can tell from the picture below, he emerges totally malnourished, just like his lawyers said he would be while he was wasting away in inhumane conditions. Also, Mayweather is suing a bankrupt casino for $61 million, which he obviously won’t get but I guess he’ll end up getting something by way of reimbursement for his usurious sounding loan of $4 million…
HBO is really going all out with its promotion of the Andre Ward-Chad Dawson super middleweight bout, from a half-hour preview doc to a Face-Off with Max Kellerman (per a news release) and presumably more ahead. My suspicion is that this fight is, and will end up being, a bit like the Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander junior welterweight bout in 2011 in a lot of ways: It’s a meeting of arguably the two best Americans going; it won’t be a slugfest; it will do a better rating than most people expect; and the question will become whether the rating HBO got out of it was worth the money they put into it. Speaking of Alexander, his welter bout against Randall Bailey will go head-to-head with Ward-Dawson on Sept. 8 on Showtime, and if you doubted the sincerity of the new leadership at HBO and Showtime expressed desires not to have conflicting dates, congratulations on being so intelligent because that’s all they’re doing in the month of September…
I really do think junior welterweight Amir Khan needs to leave trainer Freddie Roach, which is nothing against Roach. It’s just that Roach is super-busy and Khan isn’t listening to him and Roach is an offensive specialist who’s apparently given Khan as much improved defense as he’s going to be able to give. Khan himself says he recognizes the need to improve his defense, and I am in the camp that thinks Emanuel Steward is ideal for him, in that he can train tall fighters to use their height on D. I’m all for Khan being fun and unwisely wading into brawls, but if he wants to prolong his career and actually win more fights, he has to change…
Nonito Donaire can say it as often as he wants that he’s not trying to be the “next Manny Pacquiao,” but everything the bantamweight Pinoy does seems to follow in the footsteps of the welterweight idol of the Philippines, from moving up in weight all the time to, now, starring in a movie. I don’t know what kind of acting chops Donaire has, but he is an animated type, and he does have a certain charisma. I just hope he doesn’t end up fighting a giant crab — maybe, like, a nautilus, so it’s clear he’s NOT, repeat NOT, trying to be Manny…
Sometimes boxers (allegedly) get beaten up by a pair of lovebirds, sometimes they (allegedly) beat up judges. It really just depends.
