New Zealand heavyweights: It is becoming crystal clear that you should avoid Americans with seemingly fatal blemishes that they are trying to erase from their records. Because in the past month, two of them have erased YOU. Last weekend, it was Kevin Johnson zeroing out Alex Leapai. More graphically, Travis Walker erased Kali Meehan so hard in the video above that his name is now .
These are some things happening in boxing — New Zealand heavyweights getting dispatched to invisibility, various boxers saying offensive things, some boxing on the big and small screen, the things in the headline and more.
Quick Jabs
A one-year suspension of featherweight Juan Manuel Lopez might’ve — might’ve — made sense if he hadn’t repudiated his remarks about two referees in his fights having gambling problems, and he finally got around to repudiating them in full at apology #3 by saying there was no evidence of his claims. But now? No sense whatsoever. It’s a punishment that vastly exceeds the apologized-for crime, committed, it must be said once more, when he was brain-addled from being knocked out. The Puerto Rico boxing authorities must have some kind of axe to grind with JuanMa we don’t know about, because you would’ve imagined that, this being boxing, they’d go easy on the local popular guy, rather than going far beyond a reasonable penalty…
Junior welterweight Amir Khan is the latest boxer to join the homophobic crew in boxing by calling a rival, Kell Brook, “queer.” Saying Brook talks like a queer, by the way, puts him intellectually on the level of the future dummies in “Idiocracy.” Intentionally or unintentionally, Khan is making himself into a heel — he was booed lustily in New York City last month, even before this little incident. Junior lightweight Adrien Broner tends to play the heel anyway, but talking about being scared of Arabs on planes — well, that’s the kind of thing that leads to a Twitter feed going away. Closing remarks, Adrien? “I’m leaving twitter for a while when I get back I will be a clean cut man”…
At this point I think we have to assume featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa has gone insane. Granted, it’s a one-source story, but this tale of Gamboa failing to show up for a meeting he arranged to make good with Top Rank’s Bob Arum over pulling out of the Brandon Rios fight makes him come off like a nutcase. I know I have turned on you real seriously, Gamboa, but as a former patron of yours, I beg of you not to let your career get derailed anymore than you’ve already derailed it by hitching a ride on the Crazy Train…
The WBC’s version of Sacha Baron Cohen’s character in “The Dictator,” Jose Suliaman, says that HBO “stole” Sergio Martinez’ WBC middleweight strap, not the WBC. If only! I trust HBO to administer the WBC’s belt better than I trust the WBC to do so (which, of course, they don’t, as the WBC still controls it, meaning that the WBC then stole it back from HBO and didn’t give it back to Martinez?). Which isn’t saying much. There are street hustlers I would trust more. And I like Sulaiman talking about respecting the WBC’s rules; that’s easy enough when you make them up as you go along…
Junior welterweight Marcos Madaina joining up with trainer Robert Garcia means a couple things: 1. Garcia is just about the hottest trainer in the sport right now. He might be reaching the point where he has too many boxers in his stable; and 2. That dream fight between Maidana and Brandon Rios, already unlikely because they’re promoted by rivals Golden Boy and Top Rank respectively, just got that much unlikelier with them sharing trainers; but, 2.b., There’s at least a chance that someday, sparring footage of these two going at it in Garcia’s gym might emerge. I’ll settle for that…
The knockout win by cruiserweight Danny Green over Paul Briggs that got overturned because it was just plain fishy? That ruling itself has been overturned, it says here. I’m not sure which ruling I like best…
As a human being, I do like Jorge Barrios going to jail for four years for running over a pregnant woman and then running away. As a boxing fan, I wish this whole thing could’ve been avoided because Barrios was great drama in the ring…
Timothy Bradley got himself a sweet Nike deal on the prospect, it would seem, that he upsets Manny Pacquiao when they meet at welterweight in June. This speaks extremely well of Top Rank’s endorsement deals guru, Lucia McKelvey, because a fighter like Bradley wouldn’t usually get any such thing as this, even though Antonio Margarito got a similar kind of deal with Affliction before his fight with Pacquiao, because Affliction is no Nike…
The Onion has, of late, skewered boxing a couple times, and their satire in one case stings much more than any sincerely written critique: “Floyd Mayweather, Jr. And Manny Pacquiao Urged to Put Aside Their Differences And Fight.” Makes you laugh, and makes you cry…
A “Hands Of Stone” movie with Robert DeNiro? Count me in. Even if Usher plays Sugar Ray Leonard…
This “Outside The Lines” segment that’s airing Sunday sounds deeply tragic. Maybe God and boxing can go together, but regulators definitely ought to be involved.
