Just in case you didn't catch up on that early 2014 Knockout of the Year candidate from two weekends ago.
This will be an especially cheerful edition of Quick Jabs, otherwise, as the headline ought to tip you off. We'll talk the boxing Cold War, people lying, the partisan media and more.
But first, a little bit of non-sarcastic cheerfulness. Our man Patrick Connor is in the top 20 for the gig of new San Diego Padres public announcer. If you listen to TQBR Radio, you already know about his silky-smooth baritone, and the personality he imbues it with, too. But here's a snippet of his try-out, and below is some voiceover work he just did with top-notch video man Jordan Singelton. So go talk @integrital up on Twitter with the hashtags #PadresPA and #BeardForPA!
Quick Jabs
A couple friends outside boxing who know I write about boxing were interested in a breakdown of the match-up between faded rapper DMX and Trayvon Martin killer George Zimmerman, back before it was canceled. I can't tell you how it would've gone — DMX is 43 and probably not in ideal shape with his alcohol and drug abuse issues, while Zimmerman was allegedly being beaten up by a teenager before he killed him — because it would likely have been fixed. I don't know which outcome would've offered the better relative "entertainment" value. Ultimately, I'm glad it's not happening because it would've been disgusting, as if boxing needs the help in that category. Like @paulxkersey said on Twitter, it was "a few steps shy of Running Man"…
Floyd Mayweather is not like Hitler, no matter what Top Rank's Bob Arum says. Here's the funny thing about him having said that. If Arum had just talked about Mayweather's propaganda techniques and left any mention of Nazis out of it, he would have been OK. That propaganda techniques were relied upon so heavily by Nazis is also true, so there's some overlap here. But the second you directly compare one aspect of someone's behavior to that of Hitler, you are going to lose in the court of public opinion…
Speaking of propaganda: I'm not saying Mayweather is like Hitler (^ lesson learned) but the poll on his website about whether he should fight Amir Khan or Marcos Maidana next was propaganda and nothing else. Anyone who voted in it or took it seriously should've known better, which was that it would've ended in the result Mayweather wanted it to end in. There are some people who legitimately think that Mayweather would fare better against Maidana and his rudimentary come-forward style (see: all of his fights against that kind of opponent) than he would against Khan and his speed and height. Those people are not placing the proper emphasis on how Khan isn't a proven welterweight and was rocked by and struggled to beat a faded Julio Diaz in his last fight. Anyway, the poll closed with Khan winning it. That ought to tell you who Mayweather wants to fight, and it ought to tell you what kind of risk Khan poses in relation to his marketability, an assessment Mayweather has shown he's pretty good at making…
Khan, meanwhile is feeling insecure about his chances of getting the Mayweather fight, so he's been campaigning ineptly for it. That has included claiming that he sparred with junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo and super middleweight champ Andre Ward: "Another example Angulo and ward have hit me with big shots and I've stood in front n not gone down." Ah, except Ward said later he had never sparred with Khan. Then there was some damage control, with the three mens' trainer Virgil Hunter saying that Khan meant to say he had sparred with Ward sparring partners. Khan comes off as a doofus either way. Maybe he can bring some of that "what dumb thing did Khan say this week?" marketability to any promotion of a Mayweather fight, at least…
And yet, you had The Sweet Science's Ray Markarian defending Khan, saying on Twitter, incorrectly, "@AmirKingKhan said he sparred with @andreward sparring partners. He never said that he sparred with Andre Ward! #boxing" Markarian is exceptionally close with the Hunter camp, to the point that it's embarassing. It's just the latest example of the increasingly partisan media: Guys hitch themselves to one promoter or one trainer or one boxing individual and defend them at all costs, even if in some cases it means saying things that aren't true. They are unofficial PR arms for the people they "represent." Elie Seckbach does it with the camp of Robert Garcia. FightHype does it with Mayweather. Gabriel Montoya does it with Victor Conte. The list doesn't end there. All of these reporters and outlets still produce valuable stories at times; I like some of them personally; it's just disappointing that they have their favorites and a critical thought is never given to the ones they choose to cover that way. Caveat emptor…
That Dana White boxing show only lasted one episode before it was canceled due to extremely low ratings. I never even got a chance to see it!…
The Cold War between Golden Boy/Showtime and HBO/Top Rank is now definitively hurting matchmaking. HBO is putting light heavyweight star Sergey Kovalev in against unproven Cedric Agnew, as announced via news release, and they wouldn't have to do anything like that if they had access to Bernard Hopkins or Beibut Shumenov or the other 175-pounders fighting on Showtime. HBO has also struggled to find an April opponent for middleweight Gennady Golovkin, as Daniel Geale turned down the date for what sounds like legitimate reasons to me, leaving Golovkin with, likely, Andy Lee. Erislandy Lara wants the fight, and that's an intriguing style clash — a better match-up than Lee — but he's with Showtime and Golden Boy. Lara has taken some hell for calling out Golovkin on Twitter, because it's a fight he can't get and he knows it; it makes it look like he's willing to talk tough without the risk of having to be tough, but then, Lara hasn't exactly shied away from tough opposition in his pro career. I'm starting to think that we should encourage fighters from rival networks/promoters to call each other out, rather than shunning them when they do it, because aren't the match-up more likely to happen if they do?…
Oscar Gonzalez suffered the latest ring death in boxing this month. First, we must offer our condolences to the family of Mr. Gonzalez. But we also must consider its meaning to the sport, and how it happened. This time, there's no obvious finger to point. I have not seen the fight with Jesus Galicia but nobody's saying anything about how it should've been stopped sooner, or relaying reporting on any indications in his corner of problems, nor complaining of any issues getting him medical care after he collapsed. This is one of those situations, it sounds like, where the inherent danger of boxing claimed a victim, not slipshod attention to safety. It's a situation where I'm not at ease, but there are still other inherently dangerous things we do in humanity and that we still participate, even as viewers. [UPDATE: A number of people on Twitter said that the discussion beforehand was of how much difficulty Gonzalez had making weight and that he was dehydrated, but there was no real solid source of information on that. Worth keeping in mind.]
