We’ve been trying to get ya more quick jabs of boxing news and analysis without putting them in a formal Quick Jabs format, but it’s been an exceptionally productive period for boxing news and boxing news that needs analysis, and it’s been hard to keep up. So, going back to the old ways…
In this edition we’ve got the stuff in the headline, a breakdown of Al Haymon’s “Premier Boxing Champions” series, a defense of Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (what?) and just a little more.
Quick Jabs
It’s April 20 and Mayweather vs Pacquiao tickets — May 2! — still aren’t on sale. They might never go on sale. Floyd and Manny are apparently still locked in a dispute about ticket allocation, which is just stupendously dumb. My theory has been that the ticket prices were always going to risk making this one a non-sellout or below the potential gate value, and this isn’t going to help. So you’ve got the likely biggest fight of all time by raw dollar total, and you make it so hardly anyone can afford it, and then you just don’t even put the damn things on sale. Overcoming boxing’s dysfunction to make the fight: Good. Carrying over other elements of boxing’s dysfunction to the literal selling of the fight: Bad…
You already see, above, the racist shirt Sergey Kovalev’s pointing out in a since-deleted tweet dissing Adonis Stevenson. I’m not sure if the light heavyweight is deliberately self-destructing, but that’s a massive double-hit to his reputation in a solitary week, first for he and his team bypassing a Stevenson fight. He had been among the most beloved fighters in the sport among hardcore fans, and he’s now given everyone reasons to back away from him. Before, I was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt over the “negro” language barrier thing, but in any language, comparing a black person to a monkey is just plain wrong. Hell, maybe he still isn’t racist and somehow this whole “monkey/black dude/racist” nexus had escaped him his whole life; it’s true he has a black trainer, and black friends, and all that (although other racists say that kind of thing in their defense). At minimum, he should’ve known better…
The Sports Business Daily has a remarkable behind-the-scenes piece about the “Premier Boxing Champions” series invading NBC, CBS and more, and while it mainly sticks just to the point of view from inside the operation, it’s mighty informative. $432 million in investment capital; Haymon deliberately inflating boxers’ salaries; the push for a rights fee and advertising dollars; Ken Hershman from HBO commenting; just read it already. It still sounds like a risky plan, but these aren’t just smart people doing this deal, they’re smart people with a proven record of making money off ambitious sports investments…
It’s a rare day in my life where I criticize Kovalev and defend Chavez’s punk son, but here it is. There’s a lot to criticize about Chavez’s post-fight interview from this weekend, but one of them is not that he said he “won” in a fight he was quitting, exactly. He originally told Jim Gray he was “winning.” Gray, apparently mishearing, said, “You thought you won the fight?” To which Chavez said, “I think I won the fight before the seven rounds.” This isn’t a guy who, despite what the headlines and mockery would have you believe, thought he “won” the fight. He knows he lost. He clearly thought he was winning before the loss verdict came down — major difference, both clueless, but one far, far less idiotic. Chalk this one part up to Gray misunderstanding, and then Chavez not speaking so eloquently in his second language while probably concussed…
Included it in yesterday’s post, but worth looking at again. Still not sure this Amir Khan vs bottle thing isn’t fake.
