Adorable boxing poster! I sure do want to see the fight between those Muppet Babies now. In all honesty: That’s cool. And I do want to see the fight.
OK, so Oscar De La Hoya recently apologized to Bob Arum, and Arum accepted, so their respective companies, Golden Boy and Top Rank, are one step closer still to working together and ending a lengthy feud that is dragging the whole sport down. Except: Kevin Iole raised the good point here that for all the optimism in the short run, in the long run the two promotional outfits has shown little ability to truly bury the hatchet. Now I’m all pessimistic again. Even if they resume relations, you get the impression it will only be a matter of time again before Golden Boy and Top Rank are back to petty grievances. (Starks puts down his computer, bursts into tears, then after the crying jag resumes this edition of Quick Jabs, which besides the headlines features a note on some recent televised boxing ratings, Timothy Bradley finally speaking out and a bit more.)
Quick Jabs
The light heavyweight show on HBO featuring Bernard Hopkins-Jean Pascal II drew 1.8 million live viewers, according to the network, more than in two years. HBO has something of a habit of reporting its numbers in a statistically manipulative fashion (here, ESPN’s Dan Rafael said the “main event” did 1.8 million, so I’m not sure if that’s therefore excluding the overall figure with Chad Dawson-Adrian Diaconu) but if accurate that’s nifty news. Hopkins is thought of by many as a “boring” fighter, as is Dawson, and there’s an orthodoxy out there that such fighters can’t appeal to viewers. Surely Hopkins’ tale of trying to become the oldest boxing champion ever brought in some viewers, although the first fight did really good ratings for Showtime, too, and it didn’t have that storyline. But it goes to show that a million things can sell a fight, beyond whether it’s perceived as an action-packed affair. Like, there’s a boxer in Mexico who’s popular in large measure because he has red hair. There’s another one who’s popular in large measure because he’s the son of a famous boxer. A million things…
Meanwhile, there’s all this jibber jabber about how many buys the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight did, since we still don’t have the numbers for some reason. We’ve talked about what’s at stake here — a certain number could, perhaps, suggest the Showtime-CBS alliance for the pay-per-view instead of HBO was an upgrade — but until we have the numbers there’s no sense in speculating. I do tend to assume that the longer it takes to report pay-per-view buys, the lower the number; we still don’t have the figures for Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales, for instance, at least that I’ve seen…
Junior welterweight Timothy Bradley finally spoke up about the aborted fight with Amir Khan (who, by the way, has reunited with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza after some crazy drama). The message was somewhat garbled, by my reading. I know there are some who are sympathetic to his situation — unhappy with his promoter, could make the same money later due to HBO’s missteps, etc. — but there are also some, like me and any number of people who responded to me on Twitter about this, who think Bradley’s acquired a sense of entitlement that’s unattractive for a boxer with virtually no fans. Like, who cares if you’re not the “A-side,” buddy? Why should you be? A higher ranking doesn’t mean much when it comes to top billing, and Khan at least has some fans in the U.K. Maybe this pays off for him in the long run, turning down a Khan fight now. But maybe it doesn’t. Khan has moved on to a new opponent for July, and then he might have a mandatory come due for his rematch with Marcos Maidana. That would leave Bradley with just one fight in 2011, no guarantee of a Khan fight, and really just the hope that he eventually hits the Pacquiao jackpot. If he’d signed to fight Khan, beat him (which would make him the lineal champion and garner him much respect and potentially a few fans), lined up another fight for the fall or winter and THEN in 2012 hit the Pacquiao jackpot, he’d be in an even better position — and at some juncture during the year he could have freed himself of Gary Shaw, if he wanted a different promoter. This, by the way, is all separate from whether I simply like fighters who aren’t afraid to take on challenges, and for Bradley to be worried about losing to Khan — if he is — fails to impress me, because, hell, you can lose to anybody anytime…
Super middleweight Andre Ward re-signed with his whole team, so I guess he’s in a different position…
This documentary “Hero, Traitor, Madness” on junior featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux appears to be extremely well-done, judging by the trailer.
Speaking of Pacquiao, word is that he’ll be making a guest appearance on “Glee.” Could this boost the male viewership of the show beyond “gay dudes” and “reluctant boyfriends and husbands?” Maybe. (P.S., not hating on gay dudes. There are a number who enjoy the show, is all. Which is fine. To each their own). Also, Mosley tried to backtrack recently about that tweet linking to a poorly-sourced item about Pacquiao allegedly taking PEDs, saying it wasn’t HIM who made the allegation. Right, he only sent the article to all of his followers via that tweet, so, you know, he’s completely absolved. Mosley needs to get himself a big cup of STFU and drink it in one gulp…
Speaking of Golden Boy-Top Rank, Ryan Maquiñana had a story about lightweight Mercito Gesta signing with Top Rank in large measure because Golden Boy, according to Gesta’s team, was strangely aloof and disinterested despite getting first dibs. I’d be interested in hearing Golden Boy’s side of the tale. But if true, it’s a bit mystifying. Only thing I can figure is that maybe they soured on him along the way to deciding whether they wanted a long-term investment, for some reason, because if not, that’s a pretty strange business decision, not that I put “pretty strange business decision” outside the realm of possibility for a boxing promoter…
The Tommy Zbikowski boxing experiment has ended for now so Tommy can go back to football. It might resume later. It produced a few headlines for the sport for a while, but not much more…
When the Mexican boxing authorities consider a fight a dangerous mismatch, you know it’s bad…
I enjoy all the gym diary stuff out there; Doug Fischer’s are probably the best, with his recent narrative of Saul Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin a typically excellent account…
At first I thought this was an interesting notion, the idea that mixed martial arts betting has surpassed boxing betting, and that this somehow said something about the relative popularity of the sport. But a few Twitter pals (@roheblius and @max_nelson) raised some good questions about the article — is there not some element of this that is related to fewer boxing events in Vegas these days?; and, is another element related to sports books having shown signs of being inept in setting MMA odds, thereby increasing the action by smart bettors?
