Happy holidays, friends. Santa Claus knows if you've been naughty, and he knows if you've been nice, and he will come down your chimney and if you've been naughty, be prepared to get KTFO.
It's a short edition of Quick Jabs, just something to warm your Yule log and keep you up-to-date on a smattering of year-end things between now and when we wrap up the TQBR awards, also known as the TQBRies (not really). We'll return with the Pu Pu Platter(s) of awards very soon.
In the meantime, thanks, everyone, for helping make this another good year at The Queensberry Rules. We appreciate the feedback here, on Facebook, on Twitter, and by the various outlets that have supported us in 2012 with favorable mentions or citing our scoops. We also appreciate the readers who silently follow us and just plain anyone who hangs out around here in any way or for (most) any reason.
With that, the last QJs of 2012:
Quick Jabs
Floyd Mayweather might switch out his sick uncle of a trainer for his "faggot" father of a trainer, which strikes me as a bad idea in every way, except, wait: If Jr. loses his next fight, we can count on Sr. leaving his son bleeding in the ring the way he did Ricky Hatton after his KO loss to Manny Pacquiao, and there'd be some schadenfraude to Mayweather compounding a loss with some Oedipal drama. Count me in!…
The Watson family sounds delusional about their role in supporting Al Haymon-advised fighters — apparently, their standing behind the boxers makes them "feel kind of invincible" — but it's the kind of delusion that will have you laughing all article long about the sport's best fluffers/photobombers, so, enjoy…
It's sad to see Larry Merchant leave his regular HBO gig. There was a period where I thought he had faded a bit as a commentator, but he leveled off and was providing excellent commentary and still bringing the tough post-fight interviews, and the HBO clips of his classic performances reminded you of how good he was at his best. Merchant is woven into the fabric of so many great fights on the network that you can hardly separate him from them. It's great they he'll be around in some capacity still, at least. Slightly off-topic, I've found it interesting that there has been such little public speculation/condemnation about whether he was shoved out the door; a few years back, HBO's Ross Greenburg took a hiding in the media over just that, and Ken Hershman isn't getting any such flak. The closest hint that he was nudged out comes in this story, which mentions that HBO wanted to get "younger." Maybe the usual suspects know something we don't about why Merchant is leaving, but Merchant has noted that he is not the "retiring kind," so something tells me this wasn't by choice…
Kevin Iole has the rundown on HBO's televised boxing ratings this year. The network claims that ratings were up nine percent for its World Championship Boxing series. It's easy to play with these numbers, but if true it rebuffs the conventional wisdom that ratings are moving in the wrong direction for the network; in each of the past couple years, they've also claimed ratings were up one way or another. The piece also has some other interesting tidbits, like the fact that Golden Boy was responsible for 10 of the 16 top rated shows this year. For all the criticism GBP takes compared to rival Top Rank, that's ample evidence that it knows how to get a TV crowd, at least. As for CBS' recent card, it did 1.5 million viewers, reportedly, which is as good as a nice-sized HBO show this year but not quite as good as your typical UFC ratings. (UPDATE/CORRECTION: Our friend Matthew Paras points out that it was 1.5 million homes, but 1.8 million viewers. That puts it among the best HBO shows of the year.) It was, apparently, a big enough audience to make CBS want to do it again, and that's the mark of success…
Speaking of ratings, lots of people are fired up about Ring's pound-for-pound ratings, which initially included lightweight Adrien Broner at #5. I get the scoffing — I also scoff, and wonder how Chuck Giampa got such unchecked power to decide the P4P rankings over there with the two top editors so virulently opposed to what Giampa did — but let's keep a couple things in mind. Pound-for-pound rankings are the most subjective of ratings, with varying criteria all over the place, and if your standard is based purely on the eyeball test, ranking Broner #5 isn't that crazy. It's not how I do it, though, so I think it's goofy. Also, it's not the kind of thing that's worth getting too fired up about. Pound-for-pound ranking are an interesting thought exercise and fun to debate for some of us, but I can't bring myself to get pissed off about even goofy rankings, and I would advise anyone hot under their collar to just relax…
Getty Images wants Pacquiao team members Michael Konz and Buboy Fernandez suspended over the pair getting physical with one of their photographers. Even though Buboy apologized and Koncz pretended to apologize, I agree with Getty's stance. There's forgiving someone, and then there's sending a signal about behavior that won't be tolerated without punishment, and this is more about the appropriate punishment than whether apologies are accepted…
UFC boss Dana White recently offered up some commentary on Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez 4 that was patently ridiculous. The notion that Pacquiao should've taken an easier fight where he could've made less money but won — a rematch with Timothy Bradley — is antithetical to the very reason the UFC was able to steal away some boxing fans. UFC fans will tell you the "best vs. best" thing doesn't happen quite as often in mixed martial arts as it once did, but I think this is more about White's blind hostility toward Arum. I get why someone would be annoyed by Arum, and not all of his decisions are the strokes of genius that they're made out to be by large swaths of the boxing media, but the man did exactly the right thing making Paquiao-Marquez 4, regardless of the outcome. It was the best, biggest-money available fight for men near the end of their careers, and "Pacquiao might lose" is NO reason for a professional athlete to reject a fight, in almost every occasion I can imagine.
