…I have two pieces of recommended reading.
A. Donald Tremblay, the universally respected former PR man for promoter Main Events, is doing some freelance writing these days, and this piece, at Ring magazine’s site, is a doozy. It’s all about the 2000 Ali Act that was supposed to protect fighters, and saying much more gets me into trouble with my day job. I can, however, recommend you read the piece, which delves into some of the same subject matter as an excellent Thomas Hauser piece from a couple years ago, but pushes the ball significantly further. Tremblay’s advantage is as someone who’s witnessed abuses as closely as one can, and he offers vivid, specific examples of things not going as they should, like the literally gut-wrenching case of a boxer fighting a few weeks after getting his appendix removed. And he’s not just savvy — he’s a good writer, too.
B. Kevin Iole, at Yahoo! Sports, dives deeper into the recent practices of a couple fighters who have declared bankruptcy and got their contracts with their promoters invalidated. It’s a little Bob Arum-centric, but Bob does seem to have a point here, and even a rival promoter concedes he does. And while promoters aren’t the most sympathetic figures in the sport, they do often invest heavily in young fighters and as a consequence they could become gun-shy if this becomes a more pronounced trend, which could hurt the sport in the long run. Read the piece here for the details.
