https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFWUlObSgn0
There’s pretty much nothing a kangaroo won’t punch. But if you’re looking for some serious boxing footage, try this 30 For 30 episode, “Robbed,” revisiting the intersection of lawless New York City and the controversial decision for Ali-Norton III; or try “Tapia,” airing on HBO. “Robbed” is nice but I wish it was more than 15 minutes long. “Tapia” works — the subject is great and the execution is very good, too.
Now for some analysis of boxing happenings on this fine Christmas.
Quick Jabs
There were reports of Manny Pacquiao’s latest pay-per-view showing against Chris Algieri doing very poorly; HBO’s Ken Hershman says that’s not true, and it was close to his last outing in China, against Brandon Rios, which was in the ballpark of half a million. Fights overseas continue to be bad for U.S. PPV figures, and Pacquiao is this level of PPV attraction now (at best) when he’s fighting in China against this name-level opponent, i.e., unknown to the non-hardcore masses. Top Rank and Sands China announced via news release that the fight was seen by 6.2 million people in that country. That’s a plausible-sounding figure, I suppose, but keep in mind that we’re compounding the usual unreliability of audiences announced by a promoter with the special circumstances of a Chinese casino (rather than Nielsen) co-reporting the figures. [UPDATE: Actually, a figure about a third of that is still too high according to one estimate; h/t Jeremy Foley]…
In other ratings news, the head-to-head figures for the dueling HBO/Showtime cards the other week held up OK. As always, if there was only one card at a time, that one would’ve done better. (HBO did better overall, which is normal in H2H match-ups, given HBO’s larger subscriber base.) Somehow, the David Lemieux-Gabriel Rosado headlined show did better than the Terence Crawford-Ray Beltran headlined show; boxing TV ratings seem completely random more often than not, although the late hour of the Crawford-Beltran show could indeed account for some drop-off. Meanwhile, it’s completely predictable that Adonis Stevenson-Dmitry Sukhotsky only did 242,000 viewers. You can’t put absolute trash on the air and expect even the hardcores who’ll watch anything to tune in every time…
Back to the Pacman: Ex-boxer/Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi won’t stop saying dumb things about Pacquiao and performance enhancing drugs. Look, maybe Pacquiao did something. Maybe Floyd Mayweather did some things himself. Maybe there’s a reason for you to think one person is more guilty than the other. But as our Matthew Swain demonstrated to Paulie, there’s one bit of logic you can’t use for that situation…
The WBC increasing PED testing via the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association is a good thing they’re doing, assuming they’re going to do what they say they will. Sometimes, the sanctioning organizations do good things. Those good things have not, to date, outweighed the harm. But what the WBC is doing is a step in the correct direction as opposed to the usual, with a chance to enforce some good by virtue of their standing in the sport…
The latest Hall of Fame inductees are a fairly weak bunch. I do not vote; I have not sought to become a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. This is simply an outside opinion on their choices. I am lenient about what “fame” means here, with the BWAA placing an emphasis on accomplishments inside the ring, a term that can still be interpreted broadly. It’s hard to figure how Riddick Bowe gets in there by any standard, in particular, and Ray Mancini and Prince Naseem Hamed are borderline cases…
Likewise, the BWAA award finalists have some real questionable choices. Miguel Cotto, who had one fight in 2014 (a very nice win over middleweight champ Sergio Martinez, mind you), should not be a finalist above a number of potential candidates. One of them might end up sealing his finalist status on Dec. 30 — Naoya Inoue, who fights Omar Narvaez — so some of that is based on timing. It’s why TQBR is waiting until after that fight to make a pick, whereas the other award choices (Fight of the Year, Knockout of the Year, etc.) will start trickling out sooner. As for one other BWAA finalist choice, because there’s no time to pick all of them apart: It’s true that Andrey Ryabinsky did a good thing by footing the bill for Magomed Abdusalamov’s medical expenses the way he did, but the Russian promoter is also the person who put on the boxing match where a mentally ill homeless man took a dive in a fight against 62-year-old Mickey Rourke. That probably ought to rule him out for the “Good Guy” award, and with this one timing isn’t at fault…
Much of what gets said and written in boxing is the result of people prosecuting their grudges, regardless of the truth of things. Take the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Keith Kizer, the past executive director, was much-maligned. He deserved some of it. But some of the negativity was owed to personal animus. Consider the performance of the commission under new management. Remember how one of the final straws for Kizer was him sticking up for some bad judging? Here’s his replacement, Bob Bennett, sticking up for ALL of the scorecards during the worst-scored night of boxing in 2014. If there’s been a fraction of the outrage as when Kizer did it, I haven’t seen that amount. And that whole “Floyd Mayweather doesn’t have to testify under oath” thing when the commission was trying to determine whether Mayweather was fit to be a promoter based on things we saw on Showtime’s “All Access” program? That is the outrageous opposite of oversight — it was barely an attempt at even putting on the illusion of oversight — especially with lawsuits flowing now. At least people were rightly up in arms about that incident. But so far, it’s hard to see much (if any) improvement from Kizer to now…
Mayweather might have little choice but to testify before a court if he really did see that murder-suicide by a rapper friend/of a VH1 reality star (and himself). Especially if he had “riled up” the perpetrator…
Here are some referees whining about Teddy Atlas criticizing referees. Atlas is a broadcaster; it’s his job to criticize the refs when he thinks they deserve it. If you want to talk to Atlas so bad, don’t “challenge” him to talk to you face to face. Go talk to him yourself. (P.S., Atlas is starting up an XM program on boxing. FWIW, our friend Corey Erdman runs a pretty good XM boxing program himself)…
Jermain Taylor might be in legal trouble yet again. Throwing a brick threw a window and hitting a lady (allegedly)? Sheesh!
