Is MMA Killing Boxing ?
Could it be that boxers are no longer “FIGHTERS” ?
Could it be that most of the promoters and many of the fighters are just trying to milk the last few dollars out of a dying sport.
Don’t get me wrong, I love boxing and watch boxing from my archives every week, but boxing needs a facelift if it plans to survive.
For evidence, look no further than the current state of fighting Pay-Per-View.
Last night Boxing PPV stole $29.95 per view for an 8 round snooze-fest between a 47 year old Hector “Macho” Camacho and an equally antiquated Yuri Boy Campus. After 8 rounds of cuddling, the bout was declared a draw and Campus commented after the fight that even his wife had never hugged him as much as Camacho hed in the previous 31 minutes.
In my opinion, Camacho wasn’t worth a Pay-Per-View headline when he was in his prime, but 30 bucks for Grandpa Camacho is out right thievery.
A week ago we were asked for $49.95 for 1 1/2 rounds of Manny Pacquiao versus Ricky Hatton.
Now don’t get me wrong, I ALWAYS wanna see both Pacquiao and Hatton. They are both REAL fighters who show up every time and give their all and their fight was great, as short as it was.
For that mater, I’ll usually pay to see any headliner trained by Freddy Roach. (Though I normally wouldn’t give you fifty CENTS to see a fight that Floyd Mayweather Sr. or Roger Mayweather are involved in unless they are fighting each-other.)
But as a $50 “event” the rest of the card was just filer. The only even remotely significant bout on the undercard was Umberto Soto defending his WBC super featherweight title against a moderate Benoit Gaudet. Two of the three other televised undercard bouts were 4 rounders with fighters possessing as few as FOUR professional fights and a loss percentage of over 40 percent.
Compare that offensive lack of value to the next UFC Pay-Per-View event at $44.95.
Rashad Evans Vs. Lyoto Machida
Matt Hughes Vs. Matt Serra
Drew McFedries Vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam
Dan Miller Vs. Chael Sonnen
Sean Sherk Vs. Frank Edgar
Brock Larson Vs. Chris Wilson
Wow. A world title fight, a HUGH grudge match between two former work champions, one of whom is a legend in the sport, and four fights in which at least one of the fighters (if not both) would be considered a “big” name in MMA (meaning a popular fighter and current or future contender.)
What’s more is that, when I send my money to the UFC I’m pretty comfortable that the athletes I just paid to see will be there just to sneak in a pay day.
MMA isn’t “killing” Boxing, Boxing is killing itself, but mma is sure helping.
Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring - A Son’s Struggle to Become a Man
There is no question.
Teddy Atlas is old school, but, in my mind, this is a good thing. He’s always been a trainer, meaning that hes not a converted ex-fighter.
In a way, Teddy Atlas lives not in the world as it is, but rather in the world as he believes it should be. Often disappointed by the lack of loyalty and honesty in a sport famous for attracting the shadier underside of sport business people, Atlas seems to truly love the sport and his fighters.
While I think it’s a loss to the sport of boxing, which truly seems to need its best coaches building the next generation of champions, I love Teddy Atlas as a boxing comentator.
Not only does he respect fighters, a value which many professional comentators appear to lack, but rather than spending 12 rounds stating the obvios, one can actually learn about boxing when Teddy Atlas is doing the color commentary,
In any event, the book is written as narative and is well written without being the product of a marketing re-write. Boxing fans should love it.
Time for HBO to retire Larry Merchant.
I love HBO Boxing.
I love that HBO has made money from boxing. LOTS of money! It’s good for the sport, the fighters, the sponsors, the promoters and especially the fans.
But what infuriates me is that there is no way to watch HBO Boxing and NOT have to listen to Larry Merchant. (And for that matter, wince through the night as Jim Lampley has to run interference for Merchant.)
Merchant appears to hate fighters. Perhaps he’s just old and grumpy. 
Perhaps he’s just pissed off that he is only part of the side show and not part of the attraction.
Or maybe he’s just a social elitist that is offended by the difference in paychecks he receives and those of his athletic subjects.
Its fine that he asks tough questions, but when he doesn’t agree with the answer he shouldn’t be abusive.
As I recently re-watch a recording of a Bernard Hopkins fight in which Merchant was indicting Hopkins for the way he runs the business of his career, and telling Hopkins he wouldn’t be fighting again, unless he did as Merchant said, Hopkins had a brilliant comeback.
He said, I don’t know what kind of degree you have Larry, but I got paid tonight. Hopkins had just earned about a million dollars.
I’d really like to see Merchant smart-mouth another great fighter and then see the fighter slap him around a bit.
To HBO I say. Please retire Merchant. If he doesn’t love the game any more it’s time for him to move over to commenting on golf.
His arrogance detracts from the quality of HBO’s otherwise great Boxing Productions.
Let Jim Lampey choose a replacement. Jim is a far better commentator and boxing authority.
To Larry Merchant I say.
You need to respect the men who do what you never had the guts to attempt yourself.
A Beginning Dedicated to Johnny Tapia!
Life gets full of the things we need to do and often makes it hard to get to the things we WANT to do.
This week I read Johnny Tapia’s auto-biography, Mi Vida Loca.
I’ve always loved watching Johnny Tapia fight. He’s old school. During the fight he is tough as they come, full of energy and entertainment. After the fight he’s full of grace, love, respect, and thanks.
When you read this book you discover how REALLY tough, and REALLY NUTS JT is. It’s a miracle that he’s still alive. It’s also a miracle that he found his wife Teresa who is clearly a truly amazing woman.
Johnny and his book has reminded me that fighters and trainer are truly special people, so I’m going to write about them.
While we’re waiting for Hollywood to figure out they should make a movie of Johnny’s life I hope you will go buy a copy of the book.
Visit this link for more information on “JT” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Tapia
