4 ms·

Boxing as a business (even more in US) is rotten to the core. From Don King [1] to Bob Arum [2] and many of the lesser known characters. The most prominent out

Boxing as a business (even more in US) is rotten to the core. From Don King [1] to Bob Arum [2] and many of the lesser known characters. The most prominent outspoken person I've seen is the trainer and TV announcer, Teddy Atlas [3] who called the ESPN's "Friday Night Fight" till its end recently. Unlike HBO announcers who never say anything that might be remotely controversial (in case it alienates powerful promoters like Bob Arum), Teddy calls out bad decision. Not only that he screams it out and has been constantly outspoken about "corrupt" judging [4]. I have watched him go off on this exact topic. How an "up and coming" fighter with a big name promoter seem to always get a favorable decision. The problem with boxing (especially since PPV or HBO or Showtime is the main revenue stream for boxing) is, it's a bit like movie business. Stars sell tickets and they may not alway be the best actors or boxers in this case. Just this past Saturday. There was a big ticket fight on HBO between Cotto and Geale. Cotto won with a TKO that was started with a head-butt to the face of Geal. It was very obvious[6]. Yet, not one HBO announcer said one thing about it while they were raving about the punching power of Cotto. Audience is another problem. Take GGG (Gennady Golovkin) [5] he has to speak Spanish to appeal to the Spanish speaking population in order to get a decent paying fight. And no big name is going to fight him, because there is no upside. The names are ticket sellers and there is a big risk of losing to GGG. So instead they just fight a lesser fighter. Cash in a nice purse, and keep their boxing records high. And everyone is blabbering about "and...still the champion" of this and that title, which is really meaningless. While the viewers pay happily for a make-believe sports world which is only half-entertainment and half-sports. Even UFC (which is a tad better) needs big finishers. So a fighters can win on points buy winning smartly, but those guys will never get a real shot unless they can knockout (preferably) or submit the opponent. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_King_(boxing_promoter) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_King_(boxing_promoter) [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Arum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Arum [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Atlas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Atlas [4] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmSlMZ5zUbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmSlMZ5zUbI [5] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennady_Golovkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennady_Golovkin [6] - http://www.boxingnews24.com/2015/06/roach-cottos-big-power-will-win-the-canelo-fight/ http://www.boxingnews24.com/2015/06/roach-cottos-big-power-w...

IkmoIkmo 11y ago
Commentators in boxing are actually pretty solid and have spoken millions of words about robberies, about corruption, about bad judging etc. It's an insult to imply only Teddy Atlas does this. Especially when Teddy is considered controversially within the sport, as both a guy who's been in boxing for a long time and respected for it, but also as a guy who is a complete idiot. I stopped taking his comments seriously quite a while ago. In the Geale fight I saw the headbutt, too and I agree they should've mentioned it. I actually rewinded the video the same day to see if it was a headbutt and it was. But it's not controversial or corrupt because Geale was getting a total annihilation. Geale didn't even mention it, hell he quit, a sign that the headbutt wasn't at all a factor but that he simply wasn't able to do anything in the last 3 rounds and kept eating the left hand. But yeah the point on viewership being nr 1 priority in boxing is completely true. Boxing has no league system, no rankings, no single federation. Its matchmaking politics behind closed doors, and those are based on viewership because that brings in the money, which often has nothing to do with making the most competitive matchup. And that indeed means people dodge GGG, a Kazakh who lives in Germany, fights the US, and who's got a 90% chance of knocking you out, is not a fight anyone wants to take because it's little money for lots of risk. Lara's been talking about moving up to meet GGG though, that'd be interesting. And Froch in the UK, perhaps in Wembley again, that'd be interesting (and not easy for GGG either). After one of these fights GGG will probably have a big enough name to fight some big fights. Canelo's the next goldenboy, he makes money whoever he fights, and he weighs more than GGG even at SWW, so a GGG Canelo fight is likely for late 2016 or early 2017. Golovkin's biggest problem though is that 160 is just a really thin division right now and all the big opponents and money is below and above him. Even the nr 2 and 3 (ignoring Cotto) in Quillin and Lee are a joke, and ignoring them as they're dodging GGG and aren't special boxers anyway, GGG cleaned out the entire 160 division. There's nothing really left for him there, but without guys like Froch/Ward at 168, moving up isn't a great move either. And moving down to 154 makes little sense as SWW guys like Canelo weigh 174 for his 154 fight, while Golovkin weighs just 170 for his 160 fights. It's really hard for him. About your Don King note, replace him with Al Haymon and you've got your list of 2 guys running boxing this day and age, Arum and Haymon. It's pretty insane.

IkmoIkmo 11y ago

Commentators in boxing are actually pretty solid and have spoken millions of words about robberies, about corruption, about bad judging etc. It's an insult to imply only Teddy Atlas does this. Especially when Teddy is considered controversially within the sport, as both a guy who's been in boxing for a long time and respected for it, but also as a guy who is a complete idiot. I stopped taking his comments seriously quite a while ago. In the Geale fight I saw the headbutt, too and I agree they should've mentioned it. I actually rewinded the video the same day to see if it was a headbutt and it was. But it's not controversial or corrupt because Geale was getting a total annihilation. Geale didn't even mention it, hell he quit, a sign that the headbutt wasn't at all a factor but that he simply wasn't able to do anything in the last 3 rounds and kept eating the left hand. But yeah the point on viewership being nr 1 priority in boxing is completely true. Boxing has no league system, no rankings, no single federation. Its matchmaking politics behind closed doors, and those are based on viewership because that brings in the money, which often has nothing to do with making the most competitive matchup. And that indeed means people dodge GGG, a Kazakh who lives in Germany, fights the US, and who's got a 90% chance of knocking you out, is not a fight anyone wants to take because it's little money for lots of risk. Lara's been talking about moving up to meet GGG though, that'd be interesting. And Froch in the UK, perhaps in Wembley again, that'd be interesting (and not easy for GGG either). After one of these fights GGG will probably have a big enough name to fight some big fights. Canelo's the next goldenboy, he makes money whoever he fights, and he weighs more than GGG even at SWW, so a GGG Canelo fight is likely for late 2016 or early 2017. Golovkin's biggest problem though is that 160 is just a really thin division right now and all the big opponents and money is below and above him. Even the nr 2 and 3 (ignoring Cotto) in Quillin and Lee are a joke, and ignoring them as they're dodging GGG and aren't special boxers anyway, GGG cleaned out the entire 160 division. There's nothing really left for him there, but without guys like Froch/Ward at 168, moving up isn't a great move either. And moving down to 154 makes little sense as SWW guys like Canelo weigh 174 for his 154 fight, while Golovkin weighs just 170 for his 160 fights. It's really hard for him. About your Don King note, replace him with Al Haymon and you've got your list of 2 guys running boxing this day and age, Arum and Haymon. It's pretty insane.