I have a regular column, ?The Square Jungle,? featured on the Undisputed Champion Network, a new digital entertainment website and video channel dedicated to the art and science of boxing. Here is an excerpt of the latest edition:
With Mayweather and, to an extent, Adrien Broner, boxing finally caught up with the zeitgeist and there is no Gary Bettman, Adam Silver, Bud Selig or Roger Goodell, competent or not, to oversee behavior and levy punishments or fines. Disciplinary action in baseball, football, basketball and hockey may strike some as inadequate but compared to boxing, where virtually anything goes, these leagues are as ruthless as Robespierre was during the Terror. That means that there is little blowback in boxing. For every Mike Tyson (whom Joyce Carol Oates included among her ?American Gothics? alongside Timothy McVey and Jeffrey Dahmer) who is banned from boxing for a substantial length of time, there are PED users and ex-cons who remain untouched. And remember, it took biting off two ears for Tyson to be exiled. For some reason ? and money may actually not account for this, at least not completely ? boxers are basically immune to repercussions. In the ring or out, there are few Ray Rices ? booted out of his profession for heinous off-the-field actions ? to be found in boxing. Read ?the Square Jungle? on UCN.
