ONE compelling reason why I sort of walked away from pro boxing is because of the presence of glib-tongued and cunning promoters like Murad Muhammad, the New Jersey-based wheeler-dealer who promotes Manny Pacquiao’s most recent fights.
In my view, Pacquiao lost to Mexico’s Erik Morales by a 12-round unanimous decision in Las Vegas last Sunday because of the backstage machinations (subtle double-cross?) of Murad Muhammad.
First, why did Muhammad allow Morales to use the gloves of his choice (Winning) and not what Pacquiao has been using (Reyes) ever since he launched his successful career in the United States in 2001? Why didn’t Muhammad insist on the type of gloves which Pacquiao has been familiar with if he was truly protecting the interest of the Filipino fighter?
Pacquiao said he used that different brand of gloves because Murad had signed a contract (with fight organizers Bob Arum of Top Rank), agreeing with what Morales liked which did not sit well with Pacquiao’s famous American trainer Freddie Roach.
“Murad (Muhammad) signed the deal without asking anybody from our camp,” said Roach, who several months ago had a falling-out with Muhammad, accusing the glib-tongued promoter of financial fraud, saying he was cheated of $25,000 when Pacquiao stopped Marco Antonio Barrera, also of Mexico, in November 2003.
Yesterday, Pacquiao also claimed he was shortchanged by Muhammad from his share of the pay-per-view TV proceeds, saying Muhammad earned more than $2 million without doing anything while he risked life and limb fighting atop the ring.
Last December, Muhammad also promoted at The Fort in Taguig a virtual rip-off of a fight, a million-peso card which pitted Fahsan 3K Battery, an undistinguished boxer from Thailand, against battle-tested Pacquiao. As expected, Pacquiao stopped Fahsan in just four rounds even though the Thai was billed by Muhammad and some media members who are apologists for boxing as ?The Filipino Destroyer.”
Murad Muhammad? There will always be too many of his kind, cunning promoters who continue to thrive in professional boxing in spite of a dark past.
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WOMEN SEEK THEIR PLACE IN SPORTS. This being the “Year of the Woman,” I say the women’s crusade for equality with men, including in the field of sports, is making progress. Still, the women’s campaign for parity with men is not fully won.
In the Olympics, for example, male athletes still dominate the Olympic events, 2-to-1. And while it is true that more events and more female athletes are now being allowed to compete and more events for women have been added to the Olympic calendar, the facts are incontrovertible: There is gender discrimination in the Games.
To illustrate. There are less than a dozen female members in the International Olympic Committee compared with more than 100 male members. The IOC has even ignored sanctions against member-countries that discriminate against women unlike its action against South Africa which it banned for 20 years because of apartheid. Why?
Whatever happened to the much-publicized IOC plan to give a bigger role for women leaders in sports?
Nonetheless, compared with the past, the women of today are many times luckier.
In the ancient Olympics, female athletes were not allowed to take part.
As a matter of fact, there were no women competitors when the modern Games were revived in Athens in 1896. It was only in 1900 in Paris where 11 women were permitted to compete. The number of women participants has increased since then.
For the first time, too, money — brought about by “open” competitions — poured into the pockets of female athletes. A case in point is the US women’s basketball team, whose members received $50,000 each during a 10-month tour while preparing for the Olympic Games.
And NBC, the American television network which covers the Olympics, persuaded the IOC to adjust its schedule of events to enable women viewers to watch on prime time more of the sports they like. According to their survey, women viewers prefer to watch gymnastics and swimming, more than anything, ahead of male-oriented sports like boxing and basketball, along with wrestling, weightlifting and any other sports that feature too much grunting, sweating and violence.
