Part One
?I want ideas from you people. This is what you?re paid for. And by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around, you?d all better read it, or I?ll sack the fucking lot of you. Is that clear???Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) in ?Network?
As I sat at the Marquez vs. Pacman weigh-in I couldn?t help but feel the loving!! The Boss, Bob Arum, and the G-Unit, 50 Cent hugs and?
One Grand Champion, undefeated Olympic Gold Medalist and Pro World Champion Yuriorkis Gamboa, formally of Cuba, says he can come down and catch weight (down to 130 lbs.) and the other grand champion Mikey Garcia couldn?t make weight (126 lbs. his last fight) and I don?t really want to wait. Mr. Champion Gamboa would like to fight Mr. Champion Garcia.
Mikey Garcia vs. Roman ?Rocky? Martinez! Is that what is in tune for the Fall Season? Surely the Roman ?Rocky,? with all due respect born of reality, would find himself in an at least a 10-second private conversation with Mr. Canvas rather sooner than later when engaging fighter/boxer Mikey Garcia.
I have had the pleasure of seeing the Roman ?Rocky? up close and personal, ringside, ringside, as well as Garcia, and of course styles make fights; Puerto Rican Martinez will willingly receive to trade and Garcia more than willingly will apply his trade to give.
50 Cent for HBO Poll
?Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park. I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell. I?m as mad as hell and I?m not going to take this anymore.??Howard Beale (Peter Finch) in ?Network
Not having even a remote interest in how broadcast giant HBO would have Garcia vs. ?Rocky? as the best pick of the night fight, I decided using some uncommon logic, which in the business of Boxing is surely the logic of common, and picked up the phone to call Champion Gamboa?s manager, Mr. Tony Gonzalez, and see if I could gain his input as to the Roman ?Rocky? and Mr. Canvas.
Well, of course, boxing men always think they know best. For heaven?s sake just recently we have had Dan Rafael and Larry Merchant chirping the boring bandwagon labeled to the great Cuban Champion Rigondeaux. Thank heavens for Max Kellerman in defense of the grand Cuban Rigondeaux who certainly needs no assistance in the defense department.
There was nothing boring seeing the Champion Rigondeaux thoroughly kick the shit out of this past year?s Fighter of the Year, who either did not know how to cut the ring off effectively so as to engage, or simply chose not to, while eating numerous and sundry leather. It was a subpar performance by a fighter in Donaire who certainly has more to give, followed by post fight excuses of little logic. Having expounded how Boxing men always think they know best I eagerly awaited Mr. Tony Gonzalez?s response, in anticipatory bias, with respect to Mikey Garcia vs. Roman ?Rocky.?
Having met Mr. Tony Gonzalez and having before enjoyed his company ringside with Roberto Duran and family in Panama I should not be astonished by the immediacy of his intelligence. Now Consigliore to Mr. Gamboa, Mr. Tony, he is a gracious but sly fox. No doubt the great Champion Gamboa is touching upon contractual negotiations as I write. Best not to trigger something that interrupts such delicate matters and most certainly when it comes to Boxing men who always think they know best.
Mr. Tony Gonzalez
?Do a poll! How many people want to see Gamboa vs. Mikey Garcia? How many people want to see Garcia vs. ?Rocky!? Well now! What a wonderfully uncommon idea. The very same people who put these shekels, money in the coffers, decide what they want to view. Will it be #11 rated BoxRec Roman Martinez or #3 BoxRec Gamboa coming down to catchweight?
Well I wasn?t done with Mr. Tony Gonzalez in relation to this poll business.
?So I don?t think I?ll listen to any protestations of high standards of journalism when you?re right down on the streets soliciting audiences like the rest of us. Look, all I?m saying is if you?re going to hustle, at least do it right.??Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) in ?Network?
I decided to mention to Mr. Tony, hopefully being ever so humble in my own boldness, perhaps putting 50 Cent money where my mouth was (better to be mouthy while spending someone else?s time and money!), I would write an article about this poll. Unstrictly speaking, in a 50 Cent Twitter sense, maybe it would be of use if Mr. ?50?, he of the Gamboa Promoter cent, would spread this theory of HBO poll through his vast Twitter/Facebook network. I mean, my heavens, the day of the Pamphleteer standing on the street corner handing out slips of paper and old newspaper rags is long gone. We might as well use this Twit and Facebook to good electronic pamphleteer use.
50 Cent, G-Unit Twitter this week; 10,001 tweets, 7,394,687 followers. Gamboa official Twitter, this week 682 tweets, 16,934 followers. El Ciclon Gamboa?s website with a comment ?stay up to date, upcoming news? dated October 9, 2009. Boxing.com results; millions upon millions. Schmidt last article result; 11,000 plus hits in four days. We should be able to do this poll shouldn?t we? Fearless Editor, despite what our good friends in certain media credential sections think, it looks like Mr. Boxing.com has become huge!
One way or another we shall see what ?polls up? in the next year. HBO Sports President Ken Hershman and staff are bright professional business people. Courtesy of HBO and Bob ?Top Rank? Arum, we have already had two strong Fight of the Year candidates in Rios vs. Alvarado II and Bradley vs. Provodnikov and I suspect a potential third Fight of the Year in Bradley vs. Grand Champion Marquez.
Gamboa, in the meantime, isn?t going anywhere in the context of the losing department. Like his compatriot, Rigondeaux, he is that good and dare I say we shall see greatness if given the proper dance partner. Soon, or later, my 50 Cent Twitter or not, the likes of Broner and Garcia will have to deal with Gamboa. I suspect Garcia relishes the prospect of the fight with Gamboa. The Problem Boner, I?m not so sure!
Plate No. 3 Photograph ? En Casa Con Los Alonso in Havana
Renowned photographer Andrew Moore catches a Havana moment; an older couple, backs facing us, sitting in a wicker rocking chair, stares at an old TV screen, rabbit ears and all. A dog sleeps idly by on a tile floor. The ceiling has plaster pieces ready to fall. At some point that couple, like many, will tire of looking at the blank screen and simply walk out, stage left through the wood louvered doors. They will return, adjust those ears, and view again when the pleasure is more to their liking.
Gamboa, as sure as that old TV set at En Casa Con Los Alonso in Havana, has rabbit ears re-adjusted and turned back on when that Cuban climate is just right to receive, will have and give viewing pleasure HBO Primetime style. Gamboa vs. Garcia is an intriguing fight and I am certainly not here to tell you which of the two is going to have their ears readjusted. If not now, when?
As I write, and perhaps as you read, the wise one Bob Arum, like a Magician of Poker, may be suggesting undefeated Terence Crawford vs. the Great Gamboa, in of all places, surprise, surprise, Miami. It would be on a Cotto undercard; Cuban ex-patriots abounding, and I can hear that big ?Miami Sound Machine? of Gloria Estefan, that big Latin beat, pounding away to a ring entrance for Gamboa on a beautiful Miami fall night.
Ah, Bob Arum, the wizened grand maestro! I?m going to turn that TV on again! Crawford vs. Gamboa would be a highly entertaining fight. But I still want that poll!
Side Notes
HBO Fight of the Year #3! Bradley vs. Marquez has all the makings. Other polls, since the problem Broner is, himself, a newly minted Welterweight Champion; how about a fight with his Golden Boy compadre Keith Thurman? Since the wrecking ball Golovkin is calling out Middleweight Champion Martinez, how about that fight in April? Do we really want to wait one year for that! Should we wait! Should Golovkin have to wait???
Exit Poll
It could be very strongly argued that the best fighter on the planet right now is Andre Ward. How about Ward vs. Hopkins or Chavez Jr.?
How about any and all against the great Japanese wrecking ball, BoxRec #1, WBA Super Featherweight Champion Takashi Uchiyama, 20-0-1, 17 KOs? Uchiyama is a gentleman outside the ring and a stone splitter inside the ring.
Poll Up or Shut Up!
