Maybe what really ignited the shift and aroused my cynicism was when things metastasized after ?Plaster Gate??
?The boxing ring can be seen as a mirror on which the full range of human emotions is reflected. It isn?t always pretty to look at, but we keep coming back for more, eager to participate, if only vicariously, in a ritual as old as the human race and as timeless as a clenched fist. That?s why boxing is still around and still welcome in many quarters, regardless of its frightening toll.??Nigel Collins (ESPN Boxing, ?How do we reconcile ring deaths?? Jan. 17, 2013)
?Michael [Katsidis] was crying over this news?It?s heartbreaking. He wants to speak to his family first before announcing anything but really I?m glad the tests have stopped him fighting before something really bad happened.??Trainer Johnny Lewis (via the Daily Telegraph, Feb. 13, 2013)
?Perhaps it?s not the best idea ever, but Michael Katsidis, one of the most exciting action fighters of the past 20 years, is making a comeback.??Dan Rafael (ESPN, Jan. 3, 2014)
?? regardless of what answer we come up with, it is both a sign and guarantee of our abiding spiritual health to face issues at their moral root. It is never easy to question the moral character of our own pleasure and entertainment.??Richard A. McCormick, S.J, a distinguished Catholic moral theologian and teacher (?Is Professional Boxing Immoral?? Nov. 5, 1962)
?Professional boxing is the only sport where the immediate objective is to damage the opponent. A puffed or cut eye, a lacerated cheek, a bleeding nose ? these are signals for an intensified attack on the vulnerable area.??Father McCormick
It bears repeating that I am not trying to play the blame game here or lay a guilt trip on anyone except myself. This is about my moral culpability and if you can take something from it, all the better.
On the streets of the inner city where I was raised in the 1940s and ?50s, smoke-filled places like Marigold Gardens. Rainbow Arena and the cavernous Chicago Stadium were where I bonded with my father and brother. Tough hombres like Ernie Terrell, Johnny Gray, Jesse Bowdry, Bob Satterfield, Luther Rawlings, Anton Raadick, and Johnny ?Honey Boy? Bratton thrilled us. Ralph ?Tiger? Jones was a Monday night staple for those lucky enough to have tiny black and white TV sets to watch the The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports with Jimmy Powers at the mike, and Chico Vejar was what Friday Night was all about. Much later, I was entertained on big-screen TV by Bobby Chacon, Jerry Quarry, Danny Lopez, Bazooka Limon, and the great Salvador Sanchez. ?Saigon? Skipper Kelp and announcer Sean O?Grady made Tuesday nights something special and Rockin? Robin Blake did the same for me on ESPN. Today, there are other boxers too numerous to mention. How can I relinquish the potential for more of these kinds of thrills?
Of late, Rios vs. Alvarado 1 and 2, Bradley vs. Provodnikov, and Froch vs. Groves were spine tingling throwbacks. Rigondeaux vs. Donaire was a purist?s delight. Witnessing Marcos ?El Chino? Maidana expose fledgling porn star Adrien Broner in shocking and destructive fashion, watching James Kirkland come back and take out Alfredo Angulo against all odds in hostile Cancun, and watching an incoming monster from Siberia break an unbreakable and courageous Mike Alvarado offer thrills that cannot easily be dismissed. I enjoy watching Vitali Klitschko break down and then take out his opponents with systematic, albeit bruising, methodology. Watching a Manny Steward-trained Tommy Hearns, Lennox Lewis or Wladimir Klitschko end matters with a sledgehammer right straight down the pike or a Freddie Roach-trained Manny Pacquiao take apart Miguel Cotto using unheard of angles and movement is something to marvel. So is the surge of mid-weight Eastern European fighters and swashbuckling Argentineans as they seek dominance and raise the bar for excitement. And tracking Floyd?s march to equal or surpass Rocky?s record is something all fans can appreciate.
I have seen live fights in Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, Tijuana, San Juan, Munich, London, and God knows I?ve been thrilled by them. Whether at the MGM in Las Vegas, Foxwoods in Connecticut, or at the IBEW Hall in Dorchester, Mass., I have enjoyed boxing for many decades?not years?decades. I love watching Lampley?s Fight Game; it reminds me of the great Friday night debates between Max and Teddy, before Max and Teddy became stars.
A Shift
?I have nothing else to do.??Jermain Taylor, who reportedly suffered a brain bleed before he took time out
?I tend to think that just about no one is free from conflicts of interest when they work most any journalistic beat, so I try to be quite judicious when I sling arrows in this arena. But some folks, some of whom themselves have to negotiate conflicts of interest from various masters they serve, were not shy about slinging arrows at you (Thomas Hauser).??Michael Woods
?Suck it up kid.??Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. to Yuri Foreman after Foreman badly injured his knee against Miguel Cotto in June 2010
In July 2007, Michael Katsidis and Czar Amonsot waged a brutal 12-round closet classic in at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Czar suffered a subdural hematoma?bleeding on the brain?thus ending his boxing career in the United States. During the same bruising card, Oscar Larios suffered a similar injury against Jorge Linares. Larios eventually returned to boxing fighting thrice in Mexico and twice in Japan before calling it quits in March 2009 with a 63-7-1 record. Meanwhile, the Czar, after an 18-month layoff, also returned and has gone 7-0-2 against moderate opposition since his war with Katsidis in 2007. Six of his fights have been in Australia and three in the Philippines. This is boxing?s version of Russian roulette and it?s just as dangerous.
Maybe what really ignited the shift and aroused my cynicism was when things metastasized after ?Plaster Gate,? and Antonio Margarito (one of my fallen favorites) was allowed two big paydays to fight Manny Pacquiao in 2010 and Miguel Cotto in 2011. It was a crass case of revenue vs. morality, and morality never had a chance.
Around this same time, the boxing world was hit by four tragedies in 2009. Within a short period of time (and particularly during the month of July), the successive deaths of three former world champions, Alexis Arguello, Vernon Forrest and Arturo Gatti rocked the sports world and shell-shocked boxing fans around the globe. Arguello and Gatti had committed suicide. Then, Darren ?Daz? Sutherland hanged himself on Sept. 14, 2009. The likable Daz had an Olympic bronze medal and was looking forward to a promising pro career in the U.K.
The horrific Edwin Valero tragedy (another of my fallen heroes) occurred in 2010 despite warning signs that were flashing on and off like a neon sign, but they were ignored. Where was his family? Why wasn?t he kept in rehab long enough to rehab him? Where were the Venezuelan authorities? Perhaps the brain injury, his notable and documented anger issues, and a severe substance abuse problem coalesced to contribute to Valero?s tragic end. These tragedies stopped me in my tracks and gave me solemn pause.
And over a lengthy period of time, Thomas Hauser criticized a major sports network HBO in blistering fashion and then, just like that, he was hired by Richard Plepler, co-president of HBO, to be a ?consultant.? I asked myself, how can you be a true journalist and also a consultant to the industry which you?re covering? Conflicts of interest and commitment are not in and of themselves unethical or impermissible. Indeed, there are conflicts of interest in many facets of boxing writing these days (such as Ring Magazine being owned by Golden Boy Promotions), and not all conflicts are created equal, but this one seemed to me to be the mother of divergent interests, as Hauser?s veneer of credibility took a big hit.
This, of course, is old news and has been vetted. However, what seemed to fly under the radar and go unnoticed (but got my rapt attention) was when Michael Woods, editor-in-chief of The Sweet Science for which Hauser writes (among other sites), attempted to justify Hauser?s actions in a March 7, 2012 piece titled, ?Regarding Thomas Hauser?s Role With HBO, and TSS.? Woods states in part, ?I never gave more than a half second thought to telling Hauser that I?d rather he no longer contribute to TSS. Even when the pundits and fellow members of the fraternity weighed in, many harshly, I didn?t reconsider. Mainly because I acknowledge that everyone who does this for a living has conflicts. Everyone. And if they choose not to acknowledge that, then that?s on them??
And acknowledging it makes it right? Sorry, but I beg to differ. I?m not conflicted in any manner, shape or form. Conflicts don?t belong in politics, academia; or in business?nor do they belong in my values set. In some cases, they are even illegal; for example, an attorney, an accountant, a business adviser or realtor cannot represent two parties in a dispute and must avoid even the appearance of conflict. But then maybe boxing ethics is an oxymoron; maybe the culture of boxing allows for such exceptions?
The Something
?If everyone?s a champion, no one?s a champion.??Pete Meyers, May 16, 2012
?Nowadays, the only time boxing receives prominent play on the largest platforms is either when Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao fight, or when boxers embarrass themselves outside the ropes, such as the post-fight dust-up between David Haye and Dereck Chisora.??Pete Meyers
Whatever the case, something narcissistic and cliquey has now oozed its way into an already toxic mix composed of too many pay-per-views, too few promoters and managers who prioritize their own individual short-term interests, ticket prices that are too high, multiple world titles at every weight, manipulative executives and promoters, greed-driven sanctioning bodies and payment of exorbitant fees, rigged ratings, the feud between HBO and Showtime, horrific craniocerebral injuries and even needless fatalities, lack of rules uniformity, no Federal Commission, hack-filled state commissions, politically-connected referees and other officials, ethical breaches, widespread conflicts of interest, inconsistent weigh-in practices, Performance Enhancing Drugs, indefensible boxing decisions, cronyism at all levels especially among the journalists, so-called journalists making fools of themselves through the social media, and worst of all blatant exploitation of the boxers, et cetera.This unnamed something feeds on itself with impunity. It?s what has me teetering and seething; yet I have difficulty articulating it except to say that it seems to have immunity from strict moral boundaries as it slithers along unchecked.
In many way, the noble combatants?the boxers who make this entire enterprise possible (except for those on top of the pyramid)?are treated like tenants at the mercy of slum landlords. I know ?bad? when I see it and this is bad.
As Jack Newfield states at the end of his compelling and lengthy ?The Shame of Boxing?:
?It would not cost the taxpayers anything to regulate boxing at the same level every other professional sport is policed. Only the will is lacking. Nobody important cares enough. But the rest of us should, whether we are boxing fans or not. It?s easy to avert your eyes and say, ?Abolish the sport. But that won?t happen. Instead, we should help these voiceless workers obtain the justice they deserve.?
What Next?
While I am not quite ready to embrace the following words of Pete Hamill?s classic article ?Blood on Their Hands: The Corrupt and Brutal World of Professional Boxing,? I am keenly aware that:
?Old loves are a long time dying. They can survive deceptions and separations, petty cruelties and fleeting passions. But, eventually, they give way to the grinding erosions of time. And suddenly, one cold morning, they are dead. For too long a time, I loved the brutal sport of prize fighting. But I?ve arrived at last at that cold morning. You cannot love anything that lives in a sewer. And the world of boxing is more fetid and repugnant now than any other time in its squalid history.?
Like a pendulum, I go back and forth and I am now looking at things with far more cynicism and I sense the process of erosion has already begun and I wonder if that?s the direction my compass seeks. After all, the more things change in boxing, the more they stay the same?and that just doesn?t seem right.
I?m 76 years old; my time is beginning to run out and I genuinely care about which way my morality settles. I have limited choices; I can walk away completely on moral, medical, and religious grounds or I can stick around and remain a harsh critic. In the end, I?ll likely stick around and write less frequently. I?ll pick my spots and try to keep my moral compass from wobbling too much. Thing is, I don?t have the courage to walk away right now which is what I should do.
I?ll suffer some because I know the smell of a sewer when I?m near one, and like Pete Hamill says, ?You cannot love anything that lives in a sewer.?
Moral Culpability: Part One Moral Culpability: Part Two
Ted Sares is a private investor. He is the author of ?Shattered: A Collection of True Crime and Noir Essays.? A member of the Elite Powerlifting Federation, Ted actively competes in the sport and holds several state records for his class.
