Manny Pacquiao really did beat Floyd Mayweather on May 2?Unless Mayweather beat Pacquiao easily in a one-sided schooling. Or, maybe, Mayweather and the Nevada State Athletic Commission teamed up to cheat a one-armed Pacquiao out of the victory he so righteously deserved. But, then again, maybe Manny was faking his shoulder injury all along, simply humiliated by being unable to beat the villainous cad he had been chasing for nearly six years? Or was Manny really chasing Floyd at all?
In boxing, if you believe everything you read in the media, you?d be one deeply, deeply confused human being. The reason for this is that the boxing media is really just a front.
At the risk of bursting bubbles, the boxing media is not a vessel by which real information is passed along to the masses, nor is it a tool for bringing light to the sport?s injustices. As it is today, the boxing media is almost entirely about generating publicity and influencing public opinion. It?s about selling fights and destroying rival fights, while appealing to whichever keenly-cultivated fan base a specific promoter would like to market to.
If you see a headline on your favorite boxing site, you can bet that it?s there because of some publicist or promoter. The accompanying story isn?t the product of a well-researched effort by the author, but rather, pieced together from info culled from a publicist?s press release. Some major industry writers don?t even hide the fact that their ?exclusives? are merely copy and paste press releases. This isn?t journalism, it?s advertising.
Since when did David Lemieux become this unstoppable young lion and middleweight powerhouse? Did we miss his ascension to that next level of 160 lb. awesomeness? One moment, he was the kid being out-toughed and stopped by Marco Antonio Rubio and out-hustled by the tired, tired Joachim Alcine, then he fought a bunch of club fighters and retreads, then a paper title over Hassan N?Dam N?Jikam. But, somewhere along the way, the media began covering him WAY differently.
Could it be that he signed with Golden Boy Promotions. And could it be that he has been elevated even further since being matched against Gennady Golovkin in the main event of an HBO PPV card?
The truth of the matter is that Lemieux hasn?t elevated himself to new heights in the ring as much as he?s found himself the right media manipulators?and a network with a product to sell. Golovkin-Lemieux will be no different from any of the other Golovkin squashes on regular HBO, but the network and the promoters need to convince the fans otherwise. So they turn to the media to get the public whipped into a buying frenzy. And the media is always eager to be played in exchange for press passes, media buffets, and the right kind of ego stroking. One hand washes the other and, you, the fan, are played as dupes.
But this is not to just pick on Golovkin or Lemieux or HBO?just about everybody in this industry is guilty of media manipulation. And the media, in return, is guilty of being dim-witted, lazy, and happy to sell someone else?s product if it means clicks for them.
It?s the reason why sites and writers friendly to Floyd Mayweather fans are selling the ridiculous Mayweather-Berto bout as an actual, credible, and worthwhile prize fight. It?s also the reason why sites pandering to Manny Pacquiao fans won?t even dare to question Manny?s ?miraculous? God-engineered salt water shoulder cure. Just about every writer, at every site is selling something on behalf of some publicist or promoter. For the most part, it?s not like there?s a conscious effort to be a shill (although there?s also plenty of that). It?s just what the industry has become and, to a great extent, what it must be these days in order to stay in business.
For example, why did I wedge the names of Mayweather, Pacquiao, and Golovkin into a headline that would?ve been fine without the name dropping? Obviously, to attract more attention and get more people to read. So, I?m no saint, either. I manipulated the fans to get more clicks and, consequently, bring more attention to this site?s sponsors. The difference is that I?ll cop to it?the others won?t.
