The Ring magazine took a big dump on journalism a decade ago when it sold its soul?literally?to Golden Boy Promotions?
The Ring magazine took a big dump on journalism a decade ago when it sold its soul?literally?to Golden Boy Promotions, which purchased the celebrated publication in 2007. That left a smell that ?The Bible of Boxing? was hoping fans could ignore.
It mostly worked until last week, when a turdnado started whirling behind closed doors, and its odor spilled out to the rest of us.
As The Ring reported on its own website, the magazine?s three-person ratings panel (managing editor Brian Harty, associate editor Tom Gray, and editor Doug Fischer) voted last week to strip Canelo Alvarez of its middleweight championship belt because he tested positive on two separate occasions for a banned substance, Clenbuterol, a performance-enhancing drug that supposedly has multiple different effects.
Canelo has attributed the dirty tests to a likelihood that he ingested tainted Mexican meat during training camp?an explanation fighters have used with some success in the past. He subsequently took a hair-follicle test that, according to his promoter, came out clean.
But here?s the rub. The Ring?s ratings panel was created to do exactly what it did?make a decision, one way or another, about Canelo?s status as champ. The panel rendered its decision and stripped his title.
But that decision was unilaterally overruled by The Ring?s new publisher, Stefan Friedman, who was installed to oversee operations at the magazine by its owner, Golden Boy Promotions?Friedman?s former employer.
You read right. Stefan Friedman previously worked for Golden Boy Promotions?of Canelo Alvarez?as an advisor and official spokesperson before being anointed as publisher of The Ring.
The fact that Friedman intervened and overruled the decision of the three respected boxing journalists who took Canelo?s title reeks of corporate interference?and a horrendous breach of journalistic ethics. Golden Boy promotes Canelo ? Golden Boy, as owner of The Ring, installed one of its own to run the magazine. The Ring magazine?s journalists made a journalistic decision to take away Canelo?s title ? and the new publisher overruled.
At worst, that?s incest. At best, it sure looks like incest.
Whether it?s true or not, Friedman can be?and should be?suspected of being nothing more than a toady for the parent company, Golden Boy Promotions, which leaves The Ring in an untenable position that does irreparable damage to its proud legacy.
If ?The Bible of Boxing? hopes to restore its standing as the most-respected source in boxing?a position it has enjoyed for most of the past 96 years?must be fired as publisher and replaced with a person who has no connection whatsoever with Golden Boy. All illusions of independent journalism have been stained by Friedman?s action.
If Friedman is not replaced, rational boxing fans will have no option, from this point forward, except to regard The Ring as a mouthpiece and shill for its parent company, Golden Boy.
The principles of unbiased journalism have been blatantly violated, and ?The Bible? now looks like a fraud.
