When I was a young boy, I entertained the idea of becoming a physicist. My love of Star Wars beamed itself into a questioning of the cosmos and where the human race came from. After all, children are naturally inquisitive creatures and one day start searching for answers to the big ideas that have taken hold of their imaginations. Recently, while I read the press conference quotations from Oscar de la Hoya?s and Manny Pacquiao?s visit to New York to promote their showdown in December I again asked this fundamental question except it had a twist. It was not, ?Where did we come from?? but ?Where they did they come from?? The two people I am referring to in particular are Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and Ross Greenberg, President of HBO Sports. These two men are powerful forces in the galaxy of boxing but their comments regarding the upcoming fight were so exaggerated I was speechless. Indeed, they must be from another dimension entirely let alone our universe.
Schaefer, so happy that his boss is confronting Pacquiao experienced a verbal orgasm as the most hyperbolic rhetoric ejaculated from his mouth. If you think I am kidding I have quoted his words for your kind attention:
?Today marks the start of our press tour, or should I say ?Dream Tour? for the December 6 showdown between Oscar de la Hoya and Manny Pacquiao, the Dream Match. This press tour, just like the name of the fight is all about dreams, starting right here at the Statue of Liberty. It is mind blowing that we are here. It really is an amazing even to the start of the tour. Many people had dreams as they sailed past the Statue of Liberty, just as they had dreams when they built the largest building. From here we are going to Chicago to the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States. From Sears Tower to the Space Centre in Houston. Both places many dreams have been fulfilled. From Houston [the next part is my favourite] we continue onto San Antonio at the Alamo where people fought for their freedom and their independence. Then we are going to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, a bridge which is connecting people just like these two fighters will on December 6. Then we are going to East Los Angeles and it is where dreams are made for Oscar de l Hoya. These two great fighters will do their best to give us a great night of boxing to all the fight fans around the world. Records are meant to be broken and we have the two most exciting fighters in the world today. Will it be the younger, faster Pacquiao or the Golden Boy of boxing De La Hoya? Find out on December 6, you won?t want to miss the fight.?
Let us break down Schaefer?s statement intellectually. Firstly, the fight is not a dream it is a nightmare which I want to miss. Secondly De la Hoya should be fighting someone his own size. Thirdly Pacquiao has intriguing matches at lightweight and fourthly Juan Manuel Marquez, after he defeated Joel Casamayor in the biggest victory of his career, deserves a third shot against Pacquaio. The Mexican has been working feverishly to demonstrate to Pacquiao and his advisors that they are obligated to not forget his name. Another criticism is that the Golden Gate Bridge does not always connect people. I have a good friend and flat mate Victor who is from San Francisco. He wryly remarked that it is a popular destination for suicide jumpers as well as tourists. Connecting suicide jumpers to boxing brings a near fatal diagnosis for our sport.
Finally, the most scathing attack I can make on Schaefer is his cheap use of history (which Hollywood exploited to manufacture banal movies) to promote a shambolic enterprise. What the hell do the Alamo, freedom and independence have to do with boxing? Why not make some tenuous connection between boxing and the end of the Second World War or the fall of the Berlin Wall? Don?t hold your breath though if it does not stop there. We will soon here an announcement that it will be ending global warming next.
The second genius on our list is Greenberg who was much less bombastic in his use of words but just as stupid, ?When fights like this are made, it is really boxing putting its best foot forward.? It is not so much a foot forward but a very big foot back. If Don King, one of the most colourful and controversial men in boxing is a crook, at least he is an eloquent one. The late George Plimpton in that imperishable documentary When We Were Kings makes the brilliant observation that to hear a boxing promoter quote Shakespeare was an act both unique and extraordinary. Extend that standard to any boxing figure.
The saddest part of the sorry state of affairs is that Oscar de la Hoya who used to be a great fighter is harming his legacy. Manny Pacquiao, at least for me, is to a degree as well. Boxing has been disappointing of late with two major fights, Arthur Abraham versus Raul Marquez and Joan Guzman versus Nate Campbell not materialising. What is even sadder is that I was originally going to write an article suggesting how such a fracas could gain a degree of credibility, mainly that Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank use their alliance that has been positive for boxing to make a strong undercard and show us some young guns who they think will be the stars of the future. It could still happen and I hope it does. Unfortunately, I am so angry at the minute that I wish this fight would become a part of history and we could all forget about it. I am left with the thought of Marvin Gaye?s beautiful number What?s Going On ringing in my head. The song, which so sensitively captured the atmosphere in the United States in the early seventies is resonant now.
