Boxing scribe, and I use that term loosely, Leo Reyes needs to learn something about free speech and about the First Amendment.
For example, the Bleacher Creature from Bleacher Report, needs to learn that the right of free expression does not permit you to yell “fire” in a crowded theater.
Nor does it permit you to libel Floyd Mayweather Jr., which Reyes did earlier Tuesday when he wrote a column stating that Mayweather’s victories over Juan Manuel Marquez and Sugar Shane Mosley were, or could have been, fixed fights.
I’m hedging on my tenses there because I could not immediately find this nutty story.
Somebody with a smidgen of legal knowledge and/or common sense deleted the story from that web site.
I do see the irony herein, and I know many of you will say that Mayweather and his minions have falsely accused Manny Pacquiao of cheating with drugs so turnabout is fair play.
No, it’s not, it’s two examples of foul play. Two wrongs do not make a Winky Wright, you know.
Joel Seeman, a colleague of Reyes although he probably would not want to admit it now, chastized Reyes thusly:
“I recently was googling Floyd Mayweather’s name for news, as I usually do to see if there is any news.
“What I found was a disgusting article by Leo Reyes, a columnist for this web page and it was about how he thought Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez fixed their fights with Floyd Mayweather.
“Crazy, right? Let me explain why.
“Well, in his article he makes it clear he feels Mayweather-Mosley was fixed and his reasons for believing this go something like this.
“Shane Mosley is a partner in Golden Boy, so clearly Oscar de la Hoya and Shane got together and agreed Shane would lose and take a $8 million payday instead of beating Floyd and becoming the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world again.”
As a public figure, Mayweather would have to prove malice, meaning that the writer spitefully wrote the story, in order to win a libel case.
But is there anything more defamatory than writing a false story with not even a scintilla of proof or arguable fact which accuses all three boxers–Money Ma, Juan Ma and Sugar Shane–of prearranging the outcome of matches?
Maybe Reyes is judgment proof but his “employer” can be held liable and should be.
I’d love to see Mayweather lead by example and quickly file a lawsuit against the writer and site which published this scurrilous material.
Under British libel laws, and we assume this was also “published” in the UK, it’s a slam dunk. They would have to change the site name to “The Mayweather Report” if Floyd sued them on that side of the pond.
Maybe this is an example of why Teddy Atlas has to take a shower after perusing some of the boxing sites on the web.
A pox on Reyes, a pox on the irresponsible editors who let this bogus column get launched.
There’s no eraser big enough, I suppose, to eradicate this one from posterity.
‘Tis a shame, really.
