Boxing is a cutthroat business where pathological liars can find an outlet for their neurosis and get paid simultaneously. Now HBO, apparently, has decided to join the fabulists, claiming that the ratings for the Saul Alvarez-Matthew Hatton torture session were far higher than they actually are. According to The Boxing Truth, the Alvarez-Hatton whitewash drew 920,000 live viewers. But the HBO pettifogging machine?in an all-star co-production with Golden Boy Promotions and RingTV?claimed that the figure was 1.4 million viewers.
So here we have an industry where the promoters lie, the managers lie, the fighters lie, the press lies, the sanctioning bodies lie, and the networks lie. At least you can say that boxing is consistent. HBO ratings across the board are only a fraction of what they were years ago, and even the fictitious number HBO conjured up?1.4 million viewers?is pathetic compared to what Boxing After Dark averaged in the late 1990s. Why pretend that Alvarez is more popular than he is? Perhaps a clue can be found in what Oscar De La Hoya told Bill Dwyre a couple of weeks ago: ?There is a marketing and promotional machine out there for him, set to go.?
*****
After his dockside walloping of Craig McEwan, Andy Lee has been mentioned as one of several possible living sacrifices to Sergio Martinez this summer. Lee and McEwan are two clubfighters?never mind the madness spewed forth by Max Kellerman and Jim Lampley?who put on a lively scrap, but no one is going to confuse them with what is supposed to be HBO quality. Lee has all the upper body movement of a newel post, holds his chin up in the air in a way that brings ?Look to the Rainbow? to mind, and has the kind of defense that promises lots of sutures in the future. For his part, McEwan, incredibly, was exhausted after five rounds of slapping his opponent around. Unfortunately for McEwan, he punches as hard as the ghost of Sir Walter Scott, and despite the fact that Lee has the all the defensive guile of a doorstopper, McEwan could not KO a man who was practically begging to be put out of his misery.
HBO has seen fighters of dubious quality polluting its air with regularity over the last few years?Brian Minto, Freddy Hernandez, Travis Walker, and Harry Yorgey, for example?but at least Lee and McEwan were not fed to overhyped A-list fighters. They fought each other.
*****
Peter Manfredo, Jr., on the other hand, who is also looking for a bout with Martinez, would not be facing Daniel Edouard of Walid Smichet. All you need to know about Manfredo Jr., perhaps as nice a guy as you will find in boxing, is that he was the last fighter to make Jeff Lacy look good in the ring. At the same time, it is almost impossible not to empathize with a man whose hard road in the most pitiless of sports shines a tremulous light on all the phonies who get a free ride for reasons only the boys in the back room can explain.
*****
Here is what Lou DiBella told ESPN.com about the possibility of Sergio Martinez facing Dimitry Pirog: ?Fuck Dmitry Pirog. We?re never fighting Dimitri Pirog?.That was our belt that [the WBO] stole from him and we?re not fighting Dmitry Pirog, who has never done anything but beat Daniel Jacobs to deserve a big fight. Fuck Dmitry Pirog.? This is the kind of thing some of the easily impressed boxing media calls ?refreshing,? as if there is anything refreshing about stupidity. DiBella, who has erected a reputation as some sort of promotional rebel out of the cheapest of building materials?the flimsy adoration of Dan Rafael?is one of the biggest two-headed nickels in boxing.
People tend to forget that Lou DiBella was the first Golden Boy Promotions, but, unfortunately for poor Lou, without the Golden Boy. As part of his severance package from HBO, DiBella received a bundle of blank dates on HBO. Think about that the next time ?Woe is Me? DiBella complains about the strange behavior of HBO executives. After all, it is one thing to give blank dates to an established promoter, but another altogether to give blank dates to someone who?is not a promoter. Make sense? DiBella, unfortunately, did not have Oscar De La Hoya to use as leverage and so his status as an alternative to Bob Arum and Don King lasted about as long as many of the fights on his Broadway Boxing series?three or four minutes.
Whenever the dark pendulum of boxing swings in his favor, DiBella is nearly bashful in his silence; whenever it swings against him?as if often does in boxing to men of limited vision?DiBella is ?volcanic? and ?colorful? in his protests.
*****
As for Martinez, he should be on Univision, Telefutura, Telemundo, and Galavision more often. (Booked for appearances, not fights, of course.) The New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be the site of an international friendlies match between the U.S. and Argentina on March 26. That sounds like a perfect publicity opportunity for Martinez, who used to play soccer, but is anyone going to pursue marketing possibilities? In an age when managers are basically bagmen and some promoters merely take orders from HBO, it remains to be seen who would even think about publicity concerns for a fighter who can be extraordinarily popular with just a little imagination.
*****
Vitali Klitschko defends his portion of the K2 heavyweight title when he faces Odlanier Solis in a fight most notable for being the first boxing event to be televised by the Epix premium cable network. This is just as well, because as a fight of distinction, Klitschko-Solis is not exactly a Blue Plate Special. Solis may have been an extraordinary amateur in his day, but now he is merely a fighter who goes through the motions in the ring and then lights out to the nearest KFC after being announced the winner. In some ways, he is reminiscent of another lazy Cuban defector from the 1990s: Ramon Garbey, who could hardly be bothered to make an effort in the ring or in the gym. There is no telling what such a fighter?whose bouts have all been set-ups thus far?will do when faced with real competition for the first time. His grotesque tango with Ray Austin (by far the biggest name on his resume) ended in a comical DQ victory; a fitting result for two pugs often lacking in pride.
Solis has shed a significant amount of weight for his fight tonight, however, a sign that he might be serious for once. Still, Solis can be as grim as a hangman come fight time. It will hardly make a difference.
*****
Miguel Cotto doled out a deliberate beating to Ricardo Mayorga last Saturday and over 6,000 fans came out to see ?El Matador? play a bloody Falstaff yet again. Mayorga quit in the 12th round, claiming an injured thumb, but it seemed more likely that he was trying to avoid being laid out like a leopard skin rug for the nth time in his career. No other sport rewards obnoxious characters the way boxing does. Sure, there are obnoxious baseball players, but they still have to hit home runs or register low ERAs; ditto basketball, where eccentric personalities are of no use unless double-doubles are nearby. It is considered an attribute to be irritating in hockey. In boxing, you can be boring in the ring and still be rewarded so long as you have ?personality? outside of it. Mayorga is unique in that he does not even have to win, just get his pre-ordained comeuppance in the ring with a certain amount of brio.
With the win, Cotto will most likely face Antonio Margarito in a fight no doubt many?especially the morality brigade?will decry. Maybe there will be more dull talk of ?boycotting,? which is always good for a penny-click or two for those who pay lip/fingertip service to it. Of course, these same jokers watch Telefutura and Fright Night Club without their humanitarian alarms going haywire.
A rematch between Margarito and Cotto is like Viagra to a promoter like Bob Arum, who can barely keep from drooling when discussing this fight. With enough sub-plots to supply a television series with one dramatic arc after another?think of The Wire or The Sopranos?Margarito-Cotto II is a guaranteed box office smash. After all, this is what a promoter does: underwrite/produce an event he believes has widespread public appeal and turn a profit off of its staging. One day, some self-esteeming bloggers and writers, between navel-gazing sessions, will realize this. Then again, maybe not. What many consider to be ?in-house? promoting in many cases is simply branding and conscious narrative manipulation. This continuity of storylines triggers a mnemonic effect among casual boxing fans. Of course, sometimes it is mere laziness on the part of Top Rank (as well as vindictiveness), but often there is a purpose behind their matchmaking schemes.
*****
Now that Nonito Donaire has jumped from Top Rank to Golden Boy Promotions, the scene is set for further mano-a-mono between the two biggest promotional firms in boxing. Donaire was not particularly well-served over the years by Top Rank?as TCS noted last year?who kept him on independent pay-per-views until his explosive performance against Fernando Montiel on HBO in February. Nor will Donaire, with only 27 starts in over a decade, come out ahead if litigation keeps him from fighting. Ultimately, though, his switching promotional firms is more about some of the strange machinations in boxing. Unlike Top Rank, Golden Boy does not have to negotiate HBO dates?it already has them, which, of course, is a remarkable advantage for a promotional firm that would be lost in the wilderness without Time Warner playing ?Touched By An Angel? for them. This odd business arrangement gives GBP a leg up on the competition and appears to highlight the dirty pool possibly being played not by a promoter, a matchmaker, a manager, or a trainer, but?surprise, surprise?by a multimillion dollar network.
