“Are you willing to take the test”…”Everybody can get impatient, but the problem is money”…all recent comments made by some of the biggest names in the sport. Looking back at this week’s key quotes of note, Boxing Scribe Vivek Wallace offers his own unique perspective, giving fight fans “a little something to think about”. Check it out!
“Are you willing to take the test! Not for me……for the fans…..it’s the fan asking…..are you willing to take the test?” – Jean Pascal to Bernard Hopkins during a press conference to promote their rematch
Perspective: What a freakin’ mess we have here. And that rhetorical statement wasn’t aimed at the Pascal/Hopkins mess…..it was aimed at the entire sport! Floyd Mayweather Jr. has always been viewed as a badboy, but this time, he truly outdid himself. One assumed-to-be simple negotiation request suddenly catapulted to an absolute nightmare and none of us have ‘slept’ ever since, speculating at all costs, feeling free even when charged guilty ourselves. Never in a million years would you expect an athlete in a bloodsport to flat out decline such a request for full randomized steroid testing, but one took it upon himself to do so, and the rest was history as no one can do anything buzzworthy in the sport these days without falling victim to major speculation in the process.
First, speculations centered around Pacquiao. Next, it was the Klitschkos. Thrust back into the fishbowl were several names of the past with close relevance, such as Shane Mosley, Roy Jones, and Evander Holyfield; later joined by Sergio Martinez and the young Nonito Donaire, who decided to hire a man who’s certainly no stranger to ‘under-the-radar-good-but-bad’ stuff, California’s Victor Conte. Every last case mentioned was sheer speculation, with Mosley and Vitali Klitschko being the only two of the bunch with a proven history.
Hit the fast forward button and after such allegations, a random fight fan finds the need to prompt Pascal to push Hopkins to take a drug test and all hell breaks loose. For the record, Hopkins never declined the request, but he did take great anger in being accused of something he found to be unwarranted. Sound familiar? Filipino fans around the globe have echoed this sentiment from day one regarding Pacquiao, and truth be known, they’re all correct, but the more we indulge in this buzz topic, the more two things become evident:
The Barry Bonds case, the Lance Armstrong case, and the implementation of updated testing standards throughout the world of sports have all been under the microscope recently because if we don’t agree on anything else, we must agree on this: THERE IS MAJOR ROOM FOR CONCERN BECAUSE WE CLEARLY HAVE A PROBLEM! Which leads to my second point….
Considering that not only is steroid usage at an all-time high, but just as safety net technology is updated, so are the sophisticated methods to beat the system; we all need to realize that in this heightened level of suspicion, the only tangible way to remove ones self from the list of possible users is to exercise the one option that provides exemption: SIMPLY TAKE THE TEST! In Germany, all Sauerland promoted fighters have no option. Sugar Shane Mosley faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. and had no option. The end goal is two-fold: agree to be tested and deflate all doubt; or disagree and inflate all suspicion. After being tested, Mayweather looked as well as he did in his previous 40 fights. Is it truly asking for too much to see how other respective competitors would look after taking the same test?
This question drives home the point that it isn’t about Pacquiao, Hopkins, or Mayweather. It’s about knowing that some choose to end speculation, while the actions of others continue to fuel it. Should the accused continue to ask “why” when only they hold the key to comply? Just something to think about.
“Everybody can get impatient, but the problem is money. What these two fighters need is to get paid the same money they would get paid for the guys who weigh more, like Pascal and Hopkins, or Bradley and Alexander. If the network would do that, I would make the fight in two minutes, but they won’t!” – Bob Arum speaking to Boxingscene.com on the highly desired Gamboa/JuanMa showdown
Perspective: It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility to consider that what Arum states here is actually true, but even if so, the core issue ultimately parallels one that our society in general never has been able to get a grip on: inflation! None of us can doubt or question that in both Gamboa and Lopez, fight fans get a glimpse of the sport’s tomorrow, today. The problem is that as promising as these two men appear, neither has done enough to truly solidify the type of payday that Arum feels they deserve…yet. Fight fans would love to see this fight, but the networks are arguably correct in not shelling out top dollars for talents that we still don’t really have an answer on.
The remnants of Victor Ortiz’s now infamous “I don’t deserve to get beat on this way” statement will forever cast a shadow of a doubt on behalf of the networks as it relates to dropping top dollars on a rising, yet vastly unproven talent. Simplified, the networks won’t be dropping their dollars if they aren’t confident the average fight fan will be willing to drop theirs for a pay-per-view telecast. That makes sense. What doesn’t is that Arum sets a tone that perhaps these men are truly worthy of being paid along the lines of some of the sports bigger names, and that couldn’t be further from the truth….at least at this point in time.
Bernard Hopkins was named by Arum. Probably not a good example, considering that as legendary as his tenure has been thus far in the sport, he never really hit pay-dirt until he faced Puerto Rico’s Felix Trinidad, which came some 13 years and 42 fights into his career. Some might add that had he been part of a promotional team, like Oscar De La Hoya earlier in his career, this may not have happened. True…..but the end-all-be-all here is that these men simply haven’t established themselves in the sport enough to rate this type of payday, and having Arum as the promoter hasn’t changed that either.
At the end of the day, fight fans will get this fight when the time is right. The more these two men impress by displaying their talent, the more demand increases for the fight. Just like Bradley and Khan, which presumably happens later this year, the paths of these two men will soon collide. The independent PPV idea from Arum is a short term possibility, but why when Donaire has been a part of several (Pinoy Power) and still felt underappreciated and underpaid? It worked in the short term, but did very little to solidify the long term, which we learn more and more in this sport means just as much. Ultimately, is this about the here-and-now or the end goal? Just something to think about!
(Vivek Wallace can also be reached at [email protected], Youtube (VIVEK1251), Twitter (VIVEKWALLACE747), Skype (VITO-BOXING), Facbook, and Myspace)
