As the countdown begins for Juan Manuel Lopez?s defense of his WBO featherweight title versus Orlando Salido in Bayamon, Puerto Rico at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, most daily papers in the United States will not just gloss over this fight but completely ignore it. It might be listed on the small type of the transaction page where the boxing schedule is listed and the fight result might be taken from an AP wire report for its Sunday edition.
The scribe who covers the boxing beat for an American paper is going the way of the Dodo bird. He truly is an endangered species. Even veteran boxing scribes like Bernard Fernandez of the Philadelphia Daily News are rarely seen at fights these days. When Jay Searcy retired over a decade ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer never bothered to fill his spot on the boxing beat. And this is Philly, once known for being a vibrant ?fight town.?
There was a time long ago when boxing was a coveted assignment, right up there with covering the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball. Now it?s just below girls? high school volleyball on the story budgets of most editors. However, on the island of Puerto Rico, covering boxing gives one an elite status at the paper and an event like Lopez-Salido is given not just inches but pages. That goes for any big fight involving its countrymen.
“We were doing four or five pages on [Miguel] Cotto the week before the [Ricardo] Mayorga fight,” said Jose Sanchez, of El Nuevo Dia, the biggest paper in Puerto Rico. “We did a countdown. For a big type-level fight like Mayorga was, it wasn?t [Manny] Pacquiao for example or [Antonio] Margarito- we did a countdown ten days before the fight. We went to visit Cotto training in Florida, paid expenses by the paper. It wasn?t a promotional thing; the paper paid for the expenses, so it?s a big deal. That?s another great example. I remember we spent six days in Vegas for this fight. We did on average, I?d say, about four pages- and you must remember, it?s not a traditional style paper. It?s tabloid style.”
The second-most read paper on the island is Primera Hora; its boxing writer is Carlos Gonzalez, who has covered the sport full-time since 2003.
“Usually, we publish on a tabloid, all the national papers, here. We dedicate one full page to boxing, maybe two pages when there?s a special event like a Miguel Cotto fight or a ?JuanMa? fight or an Ivan Calderon fight. We tend to give it as much as four pages, dedicated just to that event because the people are so thirsty for information; they want to know everything. You can hear in the shopping malls the debates between people. It becomes part of the daily life as long as the event is going to happen or after it happens.”
Peter Rivera of PR Best Boxing, which co-promotes Lopez with Top Rank says, “In Puerto Rico, it?s so special. In Puerto Rico, boxing is so important that newspapers know that when boxing is on the pages, they sell more. For example, where you have the front page of the newspaper, they sell more when they have boxing on it and they?ll have a photo.”
Yes, boxing isn?t just in the sports section but it?s front-page worthy over there because its perhaps, unofficially, the national sport of Puerto Rico.
“It?s one of them, besides baseball and basketball, of course,” said Gonzalez, “but we have to understand that sports, in general, and sports figures are very much part of our culture. I mean, when we think of baseball, the first name that comes to mind, obviously, is Roberto Clemente. And when we speak of boxing, of course, we speak of [Wilfred] Benitez, [Wilfredo] Gomez and [Felix] Trinidad and most recently, Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Lopez. So we tend to identify with these sports figures and make them like idols and someone to look up to but also the people, the Puerto Rican flag and everything that represents us as a nation, as a society.”
With that comes a unique challenge, balancing a journalist?s role with his own Puerto Rican pride.
“I have to be honest with you; it is,” admitted Sanchez, who has been at his paper for seven years and has provided television commentary on boxing telecasts in his country. “For example, I?ve been covering ?JuanMa? since he was a teenager, 14, 15, and he?s a nice guy. So it?s difficult sometimes to see a young man like that and know the difficulties he?s going to face with fame, being punished in the ring. You see them years later how it might affect them. So it?s difficult. I don?t want to say it?s because you?re friends- I?m very professional in that matter- but having the experience of how things are going to go, it?s very difficult.
“Another example is ?Tito?; that was my biggest lesson as a journalist,” adds Sanchez, “because [Ernest] Hemingway used to say, ?Never fall in love with fighters?- I fell in love with Trinidad as a young boxing person, as a young boxing journalist. I did cover ?Tito? during his years as a professional and his first loss [to Bernard Hopkins in 2001], that was devastating for me. Knowing him personally, knowing how good a person he is, how proud a Puerto Rican he is, how much of a positive influence he was on the country and seeing him getting beaten clearly by Hopkins, that was clearly difficult.”
Like other Puerto Rican prizefighters of the past, Lopez has gotten himself embroiled in marital difficulties. “I think they?re working on it now,” Sanchez says of the Lopez marriage. “That was covered greatly because now he?s a media star in Puerto Rico. So it wasn?t a sports story; it was a celebrity-type story.”
Sanchez admits that with the adulation afforded to their fighters, there is a certain type of unspoken pressure to protect or shield their idols.
“Sure, sure, you could go as far away as Wilfredo Gomez, a true modern hero in Puerto Rican culture. He had brushes with the law right after he retired. He had many extramarital infidelities, problems that the paper didn?t cover back then,” said Sanchez. “I wouldn?t say protective but it was a difficult type of relationship between the newspaper reporters and the story- which, in this case, was Wilfredo. That started to change with him because a new breed of writers came in. So, for example, with Cotto, his personal problems, ?JuanMa?s? personal problems, have gone to the forefront these last couple of months.”
It?s an unfortunate part of covering sports because it?s not really all that big of a deal in the big scheme of things if you think about it. But people playing kids? games often make adult mistakes that have to be covered and probed. It?s quite the responsibility that Gonzalez and Sanchez have being Puerto Rican press. Not only do they have the honor of describing the fighters? exploits in the ring, they also have the obligation to talk about their foibles and weak moments. And in a nation where boxing is such a fabric of its culture and identity, that?s a fine line to walk.
Here, when you cover boxing, you are covering something bigger than mere sports. You have an opportunity to set the narrative of the island?s most beloved figures. Such was the case in September of 1999 as Trinidad defeated Oscar De La Hoya.
“It became a national event, not only when the fight happened but the day [Trinidad] arrived on the island [after the fight], it was chaos,” Gonzalez recalled. “Thousands and thousands of people on the streets. Literally, the island stopped, waiting for him to arrive on the airplane and getting down from the plane and having this big, big event. He was transported to a parade so everybody could see him celebrate. It was a feeling that he gave us something to cheer about, something to celebrate as a nation. Somebody to look to and we just embraced him.
“Even today, wherever he goes, he?s still seen as a big idol and the biggest sports figure, right now.”
OMISSION
It was pointed out to me by a Felix C. that there is another promotional entity making its move in Puerto Rico:
Steve,
Nice article, very well written with very informative points.. One thing I will add in your observation of the Promotional teams being formed in Puerto Rico to challenge Arum and PR Boxing will be GoldenBoy and Miguel Cotto Promotions. GoldenBoy has been adding Puerto Rican Fighters under the Radar and promoting them in Partnership with Miguel Cotto Promotions.I believe GoldenBoy has finally realized the error in their choice to initially focus mainly on Mexican and Black Fighters… Golden Boy has been working closely with Miguel Cotto Promotions, using MC Promotions the Way Arum uses PR Boxing to scout for new talent… I believe the Next Powerhouse Promotional team, teaming up in Puerto Rico will be GoldenBoy with Miguel Cotto Promotions… Danny Garcia is one of the PR fighters signed by Golden boy to keep an eye on down the road..
REMATCH
It looks like the rematch between Cotto and Antonio Margarito, originally slated to take place on July 16th, will most likely take place in September, as Top Rank awaits full medical clearance for Margarito, who suffered a broken orbital bone at the hands of Manny Pacquiao back in November. The fight will most likely land at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where the first edition of this rivalry took place in July of 2008.
Now, here?s the thing, if this lands in September, I reckon that Bob Arum would look to place this on September 17th, during Mexican Independence Day weekend, a traditional pay-per-view date. Well, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions had clearly stated his intentions of putting Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on that same day.
Just wondering, in the ?Cold War? that is being waged by Top Rank and Golden Boy, could this be their version of the Bay of Pigs?
NO-GO SOTO
I?m sure you?ve read by now but the rematch of one of the best bouts of 2010 is a no-go after Humberto Soto has decided to pass on the rematch with Urbano Antillon. It looks like he?s in the process of leaving Top Rank/Zanfer Promotions, believing that he is owed a significant amount of money and his contract expired soon. He has retained the services of attorney Mike Miller (which makes it a deadbolt lock that he will take his talents to Golden Boy Promotions).
This is a significant blow to the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley pay-per-view card because the main event has come under criticism and it was this fight that had the hardcore fan hooked into buying this show. Now, Top Rank has less than three weeks to come up with a suitable replacement, which in truth, will be impossible.
In the aftermath, it looks like Antillon will now face WBA lightweight titlist Brandon Rios on July 9th on Showtime.
BORICUA FLURRIES
Martin Honorio is slated to replace Roman ?Rocky? Martinez against Luis Cruz on the Lopez-Salido card, which will open up the Showtime broadcast (10:30 PM, ET/PT)…Ray Beltran could be facing Sharif Bogere, in place of Johnny Molina, on ?ShoBox? in June…Daniel Santos returns to the ring on June 10th in New York City…There are two opportunities to catch the Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales and Robert Guerrero-Michael Katsidis fights on replay. First, is on HBO Latino on Friday night at 10 PM, ET/PT and then on HBO Zone at midnight, ET/PT…This whole snafu involving Amir Khan and this pay-per-view disaster points out again the problem with having these promotional companies run by fighters and their families. Somewhere out there, Frank Warren must be chuckling. Now ?Primetime? (not Deion Sanders) will be distributing this card in the UK…So wait, if Nobu Ishida is approved by HBO for a fight against Sergio Martinez, does that mean Ishida-James Kirkland was basically some sort of elimination bout for the true middleweight title? And please, let?s hope they don?t even try and exploit the recent tragedies in Japan to try and trump this promotion up. However, on the flipside, it?s not like John Mugabi, Alan Minter or Tony Sibson is walking through that door. The middleweight division right now is about as thin as an anorexic supermodel on coke…Top Rank has announced that the May 7th bout between Pacquiao and Mosley is a complete sell-out at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I?m guessing everyone that isn?t boycotting this event purchased a ticket…I have no problems with Carl Lewis running for New Jersey senate. Just don?t let him ever sing the national anthem again…The character of Mr. Washee Washee on ?Family Guy?- yes, an Asian fellow who does dry-cleaning- is one of the funniest on the show…I can be reached at [email protected] and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com.MaxBoxing.
