Conflict, though universal and timeless, is not a 24/7 institution. War is punctuated by periodic negotiations. Professional wrestling needs promos to set up, flesh out or add to the storylines. Even ?The Jerry Springer Show? prefaces its tussles with bleep-filled conversation.
A fight with no context will still draw attention. Witness schoolyard score settling. Watch the multitude of videos popping up online of brawls at fast food restaurants, diners, sports stadiums, and neighborhood settings somewhere, anywhere and everywhere in America. And fights in the stands at boxing matches can draw the attention away from even the most engaging battle between the ropes.
But interests in those battles last only as long as the fights themselves. Giving context adds drama to the action and makes storylines stick.
HBO has followed that formula with its ?Countdown? shows, its ?24/7? miniseries, and most recently its 12-minute ?Face Off? broadcasts. The tension between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye got people talking. So did the verbal sparring between Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal.
The ?Face Off? for the third bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez was nowhere near as gripping, partly because of English being the fighters? second language, and partly because Pacquiao and Marquez have a rivalry in the ring but are respectful outside of it.
That leaves the job of getting the conversation going to ?24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez,? the first episode of which aired this past Saturday.
Let?s talk about the first episode, then.
With a nod to syndicated columnist Norman Chad, I took notes:
10:01 p.m. Eastern Time: Liev Schreiber, who could have a second career as the next incarnation of movie preview guy Don LaFontaine, perfectly describes the storyline of this fight:
?Seven years ago, two men found themselves pitted against each other in the ring. And 12 exhilarating rounds of boxing revealed only how even a match they were. So a few years later they met again, an evening that yielded a victor, but also an echoing quantity of dispute.
?Two bouts had hardly determined who was superior, but in the time that?s passed since, while both have remained world-class fighters, only one has risen to the standing that transcends his place in the sport: global icon. But inside these ropes, both men know in its purest of forms supremacy remains very much unresolved.?
Unfortunately, this fight will not say anything about the past, only about who the fighters are now. Pacquiao and Marquez were both featherweights in 2004 when they first fought and both junior lightweights in 2008 in their rematch. Now Pacquiao has retained his speed despite rising to the welterweight division, while Marquez just does not (and will not) carry the weight well.
10:02 p.m.: ?I have to prove who won those two fights,? Marquez says. Says Pacquiao: ?I have to prove this fight that, you know, he?s wrong.?
The first two fights are like the number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop: ?The world will never know.?
You?ll find people who thought Marquez won both and people who thought Pacquiao won both. Sometimes close fights are just close fights.
