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Over 35 years now I have either been a devout fan of boxing or involved with the sport one way or another. I have met boxing royalty, trained fighters, owned a gym and ignored every other sport there is because of my love of boxing.
It is almost unexplainable the grasp boxing can have over a person, be it a fighter, trainer, promoter and even the writers who sit down day after day in front of their computers typing out article after article pertaining to the sport.
You learn about what drives these warriors to put their bodies and health on the line, year after year, mostly for minimal reward considering the sacrifices they make and it brings you to a whole new level of admiration.
Growing up, my parents taught me that in life, no matter how passionate you are about something, there will be good and bad to go along with it. They taught me that if you have a true passion, you must accept the bad but in no way does that mean you have to condone it and if the day comes that you turn a blind eye to it, you’re doing nothing more than an injustice to not only yourself but all those involved.
Even if you don’t have the power to change things, make sure you voice your opinion, even if it is for nothing more then self satisfaction.
I have defended the sport time and again during controversy, bogus rankings, second rate main events and everything in-between. I make great efforts not to express my dissatisfaction with this sport at times; I usually go out of my way to only write about the good side of boxing and its associates.
As a writer, for one reason or another, I feel it is my duty to only focus on the positive, but there comes a time when the negative needs to be addressed, though this is the first time I HAVE to address it. If for nothing more then my own personal piece of mind and strangely enough, its because of a wrong doing to a fighter that more often then not, I look forward to him getting a good punch in the mouth.
Paul Malignaggi can be the most arrogant guy around. He never stops talking and it is usually about a bunch of nothing, The fact is, you can’t wait for him to get in the ring just so he will stop talking. That is the PR side of Paul Malignaggi though, just because a guy talks a lot does not mean he is talking just to hear the sound of his own voice.
In fact, Malignaggi, prior to his Aug 22 showdown with Juan Diaz, was talking nothing but sense and was dismissed by most as a guy looking for excuses to lose before the bout even took place. When the fight started, Paul was anything but a fighter looking to lose.
Paulie was faster than he had been in recent memory, he was accurate, he was willing to trade and he cut Diaz. The bout was close and had many back and forth rounds, almost too close to decide. When the fight was over, both Malignaggi and Diaz had proven not only are they still top caliber fighters, but a threat to any and all champions.
This was a win-win bout for all involved, a fan friendly bout with two fighters that had begun to produce doubts on their place in the sport showing they are still world class and even in a loss, one managed to remain marketable.
At the end of the affair, scores of 115-113 either way or a draw was expected by many and if this was how it played out, there would be no dispute but when Malignaggi lost by the margin of 118-110 on Gale Van Hoy’s scorecard it became an outrage.
This was not only unfair to Malignaggi, but an insult to the sport and those who witnessed the bout. The loss is not the issue here, it was a close bout that could have gone either way, the issue is that this fighter gave it his all in a first rate performance and was not given credit for that; even with a hometown scoring differential there is no way Malignaggi lost that decision 118-110!
On January 24, 2009, Shane Mosley faced Antonio Margarito for the welterweight championship. In the dressing room, prior to the fight, Mosley’s trainer Naseem Richardson saw a suspicious substance fall from the hand wrap of Margarito, which appeared to be and was later proven to be plaster.
Why was it Richardson that found the substance? Why was the state athletic commission’s designated official, whose only job was to be on the lookout for such things, not the one to find it? Was it overlooked this once accidentally or was it plain out laziness by an official who was there simply for cosmetic reasons?
Either way, there is no excuse. Shane Mosley could have not only been beaten that night, given the illegal wraps, but hurt permanently. Richardson’s job was to observe, not to be on the lookout for plaster. Good thing for Mosley that Richardson is that observant; how many other trainers not suspecting any sort of foul play to that extent have had their fighters fall victim to such things? How many fighters have had a career cut short due to the lack of seriousness of their jobs taken by other athletic officials?
In Germany, it has become almost common boxing knowledge that to beat the hometown favorite you need to either win 10 of the 12 rounds decisively or knock him out with the latter being the suggested result. I understand that there will always be the hometown advantage and that’s fine to an extent, but when you know going into something you are at such a disadvantage it is almost as if you are being told ”save the good stuff for a bout you could win”. It’s disheartening to the fighters and those who support them.
In a perfect world, one could just refuse to fight in certain venues, refuse to fight if a certain judge in on the panel or refuse to fight if your opponent has the hometown advantage and that hometown is known for extreme prejudice.
This is boxing though, not professional team sports, fighters don’t have six year, $3.5 million dollar contracts that will pay out, win or lose. In boxing, one loss can determine a fighters whole career, a setback in the rankings can mean no title shot in the future; it can remove a fighter from the top 10 rankings.
When a fighter falls behind, the offers become fewer and fewer, the paydays smaller and smaller. Every fighter does not make millions, their careers are usually short ones and most do not have a plan B to fall back on when they retire, so the money they do make needs to go a long way to provide for their families.
They do not have the luxury of being able to turn down a big bout regardless if they know the deck is against them or not. Besides, they are fighters and to shy away from a challenge isn’t in them.
Who do we blame when these things happen again and again? The fighters certainly are not at fault, the trainers are not at fault and you can’t blame the promoters for what happens, at least the first time an incident occurs.W hen these are repeated occurrences by judges, state officials and sanctioning bodies, there could be alternatives though.
Refuse to schedule bouts in those hometowns or countries, don’t hire the same judges again, make it clear you want things done by the book, or as close to it as possible. I know many who read this are saying “Why would a promoter whose fighters get the advantage not want to keep fights where they benefit most?”. Well, for one reason, it’s the right thing to do, but we will leave that one alone because we all know that when money is involved, the right thing rarely is done. I have a better reason: the fighters themselves and a bit of integrity!
Eventually, fans will tire of the controversy, they will tire of the fights they know the outcome of, excluding a shock KO; they will eventually look elsewhere for their entertainment. This is not to say boxing will die out because contrary to the cynics out there who for years have called for boxing’s death, the sport will never die but with other fight sports gaining popularity, it certainly could take a step back.
Even if the sport is not affected financially, in the long run how about this one crazy idea; lets not screw the guys who get in there time and again risking all they have to not only make a living and entertain the fans but the guys who put themselves at risk to line the pockets of the promoters who live like kings off the boxer’s efforts?
What will happen in the future if the sport keeps allowing these practices to take place? I certainly don’t know, maybe somewhere down the road it could affect the sport as a whole, maybe the sport will continue on this way and prosper beyond anything it ever has before.
Do I expect a change? In truth no, especially not due to a rant on my behalf but to my self admission, I hope one day someone wakes up who has the power to level the playing fields, to make sure commission representatives pay attention in the locker rooms, make sure judges who blatantly score bouts lopsidedly don’t get behind the scorecard of another worthwhile fight.
Possibly, one person with the power to change things just a little bit one day says to themselves, “This isn’t right and I am not going to allow it on my watch anymore”.
If I was a betting man, that is one bet I would avoid like the plague, but then again, this is boxing and in boxing you never can tell what’s going to happen. I can say that I will continue to follow the sport, I will continue to support the sport and write about it with the same passion I have for years and more than likely, not have another rant like this for the duration of my career.
It is a sport I love like none other, it is a sport that has been good to me over the years and it is a sport that, for all its short comings, it gives twice as many reasons to keep coming back.
Just because I love it doesn’t always mean I have to like it.
