THE SQUARE RING Oct. 16, 2013 by James Wellington Jeeves , Esq. keeppunching and Brooks Sports Bureau, Phuket Thailand Find it rude when honesty jumps………. smacks you in the kisser…….. forcing a reassessment of their your beliefs ? Respondent by saying, “That’s very hurtful”. Well bucko the “trut’s” the truth. Boxing and those that practice the “manly and womanly art of self defense” are delusional. Ignoring it won’t make it go away. Delusional ? “The belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary” Boxing today is dead as Kelsey’s reproductive organ. Poor old Kelsey. Ask 100 people about boxing and 99 will tell you “it’s fixed”. This perception comes from the last fight they saw where they didn’t pick the winner. Therefore the fix was in. Perception is reality. The latest practionaire of “delusion” is one Timothy Bradley. After he won a well deserved SD(115-113,116-112, 113-115) win over Juan Manual Marquez he said “That’s my tickets to Boxing Hall of Fame”. It’s the crowing point of my career.” He is either: A. Bat S**T crazy B. filled with some untraceable stimulant C. delusional. D. Some or all of the above There is no wrong answer but take “C” for the sake of the column. As is his usually scenario Juan Manual chimed in “ “I felt that I did win. The judges took it away from me. I did my job. I’ve been robbed six times in my career.” For the record in the world of Marquez he has been robbed more times than a 7/11 in Detroit. The “Se Habla’s” that packed the Thomas & Mack would Shirley agree as would something called “consensus scoring”. In that system a boxer is given a round only when he wins on at least 2 of the 3 judges cards. Marquez won 7 of 12 against Bradley thereby winning the fight 115-113. The problem is that anyone, excluding Piñata Pounders but including Stevie Wonder, knows that Bradley won the fight. Part of Bradley’s delusion comes from his opinion that he beat Manny Pacquiao which questions his creditability and mental stability. As Ed Graney, Review Journal, points out, “ It was a SD victory that was so controversial, so ridiculous that an investigation was conducted by the attorney general. Nothing sinister was found to have occurred—foolish judging ranks more common that illegal; in these parts.” In a random act if honesty Max Kellerman said during the Bradley-Marquez “This is a smart chess match”. Not a big market for chess matches on PPV especially at $54.95. Post fight it was suggested that Bradley’s next opponent would be Floyd Mayweather jr. Not going to happen. EVER. Why ? Bradley brings nothing to the table. He has no fan base, fights for HBO---Mayweather at Showtime---- and oh yes his promoter is Bob Arum who Mayweather hates like his own silence in an interview. Bradley’s contribution to PPV ? Forgetaboutit. Boxing judges from Nevada are perceived as bad, crooked, blind, infirmed or some combination thereof. None of that is true. Well mostly. They’re no better or no worse than in any another jurisdiction. Steps are being taken though to change the perception. The LA Times reported that “Nevada has altered it’s selection process for judges and referee’s. Fighters representatives & promoters will be employed to object to those arbiters they don’t want involved in a major bout.” Left out are boxing sanctioning organizations its’ their championships belts these fighters go for. The cynic would say, “Just great !!! A crooked promoter who only cares about money deciding who judges a fight with his fighter.” The Square Ring would say, “Lovely……….. just F’ing lovely”. Boxing promoters are always portrayed as money grabbing, soulless, heartless SOB’s that would make Ebenezer Scrooge look like a Mother Teresa’s soul mate. After 30 years fight manager and boxing promoter Frank Maloney has retired. He may be best known as the manager of Britain’s first heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis. Lewis recently said he’d take 100 million pounds to un-retire and return to the ring. Might be worth it to keep him off the airwaves . In retiring Frank Maloney may have disproved a couple myth’s about boxing managers/promoters. “For the last year I have gradually fallen out of love with boxing and my passion has been missing. I did much soul searching over the summer and my heart is no longer in the sport that I loved so much.” There it is. At least one manager/promoter has a soul and heart. Who would have thunk it ? Some of the public’s disillusionment with boxing is the demise of the heavyweight division where the Klitschko’s reign supreme while putting more people to sleep than Sominex. Wladimir Klitschko (61-3) defended recently against Alexander Povetkin (26-1) winning over 12. Klitschko used his usually strategy of sticking the arm out with fist open and measuring the opponent-------illegal for other boxers---, throwing a punch, then clinching while tossing punches on the referee’s off side. Yaw City. Not Yaw City was the return of Miguel Cotto (38-4) who like “Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking”. Know for his brutal body punches he annihilated Delvin Rodrigues (28-7-3) in 3. Cotto is one of those boxer’s that isn’t delusional about his abilities. There are a couple of boxer’s from the former USSR that seem to fit that bill also. Ruslan Providnikov (22-2) when last seen was knocking the stuffing out of Timothy Bradley late in their fight. He would lose but had Bradley out in the 12th and hanging on. He mixes it up against Mike Alvarado (34-1) the 19th on HBO. Alvarado’s only “L” was to Brandon Rios. Alvarado won the re-match but Rios gets the big money fight against Pacquiao. Go figure. WBA/IBO middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin isn’t delusional about his power putting 24 of 27 opponents to sleep with nary a loss. On November 2 he’s showcased on HBO against Curtis Stevens with a record of 25-3. Whether “GGG” is top of the line depends on his ability to fight and win against someone that doesn’t just come straight in. Too many boxers today delude themselves today into thinking they are “something special” . They aren’t. They explain away a loss by saying “He’s tough, hits hard and really doesn’t fit my style.” Today’s boxing people are delusional if they think the sport will ever regain a popular place in sport by it’s participants not taking changes or letting it “all hang out”. Safety in sport is never rewarded. A “win is not always a win”. Pop a Corona because Cheewit dee khrup.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 15:33:13 +0000
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