Articles of 2003
ESPN Classic: Nothing But The Same Old Same Old
For the past four or five years ESPN Classic Sports has shown two hours of classic boxing on Tuesday nights. That's the good news. The bad news is they show the same fights over and over. This past Tuesday night they showed Frazier-Bonavena I, and Clay-Jones. I can easily see the interest in both of these fights.
Bonavena was Frazier's 11th pro bout, and he dropped Frazier twice. Jones was Clay's 18th fight and there was some controversy over the scoring and decision. Although I don't see why, I thought it was close, but a clear Clay win. If these were rare showings it would be great. However, both of these fights have been shown on ESPN Classic Sports countless times. It's no longer unique to see them?
If you're like me, you were ecstatic when you heard ESPN Classic was buying the fight film collection of Bill Cayton. Bill Cayton and his partner Jimmy Jacobs owned a company called “The Big Fights Inc.” Big Fights Inc. held all the rights to most of the fight films that were in existence through the 1990's.
Big Fights Inc. was the brainchild of Bill Cayton and the late Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs, started collecting fights after the controversy surrounding the first Louis-Walcott title fight. What happened was Jacobs missed seeing the fight and only knew about it from the newspaper coverage. Most boxing fans are aware that the fight ended in a controversial decision in favor of heavyweight champion Joe Louis.
At the end of the 15th round Louis left the ring before the decision was announced. Louis was totally disappointed and felt he was out-boxed by Jersey Joe. Louis had to be summoned back to the ring for the decision. In the opinion of most who actually saw the fight, Walcott should've been declared the winner. The controversy over the decision is what spurred Jacobs to want to see the fight. He was frustrated that he had no way or access of seeing a replay of the fight immediately. He wanted to see for himself if the immortal “Brown Bomber” was really bettered by Walcott that night. This was the beginning of Jacobs' obsession in the fight film business.
Jim Jacobs is widely known as the greatest Handball player of all-time. He was also quite a boxing enthusiast. In his travels to other countries to give Handball exhibitions, he began buying fight films that were no longer available in the United States. In 1961 Jacobs merged his collection with another collector, Bill Cayton, who owned the “Greatest Fights of the Century”. Cayton at the time was a network Television producer, which gave him access to many network fight telecast. Together they formed a corporation called “The Big Fights Inc.” to restore and preserve fight films.
Big Fights Inc. produced over one thousand boxing features and documentaries. They were nominated for three Academy Awards, for “Legendary Champions”, “The Heavyweight Champions”, and “Jack Johnson”. They also produced “The Fighters”, which is a documentary on the first Frazier-Ali fight. This feature was shown in theatre's throughout the country months after the fight. Big Fights Inc. has the largest library of boxing films in the world, with over 16,000 films.
In March of 1988 Jacobs died of Leukemia. He had been diagnosed with the fatal disease for sometime and even those closest to him were unaware of it until his passing. His partner Bill Cayton and Steve Lott over saw the fight collection after Jacobs passing until selling them to ESPN for what has been reported at upwards of a 100 million dollars!
When this deal was announced, I was thrilled and looked forward to Tuesday night. I thought great, I can finally see how great Sugar Ray Robinson was as a welterweight, or how great Benny Leonard was. Wrong, no such luck. Since ESPN Classic Boxing has been on the air we've been fed nothing but a steady diet of Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson fights. Being a fight collector myself for about the last 25 years, I can tell you that the two fighters for which there is an abundance of films are Ali and Tyson!
From the late 70's through to about 1984, I used to purchase fight films from Jacobs himself out of his New York office. If you caught him when he had time, he would talk boxing non-stop. If he didn't have time he would say, Frank, I can't talk now, call me next week. However, he had one Golden Rule. He said to me, Frank, and I'm paraphrasing here, I trust and believe you, but if it ever gets back to me that you gave out or sold any of the fights you got from me, I'll never do another transaction with you.
Back To ESPN Classic. My contention with them is how many times do we have to be shown the same fights over and over and over? We all know that Ali beat Foreman and Douglas upset Tyson, yet we have been shown those fights continuously. Haven't we seen Clay-Jones, Frazier-Bonavena I, Foreman-Peralta I, Robinson-Fullmer III, and Liston-Machen countless times?
Overall, there is a base of about 15 or 20 fights that have been constantly shown over the last four or five years? Its to the point now that I don't even check the guide on Tuesday nites to see what fights are being aired. The odds are that I've probably seen it many times already, just as you have. I have no doubt that most hard-core boxing fans have to be disappointed! How could you not be?
Here's the reason why I think we get the same select few fights repeatedly. I believe that ESPN is greedy! They are so afraid that if they show some of the really good stuff that we'll tape it and have it in our collection. And they're right, but so what? They have over 16,000 fights, why can't they give us one or two new ones per month? It's not like they are going to run out of fights. No, it's just their way to keep us at their mercy, and hoping to see something we haven't.
The bottom line is that it's greed. They fear so much that if they show the good stuff, their collection will lose some of its value because we will record these treasured fights. I don't know about you, but I'd love to see Robinson-Gavilan, or one of the Charles-Moore fights? However, It's all about money, and they don't want anyone else to have access to any of the unseen footage. It's that simple!
I've tried calling ESPN and complaining about seeing the same fights over and over. They have responded in one of two ways, depending on who you get when you call. The first lie I've been told is that they will be showing some fights never seen before later this year or early next year. The second lie I've been told is that they are giving the public what they want to see. Another words, according to ESPN Classic Boxing, all the fans want to see are Ali and Tyson. Somehow I don't belive this.
For what reason do we get stuck seeing the same fights repeatedly other than ESPN fearing that we'll copy them? The only reason I can think of is that maybe part of the agreement between Big Fights and ESPN states that they can only air certain fights. If that's the case, then why did Big Fights sell them? It's not like they can profit from them any more since they no longer own the rights.
In my opinion ESPN Classic doesn't care about what the fight fans want to see. They'll just continue to tell us what we want to see. I believe ESPN Classic Boxing's concept is the following. Lets show mostly heavyweights because that's who most fight fans want to see. Lets give them some vintage Ali and early Tyson, and sprinkle in some bouts from the 50's and that will appease them. Who cares about Harry Greb or Sam Langford, they won't bring us ratings.
Lastly, in my opinion ESPN Classic doesn't have enough boxing people in the decision or selection process. The bottom line is Ali and Tyson get the ratings, so that's who we'll continue to see. However, don't ever be fooled into thinking or believing that ESPN really cares about boxing, or the fans. Because they don't! If they did they would give us more than just the same old same old?
Articles of 2003
The War at 154
They're calling it the “War at 154,” though no one will confuse it with plucking evil dictators out of dirty rat holes or patrolling the rubble and dark streets of a dying city.
Still, they're hoping this fight somehow lives up to its top billing, praying a slugfest breaks out instead of 12 rounds of elevator music.
IBF champ Winky Wright (46-3, 25 K0s), versus WBA and WBC champ Shane Mosley (39-2, 35 K0s) for the undisputed junior-middleweight (or, depending on your mood, super-welterweight) championship of the world.
Finally.
It has a nice, long-overdue ring to it, a kind of “it's about damn time,” feel to it.
If you want to give credit to the right people for getting this fight done, you can start with Cory Spinks, an unlikely hero now known as the undisputed welterweight champ of the world.
If Spinks hadn't beaten Ricardo Mayorga on Dec. 13, Wright could have spent January and February snagging some sun on a St. Petersburg beach. That's because Mayorga was expected to walk through Spinks on his way to a lucrative fight with Mosley in March.
But somehow, Spinks found a way to beat Mayorga and suddenly, Mosley no longer had a March opponent and everything appeared to be ruined. Plans were shattered, promises broken, money was lost. The wife cried, the dog howled and the kids were sent to bed early.
How can this happen?
Then an idea occurred to someone important.
Hey, what about Ronald “Winky” Wright? I don't think he's got any big plans for March.
Winky, who was free in March, owes Cory a friendly slap on the back.
So what does the March 13 fight between Mosley and Wright (on HBO) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas mean?
Just about everything if you weigh 154 and hold a world title belt.
It means Winky finally gets the big-money, big-name fight that could define his career, the fight he's been chasing since his controversial majority-decision loss to Fernando Vargas in 1999.
It means Gary Shaw, Mosley's promoter, also deserves a little pat on the back for somehow putting this fight together.
It means for the first time in 29 years, you'll only have to know one name when the bar talk turns to who the best junior-middleweight fighter in the world is.
It means Mosley better arrive at the gym early and leave late. He's not fighting the awkward banger he'd be facing in Mayorga. While Mayorga knows how to slug, Wright knows how to box.
It means Wright doesn't have to pack his passport the day he leaves for the fight. He won't have to hire an interpreter, change his currency, drive on the left side or learn how to eat and pronounce strange food. Of Wright's 49 fights, 20 have required extra paperwork and extra-long plane rides. He's fought in eight different countries and on four different continents.
No wonder no one over here knows who Winky Wright is.
Finally, this fight means that with the right money and for the right reasons, two guys in the same weight class holding different world titles, can come to an understanding that meeting inside the ring to decide who is the real champion makes all the sense in the world.
The sad thing is, it took an upset by another fighter in a different weight class – Spinks – to finally make it happen.
Articles of 2003
KILL THE BILL Volume 7 — ANOTHER REFORMER WHO NEEDS TO BE REFORMED
The 99th Round
Earlier this month, in response to what he, and others, considered an excessive amount of “pork” in the latest energy bill, John McCain told his Senate colleagues, “The outbreak of Washington trichinosis will be so severe, we will be forced to have a field office for the Centers for Disease Control right next to the Capitol.”
In a recent Associated Press wire story, McCain was described as “an avid critic of spending for lawmakers' pet projects.”
One of the great curiosities of McCain's campaign to slip through Congress his own pet project, the expensive ($36 million over five years), ineffectual, and perhaps unconstitutional Professional Boxing Amendments Act (to federalize control of boxing) has been his outright refusal to include television entities – by far the most powerful and influential forces in the sport – among those which would fall under regulatory jurisdiction.
Critics have cried foul – and they've had a point. If networks are going to control the balance of power, define the major 'players', put fighters under contract, and in some cases actually assume the 'de facto' role of a promoter, they are receiving unequal and unfair protection vis-a-vis the promoters in boxing who are actually required to be licensed and regulated.
However, McCain has been resolute about maintaining this protection, avoiding all opportunities to adjust or amend the bill to accommodate the reality of the industry, not to mention Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who had previously introduced legislation that would provide some oversight of networks when they play a promotional role. McCain has been nothing short of combative on occasion, “calling out” Reid in press conferences, and in correspondence he has leaked to the public.
Why is McCain so stubborn? Part of the reason lies in a mode of political operation that has become imbedded in the man itself, despite countless “spins” to the contrary.
What is common knowledge inside the Beltway, but not necessarily among average boxing fans, is that while McCain has carefully crafted an image as a reformer railing against special interests, he has developed a talent that is much more acute, as one of the very best in the business at feeding from the corporate trough.
He has been slick enough to parlay his coziness with corporate interests into political capital, resulting in lots of money coming his way for campaigns. And his public relations apparatus, which has included many highly-cooperative writers, both in and out of sports, has enabled him to avoid having to discuss the considerable influence special interest groups have had on the drafting and development of McCain's boxing bill – the same types of groups he would purport to be thwarting in the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (otherwise known as McCain-Feingold), which, at the end of the day, amounts to little more than a rather brazen attempt to protect his own incumbency and that of other elected officials.
Campaign finance records available through the website OpenSecrets.org indicate that, for example, during 1999, the third-highest contributor to what, at the time, was McCain's insurgent run at the Republican presidential nomination was Viacom ($47,750), which controls a number of TV outlets, including Showtime, which has a major investment in boxing.
The top eight corporate contributors to McCain's “Straight Talk America” political action committee from 1997-2002 included three companies that would be affected, one way or another, by the way McCain's bill was shaped – Viacom, AT&T (which controlled cable outlets and sold pay-per-view boxing events), and AOL Time Warner (which owns HBO, boxing's most powerful single entity).
And as for McCain's last U.S. Senate campaign, waged in 1998, the list of his top fifty corporate donors is replete with entities who have a substantial stake in boxing, and which have a “special interest” in avoiding the regulatory blanket – Viacom (3rd – $55,250), AT&T (4th – $51,563), NBC/General Electric (20th – $19,500), Fox/News Corp. (22nd – $19,050), Time Warner (T43rd – $12,000), and Univision (T43rd – $12,000), not to mention Anheuser-Busch (5th -$51,563), a company in which McCain has considerable financial interests, both individually (he has reported at least a half-million dollars in debentures) and through his family (which controls the largest distributorship in Arizona), and which over the past two decades has been boxing most prominent sponsor, with nearly all of that advertising delivered through television.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which McCain chairs and under whose domain the boxing bill falls, is heavily courted by companies with interests in the sport. For the six-year cycle between 1995-2000, the top committee-related contributors to committee members include: AT&T ($369,960), Time-Warner ($249,585), Viacom ($167,654), the Walt Disney Company, which owns ESPN ($147,758), and the National Cable Television Association ($129,101).
Noted boxing promoters like Don King, Bob Arum, Cedric Kushner, Main Events, Duva Boxing, Gary Shaw or DiBella Entertainment do not appear on that list; apparently there was not enough in the way of donations to rise in McCain's pecking order.
Despite his well-cultivated “reformer” image, McCain has time and again demonstrated that he is a creature of corporate America and a bedfellow of corporate lobbyists. His leveraging efforts have been particularly remarkable, and he's utilized his position on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee – first as the ranking Republican and now as chair – to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporations he has regulatory power over.
McCain, who through his campaign finance measure is regarded by many First Amendment advocates as no friend of free speech, is notorious for freezing out consumer groups who would like to present their cases to his committee but who have not lavished him with campaign donations. According to a February 2000 story in the New York Press, representatives of corporations – the lion's share of which are directly tied to McCain's campaign war chests – out-number such consumer-interest groups by a 10-to-1 margin when it comes to appearances at committee hearings.
The causative links between campaign donations and special favors have become a McCain trademark. In 1999, after McCain-authored legislation to allow satellite TV companies to carry local programming in each market, which had previously been prohibited, was approved by his committee, one of the players who stood to experience a resulting windfall – EchoStar Communications – held a huge fund-raiser for McCain's presidential campaign.
During the 2000 primary season, as word came down that McCain was pressuring the Federal Communications Commission to act on a license transfer in favor of Paxson Communications, a company that had, to that date, “coordinated” $20,000 in contributions for his run at the nomination and treated him to many free flights on its corporate jet, his then-opponent, George W. Bush, was moved to remark, “I think somebody who makes campaign financing an issue has got to be consistent and walk the walk.”
Of course, one understands McCain's pattern of behavior more vividly upon an examination into his central role in the infamous “Keating Five” scandal, one of history's most naked examples of politicians exerting special levels of influence for the sake of large campaign contributors.
Charles Keating Jr., who owned the Lincoln Savings & Loan Association and was a major presence in Arizona, was under investigation by authorities – specifically the Federal Home Loan Bank Board – for making investments of such a speculative nature that they put at risk the government-insured money of depositors. Keating took issue with the premise of the investigation, and wanted the regulators off his back. He had, between 1982 and 1987, stuffed the campaign coffers of five United States Senators – John Glenn of Ohio, Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, Don Riegle of Michigan, and McCain – to the tune of $1.4 million.
At the same time, McCain family members, including his wife and father-in-law, were the chief investors in the Fountain Square Shopping Center, controlled and managed by Keating, with a stake estimated at $359,000. McCain and his family were also frequent vacation guests of Keating – traveling at Keating's expense on Keating's private jet to the resort Keating owned at Cat Cay in the Bahamas – at least nine times in all. Surely there were interests to protect on more than one front.
Although he later claimed to be very reluctant in doing so, McCain nonetheless couldn't resist in joining with his four Senate colleagues in April of 1987 to pressure regulators to end their investigation of Keating, which had been ongoing for two years. The regulators later testified that they felt intimidated by McCain's group, which was tagged the “Keating Five”.
To illustrate the justification of the investigation, the S&L controlled by McCain's friend Keating busted out, ruining thousands of investors and costing taxpayers $3.4 billion in bailouts, the worst hit in the entire saving and loan scandal.
There was also more than one call within his home state of Arizona for McCain to resign.
During this particular period in his career, McCain was hardly interested in raising the issue of campaign finance reform. In fact, quite the contrary – he resisted it at every turn and resisted others who made an effort in that direction. According to a December 8, 1987 story in the Phoenix Gazette
, “So why has Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., gone to unprecedented lengths to block reform of the Senate campaign finance system? Why does he oppose letting this important matter even come to a vote? Perhaps it's because he is a prime beneficiary of the special interest funding of congressional elections. McCain raised over $2.5 million for his 1986 election . . . more than $760,000 of his campaign funds came from political action committee (PACs) . . . especially disturbing are the contributions to McCain's campaign coffers from PACs outside of Arizona.”
And McCain simply embarrassed himself when his family's investment deals with Keating were uncovered. In September of 1989, as he was questioned about them by the Arizona Republic, he called the reporter “a liar” and denounced his efforts as “irresponsible journalism”. When pressed later, he told the same reporter, “That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot.”
In ultimately protecting one of their own, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics asserted McCain broke no laws, but did say this about the man who is now the self-professed “champion of campaign finance reform”:
“Mr. Keating, his associates, and his friends contributed $56,000 for Senator McCain's two House races in 1982 and 1984, and $54,000 for his 1986 Senate race. Mr. Keating also provided his corporate plane and/or arranged for payment for the use of commercial or private aircraft on several occasions for travel by Senator McCain and his family, for which Senator McCain ultimately provided reimbursement when called upon to do so. Mr. Keating also allowed Senator McCain and his family to vacation with Mr. Keating and his family, at a home provided by Mr. Keating in the Bahamas, in each of the calendar years 1983 through 1986……..”
According to a Time magazine story in December of 1999, ” He (McCain) denounces big-spending special interests and yet accepts flights on corporate jets; he puts the speaker of the Arizona house of representatives on his campaign payroll despite a flurry of ethics charges around him; he neglects to recuse himself from debates about measures that would affect his family beer business.”
Yet the writers, Nancy Gibbs and John F. Dickerson, insist, “But a funny thing happened on the way to his deathbed conversion (to campaign reformer): he really reformed.”
McCain's posture toward television interests in the process of crafting the boxing bill would strongly suggest otherwise.
On a personal note, as I reviewed some of the material for this story, my mind regressed to a couple of years ago, as I was compiling the investigative report “A Commission Run Amok”, which dealt with the Florida State Athletic Commission.
At the time, Mike Scionti, the commission's former executive director, was awaiting a hearing on ethics charges. He had been embroiled in a firestorm of controversy that eventually led to his firing by Governor Jeb Bush, over what was considered to be highly improper conduct while in office. A non-profit organization – a charity for youth – that the commission had established and Scionti had spearheaded, accepted a large donation from promoter Don King, after which Scionti had sought to change a commission regulation about promotional contracts that would have benefited King.
There was no evidence that any money went into Scionti's pocket directly, or that it went to furthering any personal agenda of Scionti's – public relations-related or otherwise.
Meanwhile, McCain had gone to bat, more aggressively and, by all accounts, with a much heavier hand, on behalf of entities that plowed money into his election campaigns and to political action committees that were designed to promote McCain's political objectives – in many respects creating a higher public profile for the senator, which has in turn spawned media coverage, book sales, and even more political donations.
And I'm saying to myself, isn't what McCain has done more devoid of an ethical foundation than what Scionti did? And are there not 500 others engaged in the same ballgame as McCain – albeit not as skillfully – on Capitol Hill?
The stories you hear about boxing people pale by comparison. If state boxing regulators conducted business in the same manner as McCain has conducted his business in Congress, would I not have been able to write about twenty “Operation Cleanup” books by now?
And given those parameters, at what price would we be placing the sport into the hands of politicians like him?
As one writer put it, “The John McCain of old should be thankful that his political fate wasn't determined by John McCain the reformer.”
I would suggest McCain's nothing more than an old dog who could care less about learning new tricks.
fightpage@totalaction.com
Copyright 2003 Total Action Inc.
Articles of 2003
The Highs and Lows.
In a few days we'll be turning the page on 2003 and looking ahead to another year that is bound to be eventful- they almost always are.
But before we go full speed ahead to 2004, let's look back on what we've witnessed the past 12 months in the game of boxing.
And what we've found out is that sometimes the sports highlights, were also it's lowlights. Oftentimes, they were one in the same.
HIGHLIGHT: Vitali Klitschko's valiant performance against Lennox Lewis.
Coming in as a late replacement for Kirk Johnson, Klitschko would give the heavyweight champion all he could handle for six rounds before the fight was halted because of a grotesque cut over his left eye. In fighting so well and bravely against Lewis, he not only changed the perception of himself, but off his whole fighting family. The Klitschko name had been redeemed.
LOWLIGHT: Lennox Lewis's behavior with HBO's Larry Merchant after that fight.
Lewis has been a very respectable and representative champion during his reign. But he acted like a downright brat in his post-fight interview with Larry Merchant on live television. When confronted with the truth, he tried to hijack the interview by yanking the microphone away from Merchant, who had to hold on for dear life. During the bout he looked like a fading fighter on a bad night. Afterwords, he looked like an infant in need of a timeout.
HIGHLIGHT: Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward complete their thrilling trilogy.
Gatti and Ward had a lot to live up to when they met for the third time this past June. And live up to it they did, in a fight with momentum shifts and a constantly changing ebb-and-flow. Gatti would overcome a damaged right hand to win a hard-fought ten round decision. It was a fitting conclusion to one of the games great rivalries and the career of Ward, who called it a day on a proud career.
LOWLIGHT: There will be no more Gatti-Ward in the future.
Which may actually be a good thing, because I'm not sure they could handle anymore of each other. But boxing will miss this rivalry.
HIGHLIGHT: Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley rematch.
It's always good for the business of boxing when 'the Golden Boy' engages in a mega-fight. The interest is high- even among the usually apathetic general media- boxing becomes the showcase event in the world of sports and everyone involved: from the fighters, to the promoters, the pay-per-view outlets and casino's make money.
LOWLIGHT: De La Hoya's and Arum's reaction to the decision in that fight.
It's one thing to think that you won a close fight, it's even acceptable to complain about the decision. But the manner in which both Oscar and his promoter cast aspersions on the judges and Nevada State Athletic Commission, were low blows of the Andrew Golota variety. Luckily for them, they were only given light slaps on the wrists for their irresponsible and incendiary comments.
But the bottom line is they both hurt the sport with their allegations and the fact that more than one media outlet ran with their quotes, further hurt boxing's reputation.
HIGHLIGHT: Roy Jones makes history
In defeating John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight belt, Jones became the first middleweight in over a hundred years to win a heavyweight crown. This fight also did very well, registering over 500,000 pay-per-view buys, which is always a good sign for the industry.
LOWLIGHT: Jones' indecisiveness after that win.
Jones had all the momentum in the world after his win over Ruiz, but instead of capitalizing on it, he tried to pinch pennies with Evander Holyfield, threw out astronomical numbers for a fight with Mike Tyson( which is a loooong ways from ever happening) and then had to settle for a rather non-descript fight back at light heavyweight against Antonio Tarver.
HIGHLIGHT- Toney turns the 'Lights Out' on Holyfield
James Toney had seemingly been in exile since his embarrassing loss to Roy Jones in 1994. But he came back strong in 2003 with wins over Vassiliy Jirov and then a stoppage of Evander Holyfield, which stamped his entrance into the heavyweight division. The game can always use a few good big men and who cares if that comes in the form of former middleweights like Toney and Jones.
LOWLIGHTS: Holyfield isn't retiring.
'The Real Deal' maintained that he wouldn't retire till he won the undisputed title or got his hat handed to him. Well, after this bout it was evident that the former wasn't happening and the latter did. But like most other great fighters, they are the last to know when it's time to call it a day.
HIGHLIGHT: 'Pac Man' gobbles up Barrera.
It's always shocking and uplifting when a fighter bursts onto the scene and elevates himself the way Manny Pacquiao did against Marco Antonio Barrera this past November. Barrera, had universal acclaim as one of the sports premiere pound-for-pound performers. Pacquiao, while a respected fighter, was thought to be just a notable opponent for Barrera.
Instead, Barrera would get blitzed by the all-out, frenetic attack of the Filipino. Barrera would be simply overwhelmed by the punches of Pacquiao and his corner would have to rescue him from the onslaught of the southpaw in the eleventh round.
LOWLIGHT: Murad Muhammad allegedly gobbles up Pacquiao.
This was mentioned prominently on the HBO broadcast that out of the $700,000 license fee given to Pacquiao's promoter, Murad Muhammad, only about $300,000 had gone to the fighter. And that was before the money was cut up in various ways.
Once source close to the situation tells me that after all was said and done, Pacquiao, wound up with about $80,000. It looks like he may have taken a worse beating than the one he gave out.
HIGHLIGHT: Johnny Tapia comes out of a coma in January.
You gotta hand it to Tapia, most guys take standing eight counts, this little guy takes mandatory flat lines, this is about the third or fourth time he's been close to dead only to come off the canvas. Once again after another relapse in drugs, he would be in an intensive care unit battling for his life. As friends, family and loved ones surrounded him, he would beat the odds once again to walk out of the hospital and fight again.
LOWLIGHTS: Tapia reportedly overdoses in December.
Tapia swears that he did not overdose, but rather took some cold medication that he had an allergic reaction to. Uh, ok, sure, whatever you guys say. But do they have to insult everyone's intelligence, here? Isn't it time that Tapia got some real help for his problems?
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Mikaelian vs Rozicki POSTPONED Amidst Rumors that Promoter Don King is Ailing
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
I Still Think That Anthony Joshua Should Retire From Boxing
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Canelo Proves Too Canny and Tough for Edgar Berlanga in Las Vegas
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
Notes on the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame, the Return of ‘Boots’ and More
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Mike Tyson and his Conqueror Danny Williams: Then and Now, a Study in Contrasts
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Daniel Dubois Demolishes Anthony Joshua
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Canelo – Berlanga Postscript
-
Featured Articles1 week ago
WBA Feather Champ Nick Ball Chops Down Rugged Ronny Rios in Liverpool