Hoping, Still Hoping, Mayweather Sees The Light

Published

10 years ago

September 11, 2014

Photo Credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME

We are all a work in progress, and by no means, I have found, does age equal wisdom.

I found myself thinking this when I heard what Floyd Mayweather said Tuesday when asked at a media event what he thought bout the Ray Rice situation. For those in a boxing bubble, Rice is the NFL player who was busted for assault, after he knocked out his then fiancee, now wife, Janay Palmer on Feb. 15 in New Jersey.

Rice was arrested and indicted for third-degree assault, after he and Palmer were both arrested at Revel Casino in Atlantic City. Thanks to the tabloid website TMZ, the story spread, and public outrage grew, as 99.9% were horrified to see the running back dragging the unconscious woman out of the elevator. A similar percentage of people were mightily surprised when Palmer and Rice were married on March 28.

He got off with a wrist slap, as his team the Ravens suspended him for the first two games of this season. The charges were dropped as Rice pled not guilty to assaulting the lady, and he has been attending a program to attend to such violent behavior. But the matter didn’t melt away into the morass of misbehavior featured regularly on TMZ. Luckily, that organization kept on working the story, and secured video, which spoke louder than our imaginations and reports from authorities and self serving statements from the billionaire boys club that is the NFL did. The video showed the couple in the elevator, Palmer walking towards Rice, and Rice delivering a left hook which knocked her out.

His fiancee. Knocked her out.

The other shoe dropped, and hit NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who not incidentally was paid $44 million dollars last year for his presumed competence and wisdom and wise stewardship, on his Guccis. Public and press scorn was ubiquitous when the smoking gun video came out; the NFL backpedaled, and tried to act contrite. Rice has been suspended indefinitely And I think Roger “Go To Hell” Goodell should be fired, definitely.

This brings us back to our shared addiction, the fight game. As you can imagine, such incidences of domestic violence, which might seem unfathomable to many of us, who can’t even imagine striking a “loved” one, let alone going there, are not a rarity among boxers. Not a surprise, I suppose, as the sport attracts an element which tends to commit such acts more than people who grew up in an atmosphere and in a place of privilege and guidance which made that behavior less likely to come to fruition.

The sport, like football, is an exercise in contained and basically structured violence, wherein the aim of many of the participants is to render the opposition insensible. Thus, we can’t all act with such naivete as to think that sometimes there could be blurring of the lines, instances where the activity and behavior which is condoned and rewarded on the field or in the ring bleeds into the off field existence. We never excuse, it goes without saying, we but of course don’t condone, but we should be able to see that nothing occurs outside of a wider context. But no one, it seems, in their right mind, would be giving Rice anything resembling a free pass. Which is why Floyd Mayweathers’ statements on Tuesday, when he was asked about the Rice situation, are galling.

Hey, we get it. We don’t live in a context free space. We get that our system can’t grind to a halt because someone effs up.The show, the money flow, must go on. The more “important” you are, most often, the more your space in the show will be held for you, even if you eff up, because ability to generate revenue is correlated with worth and importance in our system. Rice, who signed a five year contract for $35 million in 2012, is important to the Ravens. As Floyd Mayweather is important to boxing. He makes a minimum of $33 million or so per fight in his six-fight deal he signed with Showtime. The economic impact of his fights and his presence isn’t negligible and thus, he is treated accordingly. His status as a revenue-churner didn’t keep the man from being convicted of assault, though, back in 2012, stemming from a horrific incident involving the women who birthed three of his children. He was sentenced to three months and served 8 weeks of that in a Nevada facility from June to August 2012.

My hope for Mayweather, me as a person who himself seeks out positive role models to look toward to aid in my own quest to act in a “correct” and decent way, and as representative for the sport which I hold dear, has long been that I hope he sees the light.

For himself, for his family, the kids, for the sport, everything…

Bragging about gambling, and the contract, and the cars, all that stuff, I don’t care for it, because those are messages contrary to what I believe are the things that really, truly matter. But you don’t come here to read me moralize, and, further, that doesn’t mean that I am not sometimes entertained by his posturing.

Also, refer back to what I said about us not expecting too much, us expecting the fighters to act as assassins in the ring, and angels outside of it. So, in light of my hopes for Mayweather, who turns 38 in February, I was, yes, disappointed in his statements on the Rice deal. If you missed them, here’s what went down. Reporter Tim Smith, during a media scrum, asked Mayweather what he thought about “the news of the day,” the Rice situation. The boxer took a gulp of water, and swam to the deep end. “You know, I wish him nothing but the best,” said, and then cracked a joke about “that Warren Buffet coke” as an aide handed him a soda.

“When all is said and done, I wish something positive out of it…I’m not here to say anything negative about him, things happen, you live and you learn, no one is perfect.”

OK, nothing insensible there, even if my first reaction is that maybe most peoples’ first reaction is sympathy not for the striker, but in fact, the person who was struck.

Next, he talked about how he thought the Raven should have “stuck to their word,” and their initial two-game suspension. To be fair, Smith asked him to comment on that aspect of the Rice deal, so if you thought it strange that he so quickly veered toward that element of the story, rather than the bigger picture issue, there is a reason he took that route, the money route.

He made sense when after ESPN’s Dan Rafael asked for clarity, if the Raven should stick with the two game ban, as opposed to cutting Rice, Floyd said he tries to be a better person every day. He said he did see the video,and Rafael served him up a softball which he could have hit out of the park, could have shown that he’s on the right track to being that better person. He could have answered in a way to show people that the past misdeeds are history, that there will be no more accusations or such, Rafael termed the video “kind of disturbing.”

Floyd paused, as I prayed for him to do the right thing. He…didn’t.

“I think it’s a lot of worse things that go on in other peoples’ households also,” he said. “We just don’t get to see them,” said Rafael. Floyd stammered and said, “it’s just not caught on video….I wish Ray Rice nothing but the best.”

OK, that answer is disturbing, more than kind of. It is neither here nor there that horrid stuff occurs in other peoples’ households. This could be a matter where Floyd is hanging out with a brand of people where such behavior is commonplace. And while kayoing your fiancee isn’t the most heinous of crimes, I feel sad for the person who is immune to the seriousness of the act, and apparently dismisses the assault because of the prevalence of similar actions in others’ residences. A minute plus in, and Mayweather still didn’t mention Palmer, and continued to stick up for Rice, the assaulter.

He showed most sympathy, over all, for the footballer, and focused on the lost income. He then did say that he thinks the loss of vocation is hurtful to Rice, and his wife, so he did in fact refer to the victim.

Rafael asked if he thought he’d be kicked out of boxing because of his “situation.”

Mayweather was again handed the ball, and, many if not most would argue, fumbled it. He referred back to his insistent explanation that he was mistakenly found guilty, because the woman he assaulted, Josie Harris, wasn’t bruised or cut. He tried to compare and contrast, noting that Chris Brown and OJ Simpson’s and Ochocinco victims both showed the effects of being struck. “You guys have yet to see any pictures of a battered woman, a woman who claims she was kicked and beat,” he said, presumably referring to Harris. “I just live my life, try to stay positive, try to become a better person each and every day.”

Me too. Part of that, a large part of that, is trying to be patient, to help see all sides of a story or situation. So, I have to ponder, what if Floyd was wrongly convicted? My answer to my self query is, the man has a lengthy record of domestic assault situations. Where there’s smoke…Also, you might recall, last May, a Yahoo story referenced a police report from the Mayweather-Harris fight in which the writer, Martin Rogers, saw a statement from Floyd’s then 11 year old son, who told cops that he “saw my dad hitting and kicking mom.”

Hey, do police tell the truth all the time? Nobody does. But do you see the plausibility in there being a fabricated written statement from an 11 year old boy? We’re talking a JFK assassination level of sinister plotting if that were the case. It reminds me of athletes hit with allegations of PED usage who counter by saying, “I never tested positive.” Er, OK, would you not rather say that you unequivocally never used PEDs, rather than rely on the weasely lawyer response? Would Floyd not rather say ‘I never hit or kicked that woman’ rather than saying that the absence of evidence is evidence of innocence?

It appears someone spoke some sense to “Money,” told him his comments weren’t playing well, or, who knows, maybe he had his own pangs of conscience. But the next day, he was on his bike. “If I offended anyone, I apologize,” he said to a gaggle of reporters after the Wednesday presser at MGM. “I apologize to the NFL,” he said, noting he wasn’t perfect. “I am only human. Domestic violence is something I don’t condone.”

OK, I guess we take what we can get. I would to have liked to hear a more in-depth, more thoughtful apology, paired with some additional insight into the whole mess. But I think it would be hard to pull off, because Mayweather has to feel a kinship with Rice, in that both have been punished for something everybody finds appalling. We can only hope that, as always, some good comes of this sad soap opera. We hope that some eyes get opened, and some people somewhere get the message and cut the crap. Violence against loved ones, of any gender, is nothing but wrong. No excuse. Don’t talk provocation, or lack of video, or lack of evidence in the form of bruises. Just cut it out, abusers, get yourself some professional help, and do the right thing. And if we don’t speak up, all of us, who cover him, who work for him, who televise him, that’s on us. To be silent is to silently condone, is it not?

END NOTE: I reached out to Showtime, and asked for an official comment regarding Mayweather, his Rice comments, their association with him, and their stance as a corporation on the fighter in relation to his legal history. I await a response and will add it to this story when I receive it. I think it is important we hear that, because I’d like some clarity on how MY SPORT deals with this subject. I like to think we do the right thing more often than given credit for, and I think, to this point, we have all not given enough thought and attention to the negative history the sports’ biggest star has in the arena of using physical force against past and present significant others. All of us can can “try to become a better person each and every day,” like Mayweather said on Tuesday, but he is the standard bearer of the sport and people, rightly or maybe wrongly, look up to him…it is incumbent upon him to finally get it, and do it. I continue to hope he sees that light, and his behavior reflects that going forward.

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Michael Woods

In a Massive Upset, Dakota Linger TKOs Kurt Scoby on a Friday Night in Atlanta

Published

7 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

In-a-Massive-Upset-Dakota-Linger-TKOs-Kurt-Scoby-on-a-Friday-Night-in-Atlanta

Although it was an 8-rounder on a show with two “tens,” Kurt Scoby’s match with Dakota Linger was accorded main event status on tonight’s card at the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. This had everything to do with Scoby (pronounced Scooby), a former record-setting college running back who was considered one of the brightest prospects in the 140-pound weight class. “[Scoby] works harder than almost anyone I’ve ever seen,” said veteran New York promoter Lou DIBella in a conversation with Keith Idec. “But he’s literally getting better after every fight and he’s got the hammer of Thor, man. He can punch through walls.”

The Duarte, California product who has relocated to Brooklyn and trains at Gleason’s Gym, was undefeated (13-0) heading in and was expected to make Linger his ninth straight knockout victim. But Linger, a 29-year-old Buckhannon, West Virginia policemen whose first ring engagements were in Toughman competitions, wasn’t intimidated by Scoby’s press clippings or by Scoby’s bodybuilder physique.

Linger, who improved to 14-6-3 with his tenth win inside the distance, took the fight right to Scoby and repeatedly found a home for his overhand right. In the sixth round, after Linger strafed the ever-retreating Scoby with a barrage of punches, referee Malik Walid determined that he had seen enough and waived it off. The decision seemed a tad premature, but neither Scoby nor his cornermen offered anything in the way of a protest.

Tournament results

In the first installment of an 8-man super welterweight tournament, Brandon Adams returned to boxing after his second three-year layoff and showed no ring rust whatsoever. Adams, a 34-year-old family-man who grew up in the Watts district of LA, dismissed Ismael Villareal with a wicked punch to the liver in the waning seconds of round three. The official time was 2:59.

A former wold title challenger, Adams who improved to 23-3 (16 KOs), has become the king of boxing tournaments. He first attracted notice in 2018 when he won the fifth edition of “The Contender” series, scoring a wide 10-round decision over Shane Mosley Jr in the championship round.

Villareal, a second-generation prizefighter from the Bronx whose dad fought the likes of Hector Camacho, declined to 13-3.

Adams next opponent will be Francisco Veron who will bring a record of 14-0-1 (10).

In an energetic 10-rounder, Veron, a Florida-based Argentine with a strong amateur pedigree, scored a unanimous decision over Mexico-born, LA southpaw Angel Ruiz (18-3-1). The judges had it 100-90, 99-91, and 96-94.

Ruiz certainly had his moments, but Veron launched and landed many more punches despite fighting the last six rounds with a damaged eye.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 281: The Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia Show

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-281-The-Devin-Haney-and-Ryan-Garcia-Show

Over the years bouts between old foes such as Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia tend to be surprising.

Yes, both are only 25 but have known each other for many years.

When undisputed super lightweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) steps into the prize ring at Barclays Center to meet challenger Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) on Saturday, April 20, fans will be witnessing the continuation of a feud that began more than a decade ago.

And though the champion is a heavy favorite, familiarity is Garcia’s best weapon heading into their fight on the Golden Boy Promotions card that will be shown on PPV.COM with Jim Lampley and friends. DAZN pay-per-view is also streaming the card.

In many ways Haney and Garcia have ventured down the same path. From amateur sensations to fighting in Mexico while teens to asking for the biggest challenges available.

“Whichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me,” said Haney who holds the WBC super lightweight title after his win over Regis Prograis.

The first time I saw Haney as a pro he battled the dangerous Mexican contender Juan Carlos Burgos at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. It was an impressive performance against a fighter who fought three times for a world title.

Haney was 19 at the time.

My first look at Garcia as a pro was in his first bout in the U.S. when he met Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Cruz at the Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. The Boricua looked at Garcia and tried intimidating him with stares, taunts and the usual patter. During the fight both swung and missed until the second round when Garcia zeroed in and took him out.

Garcia had just turned 18, the legal age to fight in California.

Both fighters did not have the Olympics credentials that lead to fame. But their talent has allowed them to fight through the dense smoke that is professional boxing.

Haney has defeated numerous world champions such as Prograis, Vasyl Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., while Garcia has stopped champions Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell.

As amateurs, Garcia and Haney battled six times with each winning three.

“They know each other very well,” said Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. “Ryan is going to beat Devin Haney.”

Haney has a buttery-smooth style with one of the best jabs in boxing. He’s very adept at keeping distance and not allowing anyone to fight him inside. His reflexes are outstanding, yet he seldom fights inside. That’s his weakness.

Garcia fights tall and has superb hand speed and a lightning quick left hook. Though his defense lacks tightness his ability to rip off three-punch combinations in a blink of an eye pauses opponents from bullying their way inside.

“These guys always just look at me and look at me like I don’t know how to box,” said Garcia on social media. “Why was I one of the best fighters in the amateurs. Why was I a 15-time National champion…why did I beat everyone I came across.”

Haney is a strong favorite by oddsmakers to defeat Garcia. But you can never tell when it comes to fighters that know each other well and are athletically gifted.

When Sergio Mora challenged Vernon Forrest he was a big underdog. When Tim Bradley fought Manny Pacquiao the first time, he was also the underdog. And when Andy Ruiz met Anthony Joshua few gave him a chance.

Haney and Garcia have history in the ring. It should be an interesting battle.

PPV.COM

Jim Lampley will be leading the broadcast on PPV.COM for the Haney-Garcia card at Barclays and texting with fans on the card live. He will be accompanied by journalists Lance Pugmire, Dan Conobbio and former champion Chris Algieri.

The PPV.COM broadcast begins at 5 p.m. PT. and is available in Canada and the USA.

Other News

MMA stars Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will be holding a media day event on Friday, April 19, at NOVO at L.A. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Diaz and Masvidal will be boxing against each other in a grudge match on June 1 at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The two MMA stars met five years at UFC 244 with Masvidal winning by TKO over Diaz due to cuts.

This is a grudge match, but under boxing rules.

Fight card in Commerce, Calif.

360 Promotions returns to Commerce Casino on Saturday April 20 with undefeated super lightweight Cain Sandoval leading the charge.

Sandoval (12-0) faces Angel Rebollar (8-3) in the main event that will be shown live on UFC Fight Pass. Also on the card are two female events including hot prospect Lupe Medina (5-0) versus Sabrina Persona (3-1) in a minimumweight clash.

Doors open at 4 p.m.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

There were few surprises when co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren and their benefactor HE Turki Alalshikh held a press conference in London this past Monday to unveil the undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol show at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 1. Most of the match-ups had already been leaked.

For die-hard boxing fans, Beterbiev-Bivol is such an enticing fight that it really doesn’t need an attractive undercard. Two undefeated light heavyweights will meet with all four relevant belts on the line in a contest where the oddsmakers straddled the fence. It’s a genuine “pick-‘em” fight based on the only barometer that matters, the prevailing odds.

But Beterbiev-Bivol has been noosed to a splendid undercard, a striking contrast to Saturday’s Haney-Garcia $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view in Brooklyn, an event where the undercard, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, is an absolute dumpster fire.

The two heavyweight fights that will bleed into Beterbiev-Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Zhang, would have been stand-alone main events before the incursion of Saudi money.

Hrgovic-Dubois

Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh this past December. Hrgovic, the Croatian, was fed a softie in the form of Australia’s Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10^th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

There’s an outside chance that Hrgovic vs. Dubois may be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.

The May 18 showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the rotation system for a unified heavyweight champion and the organization has made it plain that the winner of Usyk-Fury must fulfill his IBF mandatory before an intervening bout.

The best guess is that the Usyk-Fury winner will relinquish the IBF belt. If so, Hrgovic and Dubois may fight for the vacant title although a more likely scenario is that the organization will keep the title vacant so that the winner can fight Anthony Joshua.

Wilder-Zhang

The match between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is a true crossroads fight as both Wilder, 38, and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are nearing the end of the road and the loser (unless it’s a close and entertaining fight) will be relegated to the rank of a has-been. In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his final rodeo.

Both are coming off a loss to Joseph Parker.

Wilder last fought on the card that included Hrgovic and Dubois and was roundly out-pointed by a man he was expected to beat. It’s a quick turnaround for Zhang who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost a majority decision.

Other Fights

Either of two other fights may steal the show on the June 1 event.

Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) meets Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight contest. New Jersey’s Ford will be defending the WBA world title he won with a come-from-behind, 12th-round stoppage of Otabek Kholmatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpool’s “Wrecking” Ball, a relentless five-foot-two sparkplug, had to settle for a draw in his title fight with Rey Vargas despite winning the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns.

Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) meets fellow unbeaten Austin “Ammo” Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East London’s Sheeraz, the son of a former professional cricket player, is unknown in the U.S. although he trained for his recent fights at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in California. Riding a skein of 13 straight knockouts, he has a date with WBO title-holder Janibek Alimkhanuly if he can get over this hurdle.

The Forgotten Heavyweight

“Unbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,” intoned ring announcer Michael Buffer by way of introduction. Buffer was referencing Michael Hunter who stood across the ring from his opponent Artem Suslenkov.

This scene played out this past Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was Hunter’s second fight in three weeks. On March 23, he scored a fifth-round stoppage of a 46-year-old meatball at a show in Zapopan, Mexico.

The second-generation “Bounty Hunter,” whose only defeat prior to last weekend came in a 12-rounder with Oleksandr Usyk, has been spinning his wheels since TKOing the otherwise undefeated Martin Bakole on the road in London in 2018. Two fights against hapless opponents on low-budget cards in Mexico and a couple of one-round bouts for the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry in the fledgling and largely invisible Professional Combat League, are the sum total of his activity, aside from sparring, in the last two-and-a-half years.

Hunter’s chances of getting another big-money fight took a tumble in Tashkent where he lost a unanimous decision in a dull affair to the unexceptional Suslenkov who was appearing in his first 10-round fight. The scores of the judges were not announced.

You won’t find this fight listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan notes, the popular website will not recognize a fight conducted under the auspices of a rogue commission. (Another fight you won’t find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walsh’s 6-round split decision over the 9-2-1 Frenchman, Noel Lafargue, in the African nation of Guinea on Dec. 16, 2023. You can find it on YouTube, but according to boxrec, boxing’s official record-keeper, it never happened.)

Anderson-Merhy Redux

The only thing missing from this past Saturday’s match in Corpus Christi, Texas, between Jared Anderson and Ryad Merhy was the ghost of Robert Valsberg.

Valsberg, aka Roger Vaisburg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson for not trying in his match with LA’s Ed Sanders in the finals of the heavyweight competition at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Valsberg tossed Johansson out of the ring after two rounds and Johansson was denied the silver medal. The Swede redeemed himself after turning pro, needless to say, when he demolished Floyd Patterson in the first of their three meetings.

Merhy was credited with throwing only 144 punches, landing 34, over the course of the 10 rounds. Those dismal figures yet struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always insisted that the widely-quoted CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)

Whatever the true number, it was a disgraceful performance by Merhy who actually showed himself to have very fast hands on the few occasions when he did throw a punch. With apologies to Delfine Persoon, a spunky lightweight, U.S. boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our shores.

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