Connect with us

Asia & Oceania

Abel Sanchez and GGG: A Winning Combination

Published

on

Winning Combination

Winning Combination – Boxing trainers have been known to prowl the gyms in search of a diamond in the rough. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes an unpolished gem falls right into their lap, manna from heaven. Abel Sanchez can relate. In March of 2010, a 27-year-old boxer about whom he knew nothing walked into his gym in Big Bear, California. “Hello,” said the stranger, “my name is Gennady Golovkin.” And so was born a great partnership, an unlikely alliance between a Kazakhstani and a Mexican-American.

The son of a Russian coal miner and his Korean wife, Golovkin had recently severed ties with Universum, his German promoter, for whom he was the third banana among their middleweights, languishing behind Felix Sturm and Sebastian Zbik. He arrived at Sanchez’s gym with his manager, Oleg Hermann, Oleg’s brother Max, and their legal advisor. They were checking out gyms in southern California and had called ahead, requesting permission to meet Sanchez and inspect his operation.

The older men left the boxer alone with Sanchez while they ran off to sightsee. Situated in the pine-scented forest of the San Bernardino Mountains, 80 miles from Los Angeles, Big Bear, California is a scenic wonder, a postcard perfect vacation retreat.

Golovkin had brought with him tapes containing footage of some of his fights. As they watched the tapes, Sanchez offered up a few helpful suggestions, communicating with gestures to overcome the language barrier. When he went home that night, he googled the boxer’s name to learn more about him and was wowed by what he discovered. The stranger with whom he had spent a good portion of the afternoon was undefeated in his short professional career and had been virtually invincible at the amateur level, winning 365 fights.

Not quite eight weeks later, Sanchez received a phone call. “Mr. Golovkin will be arriving at Los Angeles at 2 pm tomorrow,” said the caller, speaking with a thick German accent. “Please be there at the airport when he arrives.”

Sanchez didn’t see this coming; there must have been a miscommunication. His first reaction was that someone was playing a practical joke. But as he probed for more details, it became obvious to him that he was speaking to Oleg Hermann. He was there at the airport to meet the fighter – Golovkin arrived by himself – and the two drove off to Big Bear, Golovkin’s new home away from home for the next phase of his pugilistic journey. Since then, Golovkin, commonly referenced as GGG (“Triple G” in the vernacular), has reeled off 16 straight knockouts, extending his skein of wins inside the distance to 21. Famed British promoter Frank Warren calls him “the world’s most fearsome fighter.”

In 2010, Abel Sanchez was far from the most prominent trainer in California, but he had a few bright feathers in his cap. A former amateur boxer, he had enjoyed good success right out of the box, uplifting the careers of Lupe Aquino, Paul Vaden, and the Norris brothers, Terry and Orlin. All became title-holders, most notably Terry Norris, a 2005 inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. But there were holes in his vita. Sanchez was out of circulation for six years beginning in 2002, working as a home builder, as had his father before him.

Married with a child before he left his teen years, Sanchez passed the requisite California state exam and was a licensed building contractor at the tender age of eighteen. One of the homes that his company helped build was the actual home the extra-terrestrial E.T. inhabits in the famous Steven Spielberg movie.

Between 1999 and 2001, Sanchez purchased 26 vacant lots in Big Bear. On most of them he built custom homes, but he kept a few lots for himself. The last of the undeveloped lots abuts his gym. Originally a storage facility for his construction company, the gym sprawls across the lower floor of a 5,200 square foot duplex sitting on a quiet residential street, the upper floors dedicated to serving as a dormitory. Sanchez would have never boated Golovkin if there hadn’t been good chemistry between them at their initial meeting, but Golovkin’s handlers were likely more impressed by the compound.

When this reporter and his party arrived at the gym in late February, the first person to greet us was Golovkin who happened to be outside doing calisthenics. “Hello,” he said, extending his hand in friendship, “my name is Gennady.”

For this grizzled reporter, so accustomed to awkward interactions with stand-offish athletes, that was a precious moment. When the incident was relayed to Sanchez, he chuckled. “He knew you wouldn’t be here unless you were allowed to be here,” he said, “but you can only credit those little courtesies to good parenting. He’s the same person that he was when he first walked in the door in 2010.”

The compound is a mini United Nations. During our brief stay at the gym, we sat watching fighters from Kazakhstan (GGG), Russia (Murat Gassiev), France (Nadjib Mohammadi), Costa Rica (Bryan Vasquez) and Cuba (Sullivan Barrera). A block of time in the afternoon was reserved for IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin who wasn’t part of the little colony of dorm dwellers. Martin was preparing for his big fight in London with Anthony Joshua.

There were other boxing gyms in Big Bear before Abel Sanchez arrived. The Goossen brothers had a gym up here as did Oscar De La Hoya who built a gym in the oversized garage of his home, a property that he eventually sold. The supposed benefits of training at high altitude were hammered home more than 200 years ago when the celebrated trainer known as Captain Barclay rejuvenated England’s idol of fistiana Tom Cribb in the Highlands of Scotland.

At some gyms, professional boxers train side-by-side with civilians. Some boxing gyms have galleries to accommodate the friends and the family members of those that train and work there. There’s none of that at Sanchez’s place. “No Women No Children No Pets” reads the sign propped against the half-wall. (MMA star Ronda Rousey has used the facility, but during her sessions no other menfolk were allowed in the gym other than those in her entourage.)

There is no standard textbook for boxing trainers; no gospel to which everyone adheres, meaning that every trainer has his quirks. Sanchez places much less emphasis on sparring than do most of his colleagues. That philosophy has redounded to soften his GGG conundrum. “We pay top dollar for his sparring partners,” says Sanchez, “but finding them and keeping them is a big challenge.”

By his reckoning, the most beneficial exercise is shadow boxing. However, he adds, it is imperative that the boxer rehearse in the manner in which he is going to fight. The exercise thus becomes both physical and mental. The fighters that he trains shadow box in skin-tight gloves holding hand weights of his own design.

He also emphasizes aggression; there are no “cuties” in his camp. “You get paid the same whether the fight goes 12 rounds or you take your man out quick,” he reminds his fighters. The longer a fight goes, he notes, the greater the danger that something unexpected will happen like a bad cut.

Golovkin, who has appeared in photo shoots wearing a sombrero, has developed a big Hispanic following in California. These fans will have conflicting loyalties when GGG locks horns with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a match-up that seems inevitable. If the bout were to transpire this year — assuming nothing bad happens in the interim – it would be a huge attraction, overshadowing even a title unification match in the heavyweight division.

Looking further down the road, it’s impossible to know what awaits Gennady Golovkin when he approaches the end of the trail. In this cruel sport, today’s luminaries tend to become fodder for tomorrow’s hotshots. And what about Abel Sanchez, who turned 60 this past November? “I plan to retire in five years,” he says. “As you get older, cold weather becomes less bearable. I have to get off this mountain.”

Pardon us, but we doubt that Sanchez will hold firm to his retirement plans. Boxing trainers, excepting those high in the pyramid, are in a precarious position. Their services can be terminated at any time. Sanchez remembers when he was summoned to a meeting with the chief backer of Terry Norris where he was congratulated for a job well done and then informed that he would be taking a 50 percent cut in pay if he cared to stick around. He’s beyond that stage now, able to insist on contractual clauses that shield him from those deprecations.

There’s one more reason why we suspect that Sanchez will still be training fighters well beyond his 65th birthday. It would pain him greatly, of that we are certain, if he was off the mountain when the next GGG walked in the door.

 

Check out this video about Gennady Golovkin vs Amir Khan at The Boxing Channel

Argentina

The BWAA Shames Veteran Referee Laurence Cole and Two Nebraska Judges

Published

on

In an unprecedented development, the Boxing Writers Association of America has started a “watch list” to lift the curtain on ring officials who have “screwed up.” Veteran Texas referee Laurence Cole and Nebraska judges Mike Contreras and Jeff Sinnett have the unwelcome distinction of being the first “honorees.”

“Boxing is a sport where judges and referees are rarely held accountable for poor performances that unfairly change the course of a fighter’s career and, in some instances, endanger lives,” says the BWAA in a preamble to the new feature. Hence the watch list, which is designed to “call attention to ‘egregious’ errors in scoring by judges and unacceptable conduct by referees.”

Contreras and Sinnett, residents of Omaha, were singled out for their scorecards in the match between lightweights Thomas Mattice and Zhora Hamazaryan, an eight round contest staged at the WinnaVegas Casino in Sloan, Iowa on July 20. They both scored the fight 76-75 for Mattice, enabling the Ohio fighter to keep his undefeated record intact via a split decision.

Although Mattice vs. Hamazaryan was a supporting bout, it aired live on ShoBox. Analyst Steve Farhood, who was been with ShoBox since the inception of the series in 2001, called it one of the worst decisions he had ever seen. Lead announcer Barry Tompkins went further, calling it the worst decision he has seen in his 40 years of covering the sport.

Laurence Cole (pictured alongside his father) was singled out for his behavior as the third man in the ring for the fight between Regis Prograis and Juan Jose Velasco at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans on July 14. The bout was televised live on ESPN.

In his rationale for calling out Cole, BWAA prexy Joseph Santoliquito leaned heavily on Thomas Hauser’s critique of Cole’s performance in The Sweet Science. “Velasco fought courageously and as well as he could,” noted Hauser. “But at the end of round seven he was a thoroughly beaten fighter.”

His chief second bullied him into coming out for another round. Forty-five seconds into round eight, after being knocked down for a third time, Velasco spit out his mouthpiece and indicated to Cole that he was finished. But Cole insisted that the match continue and then, after another knockdown that he ruled a slip, let it continue for another 35 seconds before Velasco’s corner mercifully threw in the towel.

Controversy has dogged Laurence Cole for well over a decade.

Cole was the third man in the ring for the Nov. 25, 2006 bout in Hildalgo, Texas, between Juan Manuel Marquez and Jimrex Jaca. In the fifth round, Marquez sustained a cut on his forehead from an accidental head butt. In round eight, another accidental head butt widened and deepened the gash. As Marquez was being examined by the ring doctor, Cole informed Marquez that he was ahead on the scorecards, volunteering this information while holding his hand over his HBO wireless mike. The inference was that Marquez was free to quit right then without tarnishing his record. (Marquez elected to continue and stopped Jaca in the next round.)

This was improper. For this indiscretion, Cole was prohibited from working a significant fight in Texas for the next six months.

More recently, Cole worked the 2014 fight between Vasyl Lomachenko and Orlando Salido at the San Antonio Alamodome. During the fight, Salido made a mockery of the Queensberry rules for which he received no point deductions and only one warning. Cole’s performance, said Matt McGrain, was “astonishingly bad,” an opinion echoed by many other boxing writers. And one could site numerous other incidents where Cole’s performance came under scrutiny.

Laurence Cole is the son of Richard “Dickie” Cole. The elder Cole, now 87 years old, served 21 years as head of the Texas Department of Combat Sports Regulation before stepping down on April 30, 2014. At various times during his tenure, Dickie Cole held high executive posts with the World Boxing Council and North American Boxing Federation. He was the first and only inductee into the inaugural class of the Texas Boxing Hall of Fame, an organization founded by El Paso promoter Lester Bedford in 2015.

From an administrative standpoint, boxing in Texas during the reign of Dickie Cole was frequently described in terms befitting a banana republic. Whenever there was a big fight in the Lone Star State, his son was the favorite to draw the coveted refereeing assignment.

Boxing is a sideline for Laurence Cole who runs an independent insurance agency in Dallas. By law in Texas (and in most other states), a boxing promoter must purchase insurance to cover medical costs in the event that one or more of the fighters on his show is seriously injured. Cole’s agency is purportedly in the top two nationally in writing these policies. Make of that what you will.

Complaints of ineptitude, says the WBAA, will be evaluated by a “rotating committee of select BWAA members and respected boxing experts.” In subsequent years, says the press release, the watch list will be published quarterly in the months of April, August, and December (must be the new math).

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

 

Continue Reading

Canada and USA

In Boxing, the Last Weekend of July was Chock Full of Surprises

The first upset of last weekend occurred in an undercard bout on the big show at London’s O2 Arena. David Allen, a journeyman with a 13-4-2 record, knocked out previously undefeated

Published

on

The first upset of last weekend occurred in an undercard bout on the big show at London’s O2 Arena. David Allen, a journeyman with a 13-4-2 record, knocked out previously undefeated

The first upset of last weekend occurred in an undercard bout on the big show at London’s O2 Arena. David Allen, a journeyman with a 13-4-2 record, knocked out previously undefeated Nick Webb (12-0, 10 KOs) in the fourth round. Allen said that he intended this to be his final fight, but will now hang around awhile.

In hindsight, this was an omen. Before the show was over, upsets – albeit mild upsets – were registered in both featured bouts. Dereck Chisora, trailing on the scorecards, stopped Carlos Takam in the eighth. Dillian Whyte outpointed Joseph Parker. And later that same day, in Kissimmee, Florida, Japanese import Masayuki Ito made a big splash in his U.S. debut, beating up highly touted Christopher Diaz.

– – – –

Joseph Parker is quite the gentleman. Following his loss to Dillian Whyte, Parker was gracious in defeat: “I say congratulations to Dillian. I gave it my best. The better man won.”

In case you missed it, Whyte survived a hoary moment in the final round to win a unanimous decision. Most everyone agreed that the decision was fair but there were a few dissenters. Well known U.K. boxing pundit Steve Bunce said, “I thought Parker deserved a draw.” Bunce noted that the scribes sitting near him were in complete accord that the most lopsided score (115-110) was far too wide.

We’ve seen fighters grouse that they were robbed after fights that were far less competitive. Parker’s post-fight amiability was all the more puzzling considering that he had a legitimate beef that referee Ian John Lewis was too lax, enabling Whyte to turn the contest into a street fight.

Parker’s trainer Kevin Barry was all on board with the selection of Lewis. “He’s a very highly qualified guy who I think is the best British referee,” he said. But Barry changed his tune after the fight, saying that there were at least two occasions when Lewis should have deducted a point from Whyte.

Veteran Australian boxing writer Anthony Cocks said that going forward, Parker, a soft spoken, mild mannered man, needs to have more of a mongrel in him. Cocks noted that when Whyte transgressed, Parker’s response was to look at the ref with a bemused expression. The first time that Whyte bent the rules, opined Cocks, Parker should have hit him in the balls.

– – – –

Top Rank hasn’t had much luck with their Puerto Rican fighters lately. First there was Felix Verdejo. Hyped as the next Felix Trinidad, the 2012 Olympian was 22-0 when his career was interrupted by a motorcycle accident. He won his first fight back in Puerto Rico, but was then exposed by Tijuana’s unheralded Antonio Lozada Jr. who stopped him in the 10th round at the Theater of Madison Square Garden on St. Patrick’s Day, 2018.

More recently, Top Rank gave a big build-up to Christopher Diaz, but Diaz, the 2016 ESPN Deportes Prospect of The Year, also hit the skids after starting his pro career 23-0. Diaz was upset on Saturday by Masayuki Ito in a match sanctioned for the vacant WBO 130-pound title.

Unlike Verdejo, Diaz was still standing at the final bell, but he was taken to the cleaners by his Japanese opponent who won comfortably on the scorecards.

– – – –

Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin made his pro debut on the Diaz-Ito undercard. Nikitin won every round of a 6-round contest.

If the name sounds vaguely familiar, this is the guy who defeated top seed Michael Conlan in a quarterfinal bantamweight match at the Rio Olympics. The decision, which Conlan greeted with a middle finger salute to the judges, was widely seen as a heist.

In signing new prospects, Top Rank honcho Bob Arum likes to gather up fighters who compete in the same weight class as fighters that he already controls. This sets up a scenario where he can double dip, extracting a commission from the purse of both principals.

The cluster is most pronounced in the lower weight classes. These fighters, listed alphabetically, are currently promoted or co-promoted by Top Rank: junior bantamweight Jerwin Ancajas (31-1-1), junior featherweight Michael Conlan (8-0), featherweight Christopher Diaz (23-1), super bantamweight Isaac Dogboe (19-0), super bantamweight Jessie Magdaleno (25-1), super bantamweight Jean Rivera (14-0), featherweight Genesis Servania (31-1), bantamweight Shakur Stevenson (7-0), bantamweight Antonio Vargas (7-0), featherweight Nicholas Walters (26-1-1).

The aforementioned Nikitin launched his pro career as a featherweight.

– – – –

In July of 2004, Danny Williams knocked out Mike Tyson in the fourth round at Louisville. Iron Mike had one more fight and then wisely called it quits. Williams had 48 more fights, the most recent coming last weekend in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Williams was stopped in the 10th round by a local man, 35-year-old Lee McAllister, whose last documented fight had come in 2013. In that bout, McAllister, carrying 140 pounds, outpointed a Slovakian slug in a 6-round fight. During his hiatus from boxing, McAllister (that’s him in the red and white trunks), served a 9-month prison sentence for assaulting a patron while working in an Aberdeen kebab shop.

Danny Williams’ weight wasn’t announced, but in his three fights prior to fighting McAllister he came in a tad north of 270 pounds. He reportedly out-weighed McAllister by 4 stone (56 pounds), likely a loose approximation.

Williams is a product of Brixton, the hardscrabble Afro-Caribbean neighborhood in South London that also spawned Dillian Whyte. But he has no intention of going back there. After the McAllister fight, in which he was knocked down three times, he said he was retiring to Nigeria where he had a job waiting for him as a bodyguard.

– – – –

The ink was barely dry on the weekend’s events when news arrived that Tyson Fury was close to signing for a December bout with WBC heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder. On social media, Fury said the deal was almost done and Fury’s promoter Frank Warren confirmed it while saying that it was conditional on Fury looking good when he opposes Francesco Pianeta on Aug. 18 at the Windsor Park soccer stadium in Belfast. Fury vs. Pianeta underpins Carl Frampton’s WBO featherweight title defense against Luke Jackson.

As to whether he would be ready to defeat Wilder after only two comeback fights, Fury, who turns 30 this month, said he was ready to beat Wilder on the day he was born.

Deontay Wilder is disappointed that his dream match with Anthony Joshua won’t happen until next spring at the earliest, but there are plenty of options out there for him and more of them for him to ponder after this past weekend’s events.

Cuban southpaw Luis Ortiz looked good against Razvan Cojanu, dismissing his hapless Romanian adversary in the second round on the Garcia-Easter card in Los Angeles.

After the bout, WBC prexy Mauricio Suliaman gave Wilder his blessing to skirt his mandatory against Dominic Breazeale for a rematch with Ortiz.

Presumably that also applies if Wilder accepts promoter Eddie Hearn’s offer for a match with Dillian Whyte. The WBC now lists Whyte as their “silver” champion and has bumped him ahead of Breazeale into the #1 slot in their rankings. And then there’s Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller who has an Eddie Hearn connection and is a more interesting opponent than Breazeale.

If Wilder vs. Fury is a go, say Fury and Warren, it will be held in December in New York or Las Vegas. We make New York the favorite. The only good date in Las Vegas in December for an event of this magnitude is Dec. 1 and that’s only because Thanksgiving arrives early this year. The National Finals Rodeo, a 10-day event which fills up the town, arrives on Dec. 6, eliminating the next two weekends. And when the rodeo leaves, Christmas is right around the corner. Historically, boxing promoters shy away from putting on a big show right before Christmas on the theory that fight fans have the “shorts,” having exhausted their discretionary income on Christmas gifts.

There are some interesting fighters competing in the upper tier of the heavyweight division and a slew of intriguing prospects coming up the ladder. The division hasn’t been this exciting since the Golden Age of Ali, Frazier, Foreman, et al. Enjoy.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this article at The Fight Forum, CLICK HERE.

Continue Reading

Asia & Oceania

Les Moonves, Hero of Mayweather-Pacquiao Deal, Now Cast as a Villain

“He refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
That comment, offered in praise of Les Moonves for the pivotal role the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation played in helping make the May 2, 2015, megafight pairing

Published

on

Moonves

“He refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

That comment, offered in praise of Les Moonves for the pivotal role the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation played in helping make the May 2, 2015, megafight pairing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, has taken on a more sordid connotation in light of the avalanche of accusations of sexual impropriety that have thrust the 68-year-old Moonves into the unwelcome company of such accused high-visibility miscreants as Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Bill O’Reilly and Matt Lauer.

But while the other aforementioned power players have been fired or indicted, their reputations in tatters, Moonves remains on the job as one of the most influential and highest paid (a reported $70 million in 2017) media executives in the United States. Despite a damning article authored by Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker that details numerous instances of bad behavior ranging from merely dubious to criminally actionable, and to which Moonves himself has admitted to some extent, CBS on Monday issued a statement of support that seemed to catch the editors of Variety somewhat off-guard. The entertainment publication’s opening paragraph reads thusly: “In a surprise move, CBS’ board of directors is keeping Leslie Moonves as chairman-CEO even as it launches a probe of sexual assault allegations leveled against him by six women in a New Yorker expose.”

Why should still another story of alleged sexual misconduct by an older man seeking to exert improper control over younger women be of any significance to a fight audience? Well, normally it wouldn’t, except for Moonves’ position, which includes a say in the direction of Showtime’s increasingly important boxing operation if he so chooses. When negotiations for Mayweather-Pacquiao, a pay-per-view event which was to be co-produced by Showtime and HBO, hit a snag, Moonves insinuated himself into the discussion because it made financial and logistic sense for him to do so. CBS/Showtime had entered into a six-bout, $250 million deal with Mayweather, and three of the four fights held to that point had underperformed. Subsequently, the prevailing belief in CBS/Showtime’s executive offices was that Mayweather’s long-delayed showdown with Pacquiao was not only advisable, but absolutely necessary to stanch the flow of red ink.

“Without Les Moonves, this fight wouldn’t have had a prayer of happening,” Top Rank chairman and CEO Bob Arum, a longtime friend of Moonves, said after the last “i” had been dotted and the last “t” crossed. “The real hero in getting this done is Les Moonves.”

And this from Stephen Espinoza, Showtime Sports’ executive vice president and general manager, tossing another verbal bouquet to his boss: “One of the main reasons this deal got done, when maybe other ones didn’t, was having Les Moonves as part of the process. He was deeply committed to making this deal. He is someone that all parties in this negotiation respected. He was really the catalyst for seeing this through. He refused to take `no’ for an answer from any side. He was there making sure that the parties came together in a successful and cooperative manner.”

But while the high-level wheeling and dealing to finalize Mayweather-Pacquiao was done behind closed doors, so too were those instances when Moonves was attempting to arrange a private deal with a female subordinate whose career he could either advance or stymie. One such occasion allegedly involved writer-actress Ileana Douglas, who was summoned to Moonves’ office to discuss matters involving a television project in which she was to have starred. The New Yorker story quotes Douglas’ heightening discomfort as Moonves made coarse and physical advances toward her.

“At that point, you’re a trapped animal,” Douglas said of the incident. “Your life is flashing before your eyes. It has stayed with me the rest of my life, that terror.”

After The New Yorker story came out, Moonves apologized, sort of, to the six women who told Farrow that the CBS bigwig had sexually harassed them. All claimed he became cold and hostile after they rejected his advances, and that they believed their careers suffered as a result.

In a statement, Moonves said, “Throughout my time at CBS, we have promoted a culture of respect and opportunity for all employees, and have consistently found success elevating women to top executive positions across our company. I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances. Those were mistakes and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected – and abided by the principle – that `no’ means `no,’ and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone’s career … We at CBS are committed to being part of the solution.”

What makes the furor that has suddenly swirled up around Moonves all the more curious is his prominent support for the #MeToo movement and other feminist causes. In December, he helped found the Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace. A month prior to that, at a conference in November, he said, “I think it’s important that a company’s culture will not allow for (sexual harassment). And that’s the thing that’s far-reaching. There’s a lot we’re learning. There’s a lot we didn’t know.”

There’s a lot we didn’t know? Oh, for sure. We didn’t know for a very long time that TV’s favorite father figure, now-81-year-old Bill Cosby, would be classified as a sexually violent predator by a Pennsylvania court. Cosby is due to be sentenced Sept. 24 on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, and his alma mater, Temple University, rescinded the honorary Ph.D. it conferred upon him in 1991. The Cos resigned his spot on Temple’s  Board of Trustees in 2014, after 32 years, amid accusations that he sexually assaulted dozens of women over decades.

We also didn’t know that Harvey Weinstein, 66, the co-founder of Miramax, would be dismissed from the company and be expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after the New York Times ran a story on Oct, 5, 2017, detailing decades of allegations against him by over 80 women. It would seem that the most important piece of furniture in Weinstein’s office was not his desk, but the proverbial casting couch.

One of the more intriguing developments in the widening scandal involved TV newsmen Bill O’Reilly and Matt Lauer. In September 2017, O’Reilly, fired by Fox News for a series of alleged sexual improprieties, appeared as a guest on NBC’s Today show, where he told host Matt Lauer that his dismissal was “a hit job – a political and financial hit job.” Two months later, Lauer was canned by NBCUniversal after it was found he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with another much more junior NBC employee. Three additional women subsequently made complaints against Lauer.

Boxing is a physical sport, maybe the most physical there is, and in most cases the transgressions committed were by fighters who resorted to brute force, the fastest way to bring cops and attorneys into the equation. Think Tony Ayala Jr. spending 17 years behind bars for rape, a conviction that came on the heels of a previous incident in which he broke a teenage girl’s jaw after he made unwanted advances toward her in the restroom of a drive-in theater. But it might be argued that those who seek to have their way with women by exercising a different kind of power are just as much or even more reprehensible, an affront not only to the females they view as disposable objects but to any man who would not want to see his mother, wife or daughter treated so shabbily.

According to CBS, there have been no misconduct claims and no settlements against Moonves during his 24 years at the network. He deserves, as everyone does under the American system of jurisprudence, the presumption of innocence. But given the current landscape befouled by others who apparently felt that they could do whatever they wanted because they always had gotten away with it, sticking with the status quo might send the wrong message.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this article at The Fight Forum, CLICK HERE.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Who-Murdered-Peter-Bufala-A-Whodunit-with-a-Boxing-Backdrop
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

Who Murdered Peter Bufala? A ‘Whodunit’ with a Boxing Backdrop

Jake-Paul-KOs-Ryan-Bourland-but-Amanda-Serrano's-Fight-Falls-Out
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Jake Paul KOs Ryan Bourland but Amanda Serrano’s Fight Falls Out

Boxing-Odds-and-Ends-A-Travesty-of-a-Heavweight-Title-Fight-and-Moore
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Boxing Odds and Ends: A Travesty of a Heavyweight ‘Title Fight’ Jake Paul and More

Twi-Faetherweight-Title-Fights-Top-a-Strong-Bill-at-Turning-Stone-on-Saturday
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Two Featherweight Title Fights Top a Strong Bill at Turning Stone on Saturday

Avila-Perspective-Chap-274-Violence-at-Chumash-Casino-Japan-and-More
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 274: Yeritsyan vs Randall at Chumash Casino, Japan and More

Jared-Anderson-and-Adam-Kownacki-Heavyweights-on-Worrisome-Paths
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Jared Anderson and Adam Kownacki: Heavyweights on Worrisome Paths

Results-from-Orlando-where-Berlanga-KOed-McCrory-in-a-Possible-Prelude-to-Canelo
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Results from Orlando where Berlanga KOed McCrory in a Possible Prelude to Canelo

Avila-Perspective-Chap-274-Ryan-Garcia-and-Devin-Haney-in-Hollywood-Jake-Amanda-and-More
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 274: Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney in Hollywood, Jake, Amanda and More

Fighters-from-Tijauna-are-on-a-Roll-Can-Alexandro-Santiago-Keep-Up-the-Momentum
Featured Articles4 weeks ago

Fighters from Tijuana are on a Roll; Can Alexandro Santiago Keep Up the Momentum?

High-Drama-at-Turning-Stone-where-Ford-Rallied-to-Overcome-Kholmatov
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

High Drama at Turning Stone where Ford Rallied to Overcome Kholmatov

Rising-Contenders-Gor-Yeritsyan-and-Cain-Sandoval-Stay-Unbeaten-at-Chumash
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Rising Contenders Gor Yeritsyan and Cain Sandoval Stay Unbeaten at Chumash

Madueno-Upsets-Pauldo-and-Lopez-Overcomes-Escudero-at-Whitesands
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Madueno Upsets Pauldo and Lopez Overcomes Escudero at Whitesands

Joshua-vs-Ngannou-is-the-Main-Dish-but-Don't-Sleep-on-This-Delicious-Undercard
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Joshua vs Ngannou is the Main Dish, but Don’t Sleep on this Delicious Undercard

Junto-Nakatani-Turns-in-Another-Masterclass-on-Saturday's-Triplheader-in-Tokyo
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Junto Nakatani Turns in Another Masterclass on Saturday’s Tripleheader in Tokyo

AJ's-Emphatic-KO-was-Good-for-Boxing-but-the Circus-Hasn't=Left-Town
Featured Articles1 week ago

AJ’s Emphatic KO was Good for Boxing but the Circus Hasn’t Left Town

Fight-Talk-with-the-Celebrated-Boxing-Writer-and-Author-Don-Stradley
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Fight Talk With the Celebrated Boxing Writer and Author Don Stradley

Nigerian-Heavyweight-Efe-Ajagba-May-Yet-to-Prove-to-be-As-Good-as-Advertised
Featured Articles1 week ago

Nigerian Heavyweight Efe Ajagba May Yet Prove to be As Good As Advertised

Wednesday Recaps: Kalajdzic-and-Goodman-Score-Big-Wins-in-Far-Flung-Places
Featured Articles5 days ago

Wednesday Recaps: Kalajdzic and Goodman Score Big Wins in Far-Flung Places

Avila-Perspective-Chap-276-Notes-on-AJ-vs-Ngannou-and-Mike-Tyson-vs-Jake-Paul
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 276: Notes on AJ vs Ngannou and Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul

Joshua-Pulverizes-Ngannou-and-Parker-Out-hustles-Zhang-in-Saudi-Arabia
Featured Articles1 week ago

Joshua Pulverizes Ngannou and Parker Out-Hustles Zhang in Saudi Arabia

The-Hauser-Report-What's-Going-On-With-Premier-Boxing-Champions?
Featured Articles10 hours ago

The Hauser Report: What’s Going On With Premier Boxing Champions?

Dillian-Whyte-Returns-from-Purgatory-and-Brushes-Away-a-Wimpy-Opponent-in-Ireland
Featured Articles1 day ago

Dillian Whyte Returns from Purgatory and Brushes Away a Wimpy Opponent in Ireland

Boxing-Notes-and-Nuggets-from-Thomas-Hauser-The-Blue-Corner
Featured Articles2 days ago

Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser: ‘The Blue Corner’

William-Zepeda-Demolishes-Maxi-Hughes-on-a-Flimsy-Card-at-the-Cosmo
Featured Articles2 days ago

William Zepeda Demolishes Maxi Hughes on a Flimsy Card at the Cosmo

Joe-Joyce-KO-10-Kash-Ali-Heaney-and-Pauls-Fight-to-a-Stalemate-in-a-Thriller
Featured Articles2 days ago

Joe Joyce KO 10 Kash Ali; Heaney and Pauls Fight to a Stalemate in a Thriller

Wednesday Recaps: Kalajdzic-and-Goodman-Score-Big-Wins-in-Far-Flung-Places
Featured Articles5 days ago

Wednesday Recaps: Kalajdzic and Goodman Score Big Wins in Far-Flung Places

Nigerian-Heavyweight-Efe-Ajagba-May-Yet-to-Prove-to-be-As-Good-as-Advertised
Featured Articles1 week ago

Nigerian Heavyweight Efe Ajagba May Yet Prove to be As Good As Advertised

AJ's-Emphatic-KO-was-Good-for-Boxing-but-the Circus-Hasn't=Left-Town
Featured Articles1 week ago

AJ’s Emphatic KO was Good for Boxing but the Circus Hasn’t Left Town

Joshua-Pulverizes-Ngannou-and-Parker-Out-hustles-Zhang-in-Saudi-Arabia
Featured Articles1 week ago

Joshua Pulverizes Ngannou and Parker Out-Hustles Zhang in Saudi Arabia

Undercard-Notes-from-Riyadh-where-Rey-Vargas-Kept-his-Title-with-an-Unpopular-Draw
Featured Articles1 week ago

Undercard Notes from Riyadh where Vargas Retained his Title with an Unpopular Draw

Finding-Value-in-Boxing-Lines
Featured Articles1 week ago

Finding Value in Boxing Lines

Avila-Perspective-Chap-276-Notes-on-AJ-vs-Ngannou-and-Mike-Tyson-vs-Jake-Paul
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 276: Notes on AJ vs Ngannou and Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul

Fight-Talk-with-the-Celebrated-Boxing-Writer-and-Author-Don-Stradley
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Fight Talk With the Celebrated Boxing Writer and Author Don Stradley

Joshua-vs-Ngannou-is-the-Main-Dish-but-Don't-Sleep-on-This-Delicious-Undercard
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Joshua vs Ngannou is the Main Dish, but Don’t Sleep on this Delicious Undercard

Jared-Anderson-and-Adam-Kownacki-Heavyweights-on-Worrisome-Paths
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Jared Anderson and Adam Kownacki: Heavyweights on Worrisome Paths

High-Drama-at-Turning-Stone-where-Ford-Rallied-to-Overcome-Kholmatov
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

High Drama at Turning Stone where Ford Rallied to Overcome Kholmatov

Jake-Paul-KOs-Ryan-Bourland-but-Amanda-Serrano's-Fight-Falls-Out
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Jake Paul KOs Ryan Bourland but Amanda Serrano’s Fight Falls Out

Avila-Perspective-Chap-274-Ryan-Garcia-and-Devin-Haney-in-Hollywood-Jake-Amanda-and-More
Featured Articles2 weeks ago

Avila Perspective, Chap. 274: Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney in Hollywood, Jake, Amanda and More

Madueno-Upsets-Pauldo-and-Lopez-Overcomes-Escudero-at-Whitesands
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Madueno Upsets Pauldo and Lopez Overcomes Escudero at Whitesands

Twi-Faetherweight-Title-Fights-Top-a-Strong-Bill-at-Turning-Stone-on-Saturday
Featured Articles3 weeks ago

Two Featherweight Title Fights Top a Strong Bill at Turning Stone on Saturday

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending

Advertisement