By Marc Livitz: Apologies are due and professional journalism has been thought through its proper course. The “Big Fights Only” crowd may provide the dollars to tip the financial scales, yet their input as innocent but uninformed bystanders has reached the point of torture akin to water boarding.
Most are able to quickly picture in their minds the ones who continue to bash the sport and its methods of business, yet they are the ones who cannot wait to come invade your couch to see the popular match ups. No different are the individuals who grace our respective TV screens, laptops, mobile devices and the like come Monday morning. They cannot wait to dissect the weekend’s big fights, which in itself means that they only can be counted upon to do as such about three times a year.
This is written from an American’s point of view. More to the point, the opinions and observations offered are based on American sports television.
Two of the closest allies of the United States, Mexico and Great Britain, tend to treat boxing as a respectable sport; a bonafide trade and more than just a night out. Some realize that the sport is bigger than just two names as of late and that the combatants who need no proper introduction aren’t staying at the party long enough for the cops to bust up the soiree. Case in point, and multiple drags of the bright yellow highlighter across this past Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao could have been granted a hundred click abacus as opposed to the customary ten count and he still would have been as responsive to diplomacy as North Korea.
The joy at the sight of a savage knockout usually passes in time in the minds of the sensible human being. Such was not the case across the spectrum of American sports television when the new week commenced on Monday.
No one likes the feeling of a rip off. Boxing has experienced its own forms of a hard sell this year. Pacquiao’s “loss” to Timothy Bradley, Brandon Rios’s subjective win over Richard Abril are but a few examples of this. My oh my! What are the employees and staff of the major sports networks to do once Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. are busier dropping their fists in plaster than into actual boxing gloves? The answer: scrape and claw towards a definitive explanation as to why their opinions still matter.
A certain American TV personality took his time upon his very own respective soapbox to disparage and humiliate the sport this past June when Pacquiao somehow lost to Bradley. “I will never buy another pay per view boxing event for as long as I live”, said the ever-opinionated loudmouth. Take a spin and try to guess who it was. This writer is here to call out the guilty without throwing out a name. Taxation without representation is being used at this time….and with good cause.
“Never again” was proven to be but a few turns of the calendar. The sports personality was as fresh faced as ever this Monday morning. He reveled in the sight of Manny Pacquiao being temporarily void of consciousness as he lay flat upon the ring apron. It turns the gut and tests one’s humility.
Granted, millions were happy that Juan Manuel Marquez got the revenge of which he felt he was long overdue. No harm in that. But even though this is the hurt business, the more one rejoices in the sight of harm done, the more that person is all the more unlikely to have ever laced up a pair of gloves…let alone faced a formidable physical challenge at any time in their lives.
It’s irritating to no end.
This is our sport and our product to peddle. When left in the hands of those who are but cronies to an overpowering network, the outlook offered to the rest of the public doesn’t come close to sharing our views.
Keep away and stay away from our sport. Stick the more subjective ones, in as much as the ones which are played out between two actual teams. We’ve long tired of your senseless dribble.
Remember the hecklers who didn’t quite have the ability to play sports, yet were always the first ones to take a swipe at your efforts? They’re still around. Just like the ones who couldn’t sing in music class. Today they are the informants for an entire country.
Go laugh somewhere else. Try watching the fights that aren’t advertised on primetime television and maybe you’ll learn to love the fight game. In the meantime, shut your mouths and wait until we ask for your take!