07.06.04 – By Matthew Hurley: The details were initially sketchy because Bob Arum was contemplating adding it to the pay per view telecast that Saturday night, and upping the price by ten dollars, but news of the slap and tickle fight between boxing scribes Ron Borges and Mike Katz quickly overshadowed the fight festivities. The two men were in the press room at the MGM Grand when Borges, who writes for the Boston Globe and HBO, apparently interrupted a Katz interview who was covering the bout for the New York Times. Borges’ brilliant query apparently raised the ire of Katz who quickly adjusted his neck brace and told Borges where to go, whereupon Borges sized up his sixty-five year old adversary and then whomped him one on the side of the head with an open hand. As Katz raised his cane to strike back Top Rank publicist Lee Samuels and Bob Arum dived into the melee and all four, nearly two hundred and fifty years worth of wisdom among them, toppled to the floor.
This mega match up of media mayhem had been brewing for sometime. Katz, who also writes for an online boxing site had put Borges into his literary “Outhouse” in a column that accused Borges of being a shill for promoter Don King. Borges had defended Andrew Golota’s recent title shot against Chris Byrd in one of his columns despite the fact that Golota wasn’t ranked by any of the governing bodies. He claimed that Golota, a heavyweight with a name, was simply deserving because, basically, he was as undeserving as every other pretender in the division. He did however forget to mention that he was working for King as a commentator on the pay per view broadcast. Not that anyone would have known because only family members of the fighters bought the bogus telecast. Katz called him on that omission. The gauntlet had been thrown down and while Katz sought out new victims to sit in his “Outhouse” alongside constant member Don King, Borges simmered and trained diligently on coffee and crullers for his opportunity to take out his rival.
According to an eye witness, when Borges finally approached the fat man from MaxBoxing.com Katz saw him coming.
“It was like Hagler vs. Hearns, man,” said the witness, who refused to be identified. “Well, not really. They were real old and fat, but it was intense, man.”
Was the punch hard, he was asked.
“Well, I don’t know if it was hard or not but before I knew it four old dudes were on the floor and me and my buddies were all kind of laughing. You know, it was pretty silly. But it was funny because they were all swearing and trying to be tough and stuff. You know?”
But it must have been exciting to see two well respected sports writers going at it, right?
“Uhhhh… Now that I think of it, no. It was pretty pathetic. Kind of like the Hopkins – Allen fight. But at least it was over quick.”
Indeed.