DLH coming out of retirement?

Also, Holyfield fights Kevin McBride in a non-exhibition bout

 

If any professional athlete is as wasted as delahoya was you have to wonder when the train wreck ensues

 

He's been talking about this for months now.

 

Holyfield is a legend and I guarantee he will beat the hell out of brides maid

 

20 years ago if had told me that one day a drunk AF Oscar would be calling a fight with Snoop and Al Bernstein, I would have said youre the one doing drugs.

Yet lo and behold... here we are.

 

Jesus wept. Kevin is probably 320lbs right now.

 

When I came to boxing in 1997 I was struck by how Hoppy Hippy I felt it was compared to the old black and white impressions I had in my mind.

People like Roy playing basketball games before fights, reading about Fan-Man and all that shit.

Now that era seems austere and rigid........around 1998, 1999, George Foreman calling fights was seen as "Colour"- he was called a "Colour Commentator".

A former HW champ as recent as 1995 was a sort of an adornement.

Nowadays if Takeshi 69 Weirdo refereed, called a fight and tabulated the score cards it would seem pretty normal.

Last night......It's not boxing in my mind anymore, it is at the top level. But it's WWE/WWF now in many regards.

The blows are real enough but the matches are basically fixed, the outcomes predetermined, it's all money for nothing after guys like Ward and Gatti got paid fuck all.

 

When Foreman fought Cooney it had an air of BS about it. And yet both men were serious hitters and trying to make an impact.

Today we hear stories of Holyfield vs Kevin McBride and we just sort of go along with it, despite the fact that both these guys are in worse shape than even Gerry Cooney was.

That's how bad it is.

 

It is very bad, and its getting worse. The sport is truly in the shitter.

 

Literally one of the most handsome men of the past 30 years has turned himself into a jello caricature via drugs and booze.

His fucking head is actually changing shape.

 

See what annoys me is the short cuts.

Why didn't the Jake Pauls of this world join an ABC and come up through the GG's and the Olympics?

It's all reflective of the broader picture.

Tell a few lies, some smoke and mirrors, a lot of Alexandria Cortez, get in the door, lie some more, put it on Instagram, get paid, fuck off.

Ryan Garcia is literally modelling himself on Oscar. Right down to the last detail.

Any money anybody wants he will be bringing out a CD soon.

the "short cut" is the default route of the criminally minded - that's not me talking, that's actual Criminal Psychology. All Criminals have that same hard-wiring, to seek find and take the shortcut in life.

And that's what we are seeing across the board, in politics and sport- sports basically being politics in many regards.

Short Cut Central.

 

I'll say it now:- Oscar and Ryan are going to "Fall out", and "fight" each other.

Julio Cesar Chavez will try to act as a peacemaker, futilely.

Canelo will go on TV and cry at the tragedy of it all.

Joe Cortez will be dragged out of retirement to officiate after Benji Esteves washes his hands in public like he was Pontius Pilate, refusing to have anything to do with this affair.

Obrador will address the UN about it.

A million teenage girls will self-harm or commit suicide.

Andy Ruiz will go on hunger strike to protest the inhumanity of it all. He breaks strike after 3 hours to honour his Snickers contract.

The Ghost of Richie Valens does the national anthemz

It does 100m on PPV as both men bounce around in front of each other for 12 action packed rounds.

 

Wilfredo Rivera coming out of retirement now too.......

 

The sport is in shitter. However imo we should ask where has the sport gone wrong. How can it be that people rather watch a YouTube clown whacking out some bum, instead of actual high class boxing?

I have my theories, I might get back to this later

 

Things are dire but some perspective is needed. A lot of people would order a PPV event with one of these "celebrities" playing one on one basketball with some low tier NBA bench warmer if they hyped it up enough. If the NBA wouldn't allow it then they'd get a retired player. Boxing adds the element of danger and pre-fight trash talk is pretty common so for those two factors alone it's easier to promote.

 

Definitely, at least there is a couple of interesting prospects coming up but overall, boxing has never been worse than it is now, and by a significant margin too. Now boxing is all about ''events'' not the fights themselves. Pain me to say it as I'm a big fan, but I blame Mike Tyson post jail run for this (and of course, Mayweather brought it to the next level).

 

What I would do is basically have the equivalent of "X Factor" in a load of countries.

Get a team of talent spotters, have a host of low-profile but technically competent camps to get 100 fights across the divisions, then suddenly spring them on the scene.

 

That, and also the fact that two scrub boxers can create a more entertaining fight than two good ones. Two bums going all out is easier to understand than a careful boxing display.

Also, these Youtubers are familiar personalities with their fans, whereas several boxers are unable to promote themselves. If one guy talks directly to you three hours a day and the other says gems such as "I fight, like, whomever", it is obvious who you want to see.

The familiar hometown guys have always been the most popular, despite their talent. Now the Youtubers are the hometown guys

 

True, but I'd say it is an even larger question. Studies show that sports fans are worse and worse in accepting a loss. In different leagues more and more people stay home, rather than risk supporting a team that might cause you a letdown. In boxing losses are even heavier than elsewhere. That might be one reason why so many want to see mismatches, or bouts that are not too "important"

Another thing is that boxing is too slow a sport for this era. It can take up to nine months before we see a fighter and the best fight available might never happen.

Also inside the ring a fight can go for twelve rounds without anything spectacular happening. A four-rounder with plenty of swinging and crumbling is more like the entertainment that the YouTube generation seeks for

 

Oscar and Sylvester Stallone both had "find the next boxing star" type reality shows quite a while back. Neither one caught on although a few of the guys were fought against a high level pros later on.

 

The way to fix boxing is simple. It just won't happen.

Devalue the idea of staying undefeated. Enforce the best fighting the best - more big fights, more high quality match ups and more attraction for new fans.

Less champions - it devalues the meaning to have eight in the space of four pounds.

Referee's and Trainers teaching/allowing more infighting.

The problem with the boxers themselves now being lesser than the they used to be is pretty much that Western culture is much blander and living conditions are so much better now, that less people get into boxing, meaning boxing is less popular, meaning less people get into boxing, meaning it's less popular. So on and so forth. The end result is watered down divisions (which is boosted by the fact that new divisions also thin out and water down the old ones) and less talent is attracted to the sport.

 

I think could be at least in part why MMA's popularity has dipped. Once the fighters got more professional and skilled the less likely brawls will happen. There are a lot of people out there that can only be entertained with two cave men swinging haymakers at each other.

 

It used to be that every generation carried forward some tradition from the prior, while forming it's own thing.

Today, there's been a complete break.

Some of that is down to the simple passage of time. But a lot of it is the tech aspect.

People want their "Own Truth".

So they'll decide that Jake or Logan Paul is the real champ. Or that his thing is the real thing.

Everything else is somebody elses thing, rather than THE thing.

For example, Ali went on TV once and said "I am the real champ, I got the same belt that Joe Louis and Gene Tunney had".

Nobody would say that today. The connection is broken.

Mickey Duff once went on TV and said that he wanted Billy Schwer to fight Stevie Johnston for the real title- the WBC Title.

Today that doesn't happen. And that's good, but the DOWNSIDE is people take it too far.

They decide what does and what doesn't matter and they don't say "I know this is a sideshow, I know it's just entertainment".

They start to decide that it's real.

Eddie Murphy alluded to this in Delirious. "Hey man, this is real".

No. It's Hollywood. It's fake.

So now the idea of management, earning a shot, progressing through the ranks etc......is dismissed.

"Oh man Jake has been in the gym for 4 months. Bro is swole! He's sponsored by _________ he's hanging with ___________ his IG account is blowing up".

No. You're a fool staring at a phone that is taken in by all this BALONEY.

It's crypto currency. It's fungible digital assets. It's the flesh made real. It's the bodily expression of somebody elses ideals and hopes. The digital explosion has allowed them to break free, to throw off the fetters, and express their own ideals as being real.

Like I say, that is good, sometimes. So you got Jimmy Dore, debunking the fake news.

Or in the 1930's, we could have an alternative to the stranglehold of the mob and Primo Carnera.

Today, that is inverted. The tech is being used to allow Primo Carnera to be the Champ.

Once, HBO or Showtime would have said "Sorry Jake, but you need to fight Robert Allen or Andrew Council......."

And they would have murdered his ass to death. And that would have been that.

But today, it's like Minority Report where there are machines that let people live out a fantasy.

 

In the 70's, the closest gimmicked shows we had in comparison to this was when George Foreman had those squash matches in Toronto in which 40 million watched on television; at least in this case, he fought actual pro boxers. One of the fighters Terry Daniels actually did fight Joe Frazier for the title. Or HW champion Muhammad Ali fighting Lyle Alzado

 

Agreed on all. The problem with enforcing the best fighting the best is that it simply isn't enforceable when there is no governing body with the power to do so.

 

And this shit is not limited to "FAKES" either.

Ryan Garcia after he got off the canvas to beat Campbell.......he didn't say........"I am a strong contender now."

He said........."I'm a STAR".

 

Alzado was a beast and Ali actually opened up to keep him in his place. Also Ali was closing out his career rather than being in full bloom.

Foreman was being stalled by Ali and was resorting to gimmickry to keep up attention in his prospects and fighting decent comp along the way.

And as you say, nobody elected Foreman the "Champion" on the side.

Ali did a bit of spoofery in Ireland and London, fighting Al Green at a venue where half the attendees crashed the fence, or flopping about with some bums in London.

But today, a guy could actually craft a narrative, like Charlie Z, where he "Got the belt, was the real champ" etc.

And you could get people to go along with it.

King of the 4 Rounders, for example.

 

And when the best not fighting the best pays nearly as well- or better- than the best fighting the best.

That's not a new problem either.

Roy got more money for fighting old ass Tito than he did for fighting Lou Del Valle- who floored him- on short notice in a Unification bout.

$3m for Del Valle, $12-15m for Tito.

Why? Cos it was Tito, it was those mad Ricans who believed Tito could beat washed up Roy, it was TV, it was mania.

 

Opera sells. Drama sells.

Jake Paul’s vapid boxing cosplay is a farce the sport could learn from | Bryan Armen Graham