In The News #2

A big chunk of this devolved into a summary of DAZN owner Len Blavatnik's numerous mentions in the Epstein files, it got so unruly I decided that you can read those in a separate article here.

Fool Me Once

At 49 years old Floyd Mayweather is unretiring to the delight of Netflix executives and Money Team groupies. As addressed last time out, Mayweather can't afford to retire. A lifetime of bad spending habits won't let him. So this year he'll be play fighting Mike Zambidis and Mike Tyson in exhibitions, and facing the 47 year old Manny Pacquaio on Mexican Independence Day weekend in Las Vegas at the Orb. Who wants this?

To put this shambolic spectacle into context, Marvelous Marvin Hagler was about 2 years older than Sugar Ray Leonard, just like Mayweather is about 2 years older than Pacquiao. People were already saying Hagler-Leonard ('how do you like it!?') was several years past its best when they finally fought in 1987. Had the Super Fight taken as long as the Hype of the Century did, then Hagler and Leonard would've instead faced each other in 1993. And if two of the Five Kings were to have unretired for a freakshow bout of this nature, it would be taking place in 2004. I'll keep making the point: the past belongs in the past. It's not healthy for boxing to eschew building new names to endlessly retread familiar ones looking for a payday. Given that the money-hungry WBC has a longstanding relationship with nonsense and corruption, I expect that they'll be setting up a May 2027 world title challenge for the winner of this bout.

I don't care to see 'if Mayweather will protect his undefeated record' because I already saw him lose to Jose Luis Castillo and Marcos Maidana. And I saw him shamelessly avoid a laundry list of fighters who he was too afraid to fight. The only sensible thing to do is to not give money to meme fights. And yet we aren't getting enough real fights to keep people's interest. It's a sorry state of affairs, and the people with enough money and influence to ameliorate it have no discernible interest in doing so. The same people who ran boxing into the ground are still in charge of the madhouse today. What a mess.

Check it out!

I thought about including individual "Articles/Pages" on the Media section of this website because I semi-regularly come across neat little ones. Like the U.S. Library of Congress doing a piece on boxing radio. The trouble is that old ones, like Jim Murray's decades of fantasticly entertaining articles for the Los Angeles Times, aren't readily accessible. And newer ones, like the pre-AI Sports Illustrated profile of Clifford Etienne (by Greg Bishop), tend to be on the... melancholic side.

It doesn't help since I've become pretty negative about boxing again. The first time it happened was around about 2018 when it was clear the undisputed heavyweight title fight was a pipe dream, I quit following the sport for a few years. The third time is currently on-going and I've resolved to intermittently post through the pain, accepting that I care about boxing even though I deeply resent so many aspects of it. The second time it happened was around April last year, when the media section first popped up. It's where I also highlight some cool/interesting/worthwhile boxing-related things, including websites such as Brunch Boxing (by Matt Brown) and Xicana Boxing (by Lily Ulloa Santos) which are admirably committed to making the present bearable. If we want the good aspects of the old internet to come back, we should all shoulder the responsibility of telling people that some good parts still exist.

Many people are saying!

"Rumors are circulating...", "Rumors indicate...", "There has been intensified concern...". Goodness me, how frightening and worrisome! I don't know what's going on but in these troubling times, I suppose the only thing to do is to unflinchingly support the powers-that-be. Wait? You don't know what's going on either? Alright, I'll look it up for us. Wait there, brb.

...

Huh, so get this! These words came from a tweet posted by Ring Magazine. It concerns reports from British tabloid The Telegraph about a potential $1bn lawsuit by Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions against Zuffa Boxing, more specifically the Saudi-backed Sela/TKO regime of Turki Alalshikh, Dr. Rakan AlHarthy, and Dana White + friends. They say that Queensberry have sent "letters before action" - a legal 'heads up' that you're going to sue - and judging by the reaction (& media briefing), this may not be settled quietly outside of court.

The Ring Magazine is owned by Turki Alalshikh, which explains the downright silly tweet. "Queensberry have not been promoting any Riyadh Season fights since last November, and there are no plans for the two sides to work together in the future." TL: Friendship ended with Frank, now Dana is my best friend. The tweet, posted February 25th, pettily described Dubois-Wardley as "an event which is struggling to sell tickets", despite presale beginning on February 26th and the general sale beginning on February 27th. It's unclear how this might affect Queensberry's relationship with their exclusive-broadcaster DAZN, which received a $1bn dollar investment/injection from the Saudi outfit last year.

My two-year-old article about the Saudi vision for boxing remains relevant (and a little clunky) today not because I wield the Monado, but because so much was blindingly obvious and so little has changed. I still maintain that a monopoly would do more harm than good, that I'm not ideologically opposed to the Saudi presence in boxing, and there's a lot they could do better. The main thing I'll add is that they are bad at propaganda. Countries without a free press tend to be because they can just phone it in, independent institutions and everyday people cannot publicly scrutinise actions and statements for fear of reprisal, so tactful actions and statements don't develop because blunt ones aren't defended with words. Open dialogue isn't exactly necessary when you rule a nation, but Saudi Arabia doesn't rule boxing. And the unrefined approach is counterproductive when you want people to part with money for tickets and monthly streaming subscriptions.

Usyk-ening

From Ukraine, Oleksandr Usyk became the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. From sanctioning bodies who can't tell their ass from their elbow, he """lost""" and """regained""" it on paper. In his most recent Netflix TED Talk, public speaker Dave Chappelle said that "the heavyweight championship to this day is the most prestigious title in sports". About that...

Yes, the WBC sanctioned this nonsense as a title bout. A reminder for those keeping track: Fury-Ngannou was a nontitle bout. So was Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki. I'm not against the existence of exhibitions. After all, they're as old as boxing itself. What makes this latest example particularly grating is that since 2019 Usyk, now 39, has only had more than one fight in a calendar year in 2024. His resume at heavyweight reads: Chazz Witherspoon, Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua (2x), Daniel Dubois (2x) and Tyson Fury (2x). And now he'll be giving a title shot to 36 year-old Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven, who will be making his professional boxing debut.

It goes without saying that this is the most pathetic heavyweight title defense in history. And, Ra forgive me for uttering these words, if Verhoeven were to win it would be the biggest upset in boxing history and the eleventh plague of Egypt. The people of Giza don't deserve this.

The Pop Calling The Mettle Slack

"I think he's past his best. I'm a no-filter kind of guy - I say it how I see it. I love him, but there are too many people patting him on the back and telling him things that aren't true, building him up like he's invincible. He's not and he hasn't been for a while.
Tyson has been gone since the Deontay Wilder fights, they finished him. Wilder completely done him. He's not got a leg underneath him. He's took a lot away from Tyson. Makhmudov is a problem for Tyson. I am the first one to say it.
Listen, I understand now that Tyson is testing himself. But, I can tell you now, his legs aren't there anymore. I understand the only way he will believe that and see that is when the first bell rings."

Harsh words indeed. Who had this much smoke for the former heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury? It was none other than his former loudest cheerleader, father John Fury! In an interview with the Daily Mail (British tabloid owned by Lord Rothemere), John Fury BREAKS HIS SILENCE by repeating the same things he's been saying for months with the zeal of a convert. There's a long tradition of fathers who failed as boxers living out their dreams vicariously through their sons. And equally as long is the tradition of bitter recriminations flowing freely when the success falters or gets in the way.

As someone who said Ngannou would have a shot and that Usyk would win, I expect Makhmudov to collapse like a hospital in the path of US-Israeli jets. Tyson Fury recently announced he would have no trainer for his next fight. Whether that means he'll have no cornerman remains to be seen.