By Charles Jay
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com
The long and short of it is that Jermain Taylor will not defend his middleweight title against Sergio Mora on May 19. Instead he will likely do so against Cory Spinks. That much you knew by now.
So, like Paul Harvey, I'll tell you "the rest of the story."
Like Harvey, we give you the tease and then we go to a commercial.
I don't want to cause any more anxiety attacks up there in the New York City area, because I understand they're contagious. I mean, first the promoter known as Diabolical L.O.U. (aka Lou DiBella) calls our erstwhile editor, Rick Reeno, in a panic after my last column, then Paulie Malignaggi follows suit. Ever see that movie, "Blame It On Rio"? Well, here it was "Blame It On Reeno."
So in the interest of objectivity and fairness, let's swing the pendulum back the other way.
To the surprise of "Operation Cleanup" fans everywhere, I'm actually going to give some credit to DiBella, at least in this particular instance, for coming around to the understanding that this business is, when it comes right down to it, SHOW business. It is, rightly or wrongly, about putting asses in seats, not necessarily about commanding big purses simply by virtue of holding a title belt, which can be won very cheaply. The Winky Wrights of the world, no matter how good they are, have a hard time coming to grips with stuff like that. They figure that if they are the champion of this or that, or one of the top fighters pound-for-pound, that should in and of itself qualify them for the huge paydays. But in the boxing business, like all entertainment-related businesses, it's about who's able to capture attention, who's watching, and who's willing to pay for the privilege.
Hey - I spent time in Hollywood; I know about that stuff.
Just yesterday I was having a conversation with the aforementioned Reeno about the subject of fighters taking tickets in lieu of purse money in exchange for their services on boxing shows. The way it works is that instead of guaranteeing the fighter a purse, the promoter might give the fighter a specified number of tickets so that he and/or his handlers can sell them, and they'll keep all or part of the proceeds from those sales. For the promoter, this works out because there are almost always tickets available for sale (if their fights are normally sellouts, they wouldn't issue the tickets in the first place), and this practice tends to keep expenses down. Fighters are always begging to get on shows, and promoters often make ticket selling a condition for such an appearance.
To the uninitiated, this may seem somewhat deplorable, since if the fighter can't sell any tickets, he won't make any money. But it really might be the most fundamental determinant as to the fighter's value to a promoter, which is to say, his ability to DRAW. If a fighter can't DRAW people to a show, there is no reason for him to be on that show, unless he is in that promoter's stable, or he serves a specific purpose as an "opponent" type.
If a fighter claims to have a loyal local following, it stands to reason that he should be able to sell tickets to that following. So in essence, he creates his own value. It's simple, pure and honest. And if you don't believe me, go ask Ron Scott Stevens, the New York boxing commissioner, who, when he was a matchmaker, engaged in this kind of thing on almost every show.
Anyway, let me get around to my point.
DiBella told me once that he was at the Mohegan Sun and watched as Sergio Mora walked through the casino and an incredible number of people actually recognized him. That kind of thing didn't normally happen with fighters who are not at a superstar level. Of course, Mora is not a particularly accomplished fighter, but that excess of attention can be directly attributed to exposure from the TV show "The Contender," which ran on NBC the year Mora won it. Now, that may be a commentary in and of itself about boxing and its dearth of exposure on network television, but that's another discussion for another time (don't worry kid, by the time we're through we'll have a lot of 'discussions for another time'. Whether we ever get to that other time is another question).
But what DiBella was illustrating was that out of all the "preferred" opponents he could put Jermain Taylor in the ring with (i.e., people who can't beat Taylor), at least this was a guy who MEANT something from the standpoint of selling a fight. After all, how many fighters who could conceivably be eligible for a middleweight championship fight are largely unknown to the GENERAL public; in other words, a public that isn't considered to be rabid about boxing? How about less than a handful.
So for one of those "gimme" title defenses, it's hard to make much of an argument against someone like Mora and in favor of fighters who may be more capable but mean absolutely nothing in terms of ticket sales or television viewers. That's why, despite some of the criticism DiBella was receiving, and no doubt would continue to receive, I couldn't possibly pile on.
Now let me tell you about the double-edged sword.
Maybe The Diabolical One miscalculated this a little bit. Even with all that acknowledgement of Mora's "Q" rating (or whatever), I think he may have perceived "The Latin Snake" as a mere foil for his man, Taylor. You know: an easy foe, and the kind who would be grateful to get the chance. There's a bit of a problem with that, however. Taylor has been seen umpteen times on HBO, which has its share of viewers and enough puissance to turn shows like "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" into big hits. But even so, HBO is not NBC. Cable television is not network television. And "The Contender," even though it was kayoed because of ratings that were too poor for NBC, still outdistanced much of what HBO had to offer when it came to raw viewership. Furthermore - and to a great extent because of the strength of having Mark Burnett and Dreamworks SKG behind it - the show was able to package itself to reach an audience boxing badly needs to gather in.
Somebody asked me the other day, "Who the hell is Sergio Mora?," not in the literal sense of course, but with regard to what position he really occupies in the boxing landscape. Maybe one answer is, "Somebody who is probably better known in mainstream America than Jermain Taylor."
At the same time though, I guess he's also someone who doesn't necessarily guarantee bringing what we in the business charitably call an "angel" into the fold, or a casino to its knees. And so Diabolical L.O.U. could not secure the Taylor-Mora fight for Miami, nor could he sell it to Las Vegas (I don't totally believe the reasons that were given - conflicts with other fights or basketball games on that date). The last stop for this fight - the "fallback," if you will - was Memphis, close enough to Little Rock to believe that some of Taylor's hometown fans might make the short trek to see him in action.
Mora was having none of that.
He used leverage he figured he had, and simply refused to fight in the Volunteer State. The credit DiBella was extending toward him kind of came back and boomeranged.
Did Mora expect he was going to force the fight into going somewhere else?
And did that represent just a wee bit of miscalculation on HIS part?
While he is a reality show winner, and carries the cachet that goes along with it, Mora is really not going to explode into a brand name. He's not going to become a long-time middleweight champion. He's not going to make kung-fu movies. Winning "The Contender" entitled him to cash in, yes. But you see, THIS WAS IT. This was the cash-in moment. Mora was reportedly offered about a million dollars for this fight. Well, when you make a million dollars, that means you won the game. You cashed. Let's face it - Sergio Mora is not going to beat Jermain Taylor, whether the fight is in Memphis, Montreal, Monterrey, Munich or Mammoth Falls. I obviously don't expect him to be thinking that way, but it is the responsibility of the people around him - the "handlers," whether they be managers, agents or promoters, to be see that kind of picture.
They need to be looking realistically at their fighter. They need to recognize an opportunity when they come across it. They need to tell Mora that television fame is very fleeting, especially in the reality world. Today's star is tomorrow's "Where Are They Now?". Why, just the other day I think I noticed that one of the stars of "The Amazing Race" was literally racing over to pump gas into somebody's car.
The moment was here. But it must always be kept in mind that those moments have a way of slipping by. I'll pose this question - will Sergio Mora get sufficiently pissed if he gets beaten on ESPN someday in one of those "tuneup" fights?
I imagine so.
And if you think that's such a remote scenario, you obviously haven't been around boxing long enough. I've seen it dozens of times.
"Sergio Mora thinks he has this kind of leverage to dictate where the fight is?," The Diabolical One told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. "Let him go pound sand."
Yeah, I guess I'd have to agree with that. And, as this opportunity has come and gone; after Sergio Mora has lost a couple of fights against lesser opponents for much shorter money, will that day come when he is offered another opportunity, this time by a Los Angeles promoter, to appear in the main event of a show at some little arena........if only he'll go out and sell some tickets to cover his purse?
Now THAT would be a dose of "reality," wouldn't it?
(No live animals were harmed in the creation of this column. And very little material from beat writers was used)