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"Was wondering if you could ask Iceman Scully, if he was talking before the world and answering for boxing, what does he think is wrong with the sport these days? I'm a big fan and when I try to get other friends of mine they always are turned off from the curious decisions and how it's so hard to keep track of all the belts and who the real champions are. Would love to hear his take on where the sport is at, where it's come from, and what needs to happen for it to move forward and into a bigger spotlight"
ICE SAYS: The first and most obvious thing wrong with the sport is that there are way, way, way too many sanctioning bodies. It has become actually ridiculous how many there are and it is even funny sometimes because you can literally look at all the three letter bodies that we have already and try and figure out what one someone will come up with next. It's like some guys are sitting in an office somewhere and one of them says "OK, we have the World Boxing Council already. How about the World Boxing group? The WBG. Is that one taken already? No?? Cool, put it in."
Another thing wrong is that there are literally hundreds of managers out here in the gamethat aren't actually managers at all, they are more like financial backers that are listed as the manger of record even though they have no input whatsoever in the boxers career yet they think they do. they have a license that says they are a manager now and all of a sudden they have become a boxing expert as a result. I know a ki that ha sone of these guys for a manager and the guy pays him a couple hundred dollars a week as training expense which is coo but I recently found out that every time the kid fights the guy not only takes his 30 percent cut but he also takes back the money that he gave him each week before the fight!! That should be illegal. I mean, if the guy had knowledge and input to give for the kid career I could se that but he doesn't. That's the type of thing people don't hear about that need to be changed. Most of the really wrong things with boxing are things that the average fan never even hears about and doesn't even know exists as a problem.
As far as the bad decisions in boxing you are not alone because I am turned off by them, too, and have been for some time now. It's ridiculous when you watch a fight on HBO and everybody you know in the room, guys with boxing experience, have the guy in the red corner winning 9 rounds of 12 and the ringside announcers and Harold Lederman see it almost exactly the same as you do but you still already know that the chances are better than 50-50 that the three men actually paid to sit ringside and judge the fight will surely have it scored considerably different in probably 8 of 10 instances.
I think one thing that needs to happen is that they need to limit the number of sanctioning bodies. I mean, I can't just take a few million dollars and start a new division in the Major League baseball organization. I cant say I want four divisions in the American league but in boxing these new people can infiltrate and they meet no resistance. they think they are helping out somehow but all they are doing is cheapening the belts and weakening the power of the word champion. I mean, I laugh when they say so and so is the lineal world champ dating back to the days of Joe Louis. Nonsense. Those titles are untraceable now with all the stripping of titles and crowning of super champs, interim champs, regular champs,etc. Politics that have gradually turned the greatest symbols of championship superiority in the world into tin foil belts over the years.
Limit the belt numbers. Bring it back to two so that way you can at least have a unification fight here and there like the first Leonard-Hearns fight back in 1981. Do away with the regular champs, super champs etc. Let the top sanctioning bodies actually enforce their so called rules on a regular basis instead of picking and choosing when and who they enforce them for or against.
And next time the U.S. Government decide to step in do some type of inquiry have some people with real investigative skills conduct it because every ten years after a bad decision they do one and it all amounts to absolutely nothing and everybody in boxing knows this is what will happen before it even ends up going to court. If you investigate boxing and cannot find things that needed to be changed then you are just talking to the wrong people and you really aren't looking to dig very far. Starting with the fact that you often cannot even get a title shot unless you sign over options on future fights should you win the belt from that promoters champion... I mean, that is illegal isn't it??? John McCain wants boxing reform but what has he done to change that one single well known, common knowledge, fact? They have the "Muhammad Ali Act" that was devised a few years ago to help protect the boxer but guess what?? Most people in boxing have never heard of the act and if they have they have no idea what it is or what it actually entails. That's crazy to me.
Does that answer your question?? I hope so because even with me giving an answer that detailed I can tell you that boxing and the business of it leaves me often just as confused as you are.
ICE
ICE SAYS: The first and most obvious thing wrong with the sport is that there are way, way, way too many sanctioning bodies. It has become actually ridiculous how many there are and it is even funny sometimes because you can literally look at all the three letter bodies that we have already and try and figure out what one someone will come up with next. It's like some guys are sitting in an office somewhere and one of them says "OK, we have the World Boxing Council already. How about the World Boxing group? The WBG. Is that one taken already? No?? Cool, put it in."
Another thing wrong is that there are literally hundreds of managers out here in the gamethat aren't actually managers at all, they are more like financial backers that are listed as the manger of record even though they have no input whatsoever in the boxers career yet they think they do. they have a license that says they are a manager now and all of a sudden they have become a boxing expert as a result. I know a ki that ha sone of these guys for a manager and the guy pays him a couple hundred dollars a week as training expense which is coo but I recently found out that every time the kid fights the guy not only takes his 30 percent cut but he also takes back the money that he gave him each week before the fight!! That should be illegal. I mean, if the guy had knowledge and input to give for the kid career I could se that but he doesn't. That's the type of thing people don't hear about that need to be changed. Most of the really wrong things with boxing are things that the average fan never even hears about and doesn't even know exists as a problem.
As far as the bad decisions in boxing you are not alone because I am turned off by them, too, and have been for some time now. It's ridiculous when you watch a fight on HBO and everybody you know in the room, guys with boxing experience, have the guy in the red corner winning 9 rounds of 12 and the ringside announcers and Harold Lederman see it almost exactly the same as you do but you still already know that the chances are better than 50-50 that the three men actually paid to sit ringside and judge the fight will surely have it scored considerably different in probably 8 of 10 instances.
I think one thing that needs to happen is that they need to limit the number of sanctioning bodies. I mean, I can't just take a few million dollars and start a new division in the Major League baseball organization. I cant say I want four divisions in the American league but in boxing these new people can infiltrate and they meet no resistance. they think they are helping out somehow but all they are doing is cheapening the belts and weakening the power of the word champion. I mean, I laugh when they say so and so is the lineal world champ dating back to the days of Joe Louis. Nonsense. Those titles are untraceable now with all the stripping of titles and crowning of super champs, interim champs, regular champs,etc. Politics that have gradually turned the greatest symbols of championship superiority in the world into tin foil belts over the years.
Limit the belt numbers. Bring it back to two so that way you can at least have a unification fight here and there like the first Leonard-Hearns fight back in 1981. Do away with the regular champs, super champs etc. Let the top sanctioning bodies actually enforce their so called rules on a regular basis instead of picking and choosing when and who they enforce them for or against.
And next time the U.S. Government decide to step in do some type of inquiry have some people with real investigative skills conduct it because every ten years after a bad decision they do one and it all amounts to absolutely nothing and everybody in boxing knows this is what will happen before it even ends up going to court. If you investigate boxing and cannot find things that needed to be changed then you are just talking to the wrong people and you really aren't looking to dig very far. Starting with the fact that you often cannot even get a title shot unless you sign over options on future fights should you win the belt from that promoters champion... I mean, that is illegal isn't it??? John McCain wants boxing reform but what has he done to change that one single well known, common knowledge, fact? They have the "Muhammad Ali Act" that was devised a few years ago to help protect the boxer but guess what?? Most people in boxing have never heard of the act and if they have they have no idea what it is or what it actually entails. That's crazy to me.
Does that answer your question?? I hope so because even with me giving an answer that detailed I can tell you that boxing and the business of it leaves me often just as confused as you are.
ICE
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