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DT- Thank you, Ok……
TA – Like my old friend Jack Newfield said and he was a great writer and great man. He was a champion for the downtrodden people. He used his columns to always look out for the underdog. He obviously made his living in journalism so he had to be on the internet when it came about. He even said to me, he said “Teddy you’re probably right about the internet even though it is the progressive thing because some people have turned it into nothing more than a graffiti board.” It’s being used as a bulletin board where people can express their thoughts and opinions without being based on facts or anything positive.
DT – Well I just wanted to ask………
TA – I don’t read any boxing internet articles unless someone sends me something or fax me something which I really don’t care to read in the first place. There is just so many boxing websites that I wonder how they survive. For a sport that doesn’t seem to get enough attention, proper attention in the proper areas when it’s doing something right, it just seems that there is not a proper presence of media attention. And then I get calls from “so called” writers who say I am Joey Pulako and I write for ringside boxing, or I write for Left Hand Boxing or Bloody nose boxing, I’m like how many of these sites exist out there? For a sport that doesn’t get any attention it seems like there must be a trillion boxing websites.
DT – Yes, I understand but surely you understand that these websites are practically the only way boxing fans can get their fix?
TA – I see some of these so called writers and I say boy oh boy how do they get to be writers. Again I believe that it’s because of the internet where you don’t have the restrictions or standards when you had the hard trend media where you had deadlines and editors and some sort of organization like being responsible have a background in journalism even before you get a chance to put something in print. Now some are given the opportunity to do that with no background, preparation, no responsibility, no regard or respect and the only thing they seem to be good at is having some agenda or vent against someone. Then again I see some of these message boards from the fans and these fans seem to be just as bent and just as maladjusted as some of these writers that are not responsible and shouldn’t have access to vent with the writers who are twisted and bent. I’m like these people should get a life this is insane!
DT – I have been focusing on interviews because its people like yourself that are the “historians” of boxing. Teddy, what do you think about the state of boxing today?
TA – The way it’s been the last few years not just today, it’s been an ongoing and maybe failing situation for sometime now. I think it’s kind of like communism. You know communism and I’m sure your readers are going to go wow Teddy is equating communism with boxing, my gosh. What I mean is the theory of communism was based on something that had merit in the human realm. There wasn’t going to be the rich and the very poor, everybody was going to be taken care of, things were going to be even for everyone. It didn’t work out. There were the rich and the very poor, no in between. The people that got in with the government were very well taken care of just the same as before communism came aboard. The people that got in with the government became the ultra rich and you still had the very poor. That’s how boxing is, there’s nothing in-between; we have the ultra rich and the very poor. We have the De La Hoya’s, the Pacquiao’s, the Mayweather’s, you know that list of people and obviously life is good for them. Then you have just regular boxers who can hardly get work. They are fighting for a thousand dollars or twelve hundred dollars or if their lucky maybe two thousand dollars. Out there in space in these lost horizons they are not able to get to a steady place even if they have some ability. They just are not able to get to the level of these other guys where they are taken care of in a promotional way and many will never be given that opportunity to live in that place. Of course there are fighters who have moderate talents and lesser than moderate talents and they will never get to that place and their skills are part of the reason for that. There’s always going to be a rating system whether it for doctors, lawyers or baseball players. Look at baseball, even a shortstop hitting below average is making millions of dollars. Boxing is not like that only the very few make the big millions of dollars and the rest feed off the crumbs.
TA - Sorry about that. It was a call from this foundation that I run that I had to take. I may not know much about the internet but I’m advanced enough to know how to use call waiting. I run this charity foundation and every day there is something going on that requires my attention. It’s a hands on operation and we get many requests mostly for kids without insurance and suffering from cancer. We’ve got two kids right now that are paralyzed from accidents this summer and I’ve got to make some tough decisions on how to help these kids. But getting back to our conversation, like I said most kids in other sports will not be a Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays but you can reach a level of stability, security and that’s missing from boxing. Again, it’s the communist theory again; most of the boxers will be down at the bottom with a very few fortunate up at the top. No middle level that can provide the security that comes in other sports.
DT – Why?
TA – I’m just saying that the problem is there is boxers who can’t get the work. There is no in between but there could be, it’s just there is no organizational center for boxing, there’s no rhyme or reason, there’s no National Body, there’s no nucleus to it, there is nobody marketing the sport. This sport has been around over two hundred years more than any other sport and yet it is very underdeveloped and simplistic in having an infrastructure for these issues that I’m talking about. But that’s what it is, you could say that it has become a cult driven sport. Sure the fans will come out for the big fights, the big shows, but they don’t support the place I’m talking about. In some ways I’m calling it an event driven sport now. The next big event will be Mayweather and Marquez followed by the Pacquiao and Cotto events, okay when these events happen the sport looks, sounds, smells and feels like it’s doing pretty well. There will be chatter about it, there will be movement about it but when those events have taken place, the sport again drifts away to that quite place and it wouldn’t have to if it had the interest and promotion in those middle areas. Does this make sense?
TA – Like my old friend Jack Newfield said and he was a great writer and great man. He was a champion for the downtrodden people. He used his columns to always look out for the underdog. He obviously made his living in journalism so he had to be on the internet when it came about. He even said to me, he said “Teddy you’re probably right about the internet even though it is the progressive thing because some people have turned it into nothing more than a graffiti board.” It’s being used as a bulletin board where people can express their thoughts and opinions without being based on facts or anything positive.
DT – Well I just wanted to ask………
TA – I don’t read any boxing internet articles unless someone sends me something or fax me something which I really don’t care to read in the first place. There is just so many boxing websites that I wonder how they survive. For a sport that doesn’t seem to get enough attention, proper attention in the proper areas when it’s doing something right, it just seems that there is not a proper presence of media attention. And then I get calls from “so called” writers who say I am Joey Pulako and I write for ringside boxing, or I write for Left Hand Boxing or Bloody nose boxing, I’m like how many of these sites exist out there? For a sport that doesn’t get any attention it seems like there must be a trillion boxing websites.
DT – Yes, I understand but surely you understand that these websites are practically the only way boxing fans can get their fix?
TA – I see some of these so called writers and I say boy oh boy how do they get to be writers. Again I believe that it’s because of the internet where you don’t have the restrictions or standards when you had the hard trend media where you had deadlines and editors and some sort of organization like being responsible have a background in journalism even before you get a chance to put something in print. Now some are given the opportunity to do that with no background, preparation, no responsibility, no regard or respect and the only thing they seem to be good at is having some agenda or vent against someone. Then again I see some of these message boards from the fans and these fans seem to be just as bent and just as maladjusted as some of these writers that are not responsible and shouldn’t have access to vent with the writers who are twisted and bent. I’m like these people should get a life this is insane!
DT – I have been focusing on interviews because its people like yourself that are the “historians” of boxing. Teddy, what do you think about the state of boxing today?
TA – The way it’s been the last few years not just today, it’s been an ongoing and maybe failing situation for sometime now. I think it’s kind of like communism. You know communism and I’m sure your readers are going to go wow Teddy is equating communism with boxing, my gosh. What I mean is the theory of communism was based on something that had merit in the human realm. There wasn’t going to be the rich and the very poor, everybody was going to be taken care of, things were going to be even for everyone. It didn’t work out. There were the rich and the very poor, no in between. The people that got in with the government were very well taken care of just the same as before communism came aboard. The people that got in with the government became the ultra rich and you still had the very poor. That’s how boxing is, there’s nothing in-between; we have the ultra rich and the very poor. We have the De La Hoya’s, the Pacquiao’s, the Mayweather’s, you know that list of people and obviously life is good for them. Then you have just regular boxers who can hardly get work. They are fighting for a thousand dollars or twelve hundred dollars or if their lucky maybe two thousand dollars. Out there in space in these lost horizons they are not able to get to a steady place even if they have some ability. They just are not able to get to the level of these other guys where they are taken care of in a promotional way and many will never be given that opportunity to live in that place. Of course there are fighters who have moderate talents and lesser than moderate talents and they will never get to that place and their skills are part of the reason for that. There’s always going to be a rating system whether it for doctors, lawyers or baseball players. Look at baseball, even a shortstop hitting below average is making millions of dollars. Boxing is not like that only the very few make the big millions of dollars and the rest feed off the crumbs.
TA - Sorry about that. It was a call from this foundation that I run that I had to take. I may not know much about the internet but I’m advanced enough to know how to use call waiting. I run this charity foundation and every day there is something going on that requires my attention. It’s a hands on operation and we get many requests mostly for kids without insurance and suffering from cancer. We’ve got two kids right now that are paralyzed from accidents this summer and I’ve got to make some tough decisions on how to help these kids. But getting back to our conversation, like I said most kids in other sports will not be a Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays but you can reach a level of stability, security and that’s missing from boxing. Again, it’s the communist theory again; most of the boxers will be down at the bottom with a very few fortunate up at the top. No middle level that can provide the security that comes in other sports.
DT – Why?
TA – I’m just saying that the problem is there is boxers who can’t get the work. There is no in between but there could be, it’s just there is no organizational center for boxing, there’s no rhyme or reason, there’s no National Body, there’s no nucleus to it, there is nobody marketing the sport. This sport has been around over two hundred years more than any other sport and yet it is very underdeveloped and simplistic in having an infrastructure for these issues that I’m talking about. But that’s what it is, you could say that it has become a cult driven sport. Sure the fans will come out for the big fights, the big shows, but they don’t support the place I’m talking about. In some ways I’m calling it an event driven sport now. The next big event will be Mayweather and Marquez followed by the Pacquiao and Cotto events, okay when these events happen the sport looks, sounds, smells and feels like it’s doing pretty well. There will be chatter about it, there will be movement about it but when those events have taken place, the sport again drifts away to that quite place and it wouldn’t have to if it had the interest and promotion in those middle areas. Does this make sense?
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