Comments Thread For: BoxingScene's Midweek Mailbag: Your Canelo-Berlanga post-fight thoughts (and ours)

[Mr. David]

This is for Owen Lewis..You say that Canelo beating the likes of Berlanga a +1000 underdog doesn't rise his stock, but on the other hand you praise Inoue and never say that beating the likes of Doheny an +5000 underdog doesn't rise his stock, that is unfair and byased. Berlanga a young and strong 27 years old fighter vs a shot Doheny 37 years old. Inoue has visited the canvas twice, Canelo, never in 66 fights and 508 professional rounds.

Thank you for the comment! We'll be including it, and responding, in next week's mailbag.

[Boxing Scene]

My thoughts? ****in crime. Literally people should be jailed who approved this **** ass fight. And anyone who watched it is a ****in idiot. I didn't even watch it for free.

[factsarenice]

"That brings us back to the “why” of it all. When we bring up sportswashing, it is because Saudi Arabia — via Alalshikh and the related ent*i*t*i*e*s — is funding sporting events, and investing in leagues, with a primary goal of distracting from the ongoing narrative about the country’s leadership."

I've been saying it for months now on these pages.
BoxingScene got this one exactly right.

David Greisman, Left Hook Louie..... I'll try not to get too deep into Geopolitics because it's messy, difficult and too often described in overly simplified sound bites. I'll do what I can to be direct and as short, fair and honest as possible.

First, of course Saudi Arabia has an agenda but so does everyone and that's the key, the agenda, but I'll get to that later. First, just because ExonMobil is listed as a private company doesn't give them a pass for using their (paid for) Washington influence to threaten Mexico on their behalf. The only two differences between them, is that Saudi Arabia owns its corporation and in America, the corporations own the country and that's not even debatable. More importantly, the second distinction is that government/corporate America doesn't even consider whitewashing, sport-washing, distracting or responsibility for wrong doings, not even when it includes decimating 1/4 million Iraqi civilians that will never know why they had to die. If you are interested we can debate why Saudi Arabia is trying to bring sports to Saudi Arabia but one thing it's NOT doing, and that is trying to destroy boxing because there is absolutely no evidence to support that notion.

That brings us back to the "why" of all of it, and it has nothing to do with ExonMobil's threats, the American corporate need to manufacture a war or the leadership in Saudi Arabia. There are no good guys just guys with an agenda and THAT is what matters because the agenda here is to drag Turki Alsheik through the mud because he threatens the shyty, corrupt status quo. Yes, it's about money, power and the agenda is to keep control of it because until recently, nobody gave two shyts about the leadership in Saudi Arabia or what they do to their people.

If you have any honest thoughts I'd like to here them.

[Elheath]

Owen Lewis..You say that Canelo beating the likes of Berlanga a +1000 underdog doesn't rise his stock, but on the other hand you praise Inoue and never say that beating the likes of Doheny an +5000 underdog doesn't rise his stock, that is unfair and byased. Berlanga a young and strong 27 years old fighter vs a shot Doheny 37 YO

I'm not Lewis, but every time I read people make this comparison I want to remind them that...if Canelo had already defeated his top two contenders in Benavides and Morrell last year and THEN fighting the likes of Munguia and Berlanga now there would be significantly less backlash.

Basically what Canelo is doing is essentially Inoue having gone up to 122 and fight Sam Goodman and Doheny and fans clamouring him as the best of 122 while absolutely refusing to acknowledge the existence of Fulton until he got tired of waiting and vacated the belts and left to 126.

[Mr. David]

David Greisman, Left Hook Louie..... I'll try not to get too deep into Geopolitics because it's messy, difficult and too often described in overly simplified sound bites. I'll do what I can to be direct and as short, fair and honest as possible.

First, of course Saudi Arabia has an agenda but so does everyone and that's the key, the agenda, but I'll get to that later. First, just because ExonMobil is listed as a private company doesn't give them a pass for using their (paid for) Washington influence to threaten Mexico on their behalf. The only two differences between them, is that Saudi Arabia owns its corporation and in America, the corporations own the country and that's not even debatable. More importantly, the second distinction is that government/corporate America doesn't even consider whitewashing, sport-washing, distracting or responsibility for wrong doings, not even when it includes decimating 1/4 million Iraqi civilians that will never know why they had to die. If you are interested we can debate why Saudi Arabia is trying to bring sports to Saudi Arabia but one thing it's NOT doing, and that is trying to destroy boxing because there is absolutely no evidence to support that notion.

That brings us back to the "why" of all of it, and it has nothing to do with ExonMobil's threats, the American corporate need to manufacture a war or the leadership in Saudi Arabia. There are no good guys just guys with an agenda and THAT is what matters because the agenda here is to drag Turki Alsheik through the mud because he threatens the shyty, corrupt status quo. Yes, it's about money, power and the agenda is to keep control of it because until recently, nobody gave two shyts about the leadership in Saudi Arabia or what they do to their people.

If you have any honest thoughts I'd like to here them.

Thanks for the response! I don't think most of the boxing writers who are criticizing Turki Alalshikh, or who bring up that this is sportswashing, care about preserving a corrupt status quo.

Also, your stuff about ExxonMobil still has nothing to do with boxing, but it is something that should be cared about nonetheless. Too much government policy remains too influenced by private interests.

Cheers,
David

[factsarenice]

Thanks for the response! I don't think most of the boxing writers who are criticizing Turki Alalshikh, or who bring up that this is sportswashing, care about preserving a corrupt status quo.

Also, your stuff about ExxonMobil still has nothing to do with boxing, but it is something that should be cared about nonetheless. Too much government policy remains too influenced by private interests.

Cheers,
David

Would it have changed opinions if instead, as an example, I used the raid on the trust at Waddell & Reed, or the undisclosed relationship between the manager and the PBC? No writers mentioned it because the only people that cared are the investors that lost $925 million.

The outrage over Saudi politics is the pot calling the kettle black and only means something to the writers that go along to get along, and the unholy alliances that make 100s of millions off a corrupt system they created and control.

[Mr. David]

Would it have changed opinions if instead, as an example, I used the raid on the trust at Waddell & Reed, or the undisclosed relationship between the manager and the PBC? No writers mentioned it because the only people that cared are the investors that lost $925 million.

The outrage over Saudi politics is the pot calling the kettle black and only means something to the writers that go along to get along, and the unholy alliances that make 100s of millions off a corrupt system they created and control.

If you think that the writers (like me) who are bringing up sportswashing are doing it to ingratiate themselves with others in the sport, then I don't think you're aware of my 20-year history of covering this sport without fear or favor. The writers who are trying to ingratiate themselves with others are the ones who don't criticize, who don't ask the tough questions, who don't cover all angles of both the sport and the business.

A quick Google search show a number of boxing outlets who covered Waddell and Reed. It of course could've been covered by more, and more in-depth.

Similarly, not enough outlets covered Daniel Kinahan's involvement in boxing. Back when Jake Donovan was still here, he covered that issue regularly.

We've staked our positions here, so we might as well move forward to the next conversation. I appreciate your responses and hope you have a good day and week. =)