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I’m writing to protest The Times’s policy on boxing. It virtually ignores the sport.
I do not long for the good old days of boxing. I long for present day coverage that acknowledges that it still exists and occasionally flourishes.True enough, boxing is no longer mainstream. Yet it has a devoted following that 6 to 10 times a year reaches beyond that. Big fights generate big numbers: crowds, TV ratings, pay-per-view dollars.
In contrast to the Times, even the Wall Street Journal covers major events, and another national newspaper, USA Today, covers those and other significant fights. The Post and the Daily News also follow fighters of local interest. Horse racing is no longer mainstream either, but The Times routinely provides extensive coverage of high-profile races.
The author Tom Hauser, who writes for an online boxing site, recently examined The Times’s sports pages during July, August and September. He found, among other curiosities, just four bylined articles on boxing — three on women in boxing in the coming Olympics and in India, and an apparent rewrite of a press release announcing a tournament on Showtime.
During that period, the Times ignored the comeback of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., the top American fighter, vs. Juan Manuel Lopez, the lightweight champion regarded as one of the best fighters in the world, which was bought in over a million homes. And it ignored the top American heavyweight prospect, Chris Arreola, attempting to become the first heavyweight of Mexican descent to win a heavyweight title vs. Vitali Klitschko, one of the famous Klitschko brothers who have dominated the division in the 2000s, which pulled the highest rating on HBO this year.
Earlier, The Times ignored Shane Mosley, one of the best fighters of his time, challenging welterweight champion Antonio Margarito before the largest crowd of any event ever at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and the subsequent suspension of Margarito for trying to load his gloves before the fight. And at Madison Square Garden, the paper ignored Miguel Cotto, a very popular fighter in New York, vs. titlist Joshua Clottey of the Bronx.
In July the Times ran multiple Associated Press briefs to record the tragic coincidence of violent deaths, by suicide or murder, of three notable prize fighters: Alex Arguello, an all-time great who was the mayor of Managua, Nicaragua; Arturo Gatti of Jersey City, one of the most celebrated fighters of modern times, and junior welterweight champion and ex-Olympian Vernon Forrest. One would have thought that a Times columnist or feature writer would have addressed and celebrated these passings.
Sports editor Tom Jolly told Hauser he has been to one prize fight in his life. His disinterest is palpable in the sports pages of the Times. I mentioned an article about a tournament on Showtime. Just Saturday former champion Jermain Taylor met an outstanding German, Arthur Abraham, in the first fight of that super middleweight tournament. It did not even get into the agate results of the Times. I doubt that Jolly knows, much less cares, that the last American Gold Medalist, Andre Ward, will fight the highest-ranked fighter in that class, Mikkel Kessler, next month.
Jolly did say that the Times will staff the Manny Pacquiao-Cotto match in November. Pacquiao is an Ali-like figure in the Philippines who was recently cited by Time magazine as one of t the 100 most influential people in the world. This will be Pacquiao’s 10th big fight in the U.S. That’s how long it took for The Times to discover him.
The Times is rightly celebrated for its mission to cover all the news. Its failure to recognize that boxing still resonates with many fans and readers, if not as many as before, seems personal and capricious. You should rethink
I do not long for the good old days of boxing. I long for present day coverage that acknowledges that it still exists and occasionally flourishes.True enough, boxing is no longer mainstream. Yet it has a devoted following that 6 to 10 times a year reaches beyond that. Big fights generate big numbers: crowds, TV ratings, pay-per-view dollars.
In contrast to the Times, even the Wall Street Journal covers major events, and another national newspaper, USA Today, covers those and other significant fights. The Post and the Daily News also follow fighters of local interest. Horse racing is no longer mainstream either, but The Times routinely provides extensive coverage of high-profile races.
The author Tom Hauser, who writes for an online boxing site, recently examined The Times’s sports pages during July, August and September. He found, among other curiosities, just four bylined articles on boxing — three on women in boxing in the coming Olympics and in India, and an apparent rewrite of a press release announcing a tournament on Showtime.
During that period, the Times ignored the comeback of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., the top American fighter, vs. Juan Manuel Lopez, the lightweight champion regarded as one of the best fighters in the world, which was bought in over a million homes. And it ignored the top American heavyweight prospect, Chris Arreola, attempting to become the first heavyweight of Mexican descent to win a heavyweight title vs. Vitali Klitschko, one of the famous Klitschko brothers who have dominated the division in the 2000s, which pulled the highest rating on HBO this year.
Earlier, The Times ignored Shane Mosley, one of the best fighters of his time, challenging welterweight champion Antonio Margarito before the largest crowd of any event ever at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and the subsequent suspension of Margarito for trying to load his gloves before the fight. And at Madison Square Garden, the paper ignored Miguel Cotto, a very popular fighter in New York, vs. titlist Joshua Clottey of the Bronx.
In July the Times ran multiple Associated Press briefs to record the tragic coincidence of violent deaths, by suicide or murder, of three notable prize fighters: Alex Arguello, an all-time great who was the mayor of Managua, Nicaragua; Arturo Gatti of Jersey City, one of the most celebrated fighters of modern times, and junior welterweight champion and ex-Olympian Vernon Forrest. One would have thought that a Times columnist or feature writer would have addressed and celebrated these passings.
Sports editor Tom Jolly told Hauser he has been to one prize fight in his life. His disinterest is palpable in the sports pages of the Times. I mentioned an article about a tournament on Showtime. Just Saturday former champion Jermain Taylor met an outstanding German, Arthur Abraham, in the first fight of that super middleweight tournament. It did not even get into the agate results of the Times. I doubt that Jolly knows, much less cares, that the last American Gold Medalist, Andre Ward, will fight the highest-ranked fighter in that class, Mikkel Kessler, next month.
Jolly did say that the Times will staff the Manny Pacquiao-Cotto match in November. Pacquiao is an Ali-like figure in the Philippines who was recently cited by Time magazine as one of t the 100 most influential people in the world. This will be Pacquiao’s 10th big fight in the U.S. That’s how long it took for The Times to discover him.
The Times is rightly celebrated for its mission to cover all the news. Its failure to recognize that boxing still resonates with many fans and readers, if not as many as before, seems personal and capricious. You should rethink
Merchant is pissed because the Times is ignoring boxing and giving it pretty much little to no coverage.
Good for Larry!
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