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By Carlos Acevedo
22 Dec 2009
Part I
#1 ANTONIO MARGARITO
Antonio Margarito, along with his malignant sidekick, Javier Capetillo, the Burke & Hare of the Red Light District of Sports, are easily co-rogues of 2009. Caught with elements of plaster of Paris in his gloves prior to facing Shane Mosley in January, Margarito became the biggest scandal in boxing since the early 1990s when Tim “Doc” Anderson was poisoned during his fight with slimy Mark Gastineau. The California State Athletic Commission suspended Margarito for a year, but it was Mosley who dished out rough justice at the Staples Center: an ass-kicking of a lifetime. No one deserved it more.
#2 THE WBA
The WBA has always been a joke, but recently the banditos from South America have gone over the abyss. In addition to the customary bizarre ratings everyone has come to know and loathe, the WBA has created so many championship categories– champions in recess, interim champions, “Super” champions, etc.–that they now have multiple champions in several weight classes. Take lightweight, for example, where there are currently three WBA champions: Juan Manuel Marquez (“Super champion”), Paulus Moses (“World champion”), and Miguel Acosta (“Interim champion”). This ingenious system, of course, lets the WBA collect three times as many sanctioning fees. If a boxing organization could be formed with elements of Monty Python, Dutch Schultz, Enron, The Marx Brothers, and Sarah Winchester, it would look and act just like the WBA.
#3 GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer is given to sermonizing with the hypocritical zeal of a televangelist, except he does not have the showmanship skills that made Jim Bakker or Peter Popoff must-see TV for certain demographics. Along with Golden Boy “President” Oscar De La Hoya, who often sounds like a supernatural dummy freed from his ventriloquist, Schaefer has managed to inject even more cynicism into an anarchic sport where, unfortunately, his kind of duplicity flourishes. Sleaze in boxing is nothing new, but rarely does a promotional firm pretend so hard to be so virtuous.
This year alone GBP has programmed horrible fights for Versus, HBO, and ESPN; put together one ridiculous catch weight bout after another; overhyped Victor Ortiz, who not only quit against Marcos Maidana but claimed to have entered the bout with a “shattered” wrist; and denied press credentials to veteran writer Michael Marley. But nothing captures the Golden Boy spirit as much as the shenanigans of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez mismatch. For months GBP let the mystery weight dangle in the air. When the real sources–-Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya–-were asked about the weight, they lied. Period. De La Hoya, without a certificate from the School of Hard Knocks ala Don King or an Ivy League degree ala Bob Arum (you know, the man De La Hoya once referred to as the biggest *** from Harvard) foolishly said at one point that the fight would be at a catchweight of 143 pounds, and Schaefer disingenuously claimed that the mystery
number would boost the fun factor of the weigh-in ceremony. It appears that the real reason they kept the weight and its contractual stipulations hush-hush until the last moment was to make sure negative press about the size differential would not affect pay-per-view sales. This was a swindle, plain and simple, the first of many to come, no doubt.
#4 JOSE SULAIMAN
Jose Sulaiman, “Dictator for Life” of the WBC, is the Elagabalus of sanctioning bodies. Impulsive, sadistic, funny-looking, corrupt, and completely off his rocker, Sulaiman rules his boxing fiefdom with same loony touch as the infamous teen Roman emperor–who ordered his urinals to be carved out of onyx and refused to wear the same clothes twice–did. Not content with going hand and hand with the WBA in anointing multiple champions per division, Sulaiman also likes to speak out on “issues,” and since the obliging media will put anything in a headline, his inanities are often aired for public ridicule. Like Dee Dee Ramone and Oscar de La Hoya, anytime Sulaiman opens his mouth something absurd tumbles forth. But Dee Dee was a serious dope fiend and De La Hoya was punched repeatedly in the face by Manny Pacquiao. What’s Sulaiman’s excuse? Recently Sulaiman managed to outstrip his own ******ity by inventing a “Diamond Belt Championship,”
immediately played up by lapdog websites like *********.com, and by “suspending” Cris Arreola for cursing on television.
#5 FRANK SANTORE, JR.
Referees have a tough job in the ring, but the easiest part of their duties may very well be counting to “10.” Frank Santore Jr. could not even manage to get that right last May when he marred the Sergio Martinez-Kermit Cintron bout and single-handedly turned a top level prizefight into a complete cluster****. Santore Jr. counted Cintron out, waved his arms in the classic “fight over” semaphore, and then changed his mind. Not content with nullifying a KO and absurdly calling for a “Do Over” (as if boxing can be conducted by the rules of stickball), Santore, Jr. went on to steal the victory from Martinez outright by deducting a point from the Argentine in the last round of the fight for an innocuous infraction. As is the custom in boxing when someone screws up egregiously, Santore Jr. was back in the ring officiating a month later.
22 Dec 2009
Part I
#1 ANTONIO MARGARITO
Antonio Margarito, along with his malignant sidekick, Javier Capetillo, the Burke & Hare of the Red Light District of Sports, are easily co-rogues of 2009. Caught with elements of plaster of Paris in his gloves prior to facing Shane Mosley in January, Margarito became the biggest scandal in boxing since the early 1990s when Tim “Doc” Anderson was poisoned during his fight with slimy Mark Gastineau. The California State Athletic Commission suspended Margarito for a year, but it was Mosley who dished out rough justice at the Staples Center: an ass-kicking of a lifetime. No one deserved it more.
#2 THE WBA
The WBA has always been a joke, but recently the banditos from South America have gone over the abyss. In addition to the customary bizarre ratings everyone has come to know and loathe, the WBA has created so many championship categories– champions in recess, interim champions, “Super” champions, etc.–that they now have multiple champions in several weight classes. Take lightweight, for example, where there are currently three WBA champions: Juan Manuel Marquez (“Super champion”), Paulus Moses (“World champion”), and Miguel Acosta (“Interim champion”). This ingenious system, of course, lets the WBA collect three times as many sanctioning fees. If a boxing organization could be formed with elements of Monty Python, Dutch Schultz, Enron, The Marx Brothers, and Sarah Winchester, it would look and act just like the WBA.
#3 GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer is given to sermonizing with the hypocritical zeal of a televangelist, except he does not have the showmanship skills that made Jim Bakker or Peter Popoff must-see TV for certain demographics. Along with Golden Boy “President” Oscar De La Hoya, who often sounds like a supernatural dummy freed from his ventriloquist, Schaefer has managed to inject even more cynicism into an anarchic sport where, unfortunately, his kind of duplicity flourishes. Sleaze in boxing is nothing new, but rarely does a promotional firm pretend so hard to be so virtuous.
This year alone GBP has programmed horrible fights for Versus, HBO, and ESPN; put together one ridiculous catch weight bout after another; overhyped Victor Ortiz, who not only quit against Marcos Maidana but claimed to have entered the bout with a “shattered” wrist; and denied press credentials to veteran writer Michael Marley. But nothing captures the Golden Boy spirit as much as the shenanigans of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez mismatch. For months GBP let the mystery weight dangle in the air. When the real sources–-Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya–-were asked about the weight, they lied. Period. De La Hoya, without a certificate from the School of Hard Knocks ala Don King or an Ivy League degree ala Bob Arum (you know, the man De La Hoya once referred to as the biggest *** from Harvard) foolishly said at one point that the fight would be at a catchweight of 143 pounds, and Schaefer disingenuously claimed that the mystery
number would boost the fun factor of the weigh-in ceremony. It appears that the real reason they kept the weight and its contractual stipulations hush-hush until the last moment was to make sure negative press about the size differential would not affect pay-per-view sales. This was a swindle, plain and simple, the first of many to come, no doubt.
#4 JOSE SULAIMAN
Jose Sulaiman, “Dictator for Life” of the WBC, is the Elagabalus of sanctioning bodies. Impulsive, sadistic, funny-looking, corrupt, and completely off his rocker, Sulaiman rules his boxing fiefdom with same loony touch as the infamous teen Roman emperor–who ordered his urinals to be carved out of onyx and refused to wear the same clothes twice–did. Not content with going hand and hand with the WBA in anointing multiple champions per division, Sulaiman also likes to speak out on “issues,” and since the obliging media will put anything in a headline, his inanities are often aired for public ridicule. Like Dee Dee Ramone and Oscar de La Hoya, anytime Sulaiman opens his mouth something absurd tumbles forth. But Dee Dee was a serious dope fiend and De La Hoya was punched repeatedly in the face by Manny Pacquiao. What’s Sulaiman’s excuse? Recently Sulaiman managed to outstrip his own ******ity by inventing a “Diamond Belt Championship,”
immediately played up by lapdog websites like *********.com, and by “suspending” Cris Arreola for cursing on television.
#5 FRANK SANTORE, JR.
Referees have a tough job in the ring, but the easiest part of their duties may very well be counting to “10.” Frank Santore Jr. could not even manage to get that right last May when he marred the Sergio Martinez-Kermit Cintron bout and single-handedly turned a top level prizefight into a complete cluster****. Santore Jr. counted Cintron out, waved his arms in the classic “fight over” semaphore, and then changed his mind. Not content with nullifying a KO and absurdly calling for a “Do Over” (as if boxing can be conducted by the rules of stickball), Santore, Jr. went on to steal the victory from Martinez outright by deducting a point from the Argentine in the last round of the fight for an innocuous infraction. As is the custom in boxing when someone screws up egregiously, Santore Jr. was back in the ring officiating a month later.
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