Tweet
Andre Ward and The Rigged Tournament He Was Chosen To Win
31 Aug
In a few months we get the Super 6 tournament final between Oakland’s Andre Ward and England’s Carl Froch in a venue that isn’t in Oakland which is good news for Froch, but is still in America which is bad news for any visiting fighter. Ask Lucas Matthysse and Andreas Kotelnik.
This is relevant because out of all the tournament fighters, Ward is the only one with the unique distinction of having all of his fights in his home town. Home town, home ref, home fans and home based promotional outfit. Given the Machiavellian proclivities of the sport and the built in corruption that surrounds it, one would have to look at this as one of the more overt displays of contempt for the integrity of the sport and of the starved fans that support it. It has to be given bonus points for “chuztpa” on the part of Ken Hershman for having a major network like Showtime sanctioning and bankrolling this type of inequity. Though one can’t be surprised when a ***ish media head is seen favoring the “slick” (see dull and afraid) black African in boxing’s version of affirmative action. Recent HBO boxing reject and boxing anarchist Ross Greenburg nearly destroyed the network with his naked moral support and budget gaping bankrolling of boring black fighters in his misguided, destructive and gullible devotion to political correctness, affirmative action and his own ******* white guilt all at the expense of paying subscribers who had to be witness to his psychological defects.
Thankfully the Greenburg era is over, though it is still unclear what will replace it and whether or not HBO can regain their once grand standing when it was run by semi competent boxing heads.
However, when one era of corruption ends, another usually grows up to replace it.
Enter Ken Hershman and the dusty denizens at Showtime who had the opportunity to put boxing on the good foot with this their Super 6 tournament only to bungle any good will and intention they had built up by staging it like a circus.
First off, the tournament took far too long. There is 6 fighters and it has taken them over two years to get to a final. That people have short attention spans is the least of the problems. Fighters get stale sitting around waiting for a tournament to end and a floating schedule can give people second thoughts or reasons to quit altogether. The worst aspect of it though was to have this be a round robin and drawing the whole thing out. This isn’t the world cup, this is boxing, there is no point in having a second and third place match and if you’re going to do it that way, for the love of god, expedite the process.
Instead we got a long winded tournament that had no continuity or momentum because fighters sat around too long or just quit the tournament. All that is bad but at least it has the appearance of spontaneity. Things happen, injuries occur, etc.
What was not a matter of coincidence and where the tournament really lost all credibility with this observer was in the fact that Andre Ward was given overwhelming preferential treatment by the network allowing all his fights to be staged in Oakland. Emphasis on staged. In boxing, fighting at home can be the difference in having a bad night and still winning versus having that same bad night in a neutral venue and losing. This is understood by most people who even casually watch the sport. Boxing is notorious for the “hometown” decision which makes Showtime allowing this all the more egregious and sinister.
Lest anyone think this is an accident, think again. This is Showtime telegraphing their desire for Ward to be the winner without actually paying the entire division step aside money for him to be declared the de facto winner. Sure they still have to fight the fights, but Ward fought the entire tournament with a nice insurance policy. All for a fighter who has been in nothing but bore-filled foul fests of mauling, holding, headbutting and rabbit punching characterized by the Showtime crew led by the increasingly shrill and biased Al Bernstein as “masterful” inside fighting.
To make things worse, he fought the weakest competition of all the contestants.
For starters, his fight with Dirrell was scrapped in a decision I saw coming from the start. I knew these two wouldn’t fight each other because they both represent the same thing. Read between the lines if you must. Only to be replaced with long time underachiver and would be Donny McCrary k.o victim Allan Green and then by journeyman Sakio Bika. Both in Oakland no less. Here is Ward fighting in Oakland against replacement lower tier fighters that were not good enough to be included in the original tournament but getting full tournament credit for it while the rest of the field duke it out under stricter rules.
If that isn’t stacking the deck, the somebody invent a new cliche for it. Just imagine if any of the other fighters, the Europeans in particular had all their fights in their home town. I’m sure chants of favoritism and racism would abound. But not for Ward. In his case, its been a steady dose of defending the indefensible.
Ward will likely win the final by decision in a close fight and will have a friendly ref and judges to help him do it. This is not to suggest Froch deserves our sympathy for being a great guy but he is a hard working and dedicated professional who deserves a fair shake at an already corrupt tournament.
31 Aug
In a few months we get the Super 6 tournament final between Oakland’s Andre Ward and England’s Carl Froch in a venue that isn’t in Oakland which is good news for Froch, but is still in America which is bad news for any visiting fighter. Ask Lucas Matthysse and Andreas Kotelnik.
This is relevant because out of all the tournament fighters, Ward is the only one with the unique distinction of having all of his fights in his home town. Home town, home ref, home fans and home based promotional outfit. Given the Machiavellian proclivities of the sport and the built in corruption that surrounds it, one would have to look at this as one of the more overt displays of contempt for the integrity of the sport and of the starved fans that support it. It has to be given bonus points for “chuztpa” on the part of Ken Hershman for having a major network like Showtime sanctioning and bankrolling this type of inequity. Though one can’t be surprised when a ***ish media head is seen favoring the “slick” (see dull and afraid) black African in boxing’s version of affirmative action. Recent HBO boxing reject and boxing anarchist Ross Greenburg nearly destroyed the network with his naked moral support and budget gaping bankrolling of boring black fighters in his misguided, destructive and gullible devotion to political correctness, affirmative action and his own ******* white guilt all at the expense of paying subscribers who had to be witness to his psychological defects.
Thankfully the Greenburg era is over, though it is still unclear what will replace it and whether or not HBO can regain their once grand standing when it was run by semi competent boxing heads.
However, when one era of corruption ends, another usually grows up to replace it.
Enter Ken Hershman and the dusty denizens at Showtime who had the opportunity to put boxing on the good foot with this their Super 6 tournament only to bungle any good will and intention they had built up by staging it like a circus.
First off, the tournament took far too long. There is 6 fighters and it has taken them over two years to get to a final. That people have short attention spans is the least of the problems. Fighters get stale sitting around waiting for a tournament to end and a floating schedule can give people second thoughts or reasons to quit altogether. The worst aspect of it though was to have this be a round robin and drawing the whole thing out. This isn’t the world cup, this is boxing, there is no point in having a second and third place match and if you’re going to do it that way, for the love of god, expedite the process.
Instead we got a long winded tournament that had no continuity or momentum because fighters sat around too long or just quit the tournament. All that is bad but at least it has the appearance of spontaneity. Things happen, injuries occur, etc.
What was not a matter of coincidence and where the tournament really lost all credibility with this observer was in the fact that Andre Ward was given overwhelming preferential treatment by the network allowing all his fights to be staged in Oakland. Emphasis on staged. In boxing, fighting at home can be the difference in having a bad night and still winning versus having that same bad night in a neutral venue and losing. This is understood by most people who even casually watch the sport. Boxing is notorious for the “hometown” decision which makes Showtime allowing this all the more egregious and sinister.
Lest anyone think this is an accident, think again. This is Showtime telegraphing their desire for Ward to be the winner without actually paying the entire division step aside money for him to be declared the de facto winner. Sure they still have to fight the fights, but Ward fought the entire tournament with a nice insurance policy. All for a fighter who has been in nothing but bore-filled foul fests of mauling, holding, headbutting and rabbit punching characterized by the Showtime crew led by the increasingly shrill and biased Al Bernstein as “masterful” inside fighting.
To make things worse, he fought the weakest competition of all the contestants.
For starters, his fight with Dirrell was scrapped in a decision I saw coming from the start. I knew these two wouldn’t fight each other because they both represent the same thing. Read between the lines if you must. Only to be replaced with long time underachiver and would be Donny McCrary k.o victim Allan Green and then by journeyman Sakio Bika. Both in Oakland no less. Here is Ward fighting in Oakland against replacement lower tier fighters that were not good enough to be included in the original tournament but getting full tournament credit for it while the rest of the field duke it out under stricter rules.
If that isn’t stacking the deck, the somebody invent a new cliche for it. Just imagine if any of the other fighters, the Europeans in particular had all their fights in their home town. I’m sure chants of favoritism and racism would abound. But not for Ward. In his case, its been a steady dose of defending the indefensible.
Ward will likely win the final by decision in a close fight and will have a friendly ref and judges to help him do it. This is not to suggest Froch deserves our sympathy for being a great guy but he is a hard working and dedicated professional who deserves a fair shake at an already corrupt tournament.
Comment