Tweet
by David P. Greisman - One thing young writers are taught to steer clear of is including too much inside baseball in their stories. No one wants to know how the proverbial sausage is made. Too much process bogs down the narrative. It’s far more important to cover what has happened and then what that means.
Boxing articles occasionally require an exception to that rule.
So much of what happens (or doesn’t happen) in the ring is because of what happens (or doesn’t happen) outside of it. Fighting itself is simple. It’s just two people in a ring trying to hit each other. But the sport of boxing is complicated, driven — sometimes into the ground — by machinations, negotiations, competition, contractual obligations, inclinations and injuries.
Some of that goes on behind the scenes. The rest is increasingly seen, with the business of boxing getting in the way of the sport. In recent years that has involved the battles between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, as well as the competition between networks HBO and Showtime. But the driving force in boxing these days is Al Haymon, whose influence has become incredibly outsized, whose roster of fighters continues to expand to around 200, and whose “Premier Boxing Champions” is on a number of networks.
He not only has an influence on those working with him. He also has an effect on those who don’t. And it is because of this that we tend to spend so much bandwidth on how the sausage is made.
The figurative process is similar to the literal one: It isn’t pretty.
Two weeks ago, Sergey Kovalev made short work of the mandatory challenger to one of his three world titles, Nadjib Mohammedi. Afterward, one potential name mentioned for Kovalev’s next fight was Artur Beterbiev, an accomplished amateur and two-time Olympian who turned pro in 2013 and has moved up in the light heavyweight ranks after nine wins in the paid ranks. [Click Here To Read More]
Boxing articles occasionally require an exception to that rule.
So much of what happens (or doesn’t happen) in the ring is because of what happens (or doesn’t happen) outside of it. Fighting itself is simple. It’s just two people in a ring trying to hit each other. But the sport of boxing is complicated, driven — sometimes into the ground — by machinations, negotiations, competition, contractual obligations, inclinations and injuries.
Some of that goes on behind the scenes. The rest is increasingly seen, with the business of boxing getting in the way of the sport. In recent years that has involved the battles between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, as well as the competition between networks HBO and Showtime. But the driving force in boxing these days is Al Haymon, whose influence has become incredibly outsized, whose roster of fighters continues to expand to around 200, and whose “Premier Boxing Champions” is on a number of networks.
He not only has an influence on those working with him. He also has an effect on those who don’t. And it is because of this that we tend to spend so much bandwidth on how the sausage is made.
The figurative process is similar to the literal one: It isn’t pretty.
Two weeks ago, Sergey Kovalev made short work of the mandatory challenger to one of his three world titles, Nadjib Mohammedi. Afterward, one potential name mentioned for Kovalev’s next fight was Artur Beterbiev, an accomplished amateur and two-time Olympian who turned pro in 2013 and has moved up in the light heavyweight ranks after nine wins in the paid ranks. [Click Here To Read More]
Comment