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This is a good article I got from ringtalk.com. Enjoy...
HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTERS & HEAVYWEIGHT WRITERS!
16 April, 2006 by Cliff Rold
MARQUEZ-JOHN CONTROVERSY NEARS BOILING POINT!
I can’t be sure, but it is possible that myself and fellow Ring Talk scribe Jason Aniel are among the only writers anywhere outside of Indonesia who have actually seen the Juan Manuel Marquez-Chris John WBA featherweight title fight held during the first week of March. For certain we know that ESPN feature writer Dan Rafael has not yet. He admitted as much this week. Would that admission have come if fans, and our staff, had not raised the issue after seeing the fight? This fight is turning into a test case for the Internet age and the ability of individual sets of eyes to judge for themselves. The bubbling controversy over the fight exists almost entirely because of the rapid exchange of information. Twenty years ago, a gaffe like this would never have been caught.
“BIG DAN” RAFAEL BORE FALSE WITNESS!
Then again, it wasn’t really an admission of a gaffe. It was more of an omission of past opinion. The weekend following the bout, Rafael gave Marquez and his management a lashing for their business decisions and wrote of John’s performance in the fight that, “This win was no hometown decision for John. He took it to Marquez.” His March ratings at 126 read “(John’s) paper title is now for real after proving himself by dismantling longtime champ Juan Manuel Marquez.” Just for clarification, dismantling is defined at dictionary.com as “To take apart; disassemble; tear down.” Dan was telling his readers that John took apart a man he and most everyone else had in their top ten prior to the bout. Then the fight tape started finding its way out of Indonesia and we got this gem in ESPN’s April featherweight rating of John: Says Rafael, caught like a cat with a mouse in his mouth, “Some say his title victory against Juan Manuel Marquez last month was legit, others say he got a gift. We're still waiting for the tape, so we can't say for sure.” And this is the #1 writer for the “Worldwide Leader in Sports?”
DAN IN TOP RANK “SHILL” ROLE IS REAL BAD FOR FANS!
I have nothing personal against Dan Rafael. We all make honest mistakes. However, Dan holds a spot as perhaps the most known and read Boxing writer in the United States. That means his words and opinions matter. The weekend following Marquez-John, I let my readers know that I hadn’t seen the bout and would reserve judgment. Rafael’s rhetoric following the bout would easily lead the vast audience of readers afforded him by the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” to believe he’d seen the bout when he had not. One of the best fighters in the world lost his spot at 126, and that is something that needed to be verified. Especially true when there is a probability that your words will influence the perceptions of vast numbers of fans who don’t have the means or time to seek out the bout that the hardcore fan community is exerting. Marquez dropped all the way to 19 in the “pound for pound” ratings from a top ten spot at ESPN based on this fight. Turns out it was an incredibly questionable decision and, given the weight of pound for pound ratings on the sports marketing and cache, if Marquez didn’t deserve to lose then he deserves his spot back on the lists that circulate. Like I said a few weeks ago, I can’t defend Marquez for his bad business decisions and I don’t find him exciting to watch, but if anyone can show me how a guy can out throw, outland, visibly hurt and dictate the pace of an entire fight and lose, I’d appreciate it. In the meantime, I can marginally swallow the old adage that fight scoring is ‘subjective,’ but only if the argument is coming from someone who saw the bout. In short, Rafael owes Marquez, the fans, as well as his employer ESPN, an explanation or apology!
THE LENNOX LEWIS VOID HARD TO OVERCOME!
I often spend Saturdays watching old fights. It is particularly common on a Saturday when there are no fights to look forward to. This weekend, it was Joe Louis-Ezzard Charles, a heavyweight title bout from 1950, priming myself for the heavyweight action next weekend between IBF titlist Chris Byrd and Wladimir Klitschko. I’d never seen it before and it was what one might expect in a young lion versus old-out-of-money lion show. The old lion, Louis, has some moments early and then finds himself stripped only to his pride. It was, while uniquely its own fight, the same show seen before in fights like Larry Holmes-Muhammad Ali or later Larry Holmes-Mike Tyson; the sad spectacle of the torch being passed. It’s a moment Lennox Lewis robbed the sport of.
LEWIS LAUDED FOR GOOD SENSE BUT ALL LEFT WONDERING!
Now, I know that the word robbed usually is seen as negative and it isn’t entirely here. Lewis, in retiring as champion, is to be applauded for showing the good sense that most great champions don’t. Unfortunately though, without the ceremony of new overtaking old, the heavyweight division currently continues like a ship without a rudder. No one has emerged as a true champion or captured the public imagination since Lewis closed the door on his career and the laments from many that we are seeing the worst of times at heavyweight are getting louder. I mean, it’s not like the heavyweights were thought to be on lean times the last two times a champion left at the top of his game…oh wait.
HISTORY ON THE SIDE OF THOSE WHO AWAIT GREATNESS!
Actually, it’s exactly like that. When Gene Tunney followed his two big wins over Jack Dempsey with a single, forgettable defense and retirement, the heavyweight division floundered. From 1928-1930, there was no champion, followed by a period from 1930-1937 where the title changed hands five times before settling for twelve years with Louis. That’s a nine year gap between credible champions. History repeated itself with the departure of the undefeated Rocky Marciano in 1956. The vacancy period was shorter (filled within the year) but the refusal of successor Floyd Patterson to face top contender Sonny Liston for a span of years left the division without a captivating champion until Cassius Clay. The division had heavy criticism during those lulls, but it also had some damn fine fights and moments that weren’t fully appreciated until later. I suspect the same may be true a decade from now.
HEAVYWEIGHT ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD SINCE LEWIS LEFT!
It can be argued that, too often, top dollar big men don’t get in the best shape. However, the bigger question should always be what **** fans are getting for their buck and fans have been getting a fair share of excellent fights. There has been no higher volume of unentertaining bouts in the division either. After all, as great a figure as Ali or Louis could be, they also participated in their share of dull bouts. So in this ‘worst heavyweights ever’ era, why do we keep getting good fights? Since Lennox retired, we’ve had upsets (Lamon Brewster over Wladimir Klitschko), solid veteran struggles (Hasim Rahman versus James Toney) and a fight that stands proudly with the most violent ever seen (Brewster’s loss two weeks ago to Sergei Liakhovich). Next weekend we get a rematch between Byrd, who himself has been in excellent brawls with Andrew Golota and Jameel McCline, and Wlad Klitschko. Given Byrd’s improved ability to handle size, it could turn out to exceed expectations and is, regardless of weight class, one of the more intriguing fights in all of Boxing.
TAKING THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE!
That’s important to remember, because there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of positive expectations for that fight or future heavyweight encounters. These aren’t bad fighters; their curse is in only being as good as each other. Even a Larry Holmes in the 1980’s had credibility issues and that was with a torch passing. The broken lineage of today has left no one to point to and the politics that keep the titlists away from each other aren’t helping. The critics will continue on until those beltholders boil down to a champion and until that champion makes more than a handful of defenses. But that doesn’t mean that during the time until that everything is awful. If two big men show up and show ass in the ring, they should be respected for what they are and not always derided for what they are not. Next weekend, and in weekends to come, we should all try harder to let the fights, if not the fighters, move from beneath the shadow of Lewis’ decision and try to enjoy them.
HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTERS & HEAVYWEIGHT WRITERS!
16 April, 2006 by Cliff Rold
MARQUEZ-JOHN CONTROVERSY NEARS BOILING POINT!
I can’t be sure, but it is possible that myself and fellow Ring Talk scribe Jason Aniel are among the only writers anywhere outside of Indonesia who have actually seen the Juan Manuel Marquez-Chris John WBA featherweight title fight held during the first week of March. For certain we know that ESPN feature writer Dan Rafael has not yet. He admitted as much this week. Would that admission have come if fans, and our staff, had not raised the issue after seeing the fight? This fight is turning into a test case for the Internet age and the ability of individual sets of eyes to judge for themselves. The bubbling controversy over the fight exists almost entirely because of the rapid exchange of information. Twenty years ago, a gaffe like this would never have been caught.
“BIG DAN” RAFAEL BORE FALSE WITNESS!
Then again, it wasn’t really an admission of a gaffe. It was more of an omission of past opinion. The weekend following the bout, Rafael gave Marquez and his management a lashing for their business decisions and wrote of John’s performance in the fight that, “This win was no hometown decision for John. He took it to Marquez.” His March ratings at 126 read “(John’s) paper title is now for real after proving himself by dismantling longtime champ Juan Manuel Marquez.” Just for clarification, dismantling is defined at dictionary.com as “To take apart; disassemble; tear down.” Dan was telling his readers that John took apart a man he and most everyone else had in their top ten prior to the bout. Then the fight tape started finding its way out of Indonesia and we got this gem in ESPN’s April featherweight rating of John: Says Rafael, caught like a cat with a mouse in his mouth, “Some say his title victory against Juan Manuel Marquez last month was legit, others say he got a gift. We're still waiting for the tape, so we can't say for sure.” And this is the #1 writer for the “Worldwide Leader in Sports?”
DAN IN TOP RANK “SHILL” ROLE IS REAL BAD FOR FANS!
I have nothing personal against Dan Rafael. We all make honest mistakes. However, Dan holds a spot as perhaps the most known and read Boxing writer in the United States. That means his words and opinions matter. The weekend following Marquez-John, I let my readers know that I hadn’t seen the bout and would reserve judgment. Rafael’s rhetoric following the bout would easily lead the vast audience of readers afforded him by the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” to believe he’d seen the bout when he had not. One of the best fighters in the world lost his spot at 126, and that is something that needed to be verified. Especially true when there is a probability that your words will influence the perceptions of vast numbers of fans who don’t have the means or time to seek out the bout that the hardcore fan community is exerting. Marquez dropped all the way to 19 in the “pound for pound” ratings from a top ten spot at ESPN based on this fight. Turns out it was an incredibly questionable decision and, given the weight of pound for pound ratings on the sports marketing and cache, if Marquez didn’t deserve to lose then he deserves his spot back on the lists that circulate. Like I said a few weeks ago, I can’t defend Marquez for his bad business decisions and I don’t find him exciting to watch, but if anyone can show me how a guy can out throw, outland, visibly hurt and dictate the pace of an entire fight and lose, I’d appreciate it. In the meantime, I can marginally swallow the old adage that fight scoring is ‘subjective,’ but only if the argument is coming from someone who saw the bout. In short, Rafael owes Marquez, the fans, as well as his employer ESPN, an explanation or apology!
THE LENNOX LEWIS VOID HARD TO OVERCOME!
I often spend Saturdays watching old fights. It is particularly common on a Saturday when there are no fights to look forward to. This weekend, it was Joe Louis-Ezzard Charles, a heavyweight title bout from 1950, priming myself for the heavyweight action next weekend between IBF titlist Chris Byrd and Wladimir Klitschko. I’d never seen it before and it was what one might expect in a young lion versus old-out-of-money lion show. The old lion, Louis, has some moments early and then finds himself stripped only to his pride. It was, while uniquely its own fight, the same show seen before in fights like Larry Holmes-Muhammad Ali or later Larry Holmes-Mike Tyson; the sad spectacle of the torch being passed. It’s a moment Lennox Lewis robbed the sport of.
LEWIS LAUDED FOR GOOD SENSE BUT ALL LEFT WONDERING!
Now, I know that the word robbed usually is seen as negative and it isn’t entirely here. Lewis, in retiring as champion, is to be applauded for showing the good sense that most great champions don’t. Unfortunately though, without the ceremony of new overtaking old, the heavyweight division currently continues like a ship without a rudder. No one has emerged as a true champion or captured the public imagination since Lewis closed the door on his career and the laments from many that we are seeing the worst of times at heavyweight are getting louder. I mean, it’s not like the heavyweights were thought to be on lean times the last two times a champion left at the top of his game…oh wait.
HISTORY ON THE SIDE OF THOSE WHO AWAIT GREATNESS!
Actually, it’s exactly like that. When Gene Tunney followed his two big wins over Jack Dempsey with a single, forgettable defense and retirement, the heavyweight division floundered. From 1928-1930, there was no champion, followed by a period from 1930-1937 where the title changed hands five times before settling for twelve years with Louis. That’s a nine year gap between credible champions. History repeated itself with the departure of the undefeated Rocky Marciano in 1956. The vacancy period was shorter (filled within the year) but the refusal of successor Floyd Patterson to face top contender Sonny Liston for a span of years left the division without a captivating champion until Cassius Clay. The division had heavy criticism during those lulls, but it also had some damn fine fights and moments that weren’t fully appreciated until later. I suspect the same may be true a decade from now.
HEAVYWEIGHT ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD SINCE LEWIS LEFT!
It can be argued that, too often, top dollar big men don’t get in the best shape. However, the bigger question should always be what **** fans are getting for their buck and fans have been getting a fair share of excellent fights. There has been no higher volume of unentertaining bouts in the division either. After all, as great a figure as Ali or Louis could be, they also participated in their share of dull bouts. So in this ‘worst heavyweights ever’ era, why do we keep getting good fights? Since Lennox retired, we’ve had upsets (Lamon Brewster over Wladimir Klitschko), solid veteran struggles (Hasim Rahman versus James Toney) and a fight that stands proudly with the most violent ever seen (Brewster’s loss two weeks ago to Sergei Liakhovich). Next weekend we get a rematch between Byrd, who himself has been in excellent brawls with Andrew Golota and Jameel McCline, and Wlad Klitschko. Given Byrd’s improved ability to handle size, it could turn out to exceed expectations and is, regardless of weight class, one of the more intriguing fights in all of Boxing.
TAKING THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE!
That’s important to remember, because there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of positive expectations for that fight or future heavyweight encounters. These aren’t bad fighters; their curse is in only being as good as each other. Even a Larry Holmes in the 1980’s had credibility issues and that was with a torch passing. The broken lineage of today has left no one to point to and the politics that keep the titlists away from each other aren’t helping. The critics will continue on until those beltholders boil down to a champion and until that champion makes more than a handful of defenses. But that doesn’t mean that during the time until that everything is awful. If two big men show up and show ass in the ring, they should be respected for what they are and not always derided for what they are not. Next weekend, and in weekends to come, we should all try harder to let the fights, if not the fighters, move from beneath the shadow of Lewis’ decision and try to enjoy them.