Welcome to a particular Thanksgiving version of Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack the place boxing’s unhealthy guys are pressured to gobble, gobble on the gooey, salty, cranberry-infused reality coming straight from my bloated sack of giblets. This week we’ve got feedback/questions relating to Ryan Garcia’s exhibition, boxing’s transfer to Saudi Arabia, and my private joyful boxing moments.
Movin’ to Saudi Arabia
What’s good P Magazine?
Glad Thanksgiving brotha to you and your loved ones. Evidently massive fights are steadily transferring to Saudi Arabia and fewer in every single place else. A number of followers appear okay with this so long as we get as they put it “we get good fights”. What are you your ideas?
– Rob
Hey Rob.
They’re SAYING they’re okay with it. Their actions, although, don’t present their happiness with “getting good fights” below these phrases and situations. Pay-per-view gross sales for these Saudi reveals have been weak. Boxing web site visitors has been dropping immensely, indicating a shrinking quantity of curiosity. Even social media trending numbers are down.
The reality of the matter is that boxing followers need good fights, however additionally they need their fights at a handy time of the day, in an thrilling atmosphere, and on reveals which can be really partaking. In addition they need to have the ability to exit and see a giant combat in individual sometimes. The Saudis aren’t delivering any of that. Boxing followers eat their product on a way more private degree than different sports activities followers do. They’ve a private connections with the fighters and the matchups. The game being pulled from the fan base is taking the lifeblood from the American boxing scene and all information is exhibiting that, even when the bought-off press and a few vocal followers are telling the precise reverse story.
I don’t see anyone ecstatic about tuning right into a present at 11 am on a Saturday, sitting via hours of filler across the matches, after which seeing the fights in a sterile, lifeless area that has about as a lot power as a university Humanities 101 lecture corridor. Golden Boy’s current Latino Night time card, for instance, would’ve been rocking an area laborious in Southern California or Texas or Arizona. In Saudi Arabia, it got here off as a pandemic present with cardboard cutouts within the crowd. That form of stuff DOES matter to followers, even when they don’t vocalize it (and even consciously understand it). The dearth of buzz for that usually good card ought to’ve been eye-opening on the subject of the perils of eradicating fan power from a sport that’s essentially constructed ON fan power.
In an 8-month span between the Tank Davis/David Benavidez twin invoice this previous June and the Benavidez-Morrell card in February, the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson card will go down as the one main boxing occasion on US soil by an American promoter. That form of stagnation is pure demise. It’s a gradual necrosis in boxing’s limbs, headed in the direction of its trunk.
What’s misplaced on this orgy of on the spot Saudi boxing gratification is the truth that that is very a lot a takeover of the game for the Saudis’ personal functions. It’s a transfer to personal boxing and make it their very own private sport for exhibition in their very own land. These high-profile fights being made and the cash dished out to boxing trade persons are simply the lures to attract us to the hooks. I’ve been making my case on this subject for awhile now, and just about getting nowhere. However individuals can learn my case in opposition to a Saudi-run boxing on this previous Monday’s Notes from the Boxing Underground column proper right here at FightHype.
Ryan Garcia, The Comeback Earlier than The Comeback
Hey Magno.
I simply noticed the place Ryan Garcia is returning to the ring in an exhibition in Japan, in opposition to the man who did fairly effectively in opposition to Manny Pacquiao in an exhibition. I’m no knowledgeable on the subject of the politics and enforcement of guidelines and rules, however wouldn’t this be a violation of his suspension for PEDs use? It doesn’t matter who would win this exhibition, however do you see somebody stepping in to cease the combat earlier than it even occurs?
– John
Hey John.
If I have been king of boxing, this exhibition stunt by Garcia would price him one other yr of suspension. After all, he’s giving a giant center finger to the NYSAC and to boxing regulation normally by getting cash fighting– throughout a suspension for a violation he by no means actually accepted accountability for, by the best way.
From the most recent information, nonetheless, it appears as if Golden Boy might put the kibosh on Garcia’s exhibition. Oscar De La Hoya launched a social media assertion on Tuesday saying that his firm owns unique rights to all Ryan Garcia fights and that this one isn’t Golden Boy-authorized and, due to this fact, isn’t one thing that will probably be taking place. This may occasionally change if Oscar will get his beak moist from the occasion organizers in Japan. However, as of proper now, I’d say this exhibition isn’t a certain factor to occur by any means.
P.S, My dislike for Devin Haney grows each day for not eliminating this dip shit.
Heat, Fuzzies
Hello Paul.
Glad Thanksgiving to you and yours. Right here’s a vacation softball in your mail sack.
What’s your happiest boxing reminiscence?
Take care. You’re appreciated.
– The Cincy Child
Hey Cincy Child.
I may get deeply cynical with this and say that I used to be by no means fairly as boxing-happy as when Yori Boy Campas beat the snot out of Tony Ayala Jr. and made him give up.
However I’ll go heat and fuzzy right here and say that I’ll in all probability by no means be as joyful and content material with a boxing product as I used to be watching Battle Night time on the Discussion board and HBO’s Boxing After Darkish within the 90s. These reveals will at all times be joyful locations in my boxing mind. Different joyful boxing reminiscences focus on my private involvement within the sport– getting fighters paid their promised purses as a supervisor and, as a coach, watching youngsters grow to be assured, essentially respectable human beings below my watch.
Obtained a query (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The perfect of one of the best will get included within the weekly mailbag phase proper right here at FightHype. Ship your stuff right here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.