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Frank
Lahey, one of the great football coaches at Notre Dame once said,
"Egotisim is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity". Yesterday's
silliness at the Biloxi MS press conference for the August 23 Laila
Ali/Christy Martin may not have been totally stupid, but it was close
enough to make the evening news.
Putting Ali and Martin in a room with one microphone is similar to putting
Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie in a room with one trumpet. Both women
have egos equaling or exceeding their skill in the ring; both women are
used to being the center of attraction at press conferences; both women
are used to throwing "punch" lines at their future opponents in the ring
and getting no response in return. Thus, when Ali and Martin turned the
press conference into the type of "dialogue" usually found on cable TV,
it's hardly surprising that it deteriorated into what the New York Daily
News labeled a "catfight", and became a story the tabloid featured, not on
the sports pages, but in the front section usually reserved for its "if it
bleeds, it leads" stories.
The French, as the French always do, have a phrase for
it....."amour-propre", literally, "love of self". To put it more kindly,
the self-esteem that both Ali and Martin possess, in full measure, was on
display yesterday in Biloxi. Unfortunately, instead of a needed initial
promotional "push" for the August 23 bout, the image that came out of the
Mississippi Gulf Coast was that of two women grasping each other's hair on
the podium. Thus, now, in addition, to overcoming the perception of many
in the sports world that this is a mismatch between a 5'10" middleweight
and a 5'4" junior welterweight, the promotion has to overcome the image
that this bout more properly belongs as part of one of Vince McMahon's
overblown and overpriced wrestling shows.
From a promotion standpoint, this type of "acting out" doesn't make
sense. The bout is still seven weeks away and if someone, misguidingly,
believes that staging this type of confrontation is the way to promote a
fight, at least it should be done closer to the date of the bout. Of
course the very fact of the timing can lead one to surmise that this
unfortunate encounter was, indeed, not staged but, rather, was totally
spontaneous. If so, Coach Lahey's words become even more pertinent,
egotism seems to have led directly to stupidity.
In December Martin was involved in a PPV bout with Mia St John. This
promotion was billed, somewhat incongruously as the "Battle of the
Covergirls" and the show was a financial disaster. In retrospect, it can
be inferred that the Martin/St John bout promotion concentrated too
heavily on St John's stint as a Playboy covergirl and Martin's appearance
on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Laila Ali and Christy Martin are both quality boxers and, more
importantly, from a promotional standpoint, both are "world class"
talkers. They are experienced in front of microphones and are comfortable
doing interviews, both print and broadcast. If the August 23 promotion is
to have a chance for success, both Ali and Martin should confine their
media activity to efforts that stress the fact that this could be a very
compelling matchup between two good athletes, two quality boxers. Both
women, one on the rise in the boxing ring, the other with an established
legacy in the same arena, have a great deal to gain from a successful,
exciting boxing match on August 23. Ali has other vistas in the ring that
are yet to be ascended; Martin certainly is on the threshold of beginning
to leave behind a career, well remembered. Ten rounds of great boxing on
August 23 is the way to do both, rolling around on a stage in Biloxi MS is
not.
Bernie McCoy
Other Articles by
McCoy:
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Spending Time in the Garden
By Bernie McCoy
May 23, 2003
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The One and Only...
By Bernie McCoy -May 7, 2003 Link |
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Drama Without a Script...
By Bernie McCoy -April 23, 2003 Link |
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Heavyweight Memories...
By Bernie McCoy -April 6, 2003
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So Long, Kid -By Bernie McCoy
March 22, 2003
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