TALKIN BOXIN
 June 22, 2003
by Howie Reed

"I am the last great heavyweight," said Lennox Lewis.
"I don't see any others accomplishing what I have
throughout my entire career." With those words uttered
to the BBC the life and times of Lennox Lewis have
been put in prospective. A poll of over 91,000 votes
on ESPM would differ. He’s behind both Tyson and
Holtfield. Lennox Lewis". What a wanker.

The above was written before  his shameful performance against Vitali Klitschko on Saturday night in Los Angeles. For the record, for the Joe Friday fans that want just the "facts man", Lennox Lewis (41-2-1) won when the ring doctor advised the referee to stop the fight after the 6th round due to a cut on the left eye
lid of Vitali Klitschko (32-2). For Paul Harvey fans
"Now the rest of the story" Whether is was the Dorian
Grey effect  or just being fat out of shape and ring
rust Lennox Lewis looked like anything but a champion.  I saw better displays of boxing skill on the
playgrounds of Elmhust Jr. High School on 98th Avenue in Oakland.  All the things us genius’s in the press predicted Lewis would do, he didn’t. Had Klitschko been able to move just a little he could well have KO’d the out-of-shape bum in either rounds 2 or 4. In truth Klitschko still moves by the numbers and throws punches in the same manner. The first round looked the a movie of a fight in the 90’s. 1890’s. Kltischko was ahead on all cards, Talkin Boxin had him ahead 69-55, when the bout was halted.

The real culprit in the Klitschko loss, besides not
learning his trade in the early year’s, was his cutman
who should be arrested for trying to impersonating a
cutman. He did NOTHING to stop the flow of blood from the Klitschko’s eye lid. In one sequence he first
rubbed the cut the wrong way, then he shuck in a
cotton swab, then Vaseline and finally the "end
swell". "End swell" is a round metal object that is
"really cold" which acts as a temporary cauterization to stem the flow of blood. By applying the "end swell" after the Vaseline was applied the effect of the cold was never utilized. It should have been end swell then Vaseline to maximize the effect.

There was some criticism of referee Lou Moret in
regard to the fighters going from clench to clench.
Many felt that Lewis was allowed to hit and hold
especially in one segment when Lewis landed about 15
shots to the ribs of Klitschko while holding on for
dear life. Regardless it’s all academic as Lewis
either couldn’t or wouldn’t hit hard enough to KO the
Ruskie. There is no argument that Lewis did a number
on the left side of the challenger’s face as he had
cuts over and under the eye and his lips looked like
raw liver.

I was somewhat taken to task prior to the fight by a
well respected boxing official. This uncalled for
person attack came after the pre fight interview with
Lewis. "he answered every question honestly. He’s
seems like a good guy. Yet you refuse to accept that."
"he’s a a*****e", was my reply. Then after the fight
the real Lennox Lewis was in the spotlight. "It’s a
good thing the referee stopped the fight. He was
deteriorating and I would have knocked him out in the
next couple of rounds." "No I was strong. Never in any
trouble and just catching my second wind. He’s OK."
"Howie you’re right he’s a a*****e". The key here is
that Lewis was one lucky SOB to have the fight
stopped. His punches, from a power standpoint, were
ineffective. He was sucking wind from round 2 on. In
short he was lucky which I already wrote. In long ?
"He’s a wanker."  NOW that you’re read about the most exciting fight in the history of the world (NOT) it’s time for "himself" to go off the reservation. It’s been one of those kind of weeks. On Wednesday last when opening the USA Today, the closes thing we have to a national paper, my eyes were attracted to the following headline. "HBO is sacrificing profit for goodwill…. Cable network takes Lewis-V. Klitschko instead of putting it on pay-per-view " Under that headline and the byline "By Dan Rafael" came a story direct from the PR department of HBO. In order to be effective there has to be some semblance of truth. "So far in 2003 HBO has offered two brutal mismatches -- Oscar De La Hoya vs. Yory Boy Campas and Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Kevin Kelley -- on pay-per-view. Consider Saturday night's matchup something of an apology."
"Holy Smoke" the church’s is on fire." "An apology !"
HBO apologizes for nothing. Not a dam thing. Never.
Had the writer been honest he would have written "So
far in 2003 HBO has offered two brutal mismatches on
Pay-per-view that lost money." Hate to remind you but
if you’ll remember before their last venture the Oscar
DeLaHoya fight was going to do 500,000 PPV. They a
couple of days after they hoped for 400,000. Not a
peep out of Top Rank, HBO or anyone associated with
that fight as to the number of PPV’s. Why ? It went in
the tank kids. Back to Mr. Rafael.

"When the fight between heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis and contender Vitali Klitschko was first conceived, it was to be a $50 HBO PPV event in December." Yes with Mike Tyson on the undercard which was a pipe dream. They it was Lewis-Johnson which was also going to be a PPV until Tyson said, "F Off.". "But when Kirk Johnson was injured two weeks before he was to fight Lewis, HBO leaped at putting Klitschko in with Lewis in a live HBO fight. This fell into our lap, and you have to seize the moment,'' HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg." Of course if Johnson hadn’t been injured you’d have been left with a telecast that cost twice as much with half the interest. There are those out there that think the injury was as sincere as a Bill Clinton apology.

"Greenburg wanted the fight on HBO and opened the
checkbook to the tune of more than $7 million, at
least $1.5 million more than HBO was paying for
Lewis-Johnson." If you believe this guys don’t talk to
any tele a marketers cause you’re a fish. The facts
may be true but they rid themselves of Johnsons purse
and striped the undercard. My guess is they saved 2 to
3 million and THEY HAD to put Lewis on at a guaranteed purse. Mother Terresa they ain’t. " It's more money, but not a ton more. Lennox left money on the table compared to what he would have made on pay-per-view."

That’s just not so. His PPV deal depends on someone
actually paying for the fight on PPV. This one was a
stinker and the American sporting public knew it from
day one. Johnson-Klitschko the names are
interchangable. " The rights fee for this fight is in
line with the Holmes, Tyson, Foreman, Holyfield fights
of yesteryear that were live on HBO.'' Finally some
truth. "Yesteryear". The money was in line with
"yesteryear" a in "Come with us now to the thrilling
days of yesterday year . HiHo Silver…who was that
maskman ?" Still trying to figure out the headline
about the Goodwill. Putting on something for free that
no one would pay for. With that logic I do this column
out of Good will. I’m as flipping Saint.

WHILE we were away with all the foolishness of
Lewis-Klitschko, what a waste of time and effort,
there were other things going on in the world of
boxing. Manny Pacquiao is one of the most exciting
fighters around. The popular Filipino is exciting
cause he makes things happen. Well he also has the
ability to make things happen out side the ring.
Seems Pacquaio, looking for a respite from his arduous training for his title defense July 25 in LA, though that maybe a few beer’s, some music and some companionship would hit the spot. He and friends went to the Mamagaya Club, owned by a Iraqi-born Belgian national Wahid Kondaisy which has not a dam thing to do with the story. I do like the Iraqi-born Belgian angle owning a night club in the Philippines.
Pacquiao was taken with a lady singer, oh haven’t we
all been there, named Normie. He fancied a little
"after hours time with her."

"After doing her number and then duet and a dance with Pacquiao, Normie agreed to join Pacquiao’s group and drink. Pacquiao, who has several movies and television appearance here in the Philippines, offer the 34-year old singer to go out with him. But the girl declined and explained that she was already married too like Pacquiao and was not working for outside business."

That from Spy magazine. Not being able to take "NO"
for an answer "the already drunken Pacquiao broke six
bottles of San Miguel Beer (which is what MacArthur
went back to the Philippines to liberate. The San
Miguel Brewery) , seven pieces of drinking glasses and
two pieces of bowl plates, smashed a table, and hurled
chairs inside the bar and restaurant . On Pacquiao’s
way out together with his brothers Philippine
super-featherweight champ Bobby and Ruel and nine
other companion-bodyguards, the 24-year-old
hard-hitting fighter hit the table of the security
guard and toppled four motorcycles at the parking
area." Manny might have been a little tight for his
upcoming defense of his title. A night out with
friends. A good way to relax. Sounds like Mike Tyson.
Who as we know found himself in the GrayBar Inn the
night before lewis-Klitschko. Oh the life of a
fighter..

THE James "Light’s Out" Toney-Bernard Hopkins fight
"officially" went in the dumpier. Maybe.. Hopkins is
living proof that ‘he who manages himself has a fool
for a client." The story’s abound on why the fight
ended up in File 13. One theory is that Don King
("Boo" now children) wanted to have complete control
of Hopkins next "x" fights. Another virgin has it that
HBO said, Neyt" to the financial demands of Hopkins.
The best take yet comes from Toney himself. "My thing is, he (Hopkins) wrote a check that his ass couldn't cash, and that's the bottom line. I was willing to do what I had to do, I was in training, and all of a
sudden he found a way out, and he took it."

Being fair and Balanced, as I’m not, I found a piece
done by Boxingtalk.com. They contacted Hopkins for
his response. "I have no comment. I'm already having
fun. I'm going to Cancun, my aunt got my daughter, and me and my wife are gone. They ain't gotta life, so why even feed into that? They got nothing in their bank
account and they're broke. You see, miserable broke
people have nothing better to do than talk about other
people. I'm a success story. From the penitentiary to
the undisputed middleweight champion of the world and a multi-millionaire. I'm living off the interest and
not the principle, so I'm comfortable dawg. I'm gonna
leave you this, I am the American dream. I am the
American story. I spent five years in jail, I've been
shot at, I've been stabbed. To them I was a failure. I
walked off nine years off strict parole on the streets
of Philadelphia, which is hard to do. I became the
undisputed champ, a multi-millionaire, and now the
cops are my friends instead of my enemies. You know I got thick skin Greg, so nothing they say bothers me,
because you know what? No one can say I failed. I'm
done, and if they even come back and say the fight is
on, I'm done. I already broke camp. I want to thank
Don King for the expense money, because it paid for my vacation." (Later in the week Hopkins would say, "They found a million dollars somewhere. The fight is on." You pays your money and takes your choice.)  Regardless Bernard Hopkins is a ass. He’s not the American Dream but a flipping nightmare. One can hardly wait until he wakes up dead broke on his ass. He will. Why? Cause he’s a million dollar airport with a ten cent control tower. Also a bore.

IT was a little surprising when the Nevada State
Athletic "unanimously" passed the policy for
mandatory brain scans before a fighter can be licensed
in the state. The policy took effect last Monday for
fighter’s who do not currently hold Nevada state
licenses. Fighters currently holding license will be
allowed one more fight then will have to be licensed.
What a load of "Crap". If it’s such a necessary policy
why not make it mandatory immediately? "Dog ass
me…cow stuff I no". Will the $425 dollar cost hurt the
sport in Nevada ? Don’t be silly of course it will.
It’s surprising that not one members of the commission
had the guts to vote against the policy unless the
state paid the for the costs. But then what the hell
could be expected of a bunch of "political hacks".
They fit right in the "New" State of Nevada. Also
called "California Light."

If you hold out hope that fighters working on a
shoestring will get some relief from the UNLV Dr.
Elias Ghanem Boxing Team fund FORGETITABOUTIT. Jody Ghanem, widow of late long time Chairman of the
Nevada State Athletic Commission, is working with that group to provide the money for fighters that can’t
afford the test. "They will have to be needy." Translation? You’ll get money when pigs fly. What no
one mentioned in this "one sided" debate was when was the last time that a fighter died in the ring in
Nevada? To my knowledge, or lack of same , not in the
last 10 years. I would guess that record is better
than any other sport. In fact I’ll bet you a Corona
Extra, Cerveza bueno, (They’re on sale this week) that
more old goats died of hearts attacks on the golf
course’s of Nevada in any single year then in the
ring over the last 20 in the United States. Why not
demand that any golfer over 50 have a yearly EKG
before they can play "Whack sh*T" ? Let’s take it a
step further I’ll bet you that more people die of
Doctor’s error than in the ring. The Nevada Commission gives the word "reactionary" a bad name. Maybe the next Governor, you now Kenny you can be recalled, will actually appoint someone that knows something. I know back to the "Alice in Wonderland " stuff.

While I’ve got a head of steam up, let’s take a shot
at the medical profession. Attention Doctors. "You’re
getting to be bigger hypocrites than those in the
legal profession. I know you think you’re God but you
ain’t. Frankly, to use an old phrase from Chemistry 1
at Castlemont High School "You’re nothing but body
mechanics" rings a bell. Some of you aren’t all that
great. ‘Whoops and sorry" should be included in the
Hippocratic Oath The Nevada Commission has two
Doctor’s as members and a medical advisory board. One member of that advisory board is Dr. Margaret Goodman. If you’ve watched fights from Nevada you’ve seen her fly into the ring like a modern Florence Nightingale.   At ringside she’s knows as "I never can stop a fight soon enough." One night she stopped four. One when a fighter had a cut on the top of his head. Hardly life endangering.

After the vote the Good Dr. spoke with the Las
Vegas’s Sun’s Dean Juipe. (Guess Chairman Mack’s memo to clear stuff with him doesn’t include the good Dr.)  "It behooves us to do the right thing." Dr. Goodman, who is us? You don’t have a vote. Very seldom will you hear a boxing person use "Behooves". That aside the word means "morally correct". "Morally Correct". Is giving two men, gloves and sending them out to kick the living stuffing out of each other for money Morally correct? Probably not but it’s being done. . Period end of story. If "Behooving" wasn’t bad
enough the good Dr. said, "The fighters should be
happy to come here because we are trying to protect
them." Good dose of reality needed here.

"Gee lets take that fight in Las Vegas. We’ll make
$600 for a 4 round fight. Of course transportation is
$200 and the medical test is $425…." Dolt. If the
Nevada Commission or any Commission really wanted to protect boxers they wouldn’t allow big time promoters to bring in last minute replacement that have to be lead into the ring. This test is nothing more than a tax on those that can ill afford to pay. Does anyone
on the commission actually think this will save any
lives ? If so they are deluded. Wanna save lives ?
Ban boxing. "Can’t do that look at the money the sport
brings to the State." (Excerpt)
 
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