By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – The Strip is kind of the ultimate fantasy camp. Only the hangovers are real. Everything else is about it is as believable as Donald Trump, whose name adorns one of the countless towers at the other end of a dizzy street from where another fantasy is about to unfold Saturday night.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.-versus-Conor McGregor is supposed to be a fight. Mayweather says it will be. McGregor says it will be. The Nevada State Athletic Commission sanctioned it, so it must be, right?

Yet, suspicions abound, despite all the trappings, including money, more money — did we mention money? – and a media tent almost big enough to hide an aircraft carrier.

I’m seated in that tent right now, across the street from the Luxor, a hotel named for an ancient Egyptian city with a front that includes the sculpted face of a Pharaoh with enigmatic blue eyes that seem to be asking:

What the hell am I doing here?

I can’t say I have an answer. After all, I’m a boxing guy who believes McGregor has about as much of a chance as the first three letters in his first name might suggest. From a UFC star with no reported experience as a pro boxer, it sounds like a Con.

“I’m going to out box this man at his own game,’’ McGregor said Wednesday at the MGM Grand during the final news conference for a 12-round event scheduled for T-Mobile Arena.

Really? That would be about as believable as Mayweather saying he would outkick or out grapple McGregor, whose 21-3 record seems to say that he isn’t quite as proficient at the mixed arts as the 49-0 Mayweather has been at his own.

It just doesn’t add up, although McGregor’s cocksure tone suggests that maybe he’s conned himself into believing he can win as much as he has conned his fans. The money on McGregor has been pouring in like Guinness from a busted tap. Late Thursday, Mayweather was a 4-1 favorite.

In other words, the odds give McGregor a better chance at beating Mayweather than Marcos Maidana, a world-class boxer. Maidana, who as far we know never had to kick anyone to win, was about a 7-1, 8-1 underdog in each of his losses to Mayweather.

Like I said, it just doesn’t add up. McGregor’s chances at beating Mayweather at a skill he has mastered like few ever have appears to be about as likely as the truth and nothing but the truth from that aforementioned guy whose name adorns that gold-trimmed tower at the other end of the Strip.

In a much larger sense, however, McGregor has already won. According to various reports, he could collect $100 million. For him, the task is not to do something stupid. There’s a clause in his contract that prohibits MMA tactics.

In effect, it’s a clause that could take away his instinct. Can he really fight that way? Can any fighter? I’ve always believed in Mike Tyson’s famous line about what happens to well-practiced plans when the first big punch lands. It’s then when a fighter becomes who he really is.

McGregor appears to be imminently hittable. Mayweather’s precise punches will land repeatedly and with power augmented by gloves lighter than usual for the 154-pound division. The Nevada Commission approved eight ounces, instead of the usual 10. McGregor celebrated the move, but the guess here is that he’ll regret it. Mayweather has promised a KO and the lighter gloves will help him accomplish exactly that.

The question is McGregor’s reaction when Mayweather’s punches put him into the dangerous daze between $100 million and instinct. Will he carefully protect the money or become the guy he really is with a kick as instinctive as it would be disqualifying?

The Pharaoh didn’t have an answer for that one either.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday in Lincoln the fighting pride of Nebraska, Terence “Bud” Crawford, unmanned and unbellied Namibian Julius Indongo on ESPN to become the first unified champion of the junior welterweight division in . . . who knows, maybe the history of that young division. Most importantly, Crawford did it with aggression and form, beating the sauce out his man.

This Saturday Floyd “Money” Mayweather enters the silly season of his career with a special-attraction-championship-exhibition match against an Irish MMA champion named Conor McGregor.

What these events have in common is the calendar. Let us not waste that.

Unifying titles in this era the way Crawford just did is, conversely, less likely and less admired. If it’s less admired it’s a consequence of the saturation grift sanctioning bodies perpetrated on the sport with promoters’ and networks’ assistance decades ago – the belts mean nothing, so he who collects them is the king of nothing. That may well be aficionados’ reality but it’s not one common among prizefighters. They know the difference between meaningful belts and less meaningful belts because they suffer to come by them and keep a precise accounting thereby.

The odder part of the unification labyrinth, though, is the logistical difficulty of this generally thankless feat. It’s not enough to imply the sanctioning bodies are indifferent to sharing a champion with one another – they’re fully and actively against the ruse. Once a man has unified all the belts he is larger than their sum, and many multiples larger than any one of them, and boxing’s major crime families move swiftly against him; each sanctioning body has a unique mandatory challenger and invariably a unique mandatory challenger behind him, and so to keep his unified titles unified a unified champion must fight eight times in about 11 months against men nobody has heard of and far fewer would pay to see.

The sanctioning bodies are collectors, not distributors, they are sponsored, not sponsors – they expect their titlists to take whatever prestige accrues to those titles and vend like hell to pass a percentage of winnings their sanctioners’ way. One wrong move, too, one misplaced obscenity, one improper flirtation with an unsanctioned challenger or promoter, and the stripping commences. If it be nigh impossible to unify titles, it is irrational to keep them that way.

Terence Crawford knows this and knows too what logistical gymnastics were required to get to Saturday’s match and knows still better there ain’t no money in satisfying sanctioners’ requirements one moment after unifying. He owns the junior welterweight division just seven matches after joining the junior welterweight division (Gennady Golovkin, conversely, has been trying to unify the middleweight division since beating Nilson Julio Tapia [14-2-1] in 2010). Crawford benefits greatly from a promoter that knows what it’s doing, a promoter that has been here oftentimes before, knows which levers work and where to set the fulcrum and, perhaps most importantly, doesn’t lowball the owners of what titles its champion seeks to unify.

Top Rank likely overpaid some of the opponents Crawford whupped these last two years, but it now has a man near to being a household name as boxing gets, who is also a regional ticketseller, and after an abominable showing on pay-per-view, something of a chastened economical realist. Top Rank continues increasing the quality of its fighters’ opponents until its fighters lose and thereby assert a quest for greatness that goes: I took my talent far as humanly possible.

Nobody knew this better than Floyd Mayweather; had Mayweather wished to be “TBE” Floyd would’ve stayed with Top Rank and, like every realistic candidate for the “TBE” title, Floyd eventually would have lost. Floyd didn’t like Top Rank’s compensation algorithm in the least – way way too much risk for way way too little reward – and followed his heart to great wealth but now enters a carnival stage in his career to silence what angsty voices nag a talented man who knows he didn’t take his talent to its limits. A dangerous space for the man because if Saturday goes as expected, what comes next?

Nobody who believes Floyd squandered his talent in part on handicapping every match to near bloodlessness – swerving Kostya Tszyu and Antonio Margarito completely; swerving prime versions of Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto; fighting Juan Manuel Marquez three weightclasses high, etc. – will suddenly reform his opinion after watching Money safely avoid an MMA dude for 36 minutes. Since he can’t stay retired, obviously, what does Floyd do next to make himself feel great – fight the Brothers Charlo at the same time? throw hands with Adrien Broner from a stripper pole?

(Having never seen a minute of a Conor McGregor fight but having trained at a predominately MMA gym for years and boxed some of the lads, I assume the chalk is right and McGregor hasn’t a prayer, with one caveat: How many folks who are positive Floyd will win were just as positive Hillary would win, and of those same folks that say “predictions in boxing and politics are completely different!” how many wouldn’t’ve used the exact same logic if the events’ chronology were reversed? The trend: Folks who aren’t always right but are never uncertain.)

The calendar juxtaposes Floyd and Terence for us, and the comparison may well be apt. Floyd was 35 fights in his career when he got off the Top Rank track, buying his way out of a promotional contract that guaranteed some unsavory combination of Margarito and Cotto, to fight instead Carlos Baldomir. Crawford is 32 fights in a career that did not begin auspiciously as Mayweather’s but is becoming increasingly dominant. He has not peaked yet as a fighter or as an attraction. He hasn’t Floyd’s upside as a fighter or an attraction.

But Floyd never put more than 75-percent of his talent on the line and Crawford will have to if he stays with Top Rank. The question then becomes: Is 100-percent of Terence Crawford’s talent greater than 75-percent of Floyd Mayweather’s? If so, many millions of Americans more are about to watch Crawford’s prime happen on ESPN than ever saw Floyd’s on HBO, and we know how finicky be public opinion and what polling writes history. Poor Floyd.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Unity and boxing are an unlikely complement. Link them in the same sentence and you’ve got something that looks, feels and sounds like an oxymoron. You know, jumbo and shrimp.

But unity is part of the story Saturday in an intriguing fight for all the pieces to the 140-pound title between unknown Julius Indongo and better-known Terence Crawford in Lincoln, Neb.

A fight for a unified title happens about as often as a solar eclipse, which coincidently – or maybe not – is supposed to happen Monday.
But if heavenly bodies can align once in a while, so can the acronyms in a business that practices chaos as if there were no other way.

There is a way, of course, and Top Rank will attempt to make it work for itself, ESPN (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m ET) and couple of junior-welterweights who are a lot more skilled than they are known.

“It was very difficult,’’ said Top Rank President Todd DuBoef, Crawford’s promoter who worked like a diplomat with all the various organizations for a rare bout with Indongo, a Namibian promoted by Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn of the UK. “We had to work hand in hand with Matchroom, because obviously Matchroom and Indongo had two belts and Top Rank and Crawford had two belts and there were mandatories and everything that was coming into play.

“There were people that we had to appeal to and we said, ‘Hey, this is a rare opportunity that we are able to do this. Let’s try and work together and have a positive solution for the sport.’

“I think we delicately managed it.’’

The winner will be the first champion with four belts – WBC, IBF, IBO and WBO – since middleweight Jermain Taylor 12 years ago. It’s symbolic. But it’s also practical for fighters who have proven themselves within in the ropes, yet are still fighting for name recognition.
For Crawford, that means a chance to strengthen his claim on No. 1 in the pound-for-pound debate.
“Of course,” said Crawford, who holds the WBC and WBO belts. I think I have been doing a lot in the sport of boxing and I have had my name mentioned in the top three.

“I will be looking forward to being the top one, or maybe two after this fight. It just depends on how people look at it. In my eyes I think I am top two already.’’

For Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs), ESPN’s role in the bout also represents a source of motivation, perhaps on a couple of level. For one thing, it’s chance to break out of pay-per-view anonymity.

Crawford, who says he’d vote Andre Ward No. 1 if he couldn’t vote for himself, hopes to introduce himself and pay-per-view claim to larger cable audience. Then, Crawford has a chance to prove ESPN wrong. In the network’s latest pound-for-pound ranking, he’s No. 6.

For Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs), a unified title is about country and even continent.

“Wherever I travel, I will be representing all of Namibia,’’ said Indongo, the IBF and WBA belts holder who is fighting for the first time in the U.S. after attention-grabbing victories over Eduard Troyanovsky in Moscow and Ricky Burns in Scotland. “It’s like I have the whole country of Namibia on my shoulders issued by my president. So I have to rely on the game plan and that is the confidence that I rely on.

“I know that my country and Africa is on my shoulders and when the team travels from Namibia to the fight, I can only focus on the fight. It motivated me a lot.’’

Motivation, perhaps, for a new business model, too.

By Norm Frauenheim

LAS VEGAS – Memories, laughs and even a few tears were there. But there was no bitterness. No punches either. The fifth annual Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame dinner was many things, including friendships hard to imagine decades ago.

Sugar Ray Leonard was there to introduce the rival who almost beat him in a defining fight 36 years ago.

But this time Leonard came to praise, not punch Thomas Hearns.

“He’s a guy who has been my dear friend for a long time now,’’ said Leonard, who stopped Hearns in an epic welterweight fight in 1981 on back lot not far from the Caesars Place ballroom where he spoke Saturday night. “”I won that fight.’’

But, Leonard then conceded, his friend paid him back in a forgettable rematch at super-middleweight in 1989.

“He beat my ass,’’ Leonard said.
Hearns smiled at the memory. Smiled at Leonard, too.

“My roughest fight, but now my best friend,’’ said Hearns, the last inductee in a 2017 class that also included Michael Carbajal, Richie Sandoval, the late Ken Norton, Lucia Rijker, the late Salvador Sanchez, Erik Morales, Michael Spinks and his brother Leon.

Then, there was Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. They are are buddies long after a rivalry as contentious and bitter as any in boxing’s modern history.

But there they were about 15 years later, old enemies in an alliance once as unlikely as ever. Barrera introduced Morales.

“I want to congratulate a great champion and my dear, dear friend,’’ said Barrera, who lost a wild split decision at super-bantamweight to Morales in 2000 and went on to win rematches at featherweight in 2002 and super-featherweight in 2004.

Then, Morales countered with gratitude instead of a hook. Among other things, each inductee was awarded a ring. Morales turned to Barrera and said he wanted to give his ring to his dear friend. In the spontaneous exchange, the ring tumbled out of the box through their hands and onto the floor.

Quickly, they both reached down to recover it. Then, they smiled, this time laughing like old friends instead of sworn enemies.

The dinner also included a few surprises. Rapper Flavor Flav introduced an ailing Leon Spinks, who is best remembered for his 1978 upset of Muhammad Ali.

For Sandoval and Carbajal, the ceremony was a fitting moment. Their careers were linked in 1988. Twenty-nine years later, they were together again, linked by their inductions to the same Hall on the same night.

It was Sandoval who talked Top Rank promoter Bob Arum into signing Carbajal, who had won a silver medal at the Seoul Olympics. Arum was reluctant.

Carbajal, a junior-flyweight from Phoenix, fought in a division that in those days was hard to sell. But Sandoval, a bantamweight, told Arum there might be a big future at a weight as forgotten as it was diminutive.

Turned out, there were also some heavy money at the light end of the scale, too.

Carbajal became the first fighter at 108 pounds to collect $1 million for a 1994 rematch with rival Humberto Gonzalez, who won a controversial decision and went on to collect $1 million in the third step of a trilogy that began with Carbajal getting up from two knockdowns for a dramatic stoppage in The Ring’s 1993 Fight of the Year at the then Las Vegas Hilton.

Their purses still stand as the record for the sport’s little guys. No fighter at 108 pounds, or 112 for that matter, has ever collected $1 million since then.

Top Rank publicist Lee Samuels told the story about how Sandoval persuaded a skeptical Arum to sign Carbajal.

“Michael turned out to be one of the great, great fighters in Top Rank history,’’ Samuels said in his introduction of Sandoval to the dinner crowd. “Thank you, Ritchie Sandoval.’’

In the end, it was that kind of night. There were thanks all around for a fifth Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame class, which also includes publicist Debbie Munch, cutman Rafael Garcia, late matchmaker Mel Greb, late referee Davey Pearly and Dr. Elias Ghanem, a 14-year member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission who died in 2001.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Oscar De La Hoya isn’t losing any sleep worrying about whether the potential pay-per-view audience for Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin on Sept. 16 will suffer some erosion because of Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor on Aug. 26.

Fans know the difference between what is real and what isn’t, De La Hoya, Canelo’s promoter, said during a conference call this week.

“We’re concentrating on our fight,” De La Hoya said Tuesday on a call that included Canelo. “We’re concentrating on our event, our fight. Obviously we have the real fight. We have a serious fight. This is a serious fight, a serious event. Two of the best fighters, fighting each other. And I think that the fans have recognized that.

“…So have the sponsors and a lot of the media people. They’ve recognized that this is the real fight. This is the fight that they want to be at. This is the fight that they want to see. A clear indication is we sold out in ten days.’’

If the quick sellout is a reliable indicator of pay-per-view expectations, Golden Boy Promotions is way ahead of the game with Canelo-GGG, which De La Hoya believes can be the biggest fight in middleweight history, bigger than even Marvin Hagler’s legendary victory over Thomas Hearns in 1985.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times last week, thousands of tickets remained unsold for Mayweather-McGregor at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, also the site for Canelo-GGG.

For now, the best explanation for the slow sale rests in exorbitant ticket prices. Ringside seats are $10,000. The cheapest seats were $500. They sold out. According to reports about three weeks before opening bell, as many as 7,000 tickets could still be available. Mayweather didn’t toss that many dollar bills into the air during his international press tour with McGregor.

Lower the prices and a sellout will quickly follow, according to rival promoters. But what if De La Hoya is right? What if fans have decided that the long-awaited Canelo-GGG clash is the only true contest. It’s quickly becoming a pick-em fight, one that could easily lead to a rematch. Or two

Despite betting odds – anywhere from 7-1 to 5-1 – that appear to give McGregor a real chance, the consensus is that Mayweather, the best boxer of his generation, wins easily. McGregor, a UFC star, has never boxed professionally.

If McGregor somehow lands a lucky punch for a stoppage, it might go down as an upset bigger than even Buster Douglas’ 1990 KO of Mike Tyson in Tokyo. Douglas, who had a lot more experience as a boxer than McGregor ever had, was a 42-to-1 underdog.

Nevertheless, Mayweather-McGregor continues to generate a lot of talk on the internet and at water coolers. Not even Canelo could escape it Tuesday. He was asked if would fight McGregor if the Irishman some how won.

“If that miracle was to happen, then it’s a different conversation,’’ Canelo said. “You know, if that miracle was to happen. But I doubt it very much.’’

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Michael Carbajal is back in the city where his fame began.

Carbajal, who got up from two knockdowns for a seventh-round stoppage of rival Humberto Gonzalez in 1993 at the then-Las Vegas Hilton, will be inducted to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame at Caesars Palace.

“This means everything to me,’’ said Carbajal, a Phoenix junior-flyweight and one of history’s best little guys. “People know me for that fight.’’

In the non-Nevada resident boxer category, Carbajal joins Thomas Hearns, Michael and Leon Spinks, former four-division titleholder Erik Morales, women’s star Lucia Rijker and the late featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez.

Elected to the Nevada resident boxer category was late former heavyweight champion Ken Norton and former bantamweight champ Richie Sandoval.

Late referee and judge Davey Pearl, public relations specialist Debbie Munch, late Las Vegas promoter Mel Greb, trainer/cut man Rafael Garcia and Dr. Elias Ghanem, the late Nevada State Athletic Commission chairman will also be inducted.

The fifth annual dinner is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. (PT) at The Roman Ballroom.

By Jimmy Tobin-

Saturday night at The Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko tormented Miguel “The Scorpion” Marriaga to a corner stoppage at the end of the seventh round. For the third consecutive fight, a Lomachenko opponent stayed on his stool, bereft of answers, reconciled to leaving the ring with his senses and whatever palliative might be salvaged from the better part of valor.

Lomachenko had his way with Marriaga as everyone expected, and as no other fighter has; though the point about expectations should dominate the narrative. He lost perhaps a handful of seconds over the course of the fight, scoring two knockdowns, including one at the end of the seventh that started with a Lomachenko left hand but finished courtesy of Marriaga’s stumbling escape. This is what Lomachenko does: beat opponents into a doomed retreat, one that ends with them slumped on their stools, peeking past protective handlers like baby musk oxen. There is no award for best between-round corner stoppage of the year, alas.

Thus went another showcase bout for Lomachenko, who for better and worse has turned his last half dozen or so fights into such spectacles; one-sided affairs that illuminate not the intimacy of combat so much as a fighter’s ability to resist it. The chasm between Lomachenko’s ability and that of his opponent’s is profound, which is perhaps why the commentary of those fights echo each other so. Only this showcase, televised on ESPN, was intended to present Lomachenko to a broader audience than HBO (and certainly HBO PPV) could reach. With the fight starting after midnight on the east coast, however, when you are more likely to find ab-routines and ultra-blenders showcased on cable than you are elite practitioners of niche sports, it is fair to wonder how many new eyes found Lomachenko that night. An NFL Hall of Fame broadcast that ran late and required viewers to switch from ESPN to ESPN2 and back to follow the card didn’t help. That is not Lomachenko’s fault of course, though should the ratings disappoint rest assured he will shoulder much of the blame.

So too will he be skewered for what little heat was born of the friction between him and Marriaga. Lomachenko treated Marriaga like he does all his opponents, which is to say disdainfully, though it took some time for that disdain to culminate in visuals that might leave a new viewer wondering what sharing the ring with Lomachenko might be like, and as a result of that thought experiment, what things might be preferable to such an experience. Yet it is abstractions like these that so often drive interest in a fighter.

Nor does Lomachenko’s wizardry—an entire catalogue of basics applied in spellbinding concert—easily lend itself to such abstractions. And in this sense he benefits from the commentary: a trained company eye will be able to point out for viewers the individual elements of Lomachenko’s craft. That process of identification is complete at about the time when an opponent too is finished; a measured approach begets a measured analysis. When the conclusion is not a prone fighter but one on his stool accepting mercy, however, the likelihood that talk of the fight survives to the watercooler Monday is lessened some.

And that is why you are as likely to find gifs of Lomachenko showboating against Marriaga as you are the two knockdowns he scored. In particular, there was Lomachenko’s homage to Roy Jones Jr.’s taunting of David Telesco, with Lomachenko backing himself into the corner and beckoning Marriaga to attack. Like Telesco, however, Marriaga quickly learned the penalty for accepting such an invitation and froze in the face of it. To you, the initiated, Lomachenko’s antics were probably a sign that either he could not put Marriaga away, or that he should have. And, if a fighter won’t accept what appears to be a free shot, what does that say about the quality of the fight?

In the context of a showcase bout, however, where a fighter, not a fight, is meant to dominate the discussion, the currency Lomachenko’s showboating may have should not be entirely dismissed. There are worse things for an unknown boxer to be than reminiscent of Jones. Generational talent and athleticism are bewitching at first, second, third, glance, and while you, the initiated, mark certain other similarities between Lomachenko and a great fighter who clowned no-hopers there are surely others discussing that little tattooed white guy who did “that thing Roy Jones did.”

Thankfully, for you, the initiated, that is not all Lomachenko showed against Marriaga. He looked significantly bigger than Marriaga which means Lomachenko can be expected to invade another division in confirming greatness already bestowed. His body attack, deliberate, ruthless, brings a smile, though it betrays what little regard he had for Marriaga that Lomachenko waited until the second half of the fight to employ it. Lomachenko’s response to a cut from a headbutt is also worth noting. Bleeding above his left eye, he stepped immediately to Marriaga when the action resumed.

That is a meager yield in terms of entertainment, sure, but for a fighter who in the minds of aficionados lives primarily in the future, where better opponents will make greater demands of him, these little forecasts are informative.

As for that future—it is coming, right?

by Bart Barry-

Saturday Ukrainian super featherweight titlist Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko defeated Colombian featherweight Miguel Marriaga after seven rounds when Marriaga’s corner decided not to continue. Though Lomachenko felled Marriaga in round 7 it was Lomachenko’s face, not Marriaga’s, bleeding when the fight got stopped by a trainer that was merciful – the sort of mercy we’re told often is a proper substitute for suspensefulness.

By a show of hands, how many aficionados want another Soviet Bloc nonheavyweight Olympic medalist to dash through showcase matches with undersized men while his handlers claim nobody will fight him?

Nope, didn’t think so.

Me either.

What made Lomachenko so initially refreshing dissipates with each showcase match and subsequently so does the refreshment of watching his technical acumen. Back when Lomachenko was an undercard fighter for “Son of the Legend” Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. he performed in San Antonio and did not impress. Lomachenko got roughed and decisioned by Orlando Salido a year after Salido got dropped a fourtime by Mikey Garcia.

I recall two sensations ringside that night: Sympathy and relief. Lomachenko clearly prepared for a contest betwixt sportsmen more than a fight and hadn’t technology high enough to discourage Salido’s hitting him wherever Salido pleased after the Mexican missed weight whimsical audaciously the day before. That brought sympathy. The sense of relief came with a rude pop just after the decision got read and Lomachenko’s hyperbole balloon burst.

Though evidently it’s forgotten now, back then there was a burgeoning controversy about Lomachenko’s actual record, too. Editorial instructions from The Ring led my report to read:

“Lomachenko (7-1, 1 KO), whose official record on Fight Fax showed as 7-0 before Saturday, counting the six World Series of Boxing matches for which Lomachenko received payment . . .”

That clause happened prefight when all assumed Lomachenko’s tilt with Salido be a limp formality, not a lesson that was stiff, and journalism wanted to preempt loose promoter taglining on record this and historic that. Lomachenko got manhandled forthwith, and I recall thinking: Good, he’ll have to go deep and redemptive before we hear exclamation marks about him again.

So naive. Not only do veteran commentators now parrot Lomachenko’s promoter, but Lomachenko believes so deeply his run is historic he cannot believe a 130-pound athlete who speaks Golovkin English is not a sensation in the United States already and the rest of the world. Well. If he thinks boxing owes him a celebrity run at super featherweight like Manny Pacquiao’s he needs be told boxing thinks he owes us a Marquez, a Barrera and a pair of Morales.

Lomachenko gave us Gary Russell in 2014 and Nicholas Walters in 2016, both are good and neither belongs in the preceding sentence, but Lomachenko’s 2017 is not thusfar near so dazzling. Instead, with Marriaga, Lomachenko’s handlers began down the tired path Lomachenko’s fellow Olympian blazed for them: No 130-pound man in the world dares face Lomachenko, so we had to get a 126-pound man to do it!

This ain’t gonna work for a few reasons, the first being th’t that trail is already blazed, razed and worn baldly. The second concerns the 70 pounds of opponents between Lomachenko and heavyweight among which must be found a handful that do not cower at the syllables Hi Tech. The third if not final reason is Lomachenko’s promoter and its new network. Top Rank is better than Lomachenko-Marriaga; it’s the sort of jam-it-past-the-keeper garbage-goal the outfit scored often and lucratively on HBO.

It feels like ESPN knows this. Compared with Horn-Pacquiao what happened Saturday and the way it was broadcasted was inferior. Along with leaving Friday Night Fights’ crew in place like wait-and-see ESPN overwrote the twofight undercard with a reheated NFL marathon of football players making speeches – something unimprovable by metaphor.

You give us a Donaire-Narvaez main, we put your undercard on a smartphone app.

Nevertheless aficionados now are expected to play the opponents-in-common game with Lomachenko in lieu of seeing him compete, like: “Yes, Nicholas Walters and Oscar Valdez each beat Marriaga in the last two years, but they didn’t stop him, and speaking of Walters, Lomachenko beat him the way Sugar Ray Leonard beat Roberto Duran.”

This game is one more lamentable part of the fallout from the illadvised buildup to Mayweather-Pacquiao, when the hypothetical wholly supplanted the actual, and therefore one more lamentable effect Money May took on boxing. If we play this game we put ourselves in a bidding battle with our own imaginations till we see in an undertested titlist Harry Greb’s footwork and Sonny Liston’s jab. Or we can choose not to play. We can say: You look supercute in a kiwi bodystocking, yes, and you have more angles than a cubed octagon, but your career mark is 2-1 in fights anyone thought you could lose and that is the squareroot of historic.

Whatever Teddy and Max opine of Lomachenko the lad is yet to do fractionally enough in his career to make appealing the way he taunted Marriaga, who looked more than a weightclass smaller. Your promoter puts you on national TV with a little guy coming off a loss, you snatch his consciousness in three – you don’t squaredance your way to cuts and a midrounds corner stoppage.

There’s nothing invincible about Lomachenko – Salido proved that – and he can make fantastic and compelling fights against larger men. Even a 135-pound version of someone like Marriaga might’ve been interesting. But a few more showings like Saturday’s and there’s a good chance ratings are going to remand Hi-Tech himself to the high technology of ESPN’s smartphone app.

*

Author’s note: This column will not appear next week, as its author will be in Peru en route to being conquered by Montaña at Machu Picchu.

*

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s time for a change and he knew it. As always, Wladmir Klitschko did the right thing.

That’s how he’ll be remembered in the writing and rewriting of heavyweight history. Klitschko, who retired Thursday, was neither dramatic nor sensational. He was just righteous in a reliable sort of way at a time when the old flagship division had begun to look like a sunken relic beneath the waves of some bygone battle.

When it appeared as if the heavyweights were vanishing, there was always Klitschko winning, setting records, or staging a comeback. He was a pillar, a significant caretaker of a division that maybe can now move back on to a relevant stage with Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. We’ll see.

Whatever happens, Klitschko gave them and the sport that chance with his long, predictable reign at the top of the division.

Will he go down as an all-time heavyweight? Tough to say. We know the numbers, all record-book quality, yet also compiled against collection of nobodies in a division that was at the bottom of a historical decline. We’ll never really know how good he was, mostly because of the business itself.

Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis were the best in the division when Klitschko won his belt, yet he never fought either. Blame the business. It suffered for that. So will Klitschko’s ring legacy.

Think of it this way: Put Klitschko into a fantasy tournament with some of history’s greatest heavyweights. Here’s just one Sweet 16: Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Johnson, Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Jersey Joe Walcott, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes, Ezzard Charles, a young Mike Tyson, Holyfield and Lewis. Add Klitschko and you’ve got 16. Put them in brackets. Match them any way you like. Would Klitschko get out of the first round? I’m skeptical. Had he fought Holyfield and/or Lewis, we’d have a better guess.

His nine-year run as the champ, including 18 successive title defenses, is an amazing stat. But boxing isn’t baseball. It’s measured by more intangibles. One punch can knock out all of the analytics. In judging Klitschko, intangibles matter. They did – they do – with Ali.

Foreman has his own take on the classic, cross-generational argument about whom was the greatest: Louis or Ali? Foreman, who lost to Ali in the legendary Rumble in the Jungle, argues that Louis was a greater fighter than Ali. But, he says, Ali was a greater man.

It’s impossible to separate Ali’s stand against the Viet Nam War and his fight for civil rights from his heavyweight era. They are one and the same. Apply the same standard to Klitschko. He has stood up for the Ukraine against Russia alongside his brother and ex-heavyweight champ, Vitali. In retirement, the guess is that he will take on more political fights en behalf his country and what he thinks is right, which is what will always keep him among history’s greats.

By Jimmy Tobin-

Saturday night, at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York, Mikey Garcia dealt Adrien “The Problem” Broner a wide and comprehensive 12-round defeat in a fight of little fire and scant revelation. Garcia is Broner’s fighting superior at any weight the two might conceivably meet at, a reality that speaks little to professionalism, however much Broner’s detractors might wish to see that flaw of his precipitate his undoing. No, Broner, on weight, clean shaven, and thus motivated anew (!), was found wanting (again) because he stepped up in class (again).

Since living too large for lightweight, where his imposing physicality acted as a force-multiplier for a handful of appreciable tricks, Broner has been anything but a problem. Like a ship in the swath of a lighthouse, Broner has spent years moving in and out of the spotlight, advancing on a course set for his own wreckage. Unfortunately for him, the response to his first defeat was so ecstatic that future ones will be fractionally satisfying.

If one does not go in for his antics, there is little that is particularly fetching about Broner, save for when he is matched appropriately: which is to say a few rungs below where his ego would prefer and even an hour or so earlier than a headliner hits the stage. But a fighter who makes for a few thrills, a nod, an appreciative smile or two, when matched against the mediocre; a fighter who loses conclusively against the best, who serves at best to confirm that his conquerors warrant consideration for if not membership in an elite fraternity—what title is ascribed to such fighters? Is “opponent” too harsh?

He is not yet an opponent, though his showing against Garcia smacked of a man who ranks preservation ahead of victory. Perhaps a forgivable order of concerns provided it be arranged under duress, such a change in priorities is hardly endearing when not prompted by pain (and whatever Garcia’s dominance, he appeared to hurt Broner not once). Speed, power, determination, Broner flashed all enough to remind us that there is a quality fighter under the patina of disorder and buffoonery that, more than anything he has done in the ring, have been his hallmarks. Outfitted with those glimpses of Broner’s best self, a commentary team equally concerned with preservation could encourage viewers to wonder what might happen if Broner were to next time or even the time after that, suddenly not be himself anymore. But at this point no one, not even his bandmates, can resuscitate such delusion. And why should they? Better to match Broner appropriately and drain what value from him you might. A stoppage of Broner? Why that still would mean something.

Is it any wonder then that Garcia agreed to fight him? Back but a year from a two-and-a-half year self-imposed retirement, a recently crowned lightweight titlist who, at least early in the promotion, made clear his plans to return to 135 pounds, why would Garcia accept the fight if not because he and his team recognized an easy mark? By fight time the odds may not have reflected the mismatch that was to unfold, but odds do not reflect competitiveness so much as promote gambling. Provided he did not get hit with something disastrous there was little chance Garcia would lose. Hit with something disastrous; wording the puncher’s chance in the would-be victim’s perspective does not alter whatsoever the message implied.

A counter-puncher by nature and craft, Garcia was able to eschew his trademark style and play the aggressor against Broner, figuring quite rightly that both the pace and Broner’s stiff switches between defense and attack would keep Garcia safe. If there was anything new learned Saturday night it was that Garcia is capable of initiating the action—a revelation that might shrink considerably the list of things he cannot accomplish in the ring—though the question of whether he could employ such a strategy against a more formidable opponent will linger until he finds one.

And should he find one, more vulnerability might come to bear. There was a tremor in Garcia’s resolve when Broner came for him late in the fight; typically unflappable, Garcia wavered, became hurried, a little too concerned with what damage might be accruing on his face. These were signs Broner intimated but could not fully exploit, but they showed Garcia vulnerable in ways his supporters might prefer to ignore for the moment. There is plenty of room for error in reading such behavior, of course, especially with the evidence Garcia has given to the contrary, but that behavior is there. Might he go to pieces should the right kind of fighter unnerve him? Perhaps, though there is likely only one fighter below welterweight with the skill and power to make Garcia consider again the lure of the badge.

His post fight comments, where Garcia expressed his desire to fight anyone willing and able to fight on Showtime were curious for the same reason that Adonis Stevenson’s talk of network/promotional allegiance was curious. Garcia understands the business, which bodes poorly for interest in his future. For the sake of that interest, one would hope the business allows ESPN fighters to fight on Showtime once or twice.

By Bart Barry–

Saturday in Brooklyn a junior welterweight special attraction broadcast by Showtime saw California’s Mikey Garcia decision Cincinnati’s Adrien Broner by three fair if fairly generous (to Broner) scorecards. There were no knockdowns, no kneetremblers and only a trickle of noseblood in 36-minutes of fistfighting.

It was an average fight, however much reporting so betrays the narrative.

Garcia, who has long been considered at least as good as he is and on occasion considerably better, decisioned convincingly a b-grade fighter and a-grade selfpromoter without once imperiling either man. It was, in other words, about the best fare for which one dares hope from PBC and its many broadcasting benefactors and affiliates and aliases. Now aficionados’re expected to attempt a contortion like: It was a great fight between two great fighters that lacked action because Garcia’s extraordinary class neutralized Broner till he was the sort of mediocre fighter who might get decisioned 8-4 or 9-3 in a championship match.

Afterwards Garcia’s brother and trainer said Mikey only looks basic when you watch him, 1-1-2 and 1-2 and 1-2-1-1, but in the ring, where we might assume none of us will spend time with Mikey, he’s altogether more complicated. Perhaps. But truly there’s nothing wrong with basic boxing – in fact in just about any confrontation any man is likely to have in any lifetime basic boxing beats the stripes off its myriad of alternatives. Even in prizefighting.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Garcia’s performance Saturday. It was perfect for those who want to build Garcia as an undefeated attraction and for familiars who of course wishn’t see their brother or son elephantgunned, but it left a goodish amount to be desired by aficionados who watch for what entertainment spontaneity brings, which is different from watching to confirm one’s own expertise.

Broner never lacked offensive artistry and made himself famous in large part by being a large part bigger than his opponents; much of his early run happened via his ability to absorb others’ punches to deliver his own. It happened so fast, oftenly, and others’ punches so lacked effect, it was unapparent Broner traded evenly. Then Marcos Maidana, a slugger considered limited even by his fans then, exposed Broner in the fairest sense of the word and made 12,000 San Antonians euphoric in so doing. That win got Chino a chance at Floyd Mayweather that went so much better than expected Maidana got a second chance at Mayweather, but aficionados’ collective estimation of Broner improved little along the way. Maidana, after all, hit Floyd with sky hooks and sundry oddities, not clean lefthook leads – Broner’s defense against which was a stiffarmed thing he flashed in his other loss, to Shawn Porter.

Whether he extended his arms downwards, elbows locked knuckles ogling the canvas, or upwards, elbows locked knuckles saluting the ceiling, Broner did not have a fundamental sense of what to do when a likesized man charged him. Even the forearm shimmy Mayweather mentored him worked less well against a man of comparable strength. Broner ever suffered the imitator’s dilemma: He could passably ape an innovator like Floyd without understanding why. Where Floyd successfully improvised defensive adjustments, Adrien queried the database first what Floyd would do and when a nullset came back Adrien tried to improvise himself – which victoried his hands overhead or downed them pistonpopping.

Had he a classic sense of discipline Broner might’ve stayed at 135 pounds and enjoyed a historic run as a lightweight anyway but AB was about billions not selfrestraint which kept him in his best weightclass for merely a twofight.

Long forgotten in the Mikey remake is Garcia’s own struggles with discipline, specifically a 2013 featherweight title defense against cult hero Juanma Lopez that saw Mikey miss weight by 32 full ounces after comporting himself questionably enough against Orlando Salido five months before th’t aficionados who took him for boxing’s future in 2012 took a harder look. That harder look was only commencing when Garcia disappeared in a contractual conflict. Garcia’s comeback is but three fights along and in 37 prizefights Adrien Broner marked his sternest test; let us not hyperbole just yet.

There’s a frontrunner’s perfection about Garcia but nary an adjustment to be found. This makes him less entertaining than Terence Crawford, even while future comparisons of their reigns should prove apt. Crawford mightn’t have stopped Broner Saturday either but at least would’ve switched stances a halfdozen times between southpaw and orthodox. Garcia made no offensive adjustments and showed no creativity in the championship rounds because he was unsure his footing – whatever private desire he had to finish Broner stayed altogether private because after 30 minutes with Mikey’s fists Broner was not shaped half badly as expected.

Bullies and buffoons be expected to fold, but no matter Broner’s buffoonery the man does not fold. Ask anyone at Alamodome for Broner’s first loss: Aside from Richard Schaefer everyone in attendance was there to see Broner get jigsawed proper, so everyone in attendance was more than a bit tense after round 11. If this reads like a nostalgic sendoff for AB it shouldn’t; yes, there’s a wee bit of nostalgia one should give any man who courts others’ hatreds and does not bend, but no, Broner’s not going anywhere. Hell, PBC’s braintrust fully expected Broner to prevail Saturday because the company’s cultural cornerstone is a concert promoter, not a matchmaker.

Probably Broner’ll fight again before Garcia does, and probably Garcia’s next opponent won’t be anyone you want him to be. When 2018 begins Broner will remain about billions and Garcia will remain undefeated.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action LIVE from Ringside at Barclays Center when Adrien Broner meets Mikey Garcia in a 140-lb showdown.  The action begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT with a WBC Middleweight elimination bout between Jermall Charlo and Jorge Sebastian Heiland

THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY..NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED

Round 1: Right from Broner..Left from Garcia…Right and left from Garcia..

Round 2:  Broner jabs..2 left hooks from Garcia..Right to body..

Round 3:  Left hook from Broner..Jab from Garcia..Harc counter left hook..Right..Hard combination on the ropes..

Round 4 Quick counter from Broner..Right,,Left to body and uppercut from Garcia,,,Left

Round 5: Left hook from Broner..left..Right from Garcia..Right..Jab from Broner…Right to body and straight right from Garcia (snaps Broner head back)

Round 6 Jab from Garcia,,Kab from Broner,,,Right to body from Garcia

Round 7 Right from Broner…Jab…Jab..Right and left from Garcia…Right from Broner,..Right to body from Garcia..Right..Flush right

Round 8 Good counter right from Broner…Right from Garcia,,Jab from Broner..Right from Garcia,,4 punch combination..

Round 9 Right and jab from Broner,,Counter right,Uppercut from Garcia..Body work and a right from Broner,,Good counter left hook

Round 10 Garcia jabbing..Jab from Broner,,Hard right to body from Garcia,,Right to body,,Body shot and right,,straight right..

Round 11 Body shot from Garcia,,counter right..right,,right to body..combination

Round 12 Lead right from Broner…Left from Garcia…straight right…Right from Broner…Blood dripping from nose of Garcia..Body combination from Broner..Good flurry at the end of round

117-111, 116-112 TWICE FOR MIKEY GARCIA 

Round 1 Jab from Charlo

Round 2 Hard right from Charlo..HARD RIGHT AND DOWN GOES HEILAND..Hard left and uppercut from Charlo…Big right..Right buckles Heiland..5 hard shots on the ropes

Round 3 Right from Charlo..uppercut..

Round 4 Doctor checking on Heiland before round starts…Left from Heiland..Right from Charlo..Hard uppercut..HUGE LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES HEILAND AND FIGHT IS OVER

By Norm Frauenheim-

TUCSON, Ariz. — Brooklyn welterweight Sadam Ali hopes to fight his way back into title contention Saturday against well-traveled Johan Perez in an ESPN2-televised bout at Casino del Sol in the second Golden Boy Promotions card at the southern Arizona casino since Oscar De La Hoya’s signed a 43-fight deal in January with the cable sports network.

Ali (24-1, 14 KOs), a 2008 Olympian and the first boxer of Yemeni descent on a U.S. team, has won two straight since Jessie Vargas stopped in the ninth of his only world-title bout in 2015.

Perez, a 34-year-old Venezuelan who beat a then-unbeaten Yoshihiro Kamegai in 2013, also has won his last two, but he’s 3-2-1 over his last six.

Ali was at 147 pounds Friday at a weigh-in that included a mount when Perez jammed his nose into Ali’s nose during the ritual stare down for the photographers. Perez was at 146.6 pounds.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Adrien Broner looks at Mikey Garcia and says he see no hints of his past. There’s nothing in Garcia that looks, or fights, or wins like Marcos Maidana, says Broner, who has been trying to resurrect his career ever since a 2013 loss to Maidana.

“He ain’t no effin Maidana,’’ Broner said Thursday at the final news conference before the Showtime telecast of the crossroads confrontation with Garcia Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. “He’s nowhere near Maidana.

No, he’s not. He’s better.

The real question is whether Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) is any better than he was against Maidana on that December night in a stunner at San Antonio’s Alamodome. He’ll have to be against Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs), who appears to have all Maidana’s power and is more fundamentally sound than the Argentine ever was.

If anything, the Maidana-Garcia comparison seems to have annoyed, if not rattled, Broner. It’s in his head and probably for good reason. Been there, done that and he definitely doesn’t want to have to endure it all over again. That’s just one compelling stake among many in the junior-welterweight bout (6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET). Beat Garcia, and Broner can finally declare that he’s back, all the way back.

“I don’t think that he’s going to be desperate, but he knows that I’m not an easy opponent,’’ Garcia said during his turn at the speaker’s dais Thursday. “That’s why he’s taken camp so seriously. I expect him to be at his best and be ready. He knows if he beats me he can launch his career back to where it was.’’

On paper at least, Broner appears to have a key advantage. Broner, who lost to Maidana at 147 pounds, is back at 140, a weight at which he has never lost. Still, there are some questions about whether he’ll make weight Friday. If he doesn’t, he pays a $500,000 fine, according to his contract. That’s plenty of motivation, he said.

“I ain’t giving nothing back,’’ Broner said last week during a conference call.

The guess here is that Broner won’t eat any cake before he steps on the scale. His birthday is Friday. He’ll be 28 at opening bell, presumably smarter and better prepared for the tactical savvy possessed by the favored Garcia.

“I’m going to lo look to box effectively and show that I’m the better fighter,’’ said Garcia, whose brother and trainer, Robert Garcia, was in Maidana’s corner. “We’re both smart fighters but neither of us will run from the other. When you have styles like ours, with two guys who like to exchange punches, you’re in for a great battle.

“I think Adrien will be fine with the weight. He’s a pro and he knows that he really has to make weight. He’s learned from his mistakes. Sometimes he jokes around but that’s just part of his character. He takes things a lot more seriously because he’s facing me.’’

Broner is facing somebody who hopes to enhance his pound-for-pound credentials. There’s talk about Garcia in a fight against Terence Crawford and/or Vasyl Lomachenko. Garcia, who has a lightweight belt, has doubts about both. There are differences in weight. Crawford, a 140-pound champion, appears headed for 147. Lomachenko is still at 130. More problematic, both are Top Rank fighters. Garcia left Top Rank in a divorce that kept him out of the ring for more than two years.

For now, Garcia appears more interested in a lightweight unification bout against the Jorge Linares-Luke Campbell winner on Sept. 23 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

“I won’t let Adrien Broner stand in my way,’’ Garcia said. “This is my chance to show the best version of myself.”

A version that won’t look anything like Maidana.
Attachments area

By Bart Barry-

Editor’s note: Eleven months ago we asked Bart Barry to interview himself about the state of the craft. On Tuesday Bart sent a note saying he’d no idea a subject for this week’s column, his seventh such note of the year. To spark his flagging interest, once again, we asked him to return to the subject of writing and boxing.

BB: Sometime soon, maybe even next month, Conor McGregor fights Floyd Mayweather in what is widely expected to be . . .

BB: . . .

BB: . . .

BB: Go on.

BB: You were supposed to interrupt and rail against this mess.

BB: Nah.

BB: Then you support it?

BB: I won’t be watching.

BB: That’s slippery.

BB: I have no strong feelings about it, pro or con. I saw enough enthusiasm on Twitter to watch some clips of those staged performances in the cities, and it didn’t do much for me.

BB: Were you familiar with McGregor’s work previously?

BB: No.

BB: Were you impressed by his gift for trashtalking?

BB: Are we considering that a gift now – like athleticism or perfect pitch or eloquence?

BB: Aren’t we?

BB: No. As you know from watching Mayweather it’s a con created for five-second sound clips. It’s like a live rehearsal with a hundred takes. They say the same thing over and over and over, and then they keep the best one for YouTube.

BB: Floyd was outgunned.

BB: He’s a great, great fighter. But he’s not witty or creative. He’s a miserable dude. The best sorts of performers in the hiphop set, which has never seen Floyd as one of its own – unlike, say, Tyson – take the craft of wordplay incredibly seriously but not themselves. They wink at you. Floyd gets this backwards. He takes himself altogether too seriously and says the same unoriginal thing every promotion. During the best performances, the artist interrupts himself to say he’s only kidding, then at the end you realize how serious he was. Floyd interrupts himself to say how serious he is, then after the fight he tells you he was kidding the whole time.

BB: Not sure that works as an analogy.

BB: Then edit it out.

BB: And defeat the purpose of this?

BB: Don’t take ourself so seriously.

BB: Name one professional athlete you’ve never met but would like to.

BB: Bode Miller.

BB: Last year you’d given up on boxing but were approaching the craft of writing with immense enthusiasm and hope. This year, that has switched.

BB: Started to, anyway. Something started to happen in January, it’s too early to say what, but the compulsion to write, and by extension to read, dissolved very quickly. It was like waking up one morning, looking in the mirror, and discovering I was now a seven-foot woman from Beijing. An attractive, intelligent woman with a loving husband, maybe, but still an entirely different identity than I took to bed the night before.

BB: Seventeen years of saying “Hello, I’m Bart, a writer” sort of became “Hello, I’m Bart.”

BB: Yet there’s an optimism in your view of our beloved sport you haven’t had for years.

BB: Very true. It coalesced during the Horn-Pacquiao broadcast.

BB: You sure about this?

BB: Yes. Because it was unplanned. The opposite was planned, frankly; it was to be a chance to criticize ESPN’s approach to sports broadcasting and roll eyes at Arum telling the truth tomorrow, again.

BB: But instead you enjoyed it?

BB: I really did. The volume was off, so I don’t know what that commentary did to the experience for others. But the sunshine, and the vindication for the longshot, and Pacquiao’s always infectious enthusiasm. It just felt warm. It felt good. It felt authentic. Real fans, really smiling, really caring.

BB: Yet your column was satirical.

BB: In retrospect I didn’t trust my own enthusiasm. The last few years have taught us to trust reflexively our doubts but rarely our enthusiasm. I trust my enthusiasm for a fighter, for Chocolatito as an example, but not for events. Boxing was always cynical, but somewhere within that cynicism there was authenticity – genuine men genuinely bleeding. PBC changed that, methinks.

BB: A Mayweatherization of boxing.

BB: Yeah.

BB: That’s changing because of Top Rank’s alliance with ESPN?

BB: I’m almost ready to say yes with an exclamation mark. Top Rank has the best development plan for its fighters and the best matchmakers. But for the longest time they’ve trapped themselves in this premium-cable-capture game, where they try to get one over on HBO or sell Showtime a dud. There’s nothing to save it for now.

BB: And they don’t have a Pacquiao in the pipeline.

BB: There’s no obvious pay-per-view star in their stable, no. They have to make the best fights on the best network. It’s no longer about Arum outsmarting a few corporate guys. It’s now about the entirety of Top Rank’s outfit proving it is what it thinks it is.

BB: Why didn’t PBC’s model work?

BB: That’s the sweet irony of this. It did! PBC sold its product at a massive, anticompetitive loss for a couple years in order to get a major network interested enough in boxing to pay for the rights to broadcast it. That network was ESPN. But it chose to pay Top Rank instead.

BB: The longer a fight goes . . .

BB: The more class tells, yes.

BB: Whither HBO?

BB: Who cares?

BB: Go on.

BB: That’s not flippant. Does an NBA fan worry about the health of basketball based on what “Real Sports” says? Does an NFL fan think football is dead if “Hard Knocks” gets cancelled? Some of HBO’s cards this year are good, and that one in September is perfectly excellent. But more and more, if you’re not ordering HBO PPV, you halfway expect to see a Just for Men ad between rounds.

BB: Showtime?

BB: They’ve got the heavyweight champion of the world. And he’s another reason for a recrudescing excitement about our sport. They’ve got PBC’s stable whenever they want it.

BB: Why couldn’t Haymon go back to HBO?

BB: HBO’s no longer that rich or that dumb.

BB: You look healthy, kid.

BB: I feel good.

BB: This was fun.

BB: Dave Grohl looks at Paul McCartney and says, “Why can’t it always be this easy?” And McCartney says –

BB: “It is!” Touché.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

They’re promising a new and improved Adrien Broner on July 29 against Mikey Garcia, but Broner is promising what he has always promised.

“I’m coming to eff him up,’’ Broner said Thursday during a conference call for his intriguing 140-pound bout with Garcia at Brooklyn’s Barclays’ Center.

First, full disclosure: Broner didn’t really say eff. But you get the idea. Broner says he is older and wiser, but he’s as profane as ever in a business punctuated by punches and profanity.

“The hurt business,’’ says Broner, who repeated Mike Tyson’s apt summation of a brutal craft once known as The Sweet Science.

Not so sweet anymore, at least not for Broner, whose ups and down in and of the ring are an inseparable part of his story, perhaps his temperament and probably his motivation.

Maybe, he’s more mature, but there’s no doubt about the anger. Besides, you just wouldn’t know him without the F-bombs.

Any doubt about that was eliminated in the way he opened his segment of the conference call.

“At this point, eff the press,’’ he said. “They’re all against me. I’m ready to fight. …So, I’m ready to to get the eff off this call.’’

He didn’t, of course. Too effing much to say. Broner loves to talk. That said – and plenty was, Broner said he has worked to get beyond a long list of problems, including jail time. He has talked about leaving the “ghetto stuff” behind.

By that, he says he means to take “boxing more seriously.’’

Against Garcia, he’ll have to. Garcia, unbeaten and an emerging pound-for-pound contender in a talked-about fight with Vasyl Lomachenko, is the favorite.

According to some betting sites, odds favoring Garcia are as high as 7-1, despite a couple of key advantages that Broner holds in his capable hands.

He’s younger. Broner will celebrate his 28th birthday next Friday, the day before opening bell in Brooklyn. Twice beaten at 147 pounds, he’s unbeaten at 140. Garcia, a 29-year-old lightweight champion, has never been more than 138 pounds at a weigh-in.

The theory, however, is that Garcia has a more varied skill set. He has said he will outbox Broner.

“That’s a damn lie,’’ Broner said. “…He knows he’s not a better boxer than me.’’

Throughout the call, Garcia did most of the listening and some of the talking. He says he wants to fight the best possible Broner and all of the profanity seemed to say that he would.

“That’s exactly the Broner I want to hear,’’ said Garcia, who figures to hear a lot effing more next week.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday in Inglewood, Calif., Mexican Miguel “El Alacran” Berchelt defended his super featherweight title against former titlist Takashi Miura in a good mainevent televised by HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” program. Meanwhile, one state to the east, an improved broadcasting experience happened.

Miguel Berchelt is a good fighter who won his belt the right way – as a b-side, by knockout – but not a world champion so long as Vasyl Lomachenko can make 130 pounds and not a great Mexican super featherweight, either, so long as there survive men who saw Marco Antonio Barrera or Erik Morales or Juan Manuel Marquez at that weight. Berchelt will experience some accumulating ambivalence about that; because of those three men casual fans now watch prizefighters who weigh 100 pounds less than those fans’ general preference, and because of those three men Berchelt will be judged by his merits more than his birthplace and judged to be considerably less than he thinks he is.

El Alacran came of age in Mexico when broadcasting logistics precluded the best Mexican fighters and their best fights from happening on public airwaves, which meant far fewer Mexican boys found a passion for boxing. More ambivalence for Berchelt: It is much easier for a talented prizefighter in this generation to get out of Mexico, but he is unlikely to fare nearly so well at the championship level as his predecessors did. If Berchelt’s path to a title had included a prime version of Barrera or Morales or Marquez, in other words, Berchelt would’ve remained an undercard gatekeeper very, very far from an HBO main event.

This is no criticism of his Saturday win. Berchelt found himself matched against a worn veteran who knew lots of tricks and years ago had better technique then Berchelt imposed the rude force of youth on his elder, exactly as one should. Berchelt adhered to his handlers’ strategy and made Miura move much more than a man of Miura’s age and resume wishes to anymore. Berchelt fought no more than he had to fight. That kept Miura discouraged from opening bell to closing. When things got rougher for Berchelt than he preferred he made appeals to the referee that received sympathy, including an uncommon timeout for rabbit punching.

Something about El Alacran, maybe his pleas to Raul Caiz Sr. or the wide punches or his neck tattoo, feels a bit fragile, alas. And he is way open to counters. That’s what gets one thinking about previous generations of Mexican prizefighters and the comparative cleanliness of their technique: Marquez never wasted a step, Barrera never floated his chin, Morales never threw an arm punch. These were men told from a very young age they could not expect to be the fastest or the strongest or even the toughest in a championship prizefight, and therefore they must employ at all times precision, economy and leverage. To see Berchelt bounce in wide circles and cock his chin much as he cocked his punches and swim forward flailing was to imagine how quickly a 130-pound Manny Pacquiao might’ve raced through him.

If Berchelt never will rival Marco Antonio or Erik, in his best moments he does resemble slightly Juan Manuel’s little brother Rafael. Berchelt has Rafael Marquez’s frame and desire to win with his right hand but not quite Rafael’s matchstopping power.

Still, it’s proper to applaud HBO for the informal super featherweight tournament Boxing After Dark has hosted thus far in 2017. Though the network lost the division’s most talented fighter when Top Rank departed for ESPN, the division’s most talented fighter lost most of the competition that could justify what hyperbolic acclaim he enjoys, too, and while Vasyl Lomachenko’s technical domination of contender-level competition already grows tired, ferocious combat between Latino and Asian prizefighters will not.

Writing of broadcasting: Saturday also comprised a card from Arizona that featured an innovative medium worthy of discussion. Roy Jones Jr. Boxing promoted a show presented on pay-per-view ($0.99) by Ultracast, a company specializing in 360-degree content. Effectively, Ultracast is a bunch of cameras pointing in different directions mounted above a single ringpost, with their various feeds stitched together in a way that allows a viewer to both zoom and roam his perspective in most every direction he could move his eyes were he similarly situated atop a ringpost.

I used the Ultracast app for Android on a Samsung Galaxy S8 phone, and despite the comparatively small screen it was a more rewarding experience than most fight-viewing parties and any sportsbar. It’s not a social way to partake of our beloved sport, but it exceeds the standard HDTV experience and rivals the ringside experience – and all previous jokes about stationing stepladders for visually impaired judges aside, it presents a surprisingly apt and innovative way to score fights more accurately.

What you experience is a static, unobstructed look at two fighters – no anxiously orbiting referee blocking you, no videogame-emulating camera switches from the production truck, no narrative-building replays between rounds. You see every punch (from an unfamiliar angle, yes, but still), you see the entirety of the fighters’ bodies – including, and most importantly for those who know what they’re watching, the fighters’ feet – and you see as far as the backdoor of a small arena and as near as a ringside doctor taking notes during an undercard match. If I were a trainer or fighter reviewing footage of a future opponent, it is absolutely the view I would wish to have.

Without seeing the hardware involved, one imagines it’s far less cumbersome than previous attempts with 3D, which means it might be a portable solution that complements Showtime’s recent modernization attempts with live sports on social media platforms (something HBO surely will adopt once AT&T finishes selling off its parent company’s assets). Take Ultracast, switch the commentary team for an enhanced arena-sounds audio feed, charge $0.99 for every fightcard in the land and $5 for world championships, and call it The Aficionados App: Eventually you could get a reliable $50/year from about 500,000 hardcore boxing fans. That might just be viable.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Other than to say it was hard to watch, it was hard to know what to make of the first three stops this week in the Floyd-Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor tour.

It was funny in Los Angeles. Kind of.

It was silly in Toronto. Sort of.

It was embarrassing in New York. Period.

It was impossible to think there can be any kind of an encore in London. More than a tour, the exhibition for their Aug. 26 event in Las Vegas has been a steep decline into a tired exchange of gestures and obscenities.

Not any role models here, not that any were expected. But I’m guessing it’s not something that Mayweather or McGregor would want their kids to ever see, much less emulate.

Both are going to make tons of money and then have to spend a lot of it just to make sure their kids don’t grow up to be like daddy.

All the profane posturing and over-the-top insults appear to be exactly the spectacle that some predicted would be more entertaining than the match itself. A classic boxer, the best of his generation, versus a mixed martial arts star in sanctioned boxing bout?

As an event, it is neither fish nor fowl, which means nobody will be surprised if the pay-per-view audience screams foul after paying the $99.95 price tag for high-def.

If anything, disappointment in the so-called fight seems to be baked into the expectation for fans more amped about a chance that McGregor might kick Mayweather in the face at the Vegas weigh-in.

After all, there’s just not a whole lot to say after Los Angeles, Toronto and New York. These fans want spectacle, not substance, and it’s spectacle they’re going to get. The guess from this corner is that the bout will be about as meaningful as Donald Trump’s “take down” of Vince McMahon at ringside of a WWE production in 2007.

Then again, that bit of lowbrow theater went from fake news to real news a couple of weeks ago when Trump re-tweeted a redone video of the staged moment with the CNN logo as McMahon’s head.

Serious journalists debated that one, right alongside health care. Seriously. Maybe, spectacle is today’s substance. I’ll leave that one up to people a lot smarter than an old boxing writer still not sure what to make of Mayweather-McGregor.

There are the betting odds, only 7-to-1 in favor of Mayweather. Really? The best in the business for about a decade against a novice boxer, and yet the odds give the novice a real chance?

Then, there are news reports this week about Mayweather’s tax liability. I’m not sure what to believe about the reported numbers or even if he in fact owes the IRS for back taxes. But I heard the crowds this week, chanting “Pay your taxes, pay your taxes.’’

The reports are troublesome on a couple of levels. If accurate, they might be symptomatic of a deeper financial problem. Consider this scenario: Instead of scoring a one–sided TKO of McGregor with a couple of precise counters midway through the event, let’s say that Mayweather wins a decision close enough to argue for a rematch.

That’s when those chants might get nasty. To wit: He needs the rematch to pay those taxes. The again, what’s a good spectacle without some suspicion?

By Bart Barry-

Thursday night Mexican middleweight contender David “The Destroyer” Lopez and his son were attacked in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, Lopez’s hometown, while driving in Lopez’s pickup truck. Lopez was declared dead at the site of the shooting and his son was taken to the hospital in critical condition. No motive for the shooting is currently known, or at least none is being reported by Mexican media. The murder of Lopez is a boxing death that appears to have nothing to do with boxing but leaves anyone who covered Lopez’s career with what gnawing sense of helpless monotony one feels after receiving tragically bad news.

I did not know Lopez well but sat ringside for seven of his matches in Southern Arizona at Desert Diamond Casino, a property of Tohono O’odham Nation not technically in Tucson though nearby. More to the point Desert Diamond Casino is an hour’s drive north on I-19 from Nogales, a bordertown that exists in both Arizona and Sonora – effectively a single city with a large wall slicing its middle – once a place of reasonably safe diversion. Many aficionados made that drive northwards to Desert Diamond; Lopez drew disproportionate to his talents. He was a durable spoiler type, a natural underdog, an attrition fighter, without any particular punch or charisma. For a stretch, though, 2005-2009, Lopez was Nogales’ hometeam, and 800-1,000 Arizonans and Sonorans reliably attended his every match.

When Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer created Golden Boy Promotions they began hosting bimonthly cards at Desert Diamond as a farm league of sorts for their growing stable of prizefighters. The cards were exceptionally well constructed by local matchmaker Roger Woods and exceptionally well attended for what were effectively Spanish-language telecasts of club shows. Invariably Golden Boy would send one of its partners along, too, Marco Antonio Barrera or Shane Mosley or Bernard Hopkins or De La Hoya himself, and Desert Diamond’s publicity team would ensure those guys were available for interviews with local media. After each undercard match publicists would visit the press table and ask if anyone were interested in a postfight interview then lead the winner and loser to a small conference room in the back, beside the fighters’ dressing rooms, and let us ask whatever we wished. During those four years every Golden Boy fighter – Juan Manuel Marquez, Winky Wright, Robert Guerrero, Kassim Ouma, Deontay Wilder, Rocky Juarez – spent time in that small conference room politely conversing with the same dozen reporters. (Even Richard Schaefer occasionally dissembled for our amusement.)

Back then Telefutura’s fantastic “Solo Boxeo” program was at its best and the main and comains were generally excellent. But no one drew like The Destroyer. Lopez built his fanbase quickly and passionately with a TKO loss to Colombian Fulgencia Zuniga the first week of 2005, just before Zuniga made another wonderful Arizona fight with Mexican Jose Luis Zertuche – not long before both Zuniga and Zertuche got pistonstroked by Kelly Pavlik. The loyalty Lopez’s fans showed was the sort best founded upon a courageous loss – these were middleaged, workingclass, bordertown men who didn’t respect or trust sparkly things. Lopez returned to Desert Diamond four months later in the comain of a card that marked Alfredo Angulo’s professional debut, coincidentally, and began a torrid streak that saw him go 8-0 (4 KOs) at Desert Diamond, while converting himself from a narrow middleweight to an even narrower super welterweight in the hopes of a world title challenge.

That challenge came eight months after his final match at Desert Diamond, in the form of a lopsided decision loss to Austin Trout. It broke the spell for Lopez. He fought six more times in the four years that followed and posted a typical, career-unwinding record of 2-3-1 against foes like Jose Uzcategui in venues like the Salinas Storm House.

Even that torrid run of eight Desert Diamond wins in four years isn’t particularly torrid-looking, is it? Yet there was something electric about Lopez’s fights in that venue, an accidental chemistry of performer and stage few enjoy and no one quite explains.

Lopez was somewhat prickly after his matches, much like Desert Diamond’s other synonymous performer, Jhonny “Jhonny” Gonzalez, and memorable for his terse, tense answers about wanting his title shot. At the ringside media table we didn’t really understand Lopez’s popularity but didn’t deny it either. Guys who wrote for Tucson papers knew they had to cover Lopez because local interest in Lopez was genuine. Sincere inquiries about The Destroyer’s outsized popularity from Phoenix journalists generally got some jocular variation of “Because he’s ‘The Destroyer’!”

We didn’t understand his career and evidently understood the fortunes of his retirement even less. If someone’d’ve asked me to name Desert Diamond fighters I expected to have pleasant lives after boxing I mightn’t have named Lopez straight away but if the followup question had been “What about David Lopez?” I’m certain I’d have said “Yup, him too.” Some sort of dreadful twist changed that Thursday night. The tenor of the reports from Mexico suggests Lopez was a target – the victim of heavily armed shooters, not a traffic dispute gone to lunacy.

Mexico has always been a dangerous country in the style of every other region of the Spanish conquest and possessed of a cultural view of death quite different from its neighbor’s to the north. But the last decade’s internal war has created a toxicity that beggars scale. It poisons the root of a people famous the world over for its humility and friendliness; every Mexican has been traumatized by it regardless of residence. David Lopez’s death is a reminder unpleasant as it is unneeded.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

A contentious blame game in the wake – and we do mean wake – of Manny Pacquiao’s controversial loss to Jeff Horn is almost as regrettable as it is predictable. Above all, it’s all too familiar.

It’s the acrimonious noise that always seems to be there at the end of a legendary career. It’s as if few could foresee the ride was headed for a crashing conclusion. In hindsight, I suspect Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum did. He issued a warning few days before last weekend’s opening bell Down Under, saying that Horn could really fight.

It sounded like a warning, Arum’s way of saying that Pacquiao might lose if he wasn’t ready for a real fight. By now, we know he wasn’t. Argue about the scorecards all you want. On this one, Pacquiao was a 115-113 winner.

But I didn’t see the robbery that was so loudly alleged at ringside. Neither did Arum. Turns out, neither did Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, who in the aftermath of Horn’s 115-113, 117-111, 115-113 decision hinted at a less than satisfactory training camp and a fighter with energies divided between the gym and the Filipino Senate.

“To me, they were so overconfident going in — [conditioning coach] Justin Fortune tells the press that the only way Horn can win is if Manny trips going into the ring,’’ Arum told the Los Angeles Times a couple of day after the welterweight bout in Brisbane. “I had seen the kid. I told everybody he was a big, tough kid who could take a punch. I didn’t think he’d beat Manny, but it wasn’t the same Manny.”

It wasn’t. Truth is, Pacquiao hasn’t been the same Manny since his last stoppage in 2009, a 12th-round TKO of Miguel Cotto. Eight years are a career for some fighters. For Pacquiao, the power drought represents a drip-drip-drip in an erosion of an identity created by astonishing stoppages of Erik Morales, Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya. We had waited for that defining characteristic to reappear. But it never did, not against Brandon Rios or even Chris Algieri.

A great fighter without a stoppage over nearly eight years is bound to lose a few on the fickle scorecards. It happened against Timothy Bradley in 2012. To a lesser degree, it happened again in Australia, where it appeared Pacquiao was poised to finish it after a ferocious beating of Horn in the ninth, yet didn’t in the 10th simply because it just isn’t in him and hasn’t been for a while.

From religion to politics – there were different interests. From partying to gambling, there was a different lifestyle. He had changed, changed for good and forever. Still generous and likeable, the old instinct was gone. Inevitably, the physical reflexes would begin to go, too.

I don’t need a rematch to see whether Pacquiao can still be Manny. There’ll be a sequel with Horn if he decides to exercise his contracted right to one. But are we really going to see something more from a fighter whose decline has been evident for so long?

Imagine if Pacquiao had escaped with a scorecard victory over Horn in Las Vegas instead of Australia. Even in victory, there would still be the same doubts about whether he should continue, especially if that meant a fight against Terence Crawford. But his performance the workman-like Horn is proof that a fight against the emerging Crawford would be a sad end to a Pacquiao career as dramatic and colorful as any.

As of Thursday, there was no word on whether Pacquiao would fight on. I take that as good news. But I fear he’ll be tempted by one more bite at the financial apple. He’ll never be able to make as much as he did in the ring. In the political business, he’ll never have as much money as he needs. That means he’ll always be tempted.

But I prefer to remember Pacquiao when he was the Manny with one punch that launched Hatton so high that I could see the bottom of the Brit’s shoes from my ringside seat. I’ll remember the Manny who made De La Hoya quit after eight rounds.

I can only hope Pacquiao recalls what De La Hoya said on that December 6th night in 2008. After the fight was stopped, De La Hoya crossed the ring and told Roach, his old trainer: “You’re right, Freddie. I don’t have it anymore.’’

De La Hoya was 35 then. Pacquiao is 38 today.

“My heart still wants to fight, that’s for sure,” De La Hoya said then. “But when your (body) doesn’t respond, what can you do?”

Retire.

By Jimmy Tobin-

Welterweights Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn met at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia, Saturday night in a fight broadcast by ESPN; a fight that delivered an outcome in keeping with the off-brand look of the production and cacophony of inane commentary typical of a network that for so long was in the glorified club fight business. Horn was awarded a unanimous decision over Pacquiao, the most absurd one yet hung on the aging Filipino, though not so heinous that that title too couldn’t one day change hands.

There was once a nostalgic quality to the aged Pacquiao’s performances; all those signature moves, however diminished in their effect, conjured memories of the excitement his arrival, his ascension to dominance, the mania his very presence at LAX or in the Wild Card parking lot, once produced. Nostalgia too for a period when fighters identified as such; when there were fewer reasons to consider boxing a business or show interest in the machinations that delivered or failed to deliver this fight or that; when there were spectacles of consequence and futurity and an endgame still discernible in the wayward paths.

Granted there is some historical bias at work here (this is what nostalgia does) and any sober examination of the years before Pacquiao’s decline would reveal a sport as charmingly flawed and frustrating as ever. Indeed, a number of boxing’s more modern malaises can be traced back to Pacquiao, in particular, the fight that more than any other made managers and promoters of us all, made contract negotiations an acceptable substitute for the fight itself, and proved actively lowering expectations brings scant penalty to those responsible.

But it was only because he remained a relatively close approximation of his former self that Pacquiao could have this mnemonic effect (compare, for example, what feelings are elicited by the sad spectacle of Roy Jones Jr., or how tedious Bernard Hopkins, former executioner, became in the later years of his career). Yet despite deserving the victory, Pacquiao produced little of that nostalgia against Horn. Yes, his ring walk was rich in its usual levity, and Pacquiao flashed genuine relish at his opponent’s aggression, but his legs, and with them his accuracy and timing, have left him. So too, it looked, has some of his fighting joy, perhaps a casualty of where his career has been navigated in recent years. In an open air stadium in Australia, under the ruthless afternoon sun, against an opponent whose every forearm, headlock, and half-nelson was cheered—and this mess televised for free on ESPN? Even someone as sanguine as Pacquiao must have wondered how he ended up in such a state.

And then the scores were read.

In writing about bogus decisions like the one delivered at Suncorp Stadium, courtesy dictates one bestow a charitable judgment on the efforts of the victor; the goal being to separate the fighter from the scorecards he did not produce. One need only remember how Timothy Bradley fared in the aftermath of his reviled decision over Pacquiao to see the importance of not holding the fighter responsible for the judges’ appraisal.

Very well.

Did the punch stat numbers, overwhelmingly favoring Pacquiao, misrepresent the competitiveness of the fight? A bit. Human error corrupts their tally and they capture neither force nor effect; such stats are often only as credible as they are convenient. Is Joe Tessitore a fool for struggling to understand how a fighter nearly stopped could nevertheless win a decision? Yes (or maybe he’s just a loyal employee). Could the opinions of slowly emptying balloons Teddy Atlas and Stephen A. Smith promote controversy where there might not be any? Certainly. (Though if there is anything Atlas’ deafening lunacy engenders it is an urge to disagree. He makes for hypercritical if not antagonistic listeners, a fact that hurts more than helps the fighter he is endorsing. Smith probably does the same).

In the ring, Horn comported himself admirably in the biggest fight of his career (no meager compliment, that). The Pacquiao of even last year probably beats Horn conclusively, but on Saturday this smoldering version of the Filipino looked as far removed from his incendiary peak as he ever has, and Horn should claim some credit for that. Let him have it, then. And let him confirm his supposed potency against another top opponent—the decision, however dubious, must be reckoned with, and Horn, however undeserving, is for now belted and consequential.

Pacquiao-Horn played out similarly to Roman Gonzalez’ fight with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai earlier this year. The smaller fighter faced adversity early, fought through cuts from headbutts to wrest control of the action, nearly scored a stoppage in the later rounds, and lost not so much to his opponent as to the optics of blood and the larger man’s incessant aggression, to the rationale that an unheralded opponent should be rewarded for outperforming expectations.

Such factors should not victors of Rungvisai or Horn make, but incompetence in a sport like boxing is impossible to insulate against. Still, since neither Gonzalez nor Pacquiao was interested in grabbing a pitchfork and lighting a torch neither should we. Not when laughing is so much easier.

By Bart Barry-

Hi new boxing fans! We’re excited to have you!

By “new” of course I mean “smart” and “knowledgeable” and even “surprisingly insightful”; hell, I’m almost half as sure you can teach me new things about our beloved sport as you are 🙂 You’ve seen everything Sylvester Stallone has worked on – every Rocky movie, The Contender, Canelo Alvarez beer commercials – and you already know everything about other sports, and although you’ve never put gloves on you’ve been in a couple shoving matches with bouncers and almost beat up a plethora of bros from other fraternities a decade or so ago. I’ll give you a wide berth because I know what’s good for me.

You’ve got a very strong take about what happened Saturday night or Sunday morning in Australia – and admittedly, late as the telecast ran, it verily transcended timezones – your hot take’s like a hybrid of Teddy Atlas and Stephen A. Smith, raging adlib or flowing shock, and you already know you’re right, and you probably are, but I’m going to take a shot at nuance here, nambypamby spineless milquetoast weakass nuance, roughly my 600th such weekly effort, then hand the mic back to you and everyone else who knows better, OK?

Australian welterweight Jeff “The Hornet” Horn decisioned Filipino Manny Pacquiao Saturday in Brisbane in an excellent match. What’s actually important about that sentence is what happens after the words “in”; the unfortunate souls straining at the oars of ESPN’s mothership have hundreds if not thousands of hours to fill between now and the next ESPN prizefight and thereby have the onerous job of dissecting events for microscopic departures from the network’s promotional script, microscopic happenings they can magnify with hyperbole till there are controversies everywhere, but really, truly, it isn’t your job to rebrand life’s anxieties into outrage about a sport.

Did you enjoy the fight? Of course you did. That’s enough then.

I know you think I’m missing the point. But I think you’re giving me the benefit of your inexperience. So I guess we’re even.

Here’s my point: The longer I’ve watched boxing the more I’ve learned not to care about any result that is not a knockout. Prizefighting is not about selling yourself to ringside judges or commentators; prizefighting is about hurting the man across from you unto unconsciousness or incapacity of some other sort. Did you see what Andre Ward did to that Russian guy a few weeks ago? Of course you didn’t. That’s OK, very few people did, apparently. But that was the essence of prizefighting: Ward hurt the other man till he was fatigued – and fatigue makes a coward of every man – struck him precisely till he was broken, and then continued to beat him savagely, even illegally, until the referee commanded him to stop.

That’s it. That’s what happened. Its summary took 43 words and about as many seconds to type. Imagine if I had to fill 24 hours with highlights and commentary about it, though? I’d deserve your pity, I would.

What happened in Australia on ESPN does not lend itself to such decisiveness because neither man’s consciousness got taken, neither man’s spirit got broken. That means neither guy won decisively or it doesn’t much matter if he did. You didn’t score Saturday’s match because you didn’t really know what you were watching – even at 38 years old Pacquiao moves way faster than Ivan Drago – and that set you at the mercy of the broadcaster’s cameras and replays and scorecard, and those, my new friends, are not disinterested entities. Not disinterested in the slightest. Television is an entertainment medium, and while live sports have always entertained a fraction of the populace for a fraction of its time, in order to justify shareholder expectations by selling exponentially more advertisement time broadcasters that are publicly traded decided a few decades ago scripting or at least framing outcomes was a better business practice than merely rolling the cameras and hoping.

Saturday’s script featured the legend Manny Pacquiao departing pay-per-view for the first time in forever – except in the fight’s host country of Australia, where the fight was broadcasted on pay-per-view, but never mind – to knock out a tough Aussie in front of a record crowd of rugby fans in Brisbane. The limited Jeff Horn would do his level best for 15 or 20 minutes then succumb to Pacquiao’s class and power.

We know this was the frame because ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas told us so before the opening bell. Pacquiao would tilt to his right, throw his left cross, and spearchisel The Hornet. This didn’t happen, no matter how often or passionately Atlas willed it from ringside (and yes, that was Teddy’s anger at being almost exactly wrong you saw him projecting on the judges’ decision, and that poor table, postfight). What Atlas’ prefight analysis omitted, and appropriately so, was that Pacquiao has ever set that punch by moving counterintuitively to his left, conceding outside lead-foot position, and thereby turning his bemused opponent into the left cross.

Pacquiao didn’t set Horn properly for the leftcross because Pacquiao lacked the legs for it. Is that because he’s 38, or because he was fighting in baking sunlight at 38, or because he was fighting in baking sunlight at 38 against a younger man who didn’t give him time and space enough to do it? Yes.

Horn fought Pacquiao. He didn’t box him – he forearmed him, shouldered him, wristed him, taped him, butted him, and bled all over him. Pacquiao has always thrilled at roughtrade and did Saturday, too – his lust for feral exchanges is why he’s beloved by aficionados – but the expected ratio of Pacquiao’s class to Horn’s resiliency was wrong. And so it goes.

If Pacquiao keeps fighting it will be for the same reason every great fighter keeps fighting long after he can ice the likes of a Jeff Horn: money. Pacquiao also thrills at combat – there was nothing feigned about his ringwalk elation; he’s been that way his entire career. Pacquiao will retire as a legendary attraction for his fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather, yes, but there’s something you should know that ESPN won’t tell you: Pacquiao could have retired before all of that, nine years ago, and gone in the Hall of Fame, first ballot, for what he did to Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez, for what he did before you knew his name.

One last thing. Be happy for Jeff Horn. Or just be happy, anyway. Our ranks have too many sour prigs already.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Manny Pacquiao defends the WBO Welterweight title against undefeated Jeff Horn in fornt of over 55,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.  The action begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT/ 11 AM Sunday in Brisbane and 9 AM Sunday in the Philippines with a 3 fight undercard that will feature the IBF Junior Bantamweight title between Jerwin Ancajas and Teiru Konoshita; Michael Conlan battles Jarrett Owen Shane Mosley Jr. takes on David Tousaint

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED.  THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY 

Round 1: Combination from Horn..Body punch and right uppercut…Counter from Pacquiao..Good exchange

Round 2 Right hook to body from Pacquiao.Body shot from Horn..Right..Left from Pacquiao..Good left to body…Horn lands..Left from Pacquiao..

round 3 Right from Horn. Horn cut over right eye..Great exchanges…

Round 4 Horn landed a right..Left from Pacquiao..Good body shot..Good uppercut from Horn,,Left from Pacquiao..

Round 5 Right from Horn..Short left from Pacquiao..Right from Horn,,Left to head from Pacquiao..Jab from Horn..Straight left from Pacquiao..Hard left..

Round 6 Uppercut from Horn..Pacquiao cut from the hairline (Headbutt)..Hard right buckles Pacquiao

Round 7  Pacquiao cut over left eye (Headbutt)..Short right from Horn,,Hard left..Body shot

Round 8 Straight left from Pacquiao..Right from Horn,,right from Horn

Round 9 Straight left from Horn..Pacquiao landing..Horn starting to tire,,Straight left..Horn face is a mess with blood…Hard left..

Round 10  Hard right from Pacquiao…Left,,,Straight right from Horn,,

Round 11 Jab from Horn..Hard left from Pacquiao..Right from Horn…

Round 12 Left from Pacquiao…Good exchange,,,1-2 from Pacquiao..Right from Horn,..Straight left from Pacquiao..

117-111, 115-113 twice FOR JEFF HORN

Round 1 Ancajas throwing lead right hooks and jabs…

Round 2 Kinsoshita cut over the right eye

Round 3 Left from Ancajas…Good right…

Round 4 Good body work from Ancajas..

Round 5 Body shot from Kinoshita

Round 6  Good short right from Ancajas…Sharp left from Kinoshita..

Round 7 Kinoshita’s right eye closing..HARD BODY SHOT AND DOWN GOES KINOSHITA, AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1: Good right from Conlan

Round Hard right from Conlan

Round 3 Conlan working the body…Chopping right..Owen is hURT AND THE CORNER THROWS IN THE TOWEL

Round 1 Toussaint a southpaw..Straight right from Mosley…Left from Toussaint..Short left

Round 2 Right hook from Toussaint…Toussaint bleeding over the right eye..Right and body shot from Mosley..Straight left from Toussaint..Right from Mosley..Right hook from Toussaint..Good exchange at the bell…Toussaint lands a left

Round 3 Short left on inside from Toussaint..Jab..right to body..glancing blow on the inside..Right from Mosley..Lead uppdercut from Toussaint.

Round 4 Straight left from Toussaint..Uppercuts on the inside..another uppercut on the inside..

Round 5 Straight left from Toussaint..Left hand..Good combination

Round 6  2 straight lefts from Toussaint..Right from Mosley..

Round 7   Good right to body from Mosley..

Round 8  Right from Mosley..Toussaint lands a combination..Counter right hook..

Follow all the action as Robert Easter, Jr. defends the IBF Lightweight title against mandatory challenger Denis Shafikov. The action begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT with a battle of junior middleweights as former world title challenger Julian Williams takes on Joshua Conley.  The action kicks off with a super welterweight bout between Ivan Golub and Jamontay Clark.

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED.  THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY 

Round 1 1-2 from Easter..Jab from Shafikov..working body..

Round 2  Right from Easter..Good 1-2…Huge uppercut..Big right snaps Shafikov’s head back…Right..

Round 3  Good right from Easter.. Good Left from Shafikov..Good uppercuts from Easter..2 straight rights

Round 4 Shafikov lands 2 lefts and a right..left

Round 5 Good jab from Shafikov..Straight right from Easter..Left from Shafikov..

Round 6 Easter lands a left to the body..Left from Shafikov and another

Round 7 Good 1-2 from Easter…Nice uppercut..Counter right..Long right

Round 8 Nice uppercut from Easter…Right..Good combination in center of ring

Round 9 Easter counters on the inside…Shafikov lands a left..Right from Shafikov

Round 10 Easter lands a combo on the inside..4 punch combination..Right..

Round 11 Nice right from Shafikov

Round 12 Good jab from Shafikov..Easter lands a right..Left from Shafikov…Shafikov cut around right eye

120-108 twice and 116-112 FOR EASTER

Round 1 Right from Williams..Body shot..Good right to the body

Round 2 Uppercut from Williams..Double left hook from Conley..Good body work from Williams..Right..Straight right..Over hand right..Good body shot…2 big uppercuts

Round 3 Good right from Williams..Right down the middle..Left..Body shot..Flurry

Round 4 Uppercut from Conley..2 uppercuts from Williams..uppercuts..

Round 5 Combination from Williams

Round 6 Right to the body..Good right to the body…Good uppercut..Williams cut from around the right eye

Round 7 RIGHT HAND AND DOWN GOES CONLEY…HARD LEFT AND CONLEY’S CORNER THROWS IN THE TOWEL

Round 1 1-2 from Clark..Body shot from Golub…Right hook..body and head shots..Nice right from Clark,,Straight left from Golub..Right from Clark

Round 2 Clark lands a left to the body and a left upstairs..Good right from Golub..2 nice rights from Clark and a left..Good left…Golub lands a 4 punch combination..Nice body shot from Clark..Left..Good body shot…

Round 3 Hard left stuns Golub..3 punch combo from Golub..Nice body shot from Clark..Hard b0dy shot from Golub, and another.1-2 to the body…Clark lands a big left and stuns him again with a left…Left from Golub..5 punches from Clark..3 landed shots from Golub

Round 4 Left to body from Golub..5 punch combination..Clark rips to the body..Both guys going to the body..Straight left from Clark behind   a double jab…Big right from Golub and Clark is hurt

Round 5  Golub lands a big shot that drives Clark to the ropes..Hard straight left..1-2 from Clark..Jab and left from Golub..Good hook from Clark..

Round 6 Good left from Clark..Uppercut..Big right..left from Golub…

Round 7 Left from Golub..Left from Clark

Round 8  Counter left from Clark..2 shots from Golub…Left from Clark..Body shot from Golub..

79-73, 77-75, 77-75 TWICE FOR JAMONTAY CLARK

By Norm Frauenheim-

From Pac Man to The Honorable, it’s been one wild, wonderful ride. Sometimes wacky, too, but that’s boxing, the only place Manny Pacquiao’s improbable story could have happened.

It continues, this time Down Under in Brisbane against a fighter nobody really knows – and if Pacquiao has his way – nobody will remember after this weekend.

Pacquiao is fighting somebody named Jeff Horn, who is as unknown as the Filipino Senator was a couple of decades ago. Horn has never answered an opening bell to a pro bout in the northern hemisphere.

At 16-0 with one draw and 11 knockouts, it’s hard to judge what kind of fighter Horn is. Video shows he’s aggressive and throws straight punches. I look at the Aussie school teacher and I think of Ricky Hatton without he post-fight pints or Brandon Rios without the craziness. But who knows?

Truth is, the same question applies to Pacquiao — the fighter — these days. His bout with Horn has the feel of one stop in a long, worldwide farewell to the sport that turned him into an international celebrity and even a possible Filipino presidential candidate.

The welterweight fight itself has some significant implications for the business. There’s no pay-per-view price tag attached to it. ESPN will televise the bout (6 p.m PT/9 p.m ET). In Australia, it will happen Sunday afternoon at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium in front of a potential crowd of 60,000.

It’s the first time Pacquaio will appear in a non-PPV fight since 2005. There has been lots of evidence over the last couple of years that the PPV model no longer works, either because of cost or all the ways the signal can be pirated.

Whatever the reason, if Pacquiao in a non-PPV bout works, it’s a sure sign the business has moved on from a model that some say has enriched a few, yet left other good fighters without access to a larger audience.

Pacquaio is not the inexhaustible maelstrom he was against Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, but he’s still as reliable indicator of the where the business has been and where it’s going. People watch because of the name. Without the PPV price, the best estimate for ESPN’s audience is 2 million.

If he looks good and scores his first stoppage since his stoppage of Miguel Cotto in 2009, tired talk about a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is inevitable. Don’t believe it.

Mayweather is fighting UFC star Conor McGregor on Aug. 26 in a sanctioned boxing match because the Irishman is no threat. Pacquiao still is and chances are good that he’ll prove that against Horn, who has never encountered anybody with his speed.

“Yes, this is a great opportunity to show the fans of boxing that we are still here and not done in boxing,’’ Pacquiao said Tuesday in a conference call from Brisbane. “So, this is a good chance, and we believe that a lot of people will be watching.’’

Above all, it’s good chance to remind people of Pacquiao’s popularity. He’s not the fighter he once was. Few at 38 are.

“He probably doesn’t pull the trigger,’’ Horn said. “Look, he is still a super-fast fighter that has easily taken apart his last few opponents. I don’t know if he has a knockout in him But who knows?’’

That’s the bottom-line question. Could Horn be the Down Under version of Joe Smith Jr., the light-heavyweight who ended the Bernard Hopkins legend in December? Not likely. Smith had introduced himself as legit threat with a stoppage of Andrzej Fonfara last June.

But who knows?

For once, we can get an answer without the PPV.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday or Sunday somewhere in Australia, Manny Pacquiao will fight an Australian welterweight named Jeff “The Hornet” Horn in a match televised by ESPN. While Horn is exactly the sort of fighter one expects to see on ESPN, Pacquiao, even at this late stage, is an extraordinary improvement. In its press release ESPN indicates Pacman-Hornet will be privy to a full suite of the network’s promotional instruments. This sort of immersion commitment should prove beneficial to Pacquiao’s promoter, Top Rank, and may even prove beneficial to our beloved sport as a whole.

Hand it to Top Rank, the outfit understands how to stretch an attraction longterm. Imagine if Manny Pacquiao’d stayed with Murad Muhammad or Gary Shaw or Golden Boy Promotions all those years ago – would Top Rank even be in business any longer?

Yes, absolutely. Nothing about its current business model or the model of its last decade would resemble its current business model, but Top Rank would be in business and profitable because it is institutionally better at what it does than anyone else in boxing. While its founder occasionally plays a crazy old uncle on TV the company moves conservatively and reliably follows reliable revenue streams.

Yes, it once built a pay-per-view infrastructure to promote its fighters after they were signed to large contracts but before HBO might supplement those contracts, a broadcasting arm that monetized Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. without improving him more than an iota or two, but even that riskylooking model was about recovering its investment someday from Time Warner (did a Top Rank a-side ever lose a main event on Top Rank PPV?). Years ago even Pacquiao fought on Top Rank PPV to keep him busy before politics did but then returned for a fouryear stint on HBO pay-per-view before Top Rank moved him, for a single fight, to Showtime and then back to HBO pay-per-view for a fouryear promotion of his eventual loss to Floyd Mayweather. When the fights were too risible to be promotional themes themselves – Joshua Clottey, Shane Mosley, Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri – Top Rank made the venue or broadcaster the theme, encouraging a suspension of disbelief like: I know this won’t be any good, but seeing a boxing ring in a football stadium, or a Chinese casino, or on the child affiliate of an American terrestrial broadcaster, why, to miss those things would be to ensure a lifetime of regret!

Where Arum was improvisational, relying on experience and charisma to propel him through whatever exotica the week’s announcement needed, his step-son, Todd DuBoef, was more strategic, talking about a concept he called Brand of Boxing, from whose spirit Al Haymon’s PBC borrowed liberally a few years later. The one enormous difference between the two visions was talent; Top Rank has a collective talent for spotting potential, developing it and matching it in a properly violent spectacle that is historic; PBC does not. DuBoef assumed if boxing’s popularity ascended his company would benefit because it had the best matchmaking, while Haymon assumed saturation was a better ploy – especially with someone else’s money. PBC was more innovative than Top Rank in its gambit but its founder’s enduring contempt for the very media whose platforms he expected to saturate kept his model insulated from what negative feedback journalism freely offers and thus vulnerable to what expensive feedback shareholders do.

The common wisdom in architecture is that there are but two ways to avoid catastrophic mistakes when building something: Get lucky, or make many tiny mistakes. PBC, whose blueprint began with a figurehead who does not conduct interviews, made the same mistakes over and over because it set itself in professional conflict with its critics, ensuring no small mistakes would be noticed till they became catastrophic ones.

To switch metaphors, if PBC is a long, well-set banquet table with one man at the head and nobody else in the room, Top Rank is more of a family style buffet with people arguing at every table and tables arguing with other tables. Where Haymon refuses interviews, Arum spars with members of the media routinely. Top Rank makes thousands of tiny mistakes and corrects them – if it lacks PBC’s derringdo it also lacks PBC’s ideological purity. Top Rank was on free-television decades ago then went to cable, Top Rank was on HBO for years then went to Showtime, Top Rank was on premium cable for decades now returns to basic cable – all the while Arum makes enemies of last year’s friends and friends of last decade’s enemies and enemies of their friends and friends of their enemies.

Were Pacquiao-Horn scheduled for Friday Night Fights it would be no better than an admission Pacquiao-Horn couldn’t do 50,000 buys in the U.S., and all the details to follow whatever details they followed wouldn’t matter – just Arum making noise again with whatever materials he can bang together. But then one hears the weighin will happen live on SportsCenter, an institution that quite rightly ignored its network’s Fright Night Fights franchise for however long Joe and Teddy were shouting about the abominable judging of what meaningless fights happened in between Just for Men commercials, and it does bring pause.

Whatever one opines of ESPN’s prepositional approach to hyperbolic coverage – on SportsCenter, for instance, this would be “the first column ever written, on a Chromebook, in the month of June, by an Irish-American writer wearing a pink Kangol, in a San Antonio Starbucks, during a rainstorm, for a website named after the previous duration of a championship prizefight” – the network owns a fantastic share of what thoughts happen in the minds of American male consumers, ages 18-34. As a fighter Pacquiao has been what the kids call “washed” since Juan Manuel Marquez snatched his soul 4 1/2 years ago, but as a brand? Goodness, ESPN has vended much, much sillier things.

HBO hasn’t had its heart or soul in boxing for a good long while, and if that trend showed any signs of reversal Top Rank would not have begun its ESPN overtures when it did. After bemoaning the cycle for a few years, Top Rank now accelerates it – leaving HBO with Tom Loeffler, Oscar De La Hoya and Kathy Duva to sustain an entire boxing ecosystem.

What’s that – a pick for Pacquiao-Horn? No, that’s OK.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Boxing loves freak shows. Always has. Always will. They get people talking. They fuel outrage, argument, insults and jokes. They also make money, which of course is the very reason for the talk, outrage, argument, insults and jokes over the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Conor McGregor circus.

Throughout the nine to 10 days since it was announced, Mayweather-McGregor has been the question – front and center – at the pre and post fight news conferences for Andre Ward’s victory over Sergey Kovalev last Saturday.

It was there, the shiny object in the room, for the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin press tour this week.

That, of course, is no coincidence. There’s been a lot of analysis about when the McGregor-Mayweather Vegas show will happen. August 26 is said to be good date because most people are on vacation or huddled around their overworked air conditioners. When it was announced, however, was calculated.

Doing it the day before the formal news conference for Ward-Kovalev meant easy headlines for McGregor-Mayweather on the day of the presser. Both promotional camps dismissed it. Turns out, that was about the only thing Main Events and Roc Nation agreed about throughout the contentious week.

This week, GGG called Mayweather-McGregor “a funny show.’’ Canelo said fans would know the difference between a sideshow and real fight.

Mayweather and McGregor? They loved every slight, every insult. They piggybacked on the news conferences, getting lots of free publicity off events staged and paid for by rival promoters. Main Events’ Kathy Duva, Roc Nation’s Michael Yormack and Canelo promoter Oscar De La Hoya used different words to express the same thing. They were annoyed, angry. But the circus doesn’t apologize. It just entertains.

The show figures to be as boring as just about anything pre-ordained can be. I’ve looked at all the various prop bets. One is missing. What are the odds that McGregor never lands a punch? I’m guessing maybe 15-1. Then again, Mayweather was about a 9-1 favorite to win when the fight was announced.

Since then, money has been pouring in on McGregor like Guinness out of a free-flowing tap. If you believe the tightening odds, McGregor has a chance. Other then the proverbial lucky punch, however, he doesn’t. There’s a better chance Mayweather fractures an ankle on his walk to the ring.

Put it this way: Buster Douglas had a much better chance as a 42-1 underdog at beating Mike Tyson in 1990 than McGregor will ever have against Mayweather in 2017. I know, I know. Mayweather is smaller. He is 40 years old. He hasn’t boxed in a couple of years.

Those facts will be trotted out and repeated ad nauseam in the weeks before this exhibition. But McGregor is reported to have never boxed. Never ever, yet somehow the Nevada State Athletic Commission sanctioned this show as a legitimate fight. That means it will count in Mayweather’s record. It means his official record is about to go to 50-0. Rocky Marciano finished 49-0 in 1955 with a victory over legendary Archie Moore.

I mean, Henry Aaron didn’t bypass Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list by hitting a baseball off a tee in 1974. Aaron faced real major-league pitching. But this is the circus. Only the money is real. Major league, too.

By Jimmy Tobin-
Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev got the opportunity he wanted Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Seething from what he believed to be a bogus decision loss to Andre “Son of God” Ward in November, enraged by Ward’s conduct in a dead promotion leading up to their rematch, Kovalev swore to deliver a display of ultra-violence that would permanently remove Ward from the sport. In the eighth round, without a whiff of protest, Kovalev let referee Tony Weeks save him from that opportunity.

At least that is one way of interpreting the ending of a rematch that will be remembered for outdoing its predecessor in controversy. The outrage that met Ward’s disputed win in the first fight was mitigated by the likelihood of a rematch, one that Ward, after stringing Kovalev, HBO, and aficionados along as is his wont, agreed to.

Controversy, however, in the form of blows borderline and low and a stoppage either premature or appropriate will forever attend any mention of this fight. There are grounds for controversy here, objections rooted in something less trivial than a dislike of Ward. And for that reason, if you were looking for more than a boxing match waged at the highest level (not an unfair request given the price tag), complete satisfaction was not to be found in the ring Saturday. Ward indeed worked maliciously at the margins of sportsmanship—as everyone except Kovalev seemed to anticipate—and should you look for fouls in that work you will certainly find them. So too will you find a sympathetic ear if you believe the stoppage was premature. Many will argue that even if Weeks missed the low blow that punctuated Kovalev’s undoing, he should have offered a ten-count to a fighter neither protecting himself nor fighting back.

Perhaps Kovalev deserved a chance to try and recover; Ward, a chance to remove any controversy from the stoppage. Instead, Ward is left with a second disputed win over a fighter so many hoped would forcibly remove him from the sport, and that outcome, in the hands of those who do not respect let alone see greatness in the Oakland fighter, will only stoke the flames of animosity toward him.

But if what you wanted was the answer to the question of who is the better fighter, did Saturday not bring it? And in a manner that provides less room for debate than the outcome of either of their fights?

That is why there will be no trilogy: not because Ward should see no reason to provide it (true), not because Kovalev does not deserve it (true for now), but because the superior fighter has been established at the expense of yet another pay-per-view bomb. Ward is a fighter in ways Kovalev for all his formidable technique and power is not, and that has become increasingly clear since a second round knockdown in their first fight brought Ward as close as he has ever come to professional defeat.

It was Ward operating as a fighter that saw him fix his attack on, above, and below, Kovalev’s beltline. Had Kovalev, responded in a manner befitting the “WAR” cap he sported days earlier, which is to say, responded in kind, Ward would have tempered his assault. Weeks may have shown greater interest in policing such tactics, too. Instead, Kovalev turned imploringly to the referee, away from the action, bringing to mind lyrics from Alexisonfire’s “Get Fighted”: “Cuz all the fashion (in the world can’t save you now).” That behavior told Ward there were places Kovalev would not go, and that trapped in that uncomfortable territory he would break.

There is an education to be had when you share the ring with a dirty fighter, one that Kovalev has not acquired. This is not to defend such fighters (though they are certainly not without their charm). Still, it is naive to operate on the assumption that a man fighting for his livelihood will respect the rules if he knows how to skirt them. Naive too to expect referees, each with his own interpretation of how a fight should unfold and where his grounds for involvement lie, to enforce those rules ever to your favor. And yes, a feeble apology for Kovalev the sportsman can be offered here, but think what praise would have been heaped on him had he intentionally strayed his best cross to the belly six inches low and set clear for all the terms of engagement.

It was difficult to watch Kovalev, a fighter both vilified and adored for his relish in cruelty, look to the referee for help and not recall the concern he raised to trainer John David Jackson early in his career: that he might not hit hard enough to find success as a professional. There is a fragility there; a need for reassurance that should things go poorly Kovalev would have with him the means to a quick escape. This is something Ward, who has never been a puncher but does not doubt himself, would never ask for. Granted, Kovalev’s fragility only became an issue against a great fighter, which is where such weaknesses should be brought to bear, where they are most forgivable too. But for all Kovalev’s menace, Ward is the nastier of the two, and Kovalev conceded as much at about the time of his precipitous wilting from the fight.

Perhaps the fight came down simply to that, what with so little separating Ward and Kovalev technically: not fouls, not liberal officiating, but a question of poise and bearing in a bloodsport. Those seem like fine determinants of superiority in an evenly match prizefight. They would determine the outcome were Ward and Kovalev to meet again. And they would yield a similar result.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday at Mandalay Bay, in a rematch barely anticipated for being unpromoted, American Andre Ward defended his light heavyweight championship by stopping Russian Sergey Kovalev at 2:29 of round 8. Aficionados will litigate the finale for a long while because, bereft of reliably violent spectacles these last five years, aficionados have evolved into a litigious, petty bunch.

Here’s how the match ended: One man, contracted to fight, bent himself at the waist, perched himself on the ropes, and silently beseeched the referee to intervene. The other man contracted to fight threw haymakers at his opponent’s midsection until the referee made him stop. Because this was a fight, the man who kept fighting won, and the man who stopped fighting lost. If you’re looking for more nuance than that, stop reading this and go watch HBO replays with the volume turned up.

There is something uniquely nauseating about a man who uses the word “unfair” to describe his plight. It implies both a lack of volition and a childish belief some parental figure or other is supposed to ensure outcomes correspond to his wishes – whether those wishes are for fairplay or preferential rulings or a compliant media. It is an expression of weakness that says: “Whoever was supposed to protect me from the unfavorable didn’t, and I had to fend for myself, and I couldn’t, and it’s not my fault.” It’s a speech difficult to abide from a toddler and impossible to respect from a man.

Immediately after being folded in two by an opponent whose career he promised to end violently, Kovalev didn’t use the word “unfair” – and the charitable interpretation of this is that he has enough character, enough masculinity, not to do so. The uncharitable explanation is that he lacks the vocabulary. For, at various moments in the fight, Kovalev did wear the mien of a man whose mind cycled through the Russian word for “unfair” way more than a prizefighter’s should.

In the first match of what will not be a trilogy Kovalev dropped Ward, and Ward wore the customary look of surprise – lead actor in a theater of the absurd – every great fighter wears whenever he gets dropped. Ward was not prepared for what happened but soon regained, through some combination of character and great conditioning, sufficient semblance of himself to neutralize Kovalev’s attack just enough to get to his corner and 60 seconds of refuge. By comparison to Ward, Kovalev looked singularly unprepared for the experience of pain and fatigue he felt in Saturday’s eighth round.

Did Ward’s punches land below the upper line of Kovalev’s silvertrimmed trunks? Yes. Did they land below Kovalev’s bellybutton? Maybe. Did they land on Kovalev’s testicles? No.

The universal remedy taught in every gym in the world for a man who hits you low is to repay him with the same coin. This is prizefighting, after all, not boxing, and when you are paid 40 or so times a workingman’s salary to entertain workingmen with your savagery you forfeit some of the appellate processes afforded lawyers and bankers, see; you are expected to remedy most injustices with your own hands. Heaven knows Tony Weeks would’ve allowed it. Weeks is a fight-friendly ref – part of the reason Marcos Maidana roughedup Floyd Mayweather three years ago, part of the reason Ward broke Kovalev in half Saturday, and all of the reason Kenny Bayless was in the ring for Mayweather-Maidana 2.

One of the qualities that make Ward a great prizefighter where Kovalev is a good one is the men’s differing reactions to what adversity happens when their opponents break rules. Kovalev struck Ward behind the head a number of times in the match, and each time sharpened Ward’s concentration on the objective of giving Kovalev commensurate pain. Ward struck Kovalev lower than Kovalev expected to be struck a number of times in the match, and each time sharpened Kovalev’s concentration on the inadequacy of the referee’s reaction. “Krusher” Kovalev, the man who would beat Ward till he could no longer support his family with prizefighting, lowered his hands and lowered his head and winced and turned his back – overcome with pain and an acute sense of unfairness.

Again, if your fortune is made pandering to Americans’ lasting fears of psychopathic Soviets, you don’t get to sit on the lower ropes, arms crisscrossing your belly and a look of betrayal on your face, while a guy from Oakland wales the daylights out of you – it’s catastrophic to your brand.

Writing of brands, since that’s the thing these days, Krusher will probably be back on HBO before Ward is because HBO no longer has the money or energy to do better; Kovalev can fire his American trainer, import some legendary coach from Chelyabinsk, go back to hipthrusting at overmatched opponents for reliable purses, conduct ferocious postfight-interview callouts at men who’ve no reason to fight him, and dance nimbly round the fact his career’s defining win came against someone two months from his 50th birthday.

For Ward the future is trickier. A unification match with Adonis Stevenson is the best idea, but Stevenson’s understandable fidelity to Showtime (who else’d’ve paid him to fight such challengers?) is an obstacle only pay-per-view revenue might surmount. Trouble is, Ward’s not a pay-per-view draw, and everyone in the fight game knows it except Ward and his promoter. Ward’s not a ticketseller or a salesman, a very good commentator or interview. Honestly, he’s not much of an an entertainer of any sort.

But he is one hell of a fighter.

That’s worth more than the sum of every other thing.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – A day after tension at a news conference was off the scale, Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev weighed in Friday amid a few words and gestures, yet without incident.

Kovalev smiled instead of scowled.

Ward talked at him during the ritual face-to-face pose after the weigh-in. It was probably the first time they were so close to each other since the fight was announced at a formal news conference ago on April 4.

It was the last time they’ll merely look into each other’s eyes before the hostilities commence Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in a light-heavyweight rematch in a HBO pay-per-view bout (6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST)

The biggest surprise was the sight of a relaxed Kovalev. He was an angry man Thursday when he walked out of a formal news conference after boycotting a scheduled session with reports.

“I didn’t want to waste my energy with words,’’ said the Russian, who wore a red cap covered with endorsements instead of the black hat that said WAR in white letters Thursday. “Tomorrow, you are going to see the true Krusher.’’

Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) and his corner have other ideas. They say that Ward’s hotly debated victory by unanimous decision in November is just the beginning of the end for Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs). Ward manager James Prince has called him Usher instead Krusher. No interpretation necessary. They intend to usher him out of light-heavyweight contention, if not out of his career altogether

In the face-off for photographers, Ward stared at Kovalev and said words he didn’t share with fans or media in the weigh-in’s immediate aftermath.

“As long as he understood me,’’ said Ward, who grew up in Oakland, Calif., and hopes to extend the hometown that started with the Golden State warriors NBA championship. “That’s all that matters.’’

Ward trainer Virgil Hunter said he has been training Ward to knock out Kovalev.

“Wow,’’ Kovalev joked. “Really? Okay. By the way, who is Virgil Hunter?’’

There’s been a lot of talk that Kovalev’s anger will make him too emotional at opening bell. But there was no hint of rage in the Russian Friday. He appeared to be poised and very much under control.

“I keep saying that Sergey is a happy man when he’s angry,’’ his promoter, Kathy Duva of Main Events said. “He really enjoys his work when he’s angry. He’s in a perfect place right now.’’

Duva looks at Kovalev and recalls a story he told her. He was 18 years old. A gang of about 10 confronted him at store near his home in Chelysbinsk, Russia. They wanted whatever he just purchased and whatever else he had on him.

“I could’ve run or I could fight,’’ Duva said Kovalev told her. “If I run, I have to live with this.”

According to Duva, Kovalev said he knocked down five of the young men. Then, he went to his car and got a hammer. The other five others fled.

“Sergey’s life is fighting,’’ Duva said. “It started in the street. From early on, he knew not to let anger and rage prevent him from knocking out five guys.’’

Now, he faces a sixth, easily the toughest he has ever encountered.

The differences between the two are gigantic, so big that they help explain the mounting tension between them. They come from opposite side of the world, speak different languages and grew up in different cultures. Their very different perspectives of the world clash.

Only the weights were identical with both at 175 pounds Friday. At the sports book, Ward is a slight favorite. He’s a huge favorite in almost every other way.

According to a contract filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Ward is guaranteed $6.5 million by his promoter, Roc Nation.

Kovalev will collect 75 percent of Main Events net profit, according to Duva, who estimates that Kovalev will get a check for about $1 million.