Floyd Mayweather and Winky Wright think that HBO boxing announcers are biased against Black fighters.
“They talk about Kelly Pavlik, a white fighter, like he’s the Second Coming. Or they go crazy over Manny Pacquiao. But I’m a black fighter,” Mayweather said. “Is it racial? Absolutely. They praise white fighters, they praise Hispanic fighters, whatever. But black fighters, they never praise.
“I’ve noticed it for a long time but I couldn’t say anything because I had to do business with them. I’ll still do business with them, but I’m done holding my tongue.”
I’ll tell you what: I have noticed that HBO’s announcers can be biased. When Floyd won me that dough in his fight against Hatton, if i hadn’t actually been watching the fight myself, I would’ve thought that Hatton was walking away with the thing. Jim Lampley is nowhere near unbiased, and Larry Merchant…well, at one time he was the best in the business, but Larry Merchant has no more business announcing a boxing match than Larry Holmes has fighting in one. At this point, Larry Merchant is strictly on unintentional comedy status. But he’s definitely opinionated, and it definitely favors a certain type of fighter. Unfortunately for Pretty Boy Floyd, it’s not really based on race. Winky actually hits at the real reason, but he allows himself to let the racial angle stick.
“Black fighters, we have different styles,” Wright said. “But the announcers, they want someone that just walks out there face-first. Boxing is supposed to be an art. Black fighters, we’ve got style, we’ve got pizzazz. All they want is for us to just go out there and slug.
“I think they’re just always looking for the next white hype. They just don’t give black fighters the same credit that they do for a white fighter, or a Hispanic fighter like De La Hoya. They definitely have their favoritism.”
Now, what Winky Wright said, if you exclude race, is exactly true: announcers and fans want to see a fight. Speaking for myself, while I appreciate a strategically-executed boxing match, that’s not really what I prefer to watch. Those aren’t the fights that get me excited while they’re happening and they’re not the fights I look back on with fond memories. The fights that get me excited were actually fights. Maybe Winky forgot, but Hagler and Hearns were both Black. So was Larry Holmes. So were a whole lot of other fighters. Again, don’t get me wrong, I understand the scientific, strategic aspect of boxing, but that’s not what I’m tryin’ to see. Especially not if I’m dropping pay-per-view money on it. If I dropped 45, 50 dollars on a fight, you better believe I want somebody to get dropped. So except for the fact that I have always and probably will always root for the Black fighter first, I want the one who’s bringin the action to win. I think the announcers call the fights the same way. As far as I’ve been able to observe, the announcers tend to favor the active fighters. But it’s not about race, or even “racial” style, it’s about activity in the ring. You wanna be a fan and announcer favorite? Go in there to wreck.
But this is a funny thing, because I definitely understand the picture from the perspective of the boxers. We’ve all seen what kind of a toll boxing can take on those who have been willing to get in there and slug it out. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to come out brain damaged or physically disfigured. Roy Jones was famous for saying that he didn’t want to hurt anybody and he didn’t want to get hurt. I can respect that. It’s a job, not a lifetime sentence.
But, and this is a sofa, fighters hafta understand where the fans are coming from, too. This is America. Soccer has a following, but it ain’t nowhere near football. That’s because football has scoring. If a fighter wants to leave the ring looking exactly the same as he did when he came in and fights with some impregnable defensive style that leaves him invulnerable while allowing him to pick his shots from round to round, that’s his prerogative, but he can’t feel some type of way when the fans and the announcers don’t like it. He can play goalie if he wants to, but we’re lookin to see blitzes and bombs. If he’s unwilling to do that, it’s disingenuous to act like there’s some racial bias afoot. Even if the feet are in the mouths of Lampley and Merchant.
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Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant: racially biased?
IMO, that’s ridiculous.
Don’t get me wrong; the boxing industry is corrupt to its core and its attendant media coverage does hype non-Black, English-speaking boxers over others. I’m only addressing Lampley and Merchant.
I can understand why viewers interpret Lampley and (especially) Merchant’s pooh-poohing of mouthy louts like Floyd Mayweather as a cryptic form of racial bias. I believe it to be a mere coincidence — many contemporary Black boxers talk more than their fair share of smack but don’t back it up in the ring. The critics’ contempt isn’t limited to just Black boxers. I remember how the pundits similarly dismissed Hector Camacho, who was known to pop off like Mayweather and Roy Jones. Let us not forget the boxing establishment hated on Ali too. Many fans see that type of behavior as unprofessional. And not just boxing fans.
I don’t have a problem with boxers hyping themselves. Professional boxing is a business first; a sport second. They’re the ones laying it out there in a very dangerous line of work, so they’re due the latitude to get all they can get any [legal] way they can get it. My only expectation of boxers… of any athlete… is that when they ‘work’ they give 100% effort.
Avery, that simply puts you in the “Mixed Martial Arts” generation. I put it in quotes because it’s not Enter the Dragon martial arts, it’s “I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy” brawling. I personally don’t like that you can knock someone off their feet, then drop a flying elbow on their head while they’re down, but ultimate fighting has supplanted pro wrassling as the sport of the red bull crowd.
Kimbo Slice is the new Iron Mike.
now, actually, given my wrestling background, i am kinda interested in mma. my assistant coach actually fights, and if i were about 5-10 years younger, i’d probably be trying it out myself.
but as far as the strict boxers, even the great boxers of yesteryear could also fight, and there was enough competition to make them have to do it. these days, because of all the competing interest, there’s very little continuity with titles, and aside from a big-money fight, there’s very little interest on the part of fighters in putting together a serious ticket. not that there’s a hearns to pbf’s leonard, but if there were, i don’t know that he’d take the fight; they’d probably be at marginally different weight classes (junior welter and welter, maybe) and they’d run their own yards and talk about how bad they are.
I`ve only noticed this (from Lampley and the blow-by-blow announcers, not Merchant and the analysts) in the sense that some fighters, such as Mickey Ward, have been lauded as scrappy blue collar types that give viewers their money`s worth because they throw beaucoup leather and are full of heart- while few if any Blacks are described such.
Call it the Ray Mancini archetype.
i bet they weren’t complainin about livingstone bramble, though. lol.
i’m sayin’ though - i actually agree about gettin my money’s worth from fighters who actually throw punches in bunches. i appreciate a tactical fight, but the only time i really like it is when i got money on the tactical fighter. and even then, i be secretly wishin ole boy would jump out there and get busy.