Hello fight fans and welcome to another Thursday gathered around my bulging sack, waiting on the weekly load of gooey, salty truth. This week, we have questions/comments regarding my fairness and the DAZN/PPV dynamic.
Me, Unfair?
Paul,
I’ve written you numerous times and I’m a fan. However, your Wilder bashing should stop in my opinion. Granted, Fury might have won the third fight above board, but if it’s the case, it proves that something shady was happening in the second fight. In the third fight, I didn’t see the gloves flopping around like they were in fight two nor have I seen pictures of indented gloves from this fight like they were in fight two. Fury is a known dope cheat as well as a known liar who has removed padding from his gloves against sparring partners. It’s not that far fetched to see that Fury may have cheated in the second Wilder fight. I’ve noticed that you have a tendency to support known dope cheats to include Canelo and Fury. Again, I’m a fan of your work but please be fair. If you have someone that’s on record as a cheat, they are always likely to cheat when it’s in their benefit and they think that they can get away clean. Why else would Canelo try and schedule fights at the last minute with little lead time? Why have 3 fighters in Reynosa’s stable tested hot as dope cheats? Deontay Wilder risked his life and went out on his shield. He only asked for a fair and level playing field. Please respect that man and don’t belittle his accomplishments or his belief that Fury is a cheat (it’s on record).
— Meredith Miller
Hey Meredith.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let me try to do it in as little space as possible.
First, I’ll preface everything by saying that I don’t trust Tyson Fury as far as I could throw him. I know a hustler when I see one…BUT…you can’t go about acting like a man cheated without actual proof that he cheated. That floppy glove stuff was in the first fight with Wilder, not the second. The only thing flopping around in Fury-Wilder 2 was the lower part of Wilder’s jaw. If there was something shady going on with the gloves– and Fury was able to get it by the commission inspectors– then it was on Team Wilder to step up and fix the issue before it became an issue, not wait until people on YouTube inspected the video like the damn Zapruder film, looking for anything that might be stretched into conspiracy theory fodder. I take zero stock in indentations, flat gloves, or any of that stuff– after the fact– especially when it’s fully dependent on screen caps from select camera angles. As a fighter and as a team, your time is during and before the fight. If you walk through those ropes, you sign off on everything being legit. If it somehow is NOT legit, you had your chance to make it known beforehand. No excuses after the fact. Period.
I also don’t see what testing positive for a banned substance in 2015 has to do with fights in 2020 and 2021. If we’re doing that, going there when it comes to dirty tests, then we have to reassess a LOT of legacies out there with a lot of major fighters such as Roy Jones, Shane Mosley, Johnny Tapia, Erik Morales, James Toney, Vitali Klitschko, etc, etc.
As for Fury removing padding from his glove during sparring. That was one allegation from one sparring partner. Again, there’s no proof this happened and I’ll always err on the side of innocent until proven guilty. I don’t feel comfortable declaring a man guilty without reasonable proof that he was actually guilty.
But, even if we’re to assume that Fury is a dirty scoundrel who aimed to cheat his way through all three Wilder fights, we all saw how things went down. Wilder didn’t lose because of cheating. He lost because of his own liabilities as a fighter. Fury could’ve been bursting with ‘roids and wearing brass knuckles under his gloves, but what cost Wilder those fights was his own inability to box, his inability to employ a coherent strategy, and his inability think on his feet. He was soundly outboxed in all three fights– especially the last two– and the only factor that really mattered was that Fury was the better boxer. If we get definitive proof of something shady, then we can revisit and reassess. But, still, Fury was just the better boxer.
I don’t think I’m disrespecting Wilder or belittling his accomplishments by pointing out the fact that he’s sorely lacking in the area of skill and technique. He’s always been a one-trick pony and I don’t think anyone, anywhere would disagree with that. He’s tough, has a big punch, and possesses a bullishly high degree of self-confidence. But that’s it. I give him respect for what he’s accomplished, but I’m not going to pretend that I don’t see what I see or know what I know. And I don’t give one little bit of a damn about whether Wilder thinks Fury cheated. Prove it. Better yet, stop it from happening when you have a chance to stop it, like Brother Naazim Richardson did on Shane Mosley’s behalf against Antonio Margarito. Don’t bring shit up AFTER everything plays out.
As for Canelo, maybe people should better inform themselves about the situation and the substance in question before forming firm, unbending opinions that hurt legacies and reputations.
I’ve worked in camps that have used clenbuterol. I’m familiar with the drug and its uses. It’s not all that uncommon in Mexico. In boxing, it’s used as a weight-cutting aid and there really are no proven performance enhancing elements to it, unless the fighter has a raging, chronic breathing disorder.
In Canelo’s specific case, given the trace amount in his system and the fact that it was found more than three months from the fight date, there was almost zero possibility that he was using it as any sort of aid in training whatsoever. The hair follicle test he later submitted himself to, via the Nevada State Athletic Commission, pretty much confirmed that he was not using clenbuterol for any extended period of time and that it hadn’t been in his system in a large enough quantity to constitute an intentional ingestion for performance enhancing or even weight cutting purposes.
And when it comes to Canelo “scheduling fights at the last minute and with little lead time,” that’s just complete comment section/Facebook group BS. Canelo fight negotiations drag on and fights get made late because every Canelo B-side has been conditioned by the knuckleheads at DAZN to expect an 8-figure payday and, so, every negotiation becomes a contentious affair and, often, because of this, probable opponents have to be shuffled around. And, even then, last minute fights with little lead time are not always being lined up for him. The Billy Joe Saunders fight in May was put together in January and the Caleb Plant fight slated for November 6 was signed and made official in August. When there aren’t extenuating circumstances, his fights get put together just like any other stars’ fights. And let’s be real here, if a fighter wants to play dirty and he has a team experienced in playing dirty, lead time means very little. There’s also the fact that, as far as I know, Canelo is still enrolled in VADA year-round random testing and has been enrolled in that program since May of 2018.
It’s not that I have a “tendency to support known dope cheats,” it’s that I don’t assume guilt without doing serious research. I take this stuff very seriously. I don’t play when it comes to a man’s legacy and reputation. A lot of fans just want to bury a certain fighter, so they jump on anything that comes out against him and, regardless of any facts or evidence (or lack of evidence), they’ll just keep going forward with their burial of the guy. I don’t have any horses in any races. I look at the facts and then base my assessments on them, to the best of my knowledge and ability. Notice how I’m not defending a guy like Jarrell Miller.
This is me being fair and impartial. If there was actual evidence that Fury and Canelo were intentionally cheating, I’d be the first to string them up for a public flogging.
Revisiting DAZN PPV
What’s good P Mag.
First, hope all is well with you and your family. Second, Eddie Hearn released a statement saying that DAZN will add pay-per-view for “unique events”. When DAZN stormed through the boxing door, they were adamant about doing away with pay-per-view. And now they are adding it. I guess their business model of over paying fighters has come back to bite them viciously in the butt. Peace!!!
— Robert “Big Moe” Elmore
Hey Big Moe.
I’m totally not above saying “I told you so,” so I’m not gonna take the higher road when it comes to what I’ve been telling people all along. DAZN’s business model, when it came to boxing in the US market specifically, was fatally flawed from the get-go. Hell, “fatally flawed” may even be giving them too much credit. I went deep on this topic in this past Monday’s Notes from the Boxing Underground column, but I’m glad to revisit the highlights here.
Pay-per-view IS the only way for their business model to work now. It didn’t have to be that way, though. And the very fact that they may have to pass the hat for select fights (on top of their regular subscription price) is a testament to their failure in making their business model function as it should have come together. In short, they should’ve known that the loyal base of fans willing to enter into a long-haul subscription arrangement in the US was relatively small– and certainly too small for something as ambitious as they were planning. With zero effort to reach out and create new fans to flip into subscribers, they very quickly got to the point where there wasn’t going to be enough money to pay for the fights and fighters they were overpaying to host on their platform. With an eye solely focused on selling to existing hardcore fans, they were doomed to fail from the very beginning. There simply weren’t going to be enough fans to fund their model. And, with that being the case, they would be faced with one of three options: go belly-up, become a home for budget-friendly second and third-tier fights within their revenue level, or ask existing subscribers to pay extra for the high-end, big-ticket fights. They’re obviously leaning towards the last option, but not even that is a guaranteed road to success because, really, how many of those big-ticket fights are out there, especially considering that most of the high-end draws in the sport are outside of DAZN’s business reach.
I was never against the IDEA of DAZN. I’m fine with the concept of a subscription service at a reasonable price and I love the use of the technology. But all of these people, Eddie Hearn included, were clueless about the realities of doing business in the present tense US market.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.