There was a lot of boxing action Saturday night-- and it featured some of my personal favorites-- but I walked away from the evening frustrated, disappointed, and a little pissed off.
First, a pox on any boxing business entity that counter-programs against another boxing show. And a bigger pox if they don’t at least try to make it so that their main event doesn’t run at the exact same time as that of their rival.
I had to make the on-the-spot call of whether I wanted to keep watching the Teofimo Lopez-Sandor Martin Top Rank main event or switch over to the Terence Crawford-David Avanesyan bill-topper that started shortly afterward. Both main events were disappointments, though. But we’ll talk more about that later.
Anyway, I know this is the age of DVR and on demand and watching shit, at your leisure, after it happens. But watching a prizefight after the fact as opposed to live is a little like the difference between masturbation and actual sex. That’s not even mentioning the hassle of having to duck and dodge social media and news reports to avoid seeing the results (of a fight, not of your masturbation).
In a boxing world struggling to draw eyeballs, it makes zero sense to split the audience in half via head-to-head counter-programming. It’s a dick move to even try. It’s a little like pissing in an office party punch bowl to get back at the boss, when you, yourself, would’ve liked to have tasted the punch. Typically dumb boxing business.
As for the fights, themselves?
From the moment Sandor Martin was brought in as the replacement opponent for Teofimo Lopez, I knew things would not go well for Lopez. Martin is an awkward southpaw mover whose entire game revolves around mucking things up and stinking up the house. In old school terms, the Spaniard is a spoiler. It was going to be tough for Teo to look good against Martin. To make matters worse, Top Rank chose Martin as an opponent in what was supposed to be a showcase appearance for Lopez, with a large possible mainstream crossover audience coming in after the Heisman Awards presentation on ESPN.
DAZN/Matchroom committed a huge fail when they matched Martin against a 20-months inactive Mikey Garcia last year and got Garcia beat. I can’t believe the much more savvy Top Rank matchmaking would pick THIS opponent on THIS night for Teofimo, unless a message was being sent. What that message is, however, remains to be seen.
At any rate, Lopez did NOT lose the fight as many insisted on social media, although that 97-92 score from judge Pasquale Procopio looked to be one of those “I filled in my scorecard before the fights” scores. Lopez DID look pretty flat and pretty impotent, though. And for a kid already looking to be on shaky ground in terms of his psyche, this kind of high-profile flop will take its toll. ESPN cameras would even capture him, post-fight, asking his people “Do I still got it?”
Crawford-Avanesyan, in its own way, was just as much of a buzzkill as Lopez-Martin.
I was amazed to see some media people online talking about how well Avanesyan was doing up until Crawford’s kill shot in the sixth. Those people clearly do not understand what they are seeing in a ring.
Crawford was toying with Avanesyan from the opening bell, even playing with a southpaw stance while doing so. If the Russia-born Armenian landed anything of note, it was because Crawford didn’t mind him doing so and didn’t fear him doing so.
If Crawford’s cracking one-punch KO hadn’t jolted the narrative, the story of this fight would’ve been how much of a mismatch it was and how nonchalantly “Bud” was handling the challenge. And “nonchalant” might be too kind. Maybe “semi-interested” would be a better word. “Half-assed” would be going too far, but I can totally see where some might feel that way considering the $40 price tag slapped on the card.
Of course, it’s hard to talk about Crawford-Avanesyan without thinking about Crawford-Spence, which should’ve happened about three weeks ago. By now, everyone’s chosen the side they want to blame for the fight not happening, so let’s not even go there. Let’s, instead, talk about Crawford getting this oddly large $10 million payout for a soft-touch match from a company in BLK Prime that didn’t appear to have the money to support such extravagant spending until very, very recently and still doesn’t seem to have the infrastructure to get a big fight to the masses.
I don’t know what to make of the sudden emergence of BLK Prime, but I do get the business sense in working deep in the red for this fight, just to get their name out to the boxing public. Losing money often comes with the territory when getting your foot in the door. What I don’t get is the long-term game of a company that, apparently, only has Adrien Broner under contract and who thinks Cyborg vs. butch Jada Pinkett Smith is a suitable co-feature lead-in to a pay-per-view main event featuring one of the elite fighters in the sport.
I will wait and see what BLK Prime has to offer, although I might be better served subscribing to BLK Dating.
Oh, yeah, there also was the Manny Pacquiao-DK Yoo exhibition going on at just about the same time as the other two main events. Predictably, the 6-rounder was shitty, even by exhibition boxing standards. Yoo is a South Korean YouTuber who portrays himself as a martial arts master and the creator of the “Warfare Combat System,” although critics have labeled him a phony and a fraud. His performance Saturday night at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Seoul, South Korea lends credence to the “phony and fraud” label.
Clumsy, hesitant, and easily-gassed, Yoo also didn't look like someone who's ever taken a real punch in his life. A puffy, 160 lb. Pacquiao handled him with ease, dropping him several times and easily avoiding anything resembling a counter. Although a farce, I did enjoy the part in the "fight" where the YouTuber tried to do the Ali Shuffle, then got cracked by Manny and started doing the Zab Judah chicken dance. Pacquiao-Yoo totally wasn’t worth the pay-per-view price, especially as the third show on a night of counter-programmed boxing.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com