Telling it like it is, or it should be, or like it's going to be, or the way I wish it would be, or the way my girlfriend who just yelled at me told me it is
It’s the end of an era… Showtime Boxing is ending it’s almost 40 years of boxing. The reasons are being presented as a Paramount decision, after the merger, having something to do with money cutting efforts but I don’t think that is the case, I think it’s more complicated than that. HBO used to be where all the big boxing matches were made and the platform was known to many as the mecca of boxing. Then, out of nowhere, HBO makes a decision to focus on its entertainment side while getting rid of its sports division in 2018. The outcome of that decision was notable. HBO went from 140 million subscribers to a little less than 80 million subscribers. That was immediately following its decision to get rid of its sports division. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that happened and I’m expecting the same thing for Showtime. It will see it’s memberships dwindle as sports fans wait to see who is going to take the mantle as the next mecca of boxing. I, for one, am considering leaving Showtime and waiting for the next big boxing streamer, almost wrote steamer, as some are. If ESPN+ decides to take up the mantle by hosting big time boxing, which seems like a very good place for boxing, then they have some waters to navigate.
The first and most notable obstacle is finding a way to get rid of these promoters with exclusive contracts to networks, which has been an obstacle in putting up good fights in the past. The decision of these promoters to have exclusive deals with networks is what is killing boxing. PBC with Showtime, Top Rank with ESPN, Eddie Hearns with DAZN and these fighters, with these multiple fight deals with these promoters, are now tied to these networks and can’t fight on any other network without permission or they have their career stalled, like what happened to Mikey Garcia, which is just insane. The way to fix it is, to either get rid of the promoters and just let the networks promote without multiple fight deals or for the promoters to stop signing deals with networks and just go on a fight to fight basis with the networks. The other thing that can be done to fix this is to do what Terrence Crawford did, just go on a fight to fight basis with any promoter and have a lawyer that negotiates with the promoters. Terrence Crawford is right when he says that fighters should have all the control, they are the business. Without boxers, there is no boxing. Promoters are just middle men, they aren’t necessary for the sport, boxers and networks are.
In the end, if the promoters want to stay relevant, they need to do what their bosses tell them to do, which is set up the fights they want set up. Who are the bosses?…. the boxers.
How many people feel like Nostradamus predicted this somehow…or that blind little old lady Baba Vanga. There’s people out there screaming end of times right next to the scalper screaming Taylor Swift tickets here. Maybe they’re both signs of some kind of apocalypse. All I know is that there isn’t many people too neutral in this conflict. You either believe that the Palestinians are right or you believe that Israel is right. As for me, I just don’t know enough to think that Hamas could remotely be right in this situation. Maybe there is some kind of argument for their actions, I can’t think of one that would justify their actions, but I’m sure there are some who believe they were justified. Well, I know that there are people that believe that, as I see all over the news… people that say this is Israel’s fault. I would like to hear their argument, one that advocates the murder of partygoers and women and children.
Hamas, labeled a terrorist organization by the State Department since October 8th, 1997, is a militant group that was founded by Palestinian imam and activist Ahmed Yassin. It emerged out of his Mujama al-Islamiya, which had been established in Gaza in 1973 as a religious charity involved with the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas became increasingly involved in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by the late 1990s; it opposed the Israel–PLO Letters of Mutual Recognition as well as the Oslo Accords, which saw Hamas’ secular rival Fatah renounce “the use of terrorism and other acts of violence” and recognize Israel in pursuit of a two-state solution. Hamas continued to advocate Palestinian armed resistance. Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, gaining a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, and subsequently took control of Gaza Strip from Fatah in 2007.
There is roughly 2 million Palestine people in the Gaza Strip and another 2 or so million Palestine people in the West Bank. There are almost 8 million Jewish people in Israel. What I have noticed in these marches to support Palestine is that they are calling out Israel for what they consider apartheid behavior. Their slogans say, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. I don’t understand the slogan because I don’t know what they mean. Are they saying that Palestine should encompass all of what is now known as Israel? Or are they saying that Palestine is not free to do what they want? That they have to follow Israel’s laws? In either case, I don’t believe that Palestine isn’t free to do what they want in their own territory. The population numbers are significant because if Israel and Palestine were to merge into one country, the current number of Israelis outnumber the current number of Palestinians, which means that Israel would still be Israel in a democracy. The only problem being the Hamas faction which would not abide by a democratic election and still try to rule by violence, in my opinion. So, why and try to make it one state when in the end, you would still be outnumbered in a democratic election, unless your goal is to rule over Israelis, even though you are not the majority?
This conflict has deepened some divides in this country, those that are antisemites are going to be more so now and those that are islamophobic are also going to be more hardened. What I do notice is that social media just magnifies the problem. Everyone, from a no talent blog writer, present… thank you very much, to tik tok and X posters are going to have an opinion on the matter. Most are going to be wrong but have enough truth to make them seem credible, that’s in between their videos of how to get a flatter stomach while enlarging their glutes all in one easy step…. walking into the plastic surgeon’s office.
Another thing that is happening is that Fox News and CNN are agreeing, mostly, that Hamas is to blame for this incident, maybe it is the end of times. While there are young college students all over the U.S. that are protesting Israel and favoring Palestine, most adults feel that Hamas is the true criminal element. To be fair, if the adults had taken the side of the Palestinians the college students would immediately reverse course and be on Israel’s side. That’s youth for you. But this also shows that organizations like Hamas have taken to social media, mostly for recruiting purposes and for misinformation, to sway the young people to be on their side. They come up with a fictious story, like how they can’t collect their inheritance because the Zionists are holding their bank account prisoner and if you donate $1000 to them , they can get their riches and pay you back $100,000 they got from the Nigerian prince they just talked to. They spin how they are the victims and how the other side are the tormentors and give a version of history that makes them seem like they are the nice guys that wield machine guns and kill innocent people. Now, I’m talking about Hamas, not the Palestinians. I don’t think they are the same, but one never knows. It’s scary how young people can be so easily manipulated by terrorist organization. They can’t build a decent refrigerator but they can navigate through social media like if they were walking in the park…. with submachine guns.
What I do notice is that whenever a camera is on in Palestine, someone picks up a child and starts running somewhere, who knows where and who knows who’s child it is. They are great at theatrics and selling their portion of the unjustly persecuted. I don’t know if to believe they are telling the truth or if they are auditioning for the next San Andreas sequel. I think half the kids are eating a Big Mac while being carried into the hospital. They’re not but they also don’t look hurt. No blood or limbs missing. No head wounds. No apparent injury. Just some guy running with a kid, looking like they don’t want to miss the bus, which is on the other side of the hospital.
I’m just not buying the Hamas is just defending themselves bit. They refused to have a two State solution, which seems to mean that they want all the land to themselves and want all the Jewish Israeli’s to leave. I don’t know if that is even possible, for one, I don’t know if they would like what Israel has become, nice. Angry people need something to hate and if they had places like Tel Aviv, they might relax and die of peacefulness. It just wouldn’t work.
In my opinion, everyone should make their own, if this is actually classified as a war, then Israel should completely seize the Gaza strip and make it part of Israel. If you are going to kill 1300 people because you disagree with their religion or their politics or maybe their choice of music, who really knows, then their is always a price to pay for the instigator or the loser. If Israel loses, I’m sure Hamas would take over their land, so, if Hamas loses, I think it perfectly fitting that Israel be able to take away their biggest military asset, the Gaza Strip.
Well, I think I stated where I am at in this… I’m pro self-defense and anti dumb-dumb. Who is who, is up to you. I will say…. Shalom….
I guess the other thing we should consider is if these demonstrations were planned prior to the invasion. If the concerted effort in the U.S. and around the world to hold rallies to sway Americans and the world to turn on Israel was something that Hamas had planned prior to invading Israel. And if so, is there any legal repercussions here for anyone that knew in advance of an impending invasion of Israel that killed Americans, if they didn’t report to the proper authorities.
The day has come… Saturday September 30th. Another mega fight for a mega year of epic fights. 2023 is going to go down in the history of boxing as the most prolific boxing year since 1986 when Mike Tyson fought 13 times and KO’ed 11 fighters. I mean, daaaammmnnnn, right. 13 fights in a 12 month period. That only happens in video games nowadays. Not necessarily a bad thing, given TBI is a very serious condition, but that makes years like this one more like seeing Halley’s Comet, something that happens every 75 – 79 years. This year and fights like this happen, thanks in some small part to the UFC and their criticism of boxing, but also due to the fighters wanting to make the fights happen and to the fact that HBO pulled out of boxing, leaving Showtime as the Mecca of boxing. Now we have another great fight in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo in which some pundits feel like Charlo might rein supreme, even though not the betting favorite. This isn’t a pick’em fight like Crawford v Spence but this is still a fight with a shitload of intrigue as both fighters started at lower weights, so the disadvantages aren’t what you might think they are. Canelo started his career at 140 pounds at the ripe old age of 15 and gradually moved up in weight and fought most of his career between 147 and 154. Charlo, the opponent in this fight, and only because he went up in weight to challenge Canelo for undisputed, started at the legendary 147 pound division but fought most of his fights at 154. This is going to be an intriguing fight and I’m going to get into what I think, but before that I have to mention my sponsors…. Right, I have no sponsors so let’s just get into it.
Let’s start with the challenger, Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo, (pictured above thinking that he should have maybe picked Hulk, the strongest avenger, since Iron Man dies at the end of Endgame) sports a record of 35 wins with 19 big wins by discombobulation (KO’s) to 1 decision loss in which, I personally thought, he won. In his last 11 fights he has scored 8 by KO. Charlo will have the reach and height advantage over Canelo, but who doesn’t, but he doesn’t have the force advantage and it remains to be seen if he has the power advantage since most of his KO’s do come past the 5th round, meaning that he maintains that force over the fight and doesn’t seem to fade late in fights. But, if I’m being honest, if he is going out looking for the KO, he will most likely loose and loose badly. For Charlo to pull off a win, he has to look at Canelo’s two losses, one to Mayweather and one to Bivol. The thing these two guys have in common are that they are master boxers that know how to utilize timing and range effectively. In other words, they know how to keep a good distance and they know exactly when to counter. They also both have exceptional defense. To win this fight, Charlo is going to have to box early and often and forget about KO’ing the younger Canelo, whose chin is made of some super natural material. My trainer, I never fought, I just took it to stay in shape and learn a thing or two, said one thing to me “Always start with number one when you get in that ring and finish with a number 1”, what I found out later is that he meant the jab and not me peeing on myself, which is how I started out and finished my first sparring match. So, for Charlo to win this fight, he has use the stick, forget about the carrot, and make it Canelo’s best friend. Charlo wins or looses with the number 1. Throw it a lot and he has a chance, forget it exists and Canelo is going to make him disappear early rather than late.
Next we go to the champion, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, (pictured above auditioning for the part of the Mexican James Bond), brings a record of 59 wins with 39 big wins by disconnect, that’s disconnecting the opponent from the waking world, with 2 defeats and two draws. Canelo has a big task ahead of him because if he did not, then we wouldn’t be buying this PPV event. For me to fork over good money, I have to make sure it will be worth my time and this fight and this undercard is definitely worth the money, to be completely honest, I thought they could have charged more just because the undercard is so good. For Canelo to win this fight, he only has to look at the Charlo v Castano fight, which is almost what will be happening in terms of size disparity not force disparity. In that fight, Charlo showed one thing, he has a good chin but he hates to be hit to the body. Canelo, being of Mexican descent, who are known for the punch to the liver, is an excellent body puncher. I believe that Charlo is going to come out moving and Canelo has to slow him down and for him to do that, he will be investing to the body like Bank of America invests in shady mortgages. If Canelo can slow down Charlo and get him to trade with him, it will make for an early night for the Mexican superstar and another big win by slumber lumber. I’m sure that their are other ways to win but this is the one that guarantees the KO. Now, absent any electric interference, this seems to be the best gameplan but who knows right, this is why they fight the fights and not just play rock, paper, scissors to determine the winner.
My prediction is, as always, that the better man will win. That’s the one that executes their gameplan the best. Good luck to both combatants, hopefully they both walk away with no serious injury but a whole lot wealthier.
Common sense is not the American way that’s why when people run for politics they tend to demonize their opponent as the person that is going to take something away from you. The Dems tell you that they Repubs are trying to reestablish Jim Crow laws and that they only care for big business and the Repubs will tell you that the Dems are trying nullify the 2nd amendment and take all your guns so they can rule over you and that they are letting all the immigrants take over and that we’ll become Mexico and El Chapo will be President. They’re both wrong but stoking fear works a lot better than trying to find harmony. It’s been an Us against Them framework that has only deepened in recent years as more hardliners have been voted in and moderates have been taken out. So how can we come to an agreement on anything?
Well, my idea for climate change is simple… you can’t tell people that the planet is becoming inhabitable because they’ll just step outside and look around and say what are they talking about. You have to find a way that they can understand.
For the Repubs, you tell them that fossil fuels are being hoarded by the Chinese as they go to renewable energy so they can use it in their military weapons to attack the U.S.. And if we don’t do the same we’ll be part of China in 20 years. That China will revoke our 2nd Amendment and we’ll all be using chop sticks to eat our soup (sorry if that seems racist, just trying to make a point).
For the Dems, who are already scared of climate change, you just keep up the rhetoric that all the trees will die and you’ll have nothing to hug and that the animals might suffer more than your kids.
There are some that think the science is enough to create a reasonable rationale to transition to renewable energy. We call them independents. Plus these same people realize that what made this country great isn’t the 2nd Amendment as mass shootings kill more kids than anything else or thinking that animals deserve more rights than humans as they eat a hamburger and drive their $90,000 Tesla, it was innovation, ingenuity and being the country that leads in creative solutions that benefit everyone……. sort of what China is trying to do right now in their sciences. (lol emoji… my computer doesn’t have those)
WOW !!!! What a game. This is the first time I have seen the women’s team play but the game was on par with any game played by anybody except the skill level was amazing. It was exciting, it had intensity, it had two teams that were going all out to win, leaving nothing behind. I’m a fan. Both Spain and England were true warrior competitors.
WORLD CHAMPIONS
In the end, the goal scored by Olga Carmona was the difference maker as Spain beat England 1-0 in a highly contested game that saw both sides making incredible shots and incredible saves. As they say “Viva Espana”
The James Webb telescope caught an image that was placed there by what might be the largest typewriter in the universe, a question mark. In an ominous sign that the DC Universe is trying one up the Marvel Cinematic Universe by maybe announcing their new Batman foe, the Riddler, an image was caught by the JWST (either an acronym for James Webb Space Telescope or Just Weird Shit… uhhh… Telescope) and transmitted to human life on earth. The scientists at NASA are saying that it’s an optical illusion or the best Banksy painting ever. I, for one, am leaning towards that God is funny as hell. I mean, out of all the punctuation marks that could have been discovered, the question mark is the one that makes you think the most. What does it mean? <— see… question mark. Maybe he is asking if we figured it out yet or maybe he is asking WTF are you doing down there or maybe, just maybe, God was trying to figure out what to put there and couldn’t come up with something and was saving it for later and just put a question mark there, sort of a space saver so he, maybe she, maybe neither of those, wouldn’t forget to place something there. The one thing that is for sure, whatever it is, it was meant to be seen. I’m sticking with my theory, God has a hell of a sense of humor. I mean, that’s a perfect question mark….. It reminds me of the old joke… How do you keep know-it-alls in suspense???? I’ll tell you tomorrow.
The New York Metropolitans… ahhhhhh… does it seem like this season has gone on for 7 years? Did they break a mirror? Walk under a ladder? Had a clowder of black cats cross their path? This team has the clear distinction of spending more money then anyone ever and have the worst record per square dollar. With Max Scherzer opting out of his 43.3 million dollar contract to go the Rangers and with the Mets paying almost every bit of his remaining contract except for roughly 20 million and with the Mets getting in return a prospect and nothing else, I’m going to say that this is the equivalent of the 2008 mortgage bubble burst where your house was worth a million dollars when you bought it in 2007 and was worth 300 K in 2009 and you still have to pay the million dollars for the house because you already signed the contract. The truth is that house was only worth 300K the whole time but the buyer was just not doing his/her due diligence. So what you are left with is a 70% depreciation on your dollar or in this case you are left with a team that is in 4th place with the almost no way of making the playoffs. The owner, Cohen, got a crash course in bad decision making and thinking that money makes world championship teams. What makes good players great is when they are undervalued and underpaid and they have to show why they deserve that big money.
Look, I know that the NY Mets are an electric team and are playing in an electric atmosphere with mounds of crazy waves of expectations surrounding them and ultimately creating an atmosphere that might be just too much to handle. None of the players played up to their caliber, not withstanding some of the rookies that did pretty good for their rookie years, as this was an off season for the Metropolitans but they have to keep their heads up and push through. Always fight to the last out and never be the person that makes it. The Mets will bounce back, maybe…probably not this year but they will come back next year with a little more focus and lot more humility.
I have no idea what is going on in boxing today. This year is the year most women divorce their guys because they just won’t stop watching boxing. The reason is unlike any year in recent memory, their have been a slew of top matchmaking that are aligning the best versus the best. It started with Garcia v Davis and then the damn (or maybe DAMMMM!!!) just broke and the fights were on. This is a year to remember for boxing enthusiasts. I can’t remember a year this good of matchmaking since….. I can’t remember a year this good. I started this year at 179 pounds but I like donuts or chips ahoy with big fights so when I yell at the TV screen, telling one person to knock his ass out, I need to see donut bits flying all over the place or it isn’t a real fight. I weigh 192 pounds today so it has been a real good year for boxing. While that last statement is partially true it goes to show you how good boxing has been. The best part about it is there is more still to come, like on Saturday, July 29th, when two of the biggest stars face off for welterweight supremacy, Errol Spence Jr. versus Terence “Bud” Crawford… The welterweights, for some reason, has been a historic division since the hey days of the best boxer ever to lace up his gloves, Sugar Ray Robinson. Even though most of his memorable fights came at 160, he is still the best at 147 of all time. The last time we had an event of this magnitude at this weight was when De La Hoya fought Trinidad. That was way back back in 1999. There are worth while fights after that but nothing generated the buzz of that fight until now. This fight, as I see it, with my dirty bifocals, ha, not anymore, laser surgery is a great invention, is going to be a king maker. The winner will be boxing royalty. Who is the winner going to be you ask….. how the hell am I suppose to know, that is pretty much the consensus of all the boxing experts and of course, my favorite is, I’ll let you know on the 30th. That being said lets break down the fight that should break PPV records, I personally bought it twice, that’s a joke, Showtime wouldn’t let me.
We’ll look at Errol Spence Jr first as he sports an undefeated record of 28-0… 22 big wins coming from man down syndrome. Spence, pictured above on the left in a deadly game of thumb wars, is a non-stop pressure fighter that makes the Energizer bunny jealous. Spence wears his opponents down with heavy punches to the torso and head. You can literally see the energy bar above his opponents head wither away like in a video game. He’s a human volcano, in the sense that volcanoes are formed by intense pressure. For Spence to get the victory tonight though, he’ll need more than just applying pressure, he’ll need to be able to absorb big shots and evade the knock out shots. To do this he’s going to have to make sure that Crawford doesn’t plant those feet and unleash. He’s going to have to turn Crawford so Crawford will need to keep resetting to get those concussive shots off. Spence will also need to invest to the body heavily and often. He has to sap Crawford’s energy, but this is what Spence does, so his gameplan should be to do what he does… His weakness… I have no idea. I have never seen Spence hurt and if he was, he hid it really well. Spence’s expression rarely changes. He has the look of the guy that hid your keys and is smiling while you are losing your head looking for them. Best poker player ever. His only thing is that his hand speed is not as quick as Crawford’s. That might play a role in this fight, depending on how Crawford adjusts. If they stand right in front of each other, it’s likely that Spence will get the victory. The closest fighter that I can compare Spence to is Rocky Marciano or Marvin Hagler… two go forward fighters that hit like “tu mama” when you she caught you looking at dirty magazines.
Now, a look at Terrence “Bud” Crawford who sports a 39-0 record with 30 big wins coming from chin inspections that failed the test. Crawford, pictured above doing the Delta Tau Chi secret handshake (let’s see who can guess that one without using the internet) is a quick twitch forceful fighter that can hurt the other fighter in a moments notice. He has the ability to change the course of a fight in a few seconds and you can literally see it happen as the other opponent suddenly wonders why someone gave Crawford an aluminum bat in the middle of a boxing match. For Crawford to be victorious today he has to change his game plan a little. He has to force the bigger Spence to follow the puncher, which Spence, as sure as hardly anyone reads this blog, will do. But Crawford must not just stay there after that, he has to unleash those quick twitch strikes, and then move before Spence gets those energizer drums rolling and reset and have Spence come to him again. He has to do this in a consistent basis and hit Spence with those forceful punches until Spence becomes wary of coming in and then the fight is his… because he would have done something no one else was able to do, to make Spence hesitant. Once he has Spence thinking about those shots coming in and make him hesitant to apply pressure, then he won the fight and might score the knock out. Sounds easy right, well, it’s as easy as stopping a volcano, there really is no way to do it unless you are the best in boxing…. So lets see. AS for Crawford’s weakness… ditto to Spence’s, none that I can see… the only thing that might hamper him is that he is the naturally smaller guy.
Good luck to these two combatants, truly nice guys but definitely no push overs. It’s going to be a hell of a fight.
This fight is simple to predict because I just watched it and the only thing that you can say is “Holy Motherfuckin’ Shit”. Inoue should be the pound for pound. Fulton was the best in his division…. All I can say after watching that is….
The most notable thing in this fight was how Inoue made Fulton look so ordinary, as commented by the ESPN Analysts. Inoue was one step ahead of Fulton the whole fight. Inoue used his speed to freeze Fulton and while Fulton has really good hand speed it seemed pedestrian compared to Inoue. Fulton wasn’t able to capitalize on Inoue’s defensive faults, he carries his left hand low and brings it back low when he throws the jab but his speed didn’t let Fulton take full advantage of that flaw. Fulton’s only chance was to trade or throw at the same time as Inoue when he threw that jab but Inoue’s force on his shots seemed to make Fulton apprehensive. It was a really good fight but one sided.
Looking ahead for Inoue, it seems that he will become a 5 division champion because the best fighter at 126 lbs. is Fulton as he beat the number 1 guy in that division, Brandon Figueroa. My prediction is that Inoue will unify Super Bantam and then move up to 126 and demolish that division as well.
How dare they? Right…? I mean can’t they take time in between them burying their women and children, the ones that weren’t kidnapped, and their soldiers to thank us for them fighting a war that was eventually going to happen to a NATO nation if they had just laid down and did nothing. The one thing that is definitely going to be an outcome of this debacle is the Russia is going to realize that they have no chance of winning any land war or incursion in a NATO nation and that’s because Ukraine punched back. While Ukraine should be thankful, I think that we should be just as thankful that they are fighting a NATO war…. I think the least we can do is make sure that are properly equipped, that should include long range missiles. If NATO wants a quick end to this incursion, it has to get a backbone and let Russia know that any threat of nuclear deterrence by them would be met with the full force of NATO making Moscow the world’s largest crater within minutes and NATO should be giving Ukraine the ability to strike deep in Russia if they want… without asking what Ukraine is going to do with those long range ballistic weapons so they could plead ignorance. Ukraine cannot win swiftly if Moscow is still enjoying their lattes. They have to give Russia a reason to quit and fighting in Ukraine alone won’t do the trick. As for the thanks being requested, I’m pretty sure the Ukrainians are busy now and will thank us properly with a plaque of participation later.
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