Show Me the Money
By: José A. Maldonado, MFA
A hush fell over the crowd as the scores were read: 117-11 for Abril, then 116-112 and 115-113 for Ríos. Online message boards lit up immediately. Commentators met the result with derision. Somewhere up there the late Bert Sugar no doubt snatched his fedora off his head before slamming it onto a cloud and stomping on it a few times. Down here, meanwhile, a few fight fans probably turned off the TV before storming out of a room filled with stunned silence. All because on Saturday, boxing’s credibility was dealt yet another blow, this time in the form of a split-decision victory for Brandon “Bam Bam” Ríos over Richard Abril.
The fight had been slated as Ríos’ opportunity to regain the WBA welterweight title he’d lost on the scales in his previous fight; this, of course, until Ríos weighed in two pounds over the 135 pound limit, thus eliminating him from title contention. It was also supposed to be a chance for Ríos to showcase himself as a possible opponent for future hall of famer Juan Manuel Márquez, who was fighting on the show’s main event. Instead, what we got was a masterful – albeit tedious – performance from the underdog Abril, a fighter who moonlights as a farmer in his native Cuba. Despite sowing the seeds for success and executing his game plan perfectly, Abril went unrewarded when the scorecards were read.
The boxing community is outraged, and rightfully so. We’re disappointed. We’re angry. We’re disgusted. Are we surprised? Well. . .no. At least, we shouldn’t be.
Why? Because this is a dish we fans have been served for years. They continue feeding it to us and we, unable to resist the temptation, continue to scarf it down with little to no regard for boxing’s rich tradition or even its own rules and guidelines.
As you may know, the four main criteria for judging a fight are ring generalship; hard, clean punching; effective aggression; and defense. This all goes out the window when money is involved. Remember the old addage, “You have to beat the champ to take his title”? That was thrown out the window eons ago, along with, apparently, boxing judge competence.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the power of money. It is a power that moves mountains and builds stadiums, and it is a power that we are all quite familiar with and subject to.
In 2009 when David Haye challenged WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev, he displayed good defense and decent ring generalship, yet the aggressor and cleaner puncher (not to mention champion) was Valuev. Guess who pulled out the tight decision? I’ll give you a hint: it was the flamboyant, up-and-coming, charismatic fighter who generates the most money; not the quiet guy who barely speaks English and has virtually zero following outside his home country. According to the boxing saying mentioned above, in a close fight, the benefit of the doubt goes to the champion; in the case of a closely contested fight between Valuev and Haye, the challenger who fought going backwards and barely connected throughout the fight got the nod. So it doesn’t come down to who’s the champ, nor even who’s the aggressor, but who can make the most money. Haye didn’t beat the champ, nor was he the aggressor, yet he won. This is the formula to decisions like Ríos-Abril.
Ríos is by no means a media darling, especially after his idiotic display when mocking boxing coach Freddy Roach, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. But he’s a compelling character who brings drama both inside and outside of the ring. He was abandoned by his parents at a young age, he’s a fighter who always comes forward and throws many punches, and he isn’t afraid to mix it up at press conferences. Most importantly, he sells tickets, as evidenced by the great turn out at Mandalay Bay this weekend. And his career has now officially benefitted from the following rule, a rule that it would behoove you to memorize: the person who garners the most attention (read: cash) will win the close decision almost every time, especially when there is an even bigger fight in the future (that is, Ríos vs. Márquez).
As with any rule, there are undoubtedly going to be exceptions. Carlos Baldomir beat Zab Judah by decision in 2006’s biggest upset, this coming with a big Judah-Mayweather fight on the horizon. There was also Lamont Peterson taking Amir Khan’s title last year. But once you compile the evidence in which money fighters win controversial decisions, the results are overwhelming: Paul Williams over Erislandy Lara; Tavoris Cloud over Gabriel Campillo; Manny Pacquiao over Juan Manuel Márquez (three times); Felix Sturm over Matthew Macklin; Oscar De La Hoya over Felix Sturm; Kevin Pompay over Harold Brazier I. I can go on, and yes, feel free to add your own examples. These are only a handful of hundreds, perhaps thousands of fights in which the money maker won a disputed decision; in some cases even despite not being the aggressor. There are, amazingly, cases where the winner admits to running away, as illustrated by Sugar Ray Leonard’s win over Marvin Hagler in which Hagler played boxing’s Beast while Leonard played the media’s Beauty.
With this victory, Ríos will move up to 140, where he will be billed as an undefeated fighter looking for another world title. Abril, on the other hand, will use his terrific display against Ríos to collect some solid pay checks while defending his interim title. The damage appears to be nominal in terms of these fighters’ careers, but for some fans, it is far too much to bear.
That boxing is a money-driven sport is by no means a new and original assertion; boxing fans around the world have known this since the inception of the sweet science. What we fail to do as fans is put this knowledge into context – that is – we neglect to put two and two together beforehand. We get caught up in the hype leading up to the fight, in the strategies, the storylines, the future implications. We listen to the fighter’s trash talk at the press conference and eat up the delicious lies served up by promoters. But worst of all, we continue to tune in. Time and again networks report huge ratings for boxing cards. Tickets are sold, PPVs are purchased, and we’re left with results like these. If fight fans voice their distaste for terrible decisions by simply not watching, we may be able to put an end to these injustices. It would be quite a sacrifice for us, but the price would not be nearly as steep as what the sport has to pay with results like these.
is senior staff writer at punchrate.com and contributor to realcombatmedia.com
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