Wasn’t it so rattling predictable that Gervonta Davis’ latest pay-per-view purchase fee would turn out to be a tug-of-war concern amongst combat followers on social media?
Until you have got a financial curiosity within the occasion in query, there’s no motive in anyway so that you can care a lot in regards to the variety of buys for a specific pay-per-view– until you’re utilizing the numbers to push no matter form of agenda you might have.
And, man, agendas are plentiful within the on-line Universo Pugilistico!
Rick Glaser, a self-described “Worldwide Agent, Dealer, & Guide,” who has just lately constructed a point of profession momentum as a really vocal Anti-Al Haymon/PBC social media voice, was the primary to report any Gervonta Davis-Hector Luis Garcia gross sales numbers. And, in fact, these numbers had been low at simply 61,000. In his estimation, this was proof constructive that “#PBC is a really poisonous model, [There are] Too many junk PBC PPV’s. #TankDavis [is] not a PPV Star, and #Boxing followers have misplaced confidence in #Showtime.”
Anti-PBC/Haymon/Davis individuals ran together with his numbers.
Then, conflicting data got here out– some through reporting from dependable, impartial journalists like Insider’s Al Dawson– placing the Tank Davis pay-per-view gross sales determine between 200-225K.
Anti-anti-PBC/Haymon/Davis individuals would run with THOSE numbers.
Who cares? Actually.
What’s value caring about, although, is the injury behind a lot centered, focused doubt/negativity/hate being deliberately pumped into the game’s consuming water.
Glaser is not any journalist/reporter and he’s by no means claimed to be one. Quite the opposite, he identifies as an business insider, in order that instantly makes his strategic launch of information compromised as somebody with a horse within the race and a vested curiosity in tilting public opinion in a single route or one other.
You can also’t actually blame the followers for muddying up the water. Followers can be followers and, whereas it could be good to have them higher inform themselves on issues earlier than preventing about them on-line, it’s not their job to be something apart from customers or non-consumers of the boxing product.
The true wrongdoer in boxing’s gray-clouded unfavorable vibe is its media.
What can I say in regards to the boxing media that I haven’t mentioned already, that hasn’t gotten me blacklisted by boxing media already?
Nicely, from firsthand expertise, I do know that they completely HATE being the topics of reporting and being held to any diploma of accountability. I’ve a library of offended emails from media members and display caps of nasty anti-Magno dish periods on social media to show that time. I even have a library of emails and personal messages from media members dishing on different media members to show that many of those individuals are not precisely courageous by nature or constant in areas of integrity.
Truly, I first bought into boxing writing and out of the particular boxing world, round 2007 or so, after I went on-line and noticed how terrible and compromised the boxing media was. I simply couldn’t consider what was occurring within the web boxing media world. I felt compelled to dive in to try to do one thing or not less than give some perspective. I noticed the injury this compromised media protection was doing to the game and its base.
Many media members had been brazenly flaunting their conflicts of curiosity again then, bragging in regards to the items they took from publicists and promotional corporations. Some shared snapshots of themselves being wined and dined on the mansions of massive shot promoters. And these favors, in fact, simply occurred to line up with constructive protection for these doing the favors.
I prefer to suppose that my undesirable arrival on the scene and my semi-regular Piggies on the Trough column, the place I chronicled doubtful media conduct, had one thing to do with these individuals feeling not less than somewhat little bit of disgrace and taking their exploits out of the general public eye.
For me, not one of the creeps had been as dangerous as Steve Kim, who bought in on the bottom flooring of web boxing protection and proceeded to indicate that he was extra carpetbagger than floor breaker. Along with his attribute girly cackle, dismissive demeanor, and indifference in direction of being compromised (or guided by his personal obvious racial biases), he smugly set the tone for a media the place ethics had been a joke as a result of, shit, this was solely boxing.
Kim is the Babe Ruth of focused partisan negativity in boxing media and his impression remains to be felt as we speak, regardless that his “journalistic” attain is proscribed to a Victor Conte/SNAC publication and a podcast with that Saved by the Bell man. Nevertheless, lots of the creeps Kim mentored through the years, both instantly or not directly, are nonetheless injecting the general public discourse with agenda-driven evaluation that does little greater than muddy up the water and create disharmony. And the followers who’ve purchased into that type of tainted journalism assist unfold the muck.
However Kim and his aspect of the black water pond aren’t the one purveyors of agenda-driven negativity.
The so-called “new media,” within the type of YouTube video makers and would-be social media influencers, is simply as responsible of being the enemy of reality and journalistic integrity within the boxing world, additionally with a heaping aspect order of race-based bias added for good measure. It might be mentioned that these “new media” sorts symbolize the equal and reverse response to the opposite aspect’s push, however they’re simply as dangerous nonetheless.
Consider it or not, although, the boxing media IS getting higher, or not less than working tougher to behave the a part of journalists. Many, although, are the exact same “respectable” professionals who deliberately froze me out of the general public discourse and nonetheless refuse to acknowledge my existence for reporting on their colleagues. So, once they communicate on social media about “that is how journalists are imagined to do issues,” they know their spiel carries the distinct whiff of bullshit to these of us who know higher.
Nonetheless, lip service is best than no service. Late-in-life, pliable journalistic ethics are higher than “Hey guys, I simply got here again from a sightseeing junket in Puerto Rico, all bills paid by High Rank, now let me let you know why this High Rank card is so superior and why that rival promotion’s card is shit.”
There’s a way as of late that followers are getting sick of the my aspect vs. your aspect bickering supported by Glaser, Kim, Kim’s disciples, and the “new media” dummies. Followers are getting sick of agenda-driven “reporting.”
It’s arduous to make a dwelling anymore in boxing media with out wandering into areas the place your work is likely to be compromised. Boxingscene is owned by Paramount, which counts Showtime as a subsidiary. Ring Journal/Ring TV is owned by Golden Boy. DAZN has its arms in media operations and counts many media members amongst its checklist of “associates” and “associates.” High Rank is tied to ESPN. Hell, I do freelance combat previews for PBC. The enterprise, with its exaggerated emphasis on entry and business cash, simply lends itself to quid professional quo preparations, both spoken or unstated.
Being compromised is a alternative, although. Taking your compromised self to social media to wield your agendas on your personal profit and/or amusement is a alternative. You don’t HAVE to be a shit head.
And followers don’t HAVE to concentrate to half-truths, quarter-truths, and odd fixations/private flaws/shit politics come to life through boxing discuss. In the end, it’s the followers’ choice to disregard the bat-shit craziness and the bullshit, reasonably than be pulled into the shit-flinging nastiness.
Folks discuss loads about “repair” boxing. Nicely, step one is to cease tearing it down from the within.
Boxing corporations will function like boxing companies– generate income, incur as little threat as potential, and attempt to maintain issues “in home” as a lot as potential. Anybody who tries to let you know in any other case, that one firm places their fighters in more durable or actually needs to make the large, cross-promotional fights extra (or much less) than the others, is both silly or driving an agenda. Disregard these individuals.
Everybody within the sport must be held to the identical diploma of accountability, throughout the board and at each degree (together with the media). Followers being divided and lured into pointing fingers permits cowl for shitty conduct. And if the media (or semi-quasi-media-types presenting themselves as media) can’t be relied on for steadiness and trustworthy perspective, followers must make a higher effort to tell themselves.
A few of these individuals spewing their nonsense on-line are simply shit heads, dummies. Some, nonetheless, suppose they’re enjoying YOU for shit heads and dummies. Both means, it’s a lose-lose for the game when the whole lot is at all times buried beneath such buzz-killing negativity.
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