Is it attainable to dominate with out being dominant? Devin Haney discovered a method.
The 25-year-old, in his first official bout at 140 lbs., gained each spherical on all three judges’ scorecards and notched a knockdown to take the WBC junior welterweight title from Regis Prograis Saturday evening at Chase Heart in San Francisco. Haney by no means misplaced even a half-minute of any spherical, holding Prograis to 38 connects– a CompuBox report for fewest punches landed in a 12-round world title contest. There couldn’t be a extra lopsided end result to a bout.
Nicely, that’s not true. The previous unified light-weight champion may’ve knocked Prograis out. Some say he ought to’ve. He dropped the defending champ within the third spherical and wobbled him on a number of events. By the fifth spherical, it was clearly obvious that Prograis supplied no problem and was there simply because Haney saved him round. By the ninth spherical, the combat was so one-sided and Prograis was in such a gap that everybody was trying to cease the fight– besides Haney.
A recent and sharp Haney, who seemed to be considerably bigger than Prograis by combat evening, poked and scored and fought on the identical even-keeled tempo all through your entire twelve rounds. There was no urgency to his assault, even when the 34-year-old “Rougarou” was shocked, strolling on rubbery legs, and ripe to be put away by a proper hand that appeared to harm him each time it landed.
Critics have identified this lack of urgency and sensible, however cynical “do exactly sufficient to win” mindset as Haney’s foremost impediment to true greatness (and bankability) within the sport. The younger fighter is so well-trained and disciplined that he seems to be unable to shift out of the gear at which he’s been educated to combat. It makes one marvel what would possibly occur when he meets an opponent who can actually push him and who isn’t hampered by being smaller, dead-legged, and/or considerably much less proficient.
This was an excellent exhibiting from Haney, however not a “virtuoso” efficiency as some would rush to name it of their post-fight recaps. A virtuoso hits greater than the identical three notes all through a efficiency. A boxing virtuoso would’ve stopped an overmatched foe who was providing no resistance or, on the very least, he would’ve stepped issues up to take action.
Yeah, this criticism looks as if splitting hairs to an extent. It’s a harsh epilogue to a one-sided victory over a reigning world champ who was ranked no worse than no. 3 within the division on the time of the combat . But when Haney goes for “greatness,” the grading curve is exceedingly steep.
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This previous Thursday, after being rumored, talked about, and in some quarters, dreaded, Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) lastly made it official– that they had struck a multi-year rights settlement with Amazon Prime.
Per PBC press launch:
“Prime Video will distribute PBC’s industry-leading pay-per-view (PPV) occasions within the U.S, with the primary occasion anticipated for March 2024. PBC PPV fights will probably be accessible for all viewers to buy, no matter Prime membership. Moreover, within the U.S. and choose international locations, Prime Video will solely stream a PBC Championship Boxing collection of occasions, showcasing prime matchups amongst boxing’s present and rising stars. Particulars on particular playing cards, dates, and areas will probably be introduced at a later date. Along with the stay PBC occasions, Prime Video will proceed to develop its Unique sports activities content material choices, with behind-the-scenes PBC docuseries, stay weigh-ins, in addition to on-demand entry to earlier occasions, highlights, archival footage, and extra.”
And, with that announcement, a sure phase of the Universo Pugilistico misplaced their shit.
There’s been a bizarre, however sadly not all that stunning, tradition warfare occurring in boxing relating to PBC. As I wrote in a earlier Notes from the Boxing Underground column:
“The animosity PBC encountered appeared odd to me again then. They got here into existence, working to convey to life the whole lot media varieties had been saying the game wanted. It was a boxing firm constructed on an actual world company mannequin, centered on getting fights on free community TV and, thereby, into the road of sight of the mainstream shopper. The roster was jam-packed with prime American expertise to attraction to the American fan. In contrast to the old-guard boxing promoters, who ran the whole lot on a shortsighted plan the place, as Dana White famously mentioned, ‘each occasion is a going out of enterprise sale,’ PBC appeared to have a long-term plan with development in thoughts.”
The plan to get boxing nearer to the mainstream stalled in direction of the tip of their run on the soon-to-be defunct Showtime Boxing, however they’re circling again to that finish aim with their Amazon Prime deal. This settlement is method past “placing fights on an app” as some have categorized it. Prime, at this level in shopper historical past, is extra of a family utility than a service with a streaming app hooked up.
With over 167 million subscribers within the US, it’s mind-blowing that there’s almost one paid subscription for each two human beings within the nation. Loopy. And far of that subscription base may be very energetic with the service, utilizing it to do the whole lot from buy home goods to entry music to look at TV. It’s change into part of our dwelling tradition.
And to have boxing hooked up to that dwelling tradition is an unimaginable alternative for the game. Followers ought to be ecstatic about this. Some are. Some are clearly not.
When the information broke on Thursday, there was a subsection of boxing fandom on social media raging and fuming over all issues Haymon/PBC. It was a rage that, in some instances, crossed over into not-so-subtle racist territory.
One podcaster specifically, Kenny Keith of The Boxing Rant, was so moved by the information that he forgot to self-censor his actual worldview. He’d run via a number of nasty, stereotypical quips on Twitter, kicking off his racist riff with a comparability of PBC followers’ happiness and the celebration of Juneteenth, a chosen African-American vacation. He’d go on to speak about “PBC on Prime Hoes” with “boos” who want minutes added to their Cricket wi-fi account, intimating that they had been too poor to attend occasions or buy pay-per-views. He’d additionally make reference to PBC supporters, who he clearly sees as black, going “nuts” as a result of they gained’t be capable to shoplift pay-per-view exhibits from “the native Goal or CVS.”
Keith would later attempt to stroll all of it again, saying it was a joke. However these “jokes” have been informed many, many occasions earlier than by a few of these folks and the punchline at all times appears to be buried within the standard racist bullshit.
However at the least the “It was a joke” walkback was en effort to cowl shitty habits he acknowledged as shitty. Some media folks (or semi-quasi-media folks) say this type of shit out loud, with out the self-awareness to attempt to stroll it again.
Video podcaster (and former Ring Journal contributor) Michael Montero, who has a protracted historical past of what could possibly be categorized as race antagonizing, implied in an October episode of his The Impartial Nook podcast that Haymon’s skill to dealer community offers is a kind of affirmative motion.
“Al Haymon has a historical past of negotiating huge offers and he does superb within the boardroom,” Montero mentioned. “Him and his individuals are very, very good and so they get within the boardroom with sure community varieties. And I believe there’s sure angles they will play, significantly now in our present local weather on this nation, that helps them in these boardrooms with these community folks.”
However guys like Montero and Keith are simply working with a story already established. As I wrote beforehand:
“Steve Kim, then of Max Boxing and the failed UCN Stay, as soon as giddily declared in a 2011 video clip, since scrubbed from the web, that ‘Anytime an Al Haymon fighter loses, it’s good for enterprise, tee-hee’ (I added the girly tee-hee). In a 2017 piece posted by BoxingNewsOnline.internet, the person who as soon as pushed N.W.A (Not With Al) t-shirts to discourage fighters from signing with Haymon, was quoted as calling PBC a ‘multi-million-dollar welfare system’ that ‘caters to the bottom widespread denominator of society.’ And that ‘lowest widespread denominator of society,’ apparently, is the African-American shopper, who Kim ceaselessly (and condescendingly) known as ‘the demographic.’
Kim’s buddy, colleague, and facilitator Dougie Fischer, who’s African-American and seems to be absolutely onboard with Kim’s sentiments, had gone almost as deep as Kim, calling PBC supporters ‘racially biased African-American followers which can be uninformed jerks.’ Fischer now serves as Editor in Chief on the Oscar De La Hoya-owned Ring Journal.”
So, what’s behind all of this habits (that, by the way in which, can be mainstream-shunned in some other sport and sporting enterprise, aside from the UFC and Energy Slap)? This clearly isn’t nearly boxing.
There’s lots at play. I really assume it’s extra about class than race, though the dipshits with these race points combine all of it collectively for their very own functions. My private Cliffs Notes take is that Haymon received the goal on his again when he got here into the enterprise and upset the game’s energy construction by shifting cash and affect away from the promoters and on to the fighters. That made him an enemy of the old fashioned system and, subsequently, an enemy of the boxing media, which is funded and managed by the promoters and different boxing energy brokers.
Though the media, in nice half, is now not in assault mode relating to all issues Haymon, the early media assaults from guys like Kim and Fischer fed a whole inhabitants of fandom that’s equal components dumb and hateful– like the blokes we noticed final Thursday tinkling their panties in anger over what they, themselves, say is “only a distribution deal.”
Regardless of the case, PBC on Prime is going on. Extra boxing with extra accessibility is at all times an excellent thing– except your private hangups trump your love for the game, after all.
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