The Neutral Corner
By Don Deane
10.03 - A lot of interesting stuff happening lately in the world of boxing and I would like to take this time to address each situation from the most unbiased and fair part of a boxing ring, the neutral corner.
First up, I hope everybody wore their boots for the post fight comments of Norman Stone and John Ruiz because the bull crap was getting deep. I think the only guy in the world agreeing with those two about the refereeing of Nady is Zab Judah. The fact remains that Ruiz fought Jones exactly how he shouldn't have. Ruiz's lack of skill, and willingness to box and not punch made him a tailor made opponent for Jones' step up to heavyweight. Roy Jones did not step up to a heavyweight fight he stepped up to a bigger man and still fought a light heavyweight fight. John Ruiz has been a target of my wisecracks for awhile and it has all been in good fun, but that post fight display of blame on everybody but himself is worthy of chastising far harsher than my journalistic integrity will allow me to pen. Ruiz did not come to fight and did not use his size advantage to his benefit. He also did not test Jones' conditioning, being how Jones was about 30 pounds above his natural fight weight on fight night. John Ruiz must have watched plenty of Roy Jones fight tapes to learn how to master the "Jones opponent" stereotype so well. And contrary to the spoken words of Ruiz and his bigmouth manager, losing that bad was their doing, not Jay Nady's.
Now Roy Jones is left with another meaningless win that is only meaningful because it was against a heavyweight, though the heavyweight is meaningless as well. Roy Jones now has to decide whether to press his luck as a 200 pound heavyweight, or drop back down to smaller weight and larger criticisms at Light Heavy or Cruiser. What he should do is unify against Corrie Sanders. Sanders is roughly the same size as Ruiz and is now in the lime light after dispatching of Wladimir Klitschko. Chris Byrd is another possible opponent as are Vasilly Jirov and Antonio Tarver. The last two are only players if they defend their IBF titles. Certainly nobody wants to see Jones-Toney 2 or Jones-Griffin 3. The bottom line is that Roy Jones now has raised his own bar of success and has the option now of completely winning his critics over by doing more of the impossible. Maybe this time he will be rewarded by having something other than a cry baby looking at him across the ring.
Some weeks back I examined the new wave of low quality pay per view shows that were to take place in the first few months of the year. At the end of that article I spoke of the Main Events-NBC network television deal that has now come to fruition. It is doing everything for our Saturday afternoons that ShoBox did, complete with competitive fights, up and coming fighters and a good time slot. The one thing it does to better ShoBox is to make the fights free. Rocky Juarez, Francisco Bojado, Juan Diaz, Kermit Cintron and Nate Campbell all have fights scheduled in the first three weeks of the new series. Main Events and NBC really pulled off a positive thing for the sport and the network exposure should do a lot to increase the number of boxing fans.
With that said we shift our attention back to the not-so-free, pay per view extravaganzas. Showtime must be anticipating poor sales of its March 22nd ripoff that is headlined by two midgets fighting for the 105 pound title. In an effort to keep non-ppv buyers tuned into a Showtime product they are televising the Harrison-McCullough fight on regular Showtime the same night. True boxing fans should be elated that they get to see a great fight with two of Europe's top featherweights. They should also be pleased that public opinion and the power of word can control a market enough to keep the people in power from abusing it too much. Unfortunately, the pay-per-view can never be fully removed from boxing, but the ppv events that just milk fight fans for hard earned money can be.
And last but not least, the Lou Dibella Monday night boxing series catches my attention. This time it is curiosity not scrutiny that made me look at it more closely. I do realize that I will have to eat a little crow by writing this segment, but I don't mind admitting when I was wrong in the past. In most instances pay per view is bad, sometimes very bad, but in this case it works well. Lou Dibella took a night of the week that boxing is not nationally televised on and put boxing on it. He also took a great title fight and an excellent lightweight fight which probably would not have made a cable telecast and used them to headline the first show on March 31st. Then Dibella Entertainment added two up and coming fighters facing off with their toughest opponents to date. At least one of those fights wouldn't have made television either. The fight (at least in my market area) will cost 25 bucks and is a winning situation for everybody. The fighters will make more money than they would have for their fights. The fans get to see fights that they normally wouldn't have gotten to see without affecting the weekend cable fights that usually don't happen when a ppv is on. Dibella Entertainment showed how a smart business can make money for them and better the product that is put on the market. Good thing we have expression of free speech like this article and website, free television like NBC, and innovative promoters like Dibella and Main Events to keep honest men honest.
Well with that said, this is a wrap. But first, the early line on this weekend's fights. Sven Ottke by decision over Byron Mitchell. Acelino Frietas by 7th round KO over Ranchero Ramirez. Thanks for reading.
