Pay for View Woes, Thoughts on Lennox Lewis, James Toney

By Kent Appel

02.05 - Some of you may remember that I had predicted a victory for John Ruiz over Roy Jones Junior in the recent pay for view extravaganza. The reason why I never admitted to having "egg on my face" to the readers of Eastside Boxing when Jones dominated Ruiz over twelve largely uneventful rounds was because of problems I had with my pay for view service.

I originally had planned to be in Las Vegas for the fight but because of circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't able to get my press credential application in on time. So no press pass, no attending the fight for me as I didn't have the money to make the trip.

Well, at least I could order the fight and watch it on pay for view from the comfort of my own living room and then if it turned out like it did, with Jones winning easily, then I could piece together a report admitting I was wrong and giving details on what had transpired in the fight. Right? Wrong! Due to technical difficulties in my service area, I didn't get the fight to come on my television set in my home until the third round of the main event. Which means I missed all of the preliminary bouts. Needless to say, I was in no mood to take notes and try to piece together an incomplete report. In fact, I was downright "pissed off!"

The staff of my cable company, which I am not going to mention here, as any publicity, even bad, is usually good publicity, was very polite and sympathetic when I called four times to try to find out if I was going to get at least the main event. I wasn't rude to them because I knew they were only operators who had nothing to do with the technical end of things, but I still wasn't in a calm mood when after leaving my television on in hopes the program would appear, the main event finally showed up with the third round already in progress.

This isn't the first time I had experienced this sort of bad service in regards to pay for view events. Due to the same kind of technical difficulties, which apparently have never been rectified, I didn't get to see last year's Lennox Lewis verses Mike Tyson fight when it happened.

It is my fault because even though the cable company refunded my money for last year's Lewis/Tyson fight, they charged me full price for the Jones/Ruiz fight! I should have called and demanded a partial refund for missing part of the main event and all of the preliminary fights! If we let the service companies get away with poor service, this means the poor service will continue. We also should not order pay for view for all but the very biggest events. After all, when we buy cable or satellite television, we are already paying for service!

Which events should be pay for view and which shouldn't be pay for view? This is a subjective question, as one event can be a big time event for one group of people or market and not a big event in another market. The criteria should be that both fighters in the main event are the biggest draws possible, not just one of the fighters. For example, Oscar De La Hoya verses Yori Boy Campas should not be a pay for view event because only one of the fighters, De La Hoya, is a big draw. Take nothing away from Campas, as he is a former world champion and he is a world class fighter, but he is not of the elite of the sport. Even among Latino fans, which is his target audience, he is not anywhere near as well known as De La Hoya. On the other hand, a rematch between De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas is one for pay for view consideration. The recent event, Marco Antonio Barrera verses Kevin Kelly, also should not have been a pay for view event. It may have been a good fight but I don't know as I didn't see the fight. I didn't think it was a big enough fight to pay extra money to see it.

It is ironic that some of the best fights in recent times have not been pay for view while some of the biggest turkeys, both Lewis/Tyson and Jones/Ruiz were not good fights, were pay for view. The Arturo Gatti verses Mickey Ward fights and the James Toney verses Vassily Jirov fights are both examples of great fights that were not pay for view. But this is something that can't be predicted ahead of time and as good as some non pay for view fights have been, if they don't feature two of the very elite of the sport, then they shouldn't be pay for view. Jones/Ruiz is probably an exception to this rule as it in itself was a special event due to the fact that an extraordinary light heavyweight in Jones was trying to win a heavyweight championship.

I had the pleasure last week of representing Eastside Boxing during a nationwide teleconference with heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and his manager, Emanuel Steward. I asked the following questions. "A lot of people are saying this is the age of the super-sized heavyweight but only you and possibly the Klitschko Brothers have accomplished anything of significance. Also, is your size an advantage in this fight against Kirk Johnson?" Steward handled the first part of the question by saying, "the Klitschko brothers have not accomplished anything as professionals but Wladimir had accomplished something in the amateurs." He also added that Riddick Bowe was another super heavyweight who had acomplished something. In regards to his size being an advantage against Johnson, Lewis had this to say, "I am a five dimensional fighter while Kirk is a three dimensional fighter." I also asked the champ if because of his layoff would he be as sharp as usual and would there be any ring rust? He said, "there might be ring rust, but only for the first thirty seconds." He also added, "I am like fine wine, I get better with age." The transcript of the conference left out the part of my asking Lewis and Steward about Lewis being one of the only super-sized heavyweights who has accomplished anything (the whole teleconference can be found on Eastside Boxing on April 25, 2003). The transcript only showed me asking if Lewis' size is an advantage and if Lewis would have any ring rust.

Yes, Lennox Lewis has aged well and he is an exception to the long time rule that most fighters are on their way down by the time they are in their late thirties. However, often a fighter can look great in one fight, in this case Lewis' win over Mike Tyson, but then not have it in his very next fight. A fighter can suddenly age overnight. A year layoff can be a long time, especially for an older fighter. I think Lewis still will have enough to overcome the challenge of Kirk Johnson. It should prove to be a very difficult fight though, one that may give Lewis a reason to consider stepping down in the near future. Johnson is going to come to fight and Lewis will need to rely on all of his skills and experience to keep his title. We will find out June 21 how much Lewis has left and how good Kirk Johnson really is.

James Toney fought well this past Saturday night in taking Vassily Jirov's crusierweight title but I thought the fight was much closer than the judges' scores indicated. I thought Toney won by the score of 115 to 112, including a one point deduction from Jirov for low blows. All three judges had Toney winning by at least five points. I have to wonder, what fight were they watching?

I was at Toney's fight against Jason Robinson last year, in which he knocked out Robinson in the sixth round, and I had said that Toney appeared sluggish, that he wasn't carrying the 190 pound crusierweight limit well. After all, he had been a world champion in the 160 and 168 pound divisions and maybe the jump up to crusierweight was too much for his body to carry. I also said that if Toney fights the way he did against Jirov like he did against Robinson, then Jirov would win, that Toney needed to throw more punches. Well, I was proved wrong on both accounts as Toney rose to the occasion and he looked better than ever. He moved around the ring very well and he threw punches in bunches against Jirov. He fought off a determined champion who wanted to keep his title at all costs. This couldn't help but be a great fight as Toney was just as determined to take Jirov's title away. I would love to see a rematch between these two worthy champions. I would also like to see a rematch between newly crowned WBA heavyweight champion Jones, and Toney for one or both of their titles. This is another interesting match up.