Monthly Archives: February 2012

Boxing fans all around the world are still waiting for the day that “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao will sign a contract, set a date, and fight in the middle of the ring. What we do know is that a fight between the two of them won’t happen before the summer ends. Mayweather is scheduled take on Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto on May 5th. After which, Mayweather will begin serving a 90-day jail sentence for a domestic dispute that will likely keep him inside until the end of August. Manny Pacquiao is scheduled to fight unbeaten rising star Timothy Bradley on June 9th. Seeing as both men have fights already set and would want at least 10 weeks of training to prepare once Mayweather is a free man again. We’re looking at November or December if a fight was going to happen before 2012 ends.

For the past 4 years, there’s been a lot of posturing, name calling, contract disagreements, allegations of performance enhancing drugs, promoter issues, and most lately called the biggest issue; money. Mayweather has been the biggest draw in history with his last few pay-per-view outings against Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Ricky Hatton, and Juan Manual Marquez. Yet with the exception of Marquez, Pacquiao has been more impressive decimating the competition in the ring. Add in the fact that Pacquiao was ranked #1 pound for pound in the world, just as Mayweather is now, and you’ve got a big argument on whether the split should be 60-40 in one guy’s favor, or down the middle at 50-50. However, from the articles I’ve read and listening to commentary during fights, both fighters stand to make $40-$50M dollars before pay-per-view dollars come in. So for us poor and middle class people who are fans of the sport; we really don’t see money being an issue, since we’d all love a one day payday of even just $1M.

Which brings me to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, affectionately known as the UFC. Dana White, president of the UFC has been instrumental in bringing the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) into the mainstream. Once scrutinized for bare knuckle fights with little rules and coming under fire by government officials. The UFC become an accepted member of mainstream sports like baseball, football, basketball, and most closely boxing. Both boxing and MMA are combat sports, but inside of the MMA ring; elbow, knee, leg strikes are legal along with punches. Add in throws, locks, submission holds, ground and pound, and you’ve got a whole lot more to worry about as a fighter and a whole lot more to watch and analyze as a fan.

There have been arguments about who the better fighters are, but that argument is pretty unfair. In their weight class there isn’t any MMA fighter I’d put my money on beating Mayweather or Pacquiao in a boxing ring. But comparatively, I’d surely be betting against the two of them in the UFC octagon. However, if the two were the top two fighters in the UFC, they’d have already been in the ring. How do I know this? Aside from the fact that I follow the UFC as closely as I follow boxing, Jon “Bones” Jones is my perfect example.

Jones is the undefeated UFC light heavyweight champion (the loss on his record is from a DQ against Matt Hamil for 12-6 elbow strikes). But his reign as champion began when he fought and knocked out then champion, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. His next fight and first title defense came against former light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. His next fight and second title defense came against former light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. His next fight and third title defense will come against former light heavyweight champion “Sugar” Rashad Evans, on April 21, 2012. In the time that Jones has won the title and defended it, Evans has fought Jackson, and Machida has fought Jackson, and before Jones was champion, Machida and Rua fought twice for the title both winning once, and Machida knocked out Evans to take the title from him. Did I mention there’s only one championship title in each division in the UFC, as opposed to 5 major title organizations and a spoonful of smaller organizations in boxing? So you see, if Mayweather and Pacquiao were in the UFC in the same weight division, they’d have already fought.

Also, the major difference is that in boxing, fighters don’t sign to a promotion like the UFC, which houses most of the highest ranked fighters in every division, in the world. It is the largest MMA organization and fighters who want to be considered the best in the world in 9 out of 10 instances have to fight there. It is a position that has made Dana White extremely popular and extremely unpopular, depending on who you ask. Conversely, Floyd Mayweather can largely choose who he wants to fight and can sign a contract in his own favor because he represents himself. So if he doesn’t want to fight the number two or three guy, he can pick the number 9 or 10 guy who he’s more likely to beat. The same goes for most other boxers who weren’t/aren’t signed to a promoter like Bob Arum. Oh yeah, this is another issue in the hold on the mega fight, because Arum is Pacquiao’s promoter, and Mayweather has issues with Arum. So in boxing you have more ho-hum, back and forth conversation about why fights don’t happen, whether legitimate or not. In the case of Mayweather and Pacquiao, the two biggest names in boxing, you get these issues and fights don’t happen. Fans suffer and we’re left to wait, hope, and continually wonder who’d win. In the UFC we find out, because fighters don’t get a damned choice. If you’re champion like Rashad Evans was, you were fighting the undefeated badass at the time Lyoto Machida whether you wanted to or not. And if you were “Shogun” Rua, you were fighting the undefeated badass Jon Jones whether you wanted to or not.

As you may or may not see by now, I’m pretty passionate about combat sports and I could go on about this forever. So I’ll just end with this. Whatever the issues are that have kept Mayweather and Pacquiao from fighting need to be put aside. While the next two fights for these guys are against quality opposition, they’re just filler fights to onlookers. Unless someone losses, which Mayweather has never done, and Pacquiao hasn’t done since 2005. The fight that doesn’t happen that would have happened in the UFC a long time ago, keeps pissing us off. We want this. Mayweather, Pacquiao, boxing please. We’re literally begging for this fight.

Until next write…

Comment and check out my debut novel, “The Virgin Surgeon,” in paperback or ebook.

In this YouTube Clip you can see in the first 30 seconds or so Michael Jordan knock down a fade away jump shot to give the East the lead in the 2003 NBA All Star Game. Coming out of the timeout, you will see Kobe Bryant make himself visible to the in bounding player, nearly lose the ball, chase it down and fire up a three and get fouled by Jermaine O’Neal. In both instances you see the team look to these players, give them the ball, and put faith in their ability. In both instances you’ll see these two players pull up, and put the ball up toward the basket. Make or miss, in almost every instance they will shoot the ball. They will shoot the ball because they are intense competitors, want the opportunity, and are supremely confident. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have a killer instinct on the basketball court.

That killer instinct is the one thing that LeBron James seems to lack. Tonight in the 2012 All Star Game LeBron James had the ball in his hands with 12 seconds left. Before that, Kobe Bryant was on the free throw line. He made the first shot, putting the West team up by two. Kobe Bryant, uncharacteristically missed the second shot. Immediately I noticed that he didn’t shoot the ball with the same focus and concentration that he usually does. I posted on twitter (@aswashington at 10:18pm) verbatum “Kobe missed on purpose to find out if LeBron has developed the killer instinct yet.” And at 12 seconds LeBron passes the ball to Deron Williams who is a good three point shooter. But he clanks it. The ball flies wildly in the air and gets tipped and by some divine intervention, LeBron James comes up with it. He dribbles around the top of the key and with one arm, whips the ball across the court and it winds up in the hands of Blake Griffin. He threw a pass that a 6th grader knows better than to throw, albeit with one hand.

I shook my head, but almost as if on cue, solidifying the notion that I thought Kobe Bryant missed his free throw on purpose was him seeing the result of the play. He looked at LeBron and clapped his hands together in anger, disgust, disappointment, disbelief, or some mixture of those feelings, as if they were playing for the same team. When the camera zooms in, you can see Carmelo Anthony‘s face, surprised with that half-cringed-smile that’s screaming “wow.” And if my lip reading ability serves me without fail, Kobe Bryants says, “come on man.” He says “come on man” because the players that want to win, have the will to win, and know that they have the ability to win, never shy away from those kinds of moments. Three minutes later I (@aswashington) tweeted verbatum, “This guy LeBron wouldn’t even pull the damn trigger in an All Star Game and Kobe Bryant told him about it.”

Here’s the clip of LeBron Giving Away The Final Shot.

After that you assume the game was over, but after Blake Griffin gets fouled, he makes one free throw and misses another, the West now only up by three, 1.1 seconds left on the game clock, enough time to get a shot up, taking the ball out from half court. You’d think after passing up that opportunity, LeBron would just die for the opportunity to sink a shot and send the game into over time. No, he decides to take the ball out for his team instead. The play goes awry and the East losses the game by three. When interviewed by Steve Sager following the game, it looks almost as if LeBron wants to cry at his performance in those moments.

My tweet that proceeded that play was “I know Stephen A. Smith is ripping out all of his hair at LeBron James not pulling the trigger.” I tweeted that because Stephen A. Smith is, and has been a big supporter of LeBron James and so have I. Stephen A. has defended LeBron for years when his detractors talked about his passion, will, desire, and drive to win. Eventually, Stephen A. became angry because he knows LeBron has all the gifts, but he’s not seizing the opportunities when they matter. He’s deferring the big moments in the playoffs to other players. Even an an All Star Game, a game that brings your team no losses, he wont shoot the ball in the last few seconds. I like Stephen A. think LeBron James is probably the most gifted basketball player in history. But his major character flaw of a lack of confidence, desire, will, whatever you want to call it, may stop him from ever winning a championship. And if he does eventually get one, it may be as a role player and not as King James leading the charge and carrying his team the way the greats have done. But the bottom line is, fans want to see a guy who puts on displays of greatness night in and night out, seize the moment when it matters most. No one cares if you score 36 points, grab 8 rebounds and dish out 10 assists if you’re afraid to get those 2 or 3 points with 3 seconds left, when it matters the most. Even Steve Kerr, an average all-around player at best told Michael Jordan, “hey, if you get it to me, I’ll be ready.” That gave Michael Jordan the confidence to pass him the ball. But he had to have the confidence in himself to want the ball, and want to take the shot. And no one but LeBron James can give that to you buddy.

Until next write…

Feel free to weigh in and check out my debut novel, “The Virgin Surgeon,” in paperback or ebook.