Thursday, August 27, 2009

Paulie

Tonight should be fun. We've got Paulie Malignaggi coming on to talk about the asinine scoring of his fight with Diaz. Also Ed Levine of the IBO will discuss the ridiculous moves by the WBC lately.

Tune in tonight at 9.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Are You Freakin' Kidding Me?

Gale Van Hoy should never be allowed to judge another fight. 118-110 for Diaz? 10 rounds to 2? Are you freakin' kidding me?

I'm wondering if anyone actually saw Van Hoy in the building or did he send in an absentee ballot?

"Let's see, Diaz is the hometown kid, plus Malignaggi talked all that junk about me earlier in the week. I think 10 rounds to 2 sounds about right... fill it out.. sign it... Honey, would you put a stamp on this and send it over to the commission?"

I scored the bout even. 115-113 for Diaz is a little hard for me to swallow but I can accept it. 116-112 is wrong and 118-110 is simply not the fight that took place last night.

There are a lot of problems that need to be fixed in boxing. Bad and hometown scoring have been going on for years. But when a score is that way off, like Gale Van Hoy's, measures need to be taken to ensure he can't screw up the outcome of a big fight again until he proves his competence in 4 and 6 rounders.

Texas commission, if you do nothing (which I'm sure will be the case), shame on you.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Nick Charles

Sad news to report -- Nick Charles is taking a leave of absence from ShoBox to undergo treatment for cancer. I've been in touch with Nick and he has a great attitude. If anyone can beat this thing, it's Nick.

He feels very connected to the boxing community and I'm sure he'd appreciate your well wishes.

Feel free to leave comments below and I will send them on to him.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Ghost and the Baby Bull

Incredible show coming up this week. Juan Diaz and Robert Guerrero will be on.

Interesting mindsets -- I contacted Paul Malignaggi to come on. He said not while he's trying to make weight. He was in the studio 2 years ago while trying to make weight and he looked awful. He has to work real hard. I contacted him a second time to appeal his decision and he sent me a very curt "after the fight". He and I get along great, so I didn't take it personally. It must be the hunger talking.

Diaz on the other hand called me back about an hour after I left a message for him. He greeted me like an old friend and we chatted for a bit after I booked him. He seems completely relaxed. He's coming up in weight and never looked like he struggled to make 135. Could the difference in mindset be a factor in the fight? I think it's very possible.

This week's "Are You Kidding Me?" item is once again the WBC. It's bad enough that they're creating multiple champions in each division. Now they're creating champions in divisions that don't exist. Cotto and Pacquiao will fight for what they call the Diamond Championship at their catchweight. Will there now be a belt (and sanctioning fee) for every possible weight?

I can picture myself one day announcing, "The winner by unanimous decision and new WBC 143 3/4 pound world champion..."

Tune in Thursday.

Follow Ropes on Twitter @TTRopes.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Are You Kidding Me?

On last night's show, I revealed a new segment called, "Are You Kidding Me?" where I discussed the most absurd thing I heard in boxing that week.

Tonight, I heard two things about Mike Tyson that qualify.

On ESPN's Friday Night Fights, Brian Kenny raved about the Tyson documentary and how much new material was in there. Maybe he got a different version than I did, because I certainly didn't come across anything new.

It was interesting to hear Tyson open up about some of these things, but nothing was revealed that you haven't heard before if you've followed Tyson closely throughout the years.

But the real Are You Kidding Me moment came when Dan Rafael said that when Tyson was at his peak, after he beat Spinks, he could have beaten any heavyweight in history.

At his peak, Tyson was a hell of a fighter. He obviously had the great punch, but he also had movement, threw combinations and had very good skills. But when he was blowing people away, it was because they were intimidated. Spinks was scared to death.

It's hard to imagine, Ali, Frazier, Liston, Louis, Marciano, Dempsey, Tunney, Johnson or many others being intimidated. As soon as his opponents were no longer scared they had a lot more success against him.

Tyson beating any heavyweight in history -- Are you kidding me?

Be sure to leave comments for your own are you kidding me moments.

Also, follow us on Twitter @TTRopes

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Greatest Amateur?

UPDATE 2: Grady Brewer is replacing Tyrell Biggs as tonight's guest. Biggs cancelled after the 1984 team celebration event was 86'd when a sponsor pulled out. Why do our Olympic boxers, even the great ones, no longer get respect for their accomplishments?

UPDATE: Tyrell Biggs will be joining us instead of Breland. Biggs is the only American to win a gold medal at Super Heavyweight, beating Lennox Lewis en route to capturing Olympic glory.

Some consider Mark Breland to be the greatest amateur boxer the U.S. ever produced. He took home gold in the 1984 Olympics (although from a watered down field because the Soviets and Cubans weren't there). Breland then went on to win the welterweight title as a pro.

This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the 1984 Olympics that featured Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield, and Tyrell Biggs among others.

Anyone who has followed Through the Ropes knows I'm a big fan of Olympic boxing. So to honor the 1984 team, we will talk with Mark Breland on Thursday night.

Also on the show is Scoop Malinowski, who wrote Heavyweight Armageddon, about the Tyson - Lewis fight. Scoop and I will go toe-to-toe as I disagree with the very premise of his book -- that the fight was a historically important one.

Tyson was washed up and anyone who thought he had any chance other than landing a lucky punch was naive or too much of a Tyson fan to have thought clearly. As a result, Tyson was no longer an important figure.

Tune in Thursday night.

By the way, you can now follow Through the Ropes on Twitter @ttropes.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Panama

I've been offered interviews with Panama Lewis several times in the past. I always turned them down because I didn't want to give him any publicity. I believe that what he did is a cardinal sin in boxing and I agree with his banishment from the sport.

The film Assault in the Ring on HBO did nothing to change my opinion, though I'm sure that Resto knew what was happening. Assault has received a ton of media attention and when Panama was offered to me again because he wanted to comment on the film, I agreed.

I was offered the exclusive interview because our mutual friend knew I would be fair. And I will be. But I told my friend this will not be a feel good interview. Lewis was convicted by a jury and I believe the conviction was just. He said that's fine, but Panama has some real problems with the film and wants to get his side of the story out.

I also invited the filmmaker Eric Drath to go head to head with Lewis. He declined, saying that he's not Lewis' accuser and didn't want to debate him. Drath was on with us about a year ago when he was still trying to get the film picked up.

Tune in Thursday night for some real fireworks.

Also, on the show, a boxer who is one of the real good guys in the sport and a newly crowned champ, Devon Alexander.

A couple of funny moments from the road this weekend:

My kids came to watch me ring announce for the first time. I announced ShoBox Friday night and the undercard of Bradley - Campbell Saturday night. They attended the Friday night show.

The hotel was promoting the show and "special guest ring announcer Sugar Ray Leonard". That was news to me and wouldn't be the first time that I've traveled to an event to find out someone else was doing my job. Turns out SRL was simply a VIP guest.

In the elevator where one of the Sugar Ray posters was prominently featured, I said to my son, "Shouldn't it say, special guest ring announcer Marc Lichtenfeld?" He replied, "No, you're not special." Thanks kid. Thanks a lot. I'll remember that when the college tuition is due.

During the show, both my 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter noticed the ring card girls. After getting an eyeful, my son proclaimed rather innocently, "Some people look good in bikinis."

My daughter was perplexed. She asked my wife why the girls were doing that. Rule #1 with kids is when asked a simple question, give a simple answer. The correct response would have been, "so that everyone knows what round it is." I'm 100% certain that would have satisfied her curiosity.

Instead, my wife goes on a sociological rant about how the girls weren't raised right and never went to college and this was the only way they could make money, etc, etc.

Good wholesome family entertainment at the fights in the casino.