Misinformation is foreign money in boxing.
This shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody even remotely conscious of how the enterprise operates and the way, on a really associated aspect be aware, how the media (and, now, social media) is usually used to manage narratives.
At present, I’m simply going to be specializing in one such incident, however you can look by any main boxing information website and (accurately) level out that just about every thing is strategically planted there to sway public discourse by somebody within the enterprise with a vested curiosity in getting their “aspect” seen in a constructive gentle.
The entire latest Canelo/Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) story, although, is the above actuality, occasions 100.
Again in early February, self-described “Worldwide Agent, Dealer, & Marketing consultant” and “boxing lifer” Rick Glaser, who has just lately constructed some extent of profession momentum as a really vocal Anti-Al Haymon/PBC social media voice, began speaking up the “deep monetary turmoil” contained in the PBC group. This, regardless of the beforehand introduced partnership between the corporate and Amazon Prime Video.
In the true world, Glaser is finest identified for his work in illegally rolling again odometers as a used automobile salesman. Within the boxing world, some have really accepted his phrase as “insider” truth.
So, when Glaser seized upon the chance of an upcoming “massive announcement” from Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to insist that the Mexican star could be saying his break up with PBC one struggle right into a reported three-fight deal (as a result of an totally “broke” PBC couldn’t assure his purse), approach too many individuals accepted this as one thing aside from wishful pondering.
As issues would end up, Canelo’s announcement was merely an affirmation of a re-signed take care of TV Azteca in Mexico.
About two weeks later, although, information retailers started reporting that Alvarez had “break up” from PBC and was now headed again to earlier broadcaster DAZN.
Glaser and his band of true believers took victory laps. Victor Conte e-newsletter author and one-time ESPN add-on Steve Kim (who has been a long-time Al Haymon-obsessed antagonist) touted Glaser as a “hero” who “stood steadfast in opposition to all naysayers” and was now totally “vindicated.”
Besides…not.
A couple of days later, it was confirmed that Alvarez could be combating fellow Mexican Jaime Munguia on Might 4, below the PBC banner on a pay-per-view occasion out there by Amazon Prime Video, with DAZN (Munguia’s broadcast dwelling) granted the rights to additionally promote the struggle on their platform.
This information set forth a few weeks of scorching debate amongst followers as to what had really occurred between the time Canelo “break up” with PBC and when he apparently “got here again.”
Glaser would take a deep dive into fantasy land to elucidate his wild incorrectness, spinning a story on Twitter/X about DAZN lead promoter Eddie Hearn having “extremely insulted” Alvarez supervisor/coach Eddy Reynoso throughout negotiations, thereby killing the opportunity of an unique take care of DAZN and facilitating Alvarez’s return to PBC.
And, yeah, some folks really purchased that, too.
Simply this previous week, nonetheless, Reynoso, himself, lastly introduced the reality to gentle.
“It was mentioned many occasions that we left PBC…We by no means left PBC,” Reynoso informed ESPN Deportes in a video interview. “We now have the approval of Mr. Haymon that if we will’t finalize something with one among their fighters, we will negotiate with any firm. Which is what we did and PBC can also be concerned. We now have a dedication to PBC in September. Typically they (PBC) don’t have the most effective fighters for Canelo. We will discuss with Eddie Hearn, High Rank, with any fighter, folks of Saudi Arabia too.”
So, right here’s the guidelines of what’s what on this entire state of affairs:
– Canelo by no means “left” PBC. “Leaving” could be meaningless, anyway, in a deal the place Canelo has the appropriate to barter elsewhere at any time.
– Canelo by no means “got here again” to PBC (as a result of he by no means really left).
– None of this was ever about funds, PBC being broke, or cash not put “in escrow” by “guarantors” as Glaser had insisted.
– The mainstream boxing media had gotten the story incorrect as effectively.
Truly, beneath all of the nonsense and partisan beefing, we see a reasonably good pro-fighter association in place between Canelo and PBC, an organization which has been blasted by its critics as being non-cooperative in making cross-company fights. The Mexican star can just about come and go as he pleases, with, presumably, PBC having first dibs on making him a struggle provide.
This Reynoso revelation (and a earlier revelation from Canelo) highlights the truth that the tales planted within the media and social media about this alleged break up have been solely fictitious. And also you’d be naive to assume that there weren’t agendas behind this fiction being pushed to the general public.
I might anticipate nothing much less of a convicted hustler with an anti-Haymon/PBC ax to grind like Glaser or a man like Kim, who’s been engaged in some weirdo race/tradition battle by way of (of all issues) boxing. Screws and nuts can be screws and nuts.
You’ll be able to’t actually be mad at informal boxing fandom, both. Most easily don’t know sufficient concerning the internal workings of issues to have a legitimate viewpoint or be capable of decide truth from bullshit. And if their solely supply of information is from media and social media? Effectively, yeah, good luck being knowledgeable.
However the precise “actual” media that DOES have a normal understanding of how issues work and needs to be cautious of passing alongside misinformation? Disgrace on them. Then once more, when lots of these media folks work for firms owned by PBC’s direct competitors, like, for instance, the Golden Boy-owned RingTV/Ring Journal, possibly a few of that “they need to’ve identified higher” may very well be “they DID know higher, however ran with the story anyway.” Hell, I’ve heard unsubstantiated rumors about Glaser really serving as a “supply” to not less than a few the big-shot media voices.
However let’s be practical right here. It’s arduous to make cash in boxing media and most everybody seeking to pay payments and put meals on their household’s desk with media gigs has needed to flirt with battle of curiosity. Boxing firms are actually the one ones handing out something resembling substantial paychecks. It’s as much as every media member to resolve how far that impacts their work. In my case, I do freelance nuts-and-bolts struggle previews for PBC. On the similar time, although, I’ve criticized the corporate’s enterprise mannequin when essential and have gone Magno-deep in blasting sure PBC fighters– like as soon as evaluating Deontay Wilder’s boxing model to that of a drunken tranny combating at 2 AM in a Dunkin Donuts parking zone or remarking that Jermell Charlo, in his one-sided loss to Canelo, carried himself with the traumatized reluctance of somebody who had simply been jail raped.
I don’t care which is your “favourite” boxing firm or your “most hated” boxing company– though having a “favourite” or “most hated,” in and of itself, is fairly silly, in my view. It’s a bit like pledging endlessly loyalty to Burger King by way of proxy battle with McDonald’s. Shoppers do themselves an awesome disservice by blindly siding with a model and declaring forever-war on that model’s competitors.
Personally, I do not care if any of those guys exit of enterprise. My life doesn’t change one bit with the rise and/or fall of PBC, High Rank, Golden Boy, and many others. For me, that is about being proper, being right, being truthful. It’s about talking on points when you might have the precise information straight or, on the very least, have a marginal understanding of what’s really occurring.
As for the followers looking over this media/social media mess, attempting to make sense of all of it?
Widespread sense goes a great distance. If somebody’s total shtick is “I’m out to get such and such firm, power them out of existence,” why the hell would you imagine any “information” they “break” relating to that individual firm? And if a smear is handed alongside by these with the identical “out to get them” leanings and/or by media folks working for the goal’s direct competitors, once more, why would you not come to the conclusion that, possibly, what you’re listening to is to be questioned?
On the finish of the day, the boxing world could be an entire lot brighter and happier if boxing followers simply adopted boxing, like they used to do.
Followers want to depart the “my firm vs. your organization” self-sabotaging nonsense apart. They should disregard the media/social media voices stirring that shit up for private achieve and/or to fulfill some deep-seated psychological points.
And Rick Glaser wants to return to promoting used vehicles, the place his bull-shittery solely impacts one client at a time and never a complete trade.
Acquired one thing for Magno? Ship it right here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com
