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In honor of February 14th, I’m gonna paint some swear words on tiny candy hearts, cram them into a sack of heart-shaped Peeps, with an “IOU One Pearl Necklace” coupon, and slam the whole thing into the sweaty face of boxing ignorance and skulduggery. Now, let’s see what you’ve sent me this week.
The End of Top Rank on ESPN
Hey Paul.
I was saddened to hear the news that ESPN would be cutting ties with Top Rank. I was really happy when their deal first kicked off as I saw it as a possibility to bring boxing into the mainstream. That never happened and it seemed almost from day one that boxing was an afterthought for the people at ESPN. In my opinion, they never gave it a real shot. They always seemed to putting it off to their app or scheduling it at odd times.
I still remember that line you had when they first started with pushing boxing to ESPN+. You called it a “streaming pile of crap” and said that it would be the death blow to keeping boxing on the network as a whole. Boy, were you right!
What do you think went wrong with the partnership? Do you see boxing coming back to ESPN? Where do you think Top Rank will go next?
– Josh Alvarado
Hey Josh.
Top Rank was doomed at ESPN because they could never deliver a pay-per-view star to put the network into the cash-rich pay-per-view market they lusted to be in. And, unfortunately, in boxing, the only real “big” money to be had is in pay-per-view. So, when they couldn’t push Terence Crawford and Vasiliy Lomachenko into PPV stardom and couldn’t get Tyson Fury back into the States, they really served no purpose to ESPN, other than as comparatively costly ESPN+ filler.
The Saudi pilfering of their talent and messing with their contract players put the final nails into the TR coffin. From the moment they signed on to their Riyadh Season “partnership,” assets were pulled and messed with to a point where, as they limped into the last year of their ESPN contract, they had almost nothing. Crawford had left, Shakur Stevenson was nudged into signing with the more Saudi-friendly Eddie Hearn, Teofimo Lopez was being dragged into a Saudi “partnership” of his own, and heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson was wrangled by Turki into a losing step-up fight that Too Rank was against (but had to accept because of their Saudi business entanglement).
All they really have left of their own is Keyshawn Davis.
With their market value diminished, they probably have no option other than to sign their next TV deal with the Saudi-partnered DAZN. Who else would take them?
Don’t think for a second that this wasn’t an intentional stripping of resources to facilitate a growing monopoly. I’d say that the Saudis are playing chess while the rest of boxing is playing checkers, but that’s giving boxing too much credit. The Saudis are playing chess while boxing is humming a song to itself, with a bishop up each nostril.
ESPN may come back to boxing, but only when boxing can guarantee them at least a small handful of bankable stars (which they can’t right now and, given where the sport is headed, won’t be able to do in the foreseeable future).
Ring Magazine: Bible of BS
Hey Magno.
I loved your Notes from the Boxing Underground column this past Monday. Nobody goes for the throat like you. You are the roast master general of boxing and your writing really stands out in this generation of bland boxing writing. Keep it up. By the way, you also weren’t wrong in your opinions.
Putting out intentional misinformation is a disgrace when you’re running a major media outlet. Turki and his Ring Magazine staff have informed the boxing world that they are not to be trusted and that they are just fine with lying to their readers, just for the kick of misdirecting the public. This should be talked about way more than it has been.
– Mike from Reno
Hey Mike.
I agree that more should be talking about it, but who would be doing the talking? The entire media is currently comprised of whores taking Turki’s money, wannabe whores looking to one day take Turki’s money, or weak souls scared into silence for fear of crossing Turki and the Saudis as they create a boxing monopoly. Who else is left to speak truth to power, except me and, well, that’s all I can see.
I’ve never expected anything from the boxing media beyond compliance, lack of character, and greed. So, I’m not at all surprised that they folded so quickly and completely. I can’t say that I’m all that surprised, either, by the number of ill-informed fans cheering on what could, ultimately, be the sport’s demise (at least in the US and UK).
I do see, however, some fans waking up, looking around, and realizing that the Saudis have strip-mined the sport and that, to a great extent, taken it away from them. And, also, they’re realizing who in the media has been chop-blocking to assure the Saudis succeed in stealing away the sport.
Turki using Ring Magazine as a tool for intentional misinformation is a bigger black eye for the Ring’s credibility than all the previous Ring Magazine black eyes (and there’ve been many). As I wrote in Monday’s column: “Turki actually fancies himself quite clever for having soiled his media acquisition…And he did it for no apparent reason other than to passive-aggressively manipulate ‘the sheep,’ as he subsequently referred to fans and/or critics on Twitter.
People should care about this more than they apparently do.
By the way, thanks for the kind words.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.
