THE COMEBACK, AND PBC RIP || FIGHTHYPE.COM

Hello and welcome to another Thursday edition of Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack, the only boxing mailbag column penned by a writer blocked by many of your preferred websites and media personalities. This week, we have comments/questions regarding Inoue and the Saudis, Tim Tszyu: The Comeback, and PBC, RIP.

A Monster in Saudi Arabia

Hi Paul.

Love your work and, most of all, your honesty. You just don’t get a whole lot of that in boxing media these days.

Anyway, I’d love to get your thoughts on Naoya Inoue signing a deal with the Saudis and what this means to boxing. It seems like they are scooping up everything and everyone and just laying the groundwork to own the sport entirely. What do you think about the Monster aligning with the Saudis?

Keep up the great work.

– Dave

Hey Dave.

Honestly, I don’t think Inoue’s deal means a damn thing to boxing. It only matters to Inoue fan boys and a small subsection of boxing nerdom, but it doesn’t really move the needle in any direction. It’s good for Inoue and it’s good for the Saudis, in the sense that they get another toy, but it doesn’t mean anything to the big picture. Inoue may have an occasional fight in Saudi Arabia now, but he’s not leaving Japan and the deal won’t change the fight decisions he makes. So, really, it’s just expensive publicity.

Tim Tszyu: The Comeback?

Hey Paul.

I’m a big Tim Tszyu fan and I was really taken aback with the way he got blown out by the Russian. Seeing something like that really makes you wonder whether you overestimated him all along. Do you see a successful comeback in the future for Tim? Can he overcome this setback? Or has he been exposed as someone not quite as good as hyped?

– Paul G.

Hey Paul.

Boxing history is littered with the discarded shells of once mighty offensive beasts who were humbled and, ultimately, tamed. It’s hard for someone who’s based his entire identity on being a fearsome beast to come back after being handled. Lucas Matthysse, for instance, was a destroyer before being taken to school by Danny Garcia. He was never the same after that. Tszyu could be the exception, but there’s not a large body of work that even shows him as much of a beast. His actual “beastdom” is limited to three performances and, before that, there were a lot of uneven performances as he came up the ranks. So, we really don’t know what the future holds and how well he bounces back. My hunch, though, is that it’ll be extremely difficult to get back to where he was. He’s going to have to be matched carefully and, even then, we might see Tszyu settle into a rest-of-career run as an Australian attraction fighting third-tier opposition to adoring home crowds, like Danny Green or Anthony Mundine.

PBC: MIA or DOA or RIP?

Magno.

I know you’ve been a PBC boy for a long time, but even you have to admit now that PBC is dead, done, finito. They aren’t even the Titanic, but more like the dinghy that fell off the Titanic when it got hit by the iceberg. This has to sting as someone who’s been carrying their water for so long. Me, personally, I can’t wait to tap dance on their grave and celebrate the few fighters they have moving over to real boxing companies.

– LOL

Hey LOL.

Your weird obsession with a boxing company is only slightly less shitty than your status as a fan who roots AGAINST boxing success. But, whatever…I believe all of us know what motivates people like you to go after one specific boxing company owned by one specific type of person and– [Spoiler Alert]– it ain’t boxing.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I don’t give a rat’s ass about any specific company or promotion and I’m not rooting for or against any of them. Actually, I hope they all succeed– if that success is in the best long-term interest of the sport, of course. So, PBC’s downward turn means nothing to me. If you’ve followed my work, you’d know that I’ve been critical of them before, when merited, and I’ve been very critical of them in recent months. So, whatever. I just write about what happens, I have no stake in how it happens.

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.