From my heavily fortified underground bunker in Central Mexico, welcome to the first in a long series of frustrated, mean-spirited Monday Rants…And, yeah, I realize that this initial “Monday” Rant is being published on a Tuesday…sue me.
Rant #1
As I was going through news stories yesterday, I couldn’t help but remember a nice little message I got a couple of weeks back:
Do you have anything original or is everything you post STOLEN scoops from other websites? Change the column to the Daily Plagiarism because it doesn’t take much “grind” to spend ten minutes cutting and pasting the material of other websites who work for their content. Any two year old can do this amateurish “daily grind” crap you talentless shit.
Normally, I wouldn’t pay any attention to someone like this (when morons hate me, I feel justified in my fight), but he/she/ it DOES bring up a good point… not necessarily the point that the writer had in mind (i.e. That I suck), but he/she/ it definitely puts his finger on something.
All of the stories that my fan accused me of stealing were stories from legit newspapers that had been lifted and re-written by the major boxing sites. Actually, the vast majority of recent major boxing stories have come from journalists in the written media.
You’re more likely to get the real stories from places like The New York Daily News, LA Times, Las Vegas Review Journal and the Grand Rapids Press than the so-called legit boxing websites which are 100% dedicated to covering the sport.
I can understand small sites taking short cuts and just reporting the news gathered from other sources, but sites like Boxingscene have literally dozens of writers at their disposal and a real budget they could apply in the area of research.
So, why aren’t the boxing sites actually getting the real boxing stories?
Well, the only thing I can think of is that the newspaper guys are actually REAL journalists with the training to actually approach a news story in an objective, unbiased manner…and that means digging around and actually doing some independent research on a story.
Most of the current boxing media-types are merely fans who can put together a sentence and have had the drive to continue writing for an extended period of time. Their idea of getting a story is limited to calling up a publicist and getting an interview. They’ll get one BS version from one side of the story, then make a phone call to get the other side’s BS version. Then, somewhere in the middle, they’ll give their opinion.
All this is fine, and when done correctly, it make for an entertaining read, but it’s not journalism and it does nothing to clear up a sport where the truth is often murkier than a Chris Arreola spit bucket.
I’ve hinted and often flat-out accused the major boxing sites of being in the pockets of the promoters and I still stand by my accusations. Because, even if the site owners aren’t taking money directly from the scoundrels, they are allowing publicist bullet points to be printed as actual facts. The equivalent would be to ask the White House Press Secretary how Obama’s Presidency is going and then going to ask Rush Limbaugh the same question.
So, while everyone’s focused on cleaning up the sport by eliminating the sanctioning bodies, watching the promoters, etc…it should also be noted that we desperately need some journalists who actually behave like journalists.
To the writers out there who are in much loftier, better paid positions than me– It takes more than a cell phone full of contacts and a parking spot at the Wild Card Gym to make you a journalist…Stop kidding yourselves.
And before I get hit with any backlash hatred, I readily admit that I’m just a bomb-throwing crank in the mountains of Mexico and I have no aspirations to bring you anything other than my own take on the sport which, as anyone who knows me eventually comes to realize, is 100% correct…all the time.
Rant #2
Robert Guerrero’s performance against Joel Casamayor on last Saturday’s pay-per-view was just pathetic. He carried the Cuban for the entire fight and made the case against himself as a major league, main event fighter.
Any way you cut it, this was bad…Either Guerrero wouldn’t come forward because he was intimidated by a wobbly-legged Casamayor or he was carrying Casamayor the whole fight, making sure not to hurt his buddy.
In any case, it’s time to send Guerrero back to ESPN2 and Versus until he decides whether he wants to be a boxing star or a star who just happens to box.
Rant #3
Andre Berto has been all over Twitter with all kinds of craziness in recent months.
His latest Twitter initiative is to have his followers come up with a name for the “Berto Movement.”
My suggestion– The 962 Posse…962 being the paid attendance of his last fight.
…ya gotta problem with anything I’ve said? Let me know now or forever hold your peace…
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