Boxing and football.
Two weekend reflections:
1) The Redskins' Draft. Most people, including TWO, were pleased with the Redskins draft. That does not mean that it was a good draft, it just means that Dan Snyder's plans to ruin the franchise were thwarted and we literally were forced into making a good decision (Brian Orakpo) with our first round pick. Vinny Cerrato's inability to correctly pronounce Orakpo (he kept saying Orapko) at the post-draft press conference at first seems like a funny/harmless slip up until you consider the fact that this man is charged with vigorously and thoroughly researching the minutia of all potential players that could be drafted and thus determine the franchise's future. And Vinny doesn't know the last name of our first round pick?
If that isn't evidence enough of our scant research, consider that the Redskins also selected a LB, Cody Glenn, who had pedestrian stats and was injured/suspended for most of his senior season. When questioned about the reason for the suspension - he lied. Hey - he's an average athlete and injury prone, but at least he's dishonest! In the 7th round, we picked a wide receiver described as having "failed to impress the NFL scouts." Guess which scouts were apparently totally impressed? Vinny & co.
Hail.
2. Carl Froch - Jermaine Taylor. Arguably one of the best fights of the year came and went with very little fanfare because of the NFL draft and NBA & NHL playoff series. Taylor dominated the early part of the fight, knocking down the undefeated Froch for the first time in his career, but Froch came back and scored a TKO with 14 seconds left in the 12th and final round to win. Taylor was ahead on all cards and would have won the fight otherwise. A couple of things. First, people compared the stoppage of the fight to a fight 19 years ago involving a different Taylor. The famous 1990 Meldrick Taylor - Julio Cesar Chavez fight probably shouldn't have been stopped. However, the Froch-Taylor fight was different. TWO, who was rooting for Jermaine Taylor, believes that the fight was correctly stopped as Taylor literally could not defend himself at all -- a defenseless fighter can sustain serious damage in just a few seconds, let alone 14.
Second, Jermaine Taylor is one of those guys who is frustrating to root for. He is similar to Zab Judah, in that he is faster and more talented than almost all of his opponents. Both Judah and Taylor do not have the requisite stamina to do well against top competition in fights that go past 7 rounds. Judah also has serious lapses in concentration and some behavioral issues, which adds to his problems. Taylor, meanwhile, is incredibly likeable which makes it all the more difficult to stomach what appears to be a lack of adequate preparation. If you look at Taylor's losses, he was faster than and should have knocked out Kelly Pavlik in Taylor-Pavlik I and lost a close fight in Taylor-Pavlik II. Taylor was clearly the faster and more powerful boxer through the first half of the Froch fight. Had he not completely collapsed in the 12th round - literally, anything short of a knockout or stoppage - he wins the fight. Zab Judah, meanwhile, has been outclassed by two fighters - Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto (the latter just barely). His four other losses, in TWO's opinion, have been due to failure to adequately prepare or lapses in concentration. Even the Kostya Tszyu fight generally favored Zab, until he took 4 seconds off at the end of the 2nd round, got punched in the mouth and then staggered around jabbering to the referree like a drunk businessman hitting on a flight attendant on a turbulent plane.
What a simile!
In conclusion, Hatton in an upset over Pacquiao this weekend.
Showing posts with label boxing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boxing. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Weekend Ombudsman: Musings
I have varied interests.
TWO spent a lot of time thinking this weekend. Here are some musings:
1) The Masters. Is there any other sport where the fans dress exactly like the athletes? Golfers all have their own style, from the understated, to the full-vest/visor accoutrement ensemble, to the late great Payne Stewart, who did his own thing. Here Payne appears to be playing golf for the Chicago Bears. I miss Payne Stewart.
But back to the issue. So I will accept the actual golfers wearing whatever they feel they need to to compete. But why is it necessary for fans (ignore numbering) to dress the same way? Yeah, honey - I've got tickets to the Masters...have you seen my golf pants, three button shirt, functionless golf vest and PING sun visor - I should probably bring my glove too, just in case.
Its as if each fan is hoping that, against all odds, Phil Mickelson might turn to them in the gallery and say - "Hey... you...yeah....you look like you know golf. Why don't you come out here and talk to me about this next hole. Hell - do you want to hit for me?"
"Why YES! Its a good thing I wore all my golf gear!"
Can you imagine this in any other sport? Do you see fans at a basketball game wearing high tops, ankles taped, headbands on, mouth guards in? Are women in the stands at Wimbledon wearing wristbands and tennis skirts - like a tennis match could break out at any point on their way to the ladies room and concession stand?
2. Economics. Two things interested TWO this weekend: price stickiness and stock market projections.
First, free market proponents (of which TWO is one) hail the ability of prices to fluctuate relatively quickly to reflect market conditions. However there are some areas where this does not happen. One area - a particularly troubling one - is commercial real estate. In New York City for example, where unemployment is skyrocketing, incomes and spending are falling, and businesses are failing, one would expect that rents charged to commercial tenants would decrease across the board. They have not. Many landlords have increased their rents up to 6%. As a result, businesses are closing their doors all over the city. Why?
The answer is that commercial rents typically lag well behind residential rents. Most of the commercial landlords have earned so much money from rents over the life of their holdings, that they can afford to receive no rent for extended periods of time. Banking on the fact that the economy will recover eventually, these landlords would rather get nothing for a year or so than lower rents and lock themselves into a 10 year lease at a rate that will be, in a few years, viewed as beneath market value.
While the landlords' behavior could be viewed as rational on a certain time horizon, it undeniably acts to sink us deeper into recession. TWO knows of a number of entrepreneurs interested in starting new businesses that have not been able to because of unreasonably high rents. The aggregated effects of this are immense when one considers that more than half (51% in 2004) of all employed people work for small businesses (defined as companies with less than 500 employees).
Second, many of you may have heard about investment houses issuing internal projections of 10% or more gains in equities by the end of 2009. Many think that this signals the beginning of the end of the economic downturn. They should think again.
Increases in equities can not be viewed outside of the context of money supply and spending levels. The deficit is already nearly $1 trillion, only half way through 2009. This is two times the highest-ever annual deficit. Barring increases in actual production, all of this spending - mostly funded by simply printing more money - will manifest itself in inflation. Inflationary periods are typically times when the bond market suffers (creditors are hurt and debtors are helped) and equity markets can do well, in nominal terms. However, in real terms, there is no reason to think that equity gains - if any - will signify any actual improvement in our economy - and in fact there is some reason to think that it might signify a dangerously inflation.
3. Boxing. Three things. First, Paul Williams, who dominated Winky Wright on Saturday, should never lose a fight. He is a 6 foot 2 inch boxer who fights anywhere from 147 - 160. He has an 82 inch wingspan and throws over 100 punches a round. He was - somehow - upset in one fight (in the re-match Williams avenged his loss with a devastating 1st round knockout). But that fluke aside, this guy should beat everyone at 147 and 154 and possibly even 160 (although Kelly Pavlik could be a tough matchup). Look for Williams and light-heavyweight Chad Dawson (with honorable mention to welterweight Andre Berto) to be the next great American boxing stars.
I purposely did not mention Chris Arreola. I am a Chris Arreola fan - he has an aggressive and fan-friendly style in the ring and star quality (complete with amazing interviews) outside of it. But before Arreola can convince me that he is ready to be the Mexican Tyson, he will have to show up for big fights in better shape. Additionally, Arreola takes a lot of hits. It is unclear how he would fare against a Klitschko were the fight to go into the late rounds and stamina became a factor.
Third, is there any sports show better than 24/7? The new series, of course, is about Hatton and Pacquioa's May 2nd fight. My view: I would short Pacman. I think Pacman's value is a bit inflated because of his domination of a frail Oscar De La Hoya. And because of exaggerated odds, Hatton might be the better bet. Look for odds to narrow closer to fight night.
In conclusion, I could out-box most economists.
TWO spent a lot of time thinking this weekend. Here are some musings:
1) The Masters. Is there any other sport where the fans dress exactly like the athletes? Golfers all have their own style, from the understated, to the full-vest/visor accoutrement ensemble, to the late great Payne Stewart, who did his own thing. Here Payne appears to be playing golf for the Chicago Bears. I miss Payne Stewart.
But back to the issue. So I will accept the actual golfers wearing whatever they feel they need to to compete. But why is it necessary for fans (ignore numbering) to dress the same way? Yeah, honey - I've got tickets to the Masters...have you seen my golf pants, three button shirt, functionless golf vest and PING sun visor - I should probably bring my glove too, just in case.
Its as if each fan is hoping that, against all odds, Phil Mickelson might turn to them in the gallery and say - "Hey... you...yeah....you look like you know golf. Why don't you come out here and talk to me about this next hole. Hell - do you want to hit for me?"
"Why YES! Its a good thing I wore all my golf gear!"
Can you imagine this in any other sport? Do you see fans at a basketball game wearing high tops, ankles taped, headbands on, mouth guards in? Are women in the stands at Wimbledon wearing wristbands and tennis skirts - like a tennis match could break out at any point on their way to the ladies room and concession stand?
2. Economics. Two things interested TWO this weekend: price stickiness and stock market projections.
First, free market proponents (of which TWO is one) hail the ability of prices to fluctuate relatively quickly to reflect market conditions. However there are some areas where this does not happen. One area - a particularly troubling one - is commercial real estate. In New York City for example, where unemployment is skyrocketing, incomes and spending are falling, and businesses are failing, one would expect that rents charged to commercial tenants would decrease across the board. They have not. Many landlords have increased their rents up to 6%. As a result, businesses are closing their doors all over the city. Why?
The answer is that commercial rents typically lag well behind residential rents. Most of the commercial landlords have earned so much money from rents over the life of their holdings, that they can afford to receive no rent for extended periods of time. Banking on the fact that the economy will recover eventually, these landlords would rather get nothing for a year or so than lower rents and lock themselves into a 10 year lease at a rate that will be, in a few years, viewed as beneath market value.
While the landlords' behavior could be viewed as rational on a certain time horizon, it undeniably acts to sink us deeper into recession. TWO knows of a number of entrepreneurs interested in starting new businesses that have not been able to because of unreasonably high rents. The aggregated effects of this are immense when one considers that more than half (51% in 2004) of all employed people work for small businesses (defined as companies with less than 500 employees).
Second, many of you may have heard about investment houses issuing internal projections of 10% or more gains in equities by the end of 2009. Many think that this signals the beginning of the end of the economic downturn. They should think again.
Increases in equities can not be viewed outside of the context of money supply and spending levels. The deficit is already nearly $1 trillion, only half way through 2009. This is two times the highest-ever annual deficit. Barring increases in actual production, all of this spending - mostly funded by simply printing more money - will manifest itself in inflation. Inflationary periods are typically times when the bond market suffers (creditors are hurt and debtors are helped) and equity markets can do well, in nominal terms. However, in real terms, there is no reason to think that equity gains - if any - will signify any actual improvement in our economy - and in fact there is some reason to think that it might signify a dangerously inflation.
3. Boxing. Three things. First, Paul Williams, who dominated Winky Wright on Saturday, should never lose a fight. He is a 6 foot 2 inch boxer who fights anywhere from 147 - 160. He has an 82 inch wingspan and throws over 100 punches a round. He was - somehow - upset in one fight (in the re-match Williams avenged his loss with a devastating 1st round knockout). But that fluke aside, this guy should beat everyone at 147 and 154 and possibly even 160 (although Kelly Pavlik could be a tough matchup). Look for Williams and light-heavyweight Chad Dawson (with honorable mention to welterweight Andre Berto) to be the next great American boxing stars.
I purposely did not mention Chris Arreola. I am a Chris Arreola fan - he has an aggressive and fan-friendly style in the ring and star quality (complete with amazing interviews) outside of it. But before Arreola can convince me that he is ready to be the Mexican Tyson, he will have to show up for big fights in better shape. Additionally, Arreola takes a lot of hits. It is unclear how he would fare against a Klitschko were the fight to go into the late rounds and stamina became a factor.
Third, is there any sports show better than 24/7? The new series, of course, is about Hatton and Pacquioa's May 2nd fight. My view: I would short Pacman. I think Pacman's value is a bit inflated because of his domination of a frail Oscar De La Hoya. And because of exaggerated odds, Hatton might be the better bet. Look for odds to narrow closer to fight night.
In conclusion, I could out-box most economists.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Boxing Ombudsman: Missing You Like Candy
The Worlds Ombudsman se gusta el boxeo.
I am tired of the casual, unchallenged references by people that "boxing is in a decline." You can find such references to boxing's death on blogs and mainstream sites alike, and almost always it is accompanied by no statistics or even explanation: Boxing is in a decline, everyone knows it, and mixed martial arts (MMA) is so much more popular.
First - its not - boxing is by far still the more popular sport and is quite healthy. And second, there may be no sport with as many intriguing but under-publicized characters as there are in boxing.
Boxing is popular. Last month's Mosely-Margarito fight brought nearly 21,000 fans to the Staples Center in LA - the largest crowd to see any sporting event in the building's history (and this is the building where the Lakers play their home games). Boxing matches regularly get well over 1 million PPV buys (including a record of 2.4 million) while MMA's largest ever is 1.3 million. What about remuneration? Margarito and Mosely made $2.3 million and $1 million respectively for the aforementioned fight (although keep in mind that De La Hoya has made $45 million off of his fight with Floyd Mayweather). By comparison, the recent George St. Pierre - BJ Penn MMA fight paid those fighters $600,000 and $125,000 respectively. In 2008, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was the fourth highest paid athlete in the US - between Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.
And that is just in the US. Around the world, boxing is thriving. In Mexico, boxing regularly gets better TV audiences than soccer -- and as for live audiences in that country - 136,000 people saw Julio Cesar Chavez fight Greg Haugen in 1993, one of the largest crowds in history, for any sport. In the UK, Ricky Hatton drew 55,000 to Manchester Stadium for his fight with Juan Lazcano and believes that he will be able to break 136,000 given the right venue. Meanwhile, Manny Pacquaio is quite literally the Michael Jordan of the Philippines.
In addition to being the best sport to pre-game to on a Saturday night, boxing also has some incredible storylines. Many of these story lines are routinely ignored by the mainstream US media, which is the driving force behind the claim that boxing is declining. Refuse to cover enough stories, and maybe the prophecy will be self-fulfilling. But not yet.
Here are 5 boxers that have intriguing stories... if the press were doing its job, all but Miranda would be household names in this country in the same way that Lebron James, Tom Brady and Derrick Jeter are.
1) The Ageless Bernard Hopkins. The Philadelphia native was sentenced to prison by his 18th birthday for countless muggings and burglaries. Upon leaving, he told the skeptical warden "I ain't coming back." After deciding that boxing would be his salvation, he had his first fight in 1988...and lost. Twenty years later, he is considered one of boxing's all-time greats. This past October, at age 43, as many boxing pundits were predicting his retirement, Hopkins shocked the world when he upset 26 year old previously undefeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. How can you not love this? The only age gap that surprised me more was today when I learned that my girl Mandy Moore is engaged to Bryan Adams. Weird.
2) The Columbian Slumdog Millionaire, Edison Miranda. Miranda was abandoned by his mother at one month old and essentially grew up as a street child in Buenaventura, eating stray cats and stealing to survive. At age 9 he was able to save enough money to search for and locate his mother in the countryside, only to have her reject him again. Back in the city, he began boxing at a local gym because they would let him sleep there. Fast forward 10 years -he's making six figures to knock people out of the ring. Speaking of rings, at least Freida Pinto is still available - go to hell Bryan Adams.
3) Manny Pacquaio, The People's Champ. The Pacman rose from poverty to be widely considered the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world as well as easily the most widely recognized celebrity in the Philippines. Pacquiao has funded countless medical clinics, schools and infrastructure work in poor areas in the Phillipines, including at one point coming back from a fight and actually handing out money to thousands of people in a poor neighborhood. So popular is Pacman, that he has already acted in movies, starred in a video game, appeared on a postage stamp and run for congress. In December he moved up significantly in weight to fight Oscar De La Hoya. Most experts predicted an easy win for the bigger De La Hoya, instead it was one of the most surprisingly one-sided fights in recent memory, as Pacquaio utterly dominated the fight, likely ending De La Hoya's career. Pacquaio is scheduled to fight Ricky Hatton in May. There have been no discussions, to my knowledge, about a future fight with the other People's Champ, Paul Wall. Paul Wall, incidentally, is the jeweler behind Mandy's engagement grill. Fact.
4) Ricky Hatton, the Everyman. Hatton, a fighter from Manchester, England, has a band of soccer-turned-boxing hooligans who follow him all over the world, drunkenly singing, pounding drums and blowing horns. Sometimes they show up at events having nothing to do with boxing and do this. Hatton, himself, is just as amusing. Accused of drinking and eating too much between fights, Hatton regularly shows up for weigh ins (and even matches) wearing a fat suit and calling himself Ricky Fatton. For reasons known only to him, he calls himself an honorary Mexican and wears a sombrero when entering the ring while Blue Moon, the Manchester City song, plays on the loudspeakers. Also, he is nasty - 45 wins with only one loss (to Floyd Mayweather). Speaking of nasty, I'm still having trouble stomaching the Mandy Moore - Ryan Cabrera news. Cabrera's twin brother, Steelers place kicker Jeff Reed, is reportedly handling bachelor party duties.
5) Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather. One of the best boxers ever and one of the most polarizing figures in all of sports, Mayweather is undefeated, untied and technically retired. But his love of money and royal treatment lead most pundits to believe that he'll be back, probably to fight Manny Pacquaio, if Pacman can beat Hatton. How much does Floyd love money? Here's him counting sweaty packets of money he keeps in a drawer and putting them in a big duffel bag, just because. My favorite part is that at one point Floyd, apparently worried that a viewer may have just tuned in and become confused and disoriented by what he or she was seeing, helpfully says "Thats seven hundred thousand... in a bag." And that's exactly what you're seeing...just bringing everyone up to speed. Is this jewels in a satchel? Is this travellers cheques in a box? Is this gold bullion in a rucksack? What is this I'm seeing? No no no...this is seven hundred thousand...in a bag. From Dancing With The Stars, to bizarre outings with 50 cent (you'll notice Ryan Cabrera mc-ing in that clip -- come ON Mandy) Mayweather loves attention and will likely be fighting soon - stay tuned.
In conclusion, I challenge any singer on the current Billboard Adult/Contemporary Top 40 to a slap fight. You hear me Jason Mraz?
I am tired of the casual, unchallenged references by people that "boxing is in a decline." You can find such references to boxing's death on blogs and mainstream sites alike, and almost always it is accompanied by no statistics or even explanation: Boxing is in a decline, everyone knows it, and mixed martial arts (MMA) is so much more popular.
First - its not - boxing is by far still the more popular sport and is quite healthy. And second, there may be no sport with as many intriguing but under-publicized characters as there are in boxing.
Boxing is popular. Last month's Mosely-Margarito fight brought nearly 21,000 fans to the Staples Center in LA - the largest crowd to see any sporting event in the building's history (and this is the building where the Lakers play their home games). Boxing matches regularly get well over 1 million PPV buys (including a record of 2.4 million) while MMA's largest ever is 1.3 million. What about remuneration? Margarito and Mosely made $2.3 million and $1 million respectively for the aforementioned fight (although keep in mind that De La Hoya has made $45 million off of his fight with Floyd Mayweather). By comparison, the recent George St. Pierre - BJ Penn MMA fight paid those fighters $600,000 and $125,000 respectively. In 2008, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was the fourth highest paid athlete in the US - between Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.
And that is just in the US. Around the world, boxing is thriving. In Mexico, boxing regularly gets better TV audiences than soccer -- and as for live audiences in that country - 136,000 people saw Julio Cesar Chavez fight Greg Haugen in 1993, one of the largest crowds in history, for any sport. In the UK, Ricky Hatton drew 55,000 to Manchester Stadium for his fight with Juan Lazcano and believes that he will be able to break 136,000 given the right venue. Meanwhile, Manny Pacquaio is quite literally the Michael Jordan of the Philippines.
In addition to being the best sport to pre-game to on a Saturday night, boxing also has some incredible storylines. Many of these story lines are routinely ignored by the mainstream US media, which is the driving force behind the claim that boxing is declining. Refuse to cover enough stories, and maybe the prophecy will be self-fulfilling. But not yet.
Here are 5 boxers that have intriguing stories... if the press were doing its job, all but Miranda would be household names in this country in the same way that Lebron James, Tom Brady and Derrick Jeter are.
1) The Ageless Bernard Hopkins. The Philadelphia native was sentenced to prison by his 18th birthday for countless muggings and burglaries. Upon leaving, he told the skeptical warden "I ain't coming back." After deciding that boxing would be his salvation, he had his first fight in 1988...and lost. Twenty years later, he is considered one of boxing's all-time greats. This past October, at age 43, as many boxing pundits were predicting his retirement, Hopkins shocked the world when he upset 26 year old previously undefeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. How can you not love this? The only age gap that surprised me more was today when I learned that my girl Mandy Moore is engaged to Bryan Adams. Weird.
2) The Columbian Slumdog Millionaire, Edison Miranda. Miranda was abandoned by his mother at one month old and essentially grew up as a street child in Buenaventura, eating stray cats and stealing to survive. At age 9 he was able to save enough money to search for and locate his mother in the countryside, only to have her reject him again. Back in the city, he began boxing at a local gym because they would let him sleep there. Fast forward 10 years -he's making six figures to knock people out of the ring. Speaking of rings, at least Freida Pinto is still available - go to hell Bryan Adams.
3) Manny Pacquaio, The People's Champ. The Pacman rose from poverty to be widely considered the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world as well as easily the most widely recognized celebrity in the Philippines. Pacquiao has funded countless medical clinics, schools and infrastructure work in poor areas in the Phillipines, including at one point coming back from a fight and actually handing out money to thousands of people in a poor neighborhood. So popular is Pacman, that he has already acted in movies, starred in a video game, appeared on a postage stamp and run for congress. In December he moved up significantly in weight to fight Oscar De La Hoya. Most experts predicted an easy win for the bigger De La Hoya, instead it was one of the most surprisingly one-sided fights in recent memory, as Pacquaio utterly dominated the fight, likely ending De La Hoya's career. Pacquaio is scheduled to fight Ricky Hatton in May. There have been no discussions, to my knowledge, about a future fight with the other People's Champ, Paul Wall. Paul Wall, incidentally, is the jeweler behind Mandy's engagement grill. Fact.
4) Ricky Hatton, the Everyman. Hatton, a fighter from Manchester, England, has a band of soccer-turned-boxing hooligans who follow him all over the world, drunkenly singing, pounding drums and blowing horns. Sometimes they show up at events having nothing to do with boxing and do this. Hatton, himself, is just as amusing. Accused of drinking and eating too much between fights, Hatton regularly shows up for weigh ins (and even matches) wearing a fat suit and calling himself Ricky Fatton. For reasons known only to him, he calls himself an honorary Mexican and wears a sombrero when entering the ring while Blue Moon, the Manchester City song, plays on the loudspeakers. Also, he is nasty - 45 wins with only one loss (to Floyd Mayweather). Speaking of nasty, I'm still having trouble stomaching the Mandy Moore - Ryan Cabrera news. Cabrera's twin brother, Steelers place kicker Jeff Reed, is reportedly handling bachelor party duties.
5) Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather. One of the best boxers ever and one of the most polarizing figures in all of sports, Mayweather is undefeated, untied and technically retired. But his love of money and royal treatment lead most pundits to believe that he'll be back, probably to fight Manny Pacquaio, if Pacman can beat Hatton. How much does Floyd love money? Here's him counting sweaty packets of money he keeps in a drawer and putting them in a big duffel bag, just because. My favorite part is that at one point Floyd, apparently worried that a viewer may have just tuned in and become confused and disoriented by what he or she was seeing, helpfully says "Thats seven hundred thousand... in a bag." And that's exactly what you're seeing...just bringing everyone up to speed. Is this jewels in a satchel? Is this travellers cheques in a box? Is this gold bullion in a rucksack? What is this I'm seeing? No no no...this is seven hundred thousand...in a bag. From Dancing With The Stars, to bizarre outings with 50 cent (you'll notice Ryan Cabrera mc-ing in that clip -- come ON Mandy) Mayweather loves attention and will likely be fighting soon - stay tuned.
In conclusion, I challenge any singer on the current Billboard Adult/Contemporary Top 40 to a slap fight. You hear me Jason Mraz?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)