Boxing and the First Amendment
By Martin Wade (April 16, 2012)
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I
have bad news to announce boxing fans; from the looks of Max Kellermans
“Face Off” and the first episode of 24/7 Floyd Mayweather won’t be
saying anything that challenges your humanity. Miguel Cotto is just too
damned worthy of Floyds respect as a fighter and more importantly as a
man, there’s nothing in his “story” that will attract Floyd to cross the
line-this may be a much needed departure for Floyd’s pastor but boring
for the sycophants. In the meantime many of us are either counting the
days until the NBA play-offs or listening to the grainy Gregg Williams
audio encouraging violent men to be violent. Mind you his words led to
an ass kicking courtesy the San Francisco 49’ers but it was the “intent”
that on many levels have many “thoughtful” fans who scream for murder
on Sunday to question the assistant coaches “morals”. Or just maybe
you’ve dined on the Ozzie Guillan apology press conference where he
expressed remorse (to Miami’s Cuban elite) for the dumbass “big ups” he
gave to Fidel Castro. While the hypocrisy is filling my throat like a
room with no windows and Snoop Dog I think about the Right to Free
Speech and how our “sport” in some ways function within the true spirit
of the First amendment.
For Better or Worse.
Like
most people with nothing to lose there’s a true liberty and ability to
play it fast and loose when nobody gives a damn about you. A speech like
the one Gregg Williams made (to the Saints Defense) is not only tame
but low functioning in a sport like ours, where the sole object is to
injure the man across the ring from you. Essentially what he “suggested”
is put in even more graphic terms between every round of every fight
witnessed by viewers; hence there is no sponsor funded delusion about
what it is your watching on HBO. When Boxers or those associated with
Boxing say something that may not be politically incorrect our more
civilized brethren simply shrug and say “of course, it’s boxing”. While
whiny ex athletes line up to tell Skip Bayless he hurt their feelings
boxing is an arena where feelings are the LAST thing to get hurt. Investigator to Ray Robinson at 1947 Jimmy Doyle manslaughter hearing: When did you (Robinson) know you had him in trouble?
Robinson: “They pay me to get him in Trouble”
Martin Wade 2012: Only a Boxer can say something like this.
Unlike
Football Fans we aren’t sheltered from the coarse, rough language of
the sport, many of us use it ourselves when discussing fighters. Mike
Tyson may have brought the Prison to the microphone but the Prison was
in the sport as far back as Sonny Liston- face it, in highly masculine
environments cats “say stuff” that would make a Croc wearer look for the
exit. Could you see a vintage Don King talking to a mostly black
defense about a white quarterback? Convincing them that the QB is a
symbol for white male oppression? Boxing now yawns at the race card
because it’s been on the table since Johnson vs. Jeffries in 1910. What
men like King have done over the years is the opposite of Pete Rozelle;
he used Free Speech to repel Corporate America from a violent product.
If Boxing makes a Billion dollars in revenue it wouldn’t be to the
benefit of many and there’s no infrastructure in place that would allow a
network to simply buy all the rights to broadcast it. When Ricardo
Mayorga insults a deceased parent or Mike Tyson threatens to rape
journalists who do you turn to for economic sanction? What entity keeps
Boxers from expressing themselves? Fans? Floyd Mayweather may have been
“hatin” on Jeremy Lin but one thing he said does ring true, team sport
athletes are bound to political correctness contractually-it’s called a
morals clause.
Football
Players, even the borderline convicts have to put on an appropriate
face despite a work environment that is rooted in violence, homophobia
and all manner of social debauchery. Dan Lebatard, Miami columnist while
speaking about the recent pro Castro Ozzie Guillen statements put it
best when he said “ if you’re gonna offend someone pick on someone with a
poor advocacy group”. Howard Bryant called the Guillen situation a
matter of “audience” not speech, Guillen would fit right in with Boxing.
Boxing fans are nearly impossible to offend and even when we are we
never take the next step because somewhere deep in our subconscious we
know that the sport we love (legalized assault) is at its core
offensive. We’ve yet to make the consumer connection between
“withholding of goods and services’ and the Mayweather/Pacquiao debacle;
that we pay subscription fees to entities that cannot guarantee us a
“Super Bowl” in any division. Words can’t offend us because we’ve been
bludgeoned into a perpetual state of desensitization -we’re numb to them
because punches hold the real power.
Asian
American advocacy groups went after the ESPN anchor that used Jeremy
Lins name in stereotypical word puns and ignored “world famous” Floyd
Mayweather. Why? Because ESPN and their corporate sponsors pay millions
to stay above the fray and Floyd Mayweather is only financially tied to
the IRS, his Children, and Sports Betting websites. Mayweather (episode
1, 24/7) even used a dogfighting analogy and dared PETA to confront him
because “ima rock my mink coats”, but the people at PETA are big game
hunters and Floyd (to them) is a corporate Welterweight. Even Larry
Merchant can threaten to kick Mayweathers ass on live TV with no
repercussions, can you imagine an NFL anchor expressing a clear negative
bias towards a team or athlete? Would the NBA who (with kudos from
black journalists) enforced a dress-code for the comfort of Corporate
fat cats in the wine and cheese section allow an on air anchor to say
what he really thinks of the baller formally known as Ron Artest?
Freedom of speech is not immunity from consequences, especially when
that speech interferes with somebodies money. In Boxing when PPV sales
are weak you can count on inflammatory speech to drive the ‘buys” up in
the week before a fight. Like pantomime theatre Bernard Hopkins tells an
assembled media that no “white boy” will ever whip his ass, but the
cynic in me believes he played the race card because it’s one of the few
remaining dog whistles in the sport.
What
would have tested the bounds of Free Speech is Naseem Hamed had he made
an honest effort to avenge his April 2001 loss to Marco Antonio
Barrera. Already an obnoxious lightning rod the well paid featherweight
was known to express his Islamic faith after each and every fight.
America was bloodthirsty back then and Islamaphobia was just starting to
kick in after the atrocity of 9/11, had Hamed turned the tables on
Barrera in the spring of 2002 we would have probably witnessed the most
despised Boxer since a Vietnam draft era Muhammad Ali. By the way we owe
a lot of our wiggle room to Muhammad Ali who covered more ground (as an
active boxer) than most Politicians. He even made it possible for
promoters and media types to flex their blowhard muscles and say
whatever the hell they wanted during the buildup to major fights. In a
lot of ways we are all verbally inheritors and the “Children of Ali”.
No
wonder the fight game is the last bastion for mavericks, charlatans and
carnival barkers. Our media contingent is filled with individuals who
tend to take their First Amendment Rights all too (cough) literally,
including yours truly. Proudly, we boast the most interestingly wide
spectrum of voices and our internet presence is so ingrained that
mainstream outlets have to go through us just to find the best writing
on the sport. Frankly, I’m not sure I would know what to do if I
witnessed a Boxing press conference that was politically correct. No
scantily clad women because Women’s groups were watching, no profanity
nor threats to render a foe KTFO-despite that being the safest and
quickest way to avoid long-term health issues. Maybe Tecate could be
attacked for financing such offensive behavior but can you see their
customers calling for the cancelation of a fight?, hell, when Mexicans
are offended they want their fighters to kick somebodies ass, apology
not accepted. Even Freddie Roach (sadly) endured sickening attacks on
his Parkinson’s condition with no intervention from Parkinson’s Advocacy
Groups; this is because Roach even before being a Hall of Fame Trainer
is a Fighter, he hits back.
Boxing will always exist in the alternative universe where people say
and do things without fear of censor because it isn’t something you
play-and the people who do it aren’t the kind of people you golf with,
it’s something you “live” because the fighters know the truth is in that
squared ring- not in the spoken word.
So, in the Spirit of my First amendment rights I hope you enjoyed this article and if not you can kiss my black ass.
E-mail Martin: mar10world@aol.com
For more of Martin's work, visit BraggingRightsCorner.com
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