Commentary Lessons From Dark Nights of boxing involving San Antonio boxers ignored in New Mexico Friday: commentary by Esteban Erik Stipnieks all rights reserved!
While Felipe Casteneda was eating and resting for his fight which he would lose. At the route 66 Casino a story with 2 to 3 San Antonio connections was playing out. In many ways it was a repeat of several ugly incidents whose lessons should be learned. This editorial is the gentle tossing of some elbows to make a point about the media and its role in boxing….it is also an editorial about the changing face of internet media and how it can turn and bite in the butt the very fighter it was supposed to tout.
First lets look at where the Holly Holm story intersects local boxing….there is one direct connection and two parallels. Early in Holly Holm’s career local boxer Terry Carrillo fought her. Terry who was fighting out of Angel’s boxing gym at the time took the fight on short notice not knowing too much about Holly Holm (Two mistakes) . You had a classic open to interpretation exchange where the promoter told Terry Holly wrote with one hand…(leaving out she fought different) and well Terry Carrillo was an easy notch in Holly’s belt. Terry was knocked out. This is an interesting anecdote which highlights some of the protection Holly Holm received. This shows Holm’s record had some inflation. in terms of what actually happened Friday night December 2 this anecdote in buried as tertiary cause to the ugly events played out live over the internet.
The furthest parallel is Oscar Diaz’s last fight (optimistic corner) the closer parallel is local boxer Christian Ruiz V Emily Klinefelter thankfully the outcome was not as bad. The Ruiz v Klinefelter had what Holly Holm V Anne Sophie Mathis (friendly commission and media under promoter influence).
Lets be direct….the role of the corner. Delvin Rodriguez V Oscar Diaz is the most relevant parallel in San Antonio. Delvin talking to Joseph Herron who writes for fight saga and has a radio program complained that Oscar’s corner fed Oscar information when he was asked the number of fingers…..(taps on the back) Oscar’s corner was hoping for the knockout that was not there. Holly Holm’s corner was in a similar position that Emily Klinefelter’s corner found themselves in. Winklejohn (Holly's trainer) said he considered throwing in the towel. Bottom line he did not. The corner of Diaz, Holm, Klinefelter found themselves state of disbelief that their fighter was being well so hammered this got compounded by the hope of a miracle comeback win by knockout by the fighter getting beaten up.
The 2nd element well Anne Sophie Mathis found herself in a position that Christina Ruiz found herself in. It involves financial ties an incestuous relationship between promoter/commission/fighter/media. First the media will be looked at than the commission nexus. Anne Sophie Mathis and Christina Ruiz both had to knockout their opponent period.
For a long time Lenny Fresquez purchased advertising on
www.nexmexicoboxing.com and Sue TL Fox handled web mastering from Fresquez those two media outlets were the primary media outlets at the venue. After the failure of Holm V Hernandez Cozzone and Fox did modify some their behavior. Post fight Cozzone found he could be independent. The Emily Klinefelter V Ruiz the ties were not so brazen but the media was awfully naïve in their coverage initially it was almost a scripted WWE match that went wrong.Finally we have the actions of the commission. The Holm V Mathis bout occurred technically not in New Mexico but on tribal state tribal property. The New Mexico commission had nothing to do with it. The refereeing of the fight has been criticized thankfully it was on web cast where the actual fight was viewed. The commission in Iowa LOST 2 Score cards With Ruiz v Klinefelter in addition to well ignoring the rule that an ambulance should have been at the venue. Furthermore the doctor ringside was unqualified to be there. Anne Sophie Mathis after the fight said the fight should have been stopped sooner and Chris Cozzone said as much as well. God only knows what became of 2 of 3 score cards in Ruiz V Klinefelter. Both fights Klinefelter V Ruiz and Sophie Mathis V Holm had a knockdown ruled a slip.
It is always an uncomfortable position where financial ties exist between reporter and reportee. It is always bad when commission/promoter/fighter have incestuous links. The events of Feb 5, 2011 I hoped would not be repeated. To some extent the lessons need to repeated….stronger boxing commissions who enforce the law well in black and white. A good well written policy is only as effective as its uniform enforcement. Boxing has been hurting itself with WWE professional wrestling antics by boxing commissions. The poor reffing and scoring of boxing is world wide and both genders. This is destroying ticket sales. This destruction of ticket sales is so preventable.
We have an object lesson about corner behavior. The rose colored glasses trap his highlighted tragically in two cases and fearfully in the third. The corners involved sent their fighter out long after the fight should have been stopped. Two of those fights involved San Antonio fighters. Those two fights ended with a boxer in the hospital suffering a brain bleed.
Finally we have the issue of boxing and media. Right now with the economic factors its hard not to take money from a promoter a boxer or a gym. At the turn of the 20th century a politician quipped that a really good politician could take lots of stuff from someone lobbying them and than ignore them legislatively. While the quote was crass it speaks to what happens in the boxing world. When boxing media starts doing the promoters bidding and starts looking the other way on issues it can get ugly. Its being objective and having the courage to offend the person giving you the green if the chips are down. Also in offending a given gym you might be doing the boxer a favor!
A boxer’s seconds must be objective and the odds of winning the fight by last minute KO, Their must be no bias shown by a boxing commission, media must seek to be objective. These are the bigger lessons of Ruiz V Klinefelter ignored by those close to boxing.
UPDATED The Tiger Spoke ADDENDUM: This morning (almost a week after the fight) I got up and found Sue Fox finally wrote out what call I good editorial about the fight. Boxing media had been on this even Saturday (less than 24 hours after the fight) Cozzone the intensity of this story was quite real for 48-72 hours after. I do not know the exact method of site updating but even in amateur boxing I prefer to do things particularly about safety issues post haste. There are lines I wrote on professional boxing reports and am boxing reports that addressed safety issues within 24 hours of the fight. There are things I do not know. There are things where their is no data from which to speculate why almost a week elapsed from the weigh in to comment.