Boxing And Free Speech From April 2012

Boxing and The First Amendment

By Martin Wade

 

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 Floyd's 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 some shit 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 cancellation 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.