Let The Holograms Invade Boxing in 2013!!

If you’re an old school Hip Hop Head with limited patience you’ve checked out of tha game right about the time every rapper started using the sir name “Lil”. You’re getting old, and that’s OK because a lot of what the Chilrun (children) are doing isn’t worth you trying to stick around for. If your one of the conspiracy theorists who thought Tupac was still alive I would hate to have been you back on April 15th at the Coachella Music Festival when a technological rising of the dead went down. The 2-D Hologram challenged many spiritually and opened a “what are we coming to?” debate all over the world; if you’ve seen it via YouTube you truly are witnessing a shot across the reality bow. Within minutes of the “siting” Dr. Dre and the money men that plan mega tours started charting the possibilities; Tupac on tour in 2013- and the online polls indicate a culture already glued to IOS devices have no problem paying for surrealism. Watching it I couldn’t help but think about boxing and the possibility of this technology on our sport. In fact the sport of Boxing is a natural fit for the Hologram invasion because we have less bureaucratic layers and regulation to hinder the process-sorry Teddy Atlas. We’re an audience that thrive on major events that rarely get made while simultaneously lionizing the memory of many champions who are no longer with us- So why can’t we be the first entertainment field to go all in?. Why can’t we lead the way in the creepy hologram take over? We lead the Sports entertainment world in everything else creepy and unethical.

 

Consider the Cost

Back in 1969 Miami promoter Murray Woroner staged a computer generated “Super Fight” between Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali that both living fighters participated in. Ali, two years previous filed a defamation lawsuit (take that Pacquiao) against the promoter for a computer simulated bout that depicted “The Greatest” losing to Jim Jeffries. The 1969 bout was made possible because the 1967 Heavyweight Tourney generated 16 million radio listeners 20 yrs. after TV devoured the medium. Aided by the crude NCR model 315 Computer and filmed fight scenes featuring a 45 yr. old Marciano donning a toupee Woroners Second effort proved to be a success. Marciano made a flat fee while Ali took his chances with a percentage of the profits, and yet customers were still denied the pleasure of seeing both men in their prime- something 2-D technology can easily provide.  What the Coachella promoters paid digital Domain Media Group to produce a 15 minute set complete with Tupac greeting a crowd he’d never greeted in life was a mere pittance in Boxing terms-couldn’t get “Money” Mayweather on the phone. However, the Vegas Casino willing to pay the holders of Ray Robinsons licensing rights and estate will find the investment in a hologram fighter well worth it. A deceased fighter may be cheaper and easier to deal with but he may also have heirs and beneficiaries who could greatly use the windfall. Right now we’ve been held hostage to economic models that don’t work, Floyd Mayweathers call to Manny Pacquiao as ludicrous as it may read on paper is not an outlier. It’s the future. How many years before Adrian Broner is telling you he’s better than Mayweather and deserves to make sure his  grandchildren are wealthy; I’m sure Joe Louis’s actual great grandchildren would love to compete (with him) for that entertainment dollar.

And Joe Louis live or digital never ducked anybody; don’t expect anything different from the laser projected version.

 

Face it; we were already primed for digital takeover

Murray Woroner once said “technology can solve any sporting argument” and this was a generation before EA Sports made Sports Simulation gaming an obsession among American males. No sporting audience is blessed with the history and pure data of Boxing, not even baseball. “Title Bout” a simulation Computer Program was successful in the early 2000’s because Boxing nerds enjoyed the deep statistically based variables, you even got to choose from a broad list of Hall of Fame trainers. The “Fight Night Champion” Franchise from EA Sports is consistently one of the better “sims” in the genre and often usurps the show at the E3 Conference. The kids who rocked to Tupac at Coachella were in diapers when he last blessed the mic, but those of us who remember him actually MADE Sports gaming relevant. We may be “older” but we are on the cusp of the debate as to whether the technology will be welcomed. We remember when everyone of any note fought one another and now we live lives where technology uses us of practically everything else-why not hologram bouts streamed to my Ipad? Robinson vs. Leonard anyone? Younger fans (who we lose to MMA) may be drawn to a Sport that provides “next level” Telepresence; no more boring a twenty something with your opinion-just put him in MSG circa 1950 with Ray Robinson as his host. And don’t think Advertisers and Sponsors  wouldn’t line up to support “surreal boxing” in a way they wouldn’t support the real thing. They don’t have to worry about Boxing wetting itself with human judging or debacles like Mayweather vs. Ortiz, the technology practically guarantees viewers an action packed spectacle. What happened between Chavez and Martinez was special, but face it; you’d like to see if his dad can pull it off against Roberto Duran.

Reality is a relative term and Boxing is good for creating realities that aren’t too pleasant, and yet we’ve survived. How many times have you watched a fight and your eyes told you that one man beat his opponent easily and then been told by the verdict it isn’t what you saw? The reality is many people are harmed by that little sleight of hand and the punches received by the victim of the decision can’t be reversed. In the right hands you can witness virtual reality that is immune from the reality of human corruption; Artificial intelligence is much preferable to some 75 year old dude still bloated from the filet mignon the night before

 

And what about the “Creepy” factor?

Clearly you must be soulless if a part of you didn’t look at the Tupac performance and feel a bit troubled. But the term digital Domain Media Group used was “Commercial Application” and I choose as an individual to think about how many boxers leave the sport with little financially to show for it. It’s creepier that Joe Frazier did not enjoy the licensing prosperity of his rival (Ali) or that George Foreman merely stamped his name on a grill and made a Billion Dollars. It’s creepier that we’ve normalized two Hall of Fame fighters in the same division never fighting. We already live in times where reality trumps anything we can dream up in our minds; who would have imagined 25 yrs. ago Boxing would be in the position we’re in now. In Japan Hatsume Miku (a hologram) is the number one pop star since 2007! at this point  American Fight Fans wouldn’t object to any  version of a great Heavyweight. When you consider the fictitious PR pushes of some fighters why would a “Hologram Heavy” that can actually fight offend anyone?  Morally it wasn’t right (and creepy) to spring a deceased celebrity with the “he aint dead” following of Tupac on a mostly impaired crowd but what I propose is heavy on disclaimers.

I wouldn’t want Sugar Ray Robinson to crash a Manny Pacquiao Post fight presser (ala Hologram Frank Sinatra at Simon Cowels Birthday bash) no more than you would but I would like the choice to see him fight Wilfred Benetiz on the Pacquiao vs. Marquez 4 undercard. I’m against Government deception, Transhumanist agenda’s (yeah you Mitt), DNA augmentation and anything that utilizes technology beyond our aptitude to control or subdue us (No Hunger Games for Me) but this is different. Like 3D Movies and other technology based “experiences” the Hologram isn’t going anywhere, the Domain Media Group stock went up 50% in the week following Tupac’s “resurrection” and this was no accident. By this time next year many Americans will get an opportunity to see Elvis live and a whole generation will learn “semi firsthand” what made him “The King”. Boxing fans should be first in line to re-introduce our legends virtually and push the entertainment experience beyond previous levels of intimacy. Do something before the NFL and MMA for once! We speak of the dead more than any other sport in America; why else did Bert Sugar’s passing affect us like it did? Replete with fedora and cigar Sugar embodied our oral tradition and great history of storytelling. He’s probably in the afterlife at this very minute chatting up Archie Moore and telling him “they got this thing down there called holograms, are you still in shape?”