@AdrienBroner Will Never "Run" Boxing, And Floyd Mayweather knows it!!

 

Power isn’t complicated, but it is to those who will never come close to achieving it. If it is “given”, it’s counterfeit and can easily be stripped from you-which are why men who really want it see the “giver” as an impediment to be eliminated. Kobe Bryant is powerful because he vanquished Shaq, if he hadn’t he’d never be perceived as he is now; as a Don. Our laws are written by the powerful, and many of these people made the hard decision to take what some told them to wait for- if you can’t make that decision then you weren’t meant to be powerful in the first place.

In music the most talented step away from lifelong friends and family members to take power, ever heard of a dude named Michael Jackson? Powerful people look at their watches and the same time is always displayed 24/7 and that time is now- it’s a timezone unshared with the powerless. Floyd Mayweathers watch is always on now, and when you operate in that reality there’s a good chance there is no tomorrow for the likes of Adrien Broner.

In this buildup to a fight Broner should be applauded for taking the Cincinnati native did everything in his “power” to let you know he will be handed something from Mayweather. Something nobody else inherited, something many have had to hurt idols and friends to achieve. Muhammad Ali had the power despite his former sparring partner being heavyweight champion of the world, and even though Holmes felt deeply for the champ he had to take what was his or forever take crumbs. Rocky Marciano’s handlers knew it best, they knew he’d never be “that guy” unless he mugged Joe Louis and with that crime came financial power.

Boxing is the roughest business in sports and entertainment so it baffles me that Adrien Broner, normally an objectionable personality would be so soft in this of all matters. Did he not do his dirt on the streets like he claims? Did anyone ever “pass down” a slab of concrete to him and his crew? Especially if that concrete was the only place to get money?. What are the chances Floyd Mayweather retires and Adrien Broner collects even a 20 million dollar payday in his next fight?, only powerful people know someone of much greater financial stature has to be destroyed for this to happen.
John Gotti knew it, in fact so do most Monarchs.  

Being the best pound for pound fighter in the world is fluid and everyone is eligible, but being the money man is something contingent on lowering the financial viability of other money men. In organized crime “bosses” are routinely murdered and the wisdom from law enforcement went as such; if you want to know who killed the boss all you have to do is find out who the new boss is. Oscar De La Hoya was the boss, and Floyd Mayweather (already the superior fighter) knew then that his financial future rested on beating him on a huge stage. Adrien Broner is talented (like Floyd) and may be as obnoxious but how will he convey that on a bigger stage when he believes it will be handed to him? At this rate Floyd will leave with the stage and Adrien will remain a bitter facsimile of his mentor wondering why things aren’t unfolding as Floyd said they would. What if Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia don’t become big enough foils to reach the kind of financial solvency he believes he deserves?

Being associated with powerful people is healthy, and trying to mimic their formula (like Broner clearly does) is intelligent but believing they can bestow power upon you is what welfare recipients do. Broner pointedly tells us nobody ever gave him nothing but in the same breath believes Floyd and a volatile, unpredictable marketplace will. Having a shoulder roll and a shitty demeanor isn’t the formula for PPV success, the power will have to come from defeating a handful of recognizable names starting with Floyd himself. Zab Judah was Floyd’s best friend at one time and now he’s a footnote in Mayweathers quest for power, because the path to power isn’t easy and it is littered with broken relationships and friends. Adrien Broner is still young, still surrounded by people he feels he owes and relationships mean a lot to the young- until it’s time to pull your pants up and be a man. Young black men are often cursed with this over-emotionality in spades and sometimes they never grow out of it enough to become pragmatic, powerful people. It’s not in Floyd’s nature to share power let alone “pass it on”, because he knows that betrayal on all levels lay behind every substantial fortune.

Will it take a jail cell to make this young man see that rich and powerful are two totally different things? He says he’s “just being young and having fun” but Broner is a “live dog” to get himself in something that Mayweather the powerful could easily get himself out of. Mayweather is a proven stimulus program for Nevada so if he goes to jail there his power is a factor in the legal proceedings. Broner isn’t valuable to any local economies, at this time he’s an addendum to the Mayweather deal, a protégé or “spin off” act like Tha Dogg Pound or G-Unit -whether he can flourish outside of Mayweathers brand is yet to be seen. Real stars aren’t content with being called anyone’s “little brother” no matter how talented the older star is, and I’ve never seen a real star contented being with a cheap knock off. The only time someone is content with this distinction is if deep down they know they aren’t of the big brothers caliber, so they’ll gladly take whatever they can get from the association. If there is any hope of Broner being the face of boxing there must be underlining tension and ambition, because he’ll never reach his destination under Floyd Mayweather.

The only way to get there is over Floyd’s prone body.

 

 

Boxing: Where the Customer is Always Wrong



On Monday the WBC did something that Alphabet Organizations always do, they ranked Manny Pacquiao as Floyd Mayweather #1 challenger and mandatory defense. Now In the old days (Pre Twitter) there would be an outcry about the organization itself, their ranking practices and the arbitrary, political way they go about their business-back then the makers of the trinkets were uniformly challenged by fans at every turn. But today, if you are an alphabet crew life must be good because there’s a new villain in town that nobody ever counted on arriving-the boxing fan. Yep, the fan aka “the customer” have shown themselves to be undeserving of an organized coherent fight game because they’ve broken every cardinal rule in the book when it comes to being a paying customer.  They’ve started to identify with the very people who ask them for premium costs in exchange for a defective service.

For one, paying customers don’t personalize the people behind a given service especially if those people are committed to providing “pieces” of a service. When you pay a PPV price in 2013 it is complicity understood that you are only watching ½ of what the promoter can offer you in a particular weight class, and yet they demand inflationary prices when most of your salaries have flat lined. If you pay a cable subscription fee and buy PPV’s from both premium networks you are not out of your sorts to demand these entities work in conjunction (with one another) to provide the customer the best Boxing has to offer-YOU’RE THE CUSTOMER.

The NFL is a conglomerate of megalomaniacs who agree to a schedule and provide packages of content to several networks for billions of dollars but none of it would work if the customers weren’t provided competitive conclusions. You can see any team on one of 4 different networks throughout the season and everybody makes sure these megalomaniacs profit equally from providing a product that consumers trust. This is why a football ref makes a bad call and has to consider relocating while Steve Smoger can sleep like a baby after almost letting Glen Tapia get his career shortened on live television.

Boxing fans allow two programmers and two promotional teams to pick sides and refuse to do business with one another- this refusal is akin to colluding together in order to put promotional interests ahead of providing financially vested consumers a reliable product. Not only will these two firms refuse to enter into negotiations to provide the best programming to the customers who pay at the gate and through PPV they work in monopoly to assure no outside promoters try to answer the demand of the marketplace. The sad part is boxing fans now work in conjunction with these firms, pitting sides amongst themselves and defending the destructive polarization and the players who provide the limited services they receive.

Even the Mafia understood war was bad for business, and they often killed one another for the right to take your union dues to build casinos. Union members didn’t bicker with one another over which Mobster had the most swag or deserved to exploit them-the ones who knew what was happening to their dues didn’t glamorize the likes of Bugsy Segal.

Boxing fans piggyback the juvenile stances and statements of warring factions as if they are paid to do so, because (now) the argument over who deserves to fight whom is more rewarding than the actual fight. The players have worn the fan down, and through Stockholm syndrome the fan now identifies with the business entities who blatantly tell them “YOU WILL NOT GET THE PRODUCT YOU PAY FOR”. Customers should never allow themselves to be treated as oppressed victims unable to do something about current conditions, boxing isn’t the NFL folks-it’s a poorly built house of cards, and it would be catastrophic to any PPV to come up 500.000 buys short of projections. These are numbers the NFL picks its teeth with and yet they care about what you think, because they know if they give you “your” football it’s like a license to print money. Unlike the “old boy” network in boxing who can only feast on short sighted bank robberies. If people can use Twitter for Global Protest they can certainly use it to #OccupyBoxing. Twitter tricked fans into thinking these people “know” them and thus they’ve become fantasy managers, fake assed Al Haymons and spokespersons for entities who do nothing but fleece them- and if you point this out to them in the most objective terms they regurgitate worn out slogans (Courtesy TMT) and call you a “hater” – another term that should be stricken from adult discourse. It is a disturbing trend when “men” are willing to blindly give their money to a polarized system and accept a false Cold War scenario as a reason fights can’t be made- and nobody blinked when Big Bad Bernard Hopkins used the “term” to rationalize calling out a man 25 lbs. lighter than him. In a just system he wouldn’t be viable, in a just system he’d have to prove he’s an “Alien” by facing a “Superman”…. or go home.

When a man spends his money for something empathy for the seller should be a non-factor, do you have sympathy for the poor schmuck who served you cold French fries yesterday? Hell no you don’t.  Then you shouldn’t have feelings one way or another about men who are supposed to bring you a damned sport- stop advocating for Floyd Mayweathers “business” and handle your own finances with discriminating taste. Twitter has revealed fight fans who are more fans of the cold war than of boxing, grown men who think it’s cool that Mayweather ( after 4 years!) can say “Pacquiao who?” while telling you Amir “Chinny” Khan is up next for your 75$. Men don’t allow someone to tell them “I don’t want to make Bob Arum any money” because MEN know that ultimately before it becomes Floyds or Bobs “money” it was theirs!. The answer to Manny who? Is Manny “Better than Amir Khan” Pacquiao that’s who, men don’t sit around gossiping over the fucking details if they have no direct involvement in them- men say “work it out” or you get nothing. Since when did guys feel it was their job to play school yard insult games over two guys they’ll never meet? Since when did men think gossiping over another guys finances and who deserves what in a fight was even manly? There are websites devoted to keeping these ridiculous "divisions within divisions" going, actual propaganda jackals who parrot men who don’t want to provide unified champions in every weight class in exchange for your dollars.

And you visit them every day looking for the silly next put down you can retweet to your friends.

Manny Pacquiao is a boxer, a fine one who I’d rather see fight Floyd Mayweather on May 3^rd 2014 than anyone else- I’m too busy as an adult worrying about filling out my own tax forms than to worry about his. In fact, I don’t care about Vegas getting the fight nor who “needs” whom- like any smart consumer I know that all parties involved need me not the other way around. If you ever noticed Boxing is the one sport that mirrors our two party political system where palms are greased and nothing ever gets done. Sports are supposed to deliver us from that, which is why mainstream sports fans will always choose the socialism of the NFL over the corporate fascist dictatorship of boxing. Sport is supposed to deliver you into a purely merit driven matrix where Champions are people who have defeated all capable challengers through direct confrontation- Boxing used to be the purest expression of this principle. Being the paying customer can either be an empowering experience or one of manipulation and subjugation and it’s clear which path fight fans have chosen. We are more informed than ever, but now we’ve developed a habitualized taste for minutiae and bullshit, we’ve replaced the great addiction to action fights with a “jones” for press releases and company warfare.

Smart men of Arum and Schaefer’s ilk have often known the true path to domination is by subjecting less smart people to a chaotic environment. Through sleight of hand we’ve all lost track of the ball (the truth) and now focus only on the shell game played by a mere handful of people. Middle Class fighters have no choice but to sign on to this paradigm because they know the market will not fund nor facilitate a competing model to what we have now. The misguided will sign up for this farce the same way obscure, unsigned rap groups enlisted to shoot at one another back in 1996 on the behalf of two millionaires. I was there, and I saw people get hurt that were never afforded the dignity of a documentary of compilation CD. I am a conscientious objector to the “Cold War” in Boxing, I am not an apologist for Mayweather or Pacquiao- I am a customer and I refuse to say a foul word about either man via social media.  I deserve to see the best fighters in each division face one another (within a reasonable period of time) no matter the network or Promotional Firm In exchange for my (monthly) subscription dollars. I don’t care about any of the ancillary issues surrounding the promoter’s “job” to create a PPV star; if those issues interfere with providing the customer with a valuable product then customers should divest themselves until said party does. Instead of defending the self-interest of Floyd Mayweather fans should try imitating it, your budget will look a lot better and you just may exude a little more self-respect in other parts of your life.

And if you choose to do nothing at all, at least have the decency to stop rooting for people who mean you no good.

Camacho Whitaker Doubleheader

If Richie Incognito is an Honorary “Black Man” what does it say about Brotha’s?

It was fishy from the start, and as the black Dolphins kept opening their mouths the possibility of something truly unsettling began to manifest. The NFL is a bottom line business, productivity is king and guys like Richie Incognito sprinkle the league like undetected maggots. To make matters worse the league is largely black, and many of those brotha’s saw far more violence in their neighborhoods growing up than what they’ve seen on this here “job”. This reality breeds a certain ethos, a culture not dissimilar to that in jail or Hip Hop, a funhouse mirror where ethically everything is blurred-in other words there are no good or bad guys. The concept of “good guys” is something they sell in commercials, something that salves the consciences about what it is we are truly addicted to watching every Sunday. Controlled, State Sanctioned assault.

Unfortunately Good Guys would probably get exposed as weak if they are not so willing to sacrifice humanity and brain cells- like Jonathan Martin is being exposed now. Real intellectuals don’t participate in the high speed collision of bones, tissue, ligaments and brain matter-warning: the men who take this on for an occupation aren’t privy to your idea of what is civil nor politically correct.

And this is often at odds with the billion dollar partnerships and corporate largess curried by the suits in New York.

It’s Gladiatorial, and men like Incognito are insulated and preferred to men like Jon Martin. And there will be jackasses like Incognito in the future; as long as Football “is” what it is you will need the Richie Incognito’s of the world to be human battering rams for our entertainment. You will also need him to scapegoat when every team probably has two of him, that’s 60 (if you’re counting) douchebags folks. What I have a problem with is the racial aspect of this hazing story, the fact that Incognito was given honorary black man status and sanctioned by black teammates in his slurring of Jonathan Martin.

I won’t take an angle that will make it easy for you to dismiss me as an old dude, because I too have had white friends that I considered “honorary” but not for their propensity for degeneracy. No, it’s the standard I’m bothered by, and the fact that this clown being an honorary brotha says everything about the brotha’s that granted him such distinction. In segments of the Black Community we have this irrational need to delegitimize intelligent (or sensitive) blacks as inauthentic and then wonder why said target isn’t comfortable. If Martin was “soft” and unproductive there’s no way he would have avoided being out of the league soon, but I sense his black teammates wanted him gone sooner and Incognito was the instrument they used to facilitate that.

When the inept, faceless Coordinator masquerading as a coach went to Incognito to “toughen” Martin up he knew it could get ugly but what he didn’t know about is the low cultural standards of his black players. Many black players come from troubled backgrounds and the low self-esteem is dripping off of them like HGH, you can see it the way they act on the field and some of the stupid shit they get themselves into off the field.

What kind of person would look at a scumbag like Incognito and see a kinship? Someone from a screwed up environment that’s who; and the NFL depends on screwed up places for natural resources. We created the culture of envy in our music, relationships and language; remember it was black folks who introduced the concept of “hating” to the lexicon. Money is not a cure all for the broken psyche and if you are broken you gravitate to other people who are just as broken as you be they any ethnicity creed or religion-enter trash like Incognito. The Black Community is essentially fatherless, and that’s a whole lot of broken young men gravitating to sports for identity and masculinity. Men like Incognito are the kind of white peers you find in football, his story isn’t emotionally threatening to brotha’s but Jonathan Martins can be viewed as a deep source of envy.

The father teaches you to be a self-respecting black man first, this may encompass standing up for yourself but being cartoonish “hard” is something embraced mostly by the fatherless. Jonathan Martin was an outlier, a Stanford man in a locker room of black men who went to Football factories, his “Cosby Kid” background was so resented by the black men he worked with they looked the other way while Incognito called him a Nigger. Which speaks of brotha’s willing to prioritize being gladiatorial over being a self-respecting black man.  

I repeat, if he couldn’t “ball” he wouldn’t be there long anyway, but it was the self-hatred of his black teammates that turned this into a hate crime. We’ve struggled with it in our community long before Football became a haven for the descendants of Slaveries “eugenics” programs. We struggled with it when W.E.B Du Bois was calling Marcus Garvey a “monkey” and when Malcolm X called Martin Luther King a “House Negro”. ESPN struggled with it when Hugh Douglass, the big, tough “real” brotha attacked light skinned Michael Smith with the same slur. What does it say about us when we identify louts like Incognito and say to ourselves; “you know, that dude reminds me of a black man” I think I’ll give him honorary distinction.

Why wasn’t Ryan Tannehill, a seemingly great guy (who ran a 4.6 40 yard dash) and family man given “black guy” distinction? Is it because he’s too well adjusted? Why don’t Brotha’s give Payton Manning that distinction? is it because he’s authoritarian and black men don’t see themselves that way?. Too organized? What do you think of yourself if you think Richie Incognito is black?, I’m pretty sure there’s many Italian Americans who wouldn’t spit on his ass if he was on fire!-  because they  have the good sense to decry trash like “Mob Wives” while “we” love us some “Basketball Wives”.

Had Jonathan Martin killed Incognito’s “whole family” as his text message suggested would he then be black enough? “hard” enough to garner the respect of “real” brotha’s in the locker room. Do those African American “brotha’s” understand what the term (brotha) denotes? Do they understand what brotha’s have had to do in order to create an environment for them to showcase their talents for white consumers who idolize them? Real Brotha’s boycott the 1965 AFL All Star Game in New Orleans because local merchants called them “niggers”-how would Richie fare in that locker room?. Real Brotha’s like Jim Brown said things with conviction to the white establishment, and ruled a locker room that was 90% white finally retiring abruptly when Art Modell (and the Cleveland Media) addressed him as if he were chattel because he didn’t  report to camp when they wanted him to. Real Brotha’s are on some regal shit, and “Incognito’s” stay clear of them. Real Brotha’s made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame from small, Historically Black Institutions where young MEN were trained in every way (Mentally, Physically, Spiritually) to crush guys like Incognito. Real Black Men don’t frivolously associate with empty bullies, and they certainly don’t make him feel comfortable enough to do what they do and say what Incognito said. Real Black men don’t follow someone who is obviously mediocre; because real men can see for all his bluster this “guy” has never been a part of a dominant offensive line-he’s a clown. But then again I’m referring to real black men, while the Dolphins have shown themselves to be Nigga’s and Nigga’s are all about some substandard bullshit.

 

Open Letter To Adrien "Raw Dog" Broner: If You Really Had a "Big Brother"

 

 



I’m alone on this topic, but I feel I make enough valid points that people understand because we’ve all had complicated, duplicitous friendships-we all have had experiences with loved ones who want us to succeed on very limited terms. Mr. Broner, I’m not writing this in judgment of your conduct because I was once young, dumb and destructive like you-however I wasn’t young in the digital age. Also, I wasn’t rich, or semi (sorry kid) famous and I certainly didn’t have someone of Floyd Mayweather's caliber advocating and kinda pulling for me. A lot of young brotha’s have nobody, we come from poor family structures and the few of us with talent (like you) end up not having the skills to step out of destructive patterns of behavior into “responsible” wealth. By then Homies become dependents, and parental figures end up brushing our hair as we say things on TV that make us look like the sexually irresponsible savages bigots make us out to be- no I get it, it’s all “WorldStar” right?. At some point realize your mimicking what you “think” your “idol” did to get rich (flushing 20 dollar bills)  and now all of a sudden you find yourself boning a couple of skanks on somebodies cellphone. Did Floyd, you know your idol tell you he’s been there, done that? did he point out that most brotha’s don’t really get to his level without his with sex tapes?.

Did he even bother to tell you before you leaked it that Ray J went back to the Chitlin circuit after going that route? That the whole purpose of the tape is useless if you’re not banging an heir of some sort?

His Daddy (Mayweather Sr.) doesn’t know you like that, and the old man had no problem saying you aren’t exactly his son-in fact most view you as a knock off from the waist up. Not between the ears. When Floyd was your age he probably didn’t have a manager that could shove him down the throat of programmers and force him into PPV in his mid-20’s- do you honestly think you are working as hard as he did?. I mean how many older people take a liking to a cheap imitation (of themselves) who won’t have to work as hard to get paid-how old were you when your big brother was seriously at risk of becoming another underpaid black defensive specialist who can’t draw flies?. Do you think he really wants your career to be easier than his? so you can do this?.  He created the climate that allows you to coon for WorldStarHipHop, but acting like your Big Brother for a couple of years don’t guarantee you’ll be around as long. Do you know how many “next Michael Jordan’s, Michael Jacksons and Oscar De La Hoya’s” have come along? Hell Floyd has beaten about 4 of them. Do you think annoying black males benefit from sextapes the way pretty white girls do? You do know porn is about women right?, that no man of any real substance shows his face in these things, while Kim Kardashian took off Ray J became one of Floyds male groupies-kinda like you. These are things a Big Brother says to you, have you even noticed that as the zero’s added up on Floyd’s checks  his conduct (before camera’s) mellowed? It’s called “Covert Corporate conduct” little brotha.

And he won’t tell you about it.

Floyd Mayweather is not your mentor, if he were this video wouldn’t be out there, in fact he didn’t get to be where he is for so long keeping future threats from destroying themselves. You may learn this too late, you may learn this when your lifestyle catches up to you and you’re an old 30 while he’s still a pristine 42 with no reason to step down. By then you’ll realize what I’m saying now, and you’ll be bitter but unable to do anything about it, if Bernard Hopkins can do what he’s doing your "Big Brother” (with “help” you can’t afford) is more than capable of pulling the trick.

Payton Manning gave his little brother everything he has between the ears even at his own expense; do you think Eli could get away with acting the way you act today? Even with 2 Super Bowl rings? Not a chance. In fact the function of a Big Brother is to keep you from making some of the mistakes he made, sort of like a father without the lingering guilt of wanting to make him proud. How can Floyd be a Big Brother when he’s not really far removed from the same kind of chick? only a lot smarter. The only thing he can teach you outside of the ring is how to go from skanks with lay away tattoo’s to swapping DNA with Ray J (The Godfather of SIMPIN) through a “dime piece” who sets you up to be robbed while you’re in the ring.

Ever think of Giving B-HOP a Call?

Adrien, the best thing you can do is seek out older men who have made the transition from the hood in more than just money, because there’s nothing more detrimental than the lingering taste for trash. Your Big Brother won’t tell you he’s seen cats like you come and go, it’s not his job to stop you from playin yourself, but he will have a job for you washing his cars if you waste your talent chasing hood rats. He will help you when you’re washed up and no longer a threat and you can be his next Ishe Smith (no offense) at the rate you’re going. You see Adrien 17 years is a long time bruh, longer than Hopkins at middleweight and Joe Louis at Heavyweight, being a champion right now may be fitting but being immortal is completely different- and it isn’t a birthright. But I’m sure Floyd won’t tell you that, that’s right! Because he isn’t your big brother- he loves you like he loves any other flunky, from a distance. If he has imported anything to you it would be to get your money, and you little brother are really not good at that since he is clearly the “Boxing Bank”. He knows the longer you’re “at large” you won’t wake up to the hard cold facts, he also knows as long as you remain too stupid to walk through the front door of a bank (as he did in 2007) but willing to go around the block (literally and figuratively) for a beastie you will ultimately get what you deserve.

Nothing.