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NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: 154 AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT

By Paul Magno | October 16, 2017
NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: 154 AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT

We could be as close to an all-American Leonard-Hearns-Duran dynamic as we’ve been in a very long time...but nothing big is going to come from it because the fighters in question all happen to be affiliated with someone the boxing media desperately dislikes. 

The junior middleweight division is at the point where, normally, a superfight would be a bout or two away. And, while the best 154 lb. bouts will likely happen, they will be nowhere near as big, as lucrative, or as impactful as they should be—again, just because the fighters in question are advised by someone the boxing media spitefully marginalizes at every possible turn. 

Last Saturday’s Showtime junior middleweight world title triple-header featured three of the fighters who could’ve been doing this modern day Leonard-Hearns-Duran round robin dance to universal acclaim, if only, well, you know…if only they weren’t with “that” guy.

At the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Jarrett Hurd forced a corner stoppage on Austin Trout in one of the most compelling bouts of the year thus far. Jermell Charlo crushed Erickson Lubin with a big right hand in the first round. And, in the main event, Erislandy did what he does—boxed supremely well with a calculated, risk-free technical style that vexed backwards baseball-capped fans and earned him a unanimous decision. 

But all of these guy are aligned with Al Haymon and Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) project that has found itself targeted for marginalization ever since the first PBC press release hit the inboxes of the boxing media’s Cheetos-stained laptops, everywhere.

Let’s not even pretend that there HASN’T been a concerted effort to run Haymon out of the business, along with his PBC project and the fighters who chose to be part of it.  For over two-and-a-half years now, media lapdogs (who, not coincidentally, tend to either “moonlight” for PBC’s direct competition or have a relationship with established promoters with axes to grind when it comes to Haymon) did what they could to kill any fire or buzz coming from that “wrong” side of the fence.

The compromised media dwelled on the financial details regarding PBC funding, showing an interest in bottom line financial data they never seemed all too interested in covering before. (Do YOU ever recall anyone penning any articles about Top Rank’s financial stability or the business details surrounding any TV deals they make?) They obsessed over PBC poor attendance figures or poor TV ratings—when previously they ignored other companies papering houses and allowed for bad TV numbers to be spun in a positive light. They harped on “Haymon mismatches” while allowing for mismatch after mismatch to be passed off as premium content on premium cable networks. 

Overall, the push against all things Haymon made it seems as though all things PBC were small, inferior, shabbily-made, and inherently cynical. Of course, they could only do so much to shape public opinion, but they did enough to effect the overall narrative and sour a project that should’ve been given a shot. At its worst, PBC was no better or worse at delivering high-end boxing action than the old guard but, at its best, it brought more boxing to more potential households than all active American boxing promotions, combined.

I don’t even care at this point about the “Why” behind the hatred and nastiness but I know why it’s there. I know the fear of an outsider coming into the sport, exploiting all the loopholes and skullduggery they built into the system, and changing the entire structure of the business. The fear is real when it comes to the boxing establishment and this guy who could turn the power over to the fighters and networks, shifting it away from the currently all-powerful promoters. It was a fear that was there way back when this same media was turning on likable warriors Vernon Forest and Paul Williams for aligning themselves with Haymon. (Don’t think for a second that some of us have forgotten that before the crocodile tears shed for these fighters, post-tragedy, these media guys had gleefully butchered their careers and legacies for no good reason whatsoever).

But getting back to the here and now, the junior middleweight division, because of this chop-blocking from media and the fans brain-befuddled enough to actually allow the media to influence their view of the boxing world, is nowhere near as big or as marketable as it should be.

I mean, for fuck’s sake, the division is full of talented, compelling fighters who are at, or near, their physical primes and, more importantly, are actually being matched against one another. Well, at least PBC is matching them against one another.

In the last eighteen months, Premier Boxing Champions has put together nine high-end junior middleweight bouts featuring champions or top contenders like Jermell Charlo, Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Jarrett Hurd, Austin Trout, Vanes Martirosyan, Julian Williams, Cornelius Bundrage, Terrell Gausha, Erickson Lubin, Tony Harrison, and Charles Hatley. Overall, few companies have matched their top fighters and prospects tougher than PBC has with their 154 lb. talent. And, it’s not like these guys can’t fight and can’t excite a crowd. Even the ultra-conservative Lara can make for an entertaining clash when matched against someone who knows how to push him (Alfredo Angulo and Paul Williams, for example).

Jermall Charlo may now be campaigning at middleweight, with non-PBC talent Demetrius Andrade likely to join him, but the division is still deep in young, hungry American talent. And, they have fought over the last year-and-a-half to the point where it is now a three-man division at the top— with Jermell Charlo, Erislandy Lara, and Jarrett Hurd reigning. These guys can fight, they can entertain, and they deserve better than afterthought status.  

If American boxing fans want to know why there seems to be a dearth of American boxing stars at present, it’s not because the talent isn’t there. The problem is that so many American fighters have opted to pursue lucrative business deals with a hated boxing outsider. They made the “mistake” of looking after themselves in a business that is set up to take care of the bossmen.

Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.

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