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NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: TANK, LOMA, AND BOXING'S RAGING DOUBLE STANDARDS

By Paul Magno | July 22, 2024
NOTES FROM THE BOXING UNDERGROUND: TANK, LOMA, AND BOXING'S RAGING DOUBLE STANDARDS

Can you imagine the fucking outcry if Gervonta “Tank” Davis came out and said that he was nixing a fight with Vasiliy Lomachenko-- one already supposedly in the pre-planning stages-- because he just wasn’t “in the mood” to fight Loma?

A good chunk of boxing fandom (and media) would be pinching their nipples in rabid rage, tweeting hate messages to Tank while running out into traffic, frothing at the mouth like the fast zombies in 28 Days Later, in a fit of sanctimonious anger. 

Arrrrrghhhhhh!!!!! Tank is ducking!!!!! He’s a fraud!!!!!!!!! 

On Friday, Victor Conte newsletter writer Steve Kim relayed a message (via his beloved Twitter/X) from Lomachenko’s manager Egis Klimas. All the Loma-Tank talk, even from Loma’s promoter Bob Arum, was DOA because his client was just not interested.

“Loma is not in the mood right now, he doesn’t have the motivation at the moment. He’s taking off, he wants to spend more time with the family. He doesn’t want to do anything till the end of the year. 

So he’s definitely not coming to the ring till the end of the year. With Loma, just money is not what motivates him. He doesn’t take anything just because of money. You can offer him millions, tens of millions of dollars – if he doesn’t have motivation, he’s not ready to prepare for the fight.”

Suddenly, some of these people on Boxing Twitter became real understanding about a fighter wanting to take some time off and play the game according to his comfort level. 

But we all know there are double standards in boxing. Lots of double standards. And the biggest, ugliest of them come when a white fighter is involved. There, I just came out and said it. 

If the roles were reversed, Davis would’ve already been cyber-lynched for his “cowardice.”

And I don’t want to hear any BS about, “Well, Tank ducked Loma back in 2017!”

In 2017, Davis had just emerged on the world stage. Lomachenko was already a two-division world champ and was ranked Top 3 in writers’ pound-for-pound lists. Claiming Tank ducked Loma in 2017 is a little like claiming that Oleksandr Usyk is ducking Jared Anderson right now. 

Logic and fair play have little to do with these boxing fandom value judgments, though. 

To understand that you just have to follow Davis’ career a bit further back in time, when he had some ugly domestic violence charges leveled at him. 

The 2022 domestic violence incident moved the boxing media to action. Mike Coppinger of ESPN established a timeline of the alleged crime and dusted off his investigation skills (such as they are) to go deep with the story. Chris Mannix wrote an impassioned “Boxing Must Take A Stand” piece for Sports Illustrated. 

“Where is boxing?” Mannix pleaded, passionately. “Why do the sport's power brokers often respond to violence against women with a collective shrug?”

Then, just a few months later, Mannix and the boxing media would give a “collective shrug” to domestic violence allegations regarding Russia’s Dmitry Bivol, just as they “collectively shrugged” prior to that when UFC president Dana White was caught slapping around his wife on video. 

The treatment of the Bivol story, specifically, says everything you need to know about the double standards in the sport. That story could not get buried fast enough. As far as I recall, none of the major boxing news sites even picked it up, not even ESPN (If I’m wrong please correct me).

And this double standard stuff isn’t just about Tank Davis.

Media and fans have harped on black fighters for inactivity, making them punchlines in jokes that insinuated they were lazy, scared, shiftless, and/or jaded by the money they’d made. White fighters firmly on the one-a-year (or less) plan-- like Bivol, Artur Beterbiev, Oleksandr Usyk, and, recently Lomachenko-- don’t take the same kind of flak. Beterbiev, for example, has only fought one more time  over the last six years or so than the much maligned, villainized Jermall Charlo. 

But “certain” fighters get the perpetual benefit of the doubt. There aren’t value judgments made about their actions. Instead, excuses are made for them, justifications are issued. So-and-so got injured...blame boxing politics...the other guy won’t fight. And, when all else fails, there’s aggressive “what aboutism” to shift focus elsewhere. 

In the wake of Lomachenko not being “in the mood” to fight Davis, Lomachenko is getting lots of understanding and compassion-- lots more than most fighters would get, anyway. Lots of “I wish him well” and “he’s just not into it...he has other priorities.” And then there’s the unintentionally hilarious move to somehow make Loma’s retreat become about Davis ducking-- “he has to fight Shakur now, no excuses and no ducking!”

The double standards would be maddening if anyone paid attention to media voices and cynical fan laments anymore. People learned to tune the nonsense out years ago. Still, the cognitive dissonance is frustrating. 

I’m not arguing that people should not be held accountable for their actions and behavior. In fact, I’m making the exact opposite point. Everyone should be held accountable...just EQUALLY accountable. Have rules and standards that apply to everyone or just embrace not having any rules or standards for anyone. 

Or just shut the fuck up. 

That works for me, too.

Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com

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