Boxing, WWE, NBA: Drama, False Outcomes, Corruption, and Hypocrisy
Mike from www.fpsrantings.com and mikegotgame.wordpress.com wrote a great comment to my The Real Drama of Boxing vs. the Fake Drama of the WWE and the NBA post as well as my updated profile and I wanted to respond but not have it get lost over in the comments.
My response might as well also be a response to today’s wire service reports that disgraced NBA ref Tim Donaghy’s attorney told investigators that relationships among officials, coaches and players “affected the outcome of games.” Whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s a big statement.
Click here or scroll down to see my response.
But first is up Mike from www.fpsrantings.com’s comment to my post:
We could say the same thing for boxing. The fights are, after all, scripted as well (I smell home cooking every time). Pro basketball may have its share of point-shaving controversies and wacky referees but at the end of each game, the team with the most points win. There’s no need for a judge to decide.
Boxing, on the other hand, is controlled by said judges. Knocking down an opponent is not a guarantee for a win. A judge and his subjective perceptions determine a match’s outcome–not performance. Boxers have their guaranteed pay as well, so losing and getting money isn’t exclusive to professional basketball.
And the injuries? The drama isn’t for boxing alone, and to presume so is erroneous. Who are we to say that there is no drama behind a basketball player’s injury when we don’t know what happens behind closed doors? I’ve read so many interviews about NBA players who could not seem to get out of the mental anguish brought by an injury despite having completely recovered.
I’ve even heard of a pro basketball player in the Philippines whose life was drastically changed because of a freak spinal injury during a game that not only affected his career, but his entire life as well.
Just because boxing is a full-contact sport (they say basketball is one too because of its roughness), it doesn’t mean its “drama” is real compared to other sports that don’t involve beating the living crap out of each other through the use of fists.
I’m just sayin’. ;)
Thanks for the comment Mike.
You’re not wrong in saying there’s not home cooking, dives, fixed fights and other nasty problems in boxing. It is and probably always will be the most corrupt and corruptible sport. Although tennis is coming close.
For me to suggest that shady judges, craven promoters, and casino cash don’t sometimes decide fights is disingenuous at best. But as a fight fan I can accept the unfairness and the sport’s apparent crookedness because of the great equalizer of the knockout and because boxing never pretends to be above the fray.
Boxing never boasts of its innocence. The sport never insists that things are fair, that the judges aren’t corrupt, and that money doesn’t matter. You as a boxing fan must accept this complex and paradoxically unsporting sporting climate. If you remain naive then you will ultimately be jilted, feel betrayed, and leave your love sullied by her numerous peccadilloes.
But at least the sins are out in the open and at least there is the promise of a knockout, the promise that the playing field might somehow be leveled. No judge can outscore a knockout punch, no referee can pretend it didn’t happen.
The NBA is my favorite team sport and I have been a die hard New York Knicks fan since birth. Being a Knick fan doesn’t preclude me from loving the game. I watch as many games as possible and have in the past subscribed to the all-consuming beauty of the NBA League Pass.
That said, the playoffs always crush me with their pre-ordained scripts, corrupt officiating, and unimaginable double standards. There are too many examples to cite but as a Knick fan we’ve been aided and harmed by more than a few. The Heat bench clearing incident, the Hubert Davis four-point play, the inability to ever call a foul on Michael Jordan, Knick Bavetta.
David Stern and the NBA’s response to the above was always self-righteous sanctimony. “How dare you call our impartiality into question.” “What motivation do we have to be corrupt?” “We are perfect and above judgment.” “Our league is fair.”
But it’s not. The best teams don’t always win. Foul calls, missed foul calls, allowed rough play, technical fouls, and suspensions all drastically change the outcome of games. Referees decide who wins to a greater extent than even the players. Of course the pre-ordained team still must hit the shots. And that doesn’t always happen. But for example, how confused must the Hawks have been in Game 7 when the same drive-to-the-hoop style that they won with in Atlanta suddenly elicited no whistles in Boston?
So when I say that the drama of the NBA is closer to the drama of the WWE it’s directly related to their laughable insistence of their personal innocence and sainthood. The WWE denies with a wink and a nod but the NBA does it with heavy-handed condescension. Boxing reveals their warts, treats you like an adult, and insists you accept them.
Again thanks for the comment,
Michael
Am I off base again? As always, please let me know.
Photo Sources: Newscom.com
Tags: Boxing, Comment, Corruption, NBA, Response, Tim Donaghy, WWE
4 opinions for Boxing, WWE, NBA: Drama, False Outcomes, Corruption, and Hypocrisy
Tim
May 20, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I agree with the thrust of what you said, Michael, as someone whose most recent previous sporting obsession was basketball; however, a couple points:
–There have been no major, proven allegations of fighters taking dives or judges being paid off in, like, forever. That doesn’t prove it hasn’t happened, because you can’t prove a negative. But there have been investigations, for instance, into the Casamayor-Santa Cruz decision, and they have come up empty. These kind of things are more subtle in boxing these days, I think. It’s widely thought that judges sometimes favor the home court boxer out of fear that they will not be assigned judging jobs in that state next go-round. Again, there is no evidence of this happening in forever, but I see this as a more likely scenario than others. Unfortunately for basketball, there is, in its recent history, just such a proven incident. I think much of boxing’s reputation for corruption is reverberating from decades ago. I’m not saying it’s pure as driven snow, I’m just sayin’.
–I think Mike’s complaints about a knockdown not equaling a victory are off. Why should a knockdown alone mean a judge should score the victory for the guy who did the knocking down? What if I get knocked down in the first round but clearly beat the stuffing out of the guy for the next 11 but don’t score a knockdown, even though in 6 of them I have the guy nearly out on his feet? Wouldn’t most people think I “won” that fight? That’s why there’s a 10 point must system, and extra points are deducted from a fighter who’s knocked down.
Why Do We Think Boxing Is Dirtier Than Tennis Despite the Facts?
May 21, 2008 at 9:21 am
[…] and Sport #2 is dirty. Even people who love the sport, myself included, engage in the stereotyping (see this post) and the assumptions. Of course as Tim from Ring Report revealed in his comment to my post, Sport […]
Michael Sedor
May 21, 2008 at 9:24 am
Tim, I had too much to say so I just made it a post. You really opened my eyes to a lot of stupid assumptions that I made.
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Jun 6, 2008 at 6:00 pm
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