9.29.08 -- One year anniversary of HBO fraud Jermain Taylor being exposed

Nope. Just a hack newbie. Not worth it, and I have other stuff to do.

One of the lessons you learn as you go along is you don't answer every chirp. You have to be selective. If not, fools will waste your time and you avoid getting things done. Surest path to failure.

One reason why it's so easy for me to clown people is because I've had to deal with people like you, PacFan, for years. You think ESB is the first place I've run across this kind of reaction to me? Give me a break. After awhile, you get used to it. And you learn to tune people like TanstA and yourself out. I've used this example before, and I'll bring it up again -- Hulk Hogan doesn't wrestle Spike Dudley. Or to use another phrase with similar meaning, don't argue with idiots. If you do, you elevate the idiot and can confuse the audience into thinking the idiot is at your level. So, not only can you waste your time, you can actually make a fool look good by engaging him.

Instead, then, you pick your battles. The higher up you go, the more people want to mess around with you. No matter what level you're at, however, you have to learn the lesson of letting some things go. TanstA is nothing, and no one. And so, I move on. It's not about getting the last word in, it's about making your words count when you choose to say them.

 

Yes

I don't. The main announcing team sucks, although Kellerman has improved. I like Bob Papa.

The level of garbage that HBO spewed to try to cover up for Taylor's weaknesses was ridiculous. But it wasn't just Taylor. HBO will do that for any of their 'house' fighters. Why? Because the fighter's an investment and the network wants as much return on the investment as they can get. So, the more they can market the fighter as some 'great, unbeatable' champion, the more people will watch and the more PPV's they will buy. It's simple business. That said, HBO is ridiculously biased with their own fighters. Worse than most.

Here are some decisions a number of people feel were 'gifts' for JT:

Hopkins I
Hopkins II
Wright
Spinks

In the first Hopkins fight, down the stretch, Hopkins beat the snot out of Jermain Taylor. That's when I knew Taylor wasn't what he was being made out to be. His defense was porous, he tired too easily and he was getting his butt kicked by a 40 year old. I love Hopkins, but he can only fight in spurts now. Yet, he was just crushing Taylor late in that fight.

Jermain Taylor is an excellent athlete who happens to box. He is not a great boxer. He does, though, have a champion's heart. I respect him, and his accomplishments. I also picked against him vs Pavlik and was not surprised when he was KTFO by KP. He has large holes in his game, and once he fought someone with a good motor and punch, it was likely that those holes would be exposed.

Similar stuff with Cotto. Tires late, bad defense, hadn't really fought a good, big, strong opponent. I knew Margo would whip his ass, and that's what happened. And that's where the avatar came from.

The worst part about the HBO's of the world is that many people can't see past the hype. And so, they end up shocked and confused when Pavlik KO's Taylor or Margarito KO's Cotto.

Be skeptical. Remember that HBO's trying to sell you a bill of goods, for their own interest. They'll make excuses for their house fighters because that's good for them, not their viewers.

 

Yeah, I kind of remember that, too. That's a side effect of buying the hype, but it makes for a good proposition for the astute wagerer.

It was like that for Cotto/Margo as well, I think. And for "experts'" picks, the tilting was like 45/10 for those picking Cotto to those picking Margo.

True idiocy.

Just shows you how strong the Kool-Aid can be for the sheep that follow the herd. Sad stuff.

 

I'm going to assume you don't know much about matchmaking, in general, and in particular the matchmaking history for these two fighters.

HBO did as much as they could to hide Taylor, including his fighting smaller guys (Spinks, Ouma), light-hitting foes only recently moved up to MW (Wright) and older opponents (Hopkins). They took B-Hop because they thought he was old and shot.

After the Ouma and Spinks fight, HBO realized that their scam was wearing thin. People were pissed, and rightfully so. And thus HBO came to the 'sh*t or get off the pot' moment with Taylor. They knew of his liabilities, but it was time to fully let him ride with no training wheels. They simply couldn't get around it any more. Besides, if Taylor was beaten by Pavlik, they could run with the new guy and market him.

HBO kept Taylor under wraps as long as they could. They just couldn't do it any longer.

*

Maybe you missed it or whatever, but many in Cotto's camp did not want the Margarito fight. They were pissed that promoter Bob Arum made the match. The problem for the Cotto peeps is that Arum promotes both Cotto and Margarito.

Cotto had fought a number of times on HBO. He briefly went to Showtime after a falling out with the network, but came back and was looked at to be one of the 'house' fighters.

The pressure to make this fight seems to have come from Arum, not from HBO. HBO would have been thrilled, I'm sure, to see Cotto fight PBF. But PBF and Arum hate each other, so that fight couldn't happen. Didn't have anything to do with HBO.

As I said above, the problem for Cotto's team is that Arum was also looking out for Margo's interests. And he wanted to monopolize the WW division by putting his own fighters in the big fights and leaving people like PBF on the outside looking in. So he made the matchup. Not HBO, Arum. It also should be mentioned that Cotto took a lot of heat for fighting less-than-spectacular competition (think Alfonso Gomez), and Arum (and likely HBO) wanted to continue to step-up the level of opponent Cotto was facing (although many dismissed Margarito when the fight was announced).

Like Taylor, Cotto could only be protected for so long. To maximize the return from a fighter, he must fight the best competition, or else be a draw of himself (ODLH). The top gates come from a combination of both things, star fighter + huge matchup.

Both Taylor and Cotto had been built-up for years, and it was time to see if they could handle the next step. HBO put some pressure on Taylor, and Arum decided to make Cotto/Margarito.

You know the rest, both fighters were KTFO. As I said in the video I made about the Cotto/Margo fight, when the level of competition was raised greatly enough, both fighters were exposed. Not the end of the world -- or their careers -- but not something unexpected for those of us who had been paying close attention.