Boxing's Dark Side IV: The Price of a Fragile Ego This was supposed to be a story on New England Ringside. An internet boxing writer claimed that the company was made up of thieves, snakes, and con men. Some of the former employees claim to have lawsuits pending against NER, so we decided that it was best that we wait until those are settled before writing about it. We were told of a public forum on NER's web site that caused an incredible amount of chaos. It was brought to our attention by the youngest member of NER, who also claims to have had the longest tenor, that he was personally told to create accounts on that message board, and write derogatory things about the other New England promoters(Burchfield and Cappiello). This was said to have caused outrage. The last we checked, this was still a professional sport. Could Barry Bonds afford to get outraged everytime he was booed? Stuff like that probably won't endear us to legions of fans. The people involved in New England boxing may want to consider that, and realize that being involved in professional sports isn't always about getting a pat on the rear end. The boxers deal with criticism on a regular basis, and they're the toughest ones in the game. But that doesn't encapsulate emotional toughness, does it? Is that one of the reasons that the sport is suffering? Are the ego's that fragile? Is a bully mentality happening at the promotional level? If it is, it should cease. Professional boxing shouldn't be copying the juvenile playbook of.."someone called me a name, let's get my big brother to beat him up." The business side of boxing is suffering, maybe we need to keep the violence in the ring. Are we overly frustrated? Substance is what's needed. Do you think that King or Arum even know 1 percent of the awful things that are said about them? No. They're much too well known for that. Don King and Bob Arum are the two best promoters in boxing, that's not debatable. They're also the two people that are trashed the most in the media and in boxing circles. Is that a coincidence? With that example alone, it should be obvious that if you have a hard time taking criticism, you have no chance at success. The bully mentality may get you by for 20 or so years at the local level, but that's as good as it will get. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. If you don't think it is a fact, you aren't paying attention. If everybody wants to be mentioned only when the feedback is good, then they need to be better than Jesus Christ. We weren't able to get a consensus on New England Ringside. The former employees didn't have much to say about them, and what they did say was mostly negative. Fans and fighters seemed to have positive experiences with the company. The fact that things ended up in court doesn't sound good, but we'll let that play out on it's own. Mike Nosky said he saw plenty there, including thievery and con men. Which brings us to our next issue. Mike Nosky took exception to what was written on this site about him. We though that we were more than fair to him. Mike did say that every promoter owed him money, he did say that he put on good fight cards for NER, and he did say that "Duddy vs. Jean" was a great fight. We didn't agree with that, and he became very defensive. He didn't think that we should be telling people our concerns unless we could give them the answers. But why not? He claims we shouldn't do it because other people have already said it. We suggest Mike take a listen to some of the presidential candidates, and pose that same line of reasoning to them. He says that fighters need to market THEMSELVES better. I don't know if Mike realizes it or not, but they wouldn't need a promoter if that was how it worked. Ultimately it will be the fighter that has to show substance when it comes to his career earnings, but promoters are the ones responsible for providing the vehicle. Look what Bob Arum did with Butterbean. Butterbean had the circular shaped fat & bald look, but Arum put that fat look in front of millions of people and did so with a genius plan. He knew how to market the product. If that entailed surrounding the obese Butterbean's fight with 5 super fights, that's what he'd do. Butterbean became a fast celebrity. Mike Nosky decided to take the defensive posture with us, and we feel that is part of the problem here. Why is everyone so sensitive? In a tough game like this? Some people that don't even have to get hit say, "this is the toughest business in the world." Well, if it's such a tough business, wouldn't it benefit us to grow some thicker skin? It seems like it would. There were 1,400 people in the stands for a show that Nosky worked on for New England Ringside. He admitted that the fights weren't that good, but said the main event was great. The main event wasn't great, and if Mike is going to continue in boxing he will need to raise his standards. According to our sources, Marty Falkenberg was the person responsible for filling those seats. But why is that a good thing? Why would that be considered a positive? If 1,400 people were on hand to witness something unpleasant to the eye, that's losing fans, not gaining them. Mike didn't have anything to do with getting 1,400 people to show up, but he had everything to do with losing them. That is a very nearsighted way to see things. Isn't the key to get a lot of people into an arena to witness something that they will thoroughly enjoy? Then they can pass word on about how great it was to their friends, family and coworkers. Is it a good business plan to spend as little money as you can possibly get away with, and put as many people as possible into the arena? Sure, if you've built such a following that you are putting 30,000 people in the house every time. But if you're continuing to draw under 5,000 people to a show, then you aren't making many new fans. But that following has to be built. It isn't built by staging the kind of card that Nosky put on that night. The fact that he doesn't realize that, or at least cop to that, makes us think that he is indeed a problem. Anybody can make excuses, for they are easy to manufacture. But rather than spend time manufacturing excuses, why not spend that time learning how to manufacture better fights? He doesn't seem to think that he needs to manufacture better fights, he feels he's doing a swell job. Jimmy LeBlanc was knocked out in the co-feature that night by the undefeated Yuri Foreman. Anybody that was familiar with Leblanc or Foreman knew that the fight wouldn't make it past the 2nd round, and it didn't, it didn't even make it into the 2nd round. Nosky said that he could have had a much better fighter oppose Foreman, but that would have cost a thousand dollars more. Where was the extra money going? Did Mike sacrifice the co-feature of a professional boxing card to line his pockets with an extra grand? Did he sacrifice the co-feature to line the people that he says are thieves and con mens pockets....with an extra grand? Either way, he didn't stage an undercard that would support that decision. The undercard was made up of all 1 round knockouts, and 1 fighter quitting after 2 rounds. Mike brushed that off with "All of those fighters were on their feet at the time of the stoppage." No....nobody was put in a coma that night Mike, thank God, but can we set the bar just a little higher? The bottom line is this, Mike Nosky called the people at New England Ringside thieves, snakes, and con men. One of those people was able to put 1,400 people in a room to enjoy an evening of sports entertainment. Whoever was responsible for putting those people in the room did their job well. Whoever was responsible for providing them with the entertainment failed at doing their job. Like I said, sometimes their are setbacks in life and we fail...that's just reality. We wouldn't be talking about this had Mike seen the err of his ways, but he hasn't. How can he be expected to provide the service to the active promoters if he can't even admit that he did a poor job when the evidence is right in front of his face? We have a hard time believing that Richie Cappiello or Jimmy Burchfield would have let a show like that take place under their banner. Those two wouldn't still be around if they let things like that happen. While Mike Nosky was finger pointing, and calling the former employees of NER all those nasty names, he should have been pointing the finger at himself. If he went in there and said that he was adequately able to perform the job that he was applying for, then he was conning them. That isn't to be mean, that's the truth. Weather he's been able to realize that yet, we're not so sure. When Mike says that "every promoter in New England owes me money" I think we can see why. He was the only one that got vicious about NER too. There were a couple of people that said they had pending lawsuits, so we didn't speak to them. Others we contacted had neutral reactions mostly. One person said he liked the company for the necessary experience he needed in a boxing organization, another liked the drinking atmosphere it provided him, one former NER worker liked the media resources, another said he misjudged NER's mission. Mike said there were thieves, snakes and con men. Isn't the general rule when you leave a company, to not badmouth it? Future employers will see that as a serious character flaw, and when things don't go your way with them, you may exercise that same behavior....to them!
