*** The Marco Antonio Barrera super-thread ***

Only now?

I have, and loads of people over the years have encouraged me to, but...

tl;dr:

Spoiler

Real life doesn't generally work out that way. To actually make a living writing about boxing (or commentating on it) would require having the connections or educational background that, for me not to already have by now, are nigh unattainable.

I'm not a very monetarily driven person, either. I was born a poor kid and will probably die a poor kid (with a few more gray hairs and worse knees than when Mama Butt first whelped me). Which is all for the best, as making a real push for it would in all likelihood just end in bitter disappointment, because the reality of the world that we live in happens to be that, most often, not in all arenas but for certain in sports journalism and the like, things don't hinge on merit or even the combined forces of talent and hard work. Those help one's baseline chances but are no guarantee for "success" as society defines it. For me, success would be having Dan Rafael's job at ESPN or the one Larry Merchant had for years at HBO - difference being, I would do it unpaid; hell I would pay for the privilege of having global audiences consider me "the guy" for scoring or analysis of the sport I love. The other difference is that I'm know more about boxing than and happen to be a vastly superior writer to both of them combined (yes, I've read Merchant's stuff from his younger days. Hardly inspired. He's an overrated hack, put on a pedestal by an entire generation of fans simply because they were used to him being on TV while they grew up watching the sport; and the only reason HBO put him in that position is because he by that point had already 'been around' for a while, although his confrontational persona was probably the larger reason for his being a "name" sportswriter than any of his actual written pieces).

Now, that may sound egotistical, but trust me - I don't say I'm better than Rafael and Merchant because I think I walk on water. Plenty of people out there know more about boxing than I do, and plenty are better writers. Those knuckleheads just happen to fall short in both respects (as in, they're merely "fair", being generous, while I'll leave it at myself being "good"), which just drives home the point that if you want to be a famous journalist specializing in pugilism, you don't have to understand the game, or even necessarily love it (although I'll grant that both do seem to, in their own fashion), nor even be all that handy with a pen; you instead need to have a degree in communications at the very least, and preferably years if not decades paying dues covering other sports you don't particularly care about for publications or networks that could not care less about boxing. No thanks.

 

Both work. I think in Latinx press he was usually referred to with niño, but - as his resident #1 fan, I reserve the right to stylize his nickname however it damn well pleases me to.

 

Are you ...calling me less fortunate in the IQ dept?

 

@escudo classing up the joint!!!!

 

...you referring to Junior Jones? I think given that stage of his development, those losses were unavoidable for young MAB. He was very good then, but the process of self-reinvention those losses engendered is what made him a Great.

 

I think he preferred the company of the wayward flock that set up camp in 'that other place'.

Shame. Terrific poster. Knew his stuff.

...and stanned MAB even harder than myself.

 

Well, not to detract from Pac or make too many excuses on Marco's behalf, but his prime had certainly at least begun to entropy by 2003. He was by no means done, but he was past the point of being able to deal with that monster, that Pac was in 2003.

Jones I might have IMO just been inevitable.

 

...yeah, sure, here.
Paulie "The Magic Man" Malignaggi

now everybody stfu with requesting threads for every individual fighter under the sun, and their brother. thanks.