Got a text about that earlier but I forgot to watch it. Awful story. It completely fucked him up and he was a serious fighter as well by all accounts.
Good article on Cotto after his win at the weekend, and more on the epic cuntishness of Bob Arum.
[size=4]The Exorcism of Miguel Cotto: Magno’s Monday Rant[/size]
I was all ready to dedicate this Monday Rant to a career post-mortem examination of a Miguel Cotto once again beaten into submission by the Tijuana Sewer Rat, Antonio Margarito.
But Cotto had enough mojo, Margarito was light on the plaster, and/or Manny Pacquiao’s eye-busting assist gave the Boricua star enough juice to come away with the win.
Honestly, as much as I’d love to say that Cotto’s win proves that he is the better fighter and greater human being, there were a lot of extenuating circumstances that kinda, sorta diminished the importance and significance of the win.
Who knows what would’ve happened if Margarito had nine more minutes or, for that matter, what the fight would’ve looked like had his right eye been 100% healthy. But you could also say the same thing about their first fight back in 2008– What would that fight have looked like without the cement in the gloves?
In any case, now that Cotto has exercised one of his big, dumb, annoyingly smug demons, it’s time to perform a complete purification. It’s time to ditch Top Rank and Bob Arum.
I’ve been racking my brain, trying to remember a time when such a major fighter has been treated so poorly by his own promotional team.
In these last few years, the disrespect tossed at Cotto has been a lesson for all those “good soldiers” in the sport who tow the company line and keep their mouth shut.
The first “dis” came following Cotto’s 2008 brutal beatdown at the hands of Antonio Margarito.
As everyone knows, Margarito was found to be sporting knuckle pads coated with a “plaster-like” substance in his hand wraps prior to his 2009 bout with Shane Mosley. When people put two and two together, many put a big question mark over all of Margarito’s wins, most notably his brutal destruction of Miguel Cotto and the grotesque manner in which he battered Cotto’s face.
Top Rank honcho and alleged member of Team Cotto, Bob Arum, spent most of the “Plaster Gate” scandal defending Margarito and denying the loaded wrap claims…at the expense of the feelings of the possible/probable victim, Miguel Cotto.
Cotto sat back and remained the strong silent type, only occasionally giving voice to the anger he felt inside for the possible cheat and the frustration of having his own promoter defend the fighter who may have, literally, stolen millions from him when his loss ruined the chances of a talked-about showdown with Oscar De La Hoya.
Then, after suffering a beating that may have been caused by an illegal substance and having his promoter turn his back on him, Manny Pacquiao jumped in and claimed the glory that could very well have been his by knocking off Oscar.
After this, Cotto was forced into a nothing fight with Michael Jennings and a tough battle with Joshua Clottey for a fraction of the pay he would’ve received from a De la Hoya bout.
All this lead to an eventual big money showdown with Pacquiao where, despite being the reigning champ, he was forced to give in to every one of Pacquiao’s demands, including an arbitrary 145-pound limit.
While the blame for this weak negotiating falls squarely on the inner circle of Team Cotto, it should be pointed out that the intermediary, Arum, never once lifted a finger to argue on Cotto’s side of the table– despite having just lured Cotto to a two-year extension on his Top Rank contract. As a matter of fact, Arum actively pushed for Cotto to give in to all the demands and allowed for the WBO to back his fighter into a corner and force the catchweight title defense.
How’s that for respectful treatment of a veteran champion?
Cotto’s two-year extension with Top Rank is now all but over and the fighter has some major decisions to make. Already a star and a businessman with his own promotional company, Cotto, according to media reports, may finally be re-considering another run with Arum and crew.
For years now, Arum has treated Cotto as the ultimate fall guy, propping him up, only to have him knocked off in favor of the latest Top Rank flavor of the year. Now, if Cotto re-signs with Top Rank, Arum’s next plan for Cotto is likely to fatten him up to middleweight and deliver him to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
In this column, I have pointed out the matchmaking genius of Bob Arum and how he has the uncanny talent of putting his guys up against soft touches who, on paper, don’t appear to be soft touches at all. With Cotto, though, Arum has repeatedly fed him to the lions and has gotten downright testy with the Puerto Rican three-division champ when Cotto would not fall in line.
It’s no wonder guys like De La Hoya and Mayweather opted to be on their own as soon as they reached the top.
Cotto may not have the star power or career upside of De la Hoya or Mayweather at the point they ditched Arum, but he is a legitimate draw and, sure as hell, doesn’t deserve to be treated as Arum’s perpetual whipping boy.
A free agent Cotto will be free to explore mega-fights with guys like Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, or even Chavez Jr., if he wants. The difference will be that Cotto would finally be able to call the shots and work in his own best interest.
***************************************
Speaking of Floyd Mayweather and Bob Arum– There’s no situation that better highlights the mass idiocy and/or shady ethics of the boxing media than when Arum titty-twists the media dullards and shills into buying wave after wave of Mayweather-Pacquiao BS.
The latest silliness involves these recent “negotiations” for a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that, if you believe everyone on Team Mayweather (including Mayweather, himself), are not happening at all.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that Arum negotiated with an empty chair. Remember last year when Arum issued Mayweather a deadline to sign a contract for the fight, despite later admitting that he never actually spoke to anyone from Team Mayweather about the bout?
I will write more about this recent round of phantom negotiations in next week’s Monday Rant, but the sheer gullibility of a group of adults and alleged journalists is amazing.
Until I dig into this mess a little more next week, just remember that every word about these so-called business dealings comes directly from only one source– Bob Arum.
And the simps who run with this story without putting things in their proper context are the usual suspects who seem destined to be perpetually duped by the same guy with the same story. Others, though, are not so innocently gullible– they’re downright complicit in the scam. More on this in next week’s Monday Rant.
http://theboxingtribune.com/2011/12/the-exorcism-of-miguel-cotto-magnos-monday-rant/
was paul mckenna mentioned?
The hypnotist?
yes he spent a lot of time with benn before the fight benn credited him with the win at the time
No mention of him whatsoever. Well worth a watch. Nobody really came out of it with much credit. McClennan’s trainer and Don King(not that we didn’t already know this) come across as cunts of the highest order
Don kings a piece of shit hes like something youd scrape off your shoe,who was mccleannds trainer,mccleann was a beast at the time he was supposed to walk all over benn which is the way he started,havent seen the fight since the night it happened but i remember benn hitting him on the back of the head all night and getting away with it,michael watson got a beating from eubank in the last round of their fight a year or two earlier leaving him paralysed arsenal held a charity game for him after which is more than mcclennan ever got when he went back home
Stan Johnson was the trainer for the fight, complete bluffer and hanger-on. Wasn’t even able to wrap McClennan’s hands
[size=3]Good synopsis in the below article[/size]
[size=3]Nigel Benn v Gerald McClellan – the tragic fight continues to hauntThis is the stuff of the fight game: debilitating injury, recriminations, bitterness, claim and counter-claim[/size]
[size=3]Many thousands of words have been written and spoken about the fight in London on Saturday 25 February 1995 between Nigel Benn and Gerald McClellan but the ones that still matter most come from the fighters themselves.[/size]
[size=3]It is a fight that will be embedded forever in the memories of 13 million people who watched it live on terrestrial television in this country, as well as millions more on delayed tape in the United States and more than 10,000 who paid for the privilege of witnessing it first hand at the Docklands Arena in London. It took us all on a journey to hell but we did not complain.[/size]
[size=3]In contrasting eloquence the fighters relive the horror of the experience in a documentary that screens on Monday night on ITV, The Fight Of Our Lives, and we should resist the temptation to look away, because their testimony and that of others will tell us much about ourselves.[/size]
[size=3]Both men suffered horribly. McClellan returned to America blind and crippled from the damage he sustained. Benn, the winner on the night, was haunted for years by the sorrow that seeped into his soul before he found peace in God.[/size]
[size=3]They are filmed when reunited at a charity dinner in London, and McClellan, who speaks sparingly in faint, rapid whispers that his faculties can cope with, turns to his sister, Lisa, and asks, “Does he look sad?”[/size]
[size=3]It is a poignant moment among many. Lisa, who cares for her brother in the small house they share in Freeport, Illinois, has let her anger subside but clings to the hope that there is more truth to be dragged out of the tragedy, that people who might have been responsible for what happened to Gerald, inside and outside the ring, will one day confess. “A lie lasts forever,” she says.[/size]
[size=3]The referee, Alfred Asaro, who speaks no English, maintains he was right in leaving it to McClellan’s cornermen to determine if he should quit during the fight, even though he was visibly distressed as early as the third round, blinking and gasping for air, with his mouthguard hanging from his lips much of the time.[/size]
[size=3]Stan Johnson, the American’s trainer, vehemently contests the notion that it was his responsibility, or that McClellan wanted to quit (as Brendan Ingle, who was in the corner, told me years later). Instead Johnson bizarrely reasserts the accusation he made last year that Benn was on performance-enhancing drugs. Benn, who will soon emigrate to Australia to take up work as a preacher, is flabbergasted by the allegation and denies it.[/size]
[size=3]There are recollections from the former world champions Barry McGuigan and Jim Watt, who manned microphones on the night and describe, as only fighters can, the conflicting emotions of thrill and danger in the ring.[/size]
[size=3]Manny Steward, who split with McClellan before the fight, threatens to halt the interview when it is put to him he insisted on taking money owed to him previously by the fighter, even when he was left damaged. Don King, who co-promoted the fight with Frank Warren, refused to be interviewed but his lawyers have watched preview tapes of the programme closely.[/size]
[size=3]I covered this waterfront in a book I wrote about the fight in 2001. It remains the most brutal fight I have ever seen, or wish to see, and hours of watching both the ITV and Showtime tapes of the bout left me numb.[/size]
[size=3]Talking to many of the people involved convinced me only of a truism: that we are quick to deny responsibility in life for anything that puts us in a bad light.[/size]
[size=3]The principals in the story were as keen then as they are now to justify their part in it. Some refused to talk at the time; a few have fallen silent.[/size]
[size=3]In 10 years some of the arguments have been resolved, some linger. Was he fit to fight? Did that blinking suggest a chronic problem? Certainly it had been evident in an earlier contest, when he was clipped innocuously by a light-punching opponent. Why was he breathing so heavily so early in the fight? Why did the referee not at least inquire about McClellan’s condition between rounds, as he was entitled to do?[/size]
[size=3]As Steward observed when I spoke to him, McClellan “dived at the weight”, coming in 2lb below the super-middleweight limit, suggesting that his preparation was rushed and he might have been weakened on the night of the fight.[/size]
[size=3]The surgeon who operated on McClellan did not think he should have been removed so early from hospital in London and flown back to the United States.[/size]
[size=3]These and other imponderable questions will probably never be resolved.[/size]
[size=3]There was nothing to suggest to the promoters or the British Boxing Board of Control beforehand, for instance, that McClellan was ill-equipped for battle, which made his collapse in the 10th round all the more shocking.[/size]
[size=3]When he went to one knee for the second time and Asaro counted him out, Ferdie Pachecho, ringside for Showtime, accused McClellan of quitting, which only goes to confirm nothing in boxing is as it seems.[/size]
[size=3]This is the stuff of the fight game: debilitating injury, recriminations, bitterness, claim and counter-claim. But there is nobility of sorts, too, whatever the abolitionists say. The courage is plain to see — too much of it, perhaps. And the spiritual bond that exists forever between Benn and McClellan goes to the dark heart of the sport. They know they shared something awful, willingly and for money, but they know they did it for us, too.[/size]
[size=3]“You know what?” Benn says. “This is what you wanted to see. You got what you wanted to see.”[/size]
[size=3]And that is the most chilling truth of all.[/size]
Benns right we did get what we wanted to see
A great book on this era in boxing and the corruption of the whole thing is Dark Trade by Donald McRae
Anyone planning on watching Khan v Peterson tomorrow night? Khan looks too good for him and the Maidana fight showed that if his chin is still suspect he’s at least able to defend himself against a serious hitter. Peterson has only lost to Timothy Bradley in his career so he’s no joke, and one of those big looping punches connecting might be all it takes to stop Khan. As well as that, if he makes a fight of it and it goes the distance, there’s every chance that the American judges could give it to him.
Really big fight for Amir Khan and one he should win, but with his chin you never know when it could all go wrong for him. Apparently he’s going to welterweight after this so he could be facing some of the superstars next year.
Much and all as I don’t like him Khan is a very decent fighter in his own right, i think doubts about his chin are overblown to a certain extent. The defeat to Prescott was down to complacency and being caught cold as opposed to a glass chin. Should be a decent contest
Amir Khan lost his title, in a really close split decision. Probably the fair result, it was a great fight, and as Puke alluded to his chin is certainly not as big an issue as many have said.
Peterson was the more go forward fighter and won it on that basis i’d say. The one dropped point for constant holding cost Khan dear though and he would have drawn both lost cards had that not been taken away.
Really good fight. I had it 113-112 for Khan but you couldn’t complain too much about the decision. Peterson earned it and had Khan in a lot of trouble at times. The better boxer but Peterson’s workrate just wore him down. The two deducted points for Khan are obviously the big talking point, but in fairness he got a lot of warnings before both. Interestingly I think the ref signaled they were for pushing both times and Peterson seemed to confirm this in his post-fight interview. The head holding looked much worse and that’s what the ref seemed to be constantly on to Khan about. It looked bad for Khan either way and losing the points killed him in the end.
Massive blow for him that’s going to set him back at least six months and probably longer. Regardless of the decision, he was on the run for a lot of the fight and Peterson was completely in charge of the ring for a lot of the fight. Khan’s combinations are good and he’s extremely quick but he just wasn’t crafty enough to outmanoeuvre Peterson when Peterson was chasing him down. Hard to say on the basis of this fight that he’d have any business getting in the ring with Floyd Mayweather for the time being. I though De La Hoya looked like the most crestfallen man in the arena at the end. That decision is liable to cost him a lot of cash.
Has to be a rematch anyway. I’ll definitely be watching.
2 points deducted? Jesus i must have missed the first one? Was it pushing ya? Didn’t have english commentary so wasn’t 100%
First point was taken away in the 7th for pushing as well. Khan was getting banged up when Peterson got inside and wasn’t able to get away from him without pushing. I thought it showed a lack of power on Khan’s behalf as he didn’t seem to have anything to stop Bradley in his tracks most of the time.
This is the judges’ scorecard for the night:
https://p.twimg.com/AgXGODwCMAExz5p.jpg
The third judge gave Khan rounds 4 & 11 which is way off in my opinion, especially the 11th where Peterson was the much more effective aggressor. I had it the same as the first two judges with the exception of the 10th which I gave to Khan but in truth was a toss up of a round with no clear winner.
I’m only guessing by his name, but if he is not American it would explain alot. Judges from different parts of the world often look at fights in completely different ways. He could well be a yank now, but there is a trend of that.
Personally think the right man won anyway.
Karma for Khan as he’s a sneaky cunt. From the wee bits I seen of the fight this morning Khan was using his elbows a lot, rich of him to be complaining of Peterson leading with his head after the fight when two of his recent fights have been won via his own head.
Massive contrast between the two in the post-fight interviews as well. Obviously Khan was devastated but he sounded like a complete cunt. Peterson is as humble a guy as you’d ever see. From homelessness to world champ, you have to give him his dues for that.