3 thoughts on “Video – PAULIE MALIGNAGGI RIPS THE BOXING MEDIA: “Media writers won’t clean up combat sports because they’re fanboys & sellouts””
If only he could box like he can talk, he’d have cleaned out the division by now. 😉
Paulie’s sour grapes, however, don’t mean he’s wrong about the fanboy quotient in boxing media. He’s just wrong about the “Mainstreet” claim — that if boxing were more popular it’d attract better, more ethical coverage. Does he read the sports pages in the USA, which are always the last to know about a scandal in doping or bribery, let alone read (gasp!) the news section? Has he heard about a little thing called the Iraq War and WMDs?
If he could see past the McMansion of his ego, he’d find that compared to what passes for professionalism in other news media the boxing press has nothing to feel inadequate about.
Fair point, I’ve certainly seen the same pros and cons across the board in sports journalism.
I particularly enjoyed this excerpt though: “You guys criticize a fighter for, ‘hey, man, he was way ahead and he just played it safe for the rest of the fight because you know he just wanted to play it safe and he owes the fans entertainment.’ Well, you guys owe it more than us, OK? You guys want us to put our necks on the line in a fight we’re up ahead, we’re ahead in the fight and want us to getting risked knock out? Why don’t you guys risk your jobs and bring out what’s wrong with the sport sometimes instead of keeping quiet so you can get ringside credentials?”
pound 4 pound ireland 
If only he could box like he can talk, he’d have cleaned out the division by now. 😉
Paulie’s sour grapes, however, don’t mean he’s wrong about the fanboy quotient in boxing media. He’s just wrong about the “Mainstreet” claim — that if boxing were more popular it’d attract better, more ethical coverage. Does he read the sports pages in the USA, which are always the last to know about a scandal in doping or bribery, let alone read (gasp!) the news section? Has he heard about a little thing called the Iraq War and WMDs?
If he could see past the McMansion of his ego, he’d find that compared to what passes for professionalism in other news media the boxing press has nothing to feel inadequate about.
Fair point, I’ve certainly seen the same pros and cons across the board in sports journalism.
I particularly enjoyed this excerpt though: “You guys criticize a fighter for, ‘hey, man, he was way ahead and he just played it safe for the rest of the fight because you know he just wanted to play it safe and he owes the fans entertainment.’ Well, you guys owe it more than us, OK? You guys want us to put our necks on the line in a fight we’re up ahead, we’re ahead in the fight and want us to getting risked knock out? Why don’t you guys risk your jobs and bring out what’s wrong with the sport sometimes instead of keeping quiet so you can get ringside credentials?”
A lot of truth to that I think
Yes, you’re quite right. It’s really a smashing point and I don’t want to take anything away from Paulie for making it.