Dear Boxing,
I hope this note finds you well.
OK, hold on, let me amend that. It would not be fully honest for me to say that.
Truth hurts, Boxing, but you, of all entities, knows that. So, you can handle some real talk, yes? You are not as well as you can be, and while I hope 2025 sees you finding more solid footing in my region, America (I leave out “the United States,” you note! LOL, same ole me), I have no great illusions about becoming a new and better being tonight at midnight. You will be you, which is to say, a mix of sordid and sublime. 2024, if memory serves, Boxing, you too spent last year exhibiting so many of the same moods, traits and character which has been part of your profile since I have been on this beat.
To refresh your memory, lol, if not mine, Boxing, I started being a “boxing writer” in the mid to late 1990s. George Foreman’s second act was about over when I started sending ringside reports to Boxing Digest magazine. Boxing, you sonuvab*tch, lol, you will get it when I note that the reports were done “gratis.” YEAH, same ole sh*t, it is no easy task to make a living in your realm or mine! Boxing, sorry for the digression, but I was mulling how some things change, but so many don’t. You have a big tent, yet it isn’t all-embracing if you want to get paid to play. Same then as now.
You didn’t ask me, Boxing, but let me offer you some thoughts on what I want to see happen tonight at midnight and carry into the New Year. First, get your sh*t together. Nah, not you all in the arena, the laborers toiling for a wage and our entertainment. I address the folks who are running the show on the business/broadcast side. Promoters and platform providers, 2024 was a meh year.
I am not always in step with Dan Rafael, but I stand with him here. 2024 was, for me, the Turki [Alalshikh] Show. That show is based in Saudi Arabia, and here’s some marketing data insight for ya, Boxing, the distance affected my relationship with you.
Is that wrong or bad? Nah, it is a natural tendency to have more interest in something that is closer in proximity than further away. That could be more so me, but it is 4 miles away from me; Madison Square Garden is 7 miles away. The 2,000-mile distance from me to Las Vegas feels so much more than the 6,000 miles it is from Brooklyn to Saudi Arabia. Too often in 2024, Boxing, you had me feeling apart. Bored, if I am being brutally direct. Turki tried, but the scene here in America? Not too robust. And Boxing, I know you’re busy, so lemme get to wrapping up:
Can we agree that you need to get your stuff together and be a presence in America in 2025!? I am not saying that because I am anti Saudi, btw, I am saying it because I felt adrift from you this past year. There are too many names I am unfamiliar with headlining and packing “stacked” cards from the UK, TBH. And we have that history, Boxing…so I want to see if that can be repaired. It may be that this “new normal” will harden further, and so much of the highest-level goings on will be centered from Saudi Arabia, not Las Vegas or New York. That shift will be what it will be.
Take it under advisement, Boxing, or not. I do realize that the voice of the consumer, and media does not have the power it used to. My experience has taught me that usually, objects stay in motion toward the direction they are proceeding in because it takes more effort to stop and reset than to continue forward. This isn’t a warning, Boxing, you are bigger than that. You will continue to be even if my interest continues to recede. Even if in 2024, as in 2025, the best practitioners fight once a calendar year, you will continue to be.
This note is not a breakup message, you get that, Boxing. You have received plenty of those these last ten years, sad, LOL. FWIW Boxing, I won’t even front, it may be that this is my last year with you. I resolve to enter this New Year with reasonable expectations for me and you. LOL, we shall see where that goes. I will do my best, Boxing, let’s get the same from you!
Signed,
Woodsy
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