Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero: Turki, Jim Lampley, Platform Wars-Welcome To ‘Gotham City’

/ Boxing, Featured / By /
Photo Credit: Matchroom Boxing

I will be watching the circus tomorrow, Friday, May 2, in a ring in Times Square, New York City, a place that can feel like the capital of the world, make you feel like royalty, or so they will think on IG! Or it can be the place where you go from heady delight, vibing with other excited strangers mesmerized by lights, to dismay, after you realize your wallet and phone got taken when that dude jostled you while you were getting a pic with dirty costumed and suspiciously insistent Elmo.

I will watch from afar, six miles away, in 11215 Brooklyn. I live off Pete Hamill Way, meaningful to very few at this juncture, but I like the visual reminder.

The State of Boxing Journalism Is…What It Is

Sometimes I don’t, though, because thinking about Hamill’s arc and the state of “journalism” during his heyday (70s, 80s) versus now gets me pondering, and this prose ponderous. Too much looking back is a sucker’s trap; it isn’t daydreaming but day and night wallowing?  No, I answer myself on this topic. It isn’t “wallowing” to acknowledge what I am: a male born in 1969 who came of age consuming media in the 70s and 80s, started contributing to the coverage in the 90s, and am still doing so today during a period of heavy transition. That last part, “heavy transition,” is familiar to OG types who will be tuning in tomorrow (Friday) night to see a selection of fights put forth by the new bossman of boxing, Turki Alalshikh. “Fatal Fury,” a video game, forgive my absence of knowledge to share.

Turki Has Come on the Scene, And Now IS The Scene

Turki has commanded the respect of someone who has gained massive market share over a short span of time, has the most ink to sign checks with, and has a history of being iron-fisted by push is coming to hard shove. His presence is not welcomed across the board, which disruptor ever is. Competition will protect their turf and point out deficiencies, real or perceived. Competition can be bought or fangs blunted, with that ink factoring in.

Boxing Scene and Ring Owned By Promoters

Hardcore followers of all elements of the sport know that transition is the right word. They’ve seen in the last two years a significant shift in media platforms with the top dog site Boxing Scene changing hands, from Rick Reeno, now with Turki at Ring, to Garry Jonas, the ProBox helmer who has taken on fire from Turki, who threw the sharpest counter on social since the Idec-Glaser session, at Jonas.

Shade, indeed, well played. No more from me there; I am biased…

Copp Getting YUGE Push

But Turki’s rugged rep doesn’t repel critics who see that industry ace Mike Coppinger has signed on with Turki. Turki bought Ring from Oscar De La Hoya, for whom I got checks from 2014 to 2012 when I pivoted to go to work at ProBox. Is Mike’s X account a “newsbreaker” account, a commercial one, or a mix?

FightsATW Has Out Front Founder

All that is neither here nor there for a reader who has reached this point in the piece. But it kind of is, actually, because you are reading this on an independent site owned by someone proudly upfront about who they are and what they do, Abe Gonzalez. I feel comfortable when reading his feed that he isn’t marketing at me, and the same cannot be said now, sad to say, when I am reading Copp’s feed. To handle change, periodic evaluations must be done, and one can’t pretend circumstances have not changed and proceed whistling on your way.

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Changing times….and so Copp, please forgive me, it is not as easy as it looks, doing commentary, and it takes reps, lots of reps, to get to a comfort zone if it’s not something that has beckoned you. Mike shouldn’t be hurt to know that I will be quite happy to have Jim Lampley on the call, along with, I’m hearing, Antonio Tarver, ex-Showtime, and Copp, who was at ESPN, and Ring, before that.

The Past Is Present, Jim Lampley Back on The Mic

Lampley, wow, that I would not have called, him calling a big card, a couple of years ago. I’d check in; he was teaching a class at his college. He’d tested waters, Triller was sniffing, but he held out for quality, and so he will be setting the table for us on Ryan Garcia, back from a nasty mental health dip, crazy/fun Teofimo Lopez, millennial quipster Rolly Romero, Devin Haney back from having his ego shield pierced…Lampley will lend an air of import and authority, the likes of which we don’t see today in a changed era.

Photo Credit: Cris Esqueda/ Golden Boy

Hype is in…Amplification is in…Education, a slow build, brevity being the soul of wit and just a plain relief in a shouting society, is maybe coming back. Maybe. With encouragement. I like to think so. I thought about myself while I read Lampley’s new book.

I congratulated the International Boxing Hall of Famer on the book and promised to buy one to support the authors’ time. The tales were good; he filled in gaps of knowledge for me beyond what I’d known while researching his entry into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Gosh, I loved his sharing of time spent with Howard Cosell.

That got me thinking about another person linked in my mind to boxing, to the past, Larry Merchant.

His wife died last month, and I’d asked after him. They had a sendoff in Maui for her, he told me. I will check in with Larry and, just as often as not convey a query to him about how to proceed in life. “Backward is death,” he messaged me. “I’ve stumbled. Mostly going forward and upward. Just kept going. Forwards.”

Larry Merchant & Jim Lampley were part of a legendary team at HBO.

We wondered what if Turki was a 70s character and placed a card in Times Square in 1975. “With MSG ten blocks away? Teddy Brenner would have screwed murder sacrilege,” Larry said. “I think it’s a brilliant PR stunt.”

I told him I got Lampley’s book. Larry wondered about himself versus Cosell, what with Jake Paul having such success with the exhibitions. I am not sure a catchweight could be found, but it is fun to think about what might have been in the past rather than what actually did.

Lampley seemed quite pumped to be back when I said his book dropped. “No book events until May 3,” he informed me. The one with John Grisham in Chapel Hill sold 100 books, and I’m sure the one with Wally Matthews in Brooklyn would have moved more if the shop didn’t rug-pull it. Wally stayed cool, and Lampley’s missus Debra, who gets lots of shout-outs in the book, did a boundaries clapback.

Lampley seems impressed with Turki’s entry into the sport and the wisdom of doing so as OGs Al Haymon and Bob Arum’s pie-share is up for re-assessment.

In the past, it was natural to want to gather there, but it can be poignant. I didn’t buzzkill Jim with George Foreman talk. “I am still bereft about George Foreman (died March 21). I’ve known only a few men who were that great. Arther Ashe, Muhammad Ali. But yes, I am excited and apprehensive about the event. I will work hard and try to do my best.”

Lampley grew in my heart when I heard him singing “Boom Boom Mancini” and the “Hurry on home” line after a BWAA dinner. Nice that Warren Zevon (Chicago native, died 2003 at 56), a sardonic songsmith whose Mr. Excitable Boy traits, enters the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame this year.  Like a fighter, for whom the safest place in the ring, the potential of absorbing trauma notwithstanding, Zevon was safest when performing, allowing us to experience his considerable skill set. Ryan Garcia is someone for whom the same assertion can be made. One year ago, the kid was off his rocker, and today, it looks like his head is screwed on tight and right. Boxing saving another soul, it could be argued. I still make and take that argument any/every day, by the way.

I will watch the fights, but I have no interest in the video game element of the promotion. But I have to concede that the percentage of the marketing is not aimed at AARP me.

That guy is gonna end with this advice, drawn from my decades. If you are going to Times Square to watch the event, check the weather and make sure you are dressed right. Keep your money clip, wallet, phone, and ID tight on your person. Pickpockets like circuses and distractions aplenty aid mark targeting.

Michael Woods

Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson. The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999. Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.

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