I have been a long time fight fan and I read news from all over the web.  I came across an article written by Yahoo! Sports writer, Kevin Iole and couldn’t believe what I read.  

He has jumped on the MMA bandwagon in the past claiming boxing was near its death, and recently went on another tirade of how the sport will fade “into near oblivion”.  

I have written to him many times but go no response and was not published in his mailbag; thank the boxing gods for this blog.

In a recent article he went on to say boxing is losing its audience.  He called the Marquez-Casamayor fight a “decent main event” and when talking about fighters salaries had this to say:

“…Mosley and Mayorga were grossly overpaid for what they did, just as Juan Manuel Marquez ($1 million) and Joel Casamayor ($600,000) were two weeks earlier when they fought on a pay-per-view show in Las Vegas that drew next-to-no interest...”

If the Marquez-Casamayor fight was simply “decent”, then he needs to give up his post as the boxing writer at Yahoo Sports and let some real fans cover the fights.  That fight was the epitome of the sweet science; crisp combination punching solid defence, and the will to find a way to win in the later rounds. It was an event that showcased the talents of one of the best fighters in the world.  I would say it was much more entertaining that watching an over the hill Chuck Lidell get iced in two rounds

To say boxing is dying, he must not be looking at the boxing schedule very closely.  There are many great fights coming up in the near future from fighters that live in all corners of the world.  Klitsko vs Peter, Abraham vs Marquez, Calzaghe vs Jones and Hopkins vs Pavlik are all excellent match ups which will generate a greater collective world wide interest than the next several MMA events. 

Now when a fight isn’t good, I’ll be the first to say so.  I posted in the LP forum how Paul Williams vs Andy Kolle did not belong on HBO.  And as predicted, the fight was not competitive and Williams starched Kolle in one round.  He also made this point.

Nonetheless, boxers deserve what they get paid and then some.  Only a “writer” not a “fighter” would suggest that they take pay cuts for the work they do.

If he wants to promote and help the sport grow, I suggest that he stay focused on the positive aspects of the sport. Like spreading the word about a possible match up between Mosley and Berto to give even the casual observer something to enjoy about this great sport. 

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