Thursday, November 10, 2005

Boxing and the Mainstream Sports Media

The only reason I knew that Vitali Klischko announced his retirement from boxing and ceded his belt to Hasim Rahman was because my wife told me. She was home watching Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN, and saw it on a crawl at the bottom of the screen. She called me at work to tell me about it. They never talked about it on the show.

To me the news of Klitschko's retirement was unexpected. But then, I'm a little out of the boxing loop these days. I haven't been hanging out of Maxboxing or ESB for awhile. It's not as if I'd get boxing news by watching ESPN or any of the major networks. To me it was big news, but I guess that's because I'm a fan of the sport. The mainstream sports media, however, does not give a damn about boxing. But if you're reading my little column here, then you probably know that already.

I came home and watched Sportscenter. And PTI. And that stupid show with Stat Boy - what's it called? Around the Horn. Right. The one Max Kellerman used to host - the one guy at ESPN who had half a clue about boxing. Anyway, no one cared to report that the Heavyweight Champion of the World retired. The wife tells me Jim Rome didn't talk about it either. All those morons are still too busy gorging themselves on that dead horse named Terrell Owens. By the way, is there someone I can PAY to MAKE THEM STOP?

If boxing has become insignificant, it's because the mainstream sportsmedia has made it that way. Yes, I am talking to you, ESPN.