|
|
(JUNE 16) The sport of Women's boxing
found itself in a very unusual place last week, on television, on
"live" television. On Thursday and Friday, on Fox Sports Network and
a national PPV telecast, respectively, over five hours of television
time was devoted to some very good female boxers facing off with
other very good female boxers. That fact, in itself, two good female
boxers in the same ring, is all too rare in the sport today and is
reason enough for applause and, possibly, hope for the future of the
sport. Additionally, it can be validly argued that these seven
televised bouts, over two nights, exceeded the number of competitive
bouts, in the sport, shown on "live" television, for the past year,
maybe the past several years. And, as is always the case in boxing,
the centerpiece was the boxers. The fourteen female boxers featured
on the telecasts performed with above average ring skill. A few
parts of the telecasts, unfortunately, did not achieve that same
consistent quality.
Fox Sports Net's Thursday prime-time (8PM EDT) presentation was, as
in the past, part of their "Best Damn Sports" franchise and was
broadcast from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT. From a
production standpoint, the telecast was high quality, although on
several occasions, the opening seconds of a round were missed due to
an overrunning commercial. The announcing team needed much more
work. "The Best Damn Sports" studio duo of John Salley and Chris
Rose opened the broadcast by engaging in what passes for snappy
banter on that show, the best part of their segments being that they
were brief. Neither Rose nor Salley seems to have much in-depth
knowledge of Women's boxing and the interview they later conducted
with Holly Holm can, kindly, be described as mostly content free.
The Holm interview was the lone substantial cross reference to the
following night's PPV telecast. Amazingly, there were no tune-in ads
for the New Mexico telecast during the two hours on Thursday;
strange since the Fox audience would seem to be a prime target
audience for the following night's PPV telecast.
The Fox Sports voices calling the bouts, likewise, seemed ill-suited
to the task. Neither Ron Pitts nor Frank Trigg can be described as
boxing announcers. It's fair to ask why Barry Tompkins and Rich
Marotta, longtime Fox Sports personalities, who are quality boxing
announcers, did not get the assignment. Pitts, a former NFL player
and son of Green Bay Packer great, Elijah Pitts, is probably more
skilled at calling the game he played, while Frank Trigg, a mixed
martial artist, might be more comfortable describing the sport in
which he competes. Throughout the night, both announcers essentially
confined themselves to generic comments about the action in the ring
and the sport of female boxing, leading to a night of largely
pedestrian ringside commentary. Pitt and Trigg seemed to be simply
reacting, almost fan-like, to the action in the ring rather than
providing any in-depth analysis, beyond the most basic of comments.
Trigg's several attempts at comparing MMA to boxing seemed to lack
pertinence. Additionally, neither announcer seemed particularly
knowledgeable about the boxers' backgrounds, failing to note, in but
one example, that Angelica Martinez, who lost to Jill Emery in the
opening bout on the telecast, had been in the ring with Holly Holm
four times (another cross plug possibility) and that Martinez had a
win over Christy Martin. Finally, neither Pitts nor Trigg, seemed
particularly concerned about the decisions that were rendered in
both the Jeri Sitzes/Ela Nunez and Alicia Ashley/Lisa Brown bouts,
other than mentioning that the judges' decision didn't agree with
their (Pitts and Trigg) scorecards. Particularly egregious was the
scoring in the Sitzes/Nunez bout in which Jeri Sitzes, with a
knockdown, had a 10-8 fourth round and, in order to justify the
judges' call (58-55 on all three cards for Nunez), all remaining
five rounds had to be awarded to Nunez. That simply was not the
case, but neither announcer went into any such depth on the scoring
detail. Trigg had done an interview with Jill Emery after the first
bout but there was no interviews following the next two bouts, when
a discussion of the controversial decisions would have been
relevant. Barry Tompkins and Rich Marotta would have been a welcome
alternative.
Friday's PPV telecast was markedly different. In addition to the
viewing fee, the program, from Isleta Casino in Albuquerque, NM, was
headlined by a bout between Holly Holm and Mary Jo Sanders,
purportedly to decide the "best pound for pound female fighter" in
the sport. Such hype is never easy to live up to and the
Holm/Sanders bout came up just a bit short. It was a good,
fast-paced bout, with Holm's speed dictating the early going,
Sanders making some progress in the middle rounds but Holm's speed
prevailing in the final stanzas, securing a win.
The biggest difference, in Friday's telecast, was the voices that
came over the airwaves. Al Bernstein and Arnie Rosenthal are boxing
announcers; Bernstein is one of the best in the sport and Rosenthal,
the best in the sport of Women's boxing. The two called each of the
four bouts in a style that can only be described as "comprehensive."
The viewer got it all: background on the fighters, ongoing ring
strategy as the fight progressed, critiques of the between-round
strategy sessions between the fighter and her trainer. Bernstein
excels at boxing tactics, rarely missing the nuance of any change in
strategy or the pace of the bout. Rosenthal wove his personal
experience, in the sport of Women's boxing, seamlessly into the
broadcast: his promotion of the two Lisa Brown/Jeannine Garside
bouts, his bringing Ann Marie Saccurato to Albuquerque (March 2007)
for a bout with Holly Holm and noting, during Friday's telecast, how
Saccurato's tactics contrasted with the style that Mary Jo Sanders
was employing in the Albuquerque ring. Mercifully, both Bernstein
and Rosenthal opted away from the "pound/pound" hype (maybe because,
at the very least, Arnie Rosenthal has knowledge of fighters such as
Ann Sophie Mathis and several others who figure, prominently, in any
"pound/pound" discussion).
If there was a quibble about Friday's telecast, it centered, for me,
around the announcers' overuse of the ubiquitous "this is a
difficult round to call" remark. Knowledgeable boxing viewers know a
close round when they see it and they look to the announcer, their
ringside "expert," to render a decision as to which boxer prevailed
(see: Teddy Atlas). However, it should be noted that, on Friday,
these announcers' words were somewhat prescient. Both Rosenthal and
Bernstein had the Holm/Sanders bout much closer than the final
judges' decision and both announcers had Hollie Dunaway winning over
Wendy Rodriguez. In the interest of full disclosure, through the
filter of a TV screen, I agreed with the announcers on both bouts,
until I talked with an astute ringside observer who not only had
Holm ahead 98-92, but also felt Rodriguez did more than enough hard
punching to win. I make this an example of the fact that both Al
Bernstein and Arnie Rosenthal are, probably, in exactly the right
spot at ringside, behind a mic.
That's why it was surprising that neither Bernstein nor Rosenthal
conducted the post fight interviews with any of the fighters. In
what can be only described as an unusual decision, the ring
announcer, one Benny Ricardo, was given the assignment of post fight
discourse with the winning fighters. Mr. Ricardo seems a fairly
capable ring announcer, but his interviewing technique is painfully
awkward. Chevelle Hallback, following her fight-of-the-night win
over Jeannine Garside, essentially ignored Ricardo's rambling
opening question and launched into her own soliloquy. Ricardo also
interviewed Holly Holm in what seemed to resemble a breathless paean
to the winning, hometown fighter. For one of the first times in the
telecast, a viewer was clearly reminded of the location of the
bouts.
Overall, the tale of two telecasts was more the best of times, for
the sport of Women's boxing, than otherwise. Would Tompkins and
Marotta have improved the Fox Sports broadcast? Of course, good
boxing announcers make for good boxing broadcasts, Rosenthal and
Bernstein are proof positive of that. Could there have been better
ringside judging on Thursday at Mohegan Sun? Absolutely, but that's
been an issue in the sport since, forever. But the fact is that
fourteen very good female fighters got the type of television
exposure that has been essentially absent in the sport and that's a
positive, a big positive for a sport that needs a lot more of them.
And Fresquez Productions, Mohegan Sun, Integrated Television, Fox
Sports Network, the IFBA, the IBA and WBAN deserve credit, in big
measure, for making these boxing cards and telecasts happen. Sports
on television never achieves perfection, but, as far as Women's
boxing is concerned, there's no such thing as bad television
exposure. Hopefully, there will be a lot more for the sport.
|
|
|
|
