(MAR 25) Television is called a medium, many of it's critics will note, because it's seldom well done. Fans of Women's boxing will be the among the first to argue that television has rarely done anything well for their sport. HBO has ignored it, ESPN's coverage can be used as a definition of "sporadic," and the last sustained coverage by Fox Sports occurred in another century.

Last Thursday, aided and abetted by the promotion capabilities of Fresquez Productions and the matchmaking ability of Rick Kulis, Fox Sports took another televised look at the sport by televising, live, a three bout female card from the Isleta Casino in Albuquerque, NM. The results were, in one viewer's opinion, very close to well done.

Boxing, whether televised or not, is always about the fighters. On Thursday's telecast the fighters were the best part of the show. The three bouts featured six talented women boxers, in three ten round bouts, that provided compelling matchups. All three fights were, prior to the opening bell, good examples of bouts in which there was not a preordained winner. For lack of a better term, call each matchup a "two good fighters" bout, as opposed to the unfortunately normal fare, in the sport of Women's boxing, of the "one good fighter/one opponent" bout. There were titles available in each of the three bouts as it seems there always is these days, in almost every bout. In fact, on Thursday, in New Mexico, there were multiple titles on the line in the main event. However, in all candor, in the present state of the alphabetizing of boxing, the myriad list of titles was the least relevant element of the evening. Rather, what was important and compelling was the fact that Kelsey Jeffries was in the ring with Rhonda Luna, that Lisa Brown was facing off with Jackie Chavez and Holly Holm and Ann Marie Saccurato were scheduled for ten rounds. Those six fighters, those three bouts, that was the headline. And that's as it should be, since it's the fighters who make the sport of boxing, not, as is sometimes presumed, the other way around. And these six women made special this night of boxing, delivering thirty rounds of ring skill that provided the sport with a spotlight that is, in Women's boxing, often promised, but seldom delivered.

Fox Sports, likewise, delivered a telecast filled with excellent production values. An exception, it could be argued, was the frequent use of a split screen to show highlights of a previous round, while the "live" action of the next round had already begun. If previous round highlights cannot fit into the air time between rounds, it becomes confusing, at least to this viewer, when there is an attempt to simultaneously show highlights and "live" action at the same time. The ringside commentary, however, more than made up for any minor production glitches. Barry Tompkins and Rich Marotta are competent veteran boxing announcers who, while not reaching the Arnie Rosenthal-like level of expertise on the sport Women's boxing, nonetheless refrain from the type of invasive, overheated, look-at-me commentary that all too often prevails in today's boxing coverage. Tompkins and Marotta, to the relief of viewers, are cognizant that they are not the story, the boxers and the matchups are. It might have been better to have included post fight interviews with the boxers, for several reasons: I know, from experience, that Kelsey Jeffries and Lisa Brown can be compelling interviews and both fighters express their opinions in a straight forward, enthusiastic manner. It would also have been interesting to hear from the main event fighters on the margin of victory, as expressed by the judges, the "point spread" as one astute observer called it. Again, from personal experience, I know that both Holly Holm and Ann Marie Saccurato would have had some interesting and informative commentary about what translated on the TV screen as ten very hard fought ten rounds. Another reason post fight interviews would have been welcome is that viewers would have been listening to the fighters rather than the personalities back in the Fox studio.

It was in that Fox studio that the weakest element of the telecast resided, in the personages of John Salley, a regular on Fox's "Best Damn Sports Show," Andrew Sicliano, a Fox Sports announcer, previously unknown to me, and Mia St. John, a seeming ubiquitous presence, in the sport, both in and out of the ring. Salley is a sometimes gregarious talent, who can be quite interesting when he wraps himself around a subject he knows something about. Boxing, most specifically Women's boxing, does not fall into that category. Salley didn't seem even remotely familiar with female boxing and his evening of one generic remark after another confirmed that impression. St. John, when rousing herself towards commentary, brought to mind a line about "only opening your mouth to change feet." Mia hit the low point of the evening when she insisted that "Jackie (Chavez) had thrown enough punches to win the fight" when, even the least discerning fan had just watched Jackie Chavez absorb the lone one-sided loss of the evening. The evening might not be a total loss, however, since St. John is now properly positioned to eliminate commentary from her list of "what to do after boxing" options. Andrew Sicliano, apparently also a stranger female boxing, set the stage for the main event by referring, on what seemed to be endless occasions, to Ann Marie Saccurato, as the "Brooklyn Brawler." Sicliano's learning curve on Saccurato's background had apparently ended with the knowledge that Ann Marie frequently trains in Gleasons Gym in Brooklyn, commuting there from her home 25 miles north. Fortunately, several minutes later, the ring announcer, seemingly not swayed by the attraction of alliteration, got Saccurato's hometown of White Plains correct. Mercifully, over the two plus hours of the telecast, the studio segments were held to a minimum.

A logistic drawback of the telecast was the time slot, specifically, the 11PM start time in the Eastern time zone. Thursday, a weeknight, is not usually an ideal time to commence a two hour telecast at 11 PM. The problem was further extended by the fact that one of the main event fighters, Saccurato, is from an Eastern time zone market. The main event began at 12:40 AM EST, probably ideal for certain "swing shift workers" but less so for those fans who have to make an early morning work bell. Rick Kulis points out that securing "a live time slot is a long process and this (11 PM starting time) was the best spot available on Fox Sports." Given that nearly half the TV households in the country (49%) are in the Eastern time zone, it is hoped that, in the future, either an earlier weekday time period or a weekend programming slot will be negotiated. There were, also, numerous reports from viewers that the telecast was disrupted, during the latter portion of the program as local stations switched to other programming. This situation is entirely outside the purview of the network and such a preemption is initiated by local Fox Sports affiliates and the network has no control over such program switches. It is difficult to imagine, however, that any local station that switched to programming other than the boxing from New Mexico, achieved an upgrade.

Overall, the pluses of Thursday's telecast far outweighed the minuses of the broadcast. Start with the fact that the three bouts exceeded, in quantity and quality, all good female boxing bouts that have been telecast, "live" on network TV, thus far, in this century. Congratulations are in order for everyone associated with the production, starting, of course, with the six fighters and including all those who made the boxing card and the telecast possible on both a local and national level. But, as with everything connected with television and with sports, it's important to recognize that this is but a step, a small step and, in reality, the most important step is the next one. And that next step, hopefully, is another "live" telecast just like the one from New Mexico: three (or more) female bouts, just as good and just as compelling as Thursday night's bouts. The card in Albuquerque showed the way, showed it can be done, showed that with good fighters and the right matchups, Women's boxing is good television. Perfect? No, but the next step towards perfect happens when these type of telecasts become the norm, not the exception. The women came to Fox Sports, and they won over many new fans for the sport of Women's boxing, while at the same time reminding the long suffering fans of the sport just how good and talented women boxers can be. They did it with a great night of boxing. A great night of boxing that happened to include female fighters. Let's hope they'll be back soon.

Bernie McCoy

 

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