FIGHT BOSS WON'T BE BULLIED

BY JIM BLACK

RIVAL fight bosses Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum are on a direct collision course over the future ring plans of world champion Ricky Burns.

According to American promoter Arum, the 30-year-old Coatbridge ace will defend his crown against undefeated Nebraskan Terence Crawford on Burns Night.

The powerful Top Rank chief announced earlier this week that the showdown will take place at Madison Square Garden on January 25.

But the champion’s promoter has told Arum to forget it after claiming that Burns won’t be fit to fight against until the middle of February at the earliest.

And even if Burns was to make a miraculous recovery from his broken jaw he sustained against Ray Beltran, Arum will have to seriously rethink the offer he has tabled after Crawford was confirmed as the mandatory challenger.

Hearn said: “It’s an interesting situation. Crawford is the new mandatory challenger and he is with Top Rank, the same as Beltran.

“We have already written to Arum to say that we accept that Beltran probably won and we think he should be given a rematch as it’s the right thing to do, morally as much as anything.

“But Crawford will be onto Top Rank saying that he is next in line and they probably have more interest in him than they do Beltran, so they’ll try to force the situation, with the winner potentially fighting Beltran.

“But, for me, commercially Beltran is probably a bigger fight and more relevant and we are liaising with the broadcaster, HBO in an effort to try to make that fight.

“I was interested to learn that Bob Arum announced at a press conference earlier this week that Burns will fight Crawford at Madison Square Garden on January 25 which was very nice of him.

“He did make us an offer which we have rejected, and, because of the purse bid split, we would be favourites to get that fight for Scotland anyway.

“Crawford is very good, but, commercially it wouldn’t be bigger than Beltran because his name won’t mean a lot to the people of Scotland.

“There are there options as I see it and it is 100 per cent that one of them will be next.

“They are for Ricky to fight Beltran or Crawford or for him to undertake a unification bout which might be the way to supersede a mandatory defence.”

Hearn admits that there is a risk that Burns could be stripped of the belt by the WBO if he fails to agree to a defence against Crawford next.

But he stressed: “Generally a unification bout is allowed if a fighter has just had a mandatory and Ricky had one against Jose Gonzalez in May.

“One of the problems is that he hadn’t had one for so long that the WBO will be on his case although there is also the option of Beltran-Crawford, with the winner fighting Burns.

“It’s an interesting scenario and sometimes you get an offer that you really can’t turn down. But it’s my job to ensure that if Ricky fights in America the money is life-changing and the offer we got is nowhere near that.

“So if the Crawford fight is going to happen, we want home advantage. We can generate good money through the crowds and TV revenue so there’s no reason why that fight can’t happen here if we have to take Crawford.

“But because of the controversy surrounding the Beltran fight, albeit it wasn’t Ricky’s fault, he wants a rematch because he believes he would do a number on him next time.

“But, whoever Ricky fights, his next bout will be crucial because he was mediocre against Gonzalez and probably lost to Beltran, so he is under pressure now and I think that will drive him on.”

Meanwhile, Hearn confessed that he is dreading Burns’ first sparring session a month or so from now.

He added: “We won’t know for sure about the effects of his injury until he has had his first sparring session and taken a shot on the jaw and that’s one call I am not looking forward to.”

Boxing's Shame - by Jim Black

BY JIM BLACK

BOXING is clinging onto the last vestiges of credibility by its fingertips in the wake of Ricky Burns’ world title bout against Mexican Ray Beltran.

What other conclusion can possibly be drawn from the shameful events of September 7 at the SECC?

Burns retained his WBO lightweight crown by dint of a points win that once again exposed a system of scoring that is wholly inadequate, given that it is so flawed and open to abuse that it is no longer capable of shocking.

One judge awarded the fight to Burns, 115 points to 112, another to Beltran, by 115-113, with the third scoring it a draw, 114-114.

Hispanic-American Jose Ortiz was probably the only person who witnessed the contest who actually thought Burns had won, including, one suspects, the fighter himself.

Even Burns’ promoter, Eddie Hearn expressed the belief that the challenger had truthfully prevailed.

Jim Watt, the former world champion and highly respected Sky pundit, delivered a damning indictment of the verdict when he declared: “Sometimes I really don’t like this business.”

He is most certainly not the only one.

It was not Burns’ fault, of course. Having courageously boxed for 10 rounds with a fractured jaw, the 30-year-old from Coatbridge was, like Beltran, at the mercy of the judges.

Scoring in boxing is dependent on opinion rather than fact and that is the nub of the problem.

May it now be time to consider the amateur system of points scoring where scoring shots are registered electronically and the ringside judges score in tandem?

At the time of writing, I understand that a probe in underway into the discrepancy in the scores that shamed the sport yet again.

That is the least that must happen and if the WBO has the courage of its convictions, Ortiz will never again officiate at a world title bout.

But none of this should be allowed to sully Burns’ achievements. He has been an outstanding champion at two weights and deserves to be regarded as one of the country’s true sporting icons.

However, Beltran must be given a rematch in the interests of fair play. Otherwise, there is a danger that Burns will be remember as the champion who got lucky rather than one who has done his country proud.

Still on the subject of boxing, the sport has lost one of its unsung heroes.

I refer to Dean Powell, promoter Frank Warren’s 47-year-old matchmaker who died as the result of a tragic incident at New Cross Gate train station earlier this month.

Investigations are ongoing, but witnesses have testified to seeing Dean leave the platform as a train passed.

If so, the tragedy is all the greater, given that none of those closest to him were fully aware of his state of mind or the affects of the pressure he clearly felt under.

Warren writing in his weekly column in The Sun said that he has become aware that something might be wrong when Dean texted to ask that his family be looked after before switching off his phone.

Having some years ago suffered from a bout of depression, I can only imagine the degree of turmoil in Dean’s mind that drove him to deliberately end his life, if, indeed, that was the case.

One thing is certain, the sport is all the poorer for the passing of a genuine “boxing man” and someone who was a friend to many.

At first glance a dog dressed in a Celtic top may appear mildly amusing.

But when the animal in question – a boxer – is subjected to a kicking for “wearing the colours”, no sane-minded person can feel anything other than revulsion.

It must be hoped that the morons who attacked the unfortunate animal on a Glasgow bus are caught and dealt with.

But what does it say about the dog’s owner that he felt a need to express his allegiance through his pet? 

I have the upmost respect for the various anti-sectarian groups who campaign to rid us of this blight on society. However, I fear they are wasting their time.

Meanwhile, apologies to my friend at the BEEB, Phil “Good Lad” Goodlad.

I stated in a recent blog that Phil hails from Stornoway. Let the record show that he is a Shetlander – and rightly proud of the fact.

A summer of sunshine and smiles slides inexorably towards a winter of discontent

By Jim Black

THINGS are bad in the media business, but perhaps they have not quite reached the stage of journalists bedding down at the local Salvation Army hostel when on assignment.

According to Phil Goodlad, that irrepressible BBC sports broadcaster whose boundless enthusiasm betrays an as yet unsullied view of life inevitably born of long developed cynicism in the case of those of us of a certain vintage, I found myself residing at such an establishment while reporting on the recent Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

While not wishing to in any way denigrate the fine work down by the Salvationists, I would like to make it clear that was most certainly not the case.

The misunderstanding arose from a conversation I had with the man from Stornoway, who gives the impression of being double-jointed the way he delightfully twists into camera shot from almost any angle.

“I’m staying at the Sally in Perth,” I informed the good Goodlad in response to his enquiry.

I should explain that the Sally is the commonly used abbreviation for the Salutation Hotel, apparently Scotland’s oldest such establishment. However, my friend the rubber man was clearly ignorant of the fact, which explained his rather sheepish approach the following day.

“Jim, I have a confession to make,” he announced, and as I am not a member of the priesthood I quickly realised that he had not approached me on religious grounds.

“I happened to be speaking to Euan McLean (another member of Scotland’s golf writing fraternity) and expressed my sympathy that due to a chronic shortage of accommodation in the area you had been forced to bed down with the Sally Army” he informed me.

While I found his confession highly amusing, I was left to ponder the esteem in which I am held by at least one of my colleagues.

Suffice to say, when Iain King, the Scottish Sun’s head of sport, informs me that it’s the Sally Army or second hand camper van, my days as a golf writer will be over.

Hopefully that is still some way off, for the thought of a summer without reporting on golf fills me with dread.

Having spent most of the past four months on the road covering tournaments from Wentworth to Dublin, Muirfield to Celtic Manor, I am becoming increasingly apprehensive about what lies ahead for me in the sporting fields.

While I am sustained by thoughts of the Dunhill Links Championship and Ricky Burns’ forthcoming world lightweight title defence, there is also the rapidly growing realisation that most weekends from now on will involve the coverage of Scottish Premiership football.

There was a time when I relished such a prospect. But with the passing of the years has also come growing irritation at the way I and others in the profession are treated by the football world as a whole.

We are regularly subjected to a mix of rudeness, dismissiveness, arrogant disregard and, in certain cases, utter contempt while helping publicise a game that would appear to be in terminal decline.

Rather than embrace the media and work with newspapers in an effort to breathe fresh life into the patient, employees of football clubs would apparently rather further the absurd notion that they are dealing with the “enemy.”

Not all are the same, just the majority. Never mind that work facilities are in many cases completely inadequate, the attitude of the average “football man” towards the media is often both aggressive and disrespectful in the event that any form of justifiable criticism is aimed in their direction.

Do I really care anymore? Deep down, probably not, given that my days of having to endure sub-zero temperatures in cramped press boxes and snarled responses to awkward questions are drawing ever closer to an end.

But a word of advice to the afflicted before I toddle off into the sunset. Take a look at the world of golf and how the European Tour, for example, treats the scribes.

State of the art press rooms, more often than not a plentiful supply of food, an almost instant transcription service, a wealth of information readily to hand and a team of press officers trained to cater for our almost every whim – and, most important of all, in my humble opinion, the game’s stars threatened with disciplinary action in the event that they decline to attend a press conference without first offering a plausible excuse for not doing so.

Oh, I almost forgot. Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player et all invariably willing and seemingly perfectly happy to grant interviews.

Of course I’m talking true legends of sport as opposed to often overpaid, sometimes overbearing and occasionally overhyped footballers who take a lead from the manager in regarding the media with suspicion.

There have been times when that deep-rooted mistrust has been fully justified as a consequence of underhand, unprofessional behaviour on the part of some members of the journalistic profession.

But, “the enemy?” I think not. At least not his gnarled old hack who remains as passionate about sport as he ever did, albeit not with the same blind acceptance of bad manners, shoddy treatment and attempts at intimidation that he once tolerated without comment or complaint.