Bart said:
That is where you are totally mistaken. The writers and pundits have an incredible impact on the minds of the masses. The public does not know or care about your opinion or mine for that matter. They form conclusions based on what Teddy Atlas, Max Kellerman, Burt Sugar, and ESPN writers have to say. You see, they are the recognized experts.
You're absolutely right, Bart. And those three you mentioned, in their clever, subtle way, will always cast the white fighters in a negative light. They'll talk about how Joe Louis was old when Rocky Marciano knocked him out, but never mention that Max Schmeling was even older when he lost his rematch with Louis.
The media can make athletes out to be something
far better or
worse than they are, by constantly emphasizing the positive or the negative!
It seems they always bring up Wlad's losses, but they rarely talk about Ali's losses to Frazier (at age 29) and Norton (at age 31), and when they do, they have an excuse for him. On ESPN, they show him knocking out Sonny Liston over and over again, as if it was a far more meaningful fight than it actually was! Ali's win over Archie Moore in 1961 is made out to be important, but whenever Marciano's KO of Moore in 1955 is mentioned, they always say Moore was old (although Moore won 38 fights after Marciano knocked him out, but won zero after Ali beat him!) ESPN Classic shows Ali's fights regularly, but I've
yet to see them show the five that he lost.
The media makes Michael Jordan out to be a super-athletic god, but we don't hear as much about Wayne Gretzky, who dominated hockey during the 1980s, breaking almost every scoring record. We hear about the superior "athleticism" of black men like Jordan, but they never point out that the REAL reason black men do well in CERTAIN SPORTS like short-distance running and basketball is because most of them have proportionately longer arms and legs.
We hear that Tiger Woods is a black man, but we never hear that he has more white than black heritage (he's 1/4 white, but only 1/8 black, and 5/8 Asian). Most people think he's 1/2 Asian and 1/2 black.
Most people have never heard of Fedor Emelianenko, the best fighter in the world, but it seems everybody's familiar with Anderson Silvia and "Rampage" Jackson.
The average person actually believes that a black man will always defeat a white man in a fight, unless the black man is old or crippled, yet most of the opponents of boxers like Wladimir Klitschko were black. Fifteen of Alexander Povetkin's 16 opponents were black. Same with other white fighters...
We never see Wlad's better performances against Bostice, Barrett, Byrd, Nicholson, Mercer, Brock, Austin, Peter etc. on ESPN Classic, while they manage to show Roy Jones HBO replays, and Mayweather's and Holyfield's Showtime fights. They do show Wlad vs. Williamson, not one of his better performances.
ESPN Classic recently showed some Demetrius Hopkins fight from last year, but why not Pavlik vs. Miranda instead, since it was FAR more exciting? But you'll never see that one again on TV!
