Mayweather vs. Ortiz, HBO 24/7 and the Boxing Hype Machine

In my opinion, there is no better sports reality show than HBO’s 24/7 series. Being a boxing fan, it’s easy for me to say this, but many aspects of the show are appealing to mainstream sports fans and just regular TV fans alike. The first of the 24/7 series I watched was for the build up to the Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao fight. I had become aware of Manny Pacquiao after he defeated an aging Oscar De La Hoya in his previous fight to essentially become the most popular boxer in the world. I was less than familiar with Hatton, knowing only that he was a brawler from England who was regarded as one of the top pound for pound fighters in the world.

That was enough for me to decide to get back into the world of professional boxing. I had in essence sworn off the sport of boxing after the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson debacle in 2002. I had semi-regularly followed the heavyweight division for a while and this was by far the most compelling fight Lewis had had as champion. Though Tyson was long past his prime, I had believed him to be the only heavyweight who could actually give Lewis a run for his money. With Lewis’s last handful of fights coming against such no names as Francois Botha, David Tua and Hasim Raham, I was hoping Tyson could channel some of the skills he possessed that made him a boxing phenom and regain the heavyweight title. Forgetting that it was 2002 and not 1995, Lewis embarrassed Tyson. While Tyson showed some flashes early, it was clear he was nowhere close to being in the same class as Lewis. By the 3^rd or 4^th round, it was evident that Tyson knew he had no chance and essentially stopped fighting. Finally in the 8^th round, with Tyson barely having the energy or willingness to throw a punch, Lewis knocked Tyson to the canvas and the referee counted him out.

I had felt duped by the boxing hype machine. Even though I knew this would have been a much more entertaining fight 6-7 years previous, there was enough hype and promotion around the fight that led me to believe that it would actually be a close, hard fought battle. Lewis only fought once more in his career and retired as the undisputed heavyweight champ. Since then, the division has been dominated by Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. Both are amazingly talented fighters but have been (perhaps unfairly) punished by the fact they don’t have a very entertaining fighting style in the ring and that the heavyweight division is the weakest that its ever been. Even though there were many great fighters still active (including De La Hoya), heavyweight fighters are still the huge draw for casual boxing fans, which I was at the time, so with nothing exciting going on for a while, I stopped following the sport altogether.

When the hype machine started building for Hatton vs. Pacquiao in 2009, I was ready to dive back into boxing. It was being billed as the fight to determine who would be considered the #1 pound for pound boxer in the world and since, as previously mentioned, the heavyweight division had nothing very interesting going on, this was as good as it was going to get for me. To add fuel to my fire, I had just discovered that HBO had an uncensored, all access reality show that followed both fighters around during training and promotion for the fight. 24/7 Hatton vs. Pacquiao was just I needed to get back into full boxing mode.

Looking back now I can safely say that the Hatton vs. Pacquiao version of the 24/7 series was one of the best ones they’ve ever done. Most everyone knows the story of Manny Pacquiao who is really more of a renaissance man than an athlete. He wasn’t yet a congressman in the Philippines at the time, but the show emphasized how important he was as an ambassador to the country and how close he was with his inner circle and his family. Similarly, the 24/7 series showed Ricky Hatton as being one of the most popular athletes in all of England. What made this particular 24/7 series special wasn’t just the fighters themselves but their trainers. Pacquiao is trained by Freddie Roach, a man who suffers from Parkinson’s disease but is widely regarded as the best trainer in the world. Hatton was trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr., the loud, rash father of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Both trainers spent the series taking shots at each other’s fighters in a way that any WWE fan would appreciate. You really didn’t even to see the fighters to enjoy each 30 minute episode.

I was back. I loved watching Floyd Sr. on the show. He did enough talking and hyping to make me believe that Hatton was going to win the fight. But even if Hatton didn’t come through, I knew that he was going to give Pacquiao all that he could in a fight that would become a classic. Then came fight night. Before I could even sit down, Hatton was down on the mat. A few seconds later, Manny knocked him down again. Hatton managed to survive the 1^st round, but in retrospect it might have been better for him to not answer the bell for round 2. Though visibly dazed, Hatton started to pull it together a little bit in round 2. Manny was still in control, but Hatton showed some things in the ring that showed he might be able to make a fight out of it. Then, with just a few seconds remaining in round 2, Hatton dropped his right hand and Manny connected squarely on his chin with the most vicious left hook I’ve ever seen. Hatton was out cold on the mat. He never fought again.

While watching the 24/7 series, I was too caught up in the outspoken Mayweather Sr. and the thought of a brawler from Manchester becoming the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world to recognize that Pacquiao was younger, stronger, faster, and had the best trainer in the world (not to mention the fact that one of the only reasons Mayweather Sr. was training Hatton was a way of spiting his son, Floyd Jr.). I saw what I wanted to see, and I was incredibly entertained every step of the way.

Fast forward to present day. HBO is running a 24/7 series for this Saturday’s fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Victor Ortiz. Once again, it has been a fantastic series. Most casual sports fans know about Floyd Mayweather Jr. The flamboyant, undefeated fighter (a fact that he never misses an opportunity to talk about) is trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather, but in the first episode of the season we see his father, Floyd Sr., in camp with him. This ends abruptly in the 1^st episode when the father and son get into a heated verbal confrontation that is both painful and fascinating to watch. We later see Mayweather Jr. hanging out with 50 Cent, both flashing large stacks of $100 bills. We see everything that makes Money Mayweather one of the most known and hated athletes in sports throughout the series. If you didn’t know what Floyd Mayweather was about, after watching this show, you would know his game and chances are, you wouldn’t be a fan.

Victor Ortiz is the exact opposite of Floyd Mayweather. The young, soft spoken fighter from Kansas is far from a household name. He earned the right to fight Mayweather by defeating Andre Berto in April, a fight he was a 4-1 underdog in. He grew up in a broken home, essentially raising himself. He is shown on 24/7 as being incredibly humble, loyal to his brother and being an important part of the Mexican community in Oxnard, California, where he currently lives. On top of the fact he is a nice and decent person, he is also 10 years younger than Mayweather, who is coming off a year and a half “retirement” to take this fight. If you are a non partisan fan looking for someone to root for in this fight, there is no question that you are rooting for Vicious Victor Ortiz.

However, if you seriously believe that Victor Ortiz is going to win this fight, than you are a product of the boxing hype machine. It’s not your fault, it’s really not. Boxing promoters are paid a lot of money to make you, the general public, believe that Victor Ortiz will hand Floyd Mayweather his first defeat in the ring. The fact remains that Ortiz has never seen a fighter like Mayweather in his career. Mayweather is an incredible defensive fighter. He becomes impossible to hit at times when he’s fighting. This will cause the aggressive Ortiz to take even more chances than he already does, which plays right into the hands of Mayweather, who thrives on counter punching. Think of an NFL defense that likes to blitz. It works if the opposing QB is Mark Sanchez or Chad Henne because they are not good enough to read the defense and find the open receiver. But if you try it against Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, you are going to get burned because they are able to find the soft spot in the defense and are physically and mentally gifted enough to exploit it.

That’s what Ortiz is walking in to on Saturday night. He is the blitzing defense while Mayweather is Peyton Manning. The majority of people watching the fight will be rooting for Ortiz for all the right reasons. He’s a great person who deserves a big break in his life. However, the reality of the situation is that he is going against one of the best fighters of our generation. No matter how much he is hated (and trust me, he loves to be hated), Mayweather will win this fight. 

All that said outlets like HBO 24/7 are good for the sport of boxing and for all sports in general. They just needed to be taken with a grain of a salt. As a show, it is designed to give each boxer equal coverage, when in fact, they are far from equals, as evidenced by the fact that Ortiz is a 6-1 underdog. But they serve their purpose. And I’m not saying you should avoid the fight. Quite the opposite really. Watch it if you can. Watch what you’ve learned about each boxer as an athlete and as a person in the ring. Watch and see if the advice that each of their trainers have been giving them pays off. Watch and see if you can tell each boxer’s personality appear in the ring. Root for Victor Ortiz. Or for Floyd Mayweather. Show interest in the fight. Just don’t be fooled by the boxing hype machine.