UFC vs Boxing Saturday Night: The Winners and Losers

Saturday night offered a premier event to see which contact sport, boxing or UFC, will be the future star. FOX offered a heavily promoted premiere for UFC on broadcast television while boxing offered much of the same, relying on the name of its big star Manny Pacquiao.

It should come as a surprise then that the heavily promoted event was more satisfying for viewers, and the old outdated boxing event was more useful for promoters.

UFC did all it could. It created an amazing set and set all its wheels in motion in a greatly organized event. Everyone could foresee that having only one premiere fight was a bad idea--it called for an early knockout to ruin all logistics. And it did.

Except it didn't. The most exciting moment in any fight, however disappointing it may seem, is a first round knockout. It proved that UFC is real fighting, not guys wrestling on the floor for hours, pounding each other's faces in.

It worked. It was a light, sensational entree to the sport.

Personally I would have placed a lightweight fight at the beginning, to whet the appetite. You know the type, the one with acrobatic kicks and punches that show the real athleticism of the sport.

But this isn't sex. Length does not matter. It was a sensational part. It'll help Dana to plan future events and it got people talking about the sport. That was its goal. Viewers won, promoters won. Numbers came in showing the 18-45 male demographic showed up. That's all the UFC wanted.

Now on to that other sport and proof that length doesn't matter. There was a spectacular premiere fight. It wasn't one sided, it was close and contested with the underdog out boxing the favorite.

During the conference call prior to the fight with Juan Manuel Marquez my first fight question was, "Do you need to knock Manny Pacquiao out to win the fight?"

He was reluctant to respond, but it was clear to anyone present in the first two fights that it was true. Pacquiao also knew he needed a knockout to silence critics. Neither man delivered and Pacquiao got the benefit of the doubt for having a more aggressive style and, here is the kicker, being the fighter controlled by the promoters.

I was just added to the boxing beat late in the summer. My first fight was the fiasco between Mayweather and Ortiz. Every boxer in that card controlled by Golden Boy (if Mayweather is counted as a Golden Boy fighter as he is in this instance) won in what seemed questionable calls by the judges.

That's the problem with boxing. It's controlled by the promoters, and the promoters won. And that's all that matters. The fight may have been stolen, but how many people will show up to watch the fight again when HBO repeats it this Saturday to confirm their thoughts? Much more than if it had been a clear victory for either fighter.

The fight is being talked about, boxing is dominating national discussions. Marquez lost out, but the promoters won out.

Now Marquez-Pacquiao IV seems a genuine rematch, not just a redundant one. And more importantly Pacquiao vs Mayweather Jr. is still alive.

The only real losers Saturday night were Cain Velasquez and Juan Manuel Marquez.

The Penn State Scandal and an Unspeakable Crime

The story around former Penn State Defensive Coordinator is so horrifying, so grotesque that it tests the boundaries of human interaction.

Everyone involved in the scandal, from those witnessing to those reporting to those prosecuting, seem at a loss for words and actions. There is no appropriate way to address any of it except, perhaps, a return to the middle ages where Sandosky can be hung on the town square and we can all feel clean, safe, purged.

Adult after adult came in contact with it and failed to report it, not knowing how to react to the claims. The blame is not only on Penn State and the recognizable names, its on a society that makes these subjects so taboo.

Joe Paterno, upon being told, went home to his bosses, horrified, disgusted, and petrified and told them to take care of it.

None of them are justified in their reactions, but what comes to light is that there needs to be new education. There need to be clearer laws to avoid something like this happening again.

A crime like this cannot become so unspeakable that people cannot find a way to report it. I do think Penn State was trying to protect its ass, as were some of the schools, but to ignore the other side of it, the side that refuses to accept acts like this can occur is hurting the children involved.

This case needs to become an opportunity for adults and children to learn a way to speak about something like this without guilt, without hesitation.

Unfortunately we live in a world were this happens more than we care to imagine, now is the time to bring it to the light and reveal the many Sandusky's not associated with a big time football program and get them to justice as well.