Comments Thread For: Mayweather Eyes Broner-Theophane if Both Win Bouts

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

ASHLEY THEOPHANE has been promised a world title fight by his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The London light-welterweight is a member of Mayweather’s ‘Money Team’ and fights under the pound-for-pound great’s promotional banner.

He is the only Brit in the camp and Mayweather is working on delivering his man a world title shot with Adrien Broner.

Theophane, 35, takes on Steve Upsher on the undercard of Mayweather’s clash with Andre Berto on Saturday in Las Vegas.
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[Jim Tom]

I like Theo. He's a great guy and I hope you get that world title. You chased your dreams and it can only get better mate.

[bojangles1987]

What the ****.

[PRBOXINGCOTTO]

this will be his last shot at a title before he retires broner will stop him

[Chrismart]

Boxing News Online were hinting at this fight just yesterday.

[kiaba360]

Boxrec has Theophane ranked #58 at 140lb.

[Lou Cipher]

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[Corelone]

Lou Cipher, get a grip man. Mayweather is not important, boxing is. You are just showing your pain after buying all his PPVs.

[wlliam]

Solid fight for Broner if he gets past Khabib. These are the kind of fights he should have been brought along with. I say a Herrera or Soto after that, so he can get some rds in. I still think his team will throw him bk in with the wolves soon..

[Bronx2245]

Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater! Roid MayBeatHer, PED cheater!

My feelings began to change when it was reported that Thomas Hauser was hired by HBO. Hauser is the man responsible for approving or denying new members of the BWAA, and he is now in the back pocket of HBO, and effectively silenced from voicing any criticism towards one of the biggest providers of live boxing matches in the US.

Why is Hauser being employed by HBO and a member of the BWAA an issue?

If you were to list the major power players in the sport of boxing, HBO would have to top that list. Practically every major PPV fight has HBO’s blessing behind it, and it’s rarity to see a PPV fight without the support of HBO.

To speak against HBO is to speak against the God of boxing.

Granted, HBO isn’t a promoter, manager, or a sanctioning body, but if you think about it, HBO has more power than all three of those combined. HBO gets a percentage of any pay per view fight that they purchase, and help promote their major fights with TV shows such as their 24/7 series. They are in effect an unlicensed promoter, and Thomas Hauser now works for them.

If you click on the about us on the BWAA’s website, it states the following:

The object, goal and purpose of the Boxing Writers Association of America is to foster the highest professional and ethical standards in boxing journalism, both print and electronic, and to promote better working conditions for those who cover and report on the sport.

If the object, goal, and purpose of the BWAA is to foster the highest professional and ethical standards in boxing journalism, shouldn’t their members not be consultants to one of the biggest players in boxing?

What’s perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Thomas Hauser previously worked for , which was owned by Robert Waterman, a promoter and manager in the industry. One has to wonder if Hauser was able to remain objective about the fighters under the control of Waterman when he worked for him.

Respected journalist Kevin Iole delved into the issue in one of his columns and stated: “It’s a dark day for boxing journalism. Despite Hauser’s protestations, [HBO] essentially bought the silence of one of the few men with the sources, the gravitas and the courage to take on the sport’s powerful forces.”



March 21, 2012:

Hauser has been an ardent, and eloquent, critic of HBO Sports, particularly the regime of its now-former president, Ross Greenburg. Writing for Internet sites such as Seconds Out and The Sweet Science, Hauser repeatedly blistered HBO in a series of lengthy articles about the inner workings and failures of its sports division in the boxing space.

His pieces would often exceed 5,000 words and would describe, in great detail, what had occurred in private meetings.

Greenburg resigned as president of HBO Sports in July amid heavy pressure, much of it brought on by Hauser's writings.

Plepler and Michael Lombardo, the president of HBO Programming, had sought to identify the source of the leaks to Hauser, but were unable to do so.

So, on Wednesday, Plepler made a brilliant move in the game of office politics when he hired Hauser as a consultant. With that one move, Plepler plugged the leak and kept more embarrassing information about HBO from getting into the media...
Hauser announced in a statement he released Wednesday that he would continue to write, but that has become extraordinarily problematic. He is now highly conflicted, and even by putting a disclaimer on everything he writes that he is employed as a consultant by HBO Sports, questions will be raised about his work.

More significantly, what Hauser doesn't write will be as much of an issue, if not bigger, than what he does. Readers now can only speculate what information he has gained from being part of HBO's team that he is not disclosing that he would have disclosed previously.

In an email to Yahoo! Sports, Hauser defended his decision to continue to write about boxing.

"I'm not (and never have been) the HBO police," he wrote. "If you go back and look in my article archives, I wrote one or two articles about HBO each year. I'm still free to write about HBO and anything else I choose to write about. At the end of the day, my articles will speak for themselves. Readers (knowing that I'm a consultant to HBO) can put that in the equation when they judge the merits of what I write...

Roy Peter Clark is a veteran journalist who teaches writing and journalism ethics for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.

He said the problem of journalists working for people they cover is becoming increasingly common. He said he is not familiar with boxing, but said a journalist must work fiercely to maintain independence. Going to work for a large player in the boxing industry, Clark said, "clearly complicates the process of covering an industry that has traditionally been regarded as corrupt."

"If I am going to cover this industry with integrity, and as much of it as I can muster, it's better for me if I'm covering it from the outside in," Clark said. "Once I step in to play any role whatsoever in the industry [I'm covering], my position is compromised."

Hauser is one of the few boxing writers who wrote with depth and a long-range view of the sport.

It's a dark day for boxing journalism. Despite Hauser's protestations, Plepler essentially bought the silence of one of the few men with the sources, the gravitas and the courage to take on the sport's powerful forces.