racingmeridian.com

ICE..Patrick Kane deserves a fair hearing. The story, as currently recounted, just does not make sense. I don’t want to call Kane a hooligan or a ridiculous cheapskate until the full facts have been aired. Why? Well, in my travels it has become apparent that some of the dudes driving hack are seriously troubled, anti-social malcontents. Not all. But proportionally way out of whack with the rest of society. I’ll hit the Yonge night bus before I’ll hail a cab. I’ve been put in far too many situations where doing what Kane purportedly did seemed all too reasonable i.e. $10 dollar ride and the cabbie can’t change my twenty, yeah, right…Brian Burke did the right and compassionate thing by sending Justin Pogge out of the Big Smoke. The expectations for the young goalie were ratcheted far too high, especially after the trade of the superior Tuuka Rask, and a fresh start on the Left Coast might allow the smouldering ruins of his career some respite. But, let’s face it, the kid is never going to be a starter in the Big Leagues…GRIDIRON..the Carolina Panthers will utilize Josh McCowan or Matt Moore as back-up behind starter Jake Delhomme.  The Panther quarterback situation is a real concern. Delhomme had one of the great meltdowns in football history in the playoff debacle last January against Arizona and it is peculiar that the franchise is showing such faith in his ability to put the game behind him. Seriously, now, can you envision Delhomme ever again leading the team to the Superbowl?…Dallas Cowboy DeMarcus Ware led the NFL with 20 sacks last year. The entire Kansas City Chief defence was credited with 10…FOOTIE..the move of Wayne Rooney, after the departure of Cristian Ronaldo, from a flanking position to the centre of the field has Manchester United fans anticipating his best season ever. Rooney has set a target of 25 goals for the Red Devils, up from last season’s 20, and seems eager to take on a more prominent striking role. Interestingly, Rooney seemed to call out Dimitar Berbatov, in a back handed way, commenting that the Bulgarian is “working harder and tracking back”. During the commentary for a game last year the BBC offered this gem,” The goalie has been covering more ground than Berbatov”…PONIES..a while back I signed up for the Bloodhorse “alert” e-mails. I figured it would keep me in touch with any startling thoroughbred developments, or results of major Grade 1 races. If, for instance, a Commentator retires, yeah, I want to know. Okay. Here, verbatim, is an “alert” I just received, “Saratoga Sales average and median up from last year”. That’s an “alert”? I’m getting ten bloody e-mails a day from this service telling me if it’s raining at Saratoga or if Rachel Alexandra passed gas! Can’t a modicum of intelligence be applied to what is worthy of a mass e-mail?…PUG LIFE..the Manny Pacquiao - Miguel Cotto fight has been entitled “Firepower”. Of the 15,000 tickets available for the fight, according to ESPN’s Dan Rafael, only 5,000 will go on public sale. The rest are for the MGM Hotel, Top Rank, the fighter’s camps, fight sponsors, HBO and the Racing Meridian. The last part I made up. Rafael reports the WBO welterweight title belt will be at stake. It’s amazing that people still care about these phony titles, but as the PacMan is looking to become the first fighter to annex hardware in seven divisions, the importance of some bauble at stake was critical to the Pinoys…BEAT POET..I received a brilliant, extensive e-mail from the Beat Poet this morning. The State of Boxing, and its slow slide into irrelevance, was the topic, and man, I wish I had his permission to print the missive. It’s damn well glowing with passion and anger. The salient points are the following; the multiple divisions and champs have made it all but impossible for the average sports fan to stay on top of the sport, top contenders only rarely fight each other, the top fighters don’t fight enough, big fights are scarred by irrelevant, boring undercards, and, to sum up, “no one knows what the ?%#$% is going on!” The Poet despairs that there exists neither the will power nor the all powerful mandarin to turn the sport around…every point the Poet made is countered and dealt with impressively by Dana Whites smooth running, well organized MMA machine. I am starting to get it. Really. I read four, minimum, boxing sites a day and I struggle, and I mean struggle, to keep up with the various champions and assorted contenders. The whole championship racket is nothing but an angle to generate revenues. The integrity of the ranking system has completely and utterly collapsed…MERIDIAN RANKINGS..take a time out, step into the pugilistic world of the Racing Meridian, wherein are only the traditional eight divisions and none of the phoniness and abuse of the alphabet soup groups. Take a look at how impressive and important boxing could be if match-ups of importance were derived and cultivated by the following ranking of contenders;

HEAVYWEIGHT 1) Vitali Klitschko 2) Vladimir Klitschko 3) Tomasz Adamek 4) Nikolai Valuev 5) Alex Povetkin 6) Eddie Chambers 7) Steve Cunningham 8 ) David Hayes 9) Cristobal Arreola 10) Marco Huck.

LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT 1) Chad Dawson 2) Mikkel Kessler 3) Bernard Hopkins 4) Lucian Bute 5) Glen Johnson 6) Jean Pascal 7) Carl Froch 8 ) Librado Andrade 9) Andre Dirrell 10) Jermain Taylor

MIDDLEWEIGHT 1) Arthur Abraham 2) Kelly Pavlik 3) Felix Sturm 4) Paul Williams 5) Khoren Gevor 6) Kermit Cintron 7) Anthony Mundine 8 ) Sergei Dzindzirck 9) Roman Karmazin 10) Winky Wright

WELTERWEIGHT 1) Manny Pacquiao 2) Miguel Cotto 3) Shane Mosley 4) Joshua Clottey 5) Andre Berto 6) Luis Collazo 7) Zab Judah 8 ) Timothy Bradley 9) Ricky Hatton 10) Amir Khan

LIGHTWEIGHT 1) Juan Manuel Marquez 2) Humberto Soto 3) Edwin Valero 4) Joan Guzman 5) Juan Diaz 6) Joel Casamayor 7) Jorge Linares 8 ) Roberto Guerro 9) Roman Martinez 10) Michael Katsidis

FEATHERWEIGHT 1) Juan Manuel Lopez 2) Rafael Marquez 3) Israel Vasquez 4) Celestino Caballero 5) Yuri Gamboa 6) Chris John 7) Steven Luevano 8 ) Elio Rojas 9) Steve Molitor 10) Toshiaki Nishioka

BANTAMWEIGHT 1) Hozumi Hasegawa 2) Joseph Agbeko 3) Vic Darchinyan 4) Fernando Montiel 5) Gerry Penalosa 6) Abner Mares 7) Z Gorros 8 ) Eric Morel 9) Alexander Munoz 10) Jorge Arces

FLYWEIGHT 1) Ivan Calderon 2) Nonito Donaire 3) Edgar Sosa 4) Brian Viloroa 5) Daisuke Naito 6) Omar Narvaez 7) Ulises Solis 8 ) Koki Kameda 9) Pongsaklek Wongjongkam 10) Giovanni Segura.

   Imagine every ranking fought over, no backroom skulduggery and an impartial governing body. As the Beat Poet stated, boxing needs to be blown up and restarted. The old ways are not working and the dwindling interest will ultimately reduce boxing to the fringes. Eight divisions and a renewed sense of integrity can move the sport back to the television networks and the average viewer. Casual sports fans can quickly grasp eight divisions and ones ranking within the weight class. This will mean money for a, say, number six ranking, as the credibility and prestige of a legitimate spot in the top ten increases. Re the argument for a cruiserweight division; in 2009 we can clearly see that that current talent base does not provide impetus for the creation of a ninth division. The 200lb and up collection is dismal. Yes, it means it sucks to be Marco Huck, or Tomasz Adamek. There are always going to be problems with the weight groupings but boxing, as a sport, needs to stop chipping away at it historical mandates and infrastructure. More bad than good has resulted from the constant watering down of once impeccable standards. And finally, yes, it would mean less title shots for average boxers. But the meaning of getting a shot at the belt would be revitalized and become truly a life defining moment. It is, I have learned, better to endure the tragedy of a Charlie Burley never getting a title shot than to have four mediocrities laying claim to a junior “championship”…