The Old-Fashioned 3-Point Play

TOF3PP features commentary on two stories from the sports world, and one trending pop culture storyline.

The Bucket

Professional boxing might be able to capitalize on the relatively empty sports calendar that exists in between the conclusion of the NBA Finals in June, where widespread interest then ebbs and flows up to MLB’s post season, and then we reach September and America’s mania for the National Football League fully explodes. Safe to say boxing won’t be knocking out college football or the NFL on fall and winter Saturdays and Sundays any time soon.

However, going up against MLB’s typical slate of games near the midpoint of the lengthy 162 regular season games… eh, not quite as daunting an opponent. Provided the right match ups are in place, boxing will hold its own. The Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime Boxing’s card broadcast June 25th on CBS sports featuring the long-awaited showdown between top 10 welterweights Keith “One Time” Thurman and Shawn “Showtime” Porter achieved a 2.0 rating that peaked at 2.6 during the evening’s main event.

Per BoxingNews24 Thurman-Porter’s average ratings represented an 80% increase in viewership over April’s bout which featured steadily rising welterweight star Errol Spence, Jr.’s destruction of former 140-lb. champ Chris Algieri. Big time boxing’s major premium cable network partners – HBO and Showtime – can ill afford to send every championship bout to network TV, but the buzz generated by Thurman-Porter sets a game-changing precedent for one of America’s oldest professional sports.

Number two. Cleveland, OH’s Shawn Porter is a tenacious boxer, rarely taking a second off to allow his opponents to focus on their own offensive strategy. Porter’s early onslaught of punches kept Thurman using up more of the ring’s real estate than normal, but Thurman’s spot-on post-fight assessment of Porter’s attack proved to work against the Cleveland native according to the three judges’ 115-113 cards. Thurman said that he was confident Porter’s 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust attack would likely smother his effective punching, and his goal was maintaining his sharpness defensively while looking to land cleaner effective shots of his own.

The crowd agreed with Porter that he’d won the fight, the punch stats indicated he barely edged out Thurman on connections, but Thurman’s defensive movements and cleaner shots arguably presented the judges with a better sense of ring generalship. CompuBox stats indicated a 44% to 36% edge for Thurman in punch accuracy. In a closely contested bout ring generalship and accuracy have to factor in heavily in the judging.

Number three. Current UK IBF champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25 KO’s) arguably holds a more impressive victory against Porter – his performance served as a coming out party for Special K. However, a subsequent marquee fight with fellow UK and top 10 welterweight Amir Khan never materialized following the surprising victory (at least for most U.S. fans) over Porter. Now that Brook and Thurman both have impressive wins versus one of the division’s best fighters, a Thurman-Brook showdown is the ideal match up at 147 lbs. This pairing of division champions later in 2016 capitalizes on any momentum gained by a sport that struggles with consistently pitting the best against the best.

The And 1

We could stick with Thurman-Porter, pointing out the fact the two athletes took home $1.4M and $1M respectively, for their entertaining fight. Boxing is the hurt business but with paydays like that, is a league with a sketchy commissioner  (earning nearly $50M per season) or routine poorly officiated playoff games worth following with unwavering support?

Well… let’s roll with the usual entertainment thought.

Did BET get it right?

The 2016 BET Awards took place at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater on June 26th, and featured tributes to both Muhammad Ali and Prince – as well as some apropos words of encouragement in a defiant speech by Grey’s Anatomy’s Jesse Williams. The network pledged to do better than the Billboard Music Awards’ Madonna-led version that social media instantly rejected – hell, online petitions started the moment Madonna’s name surfaced as the featured artist.

Ali’s daughter Laila Ali handled the tribute (mainly a heartfelt statement) to her father with Jamie Foxx also making some remarks about The Greatest. Laila’s conservative, or elegant, slayage was must-see by the way.

The Prince tributes played out over the telecast’s nearly four hours of air time, and BET exec Stephen Hill mostly got it correct with solid performances turned in by Bilal (The Beautiful Ones), a hooded Jennifer Hudson (Purple Rain), Erykah Badu (The Ballad of Dorothy Parker), Maxwell followed up his current single with “Nothing Compares 2 U” (the only person to fire bigger shots than Maxwell was actor Jesse Williams), and the evening closed with a spirited medley performed by a full band led by Sheila E. A cameo by The Time’s Jerome and some of his patented dance moves represented the Minneapolis touch I looked for in all of the tributes.

Bilal’s “Beautiful Ones” seemed to go over well with most fans, but I feel Mint Condition lead singer Stokely Williams – who like Prince hails from Minnesota – would have been a better fit. Janelle Monae, always an energetic performer, also turned in a full-scaled Prince medley but while she did bare her behind à la The Purple One, she came up a little short vocally. The biggest disappointment was the glaring absence of D’Angelo… I guess a no-show was unavoidable from such a reticent musician who took 15 years off before his most recent project released in 2014.

Personally, I wanted to see somebody provide some guitar highlights – The Roots’ lead guitarist did hit center stage for a couple of nice solos – but after taking in all of the performances I surmised one obvious fact: Simply, nothing compares 2 Prince.

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