Requiem For A Welterweight: Manny Pacquiao

There's a short film on Freddie Roach at the bottom of a new piece I have up over at SBnation on the twilight of Manny Pacquiao...

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/11/20/5119180/manny-pacquiao-vs-brandon-rios-fight-2013-profile

New Essay On Addiction At The Rumpus: Through the Dam

You can click on the link here: Through the Dam

Havana, Cuba and the Friends You Haven't Met Yet

“And let’s have no displays of indignation. You may not have known, but you certainly had suspicions. If we’ve told lies you’ve told half-lies… And a man who tells lies––like me––merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies… has forgotten where he put it.

Mr. Dryden from Lawrence of Arabia

I had a grandfather who left Hungary in 1956 as a refugee while Russian tanks were rolling around outside his family's apartment in Budapest. The tanks outside her window are one of my mother's first memories. Ten years later my mother followed him to North America. My grandmother and uncle remained behind for the rest of their lives.

My grandfather and I never had much warmth for one another as people. He shared my mother's eyes yet lacked the warmth and kindness she possessed behind them. My favorite fact about him was that a woman he loved married someone else and he showed up at the wedding and hung himself during the ceremony. I always wondered if his dry, almost gasping voice was a souvenir from this experience.

He expected me to reach out to him and I could never find much about him to justify bothering. There had been cruelty against my mother and I held it against him without ever caring to explore his obvious pain. We had a weird bridge of pragmatism stretching over our divide. There wasn't so much resentment as understanding about the futility of our relationship. Nothing formally was established, but we stopped communicating before I was a teenager and he was dead not long after my 20th birthday and his 80th. We were both born on June the 3rd.

The last year of his life the only times I heard his voice was in the Hungarian songs he would sing my mother on her answering machine. It was such an uncharacteristically sweet, charming act I wasn't even sure how to approach asking my mother about why he'd begun regularly doing it. She visited him at the hospital as often as she could in the last days of his life and seemed to put to rest her own pain with him as he struggled into kindness toward the end.

There were silly, petty issues with his will where obvious desires he's had to look after people were complicated by fears of being exploited. There was very little money in the first place yet desires to offer something to my mother were botched at the end and she never for a moment complained despite her own financial strains. She laughed about how typical it was of him and her expression changed.

"Darling," she began, in the Count Chocula accent, "the two of you never had much closeness. I'm sorry for that. For both of you. He was a better man than I think you realize."

"Maybe I was wrong not to try."

"If you could go anywhere for two weeks. Anywhere in the world. Where do you think you would go?"

"Cuba. I just finished The Old Man and the Sea and found out he's still alive. He's 103. If I could go anywhere I'd go to Cojimar and meet him."

"Okay, then today your grandfather is sending you and your brother to Cuba. I will buy two tickets with the five thousand dollars your grandfather left me. I think he would enjoy this present for the two of you."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes," she smiled. "So you will have look up many of my friends in Havana."

"You have friends in Havana?"

"Of course I do."

"Who? I've never heard you mention knowing anybody in Cuba. I've never heard you mention knowing a Cuban anywhere."

"Why would I mention people I haven't met yet? But they're there. You'll see, Bwinny."

***

And I did. And yesterday one of the nicest, now with her husband, successfully escaped after years of trying.

No Mas Revisited

New piece up on ESPN.com regarding Cuban amateur great and Guillermo Rigondeaux close friend and teammate Erislandy Lara:

http://espn.go.com/blog/Boxing/post/_/id/2573/what-more-could-angulo-have-given-us

Teofilo Stevenson and Guillermo Rigondeaux Short Films In the Works

Negotiating something right now that would bring out two little films on the lives of Teofilo Stevenson and Guillermo Rigondeaux into the world. Nudging a little closer to that happening...

Teofilo Stevenson and Guillermo Rigondeaux Short Films

Right after Guillermo Rigondeaux's pummeling of ESPN 2012 Fighter of the Year Nonito Donaire, two offers came in for short films based Teofilo Stevenson and another on Rigondeaux himself. While the Miami Herald ran a front page feature on my work with Stevenson, accompanied by a brief clip from Split Decision, I have never publicly aired any footage from the last formal interview (albeit illegal) Stevenson ever granted. By far in my nearly 4 year journey exploring Cuba through the prism of Cuban boxers rejecting or accepting money to cross the Florida Straights, Stevenson's interview is the most explosive and moving thing I've ever captured. The short will explore his reasons for rejecting millions to fight Ali and the consequences, for better or worse, of that decision. The short will also explore Ali's fascinating relationship with Stevenson, including visiting the island twice and donating millions to Cuba in opposition to the embargo.

The Rigondeaux short will be a little different. While Rigondeaux's certainly achieved the dream he had back in Havana of defeating professional boxing's best, I've never been able to shake the feeling of viewing him as a kind of Orpheus-like figure: never able to look back. My aim to is to make an attempt at doing that for him, and an audience, and look at the cost of leaving.

An exciting and complicated element of these two shorts is the obvious sense that to quantify the costs of staying or going in Cuba, as an athlete or an ordinary citizen, exposes an impossibly obscene choice to impose upon any human being.

The sour truth you discover meeting the extraordinary Cuban people is that Faustian bargain is in either decision. Which goes a long way to explaining why no Cuban family on the island or off it has been spared the damage of fracture.

Guillermo Rigondeaux After Nonito Donaire

An announcer once mentioned, while calling a Rigondeaux fight, of waiting for the El Duque of the boxing ring. He mocked that he hadn't seen him all night Rigondeaux was fighting.

Well, last Saturday I saw boxing's version of El Duque take the stage and lay waste to boxing's best with relative ease. And the ease itself hadn't required learning a solitary thing since having left Cuba. Rigondeaux's talent was fully formed on the first day he stepped on American soil and he was perfectly  suited back then of doing what he did last weekend.

But now he finally had a chance to prove it. And he did.

Cuban kismet being what it is, I was standing next to El Duque's brother Livan at ringside. We watched Rigondeaux masterfully assert not just his legacy, but also those of all the Cubans who came before him. Teofilo Stevenson, Felix Savon, Hector Vinent, and a host of others, summarily dismissed as unready for the professional ranks by the experts, now, through Rigondeaux's routing of the sport's 2012 Fighter of the Year, get a new appraisal and hopefully a fair shake of not just being qualified as great amateur fighters.

That being said, the crowd seemed pretty clearly to be comprised of about 98% Donaire fans, 1.5% general interest fans, and .5% Cuban/Rigondeaux fans. Going forward with such a technically brilliant, yet fan unfriendly style is going to be a serious challenge for the career of someone on the brink of turning 33. But maybe this is enough.

Stevenson never had Ali, nor Savon and Tyson, and Vinent didn't get De La Hoya––Rigondeaux did get Donaire, and it was Donaire that looked like the amateur without a clue how to handle the situation.

Rigondeaux Crushes Donaire in New York to Take Titles

If Floyd Mayweather had routed Manny Pacquiao in the same manner Rigondeaux schooled Donaire, they'd hail the performance as genius. Instead the chorus chimes in that it was boring.

Rigondeaux was a Stradivarius in the ring and didn't allow Donaire had an answer or a plan B. Given the accolades showered on Donaire after the last year, how is it Rigondeaux fails to reap the credit he deserves for an achievement like this?

I don't get it.

Day of the Fight: Rigondeaux vs. Donaire

After weighing in yesterday afternoon, I followed Rigondeaux as he slid an arm into his Miami Heat leather jacket from MSG to his hotel across the street. Over the last few years of filming, nearly everyday that I've followed Rigondeaux in my documentary an unexpected disappointment happens along with some magic. I don't even bother anymore preparing for either. When I've tried I always get ambushed or miss the good stuff anyway. Fate likes to tease.

Yesterday's magic took place as Rigondeaux stopped his entourage, all in matching TEAM RIGONDEAUX tracksuits, at a little hotdog stand next to the Garden. He ordered a hotdog and a coke with what liked like a $10 bill that he didn't ask change for, wolfed them down, and charged back to his hotel room. Not a big deal, but it was, too.

It was that little slice of America that also reminded me a great deal of first meeting him in Havana munching on a little funnel of peanuts he bought off the street there. On a human level, Havana and New York have a lot of overlap at certain moments that have always charmed me.

Now we see where this story takes a considerable turn, probably one that defines Rigondeaux's journey nearly much as anything else for most people. While it's easy enough to confess I'm tense and excited over what will take place tonight, I can't say this fight defines him for me as much as what it took him to get to the US.

El Duque was once asked about being nervous pitching at Yankee Stadium on his way to winning the world series on one of the most dominant teams ever assembled in 1998. He shrugged, "It's nothing compared to pitching in Havana at Latino Americano."

I have a sneaking feeling, having spent many many hours at Kid Chocolate watching 100's of fights, Rigondeaux might feel, though probably not admit, the same thing in his case with Radio City Music Hall.

This part always creeps me out where a life amounts to a pair of dice jangling inside a fist and the toss. The beauty and the tragedy of this one, he's pushed every chip he could to let it ride on the verdict...

Donaire-Rigondeaux Final Press Conference at MSG

As far as staring contests go, where boxing press conferences are concerned, Donaire and Rigondeaux vied for the world record. Easily 4 minutes.

Rigondeaux also appeared to be taking his fashion cues from Michael Jackson's wardrobe in Thriller. Donaire combated the red leather jacket with a soul patch of his own. How either managed to survive the 4 minutes of intent glaring without breaking a smile I'll never know.

But it was interesting.

Rigondeaux vs. Donaire ESPN Piece and Promo

ESPN ran a promo for Rigondeaux's unification bout against Nonito Donaire that I wrote on the premise that this fight is an awfully nice proxy to what Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. might have been. Have a look and enjoy.

Road to Rigondeaux

Great little lead-in to Rigondeaux's fight April 13:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3u8kK2IXrazb63VYtk

A piece of mine should be coming out a day or two before the fight on ESPN.com's website. Some more info behind the scenes on Rigo's backstory can be found at rigondeaux.com along with updates on the documentary Split Decision. 

Interview With Guillermo Rigondeaux pre-Donaire Fight

I waited until the end of Rigondeaux and Donaire's press conference to approach him with a couple questions. Before I had a chance to ask them Rigondeaux caught me in the corner of his eye approaching and ambushed me with a hug. "How long have you been following me now?!"

So I asked him, "At your lowest point back in Cuba did you ever think you'd really get here today, with this opportunity, to have a chance at your dream?"

I won't even try to describe the smile he offered. His reply was this, "You better be here April 13th."

What a day to see after first meeting him 6 years ago, at the worst point in his life back in Havana.

Rigondeaux, Donaire, Conte, VADA Testing, Press conference Live Coverage

@brinicio on twitter will provide live coverage with Team Rigondeaux at today's 12 noon press conference announcing (hopefully) the April 13th fight here in New York.

Looking to clarify the VADA testing situation etc while in attendance also.

Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Nonito Donaire Press Conference Coverage from NYC

I'm going to take a crack at updating twitter about the events surrounding Thursday's press conference at the Radio City Music Hall in NYC. Something tells me with the back and forth drama thus far, there'll be more of it in a public setting.

I'll be attending the event with Rigondeaux's manager. If you're interested in tagging along for the ride, you can follow me at @brinicio on twitter.

Guillermo Rigondeaux and Nonito Donaire Press Conference in NYC Next Thursday

Thursday February the 23rd has been confirmed for the formal press conference announcing the April 13th unification bout between Guillermo Rigondeaux and Nonito Donaire in Manhattan, at either the Radio City Music Hall (where the fight will take place) or Madison Square Garden. Reports vary on the location.

This is very good news.

In other more selfishly good news, ESPN has hired me on to write a profile of Rigondeaux for this upcoming championship match and I'm to work with them on that.

Six years after meeting Rigondeaux for the first time in Havana back in 2007, I'm still shaking my head that this moment is finally on the horizon for him. What he had to give up to get here is beyond comprehension. Best of luck...

Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Nonito Donaire Update via Freddie Roach

Freddie Roach's summation over the phone a couple hours ago of the fight between Donaire and Rigondeaux was succinct and enticing, "This one will end with a bang."

Rigondeaux vs. Donaire Turning Into Gamboa vs. Rios

Bob Arum called Yuriorkis Gamboa's decision to agree to a fight against Brandon Rios for a million-plus payday, conditional on two press conferences in Miami and LA to promote the fight, and then going AWOL for both press conferences while everyone else attended, and, finally, backing out of the fight without so much as a formal announcement, unprecedented in his promoting career.

Charming distinction to have as a feather in your cap at the age of 30 as your boxing career moves forward. There were issues with his wife also, where Gamboa was arrested for domestic violence (later dropped). Now PEDs are being linked to Gamboa also.

Gamboa's also coming off of perhaps the sloppiest performance of his career as a pro. His skill set, like Mike Tyson's before him, doesn't age all that well. And he was a fighter to be hit well before his foot-speed or reflexes reflected his age (and inactivity).

Fast forward to the last week with Guillermo Rigondeaux receiving 750k for the biggest fight of his career against Nonito Donaire. His biggest purse to date is 220k. Nice jump. So what does he do leading into the fight? Refuse to sign his contract on the condition that Bob Arum settle a lawsuit with Rigo's co-promoter. Arum has basically responded by telling him to go fuck himself and that he's fully content to replace Rigo with a cheaper opponent. Rigondeaux of course headlined a fight not long ago that had a gate of less than 15k despite his own 50k payday.

If you're embarking on a career as a promoter, this isn't exactly the kind of fight that would have you licking your chops to sign him up as your star attraction.

So where Gamboa left off with maybe the most self-defeating career move in boxing of the last decade or two, leave it to Rigo to pick up the slack on the snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Very, very annoying.

And this opportunity, which he left for in the first place, stands a very good chance of never coming around again...

Cuban Sports Defectors Welcomed Back In Havana

In Havana Jose Contreras was met with a huge welcome 10 years after his high profile defection for the United States and massive, lucrative success in the big leagues. 

Contreras is the first athlete, according to the Associated Press, to take advantage of the new migratory law that allows state deemed "traitors" to visit their home.

Contreras was met with a "hero's welcome" in Pinar del Rio.

Contreras abandoned Cuba for Mexico in 2002 and was signed by the Yankees a year later. 

Cuba's new legislation renews hope that many such "defectors" who sought opportunity to better their own and their families lives may be able to reunite. 

Guillermo Rigondeaux left behind a wife and two children in Havana. During my interview with them  in one of the most politically radioactive homes in Cuba, his wife and son stressed how dearly they awaited seeing the father and husband. 

Hopefully these new measures in Cuba take that dream, along with countless other ruptured families, one step closer to being a reality. 

Cuba ready to end 50 year ban on professional boxing

There's some major news regarding sports in Cuba. After over 50 years, Cuba may be prepared to open up and allow athletes in the sport of boxing to box professionally.

"Our athletes are and always have been an example," Fidel Castro once said, and the word were hung over boxing gyms across the country. However, this famous expression spoke as profoundly on behalf of the athletes who left Cuba as those who stayed, in terms of the health of that system.

This is what I have tried to always explore in my film splitdecisionfilm.com. Without judging the people forced to make the decision of staying or leaving, exploring the factors involved in compelling people to make such a hopelessly impossible choice given the stakes.

Now of course, those boxers who fled the island, face a reexamination by their home. "Traitors" (and recently a very famous baseball player deemed a traitor by the Cuban state returned to Havana to see his family for the first time in 10 years) may be pardoned and welcomed back. Families may once again, finally, be reunited.

What fascinating times for Cuba...

Nonito Donaire vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux April 13 at MSG?

The lastest info I have on this fight happening (and it appears it will go ahead, though not signed as of this writing) points to a thrilled Rigondeaux requesting a "knockout clause" in his contract with Bob Arum as MSG is pegged as the most likely destination for Rigondeaux vs. Donaire on April 13th, 2013 for their unification fight.

Latest In Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Nonito Donaire and Golden Boy vs Bob Arum Saga

Nonito Donaire and Golden Boy have just made an aggressive move toward dismantling Guillermo Rigondeaux's chances of landing the biggest fight of his pro-career by offering Donaire and Bob Arum $3 million to secure a fight with Abner Mares. This is unprecedented money for a fight so far down the ladder of weight class.

There's more on this courtesy of Dan Rafael's reporting over at ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/8883112/golden-boy-offers-nonito-donaire-camps-3-million-abner-mares-fight

Figures they'd throw this kind of money at Donaire just as it was sinking in that I was only a couple months away from savoring the fight I'd most like to see in boxing. Humbug!

April 13th in Vegas looking more and more like date for Rigondeaux vs. Donaire

April 13th looking more and more like date for Rigondeaux and Donaire sources close to Rigondeaux's camp have confirmed with me. Some kinks yet, but agreement is there.

The Only Way Guillermo Rigondeaux Could Become a Household Name...

"The only way Guillermo Rigondeaux could become a household name is if Fidel Castro came over and co-promoted him with me.

-Bob Arum

Funny how Arum continues to renew Rigondeaux's contract with Top Rank based on statements like these. 

Rigondeaux vs Donaire March 16th?

According to Dan Rafael over at ESPN, circumstances could push Donaire/Rigo a month and a bit earlier to March 16th:

http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/id/2966/bradley-gamboa-fight-in-discussions

Nonito Donaire vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux April 27th, 2013 Announced

According to a few different websites Bob Arum has formally announced April 27th, 2013 as the date Guillermo Rigondeaux will challenge 2012's Espn Fighter of the Year (most likely in Vegas according to Arum).

Rigondeaux's manager Gary Hyde has confirmed the news via Facebook.

Rigondeaux picked up the torch of Cuba's most important fighter from Felix Savon (who personally passed on his captaincy to Rigo back in 2000 after his retirement), who in turn was the legendary Teofilo Stevenson's successor.

Finally, after all the great fights that never happened between Cubans and the rest of the world on the professional stage, Rigondeaux gets his shot against one of the world's best. My guess is he's licking his chops at the chance to take on a puncher as one of the most deadly, if not the most deadly, counter puncher who ever lived (don't take my word for it, Freddie Roach said the same thing).

Rigondeaux by body shot KO within 6.  

Best of luck to Rigo!

Eric Kelly article on SBnation...

The most fun on a profile I've ever had. Fascinating guy.

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/1/15/3866556/eric-kelly-boxing-trainer-wall-street

Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Nonito Donaire?

Some rumors swirling regarding Guillermo getting a crack at 2012's Fighter of the year Nonito Donaire.

Funny, back in 2007 when I first met Guillermo after Fidel came down on him and branded him a Judas who would "never fight for Cuba again," I wonder if he thought this day would arrive where he'd have a chance, 5 years later, to fight for a world title against one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on earth and prove himself as a professional and potentially have a shot at making the kind of money that can look after his interests the way he couldn't in Cuba.

If he gets his chance and pulls it off, maybe spectacularly (a heavy-handed counter puncher against a puncher trying to expose a weak chin makes the chance of a brilliant bodyshot not all that unlikely), I still wonder if all the fuss associated with him trying to leave will be worth it for him, on his terms.

When our deepest fantasies collide with reality this is usually what creates the most profound nightmares of our lives. And as Guillermo's silence about the journey to the US illustrates pretty well, he doesn't have all that many people to compare notes with in terms of understanding where he's coming from.

Be fascinating to watch it unfold...

"The One-Eyed King" Drops Tomorrow on SBnation Profiling Eric Kelly

Tomorrow my piece for SBnation drops about Eric Kelly's fascinating allure to the 1% on Wall Street. It's a pretty interesting ride into one of the most interesting people I've met in a long while. Always fun when you can find someone with 1.2 million hits staring at a video that they still come away missing something important from. Kelly goes a long way into filling in exactly what that is over the course of the interview he granted me.

Stay tuned...

Havana: The Canaries in the Coalmine

While editing Split Decision with a Cuban editor who made it to America via the Cayman Islands at the age of 21, we noticed an extraordinary thing that separated Cuban boxers from American boxers.

When Cubans were victorious in the ring, their immediate instinct was to search and reach out to extend gratitude for anyone they could find who assisted or they felt was responsible for their accomplishment. Felix Savon's last fight when he won his third Olympic gold featured him, as the final bell rang, exhaustedly smiling out to Cubans in the audience yelling though he was out of breath, "Gracias Cuba!"

American fighters, on the hand, over and over basked in their own accomplishment. The gestures of victory all said: look at me. Arms outstretched. Chin high. Posing for history. Occasionally they'd bask in their accomplishment while simultaneously pointing out their humility as a means of compounding their achievement and virtue. It was humbling to make this much money or to have achieved this or that touchstone in their career.

The funny thing about this litmus test dividing Cuban and American boxers was that when we watched all the fights of the top Cuban boxers who defected, they began to adopt the same nature of celebration after their victories as Americans. Rigondeaux and Gamboa, for example, go further than reveling in their victories. They demonstrate contempt. Occasionally they go further than contempt and reveal the bitterness at the heart of their victories: while they want what America can offer them financially, they have both stated publicly on many occasions they'd much rather be fighting before a Cuban audience. Even more curious given how high profile their defections, they claim they remain fighting for Cuba.

"The One-Eyed King" Preview

           (One of my favorite scenes I photographed from Havana's Prado, the Cuban Dalai Lama in red)

Eric Kelly, the most celebrated boxing trainer of the 1% in the world right now, caught my attention a couple months ago for his video. I understand he just he just sat down on Good Morning America the other day. Next Tuesday SBnation is publishing an article I wrote on Eric Kelly based on a few visits down at his Church Street Gym in the Financial District of Manhattan. Along with Eric I interviewed several of his clients.

Quite a romance is going on down there and I'm looking forward to this article throwing some light on it.

The Salon Treaty

A very interesting, quite fun situation developed after I responded to some hate mail from a former Columbia professor after my Salon article began a shouting match in the comment section.

An enjoyable read about the results of our truce:

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/split-decision/

The Art of Spin With Anything CUBA

Funny how when this piece went up on Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/the_way_we_left_cuba/

...the editors inserted a headline, attributed falsely to me, saying Cuba was an "Orwellian nightmare." I complained, not before the comment section and some hate mail assailed me as a "right wing, Cuba-bashing opportunist shit," as one person put it. Seemed as if 90% didn't read beyond the headline. Even a metaphor in the piece comparing Havana's current state to a young girl, just sexualized, staring and smiling with rotten teeth at tourists had another person imply I was a pedophile.

So Salon's editor compromised with me on the headline I complained about, though "reluctant to do so," (as the bulk of the article, he argued, would balance it off) and attributed another headline to me, which I didn't write, calling Cuba "by turns beautiful and terrifying."

Seemed that was as close as they'd let the piece get to ambiguity by way of introduction.

Charming times we live in...

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea...