| |
(APR 26) I finally found "A Ring of Their Own". It took me almost as long as
it took the sport of Women's boxing to get it's own TV show. The problem of
female boxers getting TV exposure has been well documented, but in my case
the problem of finding "A Ring of Their Own" was directly related to the
fact that it is being broadcast in near obscurity on the Metro Channel in
New York. The Metro Channel is a low tier cable channel, positioned slightly
above public access outlets and substantially below the major sports
channels such as ESPN and Fox Sports.
"A Ring of Their Own" deserves much better. In addition to being the first
TV show dedicated, exclusively, to the female boxing, the show manages to
pack more boxing action into two hours than any existing show on the air.
Additionally, the presentation features high quality production values along
with fast paced, (women fight two minute rounds) competitive bouts, and the
ringside commentary is.....well.....the bouts are fast paced and
competitive.
I caught up to "A Ring of Their Own" for the second of the show's two boxing
cards that have been held thus far. There are future shows planned in venues
around the country, but the first two were held in Nevada on January 29 and
March 26, with the delayed broadcast telecasts beginning approximately two
to three weeks after each "live" show. In the New York television market,
the show is relegated to an Elba-like time slot of weekend afternoons, with
strong competition of major league sports and golf. However, given the
dearth of television exposure that the sport of Women's boxing has
experienced in the past, boxing fans should make the effort to seek out the
show, wherever it's being broadcast. It's a winner.
Not surprising, the best thing about "A Ring of Their Own" is the boxing.
The show I watched, held on March 26, featured a bantamweight main event in
which Alicia Ashley exhibited her major league boxing skills in stopping
Elena Reid on a cut in the seventh round. Reid who hadn't lost in nearly
five years and twenty fights was a game competitor but simply couldn't match
Ashley's superior ring skills. In a scheduled eight round junior
middleweight bout, Akondaye Fountain TKO'd a tough Shelly Burton in the
seventh round of a toe-to-toe slugfest.
This was Fountain's fifth fight and her heavy-handed punching power should
make her a sought-after main event attraction in the near future. In a six
round junior middleweight fight, Asa Sandall of Sweden and Yolanda Swindell
fought to a draw, a very good call for a very good bout. In the opening four
round fight on the telecast, Heather Percival out-boxed Jennifer Salinas,
handing Salinas her first loss in six bouts. This was four rounds loaded
with boxing skill and almost totally devoid of clinches. Thus, for those
keeping score at home, the two hour telecast had 24 rounds of boxing, all
high quality. This fact alone separates "A Ring of Their Own" from all other
boxing shows on the air.
Rock and Sock Productions, in the personages of Arnie Rosenthal, longtime
broadcaster and boxing commentator and Ken Weiss, promotion veteran in the
entertainment and sports fields, seems to "get it" as far as televising
boxing is concerned: it's boxing action that "makes" boxing telecasts.
Rosenthal and Weiss accomplish this by minimizing the air time between each
bout and, additionally, in a number of instances, not televising the one
minute period between rounds. This often results in programming that
provides the viewer with six minutes of boxing action (three rounds) in
slightly over six minutes of air time. The action on the TV screen moves
almost as quickly as the fighters in the ring. It's the best element of the
broadcast.
The commentators aren't. It's not that the ringside announcers on the second
show were bad, but they, like the current time slots for the show, need
improvement. Tim Neverett did the blow/blow commentary, with Kevin Kelley,
the current featherweight from Queens, New York handling the "color" along
with Mia St. John, the female boxer and former Playboy centerfold. The show
got off to a somewhat strange start as St. John spent time expounding on the
reasons for the bright future of Women's boxing by citing the Christy Martin
cover on Sports Illustrated and St. John's own cover on Playboy. She
neglected to mention that the Martin cover was a full nine years ago and the
Playboy "coverage" was almost as long ago, rendering both, essentially,
irrelevant to the sport as it exists today.
Once the bouts began, St. John, initially, seemed to react to the boxing
action only when prompted by Kelley or Neverett. Mia became more comfortable
as the broadcast proceeded, having her best moment when she noted Shelly
Burton's tendency, when boxing, to stand straight up, exposing her chin.
This observation proved especially prescient as Akondaye Fountain
continually found a home for her big punches which inevitably led the
referee to save Burton from further shots to that exposed chin.
Kevin Kelley, on the other hand, with typical New York brio, seems to have
never met a microphone he didn't want to get "up close and personal" with.
Kelley has a lot to say about the sport of boxing, his career and the action
in the ring. The downside is that Kelley seems to talk about those subjects
in no particular order and he has a tendency, at times, to ignore the action
in the ring. Also, he occasionally exhibits a disconcerting tendency to
"talk over" his colleagues at ringside. Kelley is worth listening to, but he
needs to be reined in and learn to concentrate on what's happening with the
boxers in the ring. Even with those shortcomings, Kelley is the best of the
ringside group.
Tim Neverett is a new voice to me, but has been a fixture in the Las Vegas
sports broadcasting scene for over ten years. He calls the boxing action in
front of him in an efficient fashion without any of the distracting
"signature" lines or the or annoying cliches ("this is what boxing is all
about") that are far too prevalent in today's blow/blow commentary
(listening Jim Lampley?). Neverett misses very little of the action in the
ring, but, unfortunately, he saw fit to venture into the ring for post fight
interviews following the Ashley/Reid and Fountain/Burton fights,
interviewing all four boxers. He went 0-4! Neverett's questions were awkward
and ill-considered, resulting in even more tortured responses from the
fighters. The most clumsy moment came with Shelly Burton as Neverett began
by noting that Burton had been "hit by a lot of right hands (from Fountain)"
and then, disingenuously asked Burton, "How do you feel?" After an
uncomfortable moment during which Burton may have been contemplating a reply
of "Duh", the fighter noted "(I feel) like I got hit a lot." Not Tim
Neverett's finest moment, but one which, to his credit, he acknowledged on
the air. Tim Neverett is a "keeper" for "blow/blow", but it's probably a
good idea to keep him at ringside and send Kevin Kelley up for the post
fight interviews.
In sum, "A Ring of Their Own" is a quality presentation. The boxing action,
on the second show, ranged from good to outstanding. It's unfortunate that
the show has yet to acquire the type of time slots that a boxing show this
good deserves. Hopefully, that will happen in the future. Tim Neverett
provides competent blow/blow descriptions and Kevin Kelley, once he tempers
the sheer volume of his words, should provide a valuable "color" complement.
What's needed, in the third commentary slot, is a voice with an overall view
of the sport of Women's boxing. It's not, specifically Mia St. John that's
the problem, but rather the fact that the view of the sport by any current
fighter is, by nature, too narrow. Rosenthal and Weiss should seek a woman
with a more encompassing knowledge of the sport and put her with Neverett
and Kelley.
So far, it's two shows down and, hopefully, many more to go for "A Ring of
Their Own". It took me a while to catch up with the show and it's worth the
time of any boxing fan to do the same and give the show a look. Bernie McCoy
#
# #
#
For Online IWBHF Tickets for
Next Event!
Check Our Next Annual International
Women's Boxing Hall of Fame Event that we have to celebrate hour IWBHF
Inductees and Special Award Recipients!
Next Event, Go Here!
Our Online
WBAN/IWBHF Online Store
Proceeds from the Online Store is to
continue our mission to support the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S BOXING HALL OF
FAME. The Official collection includes IWBHF and WBAN Merchandise and
Memorabilia from the WBAN Boxing Collection. We will continue to list
items from the collection and merchandise.
|
|
