Listen to Puerto Rican music long enough, and you may hear the phrase, “La bomba no es la plena y la plena no es la bomba.” Meaning that bomba and plena, although connected, are not the same musical genre—there are key differences that make them distinct at their cores, so don’t call one by the other’s name. In English, you might connect this to a phrase like, “Let’s call a spade a spade.”
Modern American boxing has entered an era where it has no interest in calling spades spades and routinely confuses la bomba for la plena.
Case in point: while I absolutely love watching Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and consider his personality and attitude outside the ring to be positive, I hate the marketing and media surrounding his last fight with equal enthusiasm.
Isaac Cruz versus Nestor Bravo was billed by many as a war between elites of their division and “the next chapter in the historic rivalry between Mexico and Puerto Rico.” All of that sounds great, but there is one major problem: the fight was a mismatch from the day it was signed.
While a guy like Nestor Bravo can absolutely destroy a random person off the street or a fighter not taking their career seriously, overall, he is limited and bang average… at best. He simply never belonged on the elite stage, or at least never deserved a lick of hype.
The fight was no barnburner or clash between the best in the division, and it deserved no mention on the same list that fighters like Carlos Zárate, Wilfredo Gómez, Félix Trinidad, Julio César Chávez, Iván Calderón, Salvador Sánchez, and Miguel Cotto have graced. Moreover, billing it as such cheapens the whole thing and lowers its marketability moving forward.
Now that I have mentioned “marketing,” you may be thinking, “Hey, they had to sell the fight. Get over it.”
Well, I fear that is a shortsighted way of thinking. The people were sold a quality fight with high stakes and the guarantee of action. What they got was an ugly debacle with an admittedly highlight-reel finish. Don’t get too excited—the highlight finish only lasts a couple of seconds out of thousands.
The effect of this dishonesty is that the consumer notices. “They keep telling me there’s wine in these bottles, but every time I crack one open, it’s grape juice.” The consumer is simply not going to allow themselves to be tricked an infinite number of times. Their appetites will diminish, the buzz will fade, and the consumer will move on to a new spectacle. Overall, the market shrinks every time the public is sold a lie that does not deliver.
On the other hand, had the promoters and networks told the truth, which would have sounded something like, “We have an incredibly exciting fighter in Pitbull Cruz with the heart of a warrior and dynamite in his fists. Come see him showcase his talent,” I would say they still had a selling point.
If I walk onto a Toyota lot and the salesman starts convincing me that I am buying the luxury and status symbol of a Bentley, I will have a rather large problem with both the salesman and the lot itself. However, focus on the Toyota’s reliability, durability, and practicality, and that salesman might just have a happy and loyal customer for years to come.
Cruz versus Bravo was a showcase fight—not a war, not a high-level chess match, or anything of the sort. It was a chance for Isaac Cruz to show why he is feared—no more, no less.
Given how entertaining the man is in the ring and how endearing he has been outside the ring, that should be more than enough to get people to buy tickets and tune in. Moreover, it builds up the next fight for Cruz, which equates to his, the promoters’, and the network’s next paycheck.
Long-term thinking means long-term money. Short-term thinking means cashing out at the expense of the business.
Maybe you’ve heard the story about the two bulls looking down from the hill at the field of cows below… or maybe you just get the idea that if we eat everything in the fridge today, our bellies will ache tomorrow… Clearly, contemporary boxing promoters and networks understand neither.
Let’s just hope they learn before it’s too late.
