Screw The Draft, What Happened At This Weekend’s Kentucky Derby And Mayweather Boxing Events
While most NFL writers are busy following-up on the NFL Draft and whether the teams did well, or poorly; trying to understand management decisions that will affect team performance going forward, I’m going to give y’all a break and spend some time on the other events … which, is probably what most people watched anyway. In fact, we saw lots of NFL players at these events live (like Gronk and Edelman and Pretty-boy Brady … who watched BOTH in person! Yep, the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight.
Tom Brady: Living the life. pic.twitter.com/CqZ1utwDgu
— AtTheBuzzer (@TheBuzzerOnFOX) May 3, 2015
First up was the Kentucky Derby. And true to form, I was right on the money in predicting that American Pharaoh would take it. Here’s a photo of everyone celebrating the win.
Apparently, the Derby has a similar tradition to racing in the Grand Prix … though I find the two celebrations starkly different. Above, you have what looks like good fun, with the jockey sharing the victory in true excessive fashion.
On the other hand, you look at post-race celebrations at the Grand Prix and you get the impression that the driver is giving the hostess(es) a “champagned-money shot.” Here’s a good example.
And another one … in the ear no less.
Could you see Danica Patrick doing this (if she raced Grand Prix) to a hostess? Don’t think so. Lest we forgot, sports and sports tradition are still very much “male-driven.”
Perhaps the hostesses sign on for this when they get such a gig, but it’s something I think, should change. There’s classy (see Kentucky Derby above) and there’s tawdry … see Grand Prix. I mean, at least direct the champagne to the crowd watching, right? You should be thanking the crowd for their support and “celebrating” with them, not “coming on” to the help …
Anyway, back to the Kentucky Derby. While American Pharaoh and Victor Espinoza did make me break a sweat while screaming for them to make a move (much to the chagrin of my neighbors I assume), the team pulled out the victory, by a nose! Of course, I was on the band wagon with this prediction.
If, however, you took my trifecta pick, you didn’t fare as well. While I correctly predicted that Dortmund would take third after Calvin Borel and his horse El Kabeir were a scratch, I was wrong to take Carpe Diem to win second. In second we saw Firing Line, a horse that had decent odds (9/1) as well. Clearly, I should have done more research on this horse. I would have known that Dortmund beat him by a hair, twice. And that Firing Line was looking for revenge. Oh well. Can’t wait to see which of these horses make it to the Preakness. We’re sure to see both Dortmund and American Pharaoh, which is exciting cause Dortmund could very well snake American Pharaoh’s chance at the Triple Crown.
On to the “main event,” Floyd Mayweather proved to us why boxing is such a dead sport. And it has nothing to do with his boxing prowess, which, is clearly the best of his generation. Instead, it has to do with money. Not Floyd’s obsession with it … though this speaks to the problem.
Rather it’s everyone who has anything to do with boxing’s obsession with money. That’ right. Look at the event that the powers that be put together. It was piss-poor. You had two, only two undercard fights before Mayweather and Pacquiao took the stage that were completely boring. This is why everyone who used to be a fan now watches the UFC. It’s because when you watch one of these events, you don’t want to see one awesome fight, you want to see several. And no one knows that better than Dana White. In UFC 189, set for Saturday, July 11, 2015, you have not one, but TWO title fights, a third main card event AND a number of undercard fights. It’s not enough to promote only one fight. You need to keep fans entertained for the entire night.
This is the problem with boxing though. “Boxing” or the powers-at-be won’t put more than one interesting fight together for an event because they want to make as much money as possible in dragging it out to as many events as possible. And so “boxing” has lost the crowd because, like Floyd-Money-Mayweather, they are so effing greedy they can’t see the forest for the trees.
Whatever. I was hopeful, but wrong, that Manny Pacman Pacquiao would prevail. I don’t think there is going to be a rematch. And I don’t think I will ever buy another boxing paperview fight again. I was surprised, however, with the post-fight interview by Max Kellerman, who is an a—hole. Seriously. If I were Freddy Roach, I would have been seething during that exchange and probably would have cut the interview short and said something unprofessional to Max myself. Ha! That would have been good TV. Perhaps Kellerman was trying his best to revive the dead, but in the end, he just came off as a douchebag. #sorrynotsorry.
And so, while boxing may be dead, horse racing, Grand Prix, UFC, football and many more sports continue to thrive … which makes me happy because it gives me more to write about!
Cheers America!
Twitter: @FBGarbageTalk