Anyone navigating the muddy waters of 2021 in this usually wonderful yet financially, emotionally, and physically struggling country must be extremely glad that the year is halfway over.  Thankfully, we left in the past the carelessly crazy and chaotically confusing 2020 roller coaster which scarred us all.  Man, it is a relief to have the pandemic behind us.

But, is it really behind us?

Please don’t think I’m talking about the Corona Virus that ravaged our planet. I’m referring to the NEW pandemic in the world of combat sports known as “Exhibition Fights”, or as we commonly refer to it here at the Battle office, “Bullshit Fights”.

While one pandemic is blamed on the country of  China, this particular virus has its roots traced directly to Mexico. There, two living legends a generation apart; Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Jorge Arce whipped up the idea to meet in the squared circle way past the expiration date of their boxing careers. At first, that November 2019 event coming to fruition seemed like the end of a punch line; two faded legends lacing up the leather pillows  to collide in the ring; however, this produced some serious media traffic and thus, the joke was on us.

Bigger boxing gloves, padding, headgear or even a Roman warriors’ metal  body armor  couldn’t protect you from what came next: there was not only one sequel but a trilogy to their charity-friendly rivalry. People wanted more, everyone tuned in to the Exhibition Fight even if they didn’t admit it, and the virus had officially spread. Next, you had unbeaten future Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather flying to Japan to do an exhibition bout. Last fall the Roy Jones Jr vs. Mike Tyson PPV at Staples Center in California shattered all expectations after being thoroughly ridiculed across all platforms, written articles, social media and TV programs. That Tyson and Jones show locked in over a million PPV buys and did eighty million in revenue. Hashtag that ladies and gentlemen and for $80,000,000.00 please put some respect on their names.

Not surprisingly, some days after those numbers were released “Money” Mayweather came out of retirement, again, announcing his return to the ring piggybacking on the exhibition dynamic by accepting a challenge  to a boxing match from social media giant Logan Paul. The move seems extremely questionable as “Money May” stands nothing to gain from this PPV other than a 1099-form the likes many of us will never even see. Nonetheless, give credit to the crafty Michigan-born businessman for having the wherewithal to create this clever concoction quickly crafted out of growing fads plus digital streaming. The original date was February of this year via Triller PPV but, the folks at Mayweather Promotions had The Paul Brothers go to work on promoting and moving the date to summer time so that their fight could be void of capacity restrictions.

Sorry Triller, you can go ahead and scoot down the bench now. The state of Florida and Showtime PPV got this.

Just when we thought we were finally putting the pandemic behind us,  the colossal success of the Jones / Tyson match poured a trough of water onto exhibition fights (Bullshit Fights) causing them to sprout like ugly little Gremlins.

What do you guys think the next big exhibition matches will be like? Hopefully, there wont be anymore of these comical Bullshit Fights that cause a former MMA champ that looked like he hasn’t done a situp since retirement, to get knocked out cold by some youtube actor who is a victim of child labor abuse via his dad from an early (Joke Paul was literally groomed from a young age to be youtube celebrity. Go figure.)

(Do you really want to see this guy in the ring again, or anywhere else for that matter?)

Surely those retired abled bodies out there wouldn’t mind making a cool $10 million like “Iron” Mike did for his fight. But does anyone want to see a drunk degenerate junkie like Boozy De La Hoya calling out Dana White or even attempting to get back in a boxing ring? Does Boozy have any right to even speak Dana Whites name? One is the most accomplished promoter in the history of combat sports, while the other seems to have taken a particular liking to dressing in….…., never mind.  Does any celebrity or crossover fight capture intrigue from an actual sporting angle, or are we to continue the self punishment of watching clowns like Snoop Dogg hosting a concert with a sprinkle of non-boxers and has-beens posing as fighters for a few embarrassing rounds in the ring? All we need is for that pathetic loser Bitch Duran, I mean Stitch Duran in the corner of one of these so-called fighters and we have our real life basket of deplorables, or in this case, a ring full of deplorables.  Does anyone really want to see  Gina Carano vs. Laila Ali ? Ann Wolfe vs. Ronda Rousey ? Chuck Liddell vs. Mike Tyson? Brock Lesnar vs. Evander Holyfield ? Or will we actually gain our senses as a combat sports community and send this goofy nonsense straight to hell so we can enjoy our proper combat sports as we deserve.

What seemed almost insane not that long ago is probably going to be the standard going forward. And if you are looking for a cure to this madness, there truly is no vaccine in sight.