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2B Daily News – Thursday, May 10, 2012 BY BRYAN BURWELL St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT) ST. LOUIS — Profes- sional boxing in America used to be a big deal. It used to be important. It used to have a grip on the American sports con- sciousness the way foot- ball, baseball and basket- ball now do. The great heavyweights are now NFL tight ends or NBA power forwards, and the audience that once craved the sweet science has shift- ed its obsession to the mixed martial arts octa- gon. the absurdity of the AFC and NFC champs balking at a championship show- down. It would never happen Boxing was great at one time, remember that SMITH undisputed man who is in charge of the sport like UFC president Dana White. in any other major sport. But it happens in boxing all the time, which is why people are just flat sick and tired of the once-grand sport. And now that May- weather is heading off to prison in a few weeks and Pacquiao is making plans to fight lesser foes and then head off into retire- ment, boxing fans are left knowing this fight will never happen. Now in the only places that matter in its sport — Las Vegas and your televi- sion set — the sweet sci- ence has been reduced to something of a sideshow attraction. It seems that the only one left in the boxing game capable of elevating the sport to its old high perch is the extremely loud, slightly irritating, brilliantly calculating and very talented Floyd May- weather Jr. fights. Last Saturday, as he defended his WBA super- welterweight champi- onship and increased his record to a stunning 43-0 with his unanimous deci- sion over Miguel Cotto, Mayweather walked away with a record $32 million for his efforts. People are willing to buy his expen- sive pay-per-view battles regardless of the $70 price tag because they know they'll get their money's worth. People flock to his the very reason that boxing is no longer America's favorite warrior sport, no longer among our top three sports obsessions. And it's not because he's about to begin serving an 87-day sentence for mis- demeanor domestic vio- lence, either. Convicts, ex- cons and boxing are long- time dance partners. No, here's the problem with Mayweather. He won't give us the fight we all want. But Mayweather is also Manny Pacquiao. The two best pound- After his victory Satur- day night, Mayweather wanted to make sure everyone knew where to place the blame for this travesty. "It's not my fault," Mayweather said. He says the blame belongs in the lap of Pac- quiao's promoter Bob Arum, who won't accept anything less than a 50-50 split of the purse. And of course Arum says it's all Mayweather's fault because he's being too greedy. Ahhh, yes. Nothing like folks in boxing hurling around the "greed" label. Hello, pot. Meet kettle. Well, whose fault is it? It's actually the fault of the structure of the entire sport, because boxing's biggest and most madden- ing problem is how there are no mechanisms in place to ensure that the best will always fight the best when they ought to. Boxing has no commis- his many public duels with boxing's establishment, White took on Arum and nailed him with a dead-on verbal punch. White accused the powers that be in boxing with repeated failures to do great things for their sport. Instead of building it up, promoting it and taking all the right steps to elevate boxing, men like Mayweather and Arum allow greedy self- interest to be their guiding force. I have seen this go on in boxing for decades. The way they do business now is a joke. We never get to see the great fighters meet at the right time for com- petitive Last summer in one of Mayweather versus for-pound fighters in the sport simply won't fight each other, squabbling over money, prestige and all sorts of other silliness. Imagine if the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers refused to play each other in the playoffs. Imagine sioner. It has no central organizing body or ulti- mate authority to override the selfish interests of box- ers and promoters. Until there is a true commission- er of the sport who can force the top fighters to meet in an orderly fashion, then the sport's decline will continue and its popu- larity will fall even further behind the swelling phe- nomenon of mixed martial arts. Whatever issues old- school boxing fans like me might have with the MMA, the one thing that cage fighting has is an NHL PLAYOFFS CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS (Best-of-7) Wednesday's result Washington 2, NY Rangers 1 Series tied 3-3 Other series Los Angeles beat St. Louis 4-0 New Jersey beat Philadelphia 4-1 Phoenix beat Nashville 4-1 Instead, they fight when they get around to it. They fight when one of them, and sometimes both of them, are on the decline. They fight only when the paycheck is right, even if it means we never get to see a Mayweather or Pacquiao face off when they are both in their primes. That's not how it used to be. Remember how popular boxing was when great heavyweights of the 1970s like Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Norton all went after each other mul- tiple times? Remember the 1980s and early 1990s when the welterweight division dominated our sports attention and Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Mar- vin Hagler gave us those masterful, elegant and bru- tal wars? excellence. any more. Those days are over and they're not com- ing back. The best of box- ing has now been reduced to a shame and a sham, and the folks who run it are too self-serving to tell the difference. NBA PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND (Best-of-7) Wednesday's results Miami 106, New York 94 Miami wins series 4-1 L.A. Clippers at Memphis, late L.A. Clippers lead series 3-1 Today's games Chicago at Philadelphia, 4 p.m. Philadelphia leads series 3-2 Atlanta at Boston, 5 p.m. Boston leads series 3-2 L.A. Lakers at Denver, 7:30 p.m. L.A. Lakers lead series 3-2 Other series Indiana beat Orlando 4-1 Oklahoma City beat Dallas 4-0 San Antonio beat Utah 4-0 But that's not boxing (Continued from page 1B) truer throws, especially downfield. In short, Smith's response to a good season, easily the best of his career, is to tack- le the fine points necessary to make next season even better. ins, have joined Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree and Delanie Walker in the pass- catching corps. LaMichael James was hired to be an all- purpose threat. He could not make a wiser move, for another good season won't be enough to prevent general manager Trent Baalke and coach Jim Harbaugh from browsing for a replacement. Smith won't forget how the brain trust spent a few days sniffing around Peyton Manning. Nor can he ignore the incoming presence of free-agent acquisition Josh Johnson, a four-year NFL veteran (Tampa Bay) who compiled phenomenal sta- tistics under Harbaugh at the University of San Diego. Smith, who might be the smartest quarterback in the league, can read the room. So he's sweating the details. He knows he still has out- side detractors, and that they will tolerate him only as long as the team is success- ful. Moreover, he knows Harbaugh is utterly ruthless in pursuit of victory. Unhappy with their production, offensive When I noted recently that San Francisco's offense and defense played at com- pletely different speeds, Baalke didn't bother to mount an argument. He also believes this glaring contrast has been addressed. a high level, and plays fast," he conceded. "We needed to add some pieces to the offense to allow us to do the same thing from an offen- sive perspective." "Our defense does play at Care to guess who goes under the microscope if this doesn't translate to consider- ably more fun — and points — for the offense? kering with his technique in search of better accuracy. Smith alluded to this dur- ing a recent chat on 49ers.com, saying he has consulted with a quarter- back "guru" in Southern California. So Smith is in the lab, tin- "I'm really focused on getting my fundamentals better," he said. "Really did- n't have time last offseason to do it." Well, of course he didn't have time. He's never really had the kind of time he has now. Baalke and Harbaugh this offseason sent a very explic- it message to Smith. They got him a bunch of new toys. Randy Moss and Mario Manningham, along with first-round pick A.J. Jenk- MLS WESTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA Salt Lake 7 3 2 23 18 12 QUAKES 72 1 22 21 11 Seattle 7 1 1 22 13 3 Vancouver 5 2 2 17 9 7 Colorado 5 5 0 15 15 12 FC Dallas 3 5 3 12 10 16 Galaxy 3 5 1 10 11 14 Chivas USA 3 6 0 9 5 11 Portland 2 5 2 8 9 13 EASTERN CONFERENCE WL T Pts GF GA Kansas City 7 2 0 21 12 5 New York 6 3 1 19 20 14 D.C. 5 3 3 18 20 15 Chicago 3 2 3 12 9 9 Montreal 3 5 2 11 11 15 N. England 3 6 0 9 8 12 Houston 2 3 2 8 7 9 Columbus 2 4 2 8 6 10 Philadelphia 2 5 1 7 5 9 Toronto FC 0 8 0 0 6 18 NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie. —————————————————— Wednesday's results Chicago 0, Real Salt Lake 0, tie New York 1, Houston 0 Seattle FC 2, FC Dallas 0 Saturday's games Los Angeles at Montreal, 1 p.m. D.C. United at Houston, 1:30 p.m. FC Dallas at Columbus, 4:30 p.m. Vancouver at New England, 4:30 p.m. Kansas City at Chicago, 5:30 p.m. Real Salt Lake at Seattle FC, 7 p.m. Sunday's games New York at Philadelphia, 9:30 a.m. Chivas USA at San Jose, 4 p.m. $99 Clock Repair 20910 Pebblestone Dr. Red Bluff Jim Paul Electrical clocks Call for appt. 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That pattern was com- pounded last season, when the lockout prevented super- vised workouts with new coaches, who brought their new playbook. Though Smith, who turned 28 this week, is preparing for his eighth sea- son, it's the first during which he can focus almost solely on the little things. It doesn't mean he doesn't have time for his wife and infant son. It doesn't mean he can't carve out some time for good deeds, such as join- ing the search for Sierra LaMar, the Morgan Hill teenager who has been miss- ing since March 16. What it means is Smith, whose decision-making dra- matically improved in his first season under Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, is devoting considerable time to being an appreciably better passer. You may remember last December, when Harbaugh stood up and said his quar- terback deserved to go to the Pro Bowl. Truth is, Smith did not play at Pro Bowl level. He simply had improved enough that future selections were conceivable. Smith heard what his coach said. He always does. Now he's out to show he also listens to his coach's unspoken thoughts. MLB West Division Texas A's Angels Seattle East Division Tampa Bay 20 11 .645 — Baltimore Toronto New York Boston Central Division Cleveland 17 13 .567 — Detroit Chicago Kansas City 10 19 .345 6.5 Minnesota 15 17 .469 3 8 22 .267 9 —————————————————— Wednesday's results Toronto 5, Oakland 2 Chicago 8, Cleveland 1 Los Angeles 6, Minnesota 2 Tampa Bay 4, New York 1 Boston at Kansas City, late Detroit at Seattle, late Texas at Baltimore, ppd., rain Today's games Detroit (Scherzer 1-3) at Oakland (Colon 3-2), 7:05 p.m. Tampa Bay (Price 5-1) at New York (Sabathia 4-0), 4:05 p.m. Texas (D.Holland 2-2) at Baltimore (Hammel 4-1), 4:05 p.m. Cleveland (D.Lowe 4-1) at Boston (Beckett 2-3), 4:10 p.m. Toronto (H.Alvarez 2-2) at Minnesota (Marquis 2-1), 5:10 p.m. Friday's games Detroit at Oakland, 7:05 p.m. Seattle at New York, 4:05 p.m. Tampa Bay at Baltimore, 4:05 p.m. Cleveland at Boston, 4:10 p.m. Los Angeles at Texas, 5:05 p.m. Kansas City at Chicago, 5:10 p.m. Toronto at Minnesota, 5:10 p.m. Residential • Commerical PATIOS • DECKS Construction Remodel, Construction Burrows FREE ESTIMATES & REFRENCES Lic#824770 Water and Dryrot Damage Specialist, New Construction Foundation to Finish New Additions, Siding Repair and Replacement, Ph: (530) 515-9779 Landscape/Fence & Landscape Service Steve's Tractor • Fence Building • Landscaping • Trenching • Rototilling • Disking • Mowing • Ridging • Post Hole Digging • Blade Work • Sprinkler Installation • Concrete Work Cont. 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