Bloggin for Dollars...Again

Yeah, it's been a few weeks.


No, I'm not apologizing.


If you're wondering what I've been doing since I last posted, here's a quick rundown:


* Predicting the outcome of the Pacuiao-Cotto fight with frightening accuracy. Click that link again if you think I'm joking. No I'm not clairvoyant. I just really know the sweet science... and sometimes I get lucky.


* Celebrating my 33rd at Babaluu with the Cuban Sunday crew.


* Getting fat on thanksgiving with some help from Harold, Garrett, and my sister.


* Getting ripped with fast company.


But the biggest reason for my absence from this space is that I'm blogging for dollars again, and this time it's about something I love.


The fight game.


This particular idea is three years in the making, a week old on the web and full of value added.


Like video!





Understand that managers in the moribund world of print media live and die by web stats, basing each writer's worth as a human being on the number of hits his or her stories attract. I haven't seen the numbers on this blog yet, but I do know that the Mayweather-Pacquiao post  has generated 48 published comments so far. Granted, it's not ESPN-level traffic (1698 comments and counting for their Mayweather-Pacman story), but its an insane about of feedback for a post on a sport that's supposed to have died five years ago.


MOREOVER... The video embedded above -- the one I KNOW you all clicked on is as of this very moment the third-most popular video at thestar.com.


!!!!


Barack Obama's Nobel speech has me beat, but for right now I'm enjoying my two-spot lead over Chris Bosh and his new tattoos.


Help me maintain it.


Click again. Comment often. 


The industry's in trouble and some folks are doing desperate things in order to survive.


I'm just trying to build a brand.


One click at a time.

One Take, One Link, One Endorsement

ONE TAKE -- OSCAR-PAC MAN POST MORTEM

So the final numbers are in from the De la Hoya/Pacquiao pay per view, and it was a stunning success. Looks like both the Golden Boy and his promotional company made enough to survive the impending depression.

Wait, no, it was a huge disappointment. Looks like Golden Boy Promotions (and the sport of boxing) are headed down the toilet, along with the American auto industry, the newspaper business and the governor of Illinois.

I'm with neither ESPN nor the L.A. Times on this one. Instead, I'm with Mos Def because "I find it distressing -- there's never no in between...."

Let's put this in perspective.

Is the 1.25 million pay per view buys Oscar and Pac Man logged last weekend impressive next to the 2.4 million Oscar and Floyd Mayweather put up in May 2007?

Not exactly.

But it's a huge number considering 1) Pacquiao wasn't exactly a celebrity to most Americans before this fight, and probably still isn't one now, and 2) everybody's broke.

The folks at the L.A. Times -- owned by the newly bankrupt Tribune Company -- know as well as anyone how little money people to spend these days. Given the depth of the economic doo doo we're in my hat's off to anyone who can sell a 1.25 million of anything, especially when that "anything" is a sport that even top fighters say is dying.

ONE LINK -- NASTY, DISGUSTING, GRAPHIC

So why is boxing dying?

Most folks think its because most members of that coveted 18-35 white male demographic would rather watch stuff like the link I'm about to show you. Basically, it depicts an unusually tall and rake-thin UFC fighter going shin-to-shin with an opponent and emerging with a badly broken leg.

Like, shattered shinbone.

Like he'll never walk normally again broken.

This is Joe Theismannesque, and then some.

You've been warned. This link is graphic. Don't click if you've just eaten.

But if you love disgusting, catastrophic sports injuries, then click here.

ONE ENDORSEMENT -- BLACK MILK

These days it seems everything I love is dying.

A medium (newspapers).

A sport (boxing).

An art form (hip-hop).

They say they come in threes, and as much as I'd hate to see hip hop die, I'll pull the plug and dig the grave myself if I hear too many more Auto Tuners. Seriously, who really wants to sound like T-Pain?

Anyway, dying don't mean dead, and there still are some talented folks keeping hip hop alive, and that leads me to this week's endorsement:

Black Milk.

A Detroit-based DJ/Producer/MC and heir apparent to the late J-Dilla, and he's making great music these days. Stumbled across some of his tracks online a couple months back and now he's in heavy rotation on my iPod.

My favourite so far:

A welcome antidote to the spreading T-Painification of hip hop, and as long as he's making music the art form will survive.

Not sure what he can do about boxing and daily papers though...

* Photo of Pac Man smashing Oscar originally appeared here.