It was bizarre and uncalled for, but it shouldn't shock anyone familiar with the politics of boxing. Dmitry Pirog pulled off a huge upset via what might be boxing's 2010 knockout of the year. Less than five minutes after the young Russian laid out Golden Boy Promotions' golden child, Danny Jacobs, it was the loser who was on camera on HBO and not Pirog. What the heck happened?
Pirog showed up at the press conference with his crew of Russians, including an excellent interpreter, and appeared to have a nice personality with plenty to say.
HBO didn't feel like he was worthy of three minutes immediately after the fight?
Instead, Jim Lampley went immediately into "repair Jacobs' image mode" by providing excuses for the loss and saying all young prospects hit speedbumps along the way. Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole called it reprehensible and says once again HBO came off as a mouthpiece for Golden Boy.
The situation also put Jacobs in a terrible position. Jacobs was asked if the recent death of his grandmother was a big distraction leading up to the fight. He was lucky the feed to the crowd was barely audible otherwise he may have been booed by the 8,383 in attendance at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Jacobs even felt compelled to send out a Tweet a few hours after the fight. He must've heard it came off like he was making excuses for the loss.
Iole said HBO's obligation is to the viewer not Golden Boy.
Pirog got his props during the postfight press conference. He and his crew made several comments. Oscar De La Hoya even joked that the original plan was to celebrate the night by drinking tequila, now everyone would down some vodka in honor of the Russian's huge victory.
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