http://www.boxingnewsonline.net JANUARY 11, 2018 lBOXING NEWSl 21
by a 90-second video that’s 90 seconds too long.
In another tweet, he tells someone he doesn’t love
boxing and boxing doesn’t love him, and often he will
explain, boast even, that the sport is merely a way for
him to make money and that money’s all that matters.
That’s all fine. He’s entitled to say what he feels. But
there remains a sense it’s always a bigger drama and
battle in his head than it is in anyone else’s (who, let’s
be honest, has the time to hate a WBA International
super-lightweight champion?), and that’s the worry
with an impressionable 25-year-old like Davies,
someone who has skim-read the manual, believed
he has taken it all in, yet is somehow missing vital
information. He has scanned the title page and the
contents but then, driven by ego and impatience, gone
directly to the index to see if his name is mentioned,
ignoring the rules and the history entirely.
If he’d done his research, he’d have realised the
beauty of polarising figures like Muhammad Ali, Mike
Tyson, Chris Eubank and “Prince” Naseem Hamed
wasn’t their petulance, arrogance and abrasiveness,
but their ability to be many things all at once. Good
and bad, humble and egotistical, honest and deceitful,
accessible and aloof, likeable and unlikeable. They
were fully-formed characters. Proper people. They
were 3D, not OD.
In short, it’s okay to be an a***hole, but be a
brilliant one. Earn your right to be an a***hole. Learn
how to be an a***hole. Because, if you’re not brilliant,
you’re just an a***hole. And, rest assured, nobody
wants to pay to watch an a***hole, irrespective of
whether the a***hole wins or loses. You’re not that
important. You’re quickly irrelevant. Life’s too short.
Attention spans nowadays are certainly too short.
(Ironically, just as this social media-dominated world
gives athletes like Davies a stage on which to act up,
the merciless, cutthroat nature of its users ensure it
can just as quickly be taken away.)
If you’re not Floyd Mayweather and you’re not
brilliant, you can still get attention, create controversy,
and make more money than your rivals, but you have
to go about it intelligently. You must have more to
your game – your persona – than spite and hatred
and juvenile putdowns. There must at least be a
semblance of charisma, a tongue in cheek, a bit of
swagger, some playfulness and some creativity. Youcan’t solely be an a***hole. You can’t recklessly incite
hate, bring your sport into disrepute and then flatter
to deceive when crunch time arrives. Do that and
history suggests your career will be short-lived. Do
that and opportunities will soon dry up. (Davies was
rightly removed from a February 3 fight by Eddie
Hearn as a consequence of his December tweet.)
Unfortunately, Davies has long been a pawn in
this game, so will invariably continue along this path.
He has been taught, through boxing’s black magic,
that the quickest way to a meaningful fight on a
meaningful platform is hate. Not titles. Not talent.
Hate. He got it with Derry Mathews in Liverpool,
a fight sold on animosity, and he hit the jackpot
again in Scotland when spanked by Josh Taylor. It’s a
formula he knows back to front; one he has used to
his advantage; one employed by many others; one
encouraged by those around him.
Yet now, as Ohara Davies enters 2018 with a defeat
on his record, this same formula could be detrimental
to his career. His stock has fallen, supporters are
disappearing, and all of a sudden he’s in need of
guidance, a script and a Plan B. Talk about mixed
messages. Talk about confusing the vulnerable.
He’s not alone, nor solely to blame. This is the age
of dumb and disposable. Dumb gets you noticed,
dumb gets you rich, and anything above and beyond- like, I don’t know, talent – is considered a bonus.
Our television stars are dumb, manufactured and
packaged that way, and our sports stars, the ones
known more for antics than achievement, are similarly
inclined to choose stupid over substance.
Adrien Broner, for instance, can’t match Floyd
Mayweather, his idol, in the skills or legacy
department, so he cranks up the stupid. He zeroes
in on every reprehensible Mayweather trait he can
identify, realising this is the stuff he can best relate
to and replicate, and attempts to go one better,
embracing infamy along the way, content to be
washed up at the relatively tender age of 28.
The concern for Ohara Davies is that he’s
attempting to do the same. Only his template, the man
with whom he has most in common, the man whose
achievements are currently out of reach, isn’t Floyd
Mayweather, the wealthiest and best boxer of the
modern era. It’s Adrien Broner. bn
HUMBLED:
Davies fails his
acid test against
Taylor [right]