Racism is prevalent in all sports but I feel like there are two different types of racism. Racist attitudes by white people to all people of colour. And Anti-Black racism, which can be exhibited by anyone, including people of colour. So let’s just get this out there. Black people experience more racism than anyone. And as a fan of boxing, a sport that includes a high percentage of black athletes, I witness to a lot of racism. My two main feeds for boxing news are reddit and twitter. If you are a boxing redditor or twitterer, then you know. Black boxers face an overwhelming amount of racism that boxers of other races do not.
First off, the case of Krusher Kovalev. Here is a man who has legions of fans, 563k ig followers, and a long career in boxing. Recently he was GIFTED a massive payday against the face of boxing, Canelo Alvarez, and Nov. 2, he cashed in a guaranteed $3 million with some people figuring he made up to $10 million.
Nov. 25 he was due in court for his assault case, which was later postponed to January. A case for an incident where he drunkenly beat a woman when she refused his advances. She suffered a concussion, a broken nose, and a displaced disc in her neck. In the reddit post announcing the Canelo-Kovalev fight, I ctrl-F’ed “assault”, “abuse” and “crime” in the thread. Zero hits. Out of 530 comments. Not a single mention of his abuse or felony crime.
This is not Krusher’s only brush with idiocy and indecency. In June 2017, Kovalev released a racist video on Twitter of him repeatedly using the N-word. He also posted photos of a gorilla before his fight Adonis Stevenson. The guy is pure trash. Yet the comments do not reflect that. Nowhere in the announcement thread are Kovalev’s transgressions mentioned, condemned or criticised.
Now let’s take a look at Adonis Stevenson. A boxer who recently suffered a devastating injury in the ring, and woke up from a coma. For a little background on Adonis, like many boxers, came from poverty. He was sucked into a gang life at 14, jail at 21. He served 18 months of a four-year prison sentence for managing prostitutes, assault, and issuing threats. While in prison, he also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after putting a fellow inmate into a coma. After getting out, he vowed never to go back, changed his life around, became a World Champion, and never had trouble with the law again.
Now let’s check out the reaction to a post about Adonis Stevenson. On a post about his recovery, ten months ago, in 104 comments “Fuck him” or some variation of that appears 7 times. He gets called a piece of shit twice. In another post, there are multiple comments about him jokingly “raping his fiancee” who is grieving over his injury.
Now, I’m not comparing crimes. I’m not saying Adonis Stevenson is a good person. I’m just trying to make a point here. Kovalev gets a pass because of his white skin. And reddit holds the black boxer to a higher standard.
Let’s look at another example: Claressa Shields.
Claressa Shields is one of my favourite boxers. She is undefeated, currently waiting to face Ivana Habazin on January 10. The reason the fight is the 10th and not the original date is because the original fight date of Oct 5 was cancelled after Shield’s brother assaulted Habazin’s trainer at the weigh-in. Now. There is no excuse for that. None whatsoever.
But let’s look at Shields for a second. Two time Olympic Gold Medalist. Two time. She also spends her spare time advocating for awareness of the water situation in Flint, Michigan, teaming up with Pack Your Back to distribute water to communities.
Here are some of the most upvoted comments on recent post about Shields acknowledging and apologizing about the incident:
“She is a piece of shit too”
“Give me a break. She’s really trying to blame poverty for her team member sending somebody to the hospital?”
“What a fucking pos. Poverty doesn’t make someone sucker punch an elderly man from behind at a boxing weigh-in. Shields seriously says the dumbest shit ever”
“Trash”
Let’s reflect back on Sergey Kovalev. Who literally beat a woman, knowing he had an obscene physical advantage due to his boxing skill, who was also kicked off a plane for kissing and grabbing women inappropriately, and not a single comment about his actions?! Shields wasn’t even the perpetrator, and when she tries to give a lesson on trauma and the impact on people’s lives, she is ridiculed and trashed.
Side note: Shields is completely right about trauma and growing up in poverty. The amount of trauma you receive early in life has a direct correlation to the amount of success you have later in life. You can check your trauma score using the ACE Trauma test here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean But that is for a different post.
Let’s look a different fighter: Carlos Monzon.
Monzon was an Argentinian middleweight who strangled and murdered his wife. On a post entitled “We Don’t Talk Enough About CARLOS MONZON in here”, a highlight video is included. Of the 27 comments, 3 seriously mention the murder. One makes light of it, saying it is one of his best fights. Two comments call out Floyd Mayweather for his domestic abuse issues, even though Mayweather is not mentioned anywhere in the video or original post. Even the top comment, goes through all of Monzon’s achievements and the seventh bullet point is about the murder.
If Monzon was a black boxer would these responses be different? How does Monzon or Kovalev get such different treatment than Shields or Stevenson? What does this say about the boxing community? There are a million other examples of black boxers being treated differently. One only has to look at the recent AJ fight, where he was criticized as being “boring” for fighting tactically. Is Lomachenko boring? Is Tyson Fury boring? Both hold a KO percentage of 66.6%. Oof. Shakur Stevenson puts on a masterclass against a top 10 rated fighter, barely loses a round. Does he get the same credit?
Let’s talk Tyson Fury for a second. Fury is an extremely popular character in the boxing world. He is also controversial, sexist, and a bigot. In 2013, Fury claimed he would hang his sister if he found her to be promiscuous. In 2015, he said legalizing homosexuality and abortion were two of three things the devil accomplished. He also related homosexuality to pedophilia, and transgender people to beastiality. Finally, he claimed the Zionist Jews run all the banks, newspapers, and media and brainwash everyone. Yes, he did apologize. But how could he not?! As a public figure, those types of comments are career. Not for Tyson Fury though. In the Reddit thread announcing the first Deontay Wilder/Fury fight I ctrl-F’d “homophobic”, “bigot”, “gay”, “Jew”, “racist”, “sexist”. Not a single hit in 345 comments. In my random scroll I did find one comment claiming that the only thing that was going to beat Deontay Wilder was “grammar”. A subtle racial jive at the way he talks as a Southern black man.
What about Manny Pacquaio, a revered fighter. Also incredibly troubling in his political and societal views. In Feb of 2016, Manny claimed on television that people who engage in same-sex relations are worse than animals. This is even more alarming when you look at the fact that Pacquaio is a senator in the Philippines and is responsible for shaping public policy. In a thread entitled “How great was Manny ‘Pac-Man’ Pacquiao” I ctrl-F’d “homophobic”, “bigot”, “gay”, and out of 105 comments: 0 hits. Even in the thread announcing his comments, the second comment is a light-hearted “I miss womanizing gambler manny :/” and many comments justifying his opinion based on his Christianity.
Now, I’m not saying Floyd Mayweather is a good person by any means. But even Pretty Boy Floyd has voiced his support of gay marriage and equality, in both a tweet and a public statement. I’d go through the comments to find the reaction to this but THIS DIDN’T EVEN GENERATE A POST on r/boxing. The only acknowledgement of this statement I could find were on r/rainbow and r/lgbtq. I mean, I’m not saying r/boxing doesn’t acknowledge the positive contributions of black boxers nearly as much as boxers of other ethnicities, but that’s actually exactly what I am saying.
There are countless other examples of racism towards black boxers on social media. It happens time and time again. Deontay Wilder is ridiculed for his speech patterns, and his ring intelligence is always questioned. Terence Crawford recently pointed out the difference in promotion he receives from Top Rank in comparison to Vasyl Lomachenko and he attributes it to skin colour. Shakur Stevenson is reviled for his outside the ring criminal issues, while Kovalev and countless other white boxers skate by without nearly the amount of criticism.
I’m not saying boxers of all ethnicities don’t deserve criticism. Many boxers come from poverty and don’t receive a high level of education. Their views are sometimes problematic and need to be called out as so. However, the level of criticism levelled against black boxers compared to boxers of other ethnicities is disproportionate, and this racist fueled bias needs to be acknowledged and checked, not just in boxing, but in all walks of life.