Four-time world champion and Olympian Abner Mares will join this Saturday’s Showtime Championship Boxing announce team. Mares will work alongside host Brian Custer, play-by-play announcer Mauro Ranallo, Al Bernstein (analyst), Jimmy Lennon, Jr. (ring announcing), Steve Farhood (scoring), and Jim Gray (ringside reporter).
Malignaggi out?
Missing from the Showtime team is popular analyst Paulie Malignaggi, who has reportedly been frozen out by the network for his view on racism expressed in an interview earlier this year. Click here to see the video.
I actually liked Paulie a lot!!
I liked Paulie a lot too. I don’t think he said anything that could be percieved as remotely racist.
I am sure some moronic producer on Showtime’s board of operations with a six-digit salary just did not like Paulie and needed an excuse to dismiss him. Once HBO brought in the new generation of executive managers, boxing was not needed anymore and they thought viewers would cuddle up to more series and movies promoted by the network themselves. Times are changing.
Freedom of speech!…just watch what you say!
Well guys, we do live in an era of butt hurtness. Not only do people get butt hurt but they are actually out there looking to see what they are going to be offended by.
That’s a nice cushy job if you treat it right, you can keep it for years. Unfortunately it may be cursed though after Bobby Czyz with his drinking, Antonio Tarver testing positive for PED’s and now Malignaggi. Good luck Abner.
You have some valid points. Let’s not forget about goofy Matt Lauer on NBC. Twenty-five million dollar salary per year and his hormones costed him his job over adultery.
Political correctness run smock!
Bring back Paulie! Showtime is run by a bunch of intolerant leftists soy boys.
What a pile of bullshit. Let’s see if self loathing TDS suffering liberal Bernstein comes to his defense. Soon an Irishman cheering for an Irish fighter, Polish cheering for a Polish fighter etc will be deemed racist.
I hope the producers of Showtime read this forum. They will cut Paulie out from the line up of commentating in boxing, but they will show series with racial comments, promoting women as tools in sex, violence over drugs, and inequalities of socio-economic classes? Very hypocritical move on Showtime’s part. I have watched many series on Showtime over the years and those programs demonstrate far more damaging conjecture than Paulie’s comments overshadowing racial tones.
Good points
During an atmosphere of political correctness (PC), perhaps Paulie should have thought of another way to summarize the development and diversification of boxing history because he represented hypersensitive Showtime inside/outside Showtime studios.
However, in absence of threatening physical harm to an individual and/or to a group, we must show great caution/wisdom/objectivity while searching for PC at the cost of sacrificing our rights under the 1st Amendment – the MIGHTY 1st Amendment MUST flow in both directions.
This age of political correctness makes me want to puke.
Paulie, is a great commentator. I listened to the video and he claimed that he was against racism but felt that Eastern Europeans who happen to be white were the dominant group currently in boxing. It is his opinion and not a hateful statement. Devin Haney’s statement sounds much more controversial to me but no one is saying anything about that.
PC gone mad. There was no way he was meaning anything racist by it, he was commenting on his opinion of racial history in boxing. Was Devin Haney sacked? no, nor should he be, Haney has since apologized but Paulie wasn’t given the chance to clarify his meaning. He’s a brilliant commentator and we the public have been robbed. Put a stop to this over sensitivity and politics and lets stick to the sport.
Paulie is a victim of the current cancel culture sweeping the U.S. These days if you say “all lives matter” you get fired from your job. Showtime demanded Paulie grovel like Drew Brees and he wouldn’t do it.
Benching Paulie is pandering BS. Without boxing Showtime is a waste and Paulie was excellent,
Paulie said racism wasn’t systematic which is bull. However, if the context of his statements Hurt people’s feelings so what? I hate this politically correct world we live in. You call a kid fat these days, he commits suicide. People get offended every day, but the burden here is on Showtime. They MUST make a statement about exactly what he said that caused the termination. If they don’t, don’t buy their PPVs. That model is old anyway.
The azzwipes are out in full force.Let’s not speak, let’s not look? What universe are we living in? He lost his job for what reason? Showtime needs to apologize to Paulie, and they need to give him a raise for damaging him for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Perhaps the damn fools that fired him need to lose their jobs. Man walking in the streets you hear things that are CERTAINLY not politically or racially correct. And in the boxing gyms, man are we in another universe? BIG F’in DEAL!!!!
What Paulie said was not remotely racist.
We live in the era of cancel culture. Moronic kids that got participation trophies for showing up are now running all these companies.
What happened to Devin Haney after his comment?
Tyrone, other than boxing god Mauricio Sulaiman having hissy for over it? Nothing. But it’s because it was an African American making a racial remark. They are allowed to. Heck, I was recently told I had “more privilege than black people” because I wasn’t black.
I honestly can’t say Paulie said anything all that offensive. That being said, when you hold a job like that in today’s world, you have to know that you’re going to be analyzed under a microscope, and Paulie has had a history of being pretty loose with his tongue (which was also part of the reasoning he was so entertaining). In today’s climate, though, you have to walk such a fine line publicly, that you know what you sign up for when you take these positions. I’m not saying I agree with it, but it’s the reality of the situation. It’s unfortunate altogether. He’s really a great analyst.