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By Charles Jay

This was Gary Shaw, boxing and MMA promoter, last week:

“The Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight title fight last Saturday was everything that is wrong with boxing. Vazquez-Marquez III is everything that is right about the sport. We need more fights like this one.”

With all due respect to Gary Shaw, who is an industrious promoter, let’s be honest. REAL honest. Recognizing that the Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov fight was pretty awful, while the third fight between Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez followed two titanic battles, what was “right” about the Vasquez-Marquez fight, from Shaw’s perspective, was that he was involved in the promotion, and what was “wrong” about the Klitschko fight is that he wasn’t.

If Wladimir Klitschko presented himself at Shaw’s office, handed him a signed promotional contract, and TOLD HIM IN ADVANCE that the Ibragimov fight was going to be lousy, it wouldn’t have mattered to Shaw, who would have been waist-deep in THAT fight, and all the hype that surrounded it

Yes, boxing needs more fights like Vasquez-Marquez. And yes, Klitschko and Ibragimov put on a horrible show. But how many guys are going to make things interesting against Klitschko at this point in time?

The point is, just brace yourself for a lot of spin in the MMA world from someone other than a UFC executive.

Another Shaw quote:

“What happened yesterday (a Tuesday press conference to announce another fight in Los Angeles) was also totally wrong. This week should belong to two Hall of Fame fighters, Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez, who have literally left their blood on the canvas in two prior fights…….That is what this week is all about and should have been all about. Nothing personal against Golden Boy - we are going to sell out anyway. But for the life of me I will never understand why they did what they did, especially when they promote one of the fighters (Vasquez)…….Why would a promoter try to take the limelight away from one of their own fighters?”

Shaw could be right about that - in the moral sense, anyway. Maybe it was bad taste on Oscar De La Hoya’s part to make an announcement of his next move when he had a certain interest in Israel Vasquez. But if news of De La Hoya’s May 3 tuneup fight against retread Steve Forbes managed to take the spotlight away from, in Shaw’s words, “two Hall of Fame fighters,” that probably says more about Vasquez’s and Marquez’s position in the marketplace than it does about De La Hoya’s level of tact.

If Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez have marginal value outside of rabid boxing fans and specific ethnic constituencies, perhaps it’s a reflectionon Shaw as well. He’s the promoter, right? Just a thought.

Oh, and another thought - didn’t Shaw and Elite XC make their own announcement on Thursday, in the midst of “Vasquez-Marquez week,” as it was, about the company’s deal with CBS, something they no doubt felt was in its own way “groundbreaking”?

I’m sure that in no way occupied any of Shaw’s attention, nor that of Showtime (which televised Vasquez-Marquez through their pay-per-view arm). Right?

Spin, spin, spin me baby.