RICKAROO - The New Mexico Sports Place

Finally, this morning, I finished viewing all eight hours of Ken Burns’ Muhammad Ali documentary. Verdict: I found myself wishing for eight hours more. Burns, as he long since has demonstrated, is a master of the form. I really have no bones to pick; I believe Burns presented and illustrated this most remarkable human being for who he was, warts and all.  I was curious, though, about a couple of things. Laila Ali was totally absent other than one mention of her name. As the only Ali offspring who followed him into the ring, I found that omission strange. Laila’s social media accounts offer no explanation. There appears to have been no falling out between the two; in May, with Stephen A. Smith, she talked about how fond memories of her father drive her to excel and make a difference. Her absence from the documentary in no way harms it, but I just wonder.  I also wonder how and why Burns & Co. hit upon Michael Bentt as their, for lack of a better term, “boxing guy.” Bentt ha...

  In the aftermath of the death of 18-year-old Mexican boxer Jeanette Zacarias Zapata after a fight in Montreal against Canadian Marie Pier Houle, the criticism that’s been leveled at the promoter who made the fight and the commission that approved it is neither unfair nor misplaced. And yet ... you know what we say about hindsight. Had that same matchup been made here in New Mexico, and had I been aware of it as a reporter, I probably wouldn’t have batted an eye. I’m not aware that anyone did so in this instance. Maybe I’ve been involved in boxing for too long, or perhaps with one eye closed. And maybe I’m not alone. Certainly, Zacarias Zapata’s death was both tragic and preventable.  “Better commission could have prevented this from happening in Canada ...” wrote Albuquerque’s Andy Rivera, a boxing writer and a former amateur boxer, on Facebook. “If commissions would truly look at records and quit letting local promoted fighter A have a huge advantage over fighter B thing...