Combat sports have long seen quite a few controversies around access and access bans. The latest case of that comes around Saul “Canelo” Álvarez’s win over Jaime Munguia Saturday in Las Vegas (broadcast on DAZN and TUDN) to retain his undisputed super middleweight championship. But that came with prominent broadcasters Ricardo Celis and David Faitelson being denied credentials.
Celis had called Álvarez’s fights for DAZN since 2018, but was replaced by Jaime Motta for this call. And he said he only found that out Tuesday after being told a month ago he would be on the call. Meanwhile, prominent TUDN commentator Faitelson said he arrived Wednesday in Las Vegas only to find out his credential request had been denied. Here are some significant quotes from them, via Eduard Cauich of The Los Angeles Times:
“Our job there is to talk about boxing. Not everything we do paints them rosy, because that’s not the way the world is,” said Celis, a contract employee for DAZN. “Canelo sometimes does good things and we say it, and sometimes [boxers] do bad things and we say it.
“I have spent 35 years working in boxing. I have narrated thousands of fights. I’ve never had a fighter veto me or put this kind of censorship. It’s like a warning, ‘If you talk bad about me, the same thing that happened to Ricardo and David is going to happen to you.’ It is a very bad precedent.”
…“It seems to me that this is a terrible outrage, the truth is that I still don’t understand it,” Faitelson said in an interview with Mexican newspaper El Universal. “I think Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, who I think is a magnificent boxer, has to understand that criticism is part of his career. He has to assimilate it and understand it.”
This is far from the first access controversy in combat sports. We’ve seen some notable previous ones there. But it’s still remarkable to see some very prominent broadcasters, who had been key parts of previous Álvarez fight coverage, locked out for one reason or another. And it’s especially disappointing to see that seem to happen on such short notice, after they’d already made travel plans.
For the record, DAZN, Televisa TUDN, and fight promoter Premier Boxing Champions all did not respond to a LAT request for comment here. If they do have something to say, we’ll add it in as an update. But for now, this is not a great look for anyone involved.
