The Truth About Jose Canseco's Boxing Controversy

Yesterday, I wrote about news reports that surfaced this weekend about a celebrity boxing match that had scheduled Jose Canseco, but instead had Ozzie Canseco show up in his place.  The match was cancelled when the promoted realized that Ozzie was smaller and did not have Jose's distinct tattoos.  At least, this was what was reported by the major news sites. 

Jose claimed that these reports were false, and the promoter, Damon Feldman, was lying to the public about what really happened this weekend.  I attempted to contact Jose by e-mail, but have yet to receive anything in return.  He did tweet that he'd be willing to subject himself to a polygraph test to expose the truth.

And just a little bit ago, I received this press release from his publicist, who I have been in contact with recently.  I have printed it out in its entirety to give people a first look at this document, as I have yet to see it published on any other sites.

JOSE CANSECO CHALLENGES BOXING PROMOTER DAMON FELDMEN TO A POLYGRAPH TEST

For interviews contact:
Nadine Christine
Euphoric Media and PR
323-863-6779
nadine@euphoricent.com

In the throws of dealing with his much beloved father death, Jose Canseco is also facing an onslaught and barrage of negative media surrounding Damon Feldman, a boxing promoter and currently on probation in Pennsylvania  for fixing fights.

On Saturday, March 26th, fans lined up at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, Fl. expecting to see Jose Canseco in a boxing match, when in actuality it was his brother Ozzie Canseco that came in to fight for Jose.  The media is spurning that boxing promoter Damon Feldman “didn’t know it was Ozzie and it was a bait and switch”, when in fact Feldman knew a week before that Jose had thrown his back out and wasn’t able to fight.

Jose called Feldmen to advise him that he was dealing with severe depression regarding his father’s death and had thrown his back out on his way back from Miami, where he laid his father to rest.  “There was absolutely no point and time that Feldmen wasn’t aware that Ozzie was coming in to fight for me” stated Jose.  “I have fought for Feldmen four times before and he knows exactly what I look like and who I am".  Witnesses were in the room with Jose when he called Feldmen to state that he wasn’t able to make it and that the fight should be canceled.  Feldmen then agreed with Canseco to allow his brother to come in and fight for him.

Upon tuning into the fight on ustream.com, Jose heard his name mentioned and immediately called Ozzie and asked what was going on.  At that point the Canseco brothers thought it would be best for Ozzie to leave.  As is the norm with all fighters, security assisted Ozzie out of the hotel.  When Feldmen realized what was happening, he started to spin the negative media surrounding the Canseco brothers because he knew they would be publicly humiliated if he created untrue and ridiculous stories about what truly happened that night.

After all the positive feedback and press that’s been coming around for Jose Canseco because of his participation in “Celebrity Apprentice” and all of the great charity work he has been doing lately, this has really came as a shock.  But for Jose it would seem a normal way of life in the public eye and people will continue to take advantage of negative media to secure themselves, much as Feldmen did in this case.

Canseco is calling out Feldmen on national television. “I know the truth behind what happened and if Feldmen believes his version of the story, he’ll take a polygraph and put these rumors to rest”, stated Jose.

Jose is working on his third book deal “The Truth Hurts” where he reveals so much of the pains and struggle he’s had to deal with as a baseball star and being a celebrity in general and currently in "Celebrity Apprentice".  When asked what he's up to these days, Jose says "It's about keeping it real, keeping the truth, making sure my fans are happy and giving back". 

 ************

So does this settle the matter?  Going by only a press release, it's tough to say.  It's basically one man's word against another man's word.  When taking a closer look at the other side of the situation, Jose's story starts to gain credibility. 

Although Jose is often lambasted in the media, he is a man who doesn't lie to the public to advance his public image. Damon Feldman, on the other hand, is no boy scout.  Perform a Google search on Damon Feldman, and the first story that pops up is him fixing celebrity boxing matches and promoting without a license.  To take this man's word and treat it as the gospel seems like a pretty risky proposition.

Meanwhile, Jose has a history of telling the truth, even when he knows it will hurt his public image.  Although at times, Jose seems desperate for money, the risk of this plan far outweighs the reward.  Jose seems to get a lot of bad publicity for any story involving him, and this story is no exception.  But when you take a step back and look at who you are going to believe, I think the answer is obvious: Jose is telling the truth.

-Joe

P.S. If you are tired of all the negativity towards Canseco, here is a more positive story involving the former slugger.

Jose And Ozzie Canseco Pull A Switcheroo...Or Do They?

It has been quite a while since we last checked in with Jose Canseco.  Between him putting people in their place on Celebrity Apprentice, talking shit to A-Rod, and warning Chuck Liddell that his girlfriend is a scam artist, it's tough to come up with a lot of interesting tweets for his followers.  But fear not, Canseco fans, Jose was back at it this weekend to provide entertainment for all to enjoy.

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

let's see who is smart enough to figure out what happened at the boxing match

Boxing match?  The only notable boxing match I knew about was Pacquiao vs. Mosley (because I saw the commercial 100 times this weekend), but that isn't until May.  Wait a minute...you don't think...no, he couldn't have...but maybe...was Jose Canseco in another celebrity boxing match this weekend?  Only with Jose could the answer be both yes and no.  

Jose was scheduled to appear in a celebrity boxing match this weekend in Miami.  According to "news" reports (I put those in parenthesees, because I'm not sure if you consider MSNBC, The Miami Herald, and ESPN news sources), Jose sent his twin brother Ozzie to pose as him for the celebrity boxing match.  The switch was figured out when the Jose that showed up did not have Jose's tattoos and looked smaller than normal. I hate to break it to you, boxing promoter, but these tattoos aren't real.

This promoter must be a real dumbass.

But let's say this is true, that he really sent Ozzie in his place, I would have no choice but to no longer consider him the most awesome human being around.  Instead, I will have to put him in another category, because it is unfair to compare mere human's awesomeness to Jose's.  He attempted to pull off a trick that was made famous by The Killer Bees and perfected by the Olsen Twins.  I can't even begin to put into words how awesome that is, but I know that nothing could ever compare to it.

But is it the truth?  Well, that's a little tougher to know for sure.  Let's look at the evidence.  Jose followed up with these tweets

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

is anyone out there smart enough to figure it out or are you all a bunch of hateful morons

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

how can you haters being so ignorant it's amazing

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

I am still waiting for an intelligent scenario

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

by the way e s p n is owned by major league baseball of course they are going to lie

It's clear to me that a bunch of idiots thought that these "news" stories were facts.  But it's just ignorance that would make people believe this.  Nobody could even come up with an intelligent scenario, because they are brainwashed by ESPN.  And don't get caught up with the MLB owning ESPN, because he was not speaking in literal terms.  But MLB has ESPN by the balls, so ESPN will follow MLB's plan to destroy Jose Canseco's life for exposing the truth about steroids in baseball.  And here is yet another piece of evidence.

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

Be very careful with Damon feldman who runs celebrity boxing he will not pay you if you fight for him

How would Jose know that Damon Feldman did not pay him if he wasn't even there?  The ignorant hater response would be that Ozzie could have just called Jose on his cell phone to tell him about not getting paid.  Unfortunately, that argument is unlikely.  I highly doubt Ozzie can afford a cell phone.  

And finally, Jose's most brilliant tweet of this ordeal.

@JoseCanseco Jose Canseco

just remember the media is write 20 percent of 50 percent of the time

Does this mean that the media is only right 10% of the time?  Maybe.  But more likely, it means that the media only does what one would consider writing 10% of the time.  Coming from someone that is writing his THIRD book, I think anyone who isn't a total hater will give credence to his opinion. 

If there's one thing that Jose stands for, it's the truth.  So why would he deceive people?  Can you explain that one to me, Mainstream Media?  No, you can't, because no matter how much you haters lie about him, Jose will rise above it all to show us the truth.

UPDATE: Jose's side of the story revealed.

-Joe

P.S.  I e-mailed Jose to get his side of the story.  Since we have a ton of mutual respect for each other's work, I'm sure he will try to get back to me, but things are crazy right now so he was unable to respond at the time of publication.  I will be sure to post Jose's response when he finds the time to e-mail me back.

P.P.S.  To help prove Jose's remark about the media, this may be the dumbest article I have ever read, and it is in one of the most well-respected newspapers in the country.

The Most Overrated Quarterback In The 2011 NFL Draft

Blaine Gabbert is the most overrated prospect in the entire NFL Draft.  Somehow 90% of mainstream talent evaluators have blatantly ignored the serious flaws that he has as a quarterback.  What they see is a big, strong kid who runs well and can really spin a football.  Those are all good traits for a quarterback, and I can't deny any of them.

Most evaluators believe that his shining moment came against my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes.  He was 41-57 for 434 yards.  Clearly, those are impressive numbers.  But if you watched the game and tried to evaluate him as a prospect, it was not nearly as impressive as a performance.

The majority of his passes were five-yard outs and crossing patterns where he used his receivers' speed advantage on Iowa's linebackers.  These were very easy pitch-and-catch throws that most high school quarterbacks could make.

He also showed two major flaws in the Iowa game.  He cannot read the field, and he cannot handle pressure.  All of his plays required him to read one side of the field and ideally fire the ball out of there as quickly as possible.  If that is not there, he is slow to look to the other side of the field and his first instinct is to scramble out of the pocket instead of checking out what other receivers he has available.  He also seems to get a bit of tunnel vision when throwing it to his receivers.  Against zone coverage, he will often lead his receivers into tough spots and put them in position to take big hits. 

The other big thing is that he does not handle pressure well.  The second that he feels pressure he tries to sprint at an angle that takes him backwards and towards the sideline.  When he does this, he just focuses on getting away from the defenders and completely loses track of where his receivers are.  If he manages to avoid the rush comfortably enough to look down the field again, he's usually ten yards further back, making a meaningful completion highly unlikely.  And although he has good speed, he is not especially adept at avoiding the rush, as he is not that quick, and he basically has to turn it into a straight sprint away from the defense as opposed to shuffling his feet to buy a little extra time and fire the ball down the field.

His game against Illinois provides great video evidence of what I'm talking about.

When watching Blaine Gabbert, there is one name that keeps coming to my mind.  It's a guy who was put in a very productive offense in college, much like Gabbert had at Missouri.  He put up good, but not great stats compared to other QBs in that system.  The good news is that this quarterback led his team to a Super Bowl.  The bad news is that it's Rex Grossman.

I know that anybody who likes Gabbert as a prospect would have rather had me stab their cat (Missouri Tigers, get it?), but let me explain.  The college comparisons are definitely there, and Rex Grossman was also seen as a first-round talent coming out of college.  Hence, he was drafted 22nd overall.  Most people seem to forget this, but there is such a thing as "Good Rex."  Good Rex did a very good job for the Bears in a lot of games.  But these were the games where his first option in Ron Turner's offense were open.  When that first option was not open, he went into "Fuck it, I'm throwing it deep" mode.

I basically see about the same things happening for Gabbert.  You can't tell me that this doesn't look like something Rex Grossman would do.

If he is an offense where his first look is consistently open, he will look like a pro bowler.  If not, he will have people screaming for Brian Griese to take the starting job.  I'll admit the comparison is a little on the harsh side, so if you want to call Gabbert a rich man's Rex Grossman, I won't argue against that.

While his physical attributes will make some talent evaluators salivate, I wouldn't even think about him until round two.  Could he develop into a great quarterback?  Maybe.  But I don't think it's very likely.  There are too many glaring holes in his game right now.  Calling this guy the next great QB prospect is just plain false and overlooks nearly everything that he's shown in games. 

But there's no need to fret, quarterback needing teams.  Next week, I will reveal the quarterback prospect that I feel is the most underrated in the draft.

-Joe

P.S.  Don't worry, Iowa hating readers, my underrated QB prospect is not Ricky Stanzi.

P.P.S.  In "Troy Tulowitzki is more awesome than you" news, he is allowing fans to pick out his walk-up song for next year after coming out to Party in the USA last year.  Needless to say, I sent in my suggestion of Seal's "Kiss From A Rose."

Why Everybody Hates Iowa Wrestling

Yesterday, I mentioned that the Iowa Hawkeyes are the most hated wrestling team in the nation.  For those that don't follow the sport of wrestling, you're probably wondering how a simple school from the heartland could be so hated by every other wrestling fan.  Well, for the average wrestling fan, it's super simple, Iowa is better than everybody else.  They go out and kick everybody's ass.

For people who follow wrestling a little bit closer, they might hate Iowa because they perceive Iowa as a dirty team.  It's tough to say they aren't.  They often give up points for unsportsmanlike conduct.  At Nationals, they not only gave up match points for unsportsmanlike conduct, but lost two team points for behavior from their coach and one of their wrestler's.

And if you're a hardcore wrestling fan, you probably look at Iowa as being a bunch of assholes.  If you ever watch an interview where an Iowa wrestler wins a decision, the wrestler will act as if he did terrible and say that he should have been more aggressive and gotten bonus points.  If he gets a major decision, he believes it should have been a tech fall.  If he gets a tech fall, he believes he should have pinned the guy.  And if he pins the guy, he says he should have done it quicker.  No matter what Iowa achieves, they always want more.  If a fan of another team sees an Iowa guy beat their guy, followed by the Iowa guy complaining about how he should have done better, I could see how that might irritate people. 

So Iowa wins all the time, they use questionable tactics, and winning isn't good enough for them, because they are always searching for annihilation.  The three reasons that people hate Iowa are the three reasons that I love Iowa.

The first and last reasons are easy to love, winning is awesome.  And winning big is even more awesome.  I could understand how people would compare the Hawkeyes with the Yankees where it can't be that fulfilling to win championships when it happens so frequently.  Well, there are two major differences with that argument.  The first is that the Yankees have a competitive advantage with their payroll to help them win championships.  Iowa is still just Iowa.  It's rare for Iowa to have the top recruiting class, but they win because they get wrestlers who are willing to put in the work to become champions.  The second major difference is that the World Series is the pinnacle of what you can achieve in baseball.  While the National Championship is great, at Iowa, the goal is to win an individual title at all ten weight classes.  It's incredibly unlikely to reach that goal, but every year, that is what Iowa wants, for every single starter to become a national champion.  They always want more.

With the second reason, I can understand how people see Iowa's style as somewhat "cheap" or "dirty," but it's much more simple than that, they wrestle hard until the whistle is blown.  If a guy is dumb enough to stand out of bounds waiting for a whistle, they're gonna get a hard shove if the ref doesn't blow that whistle in time.  Does Iowa have any chance of scoring in that situation?  Of course not, but Iowa is always going to be aggressive.

On top of that Iowa wrestlers literally don't know how to stall.  Iowa has lost matches in the final seconds, because they don't know how to flee like other schools teach their wrestlers to do.  There were actually two awesome examples of Iowa's disdain for defensive wrestling during the past weekend.  The first one was while Tom Brands was being interviewed about a previous match.  An Iowa wrestler (Derek St. John) was in a bad position near the edge of the mat.  The exchange went something like this:

Tom Brands:  Come on St. John.
Interviewer:  You want your wrestler to get out of bounds right here.
Tom Brands:  No, I want him to improve his position and keep wrestling.

This was not a case of the interviewer saying something dumb.  Every other school in America would want their wrestler to get out of bounds in that situation, but that isn't the Iowa way.  Iowa believes that no matter how bad of a position he is in, as long as he keeps wrestling, he should be able to get in an advantageous spot and score points.  There is no such thing as defense at Iowa; they're always looking for offense.

The second example was even more amazing.  An Iowa wrestler (Tony Ramos) was down big going into the third period.  But he did what Iowa does; he kept wrestling.  He kept taking his opponent down and letting him up.  Finally, he had tied up the match.  All he needed to do was ride out his exhausted opponent to take it to overtime.  But instead, with just 30 seconds left, Iowa told him to cut his guy loose.  With the escape point, his opponent took the lead, but Iowa always stays aggressive.  As time ticked down, his opponent did everything he could to avoid the Iowa wrestler's attempts.  And because of a generous ref who did not decide to call him for stalling, the Iowa guy lost the match.  Iowa could have easily ridden the match out and taken it to overtime, but that isn't the way Iowa wrestles.  I can understand how people would call that a stupid decision, and I really can't argue against that.  But this isn't a case of being smart or stupid, it's a case Iowa believing that their wrestler could get the win.  This time, it bit them in the ass, but it's not the Iowa way to look back; they're always looking forward, trying everything they can to score points.

My second favorite quote about Iowa wrestling (First has to go to Dan Gable's, "I shoot, I score.  He shoots, I score.") actually comes from StateCollege.com's Steve Sampsell as he tried to figure out the reason the Hawkeyes were able to surprise the top ranked Nittany Lions by defeating them in Happy Valley:

The Hawkeyes compete hard every minute. They never stop.

They’re Iowa. And you’re not.

And that's the best way to put it.  Every Iowa opponent knows that they're going to have to go through 7 minutes of hell when they face the Hawkeyes, and every Iowa wrestler knows that he's a Hawkeye, and his opponent isn't.  They're Iowa.  And you're not.

So what happens next year?

Honestly, it's probably going to be a lot of good things.  Going into the year, Iowa had only one returning starter from the previous year in this year's starting lineup.  Iowa was ranked 12 going into the season as everyone saw it as a rebuilding year.  They proceeded to go undefeated in dual meets.  They finished a disappointing third at nationals.  Yes, third is a disappointment, even in a rebuilding year.

Anybody who follows wrestling had to be astounded at the progress that the Iowa wrestlers made throughout the season.  It's a young team that is only going to get better.  Iowa will lose two wrestlers in 5th place finisher (and 7th year Senior), Luke Lofthouse as well as Aaron Janssen, who although he didn't place (Top-8 become All-Americans), wrestled incredibly hard after getting upset in his first match at Nationals.  149 was our weakest weight class this year, but that will be greatly helped with the return of Dylan Carew who tore an ACL early in the season.  Iowa also had a top recruiting class last year, and since everybody redshirts at Iowa (to give their wrestlers the best chance to win as many individual titles as possible), some of those guys should be ready to step up and contribute next year. 

It's a year away, so it'd be really tough to make an accurate prediction.  We know that Penn State is loaded for next year, but if you put a gun to my head, I guess I'll go with Iowa coming in...uh...yeah, 1st Place.  The Hawkeyes will not be the defending champs, but Iowa will right that wrong next year. 

-Joe

P.S.  I've watched this video about thirty times, and it's GLORIOUS every time.

West Coast Rap's Love of Iowa Wrestling

Yesterday, I learned of the tragic passing of iconic rapper, Nate Dogg.  As someone who is known to regulate anybody who gets out of line, this was very tough to hear.  I needed a way to honor the West Coast Rap Scene.  Since "Regulate" is a flawless song already, I decided to turn to a different West Coast Rapper.  With today marking the start of the NCAA Wrestling Tournament, I have slightly altered (and also made it PG-13 since every rapper knows to play to their audience) Tupac's legendary rant at the end of "Hit 'Em Up" to show Mr. Shakur's love of Iowa Wrestling.  Oh, you didn't know that rappers loved Iowa Wrestling?  Well, I think this photo is indisputable evidence that they did.

Now you tell me who won
I see them, they run (ha ha)
They don't wanna see us
Whole Penn State wrestling click
Dressing up trying to be us
How the hell they gonna be Hawkeyes?
When we always on our job
We national champions
Pinning ain't fair
But somebody got to do it

Oh yeah, Arizona State (uh)
You wanna mess with us
You little young ass redshirt freshmen
Ain't one of you wrestlas missing a leg or something

You're wrestling with me, Cornell?
You wrestle around and catch a seizure or a heart-attack
You better back out of bounds
Before you get taken out of bounds

This is how we do it on our side
Any of you wrestlers from Oklahoma State that want to bring it,
Bring it.
But we ain't singing,
We bringing drama
Pin you and your mother loving mama.
We're gonna kill all you passive wrestlers.

Now when I came out, I told you it was just about Penn State.
Then everybody had to open their poll with an overrated ranking
Well this is how we gonna' do this:
Beat Cornell,
Beat Oklahoma State,
Beat Penn State as wrestlers, a football team, and in women's basketball too.
And if you want to be down with Penn State,
We'll beat you too.
Iowa State, we'll beat you too.
All you wannabe wrestlers,
We'll beat you too.

All of y'all stupid cowards,
Screw you, die slow Nittany Lions.
My single-leg  make sure all your kids don't grow.
You Ivy Leaguers can't be us or see us.
We bonus pointin Hawkeye riders.
Midwest till' we die.
Out here in Iowa,
We warned ya'
We'll take down you weak ass wrestlers.
We do our job.
You think you the best, Cael, we the undisputed best
Ain't nothing but killers
And the real wrestlers, all you Hawkeye rejects feel us.
Our streak goes from triple to four quadruple
You wrestlas laugh 'cause our team got cups under they black and gold singlets
You know how it is and we drop records they felt
You wrestlas can't feel it
We the winners
Screw 'em.
We wrestlin' pinners.

************

So yeah, I'm definitely picking the Hawkeyes to win the national title. I'm sure the Hawks plan on racking up some bonus points for their dead homies.

-Joe

P.S. I understand my slight alterations do a great job of honoring both Tupac and Iowa Wrestling.  This recording of a song does not honor Buster Posey.

I Will Sell Out For A $40 Value

All great artists dream of making it big.  Many of them even dream of the day when someone asks them to change their art to make it more commercially viable.  They dream of telling them no as they are true to their art.  I am not one of these people; that is why I love flat panel TV stands.  Let me explain.

The other day I received an e-mail from CSN which basically stated that they loved my blog (can't blame them for that), and they wanted to see if I would be interested in a partnership with their company.  They recommended that I give away something on my site, so you, the readers could enjoy something from CSN.  They said if I didn't think that would be a good idea, they could let me use a product and do a review for it.  Since I would much rather have free stuff than let you scumbags (And I say that in the nicest way possible) get something for free just for enjoying the most awesome blog on the planet.

So I told him that I thought that option two, where I get the free stuff, would work much better for my website.  So now they are going to give me a $40 gift certificate as long as I put the flat panel TV stands as my one and only link in the piece.  This means that I have $40 to use on home decor.  As most of you know, home decor is far from my passion.  I am hoping they have something that can spice up my air mattress for when I pull chicks back to my place, but I'll probably settle for a lamp.

Now I have to send him this link to let him know that yes, I did show off those awesome flat panel TV stands.  Note to all companies out there, I am more than willing to sell out with my writing.  And if my friends at Lamborghini are reading this, a free car might just earn you a full week of posts.  I'm not sayin' I'm just sayin'.

-Joe

P.S.  It's my Mom's birthday, and she turns 29 today.  She turned 29 last year too, not sure how that's possible, but it's her birthday, so I'm not going to argue.  Anyway, happy birthday Mom.