Boxing journalists and reporters can sometimes contribute to the worst moments in boxing, sometimes knowingly or unknowingly, by purposefully picking and choosing when to highlight certain controversies, only to fall quiet when certain incidents occur. Mostly, inactions appear to occur when a person who did something offensive shares similar traits as the reporter/journalist, none so more evident when examining how certain media outlets chose to blatantly disregard multiple cases of racism and questionable behavior by Latino fighters, only to defend these same fighters or ignore any faults when the opportunity arrived.

As usual in boxing, racism gets pushed under the rug in whenever it occurs. Prominent media outlets in boxing cover a wide variety of topics but often refuse to highlight controversial incidents such as racism, despite having a star-studded cast of boxing writers, reporters and journalists who are easily capable of highlighting certain deplorable incidents.

Racism therefore is a clearly an uncomfortable topic for many, not helped by the fact that those that do not cover these instances usually do not get targeted by this sort of deplorable behavior, as become thoroughly evident when examining just a single reporter in Fight Hub TV’s Marcos Villegas.

A sound veteran of the boxing world for over a decade, Villegas’ Fight Hub TV is one of the more prominent boxing media outlets on social media but like many established outlets often falls victim to their own flaws: selective apathy.

This became blatantly obvious this week as Marcos Villegas opted to defend Ryan Garcia (24-2, 20 KO’s) for crying at his own press conference, citing a number of struggles ― that Garcia wrought on himself ― that the fighter was facing as why he should gain sympathy:

“I see a lot of people criticizing Ryan for crying after his loss,” Villegas wrote on Twitter/X on May 6th.

“You guys are assholes. Boxers are passionate people, they put LITERALLY EVERYTHING into camps and performances. Anyone is gonna get emotional win or lose. Other athletes in other sports get emotional also.“

Met with a swift response by Boxing Vault’s social media manager, Villegas fell virtually silent after it was pointed out that Garcia had said and done a number of things to warrant the backlash for losing, failing PED tests that resulted in Garcia being suspended for a year ― as Villegas himself had reported ― while further unleashing a bigoted rant that went conveniently uncovered by the reporter.

During the post-fight presser of Ryan Garcia’s fight with Rolando Romero on May 2nd, Villegas was present when Garcia burst into tears for losing to Romero; a single emotional outburst that Villegas highlighted when Garcia apparently faced an onslaught of criticism for crying.

Of course, Villegas conveniently ignored Garcia’s previously-referenced incidents prior to his defeat to Romero, and by denying they ever occurred seems to very much rely on a sense of tribalism, related to the fact both he and Garcia are Latino, to defend Garcia for his emotional distress.

Just as Villegas continues to ignore other incidents of racism if Latino’s are not targets of them. Teofimo Lopez (22-1, 13 KO’s) was his natural bigoted self again ― as this is not the first incident ― after being filmed training by another boxing media outlet in FightHype.com. In the video, which was posted by Lopez on his social media but has since been deleted, Lopez could be heard uttering the N-word, followed up by agitating comments where Africa became the obvious [but subtle] target of his bigotry.

“Where that n***er at? Where that n***er at?” Lopez remarked as his father launched a b****-filled tirade directed at WBA super welterweight (154 lbs) champion Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KO’s).

“Hey Turki [Alalshikh], we should go to Africa. Come on! Sela! Dr. Rakan! You should go to Africa! Teo, bumbaye! Teo bumbaye!“

Sela is a Saudi-owned entertainment company, headed by Dr. Rakan Alharty, who will apparently be involved in the process of the still-unnamed boxing league promotion that Turki Alalshikh and Dana White are in the midst of forming.

While the mention of the mention of Africa seems fairly innocuous, the continent is often used in a derogatory sense towards African people or those within the African diaspora with its cases of extreme poverty often highlighted as a result.

Having previously admitted to using racism as a marketing tool, Lopez’ approach has received little to no criticism in the past couple of years; something both Fight Hub TV and Fighthype.com contribute to, though the latter has not been remiss in at least highlighting these incidents.

In the case of Fight Hub TV, owned by Marcos Villegas, his silence confirms a case of selective bias as he unleashed a ferocious rebuke against a Twitter/X user that had previously discriminated against him on the basis of his Latino background ― confirming that Villegas is aware of these incidents but needs it to affect him or those related to him in culture or background to cover them.

While Villegas represents just one person out of a sample size of many reporters, regardless of their stature in the media world, who may highlight these incidents, a core issue in American society seems to be heavily defined by a sense of ethnic tribalism; something that was illustrated well in Villegas’ decision to defend Garcia for crying but remain silent on the behavior he exhibited in the past.

With Lopez’ latest controversial incident circulating the web, Villegas will remain silent on the issue and Lopez’ past bigoted remarks ― a stance that is often mirrored by that of other outlets unless it affects them in some manner or the other.

This is ultimately reflected in the sport itself, where past offenses such as PED-use are blatantly ignored and left completely unmentioned, and continues to contribute to a slow but sure deterioration of the sport where everything seems to be allowed, as long as it can drive up a profit.