Critic boxing matches (Raging Boll)
Boll made headlines by challenging his critics to "put up or shut up". In June 2006, his production company issued a press release stating that Boll would challenge his five harshest critics each to a 10-round boxing match. Invitations were also open to film directors Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. To qualify, critics had to have written two extremely negative reviews of Boll, in print or on the Web. In 2005, footage from the fights were to be included on the DVD of his upcoming film Postal.[27] On June 20, 2006, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka stated on Something Awful that he had been invited by Boll to be the first contestant, after Kyanka reviewed Alone in the Dark.[28] The online gambling site GoldenPalace.com decided to sponsor this event, dubbing it "Raging Boll". The list of five critics stepped into the ring with Boll. It was drawn up in late August 2006, featuring Kyanka, Rue Morgue magazine writer Chris Alexander, webmaster of Cinecutre Carlos Palencia Jimenez-Arguello, Ain't it Cool News writer Jeff Sneider and Chance Minter, amateur boxer and website critic.[29][30] Boll fought and won against all five participants. The first match took place on September 5, 2006 in Málaga, Spain against Carlos Palencia.[31] The others battled on September 23, 2006 at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver.[32]
After Kyanka lost his match, he would go on to make several allegations against Boll, including the fact that Boll refused to fight against Chance Minter (an amateur boxer), because he was an experienced boxer. However, Boll fought Minter as his fourth opponent.[33] He also claimed that Boll misled them by claiming it was a PR stunt when he actually intended to fight them and that Boll claimed that the participants would get training before the match (which no one did). Boll had seriously wounded Sneider, who had also believed Boll.[34]
Kyanka added in a post-match interview that, "Half of us (the contenders) hadn't even seen his movies."[35] Sneider shared similar sentiments, stating "I think he's a jerk. This might be PR but I don't want to keep getting punched in the head."[36] Boll has denied these claims in an interview, stating that he gave his opponents three months to prepare. He also denied saying that it was a PR stunt, claiming that it was going to be a real fight.[37]
Other contestants responded less negatively. Alexander, in a Toronto Star article, recounts being invited to Boll's beach house on the following day, where Boll asked him about the reasons for his unilaterally negative reviews. Alexander bluntly told Boll that his movies were "bloated, expensive and incoherent attempts at aping American genre pictures, sporting some of the most boneheaded casting choices in filmdom". He also stated that Boll was an "insane, two-fisted rogue, and a shockingly honest one at that, someone who absolutely adores film, knows its history and truly lives for what he does."[38]
Alexander referred to the event as "the weirdest pop culture bizarre journalism stunt I've ever been involved in."[36] Minter also praised what he had seen Boll's upcoming production known as Seed.[39] Boll praised that the contestants were in a post fight press conference, stating "I now like the critics... Everybody who was in the ring showed guts. Nobody dived."[36]
Ron Sparks offered to fight Boll in Vancouver as part of the Postal publicity stunt, but Boll declined, citing Sparks's age and size advantage. Sparks himself defended Boll's decision in his MySpace blog, stating that "Because Boll was fighting several boxers back to back, and putting them in his movie, he had the right to choose any opponents willing to fight him."
Also, printed in Electronic Gaming Monthly's November 2006 edition of the section "The Rest of the Crap", written by critic Seanbaby, described Seanbaby's own involvement. Apparently Uwe was going to appear on G4's Attack of the Show! to promote this fight by sparring with one of the hosts. He claims that, "Again, he's Uwe Boll, a matchmaking genius, because everyone on TV is 3-feet tall. If you were watching Attack of the Show! during the time I co-hosted, you might have noticed that I could have leaned over, eating host Kevin Pereira." A producer of the show then asked if Seanbaby would come and spar in the host's place for the event. Seanbaby says that he trains in Muay Thai and jujutsu, stating that, "Boxing is to Fighting, as Hungry Hungry Hippos is to eating..." When Uwe heard of this, he wanted to know Seanbaby's age, height, weight and fighting experience since he "learned he wasn't fighting a midget". After receiving said information, Boll chose not to appear on the program.
