Lack of super fights harming boxing
It’s never been tougher being a boxing fan than it is today. With the lack of serious competition and the rise of UFC, fans resolve has been severely tested in terms of what they get back from their sport.
In essence boxing has always been a minority sport enjoyed by a fraction of the people who frequently tune in to major sports such as football or cricket. However there’s no denying that a big fight captures the imagination of everyone around the world, yet these days they fall apart way more often than they come to be.
In fact what was the last superfight? Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley doesn’t count on the basis “Sugar Shane” was about six years past his best. In the heavyweights it’s been about a decade since anything interesting happened there, maybe as far back as Mike Tyson v Lennox Lewis.
Superfights are the foundation on which boxing is built upon. Of course no-one fights a contender every single fight, but these days they seem to drift along aimlessly from one easy bout to another. Imagine if Muhammad Ali hadn’t taken on George Foreman, or Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard avoided each other?
So it’s with a heavy heart that you peruse the upcoming title fixtures and see what’s on offer. A smorgasbord of underwhelming encounters, David Haye v Audley Harrison, Vitali Klitschko v Shannon Biggs, Wladimir Klitschko v Samuel Peter and Manny Pacquiao v Antonio Margarito, it’s taking mundane to a new level.
Sure Haye v Harrison has a weird novelty factor given the history of Harrison in Britain. He has some scope for a title shot having held the EBU belt, but really “A-force” is past it and holds no interest for anyone outside the UK. Haye should have fought a Klitschko and they should be fighting better than who they are being matched with as well.
It’s hardly going to get people flocking back in their droves either when a disgraced fighter like Margarito comes straight back in with a world-title shot against arguably the most famous fighter on the planet right now. Especially when he is stepping in for a fighter the calibre of “Money May”.
It’s just immensely boring and irritating. It gets tiresome hearing a boxer come out with his neo-Ali terminology; calling out opponents and boasting, then not climbing into the ring with those they have scorned. There’s no denying boxing is a tough way to earn a living and no-one should scowl at any fighter looking to make a sharp pound note, but there is a lack of honour to the sport in the modern game and it consistently finds the top fighters not fighting one another.
In boxing there are so many belts there’s no way of telling who the real champion is, the ranking systems don’t allow a clear indication of who is the best contender either. The UFC model is a simple one and works as thus, each weight division has one champion who will fight the best contender in the division and have two to three fights a year, in the same way boxing used to be.
The governing bodies should work together and have more input into who fights who and should have intervened in the Haye and Klitschko negotiations and pushed them together or tell them to release their belts for fighters who want to fight for the championship. How many other sports can a champion enjoy such a cushy ride? Although tune-up fights and mismatches for title holders have always happened, normally there it’s a big incentive or top contender waiting for them at the end. Today’s champion will happily fight a succession of lopsided mismatches to pad out cards and bank balances while shamelessly avoiding a challenge.
It isn’t even about money as both fighters in a superfight will earn a fortune, more so than they could against nobodies as it just doesn’t generate in the interest. In fact every second Haye doesn’t fight Klitschko they are probably losing money. Haye spent a lot of time and effort hyping himself and a potential Klitschko bout up, so he is losing face, fans and reputation by not meeting a big Ukrainian. Same with them as well.
Big fights are as much about timing as anything else. At the tail end of this year we could have had Haye v Klitschko and Pacquiao v Mayweather. These are fighters of the moment and people want to see them happen now while they are all still in their prime. Just look at the Bernard Hopkins v Roy Jones Jnr II clash earlier this year that came 17 years to late as an example of leaving it too long.
There is the odd coming together around the divisions of two top fighters, such as Chad Dawson v Jean Pascal that the loyal followers of the sport know consist of two worthy opponents, but it doesn’t have the worldwide appeal of a big heavyweight clash and nothing close to what Mayweather v Pacquiao would have been.
Boxing has reached the stage where no-one wants to lose and so blemish their card so fighters aren’t testing themselves. Too much emphasis is put on records rather than ability. For instance should Amir Khan lose his next fight in America he may well be finished internationally, so that obviously holds sway in whether he should fight someone like Marcos Maidana, Timothy Bradley Jnr or a veteran like Joel Casamayor who would prove a much easier opposition.
As a result fans and fighters are leaving the sport to seek refuge in UFC, hence why so many dinosaurs are still parading round 10 years past retirement. In fact news today is that Evander Holyfield is even eyeing up Haye next, which would surely be the final insult to fans.
Tags: