Please sir, ‘May” I duck you?

By Boxing News - 04/24/2014 - Comments

By Jaime Ortega: The art of ducking is nothing new in boxing. Jack Dempsey ducked Afro-American fighters. Sugar Ray Leonard ducked Aaron Pryor. Roy Jones Jr. ducked Steve Collins, and the list goes on and on.

Boxing biggest problems started when fighters decided to become self-promoters. Even though, it was good news for boxers on a financial perspective, it was terrible news for fans and the sport of boxing.

Since Floyd Mayweather, took the role of fighting for his own promotions, 90% of people around the world believe that picking fights made boxing slide into a downhill spiral.

Really, who cares about ‘Amir Khan fighting Luis Collazo?’ No disrespect to Showtime, but is there something remotely great about that fight? And somehow fans are expected to buy tickets for Floyd’s undercard.

It’s the same bologna, for HBO’s Top Rank undercard on Manny Pacquiao’s rematch with Timothy Bradley. Do you really believe Rocky Martinez fighting Raymundo Beltran is even worth the money? If Amir Khan versus Collazo is the best undercard fans can watch, these promoters might as well give the fans a handful of ‘cow dung’ for free.

Where does boxing go from here? Bob Arums undercards suck. but at least he doesn’t box. HBO will crumble alongside with Top Rank, if it continues to downgrade, as for this reason alone Mickey Garcia wants to leave Top Rank.

But self-promoters like Floyd burry the sport into thicker mud.

Almost every fighter in the sport today looks at Floyd as the role model of success, and wants to emulate his career. But if every fighter starts to choose and pick their opponents, what is going to ‘realistically’ happen to the sport? Shouldn’t the U.S. Boxing Commission step in and sort the most obvious fights without worrying about bias between promoters? (Dream on)

Ducking is now more about the money, than the actual fight. Boxing evolved, congratulations!

It’s hard to understand how fighters like Keith Thurman, have to almost forcefully fight battles against underserved opponents like Julio Diaz. Unfortunately, fighters like Thurman who only want to fight the best, pay the ultimate price exposing their boxing legacy with weaker opponents because the other ‘contenders’ won’t risk their records. Us fans, have to watch such grimace fights and somehow marvel without asking ourselves what happened to the real competition?

Fighters like Marcos Maidana, Paul Malignaggi, and Adrian Broner did not want to take risks fighting opponents like Keith Thurman, as the letter ‘L’ won’t help increase their pay-per-view numbers. Who cares about PPV numbers? Fans are robbed from watching the best fights, thanks to Floyd’s style of hand picking opponents choosing the most suitable fights to fit his own personal winning record.

Please, let’s not have every fighter replicate Floyd style, its destroying the Welter Weight division and transforming it, into a pit full of wannabe wealthy ducks.

In the end, it’s the fans fault for not standing up for such mockery. If we don’t see any of the following fights in the next year or so, you might as well tune-in UFC, take a peek with PRIDE or open the old K1 books.

But whatever it is, let’s congratulate Floyd Mayweather for reinventing the modern art of ducking and converting the sport into business where the obvious fights never happen. (Sugar Ray Robinson is applauding the modern champ)

FIGHTS THAT MUST HAPPEN THIS YEAR WITHOUT QUESTION.

Danny Garcia versus Shawn Porter (Conqueror versus conqueror)

Danny Garcia versus Keith Thurman (Conqueror versus conqueror)

Keith Thurman versus Shawn Porter (War of the Jr. WW. Champs)

Saul Alvarez versus Danny Garcia (Force versus mind)

Danny Garcia versus Manny Pacquiao (Conqueror versus octopus)

Keith Thurman versus Floyd Mayweather (Tactical conqueror versus king)

Keith Thurman versus Saul Alvarez (Dragon versus hungry lion)

Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao (Angle versus defense)

Danny Garcia versus Floyd Mayweather (Will versus dominance)

Danny Garcia versus Manny Pacquiao (Will versus star)

Ruslan Provodnikov versus Brandon Rios (Bloody war)

Brandon Rios versus Marcos Maidana (Bloody war)

Marcos Maidana versus Ruslan Provodnikov (Bloody war)

Timothy Bradley versus Saul Alvarez (Left over versus left over)

Floyd Mayweather versus Erislandy Lara (Shell versus dangerous south paw)

Erislandy Lara versus Sergio Martinez (Arrogance versus arrogant)

Saul Alvarez versus Erislandy Lara (Silent killer versus outspoken sniper)

Gennady Golovkin versus Andre Ward (Hurricane force versus unmovable object



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