By Ryan M. Skelton: Boxing at one point in time was the purest sport in the world. A sport which could captivate the masses, a sport in which pitted titans against each other. It was our version of The Gladiators – the squared circle was the Colosseum and two warriors would wage war for the most important thing of all; self respect and pride. Boxing was all about blood, guts and glory. The best fought the best and the climb to the top of the mountain was a long painful road depicting self sacrifice and the concrete ambition of changing ones life.
With that being said my first point is that this day and age some fighters are awarded high rankings for fighting tomato cans and people that are essentially paid to lose. No disrespect to said boxers as everyone deserves immense respect for stepping in to the lions den as essentially they are endangering their lives. Granted, boxers need to be built up carefully and must be fed a steady diet of sacrificial lamb in order to gain experience and improve.
The problem occurs however when the management of said fighters decide not to take risks and maintain the dismal level of opposition. That is fine but the ranking should remain stagnant. Of course I refer to fighters such as Deontay Wilder. Do not get me wrong; I believe he is a tremendous talent and that Wilder could remain on top for a very long time. He showed awesome power against Stiverne and a very professional temperament. My issue is the fact he didn’t have to do anything to get there. It is an insult to the fighters of old who had to scrape their way to the top. The moment he “stepped up” Deontay went 12 rounds and his inexperience showed at some points. Someone faster could have taken his head off when he swung wildly. He is lucky that he can now look at said footage and rectify the issues with his defence. However, Wilder is the WBC champ and one can only hope that he finally maintains a high level of opposition and sets the heavyweight division alight once more.
That brings me to another issue. Wilder is the WBC heavyweight champ and not “the champ”. I am aware that multiple belts and organizations have been around for a long time but it is getting ridiculous. Most fighters tend to start with a dream and that dream is to be the best in the world, fight the best, beat the best and become the world champion. Nowadays you can only become one of the “world Champions”. There are easier routes to take now and “softer” champions to challenge. The ranking system is but one of the issues with this. There are now Super belts, Regular belts and even interim belts! Things can become pretty misleading and complicated.
One example is the fact that Chris Eubank Jr (who I am a big fan of by the way) is challenging Dmitry Chudinov for the “interim WBA world middleweight championship”. First off he lost to Billy Joe Saunders so an immediate title shot is bizarre. What does this belt actually mean though? I was always under the impression that an interim belt was only fought for by the number 1 and number 2 challengers whilst the champion is injured or is prevented from boxing by matters out of his control. Last time I checked Gennady Golovkin was the WBA middleweight champion and is perfectly healthy and is boxing regularly. Anyway, The winner of said fight would then be guaranteed to fight for the full title upon the return of the champion. The winner of that fight then reunifies the division reinstating one sole champion. That being said, I will not view Eubank Jr as a world champion if he prevails. This “interim” notion in my opinion has no bearing whatsoever, It is just another example of a sanctioning body abusing their organization.
My final point is the fact that big fights rarely get made and if they do, the luster of a once lucrative battle is somewhat diminished. Promoters, politics , Television broadcasters and even sometimes the boxers themselves are all guilty of preventing these gargantuan fights from happening. I understand that boxing is a profession and in essence is a “business”. A fighter does not have long in the game and may be limited skill wise so needs to make as much money as possible in the shortest space of time whilst taking fewer risks as possible. We as fans have heard excuses such as “he is not a big enough name”. What these boxers really mean is that they could actually lose the fight and tarnish their own reputation. I may be selfish in saying this but where is the pride? where is the hunger? If you are a true fighter, test yourself and take on the best. Go out on your shield if you must. Do not disgrace the warriors of old. The Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao situation is unique however as they both clearly want the fight but everything seems to be preventing it from happening. The abrasion between HBO and Showtime is ridiculous and seems to be the most substantial road block. They managed to secure a deal for Tyson v Lewis where the winners network would get to replay the fight so why not do the same in this situation. The fight is already 7 years late and if it does not happen it will be an utter disgrace. Fighting promotions such as the UFC who force the best to fight the best will begin to take over and will send the sport of boxing plummeting in to obscurity.
Comments are closed.