By Adam Laiolo: So here we are already, end of the year and looking forward to another exciting calendar ahead of us. We’ve had a bit of everything this year, dominant performances we expected, some upsets, controversial wins and losses, mega money fights, titles changing hands and title reigns, comebacks and retirements, and most importantly some bright performances from the next generation of world beaters.
Hopefully, 2009 will tick all those boxes too, and if indeed there is a Santa Claus and he is a boxing fan like the rest of us then he wouldn’t mind receiving a letter, from someone who’s been a good boy (honestly!), about what he can fix for us next year.
Dear Santa,
For Christmas this year, in no particular order, I would like the following:
1. The Greats Of Yesteryear To Retire
This one is a must for me, after watching the performances of Roy Jones Jr. and more recently Oscar De La Hoya, it’s getting to the point where they are doing it because they know nothing else. Where now there is nothing really left to achieve and are simply fighting on needlessly, there’s a risk of doing themselves permanent damage. It’s not about pride anymore, or having something to prove, these are men physically not able to compete at the level they want to. They have to be saved from themselves.
2. An Undisputed Heavyweight Champion
Wishful thinking I know, it’s more likely that Wladimir and Vitali will get it on than David Haye beating both of them without any warm up fights to accustom to an albeit new division. And in reality there isn’t anyone else even capable of threatening. Chris Arreola, JD Chapman and Alexander Povetkin for example aren’t any sort of a threat to the Klitschkos. Povetkin granted is in the early stages of a promising career but so early on, I doubt he’ll have what it takes to beat Wladimir. Nikolay Valuev and Ruslan Chagaev are just going to toss that belt between them for the next year if Ruslan can get himself fit and ready. David Haye isn’t there on merit, he’s there because he’s talked himself past about 4 or 5 fights against ranked opponents. Smart business, stupid idea.
I believe though, even if Haye loses to Vitali which is likely to be the first matchup, he’ll get a shot at Wladimir if he goes away and takes on maybe one half decent opponent in between. Something needs to happen in 2009 for the Heavyweight division to bring back some glamour and excitement back into it. David Haye sees himself as that man, only time will tell.
3. Floyd Mayweather To Come Out Of Retirement
Whether it’s a more lucrative rematch with The Hitman, or a dream matchup for the purists in pound for pound supremacy with Pacman, whichever one he chooses will be an excellent fight. There was always a question mark over his retirement (or is that a dollar sign?), it always seemed to be a case of something tempting him enough. The winner of another great fight, possibly even more so than the Floyd fight, Hatton vs. Pacquiao. An all guns blazing fight and if it happens, will be a money maker too, which is always an important factor. Floyd has to bite the bait this fight will dangle in front of him, he didn’t with what Miguel Cotto offered probably due to Cotto’s average appeal in terms of numbers and box office draw.
Floyd can claim to be one of the most talented fighters in the past 25 years, but there just seems that little bit extra he needs to be as great as he already considers himself to be. Can he resist the money? Can he find the motivation? Only he knows and if either fight comes off in 2009, we’ll be treated to some more of Pretty Boy Floyd.
4. Hot Prospects Taking Risks
Always with one eye on the talent of next year, you want to see them come through their learning curves whether they’re undefeated or lost a few long the way. The most important thing is to learn from every fight, as long as you don’t lose badly or too frequently. If you learn and progress every time, taking two steps forward after a step back you can still achieve what you want. Taking easy fights and being wrapped in cotton wool to add gloss to a record is no good. Having your career well managed doesn’t mean you take easy fights with no risk, it means taking the right fights with the right amount of risk for where you are in your learning. For the extreme of fighting someone too good too early see David Haye, for the extreme of not taking enough risks in your prime see Joe Calzaghe. It’s got to be right, calculated risks are still risks, they’ve just had some thought put into them.
Manny Pacquiao is a good example, suffered a bad knockout early on in his career and had a few losses, but took risks at the right times and now sits atop the pound for pound list. Bernard Hopkins is another, lost his first professional fight fighting at light heavyweight, slimmed down to a middleweight and didn’t lose again until he ran into Roy Jones Jr. in 1992, and then had ten years as undisputed middleweight champion. See the difference? The greatest fighters have always tasted defeat, but they’ve learnt from it and become better for it.
5. The Fights
Ricky Hatton vs. Manny Pacquiao (light welterweight)
David Haye vs. Wladimir Klitschko (heavyweight)
Mikkel Kessler vs. Jermain Taylor (super middleweight)
Arthur Abraham vs. Kelly Pavlik (middleweight)
Nate Campbell vs. Juan Manuel Marquez (lightweight)
Paul Williams vs. Antonio Margarito II (welterweight)
Joe Calzaghe vs. Chad Dawson (light heavyweight)
Amir Khan vs. Edwin Valero (lightweight)
Comments are closed.