by Niko Tricarico: In 2007, the world witnessed the highest grossing fight in the history of Pay Per View boxing when Oscar De La Hoya faced off against Floyd Mayweather Jr., though even with that type of sporadic popularity you’d be hard pressed to find a group of people who actively follow the sport with the same ease you’d be able to find someone who could list the starting roster of the 2007 New York Giants. I am consistently dumbfounded as to why boxing is not more popular. I am blown away by how there was more buzz and excitement about the Masters tournament on the radio than there is about the upcoming fight between Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez.

When I was in high school everyone loved a good fight. Fight in the stairwell, fight in the locker room, fight by the, yeah that’s right, bike racks. Be there! Word would spread, people would cheer and chant and the winner would dominate gossip circles and be saturated in teenage adulation forever…or at least until 7th Period Math. What I don’t remember in high school is people getting excited about golf. As many times as I heard, “Did you hear about George Dingle getting his ass beat by Brendan Tate during gym,” I never once heard any fool utter the words, “We gotta get to the golf course quick, Ronny Flapjack just chipped a birdie on a Par 4.”

Boxing, with the exception of the Heavyweight division, is as good, if not better, than it’s been in a very long time. Thanks to specific fighters who were willing to test their skills against equally dangerous opponents, the last few years have produced some of the most exciting fights and intriguing matchups in the history of the sport. Fights like Pacquiao/Marquez…well Pacquiao/Anybody, Marquez/ Diaz, Cotto/Mosley, Cotto/Margarito, Margarito/Mosely, Berto/Callazo, Vasquez/(Rafael)Marquez, Pavlik/Taylor the entire Super Six Tournament. Even Mayweather had an entertaining fight against Hatton in 2007. There are dangerous up and coming threats, great established fighters, hard hitting journey men…the point being that there is a lot to be excited about in boxing. And 2009 was about as good as it gets.

Late last year on December 5th, Sergio Martinez stepped up in weight to fight Paul Williams, after Kelly Pavlik pulled out due to a staff infection in his knuckle. What ensued was a classic, no nonsense fight of the year candidate; an all action slugfest with the type of back and forth drama and mountain smashing punches that you only see in Rocky movies. It was the type of fight that could catalyze a rabid MMA supporter into switching his allegiance to boxing.

Pavlik vs Martinez has the chance to be another classic encounter and hopefully people will watch it on HBO, though due to poor marketing and the empty well of boxing commentary on sports talk radio and ESPN, I’m not sure how many people even know the fight is happening (when was the last time anyone heard Boomer and Carton or Mike Francessa talk about boxing?). And that cyclical disinterest is what is so frustrating. The lack of mainstream media coverage (TV, Newspapers, Radio) might perpetuate the notion to some that boxing is irrelevant and dead, when in fact the exact opposite is true. Boxing is about as good as it ever has been and if this intensity persists then maybe people will start taking notice of, “SSSHHHHH…Tiger is putting!”

F***kin’ golf…figures.