By Clinton Hudson: Our beloved Sport of Boxing has a very rich history with some wonderful memories, legacies, role models, heroes and villains. It has taken some great leaps in relation to coverage of the sport with TV, internet via Wi-fi, 3G & 4G mobile phones, Tablets and mass exposure on the new giant of entertainment, computer games. It is now global with the recent success of the Olympic Games in London 2012.
But one thing that is now becoming evident as a result of all this attention is that it is losing valuable ground. A heap of boxers are trying to gain the advantage, at almost any cost and governing bodies are hindering the sport.
Yes sure we all want the edge in a fight, but in the past legends such as Sugar Ray Robinson, and Muhammad Ali would never be caught in scandals of drugs, loading their gloves or drastically draining their weight to get the weight advantage over an opponent. Plus what’s with all the new catch weights and belts recently, there’s TOO MUCH! Even I have lost count and I follow the sport, what about the casual boxing fan? Damn, too confusing.
Firstly, why do boxers use drugs? Even if they win, it will be known to them that they are a fraud and not a genuine success. If one day they are caught, like the current wave of boxers who have been recently, surely it casts shame over them and leaves doubt over their past and future bouts. But more importantly tarnishes their individual legacy. What a shame as that is what will be remembered in the long run!!!
The weight division and weight issue to me is a Hugh problem also; boxing has 14 weight divisions, with only 5-7lbs difference separating them with 2-4 belts, from world champion to international, and interim belts and so on etc. But this stops at Heavyweight! If David Haye conceded 3 & stone & nearly a foot in height to Valuev, why have all these Divisions?
So we have all these divisions with numerous champions, not knowing who the real one is! To make it worse, rather than get rid of belts to narrow it down the governing bodies create more belts like the Ring champion and Diamond champion to try and show who is on top, hence devaluing the other world champion belts.
A lot of boxers lose drastic amounts of weight like the Mexican fighter Julio Caesar Chavez Junior who fights at middle weight. On the build up to a fight he looks so thin and frail he looks ill. He weighs in at 156 and walks in the fight at 187! That’s over a two stone gain!
When he fights it is like David vs. Goliath and is surely not ethically correct, he like others in his position take advantage of this. Andy Lee & Sergio Martinez both fought Julio Caesar Chavez Junior and their shots had no affect on him. They did manage to cut his face, but surely cause of the size disadvantage was not be able to get a KO. Not to mention what Chavez Junior’s punching would do when it’s the opposite way around. Something to think about!
Is this damaging the sport? Most Definitely!
My Solution
To me all of the above issues are slowing down the sport and give MMA and other sports more reason to be the main focus of attention. Make drug testing 100% legit on all title bouts, and also add random drug testing on ALL pro boxers.
The governing bodies (WBC, WBO, IBF, WBA, BBBC & others) need to create ONE senate type of organisation, UNIFY and ditch some of the weight divisions and titles. For example 3 of the 14 divisions include: light Welterweight, Welterweight and Super Welterweight or Junior Middleweight, depending which belt you hold. Combined all these together and you would have a better stacked division with more exciting fighters fighting to prove who is the real WELTERWEIGHT champion.
The governing bodies should also make it compulsory to weigh in on the day of the fight and agree to be a certain weight before the fighters enters the ring, so that people can not drastically lose weight and gain a stone and a half or possible more when they enter the ring. Plus on the flipside other boxers have a Hugh disadvantage when they walk in the ring because of this.
If we do the above, the sport of boxing would be a cleaner and fairer sport and it would only benefit the boxer and the casual fan in the long run! Make it happen please.
Comments are closed.