By Robert Elmore: The way that some these sports journalists, boxing analysts, and old school fighters talk about the way promoters robbed them of money, that they would be happy that some fighters of this generation are taking more of an active role in their careers.
Sadly, not so. One would think they would be rejoicing at the fact that a fighter is able to make decent money for fight. Again, no dice. Old heads must want to return to those days where a boxing match could fill an entire baseball stadium, but the fighter’s purse is only 50,000 dollars.
Experts are always crying that boxing is dead, but one look at the ratings from this year and the numbers saying something entirely different. Numbers don’t lie. Journalists spend more time telling this generation of fighters what they are not rather than accepting them for who they are and what they do; and trying to help them get publicity. They don’t do research on up and coming fighters. There has been a strong movement to bring boxing to regular television and bring more exposure to the up and comers. HBO has Boxing After Dark. Showtime has SHO BOX, Wealth TV, Friday Night Fights on ESPN, and the new Fox Sports One network that airs every Monday. This leads me to my next point. I strongly believe that the old school is jealous of the new school.
The fighters today make the same sacrifices as those that came before them. They train for months on end, discipline themselves, put their bodies though changes to make weight, and mostly importantly put their families aside for a certain amount of weeks while they train. Development in technology has given news ways to train, ways to cut weight, and supplements (not steroids) that will help the fighter’s body to be healthy. One thing I know that ticks off the old school is the amount of money today’s fighters get; deserved or undeserved.
Fighters today are making top dollar against soft touches and even bigger money against top touches. It was reported that Chinese fighter Zou Shiming is going to make five hundred thousand in only his second pro fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios undercard. I bet Shiming isn’t going to say “Gee, I don’t deserve this I better give it back”. Oscar De La Hoya stated in his book American Son that he made one million bucks in only his 6th professional bout. There is money out there to be made. It’s just that some old school fighters never really took advantage of those avenues. But a fighter passing up one fighter and a small pay day to get a big fight and big pay day is nothing to boxing. But old school journalist, by the way they write, would have boxing fans thinking it started just yesterday.
And that really ticks me off that old school fighters are given credit for making “business decisions” to bypass a no name fighter who doesn’t bring a fan base or nothing financially to the table, but today’s fighters are being labeled duckers and frauds. It’s the same thing, but different era. For example, Amir Khan, who turned down a fight with IBF welter weight champion Devon Alexander, is trying to secure a lucrative fight with undefeated champion Floyd Mayweather. He is being trashed for it and many are saying he is undeserving of such an honor. Whether he gets it or not is a whole other thing. But Khan brings a fan base and something financially to the table. And with the help of those in the media who wants to see Floyd lose, I think the fight would do good business. Now compare that to the Roberto Duran-Thomas Hearns fight. Duran had beaten Davey Moore for his WBA title. Duran was stripped of his title for refusing to face number one contender Mike McCallum and taking 1.5 million to fight Hearns.
In 1987, during the heavyweight tournament, Michael Spinks was stripped of his IBF title for refusing to fight number one contender Tony Tucker. The purse bid was won by Don King for 711,000 dollars. He opted to fight Gerry Cooney for four million dollars in a non title affair. There is no difference in what Spinks and Duran did and what Amir Khan is doing. It’s a business decision any way you want to look at it. As I stated above, you hear old school fighters talk about how promoters took their money and left them high and dry.
Unifying a division and have a steady dance partner is a thing of the past. There may be an occasional rivalry like Johnny Tapia (RIP) and Danny Romero, Mickey Ward and Arturo Gatti and Manny Pacquaio and Juan Manuel Marquez type deals. But usually it’s one and done. Especially when you consider the governing bodies are trying to squeeze all the money they can out of a fight. Fighters are making the title, and not let the title make them. They know at any given moment a belt can be snatched away for any given reason. It has even gotten to the point where a fighter has to choose which belt he’s going to represent. The other thing I think the old school is jealous of is the different marketing strategies today’s fighters have. Fighters are marketing themselves to by all mean necessary (Twitter, blogs, Facebook pages, and even their own websites). Now grant it, these were not accessible back then in the day. But some refused to take the necessary steps to get themselves recognized. It’s not enough to just beat every fighter that’s put in front of them. A fighter has to give the public something they can relate to. With a connection to the audience, the fighter can use the public to help him get a big fight pay day as Sergio Martinez did with Julio Ceasar Chavez Jr.
Muhammad Ali took marketing to another level that got people to love and hate him. He fought to packed houses even against B level fighters. Ray Leonard had the smile and the innocent boy persona that people loved. Larry Holmes and Marvin Hagler didn’t give us that. Hagler didn’t become fully accepted by the mainstream and get endorsements until he beat Thomas Hearns. But Hagler didn’t give the public something to work with. And perhaps the only time Holmes really received support was when he fought Gerry Cooney. But the racism that was sold by the promoters is what hyped the fight. But afterward, Holmes went right back into the background. Journalists need to accept the fact that this is not the 50, 60, 70’s and 80’s anymore. Rules have changed and times have changed. Writers often revert back to those times when things don’t go their way they want them too. Well, it’s time those old school writers to step their game up and come over to the new school. There’s nothing wrong with the crop of fighters today. It doesn’t hurt to give a fighter credit whose last name is not Robinson or Ali. Boxing is alive and history is just repeating itself.
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