By Steve Davis: Boxing seems to be in a sorry state at the moment, wanting to attract new fans to the sport, get the armchair fans to buy the pay per view events, yet not delivering the product ie matches the fans want, and when eventually these matches take place, controversy usually follows and fans are left with a bad taste in their mouth. For example: Wladamir Kiltschko recently knocked out Alex Leipai via 5th round knockout for the biggest prize in boxing, the world heavyweight championship.
In a fight that should have never taken place, no disrespect to Leipai but he had no place in that ring, it was a total mismatch. A disgrace to boxing that the fight ever took place. Leipai at best is maybe commonwealth level but nothing more, how he became WBO No 1, is beyond me. The politics in boxing, this cold war between television stations, promoters is slowly strangling the sport, to a degree that fans are being offered up low level fight cards.
At the end of the day the rankings should determine who fights who, if champions want to face each other in order to prove they are the best, promoters etc should be bending over backwards to make these fights happen. Finally let’s look at Saturdays fight between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidiana.
Mayweather is supposed to be boxing’s flagship, the star attraction, best of all time, however his fights are hand picked and mostly boring. In my mind he has now lost at least two fights, against Maidiana and Oscar de la Hoya, yet he is still classed as undefeated and the best. Back in the day there is no way Mayweather would have lived with the greats of times gone by, such as the Hagler’s, Duran’s, Hearns’s and Leonard’s of yester year.
Both Maidiana and de la Hoya exposed Mayweather for what he is, a very talented boxer but nowhere near the greatest ever. He has been protected by some very poor judging that appears to be running through the veins of our beloved sport. Boxing needs a shakeup and quick, before such things as mismatches, political infighting and terrible decisions start to turn fans away. Boxing is a great sport and deserves the best, from everyone.
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