The Best Boxing Can Offer?

By The Commissioner - 02/16/2016 - Comments

1-CANELO ALVAREZ 05By The Commissioner: The date is May 1st 2015, the stage is set for the most anticipated fight of all time. The ‘fight of the century’, the fight of all fights, the fight that has dominated sports media for near on a decade. Floyd Mayweather Jr, Pretty Boy Floyd, Money Mayweather finally squares off against the people’s champion; Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino Whirlwind, whom to many observers, is Floyd’s kryptonite.

Fast forward to May 3rd 2015 and social media is awash with negative opinion regarding the supposed ‘Fight of the Century’, many labeling it boring and devoid of any real engagement. The bout came to a predictable ending, at least to the unbiased eye, one uninfluenced by matters of the heart and solely based on logical thinking. Personally, I had always believed that Mayweather was too skilled a boxer to be beaten, or even troubled by Manny but I still tuned in, more to see if Pac-Man could be prove me wrong rather than to see Mayweather prove me right.

The fight had broken records, both boxers had made millions and immediately the focus was on Floyd Mayweather; would he be retiring after his next fight? Would the pay-per-view king reach 50-0? Turns out he never did (although don’t write off a comeback) and retired with a perfect 49-0 record, beating more champions and future champions than anyone gives him credit for.
Fast forward again to 2nd February 2016, it has been almost 5 months since boxing’s biggest draw retired the crown and hung up his gloves. Everyone is looking for boxing’s next pay-per-view star, names are thrown about by promoters, experts and boxing journalists alike but it seems like there are only two men who really come close to filling the vacuum left behind by the man who calls himself T.B.E. Those names are Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.

Now Alvarez, gifted as he is, has already been beaten by a Pretty Boy called Floyd back in 2013, although there is no shame in that, it has left a lasting impression within the boxing world that he will come undone against a pure boxer and his performance against the master pugilist highlighted this. Gennady Golovkin, while remaining unbeaten and a seemingly feared prospect for the other elite fighters in and around 160lbs, has not managed to attain his defining fight. His opposition is questionable when taking into account that his name is being touted as a future pay-per-view star. Both fighters operate at Middleweight yet have not met each other in the ring despite both having campaigned in and around the same division since 2011.

Golovkin’s people say its Canelo’s fault; Canelo’s people say Golovkin doesn’t bring enough to the table. Alvarez says he will take the fight at 155lbs, the lower limit for the middleweight division; Triple G says he will not accept a fight for the middleweight title at a catch-weight. Saul says he needs time to grow into the division and the fight night scales say he tips them at 175lb come the first bell. This game of cat and mouse will continue invariably until the risk is worth the reward or fan opinion forces the bout to take place.

So Alvarez has defeated Miguel Cotto in a Latino super fight, making him the new lineal middleweight champion in what was a 4th successive bout for him at Canelo-weight. Golovkin has defeated David Lemieux, a guy who no casual fan had heard of unless they happened to be French Canadian, and gained the IBF strap to add to his WBA (Super), IBO and WBC interim titles. The fans are calling for the two prospective PPV stars to face off to find out who has the minerals to carry the sport, the WBC had already ordered the winner of Alvarez/Cotto to defend against the interim champion – GGG. In fact, before the Latino super-fight had even been announced they had thrown down the gauntlet to Miguel Cotto and ordered him to defend the title against the man from Kazakhstan but then subsequently gave him a bye in order to receive their sanctioning fee from a bout with the ginger Mexican.

Now the fight has to be made, the governing body has requested it right? No, not just yet. Canelo is given permission to make a voluntary defence of the title. Golovkin fans are becoming impatient, according to them the WBC are just delaying the inevitable. Alvarez will surely use this opportunity to get himself ready for a pay-per-view spectacular against the dreaded GGG, to not only decide who is the premier prize fighter in their division but also who is worthy of the mantle of the next boxing superstar. Gennady will surely use his next bout to prove he is the A side in any potential fight with the Mexican hopeful, perhaps he will go up a weight and capture a belt or maybe entice Cotto into the squared circle to show the world he can do what Canelo couldn’t and finish the Puerto Rican before the 12th round.
Saul Alvarez announces his defence of his WBC MW title against Amir ‘King’ Khan. Gennady Golovkin unveils his next opponent as Dominic Wade.

Amir Khan started his career at lightweight, he is currently campaigning at 147lbs and in the grand scheme of things, has only just got there. He is renowned for being a bit chinny and he has little punching power to speak of. Since being stopped by the referee in a 2012 match up against Danny Garcia his list of opponents reads like this; Carlos Molina, Julio Diaz, Luis Collazo, Devon Alexander and Chris Algieri. Hardly the illustrious competition a MW title challenge should demand, or even a pay-per-view fight for that matter. Speculation as to how much weight the Brit will be giving up to Canelo on the night is rife, mumbling of how dangerous this could be for his health is all but a token gesture. Amir Khan has been knocked out badly twice whilst also taking some big shots along the way. Repeated trauma to the head is what leads to conditions like Parkinson’s in later life, which is ironic in that he was trained at one time by the great Freddie Roach, a victim of the disease and trainer of the last Alvarez foe, Miguel Cotto. Responsibility in protecting fighters from themselves obviously takes a back seat when chasing the American Dollar and I only hope that this event is not viewed retrospectively as one of those ‘how was that allowed to happen’ moments.

The unbeaten Dominic Wade, most recently seen laboring to a 10 round split decision over a 42 year old Sam Soliman. Would the names Dashon Johnson, Marcus Upshaw, Nick Brinson or Eddie Hunter mean anything to you? No? Thought not. They are Wade’s most recent opposition; opposition which clearly warranted the 25 year old Washington DC native being pushed up the IBF’s middleweight rankings to allow him to step in to take the mandatory contender position after Tureano Johnson gave it up through injury. Eddie Hunter has a W-L-D record of 10-13-2, that gives you some indication as to the level of opposition Golovkin’s latest victim has been facing.

Golovkin and Canelo are the future we’re told. They are supposed to take over where Floyd Mayweather left off.

Heavyweight boxing is experiencing something of a renaissance of late with Tyson Fury usurping the HW dictator Wladimir Klitschko in an unexpected 12 round unanimous decision. In what was a largely uneventful evening, Tyson managed to be the less boring of the two and thus, became the ruler of the division. The other champion at the weight, Deontay Wilder had just come off a TKO win over the fearsome Johann Duhaupas.

In a cruel twist of fate, the IBF stripped Tyson Fury within the week preceding the Klitschko win upon learning of his intention to fulfill the rematch clause written into the original contract and ordained a fight between relative novices ‘Prince’ Charles Martin and Vyacheslav ‘The Czar’ Glazkov for the vacant strap. The fight took place on the undercard of The Bronze Bomber’s HW title defence against Polish hopeful Artur Splizka in which the Alabama man looked off pace until landing a peach of a knockout blow in the 9th round.

Charles Martin had already become IBF HW champion by this point, he had done so by moving around the ring a little bit until Glazkov’s knee popped and he couldn’t continue. Not a mention-able blow was landed by either parties yet Prince Charles tried to convince a skeptical crowd that it was his power that had crumpled the knee of the Ukrainian contender.
Fast forward with me to the 13th February 2016. Eddie Hearn, the promoter of the up and coming British KO artist Anthony Joshua announces some incredible news; the Olympic Gold Medallist will be fighting to capture the IBF crown from the new number one, ‘Prince’ Charles Martin in London, England on April 9th 2016 in what will be Joshua’s 16th fight and Martin’s 24th.

A quick look at either fighter’s record will tell you all you need to know; neither should be fighting for a heavyweight belt at this stage in their development. It seems the numerous alphabet governing bodies have diluted the essence of sport, allowing the best to avoid the best where it is financially beneficial and throwing the lamb to the slaughter when they have run out of healthy specimens to milk.

While I have never been one of these ‘boxing is dead’ eternal pessimists, I am inclined to believe that to stay relevant the sport needs some kind of reform. We shouldn’t have one fight every generation that pits the best against the best and captures the imagination of men and women, young and old. If we are using the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight as an example of such a fight then we can use politics and money as an example of why it came 5 years too late.

There is no reason why a governing body should allow a fighter to fight at his own weight class while avoid the number one contender, a number one contender in their very own rankings no less. There is no reason why a fight like Martin/Glazkov should be made for a heavyweight championship – I could have been in the ring that night against the poor Ukrainian and I would be writing this as the new IBF heavyweight champion of the world – and I could probably use some politics and step aside money to allow me to hang onto the belt for another year or so. That is fundamentally wrong.

While Amir Khan is being hailed as courageous for accepting the challenge of fighting the much bigger Saul Alvarez the reality is he is a fighter, he is always going to back his abilities as one. That is why you have weight classes and governing bodies, boxing commissions and managers; to protect these guys from their egos and in some cases downright stupidity. No one can tell me that Khan has a chance in there and if he does have one, it will be by running and avoiding engagement – hardly an easy sell. So if that is the case why the excitement? Because everyone knows that he is likely to get knocked out and that’s what they want to see, like the gladiators of Rome we want to see carnage. And again, it’s fundamentally wrong that the WBC allow it.

So I ask you, is this the best boxing can offer or is it just the least we will accept?



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