Is Pro Boxing dying for real?

By Boxing News - 06/26/2018 - Comments

Image: Is Pro Boxing dying for real?

By Gerardo Granados: When I think about pro boxing, I don’t think about the so called Sweet Science first and the Fight Essence second, no it cannot be like that. In a perfect world we the fight fans would see a fight between two brave hungry men, but instead at many of the major events we are only getting to see many glorified sparring session in which there is no bad blood among the boxers.

How could I explain to the younger fight fans how it feels to grow up in a boxing era in which boxers behaved accordingly? How could I make them understand that it is not about Pay Per View numbers, earnings or simplistic undefeated statistics what make a fighter become a boxing immortal. How can someone growing up in this boxing era to be able to understand what real boxing is and what old school fighters were, if part of major media acts against it?

If the reader is one of those soft fight fans who cry out loud to stop a fight once a fighter is hurt or is taking punishment thru two rounds then you should just skip this reading. If you get offended with ease by what you read then you should find another contact sport to follow because boxing is what it is, and it isn’t meant to be liked by the masses. Yes, Pro Boxing is a niche sport, same as Toreo (Bull Fight) is and to try to deny it isn’t going to help change the fact that since the beginning of prize fighting it has been as brutal and violent that back then only a few didn’t felt the attraction to watch it.

Why would you try to correct, to modify or even worst to threat to punish the conduct of a prize fighter who behaves accordingly to what is expected from him? The WBC wasn’t pleased with their heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder after the Bronze Bomber stated he wanted a “body on his record” so that there would be an investigation on his statement. Then when Martin Murray pushed Roberto Garcia at the weigh in the WBC again was displeased. But, didn’t in the past this shoving and trash talking was a normal occurrence? What about the Marco Antonio Barrera or several Ricardo Mayorga press conferences? Well, compared to the former WBC champion Iron Mike Tyson, Deontay Wilder is quite well behaved doesn’t he?

Many times at the multimillion dollar major boxing events there is a lack the ferocity that it does is shows by hungry boxers fighting at small venues all around the world. A boxer feels a pop in his eye and quits, argues to hurt his hand and quits or he suffers an orbital broken bone and quits but all those injuries were pretty common in the past and for sure those mean sons of boxing preferred to show their pride and to go out swinging rather than quitting. Look at Miguel Cotto last fight as he fought with only one arm against Sadam Ali.

Society has changed too damn much, now a day’s it’s hard to call things by their names without being labeled names, getting insulted or even getting mocked for “thinking different” than what the major media puppets and social media states as to be the only truth. So, it is ok to criticize any religion but you better not cross the line giving your honest personal take on many issues that benefit only a few and in general hurt or even destroy most of social cultural values.

Pro Boxing is a final frontier in which the emasculation of the fighters takes place without many noticing it; it is like the story of the boiling frog being society especially the young men the ones being boiled. Does the reader know what happened to the Roberto Duran, Wilfredo Gomez, Mike Tyson, Marco Antonio Barrera, Ricky Hatton and Ricardo Mayorga type of fighters? Where is the arrogant pride, the macho attitude displayed inside and outside the ring? Where is the killer instinct? Is prize fighting heading to a more educated, civil and polite type of golf players conduct inside and outside the luxurious golf course? Why aren’t referees urging boxers to engage? Why grammar became so important for fight fans?

Not only the inside fighting skills have practically disappeared, no, now the so called “tactical clinching” negates not only a fighter to work on the inside but it also negates the audience of action in big chunks of the round, it also deprives fans from getting their money worth when the fight fan previously paid to watch a “fight”. All those manufactured paper belts should be eye candy for the casual fan only but I am surprised to see that it also is eye candy for some hard core fans. It is odd but it seems that now a day the heart, hunger and determination are often been overlooked by many soft fans and

also by some of the major media boxing analyst calling the fights live. Hey, when a genuine old school boxing analyst gives his honest take on the current state of pro boxing he gets taken off the air and instead a man who clearly knows very little about boxing takes his place.

When a boxer puncher who doesn’t run hug or put punch but instead stays active at fighting range most of the round moves up to the lightweight division and knocks out the top man at 140, he is labeled as “vulnerable” because he got cocky and got floored, not hurt just a flash knock down. A long time octopus dirty and protected boring boxer, after getting outworked and knock down in a fight, he gets a dubious decision win from the judges, then at the rematch this boxer is allowed by the referee to low blow his opponent and then gets a dubious knockout win, but instead of being criticized there still are major media boxing analyst stating that this boxer who already retired deserved to be inducted into the boxing hall of fame. If this continues it will be clear as day light that the epic battles will become a thing of the glorious boxing past.

A month ago or so on the undercard a great fight took place between welterweights Mason Cartwright and Darren Tetley; the bout was halted on advice of the ring Doctor in the ninth round (9/10) due a nasty cut on “Nutty” Cartwright superior lip. From the emergency room showing bruised face Mason twitted “If it was up to me I would have fought the 10th round all day, show my boxing ability I´ll be back”. If the reader can comprehend why this statement is so great then it means that you fully understand what prize fighting is all about. But if you cannot understand it, well then maybe is because you are one of the reasons why pro boxing is in such decay.

The hypocrisy of some soft fight fans and of people involved in prize fighting goes over the limit when they pretend to genuinely care for the ring warriors. A fighter knows the risks involved by the practice of pro boxing so is totally incongruent pretend to care of boxer’s health when you are involved in this activity or when you say that you enjoy prize fighting. That doesn’t means we want to see them permanently hurt or worst, but we cannot deny that it is the danger involved and the acts of courage and bravery that mean it all in prize fighting, and not so acting like a Diva showing off of money on your opponent face.

Maybe some readers will bring up statistics, numbers, earnings data and television ratings to prove that pro boxing is alive and well. Perhaps having so many belts around benefits more fighters who are able to get more lucrative contracts because there are more belts for grabs. But for sure lately something is missing in prize fighting. Does the reader know what is missing?